So, I’ve really wanted a cute bag for the summer that was practical and adorable – carry everything and look good. A friend at a meeting the other day had a cute magazine type bag out of oilcloth. I have a couple extra yards of oilcloth so I got all excited that I could make a ‘better’ bag out of oilcloth – more room, pockets, etc… So that was this weekends adventure – except that my sewing machine can’t sew more then two layers of oilcloth together – so once I had the lining and the handles – oy! broke my last needle and put a million holes into the fabric…I’m not sure where to go from here…

Stuff closer, originally uploaded by cafe crafty.

Sherry made me the msot beautiful wee buny and included so much otehr stuff – I feel so spoiled. The bunny is so cool – wth a Mizrahi tummy, a magnet ‘j’, and beautiful hand-stitched ears. She also sent ‘Runaway Bunny’ for Baby Girl and I to read and a ton of knitting stuff! Including handmade stitch markers – oh! and a beautiful hand-wired bracelet. All in black and white – so stylish. Thank you!!! I have a ton more photos on flickr.

Black for Wednesday.

In the summer the cafe at the arts center has coffee…mmmm.

brown

one of the most beautiful brown objects in our house – my husband’s original wooden rocking horse from when he was little. my mother-in-law saved it all these years for when he had a little one of his own and now baby girl loves to be a cowgirl.

(from little birds and port2port)

i loved watching the last week of color, so when i saw that little birds and port2port were announcing another one i thought i would participate…

even though this world is usually one of fabric and paper and other crafty, often softie things – when i saw that the first day was white I had to take a picture of my two favorite techie toys – my nabaztag, snowbunnie, and my new nintendo ds lite – i’m a sucker for brain age!

So, of the three patterns to choose from I selected the pointy kitty. I made her a little mouse to play with. My swap partner – Jenny at blempgorf has already named them Penelope and Petunia.

For the ‘initial’ requirement I embroidered a heart like the old raggedy ann dolls and satin stitched jenny’s ‘j’. And for the ‘button’ requirements I gave kitty a belly button and dancing feet! I stitched a button to each foot so if she’s played with she makes a cute noise as she walks. (I have to give the boy credit for that idea.)

it feels like forever since i’ve posted – and i’ve been busy!

i made a whole group of new sock bags. most were ordered before i even made them so i haven’t updated the store. i’m really happy with this batch though.

tomorrow i’ll post my back-tack kitty!

here she comes…

Walking to work today I was amazed to find some poppies already in bloom – I love summer!

The sun here is so intense. It’s already really hot when I’m out walking and it’s not even July – and it never gets that hot.

I noticed that I haven’t touched any yarn in awhile. I have trouble seeing knitting as a summer activity.

More poppies – I love when the blooms aren’t open yet and they have these cute little raindrop buds waiting to be flowers.

back-tack is waiting…and the fabric stash has escaped!

(that’s sock bags in progress…)

Somehow it seemed to me that I should do a trial run in preparation for back tack iii – so I made a pointy kitty for Baby Girl. Super fun and easy!

Kitty went stalking around the house looking for a good place to nap!

I’ve been away – literally…

We’ve been in Illinois for six days visiting grandparents for Baby Girl’s 3rd Birthday.

It has been overcast and rained everyday.

The rows, upon rows, upon rows of corn sprouts are beautiful. So calming and peaceful in their order and freshness. (I would show a picture but, oh, the rain!)

Above – Baby Girl inside a giant John Deere combine wheel.

in underdress, originally uploaded by cafe crafty.

On Easter morning Tilly and I went to the Easter Egg Hunt at the Snowmass Club. Susan gave us a beautiful dress that she had made for Emily. I let Tilly run around in the petticoat because I thought it was so beautiful. Susan thinks it might be 100 years old. A bunch of the photos are posted at flickr.

i love this!

tank cozy via whip up from extreme craft

I’m embarrased to say how long I’ve owned my Gocco and not used it. The Boy was sweet enough to buy it for me as a present – and I really, really wanted it. But then somehow it went into the closet and it’s been forever.

So the other night The Boy helped me start working on a cafe crafty logo. My friend and I have been Aspen Paperie at the Aspen Farmer’s Market for the past few years, but I’m ready for something new. So I started working on a two screen cafe cup print. I love printing! I love watching those multiples with minor variations grow across my desk!

In a previous life I built props for theatre. At any of the theaters I was at I ended up being the fake food maker and cake decorator. You make a foam cake and then decorate it with some weird plasticy stuff – I can’t remember. My stage cakes looked pretty good – but I never got into decorating real cakes.

So, for Baby Girl’s birthday she wants a ‘my little pony’ party – easy, no problem – Target has all the stuff. Somehow though, the grocery store – who has every kind of character cake imaginable – doesn’t have a ‘my little pony’ cake. So when we were away last weekend I bought the cake decorating kit at Michael’s. I thought there would be enough instruction to figure it out. The kit came with lots of great stuff – BUT NO BOOK! That’s why I bought the kit! Oh well – we did a trial run today, to get ready for next week. It’s a little standard and hokey, but she was pretty happy and I think in the end it’s kind of cute for a 3rd birthday.

Next week it will be a big sheet cake. I used Martha Stewart’s yellow cake recipe and the frosting is from the KitchenAid cookbook that comes with the stand mixer. I also bought the concentrated icing color at Michael’s – I might need to use a little less for the real cake!

disclaimer: all photos today were taken with the camera phone.

Thanks to Amanda! She bought my first sock bag from etsy and sales continued all week…
so I added 9 new bags…take a peek!

I am so excited to be a part of back tack III. Number II was one of the first things that really impressed me when I was really getting into reading blogs (besides discovering Bloglines).

So in preparartion I decided I better make one of Hillary’s Pointy Kitties for Baby Girl as a test run. Here’s the body and head waiting to be stuffed and stitched together. It’s so silly, but it always kind of cracks me up to have a creature in parts on my desk!