new booties in the Etsy shop

Just finished up a couple pairs of baby shoes for the Etsy shop. The pair up top has a cute Michael Miller print on the toes. I'm always keeping my eye out for smaller prints that will work on my bootie toes. This one just barely worked. Elephant's trunk and feet got slightly chopped, but I think it's still obvious what he is.

The print I used on the pair below is a sweet piece of fabric I got while in Hawaii over the summer. The past couple trips we've made have been great fabric shopping trips for me. I love browsing through all the screen printed aloha prints and imported Japanese cottons. I could easily spend hours in Hawaiian fabric shops. I found this print, however, at Walmart. Even they have a great fabric selection in Hawaii! The other thing to raid at a Hawaiian Walmart is the scrapbooking section (turtles, surfboards and flip flops!), stamps and origami paper. Love it! All of the Walmarts around my part of town here in California have stopped carrying fabric and this pleases me immensely because now all the fabric shops will pick up the business. But, I sure hope they continue to carry fabric in Hawaii!

live healthy - buy flowers

A book I pick up often is Dr. Andrew Weil's 8 Weeks To Optimum Health. As you know, I love books that lay it all out for me, like an instruction manual for life. I'll have to admit that I haven't ever made it past Week-3. How long have I had this book? Too long to admit. I know there's no excuse for taking care of yourself. So, someday soon I'll stick with it and find myself in optimum health. I love Dr. Weil's mental/spiritual task for Week-1: "Buy some flowers to keep in your home, where you can enjoy them." I can do that! He explains, "Flowers manifest the beauty and wonder of nature and delight the senses. It feels good to be around them. They raise our spirits."

I brought this bunch of sunflowers home yesterday and I didn't want to trim those lovely, long stems! So there they are in all their tall glory. I wonder how long it will take for a ball or toy flying from some little rascal's hands to topple the whole thing over. Not soon, I hope. I can't believe how much water sunflowers drink. It's almost like having a pet when you bring a bunch of sunflowers home. Fresh water every day!

I'm in love with that shade of green in the center.

swatches

Here are some fabric swatches I recently got back from Spoonflower. Yes, I finally learned my lesson. Not that long ago I would order up a yard of fabric and then get it only to find that the colors weren't exactly what I had hoped for. So now I chock up $5 for a test swatch and patiently wait for my samples to arrive before ordering any major yardage. In fact, the swatch up top is a revision of one of my first fabric designs. I'm still trying to find ways to use up the fabric I ordered where the brown looks black and the beige looks off-white! This one is in my Buzzing Bog Collection and can be ordered directly from Spoonflower HERE.

These prints were inspired by our recent Waikiki holiday. The lotus flower was actually something I saw over the summer at the pond in Balboa Park, San Diego. I must have taken dozens of photographs of those lotus blooms. And the vertical orientation reminds me of my mu'u mu'u. I'm still not completely sure about the color, but they are available from Spoonflower as well. I call this collection, Hawaiian Hybrid.

This design might look familiar. I designed it for a Spoonflower contest and then never had a swatch printed up. Shame on me! But the colors are exactly as I pictured. I think the design could still use some edits, but it was exciting to get this one and see it printed up on fabric.

If only I had more hours in the day for designing fabric! So many ideas, too little time. I really want to design a cheater quilt like the one created by The Dixie Chicken. Too cute! I've got to find a way to be able to sacrifice sleep for creativity. Getting swatches back from Spoonflower is incredibly addicting!

new booties in the Etsy shop

I played around with my bootie patterns over the weekend and created this new profile that includes those little tabby-things on the back for gripping while slipping onto baby's foot. (Do those have a name?) I've also started raiding my fabric stash for accenting the toes- I love this Michael Miller print called "Sophie's Garden". Aren't the colors wonderful? Find this pair in the shop.