Moop Love!

We travel fourteen hours at Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with my family in Pennsylvania.  Rather than doing it all again at Christmas time or shipping boxes full of stuff back and forth, we exchange gifts while we are there in November.  We are limited in what we are able to transport back home, so some family members have begun to just gift us with cash.  At first I was a little bothered by the impersonal nature of that.  My grandmother explained, though, that she prefers give us the money to buy something we really want for ourselves instead of just giving us more things to clutter up the house.  With that in mind, I promised myself that I would honor the spirit of these gifts and find something I really wanted.  It took me a few weeks to find just the right things, but I did.

(photo from www.moopshop.com)

(photo from www.moopshop.com)

These bags are both incredible.  Honest.  They are all handmade by real people in Pittsburgh.  The attention to detail is obvious in everything from the pocket sizes and placement to the half-crossed block in the stitching. The Letter Bag has been perfect for hauling everything I typically carry everyday.  I keep my Clutch in the bigger bag, but I like knowing that I can just grab it and go if I ever don’t need to take everything with me.

I’m already thinking about which Moop bag will be my next!

Bless the Japanese

As a crafter, I am in awe of the crafty things produced by the Japanese - the fabric, the notions, the magazines and books, the fabric (did I say that one already?). All of these things provide me with endless ideas about how I can make my world a bit more beautiful with things made by my own hand. I’m not ashamed to say that - more often than not - the things made by my own hand only bear a passing resemblance to the original inspiration. I usually enjoy the creating as much as the creation, so it all works out. Usually.

One of the areas that I have been very reluctant to venture is to wool felting. I absolutely love the look of things appliqued with felted wool accents. At first I told myself my hesitation was because it is quite difficult to find wool felt around here. While that is still true, I have put together a list of online resources, so I can’t use that excuse anymore. When it really comes down to it, I think it’s because my artistic skills are seriously lacking. When it comes to drawing for embroidery or embellishment or whatever, if there’s a pattern, I’m all over it. If I have to do something free-hand, forget it. It will likely be completely unrecognizable. The good people at Clover, though, must know some other people like me.

That is a felting template, I think. I don’t read Japanese, but that’s what it looks like based on the photos. It will allow you felt that adorable hedgehog and the mushrooms, too, using the Clover felting tool and mat, along with the template thing.  Here’s one of the projects they suggest - just too cute!

The people at Clover are also very generous with their project ideas and patterns. Check out this page, which is continually updated with great stuff. Each of the Lessons has at least two projects, so it’s not just whatever they happen to have in the photo. My seasonal favorite is Lesson 42, which has an awesome wall tree and decorations. They are all in Japanese, of course, but the diagrams and illustrations make it all very easy to figure out.

Enjoy!  I’m going to try to find that template somewhere that ships to the US…

Martha Stewart Clearance!

I stopped by our local Michael’s store today and was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few of the Martha Stewart Crafts items on clearance. I picked up a selection of notecards, but they had a wide variety of things marked down. It doesn’t look like anything has been reduced on the website, so it might vary by store. If anyone is looking for anything in particular, let me know and I’ll see if my store still has it. I hope this means they are making room for the Christmas stuff…

I also picked up these Animal Alphabet Cards for the new boy’s room. They weren’t on sale, but it was the first time I had actually seen them in stock so I snatched them up. I love the vintage look of them. Now that I have some decoration for the walls, we just need to get other things in there. Like furniture. At least the walls will look good, though!

UK jealousy…

I have some serious jealousy issues regarding citizens of the United Kingdom. And, really, it’s not just the UK; it’s pretty much the whole of Europe. Why does it seem that you guys get all the cool stuff? For example:

My favorite show on television starts its new season today. I won’t get to see it on my television, though. Spooks is only on the BBC. Every now and then A&E, and more recently BBC America, will play watered-down, shortened for the overload of US advertising versions and call it MI-5, but it’s just not the same. The show is so intelligently written that it’s just plain fun to watch. (I understand from someone in the know that the technology is sometimes not in line with reality, but I let that slide since I don’t really know any better.) The only thing I’ve found on US television that even comes close to Spooks is The West Wing, but that isn’t even on anymore. Woe is me…

Other favorite shows are also UK products. Life on Mars, Gil Mayo Mysteries (apparently called just Mayo in the UK), Murder in Suburbia, Love Soup, and whatever else makes it to BBC America. Those two women on How Clean is Your House crack me up, but sometimes they provide a little too much information to make me comfortable living in my own house… And, of course, there’s Charlie and Lola, which brings me to the next item on my list…

Pink Milk is such a brilliant online shop! I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I was just window shopping there again today and was reminded of how much I love it. Obviously I can place orders and they will cheerfully ship overseas, but the shipping costs tend to be greater than the product cost when I shop and I have a hard time justifying that to myself. If you live in Europe and have a Charlie and Lola fan in your house, you really should check them out.

I’m trying very hard to convince my husband that we need to move to somewhere in Europe, but I haven’t been too successful yet. He claims that it would be necessary for him to have a job to make the whole thing work. I guess I can’t really argue with that. So, if any of you have husbands that are looking to hire other husbands - particularly one from the US - please do let me know so I can find something new to whine about…

Mr. Dressup on DVD!

I didn’t grow up in Canada, but it was close enough that we got London, Ontario stations (CBC) on television. One of my favorite shows as a child was Mr. Dressup. The show was similar to Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, but much better - in my opinion. Mr. Dressup was the main character, but his puppet friends Casey and Finnegan (a boy and his dog) lived in the treehouse in the backyard. Each day, Mr. Dressup would go to the Tickle Trunk in the living room to pull out a dress up costume and act out something related to whatever was in the trunk that day. He also sang songs, told stories, and did really cool crafts. I haven’t seen the show in a very long time, but talking with a new friend who also grew up near the northern border led me to see if anything was available on DVD. It looks like I missed the original releases, but there are plenty of copies of Mr. Dressup Tickle Trunk Treasures available on Amazon and Ebay. I think I’ll add that to my Christmas list…

The Loot

I had a really great time in Tokyo. The people are all so nice and friendly and helpful - even though I don’t speak a word of their language. I wish I could say the same for the people in my own country… I did try to speak some VERY basic Japanese, though I’m afraid it wasn’t very good. I’ll have to practice up for the next trip - I would love to go back. Ooohh, I just had an idea. How much fun would it be to have crafters from around the globe meet in Japan for a few days of sightseeing, food, books and fabric? I’m sure the realities of families, work, and vacation days will probably seriously limit the chance of that happening, but a girl can dream, right? Anyway, on to the fabric!

I made a trip to Nippori by myself while Rod was working one day. I bought a few meters of various prints and called it a day. When I got back to the hotel and showed Rod my purchases he said, “That’s it?” I hadn’t wanted to buy too much without having a specific project in mind, but he was able to talk some sense into me (when will we be back here again? how much does this stuff cost at home?) and we made a return trip to Nippori together. And then he carried the bags for me. Such a good guy!

Since I’m having so many formatting issues, I won’t even try to comment on them individually. When I was picking them out, my favorite was the hedgehog print, but now that I’ve got them all here at home with me, I can’t decide which one I like the best. I love them all! Which do you like the best?

Home again

We have returned from a great trip to Tokyo. I have several photos to share, but I need to get some things taken care of around the house first. In the meantime, here are two photos I managed to download. They happen to be photos of my (now) favorite place to shop for fabric…

And, more specifically, my favorite store and fruit…

Photos of the loot to come soon!

Grrrr! I still can’t get the formatting right on this thing. What in the world am I doing wrong?

Any requests?

Yes, we are all still alive here!  The move is still ongoing, but we have all of the essentials at the new house now.  We have not completed any painting or redecorating yet, but that will come soon enough.  We don’t have any kind of high speed internet connection yet (someone help me!), so most of my fix comes by surfing on my BlackBerry.  Sad when that’s faster than the dial-up connection at home…

Rod and I are headed to Japan later this week and I can’t wait!  I’ve been reading everything I can find on where to go and what to do.  I’m sure one week won’t be long enough to get even a small percentage of it done, but I’m going to give it my best shot.  Any last minute suggestions are very welcome, too.  Also, if anyone has any requests for things from Japan, I would be happy to search for and pick up whatever I can find and send it to you via a swap.  We can work out the details later, but send me your request soon since we’re leaving very soon and I don’t know if I’ll be able to check email while we’re there.

On a completely separate topic, has anyone tried any of the new Martha Stewart Crafts kits?  I picked up the Monkey Paper Bag Puppet kit for Alex this morning and we assembled it all this afternoon.  The kit specifically claimed no scissors or glue required, which was great because I don’t know where either of those things are right now.  It’s an adorable little monkey face, but I was HUGELY disappointed with the adhesive.  Not one of the pieces stayed on that bag once we picked it up off the table.  I put them all back on and pressed it all really hard, but they all fell off again.  After all the hype, I was really hoping for something great.  Has anyone else had better luck?

Do they come any better than this?

Look at what my amazingly generous husband brought back for me from his trip to San Jose! He picked out the most adorable books and picked up some of my other favorite things - pens and notebooks! That green notebook says “Notebooks for pretty girls. All tiny things are pretty.” So cute!

The books have some incredible projects in them and I just need to figure out which one to try first. Hmmm…maybe I’ll take one of those notebooks and pens and make a list. I’ll post some photos of the insides of the books in the gallery just as soon as I can figure out how to make the photos look halfway decent.

The weather here has been great. It was 85 degrees today with very little humidity. Usually when we see temperatures that high, they come with 90% percent humidity and make you want to hide in a freezer somewhere. Today, though, we were able to get out and enjoy it. Rod, Alex, and I went on a photo safari to Big Spring Park. I made a list for each of us of the things we needed to “shoot” - animal, tree, building, flower, etc. We had a great time. The results are posted in the Expedition gallery, if you’re interested.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!

I heart Charlie and Lola

I absolutely love Charlie and Lola. The characters started out in books by Lauren Child and became an animated series at some point in time. In their native England, Charlie and Lola are on the BBC, but here in the US they are on Playhouse Disney. Charlie is the older brother and Lola is the younger sister. Charlie narrates and Lola causes the trouble. I don’t know what it is about this show/book that I like so much. It’s funny, but it’s intelligent humor - even for pre-schoolers. The lessons are all very important, but the author doesn’t beat the kids over the head with them. Everything is very subtle. And the artwork is incredible. If you aren’t a regular viewer of Playhouse Disney, you can check out some clips and even a webisode at the official Charlie and Lola website. If you love them as much as we do in this house and you’re interested in some Charlie and Lola swag, the good folks at Pink Milk have lots of really cool stuff — and they will ship outside the UK. They are the only source I’ve been able to find that will ship anything outside of Europe.

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