belle epoque

two steps back! That is how it is with a baby, apparently, and after a few good days, poor HMB has been sick for nearly a week. However, before she got sick, I took all of the wonderful crafty mom advice and managed to cadge a minute here and there to complete something crafty (yes, there was a day or two with no shower but hey, priorities). Without further ado, my first sewing project with my beautiful new sewing machine! Meet Delilah

I made her using Emily Martin’s pattern on MSL.com. It was super easy and soothing- a perfect project for a sleep deprived person with 2 minutes here and there for crafting. Also appreciated by the person who’s wreaking all the havoc around here:

Despite the photo, she’s actually not so into dolls right now. But we had a six-month-old visitor who wiggled with all her might to get her hands on Delilah, so I imagine in a few months miss S may be interested too!

The wonderful Natalie came over to my house on Friday to join me dyeing Easter eggs old school– I bought multiple Paas kits (because just one color tablet in each cup does NOT cut it)

photo courtesy of Natalie
and we went nuts

I left two eggs raw so we could dye them and then blow them empty to keep. I decorated mine for wee miss S, to commemorate her first Easter. Now I just have to string a bow on the top for hanging next year–I’ve always wanted a little Easter tree. My favorite boiled egg is this one

A concept I stole from Natalie when she drew a super cute bunny on one of her eggs. I do love me a wax crayon when egg dyeing!

If you want to see more pictures from our egg dyeing adventures, check out Natalie’s flickr set! Hope you have a lovely day involving lots of chocolate and small, soft, yellow, fluffy things:

p.s. Thanks for all of your comments on the last post! You have until Tuesday to comment and enter to win the earrings! I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday.

Ok, *so* exciting. My contributor copies of Bead Simple arrived in the mail just a few days ago, and goodness, this book is gorgeous

My mom (who just left yesterday, wahhh!) was also blown away and kept thumbing through it saying “Oh! This book is so beautiful!”

I was so honored to be a contributor, and it is such fun to see the amazing photos they took of my version of Susan’s Duo Earrings

I had so much fun making them, and all of the other projects in the book are so inspiring too!

The beauty of the book is that all of the different takes on each project show you how to use whatever materials you have to make something wonderful. To celebrate the release of the book on March 25th, I made yet another version of the duo earring that I’d like to give away! I’m almost all out of beachy charms, so these ones are made with antique glass leaf and flower pendants that I got in Venice many years ago

Just leave a comment on this post and I’ll pick a winner on the book’s release date, March 25th. In the meantime, you can preorder the book at Taunton, Amazon or your favorite bookstore! And if you’re in the Portland, OR area, be sure to mark your calendar for Susan’s reading at downtown Powell’s on April 7th at 7:30pm!

I’ve never liked the expression “spoiled rotten,” mostly because I’ve been fortunate to be treated very well by my family and my friends, and I hope it hasn’t made me too rotten. I know other people, too, who I’d consider pretty fortunate who are also grateful for everything they’ve been given. So, I go for spoiled silly instead, because it is rather giddy-making to have such gloriously generous friends! Well, wee miss s. appears to be on the road to spoiled sillyness too, because look at what has come in the mail from our lovely crafty friends

A beautiful patchwork bib from the dear and talented Linda!
And super sweet Christy sent along the most insanely sweet dress bib and bloomer set

Could you pass out? I adore bloomers (even though back in the day I remember HATING to wear them).

And you know, I’ve been a bit spoiled myself. Want to guess what this is?

Awwwww yeah. When craft time is limited to nap time, it helps to have the best, most efficient tools available to get the job done. I’ve already been playing with it and it is a REVELATION. More to come, and happy Saturday night to you!

The exciting news of the day is that the wee one’s umbilical cord finally came off, meaning she’s going to have to start feeling less fussy about costume changes, ’cause I’ve got LOTS of cute outfits for her to wear! For her inaugural onesie, I popped her into one that I embroidered with a pattern from the Wee Wonderfuls Acorn Fairy Stitchette:

As you can see, she is *very* excited about it.

A silly baby story before I leave you to your Saturday. Moondoggie’s brother and sister-in-law gave us a sling for a baby gift, which is the best thing ever. I use it pretty much every day, and it is such an efficient way to tote her around (no bumping all over the place with a stroller), plus she totally chills out in there. This is what she looks like on the go

Except it isn’t always what I’d consider to be warm enough for her, so I’ll put on one of my maternity hoodies and zip it up over her. I’ve had more people say “Oh! Any time now, huh?” at which point I’ll unzip and say, “No! She’s already here!” Ok, maybe that isn’t so funny, but it always gives me a little giggle! I’m also considering using these directions to try making my own sling– it would be fun to have more than one of them in different fabrics!

And for something actually funny, head over here which I found via Anne. Both hilarious and frighteningly accurate (even as it describes things I like- Study Abroad, Graduate School, Musical Comedy and Bottles of Water).

I have pretty much always been a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. Not so much for the overblown romantic love aspect of it (far too much pressure, I think!), but the fun of reveling in pink, red, hearts, chocolate, doilies and glitter in the dead of winter (well, here in SF it is the beginning of spring, but never mind). I haven’t gone as overboard this year as I sometimes do, but I made wee mailable Valentine treats out of Dover sampler holiday images and opaque inkjet shrink plastic (which I’m still working out how best to use– I think it needs to be varnished).

I packaged them up in tiny Muji envelopes closed with glittery red heart stickers

and hopefully they will make it through the regular mail (tucked in regulation envelopes) with regular postage ok!

And for you, my lovely blog friends, I offer a yummy chocolate chunk cookie recipe. Just FYI if your sweetie happens to be male– I brought these to a Super Bowl party and they seemed to be a particularly big hit with the males in the room. The women liked them, but the men kind of freaked out.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies (adapted from my favorite Fannie Farmer recipe)
1/4 lb butter, softened (or just left on the counter for a few hours)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/8 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup oatmeal
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, cut into 1/2inch ish chunks with a sharp knife (Don’t stress about the size, just chop up the chocolate as best you can, and keep it all, tiny bits and all, on the cutting board until you dump it in the mixing bowl. I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet from Trader Joe’s, and guesstimated on the 6 ounces– I used most of a half-pound block)

Pre-heat the oven to 375 and either grease or line a cookie sheet or two with parchment paper. Cream the
butter, and gradually add in the two sugars, beating until the mix is light and smooth. Beat in the egg
and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda, whisking to make sure it is
well-blended. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet, just until well combined. By hand (with a wooden spoon or spatula), stir in the chocolate chunks and oatmeal until evenly distributed. Drop in rounded teaspoons onto the cookie sheets (I use a small ice cream scoop to make it easier), and bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from the cookie sheet (they will not be totally set until they are cool). In the meantime, give someone you like the beaters and bowl to lick, as the dough is super yummy uncooked (though, y’know, not for the pregnant or tiny since there’s raw egg in it).

However you feel about Valentine’s Day, I hope you’ll treat yourself tomorrow!

I’m still here, and crafting! Even uploading pictures and stuff, just not posting it all on the blog, mainly because I’m increasingly waddly and sleepy, and concentrating on getting my mess cleaned up and somewhat organized before the wee girl arrives next month.

I’ve been terribly belated in saying something about the truly amazing baby shower my friends threw for me here in San Francisco. I was just blown away, and could go on and on about how wonderful and generous they ALL were. But because this is primarily a craft blog, I’ll show you the crafty bits– mainly some ridiculously beautiful gifts from talented Etsy sellers that make lovely baby things. I am sure I’ll be going back to them once the wee girly arrives!

We had to pass these booties around so everyone could stroke them. They are so sweet and soft I wish they came in my size. Camilla, who was one of the amazing co-hostesses of the party, got these for me after reading about them on Bloesem. They are by Winkel and are a delicious baby gift. I can’t wait to put tiny feet in them!

And my friend Shelly went beautifully overboard in her crafty gift giving too! First of all, she makes the most INCREDIBLE baby blankets– I’ve never seen anything like them, and, again, I wish they came big enough for me. Though it probably is better they don’t because I’d never come out from under them. I told her the theme of the baby’s room (pink, brown, green and birds), and she made a custom satin blanket to match, as well as giving us a trio of wonderful flannel receiving/swaddling blankets

As a member of Etsy Kids and Etsy Moms, she also came across a slew of fantastic etsy sellers who make darling things for babies, like

This outfit from dilly bop designs

Wonderful baby shoes from diddle dumpling, a sweet Waldorf doll from the little nest and a puzzle ball, whose label I lost (chime in if you made it!). And…

A beautiful squishy soft block from hoobaleedoos

I’m not posting all this *just* to show off my awesome loot, but also to give you the scoop on a bunch of great crafty baby gifts and etsy sellers! I don’t know how it is where you are or at your age, but it seems like Moondoggie and I are in the midst of a baby boom here in San Francisco, so it is always great to find unique baby gift sources. On that note, we had the honor of going to the bris of a new baby in our circle. Of course on such an important day, he needed a gift.

Yes, I really, really love the Wee Elephant pattern in Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. This one is made in the tiniest baby-wale corderoy I’ve ever seen. It is so incredibly soft, I think this is my favorite one yet.

I’ll be hanging out with my friend Lauren today, on the first Western stop of her book tour for The Seduction of the Crimson Rose. If you want to meet her too, she will be at M is for Mystery in San Mateo tonight at 7pm! She’ll also be in Houston, Dallas, Nashville and New Haven, CT this week, so check out her site for dates, times and bookstores. Her whole series is romantic, adventure-filled, funny and eminently entertaining. Even if I hadn’t been friends with her since we were 5, I would recommend her books to you wholeheartedly.

We’ve been back in San Francisco now for nearly a week, but an icky head cold, two days of dental work (fun!), nasty rainy weather and general almost-8-months-pregnant laziness set in to keep me away from the craft room! I finally felt better today and got started on a project I’ve been wanting to make for months. I think the next 6 weeks or so will be taken up with larger-scale baby-centric projects like this one, so I’m going to break my rules about showing works in progress, as if I don’t, I won’t have anything to show you at all! I’ve started with my take on the Someone To Watch Over You wall hanging in Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Due to the aforementioned terrible weather, the light was no good for a picture, and since it is just the pieced top of the quilted wall hanging, you can see the upholstery of the window seat through it (sorry).

I am not sure I love the fabric combination (the background is white with pale pink polka dots, if you can’t tell), but I think the pattern is just beautiful, and totally worth all of the fiddling with the bird applique. I made some serious measurement errors somewhere, so it is not as long or as wide as it is supposed to be and I had to fudge it a bit. I’m still blind stitching the bird applique to the trunk and background, then have to quilt and bind it. If you have any suggestions about binding fabric, please share– I had a little fantasy of a pale beige stripy seersucker binding, but that involves going to the fabric store, finding just the right thing and then prewashing it when I get home. Which in my current state of laziness and i-will-melt-if-i-go-out-in-the-rain-again means the hanging may NEVER be finished. And then the second large-scale baby project would never even get started. So, I may end up just binding it with something pink I already have. I hope to finish quilting it this weekend and will make my final binding decision once that is done!

p.s. If you haven’t seen it already, there is a set of photos from our trip to Hawaii on Flickr– there are lots of sunrises, sunsets, pretty views and sea turtles, along with a bunch of killer shots of Moondoggie riding the waves!

First the pig:

Despite everything else I have to do before Friday, I just *had* to make one of these pigs on wheels from the lovely free pattern over at Wee Wonderfuls . As a child, one of my favorite Christmas ornaments was a wheeled cow, so it seems appropriate we have a wheeled farm animal for our tree too.

And now for the publicity!
1. The wonderful Susan, wrote up a very kind review and mini-interview about my book on the Adorn blog. My very nice publisher has sent Adorn copies to give away to five commenters, so if you’d like to be in the running for one, pop over there and comment. If you’re coming from there, welcome and thanks for visiting! Thanks also to the CRAFT blog for mentioning the post too!

2. I will be teaching a sewing demo at Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco this Saturday!
Saturday, December 15
12:30-1:30
Click here for more information and to reserve a spot (no stress about that, though–as there aren’t materials involved, really as long as you can fit in the room you can come). I hope to see you there!

p.s. If you can’t make it, I’ll be posting a pattern and tutorial here early next week so don’t worry.

Confession: I have issues with decorating. I’m unable to commit, I don’t like putting holes in the walls (what if I change my mind?!), plus I seldom buy regular-sized or shaped art and am too cheap for custom framing. So I am very proud of this tiny step forward:

The single decorated corner of my studio, The Bird Corner, filled with my avian treasures: bird tags by Susie Ghahremani (collected over at least 4 years), a beautiful parasol bird by Becky and a lovely nest painting from Lavish (it was a gift and I’m sorry to say I don’t remember the name of the artist)*Update! Thanks to the lovely Molly, I can tell you that the artist is Bishop Lennon. Go to her website, her work is FABULOUS. Oh, and the bird ornament I made from the pattern in Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, which is not going to live in the corner but is just visiting for now. I made the display on the right using a blank 8×8 canvas, nails, and the coolest pewter branch hanger from Rare Device, to which I wired the parasol bird. I should, perhaps, have painted the canvas a color, and I may yet, so if you have any suggestions let me know (I’m thinking pale aqua or turquoise).

I’m not done with the decorating by any stretch of the imagination. I have two sweet Jen Corace prints, some wonderful works of art from Abigail of Theo Design, and a few neat Black Apple prints, all waiting patiently for frames and a little bit of courage on my part. But that may have to wait until the holiday rush is over. I only stopped sewing gifts to decorate because I ran out of stuffing and haven’t gotten more yet!