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!).