Hello Friends!

I am sitting here at my computer feeling like I am strangers with my blog! Thanks for stopping in while I have been gone. We had a WONDERFUL trip to California for a really long break! Thanksgiving day was a fun day for the kids complete with last minute costumes: Ian was an Indian with a paper bag vest, but ended up just going around naked most of the day (appropriate I guess) and Addie was a pilgrim. I asked her “What do pilgrims do?” and she replied “chase turkeys all day.” So that is what we did. We hid turkeys in the garden and had the kids hunt for them. Someday they will learn the true process, but not from me!

We even made our first ever road trip with the kids. Two days each way driving wasn’t so bad, until Addie couldn’t battle her car-sickness any longer and shared it with the entire back seat. But these are details I will gladly spare you!

So we are back in the throws of the Christmas season! Having a shop open during Christmas is challenging my creativity at the moment to get in the full spirit of things. But right now I am listening to the King’s College Choir sing In the bleak midwinter and all is well. Christmas presents this year are coming together great, and though I can’t share most of them (my family reads my blog too!) I can share some gifts for my kids!

For Addie: 1. Meeebee Shoulder bag and sewing packet. She will go crazy! I am going to fill it with fabric that she can make doll clothes out of. We are trying to sew more together, but not nearly as much as she asks me to! Aren’t these darling!!?!?! I found Meeabee on ETSY and I am thrilled. “All that is cute from Japan” is her motto. Handmade and wonderful! Japanese fabrics i love!! She even threw in an extra little pencil case! Made to perfection!

For Ian: 1. Meeabee: this toddler bag (he is always wanting to wear a purse like Mama or Addie!) complete with orange robots. Orange is his favorite color, and robots are a big trend with him right now. little boy apron as well. 2. Vintage Bethany: vintage puzzles. I am going tack the pieces in and hang them up in his room. I am loving the colors…especially in the chapel piece. To me Toys are art as much as they are toys!Are you seeing an ETSY trend? I am a devout believer:) 3. Green Clean Toys: Loving this fisher price fire truck. Bell and all. I remember pulling this toy around as a kid. He’ll go crazy over it!

A few more handmade items coming still! But for now…I am off to printing and shipping! Thanks to all of you who patiently waited over the holiday break! All items are shipping today and tomorrow! I will be back soon with more creations in the works….but for now, I am needing to get back to printing printing printing!

Cheers!

Found a new favorite vintage kids online store. Bianca and Family. Dreaming of redoing Addie and Ian’s room, and getting a whole lot of inspiration!

Christmas is here, and we all have our wish lists for our kids. Or, our kids have wish lists for us. Either way, here is a fantastic place to find creative play toys all in ONE place.

About them: “LivingPlaying.com is an online store providing high-quality educational and developmental toys, products, and publications that enable parents to teach, guide and inspire their children through creative play.”

Wooden kitchens, wooden cars, puppet theaters, unique decor, doll houses, construction toys, even montessori toys. My kind of store!

Since we are getting our place ready to sell, I realized I don’t really have any decent pictures of my Addie and Ian’s room. It is quite a tight space: all of their toys, clothes and beds fit into this little space that I can’t even take a full picture of because I can’t stand back far enough! But Small Spaces require creativity, which is my favorite kind of problem to handle.

Details:

- “Manners can be Fun”: Anthropologie. Published in 1936. My mother used to read this to me, and I am sure her mother read it to my mother. Fantastic illustrations. We bring this down when the kids need a little more reenforcement besides mom and dad.

- “The LIttle House” is on my top 5 children’s books of all time. If you haven’t read this, you need to.

- Letter A: from Anthropologie. On sale for $6

- Toad likes to hang out up here, but he often comes down to play.

- Wooden display cabinet I hand painted a while back

- Babaar print: We purchased a print while in France at a flea market. I am sure you can get them in the states though. I just liked the size…and that it was from Provence.

- IKEA shelves are a lifesaver. Not only do they fit everything, but they are square. I like squares. And White.

-The felt Crowns are from Cakies. We love these!

-Vintage alphabet poster $4 at a book arts paper store

There are more details I didn’t catch here…but all the more reason for me to take pictures when we move into our new space!

Categories: just for kids, my family, on being an artist
13 Comments

In all the hustle and bustle of cleaning out closets and getting our place ready to sell, I forgot to mention this incredible Handmade Holiday Gift Guide over at Bloesom Kids (my FAVORITE blog by the way). She has included my Calendar…Thank you Irene! But all the other items she has included are so darling! So unique and great for you and the kids. Click here to get connected to list of items and their online locations! Oh, and check out her most recent post today…an OPEN house with the makers of LMNOP magazine. I love peeking into people’s homes! So much life and creativity here! But thank you Irene for the mention!

Remember the fun Addie and I have been having with Paper Dolls? Well, time to do some paper-dolling together. This is Mazie, named after my great-grandmother. Though I don’t remember her, I bet she was as cute. I may just get some paper dolls in the shop…all colored and ready to play with. But I thought I would test the waters first and also let you have fun coloring in all the details! Get some ideas on how they look colored here.

So have some spooky fun! This Mazie is a lot like my daughter…you never really know what she is going to wear…Especially for halloween. A vintage-y witch, a french Dutchess or Little Red Riding Hood. Have fun choosing! Download the Free HIgh-Res PDF file here.

Feel free to spread the word and tell your friends with a link here.

Happy Halloween!

Categories: just for kids, my art, updates
17 Comments

It’s been a while…Happy Friday!

Today, I bring you a treasure chest. You are going to love it. www.vintagechildrensbooks.com. This is a gold mine folks. I have made one purchase from them a few months ago, and I got some books from the 50’s, 40’s and even one from 1746. Yes. They didn’t make ‘children’s books’ then, but they made religious songs for children to learn about how to behave in society. Such a great find. The books I am showing above are all $5 (except for Sara Crew, which is a mere $100) but you could do some major Christmas shopping here (ah -hem…for me…ah-hem). Seriously, I have to restrain myself here. I have a complete passion for vintage children’s books (really?) and this is a gold mine. They are adding new stuff all the time, so check back every once in a while. Have Fun!

I think this is it. I really hope not, but this might be the beginning of the end. Have you noticed how I haven’t had much new art work up lately? Yes, I have had family in town, and I have been busy with the shipping/packing side of things. But the biggest reason? Addie has decided she “doesn’t sleep in the day.” I spent the first half of the week panicking. This is MY only time in the day to really WORK, and I have been in denial that this day would come. She still needs a nap, and I really hope we can fit in a few per week before they dissipate completely. (I may sound really calm…but behind this computer screen, tears of agony are streaming down my face!)

So Friday comes around, and after 45 minutes of trying every creative way to sleep my toddler, we sit on the couch and read together. She picks up “Pottery Barn Kids” (which by the way, I am becoming more and more impressed with!) and after a few pages, spots an Owl Softie on a model bed, and says “Mommy, can we make this?”

As upset as I was that I was losing precious work time to my stubborn toddler, my heart melted! Don’t most kids say “Can I have this?” I am sure I did. The fact she knew that she could make something like that got me really excited. And since I am used to working hard and creatively during nap time anyways, I said “YES!”

So, I dusted off my sewing machine (literally!) and we got to work. Addie and I drew a pattern with green crayon, And she helped me cut it out, helped me pick the fabrics from my scraps, place the pins, and she proudly sat on my lap while I sewed it on the machine. (Oh, and yes, Addie is “wearing her skin” as she calls it. We cannot keep clothes on this child. She does however have a wicked tan line that could easily pass for a shirt!)

I digress. Please people…don’t look close here! I am a sloppy sewer, and with a very impatient and very wiggly three year old on my lap (”Mommy, let’s make her wings now!! Now!!”) I was in no mood for perfection. By bed time, she was all but stuffed, but Addie still slept with her anyways! We stuffed her this morning, and they haven’t parted since! For a girl who dreams of princesses, mermaids and sparkely jewels, I was tickled that she would be so attracted to Owls (very trendy girl, eh?). She did, however, name her Owl Ariel.

So, here we have Ariel, the nocturnal (wink wink), motherly, orange and pink bird who seems to me to have quite a sense of humor! She must since she is so tolerant of her big over-sized beak, crooked head, floppy legs, button eyes I stole from a sweater, and the fact that we made her pregnant…or motherly…depending on the location of the baby owl in her poscket. We sure love her though! She fits my Addie to a T. And though I am in no way celebrating a napless afternoon, I am celebrating that Addie is learning that good things don’t grow on trees. Somebody had to make that toy, or doll, or car or brownie. She is so interested in sewing, and though I am not a proficient seamstress, I am just glad that her 3 year old eyes can’t tell! And now, I may just be back to getting up before the crack of dawn to get my work done…but at least Addie has nocturnal friend to stay up with when she should be sleeping!

Oh the lazy days of summer. What would I do without them!

Hello! I have been away from blogging and internet in general, and folks, I highly recommend it! I am in North Carolina with my family soaking up the beaches, and I am telling you, this is therapy at its best! We have been getting tons of rain, and quite a few violent thunderstorms…the kind that require hot cocoa and a few board games wrapped in a blanket. Where we are I don’t have cell phone reception, very little internet reception, and we have even had a few power outages which frankly have been so romantic. Eating dinner and going to bed by candlelight is my kind of summer evening.

Speaking of rainy days, good thing I brought tape, paper, scissors and plenty of coloring tools. We have been spending many a afternoon with paper creations. If I was home though, I would be making these: have you been keeping track of all her at-home-projects? So perfect for those rainy days (these projects take a little planning, but I can’t wait to try them with the kids!)

Hope you are all enjoying some good doses of summer. It takes a lot for me to indulge in lazy-go-with-the-flow days, but I will tell you it does wonders for the busy mom.

I will be back soon! Most likely after I get home and into real life. Right now, I am convinced that real life should require more “lazy days” than it has in the past. Oh thank goodness for Lazy Days!

If you have been here a while, you know that every Friday is a Happy one. Today is Happy because I get to share with you a new favorite and very inspiring site: www.camillesoulayrol.com. Camille Soulayrol is an interior designer, writer and creative who has worked with Marie Claire Idees as well as others putting together beautiful spaces. These are some of my favorite.

I love seeing REAL lived in children’s spaces that are full of color and quirkiness. Knowing my art hangs mostly on the walls of children’s rooms, I become very inspired by these spaces, and imagining how art and decor work together to enhance a space. I believe in both functionality and whimsicality in a chilren’s space, and these images tickle my senses! And, of course, Camille is French and the site is in French…even more reason to Oh-la-la these spaces. Enjoy and Happy Friday!