Project: Project

Christmas Elf 2011

2012-01-15T19:52:00.000-05:00

I know it's crazy late to be posting Christmas pictures but I do have a full-time job, people. I had photoshop hidden and forgot to save these.

So this is my bean as a Christmas elf. We have been doing this every year since she was born. Check them out here.

I wanted to start a tradition of buying a hat on Etsy for each year but I bit the bullet and made one myself. I found a quick tutorial online and lined it with fleece. I made the pattern a bit smaller after making a test and I shouldn't have. With the lining, it was too small. It would have been perfect.

Etsy shop sale

2012-01-01T20:16:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I started this blog to promote my Etsy shop. After a while, I enjoyed writing the blog more than running the shop. So even though I have still been sewing and adding new things to the shop, I just stopped treating it like a business. It's time for a change so I want to clear out everything that I have in stock.

Take a look at LemonCadet if you're interested. 50% off everything sale to subscribers of this blog and Facebook fans. I'll post the code there as well. Enter NEWYEAR2012 at checkout. I'll leave the code active for about a week. I'll delete this post tomorrow.

Mantelscape

2011-12-22T20:23:00.001-05:00

For the first time ever, I styled my mantel for the holidays. I've had most of this stuff for years but I usually just toss it all up there. This year, I wanted to do something special. I pulled out all the white and silver.

Z and I made the trees. It took me about 45 minutes to wind and hot glue the yarn around the tall tree. I might add another layer or some color next year. We glittered the other cone with super chunky glitter.

The deer is my favorite. I got it last year at Crate and Barrel I think. I was with my mom in Manhattan and after seeing the Rockettes. We walked all the way up 5th Avenue (?) looking at the lights. On our way back down the next street (Madison?), we were shopped for a long time. The jingle bell garland is from there too.

Last year I found the perfect cylinder vase for the jingle bells. The plate with the birch trees and single cardinal is from TJMaxx. They have the best holiday stuff.

This is a bit of the top. My vintage favorites mixed with the Martha Stewart Santa tree topper from back when she was just out of prison and wasn't too good for Kmart. Oh why doesn't she love us poor people anymore? I liked buying Martha stuff at Kmart. There is no Macy's near here.

Oh, and just so you know, I think I'm using the word Mantelscape somewhat ironically. I really don't take myself that seriously. Edit: just realized the typo in the original post. Mantle is actually a correct spelling but not the more common one. Oops.

I'm a Giant . finished for now

2011-12-19T22:01:00.000-05:00

The studio apartMac is finally finished! I took some photos before we went out of town last week but I had some technical difficulties and only managed to upload a couple of quick shots to Flickr. I am happy with what's here but I'm going to take advantage of the extension to edit a little bit and refine some pieces.

I stuck closely to my inspiration and I think it all came together. Of course, my favorite bits are the little macbook and iPad from lilushop (thanks to Modern Mini Houses for the tip).

The billy balls that my assistant (3 years old!) and I made are perfect in the eBay vase.

I've seen this wood slice wall art around the internet a good bit so I had Mr. Lemon chop up some sticks and I glued them above the fireplace (another cheap eBay find). The little houses are from a vendor at Handmade Arcade and the birch logs are from Gigi N Studio.

I'm most proud of the wood shelf. It was a scrap leftover from the fireplace slices and it fit perfectly above the sink (that's a chair from the Irwin Interior Decorator set).

These are just a few of my favorite vignettes. With the extension, I'll be able to take better photos in different light and get some good views of the whole thing. The iMac is a beautiful piece of design but it's so hard to shoot the scene!

I'm a Giant . making some progress

2011-12-02T20:56:00.000-05:00

It probably seems like I haven't been working on my studio apartMac but that's not true. It's just that I've been doing all these little things that don't look like much. I spent a very long time on the stone floor. The vinyl sheets were from eBay and I had to cut them to the size of the base which meant stacking one on top of the other. To make it look more realistic, I cut away the top layer in a stone pattern then sealed up the seam. You can't tell in the right lighting that it is not one piece.

I also worked on the kitchen unit. I made a farm sink out of pieces from the Irwin Interior Decorator Set. I think it looks pretty good although I do need to touch it up a bit and attach the bar table.

On the left side of the unit, I'm building a wall behind that fireplace. I have an art piece in mind that I'm very excited about. If I use the Petite Princess chair, I will paint it so that it looks like grey leather. This tiny space can seat more than 10 guests! And there is so much more in store. I'm hoping to finish up this weekend.

While I enjoy holiday crafting and all the sewing I've been doing for the doll I bought my assistant for Christmas, it always feels right to work on the minis.

More holiday crafting

2011-11-27T18:07:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure this is the last of our Christmas craft extravaganza. We're going to take it easy from now on. This is just a felt ornament that we got at the dollar store (where everything is $1). We just glued all these sparkly bits to it with tacky glue. It took about 45 minutes. If you have a toddler, you know how precious that 45 minutes can be. That's a lifetime of being occupied.

We hung one in each of our front windows using those Command hangers. I can't get a good picture at all but you get the idea.

I've been hoarding these tins for years and got the idea to make these little scenario ornaments out of them. It was super simple. Just drill a tiny hole in the top of the tin and thread the baker's twine through it to hang. Everything inside is just tacked in with glue. I think they turned out well and I like them in this little cluster in front of the window.

Finally, a word about Pinterest. I am loving Pinterest and having such a blast with it -- so many great ideas. Please, pin away! But I do ask that you pin directly from my post and not the jpeg image so it will link back here. I spend a lot of time writing and coming up with ideas. I'm obviously not in this for the money; I just really enjoy doing it. So give me a little cred, okay? Thanks so much!

Holiday crafting continues

2011-11-23T20:50:00.001-05:00

We got about 5 minutes of sunlight today so I took some photos of the other Christmas crafts we've been working on. First was a white yarn tree. I was inspired by this pin on Pinterest (here is a link to the original tutorial, per pinterest etiquette). I just used a paper cone from the craft store and hot glued the yarn at random increments as I wound up and up. I'm still trying to decide if I should do another row inbetween the rows -- maybe it's not full enough. It's soft and lovely though. It makes me happy. I like the little berries in the inspiration. Maybe next year we'll embellish but for now I like the simplicity of this.

Last year I bought the styrofoam wreath I saw on a happy nest (my friend Nikole's blog). I just thought it was so pretty. I cut my Christmas fabric into strips and hot glued just at the beginning and end of each piece. She used string too which is very nice.

I made the little cluster of bells with wire and added some ric rac because I have compulsions to do so while crafting.

This tree fabric from Boosterseat is amazing. My friend Anda (genius of boosterseat) designed it. I don't think she meant it to be Christmasy but it is. I got it from Spoonflower directly when they were having a crazy sale last year. Oh how I long for that one again...

We also doused a styrofoam tree with glitter. That was very fun. I'll show a picture of that later. There are a million different ones on Pinterest so I can't say it was just one pin that reeled me in. I hope your house smells as good as mine does right now. I love being married to a baker!

Holiday crafting commences

2011-11-19T09:52:00.002-05:00

We are like little elves these days. The most fun for Z to help out with was this button tree. At first I was afraid to let her handle the pins but then I couldn't stop her. She was grabbing and sticking those buttons into the foam like a crafter possessed. It was awesome. She even forced her daddy to join in.

We got the idea from this pin on Pinterest (if you know the source, please let me know so I can link back). I found the cone at Goodwill and using it was a huge mistake. It's florist foam and already disintegrating and getting everywhere. I cut a circle of felt to set it on but when the holidays are over, we are going to have to pull all of these out and save them to do again next year. We'll use a styrofoam cone from Michaels. We used an entire box of floral pins from JoAnn's and that seemed just about right for this 12" cone. I have no idea how many buttons we used.

This garland was inspired from something I saw on Flickr (she used fabric). We have this little nook that is usually piled with books and a box of tissues but I cleared it out to make a space for our Playmobil advent calendar. I just cut a piece of fleece I had in the bin to look snowy.

We just cut scrapbook paper and glued the trunks on. I let Z pick out the order of the trees and dots. She glued the stuff onto the dots but otherwise I had to do the crafting. We used hot glue to get the dots to stick to the ric rac. It was pretty quick and fun to do. I think it fills out the space nicely.

We've been making lots of holiday decorations. There are crafts all over the house in various stages of completion. I love it.

2011 Handmade Arcade review

2011-11-14T15:17:00.000-05:00

This weekend we took an extra long drive up to Pittsburgh to check out Handmade Arcade. It was my first time at a cool craft show where I wasn't a vendor. How nice to have time to look around! My first purchase was at My Paper Crane. I have bought from her online shop and from Spoonflower but I never had time to spend at her booth when we were vending at the same shows so it was nice to be able to say hi.

How amazing are these little houses from The Oak Leaves? These will definitely be finding a home in the studio apartMac.

For the dollhouse we also bought this cute mushroom birdbath. I'm sure Tasha McKelvey calls it a ring holder but we have other plans. I wish I had bought more but I was a little overwhelmed by the cuteness.

I love everything that Renee Ruth had out there. It was so hard to choose but I'm happy with this. It's really amazing. Her papercuts are phenomenal. This is a bad photo.

This print by Kin Ship Press is too cool. Z picked it out for her room. It's perfect. And it was only $5.

I loved everything at Laura George but my budget wouldn't allow it. I had to settle on these cards. The beard will become part of the permanent holiday collection. I'm going to frame it and hang it on the wall. Next time I will plan to buy an original.

Finally, we picked out a few cards from Sloe Gin Fizz. Lots of cuteness. I like her style. These wellies will probably hang in Z's room too (once we figure out how to hang pictures without frames just in case we have another earthquake.

I also bought a funny shirt for my nephew but just in case he's reading I won't post it.

Overall, it sucked to have to pay so much for parking but with a toddler in tow, we weren't willing to park anywhere else. I was surprised that the things that bothered me as a vendor bothered me even more as a shopper: super loud music (I think we're there to buy stuff, not dance or see a concert) and food. While the food was really good, there wasn't much of a selection. I think craft shows should always have food so the shoppers stay longer. If you get hungry and leave to eat, there's a pretty good chance that you won't bother going back. I remember before that there were more local vendors. I am assuming that the venue wouldn't allow it.

The vendor selection, as usual, was pretty broad. I would like to have seen more kids clothes but I know (having been there) that it's a tough market.

Holidays

2011-11-13T20:22:00.000-05:00

We have been in super craft mode around here. Since we don't have Thanksgiving at our house, we sorta pass that one over and head straight to Santa because Santa's got elves. Of course we are working hard on the yearly elf costume (see above: 2008, 2009, 2010).

I also recently discovered how addictive Pinterest can be and we've been gathering supplies to make lots of ornaments and decorations (email me if you need an invite). We already made a cute garland and some ornaments from tins (I'll post this as soon as we get a sunny day). Here's the board if you want to check it out.

The Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial that I wrote up last year is still very popular. It's very easy -- just a few quick seams and I even uploaded a printable pattern.

I developed an easy mini (ornament-sized) stocking tutorial. I will share that soon. I made over 20 of these last year for Z's class to decorate. They were a huge hit.

Finally, I will be adding a week of posts to the Play Dollhouse Guide. If there is something you want to review or are interested in, please let me know. The info on the furniture and houses as far as scale goes has not changed. In fact, many of the sets I reviewed are still available. We play with ours all the time and the only thing that has broken is the refrigerator door.

The elf on the shelf will be coming to stay with us this week!

A new skirt

2011-11-07T19:48:00.000-05:00

Santa will be bringing my assistant a special doll for Christmas. I know you're judging but I don't care. She's been asking for a girl (not a baby) with clothes and shoes and sunglasses and stuff. So it's this or American Girl. And yes, I've been taking her out of the box.

I used the Miseducated skirt pattern but since I don't like felt I added some 1/4" seam allowances and stitched it up. I cut out the center of the pattern to fussycut the Russian dolls.

If you want to do this, make sure you clip your corners and snip a little in the curves so it will turn. (See my flickr for detail).

Leave an inch or so open on one side, turn it inside out and press. Then topstitch that seam closed.

Add a snap to close it up.

I feel this skirt is a little short so next time I'll lengthen the pattern. And I'll make a wrap skirt sometime too. Just extend one of the short edges about an inch or so and add a little ribbon to tie it up. Oh yeah, I did some applique on an eBay shirt using the scraps of the skirt fabric to match. The shirt is too long for the skirt so I paired it with these dollar store jeans that need to be hemmed. I found loads of free Blythe dress patterns online and I'm really excited to start sewing.

I'm a Giant . billy balls and beads

2011-11-01T21:44:00.000-04:00

My assistant and I went to our local bead shop to pick out some vases for the iMac studio apartment. We found these yellow resin beads to use on the mantle perhaps. The 3-year-old picked out the turkey for her dollhouse and it is having a lovely time, so I hear. The wooden bead has already been painted white and will probably become a shade of grey. We will fill it with the 1:12 scale billy balls we made. The white slate is the flooring I plan to use. It's a bit shiny in a plastic sort of way so I'll fill in the grout more and Frank Lloyd Wright it up after our Fallingwater inspiration.

These are the first run of billy balls. I think they are more 1:6 but they look great in the pink "vase" from the bead store. They now also live in the upstairs dollhouse with the turkey. Her house is play scale (Ryan's Room), so about the size of 1:12 but not actually to scale and very chunky for small hands. I think these look great on this 1:16 Petite Princess chest in this photo but the smaller ones are way more awesome.

Finally, I bought a few sets of the Kaleidoscope furniture for my birthday from Fab.com. This green flocked sofa and fuschia chair are actually quite large. I would say they are more like 1:10 but I'm not good with numbers. I have a Lundby and usually work with 1:16. I really don't care about scale (although you wouldn't know it from this post) but these are just too big for my purposes. I really want to keep the coffee table. But if someone wants to buy this (box, olive rug, and all but the coffee table), please let me know. It's actually quite heavy.

I think if you have a house that has tall ceilings or a more open floor plan, this would be great for you. I'm happy to take it out of the box again and measure it or photograph it next to familiar objects (don't you love all the diet coke cans on eBay?). Email me if you're interested: lemoncadet at gmail dot com.
I paid $29 for it. Make me an offer. If you're nice, I will throw in some handmade billy balls in the scale of your choice (or both).

Halloween!

2011-10-31T17:48:00.000-04:00

Z said she wanted to be a purple ladybug for Halloween, "and you can make me some wings, mama!" I made the pattern by drawing a half circle. I traced a butter container for the spots. It has been a huge hit.

This photo is the best.

Vintage Arrow dollhouse furniture kit

2011-10-25T11:49:00.000-04:00

A scored this awesome Arrow dollhouse furniture kit on eBay a few months ago. It was new in the box and even in the shrinkwrap (mostly). I had to throw out the paint as 35 years or so doesn't do it any favors.

I love the printed fabric. The upholstery should be easy. And if I don't want to use these colors, I could photocopy this and use it as a pattern. Underneath the fabric is the sheet of graphics showing through.

Really cool construction of the pieces; there is a lot of possibility there. I actually see this furniture (already completed) up for auction all the time.

My favorite it this fireplace. I have a small collection of fireplaces (you need a warm home!). I haven't started any of this yet because I have to finish a few other projects first. I think I'm going to take a day off of work sometime and play around with this. It's really amazing.

Oliver + S . cape

2011-10-24T20:33:00.000-04:00

I made this cape from the new Oliver + S Little Things to Sew a few weeks ago but my little one has been refusing to try it on. I bought gorgeous eggplant fine wale corduroy from JoAnn's and lined it with a Kona solid (kinda between mushroom and chartreuse). I wanted a linen look without the hassle of linen (and thought the Kona was on sale and it wasn't!).

As soon as I got the fabric home, my House Beautiful magazine arrived with a cover story in these same colors. I feel with the times.

Since Z is inbetween the two cape sizes from the book, I went with the larger one. It actually fits me (I'm 5'2") rather well so she'll get years of wear out of it. As you can see, it fits her fine but it's more Lord of the Rings than Little Red Riding Hood.

The pattern calls for 1/2" seam allowances and I hate that. It is so annoying to have all that extra fabric in there. But I had already cut the thing out before I read that so it was too late to adjust. 1cm or 3/8" is the only acceptable garment seam allowance in the world. And that's final. Doll clothes, quilting, sure, that's a different game but what a waste of fabric and what a waste of time when a pattern calls for massive seam allowances and then has you go and cut the extra off. Hello, who has this kind of time?

I also made sure to do a good clean job of stitching so this would be reversible. I sewed a button on both the inside and out but did it too tightly so I can't secure the loop. I need to fix that.

Orange Horse . I have no idea why I bought this thing except that it was $2

2011-10-23T12:54:00.000-04:00

Giant . space planning

2011-10-22T10:08:00.000-04:00

I started putting some furniture in the studio apartMac. I am surprised at how much stuff I can get in there. I'm thinking I'll cut a hole in the back that will be a stairway leading to the lower level where the bathroom and bedroom are -- kinda like in a boat.

That TOMY sofa is killing me. I hate it in there; it's just what my "assistant" (to steal a term from MyRealitty) was playing with in our Lundby. I was too lazy to grab something else.

I will definitely be making some sort of kitchen area from these Irwin (Interior Decorator Set) pieces. My plan is to research Manhattan apartments for their kitchens. There is little I love more than House Hunters when it's set in NYC. I'm like Babe, pig in the city when I go there.

I've been adding lots of inspiration to my Pinterest and working away on the Billy balls.

I'm a Giant . pulling some loot from the permanent collection

2011-10-21T20:13:00.000-04:00

When I'm playing with my miniatures sometimes I pretend I work for Rachel Zoe and I "pull" styles from my vault. Yeah, it's like that. I might use this fireplace instead of making a hanging one like planned. The speakers from the iMac are too big. The sofa is vintage Fisher Price; I printed out the bricks and used this as a fireplace in a scene. I'm thinking of painting the trashed Petite Princess chair to mimic grey leather. Oh, the colors in the background are scrapbook paper I'll use for stuff. Maybe I'll use the yellow Lundby chairs or the acrylic chairs but definitely with a different table. Maybe the Eames rocker will live in my studio apartMac and maybe I'll paint the elephant in one of these ochre shades. See my new MacBook and iPad? Awesome. Some drawer pulls and knobs, another stolen idea.

These are the accessories I'm starting with. Why yes, that is a Princess Diana commemorative plate. That's how we roll. That's a wheel of brie and a Rilakkuma flan. Indeed.

I'm a Giant Update

2011-10-16T20:01:00.000-04:00

Things are really coming along well with the iMac dollhouse. Here is the shell of the home. I think this will be more of a roombox with just a main living space OR perhaps something like a studio apartment. We'll see what happens when I start placing furniture in there.

Here is the template for the floor. We (well, Mr. Lemon) cut some dowel rods so that the final floor (foam core) will just rest on top of these supports. That way I can take it apart to store it in our super small house and also change out the flooring. We've had to hack quite a bit of the inside of the iMac away to make it work but I'm so happy that this will be a reusable space.

I've been adding away to the Pinterest mood board so check it out. I also spent the day making Billy Ball flowers out of air-dry clay and wire. I ended up making some that are really too big so someone lucky who loves the 1:6 may win out. I have to wait until they fully dry to paint and flock.

I'm a Giant!

2011-10-07T21:05:00.000-04:00

I have been wanting to jump into the I'm a Giant mini challenge since it was first announced but I felt like I couldn't just make a scene in a roombox like I always do because it's a challenge and I wanted to do something really cool.

Then I remembered it. The iMacquarium! A while back I had come across these things when trying to figure out what the heck to do with that massive old iMac we had collecting dust in the basement. I tried to get Mr. Lemon to help me make a dollhouse with it then and he said no.

But here he is now with the 143 blog getting inspiration from their geodesic dome house. We have one of these (in real size) in our neighborhood and stalk it regularly.

I don't know why he changed his mind but we set to work right away. On my laptop screen is the pdf we found on the iMacquarium site telling you how to take apart the computer. Unfortunately it stops where it gets hard but we figured it out.

Here's where we are in the process now. The shell needs surprisingly little to stay together and weighs next to nothing. I've started a Pinterest board with all my inspiration. This weekend I'm going to troll through my minis and start pulling some pieces. I know that I want to use bits of the computer as accessories. I'm hoping to use the roundy parts the speakers are incased in to make a hanging fireplace. I'm excited to get started. We have already been to Michaels for supplies and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater for proper inspiration.

Oh, and if you do decide to take your iMac apart, it might help to know that the colorful part of the case isn't tab in slot like the rest of it, it's more like these pull down tabs in slots so don't try to pry it out, you have to tug it down before pulling it out or you will break one of the tabs off like we did.

Oliver + S Playdate dress . finally

2011-09-26T17:55:00.000-04:00

So I am sadly realizing that the turnaround time from project-supply-buying to actual creation is well over a year. Remember this post from March of 2010? As you can see, I finally finished the Oliver + S Playdate dress and got my kid to stand still long enough for me to take some photos. At least I had the foresight to buy the larger size.

As usual, I got a little frustrated by all the details of the pattern and did a few revisions. And I have no idea where those red buttons went off to but I'm much happier with the lime green ones I bought instead.

I bought the loot for this pattern before I read the instructions and picked up piping trim instead of bias tape. That started the whole thing off on the wrong foot (pun intended) but I'm very happy with the results. I like the extra detail there instead of a ruffle.

But let me tell you, that yoke is a bitch. I have said it before on this blog that I learned my best strings of curse words from my mother while she was sewing. And one day Z will have her own sewing blog and say the very same thing about me. I made it hard on myself with the wrong supplies, sure, but it's a challenge either way. So here's what I did. I turned the yoke back inside-out (you'll know what I mean if you sew this) and made my seam allowance a little bit wider wherever I could but not at the seams. Then it still did not match up with the dress so I pulled apart my shoulder seams and tucked in the extra and made it work. To finish it, I topstitched both shoulder seams and you would not know I screwed it up.

Also, I didn't know what the heck I was supposed to do at the cuff so I just did a roll hem and added the extra button detail. Awesome. Finally, the hem called for handstitching and I wasn't about to bother so I just ironed the hem facing and stitched it to the bottom of the dress. Quick and it looks fine. I love my kid but there will be no handstitching if it can't be seen. That means embroidery and buttons will be the only time I pick up a needle and thread. Hello.

Here is a shot of the yoke at it's worst. What a mess. I have this foot that has a high edge and a low edge and I used that instead of the zipper foot that I started with. It worked great. I think it is supposed to be for hemming denim. You can also look at the photo of the back of the yoke above and see some crap topstitching but my hope is that the kid moves so fast no one will ever notice.

What happens when toddlers shop at JoAnn's

2011-09-12T21:36:00.000-04:00

Purple. Pink. Sparkly. Shiny. Lots of stars. Coming soon: one skirt.

I'm itching to sew...

2011-08-31T10:16:00.000-04:00

And I've got a 3-day weekend. Size 5.

This is how we gather

2011-08-16T15:38:00.001-04:00

1 boys Barbapapa shirt from H&M Berlin plus 1 bottom hem of orange t-shirt from thrift store.

Pin the two sides of the orange panel to the seams of the blue shirt. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. Find the middle and pin. (I don't like pulling a thread to gather knits).

Stitch. Instant dress for a Barbapapa fan.

Fab challenge with Call of the Small

2011-08-13T21:07:00.001-04:00

Before my little blog break, I saw some cool earrings on Fab.com and thought they would make the perfect accessory in a scene. Being too cheap to buy a whole pair just for myself, I asked the amazing mini designer behind Call of the Small if she would go halvsies with me and do a challenge. I don't think we set any rules: just use the earring in a scene. Here's my result.

I assumed she would do something much cooler with the earring than hang it on the wall as art so I took the safe route by doing just that. I made the frame myself (a first!) with dollhouse moulding. I used seed beads to shadow it away from the backing paper. The fireplace is actually a vintage Fisher Price couch that I turned upside-down and sideways. I printed out the brick paper and stuck it in.

The rug was actually my first idea. I don't know if it's cheating but it came to me shortly after I bought the earrings. I had the pattern printed from one of the artist's other designs before the package even arrived.

I used the roombox I designed (have I talked about that yet?) to stage the scene. My favorite part is the coral. I found the orange faux coral at Michaels and hot glued it into a bottle lid.

I bought the abstract expressionist stamps at the Post Office months ago specifically to use in scenes and finally Rothko made it.

Time: I must confess that I have been working on this scene all week! I've been playing with it bit by bit when I could get in a minute.

The goods: sparkly chairs are Petite Princess; coffee table is a glass tealight holder with a piece of paper glued on; dishes are re-ment, Ocara, Playmobil, and random eBay finds; orange chair is Reac; side table is a vintage Fisher Price chair, possibly a booster seat (?); the credenza is a dollar store table that I chopped the legs off, sanded, and washed with orange paint to be the right color and size; record player and other stuff is Tomy. I totally forget who made the earrings but hopefully Call of the Small will post a credit.

This was really fun for me. Thanks so much to Christine of Call of the Small for taking me up on this challenge. I can't wait to go see what she's done!

Handmade Wardrobe Mini Find

2011-08-12T21:29:00.000-04:00

My mom bought a huge box of mostly trashed dollhouse furniture at a flea market a few weeks ago. Everything is pretty beat up and really old; I'm thinking 1930s but I haven't done much research yet. Among the rubble was this gem. It's a handmade wardrobe by Verna Ulrich from 1981.

Check out the leather hinges. Such fine detail!

I have the third drawer. The front has come off and I'll reattach it.

I'd like to replace the missing bunch of grapes with another if you have any idea of where to find something like it.

If anyone knows anything about this artist, I would love to know. A quick google search did not turn up any information. This is very well crafted and was obviously made with care. I feel lucky to have this piece in my collection. I wonder why it was with all that other stuff. The best word to describe it all is "primitive." I'll be photographing it soon.

Dresses to go

2011-07-15T19:42:00.000-04:00

I'll be taking a bit of a blog break for Summer. Here are some dresses I made using the Sienna pattern from Lil Blue Boo and The Warhol Dress from Dana of made. The Salvation Army had a $1 a bag sale and I came home with 16 shirts!

Both of these patterns are super easy. I like changing it up a bit.

With the Warhol dress I made, I slashed the pattern across the top to fit the shirt I wanted to use. I don't think that was a good decision. I'm going to sew some vertical ribbons up the right side to even it out. I also added inches to the arm hole after trying it on the kid pinned. That was a mistake because it's huge. I'm not going to rip it out because it will fit next year. I doubled it over a did a quick hand tack that I'll pick out once she grows.

Enjoy the rest of July!

1001 Peeps Winner!

2011-07-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to announce that Amber of One Shabby Chick has won the 1001 Peeps blue fat quarter giveaway. Yay!

Thanks so much to everyone who commented. I now have some amazing ideas for campfire treats. I'm also really happy at how much people like this bag. I love mixing prints and I think it's great that Lizzy House has designed amazing fabric lines that work so well together. The ducks with the peeps -- spot on.

When making this bag I realized that this tutorial could easily be used to make storage bins with just a tweak or two (and no zipper!). I'll work on that and get back to you in a few weeks. I gotta buy some more panties for the plastic. Have a great weekend!

Hello Campers!

2011-07-01T09:07:00.002-04:00

Welcome to 1001 Peeps Summer Camp! Today we are making the Peeping Peeps zippered tote.

~~But first, leave me a comment with your favorite campfire treat and you'll be entered in a contest to win a mini fat quarter pack like the one I used to make this bag.~~ Comments closed! Thanks to all who commented.

Here's what you need:
Lizzy House fabric
fusible interfacing (I prefer Wonder Under)
decor weight fabric (I used a solid from Ikea)
clear vinyl (I used the packaging from toddler panties)

1 zipper at least 11 inches
28" of 1" wide grosgrain ribbon (for two 14" long handles)

office paper
1 tiny bulldog clip

thread and assorted sewing supplies

Let's make a pattern!
ALL SEAM ALLOWANCES ARE 1/4" AND ARE INCLUDED IN THESE MEASUREMENTS*. YOU DO NOT NEED TO ADD THEM.

bottom = 1 sheet of 8.5" X 11" office paper
top = cut 1 sheet in half lengthwise for 4.25" X 11" (fold like a hotdog bun and cut)
back = cut 1.5" off the long edge for 7" tall X 11" wide

sides = cut off the short edge for 7" tall X 8.5" wide
front side panels = 4.5" tall X 2.25" wide
front top and bottom panel = 1.75" tall X 11" wide

window = 4.5" tall X 7.5" wide

Prepare your sturdy pieces:
I generally cut my decor weight lining fabric about 1" larger on all sides, my interfacing 1/4" larger on all sides, and then my outer fabric 1/2" larger on all sides.
Iron your interfacing to your outer fabric. Let cool and peel off the paper backing. Iron your decor weight fabric to the outer fabric then pin pattern and trim to size.

bottom = cut 1 fabric, 1 interfacing, 1 liner
sides = cut 2 fabric, 2 interfacing, 2 liners (1 for each side)
back = cut 1 fabric, 1 interfacing, 1 liner

top = cut 4
front side panels = cut 4
front top and bottom panel = cut 4

Ok campers, let's do this!

1. Start with the front panel center piece. Make a fabric/plastic/fabric sandwich as shown. Put the fabric RST and slide the vinyl in to meet the edge. Clip together with the bulldog clip because you can't pin the plastic.
Stitch 1/4" away from the edge and repeat for the other side. Unfold your side pieces and finger press. Don't get an iron near the vinyl.

2. Add your top panel. Make a fabric/center piece/fabric sandwich just like above. Put the fabric RST lining up the edges. You'll have 4 layers of fabric on the edges and the added piece of vinyl in the center. Stitch and repeat for the bottom. Unfold your top and bottom pieces and topstitch as shown. This will secure the panel. Set this aside for later.

3. Let's move to the top piece. Like your panels, you are going to make a fabric/zipper/fabric sandwich. Put the fabric RST and place the zipper between the layers lining up at the edge. Stitch 1/4" away from the edge of the zipper, unfold and topstitch. Repeat with the other side. Set this aside for later.

*Note: At this point you can switch to larger seam allowances if you are more comfortable with that. Just be consistent from now on.

4. Get that front panel out. Attach the sides to the front and back panels RST making a big inside out loop as shown. Now you're getting somewhere!

5. Attach the bottom piece to your "loop" starting with the front panel. Line your edges up. You may have to use a seam ripper to clip a few stitches from your side panel seam allowances. DON'T stitch into your seam allowance or you'll have rounded corners and puckers instead of square ones. Stitch one side at a time, lining up each edge as you go.

6. Now you have the main portion of the bag finished. Take a minute to trim all of your seam allowances with your pinking shears or serge the edges so everything will stay nice.

7. Pin your ribbon handles to the inside of the bag. The ribbons should hang down into the RS of the fabric. These are placed 2" from the edge.

8. Stitch the front panel to the top piece RST, doublestitching over the ribbons for added strength. Repeat for the back panel.

9. Stitch one side closed, doublestitching over the zipper tape for strength. Then unzip as much as you need so that your hand will fit through the hole. Stitch the other side, again doublestitching over the zipper tape.

10. Reach your hand down into the bag and unzip all the way. Turn your bag inside out and pat yourself on the back, camper! You did it. Poke your fingers in all of the corners to tidy up.

Here's the whole troupe:
June 24: Alexia Abegg
July 1: Lemon Cadet
July 8: The Fat Quarterly!
July 15: Quilt Asylum.
July 22: MrsMcPorkchop
July 29: Flax and Twine
August 5: Heather alamode
August 12: Make Something
August 19: Whipstitch
August 26: Happy Zombie

New fabrics

2011-06-29T21:06:00.000-04:00

The mailman brought me some gems. Echino fat quarters.

The new Heather Ross Far, Far Away III. This stuff is soft. Like almost quilt cotton soft. And almost with some drape to it. Almost. I love it.

Bicentennial decor

2011-06-26T10:43:00.000-04:00

I was only a toddler in 1976 but for some reason the design of that year really fascinates me. When we were house hunting a few years ago we looked at this place with an entire bathroom wallpapered in liberty eagles. So when a living room set popped up on eBay, I watched it with great interest. I didn't bid and it was relisted. I felt it was my duty to buy it at the lower price and a couple of weeks later, it arrived from the original owner. I think it's cool that dollhouse furniture follows the trends in the 1:1 world; read this interesting post by diepuppenstubensammlerin.

I have people in mind when I work out my inspiration for a scene. This place is rented by some hipsters who think that bicentennial decor is hilarious (like myself). I played around with some doily action but ended up taking the space in a more modern direction. They like contemporary art and nice glassware but also throw in stuff they've picked up at yard sales and the Salvation Army downtown.

I do realize how crazy this all sounds but my job can be super high stress and staging these little scenarios relaxes me in a way that sewing never will.

I'll put more details in the flickr captions as I feel I've gone on long enough.

Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress . in action

2011-06-24T18:37:00.000-04:00

I finished the Jump Rope dress ages ago but it was too cold to wear it. It's been hanging on the wall in my "studio" for months. In honor of 1001 Peeps Summer Camp, I cut an onion scepter from the garden and took some photos.

This is the size 4. I think the skirt would look great in 1001 Peeps too. This is Castle Peeps and the top is Amy Butler.

And a gratuitous action shot.

The scepter.

1001 Peeps Summer Camp!

2011-06-17T08:39:00.001-04:00

I am so excited to finally be able to share with you all that I am going to be a 1001 Peeps Summer Camp Counselor!

Join me on July 1 for a super awesome Peeping Peeps zippered bag tutorial.

2011 Summer Camp starts today at Sew Mama Sew so go check out the first project.

Here are some buttons that you can add to your blog:
200 dpi

150 dpi:

Summer Camp happens every Friday; here's the roster:

June 24: Alexia Abegg.
July 1: Lemon Cadet
July 8: The Fat Quarterly!
July 15: Quilt Asylum.
July 22: MrsMcPorkchop
July 29: Flax and Twine
August 5: Heather alamode
August 12: Make Something
August 19: Whipstitch
August 26: Happy Zombie

The rest of the details are over on Lizzy House's blog (her birthday is today so go say hi). There will be giveaways and tutorials and some other fun stuff.

A bit of fundraising

2011-06-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

Later this Summer I'll be leading a small group of students on a service learning trip to Jamaica where we'll be helping run a camp for at-risk youth in a small rural town in the mountains.

My students are really amazing and they are doing everything they can to help cover the costs of the trip. I thought I'd help out by putting a button here on this blog. Any donation, even as low as $15 will make a difference. We want to help the community purchase some new sporting equipment that is safe -- little things we often take for granted in our own cities.

If you're viewing this on a reader or through a feed, just click over. The button is on the left. Thanks!

Horses and girls

2011-06-15T20:54:00.000-04:00

I've never been a horse girl. Never. I've ridden horses a couple of times in my life and I would be happy to again. As a girl, however, I never played with plastic horses (except for a few My Little Ponies, if that counts). It just wasn't my thing. I was more into other things (and I'll post on those next week).

So why I bought this fabric from Spoonflower, I will never know. But it's gorgeous. I splurged and chose the voile. It is soft and lovely. I was bummed at first when I saw that Heather Ross' Far Far Away III line included some of these same prints but they are on totally different fabric so it's all good. I am loving, loving, loving the ochre and browns. This palette reminds me of my early childhood before the '80s got all bright.

A mini challenge

2011-06-07T21:53:00.000-04:00

Just before we left for Berlin, Call of the Small posted about what, for her, was involved in making a scene. This was one of my favorite posts and I was inspired to tackle the challenge. I do my scenes in much the same way and I'll stick with her post format for this one.

Unfortunately, I don't have a dollhouse. I designed and created a roombox but there are a couple of flaws in the construction so I can't use it yet. So I'm still left with only this Petite Princess roombox. Usually I'll wallpaper it with scrapbook paper and do something with the floor. But when I started placing the red and orange in the space, the turquoise blue seemed just right so I didn't change my background.

Motivation: I picked up a few really cool pieces in Berlin and I have been dying to use them (but crazy busy!). I started with the orange and white chair and was planning on doing something totally different but after I put the credenza in there and then the red lounge chair, it all started to work.

The accessories: My favorite part of making a scene is adding all the stuff. The TV was first, of course. It is a fairy tale viewfinder of Hansel and Gretel from Berlin. There is a crazy image of the kids shoving the witch's fat ass into the oven. It's hilarious. I didn't think the aqua would work but I think it really does. Of course I had to use the "ball tower" (the fernsehturm) souvenir and that thermos (a recent eBay find). My mom bought me a box of mostly trashed dollhouse furniture at a flea market and that bird cage was right on top. I didn't think it would work either but it did. (I think it must be a Christmas ornament). Next I went with a vintage Sylvanian families cabinet and the TOMY planter. The pillows I made came next and then the mostly Playmobil dishes (check out that sausage! I am not into fake food much but that is too funny). Oh, the red shoes are from my childhood Skipper doll. Ah, the teeth marks...

The dinosaur was a last-minute find (I share a space with the toddler and husband so their toys often come in handy).

I definitely like to play around with color and I care little for realism. I like to have fun with spaces that appear realistic on first glance and then smack you with something ridiculous (like the bright green sword from some appetizer or mixed drink).

Time: It took 15 minutes to set everything up. Everything was out and on hand so I didn't have to dig through any bins. I usually spend much longer because I often have a toddler around. I took 22 photos for 5 minutes. I spent 10 minutes with them in Photoshop (basically resizing a cropping a bit). Then it too me about 3 days to actually have a few minutes to write this post.

Finally, I would LOVE to know more about the new pieces I acquired, especially the lounge chair. It has real upholstery, it's not molded plastic. I have an identical one with brown "leather." I don't know anything about the orange and cream chair or the credenza (the only piece with a marking -- W Germany). They are all flea market or secondhand finds. Anyone?

Thanks so much to Call of the Small for such an inspiring and informative post.

Crafts for Kids

2011-05-30T08:47:00.000-04:00

The other day, a friend of mine posted on Facebook, "took the kids to buy crafts to get us through June, and they blew through half of them yesterday. It might be cheaper to put them in camp." I posted these links on her wall and realized that I need to spend some time with them myself as yesterday Zadie tells me, "after nap I wanna make a craft, a gluing craft."

These are my three favorite sites.

Made by Joel:

I've posted links to his blog before but now there is a categories bar on the right that makes it really easy to access the projects.

The Crafty Crow:

I've had this button in the sidebar for a really long time now. I actually haven't looked at it in ages but The Crafty Crow is such an amazing resource. Now that Zadie knows her way around a pair of scissors, it's time.

Kids Craft Weekly:

Lots of great ideas and fun projects are at Kids Craft Weekly and you can sign up to have an email sent to you so you don't forget.

Anybody have any good resources for kids crafts aside from loading up on pre-packaged kits from the store?

We're back

2011-05-29T21:04:00.000-04:00

We took a family trip to Berlin. It was amazing. I have lots of new travel tips to add to that section but a very busy month ahead. Remind me never to go away in May again. It is too much work!

Anyway, above is the photo of the bag in action. I am reading our guidebook while we stopped for a snack.

The bag!

2011-05-14T15:35:00.000-04:00

I finished the bag and I've been trying it out. I just now realized that I didn't take any "action" shots so I'll do that soon. It's the perfect size and I'm quite happy with it. Two bold box pleats on each side and no box pleats on the inside. I made a pattern for that shape so there wouldn't be all that fabric to dirty up.

Inside is Amy Butler and a print I can't remember the name of (anyone?). The straps are solid yellow home dec. fabric from Ikea on the outside and a secret bit of the matching Heather Ross moons. I just love the sleeping beauty fabric more than anything.

There are definitely a few things I'd change if I make this bag again. I didn't add interfacing to the top panel and that was a big mistake. The pocket on the inside is a bit small. But I enjoyed making something for myself for once -- and actually using it.

Making some progress

2011-05-08T10:28:00.000-04:00

Here is the pocket sewn into the lining. I stitched it on after I ironed the interfacing so it would be stronger.

Design process

2011-05-06T21:03:00.000-04:00

We are taking a little trip in a few days and I need the perfect bag for it. I searched high and low for patterns but nothing was working so I decided to design my own. I measured a few of the bags I already own to get an idea of size. I pulled a bunch of fabrics and spent whatever free time I had in two days to draft my own pattern. I just finished testing it with some dotted swiss I picked up at a yard sale and I think it's going to work.

I thought I'd show a couple of photos of my fabric process. I start by pulling out anything that seems good to me and then I think about it. Next, I pare down even more to get to the heart of it. Tomorrow I'll narrow this down with my pattern and decide what's going to go where. I like mixing prints but I don't think that will work for me in a bag. I have an ideal self that mixes prints but in real life, I'm damn boring.

The bag I designed has a finished size of 16" wide at the bottom (4" deep -- it's a box bottom shape). At the top it's about 14" wide with two nice box pleats. I might finish off the top with a wide-ish band to keep it clean. I'm still not sure about what I'll do for pockets on the inside or if I'm going with one strap or two but I'm hoping that will be a little easier. I hope to post pics when I'm finished.

Umbrella Prints

2011-04-22T19:04:00.000-04:00

I must admit to doing absolutely nothing lately that's notable enough for the blog. As the semesters near their end twice a year, I find my house in complete shambles, my daughter wild, and my office a sea of posterboard and white paper. I can see the end of the tunnel but it is still a tiny pinprick of light. In a couple of weeks, I'll be out.

Lately it's all I can do to help get the kid to bed before I climb underneath a blanket on the couch and mimic a root vegetable. Now that it is staying lighter later and there are actual leaves on the trees, I'll be able to get back into it all. But seriously mid-term is the mark where it all begins to go downhill.

The photo above is a Trimmings Pack from Umbrella Prints on Etsy. They are based in Australia and I've been wanting to buy some fabric for a while but haven't had a project in mind. I picked up this back and now I think I must buy some more of the elephants. They are better than I had expected. I plan to make more mini pillows and some rugs for the house I wasn't able to pick up today.

Making some minis

2011-04-12T20:55:00.000-04:00

Z and I set to work on another scene this weekend. I bought a bunch of new chairs and wanted to play around with them and so did she. We were having some issues with the layout of everything so I decided to make some pillows to go on the floor. As always, I had some help with accessorizing the space. The more I look at the photos, the more I think there is just too much stuff in there. I kinda have this rule in my head though that I only photograph once and then I dismantle everything. I don't look at the photos until after my design assistant has gone to bed and the light is long gone.

The pillows were so easy to make, I'm ashamed I haven't made more mini stuff for our scenes. I used some muslin I had in a bin and a DJ Lance I had printed onto iron-on paper a few months ago. I finished them while Z was eating lunch and surprised her with them. They add to the 1970s sort of rumpus room vibe of the space -- lots of wood paneling and random furniture, some kids stuff and whatever snacks you have in the fridge.

I like the lighting. A few more pics and a list of what's possibly what over on flickr.

Minis

2011-04-06T20:44:00.000-04:00

After I finished up Play Eats, I had an important far away work meeting to prepare for. I have been back a few days and I'm still so full of jet lag, I've gotten very little done. It's hard to believe that it is already April (probably because it was snowing/hailing or something on my way home from work last night.

Z and I have been very busy making scenes lately. I know I have only mentioned this briefly but the world of miniatures has consumed me. Luckily, Z is always up for some decorating and the girl does have a good eye for layout. As you can see in the top photo, she likes to help me out and is actually quite careful with the loot. So far what's broken has been able to be fixed (except, of course, for the chair that I dropped). Above is an ideal scene for her. She basically just shoves as much as possible into the roombox and calls it a day. I like to edit a bit more.

This is the right side of our most recent scene. I asked her before I shot this what was missing and she said, it needs more stuff, mama! I let her add the cheesecake and her silver rock, the thermos, the spoon and a few things out of view. I look back at what I photographed before her accessories and it looks so bare.

We have done lots of scenes. They are all here in this flickr set. I usually put the origin of all the stuff in the description of one of the photos so if you want to know who has made something, look for the photo of the whole scene or just leave a comment.

Play Eats: Etsy rules

2011-03-24T21:03:00.000-04:00

Of course to finish off Play Eats, Project: Project saves the best for last with Etsy. These awesome felt foods are from DogBoneArt. When Z was tiny tiny, Laura and I traded loot because her sister was having a baby. I've also bought from her several times because her prices are good and she is awesome. Laura designs and hand prints all of the stuff in the shop herself. I love stuff that has faces on it.

We also love faces that have a mustache. I was looking through the play foods today and found this hilarious carrot from Flaky Friends. I can't vouch for the quality or anything but that carrot is great.

I was planning on doing a link list to shops on Etsy that sell either play foods or patterns for play foods but there is so much cool stuff from crochet or felt to wood or cotton, I think I will just give some words of advice: 1) acrylic felt is going to pill. There is no way to avoid this. 2) wood is hard. Your kids are going to whack each other upside the head with it. 3) acrylic yarn also pills. 4) Read the descriptions carefully. 5) Look closely at the photos for craftsmanship. 6) Finally, remember that actual people are making this stuff. Ask questions if you have them; if they don't respond, buy from someone else.

Here is a good way to search for just play foods on Etsy, click here. That should give you just food and a few mistagged items.

And click here to search Etsy for just patterns.

For all of the Play Eats posts, click here. I will probably add random posts here and there as new and wonderful stuff appears.

Play Eats: Green Toys play dishes review

2011-03-24T13:32:00.000-04:00

Green Toys is a newer company whose products are totally eco-friendly, made from recycled plastic. They're known for being kid-safe and durable.

Play Eats correspondent Carolyn (of almost half of Play Eats) has one of these sets and gives us a full report:

"This past Christmas yet another family friend sent Eloise even more play kitchen gear. Even though we already had more than enough play kitchen gear, I was thrilled with this gift -- the Green Toys Cookware and Dining Set. All Green Toys are made from recycled plastic, this particular product is made from high-density polyethylene or HDPE sourced from recycled milk jugs. Some of their other toys are made from recycled plastic bags. Their products are BPA, phthalate and PVC free and made in California. This set is safe for food contact and dishwasher safe. If Eloise wants to actually eat or drink from this set I am OK with that. I love that these dishes are dishwasher safe, especially during cold and flu season! They get lots of use.

In terms of construction, the Green Toys set has a cleaner, more simple design and feels heftier than the other plastic sets, the plastic is a little thicker and less likely to snap or break. Overall, the Green Toys set feels higher quality and is better finished, the molded seams are not as pronounced and all of the pieces are one solid piece of plastic -- compared to other sets, which are each made from 2 pieces of plastic that have been fused together and as a result seem like they may eventually break apart. The surface of this set has a slight texture, it's not completely smooth, which makes the pieces a little easier to grip, and makes it easier to wash crayon and marker off of them. It goes without saying that the Green Toys set is more gender neutral.

All the Green Toys Cookware and Dining set lacks is a teapot. If the set had a teapot it would be a complete play kitchen set. Green Toys also makes a tea set and there is a separate chef set that has 2 cooking utensils with the skillet and lidded pot. Green Toys should consider selling a total kitchen set with all of their various kitchen pieces packaged together in one box (made out of recycled cardboard naturally!)."

The verdict: Although the Green Toys play cookware sets are at a slightly higher pricepoint than others, the quality and safety of the products outweighs all of that. I love that they are toys you can actually use. How fun to take them outside in the Summer and have a real tea party!

Special thanks again to Carolyn for her thorough reviews and the photo!

Play Eats: Ikea play food and dishes review

2011-03-23T19:48:00.000-04:00

I love Ikea. I have had a long-standing affair since junior high when a friend of mine had the catalogs at her house. As most people know, their stuff is super cheap, usually durable (depending on what it's made out of), and looks good. When Z was a baby, I drooled over the duktig dishware but didn't buy it right away. Fortunately, it was still around some time later and I was able to pick up a set of the cups and glasses (now in colors, ours are clear), and a set of the very cute teacups. My sister-in-law awesomely shared some silverware with us as they had plenty.

So far, the stuff has held up very well. It's suffered many a drop to our hardwood floors without a knick (yet). And at the price point, it wouldn't be the end of the world if we lost a saucer.

I decided not to buy the foods on our last visit to the nearest Ikea. We already have so much I couldn't justify spending anymore at that point. But luckily, Carolyn who reviewed the Pottery Barn Kitchen, has a couple of sets and offered some information:

"Like most things Ikea, the play foods are very affordable. As much as I would love to have all upcycled handmade wool felt food, I could buy all of the Ikea food for about $30 and I can throw it in the washing machine without worrying about it. Because it is fabric, it makes it easier to "eat" sandwiches than the hard wood or plastic play foods. The coolest part about the Ikea food is that some of the pieces such as the banana and lettuce have velcro on them so they can peel apart. The cake also comes apart into slices. The only letdown is the ice cream."

The verdict: Ikea play food is well priced for what you get so go for it if you are near the store. I'm not sure it's going to be a value if you have to pay for shipping. The duktig dishware is an amazing deal and worth the hour and 30 minute drive to go get it. It's cheaper than almost any other play sets out there and lovely.

Special thanks to Carolyn again! For the rest of Play Eats, click here.

Play Eats: Target's Play Wonder play food review

2011-03-22T20:32:00.000-04:00

We now have a couple of these Target Play Wonder sets. We have gotten them on clearance for around $7.50/set, sometimes more, sometimes less. Target is always changing their packaging so you can get these cheap at least once a year.

The construction of the foods is quite nice. We haven't really had any problems with the paint chipping off or the fabric wearing. However, the "fabric" is so synthetic it's almost gross to touch it. I'm sure they made it out of this stuff so that it will stick to the hook side of velcro without pilling like acrylic felt. But it just feels cheap.

That said, these sets are super cute. We have had a lot of fun making different pizzas with the toppings (and they have faces!). The little pizza cutter has been a huge hit as well. The pancake set came with some fakin' and two pats of butter so there's a lot of realism without being over the top. I love the little jar of maple syrup.

The verdict: Definitely pick these up if you see them on sale. You can get a lot of pieces to stock your kitchen. Don't buy them full price unless you have to. The quality just isn't there and you can get the Melissa and Doug stuff for around $15 and it will last longer.

Play Eats: Melissa and Doug play foods review

2011-03-21T20:33:00.000-04:00

We have several sets of Melissa and Doug foods. We started with the Cutting Fruits box and then split the Cutting Foods box with my niece (I mentioned before the carrot that I thought was a hot dog creeping me out). While their products are now made in China (some people have a problem with that), I do trust that this company is safe. Everything in these two sets is wooden and I did expect some of the paint to wear off (although it's really not bad at all considering how much use these have gotten). The velcro that holds the sections together is strong and we haven't had any problems. I don't have any problems with either of these sets (or any other Melissa and Doug items we have). I do see different levels of quality with different items, however. The watermelon seems to be made of a much softer, lighter wood and some of the foods have much less detail than others. Overall, for the price, these sets can not be beat. Some craft stores even carry this brand. Top a 40% or 50% off coupon to that and you can really get a bargain. Also check stores like TJ Maxx.

Our favorite set, by far, is these Bake and Decorate cupcakes. I got these from Amazon this Christmas during one of their daily deals for $10. They are awesome. The little icing tops are made of plastic and the tubes of icing are actually dry erase markers. These have kept the toddler busy for hours. As long as you erase with a paper towel shortly after decorating, these clean very easily. The first time we used them we left the marker on overnight and we had to really rub to get it off. The velcro patches hold wooden candles but we never use them. I had thought I might sew some felt berries to use instead but, well, that hasn't happened yet.

The Verdict: Melissa and Doug foods are good quality toys at an excellent price point. If you can catch these on sale, even better. They hold up well to heavy play and are good for a variety of ages. Most of the food sets come in a little crate which is excellent for storing other stuff.

For the rest of Play Eats, click here.

Play Eats: Garden Fresh Fruits and Veggies play food review

2011-03-17T19:37:00.000-04:00

We bought this set (brand uncertain) because they are called "peel-able." We really liked the idea of being able to learn about how the fruits and veggies have layers and the peas seemed cool. While the pea pod certainly is one of the best parts of this set, the veggies aren't "peel-able." You can pull apart the pieces but the plastic is hard, and peeling implies some flexibility.

So this set was not used for the first year we had it because it was just a hot mess for chubby hands. Now that Z is almost 3, it's getting a lot of use. The only odd thing is that the scale of these pieces, while play scale, is not relative to the other pieces in the same set. They are otherwise very realistic: the peach has a pit (painted), and the orange has sections.

The verdict: We paid almost $20 for this set. It's now down to just over $15 at Amazon and eligible for free prime shipping so an excellent deal. It comes with a knife and an adorable little canvas bag. In a year of heavy use, nothing has broken and everything is still looking quite new.

Play Eats: Haba play food review

2011-03-17T19:02:00.000-04:00

Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of Haba play foods. I bought these "dog dogs" for Z for Christmas. I also bought a cute set of biscuits for my niece (also ten bucks). Both sets are very nice and the tins are a nice bonus. I've also seen Haba foods at fancypants toy stores in the bigger cities that we visit and they are well made, some of felt, some of wood.

But seriously? These sets were ten bucks. Each. 10 bucks? I photographed these with the quarter so you can see how small they are. Amazon sells a potato for 5 dollars. One potato. That's just not in my budget.

The fault isn't entirely on Haba, however. The website I bought them from (a site that has a bunch of similarly overpriced kids stuff) did not include the size. But I've never seen play foods this small so in my mind, they were much larger. (Note: The Haba foods not in tins seem to be more realistic to a play food scale).

The verdict: I feel that there are a lot of companies making play foods that are at much much better price points with similar quality and better scale. But if you are looking for quality over price or any other factor, go for Haba.

Play Eats: Beautiful Felt Eggs

2011-03-16T10:01:00.000-04:00

Katie of Hippos and Dinosaurs brings Play Eats to the next level today with a Felt Egg tutorial. You can "decorate" them for Easter or just make them white for your kitchen. She has even uploaded a pattern that you can print out. Katie is super talented and her blog is full of great projects that you can make for your kids.

I know that a lot of readers don't have sewing machines (or don't want to lug them out of the closet) and this is a project that can all be done by hand. In our kitchen we just have a couple of plastic eggs from last Easter and although they are cheap and easy (I even included them in the repurposing post), they are really hard for Z to open and close. I'm thinking when I make these, I might leave a seam open but finished so that we can hide things inside. What do you think?

Click over to Hippos and Dinosaurs for the full tutorial and pattern. Don't miss this play loaf of bread or the rest of her felt food tutorials.

Thanks so much to Katie for stitching up this awesome post. Of course, all photos are courtesy of Hippos and Dinosaurs.

Play Eats: Whip up a batch of fabric pretzels

2011-03-15T12:14:00.000-04:00

Today's awesome guest post is courtesy of Jess from Craftiness is Not Optional. She has done some amazing tutorials on her blog so I was so excited that she agreed to design something new for Play Eats.

These fabric pretzels look super cool but look how easy she makes it. They are a really great idea. My kid is starting to get into junk food (we've been lucky enough to hide it from her for a long time) so these are on the radar.

Click over for the full tutorial.

Thanks so much to Jess for baking up this batch. Make sure you check out her other play food tutorials here and these awesome upcycled kitchen canisters. She is super talented.

All photos courtesy of Jess.

Play Eats: Sew Some Pots and Pans!

2011-03-14T15:36:00.000-04:00

Today the amazing Sabra of Sew a Straight Line brings you a tutorial on how to sew a set of pots and pans for your play kitchen. I seriously don't know how she comes up with these clever ideas. She does such a good job writing tutorials that her projects become super easy.

Check out these action shots! Clearly, her boys are psyched to have such a fabulous and talented mom.

It makes me want to have a boy. Maybe.

For the complete tutorial, click here. I think I might just make some of these to store stuff!

Photos courtesy of Sabra and her boys (who appear to be wearing cooking related shirts!). Thanks so much for participating in Play Eats!

Play Eats: PBK Play Kitchen review

2011-03-13T19:43:00.000-04:00

There are a ton of play kitchens out there and in every price range imaginable. PROJECT : project correspondent, Carolyn, who you know from her amazing nursery furniture rehab project (original post here), has offered up her Pottery Barn Kids play kitchen for review:

My daughter's play kitchen began with one consignment store purchase made by my mom, before my daughter was a year old. She picked up the Pottery Barn Kids Classic Kitchen Stove for $40 and it came with pots, utensils and oven mitts and potholders. It is the perfect size for smaller kids- my daughter was able to pull up and play on it before she was walking and she still loves it at 3 years old. It is very sturdy and all of the knobs turn and the timer/clock clicks when you turn it. My parents added to her kitchen collection the following Christmas and bought her the matching fridge. It was very exciting for Eloise to have such a large package on Christmas morning and the fridge was an immediate hit.

Pottery Barn Kids had discontinued making the Classic Kitchen pieces, but brought them back for the 2009 Holiday Season. We live very close to a PBK store my mom bought it there when it initially went on sale and then had the price adjusted after it was marked down again to $99. Which I don't think is a bad price for a new non-plastic/non-particleboard play kitchen piece. I love that it came fully assembled!

I had looked into having a fridge made by someone on Etsy and the total cost including shipping would have been more than $99. Even though PBK is not a local business, they do have a store less than 5 miles from our home, which serves as a great pit-stop/play area when we have to go to the mall. Both pieces are very sturdy and well made. I like that the pieces are heavy and stable enough to withstand being pulled up onto by smaller children. The fridge came with a "tip resistant kit" so I guess if we were better parents we could have attached it to the wall, but we have never had any mishaps. The doors have magnetic closures and both have withstood being pushed upon and are still very sturdy. The appliances are constructed from wood for the frames, handles, knobs, etc. and MDF for the panels. It would be great if they were all wood, but the MDF is definitely nicer than plastic and particle board that many play kitchens are constructed from. The pieces are very simply designed and don't have any extra decoration, which is nice. Even though there is a lot of pink on the icebox and a few pink touches on the stove the boys that visit our house love to play in the kitchen.

The stove was in good condition when my mom bought it, but there was some wear on the faucet. The stove with its knobs, faucet and stove elements has been exposed to a lot more play than the fridge. I have noticed that that kitchen sets now sold at Pottery Barn Kids have metal faucets, not wood. The use of metal pots on the stove has probably added to the wear. Overall we have been very pleased with both pieces.

Thanks so much to Carolyn for this very thorough review! Of course, all pictures are courtesy of Carolyn and her son who is demonstrating that even boys can play with a kitchen too. Even though the set is discontinued, it attests to the quality of a PBK piece and all will help as these kitchen sets are going to be popping up on Craig's List all the time as kids grow out of them.

Play Eats: Play Kitchens

2011-03-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago we made a play kitchen. I drew a sketch of what I wanted in the car on the way to Ikea. Our plan was to hit AS-IS and gather as much as possible. Then we toured around the store picking up a few other things. As we constructed it, I bought stuff at Lowe's, Target, and several of our local dollar stores, of which we have many. The whole thing cost us $68. You can check out the flickr set here and the previous post here.

I could do a round-up of amazing DIY kitchens but why waste all that time with Ohdeedoh has already done it. Check their search here.

If you want some other inspiration, there is an amazing group on flickr called, surprisingly, Play Kitchens. Eye candy, people, eye candy. Some really great stuff.

And since we're on a flickr kick, find some great inspiration for play foods in the Play Food group organized by Robert Mahar of the awesome Junior Society blog.

And here's the deal: don't beat yourself up if you go to the store or Craigslist and buy a play kitchen. Most of next week will be dedicated to reviewing cool play food and play kitchen accessories that you can buy. Not everyone is crafty and not everyone has time. I'm just trying to keep this series organized.

Hey, thanks for all the emails and comments so far! I am so glad people are liking these posts.

Play Eats: Thrift it and repurpose it

2011-03-10T19:20:00.000-05:00

One of the best things about having a kid is getting to buy silly drinks at street fairs. I would never spend half a million dollars on super sweet juice and crushed ice for myself, no! But if Z wants it, I tend to indulge every now and again, especially if we can reuse it. So this pineapple wasn't half a million dollars but it was at least twice as much as all of the other overpriced street fair grub but I knew that we would remember our fun day way longer if I bought this. This has been a huge hit in the play kitchen (even though the drink was so syrupy we didn't even finish it).

Yes, this is a shot glass. But it is a Dinosaurland shot glass. Yeah sure, the first thing I want to do around realistic (what do I know?) fiberglass dinosaurs from 50 years ago is get wasted so why not buy a shot glass to make that easier (I'm joking). Anyway, it's a cool play size tumbler and another memory of a fun day. And it has yet to break.

Another awesome part about life with a child is getting to dig through bins of toys at thrift stores. I was raised at yard sales so I feel like I have a trained eye. But I think it is a skill that can be achieved through lots of practice. You just have to keep an open mind and use hunter's vision. The orange juice was a quarter; the eggs are from Easter last year; that round thing is a piece of bologna (weird -- one random slice in a bin of dinged up Happy Meal toys); and the tea set pictured is part of a larger set that came in a little basket. The basket was trashed and some of the pieces are missing but I figure that they could just as easily get lost at my house.

Dig deep, people and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.

Play Eats: Make more play foods

2011-03-09T20:05:00.000-05:00

Not all handmade food has to be super involved or time consuming. This ravioli just requires pinking shears and an iron.

First, iron your Wonder Under to the dough colored felt. Cover the whole project with a cotton dishtowel or you'll melt the felt and ruin your iron.

Next, cut your felt into strips and then squares. I found it easier to make these one at a time. Peel off the paper backing to your interfacing and place a triple size cotton ball right in the middle of the square. Put another square on top (interfacing together) and iron each side. Don't forget your dishtowel! Don't worry about being neat because you'll trim your edges.

Snip snip with the pinking shears and you have some easy no-sew ravioli. If you didn't do a good job with your ironing, you can always pull apart where it didn't fuse, dab some glue stick on it, and iron it back up. To make the cute jar, I just hot glued some vintage ribbon to a Christmas container from the Dollar Store.

These peas and carrots are even easier. Buy some tiny pom poms and you have peas. The orange carrots are made from polymer clay rolled into a cylinder and sliced and baked.

Tomato slices take a bit more time. Embroider some veins onto your solid and stitch to your backing fabric RST (right sides together) leaving a gap for turning. Stuff with a smidge of polyfill. Turn them inside out and handstitch up the little gap.

There are several different tutorials out there on this bowtie pasta. But it does take a long time to stitch each one together. They look really cool though so the effort is worth it.

We eat lots of wrap around here. This is just some thick cotton fabric from the clearance bin at JoAnn's. I took some Tupperware from the cabinet and traced around it. Sew them together RST just like the tomato and clip the edges because you want nice round wraps. Stitch up your opening. Since these are flat, I just used the machine to finish them off.

And for the final step, I put all those painting skills that I got with that BFA to make char marks with the edge of a flat brush. I actually put a real tortilla on the table and copied it for the highest realism.

Let me know if you make any of these fun foods. Put some pics in the flickr pool.

Play Eats: Make some food

2011-03-08T19:49:00.000-05:00

These cherries are super easy to make. The original idea is courtesy of Catherine Hug of Hyggelig. Instead of the rope, we used brown pipe cleaners, cut them to size and sealed them in the holes of the wood beads with some hot glue. To make painting the beads easier, we stuck them on the ends of chopsticks and just painted half at a time. The tin is from Michael's and those are just stick-on letters. Super quick and easy project. My sister-in-law helped with making most of the play foods so the other part of that "we" is her. I do recommend tackling these projects with a friend, you'll get a lot more done and it's a fun way to spend the day.

Now these strawberries were a lot more difficult. The pattern can be found here. I was not about to do any hand-stitching out of sheer laziness so I added a seam allowance to the whole thing and used the sewing machine to create the shape. My sister-in-law and I both stuffed them and closed up the top (by hand, there was no other way) and I hot glued on the leafy top.

I think the tiny polka dot print is what really makes these work. It's from Jo Ann's. Oh, and we just cut the tops freehand so they would look more realistic. That's green fleece.

And don't forget, you can reuse your container from the grocery store for some realism (although I think blueberries or tomatoes came in this). Now, if only we can find the rogue strawberry that's been missing since Christmas...

These tea bags were one of the most difficult play foods to make but certainly worth the effort. I stole the idea from my amazing friend Nikole of A Happy Nest.

I used some muslin I keep around for well, muslins (test garments), and cut up some Beatrix Potter scrapbook paper to make the tags. What was difficult was folding the tops in and stitching them up so they look nice and neat. We filled them with quinoa but I think lentils would work better. They are bigger so you won't have to worry about them spilling out if your sewing is crap. We were thinking it would be nice and fragrant to put some actual tea in each bag but I had already finished them by then.

The little tin is something my sister in law picked up at Ikea and more sticker letters for the top.

Finally for today, some peanut butter and jelly. My mother in law made these. She said they are just a simple single crochet and she reduced and increased whenever it felt right. Each one takes less than 20 minutes. I just traced a piece of our play bread and asked her to do whatever she wanted. These have yet to be used as peanut butter or jelly though. Z likes to put them in the blender, in her tea cups, on the pizza...

Play Eats: Make a shopping cart

2011-03-07T16:49:00.003-05:00

So we'll begin our little segment called Play Eats with a shopping cart tutorial. You should probably shop and pay for your groceries before you begin cooking, right?

This project is a great way to reuse that perfectly good walking toy that your kid hasn't played with in ages and turn it into an awesome shopping cart.

Materials:

thick canvas fabric (or home décor weight. I used that cheap stuff from Ikea)

cool cotton fabric from Spoonflower (or whatever quilting cotton you love, really. I used Paper Sparrow for this)

Pellon 809 heavyweight fusible interfacing

Velcro

boning

denim needle (or similar heavy duty needle)

The amounts will depend on the size of your walker.

1. Measure your walking toy. The Melissa and Doug alligator will need a basket 9.5 wide and 11” long. You’ll need a bottom too. Don’t forget to add seam allowances! I like to use 3/8” because that’s the width from my needle to the edge of my favorite foot.

2. Cut your fabric. You’ll need two pieces of each shape.

Front

Back

Left side

Right side

Bottom

Straps: Our pieces were 3.25” X 2.5” (That includes a ¼” seam allowance). The diameter of the bar is 1”.
You’ll need 4 of the print and 4 of the solid.

Cut your interfacing to the size of your basket. No seam allowances!

It is important to be very careful with this. If your interfacing is too small, your basket won’t stand straight (guess how I learned this!). You also don’t want to be sewing over that extra layer.

3. Iron your interfacing onto the Spoonflower fabric. Tip: Lightly press the interfacing to the back of the cotton, then turn it over to press more firmly. My iron does not like the Pellon at all.

4. Draw lines on your solid. I used a disappearing ink pen. The lines started to disappear before I was finished sewing so if you can, do one piece of fabric at a time.

I used my 1” and 2” rulers to make it easy. Start at one edge and use the 1” ruler to make your horizontal lines and the 2” ruler to draw your vertical lines.

5. Stitch.

I used a reinforced straight stitch so that it would stand out and have a nice texture to it. You might want to change your needle now. All that probably dulled it.

6. Sew together your four outer sides RST (right sides together). Then carefully pin your bottom on. Clip the bulky corners.

7. Do the same thing for your inner layer but make your seam allowance just a smidge wider so that it will nest inside the outer a bit better.

8. Pin your boning into the seam allowance of the canvas solid and stitch it in place. You can skip this step if you want. The basket will still stand on its own. The boning will just help it to last longer.

9. Stitch your straps RST, leaving one short edge open, clip corners, turn inside-out and press.

10. Pin your straps into the seam allowance as shown. (There is an additional image with the Velcro step that may be helpful). The straps need to be stacked. Keep your solid sides down and the patterned sides up. Stitch ¼” from the edge of the seam allowance. That way they’ll get reinforced.

11. Stitch the baskets together. There are two options:

a. Place your baskets WST just as they will be when finished. Turn your entire seam allowance in and top stitch the whole top edge closed. If you choose this option, you can also cut a piece of cardboard to stuff in the bottom between the layers for support. This would not work for the Melissa and Doug toy – only one with a flat bottom (those pesky gators!).

b. Place your baskets RST and stitch 3 sides closed and about 1” in to the fourth side on each end. Turn inside-out through that opening. This can be difficult with the boning and can wrinkle up your fabric.

12. Cut your Velcro and sew it to the straps where needed.

13. Admire your upcycled creation!

Please let me know if there are any mistakes in these instructions. I’ve tried to make them simple. If you’ve never sewn on canvas or denim before, don’t worry. The needle is what makes it happen. And definitely upload photos of your shopping carts to the Project: Project flickr group.

Play Eats!

2011-03-04T20:23:00.011-05:00

Two whole weeks of awesome play food tutorials, play food reviews ('cause not everyone's crafty and some people are busy), play kitchen stuff, play dishes ideas, some great stuff. So stay tuned.

Special guest posts: Thanks to Sabra of Sew a Straight Line, Jess of Craftiness is Not Optional, and Katie of Hippos and Dinosaurs for their play food and cookware tutorials. Also thanks for extra reviews to Carolyn who finds amazing vintage furniture for cheap like it's her job. See their posts for links.

Day 1: Shopping Cart Tutorial

Day 2: Cherries, strawberries, tea, and peanut butter and jelly slices.

Day 3: Tortillas, peas and carrots, tomatoes, bowtie pasta, no-sew ravioli.

Day 4: Ideas on repurposing and thrift store finds.

Day 5: Play Kitchen roundup and inspiration photos.

Day 6: Pottery Barn Kids play kitchen review

Day 7: Fabric pots and pans tutorial

Day 8: Fabric pretzel tutorial

Day 9: Felt egg tutorial

Day 10+: Play Food Reviews...

Haba

Garden Fresh Peel-Able Fruits and Veggies

Finally, some Etsy tips.

Play food reviews disclaimer: I have either bought all of the play foods discussed here or a family member has bought them for my kid. No company is paying me to write about this stuff. But if they were, I'd still be super honest about it.

Also, the photos may or may not contain all of the pieces found in a particular set. The play kitchen is a mess and I did my best to find a nice sampling the day I shot the images.

More plans

2011-03-03T19:51:00.001-05:00

Just like that chair, I can't seem to get these houses out of my head, so much so, that I had to look through I Can Fly several times to make sure there weren't any more drawings of houses on the other pages. But no, this is it. And because of this one little scene, I went and bought a dollhouse kit. Ironically, my husband is okay with it so far. Maybe that's because I we haven't started it yet. Ha ha.

So see that one little house there on the left in the back, the one with the ironwork at the peak of the roof? (I have since learned it's called cresting). That's what did it. I need to make a dollhouse and it needs to have cresting. I bought this one for super cheap on eBay. I know it's a tudor and they don't normally have cresting. Cresting is more traditionally a Victorian element. I plan to leave the half-timbering detail off the dollhouse anyway. But seriously, I'm going to Mary Blair the heck out of this house. It will be mid-century whimsy at its finest. I'm so excited.

Plans

2011-03-01T20:36:00.000-05:00

I Can Fly, illustrated by Mary Blair, is a nighttime favorite for us. I love the her style, I love the colors, I love the whimsy. I love that red chair. I can't stop thinking about it.

I'm going to try to make one in miniature. My plan is to find an existing 1:12 chair -- probably something with a different back. Then I will bend wood or something to try to make the oversized roundy back.

Do you think that's even possible? I was thinking of starting with this.

In Miniature

2011-02-23T20:24:00.000-05:00

I think I mentioned before that all the research I did on play dollhouses before Christmas re-ignited my childhood love of miniatures. For years and years as a kid I asked for a dollhouse and one year I got it. But it was a kit and, of course, it never actually got finished. One year my mom sold the whole lot of stuff for next to nothing. I hadn't remembered much about it at all until I started building this little sofa from a kit I got on eBay. Cutting out the little pieces, sanding the wood, and gluing it together triggered all of these memories. As a kid, I'd say not even 12 yet, I started building furniture for my dollhouse from kits. As I've started browsing eBay, I recognize many of the ones I had -- an entire kitchen, a Chippendale desk, an end table. I want my loot back. I'm not sure if it will happen but I'm on the case and will let you know if we find it. I don't think the people who have it now realize how important it is for me to see the craftsmanship of my 10-year-old self -- how much that will mean to me. As an artist who is making very, very little art these days, I'm hanging on to my creativity with a single strand.

Making this sofa, which has some gorgeous lines and with the right choice of stain will be very modern, made me super happy. I really enjoy it. Now if only I could get over this disease -- probably swine flu or something like it, I could finish it and post some pictures.

I also have kits to make the matching 4 dining room chairs but instead of the blue fabric, I'll be using Liberty of London that is in perfect scale. I've found a dollhouse and it will be mine in a couple of weeks. I've been collecting miniature furniture and accessories with the rabid passion of a 19th century naturalist. And Z and I have been making lots of scenes in a roombox. She has a fantastic eye for space and detail. I added a little gadget thing over there in the sidebar that will take you to the flickr set of our work. Or, just click here. I've been encouraged to start writing posts about my minis so this, I guess, is the first.

Vegan Chicken Salad

2011-02-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

So this will be my last post in penance for saying you all should look at leather messenger bags just so someone could get $55. But $55! That's a lot. I don't sell ads on this blog* and I certainly don't make money off of this so I think it's cool that a company likes what I do enough to reward me and the people who read it.

Back to Vegan Chicken Salad -- one of my absolute favorite foods. Like I have written about before, I haven't eaten meat in a long time. I stopped Freshman year of college because dorm food was just making me sick. So I lived on a bizarre diet of pasta and cheese for a few years as I was gradually learning about being more healthy with my food choices -- learning from friends how to cook vegetarian, learning about protein. I've always loved vegetables so that was never an issue. I just grew up eating meat and all of the food I learned how to cook had meat in it so I'm very thankful to a few good friends who kept me from starving. More and more I don't eat meat for a lot of other reasons.

Ok, I'll get on with it... I first had this stuff at Teany and was immediately in love. Whenever we're in Manhattan, I try to get down there for their Chicken Salad Melt to be revived. When my local co-op started carrying this, I was floored. It must be the same stuff. Either way. You have to check it out.

Other vegan things that I love:

Venerable Bean Bakery, my husband's baking company. Everything is vegan and he has also started doing a lot of gluten-free stuff because he was getting so many requests.

Vegan Cheese Ball, a delicious party treat that I invented. Super tasty.

This video is one of the reasons why animal rights are so important to me. Watch the whole thing. It's really amazing. I cry every time I watch it; it's so beautiful.

We had over a week of sickness around here. Z is almost back to normal. She now coughs like she's been smoking only 15 years instead of 60. I'm two days behind her in symptoms so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hoping to be better soon. Super awesome stuff ahead.

*Yes, there are a few "sponsors" over there. They are friends of mine who offered to donate items for giveaways. I'm giving back with a little link love. Just in case you were wondering.

I love my new bag

2011-02-16T22:15:00.001-05:00

Just before Christmas my Mom and I took a girls' weekend to New York City. We cheated by having Mr. Lemon drive and drop us off in the city (Z too!). We saved on parking and I think about 2 hours worth of traffic on the way home by taking the PATH train to Jersey where we met him at a station. Easy.

Anyway, we hit up as many holiday markets as humanly possible. If you know me and my mom, that's a lot. We saved the Union Square market for last as that's one of our favorite markets the rest of the year. I saw this bag and it drew me in. I needed a new bag. My old one had literally fallen apart the week before. I thought this was leather and was so tempted. But when I saw the 100% vegan sign hanging in the back of the booth, I was sold.

They are made out of recycled fabric and very durable. Mine looks brand new after 2 months of taking it everywhere everyday. It is the bag of my ideal self. The brand is Viva Zapata and their website is really well designed.

I have seriously never spent this much money on a bag before but the last few years I've been making some changes. I haven't worn leather in over 10 years but I also don't really like all the poorly made synthetic shoes/bags that are out there. It's hard to find something that's sustainable and fashionable. I don't consider myself remotely stylish but I also don't want to look like I've stepped off the commune either. Instead of buying cheap plastic crap, I've been doing research and buying quality stuff that is a little more expensive. The result is that I'm buying a whole lot less because my stuff is fitting better and lasting longer. So in the end, I'm actually spending less.

I will take a real photo of this bag and edit this post as soon as I have time.

Giveaway winner announced and Valentine Schmalentine

2011-02-14T19:39:00.000-05:00

Well Happy Valentine's Day! Just got the wild beast down to sleep for the night. I don't know what they put in the water at her school but the kid was a maniac this evening. Geesh. We are exhausted after that one.

Above is a sample of the valentines we made to give to all her little friends. I bought the pdf from My Paper Crane, printed them out on glossy photo paper and cut them out. Some I used special scissors for but that was taking forever so most I just cut like this. Z glued them all down herself and embellished the red card stock with stickers. She also drew on each one with markers. It didn't take long and I felt bad that they weren't as awesome as I had hoped until I got home from work and saw her loot. Aside from one of her teachers and one other kid, everyone else had just bought cards and taped candy to them. One of them was branded with those Bratz whores. These kids are 2 and 3! Geesh again.

So anyway, it's been hectic around here and I have a slight case of self-diagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder (learned how to diagnose myself in Ab. Psych back in college, hellz yeah). But like I promised, I'll post about some of my favorite vegan stuff this week. Hey, Danskso! Feel free to send me a pair of those new vegan sneakers in a size 37 (sand, please). I'll get right on reviewing those.

And the winner is #4, Jonnie! I sent you an email but if you didn't get it, let me know.

Giveaway Reminder and the End of Book Reviews (for now)

2011-02-08T20:07:00.000-05:00

That's all the books I have to review for now. I'll do another series again when I gather enough together. It seems like a good time of year so maybe next January.

Don't forget about the CSN stores gift card giveaway. No, they don't seem to sell books but they do have millions of other things and were very generous to provide such loot to a reader. $55!

You have to leave a comment on this post to enter. I'll pick a winner on Monday.

Over the next couple of days I'm going to write about some vegan things I love in penance for mentioning leather. I don't eat meat or use animal products but I also don't want to be preachy or judgmental about it so I don't usually talk about it at all. I plan to write a couple of posts on some things I have that are awesome so you can check them out too.

Book Reviews

2011-02-06T10:31:00.000-05:00

This post will contain links to all of the books I review on this blog.

Bias: All of these books I have bought (usually used on Amazon or with gift cards I have gotten for my birthday from Barnes and Noble) or they were given to me as gifts. So far, no one has been giving me free books to review. If something changes, I will let you know.

Book Review: Every Day's a Holiday

2011-02-03T18:32:00.000-05:00

Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane brings this little set of book reviews to a close with Every Day's a Holiday: Year-round Crafting with Kids. As you can probably guess, it's organized chronologically following the holidays month by month. There are a ton of projects from crazy hats to stenciled totes. These crafts are targeted to kids of all ages -- some you'll need to help out with and some they'll be able to do on your own. There's definitely a good variety and a full dose of her uber-cute signature plush style.

All the templates are in the back and easy to photocopy as you need them. There aren't a lot of illustrations to the steps but there are plenty of photographs of the crafts at different angles so if something's difficult, you'll be able to figure it out. And while the crafts are all attached to a holiday (and some really bizarre ones at that), you can do most of them at any time.

Overall, this is a great book for you to pick up if you have kids. You should have picked it up last week before you got buried in all that snow. Then you would have actually had some cool stuff to do instead of watch at that TV.

Book Review: Wee Wonderfuls 24 Dolls to Sew and Love

2011-02-02T19:29:00.000-05:00

Hillary Lang has really outdone herself with Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love. I have long been a fan of her blog and patterns and was extremely excited to hear the news of this book. It has gotten nothing but good reviews and for good reason. Her patterns are exquisitely drawn and her instructions clear and concise. I have bought several patterns from her shop and have never been disappointed. The book is very well done. I was pleased that all of the projects are new and not repeats of patterns she sells in the shop or offers on her blog.

The book cuts right to the projects and puts the primer of sewing/tool information in the back right before the patterns. You can photocopy or trace the patterns you want (enlarging/reducing as you wish). The projects are of varying levels so that even beginners will find something that suits their skills. But really, the instructions are so detailed that if you take your time, you'll be able to make any of them regardless of your experience. The important thing to remember that there are very few quick fixes with Lang's work. She adds a lot of detail. You're going to have to hand stitch something. That's just the deal. That's why our toy bin houses a naked Christmas elf with no hair, hat, or face. The details did me in on the first go and this Christmas I didn't get around to finishing it. Ahh, maybe next year.

I highly recommend this if only to look at the gorgeous photographs. It's a work of art in itself.

Book Review: Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified

2011-01-31T18:42:00.000-05:00

Friend, awesome stitcher, and amazing mom, Sabra of Sew a Straight Line has written today's book review of Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified by Cal Patch. Like me, she asks for craft and sewing books for Christmas. Unlike me, she has actually made something from hers!

Head on over to her blog to read the full review. I've been eyeing this one up for a long time. And while I know how to make clothes from a muslin, I don't actually have a muslin and base pattern of my current body. It seems like this book might be the way to go. That shirt looks fabulous!

Thanks, Sabra! You rock.

Book Review: Scandinavian Stitches

2011-01-27T20:54:00.000-05:00

I have been "friends" with Kajsa Wikman online for a long time now and have been following the Syko blog since 2006 when I started my own Etsy shop. I love that I have gotten to know a lot of amazing people through Etsy and flickr, so I was really looking forward to this craft book. Scandinavian Stitches leaves little to be desired. It's organized by season which allows for a lovely spread separating each section of projects. It's nice to have a little bit of breathing room.

Like most craft books, it's got useful information at the beginning. The patterns are hand-drawn and right after each tutorial so you don't have to go hunting them down in the back of the book. There is a lot of variety in the types of projects too, from her signature mix of applique quilting which has come to be known as Interactive Piecing to some useful 3-dimensional items.

It's hard to comment on what level this book is intended to reach. I think the projects are simple enough for most beginners but I also feel that to make anything look as good as she does, it takes a lot of practice. It's not easy to make things look so effortless!

If you have time, check out Kajsa's Etsy shop and Spoonflower designs. Her work is just lovely and maybe one day, I'll be able to actually buy one of her Tomte stuffies!

Make Your Own Toys Video

2011-01-26T12:55:00.000-05:00

Sue Havens, the author of Make Your Own Toys emailed me today thanking me for writing the review. That was a nice surprise. She sent along this video that is super cute. I like how the little guy looks amazing but she wasn't fussy about how she cut or sewed those strips together in making the pieced fabric. She just goes for it.

Book Review: Make Your Own Toys

2011-01-25T20:33:00.000-05:00

Sue Havens has written a little gem of a book with Make Your Own Toys. It begins with a short primer on toymaking basics including a list of terms and hand-drawn illustrations. I'd probably learn something if I bothered to read it. I always skip those sections in craft books but then end up needing to go back to them to figure out what the heck I'm missing.

The patterns are hand drawn and on the last few pages of the book. Each has instructions on how much to enlarge so you will need a photocopier. I do like this aspect of books because when it comes to plush and other projects, you can make them whatever size you want as long as you enlarge consistently.

Overall, there isn't a lot of variety in the projects. There are a couple of different ways to construct the plush and a few different shapes. But wow, there's some eye candy. As you can see from the cover, she uses amazing fabrics and combines prints and textures effortlessly. It's great fodder for inspiration. I just want to run out to the thrift store and fill up a bag on $3 day. This book makes you want to cut up the sweater you're wearing these guys are so cute.

I think this book will work well for all levels of crafters. If you have kids, you could totally help them make most of the little guys. If you're experienced, you could whip most of these up rather quickly. The instructions are well written and I enjoy following the illustrations.

Book Review: Carefree Clothes for Girls

2011-01-24T19:37:00.000-05:00

Trumpeter Books has been releasing a series of amazing Japanese craft books translated into English. I enjoyed working with Linen, Wool, Cotton by Akiko Mano so I thought I'd give Carefree Clothes for Girls by Junko Okawa a try. The patterns are printed in the usual Japanese style, all piled in top of each other on one big sheet folded up in the back of the book. They are printed in two colors so it is a tad bit easier than you would expect. You either need to photocopy the patterns you want or tape the sheet to a window and trace onto other paper. I have not had any success using a tracing wheel and transfer paper as these big sheets always seem to shift around on me.

The photographs are fun and gorgeous and the illustrations in the directions leave nothing to the imagination. I found a wide range of skill levels to the projects as well. If you can't do the more complicated or time-consuming bits of construction, there are still a few cute pieces to make. I do have to add that some of these garments are a bit odd -- so coming from me, you should probably take a look at this in a bookstore before you buy it unless you want to take a risk. You know my style is a bit out there. Some of these outfits have the kids looking like ruffians from a Charles Dickens novel. You just need to use your imagination if you like a more polished look. That's what's awesome about sewing your own stuff -- you can do whatever you want with a pattern -- or just use it for inspiration. There is certainly a lot of that to be found.

Do remember that these clothes are for girls -- not toddlers. The patterns are for sizes 4 - 7. I'd also recommend that you look at the measurements before cutting. Inches are provided for all of the patterns where fit may be an issue (you really should do that for any pattern). Luckily, my child is massive so when this deep freeze passes, I'm going to be making my little one a couple of pieces from this book.

Book Review: Embroidery for Little Miss Crafty

2011-01-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

Helen Dardik has added some of her super cute designs to very simple projects for beginners in Embroidery for Little Miss Crafty. The book begins with a primer of basic embroidery stitches and a list of tools. The patterns are simple line drawings in the back of the book for you to reduce or enlarge as needed.

I don't think I'll ever make any of these and I'm not sure why I even bought the book. I must have read a misleading review. It's really targeted to crafty girls or teens; it's a little too old for my toddler and a little young for my tastes. But the illustrations, as you should expect, are delightful. I will definitely be stitching up some of these little designs. I especially love the cloud and the sweet little flower.

In summary, if you have a kid who's just getting into sewing, this would make an excellent gift or just something fun to pick up for the two of you to share. It's really well priced. I'll be holding on to mine for a few years.

A week (or so) of crafty book reviews

2011-01-18T22:21:00.002-05:00

Giveaway is now closed. Thanks!

I love craft books. There is nothing like getting your hands on a book and flipping through it and reading in bed or the bathtub and taking notes and marking pages and all that good stuff. I just like the inspiration. So I'm doing a short series of book reviews over the next few days -- complete with a giveaway. As you know, CSN stores carries everything from the play dollhouse furniture that I reviewed previously to leather messenger bags that you can carry all your crafty books around in. They are giving away a $55 promotional code to one reader. I had a really good experience with this company before so I'm excited to be working with them again.

Leave a comment on this post to enter. When the book reviews are finished, I'll close the comments on this post and announce a winner. Make sure you include your email address in your comment if your profile doesn't link to it.

The image above is a spread I did in a collaborative art journal a few years ago. It was inspired by one of my favorite poems of all time, I Am Waiting by Ferlinghetti. The little accordion folds back down and is held with that little spiral clip.

EDIT: CSN stores does not appear to carry craft books. Sorry for any confusion! Buy a non-leather messenger bag to put your books in. They do have tons of children's books and just about anything else you could want. PROJECT: project does not encourage the wearing of leather as we are a vegetarian blog. Thanks.

Some books

2011-01-10T20:25:00.000-05:00

It's been pretty quiet around here. Unfortunately, it's going to stay that way for a few more days. Next week will start a short series of crafty book reviews. If you have a new(ish) book that you would like to review, I'd love some guest posts. Just send me an email or leave a comment.

Don't forget about the BOGO sale in my shop. I was just joking about the "tell me how much you love me" thing. Just put BOGO or something in the box if expressing your feelings like that makes you uncomfortable.

In other news, I went batshit crazy on eBay today and bid on something ridiculous. (Sorry, Sandi, I couldn't resist. You were right. I was wrong and now I have buyers remorse). I'm going to have to make up for that somehow so I'm going to be spending extra time this week listing some de-stash up on Etsy and eBay. Anybody need any handblown Hermey ornaments or Pillsbury Doughboy stuff?

BOGO

2011-01-04T14:32:00.001-05:00

As in, buy one, get one free.

I have recently cleaned up my Etsy shop: taken inventory, did some organizing, edited old listings, etc. So here you have it. I rarely have a sale and I generally feel uncomfortable promoting anything I make or do but I have a lot of ideas and I want to make room for them so here it is.

I'm not going to advertise this on Etsy, just here and on flickr. And maybe once or twice on Facebook.

So just pick out what you want and put it in your cart and checkout. There will be a box that says, "Message to Seller" or something like that. Tell me how much you love me and I will send you a paypal invoice for the right amount. Shipping will max out at $5. Everything goes, nothing is excluded. If something you want has just sold and it didn't say, "LAST ONE," shoot me an email and I'll see if I have more.

Feel free to send this on to your friends. Thanks.

Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress . the finale

2010-12-30T20:59:00.000-05:00

I finished the Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress a while ago and wanted to wait to show pics of Z in the dress. With Winter, that's just not going to happen anytime soon. One brighter day, I shot this picture of the dress in its current location. It's been hanging there like a painting and will continue to do so until Spring.

If you want to know more, follow the links from this post.

Extending the tree skirt pattern

2010-12-29T20:02:00.001-05:00

I took a photo of my tree skirt pattern for different sizes of trees. Christmas fabric is dirt cheap right now so you may want to make a pattern that will fit your tree and head out and pick some up to hoard away for your 2011 projects. The pattern I linked to in the previous post was made from the brown craft paper pattern that I placed on top of the extended version for the photo.

My mom has a very tall tree with a large branch span at the bottom. The bigger pattern is for her. It's about 2.5 feet from the center to the edge. As you can see, the hole at the center is much larger than the one for my little tree.

I recycled used wrapping paper to make the larger pattern. I wrote instructions on it for my SIL who plans to make one for her tree next year. So if you have a big tree, haul some of your wrapping paper out of the recycle bin and flatten it out. Tape my little pattern down and extend the straight lines with a ruler. Use that same ruler to mark your bottom curve.

A little wrapping up (or unwrapping)

2010-12-28T21:30:00.000-05:00

Christmas was awesome. It's hard to say more. We had a really wonderful holiday with family. Z got so much loot she doesn't know what to do. Her favorite present, by far, has to be this 5-layer girl puzzle by Beleduc. She has worked it a million times. Each layer has seven pieces so there's more to it than you can see in the product photo. It's very cool. We are learning the names of some muscles and bones and organs (I need to brush up on my terms). The wood is good quality and the pieces are just right for her hands. (Thanks again Auntie Crystal!).

And no, a hurricane did not touch down. This is just the aftermath of the wild child. See the chef apparel on the pandas? I got that for Z and her daddy from an eBay seller. Love. The house is getting a lot of play. It's a bit jumbled but once we move it up to her room, there will be more space to spread things out. You can't tell from this angle but we took the wood that our changing table was and cut two inches off one end. I rewrapped it with some thick cotton fabric to be like grass and we attached it to a shelf/table thing we found in the trash in Brooklyn. (Yeah, we go through people's trash when we travel -- that's how we roll). I'll post some more photos when it's in its new place. I just thought you would appreciate a photo of a messy house and I'll never show you what my real house looks like.

Speaking of a mess... this blog has been a mess. It's been all disorganized lately because the dollhouse reviews took on a life of their own and my job was crazier than usual. I've got some great stuff in the works and things will be more orderly from now on. I've got a week of play food ahead and also a bunch of crafty book reviews. If you'd like to do a guest post on either topic, please comment on this post. I have some awesome bloggers lined up already and I'm very excited about that.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-23T22:36:00.000-05:00

I have finished my first mini project: this tiny little tree that is just like ours! The base is a piece of a branch from our wood pile. We drilled a hole in it and glued a dowel rod in place. Very easy. I took silver pipe cleaners from the dollar store and twisted them around the dowel rod piece by piece. I used pliers to cut the wire to shape it. The garland is Martha Stewart trim from Kmart a few years ago. Next year, we'll make some ornaments.

Elf

2010-12-21T20:35:00.000-05:00

If you remember from this post, I started planning Z's elf apparel in October. I found the vintage dress and shirt at a thrift store this summer. The shirt has little candy cane piping around the Peter Pan collar. I am shocked that both actually fit. I couldn't find red elf-enough shoes so I cut out holly leaf shapes from felt and hot glued them on and added a couple of red plastic beads.

Clearly, the best part is the hat. I got it from this seller who was awesome. She made it for me in a green velvet. The red dress had originally come with navy blue grosgrain ribbon around the neck so I picked it off with my trusty seam ripper and added a ruffle in its place with some fabric Kirsten was super nice to include in the package just for this purpose.

Last week we went to New York City for the first time in a holiday season. Santaland at Macy's was not bad -- we even got to see a fight between natives while standing in line. The photos are really terrible, I know. I'll get some more on Christmas Eve.

Play Dollhouse . Scale

2010-12-20T18:34:00.000-05:00

Or should I type, "Scale"? Because play dollhouse furniture is not remotely to scale. I've mentioned scale before but I wanted to do a full post on it with pics so you can see how the play sets work in relation to each other. Here's the low down: Plan Toys, Ryan's Room, Educo/Hape, and Le Toy Van all pretty much have the same scale. It's just about 1:12 or 1/12. That means that for every foot in real life, you have an inch in the mini. As you can see in the photo above, the awesome mushroom bed (by Enchantmints) is smaller. Not much, but enough. In the play dollhouse, it's not going to make much difference. I'm sure my 2 year old is not going to mind. Pictured above is the double bed from Educo/Hape with the Plan Toys bunk bed and the Enchantmints bed.

Sylvanian Families or Calico Critters run smaller. I've read both 1:16 and 1:18. Some of my favorite dollhouse companies like Lundby use the smaller scale. That means that 1:12 scale items are going to look a little large in the space. But I have seen photos on flickr and I find it hard to tell the difference. Think about it: the couch I'm sitting on right now looks big in my tiny house but in my friend's McMansion, it would look small. Above on the left is the stove from Ryan's Room (came with the house), on the right, the Le Toy Van Sugarplum kitchen stove, and in front, the stove from Enchantmints.

The thing with play furniture is that it doesn't have the fine detail of regular or collectible dollhouse miniatures. Also, as you can see in the photos, even within some of the sets, there is a big size difference. Pictured above is the Enchantmints bed -- about the same width as the Plan Toys crib. And that crib is not much smaller than the bunk beds. In real life, the crib would not be that big. That's the Plan Toys bunk bed. Play dollhouse furniture is made with thicker pieces of wood than traditional miniatures so that little fingers will have a harder time destroying it.

The white sofa is Ryan's Room (came with the house). Leaf settee from Enchantmints. The Enchantmints line works really well with the Calico Critters (known internationally as Sylvanian Families).

And three sets of barstools! I can't remember if the orange is Ryan's Room or Le Toy Van. The white is the other one. The mushroom set is obviously Enchantmints.

And a little more information on other brands: Barbie and Blythe dolls (not the petites) are 1:6 scale. So there will be some stuff for them that you can use in a play dollhouse that will work fine because of the chunkiness of the wooden toys. I found some dishes in a box from when I was a kid that I'll be adding to the loot so she'll have some accessories.

For the rest of the play dollhouse posts, click here. They are all in one place.

Interview with Andrea Courchene

2010-12-14T19:56:00.000-05:00

I am please to introduce Andrea Lauren Courchene of Paper Sparrow for today's interview. I first "discovered" Andrea's work while shopping for fabric on Spoonflower. I decided to impulse buy some gnomes that were super cute and in the process, looked for more of her work. Andrea has a very unique style that combines whimsical imagery with a touch of humor.

You grew up in England. How has that impacted you as an artist?

My fondest memories from my childhood are of walks in the New Forest with my grandparents. My sister and I spent several weeks at their house throughout the year, and as avid bird-watchers, they took us on many hikes, picnics and adventures in different parts of the forest. The New Forest is the largest unpopulated area in South-East England and dates back to the Bronze Age. It's mostly rivers and trails and walks but there are a few towns and historic sites too. My Grandfather told wonderful stories which let our imaginations run wild. I have the most vivid memories of picnics on tree logs, seeing deer, birds and other wildlife, building little dams in rivers and hopping on stones across streams. These memories have a huge impact on my art today.

You currently live in Florida, a place that is magical to me because of the amazing state parks and wildlife opportunities there. Do you see the Florida landscape in your backgrounds? A manatee perhaps?

Absolutely! Florida has some fantastic parks. I've lived in a few different areas of Florida, the panhandle has beautiful beaches with white sand and emerald waters, as well as those most picturesque old oak trees with spanish moss. I was fortunate to live in a house that was a short walk to Pensacola Bay in one direction and to a state park in the other. At the moment, I live in Central Florida which boasts beautiful springs and I get to visit my mum who lives on the Banana River on the Space Coast. You've reminded me of a Manatee series I did in High School, perhaps it is time to re-invent those pieces!

I read that you play cello. Does music influence your work at all?

I started playing cello when I was three and actually went to college for a performance degree. It has influenced my life in so many ways and given me many opportunities to travel and connect with people who have made who I am today. I've been lucky to spend a summer in Maine, a summer in North Carolina, as well as in Texas attending music festivals, which has given me a chance to see different parts of the States as well as some great road trips along the way. And I got to live in Chicago for two years during grad school which was one of the best cities to live in! A lot of my paintings feature animals playing music. Collaborating with musicians is a wonderfully creative experience, and something I've been doing all my life, so I like to imagine a world in which animals would do this too!

Your work reminds me of Wes Anderson’s films. Are you a fan?

Of course! Several of his films would make my top ten. Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favorite films and my boyfriend Paul loves Bottle Rocket. Most recently I've been hugely influenced by Fantastic Mr. Fox. My "Fox Jam" painting was directly inspired by this movie. Being from England, I grew up reading Roald Dahl's books, The Witches, Matilda and the BFG were some of my favorites books as a child so I was particularly drawn to Fantastic Mr. Fox. In addition to Wes Anderson films I love stop-motion animation like Fantastic Mr. Fox, the British series Wallace and Gromit as well as Tim Burton's classics The Nightmare before Christmas and Corpse Bride.

So you’ve recently quit your day job. What does that mean for Paper Sparrow?

It's funny - I ask myself this same question all the time. A couple of years ago, I would never have imagined that Paper Sparrow would be a real business or that anybody would even like or buy my work, so Paper Sparrow has been a complete dream for me so far. I'm leaving my options open and seeing where the road takes me, I'm hopeful that I'll be lucky enough to continue doing Paper Sparrow full-time in ten years time.

A million thanks to Andrea for the interview! She has some awesome Christmas fabric on Spoonflower right now that you should check out. I bought a nice little series to hoard for future projects (I'm thinking stockings for next year!). If you follow the main link to her blog, you'll find links to all of the places where you can buy her stuff. She has set it up so that you can buy her images on iPhone sleeves, pillows, and even shoes. Very cool. But you won't be able to buy the original painting of Pandas in Canoes 'cause that's mine (well, on Christmas it will be mine).

All photos courtesy of Andrea Lauren Courchene.

Production

2010-12-13T20:05:00.000-05:00

So I finished the several hundred stockings that my crazy self volunteered to make for Z's school (ok, 20). What was I thinking? I don't know. But they hung them on the mantle of the faux fireplace they have taped on the wall of the classroom and apparently loved every minute of it. I got as full of a play-by-play as I'm ever going to get out of the two-year old.

I don't know what's with me but every once in a while I go into batshit production mode around the holidays. One year I made a ton of these little elves. At my mom's church they bring these advent baskets to the shut-ins (wow, is that PC? prolly not, huh). There are usually around 40 of them. So I made about 50 - 60 of these guys -- most to give to the shut-ins but I know that a lot of my friends have at least one, and also family members -- and I have one of each color.

I'd share a tutorial with you but I remember getting the idea from one of those fliers they used to have hanging around at Michael's -- you know before the internet. I used those sheets of foam for the ears, handstitched the little felt hats, made their little noses from polymer clay, and I very clearly remember using a q-tip and blush for their rosy cheeks. I am a freaking factory! I can't believe I painted every face and every lock of hair.

Anyway, I'm super busy lately and have been pretty stressed out but when I started writing this post, I began to feel better. Tomorrow, check in for an AMAZING interview. I'm really excited about this one. I'll get back to the dollhouse posts shortly after. I'm taking a couple of days off but I will share my stocking tutorial with you as soon as I recover.

Oh yeah, and that mirror is not dirty. It's vintage. It was born in 1911 with our house.

Lessons learned

2010-12-09T19:26:00.001-05:00

Arranging flowers and stuff in pots is not my forte. So I leave you today with a photo of the super cool elf planter I bought at a junk shop (Thank you, Sandi, for the reminder!). I picked up some sprigs (is that what they're called?) at the craft store. They have wood colored stems and dark Christmasy red berries and sparkly things. The elf is laughing at me from his perch. Little jerk.

I will spare you my creation. I think I need to go to Michaels and buy some more faux foliage to shove down in there. Or maybe something so that these things will stick in there right. I have been way into the Christmas spirit this year and wanted more cool decorations to clutter up the place.

When I grow up

2010-12-07T22:35:00.000-05:00

I found this list of future jobs in a bag full of stuff at my parents' house on Thanksgiving. This is so hilarious and ironic to me and also bizarre.

Craft store? Check.
Interior Decorating? Check. (I mean, it's not like I get paid for it but someone's got to do it and it's not bad. I like the kitchen and our bedroom too. The rest of the house, however, is a disaster).
Broadway? Broadway?!? I guess I'll have to save that one for my 40s.

Also how funny that the date is Jan. 29 -- like that means anything all these years later. What year was it? I have no idea.

Stockings

2010-12-06T16:08:00.000-05:00

I will have no official post today. For some reason way back when it was hot out, I volunteered to make several million stockings for Zadie's class. Her teacher didn't even ask me if I could make them. I just offered my sewing services like a crazed lunatic (is that even politically correct?). Anyway. I've been procrastinating like that was my job so tonight's the night.

So I leave you with this:
Boot!

Go ahead, click on it. One day, I will actually get around to sewing stockings for my own family and when I do, I hope they will be as cool as that one.

Oh, and a word on the dollhouse posts: I have one more post on scale and that's it. Also, I'll be doing a giveaway and there will be a post on that and a post on which you should leave comments if you want to win the loot. And I think that's it. Well, I'll have to announce a winner too.

Dollhouse furniture review: Educo Hape

2010-12-02T19:28:00.000-05:00

I have to say that I was most excited about this bedroom set and also the most disappointed. A bedroom wasn't needed because we already had a couple of beds. But I thought it would be nice for Mama and Papa Panda to have a room of their own. This is from the regular Educo Hape dollhouse line. There is also a very contemporary bamboo line that I love the looks of but it's more expensive. This bedroom is going for about $14.00 on Amazon. Not bad. Like with the Le Toy Van set, I used my Swagbucks to buy Amazon giftcards.

Scale: These are identical in scale to the Plan Toys, Le Toy Van and the Ryan's Room sets that I have previously reviewed. As you can see, they are a little big for the Calico Critters (or Sylvanian Families) pandas that we love. Also, they are slightly larger than the Enchantmints mushroom stuff.

Quality: This is where the disappointment comes in. The construction is just shoddy. The plexiglass on the doors of the wardrobe and shelves of the bed is scuffed and the pieces are not square. The dresser is okay but the bed is very crooked. The paint is fine but where glue seeped from the seams, it was not cleaned up very well. There is one cut of the wood that is very rough. So basically, these items just lack the attention to detail in craftsmanship that all of the other companies have.

Overall: I bought this set because of the beanbag. I liked the colors and I liked the modern styling -- especially the striped comforter. All of the fabric on the other sets was yucky and floral. So I have no complaints there. I love the little lamps and those will work well in other parts of the house. And the beanbag is fabulous. While this set doesn't have details in the paint like the Le Toy Van, there are cool details elsewhere -- the drawers pull out and there are tiny hangers in the wardrobe. Cute.

So I do recommend these. The lower price point and modern styling make up for the lack of quality on some of the pieces.

If you would like to read the rest of my dollhouse reviews, click here.

Thank you, Craft Gossip!

2010-11-30T20:14:00.000-05:00

Anne over at Craft Gossip always makes me feel super awesome when she posts about my stuff. This tree skirt really is easy to make. I'm going to make a miniature one as soon as I make a miniature tree for my, I mean Zadie's dollhouse. I'll upload a pattern when I do so you don't have to resize the first one.

Dollhouse furniture review: Le Toy Van

2010-11-29T19:59:00.000-05:00

Even though it's at a higher price point than most of the dollhouse furniture sets that are sold by individual rooms, I really wanted a set by Le Toy Van because they are just so cute. This is the Sugar Plum Kitchen, part of a line of brightly colored rooms including a bright pink bedroom, a bright yellow dining room, and a purple and fuchsia living room.

This line is imported from England so that probably explains the $$$. But Le Toy Van or Hotaling (the distributor) is known for their quality and design. This was in my Amazon cart for a couple of weeks at about $15 then all of a sudden skyrocketed to $19.99 as I was waiting for my Swagbucks giftcards to post (more on Swagbucks later). I want to be mad at Le Toy Van but I honestly couldn't find a flaw worthy of much complaint.

Scale: These are identical in scale to the Plan Toys, Educo/Hape and the Ryan's Room sets that I have previously reviewed. As you can see, they are a smidge big for the Calico Critters (or Sylvanian Families) pandas that we love. Also, they are slightly larger than the Enchantmints mushroom stuff.

Quality: I'm very pleased with the quality of these sets. I don't think they are hand-painted. Everything is done very precisely. I only found a couple of spots of imperfection and that could have been due to transport. Where glue seeped through the seams, it was wiped away. I didn't really find any splinters or jagged edges on anything. Because of the price, I was really looking hard for flaws! The only thing that's bothering me is that the oven door doesn't want to stay shut. I've got to do something about that.

Overall, I have to recommend these sets. The detail is very nice. The little sprayer on the sink is attached with elastic cord so it has some resistance just like in real life. There aren't any shelves in the fridge so you can't really put stuff in it. We may have to make some. I bought this specifically for the little polka dot teapot and it's better in the picture. Just sayin'.

If you want to read the rest of my dollhouse furniture reviews, click here.

Reversible Christmas Tree Skirt Pattern and Tutorial

2010-11-28T21:50:00.002-05:00

Last year I designed this easy Christmas Tree skirt. I put together a tutorial but by the time everything was finished, it was too late so I decided to save it for now.

First you'll have to print out the pattern pieces, cut them out and tape them together along the line that's marked. Here is the bottom and here is the top. Print them out in landscape mode with no scaling. They should each easily fit on the page no matter what your printer margins are.

What you'll need:
4 fat quarters (or large scraps for the top). A quarter-yard cut will not be wide enough.
2/3 yard of something weighty like corduroy or a home decor fabric for the back (more if you're dealing with a directional pattern, less if the fabric is wider than 44")
1 pack of ric rack (more if you're making a larger skirt -- my Mom has 2 foot skirt radius and we needed just over 3 packs to make it all the way around)
thread and all that

This will fit with a four-foot tree (as shown above). If you want to make it bigger, add some paper below the rounded edge of the pattern and extend that curved line as long as you want it. Use a ruler to extend the straight lines. You will need to remove some of the top to compensate for a larger trunk.

This pattern piece will work for both the top of the skirt and the back. I used 8 sections for the top as shown. The back only has 4 sections to save some time piecing. So to make the same skirt, you'll need to cut 2 pieces each of 4 different fabrics for the top. Then for the back, fold the seam allowance under on one side (or just cut if off), and use that pattern to cut 4 pieces on the fabric's fold.

Lay out your top fabrics and stitch them together at the side seams RST (right sides together). You'll have seven seams. Do the same with your back fabrics. You'll have 3 seams. Iron your seams open (this will save bulk later).

Now, place the front on top of the back RST. Stitch the big rounded edge and the top edge and one side. You may want to leave a little section of the side open to tuck your ric rack into later. (I did not do this, I just popped the seam open with my seam ripper when I got to that point).

Clip those rounded seams. I like to make my clips about 2 inches apart. Every third clip I make v shape. This allows for easier turning.

Next, the fun part! Reach all the way inside the skirt and turn the whole thing inside-out. Beautiful! Press, press, press!

Tuck your seam allowance in on the open edge and pin that up. Then place your ric rack where you want it. Mine is about 2" from the bottom seam.

Pin about 1" of the tail of the trim into your pinned edge and stitch that seam closed. Finish placing the ric rack along the perimeter of the skirt and topstitch it into place.

When you get to the other straight edge, tuck the other tail of the trim into the opening you left and close everything up.

The last step is to topstitch your top. This will help it to lie flat.

I am happy to add more photos if anything seems confusing. Please let me know if you have any questions or problems with the pattern.

EDIT: There seemed to be some problems with the jpeg form of the pattern not printing the two pieces at the same size. I have uploaded pdfs and they seem fine.

Handmade Dollhouse Furniture on Etsy

2010-11-25T21:13:00.001-05:00

After you try making your own miniatures and realize how hard it is, you can buy stuff that other people make. I seriously can't believe some of this stuff is handmade. I sifted through thousands of dollhouse stuff on Etsy and came up with a list of really amazing finds. There is no information on scale for some of these items. But, hey, the good thing about handmade stuff is that you can just ask the person who made it.

These nesting/stacking tables had me at hello. Check out miniaturesbyannina. Oh, and this too.

I had this couch in real life once. This one is cleaner. Red sectional by minimodernistas. Click over to the sold items for a real treat.

Isn't this yummy? I want to clutter it up with some tchotchkes. By AmazingMiniatures.

Look! It's the Expedit from Ikea. I love it. It's probably better quality though -- and you don't have to put it together yourself. She has the Lack side table as well (see the sold items). By Amatheria.

This is pretty cool. It's even on casters. By miniaturesforever. You know how we love our unfinished pine around here.

This whole shop is killing me with it's amazingness but I think I need one of these chairs. By smidgehouse. If I were a bachelor, I'd live in this apartment. It seems as if I have two girlfriends.

From High Point, NC, furniture capital of America: the Contour Coffee Table. By minibydesign. Another shop whose sold items are phenomenal.

Who doesn't love them some Mission Oak? And check out that floor. I want that it my real house. By minibuilder.

You probably don't really want to let your toddler play with any of the above. These are for when your kid goes to bed and you pull out the high-end stuff. Check out the rest of the dollhouse posts here. Let me know if you want me to post about the play dollhouse furniture on Etsy. There are some nice pieces at reasonable prices.

Dollhouse furniture review: Ryan's Room

2010-11-24T21:07:00.000-05:00

Since Ms. Z requested that her pandas have an "outside" to their home, we thought it would be good to furnish it. We put this super cute patio set from Ryan's Room on her Christmas list and my SIL picked it up at the local toy store. At $14.99, it's not a bad price. The Ryan's Room sets run a little cheaper than the Plan Toys sets and have about the same number of pieces in each one.

Scale: The pandas fit into the chairs really well. That's Papa and his daughter in the picture. She looks pretty mad in all of the shots. I don't remember what they were talking about. Although I didn't have any other chairs to compare these to, they are similar in scale to the Plan Toys, Educo/Hape, and Le Toy Van. While the furniture is larger than the Calico Critters (Sylvanian Families) characters, this does not seem out of place. These pieces are also larger than the Enchantmints brand, reviewed earlier.

Quality: The quality of these pieces is good. They are not as good as Plan Toys but comparable given their lower price point. They are constructed very well and I don't see these falling apart anytime soon but the attention to craftsmanship is not there. There are some splinters hanging off several of the cuts and the paint job on the grill is messy. The glue is fine -- no problems there. I do really like the detail on the flowers (the stems are wire so they bend).

Overall, I do like the Ryan's Room dollhouse furniture. They have the same style as the Plan Toys so they can be used together without issue. I like that they make use of the packaging. There are illustrations on the box that you can cut out to add "cushions" to the chairs and something to set on the table. That's an interesting touch. There is nice detail on the exterior paint on the Ryan's Room Carry N Play dollhouse that we have as well.

Thanks to Auntie Steph for letting me photograph this before Christmas. I think this will be a major hit.

If you would like to read the rest of the dollhouse furniture reviews, click here.

Interview with Catherine Hug

2010-11-23T19:48:00.001-05:00

I am very excited to present today's interview: Catherine Hug of Hyggelig. I first found her amazing blog about a year ago when Ohdeedoh wrote a post about her DIY play kitchen. In addition to posting about her own projects, she often features great ideas from other people. She has a very modern sense of style with a bit of nature and rugged repurposing thrown in. Her blog is written in German but the Google translator does a good enough job that you can read the content even if you don't know the language. I could spend hours reading her blog. Each time I look for something, I find something new that I missed the first time.

Can you talk about your day job a little bit?

I work as a freelance editor and writer. I have a three-year old daugther and a dog -- and they keep me pretty busy apart from my job and my blog Hyggelig, which I started in 2008.

Note from PROJECT:project -- Catherine also makes and sells some really interesting home decor pieces like these throw pillows and fabric bins/totes from upcycled army gear.

The nursery you designed for your daughter is clean and simple without feeling bare. How has that worked for you as she's grown up and needs a "big girl" space?

As more toys have been moving in, it is getting more difficult to keep it light and airy. I didn't design the room to go from a nursery to a "big girl's room" -- but changed things here and there a little with her getting older so she can reach most of the toys herself. For example, I put magnets on the inside of the doors of her closet so she can open and close it herself easily. Every time she gets new things to play with, I look for practical storage at the same time. I like sewing little bags for marbles, etc. so everything has a place to be stored. And regularly we look at her toys and she gives some of what she thinks is "for babies" away to younger children we know. I think it is important for a child to have room for imagination and to be creative which is quite difficult in a kids room full of plastic toys that make some kind of noise.

Your photographs are amazing. Do you have any professional training? Any art background?

No, nothing, just trial and error. I have no idea how to take pictures; I just know how they should look, so I try and try...

I love the projects you have made for your daughter -- the play kitchen and the dollhouse furniture. What inspires you?

Sometimes it is an old piece of furniture I see or a material (like the old hifi-rack in my mother's house which I turned into the play kitchen) that I want to turn into something new. Sometimes I know exactly what a certain toy or storage should look like and I can't find anything like it, so I try to build or sew it myself. Apart from that, it's so much fun to make things and show my daughter that you can actually build so many things with imagination and a little material.

So much of what you feature on your blog mixes form with function. Is this an important part of your aesthetic?

Yes, things you can find in our home all fulfill a certain function. I don't like things you call in german "Staubfänger" -- which you can translate as dust-gatherers and I'm not a collector. I like to repurpose old things in a new surprising way and I love industrial design and the bauhaus era. Except in my daughter's room it is more playful and colorful.

Thanks so much to Catherine for the interview and for providing us with such great inspiration. Check the previous dollhouse post for more links to her tiny projects. And, of course, add Hyggelig to your Reader. It's not to be missed.