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!

new etsy wares

while in the middle of a major kitchen remodel (not yet finished...but getting there!) i decided to participate in Bazaar Bizarre which was being held at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. somehow i pulled off sewing up some 50 new plush animals and had a fabulous time at the event! i was left with just a few little guys and they are now in my shop at Etsy just waiting to be adopted. i also had some new paintings & prints and the they are also in the shop. the painting below is 'gussie sees something new':

a baby penguin and his mama are out for a stroll on the ice when they find something they've never seen before. hopefully a sweet take on the important topic of global warming.


& today i finished a little manatee painting - he's a cute little guy. i'm actually liking the manatees so much that i drew up more sketches to make into paintings. i'll have those prints at the shop really soon as well.


a fun shot from my studio:

have a lovely day!!

so much to catch up on!

so...it's been more than 3 months since i last posted here. but, in that time i've been SO busy doing other cool stuff so hopefully i'm redeemed somehow :o)

just got back from montana - actually a road trip from home in sj, cali, all the way to bozeman, montana. nevada was a disappointment to be honest - every stop for a bathroom break seemed to be at a gas station/casino joint - what?? from pumping gas in bright desert daylight you walk into a darkened, smoky and stale smelling joint with ding ding ding! going off in little sing songs - blehh! i forget how nice it is that you can't smoke inside establishments in california.

as soon as we neared idaho things got really pretty and much more like 'we love our state and we take care of it'. idaho was awesome - i'd love to go back! and montana was even more of a good thing. we camped with j's family in a cool little rustic cabin (no water, electricity, etc.) right next to the 'big creek' - nice cold rushing river. we went on hikes and bike rides and traversed through nearby yellowstone national park (i saw a moose!!...and tons of bison, elk, etc.) & later in the week we packed it up and hit the hot springs pool and tried to make ourselves pretty for j's sister's wedding in bozeman. it was a blast - can't wait go back!
the cutest little ground squirrel we saw while hiking to a waterfall in yellowstone national park.


my sis in law, alexa....she makes gorgeous purses - lexiwynn.com website in progress.

my adorable nephews...one obviously loves to dance!!

me and jared having fun outside the dance hall at the wedding...beautiful views and a bit of montana brew...mmmm :o)

miranda and arthur find homes!

we went by kaleid gallery last night and i checked out my display. arthur the mini-owl and miranda the penguin had been adopted! i'm not sure who bought miranda but i know the fabulous christine took home arthur. check out christine's super cool work here. her robots are amazing :0)

phylo's new accessory

poor baby phylo got a bad cut yesterday that required 10 stitches to close. the good thing is that no tendons or muscles were damaged so he'll heal up pretty quick. the other good thing is the awfully cute bandage the vet put on him! purple and blue polka dots...i'm sure phylo doesn't appreciate it half as much as i do :o)

for surgery he was given anesthesia which made him really lethargic the whole rest of the day. and he didn't want to drink any water - even hours later. so i bribed him by putting some splashes of chicken broth in his water dish. it worked! he drank a really good amount. i think i got the idea from j's mom when she said that to get the kids to drink their milk with dinner she would let them put pepsi in the milk (ewww!). they dubbed it 'pilk'.

easy way to do something good

i just heard about this a few days ago on npr...clicking on web pages that support different causes, such as protecting land in the amazon rainforest, or support for the breast cancer research fund. all you do, literally, is click on the links provided at the site (care2.com) and they do the rest - no cost to you except a few seconds. i'm bookmarking it and will try my best to save as much rainforest land as i can by clicking on the site each day i'm on the computer. the link is here.