ten fingers workshop

January 15th, 2008

I told you all about her before, but my incredibly talented friend has opened her own etsy shop called Ten Fingers Workshop!  She paints these perfectly hip wooden dolls.  The details are amazing–can you see all the belt loops on that little dude’s jeans?!  You can buy the one of a kind dolls in her shop, or you can contact her for custom dolls.  For christmas I commissioned her to paint my family and my in laws (so everyone had a matching wooden doll on christmas morning) and they were a hit! My daughter calls them her “family guys” and plays with them everyday.  The two pictured above are Miles and Cora and they are my favorites, but there are plenty more and beautiful handmade mobiles as well.  So click over and imagine yourself in wooden doll form…

faux bois

November 26th, 2007

click here to see all the faux bois builders.People love making forest creatures, so why not make the forest too. I tried my hand at this plush craze. But when it’s late and you should be in bed and not attempting to start something new, you don’t realize that if you make softie that looks like a cake that looks like a log it just ends up looking like a piece of wood. duh. I thought it was a genius idea to make a little plush buche de noel for the ornament swap, but it just looks like a sad little log. Oh well, I have a couple more ideas. My first ornament came in the mail today, so I better get a move on.

damn

November 25th, 2007

damn. I missed two days. Oh well, my husband pointed out that I was starting to phone it in anyway. I was going a little crazy trying to find things to post about for 30 days straight. And then I was with my sister over Thanksgiving and there was some celebrating and recovering from celebrating. I’ll try to finish out the month, but damn.

click here to see all the mushroom makers

just a couple more plush fads, because really where the hell do these trends come from? And since I haven’t stopped eating or thinking about eating since thursday, I give you 12 stuffed mushrooms. Once I stop patting myself on the back for the christmas presents I have made, I’ll make some more and post them for all to see.

37 owls and a turkey

November 22nd, 2007

click here to see all the amazing owl artists.

We’re on Thanksgiving vacation in these parts, so I’m going to keep going with theme and post about some plush trends for the next couple of days. And there is no trend bigger than the stuffed owl. Why is everyone who tries their hand at toy making compelled to make an owl? Hell, I even made a couple myself. What is it about an owl that makes people want to immortalize it with fabric and polyfil? It’s cool looking, but so are plenty of other animals and it’s not particularly soft and cuddly unlike others. Why do we find ourselves cutting out big googly eyes and little top hats to go on this beautiful bird? Who knows, but somehow every owl ends up looking completely different from the rest. Abby Glassenberg has recently added to this enormous owl family. Her owl is majestic and beautiful, just like the real bird, and somehow different from every other stuffed owl that came before it.

 

Just onne more bird. Happy Thanksgiving!

gobble, gobble.

conjoined twins

November 21st, 2007


such strange trends in the softie making world. please click on the picture to find out whose demented imaginations came up with all these wonderful dolls.

green

November 11th, 2007



some greens for today. click on the picture for all the photo credits.

red

November 10th, 2007

just a little flickr action for the weekend.

click on the picture for all photo credits.

inspiration

October 12th, 2007

There are a couple images that have really caught my eye recently that I wanted to share with you, dear readers.



The first two are from the blog Debi Van Zyl. The mobile I think is just fanastic. I have always loved those strange little seed pods and I think this is a beautiful way to use them. And I can’t stop thinking about the polaroid pictures she took and what great little art quilts they would make. I never thought I’d be one to make an art quilt, but it’s next on my list (right after all that other stuff).

It was this block that got me thinking about art quilts to begin with. It’s from the blog Dear Meagan, and she has recently made another block just as beautiful as the first. The soft toy is hers as well. I think this is a great idea and a nice way to remember how little your little one once was and the adorable outfits they won’t let you put on them anymore.