The birds in the trees

Last Friday after lunch, Brianna and I were in the front yard playing with Tiffin. I heard a strange whistle coming from up in the tree. It didn't sound like anything I had ever heard. As I looked up, it swooped over my head and landed in another tree. This is what I saw:

I couldn't believe my eyes! A parrot, flying around here in Iowa??!! I just found out he is an Eastern Rosella, which is a native parrot to Australia. I assume he is a lost pet... he has been sticking around here pretty close since Friday. Anyone that sees him thinks they are hallucinating!

On the morning of my birthday (Sunday), I went outside and found him singing for me:

(Pardon my horrible attempts to "talk" to him).

I really wish we could try to catch him, especially before a hawk does. I may have to take a friend's advice and call the Conservation Agency...not sure if they can do anything to help him or not.

☺☺☺☺☺

After 3 weeks of waiting, I finally received my huge, 8 ft tall tree wall-decal last week. (This was the first wonky transaction I ever had on Etsy... not impressed with the seller on so many levels.)

The wall behind the dining room table before....

Matt, helping me get the first of four parts centered....

And here it is, after 2 days of rubbing/peeling, all done! I added the cardinal decals that I bought from a different seller, and I think it looks good ☺ I am definitely all about the birds in the trees, aren't I?

Ps... Thanks to all of you who took the time to pop over to the Berkley's blog and cast a vote for the adorable pygmy marmoset. Last time I checked, there were 8 votes for him, which is amazing! If you would also like to give him you allegiance, you can vote through Thursday (I think) HERE .

My Birthday Wish...

(The fabulous Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal prints I gave to Matt for Valentines Day)

This Sunday, something will happen for only the 2nd time that I can remember in my life... my birthday and Mother's Day fall on the same exact day. It is kind of neat in a way, but I also have to share my "special day" with 50 million other people. I suppose at 29, birthdays are getting over-rated anyway ☺

Today, I noticed that one of my favorite Etsy shops, Berkley Illustration , has their ballot-casting going on for a new animal to be drawn in May. Ryan Berkley draws these amazing, lifelike drawings of all kinds of different animals wearing clothes. There is usually a little back story that goes behind each one. They are hilarious and classy, all at the same time. (PLUS, they give amazing service to their customers...I was highly impressed!).

For as long as I have known about these ballot-castings, I have voted for pygmy marmoset. It has been my favorite animal since I saw a little video on Sesame Street featuring them, back when I was just a sprout. I want one for a pet soooo bad, but they are around $3000. I think a full-grown one is about the size of a bird. The babies are just teeny-weeny:

The thing is, try as I might, I cannot get anyone else to give up a vote for the regal little marmoset. As a last ditch effort, I am going to exploit my birthday situation and ask for help for my lovely blog-friends ☺ If you go to THIS LINK and leave a comment voting for the pygmy marmoset, I will love you forever and ever. (Okay, I will love you even if you don't...).

On that note, I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and Mother's Day. Tonight Matt and I are going to see one of my favorite comedians, who is often on the Bob & Tom Radio Show, Costaki Economopolous. I think it should be a good time, and I am sooo looking forward to it!

Hot (digital) dog!

Etsy is an amazing place, isn't it? You never know what you might find. I was surfing around the internet one day, and came across a site that was spotlighting a really fantastic Etsy shop, Hot Digital Dog . This lady makes absolutely adorable, old-timey-looking portraits of animals. She sells prints, but will also make a custom portrait of your pet!

Later on in the day, I was posting in the forums...and as luck would have it, HotDigitalDog made a reply to one of my posts! What are the odds? We talked a bit, a convo was started, and we started scheming up a plan. She sent me the result via email last night...I think it speaks for itself:

I'm sorry, but it DOES NOT get any cuter than that, so don't even try! My idea was for Tiffin to look like a old-time newsie, and her results were even better than I could have imagined ☺ I have always thought Tiffin looks like one of my favorite Muppet characters, Emmet from the 1977 Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas:

With their similar little brimmed-hats, they could be "Brothers":

Check out HotDigitalDog and be prepared to laugh your butt off at the adorability...hey, it's a word!

☺☺☺

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

Beady buddies

(My little bead-boy from Variation, who just made friend with my post-Easter find from today)

A while back, I stumbled upon a new Etsy shop that I found extremely charming. Though open less than a month at the time, she was pushing 30 sales! I was impressed. Her creations are the type of unique, "why-didn't-I-think-of-that" sort of thing that all of us creators are constantly striving for.

Variation makes little bead-people out of vintage beads and findings. Almost as charming as the people themselves are the PHOTOS on her listings. I can't imagine the time she puts into them. I told her she really needs to start a side-business of selling prints of her images ☺

I LOVE this one in particular! Consequently, she purchased some of my chenille pups, and they seemed to get along very well with her own little bead-friends:

Check out Variation on Etsy and Flickr !

♥♥♥♥♥♥

In other goings-on, my husband is working diligently in painting/staining/varnishing and hanging trim for me. Can you believe that we have lived here for nearly 2 years and I have little to nothing hanging on my walls?? I can't wait for the big unveiling so that I can hang up some lovely artwork from my bloggy-friends Bunzi, Mushy, and Jenny . Can't wait for the unveil? I am sure you can scour their blogs and find the trade-details ☺ For now, I must go make some more "balls in shells" for supper!

Bunny Pieces

The days have been getting away from me. I had hoped to have a whole gaggle of bunny-kids in the shop in time for Easter, and here we are nearly a week until E-day!

I did have enough time to get a handful of sweethearts done, and I hope to get them photographed and listed soon...hopefully by tomorrow! That should give me a couple days worth of sales that I can get them shipped out in time for Easter ♥

Today we took the girls to the big egg hunt in our town. Bella's age group (1-2) was first, of course. She got upset and just plopped down on the ground, crying. The parent's aren't supposed to help, but we were kicking eggs her way and trying to convince her to pick them up and put in her basket. She ended up with 2 pieces of candy and vouchers for TWELVE oatmeal cream pies! LOL

Brianna, on the other hand, really got into the action this year. She was very focused and excitedly picked up so many eggs! She got quite a few little candy bars, plus vouchers for a small can of root bear, 4 cartons of chocolate milk, and two bags of chips. She also had a $1 in an egg, which she bought some gum with and shared with us. What a good little girl ♥

We have so many free promotional pictures (plus a set of professional ones) of the girls with chicks, bunnies, and lambs from this year, I may end up doing a whole post dedicated to that soon!!

Pom-pom Head

*Update* I have listed the Bunny-girl and white dog in my Etsy shop now!

Here is a little "Pom-pom Head" I made yesterday afternoon while watching Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist. This is another technique from the craft book, but I embellished it to make it "squishified."

The body/ears are made from pipe-cleaners, and the head is a handmade pom-pom created from 100% cotton yarn. I think she turned out really cute!

It is my intention to get the dogs and puppies listed either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. I may go ahead and list this bunny, or I might make a handful of them and list next week. I haven't decided ☺

We are off to my parent's new house soon so that my husband can with the finishing touches...I am bringing supper, so I better go check on the apple-crumb pie in the oven!

Jewel-tone Puppies

My pipe-cleaner spree continues! This particular pattern of dog is my favorite to make, so I sat at my mom's one boring Sunday and cranked these "little puppies" out. I am crazy for these curly chenille stems, which don't really resemble normal pipe-cleaners at all! I think the results is very cute and somewhat vintage-inspired.

Here is a curly black dog (you decide the breed!). I made the collars out of vinyl fabric, and on these particular ones I attached a tiny little bell...so you can hear if he tries to scamper off.

...and here is the white version with a contrasting black collar. I added a little gold grommet for some detail.

Last but not least, I made a litter of multi-colored puppies! Rumor has it that their mother only ate Jelly Belly's while she was expecting... They are somewhat smaller/shorter than the black/white dogs, but they make up for size with personality. Each has a little black collar with coordinating grommet details.

I think that these dogs (or any of the chenille animals) would make great little ornaments, shelf-sitters, or {adult} dollhouse decorations. You could stick them on a piece of dowel to make a floral pik, or just use as a gift package decoration. I have given a few away already, and people LOVE them! I need to work on photos, etc. and then I hope to have them in my etsy shop no later than Wednesday. What do you all think?

Pipe Cleaning

(A little pipe cleaner teddy bear, which was the companion to the doll I sent to Bunzi in our trade)

I am still tinkering with making my own "light tent" to help take better pictures of some small things. Have any of you ever done this? I am following this tutorial . I played with it this week, and now I have a few photos to show of my addictive, fun new hobby!

This Japanese craft book I purchased on eBay from Hong Kong has some of the coolest ideas in it you have ever seen. The best thing is, it basically teaches you a variety of techniques, and you can really use your imagination to customize and create new animals and other creatures. Since I cannot read Japanese (is there anyone here who can??), I just have to follow the photos/diagrams. Here is a smattering of what I have done:

Mr. Owl (which Brianna swears is an eagle). It is hard to see in the photo, but he (and all of the rest) are very much 3-D and has a tail.

There are actually two different designs for "bear"; this one is supposed to be more of a real bear/animal, while the one I made Bunzi is a toy/teddy.

Brianna was me for a chicken to go with the little Easter chenille chicks that I have, so this is what I did during naptime. Can you say bribe?? He is a little ratty-looking around the feathers, as he has been handled by small hands quite a bit.



Mr. Fox is one that I definitely took some liberties with. In the example, he had a yellow stripe running down his tail! Now, we all know that real foxes have white (or black) tipped tails. As a side note, I had a pet arctic fox as a child from 6th grade until I was in college. I lived in Missouri, not Alaska ☺ I may have to do an all-white version and try to recreate him!

These are my practice ones. I have made about 15 different animals, so far. My favorites are the dogs, which I am getting quite good at. I need to take some photos of them, but I have given them all away! Good thing I stocked up on thousands of pipe cleaners from Hobby Lobby. I have been looking for a low-ticket item for my Etsy shop... do you think these would be something you, personally, would buy? I'd love the input!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Bob is famous!

I just got a convo through Etsy from a new website called My Shopping Connection who has featured my little Bob, the baby penguin, in their Indie Spotting section . I thought that was pretty neat, indeed ☺

My sinuses are still bothering me, and I have tried to sleep most of the day away. Hubby goes back to work tomorrow, and I wanted to try to get feeling a bit better before I am home-alone again! Ugh. Dance class tonight, and a friend is having a Mary Kay party. Neither sound very good to me, right now.

Love in each stitch -♥-♥-♥-

I hope everyone is recovering from a peaceful, cozy Christmas! I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. There is a touch of post-holiday letdown, especially as I contemplate my plans for the looming New Year!

I am (FINALLY!) going to share a boat-load of photos of the handmade things that kept me busy in the last several weeks.

This is a little Batman-esque doll that I made for my friend's 3 year old son. She wanted to get him a doll, but her husband wasn't so keen on the idea. I decided to make him a somewhat "manly" one as a compromise.

I used the roly-poly-ish pattern of my penguins and freehanded this little Batboy. I gave him a cape with a "P" for Payton. Fleece made this doll very soft and squishy.

This is the tree frog/toad duo that I crocheted, reminicent of the amphibian pets we had this summer. My girls received these in their stockings. Although the same pattern was used, it is amazing at the size difference of the finished product just by using different yarn/hook. (I may go back and give them better mouths later on...I am not too happy with the plain red felt ones).

I have a few of these little vintagey, plastic baby dolls lying around, and one night I decided to crochet her some clothes. Then I remembered seeing some tiny baby bottle party favors at the dollar store...and it just evolved from there!

The end product is a tiny, pocket-sized baby doll that my 4 year old can play with anywhere! I whipped up a little Moses basket for her as a bed...she is still waiting for her blanket ☺
♥♥♥
I was stumped as to what to get my mom for her birthday... when I had a great idea! However, I wasn't sure how to carry it out since I am not a portrait-type artist. After much deliberation and playing around on my photo program, I am satisfied with the results.

What I did was make a doll of each of my girls, using the Black Apple doll pattern (which can be found on Martha Stewart's website). Since I cannot paint lovely faces like Emily, I ended up ironing on their faces instead!
(Please forgive the horrible/yellowish lighting in these images)

My sweet baby, Isabella. Hair pattern was altered to be more Bella-like.

I used some of my mom's old quilting materials (that she recently destashed to me!) to make all of the clothing. I think it is regifting, in a good way. I also gave them coordinating cozy felt scarves.

Since 4 year old Brianna has longer hair, I added some brown locks to the front, overflowing her scarf.

They would never be confused with a Black Apple original, but my mom loves anything with the girls faces on it. I think they served that purpose ☺

Enough photos for today! I cannot take anymore of Blogger's anti-spacing gremlin attacks!! LOL

♥Shop Updated♥

(My turkey, cooking in my rotisserie. I LOVE it!)

I hope everyone had a yummy and safe Thanksgiving! We had a nice, long 5-day weekend in our house...which left me scrambling to get a few finished things on Etsy this morning. After all of the picture-taking/editing/resizing, my mind is fried! Check out the shop and take a look ☺

Jumble of stuff... want some ornaments?

Well, the Bazaar is over. Thank goodness! I worked Saturday night on making this cute igloo cake. It took 2 hours to bake since the mold is around 8 inches thick. As it was sitting on the stove cooling, I went to the bathroom and shut the door to get ready to go out to dinner. WELL... my husband was too busy clipping his toes to realize that 2 year old Bella was pulling the cake onto the floor. Can you say "speechless"? Luckily, I had made this smaller cake, which I frosted with homemade frosting. I made a powdered sugar snowflake on it for pretty.

To keep the plastic wrap from messing up my snowflake, I made a little marshmallow snowman (with a toothpick inside) to hold it up. This little cake had to suffice, as I did not have the time/energy/patience to do another igloo.

The "This and That" tables were very popular, and priced SUPER cheap. I am so excited about this vintage Japanese tree topper I found NEW in package. She has the cheinelle/pipe cleaner arms and coppery metal mesh skirt and wings. How cool is that for $1!

When I dropped off my crafts Saturday morning (the day before the opening), I fell in love with this adorable vintage stocking.

...and they sold it to me for a quarter. WOOT!

I also bought some of those vintage wooden plaques, still in the celophane wrappers, for 10 cents each. I am going to try my hand at painting on them one of these days.

As for the craft table... what a bust! My cute ornaments were hidden amongst a sea of lace-drowned granny crafts. (Do I sound bitter?? I AM!). People were really too busy eating lunch and looking for a bargain. Lesson learned, I suppose...wrong crowd!

I ended up putting $3/set on the ornaments, but I have decided to sell them to my blog-readers and fellow etsians for $2.50/set. There is a lot of work/time in the project, but it was always my intention to make someone else happy with them. Look at the pictures here and convo me if interested in a custom listing. I shipped several sets today for around $2, to give you an idea.

♥♥♥

Hope everyone is having a great mid-holiday-week! My turkey has been in the fridge since Sunday, defrosting, and is bound to be brined starting tomorrow morning. If I don't blog again before then, I hope everyone has a terrific, tasty Thanksgiving!

ps... Sorry about the spacing. Blogger is winning the battle on this issue :-\

Cinnamony Cuteness

This time last week, I started working on some ornaments to donate to the church's bazaar this weekend. I decided to work with cinnamon dough, and it is really fun!

It handles like a thick playdough and it cuts wonderfully! I used my collection of Christmas cutters for the shapes.

You are supposed to let them dry out a bit before baking them. The cinnamon really scents your house...lovely!

All baked, then glittered... just waiting to get the rest of the ribbon attached and the final touches completed.

Prim Gingergirls

Plump Bears

Sparkly Snowmen

Dapper Gingerboys

Shining Stars

Glistening Pines

Nose-diving Deer (thanks to Blogger!)

☺☺☺

What do you think I should sell these for? The larger ones are 3 inches tall, and the smaller counterparts are 1 1/2 inches tall. I plan on selling them in sets of one larger and two smaller. Would you pay $3 for a set? More... less?

What doesn't sell can be returned to me. Do you think these would sell on Etsy... should I put them up as a PIF?

♥♥♥

Off to make a pot of chili to combat this chilly, blustery day!

Happy Thursday, Blog-Buddies