it’s been a while since my last installment of things on the internet that are awesome. So here you go, a few awesome things for spring.

–blocks as hooks. It is a super simple diy and super chic but still perfect for a kids room.

–cursive letters made into adorable animals. Just right for my little girl’s obsession with learning cursive.

-a perfect wooden mp3 player. Too bad it’s pricey as hell.

–wrapped, braided extension cords. This was a design sponge diy from a while back that I must have missed, but damn! isn’t it awesome? I love useful, sculptural, crazy art, but as my mother would say, “That’ll keep you busy.”

–estonian kringle.  Wouldn’t this be lovely on Easter morning?

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So my mother called me up this morning to ask where the hell my next blog post was. Well, actually, she was much nicer than that, but that was the jist of it. I’ve been away too long, I guess?

We actually have been away. To New York, no less!  Even though we got back last week, I haven’t really returned, you know?

I shouldn’t give my mother shit because she came down and looked after all the kids, while my husband and I traipsed off to Brooklyn to eat and drink and stare at buttons (that last one was just me).

and we drank ridiculously good coffee and saw long lost friends and discovered said friends read this little blog (hi christina!).

damn, now I want to go back.

The social aspect of having a blog is odd. There are people you talk to often, keep up with their kids and daily goings on and sometimes you haven’t the faintest idea of what they look like. I’m still uncomfortable getting to know people online, having existed before the internet made that normal, but I’m getting better at it. Slowly, there are many people that I call my friends, not my “friends.”

Dorie is one of those people. She is a ridiculously talented knitter and a damn fine quilter too. With her quilting knowledge and a background in coding, Dorie has made something new and fantastic: Quiltr. Quiltr is a tool for quilters to play with colors and patterns before they start a quilt, but it is also a super fun, crafty video game. In it, you choose a quilt pattern (zig zag, lone star, etc) then you can plug in not only colors, but photos from you flickr stream.

If you a crazy person (like me) who takes pictures of your fabric, well then your next quilt is practically made already. But I have found playing with pictures I’ve taken to be the most fun. It’s got me running off to Spoonflower to design fabrics–something I’ve wanted to do on and off for years. It’s also got me sewing actual quilt squares! Ok, so I really could go on (and on) about Quiltr, but you probably want to go play with it yourselves. So do! and stop on by tumbling blocks while you are at it and tell Dorie what a superstar she is!

edited to add: there is a quiltr flickr group now too!

This spring I stashed a few sticks to make hangers out of, but then the project fizzled. I wanted to find big hooks I could screw into the stick, sort of like extra large cup hooks. Only they don’t make extra large cup hooks. Miss Maize Hutton had a better idea: just take the hook part off a wire hanger and use that. Now I have to go find those sticks. Maybe even crochet over some!

I know there are a bunch of tutorials for little girls’ skirts out there, but this one by Hagar of Sepa Designs for the Charm Stitch blog is particularly lovely. The ribbon, pintuck, and elastic detail make for an extra special skirt. The beautiful Naomi Ito fabric doesn’t hurt either.

The directions for this table are in (horribly translated) German, but you can kind of get the gist of it. And if you do, you’ll have a fabulous table made out of 2x4s. I think this would make a very nice tall table for the entryway.

Is that skirt you bought made for 20 year olds? Add a little color block hem and you are good to go. Not being a big fan of knees, this is my favorite tutorial. She’s got a tutorial for adding pockets as well!

I dont’ know where we got those lick and stick play stamps when we were little, but they always were around. And they always had those fantastic 60’s graphics on them.  Most probably didn’t make it into this century, but happily Terri has made a tutorial for you and your kids to make you own.

That should keep you busy. Have you found any good tutorials on the interwebs these days?

yay! so glad you guys are going to think up all the good ideas for me, because I’m running low. Mostly I want the room to look big, even though it’s small. And be able to be full of kid’s stuff, while still looking sparse.

Sounds totally impossible, right? But I think these first two rooms do it well.

This room is a little too much on the minimal side of things, but there are three kids in a small room and it doesn’t feel in the least bit crowded.

Super simple and super white, but the natural wood bits make it extra good. I’m not very good with the whole mood board thing (mostly because saying it makes me throw up in my mouth a little) but I guess a little vision is good, rather than doing random shit here and there and hoping it comes together–my usual m.o.

As for stuff: I’d like a record display rack for the books and a little house shelf please.