Here comes Hazel cotton tail

This weekend I made Hazel a bunny tail, inspired by Curly Birds made possible by my preteen years of making pom-poms for my ice skates.

WOW

This morning I saw some paintings by Leah Giberson on Apartment Therapy. I was totally blown away. You can feel the heat in them. The colors are so crisp. They are photo realistic but the paint has texture. I love them! Seeing work like this makes me want to pick up the brush again.

She has an Etsy shop where you can pick up limited edition prints. She also has a blog

Strollin, strollin, strollin

Kids love to imitate and I basically guarantee that there will come a time when your child will want to push a stroller. Hazel’s stroller goes out for walks with us, it folds and easily fits under our stroller when she gets tired and needs to ride. It gets run up and down the hallway and acts as an impromptu high chair for dolls & animals. Even though we spent under $10 on it, it seems to never fall apart. There are toy strollers on the market that fit every style and budget from vintage prams to ultra modern. Here are just a few.

You & Me Umbrella Stroller
Metal folding stroller, features a clip for umbrella (sold separately).
$8.99


Chicco Padded stroller
Features swivel wheels, storage basket & reclining seat, for sleepy dolls. Folds.
$34.99


Merrily We Stroll Along
$49
Made from sustainably sourced wood, rubber tires, recommended for indoor use.


Troll Doll Stroller
Handmade of bent birch plywood. Designed by Wolfgang Sirch and Christoph Bitzer. All-surface wheels. Reversible bar faces doll towards you.
$260



English Style 3-in-1 Doll Pram
Includes a pram, carrier and stroller. Has 7.75” wheels.
$32.99

Helping the Gulf Coast

Watching what's happening on the Gulf is just sickening. I didn't know what we could do about it and then I saw Etsy's Help the Gulf Coast shop and knew we should add one of our items. Check out our Heron. 50% of proceeds will go to Oxfam America and 50% to the National Audubon Society. Here's your chance to help and to get some great work.

Featured on Ohdeedoh

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have our backyard featured on Ohdeedoh. It was hard to choose photos of our backyard that really highlighted it but I think the post came out great.

Animal Equation

Vote for Animal Equation by Michael. Let's get this shirt made by Threadless!

Posted using ShareThis

Hazel's Room

Due to overwhelmingly popular requests (ok one person), I am posting photos of Hazel's room. A note to those who view these, her room is basically a little square and really hard to photograph.

These are a few images from before Hazel was born and we thought we could "arrange" her world hahahaha (insane laughter) and also before I realized I was allergic to that cool lambskin fur thing on the chair.
Then reality set in. Yes we cleaned up before we took these, but forget perfection. We also switched out that chair and got a craft table from IKEA.

Cakes

My dad is getting frighteningly good at making animal birthday cakes.
You might remember Hazel's first birthday cake, which was a copy of the cake he made for me when I turned 1.

He made Hazel a monkey cake for her 2nd birthday, which came out great.
My friend Matt said it was racist.

I had to remind him it was a monkey, not a person.

My dad just sent me a photo of my sister's birthday cake.
It's a bear.Isn't it cute? Guess how old she's turning this weekend?

34.
Maybe he should expand his répertoire?

I LOVE "Ilovegorgeous"

What little girl wouldn't want to wear the clothes at Ilovegorgeous? They are whimsical and harken back to clothing of many different eras. I see influences of the 60's and 70's but also the the 15th century. The dresses are definitely swirl worthy and their separates are adorable. Also, I love the styling in the photos on their website. Gorgeous.

I heart my daughter's highchair

We have the high chair from IKEA and seriously, it's amazing.

We fed our daughter in a bouncy seat until she was sitting upright really well and then switched to the IKEA seat. We wanted the Stokke seat but we haven't looked back since (not once).

It comes apart easily and fits in the trunk of our car for trips to the in-laws (who have no high chair). It has an extremely low profile and goes great with our table. The seat fits under the edge of the table for times we want Hazel to eat with us without a tray. It's all plastic and easy to clean. It doesn't have a million parts and it’s only $25 so if you don't like it, you really haven't made a huge investment.

We actually made no investment because a friend found ours on the side of the road and brought it to our house but I would have paid for it, knowing what I know now.

Six thumbs up (and no I’m not being paid for this endorsement, unfortunately).

Wow, I've read a lot of books since I lost my job!

Ever since I lost my job, I've been less inclined to post to the blog. I'm not really sure why. I haven't stopped reading though. Here are my brief yet informative reviews of the books I've read since my state of unemployment began in August.

Emotionally Weird by Kate Atkinson - A fun read.

He, She and It by Marge Piercy - Eh, it was ok, I finished it but I don't think I'd pass it on.

Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather by Jincy Willett - Great! Go buy it or borrow it from your local library NOW!

Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian - Don't be fooled because Midwives was good, this books sucks ass (excuse the language). I really don't see what all the reviewers are raving about. This book was all about getting nowhere.

The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark - I loved loved loved this book. It reminded me of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer which you should also read if you haven't. This is definitely the best book I've read since I've been unemployed (someone hire me, not so subliminal message).

The Red Men by Matthew De Abaitua - I really enjoyed this sci-fi read, until the end, when it all fell apart for me. I'll still recommend it because I was totally wrapped up in it and maybe I just missed something because let's face it, it happens sometimes.

I just started People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks because March: A Novel was amazing. I'll let you know how it is.

New Etsy Items

Finally, we've got some new items at our Etsy shop. We think they're pretty cool (of course). Check them out.This photo-collage is a 6 x 8 inch photograph printed on 8x10 Archival paper with Epson inks.
Multiple is a 7.5 x 7.5 inch photograph printed on 8x10 Archival paper with Epson inks.
Ocean is a 6.5 x 9 inch photograph printed on 8x10 Archival paper with Epson inks.

chivalry is NOT dead

Clyde helps Hazel across the threshold! How cute.

Love these!

I saw Julia Rothman's hand silkscreened pillow on dooce.com, that's how I found these GORGEOUS gouache dress paintings ($135 each). Too bad I don't have any extra money...where'd that go? Oh yeah, I had a baby.

Hazel likes....today

Ice...yes, ice. She calls it ichy I don't know why (probably because she's 15 months old) but, she LOVES it. I think because it's hot (really hot) and because she's teething (really teething). I'd been giving her little ice chips by hand or spooning it to her from my glass in restaurants when we went out but last night I had the genius idea of putting some cubes in her Nuby Nibbler (which we never actually used with her). She happily chewed on the mesh bag and it gave me time to get her dinner ready. Why hadn't I thought of this before. Then she wanted more, because of course, the ice melted. I don't know why, but getting the top on the Nibbler isn't so easy for me. Does anyone else have this problem? It looks like it should screw on but it doesn't...I was getting really frustrated, and the ice kept melting. I kept having to put more ice in it and Hazel was watching me stand over the sink, water streaming down my arms and I got more and more annoyed with this stupid piece of idiotic baby equipment that I couldn't friggin get closed....sigh....now I remember why we never used it. Anyway, I finally got so frustrated that I pushed the top really hard and it snapped shut...ooooh! Duh! Drool....