Welcome Dora!!

My older sister Betsy gave birth on Wednesday night to her first kiddo, little Dorothy! She's named after our Grandma and her husband's aunt as well. Just the first of what I can assure you will be many, many pictures.





and here are a few oldie-but goodies of matthew and michael. now, i know i'm biased, but are these kids cute or what!?

One Yard Wonders TWO!

Yay! A sequel!
Since my e-mail wouldn't let me upload the photos, here are the project photos I'm submitting.
THIS PROJECT IS SO EASY IT HURT TO EVEN TRY TO WRITE INSTRUCTIONS.

Alabama Chanin Inspired T-shirt

I read Natalie Chanin's first book a while back, and devoured her most recent one just a few days ago at the Book Store, aka my second office. Imagine my surprise to find a contest on Burdastyle.com to win a workshop with her! What to do...what to do!?

The print major in me wants to silkscreen. The stuffed animal maker in me wants to use wool. But the practical side of me knows to start with something small. So I did.

Behold: Old Navy t-shirt plus scraps of Mossimo t-shirt plus favorite stamp plus thread and two nights work =Altered T ala Alabama Chanin!

There are two of these patches, and each one took about 2 hours total from stamping to finishing. My knots are on the back side, hers are usually on the front.

Using this stamp (which I have used for many other projects) tells me I need to go with a pattern that has fewer undercuts and more 'negative' space.

OOTD: walking on sunshine

Today's outfit, as I'm heading to Har Mar Mall to do some walking. Yes, it's sunny out today and all the snow is melting. But I have new walking shoes and I don't want to mess them up! No, I am not a retiree.

*Mossimo t-shirt printed up by Amy Rice Her studio is above I Like You, and Sarah came down with one of her shirts. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could to snap one up for myself. There are a limited number that she is now selling at the store. How cute is that Little Person?
I blew Matthew's little 3.5 year old mind when we were playing Little People in the basement and I was wearing the shirt!

*Old Navy ruffled hoodie. Tag says '07-09/09' so I guess that means I got it this last summer. My fave color of turquoise!

*Jeans (unseen) were a gift from my old boss, they are from Lane Bryant and they are a titch on the tight side, a touch on the mom-jean side, but for walking with the other mall walkers they will be just fine.

*Earrings, homemade! I used components from The Bead Monkey, but these pieces are not online. E-mail me if you're interested in more info!

Crib Notes OOTD

OOTD means outfit of the day. On days when I'm feeling particularly awesome about my fashion choices, I'll start posting my OOTD. you'll also see more fashion blogs popping up on my faves list. I've gotten way into a few that I'd like to share with my loyal readers. So here's the first of many!
Smooches!

Mossimo Little Black Dress dress, from Goodwill but originally Target. Found this girl today for $8.99 and was quite pleased, since I just gave up my two other LBD's as being too big (YAY WEIGHT WATCHERS). Earrings are 'Swell' via Target and the scarf is also Target, from two seasons ago.

Cardi is Relativity via Herberger's which is my mom's favorite word to say. Insanely clearanced, I think it was $9 or something. I love the bright purple/pink shade, very spring-y.

Boots which you can't see are my go-to black boots from J.Crew. They were also very clearanced back when I got them 2 years ago, I think they were originally $150 and I got them for around $40. They have been re-heeled once already and even though they are salt-stained right now, these are my go-to black boots.

Tights, unsure. No label. They are faux-fishnet.

The Old Magic Crept Back

my little submission for the 'foot in the door' exhibit at the MIA. they only do it every 10 years, and they accept ALL Minnesota artists. so it's not like a *huge* deal. but i did grow up going to this museum all the time for school and family trips. and when my mom worked at the MIA in the ed. department, i got to go to work with her during the summer or when i was sick. i spent hours wandering the museum during the days, usually one of only a few people in the place. it was certainly magical. so i decided to bring some magic of my own to this challenge.

the dyed paper flowers came about because i wanted to use up some old dye that didn't work for tye-dyeing anymore, so i used it on the book pages. the crystals and shell centers of the flowers have long been in my stash. the tree limbs were an abandoned attempt at a mobile hanging device. and of course, the mousie was made by moi. the more i look at it and think about it, the more i want to do something to the walls and back of the IKEA frame. i better get it turned in before i change my mind!

More, around the way....

I need to get a medium-sized order in to the Bibelot tomorrow so I have been focusing on that, but here is another Easter preview for ya.* Look for them in my ETSY shop starting very early on Saturday AM.

I wove these nests while watching the Vikings season crumble like a cracker, and then made the wee birds to fit inside. I will be making an edition of 4 in brown/blue, and a few more different color schemes as the days go on.

I had made a nest with wee birds a few years back, with my older style of long-legged bird and some TINY little baby birds....and sent them out to my first ever out-of-state show in California. I've come a LONG way since then!

















*My facebook friends can get them for 10% off through tomorrow! Go to duckie uglings' facebook fan page for information!

What happened to that stuff you dyed?

Well, I made some cute pins out of them! The pin at center top is wool I had purchased, but the other ones are from my blueberry dyeing experiments. Cool, eh?

If you are interested in purchasing them, they will be going on ETSY on Friday. But before then: if you're my FACEBOOK fan you can get 10% off!!!

Look for Duckie Uglings on Facebook and become my fan, m'kay?