too busy to blog

I am happy to report that i have been craftin' away, although i haven't done so well blogging about it lately. I kind of feel like there is lots for me to catch up on here, with all the crafting I have been doing! Throughout the busyness of the holidays I found peace by practicing needle felting every spare moment i had... it is so fun, and once you get the hang of it you can get such quick results, which is great for someone like me who doesn't always have the patience to follow instructions. I even got my dear friend and her boyfriend hooked when they visited us for New Years! We all made little owlies and went to bed at midnight. :) The photo is of me and Zef on a hike we did with these friends during their visit. Zeffie is wearing a fleece dinosaur hood/hat that i made her a while back. Pics of recent creations will be coming soon!

I also jumped out on a new limb in this bloggyland by signing up for the Creative Every Day Challenge that i stumbled upon and was inspired by. This idea fits so perfectly with how i am hoping to live this year (and every year), taking some time every day to do something creative! so far i am feeling great about what i have been able to do. Our family had a sweet little vacation for the first 10 days of january, closing our Cafe for the first time in over a year to recharge our batteries....it was much needed, and a perfect opportunity for me to get back into the swing of crafting and creating.

Now the Cafe is reopened, so it is a little more challenging to carve the time out of the day, but so far so good. I even did some painting the other night for a first time in quite a while, and i'm sort of happy with the results, although it is very different that how i used to paint! I'm noticing a bit of a theme emerging since my daughter was born....i'm making things with lots of pink and light blue together... and sparkles...interesting that i am so drawn to these classic baby colors now, that i never would have gone for before. I'll have to share some pictures soon of these funny creations of mine, and the needle felted creatures too.

Alrightly. so my plan is to post something here at least once a week, and hopefully even more then that, so see you again here soon!

i am so happy to say that i actually did some sewing tonight! {actually, a few nights ago now, its just taken me this long to find time to finish my post!} i guess that list i wrote helped to motivate me, because tonight i was just determined to make something. it also helped that zeffie went to sleep and stayed asleep when i put her down.

she stayed asleep long enough for me to make this:

and this:

the bag is not quite finished. its just a simple tote made out of old jeans from the thrift store, and i want to decorate it a little more. The shirt has a bit more exciting history to it.

we have a little friend, ayla, almost three years old and very sweet with zeffie. they are good buddies, and whenever ayla comes over she likes to look through zeffie's clothes and try them on. of course, zeffie being only 9 months old, most of her clothes do not fit ayla so well.

the last time ayla was at our house, she found these pink butterfly pants that zeffie had recently outgrown, in my give-away pile. she just loved them, so i decided to try to re-purpose them into something she could wear! i'm pretty excited about how they turned out, and can't wait to give them to ayla, cause i think she's love them too. so much fun to turn old clothes into something new!

a little list, to get me going

well. my heart and mind are so eager, so yearning to create so many beautiful and simple things...

alas, i have nothing to show you today. i have not managed to do much of anything craft or sewing related for the last few days. fair enough, i had a good little crafty spurt about a week ago, and have been very busy with other responsibilities the past couple days. but i am itching to jump back in again, and tonight i want to write a little list to get me going, while all these great ideas are fresh in my head. (i've spent the past couple hours stuck here on the couch with a sleeping babe at my breast, surfing some very inspiring blogs).

1. waldorf style doll.  i found a fantastic tutorial here here and have a few sweet little children in mind who i would love to make a special doll for.)

2. freezer paper stencils.  oh the possibilities! i've never done it yet, but it sounds so simple and fun. here's a good tutorial .

3. upcycled sweater clothes. for zeffie, or course. i have a small pile going for this purpose. {i actually have a sweater i made for her a couple months ago out of an old (lovely pink cashmere) sweater of mine that is too small already and i am considering taking it apart to upcycle it yet again! (up-upcycle?)}

4. simple tote bags. with pretty fabric. maybe some patchwork or applique embellishments. you can never have too many cloth bags, and these are an easy, satisfying project for someone like me!

5. natural pencil/crayon caddy . i just love this. maybe my dad will let me use his bandsaw.

6. pants for me. because i need some. and i have the fabric and i know what to do.


okay, i think i had better stop now. this is the kind of list that could just keep going and going and i should be asleep in bed right now. i can always add more later. and maybe, hopefully, my next post here will include one of these things, that i hope to attempt to do in the next week!

the evolution of rainbow snake

                                                meet rainbow snake:

(also known as snake-y.)

i made him a few months ago.

as you can see, he was a great idea, but poorly crafted. his forked snake-tongue was cheap doller store felt, and zeffie pulled it off in no time. i never finished sewing up his tail (just tied a little knot instead), and his poor skinny neck can barely hold his head up.



because i am a lazy sewer without the patience to follow patterns, these things happen sometimes, and i am okay with that. i knew that rainbow snake would only be the first of many, and that much like humans, each generation of rainbow snake-ys would shed the skin of their forefathers shortcomings, and evolve towards the ultimate snake-y creature.




so, here is a glimpse at rainbow snake number two. now, isn't he a handsome fellow? button eyes aren't everything, but they sure help.







i better show you the two of them together to you can really see the New And Improved-ness of this second snake.

bigger. fatter. longer. stronger. one of the coolest things about snake-y number two is that he is an Actual For Real Genuine Rattlesnake. because there is a little jingle bell inside his bum. i think that snakes dont really have bums, but he does, and there is a bell inside it.

it will be interesting to see what improvements will be made for the next snake-y creature, yet to be born. maybe we will see a little coiling action. who knows?

but however improved these new rainbow snakes may be, they all suffer the same fate at the hands of a certain little zeffiebear.

happy birthday, little giraffe

this is the beginning of something:

....once there was a beautiful little piece of fabric that wanted to become a giraffe....


(i am just as curious as you to find out what happens next.)