What's old is new

I went to hock my wears on S. Congress today in the Guerro's outdoor area, along with my friend Jody who also sells hand embroidered and appliqued children's clothes. Unfortunately, today was one of the only super cold and windy days in Austin this year. The winds were so strong that our entire tables and garment racks kept dumping over, so we packed up and decided to have a mamas' day out. Luckily for each of us we sold a couple of items in the short time we were there, covering the cost of the spot, and we scored a free make-up day next Saturday!

After a tasty lunch and couple of drinks we checked out the new old-fashioned candy store and ice cream fountain shop: Big Top. I've been watching them decorate the shop with giant circus posters for a while now, anticipating their grand opening:


There were wall to wall candies- the hard to find kind that you thought you would never see again!

The ones that immediately grabbed me were these chocolaty morsels, filled with liquid marshmellow:

Because the store just opened I knew that whatever I bought would be super fresh and I was not disappointed one bit. This Valomilk melted in my mouth, and the chocolate was surprisingly good quality. As soon as I saw these maple peanut balls in the bulk bins I knew I was a gonner:

What they lack in aesthetic value they more than make up for in taste and texture. Again, they were super fresh tasting. "Num num num" as Harlan would say (and as he did say when he got hold of the bag I left on the counter). Less appealing for taste value, but more appealing for ha ha value were these:

I also picked up some cinnamon toothpicks for my mom since we'll be seeing her up in NYC very soon:

Last week I received a surprise book from a secret friend of mine who works at Conde Nast and always hooks me up.
The new Son of Stitch 'N Bitch book by Debbie Stroller. The patterns were overwhelmingly cool and very clever. My favorites include the Lucha Libre ski masks:

The High Fidelity sweater (look- the pattern across the chest looks like 45 rpm records):

Joe wants me to make him this hat:


I guess I'll have to add it to my super long To Do list. Luckily I'll be able to get at that list soon. I've begun the Rose & Duke 2008 collection and have decided that once they're up and the site is launched (early Feb.) I'm going to relax and only fill web orders until the summer at which point I'll begin producing for next year's Christmas fair season. I seem to have spent all my "free" time over the past year working on embroideries and other business related stuff and suddenly I have no time to make anything for myself or my family. Suddenly it's no longer fun, and surprisingly unprofitable for the amount of effort involved. I may keep up with one retail store in Brooklyn and one here, but otherwise I would rather try to concentrate on the Christmas season when I can do what I've been doing on a more frequent level (I missed the deadlines to apply to a bunch of good craft fairs here this past season) and on web orders. This way I'll get all the profit myself and will also be able to make the whole thing more of a part time venture than it has been so far. I want to keep it fun! That said, here is a sneak peak of some of what I'm making for next year. A few of the designs are expanded and more detailed versions of the appliques I made at the beginning of last summer (see some old pears here.) These old applique designs were the first to sell at Stitch and the most fun (and least time consuming) to create. Bingo!
Happy Cherry Hoodie:

Happy Flan Onesie:

Happy peach face shirt:

A pair of pears:


I have a few more in the works as well, mostly inspired by Japanese sweets that show up in my craft books or on bento boxes or Decole goodies. I've seen a couple of crafters out there make really great stuffed versions of these sweets. Check out Cutseypoo and her egg tarts, Cocokoala's needle felted critters, She Like's Cute's softie pins. I can't get enough. What did old people do before the internets showed up? I feel like when Joe and I one day tell Harlan tales of how we grew up with telephones that were attached to walls and no internet, that he will think of these stories the same way we thought of the ones our parents told of growing up sitting around a radio on a Saturday night, and what they watched the first time they saw a television. Joe recently had such a conversation with one of his classes of high school seniors. A particularly funny student asked him if they had cars when he was a kid, or they had dirt. Perhaps I should call Bill Cosby and tell him this "kids are funny" anecdote. Perhaps he's already reading it.

Holiday Secrets Revealed!

Warning: If you are involved in a holiday ornament swap with me- do not scroll down unless you want to ruin your surprise.

This week I completed my 9 ornaments for one swap and sent them out. Here they are posing for you before I wraped 'em up:



Some of you MSL readers may recognize the deer. Some of you Superbuzzy fans may recognize the background fabric. I bought it to make Harlan a Christmas pillow and duvet top with.

This next ornament is going out to Emily, my swap partner for the Holiday Traditions swap (see sidebar for more info). I got the embroidery pattern from Hilary and can't wait to make more of these for myself and others for next year. I promise not to mess up the mouse head again. The sides of the ornament are hand stitched with vintage silver thread. You can't tell in the photo, but it really pulls the whole thing together.


In other holiday surprise news, my good pal since high school Lindsay gave birth to her second daughter, Tatiana. I'm posting this photo of Tatiana and older sister Natalia mostly for friends and family of mine who have known Lindsay all these years, although who doesn't enjoy seeing snuggly baby photos?


In yet EVEN MORE holiday surprise news, I keep forgetting to tell everyone that I chopped all the old hair off the noggin a couple of months ago. I came across a recent photos of Katie Holmes whose new haircut is supposed to be a rip off of Posh Spice (it's not even close in my opinion) and said to myself, Now that I can live with. I'm going to be really pissed if they print a photo of me saying I am also trying to rip off Posh because anyone can see right here that it's actually Katie whom I'm biting. I brought the photo in to Stacie (my friend and resident hair cutter) and as usual she gave me exactly what I asked for. Here are photos of me and Harlan taken earlier today at the park:

McJagger and the Doody Sandwich

I've been tagged by Jen, the talented crocheter/seamstress of The fabled needle. Here are ten weird or little known things about me:

1. I got arrested the night before the S.A.T.s for throwing stuff off my parent's balcony. My friend and I hit a moving police car as it turned a corner. Woops!

2. I'm a major sugar addict. I can't go even one day without a few sweet things. Once I had to cut all yeast out of my diet for a week and I still put a spoonful of sugar in my coffee each morning. Diets are pretty much out of the question.

3. My first star obsession was with Adam Ant when I was in seventh grade. My best friend Maya and I spent all our allowance money on his albums, posters, and buttons for our jean jackets. We eventually got to see him play at Radio City. We even wrote him letters. My second and last star obsession was with Robert Smith.

4. Maya and I were also obsessed with gay men in seventh grade. We went to school in NYC's west village where gay men are abundant, and we thought they were the best thing ever. We hung out outside a gay bar (Uncle Charlie's) on Friday nights with a Polaroid camera and notebook, asking various men if they could help us with a school project by answering questions. We took their photos, and asked what their favorite bands were, where in the world they would want to live if they could live anywhere, and what their favorite foods were. None of them turned us down and I still have a baggy full of the Polaroids in a box in the closet. The pictures freak me out because I now realize that some of those men must be dead as the photos were taken right when AIDS was starting to infect people but no one realized what it was yet.

5. Later in high school I was the youngest (and first under 18) person to volunteer at Gay Men's Health Crisis. I wanted to do in-home visits with a client to help him (or her) with tasks he was too ill to perform. I went through an intensive training and then they discovered that I could not do the job due to insurance issues because I was too young. I ended up working instead at the recreation center, serving meals and playing mixed tapes on Friday nights. My pal Emily joined me and we enjoyed our junior year spending Friday nights eating and boogying with a group of really fun adults.

6. I have been to a psychic twice in my life (different psychics). Both times I went just for kicks not expecting much out of it. Both times I was told I would have two sons. The first time when I was in high school I was told I would end up either a teacher or a nurse. I've already been a teacher and am still considering switching to pediatric nursing. This same first psychic also told me that I would live a long life but die a violent death (thanks for nothing b'yotch!)

7. When I was a kid I thought Mick Jagger was an Irish person who was called by his last name, McJagger.

8. The only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a writer. That and a mother. At least I got one out of two. And I'm not dead yet, so we'll see.

9. A few years ago my cousins and I cranked called my grandmother and whispered, "Do you want a doody sandwich?" She said she would love a doody sandwich. We never told her it was us.

10. When I was 27 I declared bankruptcy due to credit card debt. It never caused me any problems and I have zero debt to this day. Yippee!

OK, I now tag Kimmy, Jen Tiffany, Daryl, and Linda.

Well Hello Dolly

My paltry posting habits are due to the holiday season, I swear! I've been working away on ornaments for this ornament swap and this one (as if I don't have enough to do, but I couldn't turn down a good swap). I'll post pics a week after I send them out. Also, I am replenishing the Rose & Duke stock because I'll be selling again in a couple of weeks in the Guerro's lot on S. Congress. Please stop by and say hello if you are in town, there will be lots of handmade goodness for sale.

We enjoyed a peaceful thanksgiving at Jen and Kevin's with Jen's delightful family. You betcha that I brought some desserts. I made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip squares (for some reason I forgot to photograph these). Everyone always goes berserk on these and they are quite easy to make. I also took a risk and went with Martha's recent recipe for pear cranberry pie with a lattice top. I used a plastic star from Harlan's shape sorter toy to cut the starts out of the crust. The pie was good but too heavy on the cranberries unfortunately.


At the last minute I decided to throw in a chocolate bourbon pecan pie, because every thanksgiving table needs a good one. I made this one from a combination of recipes and it came out more like a soft cookie on a pate brisee pastry, which may not be exactly what I was going for but still tastes a lot better than a fistful of baby corn or cuchifritos (deep fried pig ears).


I did not want to work on anything I had to do during the vacation, so instead I made a couple of doll dresses for the baby dolls at Harlan's Montessori school. When I picked him up last Tuesday a couple of the kids were playing with the dolls, and I noticed that their only outfits were totally falling apart (and were pretty crummy to begin with). It made me sad. Next I'm going to make them a couple of quilts for their wooden cradles. I can't believe I forgot to photograph the back sides of the dresses, but I did. They are totally open, with two covered buttons and red velvet ribbons on the other side to hook over the buttons. I used a combination of these two patterns. I would like to make them some sweaters so if anyone knows of any patterns for doll sweaters please let me know (knit or crochet).


P.S. I went to the City Wide Garage Sale last weekend and was basically just overwhelmed by the crowds. We only stayed a brief amount of time, but I did score three vintage aprons for $2 each. While I don't wear aprons and bought these to scrap the fabric for other projects, I feel badly cutting them up because they're just so darn cute. What can you do?

Half Violet Crumble

So it turns out my camera is fine but the lens is broken. Lucky for me my father's birthday gift to me just arrived today. It's a micro lens and it's taking me a little practice to get the hang of. Here is one shot I took with it of a couple of the price signs I had on my table at Stitch:


This is a shot I forgot to post last week. It's my failed attempt at making honeycomb with chocolate coating for the adult's goody bags at Harlan's birthday party.


I made the honeycomb three times, all according to Nigella's cooking show. She never mentioned a temperature for the confection to reach and thus I never ended up with a successful honeycomb. Lucky for me my friend Kim can steer me in the right direction in time for Christmas.

Christmas List

Apparently Urban Outfitters* has sent a spy into my subconscious to come up with a fabulous bunch of goodies:

salt and pepper shakers


Critter cookie jars:

Some fantastic cameras including The Diana:

A record player you can plug into your computer to turn your albums into CDs or MP3s:

*Disclaimer: I know it's wrong to support them because they rip off so many indie designers, but for crying out loud they're killing me with some of this stuff.

BUT, better than anything available at Urban Outfitters is the t-shirt from Houston artist Chingo Bling:

I think I need to get this "T-churt" as it called on the webstore. Not that half Irish Catholic half Ukrainian Jews are in danger of being deported, but still.

A Stitch in Time

I have been a horrible blogger lately because I have been working non-stop to prepare for Stitch Austin. The event was my first major vending experience, and it was a great way to get my feet wet. Stitch was a fashion show and guerilla craft fair that happened last Saturday down at the Austin Convention Center, and it showcased the talents of designers and crafters from all around.

I shared a booth with my friend Jenifer, and our load in time was at ten in the morning, although the show did not officially open until 2:30 P.M. I managed to pack my garment rack, over a hundred garments, and all the other accouterments into a giant suitcase and Rubbermaid box with wheels. I also had a folding chair, and a giant two year old (Harlan measured in at 3' 2" at his recent two year check up) in tow. My plan was to pull into the loading dock, strap Harlan into his stroller and make short runs with all of the gear into my booth inside. There were a bunch of volunteers working at the loading dock whom I had been told via e-mail would be willing to help vendors load in. The volunteers who stood by the entrance with clip-boards in hand were a bunch of barely-twenty-somethings with a Delia's aesthetic, who seemed to think that the woman running laps between the station wagon and the kid in the stroller was invisible. By the time I had gotten the suitcase past them and ran back with Harlan to the box and chair sitting in the middle of parking lot, an older volunteer approached me and asked if she could help. Usually I'm one to say, "No, no, I got it" even if I'm on fire and someone approaches me with a bucket of water, but on this day I happily handed my child over to a stranger while I ran back to pick up the box and chair. When I got back Harlan was surrounded by nice women all chatting with him, and he did not even notice my 30 second absence. The helpful stranger then helped me even more by dragging the massive box and chair all the way to my booth for me. Big thanks kind stranger!

The show was a lot of work but also a heck of a lot of fun, not only because I got to experience total strangers rushing over to ooh and aah over my efforts, but because I met so many cool, talented people who were all trying to do the same thing that I have been- earning a living by making things. I managed to do some great trades as well, but unfortunately I can not show you anything I received nor any action shots of Rose & Duke because MY CAMERA BROKE!
Great timing, as my father just bought me a micro lens for my birthday too.

Moving right along, I know I need to post something visual, so I'll mention some holiday crafting inspiration for any of you who don't have enough already:

Sew Mama Sew has a post each day this month with a different tutorial for something you can make as holiday gifts.

Anthro has some adorable hand sewn felt house ornaments that have inspired me to make some for some upcoming ornament swaps.

Alicia P. is going to sell some kits to make her famous Santa Lucia dolls. You better bet I need one. Speaking of Alicia, if you know any Corgi lovers you need to get a gift for, how about this book?

And lastly, I have a new Japanese fabric ALERT for all you fanatics out there:
LOOK HERE
Or don't if you like money and want to keep any.

Again, apologies for the lack of photos, hopefully the matter will be resolved shortly.