What have we been up to, you ask?

Well, we've been busy around here lately...

When I was at the Spring Fling I agreed to take a table at another fair-type-thing, this weekend's looming Yaletown Baby & Toddler Fair. It's at the Roundhouse and is more of a baby-related event for moms and moms-to-be, rather than craft event, but they have a craft section and I was asked to participate and figured it would be good. I might be crazy though, because I have really no time after doing other projects! I'm feeling alternately frazzled and ready... Making more gnomes, lots more bunnies, more felt pins and so on. On Sunday Jamie took Cole for a walk to Granville Island while I made more gnomes while eating Easter candy and watching British history dvds...

Other than sewing, we've been doing some relaxing local stuff... Visiting with friends, starting on a big freelance design project for the company I was with before mat leave, trips to the library and a good trip to IKEA by myself on Saturday which didn't result in the coat stand I was after but did leave me with some kind of pulled muscle between the chicken wings (you know, that area of your back? The technical term escapes me and am too busy to Google.). At random intervals it feels as though I'm being stabbed through the breastbone (for some reason I feel the twinge there). I blame pushing that heavy, listing IKEA cart. I was trying to be speedy and had to kind of throw my whole self at the cart when reeling around corners...

Anyway, for the sale, I've made a bunch more bibbler drool kerchiefs to go with the bibs and toddler scarves that I have already. I figured I needed some better photos of them in action (ie - yes, pregnant ladies, these bibs fit actual babies. I didn't think so either before I had a baby! Now since you don't already have a baby go and stay out all night!) and Cole was happy to oblige... Some of the funnier shots:


And this one 'cause I think Cole is just so darn cute...

Fantastically flung at the spring fling

I had a terrific blast at the Etsy Spring Fling on Saturday! It was lovely - such a great vibe, really good traffic and I was so happy to see folks smiling at my creations. It was quite awesome to see people actually wearing my pins and carrying away my little treasures. Strange too - in the best, best way.

Everyone loved the gnomes to a crazy degree and also very popular - my felt toast pins. I made them late and didn't even get a chance to photograph them.

One little girl just stole my heart. She took her time choosing a pink bunny, came back with her Mama and wanted to know the bunny's name (Keiko)and was generally just so adorable. I had to get up the guts to ask to take her photo when we saw her walking around the hall hugging the bunny. Oh, so sweet!

I'm a bit shy in these situations and it was so nice to have company, support and help from Kim who got there early and stayed all day. And someone to get us some extra change and to watch the booth while I wandered and ogled everyone else's great stuff. (And someone to suggest and encourage taking that photo!)

I meant to get photos of my favourites and the other tables to do a proper write-up, but of course I got busy and forgot! Check out posts by Smeeta (love her stuff!) and Akane Designs for some great photos! I wanted so much to buy about five times as much stuff as I brought - where to start... An apple cozy from Roxypop (and a catnip gyoza if I had a cat - they were adorable and so well presented), this clutch from Davie & Chiyo, a terrarium from Thyrza, jewelery from everyone and the most lovely skirts from BonBon across the way. I managed to restrain myself - for a short while only, I'm sure... After all, my mat leave monies (thank you for the pittance, government) run out anytime now!

Yee haw - we have a winner!

Thank you so much to all the lovely folks who entered the draw. I really appreciated all of the supportive comments too!

I enlisted the help of Cole, who turned 11 whole months old today and was more than happy to participate in something that gave him access to scraps of paper. We took his straw cowboy hat and filled it up with all the names (except you Jamie, because you do technically work for me!). Stirred it up and the first two that he took out (and promptly ate) were:

Gnome: Reina, of the Etsy shop Moon Parade - full of vintage delights
Mouse pad & coffee sleeve combo: Jas, my lovely sister-in-law

Congratulations to you both!

And of course, this is the perfect chance to remind everyone that the Etsy Spring Fling is tomorrow. I am just about ready - still have to finish tagging stuff and pack up.

Saturday, March 21 2009
11 am - 5 pm
Cambrian Welsh Hall
215 East 17th Ave, just off Main Street
Vancouver

I'll be there with my table of wares (including a really rad gnome tea cozy that I made just this morning) and my good friend Kim from Milkybeer. If you're in the area and like handmade & indie crafts, come by and say 'hey!' because it should be good. Not your grandma's church bazaar! ;-) If you're curious, check out this great list of who's selling, complete with links, over on the lovely Smeeta's blog.

Free stuff (and a sneak peek!)

I thought it would be fun to have a little giveaway for you, my dear readers, to celebrate this frenzy of craftiness that's been going on around here lately. I've been inspired by giveaways on other blogs lately and couldn't resist. Two prizes up for grabs: a jumbo gnome softie and a cork mousepad/felt coffee sleeve combo. Two prizes, two winners.

Just post a comment if you're interested. Newbies and lurkers, you are welcome too! Contest closes Friday, March 20 at 5pm PST. I'll announce the winners after the draw that evening.

And here's a sneak-peak of a few of the brand-new things I'll be bringing to stock the hudsonny table on Saturday:

Barrettes
Wool felt and vintage button hair barrettes. No two are alike!

Coffee cozies
Again, wool felt and vintage buttons. Sustainable, insulating, fun and unique. The perfect answer to that guilty feeling I got every time another "disposable" cardboard sleeve was wrapped around my cup.

Gnome softies
Seriously, I drew one little sketch of these guys and had to make them. There are over-sized versions that make great friends or toss cushions and mini versions that are just perfect for a little cuddle.

Pincushions
I can't resist a pincushion. Maybe it's the voodoo-esque element of sticking pins in something? These little gems are made with scraps of my favourite Japanese cotton/linen blend fabrics, vintage buttons and neon rickrack. I love neon, providing it's not in stripe format on the side of bicycle shorts. Oh, early '90s - I remember you well.

Felt brooches
Owls and birds, raindrops and whales and a little peach too.

Matroyshka dolls
Super soft and a generous pillowy size. I'm trying to remember not to call them 'babushkas' (grandma) or 'mamuskas' (a dance from the Addams Family apparently), which is what I thought they were called until recently...

Patchwork scarves
Springtime scarves - cotton, patchwork, light enough for warming weather but perfect for keeping the chills away. Tons of variations using gems from my fabric stash, including wood grain, lots of mod prints, some Japanese cotton/linen and a few bits here and there salvaged from our favourite retired clothing.

And of course, there will also some of my other creations: stuffed bunnies and hot bottle cozies, cork mouse pads, bibs, drooling kerchiefs and the like...

Happy St. Paddy's

It's been pretty quiet here on the blog front lately. I've been really busy with making things for the etsy sale, so although we're still doing things, taking photos and you know, living life, I find I'm not left with enough time to post!

I couldn't resist the lure of St. Patrick's day though, so after returning all the phone calls and emails that I'd neglected recently I figured it was time take some photos of Cole wearing green and write something...

We're Irish-y around here so of course we have to celebrate. I think I've got about 12% Irish background on my Dad's side (the usual British Isles mix - Scottish/Northern Irish/British and French, I think it goes, combined with a half-dose of Ukranian from my Mom). Jamie is probably about 1/2 Irish - must be, what with the 'Mc' and all! I was really glad, by the way, to gain a 'Mc' name through marriage - I love the graphic possibilities of that little 'c'.

Despite hanging upside-down while pregnant to kiss the Blarney stone, I'm not finding a lot of words coming to mind today. Where is all that (Guinness-infused?) eloquence I was promised? I'd better stick to slow-cooking my Irish stew and posting these photos of Cole horsing around this morning. Enjoy!

The artist can do what he likes*

We've been trying to introduce Cole to the fine world of crayons and I think it's taking!

Initially we got some of those heinous Crayola things that come with the handful of plastic wrapped around them (although thankfully at least you can replenish the crayon inside). But Cole enjoys munching on things in general - more so if they are remotely boob shaped... We didn't get much past Cole turning them over every time and sucking on them.

Then Auntie Kathy recently brought us some jumbo tri-cornered Melissa & Doug crayons. Non toxic, so I don't worry when Cole puts them in his mouth (although "not in your mouth" is probably one of my most-uttered phrases in general, after "let's order pizza!"). There are lots of other cool soy and whatnot options for crayons later on but most aren't right for a baby Cole's age. These are great. And since they aren't wrapped in anything, every part of them makes a mark. Perfect! Check out his artwork:

We've done some pages together before, but this is the first one with all just his colouring. Hooray for our little artist.


* This phrase is what my Dad used to tell me as a very wee one, when I was working on my own art projects. It always made me feel very important and artistic. It stuck with me and am glad to pass it along. :-)

Here, little mouses...

New in the shop - stenciled cork mouse pads! The bird comes in three different colours, pink afro lady is all on her own for now. More designs to come soon... I love these - cork makes me oddly happy.

The stencils are from the perfectly awesome Ed Roth Stencil 101. Now that I've got the hang of it, I'm going to cut some of my own with my shiny new (and probably dangerously sharp) exacto knife...

Adventures in eating

Cole's ability to point with intention is becoming more and more helpful every day. We'll be sitting together eating and he'll indicate his preferences by pointing - often towards his sippy cup or repeatedly at the bread-type food portion of the meal.

Today I was getting his supper ready and he was sitting in his highchair watching and he kept gesturing at the counter top. I couldn't see anything particularly interesting but kept going over what I thought he wanted, pointing to things myself and naming them. Cereal? Cup? Shiny this-and-thats? He makes a little noise and wiggles his hands when you get to the thing he wants, and it wasn't until I got to the fruit bowl that I realized what it was. He wanted an apple... I sometimes give him fruits to play with and I figured that's what he wanted, so I washed it, took off the stem and handed it to him.

Well, he decided to eat it.

Yep, all those teeth are sure coming in handy. Ten months old and already eating apples... I kept a close eye on him and watched (and laughed!) as he gnawed at the apple. He got through the skin and kept at it, biting teensy morsels off at a time. I think he was surprised at first by the taste - they were Orin apples and a little more sour than the types I usually give him. Eventually I took it away and cut it into the peeled slivers that I usually give him, but it was too cute not to photograph...

Self-imposed deadlines and spontaneous developments...

So I've been slacking a wee bit lately on the blog. You see, I was invited recently to sell at an upcoming craft fair organized by another local Vancouver Etsyian and I decided to sign up for a table! I figured it would be good motivation to make stuff, and I can't wait to see the other folks. Since it's smaller than some of the larger fairs I find it (conceptually at least) a little less initimidating... Crazy though, maybe, since I have more ideas than finished stuff to sell, so I've been patiently crafting during all of Cole's naptimes lately. I prefer to spend my evenings being lazy (aka sleeping or watching tv), so it's just the naptimes that I have to work with. But I'm making progress - yay! I've got a few weeks left to get ready - if you're interested and local, do come on by:

Saturday, March 21st
11-5pm
Cambrian Welsch Hall
215 East 17th Avenue (just off Main Street)
Vancouver

Anyway, the whole raison d'être of this post is to bring the world (and the Grandma's!) up-to-date with Cole's recent activities, since I've not posted for more than a week.

He's walking!!! He started walking last Monday, the day before my birthday, when he decided it was time to let go of the sofa. He had been pacing like a little caged lion around the edge of his play area (our whole living room, barricaded off with tubs of fabric and rearranged coffee tables) holding the edges of things the whole time but just all of a sudden he decided it was ok to let go! He can now take a few steps all on his own and he can walk around the whole room holding on to just one of our fingers. He loves walking back and forth between us too. He's unstoppable! He can also stand up all on his own for quite a while without going anywhere at all.

He's also understanding so much more. We can ask him things like "where is your barn?" or "let's walk to your books" when he's doing something else and he'll stop, turn around, point to them and then go off on a mission to get them. It's an amazing feeling to know he can understand us.

And he just learned to clap on Friday! We clap for him all the time but we didn't really practice it or anything and then all of a sudden he started clapping. I wasn't even doing anything particularly clap-worthy, like getting up at 3 am or wiping up food off the floor... ;-) He is getting really good at it...

Oh, and he's really into initiating peek-a-boo. We'd been having fun with it for ages, but I think he's realized that he can start the game all on his own and he will hide behind random things and then pop out and laugh, laugh, laugh when we "find" him...

More pictures of all this new stuff soon. So much of it happens when you are least expecting it... Or when I'm not willing to grab my camera and trust that Cole won't take a face-first tumble into the floor while I'm documenting his advances! I just got a new external flash (and then had to temper my excitement by waiting to go buy a battery and then spend all day charging it!) and suddenly the dim lighting in here at least doesn't seem like such a problem... Hoorah! I used to have a ban on in-the-house photos (maybe since I'm usually in old sweatpants when at home) but of course with a wee one so many funny moments happen during the regular mundane activities. Must capture for posterity! Pointing! Teeth! Adorable bowl-licking...