House love

House cushion, originally uploaded by -syko-.

As you might know I have a thing for houses. Here is the new house cushion I've been working on. It seems this Spring is very much about pastels here :) However I have something in a more natural colour scheme for those of you that are not so much into the nursery style (will post tomorrow)... I have listed a couple of Springy house ornaments in the shop too. I've been making a bunch for Janet's little gallery, so inspiring! My next project will be to make some soft boats for her. Here is my inspiration:
There is also some laundry to take care of, I wish there was a Cath Kidston shop nearby, I'm sure I would be thrilled to do some housework if I had something like this in the my laundry room. It is even eco friendly!

Working joy and a find

wip February 27, originally uploaded by -syko-.

I am having a hard time calling sewing work, since it does not feel like it. At least when I can create freely. Like today. The kids are gone and I am free to work how late I feel like. Before I had kids I used to hate being alone, now I can't wait for these moments. Why can't someone create some time balancing tool for us poor struggling humans?

I got so inspired by the cushion I did yesterday so today I have developed some three, or is it five, more designs using the same display.The one on the picture has a house appliqué and some Japanese clothesline fabric, very cute :) It is fun do a little patchwork for a change. I am creating a very creative mess here building a mountain of fabrics that might look good here or there maybe?

This piece of paper appeared when I cleaned my desk this morning. Had totally forgotten about this idea, but I might make some springy bird ornaments with fairy hair and feet bells... Talking about bells for feet, my mobile has reached its new home, and they liked it! Still waiting for mine, very exciting!

Hi

dino cushion, originally uploaded by -syko-.

The dragon-giraffe dino is ready and wanted to pop in and say hi! The cushion is for a boy that loves dinosaurs and cars (got to use the Japanese car fabric I got myself for my birthday in October, yay!). Here is the whole cushion and the gingham back together with a really scary dinosaur.

The kids are going away to their grandparents for two whole days tomorrow, who wants to party with me? First a lot of sewing with Aurora and then some wine and good music, anyone?

ABC

J is for jaguar - mini art quilt, originally uploaded by -syko-.

I am back in business again and yesterday I finished a wholesale order of ABC quilts. The customer wanted E and M for girls and C, T and J for boys. Some of the letters were really tricky, I had to squeeze the dictionary for good words, but the most drastic thing I did for this project was to buy fabric with a jaguar pattern :) I wanted the style of the quilts to be close to unisex, I am not so fond of the common colour codes for boys and girls. My son chose this shirt for himself.

Now I can move on to next order, today I am working on a dinosaur cushion, however T says it looks like a giraffe-dragon so I hope the new owner won't disapprove of it...
I also want to thank Chelsea for sending me this super cute unicorn print! She wanted to thank me for featuring this cute baby set in a treasury that was featured on etsy's front page. Chelsea steals her husband Nate's art and sells it on etsy. Don't you just love Chelsea's business idea?

Happy week-end

This morning I got an e-mail from Anna at Pulu who asked me if I had seen my robot scarf featured in the Finnish home deco magazine Avotakka (3 2008)! I ran to the shop of course, I think the display looks delicious, they have used it as a table runner in an article about meals for kids. A very happy ending to a not so fun week! Now I have to head back to the sewing machine while little E naps and big E entertains herself. I need to finish an order to be able to make a bunch of Spring stuff for Pulu, my favourite shop, thanks a million for the publicity!

Thank you all for your well wishes! I am back to normal again, I knew I was ok when I started the day by cleaning up the mess in the kitchen...

Sick business

I never get properly ill and am always cross with T when he gets the flu and stays in bed all day, it does not feel fair. Yesterday I got my fair share and was reminded of how it was to be pregnant in the early weeks and how happy I am with two kids I have...* In other words- the stomach flu hadn't given up its grip on our family just yet. I spent the whole day lying down with a fever and felt like our friend Nemo looks above. I got up once (after a bag of candy and some painkillers) to unpack my new computer. T then spent the rest of the day installing programs for me, thank you for being my nerdy secretary!!!

You might get the expression that I won the lottery buying all this new equipment, well I didn't. I got a loan for my business. A state granted loan with low fees for businesses run by women. Now I just have to work hard to pay it back. As a typical woman (I think) I gave the decision a lot of thought, but when one of the guys at my how-to-start-your-own-business-class took a
20 000€ bank loan to be able to get his business running I thought I could as well risk a little once. And it does feel great to have a computer that works as it should. Now there is just some cleaning up to do, both in the studio space and the rest of the home, a week of illness does leave its tracks.

*I did not love being pregnant. I felt sick and uninspired most of the time. But I love the result of my suffering!

mobile swap

mobile for elsie marley's swap, originally uploaded by -syko-.

Here is my mobile for elsie marley's swap. I am trying not to freak out when I look at the masterpieces in the flickr pool. At some point I felt like throwing it in the trash and start all over again with something more sophisticated. But when I look at it now I think it looks very much like MY creation. The receiver wanted it to hang in the nursery, she also wanted colour, which suited me since I am very much into happy colours for this Spring. The birds have small bells for feet, a little sound for the baby. I hope she will like it. It is easy to take away the tulle if it feels like too much...