Happy New Year!

"We bless this year for all we learned,

for all we've loved

and lost

and for the quiet way

it brought us nearer to our inevitable destination."

- John O'Donahue

I thought that quote summed up the year perfectly. :)

2011 has ended with an unexpected twist for me

(a crazy move that was unfortunately a step backwards for us...

but I keep telling myself sometimes we have to step back in order to move forward).

My new year's resolution?

I hope that one day a long time from now,

I can look back at 2012 and say,

"That was when it all began...when I finally started to become the person I always dreamed of being."

I'm really looking forward to starting this new year and the plans I have for it.

Best of all, in a month or less, our family of three will be a family of four!

I can't think of a better way to kick off a new year, can you?

I hope you guys all stay safe on this new year's eve...

and of course, happy new year!!

(Now that the dust is finally starting to settle around here, I'll soon share with you guys a few of the things I've been working on.)

An Unexpected Crafting Project

I mentioned in my last post that I had all these great plans for projects to do this summer and ended up not getting anything done...

I must admit, I had a pretty good excuse.

Around Alex's birthday, I discovered that I was crafting something without even realizing...

Alex is going to have a little sister!

We're quite excited...and I am so glad the first trimester sickness is finally over.

Isn't she cute already? :)

We're going to name her Summer

(which I know is ironic since she'll be born the end of January, but oh well).

Now that I'm feeling a little more like myself again (well, a larger, achy version of myself at least), I'm happy to be jumping back into my crafting and dolly projects...and gah, do I ever have so many lined up!

Anyway, here's a little message from Loomy for you guys. :)

Hope everyone has had a great weekend...I know I did!

Where has summer gone?

Here it is the beginning of fall

and I can't help trying to figure out where on earth summer went!

Not that we haven't done a lot this summer...

Alex had a wonderful 2nd birthday!

We went to birthday parties, sprinkler parks, baseball games...

We even had a great 4th of July!

We had some fun times at the zoo...

(loved that polar bear!)

And the best part of this summer?

Alex's first trip to the beach!

Is this not pure two year old bliss? :)



The one thing I didn't manage to do this summer is anything creative!

I have a pretty good excuse though...

and I'll tell you guys more about that a little later. ;)

Did everyone else have a wonderful summer?

Anybody else as sad to see it go as I am?



Loomy the Laundry Monster

I have a confession to make...

I can never stay ahead of the laundry.

I seriously think my hamper is a bottomless pit and that the clothes in it multiply on their own.

I fear that it's gotten so bad I've attracted...a creature.

I managed to get a shot of him while passing by the hamper the other day...

I found him again later when I opened the laundry room...

It turns out he's a friendly little guy and I managed to catch him to take better pictures.

He even let me take a picture of his cute little tail!

We decided to call him Loomy.

After playing with him for awhile, we released him in a place we knew he'd be comfortable...

At least now I know why I pulled ten of my son's socks from the dryer and none of them made a pair!

Loomy is about 6 inches tall (sitting) and is made mostly of fake fur.

He was handsewn and painted.

Have a great week, you guys!

Choo Choo! Someone's Turning Two!

I can not believe in just a few weeks, my little baby boy will be two years old.

Where has the time gone!?

I really wanted to make his birthday invitation and now that I finally have a scanner and photoshop, I had no excuse not to!

Alex is obsessed with trains, so his birthday is going to be train themed.

He's going to be sooo excited!

I made a rough little doodle then searched around for tutorials on how to color in photoshop.

It's been quite awhile that I've really been able to play with photoshop.

(I use it everyday at work, but that's different!)

This was the first time in a loooong time I've colored anything in photoshop

(and I'm pretty sure the first time I've ever completed a picture in photoshop, heh.)

I still have a lot to learn, but I'm pretty happy with it for my first attempt!

And then the invitation!

(I blacked out the address and phone numbers...sorry! Don't want any surprise people showing up! Haha!)

I'm no graphic designer or anything, but I'm quite proud of how it turned out!

By the way...everytime I've had the picture pulled up on my screen to work on it,

Alex will run by, laugh, and say "Choo choo! Yay!"

So he approves and that's all that matters!

School's Out! Shew!

No, I'm not in school anymore, but my work revolves around the school year.

I work in a professional photo lab and we print pictures for schools...

so the past month has been SO busy.

There's always a huge push before the kids get out for christmas break

and then another before they get out for summer.

Plus, my co-worker is out on maternity leave so I've been painfully busy.

I haven't had much time for anything at all...

there's a sad little furry monster sitting on my table begging to be finished.

Now that things are finally slowing down, you guys should be seeing him soon!

In dolly news, a lovely new friend decided to join the gang around here.

She's my first MSD and was made by ResinSoul.

I finally had a few minutes to spare the other day

and was able to take her out and play with my camera.

She was a blast to photograph...and isn't she lovely?

I still want to darken the makeup around her eyes a bit,

but after the painfully fiddly work of putting her glass eyes in, I think it can wait awhile.

For once, poor Scribble wasn't included in the photo session...hopefully she'll forgive me. ;)

A Doll Called Regret Gets a New Name

I mentioned before how this past month has been rather sad.

At the beginning of March,

I learned that my grandmother had taken a turn for the worse.

I'd known for about six months or so that she had cancer.

Unfortunately, the time had come for us to go say goodbye to her.

When I was a little girl, I thought my grandmother was the greatest person in the world.

Unfortunately, I never was able to have the relationship with her that I dreamed of...

or really, any relationship with her at all (this was not by my choice).

Hearing that I had to go say goodbye to her was really difficult for me.

I guess there's always been a little girl locked away inside,

hoping that one day things would magically change.

My first response was one that I'm sure many of you can relate to...

I threw myself into crafting in order to work through my feelings.

That is how Regret came to be.

I worked on her almost nonstop and filled her with all my regrets.

I shed quite a few tears as I stitched her together.

When the time came to paint her face, my first thought was to make her sad.

She had other plans...

As I was working on her face, the lyrics to the song "Smile" came to mind

(which was odd...I hadn't heard that song in forever!)

"Smile, though your heart is aching
Smile, even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by...
If you smile."

I realized something very important while working on Regret.

While my grandmother and I were never able to have the relationship I had dreamed of, she did have a major influence on me.

She was the one that really inspired me to create things like dolls in the first place.

I may not have had many memories with my grandmother,

but the ones I do have are all happy.

As I made the final touches on Regret, she requested I give her a new name...

And that is how the doll called Regret became known as Memory.

Funny what one can learn from a little doll, huh?

In Loving Memory :)

Sad News

I woke up Sunday to an absolutely beautiful day.

I was making Alex's breakfast and planning our day together when I got a phone call.

My boss lost his twenty year old daughter in a car accident the night before.

Police showed up at his door at 3 in the morning to give him the news.

Isn't it scary how our entire lives can change in just a moment?

Her death has reminded me to hug my loved ones a little tighter and appreciate everyone in my life a little bit more.

I came home last night after a ten hour work day to find my son in a grumpy, whiny mood. My first reaction would be to sigh and become frustrated, but I stopped myself and just hugged my little guy close and did the best I could to make him happy.

Why?

Because I know my boss would give anything in the world right now to come home and find his daughter there...even if she were in the worst of moods.

Will you guys do me a favor this week?

Tell someone you love how much you love them...or give them a hug...or a kiss.

Anything!

Just make sure they know how much you care about them.

Anyway, it's been pretty sad around here the past few weeks.

March has been one of those months that brought a new piece of sad news every single week.

And this piece of news has probably been the most heartbreaking of all.

It has certainly made getting anything creative done very difficult.

I am so hoping things will get brighter after this!

I think I need some happy in my life right about now.

The Case of the Missing Pie

I woke up the other morning and decided it was a morning that chocolate pie would make a perfectly acceptable breakfast.

(I, being female, believe I have the right to make that decision on certain days.)

Scribble, was very quick to agree and grabbed a fork and plate.

Imagine my surprise when I removed the foil only to discover someone had eaten the filling out of the entire pie! All that was left was a sad little pie crust....and a very guilty fork, covered in chocolate.

Scribble found this to be quite amusing.

I was not nearly as pleased.

(Hell hath no fury like a woman denied her chocolate.)

Scribble, being her typical helpful little self, decided to question a few of the residents to see if they knew what had happened to the pie.

First, she asked Moth.

Moth gave a little gasp and claimed she couldn't image anyone she knows would do anything so awful.

Scribble thought she'd ask Blush to see if she saw anything...

...but Blush just blushed shyly and promised she hadn't seen a thing.

I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and went to our resident fairy.

Fairies, after all, typically make it their business to know everything that goes on in the house.

Trinket happily perched on my finger and giggled at me

(her typical first response when I ask her a question she feels is silly.)

 

She then pointed out that I should very well know who ate the pie. After all, only one person in the house is known for getting midnight snacks...

 

Luckily for my husband, Scribble quickly saved the day by jumping into my hand with a very special surprise.

(I told my husband of my morning dilemma and he just laughed and laughed.

I still did not find it nearly as amusing!)

In other news, I am almost done with my next doll.

I'm still working on my furry friend, but had to take a break from him to complete this doll. Now that the time has changed, I should be able to have enough daylight to photograph her when I get home from work during the week!

A Week of House Sitting

Well, this week has been busy busy and not in the way that I would have hoped!

We spent the entire week at my mom's,

taking care of her dogs while she was out of town. It's nice being at her house

(it's bigger than ours so it gives us all more room to stretch out), but packing up stuff for two adults, one baby, and two dogs for a week makes it feel like we were moving!

Unfortunately, I didn't really pack my sewing stuff

so I was very unproductive this week.

 I did, however, spend some time with my sketchbook.

It's sad...I look through all my old sketchbooks at my mom's and think about the days when I drew picture after picture of crazy fantastic creatures.

Sometimes I feel like I've lost my magic.

(I've faced a depressing amount of tragedies over the past ten years...not to mention a traumatizing art school experience that left me giving up on art completely for two years...so I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself.)

Anyway, I'm trying to commit to reconnecting with my old self.

I miss my creative side that could see the dragons lurking behind the trees and

the fairies flitting by in the wind.

I'm happy to say I'm now back home and happily working on my newest project.

This will be my first time working with faux fur...and it's pretty interesting so far!

Since I don't have any pictures of my progress,

you get to play peek-a-boo with Scribble!

Hope you guys have a great week!

Blush

I can't wait until the time changes back!

It seems like during the week, I'm never home when there's daylight!

Anyway, I finally took pictures of my latest doll

...and she's my very favorite I've made so far. :)

Painting has always been a first love in art for me

so I've been wanting to combine making plushies with my painting for awhile now.

I'm so happy with how she came out

and I just can't wait to start on my next project now!

(I already have a sketch of him too ;) )

This is Blush...

Blush is a quiet girl and tends to be quite shy around new people.

If you take the time to get to know her though, she's actually quite wonderful. :)

She's 9.5" tall while sitting, handsewn and handpainted.

(And yet another yay for me for figuring out how to add her yarn hair!)

It's going to be a beautiful weekend here!

I'm off to enjoy this unexpected spring weather...hope you guys have a great weekend!

A Little Update...W.I.P.!

I am so excited right now!

For the past year I've been trying to "find myself" while creating plushies

....and I think I'm finally getting closer!

I am terribly excited about the doll I'm working on right now and can't wait to share her with you,

but I've still got a few finishing touches to make.

In the meantime, you get a couple of fun work in progress pictures with Scribble helping me out! :)

I've actually been working on this doll for what seems like forever now. This is the first time I've really added "hair" to a plushie...and at some points I wasn't sure if I'd survive the task. Thank goodness Scribble has been here cheering me on.

I used the same yarn that I used on my very first doll.

I was thinking this would be a great project to use up the last of it...until I ran out before I was done.

Now I have a whole new ball of it to use up.

*sigh*

(Thank goodness I like pink, huh?)

Altered Journal

I just love having an art journal.

It's such a relaxing thing to do...and a great place to play with paint and collage

(plus, it creates a perfect home for my little doodles!)

I started my altered journal quite awhile ago and have been working on it off and on over the past year. I really don't work on it nearly enough!

I picked up a random hardback book on clearance and got to work gluing pages together and ripping pages out when it started getting too fat. It was a really scary thing to do to a book, but once I talked myself into doing it, it was a lot of fun!

I've found that I can't really make myself focus on a single page at once. Instead, I just randomly flip through the book until something jumps out at me to be added.

Here are a couple of my pages so far...

I haven't touched either of these pages in awhile...so maybe they're done! :)

A Mostly Original Sock Monkey :)

In 2009 for Christmas, I was so excited about my new found sewing skill,

I went a little overboard trying to make things for everyone. I was quite exhausted.

(When you only sew by hand and you're lucky to have an hour a day to do it, it takes a long time to complete a project!)

This past Christmas I decided to give myself a break.

I only made a gift for one person...and that was only because she'd been casually mentioning wanting this for six months or so.

My brother's girlfriend was just dying for me to make her a sock monkey...

but not just any sock monkey, she wanted the original.

I searched for those stinking socks and only came up with a pair at Hobby Lobby for $12. Yikes!

(I had a problem with spending that much on a pair of socks when I could go to Target and buy a completed monkey for the same price!)

Luckily, I did come up with a pair that I deemed to be close enough for much less at Marshall's.

Somehow, eventhough I only made one gift this year,

I still didn't finish it until the day before Christmas Eve!

All you get is a sad cell phone picture and a messy background...

he got boxed up as soon as I completed him!

I sewed his button eyes on and sat back to look at him...and I hated him!

I pulled out my paints, added a few lines here and there and was so much happier.

I think it's funny how much a few tiny details can change something so drastically.

By the way, if you ever want to make a sock monkey, I love this tutorial.

Gree the Luck Monster

Sweet little Gree is a luck monster...

Unfortunately, he spends so much time giving luck to others,

he has none left over for himself.

It's rather embarrassing being a luck monster with no luck at all.

Thankfully, Gree is such a sweet soul, he tolerates it all with good spirits and manages to keep a smile on his face. :)

Cheshire Cat

Back in September, I was dying to make a plushie for my cousin for her birthday...

so Cheshire was created!

(She just loves the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.)

I was so pleased with how he turned out!