...wha?!

23. love

::i love a celebration of love!

::some sewing, some time spent with toesy in "making", some sweet notes to friends...what more could i ask for?

::as promised, these are the cards-and-envelopes-in-one valentines 


::front and back view of closed valentine. i really like the sweet heart shape for writing the name of the recipient

::opened up showing the fabric hearts (toes helped in choosing the fabrics for this). i looooove these

::some more

::toes helped helped me cut out hearts to "seal" the letters.

::i couldn't help admiring the potato shaped one near the scissors (heh heh!)

::like the "antique"-y look of this one

::messy table? or table full of love??...spilling over with love?? someone please stop me from going further with this

sneak peek

::i can't manage a normal post right now, but here's a sneak peek at what i am slaving over working on. straight from my sketchbook

::these are for toesy's kindergarten class. i am debating with myself whether i should do handmade cards for knees' class, as there are like 30 kids! that's a lot of work. they aren't celebrating until monday the 15th because tomorrow is going to be a full day of olympics-themed activities, so i'll have the weekend to decide. whatcha'll think??? you know, i think maybe if i weren't such a crazy, and i just went to the store and bought things, life would be a lot easier.

22. message pillow

::i realize that it is now february. i really do. but there was one christmas (yes, i said christmas) present that i have somehow neglected to mention on this blog. (and i call this blog a record of my crafty things??? the shame!)

::before christmas every year, my family gets together and we all draw names from a hat for a secret santa gift giving game. the name we draw is the person we act as a secret santa for. i'm sure lots of people do this. anyhoo, we have included the kids in this always, and every year i help the kids buy their gifts. but not this year (errhh...last year, as we are talking about 2009 here. stick with me, i will start to make sense soon) as we are going for handmade gifts. 

::so anyway, my 5 year old, toes, picked out his grandma's name. i racked my brain for a couple of weeks before coming up with this gift. i wanted the gift to include some sort of artwork by toes, but not just one piece of artwork. and so he and i eventually collaborated to make this:

a message pillow!

::the pocket in front holds messages. the pillow is to be kept on grandma's favourite chair. personally, if i were a grandmother, i would just love the excuse for another spot to hold some of the awesome artwork that little ones produce. wouldn't you? 

::the word there says "grandmother" in chinese (or close to that. this is in a 5 year old's hand, after all). it is pronounced something like "po" or maybe "pohr"

::it was a true collaboration: he drew the picture onto cloth for the pocket and chose the embroidery thread colours, i "helped" him with the embroidering which means he managed a few needle pokes and dictated the rest

::the first message in the pillow was this picture that toes drew for his popo

::as i wrapped it up for christmas, i wished i had had more time to pretty it up. but now, looking back, i think it was just right. a sweet little gift from a little boy who loves to draw pictures and leave messages for his popo.