:::a year of handmade:::

or more then a  year... i've been saying i will post about this for so long, thank you for waiting and enjoy!

i thought it started with birthday #3 (5/11). and a "babies" skirt.

but i realized it actually all starts a few weeks before

with two crowns i made for sibling friends turning 3 and 5. 

 there was an "s" one for another special little lady also turning 3 but i forgot to take a photo.

(all crowns i've made are from the pattern in the creative family.)

from the year before; this one for my niece,

and this one for a 1st birthday of a super baby boy.

and then i realized it started even before that with a recreation to help act out a favorite story: "the 500 hats of bartholomew cubbins" by dr. suess.

i couldn't make more appear magically underneath but he was ok with that after i explained i just don't possess that kind of magic yet; but i'm working on it.

now back to the birthday #3 handmade:

its' a lazy day's skirt by oliver + S, a free pattern. i love this pattern, it's super simple, i've made a few. 

here's one i made for my other niece, r, for her birthday, a few years ago (6/09). 

it was my first, it was a joint effort by me and my boy, it took days of nap time.

they're good even to be not lazy in, like when you climb to the top of a lighthouse.

(she did the climb herself!)

i made two matching doll sized ones for her "babies".

here it is with the "babies" shirt i embroidered for birthday #2.

and flying with googles. 

sorry i just couldn't resist, i love when she wears it, (and googles) 

i have a ton of pictures of her in it, i could go on and on...

like here. 

ok i'll stop, and get on with it!

little turtle bags, two. one big one little.
she opened them and gave the big one to her brother.

she keeps fairies in the little one.

shark appliqué t-shirt for birthday #6. (11/11)

playing golf in it.

and a sailboat one too.

this is how you wear your birthday crown outside, in november, to eat cupcakes by your birthday bonfire.

not from this year, but you remember these, here it is being loved and used!

a crown for the kindergarten crush;
or betrothed, depending who you ask.

celebrating spring, the solstice and easter with another lazy day's skirt and a lion appliqué t-shirt; which was also the wrapping for "the invention of hugo cabaret", great book! 

collecting eggs with one of the turtle bags (right).

(i didn't make the sailboat bag, my mom got that at a store that sells local handmade.)

the lion shirt 

(at the children's zoo in central park, playing in the turtle eggs).

lazy day's skirt

a nice close up. i love the ribbon hem, it makes it so easy.

ok last one... i love paisley with polka dots.

there was some embroidery

this one you've seen.

there were pot holders galore, i must say i was ecstatic and nostalgic at the same time with these. especially after this first one when he said, "let's make one with a pattern" oh boy, yes! please, let's!

which brings us to birthday #4 (5/12). 

i made bean bags for the balance beam we got her.

(banner from the creative family). 

and a pink, sparkly, tulle lazy day's skirt.

one of two exceptions to the green birthday that was desired.

a green ukulele. 

i didn't make that, but if we're catching up i should tell you, it was a super green birthday.

with a new green bed.

the sibling crowns still being loved one year later for 4 and 6. 

and the other exception to the super green birthday; a sparkly red dress. (i didn't make that either, that was from a grandma)

then there was tie dye.

aaaand i think that brings us up to date. i think. it's been busy and fun. i hope you enjoyed. as always thank you to soule mama for her inspiration and books, and to you, for wanting to see what came of it.

happy handmaking!

for the love of poop

i embroidered a colon. the pattern is by sublime stitching, it truly "ain't your gramma's embroidery". my cousin turned me on to them, she sent me a gift certificate, i don't think she expected me to pick this pattern... the other one i got is here, it's a little more traditional. i really like embroidery, i picked it up because i was withering inside not making anything. it's all i've ever known, making or writing or creating. and now i make people, which is awesome, but you never really finish and it feels like the medium is my soul and i'm always running out.... i tried knitting, i'm still not done..... i just can't knit when i'm exhausted, which is always (i can't even be bothered with the shift key to make capital letters) i end up just counting stitches over and over. i needed something to do in my free time where i get to sit with my husband and the tv from 11:30 to midnight one night a week. but i feel like i waste time if i just watch. so occasionally i embroider.

so why a colon? well, i'm a realist and poop is where it's at. i mean without poop where are you? and in all seriousness, it's all i do all day: wipe poop, make food that will become poop, think about the last time they pooped, if they need more starch, veg, fruit... talk about poop, do sharks poop? well yes they do, google says so and dung beetles, they are a top hit on youtube in my house.... it's all about poop.

i also have 2 good friends who's lives revolve around helping people poop. they believe everything starts in the colon and a clean colon equals a healthy body. i wanted to make this for them, cause they live poop and cause it's just funny. i mean really, an embroidered colon?! am i the only one laughing? my husband says i have a singular wit. maybe i do, but that's just hilarious to me, colons are not the thing of lace and doilies, of scottie dogs and poinsettias on christmas tea towels. tell me you are not laughing when you use the bathroom in my house and the towel has a colon on it? 

but it's not at my house, i gave it to my friend. it's sad actually, this is where the story goes from funny to sad. i'd been planning to make that for them for about a year. and then i started it. on april 17th. it was a sunday. i couldn't get my friends off my mind and i finally started their present. they were coming to visit in 2 weeks, i was hoping to get it done for them. and one of my friends died. the night i started the stitching. i sat and stitched and thought of them and those stitching hours were her last on earth. her husband has the colon towel now, i hope it makes him laugh and know how much i love them. 

those friends are why i have my kids. they helped me clean out my body and tackle issues that were keeping me from conceiving. which, in a nutshell, is the agent orange that my dad was exposed to in vietnam. it makes me angry. livid. furious. and i'm one of the lucky ones. my brother and i have all our limbs, we can see and hear. he had hip replacement at 32, i've had joint pain since the age of 9. my dad has friends who have no children, no grandchildren, and major health issues. every time he goes to a veteran function he hears more stories of the horror this chemical has caused. my brother and i can list the things that we have that are from his exposure before we were even conceived, it's a long list but it's none of the really bad stuff. so we're lucky. but i'm still angry. and it keeps me up at night wondering what is damaged in my children, what did i pass on? i buy organic when i can, i'm working on growing more of my own, i refuse to use chemicals anywhere. i live in harmony with ants because i do not believe for one iota of a second that "safe" actually means safe. "they" told my dad it was safe. if there is one thing i believe it is that "they" lie.

and so we poop. we clear out the toxins as best we can, i teach my kids what is real food and what is crap and we laugh. big, hearty, belly laughs about poop humor. because it's too much to worry about. and if i am going to spend time on this spinning, polluted planet, i am certainly not going to worry the whole time; i know that is not my path. i'm going to embroider organs, stop the use of hand sanitizer in school (seriously, they douse them, don't get me started about endocrine changing substances intended to be forced on my kid....NOT gonna happen) garden; and stand high on my soapbox with an army of angry, educated, action moms on my side to go to war against "they".