Bloomington Handmade Market

My bags are packed and I am ready to go. My Etsy shop will be closed until Monday. I hope to see some of you at the market!

XOXO

Bear Brothers

The Bunny Sisters from my previous posts now have dates to the prom. These Bear Brothers are the last thing I am sewing for the Bloomington Handmade Market. I used different, furrier fur for them.


The last thing I have to do is write their background stories and draw their profile pictures for their tags. It's nice, creative work. It's especially good for me now since Walter is really into those "naming" books. Most of my day is spent saying the same variety of nouns over and over, so it feels good to form sentences and use verbs and adjectives. I even make notes in a notebook, so it feels like very important work.

I had to take a break from the news this week. When you are a stay at home parent, it is really easy to fill the background with all sorts of newsy podcasts---it has become too much though. I can still care without having all the details aired in my home while I stack blocks with my son. Silence and the Talking Heads have been in the background now and things have been much better. I am grateful for my simple life of Walter-rearing and toy making. It didn't always used to be so simple. Sometimes, I think anxiety from tougher times can creep into your life even when there's no need for it to be there, so it's good to look around every now and then and let it melt away.

Anywho, there still are various degrees of simple and I am really looking forward to April when I don't have to make patterns or work towards a handmade market and I can just finish up requests and try new things. I bought this book the other day about making softies that can fit in the palm of your hand. I am excited to learn from it. What I really want to learn is how to make a super-roly-round softie. I want to make a very tubby fellow. I'll keep you posted.

Bunny Sisters

My inner-girl has exploded into tiny bits! Bits in the form of cute, little, bunny girls all ready to plant some seedlings in the veggie garden while adorning their bunny attire. It's been awhile since I have made something very girly, but it was time. Maybe because spring is in the air and the daffodils are blooming. It makes me quite giddy. Skirt weather. Time to do some twirling! Time to listen to bluegrass outside. Though I think this warm weather is coming to a slippery, sleety halt tomorrow. Oh well, the bunny girls made it out in time. Actually, I made them specifically for the crowd at the Bloomington Handmade Market which happens on April 2nd (yikes!). I am excited about the participants this year. Well, I am every year, but this year, in addition to my standby favorite: Elms and Cedars (she makes the most adorable upcycled baby hats), Abby Christine will also be there. She makes finger puppets in the form of all of my favorite pop-culture icons. I mean, if you are feeling insecure about yourself, wouldn't it be great to grab your Liz Lemon finger puppet and share a bowl of cheetohs together? You can check out all the vendors here. Or if you live nearby, please come! Especially if you have never visited Bloomington. It is a special, happy place with tall trees and very good coffee. Walter will even be there, though he and Joseph will probably be spending most of their time nearby at the Wonder Lab (just a block away from the market) playing in the bubble room (no, it is not as cool as Willy Wonka's bubble room, but it is still very fun). The days of plopping the kid in a high chair with some toys at a craft fair are over. He is a rowdy boy. R.O.W.D.Y.


Also, below you will see the three dolls whose patterns are going to be released in a group doll artist book. The book comes out next May!


Lastly, I leave you with a sneak peek into the chaos that is my living room:

Frank, Bilbo and Harry

Bilbo loves being outside in his backyard. He likes the feel of a cool breeze on his cheeks and soft grass on his butt after falling from a head stand. He doesn't discriminate when it comes to the weather either. Gray, rainy days are just fine. In fact, they're rather awesome because they make mud the best and mud is useful in many ways. Let Bilbo count the many useful ways of mud:

1. Making mud pies.
2. Using it to do cave man drawings on the side of the house.
3. Putting it in hair as an ozone friendly type of hair spray.
4. Making mud figurines.
5. Using as a type of face paint to scare sister.

Bilbo plans on documenting the many uses of mud and then getting his documentations published into some type of coffee table book.


Harry likes to wear his monster bear suit when he goes to the movies. It's soft and snuggly and his mother says it is slightly more appropriate than going out in public in your jammies.


Frank is highly opinionated when it comes to Legos. HE can't stand kits. They make him so mad that he could just spit, though he doesn't because that makes his mom do a scary looking frown. He just doesn't appreciate "The Man" telling him what to make with his Legos. If he wants to make a battle-ship he will do so because he wants to, not because some box has a picture of it on the front and a fancy-schmancy instruction manual inside. When Frank explains his concerns with Legos to his mother, she gives him some chocolate. Then she tells him to do some Lego art to express his anger.


Here is one of my favorite shots from my photo shoot with Tall and Small. Doesn't it make you feel like you are jumping right into the middle of all of them at a very high speed?

The bear boys are all headed into my Etsy shop today.

Paul

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Paul dresses to the nine even though he doesn't have anywhere important to be. He can't work because he has had the hiccups for his entire adult life. All his former employers had to let him go because his fellow employees complained that they couldn't concentrate due to the noise. Now he gets paid by doctors and scientists looking to invent a cure for hiccups. He also tries his neighbor's daughter, Sally's (a budding scientist) concoctions at no additional charge. Her cures mainly involve various combinations of the condiments in her mother's refrigerator. Though it didn't cure his hiccups, Paul was pleasantly surprised at the taste of soy sauce and honey mustard. He uses it as a dip for his french fries now.

Paul measures roughly 15" tall and 12" across. He was made by hand by me and is one of a kind. He has a faux fur mustache and hair and hand embroidered features on his face. His pants are corduroy. He is meant for gentle play (no under-three year olds due to his buttons). He also would be a conversation piece on your couch or shelf. He comes with a hand drawn portrait of himself and a printout of his ridiculous story.

He is available at my Etsy shop.



This fellow is one that I am writing a pattern for. The pattern will be available in the book I will be apart of that is coming out next May. Writing patterns is not something of my element, but I think overall it is good for my brain to do so. Like Sodoku, which I never do. Hopefully I will learn a lot from the process and be able to offer patterns in my shop in the future.

Also, I just need to say that my heart goes out to Japan at this time. It is so strange that life is normal and unchanged here while such tragedy is happening across the planet.

Stanley is in the Shop

Stanley is a chef at a small neighborhood restaurant in his friendly neighborhood. He gets inspired for his culinary dishes by the patrons that enter his shop. He doesn't speak to them because he is horribly shy, but he smiles at them under his mustache and he observes them through the chef's window from the safety of his kitchen. For Dotty, the sweet older woman with white hair that has a pinkish hue, he invented pomegranate pancakes with a strawberry sauce. For Larry, a boisterous fellow whose large belly jiggles when he giggles, Stanley invented a jellied horse radish sauce to be served with meatloaf. The patrons find Stanley to be quite a curiosity. They desperately want to start conversations with him, but don't want to disrupt his culinary process.

Stanley is super cute! His mustache is made of partial wool felt and he has a wool bottom. His shoes are part denim part felt. He has hand embroidered and machine embroidered features. He would love to sit on a windowsill in your kitchen and motivate you to be more adventurous with your dinners! He measures roughly 12" tall by 8" wide.

He is meant for gentle play, but because of his buttons is not intended for children under 3.

He is now available in the ole shop.

Sumo Mobile

My very good, lovely, oooooooober-talented friends are going to be an Auntie and Uncie to a lucky little person soon. That little person is in for a treat and will likely have an interesting wardrobe due to their Auntie's special talent of finding treasures on goodwill racks (see this dress). They wanted a mobile for their nephew/niece. A sumo one! Well, initially, they wanted a Samurai mobile, but that seemed impossible, however the very round sumo wrestler is a martial artist that is easily translated into plush. They already sort of look like plush dolls as is. I had so much fun making them. They look a bit skinnier than I'd like, but I'll blame it on Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign? During my research I found this photograph: very cute.