get crafty: it's tin tin terrific :)

bedtime? but mom, i have been staying out of the way playing very quietly like u asked and i even brought my snackie and blankie out here and everything!

- baxter, 6.1 years old, after having settled in after a long day of helping, hopin to help some more by joining what he had hoped was going to be a late night threesome crafty party with his mom and auntie robin.








Yippee, a little peekypoo today at the things in process that  Robin and I have been working on, prototypes for the workshops my friend Robin hopes to hold at her local building supply reuse store, using old Christmas tins and cans and other bibbledybobs and transforming them into super cool things like tiered storage display (which I think would also double as great lazy-girl-like-me's tabletop christmas tree/ornament display, no little wire hangers required!)

 
..and cheerful swirly garden art, sure to give year long visual excitement to yards owned by those possessing even the brownest of thumbs. 

Tomorrow, hopefully pics of the finished flowers on their stems, all showered with happy sunshine by mister u know who. :)

no peeking

A certain little someone's birthday is tomorrow, and despite my efforts to keep all the preparation hubbub high above a curious little dachshund's tiny noggin, the little kielbasa still figured out that all the frenzy of the day was most certainly probably most likely done with him in mind.

mom, i know u said to stay right here in dad's lap and not to peek at whatchoo were doing and so i promise u i have not done any peeking at all with my eyes but well, u see u said nothing about sniffing, and well, how can u not sniff smells, right? and today i smelled lots of very nice and tasty things and, are u sure you i cannot help u with whatever it is u are doing?  because it sure smells like i should!! :)

calling all dachshunds: super sunday survey

Hey everybuddy, it's me, Baxter, your roving rover reporter! I'm reporting from home here with my friend duk duk and today, we're turning the tables.  On reporting that is, because we are asking for your help with a very important super sunday survey for our statistics in crafting class.  You see, at the beginning of the school year me and duk duk were assigned a project to gather data on doxie head measurements and well, it is due tomorrow and so um, yeah, we need your help!  And it's super easy cuz all we need to know how big your head is, well, if you are a dachshund that is, and all we really need to know is the measurement between your ears, as measured across the top of your forehead.  Like this, I'll show you...


um, mom, now is your cue...

Okay thanks mom, you can get back to sewing now, we've got it from here.  Thanks and c u at lunch!

Okay, so my head measures ooo, 3.25 inches.  And that's it! Well, except that we need you to report your measurement  results here either as a comment on my bloggy or on facebooky, so me and duk duk can analyze our data and then summarize our results for class and hopefully do a little makey makey in our free time. Which we might have a lot of if we do not turn our homework assignment in on time and mom finds out and our wii is taken away if u know what I mean.

Anyhoo, thank you very much for participating in our Super Sunday Survey and this is Baxter your roving rover reporter wishing you a happy and hopefully measurement filled afternoon! :)

get crafty: shiny happy little loafy bags :)

dear diary,
there is still much I want to learn about playing with Magic cards , but one thing i do know, somehow these bags that I helped my mom make yesterday will be very useful.  or at least that is what my uncle dana says because he asked us to make them for him and his magic playing friends so they could hold a pen and some dice and, well, extra bubble gum and i guess all the other stuff u need to play magic except the cards of course, and so we did! make them I mean.  and I am very excited because not only are they cool and use some of fabric samples that lulu's mom gave us (thank u again miss elizabeth! and a very u don't stink too bad for a girl hello to lulu too!) . oh but i was saying, so not only are the bags we made cool but they are loafy shaped, u know, just like me.  so that way uncle dana and his friends can think of me even if i cannot be there to learn how to play! 

anyhoo, i might ask mom if we can make one or two extra to take to school because me and duk duk have always wanted to save our tater tots from lunch and eat them later like Napoleon Dynamite does butchoo know since we are not allowed to wear pants we certainly cannot wear our pants with pockets  and so these little loafy would be very helpful for that if u know what i mean.  mmm tater tots.

toodleydoo and have a wonderful weekend!
b. :)

felted recollections

Although I am not exactly sure how the presence of little doxie can help add visual explanation to the felted pincushions I soon will be putting on Etsy,  a certain little somepuppy most definitely thought his presence in my pictures was required, and he trundled up to crash my photo shoot accordingly.

mom, you're taking pictures of stuff for etsy? why didntchoo call me?? you know i'm always up for a... hey, i know you made them for the bucktown show, but aren't these the same kinds of things that you -

Um, okay my little friend, howzabout we get you that snackie you earned and you can sit beside me while I finish taking pictures?

okay and yippee! :)

ps - i'll be loading Etsy today and tomorrow so stay tuned if you'd like one! :)

while u were visiting

For a couple months now I have been thinking about redoing the colors in my crafty space.  Switching from warm reds and oranges and other happenstance colors to the cooler  tones of aqua, turquoise, and green.

I figured if I put my mind to it, I'd be done in just a few days. I have a lot fabrics in the new colors already and what, recovering my pair of office chairs? Maybe a day each, and the fabric shelving panels, oh, another day, and yeah the onerous task of making actual lined window curtains? Okay, maybe like 4 days to do it reasonably right with a few breaks thrown in for good measure.

With big boyfriend off to visit family, I thought I might be able to get most of it done these past few days. At least everything but the curtains, anyway, because I still don't know what I want to do for them.  But surely with one less person in the house to mind,  I can finish everything else  in all free time I would have on my hands, right?

Visions of welcoming home my big boyfriend to studio orderliness and color cohesiveness danced through my head as I started sewing.

But now? Like, four-ish days later? Yeah, you guessed it.  Now with t-minus just a few hours before tiny boyfriend and I trundle off to the airport to pick up big boyfriend,  my studio is even messier then when big boyfriend departed and I am at best 30 percent finished.  And I know that these beguiling brown eyes had plenty to do with my lack of crafty progress.

Welcome home, honey!  Wanna see the big hole we dug in back? :)

get crafty: what's your shirt number?

Say what? Six bucks for a pet pumpkin tee from Target? Nah, not when the Goodwill infant bin has super cute stuff for only a buck thirty-nine, no crafty alternations necessary. :)



beep! beep! i'm a size 3T, how boutchoo? 

a place for everything

I am hopeful that everything will eventually find its place once the dust settles and my crafty space is reorganized, but there is one little pumpkin who has already made it clear that his needs must be met first.

mom, dontchoo think a nice bed and snackie shelf will be perfect here under your desk so i can keep u company while u work? :)

messopotamia

So long as there are little pathways and rabbit tunnels for Baxter to navigate his world, I think by now tiny chumley is hardly ever phased at what goes on in his house.  But right now the mounds of stuff are even more moundy than usual, thanks to my determined and much needed effort to make the time to reorganize and restructure my crafty space.

Even though stuff is everywhere, I can hardly find a thing at the moment, save for a little four legged boy who patiently waits for the day when his mom is done moving stuff and making noise with the vacuum cleaner.  With any luck (and a little help from IKEA), Baxter and I will resume our crafty adventures sometime next week, but in the meanwhile, my patient boy makes do, playing and living in messopotamia.

oooh mom can me n duk duk play hide n seek with chocobot n lil pink puppy in here? there are so many more places to hide now!!

get crafty: 0.00002 leagues under the sea photography

Hey, it's me, Baxter, your roving rover reporter reporting to you today from my very own backyard, cuz somebuddies have asked how it was we took that underwater picture of me bobbing for a carrot from yesterday. So today I am showing u the setup we used, which is quite simple really because all u really need are two stools and a glass dish with handles.  U know, for like they kind they use for baking, or in my mom's case, for dyeing silk in the microwave.  Although she has not yet used this dish for that particular purpose yet and it is still fresh and new from HomeGoods.  Which is why I could use it for bobbing for carrots.

Anyhoo all u need to do is suspend the dish between the two stools, make sure the set up is nice n sturdy, fill it with water, chop up some carrots and stick your camera under the dish and voila! But be careful not to have your camera too close to the edge of the dish unless u have a waterproof one cuz bobbing for carrots can be a very wet affair.  Like this, let me show u.

Yep all that water has to go somewhere and sometimes it goes all over the floor which might mean it could get all over your camera and that could be a big boo hoo.  So take it from me n my mom, anticipate the path of your pup's carrot bob and stay very far away from it.  Unless u have a waterproof camera, know what I mean?

Well I hope u enjoyed today's photography lesson and are inspired to make your own underwater adventure moment.  And if u do, please feel free to share your underwater pictures or a link to them on my facebook fan page so we can all see.  :)

This is Baxter your roving rover reporter wishing you the snackiest of snackies! :)

get crafty: the big little

Today, a peekypoo at a project that the little kielbasa and I have been messing with all week long,  Not that it took a lot of time to do, so much as it took some time to shop (at Home Goods - yippee!) , and shop some more (at the art supply store - second yippee!), and well, of course if I am going to be out and about, shop at the nearby thrift stores (third yippee's a charm!). 

The result of all this shopping and ten minutes of effort?  A very giant kielbasa boy, all done on a tiny budget! :)


ooooh, sniffed the little kielbasa when he examined the finished product, finally a me as big as i think i am!

two lamps and a skunk

Tiny chumley was disappointed when he found out he couldn't help me rewire the lamps I scored at the thrift shop yesterday, and glumly stretched out on a stairstep, occasionally heaving a sigh of displeasure by pressing one ear back then the other.

me so booooooored! his little brown eyes declared as they watched me make a giant mess on the foyer floor. isn't there anything to do today?

I got up to give Baxter a skritch.  Poor baby dog, I thought,  you're being such a good boy and it's really not fair that you don't have anything new to play with when I've got my new toys, is it? How bout we pull out Mister Skunky P Eeeew?

oooo i hear crinkling!! gimme gimme gimme! perked the little kielbasa when I came back with his prize. 

And happy both were we, working separately yet keeping each other company, til finally we both finished what we set out to do.

short stacked

Okay, I know. I had such resolve when we first decided to adopt Baxter.  No more than four beds, three of them inherited from his brothers before him, and one new bed.  Not a lot of toys and no way will this dog's stuff ever need to take up more space than the drawer underneath our washing machine.  My plan? Respect through austerity. 

Fast forward three or so years and yes, tiny chumley's beds and his toys are everywhere now, multiplied like little mischievous bunnies. Add to that the plentitude of blankies that Baxter can call his own, the overflowing bin of duds and clothes and head gear and, most recently, vintage eyewear and neckties that make up his wardrobe, and add his growing food and water bowl collection and what do you get?  Well, thankfully, one little doxie who is still as respectul and sweet as ever.

Which is why I guess I still want to make his home, his world, a more perfect and doxie accessible place. Now that Baxter can encounter a bed and blankie and toys practically every 15 feet in the house and can enjoy them as a nattily dressed dog about town, my attentions have apparently turned to things that help him monitor his world from a higher position that his stubby little legs will allow, and to the things that help him get up there. Upholstered benches and ottomans, which I like to call his kitty perches because he'll climb up on them and watch the world from his window, and the stools that act as steps to allow him to gracefully and safely get from floor to kitty perch and back again.  Because the little kielbasa is too kielbasa sized for those miniscule doggie stair step things, and because ramps take up way too much space for their single purposed endeavors.

And so, for now let's just say Baxter is well on his way to fine collection of kitty perches, thanks in part to an ottoman we already owned prior to Baxter's adoption and a bench and stool scored long ago from Marshalls, but lately, because these hands and paws were made for crafting.  Today, a peekypoo at the craftier side of his collection, made larger by two just these past couple of days when I finally finished regluing and reinforcing his $5 needlepoint flea market score, and after I salvaged the brass feet from a rickety thrift store find to make him a completely new happy kielbasa sized  perch using some fabu fabric and velvet that I discharge dyed and turned into piping.

Yeah, it's a tall world out there.  Somebody's gotta help the little kielbasa see it. :)

etsy fresh: tomodachi japan relief doxie & bunny block print

A special run of happy block prints to share today, pressed from an image I carved this past weekend of the little kielbasa and his buddy bunnito bunnalini, and posted fresh to Etsy to join other friends in helping with tsunami relief. Aptly titled, "tomodachi", the japanese word for friends.

oooh, mom i hope these sell out so i can help u make more, squeed the little kielbasa when he sniffed at the cheery display of all the prints, cuz i really want to help the dachshunds and bunnies and duks and everybuddy in japan!

 

pretty in pink

It seems there are many days in Baxter's happy go lucky life where things take a sudden and interesting turn. Like yesterday, when he spent most of the morning staring at me.  Wishing, I think, that I would be more interesting. Or at least, way more susceptible to his telepathic powers of cuteness. Which I am most certain were trying to convince me to leave my sewing machine in order to serve him up a nice big tasty rawhide bone. Or, as he would later try to convince me with his twinkly eyes, at least perhaps a tiny little smackerel of something tasty?

By early afternoon, the little kielbasa had given up all hope of extra snackie love, and retired to his kitty perch to warm his sausagey body and his rumbly little tummy.

Seeing that this little wiener dog was sound asleep by the time I finished sewing, I figured I would quietly go upstairs with my freshly made purse to take a few simple pics to submit with an upcoming show application.

But no sooner had I gotten to our bedroom did I hear the the thunder of little paws. Baxter skidded into my feet, and a tiny trailing wind caught up shortly thereafter, stirring up dust that glinted in the afternoon sun.

u weren't gonna take pictures without me, were u, mom?? he seemed to happily inquire as he sniffed about the things I brought upstairs.

And just like that, things took an interesting turn for the both of us. :)

etsy fresh: calling all royal doxies

Well hello, it's me, Baxter, here to show you these super pretty sparkly rhinestone crowns that me and duk duk are selling to fund Project Monkeys in Space. Need a unique valentine's day present for the special girl doxie in your life? Want to help your doxie dress the part she already plays? Just love sparkly treasure?  Hop on over to the Project Monkeys in Space section of my mom's etsy shop and get your crown today before they're all gone!  And feel good knowing that every crown u buy helps put a monkey in outer space.

My name is Baxter, and I thank u for your support. :) 

crowning glory

dear diary,
well diary, as you might be aware, duk duk and i have been working on project monkeys in space for like forever now. well, mostly doing fundraising in the form of saving our kibble n worms so we can buy the monkeys cuz i hear they cost a lot. well, the good ones anyway, the trainable kind that u can use as a butt-ler afterwards, and not the grouchy kind that might throw monkey poo at u if u know what i mean.

anyways, me and duk duk kinda got the munchies yesterday night after mom n dad went to bed and, well, let's just say the funding for project monkeys in space kinda suffered a setback of epic proportions.

so duk duk and i were stuck trying to think of ways we could earn more kibble fast and wouldn't u know that mom said her little ontrapuhnoors - wait apparently that's not spelled right - entrepreneurs should consider a fundraiser. and wouldn't u know she had just the thing we could sell.

ooo, i was thinking, sign us up! maybe mom made greeting cards of the poopie snake i made the other day, or even better, castings so we could paint them gold and offer them as paper weights. and this time duk duk could be the model cuz he could be the duk that laid the golden poopie in our ad campaign.

but, no such luck. mom came back with a half dozen sparkly girly crown things and said "looky at these pretty little treasures! there are only a half dozen of them all together in three different designs, and i just know there are six lucky doxie girls out there who would love having their very own, very well made, very sparkly princess crowns. and i can even help you and duk duk with the ribbon and instructions on how to tie it on their heads so everything stays neatly in place! it can be your very own project mister universe!"

mom was so excited i really didn't have the heart to say anything but i think u can tell by my face what i was thinkin when it came time to start taking pictures for our ad campaign.



yeah, this is me in the Princess Diana. and yeah, u know what duk duk was doin when mom wasn't looking.  laughing his feathers off.

but don't worry, diary.  moments later i remembered that this was all for a good cause and i got really into it. cuz at sixteen bucks, plus shipping, i'm thinking we'll be able to turn a few little doxies into the queens and princesses they really are and we can buy like a whole zoo of monkeys! and i hate to admit, but these things really are very pretty!

well, mom said duk duk and i could use tomorrow's post to tell u more about our crowns so i best get ready for it. duk duk already set up our email to take questions and everything. i am so excited!! :)

toodley-doo!
b.

roxie fabric

Often times in the past when I went on a bizcation trip with Robin to New York, I would get overwhelmed by the selection of goodies before me and lose focus on what it was I should be getting. And don't get me wrong, I'd still be getting stuff, but I would amass a load of goodies that I couldn't use immediately, buy one off treasures that would sit, waiting for the day when I had enough other buddy components to make something kalyxcraftoperrific. Which wasn't too bad a thing to do, only now I really am hurtin for storage space.

But luckily, I was fairly focused this trip, and found, amongst other things, super fabrics and trims to augment what I already have, to make purses and other flights of fancy, including a fabulous dud for a special wire haired girl name Roxie.

Tiny chumley was, of course, his helpful little self when it came to putting together options for Roxie's dapper doxie dud.

yep, definitely something in pink orange and maroon, cuz look how good these colors look with me on top of everything! and may i please have a snackie?

dapper doxie dud: secret space boy

Yippee, the first dapper doxie dud for the new year, a rough n rumble teal packcloth harness for the rough n tumble super dog and Baxter's blog buddy, Ammo.

ooo. baxter's eyes did glint as he spied this dud. are u sure this isn't for me? cuz it totally fits me AND it's got super cool spaceboy flannel inside.

No baby dog, but you'll be getting a new blaze orange dud soon and you can have whatever flannel lining you want!

the long and short purse

Somebody at last weekend's show asked me what my inspiration was for making the purse style that seems to come naturally from my fingertips, and quite honestly, I had to say I didn't know. Whether in plaid or velvet, wool, or textural hand dye, this shape just seems right, time and time again.

But, in retrospect, there is something oddly familiar about the purse form that has become my standard, and I think it you can guess how my art may well imitate my life. One little chumley at a time.