unpacking

we are still doing the unpacking bit by bit. we have most of the big stuff away and semi organized but my sewing area is still stacked in a corner. im starting to get itchy to use my sewing machine so i think i will spend some time this evening at least figuring out what is in each box!
here is a picture kevin took of eliot climbing around and enjoying himself.

we opened a christmas cracker from a friend of ours and inside was a fun little crown.

im back!

we have survived the move and christmas so far. it has been a whirl wind few days to say the least! we have had lots of family in town and lots of unpacking still left to do. here are many pictures to catch you up on the activities around here:

our smidge of a water view

the other view, very pretty in the morning with the sun rising on the bricks

enjoying one of my lovely gifts from kevin (these are a little out of order...)

enjoying grandma's spice cabinet

enjoying the box that one of his presents from grandpa verry came in

unwrapping

his favorite gift

this was the sunday before christmas when some of my family came for a visit. here is the incredible dancing baby..

enjoying the tree and a little snoozing

eliot and his cousin playing

kisses with great grandma

goofy kids

i hope everyone had a lovely holiday and i look forward to posting more as things settle around here and i get a move on with the site update.

big day

tomorrow is the moving day! we have been busy packing and stacking. this place looks very chaotic. i have yet to disassemble the computer (obviously) and we have run out of boxes. at least my brother will be in town and my mom has agreed to entertain eliot for the morning. i also dont know what the internet situation will be at the new apartment. we have been lucky to have it included here. i havent looked into my options but hopefully something affordable will come up. pretty much everything is packed away so i havent taken any pictures in a few days so sorry for the dull post.

send us good packing/moving vibes and i will try and get back here as soon as possible with an update! have a great weekend!

p.s. i have been working hard on the website.. i think i have finalized the logo..thank you all for such good feedback. i will have an unveiling of that soon too. i have pay pal finalized also so all i need to do is build the site. hopefully within a week but more likely two with the move.

logo

i am trying to come up with a logo for a little bunny. these are my sketches so far. i need feedback! which do you like...i just added a little poll over to the right to make it really easy...thank you for your feedback :)

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blustery day

what a better way to spend a snowy, blustery day than standing on a box looking out the window. eliot must have spent hours looking out at the snow. it was very sweet. his signing ability has been exploding. he started signing bunny, dance and diaper all withing the past couple of days.

is there anything better than eating oatmeal with your hands? i guess he didn't get his fathers distaste for getting his hands dirty :)

and when all other entertainment fails when you are cooped up inside.. it's dress up time!

photo shoot

it was COLD today. it was 15 degrees when i got out of my car to go and do this photo shoot. it was the fastest shoot i have ever done! no baby involved with this one. i was really bundled up with my long socks on and puffy coat. im about a third of the way done with editing them but i 9pm is fast approaching. we are supposed to get quite a snow storm tonight but i keep hearing mixed reviews....either way i am planning on hunkering down tomorrow with some packing and hot chocolate.

Mailing List

I am starting to build an email mailing list for A Little Bunny for updates etc. If you would like to be included please send me an email or put a comment below and I will add you!

Not too much to report today..packing is in full swing. we took a load of stuff to store in my mothers attic out today to avoid getting stuck in any bad weather we are supposed to get this weekend. i have heard conflicting reports from 3 inches to over a foot...who knows :)

my goal this weekend is the photo shoot that didnt happen last weekend. i will post some pictures when i finish.. enjoy your weekends!

cover your eyes

well, the day i have been working so hard towards has come and gone with great success. the place was packed the entire time and i sold enough to make me happy. i talked to a lot of really great people and received many encouraging comments and useful feedback. it was a very productive night! and yes.. that is a drawing of a nude man behind me and to the left above that was a 3ft photograph of a man with track marks up and down his arm, and to the left of that was a photograph of a man in his tighty-whities playing the guitar on a city street. the gallery was having a open and non curated show where anyone could show anything. great concept and some really interesting things. i probably would have been better situated under the kids drawings but i dont think the paintings hurt sales :).

oakie the dog is the subject of this next photograph. i finally finished this little commission this morning. he was fun, although i think he looks a little like a deer.

eliot's first christmas tree experience was a little harrowing for my mother. i told her if she dare put ornaments on the bottom branches she would have to play baby wrangler not me. so, the baby wrangling ensued with lots of fun for grammie and baby and only a couple of broken ornaments by the end of the evening.

fire

this was the scene out eliot's bedroom window at 2am last night! i didnt wake up to the sirens or the lights, it wasn't until i heard the beeping of trucks backing up that i jumped out of bed. i was ready to be pissed off at the tow trucks after all of the prior entanglements i have had with them when instead it was several fire trucks.

there were 3 fires in portland last night, this was the worst of them, and it was practically next door. two people had to be rescued. it is quite an emotional thing to watch someones home burning. it made me asses what is important in my own life and how i would respond in an emergency. it really is sad because i know the people living there are really living tough lives, im sure they do not have insurance.

as a result eliot woke up and stayed up from 2-6 this morning. needless to say i am pretty tired and i dont think i am going to get much done other than crashing into a pillow tonight. good thing i have tomorrow off!

almost done!

almost ready for the fair! this is the most likely set up i am going to use. i have been living with it (and so has my tolerant family) for a day or two and i think i am happy.

my boy is growing up! he is getting so big and tall.. a skinny little guy, about 22lb with his clothes on but growing none the less. he eats SO much! very busy and very proud that he can sit in chairs all on his own, especially when he can get into them by himself. there are so many stray boxes around right now he has no troubles getting into chairs. i think the hundreds of "chairs are for sitting" (as opposed to standing, jumping on, turning over, or pushing around the room) are starting to sink in? ... maybe??

new digs

we went over to the new place yesterday to get a few things done before we start really moving. kevin painted the walls in eliots room and we decided on the childproofing we need to do. the walls came out nicely although we still need to do some touch up.

a few of the nice things about the new digs are the brick wall and exposed beams in the living room, the nice view, and great building security. it is actually a condo so i am hoping the other building residents are respectful. i want to find out the history of the building. it must have been some kind of industrial space.

here is kevin being as sassy as possible. the orange wall might take some getting used to but our landlord said we could paint it if we want to.

my final stacks for the craft fair, done! hats, pants and jackets. kevin put together some pegboard with hinges for me today (he is being very industrious this weekend) so i can hang up several things instead of having it all flat. hopefully i can work out the logistics tonight and work out any kinks in the display before wed.

my trusty pink string. i just thought it looked pretty by the window so i shot a picture. there is so much on this roll i dont think i will ever run out..and i got it for 10 cents! i really like the color and nubby linen feel of it. ive been using it to tag the clothes.

tgif

this week seemed extra long so i am happy today is friday. we have some lofty goals planned for this weekend including painting some walls in the new apt, finishing up my craft display, laundry and maybe some childproofing at the new place too. i would like to photograph everything that i have made for the fair, to put on the website and for cataloging/inventory, as well. i think i would like to do a photo shoot at fort williams, the usual place, on the beach area where the round gray rocks are all piled. the stars will have to align just right for that one ie: no snow, not too cold, and not busy. we'll see what happens!

this was us tonight. i haven't used this sling in ages and i honestly thought it would be way too small to put him in anymore. on the contrary! he fit in it perfectly and loved it. he was being particularly clingy and it made it a heck of a lot easier to get a few things done by freeing up my other hand. i think we might have to use it more often!

an eye full

this is how my day began. it was a really beautiful, bright sunny day that started with saturated golden light rising up over the neighbors roofs.


i took the day off to have my eyes dilated again. it is quite an odd experience if you have never had it done before. but, to save the day, you get to wear really sassy sunglasses. eliot thought they were irresistible. it did make the bright sun a little too bright but i hunkered down in our living room with the shades drawn. it was still a little intense for a while but really not that big of a deal. the eye dr. warned me to be careful who's eyes i chose to look into today as dilated pupils are a sign of interest in others heehee.

and finally a little picture of eliot wearing the jacket i kept for him. i think a couple of moths got to the fabric so there are a few little holes on the sleeve that i didnt notice until after it was sewn. i cant sell it so i thought i would keep it for him. im working on some better pictures but this was as good as i could get today. please ignore the background chaos :)

geektastic

I challenge anyone to come up with a more geeky school picture than this one...this is the picture that kevin carries around in his wallet. i think this is 5th grade, i remember trying to decide if i should take out the headgear for the picture and rationalizing that i would get in more trouble taking it out than leaving it in. hummm.. little did i know that pictures last forever. i still have glasses, and i still am geeky but at least i know better than to leave my headgear in for pictures :).

snowy day

we are having our first real snow storm of the year today. we are supposed to be getting about a foot or so. we are close to the water so it may be a little less. i like how cozy it feels to be inside when it is snowing. i took this out the window as someone was walking by with an umbrella. i always think that is a little funny in a snow storm.

eliot got to try out his first pair of boots! it took a while to get them on, he likes to scrunch is feet when i put shoes on him. i thought he would hate these but it turns out he really liked them. he clomped around the house for quite a while after he got his 'sea legs'.


here are some little tea bag softies that i made a while ago that i think i will bring to the fair with me. these particular ones are in need of a little repair after their tea strings got tangled up. they are tiny, a good use of left over wool scraps.

kevin is working on some designs for onsies for me.

and the owl is finished! i hope it is well received!

born to ride

we had a fun visit with uncle tim and aunt trish today. they were up here previewing wedding singers and stayed over at our place last night. we had a breakfast out with eliot and he debuted his 'too cool for school' jacket.

i took this picture of the owl progress last night. it is all stitched together now, except for the bottom, and it is stuffed. i need to add some wight to it so that it stands on its own and then he will be finished! the dog will be next but im having more trouble working out the ideas on that one.

i received some nice comments yesterday about my bag and one person had a question i thought i would answer here in case it helps anyone else out when sewing with old sweaters:

I was wondering though how you prevent the yarn from unraveling when you cut it and losing too much of the knit to make the bag. Did you use a straight or zigzag stitch to prevent it from fraying? Just curious how you did it.

The first thing i did when i found the sweater at the thrift store was to wash it on the hottest temperature and dry it. it didnt totally felt it but it made the knit a little easier to work with. i think it half felted and therefore didnt unravel as much as it might have otherwise. surprisingly, most of the knits i have cut into dont tend to unravel. it is a little scary to cut into it at first but i figured all i had to loose was a 5$ sweater so, i took a deep breath and did it.

i sewed this bag with a strait stitch, fairly wide on the stitch length. i have been doing that with the hats i have been making too. i think it gives it a little more give so that the knit doesnt pucker. an over lock stitch would probably have worked as far as keeping the fraying under control but i didnt think of that at the time! i used a very generous seam allowance, about an inch i think, because i was fearful of fraying. lastly, i lined it with a medium-heavy weight upholstery fabric that i made slightly smaller than the shell of the bag so that there wouldnt be a lot of tension on the lower seams, or stretch it out. my machine had a hard time going through the handles of the bag when i attached them so next time i would come up with another solution.

i hope i answered your question! if you have any others please let me know and thank you for the kind words.

old friend, peekaboo and a new pile

this is my favorite bag i have ever made. it was from an old fisherman style sweater that i cut up, reassembled and added wool applique and embroidery. it doesn't get used much when it is warm out but since the weather has changed it is in full use. it is nice and big, big enough for a sippy cups, diapers, snacks and the occasional portable craft project or camera.


looking out another window, and climbing on the couch. our games of peekaboo have become much more physical including running around the house and rough housing. he really is turning into a boy!

here is another pile that will be born into an owl, hopefully by the end of the day. i love wool so much, maybe i should dream of a sheep farm instead of goats..