Goodbye 2009. Hello 2010!

The year in review-

Wow! That's a whole lot of silliness.

(No wonder my laundry never gets all the way done.)

A wish for you all this coming year-

May your hands never be idle

And you always take time to play.

May your heart be bright and sunny

Even when days are gray.

Happy Twenty-Ten!

Waiting and Wonderland

The table today is full of blanks.

Blank boxes, waiting for paint. Blank stuffies, waiting for pencil.

Blank canvases, waiting to be brought to life.

Alice and Company are looking much less blank today-

The queen needed a new crown. (She didn't like the last one, and I'm rather attached to my head.) Dylan is designing an adjustable stand for Miss Alice. And the pink flamingo still needs some attention. Poor little thing hasn't got a leg to stand on.

Monday

A messy work table greeted me this morning,

"Hello, Jo! We're waiting."

If they had feet, they'd be tapping them impatiently.

Alice and friends are coming along. And a flock of bird wands arrived while I slept.

Beside the table, stars and moons and a glittery crown (can you guess who it's for?) dry on the heater. Waiting for stuff to dry is no fun, so I speed it up whenever I can.

You can see a couple of the finished wands here (they're down at the bottom of the page) or on Ebay or Etsy. We've been slowly but surely updating our website, making little changes everyday.

OK, I think they must be dry now, so I'm off to draw their cute little faces.

Happy Monday!

Back to Work. . .

. . .Back to reality!

OK, "reality" might be stretching it a bit.

The worktable, having been cleared of any evidence of shenanigans for the Christmas festivities, is once again serving it's true purpose. What's in the works today, you ask? Well, I'll show you-

It's the residents of Wonderland!

 Alice, the Queen of Hearts, a flamingo (for playing croquet, of course), and that naughty Cheshire Cat are all awaiting finishing.

I also just had to share the present I made for The Mr. It's the head of the puppet that'll play him in his next video. I managed to make it look like him too. (Success!)

I made a little hat for him too.

I'll bet not many of you unwrapped a box with your head in it this Christmas.

The kids said it was the perfect gift for a man that's always getting ahead of himself. (haha!)

Now I'm off to the fabric store to find just the right cloth for Alice and the Queen's skirts.

I love my job!

Have Yourself a Silly Little Christmas

Well, it's official. . .The beasties have taken over.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas everybody!

New Endeavors (and Pink Elephants Too)

We're in the process of giving our previously neglected website a make-over. There is still much to do, but we've added an exciting new thing -- stuff to buy! The Mr. and I have decided to start selling a series of limited edition pieces right off our website. Up 'til now we've been selling all of our original pieces on eBay, auction style, but now we'll be mostly focusing on our website. We'll add new designs as we make them (which will be quite often I'm sure).

And so, without further ado,  I'm pleased to introduce the first of the newest additions to the Cart menagerie--

A pair of pretty-in-pink pachyderms. . .

. . .a starry angel. . .

. . .a pretty butterfly. . .

. . .and a winged guardian of ragdolls everywhere.

We're excited about this new direction,

and want to give a big thank you

to all our wonderful collectors out there!

Make a Dear Paper Deer

Happy Winter!

It's not long now til that Night of Night's that is Christmas Eve.

I wanted to send a card to all my Blogland friends, but I just don't have that many stamps. So instead I'll share the How-To of the cards I made this year.

Here’s a little paper-cut deer that you can make. I made cards out of my little fawns, but they would be equally at home matted and in a frame.

You’ll need:

-Cinnamon-brown cardstock
-Scrap of cream-colored cardstock
-Craft paints : dark brown, white, and beige
-Background paper or blank card
-Little paintbrush
-Scissors
-White glue

First, print your template (click for a printable version) and cut out all the pieces like so-

Next, paint the deer’s belly beige, like this-

Then add little white dots. (I like to use the wrong end of my paintbrush for this, just dip and dot.)

Next, paint all his wee little feet dark brown, like so-

Then glue his ears and face on.

When he’s all dry, glue your deer’s body to the background.

Now glue on his other two legs like so-

I finished mine off with some tiny stitches.

All done!

Rhyming Silliness

This week's batch has been made,

Quirky characters on parade.

A gingerbread house walks on peppermint sticks,

He may look tasty, but don't get tricked.

In a Christmassy hat stands a mushroomy tot,

A friend to all fairies, content with her lot.

An angel who was born to croon

Sings a lullaby to the happy moon.

A gangly elephant struts his stuff,

But we all know he's not so tough.

A mermaid won't get lonely in an endless sea

With a seahorse pet she named Sweet Pea.

May your days be full of mirth and glee

And your world delight in eccentricity.

Lumpy Bumpy Bami Ballen

I wanted to wrap these simple ornaments for my neice and nephews in a special way, so I thought I'd try making Bami Ballen. 

First, I wrapped my ornament in an envelope.

(That's the back of the ornament showing, they weren't that simple.)

 

Then I wrapped it in a layer of crepe paper and gathered lots of little treats and trinkets

(in this case, candy and mice).

A bit of treasure went into each layer of crepe paper, alternating colors, like so-

A gazzilion yards of crepe paper later, I had 3 Bami Ballen (ok, maybe more like Bami Lumpen).

I think they turned out cute, and I'm sure the kids will have fun uwrapping them. Just one little problem. . . I got them mixed up in the wrapping process and have no idea whose is whose! Sigh. Martha Stewart would not approve. Oh well, at least they're all going to the same house.

Today

Her eyes were bigger than her stomach.

Ever hear that expression? Well, my list is bigger than my day.

Here's what's on the table this morning. I need to have them almost finished by this evening.

Totally do-able. But the list doesn't stop there, nooooo. . .I've also got to finish 8 ornaments for our annual get-together with our bestest friends (which requires another trip to the printshop on account of I spilled paint on one and have to make it again) and wrap said ornaments (I wanna do something like THIS for the kids). Also, we're donating our refrigerator (we have an extra in the garage) to my brother who just bought a refrigerator-less house, so I gotta clean that out and make the swap. Then there's the kids' Christmas concert tonight, packing (Did I mention the annual get-together is out of town?), and the everyday chores that accompany motherhood. . .Inhale. Exhale.

Ya know, I feel better now that I've written it down. It actually sounds like a really fun day. I'd better get to it.

May all your To-Do lists be short

and your Fun lists be long.

Futures Antiques and Current Shenanigans

My oldest friend (not that he's so ancient, I've just known him forever) is the owner of the coolest shop.

He has the best eye for vintage gorgeousness, and he's having a sale!

Here are the things I'm drooling over today, especially this table (so cool).

I love what he says about what he does with that shop of his--

". . .recycling/reusing/re-purposing/zero-carbon use of existing things; gaining perspective on where, when, how, and why we live as we do; making Home more than a stay at a motel; recognizing that everyone can be creative and Home can be a major work of art. . ."

☺

We need our small businesses, and they need us.

Please keep them in mind while doing the shopping thing this holiday season.

Speaking of small businesses, here's a peek the latest goodies fresh off The Cart-

You can see more of them here.

December Already??

 It has been a busy week around the ole Cart. Along with a lovely Thanksgiving dinner for 8, house prettifiying, and about a zillion dishes, we managed to get 4 new pieces done. I put the finishing touches on everyone yesterday morning, just in time to greet December.

This fashionable snow couple has been leisurely strolling around the studio.

I felt more like a dentist than an artist at times making these toothy fellows.

A happy moon with a little friend likes to spout poetry.

In a couple of hours I'm meeting a couple of on-line artist buddies in real life for the first time. We're having a girly day with crafts, the beach, antique-ing, lunch, and probably lots of giggling. Yay for new friends!

Happy December everyone!