A librarian and a married girl.

Hello.  Guess what I've been doing?

I hate being predictable, but the heart wants what the heart wants.  

This is Abigail the peculiar librarian.  I don't trust her.  Anybody with red eyes automatically qualifies to be placed on my suspicious, odd, watch out for this one, list.  Yes, even if they are librarians.  Abigail was inspired by Emily Martin's Two of a Kind painting.  Love her work!

While I was working on Abigail, my daughter asked me to make her a "married doll."  She is really into brides and love stories. ( I don't know how much more her dad can take of her talking about marriage and babies.  My husband doesn't have any sisters, so he doesn't quite understand a little girls psyche.   However, he is trying.)  I told B-girl that I would make the bride's dress and she can paint the bride.  Deal?  Deal!  And here is the blushing bride....

What a sweetie!  I will forever remember my daughter's face after she painted the smile on the married girl, she turned to me and said "she is smiling like this" and she made the most awkwardly cute smile I ever did see.  Designing and making the doll was a fun, memorable, tear free, experience for the both of us.  

Married girl - I think it's so cute how little ones talk.  Often times, I find it difficult to correct my little ones when the say something that is not grammatically correct or accurate.  A couple of weeks ago, my daughter asked me a question about giving birth (see, there's the babies thing again) and she began the sentence like this " Mama, when you laid me......."  I forgot what the rest of the question was, because it was so funny to me that she thought I laid her.  No, I didn't correct her, as a matter of fact, yesterday she asked me if Hanna (our dog) was ever going to lay babies.  Another favorite of mine is the mispronunciation of them as dems.  My daughter will say "Can I have all of dems?" or "Is dems coming with us?"  Reluctantly, I began to correct her, but it's funny how catchy dems is.  One day while at work,  my husband referred to a group of people as  "all dems."  He came home and said we have to stop saying "dems."  

Have a wonderful weekend.  Next week should be a fun week here at Prettydittyville.  I have a makeover/tutorial to share with you, as well as a couple of doll kit giveaways.

Cheers,

Jamie

I can't stop.....

...making peg dolls.  I think every craftster experiences the dilemma of to work or to create. However, I figured out a way to justify the creating as work.... sort of. For example, I made Penny (above) for my niece.  Making Penny falls into the work category, because she wasn't for me, BUT instead she was a birthday present for my niece, AND  I am blogging about Penny the peg doll, AND the blog is somewhat work related (my shops are linked), THEREFORE... doll making is work! Phew - I feel less guilty now. 

Penny's "vintage purse" is needle felted (yet another obsession). I also needle felted the buttons on her dress as well as the trim. I'm really excited about the dress, because I designed the dress to be removable by attaching a snap to the back of the dress. It's a super easy dress pattern. There's just one front piece, two back pieces and the collar pieces. That's it! No hemming, because it's made of wool felt.

Along with the doll, I put together a peg doll kit for my niece. Now, she can make Penny some friends.

Because the dress pattern was so easy, I also made my daughter a peg doll.

This is Penelope, but my daughter calls her Ella =)

Cheers,

Jamie

My spool friend Reese

I never did get around to sharing with you my new little friend Reese.  She's a cutie and looks as if she is always full a mischief.  I don't know if you can see, but she has little arms.  Her little arms only accentuates her apple shape.  I adore every thing about her except for the fact that she is still into Glamour shots.  Remember those... Glamour shots from the 90's... going to the mall... Nope, never did it ;)

Have a great weekend!

Jamie

The Road to California Quilt Show

Rather than write about how beautiful all of the quilts were at The Road to California Quilt Show, I thought it best to show you.

Untamed Splendor by Gina Perkes

Dessert Bloom by Monica Troy

Windfall by Carol Taylor

Look What I Caught by Laurie Britt.  Laurie Britt is new to quilting. As in 2 years new.  Amazing!  The technique used was raw edge applique.

A close up of the cute little fairy on the dragon's tail.

Spring Break by Joanell Connolly

Flower Garden by Lynn Woll

This quilt is called Cigar Quilt, and it's from the 1890's.  I thought of Jodi from Vintage Ric Rac and her beautiful selvedge dress.  I think she would appreciate this quilt.

Another highlight of the show was the array of vendors.  One particular vendor, Bird Brain Designs, carried a wide assortment of wool roving and needle felting supplies.  I have been on the look out for needle felting supplies every since I viewed Yu Yu Art's Cutie Girls.  Aren't they cute?!  She has an etsy shop too.  Up until Yu Yu Art came along, I have never had the slightest itch to start needle felting, and now I feel as though I have a serious case of needle felting poison ivy.  

Jamie

My Echino Pig skirt

Here is my new skirt I made with Echino Pig fabric.  I drafted the skirt pattern by following the guidelines on how to draft an A-line skirt in the Sew What! Skirts pattern book.  I really like it because it's one of those skirts that looks cute with a pair of Grey Chuck Taylor's, which I happen to have.  Also, it gets pretty windy here, so rarely do I wear full gathered skirts.  The combination of my 3 kids and a windy day can be very dangerous.  However, with the A-line skirt, I think I'm pretty safe to wear it on a windy day... but then again just to be safe, I will probably wear spandex shorts underneath.  I wouldn't want to traumatize my kids.

  

This reminds me of a time when I was in college and I noticed my friend walking across the quad.  As she turned the corner, her entire backside was exposed, because her FULL gathered skirt was caught up in her backpack.  She, of course, had no idea that when she had slung her backpack over her shoulder, it caught the back of her skirt and lifted it up. I ran over to her to let her know about the "little show" she was putting on for everyone.  She had a good sense of humor about it.  I actually ran into her a couple of years ago. Guess what her occupation is, or at least was at the time I ran into her?..... An Exotic Dancer!  I am not even kidding you. Darn those full skirts! 

Jamie

PS. I just noticed my body in the first pic is almost perfectly aligned with my spool doll's head in my banner.  How funny! 

New Alexander Henry fabric in the shop!

A couple of posts back, I wrote something about not being an owl person. I'm going to have to take that back. The good people of Alexander Henry fabrics have changed my mind. Once again, they did a fabulous job with the color selection on all of the new fabrics. I simply love the owls! I can't stop looking at them, they make my eyes feel goooood. How about the Inky Wings fabric? Who would have thought insects could look so non-juvenile on a fabric. A 50's inspired sun dress would look great with Inky Wings.  I'm proud to say that all of these fabrics are available in the shop.

If you happen to be in the Southern California area between today and Sunday, you will have to stop by the Ontario Convention Center to check out California's major quilt show Road to California. The show brings together an array of beautiful quilts that are true works of art, as well as buttons, fabrics, and sewing machines.  All of the latest sewing/quilting gadgets will be on display. A definite must see if you can go.

Lastly, Erin of Dessert Girl asked me to guest blog about my favorite dessert. I wrote about my favorite Blueberry Banana Cream Pie recipe, which made me think about that dessert and how long it's been since I've made it. So today (grocery day), I bought the ingredients to make it. It's the weekend, so it's allowed =)

Have a great weekend! Next week, I will show you my new Echino skirt I made today.

Cheers,

Jamie

A hutch makeover

We are all alive and healthy here in my happy little house. I hesitate in writing this next part, but I do believe I can say with 99% certainty, we are free and clear of that nasty little flu bug. Which, by the way, does anybody no why it's called the flu BUG? Why the word bug? Maybe it's because the flu just bugs. Anyways, good riddance!

Speaking of a happy house, over Christmas break my husband and I did a hutch make-over on my Gramps' old hutch. When my Gramps passed away, my mom inherited the hutch. However, through the years she couldn't find the perfect place for it in her home. That's because it belonged in my house =) So, she gave it to me. As you can imagine, it holds a very special place in my heart.

But, as special to me as it may be, it still needed some updating before it could move out of the garage and into my home. The 1970's faux dark wood look kept the hutch in garage purgatory for a year, until the task of updating its style could be squeezed into our schedule.

We wanted an Anthro weathered look for the piece, yet the task seemed too labor intensive for a weekend. Plus, the piece isn't solid wood. Portions of the hutch (the surface top of the bottom portion) are made of press board with a wood texture formica top. We weren't sure of how to create the weathered look on that type of surface. Finally, my father-in-law mentioned that we could paint the surface by first sanding the surface to make it rough. This, combined with a light layer of primer spray paint, was enough to transform the hutch from the 1970's Sear's vibe to the coastal cottage Anthro style that I wanted.

The project only took us a day and half to complete. I was amazed with how the process was much easier than I imagined. Now, my house is graced with a meaningful family furniture piece that I can one day pass on. Ironically, my grandkids will probably do all they can to return the piece to it's original state when the 70's Sears vibe comes back in style =)

Here is the almost before pic. (My husband started the project before I could take a pic of pre-makeover. No complaints here for the enthusiastic help.)

And here is the after....

We replaced the handles with knobs from Anthropologie. Very easy.

For a coastal color, we chose a Valspar Signature Martha's Vineyard interior matte blue from Lowe's. In order to get the weathered look, I randomly rubbed the edges with a damp rag before the paint was completely dry.

The red bird cage on top of the hutch was originally a greenish, grey, old, gross color, but with some red spray paint it added just the right amount of pop.

I also decoupaged the drawers with Heather Bailey's Pop Garden fabric.

One last look at the hutch without the glare.

Now my crafty projects have a home.

Jamie

My first hiccup of 2009

I love this picture. . It all goes back to Monday morning and the "Life Hiccup" post. Shortly after that positive thinking post, my 2 year old became very sick with the flu. (I should have known something like that would happen after writing that post.) Anyways, it was a bad flu, full of high fevers, vomiting, and eventually a double ear infection. He is now on antibiotics and is getting much better.  However, my oldest son now has the flu =(  This morning I was awoken by a very hungry and grumpy toddler who hasn't eaten in days and doesn't understand the phrase "just a minute." All the while, my seven year old woke up and unfortunately didn't make it to the restroom in time. (Don't worry, I'll spare you the details.) I love them both very much, and to be quite honest, if this is as bad as it gets, then retrospectively it's not  bad at all. However, at 6:30 in the morning with NO COFFEE running through the veins, I felt like I was having a big life hiccup.

Eventually, I was able to feed my famished toddler and clean up after the oldest. When all was calm, and as I was sipping my much needed coffee, a sweet little humming bird swooped in and perched itself right on a tree in front of my window. I'm pretty sure this is the same humming bird I see every so often perched on the same tree. I'd like to think that maybe she had a rough morning too and just needed some quiet time before returning to her nest full of hungry little birds.  Anyways, I grabbed my camera and began to shoot away. She was a natural model and didn't seem to mind. Below are some more pics from our photo shoot.

After several more pictures were taken, she decided to end the shoot and flew off.

It was beautiful.

I hope you have a blessed weekend.

Jamie

New aprons!

There will be 3 new aprons in the shop this evening. The first one is simply delicious with the red velvet ties and corset in the back. Her name is Sweet Valentine.

The second apron is as peaceful as a blissful breeze on a lazy afternoon. I haven't named her yet. Maybe Lazy???.... maybe not =)

Both aprons were made with Tanya Whelan's Darla fabric.

Lastly, out of fear of becoming predictable with all of the floral aprons I've been making lately...

I made the Grassy Plain apron to change it up a bit. I used Grassy Plain fabric for the body of the apron and Bird to Hang fabric for the waist ties and binding.

They make me happy =)

Cheers,

Jamie

Peg dolls, a new fabric blog, and a giveaway!

During Christmas break, I was able to squeeze in some therapy. I mean craft time. For me, it is very therapeutic to craft, especially when it involves painting. Below are two new peg dolls to add to my collection. Let me introduce you to them. No, they don't actually talk... out loud =).

This is Lucy and she seems to attract birds everywhere she goes. I think it's because of her sweet disposition. Animals are able to sense that sort of thing in a person you know, and babies can too.

And this is Loo. Don't mess with Loo! Actually, she just puts up a big front and is really a softy deep down inside. Birds like her too.

These little wooden dolls can be quite addicting to make.

*** Fabric news ***

I have recently discovered a new fabric blog called The Fabric Shopper a blog dedicated to online fabric sources and inspiration. The blog is basically about all things fabric from online shops, flickr groups, and tutorials to everyone's favorite topic.... giveaways.

Speaking of giveaways, the very talented textile designer Amy Schimler is having a big giveaway on her blog Red Fish Circle. She is giving away one yard of fabric from her new collection Forest Fun along with four Forest Critter pins. There will be three winners total. The winners will be chosen on January 15th (click here to enter). I love anything forest themed especially when it involves critters.

Jamie

Hello 2009, can you tell me where 2008 went?

Last July, I wrote a post about making Christmas aprons in July and whether or not it was too early to do so, because Christmas was sooooo far away. That felt like yesterday! So here we are, a new day, a new year, possibly full of new beginnings.

I am excited about 2009 - yes, even though economic analyst tell me I shouldn't be =) It is an interesting time we are living in - one of change and uncertainty, that's for sure. Over the break my husband and I had a lot of time together to discuss.... well.... everything. It was great! He said something to me, in regards to the future, that I found very insightful. He said that life is not linear. Though I had never thought about it, I guess I have operated my life according to some sort of assumed time line or expectation of events and opportunities. By "life is not linear," I mean that everything from finances to relationships are not acting according to a predictable behavior, as in a straight line with out any deviations. For example, if someone didn't have a great high school experience, it doesn't mean that they will forever be limited in the areas similar to that negative experience. The same is true if someone had a great high school experience. Those experiences were due to circumstances unique to that moment in time.

While this type of thinking can give someone the comfort of a supposed predictability, the reality is that life is not predictable, nor should I allow myself to be boxed in by prior experiences or results. As I have written before, past failures can be so crippling, but it's equally important to note that past successes can keep us in the past out of fear that we may not duplicate the success. Even more practical, is remembering this idea when it comes to my resolution goals. Just because I have a momentary lapse doesn't mean I wholeheartedly jump off the wagon for the rest of the year. If habits were easy to change they wouldn't be called habits. My goal for 2009 is to be present and to embrace each challenge and opportunity for the fullness that it is. So with that in mind, I am excited for 2009 and all of the "life hiccups" it will bring.

Happy to be back.
Cheers,

Jamie