Ornament swap out the door!

Happy to say I got the ornaments for small fox’s First Annual Ornament Swap out the door! So glad. I took such a long time deciding what to make that I was left with little time for the making — some would say the most important part. But the making did turn out to be delightful, my first bit of crafting for the holidays. I learned how to make Swedish paper hearts at the Swedish American Museum in Andersonville last year and since then I’ve been wanting to try it with felt. Well, it works great! I tweaked the pattern a bit, so that it would be flat and not a basket, but I’m sure it would work if you had enough felt.

{finished hearts with a little thank-you something for small fox}

And of course Lizzy watched me and asked a million questions, the first and most persistent of which was, “Can I make one?” Of course! So I got out the old red sweater I’d recently felted and we went to it. She made two ornaments, and a crown and did most of the stitching herself. She’s getting very handy. And doesn’t her crafty Mama love that!

Button Swap 2009

After reading the last few posts, you may be thinking, Wow, this girl can’t stop with the swaps! And you’d be right. I love sending mail. I love getting mail. And  I’m at an impasse with artwork, so swaps are a way for me to create, communicate, share within some guidelines, while I figure out what I really want to be up to.

My button swap partner Wendy told me that she loved buttons with great textures, orange, green and brown and that she did a lot of sewing. Oh, and she loves over-sized buttons. So here is what I sent:

I stitched the buttons onto some cross-stitch fabric in a nice old wooden embroidery hoop (can you have too many of these? I don’t think so…) and included a note on my favorite Gwen Frostic stationery, as well as a little envelope of “Extra Buttons,” pretty awesome. I had some to send that didn’t quite fit, so I made those the extras — just tiny whimsical, worn little buttons I thought Wendy might like anyway.

And Lizzy helped me draw the wonderful wintry picture to decorate the mailer. Enjoy the buttons, Wendy! Thanks for a lovely swap, Hannah!

buttons, buttons, buttons!

My Button Swap package is in the mail to my partner Wendy. What a lot of fun it’s been looking through my button stash! I tried a few times to find even more buttons at the thrift store, but no luck. Buttons seem to find you; they don’t just come when you call.

{the stash}

{in cups, on counters, and most especially scattered all over the floor}

And now here’s a peek, Wendy! Hope you like it.

lovely yellow lifts me out of gray

This fall the weather has alternated quickly from gray to golden sunshine and back. The pattern of the days would make a lovely quilt — alternating stripes of gray and yellow. As I look back at the photos I’ve taken, I see that golden yellow everywhere. So here’s an ode to that lovely yellow color and the way it lifts me out of the gray, especially when it comes delivered in a bright bouquet of leaves, or as a little flotilla at the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool.

Vintage Swap 2009

These last few weeks thrifting has taken on an added level of excitement as I prepared a package for Julia as part of Vintage Swap 2009, organized by Heather of Shivaya Naturals. Julia told me she liked muted colors, blues, greens and browns and was interested in vintage fabrics to make things for her Etsy shop.

This is what I found for her:

A few vintage napkins, a vintage pillowcase, several yards of a vintage flowered fabric and that lovely blue vintage flannel — there’s lots of that. Just right for Etsy sewing, I thought.

And a couple other little treats, like a pair of vintage green knitting needles and a few cards by my favorite Gwen Frostic.

So that’s the giving. But with swaps there’s always joy in the receiving, too and Julia did a lovely job finding treats for me:

Can you see there’s a teeny, tiny “h” on this teeny, tiny fork? Little vintage napkins, a tiny saucer, a lovely old pillowcase (just right for backing doll quilts), some buttons and two old Golden Books — Heidi and The Lively Little Rabbit, which I didn’t think I knew, until I saw this picture:

Who could forget an image like that? It came back to me in a flash — one of my favorite childhood books, rediscovered! Thank you so much, Julia! What a lot of joy you sent in one small package!

meet emily

{A finished Emily}

On Thursday, Lizzy said to me right after breakfast, “I want to make a doll.” And since it was yet another rainy Thursday, and I couldn’t think of any good reason why not, we went up the stairs to my studio hand in hand, and we spent the whole morning making her a doll. I don’t know how to make dolls. I’ve never made a doll, as far as I can remember, but it was so much fun to feel my way, with Lizzy’s help. First, she drew me a picture of the doll she wanted:

{Emily –originally known as Suki}

Then, she helped me with every stage of design, often asking Emily her opinion. “You want brown hair or black hair? Both? You want blue eyes?” I couldn’t be more proud that the two of us managed to put together such a sweet, warm and lovely little doll person, with just a very small bit of sewing know-how, wool batting and fabric scraps. And now I’m in the doll business, it seems, because the next morning, after breakfast the first thing Lizzy said was, “Today I want to make Emily’s friend Jack.”

But doll making is a pretty good business to be in. I’m marveling at how far Lizzy and I have come, from her Goggle days, to now, when she can really work with me on a project that takes hours. Of course, those hours included lots of bead-spilling, yarn tangles, fabric cutting (whoa — not that fabric, please! “But Mommy, I making her a kerchief!”) Amazing. And so lovable.

{Lizzy cutting wool batting for stuffing}

{Lizzy winding the wool for Emily’s hair}

{Emily’s underwear, made from a repurposed kid’s sock}

And that sums up how we’re feeling about Emily, too — amazing and lovable.

hats and more hats

More hats, more stripes. It’s looking more and more like a hat shop around here. Hats on the needles, hats in baskets, hats on the floor, hats on heads. Can’t stop wearing them. Can’t stop knitting them. Some are knitted and given away before I even have a chance to photograph them! This little person is happily modeling the newest hat around here.

I love the way this came out — fluffy and soft and tufty and sweet. Speaking to fall and spring at the same time. With each cold, rainy day I realize that winter is really coming and soon, too. So I can’t stay long — lots more hats to knit!

rainy day delights

Today was one of those rainy days in fall which sends the leaves swirling. Lizzy and I spent the morning at home, watching raindrops and making Halloween decorations out of paper for our windows.

Of course we had to go out exploring with umbrellas to carry and apples to eat.

Once Big Sister was home from school and the sky cleared, girls got to run and play and even found time to gather an autumn bouquet for Mommy. Lovely!

Then back home again to appreciate our paper pumpkin handiwork. My pumpkins are happy ones, with big eyes and cheery grins, but as you can see from the pictures below, Lizzy’s are, as she told me, “very, very ‘pooky! ‘Pooky, ‘pooky, ‘pooky!”

Spooky? Well, yes.

fall color arrives

I’ve been loving the seasonal photos posted around the web as fall arrives with its gorgeous coat on. This is just a little photo essay of my own to celebrate the colors we’re seeing, even in the city, in this beautiful but fleeting season…

Stripes for Fall

It seems like the arrival of fall each year also means the arrival of a new fall hat for Lizzy. Here’s last year’s entry. This year I hadn’t planned on knitting her a striped hat, but Fate intervened when I accidentally cast on 30 stitches too few on the wonderful Boyfriend Hat. And didn’t notice it until I’d finished the hat! I’d planned it to be another hat for my husband, but oops…now it’s for you, Lizzy! Hurray!

And it certainly suits her! Great for fall outings with Mommy, or a quick game of chase.