elsie marley

There has been a lot of weddingness all over the place these days. Craftzine had a handmade weddings series going and well I guess summertime is just a time for weddings. My best friend from high school is getting married this fall, so I’ve been looking at dresses and cakes and cute little wedding things for her. All of which has made me think about my wedding 6 years ago. We tried to be cheap and crafty and we were, but shesh not as crafty as brides and grooms these days. I was on craftster constantly while I was planning it and I remember I could click to see the day’s new post and there would be about 20 of them. Ha! now it’s a crafty behemoth! Anyway, this is all just a ploy to share what I made for my wedding, hoping that it will give others ideas. First the invitations:

I used balsa wood for the main invitation, painting a red/orange/pink stripe across the bottom and gluing the actual invitation to the back. My printer was my best friend for all of this and the map was my baby. We got married in the middle of nowhere (on the farm where my mother grew up!) so the map had to be detailed, but of course stylish as well. I am embarrassed to admit just how many hours I spent on it. And I have a huge mental block when it comes to any image editing software: I learn it for about 10 hours and then forget everything and have to relearn it all again.

A few crafty things we did: my sisters tied red ribbons on all the trees on the path that led up to the hill where we got married–it’s hard to decorate the woods, but this worked really well. My mom made jam for all the guests (thanks mom!) and I made a tag for each that then served as the place card. There are so many little things to do for a wedding, anything that can do double duty should. I don’t know if any one used these (the photo says, “tissues, just in case”) but it was a Martha idea that was easy and useful (I think I was still making them on the way to the wedding). And the last picture isn’t really crafty, but it was an fantastic idea (not mine). Instead of having a guest book, we had a stack of cards and asked the guests to write a little note to us and drop it in a bowl. It was much more personal then just a signature and I still like to read them. There were lots of other little things. I made stickers with numbers on them and printed all the guest’s names out of small pieces of paper, then we could stick the numbers next to the names for escort cards at the last minute because arranged seating is a delicate dance. We strung up a clothesline and clipped photos of ourselves when we were kids onto it–it’s nice to have something for the less social (usually me) to do while avoiding talking to people. And a bunch of other stuff, luminarias, programs, table numbers, candle holders. Weddings are a lot of work.

My dress was made out of my mother’s wedding dress, which was in such poor shape it couldn’t be repaired. I found a seamstress who specialized in vintage fabrics (in Chicago) and she created this amazing dress. I think she had, literally, a small handful of the original lace left when she was done. Not the nicest of women, but damn she could sew.

The piece d’resistance of my cheap and craftiness was this polyester fabric. I ordered 50 yards of it in red and pink from ebay (for like 20 bucks, it was ridiculous) and my brother climbed the tallest ladder we had to staple all of it to a tree branch (if you can’t tell that is at least 25 feet up). The tree was at the beginning of the path to the lake where we had our reception and made a beautiful curtain to walk through to get there. This is the only photo I could find of it and though we had the lengths of material pulled back for the party, when we went to clean up we untied them and someone took this amazing poloroid.

I don’t have any wise words for those planning their wedding now except maybe, become best friends with your printer, exploit all of your family and friend’s talents, and everything can be found second hand.

I didn’t mean to disappear for most of March, but there was some actual spring weather here for a while then, of course, the stomach flu hit and ruined all the fun. Now the snow is back and spring seems far off again. But there is spring up on the shelf if nothing else. There is another reason I was away this month and have been a crummy blogger since January really: I’m pregnant! 20 weeks today. I’m not one of those women who bear this burden well. It’s pretty much bitching and moaning for most of the nine months in my case (apologies to my friends and family for all the whining).  I got down to my studio this morning and was actually shocked at how fast my sewing machine sewed.  So yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve done any sewing at all.  And I have a to do pile to prove it. But the first trimester is really over now (not just technically over) and I have some energy back, so things might just start happening again. I hope to be here more than I have been, with actual things I’ve made to show you, but if that doesn’t happen you’ll know why.

So we went to Morocco. It was our honeymoon–five years late, but our honeymoon nonetheless and now that we have two little kids I think the time to ourselves was much more appreciated. And thanks to my wonderful in-laws we were able to get away for a whole week.  We spent a few days in Marrakesh in a very simple riad, which was nice because Marrakesh is a crazy, frantic place.

We were dodging mopeds and surviving the hard sell, but also eating some damn fine food and drinking mint tea all over the place.

We took a bus to the coast to a town called Essaouria, where we had the best meal of all. Right on the ocean in a little shack, we pointed to fish we wanted and they slapped it on the grill.  I really have no business eating seafood in a land locked state, I now realize. I ate piles of shrimp and sardines and washed them all down with a fanta (why can’t I get an orange fanta in the US? what the hell? and why is it so good?).

We had an amazing time and there is too much to show here (but there are a few more pictures on flickr).  It made me realize I need a lot more color in my life and I need to get to the ocean more often.

One more picture, because who else is going to get excited about huge piles of yarn straight out of the dye vat?

I’ve been gone for a little longer than I expected. Right after I wrote that last post, my computer died (maybe my computer reads my blog). So I learned to live without internet for a while, which was probably a good thing. My handy dandy husband wrassled up a computer for me to work on and I’m figuring out all new ways to do all the old things.  While I was away from the internets, we took a fantastic trip to a foreign land.  I’ll be back tomorrow to tell a bit about it, but now I’m going to bed because right when we got back I got the flu. ugh.

I’m going to step back from this blog for a bit. I think some time away from the computer is what I need right now. Visit all the super crafty folks on my links page while I’m gone.

Be back in a couple weeks…

because it’s friday and I don’t have anything to show you anyway.

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

If you need to see the answers, go here. I stole this from domesticali, but you should play along.

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.

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

This isn’t quite a year in review, seeing as I’ve only had this blog since September, but the pictures are all toys I designed and made since then. Really it’s more of a gratuitous pat on the back for finally getting off my ass and making the things I think up.   I’m horrible when it comes to doing new things, especially when they are creative endeavors.  The teenager in me is scared of what people will think and of failing miserably and the grown woman in me doesn’t understand where the hell the impulse to make soft toys came from anyway (there must be a Frosted Flakes joke in there somewhere).

I have a bunch of things I want to do for my kids, my husband, my house, and even my poor dogs this new year, but I would like to open up an etsy shop for me.  We’ll see. I have to make a few more things first (and I have to figure out packaging, branding, shipping, blurb writing).  I have a whole year to cross that one thing off my list.

I am a mother of two and wife to one. Before I had children I was a chocolatier and a baker. Cooking and baking was the way I was creative in my day to day life, but with two little ones that doesn’t work for me any more. I have recently learned to sew and that has filled the creative void. This wonderful and supportive craft blog community has helped me learn to make and inspired me to keep making. If you have a question or comment, or would like to strike up a conversation please email me at

elsiemarleyblog AT gmail DOT com

And my name is Meg, not Elsie. The name of my blog comes from a nursery rhyme about a bar maid:

Elsie Marley’s grown so fine,

She won’t get up to feed the swine,

But lies in bed ’til eight or nine!

Lazy Elsie Marley.