Oh Dear...

How time flies. It has been so long since I blogged actively that I wonder if I should even bother. For the past two years, the only interaction I have had with this blog are to delete the junk comments that get filtered to my email account. But I suddenly have a itch to get back on board.

What happened? Well, I got married 2.5 years ago and I think that I had crafting burn out. I DIY'd that shebang to the point that I couldn't face looking at fabric or jam jars or a needle and thread without feeling a horrifying sense of responsibility. I was having some great success selling my handmade animals thru a couple of different local stores and in etsy, but it started to feel like a job and not really all that fun anymore. Essentially, I just burned out. Then I moved cross-country and started a new job and got busy catching up with friends and family. I picked up projects here and there, but nothing that got my heart singing again.

And then, finally at the end of this past winter break, I started to get the bug. I spent 4 straight days sewing and sketching and coming up with new ideas and posting to Instagram and getting great feedback. But I hit an insanely busy period with work and just didn't have time. I'm coming out of that work craziness and finally feel like I might be craving some creative time.

As I go into this year, my goals are minimal. Really there's just one goal. Make some stuff. It doesn't have to be to sell, though I'd be excited to get back there again ultimately. It doesn't have to be for gifts, though I must be the only woman my age not having a baby and so I certainly have some lady friends that would probably love something handmade. It doesn't have to be anything that I show anyone or even keep. I just have to get in my studio and play.

Hopefully, I'll post my journey back to creativity and get some positive feedback from friends along the way. I'll keep you posted.

Custom Owl

Right before Christmas, I was hanging out in Fabrika with Ashleigh sewing up some owls during her holiday open house. Her friend Louis came in with his wife who loved said owls. And so Louis sneakily asked, while his wife was looking at fabric in the back room, if I could make a custom owl for her. But he said he wanted it in pinks and could I possibly give it hearts for eyes? Yes and Yes!

So here's some photos of said owlie. And wouldn't you know it - I even had some heart shaped buttons to use for eyes!

Get Hip to the Happenings

Full disclosure - I'm biased about the recommendations since the sites I'm about to direct you to are run by some of my friends. Still, I find them totally inspiring and quite darling and want to direct more readers to them. So take a look!


You must check out dearreader - my friend Beth's new Etsy shop and blog. They are chock full of clever and useful items guaranteed to make you feel cheery. And she works in felt - which of course gets me excited. Beth has a brilliant sense of humor and aesthetics so I am sure that as she continues to build upon the foundations of her new endeavors, it will be worth checking out regularly.


Kooky story - I lost touch with my old roommate Hadley after 1996. Couldn't seem to track her down anywhere. Where should she turn up 14 years later? Why living 10 miles down the road from me here in Savannah of course! And working as a ceramist who makes very fun and whimsical odds and ends. Check our her site for her full line of products or her Etsy to buy some of them direct.


If you are more into paper crafts, then you must take a peek at Asleep On the Couch Designs by my pal Sally. She just seems to be constantly creating and putting me to shame with her energy. And she has lots of opportunities for you to participate with reader giveaways. I really need to take some lessons from her on how to get my blog really up and going.

Inspiration : Kate Greenaway

Considered by many to be the most popular of children's illustrators, Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was a Victorian English illustrator whose images of children and fairy worlds exhibited the innocence of childhood and nostalgia for the idealic world in which they live. Greenaway's work creates a sense of the penultimate middle-class Victorian (although stylistically Regency) childhood - one where it's always nice weather, the flowers are always blooming and one can ignore the nastiness of life in favor of games, tea-times and stories.

Stylistically, her drawings are quite simple with clean lines and light colors - especially as compared to the ornate styles usually associated with Victorian era design. Her work became some of the first to be mass marketed through merchandise, although often without her permission and reproduced under the guise of the "Greenaway style". Her imagery has been used for porcelain figurines & tiles, wallpaper, dolls, tea sets, printed fabric and even children's clothing.

You can see a beautifully digitized copy of her book "A Apple Pie" at the Library of Congress.

Recently Made : Owlies

Before the holidays, I started working on a new pattern for owls. This set of little dudes went over to Fabrika where I believe they all found new homes. Working on a set of spring owls for my Etsy.

Inspiration : Jessie Willcox Smith

Part of a new series I'm hoping to develop; I hope to regularly post about some of the work that inspires me. This is hopefully to motivate myself to work on my own stuff and also to introduce them to my few readers.






First up - children's illustrator, Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935). I was first introduced to her work as a little girl. I had a copy of the classic A Children's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (1914) that I remember reading cover to cover a lot. I still have some of the poems memorized. But it was the illustrations that I loved the most - all done by Smith. My mother, who collects vintage children's books, also had antique copies of The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley (1916) (which sadly, I colored in), At The Back of the North Wind (1919) and The Princess and the Goblin (1920) by George MacDonald - all with illustrations by Smith. Maybe it was all that time spent reading that informed my love of vintage children's ephemera (and libraries?). It is specifically Smith's work which helped to create the early modern feel of children's illustration that I love most.

Initially starting out as a kindergarten teacher, it was because of a chance discovery of her talents that Smith ended up studying illustration under Howard Pyle (who also mentored N.C. Wyeth and Frank Schoonover among others). Smith used her natural abilities with children to observe and draw them in their natural state of play. Using pen and ink with watercolor, Smith's illustrations combine realism with fantasy in way that seem to echo a child's imagination. Her illustrations were regularly used for the covers of popular women's magazines in the early 20th Century - in face, her work would serve as the cover of every issue of Good Housekeeping from December 1917-April 1933. In this way, she must have been as familiar to the public as Norman Rockwell and J.C. Lyondecker. (Those of you who know me well, know that I have other interests in early American magazines, especially Good Housekeeping, so this fact was particularly interesting to me.)

Some (now old) New Guys

I've been so bad about posting about what I've been making. I'm trying to play a little catch up. Unfortunately, I made a number of the things for gifts in the past couple of months that I didn't get a chance to take photos of before I sent them off (a baby quilt, two watercolor paintings and some stuffed animals).

But here is a group of mini animals that I made before Christmas and sold to Fabrika. They are all about 3 inches tall so could be used as tree ornaments or just little decorative toys. Also includes a new pattern that I worked out for some owls. I'll post close-ups of those next.