The KnitOwl is in her workshop...

So here's a cute baby named Esme!


She can walk all across the playpen back and forth several times before she falls over. It is so cool to watch her walk around with a book or ball in her hands. She's quite proud of herself and I am just enjoying it all!

Fabrics and Kittens

Alexander Henry's 'Tatsu Dragon' print fabric
from Curious Cat Clothing Etsy shop.


Mitzi (left) and Gypsy (right)


Attempt to catch the understriping in Gypsy's fur


A curious cat indeed...

I've been collecting a few more special fabrics to make clothes for Esme. She is starting to grow out of a lot of her clothes and these handmade clothes seem to 'grow' with her better anyway.

Here are more pictures of the kittens. I hoped to catch some of Gypsy's gorgeous undercoloring in a few of these shots.

Mitzi and Gypsy

Mitzi
An awesome close-up by Mark

Gypsy is still a little shy
but is getting better

They're making as much use of Esme's toys as she is.
Sometimes now I wake up in the middle
of the night to hear Esme's car toy making noises -- and see kittens attacking it.

A Handmade Dress for Esme

I love how the light catches her eyes here.

I saw a handmade dress similar to this one on Etsy - but it was far out of my price range. Plus, I can sew... so I found a pattern similar to it at the local store and made this up out of flea market fabric.

The buttonholes are handsewn, which was the most difficult part. I could do them on the machine if I could figure out which parts to interchange. Somehow I never get around to that and instead spend an extra 10 minutes to an hour handsewing them.



It is a 'swing dress', that is put on over her feet and then brought up and buttoned over the shoulders.



and, even in a 'real-world shot' (not the best lighting etc) you can see the dress still allows her to move around, standing or sitting and playing with her toes. She can even crawl in it without it hindering her movement - although the middle looks a little funny in some positions. It should fit her as a dress for another few months and then graduate to more of a shirt with a simple alteration of where the buttons are placed.

Also: The pants I made Esme a few months ago are still fitting and are in and out of the wash all of the time. Soon I'll need to make a few more pairs in the next size up! I also bought some Alexander Henry dragon fabric like the dress I saw online -- and hope to get a dress and a pair of pants out of it for a nice outfit :)

More Cotton Slug Attack pictures

More pictures of Mark and Esme with the cotton toy slug the other night. I really need to make more but won't get more time until this weekend. I've also got a request to make a 'plush foot' for a sandal company... which I've done one mockup for and need to make another.

Pogo's Children

'Mitzi'


'Alba'
went to a teenage girl and her mom at the flea market
known for melting wholeheartedly when scratched behind the ears

'Mike'
went to a family with a three-year-old boy at the flea market
Laid-back, liked to watch the world go by around him
and occasionally pounce on others in between naps

another shot without the vampire teeth

Gypsy and Mitzi are still with us
We're leaning towards keeping Gypsy because of her coloring
but Mitzi has her mom's attitude

Flea Market Day in Huntingdon

'Free Kittens'

Tuesday is Flea Market Day in Huntingdon. It was chilly this morning. We came prepared to give away Pogo's kittens and sell a few odds and ends. Mark took lots of great pictures with his camera. We came home with two out of four kittens. Here is a taste of the sights we saw (Mark's resolution is much higher but upload times require me to scale them down).


Esme enjoyed herself for the most part
watching all the people and listening to them talk


Kelba came along with us.
She likes to bark and howl at all the dogs.



Someone was giving away free puppies too.


This dog was just going for a ride...


Some gorgeous green iridescent ducks Mark found


And pink flowering trees for sale


And a lovely capture of some purple garden beans


and golden speckled chickens

Homefront

I've sent pictures from our MN trip to my Mom, and a CD of photos and box of toys to my dad in Iowa. We're getting ready to take Pogo's kittens to the flea market tomorrow and sell off some clutter as well. One of Pogo's kittens may get to stay.. we'll see.


Here's Esme emptying drawers.
Isn't that the opposite of what babies normally do? ;)

Every last bit...

Am I in trouble?

Mommy I'm bored now!

Esme is nearly walking around by herself now and is experimenting with lots of new sounds every day.

What Makes you Smile?

Beautiful bowls by a Fargo artist

Sometimes I feel like I need a skylight to shed some light on my head and a big hole in the floor to put all the clutter into until I can deal with it properly. It seems like there is never enough light, yet it is everywhere. And I am craving color - outrageous vibrant swaths of it - and even that is never bright enough. It must be the oncoming of winter or a lack of coffee. What makes you smile when the clutter and bland gets overwhelming?

I look at my desk space and it is cluttered with things that should be somewhere else. But their somewhere else isn't big enough, or has too many things in it that ALSO should be somewhere else. And I clear off a tiny spot to shine some light on and then the rest of it gets set aside for another day.

When I get stressed out I just want to tear everything down to the bare walls.

But in the realm of reality...

'gypsy jewels' bracelet made from Etsy beads
A simple stretch bracelet can bring color with you everywhere

And those wooden bowls made by a good friend in Fargo long ago... finally recovered from storage in Minnesota. A pretty piece of pottery to hold pens, also from storage. These little trinkets have both brought some happiness seeing them again and also made me wonder where else I can put some color and usefulness into my otherwise bland and cluttered workspace.

Esme likes a slug

Rhiannon asked if the slugs were washable by hand or in the machine. To be honest I haven't tried to wash the felt slugs - but worry a bit about them looking 'pilled' when they come out. However, the pattern transfers easily into cotton cloth as well! Here is Esme trying out the first cotton slug :) I'm not quite sure what to do with the eyes though -- may leave them off or put felt ones on anyway.

Rhiannon's little boy Lowan has GROWN! And Esme is almost walking. Wow time flies!

Original Art and In the Toy Workshop again...

We're getting into the slow season at work - so I'll be spending a little more time in the workshop. I have a few patterns to PDF, and a few more I'd like to tweak into other forms. Up North we collected boxes of my old prints and sketchbooks from college. I've been posting those in the art shop a bit at a time.

These ones all have a similar art style and theme - from 2002-2003 while I was in college.


'Disarming Creatures'
ink sketch on paper

'Small Woman' original linocut print

'Medicine' 4 color screenprint

I'm also making up a box of toys to send to a craft art show in Iowa. I'm hoping to make up a few more elephunks (plush elephants) and slugs etc...



Wouldn't it be great to have a pile of blue or pink elephant toys?

Custom plush slugs in 6 colors

Got a whole box of printmaking stuff for rock-bottom clearance price lately as well. That was a great find, as I couldn't find the box with the good studio stuff up North. We also finally got my Mom's photo album back to her, which made her cry some. A few of my own personal photo albums, diplomas and personal treasures were in another box and it is nice to have those again too.

Note for future reference - Esme walking

Note from / for the future : We marked September 10, 2008 as the day Esme was able to take a few independent steps without falling over. This was at just over 10 months old. She was walking really well by the 29th.

I was pretty sure she hadn't walked for my parents on the trips up North - but just soon after we got back. She never did like to have her arms held when she tried to walk - would rather hold on to furniture and toys etc...

02/27/2009 ~KnitOwl

Traer Iowa

Getting Grampa's glasses

And examining shirt buttons...
Earlier in the week we met up in Traer, but the light meant only a few pictures came out. Esme looked Harvey and Gale all over and really hammed it up for them :)



Bang table!

Meeting my Dad and Gale at the IHOP

Here we are at the IHOP!

Catching an Esme after hanging her upside down ;)

Wow a Spoon!

Family photos ;)

Next time we all meet up we'll need to chase a running Esme about!

Esme meets Elizabeth

Elizabeth is actually BIGGER than Esme
Even though she was supposed to be born three months later!
Elizabeth's daddy (my brother) is 6 foot 4 inches. I think Lizzie is going to have her Daddy's height.

'Doggie!'
However, Elizabeth can't stand up or crawl yet. Esme wasn't sure what to do with that and went after the doggie :)


Face to face, are you real?
Elizabeth tried to touch Esme several times but my family kept pulling them apart at that point :( because they said Elizabeth would bite and scratch if they didn't...

Two are quite an armful