Last Day of a Great Deal!

If you love my Sleep Angels, now's the time to get one! I'm offering free shipping on these dolls and their sisters until Monday at 12 midnight, New York time. Click here to see all the Angels I have available. Happy shopping!

My Niece...

... is beautiful!!!

And is a smart entrepreneurial spirit too. At 18 she's bought her own computer and is paying for her own Internet connection. All so that she can run The Dainty Shop, where you can find clothes and fun jewelry for teenagers and young women. Also on the repertoire of products are design services for Multiply pages. If you live in the Philippines, why not check it out and maybe do some Christmas shopping there.

P.S. The make-like-a-model shot was apparently taken for a class project to do with marketing or something like that.

Shopping List Saturday

Look at all these beautiful Etsy stuff that caught my eye this week!

First row, L-R: T-shirt necklace by Tabychan, Animal cards by Kup Kup Land Photography, European Pink Flowers by Holland Fabric House. Second row, L-R: Nuno Felted Pansies by Ingermaaike, Esme Pillow by Enhabiten, By the Sea Original Embroidery by Shelby Healey. Third row, L-R: Monster Mignon by Junker Jane, Silk Chiffon Scarf by X by LeinaNeima, I Feel Pretty Hat by Frosting Couture.

Want more? Please look at the right sidebar of Charlotte's blog for a list of other blogs with exciting weekend finds.

Holiday Reads

Heart Handmade's downloadable zine is up!

Looking for reading material and gift ideas for the holidays? The wonderful people behind the following blogs prepared these for you:

Always-fabulous Marichelle of Heart Handmade put together a downloadable zine. It takes a while to download, but with Marichelle's signature style of quick tidbits to read everywhere, it is a lot of fun to read. Very well done too!

Kelly of Kelly Loves Whales (love that blog name) put together what she calls an "Instant Happy" gift list. If you're looking for something short but sweet, click here.

I am enamored of Upstate Fancy's Holiday Gift Guide. It's straightforward but still very cute, and is stocked full of charming handmade goodies.

Full disclosure: There's something in all three about either me or my products, so yes, this is a self-serving entry :)

And, if you haven't had enough, Becky of The Fab Miss B did an interview of me here. I loved her questions, so please do click and read!

DIY: How to Make a Terrarium

1. Choose your vessel with care. A fairy's teacup, a magician's goblet, or a witch's herb jar will work particularly well, but in a pinch, something like an ogre's cereal bowl will also do.
2. Begin with a layer of ground dragon's egg shells on the floor of your vessel, about a dwarf's thumb high.
3. Cover the shells with a layer of volcanic dust.
4. Now cover your volcanic dust with the sighing moss to be found in the deep forests of Banahao.
5. Wait for the first full moon to find out what plants your filled vessel will give you.
6. In a fortnight, your terrarium will have been found by the tiny inhabitant it calls to. This creature will take care of itself.
7. You now only need to water your terrarium occasionally and sparingly with the collected sweet rain that falls on the first of May.

My magic terrariums will be on sale in the shop beginning tomorrow.

One-Day-at-a-Time Worry Dolls

Itsy sent me an e-mail, and a few days later, I made these. They're called One-Day-at-a-Time Worry Dolls, little creatures to help you work on your anxieties and your stresses. Miss Monday and Mister Tuesday are already listed in my shop.

Film Happening

To veer away from the happy-happy tone of this blog--but not by too much, as I have always made it obvious that I am a fan of strange stories--reading two articles in Le Monde (article no. 1 here and article no. 2 here) got me thinking of the Antonio Cuaron film Children of Men, where Clive Owen lives in a future where human beings have all become infertile.

The first piece begins, "The number and the quality of spermatozoa have diminished by about 50 percent since 1950. The incidence of testicular cancer have doubled in the past 30 years. The number of malformation of the masculine genitalia is on the rise..." The culprit? Scientists point to the barrage of chemical substances we are exposed to daily.

We might well be pesticiding and insecticiding ourselves to oblivion, it seems.

Read the article; it's guaranteed to get your brain running. (Maybe use Google Language Tools if you need a translation?) I, for one, have already gotten started thinking of a short story.

******

By the way, speaking of short stories, the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler is up. Editors Charles Tan and Mia Tijam describe it as a "virtual anthology" of speculative fiction in English written by Filipino writers. Cover art is by the very cute (I think) Andrew Drilon. Click and read!

Shopping List Saturday

This past week, life got a lot less busy than it has been for a long time, and so I was click-happy and spent more time just surfing the net. At Etsy, these are what I caught my eye for today's Saturday Shopping List.

First row: Arabella Rabbit Bag by Dragon House of Yuen, Dashing Diagonals Fingerless Gloves by Ticked Pink Knits, I See Double Deer Embroidery by The Time Is Now. Second row: Embroidered Herb-Filled Door Guardian by The 7th Magpie, The Bugbear Set No. 2 by Doubleparlour, Equus Signed Print by Elle Moss. Third row: Roach in My Cup by Bailey Doesn't Bark, Fingerless Gloves by Xmittens, Red Passion by Lunatic Art.

And because Christmas is very near, and I have to think about giving (me :D) some presents, I already made a teeny-tiny purchase in one of the shops I just mentioned above. This little baby is mine:

Little Poppet Textile Art Doll by The 7th Magpie

Want more? Please look at the right sidebar of Charlotte's blog for a list of other blogs with exciting weekend finds.

Planet Teacup

Inspired by all the fabulous terrariums I've been seeing on Etsy, like these and these, I have decided to make my own.

Salon du Champignon

I had sworn to myself that I would never make mushrooms. Just because I thought that the amazing Stephanie Congdon Barnes had sort of put a period on the sentence devoted to plush mushrooms in the crafting world. No, not a period, an exclamation point. Three of them even!

However, a recent trip to the Cevennes where for two entire days the talk and the food had centered around "les champignons" got me thinking again. That, and at a friend's house leafing through a book whose title I had forgotten to note down, but whose pictures devoted to beautiful fungi I can't get out of my mind.

So, today being a Sunday, I gave myself some time in my studio and harvested these from my brain.

Saturday Shopping List

I love red, I love sewing, I love all sorts of fabric stuff. So today's Saturday Shopping List. These pieces all made me go "Wow, I like!" this past week.

Top row, L-R: Matriuska mini slip by Pendientuda, Big Cat by Donkeypony, Birdie Brooch by Karuski
Middle row, L-R: Siberian Ibex by Romawinkel, Multi Ray Necklace by oMARITo, Wrist Cuff by BonnieBoon
Bottom, L-R: Walnut Carriage with Baby by Sunny Day Art and Craft, Garden Bird Card by Ethel and Iris, Yummy Apple by Petit Collage

Want more? Please click here for a list of blogs with exciting weekend finds.

Don't You Wonder If...

...after I've used this photo in my Etsy Featured Seller interview...
... and this photo in my Etsy listing for custom-made plush flowers...
... that maybe I am some sort of creature straight out of the Twilight Zone that actually has no mouth?

Tuesday View

This is what I'll be up to today. When finished, my Bilingual Cloves look like this.

My Current Obsession

The power snack for sewers on a deadline! I've been eating so much I'm starting to look like a squirrel...

Sunday View

It was a nice, sunny day here in the south, but I had to stay in and sew. I did reward myself with a trip to the moviehouse at 10 p.m. to see Hellboy 2. Knowing that movies are released a bit later here in France, I have to ask: Is that something that the rest of the world saw six months ago?

More Blue Eiffel

The events of the past week have left me happy but exhausted! So sorry that there was no Shopping List Saturday yesterday, but please click here for a list of blogs with exciting weekend finds.

Instead I'm posting more photos of the blue Eiffel.All these was taken on the last night my friend and I spent together in Paris. Daki and I have known each other for 20 years (gasp! can you say, we're old?) and had not seen each other for three of those. He had been talking for days about getting off at the Métro's Trocadéro station at night to have a look at the tower. I was a bit hesitant, just because doing so seemed too cheesy! Finally, on Tuesday, when his work helping curate an exhibit at the Unesco was finally done, and we had had a good dinner and had shared a bottle of wine, we finally did it. Despite my earlier misgivings, I'm glad we did.

One blue Eiffel dances, one rains, the third stands still, and the last one jumps. Accidents of digital photography, but still looks beautiful, no?

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Speaking of France, Laurent Lambert, "French by birth and Brooklynite by home," as he describes himself, has just opened an Etsy shop. It's filled with whimsical paintings that I love. This is my favorite, so please indulge this giddy girl and and low with me: Moooooo!Laurent will be listing smaller paintings and greeting cards in the next few days so put him in your bookmarks and check back often!

Hello

I'm back from sitting in cafés and sightseeing in Paris.
Did you know that the Eiffel Tower is these days blue?
Another thing you might not know is that I'm currently the Featured Seller at Etsy! Below, see me somewhere in Montmartre, screaming "Yey-oo!"

Shopping List Saturday

First row, left to right: Aurora by Seaunicorn, La Vie en Rose by MoonstruckMo,
Vintage Rose by Bluebell Cottage, A Rose is... by Joey and Rocky.
Second row, left to right: Tourmaline Bloom Ring by Fuss Jewelry,
Bouquet Choker by Liebling, Vintage Vanilla Cream Flower Stud Earrings
by PeekaPoo, Hair Pin Set 2 by Elves Garden.

This Saturday's shopping list is about sweet and lovely treasures. Looking at things like these always make me think how much fun it is being a girl! (Yep, I'm the kind of woman who wears pink, I admit it.) You can find the list of other bloggers who make Saturday lists in the right sidebar of Charlotte's blog.

And how about you, what are you just aching to buy this grey, windy Saturday?

Lookie!

It's funny, but this blog post over at Haus Maus has convinced me to display my Inspiration Apples in my own home. Now that's what I call a really effective interior design blog.

Photo from Haus Maus.