little birds handmade

nutty

My kids wanted to make something for my table at Studio Craft, so we created these little guys from wool roving and acorn tops today. Pretty cute.

Another squirrel. His tail came out really pouffy! I'm a little nutty myself, still scrambling to get things done. I'm about 30% there with the Halloween costumes, pumpkins have been carved (and the seeds roasted), gingerbread ghosts have been baked, iced and decorated, (some) projects and swaps have finally been finished and mailed, and I've been sewing and stuffing as fast as I can (which, admittedly, is not very fast as I'm kind of slow and finicky) for Studio Craft. In fact, I've run out of stuffing, so I'll be moving on to other things this week (provided my Gocco supplies are delivered in time). I know that I'm not going to be able to make as many things as I had planned (my sister is arriving on Wednesday to further distract me), but I'll be happy to just sit there with whatever I can manage to put together and enjoy the truly fine company (and do some shopping of my own). Everything left over will be added to my shop the following week. I'll let the mailing list know ahead of time.

Off to tackle the fake fur viking vest...

I finally got started making some things for Studio Craft next week. I'm really excited and have a lot of new ideas, but very little time to actualize them (Halloween costumes and quilt for school auction still need to be made as well). I'm just going to keep stitching away, but I'll be popping in to share some of the things I'm creating.

I put my Sufjan Stevens Christmas music on this morning to get in the mood and made this little soft "tree-o". They're made from wool boucle and linen, stuffed with wool and rice for weight. I'll make a few sets of these in different woolens, I think.

And my first squirrel in quite a while. He's made from a wool/cashmere blend herringbone with an alpaca tail, so very soft. Okay, back to work! Take good care...

mixed bag weekend

Beautiful fall weather. An outing to the pumpkin patch. Farm animals to feed. A hay slide. A house full of chestnuts in which to roll. Kettle corn (maybe a little too much kettle corn for someone). The perfect pumpkins (and some white gourds for me). A school harvest faire. More treats and games. A tummy ache for Mia. Missed book group. Up half the night with a sick child. A lot of midnight laundry. A new day. All better. More sunshine. Coffee and the New York Times. A trip to the thrift store. No puffy-sleeved blue dresses to be found (for the Alice-in-Wonderland costume). A little cuckoo-style clock unearthed by Mia. Five dollars. Sold. Grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. Back to work. A new week...

butfl day

The sun is trying to break through the clouds here in Portland, and I hear it will stick around for the weekend. I meant to let everyone know in my post yesterday that there would be no Friday shop update today. In all likelihood, I won't be updating until after Studio Craft in November, but I might surprise you.

Have a beautiful day!

boo!

Hello everyone and thank you for your well wishes and suggestions. My neck is so much better today. I can look in all directions, and I'm loving it! I tried my best to stay away from the computer, but just had to check in now and again. I left emails untouched except for work and volunteer stuff, so I'll have to continue to try to catch up with those over the next week. I've got my sewing area all set up so that I can do most everything (ironing, cutting and sewing) standing up. I feel good to go!

Despite our jam-packed fall schedule, I am trying to really slow down. I have so many wonderful opportunities right now, and it's time that I stopped worrying about them and started enjoying them. I had a moment this morning when I realized, it will be okay. It will all get done. Everything will fall into place. Even now, it's okay.

My kids have been asking for Halloween decorations, so Mia and I made and hung these bats yesterday. Today we're having a friend over and I think we'll give these ghosts a try. Looks messy, but as Miles said when he looked at the bats, "It's still not spooky enough in here."

repetitive stress

I have a pinched nerve in my neck which was probably caused by some sort of repetitive stress. Was it hand sewing all those tiny hats last week? Sifting through and attempting to answer the hundreds of emails I have received this week? Rocking out to Sufjan Stevens at the Crystal Ballroom on Friday night? Cutting out and sewing strips of wool for the scarf I made my mom for her birthday? Cleaning out my basement? Hemming 70 napkins (with my mom's help) for my daughter's school? All of the above? Who knows, but it's causing me a lot of pain and trying to ignore it isn't working, so I'm going to take it easy on the sewing and computer stuff (the most likely candidates) for a few days. I thought I'd feature a few things from my archives in the meantime.

I made this tooth pillow for my daughter in August 2005 when she told me her first tooth was loose. Well, 14 months later, that tooth finally fell out this morning at breakfast (after dangling there and grossing us all out for weeks), so we'll put this pillow to use tonight. It lost an eye, so I'll have to fix that. It's made of wool felt and vintage fabric. My daughter designed the heart pocket, I embroidered the word, she sewed it on the tooth. What is the going rate for the tooth fairy these days?

I've received quite a few emails letting me know that people are being asked for a password at the new little birds location. I have no idea why this is happening as I have no password associated with this blog. Maybe something from your cache? Apparently, if you hit "cancel" it disappears, so try that. I'm guessing that with time, this problem will go away, but I thought that about my neck too...

Fixed, I think! Thanks Hillary!

a few words

I am going to say a few words because I feel as if it's needed. I have officially received so many emails asking me for more information that I am not able to continue to respond to them individually, so I'll do it here.

Let me start by saying that I'm really sad that, at least in my own country, we seem to live in a culture dominated by fear. It is not how I choose to live my life, nor how I would like to raise my children, and I never intended to contribute to it. I think that every family has to make decisions about what feels appropriate for them. I don't have an easy answer for anyone. There are many "experts" who have researched the safety of children and the internet; I am not one of them. If I had any information that I felt would be helpful to other parents, I would pass it on. I found out about the use of my photos because a reader alerted me to it. Making this change is just what feels right for our family at this time.

This was a copyright issue as well, and I do want to point that out. I think one thing we can do as a community is to never take or use a photo without the photographer's explicit permission. It is very simple to link back to images in their original context. To protect your images, you may choose to add a watermark. Green Kitchen posted a tutorial on how to create a watermark a while back. I don't add watermarks to my photos for aesthetic reasons (I don't put tags on my softies either), but I have thought about it.

Finally, thank you so much to everyone for all the support and kind wishes as I attempted to shift gears; I appreciate it so very much. You all have moved me to tears many a time this week. Thank you!

again with the french accessories

 

No room for a hat with those ears, so he got a striped sweater instead. There will be a small update to my shop today at 10 am PST. Just stuffed animals as they were the only thing that I was interested in making this week (next week I'll have some tissue holders for all some of you who are waiting for one).

Someone asked me in the comments yesterday what I use for my stuffed's eyes. They are made of 100% wool felt and embroidery floss, and while I think they are what makes all my stuffed animals recognizable as my own, cutting out and embroidering all those little eyes can be a real drag. I could use some little eye-making elves!

Happy weekend!

bonjour!

An elephant wearing a beret. I got that fab blue and yellow plaid wool from my friend mav; I love it. I don't know why I'm putting little hats on everything I make this week. I just feel a calling to accessorize, I guess. When it comes to my own personal style, I love accessories, but have strict self-imposed rules about them. I don't wear earrings and a necklace at the same time, for example, or matching hat and gloves. I also don't think I could pull off a beret nearly as well as this guy, so I don't think I'll try.

chirp!

Thank you everyone for all the amazing comments and emails. I am just completely overwhelmed with the kindness. I am doing by best to get back to as many of as I can, but it may take me a while, bear with me.

I received a great little piece of periwinkle blue wool boucle (the back of a thrifted woman's blazer actually) in the mail yesterday from reader Sherry. Thank you Sherry!  I just had to make it into a little bird right away, a bird wearing a little felt hat with some flowers in the hat band, to be exact.

This bird and a few other things will be in my shop on Friday. It will be just a wee update, but I do want to stick with my plan of adding a few things every Friday morning.

Have a great day!