Here it is the 100th post.  It’s a nice tradition in this crafty blog world to have some sort of contest or giveaway on occasions like these.  And even though I’m crap at responding to comments, they really do push me to do more and better things.  This sewing book is a great example . A year ago I would have thought up this idea, but probably never got around to making it, and then proceed to mope around because I never do the things I say I will.  No more!  And it’s all because of you.  So the sewing book pictured above is yours (sans supplies) if you win.  Just leave a comment on this post–a joke, a recipe, a book recommendation, the name of your dog, whatever–and Monday I will pick a winner (by random).  If you’ve never left a comment before, go ahead and do so. Click on the comments and write your email in the space provided (no one can see it but me) and if you don’t have a website just leave that space blank.   There are more pictures of the book on my flickr site if you’d like to see.  

Because I’m almost up to 1000 comments (it’s at 984 right now) there will be a secret prize for the 1000th commenter! Good luck! And I’ll see you on Monday.

Recently, I’ve been lucky enough to be featured on some fantastic websites and blogs.  This might look like I’m tooting my own horn (and I might be, a little) but I want to thank them all for choosing to showcase my work and my home.  A few days ago, a magazine called Artful Blogging came in the mail and I had never heard of the magazine much less subscribed to it, but when I open it up there was a picture of my plush diggers!  Next to some amazing artist work no less–Heidi Kenney and Ann Wood, two women I greatly admire.  This picture is in an article about the website whipup.  A great website and one I’m happy to be associated with. The Plush You! exhibit at Schmancy (a store in Seattle) was what started my toy making desire in the first place, so I was super excited to see some of my toys on their blog.  And not only did Cookie magazine highlight my home in their blog, nesting (thanks joanna) but today my kids’ room is pictured on the Apartment therapy blog Ohdeeoh! Then last night after putting the kids to bed I looked on Etsy and there were my felt rocks on the front page. I have thoroughly exhausted my fifteen minutes of fame and will probably be totally uncool tomorrow, oh well.  Thank you to everyone, you made my week.

This is my 99th post, so tomorrow will be my 100th. duh. And I’ll be hosting a little giveaway!  So check back tomorrow.

Meet Olaf. He is the answer to the question: “Can this outfit be turned into a soft toy?”  The pants were mine a long time ago and the shirt I picked up at a thrift store for a different project.  I should have taken a picture actually wearing the outfit before I cut it all up, but there was a big, gaping hole in the shirt in a very conspicuous spot. I wasn’t sure if the pants would work, but my trusty little machine sewed through all those layers with just a little pushing on my part (and no swearing!).  All the pockets still work and I may whip up a little polka dotted toy for Olaf to put in a pocket, but he may be to serious for that.

Elphanso it is! thanks to the woman behind the bird bath for the great name.  He’s up in my shop and entered in the 2nd annual softies awards too.  Wish me luck!  And because I can’t muster up the energy to get off the couch I will play along with a little meme that I have been tagged for by fiona of fede (blog and shop). She makes some pretty fantastic soft hammer rattles, that you should go see.  Okay here goes:

4 jobs:

baker
nanny
bed and breakfast manager (mostly cleaning toliets and ironing! sheets)
chocolatier

4 favorite movies:

amadeus
fight club
grizzly man (and everything by werner herzog)
pirates of the caribbean

4 places I’ve been:

jerusalem
copenhagen
istanbul
the corn palace

4 places I’ve lived:

athens and
rome, briefly
bodega bay, ca
a little cabin with no running water and no electricity

4 favorite tv shows:

law & order in all their many incarnations
lost, when it’s on
the office
30 Rock

4 favorite radio programs:

this american life (who doesn’t like this?)
all college radio programs and their awesome college hosts
a prairie home companion, because if you were born in MN you must listen to this
marketplace on npr

4 favorite foods:

chicken livers
french macarons
nueske’s bacon
brioche

4 places I’d rather be:

in my sewing room
turkey
japan
in a bar with all my old friends

I’m supposed to tag 4 people, so I’ll tag the first four people with blogs that commented on my last post (suckers!).

anna

jenna

jodie

tanaya

I’m still working on the animals I was talking about a while back.  There has been more unnecessary law & order watching than sewing, but there is some progress. I’ve never actually drafted a pattern for one of my toys before and it’s pretty time consuming–especially when you have an anal retentive side.  I wanted the elephant to have a big head gusset that would extend down to his trunk and I couldn’t just whip this up.  This is my first attempt and though it looked the way I imagined, his trunk stuck out straight–Pinocchio style–when I stuffed him.  I made a few more and could have kept on making a little muslin menagerie, but I’m trying to make my toys less straight and narrow and more folky and improvised (strangely it’s the latter that needs a pattern).

So I cut into this amazing sparkley striped linen I got from namolio’s shop. I was going to make all the animals from thrifted outfits, and some still will be, but I was trying to cram too many ideas into one toy: stripes or patterned faces, moustached, thrifted outfit transformed into plush toy.  Besides this grey linen was a little wrinkly just like a naked elephant.

Here he is almost done.  He (ah! no name! any suggestions?) is sporting this fantastic fake moustache sent to my by Melinda (thank you again!).  And after seeing little elephante sporting this polka dot moustache, I don’t know if I should use a completely different print for the moustache or make it out of the denim I used for his pants or the grey linen again, or embroider a big fluffy one. I need feed back from all of you who have made it to the end of this post.