Enough with the whinging, though! I did find something I could do while in the rocking chair– READ! And I was lucky enough to get my hands on some beautiful crafty books from Chronicle that are further whetting my crafty appetite, namely The Pillow Book by Shannon Okey and Lotta Prints by Lotta Jansdotter:

These books are both lovely and inspiring. What with supplies for my Gocco B6 dwindling in availability, and my love for printing growing proportionally, I’m particularly nuts about Lotta Prints, which offers multiple methods of printing and lots of inspiration (not to mention darling illustrations designed for use as stencils in the back!). I’ve ALWAYS loved leaf motifs, and so I’m particularly drawn to the section on leaf printing:

And having a baby in the house has immediately upped my appreciation for pillows– for putting my feet on, cushioning my back, and propping up the wee (who really doesn’t like to lie flat if she can be up and looking around!). So, The Pillow Book is right up my alley! I do love a bolster, and if you do too, you’ll find a ton of different options in the book. Like this nifty triangular one

Of course there’s also a lot of crafty I’ve been able to pine about surfing the web on my iPhone too, for example:
*Emily’s rag dolls! I managed to print out the pattern, and enlarge it at the UPS store (some fussing went on in the stroller as I spent a million years trying to figure out the zoom function of the copier, but I had to tell HMB that she is not the boss of me!). Anyway, one day I want to make one.
*The Magnolia Club! Oh, if I could knit I think I’d only really want to knit with Amy’s beautiful yarns. I almost want to join just to get them in the mail and stroke them.
*The CRAFT baby bootie contest She actually needs booties now that I put her in real outfits without built-in feet!

I’m sure there’s a ton of other stuff that I missed, but that’s what I’m thinking about today. Oh, and the Three Month Birthday Pic, Miss S chatting with her pal Monkey

But before I get called away (or wailed away, really), I want to VERY belatedly announce the winner of the Bead Simple earring giveaway! Chosen by the highly scientific method of asking my mother to choose a number between 1-39, the chosen one is the lovely Leah of Creative Everyday! I’ll e-mail you for your address Leah, and send those earrings off when the little miss and I next take a walk to the Post Office.

And before I go I want to tell you about a crafty artist whose work I love– Jess Brown. Her art dolls are so beautiful and charming. Of course HMB (her majesty the baby), is not ready for something so gorgeous (the spit-up factor), but I’d love to have one of my own. Here is a speedily taken picture of two of her dolls at my favorite neighborhood store, Nest

And another from her site, used with her permission, of course
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I’ll try to pop in when I can, in the meantime I’m thinking crafty thoughts and reading your blogs and looking at your Flickr in the wee hours!

p.s. if you can think of anything crafty that can be done one-handed from a rocking chair, please let me know!

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.

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!

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!

Abigail recently has been making lovely tiny pendants with petite portraits in them.

The moment I saw that one on her blog I knew I *had* to have it (much as I felt about Bethany’s pillow). And lucky me, I snagged it in time! She sent it beautifully wrapped, with lovely goodies:

aside: Abigail, if you want to sell me a print of the illustration on your postcard, I would snap it up but quick, so let me know
And I put it on immediately

Hooray! Do visit Abigail’s Etsy Shop and check it out if you are as in love with her charming, whimsical aesthetic as I am!

Something else thrilling came in the mail yesterday that needs a whole post to itself, so I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow!

And now I’ll sign off with the obligatory baby picture, dressed in her tres chic petunia picklebottom onesie

Ciao!

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).

Bethany, sweet thing that she is, also included a beautiful gift for the wee one, which as you can see she really likes:

I snagged a few more handmade wonders that I’ll share with you as they roll in. In the meantime, do head over to Bethany’s shop– my pillow, like all of her whimsical treasures, was one of a kind, but there is PLENTY more over there to tempt you.

But I’m trying to keep up with at least some things crafty–the iphone is my lifeline!
*If you haven’t already, you can apply to be a vendor at the awesome Bazaar Bizarre Maker Faire until March 12! There were so many fantastic, creative vendors there last year, it was really hard to control myself. Hopefully the wee will be a good sport and come with me for just a few hours.
*Have you seen the magazine Craft Stylish? It is published by the same brilliant minds behind Sew Stylish, and of course Threads. I recently got my hands on the latest issue and there is so much inspiration in there! I’m particularly excited to make the knit fabric wrap cardigan… Oh! And I also learned that despite what I thought, Sew Stylish did NOT go away! It still exists, just on newsstands and no longer by subscription, phew! I love the magazine, and their companion Simplicity patterns.

I’ve also had the opportunity to appreciate some of the handmade baby gifts I’ve received. Did you know that you can’t put a baby in a onesie until after their little umbilical cord stub falls off their bellybutton? Yeah. So poor wee S has been in t-shirts and diapers almost exclusively, and unable to wear any of her stylish little duds yet. However, I’ve been swaddling her in her Little Snuggle Bunny flannel blankets, which are highly cute.

They are double sided, so not only are they warm, but when you fold over the top of the blanket, it shows a sweet complimentary fabric. So when I take her out, she’s in the pink of fashion.

She is also totally enamored of the scrumptious cuddly blanket Shelly made for her

Which is this squidgy pink goodness on one side, and an elegant cherry blossom print satin on the other.

I’m definitely starting to feel more rested and myself, which of course means crafty plans are bubbling in my brain again! Hopefully we’ll work out the eating and nap schedule here soon so I can get in a little bit of sewing once in awhile