Beetlegirl Design

i dressed her like sunshine and she is nothing but storm cloud.

(The above was written in an email to my sweetie updating him on our morning here at home.)

a hint of things to come...

the one and only

...I would love to introduce to you miss baby c, born at 8:50am on April 28th, 2010...Have you ever seen anything quite so lovely? 

the final countdown

In about a day's time our wee baby xx will have arrived (and that will begin an adventure unlike any other I have experienced).  But today, baby and I will cuddle up on the couch as only the two of us can, and listen to the rain, and the quiet.  And tomorrow, we will do the same, but with eyes met. 

Introductions will be made as soon as we are able...until then, please keep us in your thoughts. 

Temporary Closing of Etsy Shop

My Etsy shop will be closing this Saturday, April 24th, as we prepare for the immanent arrival of our wee beastie girl.  I hope to re-open the shop in a few month's time, once we have settled into a new routine of chaos and adventure.  In the meantime, Beetlegirl Design beasties can be found at Monster Art & Clothing in Seattle, WA. 

You will still find craftie updates here from time to time, and you can definitely anticipate a bit more life in general posts, as we adjust to being adoring and sleep-deprived parents to our baby xx.

you know you are pregnant when...

...the drink that accompanies you to a hot bath is chocolate milk.

february bps postcard

This will be my last postcard for the Benevolent Postcard Society project.  I will continue to create paper collages and post those here, with the hopes of eventually having a few printed for my Etsy shop.  But, as my life is going to be a tad unpredictable for awhile, I have decided to be careful about the commitments I make in twenty-ten.  I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone waiting at the other end of the mailbox, should I find myself unable to snail mail from one month to the next.  Participating in the BPS has been a lovely nudge that inspired me to sort through my paper collection to see what might come of the bits and scraps.  It has also led me to ponder creating some of my paper creatures into three dimensional forms.  This year is going to be an adventure for me, and I am looking forward to seeing what new things I dream up as I begin to create for my daughter-to-be.

baby xx...

...yep, it's (going to be) a girl!

bunny mock-up

A particular wee fuzzy one might comment that my drafting a pattern for a bunny is far overdue.  In fact, the torn scrap paper with the original sketch for a bunny was drawn far over a year ago.  Somehow, the squirrel interceded, and now that I am not so pleased with the squirrel's tail, and need to reconsider that, shifting my attention to a bunny seems a more pleasant task.  This doesn't mean that the poor squirrels who have been waiting patiently to be stuffed for too many months now won't come to completion, it simply means that there are a plethora of bunnies (currently in the state of a pile of fabrics) waiting expectantly at the cutting board's edge.

This mock-up is one-third squirrel, the main body is the same, but all the other pieces are new.  I love all the bunnies that my fellow crafters have been creating, but, being that I am constantly kept company by a bunny of seven years, I wanted to create a bunny that resembled all of those parts of a bunny that I most adore.  This includes over-sized hips, slender little front paws, the nook at the nose, floppy ears (mini Holland lops truly have me by the heart strings), and a leaf-shaped tail. 

This will also be my very first attempt at a child-friendly soft-sculpture.  To date, it is also my first creation that does not require a wire armature.  I will have glass-eyed versions, but I will also be sewing up an all-organic fabric version, stuffed with bamboo or cotton, and with safety-jointed legs and eyes.  I intend to play around with some thread-jointed versions as well, and some bunnies who will be closer to a velveteen rabbit model without legs and arms entirely. 

Anyhoo, that is about it for now.  Off to convince my sweetie to change a dead light bulb so I can actually see what I am sewing.  

running on empty

 

I think this image sort of says it all.  I had a lovely wee whirlwind of a trip up to Oregon and back, but I am now slowly mucking through the repercussions of such excursions in my nearly two-thirds of the way there state.  The baby shower, the first of a few, was lovely, and due to the great talents of our friends, and of generations past, it seems our wee one is going to be swathed in knitted garb, which is absolutely fine with me. 

So, I am off to ponder the wind and rain over a cup of lemon-ginger tea, and slowly attempt to recapture the enthusiasm I had for the bunnies and squirrels on my cutting board.