four years old

Somehow, amazingly, our little Jude is four years old today!  Where does the time go?  We decorated the house a bit last night and set the table with a little arrangement in the center for the birthday boy as we have been doing for the kids for several years.  Just some festive little objects from around the house and Jude's bear in a party hat and a cute new outfit.

The day Jude was born was bitterly cold and felt very much like winter -I remember a terribly bumpy (and urgent!)ride to the hospital in a very cold Volvo station wagon.  Today is warm and sunny and feels much more the the beginning of spring.

nice and easy

Sine we had sixty (60!) valentines to make for the boy's classmates this year I decided to take the fast and easy approach.  I've done more elaborate valentines with Oscar in the past and they turned out well but honestly, despite their rather humble appearance I think like these the best.  They are sweet and silly and kind of sloppy and the kids had tons of fun making them.  Done.

two mice

These are the last toys I made before I dismantled my former studio:  two mice for my boys for Christmas. The new studio continues to slowly take shape.  We are doing the floors this week, painting hopefully next week.  It's so hard to devote the time to getting it done when there are a million other things that need our attention all the time (two very special little ones in particular).  This is such a busy time I often wonder when I'm even going to get in there to work once the studio is finally done.  Time is moving so fast these days...isn't there anything that can be done about that!?

art shanties

Another reason to love Minnesota:  The Art Shanties Project on Medicine Lake.  From the Art Shanties Project Website:

Art Shanty Projects is a four-week exhibition that is part sculpture park, part artist residency and part social experiment, inspired by traditional ice fishing houses that dot the state's lakes in winter. It is an artist driven temporary community exploring the ways in which the relatively unregulated public space of the frozen lake can be used as a new and challenging artistic environment to expand notions of what art can be. 

The reflection shanty (first three pictures) was simply stunning.  You must go if you are in the Minneapolis area!  

in process

I've never been big on talking about process.  It's not that I'm secretive or anything, it's just that I'm kind of all about the finished product.  For me the early stages (and sometimes the middle and later ones too) are filled with awkward moments, doubt, and often times struggle and it feels messy and kind of private.  This studio project has been going on for quite some time now and well...it's not done yet.  Of course I'd love to do a big dramatic reveal! and show you my beautifully finished work space with everything in it's place and all the work I'm producing in it.  I'm just not there yet and I don't know when I will be.  Lots of progress has been made (thanks Dad, Benji and Adam!) but there is still floor finishing, priming, painting and furniture to figure out.  It's a small space and I'm asking a lot of it:  I need a dedicated drawing space, a sewing area and lots of storage space.  I have a plan and I think it can be done.

I'd like to say that the studio project is the reason I haven't been posting much here on the blog but that's not really true.  I have plenty of things I'd like to be sharing here but I'm feeling an aversion to it all for some reason.  I know I'll be back at it soon enough but I guess in just in one of those kind of messy, kind of private process times and that brings out my natural hermit-like tendencies.

spun cotton

Boy oh boy have I been scarce around here lately.  The holidays seem to have sent me into temporary hermit mode at least as far as this blog goes but I did want to share some projects and highlights from the holidays with you.  We made a lot of our presents again this year.  My husband's homemade bitters totally stole the show but these worked out pretty well too:

This year I wanted to find something new and fun and having nothing to do with sewing.  I tried my hand at spun cotton ornaments using two video tutorials I found on Martha Stewart This one for spun cotton Easter bunny decorations and this one for spun cotton mushroom clip ornaments.  I found both the tutorials to be easy to follow and I had a lot of fun trying a new medium.  I found the animals to be a little trickier than the mushrooms which were relatively simple.  I can tell spun cotton is something that definitely takes some time and practice to get good at but even though mine were kind of wonky, I liked how they turned out.  I usually tend to gravitate towards work that is really detail oriented so these were refreshing in that I was forced to embrace a looser less "perfect" result.

I did a few things differently than the way they were done in the tutorials.  For the mushrooms I opted for hanging them instead of using clips as I'm not a big fan of clip ornaments (they always seem to flop over if they have any weight or bulk at all) and instead of using glitter I used some beautiful vintage mica flakes found here for a slightly more subtle sparkly effect.  I also added little vintage glass beads and paper flags.

goodbye to 2011

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37

I'm 37 today. 

We have a busy day full of a little travel, family, food and lots of presents of course.  I gave myself a present and started the day with a run.  I started running this past summer and it's one of the very best things about this past year for me.  

Happy Holidays to you all! 

favorite

As you may have noticed by now, the newest toy is almost always my favorite.  I'm pretty sure that says something about me but I don't feel like exploring it at the moment!  I was asked to make a bear for a project (more later once it becomes more concrete) and I took the opportunity to draft a new pattern.  I sometimes name my patterns after an event or an occasion for which I am creating them like "Heath" or "Renegade".  This pattern is called "The Last Bear".  I guess I was feeling at the time like it might be the last one.  Once I made the bear however and I was so pleased with it I realized it's pretty unlikely this will be the last pattern (or bear) I make.  I love it too much to ever really stop.  I told you this studio move has got me feeling pretty transitional over here!  I'm done with my orders now and spending this time before Christmas turning my dining room (my former studio) back into a dining room, making presents and doing little Christmassy projects with my boys.  It feels good.

Once again, this fabric was given to me by a friend.  Thanks T.T for this amazing pink wool hounds tooth!  What timing!

rabbit friend

I just made two new Rabbit Friends...one as a custom order and another to put in my shop.  This time I made them with some gorgeous vintage velvet a friend gave me.  I just put this Rabbit Friend in my shop!

Thanks to GR for the fabric!

special one

I've been working away on custom orders this past week.  This is a bear I made for a dear customer who'd been dreaming of him for quite some time.  It's a pattern I hadn't used in ages but I'm so happy I had the chance to work with it again...I love it.  This guy ended up with such a good personality I think, I was a little sad to see him go but so very happy to hear how happy his new owner (well, owner's mom I guess!) is with him.  I made another bear this week that I'm pretty excited about too...I show you that one next time.

I've stopped taking custom orders now and I'm trying hard to finish up all my toy obligations in the next couple of days.  It will be a while before I'm able to make work again.  I've started packing up all my stuff for the big move to the new backyard studio.  It will be a month or so before the space is completely finished and set up for working which is good because I feel like I need some time to really think about how I want to use the new space.  It's a big time of transition around here.

the tree

It was the perfect snowy evening to get our tree.  We are lucky...there is a place around the corner from our house that has a Christmas tree lot each year.  We opted for the "Charlie Brown" tree this year meaning that it's kind of sparse and skinny (and cheap, which is good too).  I like a tree like that, it looks very old fashioned to me.

I'll be sharing my so-called studio with the Christmas tree for the next week while I finish up some custom work and a few presents.  Then I'm packing it all up and moving it into my very own brand new studio attached to our garage which is just about done!

in the shop

I've put two of these Mouse in a Stocking Ornaments in my shop.  The mouse is removable and the stocking is made from wool felt.  It's trimmed with pretty vintage buttons, wool felt greenery and a paper banner that reads Merry Christmas.  There are two available! One left!

mouse nap

Jude adopted this mouse I  made for a little-Christmas-something I'll be adding to my shop soon.  When he saw it he said "oh!  Is that for me?!"  and looked at me with his big beautiful eyes in such a hopeful way.  Of course I had to tell him it was for him!  The sight of him napping with his little mouse makes having to make an extra totally worth it.  I'm so happy he still likes soft cute toys.

Heath Ceramics

I'm happy to report I finished that wholesale order I was talking about and I realized I never announced where all those rabbits and baby toys were off to.  I'm thrilled that Heath Ceramics will be selling my work!  I'm excited and grateful for the opportunity.  Heath is an amazing company and I respect the quality and the ethos of their work so much (okay, I covet just about everything they make) so I jumped at the chance to make work for their stores.  I sent them Rabbit Friends and Waldorf style baby toys and a small edition of simple little jointed bears- just for Heath- wearing feedsack neckerchiefs.  If you are not familiar with Heath, head over to their website to learn about their rich history and philosophy and dream about eating off gorgeous hand made ceramics everyday.