An Educational Personalized Baby Blanket?

Get schooled with this personalized baby blanket! Here's my latest one in this terrific ABC 123 print. I really like this blanket because it would be great for boys and girls and it has a ton of color possibilities. I would love this in red, orange, and or navy blue fleece and am eager to make it up in some other colors. So, want to order it??? :)

Personalized Baby Blanket in Paris Park

I have been feeling really jazzed up to get some of my new blankets listed! This newest one is really cute (I think!) and I fell in love with the vintage-inspired print with little kids playing in the park with balloons, dogs, birds, and cats. This design is a fun departure from the usual pale pink and blue blankets and I am happy to have these great primary colors in the mix.

I'm also exploring the different ways to photograph the blankets. It is not easy to capture the personalization and the fabric print in one photo since they are on opposite sides! I'm also trying to include little kids and babies in the shot since I love seeing the little faces and the kids provide some scale so viewers can get a sense of how big the blankets are. Getting my little models to work with me is another huge challenge! I am pretty much having to bribe my almost-5 year old to pose for me (she's a diva!). My youngest is more amenable to being in pictures but she is much less predictable. The continuous shooting option on my new camera makes it much easier to get some decent shots of her, yet it is still not easy. One of my new goals is to overhaul my listing pictures and get more of our little friends in the pictures so I have a variety of little faces looking out of the pictures. Wish me luck!

Personalized Baby Blanket Bonanza

I am enjoying a great week--the weather has been fabulous, I'm not preparing for any shows so I actually have time to design some new products, and some terrific new prints have arrived in my studio. Today it was this delicious new personalized blanket for my shop in Michael Miller's Disco Dots. Oh, and have I mentioned how much I love taking pics with my new Nikon D3000? Things are really coming together here. My laptop has been acting funky but I have been backing everything up regularly, so my fingers are crossed.

Yesterday was also terrific because I started off the day with a lovely email from a happy customer who was emailing me to tell me how much she loved the dino princess dress that she had ordered for her daughter's dino birthday party. It was so nice to get that email because my two little ones both woke up in very cranky moods, so it felt great to know that someone out there was happy! I was walking my cranky almost-2-year old later that day and my phone rang. It turned out to be the owner of a shop that just received a package of my dresses and she was calling to tell me how thrilled she was with everything that I sent--yay! Indie Banditas on Bainbridge Island is now going to be carrying my dresses so I am eager to send them more one-of-a-kind dresses. A great day was wrapped up with one of my dearest friends sending me a message on my Facebook page that she had spotted one of my blankets at a playground in New York City and the owner had raved about how much she loved it. It's amazing how good feedback can make you feel...wahoo!

A New Blanket for a Glorious Day!

Yay! A glorious day meets a brand new personalized baby blanket! I love this 2-D Zoo print from Alexander Henry and now I am carrying it in the chocolate color scheme. I was planning on asking my neighbor's darling boy to pose with this new blanket but I spotted the gorgeous sky and knew that the orange had to be photographed up against the brilliant blue. After months of cloudy weather, finally we enjoyed a glorious afternoon here in Seattle. Finally!

trying to spring forward...

I have been working on some new items for spring and I'll give you a little preview. These will be posted in my shop when I can find a few free minutes to write up the listings and get some better photographs!

Oo La La Dress -- once little Caroline starts feeling better, I will be able to get this on a live model.
The spring version of the Itsy Bitsy Spinder Dress in Fern.

A new blanket in a new color scheme of my most popular print.

A leafy, feminine pink and red leafy print for a new blanket.

Vintage-inspired floral print for another new blanket.

Scarlet Bird Frock.

And my favorite new dress...Daschunds Are a Girl's Best Friend Dress!

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!