Today is the last day to sign up for the mobile swap! Almost 100 amazingly talented people have signed up from around the world already.  So if you still would like to make and receive a mobile please email me at elsiemarleyblog AT gmail DOT com with the following information:

1. name

2. email address

3. website (if you have one)
4. mailing address

5. favorite colors

6. whether or not the mobile is for a baby’s room

Monday I will send out your information to your partner and you can get to making.  You will receive a mobile from a different person than you are making one for just because surprises are nice.

The picture above is my new studio.  I’m still in the basement, but I have a much bigger space and a window that even lets in some light once and a while.  Once everything is together I’ll take some pictures so you can see where the magic happens–though most of my magic has been sitting on the couch watching god awful tv since christmas.

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…

dolly accessories

January 10th, 2008

sorry for the absence, I am slowing crawling out of a flu hole–one that sucked me in for almost a week.  Thank goodness for extremely supportive and hardworking husbands!
Needless to say, nothing got done this past week.  But in honor of whipup’s children’s crafts month, which I am very excited about, I scrounged up some things I made for my daughter a while back.  It surprises me how excited she is to have accessories for her dolls (as I cannot accessories myself out of a paper bag).  The top two photos are pictures of the swing smock from Amy Karol’s book, “Bend the Rules Sewing.”  I just traced the pattern in the book–no enlarging necessary–and followed her directions.  I used velcro as a fastener instead of ties, but other than that it is the same as the bigger version.  The bottom left is a little mattress and pillow for her dolly’s cradle.  I should have used extra batting on the inside so it was more tufted, but oh well.  And the last is a wonky dolly diaper.  Super easy and as this one has already been lost, I think it’s time for me to make another.   She didn’t help with any of these, but a child could certainly pick out the fabric and older kids could even help sew.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be making accessories for a plastic dolly, but here I am.

email

January 4th, 2008

if you’d like to join the swap my email is

elsiemarleyblog AT gmail DOT com

there was a typo in the swap post and I want to make sure I get everyone’s email!

mobile swap

January 4th, 2008

Most of the christmas decorations are making their way back to storage and the house is looking pretty empty. Every year after all the lights are packed up and the sad little christmas tree put on the curb I wonder why I don’t have something beautiful to put in their place. We go to all this effort to make our houses glow at christmas time and then January comes around and suddenly they are so bare. There have been some really beautiful mobiles on the internets lately and I think one would look nice hanging above my mantle. So I thought I’d try to organize a little swap: a mobile swap.

If you would like to make and receive a mobile for your home email me at elsiemarleyblog AT gmail DOT com with the following information:

1. name

2. email address

3. website (if you have one)

4. mailing address

5. favorite colors

6. whether the mobile is for a baby’s room or not

That’s it! The mobile can be out of any kind of material using any design you can think up. Sign up by Friday January 18th and I’ll send you your partner’s information the following Monday. I’ll try to arrange it so you send to one person, but receive a package from another–just to mix it up. Packages should be sent out by Wednesday February 20th at the latest. I started a flickr group where you can post pictures of your mobiles before you send them off. And please feel free to copy and paste the mobile swap button onto your blog. So pack up the rest of that holiday paraphernalia and get making.