allsorts

Wrapping up A Post a Day in May, in June

It was nice to be able to skip a day of posting yesterday, but I caught myself getting anxious around 6 pm when I would normally be writing up my entry. Thanks again to everyone who played along, we enjoyed some great posts, cute projects and a ton of gorgeous photography. Barbara suggested I create a final post listing the participants, as a sort of archive. I think that's a fabulous idea, so... these are all the bloggers who participated in A Post a Day in May:

• 4:53 am
• a little of a lot
• a simple life
• a thrifty mrs
• aj's antics
• all things shabby chic
• amazing mae
• anna's blog
• artsy momma
• back woods wife
• because i'm me
• belvedere beads
• blue castle
• burford designs
• candy hearts & paper flowers
• cara lou
• craft n clutter
• curly pops
• dearfii
• depeche mom
• diary of a mad quilter
• diary of a tinyholder
• e made this!
• five minutes of fame
• flower childe cottage
• foxgloves fabric & folly
• frazzy dazzles
• ginger at home
• gingerbread cottage
• growing together
• itty bitty birdy
• jeff likes buildings
• jellybelly*jellybrain
• jumping from one idea to the next
• kit knitty
• kitty's kaboodle
• kootoyoo
• kylie's crafts
• lazy morning cafe
• librarian lee
• library collective
• life in red shoes
• life on two acres
• life with nature girl
• linnea paulina
• little bluebird diaries
• lola...again
• london southern belle
• mad quilter
• mathea
• mean mommy
• meet me at mikes
• miscellany of me
• molly severtson
• momma on the mountain
• mommy holly
• monkey see, monkey do
• my own crafty wonderland
• my peaceful valley
• my road to sanity
• nana's blog log
• nifty adventures into denmark
• no life without wife
• not so cynical knitting gal
• patchy work of mini grey
• pip stitch
• posy press
• puddin pop
• quaint handmade
• redneck dingbat quilter
• sampaguita quilts
• shallow thoughts from iowa
• shannon's introspections
• southern bella
• staindrop
• stitcher & scribbler
• stitchin by the lake
• strokes of magic
• sødeste
• the floss box
• the humming cat
• the ongoing effort
• the stitching surgeon
• the weather in the streets
• thimbly things
• threads for evie
• tweety's nest
• two crazy crafters
• two cups of coffee
• unfinished business
• with needle in hand
• wondermommy
• wraggedy patches
• yours 'til niagara falls

Well done! Happy posting!

Cheers,

Jenny

We made it!

Today was very long and very full and I want to be sure to get up a final post for May before we sit down for dinner and get lost in a movie.

These were the photos I took yesterday of some of the little dresses.  At first I tried hanging them in the dogwood by the front porch but the light was too blue.

Then I tried up in the dogwood in the courtyard. But what with the tricky sun and shadows thing coupled with an active breeze, nothing really turned out in focus or unruffled...

These two behaved themselves pretty much...

but this little shift wanted a picture taken all by itself.

I want to congratulate all the bloggers who participated in A Post a Day in May! Personally I had a blast, and found it very motivating. And I actually posted every single day! Woohoo... I always wanted to win a perfect attendance award but never even came close! And hats off to everyone who kept with it, even with a missed day here and there, it was fantastic to see so many postings. Well done!

This has been so much fun, I feel like I'm into a nice rhythm that I'd like to keep up. Here's hoping!

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - Happy Birthday Jeffrey!!!!

How to make a new ironing board cover and why I'm an idiot

The vintage baby clothes are ironed and lovely. As soon as I started ironing I realized my huge iron and ironing board wouldn't work on those little things, so I used my travel/craft iron and my Ikea tabletop ironing board. And oh so typically of me, I decided to make a new cover for the ironing board since the one it came with was not... cute enough... as seen in its usual ho hum state by my sewing machine:

So I chose some cute Moda fabric and laid that right side down on the table, with a layer of quilter's flannel on top of that. I put the board upside down on those, then freehand sketched on the flannel about three and a half inches out from the edge of the board, and then cut through both layers. I folded the edge in a scant half-inch and pinned, and then stitched that. Here it is before stitching:

I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the next step - I folded the edge in again, but fitted the string in as I pinned so I wouldn't have to thread it through after I'd sewn the casing up. I hope that makes sense. I left two long tails of string at the end near the hanger thingie, and sewed the casing, leaving an opening where the tails were. Then I plopped on the board, cinched the top snug around the board and tied up the tails. Tada!

Now for why I'm an idiot. While touching up a little dress for a photo shoot, it looked so cute, I decided to take a quick photo...

But... while looking through the viewfinder I didn't like the reflection in the iron (you can guess what's coming next) I reached down and grabbed the iron to move it, forgetting it was still on.

Hey, no one can say I don't suffer for my art...

Oh, and now I can show you the bracelet Ro brought me from Singapore. Its the silver cable and pearl combo one. I love it! The other Katy gave me. She got another just like it for herself, and we both wear them constantly. As a reminder.

Pics of the vintage baby clothes and stuff tomorrow. I can't believe we've reached the end of May already!

Cheers,

Jenny

Eye candy

A mosaic of some lovely creations from my Flickr favorites...

1. Rose pouch, 2. Springbean the Bear, 3. fairyville house, 4. bloquinho, 5. Mini Quilt from Swap, 6. Pretty Millinery Flowers, 7. Bike and tree - zippy pouch, 8. 1950's dolls, 9. bitty bootie, 10. Meninas para pôr ao peito!, 11. redwork  embroidery pinkeep, 12. Sending You Cheer Bluebird in Red

Cheers,

Jenny

White linens

Last weekend I pulled out some boxes of vintage baby things and saw that some had not been cleaned properly before storage. So I hand washed them and gave them a good long soak in Vintage Soak (sorry, but I bought mine a while ago and I can't give you a current source). That stuff is amazing. It will bring the most stubborn of yellowed linen back to a nice snowy white. I confess I didn't do the soaking in this washbasin, but it makes for a much more attractive photo than the plastic tubs I really used. ;o)

After soaking I laid them out on toweling to dry and now they are nice and bright and crispy. There are a lot of sweet dresses, little suits and even a child-sized dutch apron and cap. I have a bit of ironing to do!

But I'm one of those crazy people who like to iron, especially such sweet things as these.

Cheers,

Jenny

Ladies in waiting

How about a little sneak peek...

These little ladies are waiting for their frocks, and then they will be the first things listed in my etsy shop! Its my own little twist on the clothespin dolls that have been cropping up lately, like here and here. And of course here, which is how the whole dang thing got started!

I can't help it, they make me happy, silly little things.

Remind you of anything?

Cheers,

Jenny

Remembering

Cheers,

Jenny

Boy oh Birthday boy

Somebody is having a birthday! My super amazing awesome hubster is celebrating his *mumble* birthday tomorrow, only he isn't at home, he's here...

Singapore! And that puts him thirteen hours ahead of Texas time, which means it's nighttime there, so when he gets up and checks my blog, he'll see this... on his birthday... I think. Frankly I am totally turned around by the time difference. When he calls in the evening (for me) it is the next morning (for him). So when he says "I'll talk to you tonight," it will be the next morning for me. Agh!

So before I get any more confused, let me just say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my guy, I love and miss you, and I'll see you in a couple of days! Smoochies!!! ;o)

Cheers,

Jenny

House of Elliott

Emily recently held a giveaway and to enter, she asked for any sort of recommendation. Sheesh, she got 849 comments! My recommendation was The House of Elliott, a series that ran on BBC in the 90's. I somehow found it on Netflix and we worked our way through the whole series. It is a fascinating tale of two sisters who set out to establish a couture fashion house in London in the 1920's. Great settings, fabulous costumes, extremely entertaining.

These photos are of the younger sister, Evie. She wears some of the most amazing costumes. If you get Netflix, look into it!

Anywho, That's my post for the day, such as it is... short and sweet. Only one more week of daily posts, I hope I can make it!

Cheers,

Jenny

Friday fabrolls

No Friday archives today, my computer is ignoring my scanner. So here are some quick pics of a corner of my worktable in a cozy bit of afternoon sunshine. I've taken to storing my fat quarters and half-yards rolled up in buckets from Ikea, and this tin utensil caddy from Joann's. They're easier to dig through than when folded and stacked, and its easy to pull them down to where I'm working and pop them back onto the shelf once I pick something out. I even had enough dotted fabrics to fill up the whole caddy! As usual I bought in multiples so when Ikea had those blue buckets I snagged five of them, and they're all full of fabrolls now. I also bought some of Ikea's big sized blue buckets and those are now used for trash and recycling in the studio, but I feel like a milk maid carrying them out to the bins... I have the strongest urge to skip.

Also, check out the stack of cute tin trays with the vintage-y silhouettes. Those came from artsymama's etsy shop and I love them. They're even cuter in person!

I'm getting into a rhythm with posting every day. Around 6 pm-ish if I haven't done a post yet, I just look around and there's usually something to post about. But I'm starting to feel a bit like someone who talks too much with not a lot to say. You know, like you dread sitting next to on an airplane. Let me know if I get to be too boring. ;o)

Cheers,

Jenny

Planning in progress

This little miss l'elephant popped into my head as I was driving today, so I did this quick sketch as soon as I got home. I think she'd make a nice little softie... if I can figure out how to make her. Actually, I have made one other elephant, my very first softie ever!

Cheers,

Jenny

On my desk Wednesday ~ Alphonse!

Sitting on my desk this Wednesday, is Alphonse! He arrived just yesterday from Its a Whimsical Life. Boy, he's a charmer for sure, with his pearly aqua bow and teensy flower. And he's got a little bling on his bunny-behind... his pink poofy tail is spangled with silver! Too cute.

Thanks, Susan, I'm smitten!

Cheers,

Jenny

Cute fruit

So... this is a typical plate of apples and pears, right?

Nope.

They are regular in every way except about half the size.

Trying to convey how little they are...

And how cute! I couldn't resist.

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - I should clarify that these are real, found in the produce section at Central Market!

Morning light

We were up early this morning. The light was so pretty on the bedside table.

Cheers,

Jenny

Domestic Bliss

Domestic Bliss, that's the name of just one of many Flickr photosets by flamenconut I've been looking through today. If you love vintage children's illustrations, you'll adore her other sets as well. She's got funny names for them, like Fuel Stop, Romantic Tic, and Fairy Tale Trail.

Here are a few of my faves from her collections...

Aren't they amazing?  She must have a mind-boggling book collection. That's one library I'd love to hang out in for a while!

Hope you're having a relaxing and fun weekend...

Cheers,

Jenny

Bags and baggage

Found via how about orange...

the very clever and entertaining web site of Hermes.

Lots of fun things to find when you click on the various images. For example you can print, cut and assemble your own tiny Hermes bag! Plain...

or fancy!

Speaking of bags, does anyone know of a good place to find nice laptop carriers and luggage? We just trekked all over Northpark in vain. Something a little less chichi than Hermes is a bit more our speed.

Cheers,

Jenny

Friday archives - South Hill Park

For this week's Friday Archives... one of my favorite photos ever. That's Katy down on the street in front of our house in Hampstead. Taken from the window in the dining room I think. Could that tree have been in bloom? I honestly can't recall. This is how I remember England, the street wet from rain, sounds carried up on the heavy air, footsteps below, the occasional car driving around the loop.

Today Vicky and I drove up to McKinney on a whim, and had a wonderful day. After exploring an interesting new housing development, we ate shrimp al fresco overlooking an enormous fountain at an awesome restaurant, and I bought a bagful of fat quarters in candy colors at a darling little quilt shop on the square. A great day out, I really needed that!

I'm working on an idea for a fun tutorial, with any luck I'll have it ready to post early next week! Have a fantastic weekend!

Cheers,

Jenny

Woohoo! Halfway through a post a day in May!

Etsy obsession

I can't stand it! I'm experiencing a delightful case of cute overload after spending some time exploring Etsy. I've been favoriting a lot of sellers and items, (typepad spellchecker doesn't like that word... but then it doesn't like the word typepad either... lol!) and here are just few. The adorable polar bear above is from fantastic toys.

And this golden bear is from pavlucha...

This great pillow is from syko...

This sewn art is from the flash bulb...

This adorable dog is from three red trees...

These super sweet little shoes are from Charlotte Liddle...

And Alphonse, the cutest softie bunny ever is from its a whimsical life...

Um, never mind, I just bought Alphonse myself!

Like I said... cute overload!

Cheers,

Jenny

British country living

I just spent a happy hour or so poring through a couple of new British decorating magazines, and I feel like I've taken a mini-vacation. Ro took me to Borders on Mother's Day and I bought a tidy stack of magazines. I'm trying to stretch them out to last as long as possible. My faves are the British versions of Country Living and Country Homes and Interiors. That inspired me to look at one of my favorite Brit blogs, Posy, where I clicked through her inspirations and passions links. I ended up on the Decorative Country Living site. I believe I blogged once before about their clever children's toys and such, this time I was enamored with the kitchen and household items, like the sweet tea set, above. And this adorable shelf...

and this pump bottle of hand wash, just because I love that shade of blue...

and a fun set of metal cannisters...

fabric brooches (I love that word)...

and finally this enamelware vase. Man do I love that shade of blue! I guess I'm feelin' the blue these days...

I think I'll pour myself a glass of wine and immerse myself in those British magazines again. Wish I could go there in real life, but for now, my imagination will have to suffice.

Cheers,

Jenny

Loopsie loops

Thanks everyone, my headache finally abated so here is the first of the two promised posts for today...

Okay, so I exercised my prerogative, changed my mind and now this is my etsy shop-in-the-works... Loopsies!  My thanks and apologies to those who favorited Allsorts Workshop, but it was just a bit too boring a name. It's been bothering me since I set it up, so I decided to switch. This is more me, hopefully, and reflects the sort of things I'm planning on posting there, sort of loopy and fun. I've already made up a set of embroidery patterns, and am in the middle of a series of dolls that are so cute, they've totally taken over the worktable. So now this is the new shop banner...

And avatar...

More later today...

Cheers,

Jenny

Mulligan

Ugh. I have had the worst headache all day, so I'll have to take a mulligan on doing a proper post today. How about if I promise to do two tomorrow?

Cheers, (ouch)

Jenny

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all, especially my own sweet Momsie!

Cheers,

Jenny

Here's Betsy McCall

A quick post and quick walk down memory lane. Betsy McCall paper dolls...

I found these on Flickr here, here and here. I especially love the two little rag dolls in the last one. Wouldn't they be fun to make? I love their little jumpers in red and teal.

Cheers,

Jenny

Friday archives - Faces

There's a new meme in town, all about dusting off old images from our pasts, started by Claire, who provided a handy button for participants...

I had a great time looking through long-neglected image files, searching for something to share. The faces above are from 2002, during a brief but passionate affair with real paints and canvas. They have a significance which I will get to in a moment. I had this nutty idea that I wanted to paint 1000 faces. I even registered the domain name 1000-faces.com. I was fascinated by the variations in features, and arrived at a sort of visual shorthand to capture the nuances in a graphic way. I'm embarrassed to admit how few I actually completed... I think it was a couple dozen or so. The reason I got sidetracked is the significant part.

For my regular illustration jobs, I was using the computer then, but I hadn't yet gained any confidence using my graphics tablet. I still did sketches in pencil, drew the line work in pen, scanned that and added color in Photoshop. But I thought for the faces I could use the computer to work out color and such before picking up my brush. (I really wanted them to work graphically as a group, its the designer in me I guess)  One day while working out some color ideas, I started sketching on the tablet and realized my synapses had made the connection and I could sketch freely on the tablet while looking at the screen. At that point my focus wheeled away from paints and brushes, to pixels and bytes, and I've been working totally digitally ever since.

But not before painting this sweet lady:

She's kind of special. I blogged a bit about her story here.

Anywho, that's todays peek into the archives. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Cheers,

Jenny

The wonderful world of Etsy

Well. Today I did some poking around on Etsy and I was blown away by how gee-normous and jam-packed with resources it is. I feel like the last one to the party because I had no idea!

I especially like these downloadable sidebar buttons...

...and the nifty bannerator for generating a shop banner using one of their desgns:

...there are even "street teams"... I'm not exactly sure what those are but there are tons of them with many many members, and their own workshops.

You can even search for items by color! Hm, what color should I search for?

I'm getting the impression that there is an entire Etsy Universe to explore, and I've only scratched the topmost part of the iceberg (I'm going for maximum metaphor mixing there).

Shoot, and I still don't even have anything to sell yet!

Pardon me, apparently I have work to do...

Cheers,

Jenny

On my desk and on my mind

I dropped the ball a couple of weeks in there and didn't post anything for On My Desk Wednesdays. Blame the huge mess on my work table, that's where I would normally set up a photo shoot, but it has secret projects and stuff all over it. So the end of my computer desk will have to suffice. Again.

The print is from Loobylu! I was quick off the mark when Claire listed her first Gocco prints in her Etsy shop, and luckily I snagged one. It is even more adorable in person! I'm still mulling over where to hang it and framing style. I truly love it. Thanks Claire! Other items on my desk include Cath Kidston stationery and a jellyroll of reproduction feedsack fabric. I love to buy those jellyrolls, but then I never actually make them into anything. I love charm sets, too but those usually end up in something or other.

And speaking of Etsy, I established my own little emporium, Allsorts Workshop! No fanfares yet, there's nothing in it at the moment. I'm still mulling over several possible categories of items to offer. Currently I think it will be patterns, prints and projects, mainly because I like how those words sound together. That's what the secret project on my worktable (and the blue crinkle paper) is all about. I'm doing lots of mulling. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Jenny

A softie spot

Feeling a tug on the heartstrings lately, I'd like to get back into softie land. These cuties came up in a search on Flickr. Can you resist those faces? See them on their original pages:

1. Miss Mouse Swap, 2. Tower of botties, 3. My little house, 4. Tomtenisse Dotty, 5. fuzzy was a puppy, 6. Sisters, 7. Going to a new home., 8. Ortzi the robot, 9. #3

Mosaic Maker found here. All images used under creative commons license.

Cheers,

Jenny

Pirates! Space travel! Dinosaurs!

It's all in a days work for an imaginative little bear. As you may remember, I doodled this little guy back in February, and then decided to have a write me a bear story contest. Well I am very excited to announce that the winner is.... Amy! She sent in an incredibly fun and inventive story that perfectly captured the spunky personality I envisioned for that little guy. Now I'm itching to get to work on sketches. Thank you, Amy! And a big thank you to everyone who submitted a story, it was a tremendously difficult choice. So much talent out there!

And just so you know, I'm no longer adding blog names to the sidebar for a post a day in May. Counting me, there are exactly one hundred participants! Can you believe it?

Cheers,

Jenny

More May flowers

Wow again! We're up to ninety posters! I think after today I'll stop adding names to the sidebar since it is the 4th after all. Already feeling the energy that comes with rising to a challenge. Exactly what I was hoping for.

More flower pics, sorry but I'm on a roll so these are the ones taken on my first Arboretum trip this Spring. I swear I won't make you sit through any more of this for a while. Several commenters asked about my camera. It is this...

...a Nikon D40x and I highly recommend it. 10.2 megapixels and lots of bells and whistles. I also have a better quality lens for it and use that sometimes, too, but the one that comes with it is plenty fine. Of course as you can probably guess... I do a bit more tweaking in Photoshop, but I have to keep some secrets to myself ya know. Anyway if you're wanting to learn more about Photoshop, you can watch some very helpful video tutorials at Lynda.com, an amazing number of which are free.

So... on to more flowers!

Obviously I am very fond of getting up close and personal with my subject. The first and last blossoms were just a few among thousands on the most amazing magnolia tree I've ever seen. I could have climbed up into it and stayed forever. By the time we went back in less than a week, all the blossoms were gone. Sad. I felt extremely fortunate to have seen it and captured such a fleeting memory with my camera.

Cheers,

Jenny

May flowers

Three cheers! So far there are sixty-three bloggers attempting a post a day in May. I'm so thrilled to have such a nice group joining the fun. There's a handy list over yonder in my right sidebar if you want to check out the gang. Some familiar faces, and the chance to get to know some new ones!

And as promised, some visuals for today. These are photos from our most recent trip to the Arboretum. I made it there twice during the amazing Spring flowering. I can't claim all of these, some were taken by family members, but it was with my camera so I can share them, right? The delphinium pic above is by me for sure*, I may have invented some new yoga poses trying to take closeups of it without actually stepping into the flowerbed. I am insanely in love with that shade of blue.

*um, after some spirited  debate I am convinced that this was actually not taken by me, although I did take several shots of my own in the aforementioned yogic poses.

Orange blossom and orange koi...

A flowering tree...

Poppies so bright the color hurt my eyes through the lens...

A blossom caught in the ridges of a bronze fountain...

And a cardinal dreams he's invisible within a brilliant red Japanese maple...

And those are only from our secondary visit. First time I think I snapped a couple hundred, so steel yourselves... no doubt I'll pull some of those out for another post in May!

Cheers,

Jenny

Today's post a day in May post

****okay I think (hope) I got the codes right****

As promised, I conjured a button to add to your blog if you're participating in a post a day in May. And I'm not at all picky, if you don't actually post every day you won't have to stay after school or anything. I think I finally got the codes right, so now you can decide which size button you want, then copy and paste the code that's just below it into a sidebar on your blog. I'll also be putting up a list with links to everyone who is joining the fray so let me know if you are participating. Latecomers are welcome to play, too!

Papa Bear size (250 pixels):

Use this code:
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/5a7hre"><img src="http://tinyurl.com/6mzv8r"/></a>

Mama Bear size (200 pixels wide):

Use this code:
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/5a7hre"><img src="http://tinyurl.com/644p8y"/></a>

Baby Bear size (170 pixels wide):

Use this code:
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/5a7hre"><img src="http://tinyurl.com/67tpfu"/></a>

Goldilocks size (150 pixels wide):

Use this code:
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/5a7hre"><img src="http://tinyurl.com/6j9eze"/></a>

And speaking of bear... I will be announcing which bear story I have selected on Monday!

Cheers, and happy posting!

Jenny

A post a day in May!

Thanks everyone for the attagirls and pledges of support concerning the Orphan Works issue. It felt great to put that out there and get such a great response, both in the comments section and my inbox. Y'all rock.

Now I'm going to transform that boost of energy into a scheme to rev up my creative mojo! I'm going to do a Post a Day in May! (and it even rhymes!) I tried valiantly last November to participate in NoBloPoMo but got as far as the 17th and realized it was one of the worst ideas ever to attempt that in November. But while I was able to keep with it I really loved the pace and rhythm that happened. It got those creative juices flowing and removed the angst of what to post since there would be another one the next day. Plus, I guess I'm a deadline-driven kinda gal anyways. So... May seems like a doable month for me now that I'm beyond the major kid-wrangling years. No science fair projects or ballet recitals to deal with! (hmmm maybe that's why I have the itch to commit to this)

So I'm not even going to scrounge a jpeg to throw onto the top of this post, I'll set my sights on tomorrow!

Hey, if you want to join in, feel free! Maybe I'll do a little graphic thingie and a sidebar list just for that. Let me know in a comment and I'll see what I can put together. In fact, I will definitely do a graphic, and hopefully post it this afternoon! Wait, its a post a day, not two... is that legal?

So. A post a day in May. Okay?

Cheers,

Jenny