it only took a few clicks between blogs and i found her. and once i found lisa i knew that her offerings were exactly what i was looking for. she and her husband make these customizable kokeshi dolls to perfectly represent your family. they're big and solid and simple and perfect. originally i had planned to paint little faces on them, but the grain of the wood is so gorgeous, i think i will just stain and seal them instead. the parents are about 9 inches tall while the smallest child of mine is 6 inches. and to give you an idea of how that translates, see how they compare to Mrs. Butterworth's: go spread the love at rapture design.

of sheer awesome-ness.

my oldest babe turned seven this past week. after consulting with my dear mccabe we set out with a plan, we would make sweet simplified fairy jars for seven little 7 year old girls. and while i am, myself, an artist... i do not like to do art with my children, it's just so messy and stressful (my problem). but seven years old is the perfect age to start this type of project. as soon as i explained what we were doing they quietly and methodically began the zen process of channeling the fairy jar.

in the end, it was a giant success... sprinked in fairy dust.

kind words have been found here:
sparkletopia

i've been making monsters all weekend. i think it's high time for a little one little monster contest. if you would like to win this little monster just leave a comment before thursday, october 9th, at midnight. you'll get an extra entry if you leave a good monster name for him, and you'll get a third entry if you link to my contest on your own blog. ;-Di made these loosely following the instructions from this site. all they entail is making two crochet (or knit!) panels about the size of pot holders. use two contrasting colors of the fun fur, or eyelash, for fuzzy monsterness. i stiched black felt circles onto one panel and then glued on googly eyes. i hand stitched the panels together, although i think in the future i might get over my fear of sewing machines, and then stuffed them with batting pills. (there a ton more really cute halloween patterns here)
come now, they need a good home. happy haunting!

because my baby doesn't crawl, she scoots everywhere she goes, i know that she's going to rip out the bum of every pair of tights we own this winter time. i mentioned this to britt and she immediately set forth to find a solution to my woe's. finding this tutorial we sprung into action. after a few short hours i have oodles of leg warmers to keep lil H happy and toasty all winter long.

luckily, she lurves them already:

tips to go along with the tutorial:

1) no matter how much you want to turn it inside out to sew it, snap out of it and sew it right side out.
2) fuzzy socks, while warm, look goofy and shed
3) dollar store has a ton of socks, but target has CUTE ones
4) start with an ugly pair first... just in case!
5) if you make some, i wanna see them. ;-D