My girls, Dad and me.
Matt, the girls and me.
The girls.

This is a new friend. Actually it's for Matt. He's a little deskbuddy for work. But he needs a name. I was thinking Phin...? Arnie...? Gilbert...? What does he look like?
Oh, right, I got him from this great shop, Emily's Monkey Emporium.

The Other Travel Changing Pad I Made

I just love these fabrics. This is also for sale in my shop.

Calling Creative

I want to start some new posts here and share with you some of the wonderful things I have come across on Etsy. These are my fellow creators who I have saved in my favorites on the site and think they should be shared with the world (or with my friends). So keep me bookmarked and check back often as I will be showcasing some really great stuff. 

If you are a fellow Etsian, keep your eyes out for your own stuff here!

Enjoy.

What To Do With Pretty Fabric

It took parts of two days to make this but I finally finished it. It's an adorable little travel or home changing pad. It can be folded and rolled, then stuck inside a diaper bag. Or you can put it on top of your baby's changing table at home for something nice to look at during changing time. It's now for sale in my Etsy shop. Hard to believe a couple of days ago it was just a pile of cute fabric. I was working on another at the same time and I just finished but the batteries in my camera are still charging and it's raining outside so I can't get any pictures right now. (If you're wondering why it's worth mentioning that it's raining, I tend to get better pictures with better color outside. The color in this picture is off. I will eventually get a better picture for my shop.)

Anyway, I think I'm going to make some more of these babies. If you know me at all, I have a stash of fabric that has just been laying around. It needs to be loved!

Reputation for Repetition

Being three or four years old has got to be the coolest time of your life. You can talk and tell people what you want and do big-kid things, but you're still cute and soft (and you have all your teeth). One of the most intriguing things to me is the fact that a preschooler has a reputation for repetition. If you know me (not the most patient person in the world), you would think I would be utterly annoyed by this but I find it peculiarly endearing. One of a preschoolers favorite things to repeat is movies. Tatum had her fair share of movies that she would watch every day when she was between the ages of about 2 1/2 and 5. Among the phases of movies were "Shrek", "Lady and the Tramp" (which, at 2, she called "Shrimpy the Plant"), "The Little Mermaid" followed by "The Little Mermaid 2", "Monsters", "Sing and Play with Elmo" and many more that don't come to my numb mind at the moment. She knew all the lines and even acted out some of the scenes. It comes in very handy when you don't have a lot of movies (or when you want to take a nap).
Now, three kids and scads of Disney (and other) movies later, I've come to expect it. Portia, in the throes of four years old, has recently been a huge fan of "Cats and Dogs" (more affectionately known as "Dogs and Cats"), "Arthur and the Invisibles" and just this week "Beauty and the Beast". In "Arthur..." she pretends she is the character that is voiced by Madonna, called Selenia (I think) and she even wants her hair and her outfit to be like her. Her outfit consists of a half shirt showing off her perfectly sculpted abs, and teeny tiny pants which Portia substitutes with a little girls bra-type tee and a brown skirt (see below). When I first saw her do this it worried me and then when I realized why she was wearing it, it just cracked me up. Well, it's all pretty cute.
As for the brown skirt, my mom bought Portia this flowy, Bohemian-style brown skirt with flowers and sequins on the front and Portia absolutely LOVES that skirt. She will wear it for days on end, sometimes even to bed if I don't feel like fighting. It needs to be whisked away sometimes, yes, for a good scrub, but she will spot it a mile away (or keep nagging me to wash it) and she'll shimmy herself right back into it. Another thing she discovered as of late was this pair of black, footless tights that I bought two pairs of (one for Tate, one for Po) at the beginning of the school year for ballet. But, like anyone with a little girl knows, it was under piles of OTHER cute tights because little girls can never have enough tights, you know. I discovered the black footless tights the other day thinking she wouldn't like them but, well, they didn't come off for days. She slept in them, played in them and just totally adored them. They've been hanging out at the bottom of the hamper and she forgot about them after a couple of days but I'm sure as soon as she spots them, onto her little legs they will go.
And, back to the movies, you're probably wondering if Stella, not quite 2 yet, has any favorite movies. Well, yes, she does. She LOVES "Charlie and Lola" (I love them, two little cartoon kids with British accents--what's not to love?) and will scream "Lola! Lola!" when she's near the TV, overpronouncing the "L". That's actually pretty cute. (No, she doesn't have any favorite clothes yet, although she does seem to keep taking dresses off the hanger and really doesn't mind if her sisters dress her up in their princess-clothes.)

This is how little I like blogging...

...but I thought I'd share some of my newest stuff that I've been working on. It's pretty much the only reason I'm here. I've been crocheting scarves for my newest Etsy endeavor and also adding to my other Etsy shop with these cute hats that are a ton of fun.