home sweet home

I'll be in Panama for the next few days!! Mostly in the Panama City area with a night in El Valle and a night at the beach (of course!). I can't say how ecstatic I am to go to the beach again. Living in Cali is really fun and we love it but I feel almost landlocked sometimes because the water is so chilly - I never have the desire to play and swim in the ocean like I do in Panama. I'll also get to see my best friend Lucy again :o) We've known each other since the age of 9 and now she has two little girls and lives in an amazing house on the coast. I'm taking the girls some special little things from my shop.

Have a great weekend!! I'll be back and will post pictures from the trip - should be lovely and colorful...

Etsy Showcase Today!

Happy Monday :o) It's my birthday! This morning (probably only cause it's my b-day...) my husband went running with me and our dog Phylo. It was great...and we'll have earned our yummy dinner at 71 St. Peter tonight! Mmmm...'summer tasting menu' with wine pairing - can't wait!

And I have a spot in the showcase on Etsy today...Rosie the lapdog is featured. Too cool...hopefully I'll have more people visit my shop. I'll be posting more plushes later today in the shop and I have more paintings in the works that I'll get on there soon too.

I found out last week that Cookie Magazine blog featured one of my plushes! I'm not sure which one as the link was past (the post was in June) but it linked to my Etsy shop which is great. Cookie is such a rad magazine & I feel totally honored!

These are some plushes that have found homes lately...

7 new lapdogs!

Yea! 7 new lapdogs all lovingly sewn & stuffed and carefully named :o) 4 of them are currently in my shop - the other three I'll list later today and tomorrow.

Hershey the Lapdog (caramel wool fabric, apricot wool fabric, vintage alpaca felt details)

Morgan the Lapdog (striped cotton fabric, purple quilted fabric, fleece eye and tail details)

Bettie the Lapdog (purple wool fabric, irridescent printed fabric, hand felted wool details)

Rosie the Lapdog (soft pink velvet fabric, striped cotton fabric, fleece eye and tail details)

Pippi the Lapdog (fuzzy red fleece fabric, floral print fabric from Japan, hand felted wool details)

Lisbon the Lapdog (blue wool fabric, wool happi coat fabric from Japan, & fleece/cotton details)

Lille the Lapdog (super soft baby blanket fabric, floral print fabric from Japan, & wool details)

& july begins

july is my favorite month...part of it may have to do with my birthday being in july :o) but i think it's more than that. it's so warm and sunny and beautiful in san jose in july...the garden is popping!...there are so many things to do and see...the days are long...the clothes are easy. i actually feel much more motivated in warm weather so i'm getting lots done!


this is a cute wooden alphabet i've been painting for a little boy's room. the other work i did in his room is pretty simple - just stacked stripes in fun blues, yellows & oranges.



& we have a new bird friend! i'm not sure the species...but this guy is a real cutie, and SO teeny! we noticed that some little seed eaters had built a nest in our orange tree (fairly low) - unfortunately it's been slowly falling apart and last night one little guy kept slipping through. phylo was so good to listen to us and leave the little fella alone so we could scoop it back in the nest. well...this morning all three babies were gone!! i thought maybe a cat or squirrel had...you know...so we were sad. but later on, phylo and his excellent hunting dog nose found a sole survivor ALL the way across the yard. i made sure the mama and papa birds saw me and then tucked a bag under the nest and put the baby back in place - bit more secure this time. so far all is well!