The Wong Family

 I was really inspired by these photos.  Look at those smiles!  And, the sunshine.  Not to mention, the fire pants!  That was my favorite part: sewing those pants.

I feel refreshed for the work week after a Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, my favorite.  We lounged about at City Park.  We drank cafe aulaits while the little one had chocolate ice cream and then walked along a stream in and out of shadows from giant, majestic oak trees.  There's a man who you can hire to take you on a gondola ride who adds a bit of magic to the water.  Walter kept fighting off pretend dragons.  It was a great day, sigh.  Now I start work on a family wall hanging for a lovely family in the Ukraine.  The mom has been giving me insight to the chaos that is going on there.  I hope there is peace soon, and that peace comes about due to the powerful people softening their egos. 

The Wizard of Oz for Poppy!

This one.  I think I have expressed my love for my job quite frequently, but the Holiday months can turn my beautiful business into something more along the lines of Office Space.  I think I would be the sad guy obsessed with the stapler.  There are lots of orders and little time with the added pressure of wanting to also make life beautiful and special at home for my little one.  Ugly things can happen, like getting annoyed at the tree for being in my way.  But, This Family!  Especially the mom, just breathed life and love back into my frustrated little head.  Some people just have that magic in them.  I get excited about everything I work on, but having this Wizard of Oz project to look forward to made everything sparkly and warm.  This post is a bit rambly, but I think maybe some of you may know what I am trying to say!  Anyway, this family is the cat's pajamas!  And, little Poppy, who loves the Wizard of Oz, and has patience to wait for Christmas presents until AFTER Christmas just melts my heart!  Thanks for being you Poppy!

Teamforever

These three look so iconic.  I love their look.  Making this one was very fun for me.  You can't really differentiate the blacks in the photo, but I used a shiny silk for the jacket so that it would look like leather.  I spent a long time on this one.  I keep doing that!  Supposedly, the more you work on something, the faster you get, but for me it is the opposite.  I think I become more and more attached to my work and I make them more and more precious.  Or, perhaps the bambino in my belly is slowing me down.

I think someone needs to write a movie about these two and then ask them to star in it.  The dog too.  But, maybe don't have the dog able to talk in it, keep it classy!

You can order your personalized wall hanging here (pets are $25 extra).

Little Kaleigh

Aren't her cheeks so squishable!  You can order your Personalized Doll right here!

Kayaking Frogs!

Here are three kayaking frogs who are going to go above the bed of a camp friend's niece.  They will sing loudly, and unharmoniously, but with soul.  This particular friend is from a particular camp in wild and wonderful West Virginia.  It really did feel wild there.  Louisiana feels similarly wild, but doesn't have any mountains, so maybe West Virginia wins in the wild contest.  Though alligators exist here, so that makes Louisiana a close second. 

I still have my calendar booked for several weeks, but I am aching to develop some new mobiles.  This one was quite fun.  Do you have any crazy ideas, I have some of my own, but I love hearing others and letting them stew around upstairs in the noggin.

Tea Pot!

This mobile is headed to a wee little one in Thailand who has elegant and beautiful parents that enjoy tea and macaroons! The tea pot and tea cup are based off of their own tea set which features intricate drawings of iron chairs and benches. 

Rodent Family, Astronauts and Project Runway

I made this rodent family for a cute family in Spain.  Neus, the mom, wanted to make sure the rat head on her husband had a chewed up ear.  I just love little details like that.  Whenever I see/think of a raccoon, it makes me sing Rocky Raccoon in my head.   The in-my-head-music-video of that song looks like a Wes Anderson clay-mation with animals.  I always thought Rocky Raccoon was literally meant to be an anthropomorphic raccoon.  I remember talking to Joseph about the song and being surprised that he didn't think the same way. 

We are getting ready for Halloween over here.  This year I actually bought a pattern and am sewing Walter a costume from it.  He's going to be an astronaut.  I have never sewn from a pattern before, except for one thing I made from a Lotta Jansdotter book.  It's so weird.  I am glad I taught myself to sew before trying patterns.  There are so many arrows, dots and triangles involved in the real deal.  Had I learned from patterns initially, I probably would have been too intimidated to try my own thing.  As I am working through this astronaut monstrocity (labeled "easy") I find myself just having to veer off and make bits my own way.  I just can not comprehend certain steps.  The pocket directions might as well have been written in German.  I even spent some time Googling in the hopes that some sweet mom out there posted a tutorial on you tube pertaining to this particular pocket I needed to make.  Man, there are a lot of variations of pockets in the world.  Holy geez.  Oh well, I sewed it on my way, and you can definitely store stuff in it.  Do astronauts really have pockets on their suits?  For moon rock collecting, maybe.  I will tell you that when I bought the pattern, I thought it would come quite easily to me.  I will even tell you that in the back of my mind I imagined this costume launching an interest in fashion design (and, more embarrassing, a spot on next year's Project Runway competition).

Can we talk about Project Runway for a second?  Are you watching it?  I've been upset with this season.  They seem to be upping the drama factor pretty hard.  I never liked those high drama reality shows.  I lived through junior high, I don't want to go there again.  Some of these contestants seemed highly unstable and put on the show solely for the purpose of acting irrationally or immaturely.  It's too silly when it gets like that.  The best "reality" moments are when the designers are generous with one another, or speaking admirably about other contestant's work.  And, the best part of the show overall is seeing how people are creative under pressure.  I feel like Tim Gunn needs to have a stern talking to with some of the decision makers behind the show.   What are your thoughts?