bunnies

these little bunnies are on their way to whistle in san francisco just in time for easter!

the desert

we're back from another holiday in palm springs. it's such a quick, easy getaway to re-charge and enjoy a little much needed sunshine during a grey, rainy vancouver winter. we rented a fantastic house designed by william krisel for the alexander company in the late fifties. it had an amazing pool and covered patio that we used daily. 

alice thoroughly enjoyed going for lots of walks in the neighborhood, looking for dogs. she also loved examining all of the pretty rocks on our property.

we hit up the art museum, the living desert (above, which also had the largest working train set i've ever seen!)....

...ate at the ace, had famous (and delicious!) date shakes at hadley's, stood by the 26 foot tall marilyn statue........

...but my favorite moment was seeing the giant dinosaurs that were in pee wee's big adventure!!! i love that movie and for years i have wanted to stop and see them but we have always been rushing to do something else, drive somewhere else, etc.

this trip we thought alice might like them too. so fun! it wasn't open when we were there so we just saw the two large ones outside the park, but next time i will make it inside!

prints

i am absolutely in love with this top i recently purchased by the super talented ilana kohn. it's a washed silk crepe de chine and drapes so nicely. just look at this print. i can't get enough of it. i know she did one in a beautiful green shade last spring/summer but this black/blue combo is so spot on for me.

i scored it from one of my favorite shops beklina. good lord, if i had an unlimited budget i could do some serious damage there! angelina carries some amazing lines and she also has the most amazing eye for prints- she designs the line lina rennell herself!
it looks like they are sold out of this print but they have it available in the teal rose print which is super pretty and on sale too.

oh, hi there!

free shipping

my lille limon is a wonderful new shop based out of denmark. they carry such great lines like jess brown, le train fantome, anive for the minors and they are one of the latest shops to carry tinywarbler. they also have some of my baby quilts! 

melanie let me know that she is offering free worldwide shipping from now until december 20th! (just enter FREESHIP at checkout) perfect timing to stock up on some great gifts for the little ones you know. you could grab yourself a giraffe very similar to this one from alice's room.....or......

this neutral baby quilt for a new little one to snuggle with or play on. happy shopping! 

having fun

it feels like it's been really busy lately. we were away for a few days in LA to get some much needed sunshine and a break from the rain. it felt great to to be able to not wear socks again! we went to the zoo, LACMA, santa monica pier, venice beach, saw a saarinen exhibit, ate out alot. just had a generally great time.

we've also been sick since we've been back, had a visitor from out of town, made cupcakes, have had other birthday celebrations, and i've been making lots of animals for special orders and to try to get some stock back in my much neglected shop.

also, alice's nursery was featured on apartment therapy thanks to the lovely lauren of a lovely lark. thanks so much lauren! view it here.

comfort

a few things that are bringing me comfort lately. (while we all recuperate from a nasty cold)

the nursery

well, it only took a year but i finally got around to taking some more pictures of alice's nursery. 

we haven't changed too much since she was born, although we did have some drapes made so she could nap without the blazing sun, and we added a light fixture.

at 10 x 10, it's a cozy little space for alice to sleep and play. we didn't have any sort of plan when it came to making a nursery. we just kept it kind of neutral and then the pieces that we got all seemed to have some sort of red or pink shade. it's a little bit of a mish-mash but it made us happy.

we actually already had alot of the items that are now in her room, like the eames rocker and vintage lamp. it casts such a pretty pink glow when reading her bedtime stories.

the vintage teak dresser is perfect now for lots of storage, but as she gets bigger and needs more play space we will probably move it to our room and get her something a little smaller.

i loved this bear print when i saw it! it's from a local company called banquet and their work has been all over the interweb, i'm sure you've seen them. talented ladies.

i made this teddy bear years ago as a prototype. alice loves to hug and stand on this guy, he also gets thrown out of the crib alot, as do all of his buddies.

a simple white bookshelf to hold some of her books and toys. the baskets are filled with soft toys that she can pull out on her own and play with.

some of my wooden russian nesting dolls that are high out of reach until she is older! (same goes for the   dominos and the muji NYC set......)

a sweet gift from a friend hangs near her door.

and of course she has to have some tinywarbler animals scattered around! wink.

feelin' groovy

the weekend is kind of a blur now, (maybe because it's thursday? how did that happen??) but i do remember spending some fun time with pinecone camp doing a little bit of tie dying. (of course i wore my leggings from shabd , the tie dye master!) 

it was my first time and it was so fun! i made a couple of pillow cases (that help to brighten up our very plain, basic bedroom) and a onesie for alice. i think this could become an obsession.......thanks for having us over janis! 

new sunhat

so....it would appear that this blog has become about all things baby. that certainly wasn't my intent - i used this space to touch base (albeit sporadically) mainly with what i'm working on. however, it seems that almost everything i now do or make is about or for the baby, so........
i recently made alice a new sunhat from the book little things to sew. it seemed daunting to me at first but was actually fairly easy once i got started and read the instructions!

i used essex yarn dyed in denim for the one side and a cute polka dot for the underside. it is a reversible pattern but i added a velcro chin strap so that alice won't throw it off in seconds....although she still tries sometimes.

i can see making many more of these as she gets bigger! in different fabrics and colors. and maybe even trying to make one for my giant head, no hat ever seems to fit.
i'm hooked.

and thanks for the quilt love! i had a lot of fun piecing those together and was happy with the finished result.

on their way

a couple of baby quilts that are ready to be mailed to a great new online kids shop that opened in denmark, more on that soon.....
they are just waiting for their animal counterparts to be tagged and packaged with them.

i am addicted to all things lavender

just doing a little harvesting of my *very* small lavender crop. none of my spanish lavender really produced this year, i think i cut it down waaayyy too much last fall. hopefully i can get my act together and have better results for next year.
a green thumb i do not have. but i'm working on it!

record keeping

i recently picked myself up a journal from rifle paper co. i love this company! i bought this print for alice's room before she was born and have been buying their birthday and holiday cards for a couple of years now. i think their products are so pretty and can't get enough!
i gave this journal as a gift a while back and thought it might be a pretty way for me to record alice's daily events for the next year of her life. nothing fancy, just point form notes of certain foods, milestones or daily events-no matter how mundane. i thought it might be fun to look back on years from now, when eating a peach slice or standing won't seem like such a big deal.
but it sure is now!

one year

so it finally happened, our little girl turned one over the weekend. i still can't believe it. she 's not a little baby anymore!

to celebrate we had family over and made hot dogs, pink lemonade and pink lemonade cupcakes.  i'm really not much of a baker and this was my first time baking cupcakes, so thankfully they turned out! especially since we waited until 12:30 to bake them and guests were arriving at 3:00. i already know of one thing i will do differently next year..........

the cupcake recipe was from here (we even ended up having the same little jellie topper! totally by accident.) and it was so easy and tasted delicious. i can't find the recipe i used for the buttercream but will post it as soon as i do.
make them. you will be glad. trust me.

to welcome guests we strung some bunting i made out of pale yellow, grey and pink fabrics i had, keeping with the pink lemonade theme. and i also made some pink pom poms (a la martha) to try to distract attention from the sad looking planter at our entrance. (note to self, fix that.)

i made some cushion covers using some amy butler fabric i had kicking about. i also made a long bunting banner to help pep up the grey wall of the garage. and more pom poms.

cushion cover made by me using 'dagmar plaid' by alexander henry. of course more bunting. i became obsessed.

and her present from us was a teepee. her very own little nook. i made her a couple of pillow covers using the new "simpatico" organic fabric line by cloud 9. i picked mine up locally at spool of thread.
it was a fun day!

snippets

squares

i have been trying to sneak in a few moments here and there.....

....of piecing together a couple of baby quilts similar to the one i made for alice.......

...with the intention to sell them in the shop. i have to be quick and stealthy, which is kind of fun. next steps- backing, quilting then binding. hopefully they won't take too long.