A New Twist on a Classic

I had a great day a few weeks ago when I learned that I had won a blog giveaway on Preppy in New England. I confess that I entered because I was coveting one of the darling dresses from TheTrendyTot and didn't pay too much attention to the details of the giveaway. After finding out that I was the lucky winner, I discovered that a little Nantucket basket from the lovely UpMySleeveBoutique was part of the winner's package. Scoping out this online shop introduced me to Sarah Laubinger's darling line of cute, updated Nantucket baskets and jewelry. When I was a little girl, I remember lots of women carrying these classic bags around to coordinate with their Lily Pulitzer dresses and other preppy accoutrements. Well, Sarah Laubinger (WAHM of 2 little ones) has taken this icon of classic New England and given it some modern touches appeal to today's audience.

I was able to customize color and font of this darling little basket. It's a good thing that I decided to design it for my 1-yo, because it was so cute when it arrive that it was all I could do not to steal it! Needless to say, my daughter will not be receiving this anytime soon because it is too precious for her destructive little paws. Someday...

Are You There Blog? It's Me, Elise...

Blog, sorry, I've neglected you! It has just been a busy, busy fall since coming back from vacation, having friends visit, returning to preschool, and keeping up with orders. Yes, orders have been coming in - yay!

Now let's get down to business because I have several things to report. First of all, we had an amazing trip down to Sunriver, OR. We did a lot of biking, swimming, golfing, and relaxing! The only downside to the trip was that it was a VERY long trip down and back. It took us about 7.5 hrs on the way down and (gulp) 10 on the way back! Argh! Note to self: we will do a Saturday to Saturday rental next time so we're not stuck in terrible I-5 traffic on the return. Fortunately these sweet little peg dollies from ImogensGarden entertained Kate for part of the drive. She was delighted to have a princess and mermaid and the dolls provided a much-needed reprieve to the endless playing of "The Little Mermaid" on the portable DVD player.


I enjoyed a lot of knitting time (since I was away from my sewing machine) and worked on a few fun and fast projects. I bought a fabulous hat pattern called Charlotte's Web to work on from one of my new Etsy "friends," knitwear designer Kate Oates who runs an Etsy shop called TotToppers and MakeTotToppers. I modifed the pattern and put the spider on a basic pumpkin hat to make it fresh for Halloween. The hat is for Caroline and love how it came out. The only problem? Getting little C to stand still long enough to take her pic in her new festive hat!



My other knitting project became a hat that my sister-in-law tipped me off on. She had spotted this great hat on this crafty woman's blog, so I emailed the knitter and asked her if she had any interest in selling me the pattern. She promptly sent me a message back saying that she was trying to put something together this fall or winter. I was already in love with the hat and couldn't wait so I modified the spider pattern (with some advice from Kate!) and was able to conjure up something similar for my beloved new little nephew.

I haven't had much time to knit since getting home because I've been catching up with a lot of sewing projects and orders, so I'm glad that I got some downtime in Oregon.

Last but not least, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I win this terrific dress from TheTrendyTot. In fact, I'm reluctant to even let you in on the information about the giveaway because I do not want any more competition! Oh well, check out Jen's blog for more info about winning one of her darling dresses. :)

Ciao!

Modern Ponchos

I'm still recovering from our heatwave here in Seattle last week, so why am I working on warm clothes? Because I have discovered some trims that begged for a good project. Yummy cakes, Little Red Riding Hood, panda bears...

And I have some monsters and spacemen for little boys...

I started off making ponchos for Kate a few years ago because she wanted to dress herself but didn't quite have the skills to put on a jacket or sweater. Since then, I've refined my pattern from upcycling old sweaters to using the dreamy double-sided fleece (that I also use for the personalized blankets). Last year I was in a rush to get out of the door and threw one of Kate's old ponchos over Caroline's head quickly and that's when I realized how perfectly convenient these ponchos are for babies too--size is not a big deal and no more fighting wriggly little arms into sleeves!

So, here are my latest Etsy listings. First, the panda poncho....

and the cakes poncho...

Summers go too quickly here so I don't know why I'm rushing things ahead, but I just can't help myself. Enjoy! There are more to come...

My Fave Finds for Boys on Etsy

Many of you have been telling me that there is not enough cute boy stuff out there, and I want to help. Here are my fave boy finds on Etsy...

1. We got our friend Henry this Roaring Rex Raglan T from HappyFamily and I don't think he has stopped wearing it yet! Here he is...

2. I think that these whale moks from Scandeez are so cute and a nice way to change it up from Robeez.

3. This Raglan Number or Letter ¾-Length T-shirt from LisaGorno is a nice way to personalize an outfit for your boy.

4. This helicopter hoodie from PlantPudge will have your little guy flying high!

5. Every little guy is a superhero! Capes from DiscoveryDenim are sure to be a hit with your little man of action.

6. These vintage cord overalls from FreeRangeBaby are original and so clever. Watch out: you'll be doing laundry every night if you get him these.

7. I'm eager awaiting the arrival of this sporty sailboat hat that I've ordered from OnceUponAHook. Since my nephew spends a lot of time on Cape Cod, I thought he needed to show off his nautical side.

8. These Oilcloth Aprons for boys from Chalkydoodles are so clever and can mitigate the damage from getting messy. One of these would be a great birthday present.

9. I'm torn between these great T's from TeeShirtGnome. The squid attack T is killer, but the PacMan T brings back fond memories of hanging out at the arcade!.

10. And last but not least, start a guy off right with one of my personalized stroller blankets. Here is a peak of my newest boy print with construction trucks and tractors all over it.

Happy shopping!

Goodbye Gus!

We all enjoyed a great long weekend with my brother who flew in from CT with his wife and little baby boy, Gus. It was so nice to have a tiny little baby around again! Kate really had fun with him and was always asking for him to sit on her lap. When they left yesterday morning, I whipped up a new style of blanket in his honor. Here's to you, Gus...

In other news, I am so excited that my Dino Princess dress made it into IndieSpotting--yay! I posted it to my Facebook page and it was so fun to get comments back from friends far and wide. Now I feel more incented to try to add fans to my business page.

Hmmm, somehow this evening has escaped from me. I had planned to read the latest Vanity Fait that just arrived. It has some juicy looking scoop in it! Instead, off to bed.

Dino Princess on the Prowl

I've got lots of news to report. First of all, we survived the birthday party madness and all had a good time. I had decided to take on a cake that I had seen in a magazine and you can see the results below. Needless to say, I have a whole new appreciation for cake decorating--it was hard! Fortunately when you're working with chocolate cake and pink buttercream frosting, you cannot really go wrong.

Love those retro ballerina caketoppers? I got them from Sweet Poppy on Etsy. They were quite the hit with my daughter.

My garment labels are in from the weavers and I love them! Thanks to my fabulous friend Chihana for designing them for me.

And now with the birthday party complete, I've been having loads of fun in the last few days working on some new Dino Princess dresses. I've refined my appliques and have some fabulous new fabrics, so I'm really excited about what is coming up. Here's a peak...

A stegosaurus princess...

A new a-PINK-osaurus!

Another apatosaurus...

And last but not least, a triceratops princess...

Blanketed with Blankets

Whew, I have been out of it because I have been crazed whipping up blankets all weekend. I got some delicious new fabrics in and this shipment happened to coincide with a bunch of blanket orders from people who wanted me to do whatever I wanted. Yay--love that type of order!

So, after a fevered blanket stitching party (ummm, is it a party if you're by yourself?), Denise was generous enough to do some pics with me on Sunday night. Caroline was not that into it as evidenced by these shots.

Eventually she had enough.

So, I moved on to Kate who was totally feeling the photography love. Finally.

Monday is tomorrow already

It has been a very productive weekend here but I'm not quite ready to start another week yet. I've embarked on photographing a lot of my creations but I cannot say it is smooth going. I understand now all of the comments that I have seen about how challenging it is to photograph products. I feel like I put all of this work into things and the pictures never quite capture that.

Just as I was starting to feel overwhelmed, it was time to take Kate to a princess birthday party at my friend Wendy's lovely house. Her house and garden is truly to die for. She is an amazing gardener and really has a fantastic eye for design. I always just throw flowers together and hope for the best, but she goes for a sculptural approach and uses texture and simplicity to guide her vision. I should have taken a bunch of pictures of her backyard rather than spending my time trying to describe it.

I loved that bird she had on her wall. Perhaps because I am really into princess animals right now.

Wendy's party favors were terribly clever. She bought pink bath salts, put them into empty baby food jars, tied them up with soap lollipops, and taped princess ducks to the top. She is so creative!

Blogosphere...here I come!

I confess that as I've been working on getting organized for the launch of my Etsy shop, I've been reluctant (gulp, scared?) to dip my toe into the sea of blogs that have flooded the cybersphere recently. After all, where was I supposed to start? Well, today I had a little bump with reality that I thought deserved mentioning.

My friend Denise was here helping me take some pictures of products that I have been whipping up for my shop. I was feeling confident with our girls in good moods (yes, I had bribed them into being models with a promise of cupcakes), some fun products to photographs, and a break in the sun and heat that we've been experiencing for the last week. All was going swimmingly until...THUNK...Caroline took a dive into the wall and came up screaming with a nasty knot on her head.

She was actually fine after a few minutes and had a grand time tearing apart a box of Kleenex, but I now have a reminder every time I look at her cute little noggin not to forget about my what I'm really trying to accomplish here. I know that accidents happen all of the time with little ones, but this one was just what I needed to put down the camera, turn off the sewing machine, close the laptop and play with my girls. It's just so darn hard to do everything...at the same time.

On a similar note, I just got a good laugh out of this Storque article about being an Etsy widower and read parts aloud to my husband. Note to self: slow down and admire my best creations (my kids!).