I am finishing up a round of Sewing with Oilcloth (now holiday priced) baby bibs for this weekends Handmade Holiday show hosted by the Richmond's Craft Mafia. How darn cute are they in the new laminated cottons from Riley Blake? When the boy mama's see the blue and cream bibs, they are going to lllooovvveee me!


Weather your a buy-it-ready-made or a DIY kind of gal, I'll have you covered this Sunday. I'll have a stack of books and a small amount of laminated cotton cuts for you at the show. See you Plant Zero!!

Handmade Christmas-ornaments!

You know we all did it, we took that Buy Handmade oath a few years back, but as time went by and the economy tanked we have had to do what we could to get by and still feed the babies.  But handmade doesn't cost an arm and a leg and it bets shopping the big box stores as much as we can.




We have a family tradition of giving the kids a special ornament each year, an ornament the represents their current interests.  I admit yesterday I was a Michael's checking out the selection and I realized I wasn't being true to the cause, so I have collected all the super cute-low cost Handmade Christmas Ornaments I could find.  They just happen to go with our best selling holiday item, the Red Lace Scalloped Tree Skirt and what will be under my tree this year.

From left to right, top to bottom... 1. Red Poinsettia Ornament by Butterfly Blue Designs $3.00 2. Holiday Ornament - Felt Cupcake - Christmas Merry and Bright Collection by Sugar Chic Baby $8.00 3. Amigurumi Strawberry Ornaments by anapaulaoli set of three for $18.00 4.Festive Owl Ornament by emily orpin $4.00 5. Tree or Gift Ornaments-Recycle-Upcycle Soda Can by loda set of 10 for $20.00 6.Beautiful Embroidered Red Work Christmas Ornaments by personal threads $4.00 7.Russian Nesting Doll Ornament by banner babe $4.00 8. Pair-Felt Mittens Ornaments-Red by aquaartstudio $7.50 a pair 9. Red, Green and White Scandinavian Inspired Baubles by Snowy Side Drive Set of 3 $20.00

3 neat things and some life stuff

1. Angry Chicken has a very cool freebie, very cool gift tags for you to download and print out. too fun! By the way I have an extra Bend the Rules Sewing if any one would like to have it let me know. I ended up with two somehow. What a great book! I want to make the gnome hat some day.

2. Handmade 2.0, The New York Times Magazine has a great article about our crafty lives, our crafty buy handmade movement. The buy handmade challenge list is at 10406. That is so great! Have you taken the challenge?

3. For those of you that are pattern makers I recently found these size charts over at About.com (i end up there a lot). They have made life much easier in the last day or two. I have needed to make several of my apron patterns in plus sizes. I can't tell you how these charts made it so much easier.

Yes I am still working a way, Sunday was not the last day of mad sewing and Monday was not filled with loving family time. I am getting there. Those last 7 items needed new patterns and none of it was cut out. That slows a girl down.

Yesterday I sent out 15 packages. WOW! that is incredible! I just can't believe my good fortune. You all rock! Three aprons left! I am off to sew. And then decorate that tree, it came on Friday and I just sitting there needing love!

By the way my grandmother is being kept comfortable and is in the loving hands of her family and great care. She is truly blessed! I always said that I had to merry a man just has wonderful as my grandfather. He has been nothing but loving and kind.

look what I just bought!

Buying hand made! Love this! Love it lots! It has an apron on it! This fab calendar is made by Smack of Jellyfish over at ETSY. I can't wait for the year to be over so I can take Sarah's advice and use the images as kitchen art! Wow can you picture how cool that would be! Maybe I need to buy two so I can do that now. hmmmm.

But wait what is so endlessly cool is the fact that she lives on a boat in the ocean in Alaska. WOW that blows my mind! What an adventure that must be.

She also carries some cool greeting cards and totes. Check her out! now I tell you now! ( i think i got a little too much sleep thanks to "the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep you ever got with a cold… medicine")

Giving to Momma

In the last week my two sweet children have both realized that Momma needs gift too! This is nice to see for several reasons, one is that they love me so very much, the second is that they have taken a break from forming their wish lists for just a moment! Third is proves that I have done a good job! Right?

Maddie was pouring through the Sunday paper Ads (she was clipping out good things to paste onto her wish list) the other day and she came to me with a WALMART AD and asked me what I liked. Yikes! Well the page was covered with diamonds! Well fake diamonds but how sweet that was. I told her that I loved the idea of her getting me jewelry for she knows how much I love a good necklace and semi matching earrings! How very sweet is that? I don't own a single diamond!

Last night at bed time Aidan and I were snuggling for a bit and he realized that he could get me a present too. Wow! it was an AH-HA moment for him. He was so excited. He thought and thought and then he must of seen me holding an ugly doll because he came up with something.
He told me he had to order something for me and I was not to open any amazon packages. He then told me he did not want to "know which ugly doll he picked out for me"! The moment was too sweet, he did not even realize that he told me the surprise.

I am learning that it take a good deal of un-learning to buy handmade and to buy local! I too am having difficulties with it! But with baby steps my little family will begin to do the right thing!


So Maddie and I had a chat about how cool it would be for her to pick out something that one of my friends made! It would be just so special. She agreed!

Aidan and I chatted about how I would rather have one of his monsters instead, he thought about it hard and then told me that that would take forever for him because "they are made by you Mamma!" I went to sleep giggling thinking about Don being art directed by Aidan and sewing for week making my gift.

My kind of black friday!

I just received an email from Real Simple with this link, Black Friday: A holiday shopping guide! I can make it all even simpler! ETSY.com! Buy hand made this holiday season! You can make your holidays more meaningful and make a crafters day!

Just a few cool peeps that sell handmade goods!

• Nikole Sarvay Designs
• Nicole Lee Designs
• Spiralling
• King Pod
• Hard Core Baby
• The Monkey and Me
• My Paper Crane
• Posie rosy little things
• Shimmer. Glimpse
• sub six studios
• Twist Style
• Lark Studio
• If Wishes were Horses
  

Want your name added to the list leave me a love note and I will add you to the ever growing list of cool crafters! Now grab a cup of joe and sit in you comfy chair and shop to you are broke! LOL

Handmade Pledge

Here is a pledge that I like! A pledge to only buy handmade when possible! For me it means no Target toys for the cousins, no silly gift certificates for Grandparents. I might just have to put the pledge aside for one thing this holiday season, so I do not have to answer this "why Santa did not bring a Nintindo DS for Christmas"..... "Well honey cuz the Elves have those made in China honey?" But really this is a good thing, I urge you to do you best and to buy hand made when ever you have the option. I know what it means for me personally when someone buys handmade from me. It helps make ends meet, it supports my crafty habits and I really get so excited to know that someone is going to look so cool wearing one of my aprons, or their kitchen will be totally kitsch. I love that. so make a crafters day and buy handmade!

To take your pledge go to buyhandmade.org


Why Buy Homemade?

Buying handmade is better for people, better for the environment, and better for giving truly special and well-crafted gifts. The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us all dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. The connection between producer and consumer has been lost. Buying handmade helps them reconnect.