Handmade Arcade: a review and all the stuff I bought

Handmade Arcade this year was so much better than last year.

1. It was not in a filthy warehouse with absolutely no heat.
2. It was in an armory with a working bathroom and big huge tanks and stuff (and heat and lights and windows and doors).
3. I wasn't pregnant.

Because this is a two day show, I had time at the end of the first day and at the beginning of the second day to do some shopping. Also, because it's so close to home (about 1.5 hours), I had some helpers. I usually don't have much time at all to shop at craft shows so this is a big bonus for me. You don't get into this business if you don't like the whole movement (but that's a post for a different day which may discuss why I don't consider myself a visual artist anymore or maybe for just right now).

Zadie was being an absolute angel: sleeping in the stroller when prompted, eating solid food like a big girl, going home with Grandma at the end of the show so Mr. Lemon and I could actually eat a meal out together (Welcome to Moe's!), and being a gorgeous model of the yeti ringer onesie and bean romper lines SO I bought her tons of stuff.

First of all, this amazing elf hat by Sweet Pepita. She will wear this in the Spring.

This amazing horned yeti creature with a red bird on his head by Cutesy but not Cutesy. You gotta see the kid grab this beast by the horns and chomp on that bird. It's really cute.

The squirrel card to make the "S" for the alphabet in her nursery by esoule. We will probably frame the gnome. The wallet is for me and was made by the people at Get Felt Up who were very nice.

I got these cool legwarmers in a trade with Little Lumpkin who also made a Christmas present for my niece. I was so excited to finally be able to meet all of the family as Sarah and I were pregnant at the same time.

Finally, I bought some more fabulous Tim Gunn magnets from Tiny Rat who makes these really cool plastic canvas creations too.

If you didn't make it out, check out the vendor list on the website. Almost everyone has an Etsy shop so you can still buy their cool stuff.

Good Morning, Baltimore

Hey, if you're in the Baltimore area on Sunday, Dec. 7, head over to the Lyric Opera House for the DIY Holiday Art Mart because we'll be there.

It's from 12 - 6:30 so we're making an excessively long day trip out of it. I will have all the new yeti stuff with me as well as a few little surprises.

Vendors and other info here.

If you don't feel like checking out the site, the address is 140 West Mount Royal Avenue so you can Crackberry some directions.

EtsyKids Trunk Show

I was selected to participate in the EtsyKids Trunk Show in Etsy.com's virtual labs. I've never done anything like this before. In fact, I find chat rooms a little too fast paced for my old bones (I'm 34).

But Trunk Shows are cool. Sellers, like me, get to talk (or type) about their shops, their items, and processes. I don't usually get the chance to do that so I'm pretty excited.

There are 16 of us from the EtsyKids street team. We are also showing a couple of items from a shop of our choice.

There are door prizes and there will also be a coupon code given out at the show. Mine will be for free shipping -- anywhere. The show will start at 8:00 p.m. EST and to find us click here.

12 Days of Christmas

I'm a member of the EtsyKids street team. We're having a pretty cool event that I forgot to write about yesterday.

I'm giving away a yeti tee as part of the extravaganza.

November 28th – December 10th, join EtsyKids for 12 days of fabulous, festive fun and dreamy holiday prizes.

Here’s how to play:

Each day the EtsyKids blog will contain a post showing an image that’s hidden in an item listing on a few different EtsyKids team members’ shops, along with a clue on how to find it. When a contestant finds just one of the hidden images, they send an Etsy conversation to the day’s entry collector with a link to the listing where they found it. Once their conversation is received, they’ll be entered into a drawing for an amazing EtsyKids prize. Those who find images for all 12 days are entered into the grand prize drawing!

Participants may use one of two methods to find the images:

1. Begin by looking at each of the 7,000+ EtsyKids listings, or
2. Decipher the clue to the keyword to narrow down the listings to under 100.

The clues are word association to the keyword. After you think you have the keyword, enter that word and "etsykids team" into Etsy's search, and start looking!

Example: Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus...........nativity
Thus, you would enter "nativity etsykids team" to narrow down the listings to hunt through. The clues start out easy, and they get harder!

Please do not post the answers anywhere - all answers will be revealed at the end of the game.

If you don't jump into the game until after it's started, no problem! You can still enter that day's drawing, as well as the remaining days, then go back and find the previous days to enter the grand prize drawing.

The Etsykids blog will also let contestants know who to contact to enter, as well as the prize(s) that will be awarded that day. The number of prizes will increase each day and the winners will be selected at random.

***Contestants can enter once each day.

Within 24 hours of winning, the lucky winners will be contacted via Etsy Conversation, and MUST contact (via Etsy Conversation) the prize donor with their mailing address within 2 days of being contacted. If they fail to contact the prize donor within the given time, a new winner will be selected.

Small gift

I'm an avid reader of Small magazine and have been since issue #1 was all over the blogosphere some time ago. If you remember, Lemon Cadet had some pieces featured in a spread in a later issue.

I offered one of my rompers for those who participated in their giveaway, Small Gift. Check it out.

1st Annual Midwest Plushform Show

I consider myself very lucky to be a part of the first ever (and soon to be annual) Midwest Plushform show at Cleveland's Shoparooni art gallery and incredibly cute little store (perhaps you saw the owner's recent stint on Wife Swap).

I made this little silver cat character. I love him. I even made those fantastic green pants. I have never made a pair of pants before. I traced the plushform, made a pattern, and went to work. The first time I sewed them I didn't stitch them in the right order so I had to start over. This is the second try. They wouldn't make the cut in Project Runway but I think they rock.

So the deal is that all the proceeds of this auction go to Toys for Tots. There are some big name artists involved and some really amazing plush. I'm looking forward to bidding but I can't decide since there are so many cool ones to choose from.

decisions decisions

So I had to make an emergency trip to the store for baby prunes. The organic brand we like (next best to making our own baby food) doesn't have prunes. The organic Gerber prunes were packaged in #7 plastic. The other option was a conventionally grown product packaged in glass baby food jars.

What to do?

So far we have given the baby only breast milk or organic foods (except for Motrin that one time and weird gas drops another).

I went with the glass. I'm just hoping that Beech Nut washed their plums really well before they dried them. What would you do?

1, 2, 4, and 5 are the only kinds of plastic coming into contact with foods in our house. Why are so many toys (that she is gnawing on constantly) not labeled? Why does my breast pump funnel contain BPA and why did it take that company months to come out with a non-toxic bottle? My brother just got diagnosed with cancer. He is younger than me. I'm just scared.

I feel like I should go live in a damn hole in the ground sometimes -- oh, and then I'll have to worry about a Vitamin-D deficiency.

Handmade Arcade this weekend!!!

We are in a frenzy getting our stuff together for Handmade Arcade in Pittsburgh. It's only just over an hour away from us so it's the closest good show we do and we are determined to make the most of it.

Last year was awesome even though we were freezing (no heat) and dirty (in a warehouse). This year is already promising to be so much better as the location has been moved to the fabulous and historic Hunt Armory in Shadyside.

It's on 324 Emerson Street so plug it into your GPS and be there. Find us Saturday from 11 - 7 and Sunday from 11 - 5. There are also some Early Birdie Shopping passes available for Saturday morning so you can get there first and get dibs on the good stuff. I'm right in the middle in the aisle closest to ZipCar in booth 49.

Best of all, I have been working away on some really gorgeous long-sleeved onesies and toddler tees with beans in some cool new suits -- some even out of this crazy expensive Japanese fabric I bought in SoHo (had to have some retail therapy to make up for the loss at Vida's Market). It's fantastic.

Here's a little bit more info from their press release:

Handmade Arcade is the perfect opportunity to jump start your holiday shopping, decorate your home, or dress your fine self while supporting independent businesses and creative ingenuity.

Check out the more than 90 vendors that will be appearing at HA this year on our website vendor page: here. We’re also going to have yummy food vendors like Franktuary, Coca, My Goodies Bakery, and Dozen.

A.I.R. will be back for their second HA appearance with screenprinting demonstrations and “make-and-takes”. The Society for Contemporary Craft will present metal working demonstrations throughout both days of HA.

Handmade Arcade 2008 is Saturday, November 8 (11am-7pm) AND Sunday, November 9 (11am-5pm) at the Hunt Armory, 324 Emerson Street, in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. The location is just a short walk from a number of bus lines, including the 71C, 71D, and 500, so save some gas money and take the bus! There will also be several bike racks on site donated by BikePGH so we’re peddle friendly too!

An Endangered Species

Please help me find more yetis to slaughter for their fur. I have used the last of my stash and can't seem to find this fabric anywhere.

I originally bought it at JoAnn Fabrics. That's the last of it curing on my clothesline. It can be found in the "fun fleece" section of the store when it is in stock.

That's a detail of a claw on one of my handcrafted yetis. No real yetis were harmed in the writing of this post. But if you don't act now, I will only be able to make about 2 more of them.

EtsyKids BOGO sale starts tomorrow

and ends shortly thereafter so get your goods while they're cheaper than usual.

Details:
Friday October 24th and Saturday October 25th be a part of a massive Etsy Street Team event. With over 175 EtsyKids’ shops participating you’ll be sure to find huge deals on what you need this holiday season for children big and small.

Get your shopping list ready today and beat the crowd by previewing the entire list of EtsyKids shops taking part in this colossal event.

My sale is Buy One item, Get the Second Half off. Before paying, wait for a revised invoice reflecting the new price and probably a better shipping price.

A La Mode Fabric - http://alamodefabric.etsy.com/

Ali Bug Bowtique - http://www.alibugbowtique.etsy.com/

Baby Friendly Beads - http://bfbeads.etsy.com/

Baby Hangers - http://www.babyhangers.etsy.com/

Baby Kay's - http://www.babykaysboutique.etsy.com/

Baby Peas And Carrots - http://www.babypeasandcarrots.etsy.com/

Bam Designs - http://bamdesigns.etsy.com/

Black Eyed Susie - http://www.blackeyedsusie.etsy.com/

Boo Roo's Bowtique - http://www.booroosbowtique.etsy.com/

Bossy Baby - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5430401

Bows & Things - http://www.bowsandthings.etsy.com/

Bumble Belly Designs - http://bumblebellydesigns.etsy.com/

Chichi Boulie - http://www.chichiboulie.etsy.com/

CiCi Art Factory - http://www.cicifactory.etsy.com/

Ciuccio - http://www.ciuccio.etsy.com/

Coco and Milk Weed - http://www.cocoandmilkweed.etsy.com/

Cozy Cabin Creations - http://www.cozycabinmom.etsy.com/

Cute And Sweet - http://cuteandsweet.etsy.com/

Daisy Chains - http://daisychains.etsy.com/

Deedaloos - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5137032

Dine.N.Doodle - http://lilbdesigns.etsy.com/

Doodies Booties - http://www.doodiesbooties.etsy.com/

Doodle Designs - http://doodledesigns.etsy.com/

Ellie Beans - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5202542

Flora and Nicole's - http://www.flowernicky.etsy.com/

Francisbel Boutique - http://www.francisbel.etsy.com/

Going-Ga-Ga - http://goinggaga.etsy.com/

Grandmas Girl - http://www.grandmasgirl.etsy.com/

Griffin Gear - http://griffingear.etsy.com/

Happy House Quilts - http://happyhousequilts.etsy.com/

Hip Kids Tye-Dye - http://www.hipkidstyedye.etsy.com/

Hot Fudge - http://www.hotfudge.etsy.com/

Hullabaloo Boutique - http://www.hullabalooboutique.etsy.com/

I Luv U TuTu Much - http://iluvututumuch.etsy.com/

Itsy Bitsy Bunny - http://www.itsybitsybunny.etsy.com/

Jennifer's Bows and More - http://www.jennifersbowsnmore.etsy.com/

Jus Shar Designs - http://psbbdesigns.etsy.com/

Kaching Design - http://www.kachingdesign.etsy.com/

Kathy's Lil Creations - http://www.kathyslilcreations.etsy.com/

Katie Bean Kids - http://www.katiebeankids.etsy.com/

KeiKi Boutique - http://www.keikiboutique.etsy.com/

Kim's Stitch In Time - http://www.kimsstitchintime.etsy.com/

Kissie Girl - http://www.kissegirl.etsy.com/

Knit Style - http://knitstyle.etsy.com/

Lemon Cadet - http://www.lemoncadet.com/

Lilly Rose Bow Company - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095159

Little Bird Creations - http://www.littlebirdcreations.etsy.com/

Little Bit Designs - http://www.girliemomma.etsy.com/

Little Butterbeans - http://www.littlebutterbeans.etsy.com/

Little Duckies - http://littleduckies.etsy.com/

Little Empress - http://www.littleempress.etsy.com/

Lizzypops - http://lizzypops.etsy.com/

Loco Mo Momma - http://www.locomomomma.etsy.com/

Loopy 4 Ewe - http://loopy4ewe.etsy.com/

Love 2 Sparkle - http://www.love2sparkle.etsy.com/

Luca Bella Designs - http://www.lucabella0522.etsy.com/

LuLu & Peep Children's Shop - http://www.luluandpeep.etsy.com/

Madaline Jane - http://www.madalinejane.etsy.com/

Mami Girl Boutique - http://www.mamigirlboutique.etsy.com/

Mary Had A Little Party - http://maryhadalittleparty.etsy.com/

Michele's Jewelry Designs - http://micsjewelrydesigns.etsy.com/

MJD Boutique - http://mjdboutique.etsy.com/

Mom N Mia Quilts - http://momnmiaquilts.etsy.com/

Moochies Mama - http://www.moochiesmamma.etsy.com/

My Kangaroo - http://mykangaroo.etsy.com/

My Sugar Plum Baby - http://www.sugarplumbaby.etsy.com/

Nana McQuilts - http://www.nanamcquilts.etsy.com/

Ninkey - http://www.ninkey.etsy.com/

Odannysgirl - http://odannysgirl.etsy.com/

Olive & Ollie - http://www.oliveandollie.etsy.com/

On Cottage Way - http://www.oncottageway.etsy.com/

On The Sweeter Side - http://onthesweeterside.etsy.com/

Once Upon A Cloud - http://onceuponacloud.etsy.com/

Oscar and Theodore - http://www.oscarandtheodore.etsy.com/

Painted With Heart - http://www.paintedwithheart.etsy.com/

Petit Debutant - http://petitdebutant.etsy.com/

Petunias - http://www.petunias.etsy.com/

Pink Dixie - http://pinkdixie.etsy.com/

PJ Hill Co. Crochet - http://www.pjhillco.etsy.com/

Pretty Baby Boutique - http://prettybabyboutique.etsy.com/

Pumpkin Head Baby Co. - http://pumpkinheadbabyco.etsy.com/

Punky Fae Designs - http://www.punkyfaedesigns.etsy.com/

QB Tots - http://www.qbtots.etsy.com/

Reilly Belle - http://reillybelle.etsy.com/

Retro 80's - http://www.retro80s.etsy.com/

Ribbon and Ruffles Boutique - http://www.ribbonsandruffles.etsy.com/

Rosey Posey Bowtique -http://www.roseyposeybowtique.etsy.com/

Rozzis Sweet Peas - http://www.rozzissweetpeas.etsy.com/

Scandeez - http://www.scandeez.etsy.com/

Scissorstitch -http://www.scissorstitch.etsy.com/

Seaside Quilts - http://seasidequilts.etsy.com/

SewSoNancy - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5198033

Sheeps Clothing - http://sheepsclothing.etsy.com/

Snap Dragon Design House - http://www.snapdragondesign.etsy.com/

SoBright Designs - http://www.sobrightdesigns.etsy.com/

Stella Bella Designs - http://www.stellabelladesigns.etsy.com/

Sunny Day Tags - http://sunnydaytags.etsy.com/

Sweetbeets - http://sweetbeets.etsy.com/

Sweet Pea Boutique - http://happygrandma402905.etsy.com/

The Bird & The Bean - http://www.birdandbean.etsy.com/

The Clever Kitty - http://thecleverkitty.etsy.com/

The Quilted Lion - http://thequiltedlion.etsy.com/

Thumbelina Boutique - http://thumbora.etsy.com/

Tiki Tales - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=41608

Trendy Tot - http://www.trendytot.etsy.com/

TuTu Cute & Moore - http://www.tutucuteandmoore.etsy.com/

Tweet Tweet Boutique - http://www.jabstweettweet.etsy.com/

Twinkle Star Art - http://twinklestarart.etsy.com/

Whimzee Baby Boutique - http://www.whimzeeebaby.etsy.com/

Wild Olive Kids - http://www.wildolivekids.etsy.com/

Zwei Baby - http://twinmommy.etsy.com/


*Sale/sale items vary per shop, please read individual shop announcements before purchasing*

Stalk us in Manhattan

We'll be at Vida's Market on Saturday. It's at PS41 in Greenwich Village. If it's nice the show be at the playground on the corner of Greenwich and Charles.

This market is only for kids stuff only so the screenprinted yeti tees are staying here but I've been hard at work on lots of new stuff. There are some great vendors and I'm really looking forward to picking up so cute stuff for Baby Lemon.

Crafty Bastards 2008

Crafty Bastards this year was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that we are only just now recovering enough to get the photos off the camera.

Mr. Lemon and Baby Lemon sported their fabulous Lemon Cadet apparel making Team Lemon, by far, the best dressed peeps in town.

More pics on flickr.

The weather wasn't fabulous and we were set up in mosquitoland but it was still a great show and we are already looking ahead to next year. Just think, Baby Lemon will be walking! We made some changes to the table displays and the booth was back to snazzy.

We got to meet Greg the writer of my favorite blog Daddytypes and another fellow blogger, Mamabird from SurelyYouNest. They each had incredibly well-behaved and well-dressed kids with them. Perhaps next year they'll let me borrow one for the ride home. Baby Lemon hit meltdown as soon as her little yeti onesie hit the carseat...

Off to Crafty Bastards!

Team Lemon is all packed up and just about ready to go. The Trader Joe's bag on the left is full of all the new yeti ringer onesies, the top bag has the new yeti plush (with the long luscious fur), there are new rompers below the yetis, and a bunch of screenprinted yeti tees hot off the press. The big bin contains lots of lemon candies and loads of one-of-a-kind pieces while the two big space bags are absolutely stuffed with bean softies. This is how we travel.

In the basement, the tent is in its bag and the silver bins are stocked with all the table display stuff. For outdoor shows we also have to bring our own tables and chairs. This time, we have to get Baby Lemon read too. That's another blog post altogether.

I uploaded sneaky peeks of all the newest beans to my flickr. Because Crafty Bastards is doing a lot of promo for the show via Twitter, I've been spending some time there too. It's addictive. You have no idea (actually, I think a few of you do). If I can figure out how to send messages with my cell phone, I'm going to have a special sale on Sunday.

OK. Hope to see you all in Washington, D.C. for best Crafty Bastards show ever this Sunday, September 28 from 10 - 5 at the Marie Reed Learning Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.

Find Team Lemon at booth 10 right next to local furniture peeps Miss Pixie's.

Guest post over at Surely You Nest

I'm certain that the best thing about Etsy is the people you "meet." Long ago (last summer) MamaBird was one of my custom yeti customers at my Etsy shop. This year she ordered some more. We got to talking (online -- I guess you call it email but you know) and realized we had lots of stuff in common. She asked me if it was too late to switch to cloth diapers with her 21-month old son. I thought that others might be interested in the same info so it's been blogged (and that may very well be my first use of that word as a verb).

It was fun to research and revisiting some of the facts reinforced Team Lemon's decision to go cloth although cost has been moved down toward the bottom of the list...

Check out the full post at Surely You Nest.

A yeti premiere

Check out my little interview on the Crafty Bastards blog. I just finished up all the new yeti ringer onesies and plush and you can read more about them over there. The plush is amazing. I'm super happy with how they turned out. They're a bit bigger than Zadie's head and extremely soft.

The ringer onesies also turned out better than I expected. They come in tan, pink and blue and they all have chocolate piping. I have 3 - 6, 6 - 12, and 12 - 18 months. Now that I have a wee one of my own, I feel that these onesies run slightly small (or maybe I just have an enormous child). The fit is similar to Old Navy stuff or American Apparel.

Here's the extra dilly-o, G: I'm having a sale at the show where you can get both the plush and the onesie for $40. Also pair a romper or ringer tee with a bean plush and get them both for either $36 or $42 depending on the size of the bean.

If there's something in the Etsy shop that you want and you don't want to pay shipping, you can buy it online and pay for it then (I'll refund your shipping when you come to collect the goods) OR pay me at the show. As you know, many of my items are one of a kind or have limited sizes available so this is the best way to get what you want before everyone else does. Just make sure you let me know your plans via the "message to seller" box during checkout. Also do this before midnight Friday or I won't know what you're talking about by the time we get to D.C.

Zadie's nursery is famous

When I was pregnant, I spent hours (while I was at work) drooling over amazing nurseries on flickr and my favorite blogs. I really liked the nurseries featured on Apartment Therapy's blog for baby/kid stuff, ohdeedoh. When I finished up the space, I sent some photos to them and they liked it.

Carrie, the editor, sent me a list of excellent questions that took me three days to answer. The final result is up now. The link to the flickr set containing all the pics seems to be messed up so if you want to see them all, click here instead.

I really liked how she asked stuff like, "How did you incorporate so many items from Ikea without having the nursery look like an Ikea showroom?" That was really hard to answer. I don't know how good ideas come to me. I just know what I like and I'm always surprised when something turns out well.

A little bit of a preview. . .

It's been crazy busy in the land of Lemon Cadet. Baby Lemon has been hard at work developing her modeling skills, Mr. Huskystar has been stitching up a tsunami of new goods, and Mr. Lemon fixed the tent.

I've been working on some yeti plush that I'm really excited about. I usually embroider the faces after I have a base established. It's a little more to grab onto that way. But this new fur is a beast! It was shedding like a Skunk Ape in Spring so I had to hand sew the faces before I attached them to the fur. Then I had this amazing bald yeti.

The second photo is a sneak peak at what the finished guy will look like. The new fur is longer and very silky. I actually finished all of these but the photos are still on the camera.

Special Delivery

So elves are our favorite. Then beans. Then monkeys. You would think that we like monkeys the best since we have so many of them but no. It's the elf. It's just really hard to find a good elf.

Zadie demanded this elf and I liked how it looked in its shipping box like a pauper's coffin.

Panties.

This week Lemon Cadet is getting a whole new line of panties. Just like with the beans, I'll be listing them whenever the beast is sleeping or with Daddy. We've been experiencing some napping issues so this is the best we can do.

We have some new designs and some old designs in new fabrics. But the best part is that we were able to get some nice quality blank panties in fabulous colors so instead of a hodge podge of various styles and sizes, we now have some consistency.

Please let me know if there is a specific design or style you'd like and we can talk custom.

The beans are ready to eat

After simmering in my studio for quite some time, the beans are soft enough to head out into the world via Etsy. I had a few in the shop before and they sold so I made a bunch more.

I would have had them up sooner but it really takes a certain kind of day for perfect lighting. It needs to be very bright but overcast. Even then, my camera still sometimes does a hack job with a couple of the brighter colors. I'll be getting a new camera soon but until then, I gotta work with what I got.

Since Baby Lemon is first priority, I won't ever have a big enough chunk of time to put these all up at once so look for these throughout the week. I've got one of the Joel Dewberry fabric that was featured in the onesie in Parents Magazine. It has a bright yellow dotted swiss back. I have a few of this gorgeous red satin brocade Asian print fabric with teal backs. There are striped beans and corduroy number print beans and kitty alphabet beans one last green woodgrain bean from that amazing Alexander Henry fabric that I love so much.

Trofast as changing table

When I was buying the furniture for Zadie's nursery, I couldn't let myself buy a regular changing table. It was hard to find anything attractive for less than $100. A lot of the brands weren't even made of real wood. Also, once your kid is potty trained, you have this odd piece of "wood" with no other use.

So when I saw the Trofast system at Ikea, I did some measuring and came up with this idea. We bought the stair-step piece and the single unit. Mr. Lemon cut a piece of plywood 1" larger than the changing table pad. I had some teal fleece in a bin so I cut it to size, wrapped it around the plywood and stapled it to the plywood like I was stretching a canvas. So the staples wouldn't scratch the Trofast pieces, I used double-sided tape to put a layer of felt on top of the staples. Mr. Lemon was concerned about safety so he somehow attached the two Trofast pieces together (leaving enough distance between them so that the plywood would fit nicely).

This has been working great for us. The Trofast system is the same size as a standard changing table and doesn't kill Mr. Lemon's back like the pack n play does. The best part about this is that when the baby's no longer in diapers, we'll have a great storage system for all her stuff. If we're lucky, she won't crack her head too many times while she's climbing all over it.

I have more pictures of this system and the nursery over on my flickr.

Love love love

So my preempted rant post is doing some good! My friend Amanda (that's her dog Bleu up there in a photo of hers that I stole from her flickr) was in a pissy mood, read my blog and got all inspired to write her own post about why she loves her life.

Imagine how much happier everyone would be if we just took a couple of minutes out of the day to think about the things we love!

If you decide to write your own post about loving life, please let me know. Some days I don't feel very effective (or is it affective?).

Rant week: discontinued

I never rant on this blog. I like ranting but I really don't ever get around to it. However, something really got me going the other day and I decided to do an entire week of ranting right here.

Then as I was looking through one of my favorite blogs, [i] love life, for a specific post, I decided to cut rant week short. I guess I preempted rant week since I hadn't even gotten started. I'm usually a pretty positive person anyway.

K. Barteski, author of [i] love life, is an artist and a mother with an adorable baby just a few months older than Zadie. Her blog is a mix of talking about her art and her life. She seems incredibly happy, is an amazing artist, and is constantly positive.

I realized that since I, too, am in love with my life, I really shouldn't bother with venting. What good is it to dwell on the negative things? Not much at all.

But just in case you were wondering, here are the topics of the recently forgotten rant week (there were actually only 3):
1. People who ask you questions about your process and never thank you when you give away your secrets.
2. People who think it's okay to touch your baby. Hello? Germs? Strangers? I don't even let mom hold the baby before she's washed her hands, why would I want some kid in the Kmart touching the baby.
3. The parking situation on my street.

That picture up there is from the alphabet wall I put together for Zadie's nursery. I spent a lot of time on it and I think it turned out great. The hedgehog in the middle is one of the free pieces I got from the aforementioned blog. I'll write a post about the nursery later.

But since I made a list of idle rants, I think I should share why I love my life since I have a lot more reasons than I had rants to begin with:
1. I have an amazing husband.
2. I have an adorable baby who smiles almost all the time now and everytime she does I can feel it through my entire body.
3. I live within walking distance of a small farmer's market. We go there every weekend (although we have yet to walk it with baby in tow. The Babyhawk can get hot and it's super humid here too. Soon.).
4. At that market Firefly Farms sells delicious goat cheese. It has less fat than my old standy, colbyjack and is made locally.
5. This list can go on forever so I'll stop.

I'm a Crafty Bastard!

I just got the chance to check my email and read that I was one of 95 applicants accepted into this year's show. This is such great news. I was a vendor last year and it was, by far, the best show ever (with Handmade Arcade running a very very close second).

See you September 28!

I absolutely must have this

Someone should buy it for Zadie.

I was coveting this monkey doll that my postnatal (with baby!) yoga teacher had with her in class today to keep her son occupied. I checked out the website and found this elf.

I almost bought the monkey even though we're a little worried that's the only animal our kid will know when I saw this wonderful sprite: a dream come true.

To end... I would like to add that my Fall line will feature elves. It was going to be a secret but this little guy made me want to spill the beans!

eta: someone just splurged and bought this crazy expensive doll probably more for herself than for her baby...

Storque feature

I was recently featured in Etsy's Storque. It's like an online newsletter/blog where they highlight issues in the world of craft.

My work was discussed as part of the Handmade Kids series they are doing right now. I'm also going to enter the Handmade Kids contest. I'm thinking one of the new rompers...