Kite Shirts

i have been in a crafting slump...so lately i have been substituting a day a week of my rest time to spend crafting with bryson while the other boys are sleeping. this is a sacrifice of love people...my rest time is my "gain my sanity back so i can be a good mama until bedtime" time...but some things are worth it...like crafting with bryson - he truly enjoys time spent alone with me, and of course i feel the same!

so bryson came home from school with some "kites" the other day. they were pieces of paper - one he cut in a triangle and the other he cut a heart and someone punched a hole at the bottom and then he tied string. anyway - that was his very precious kite and everything that day was about kites kites kites! i started thinking and i knew i had some extra blank shirts around i didnt know what to do with and so he gave me the idea. i told him what i was thinking and he was very on board.

















he picked out the colors - he helped me cut (and then i re-cut after him) and helped me clean up after...then we made these simple kites...which he was so excited about he even danced...















bobby even got one too! i love this picture - it looks like he is posing...by the way - did you see his new sitting up trick? perty fancy!




















the handsome young man...i can't believe he is 5...he is so much fun right now! tonight we are going to surprise him (and bodie) and go see Imagination Movers at the Nokia Theater...and we get to sit next to Warehouse Mouse himself (he happens to be my uncle) - wish us luck - we are going as a family and still not sure what Bodie is going to think about it all...have a happy weekend friends!

Fremont Community Market

this last saturday was my first craft fair by myself...without my girls. well...one of my girls still showed up to keep me company, of which i am so so grateful! without her there, i would have bummed out on the day! there were not a lot of customers to be had and thank the good Lord there was a playground directly across from my booth to keep my kids occupied!

i had planned on selling off some Zoodies and SweetB inventory...i ended up only selling 4 zoodies all day. the optimist in me is like, so many people were so excited about them and i got exposure! and the pessimist in me is like, no one liked them THAT much.

i go back on forth on craft fairs. i have done a handful of them and some of them are spot on and others seem to be a total flop and it seems like i can never tell which is which.



when i have my oldest, bryson, ask to come with me all day it makes me a little glee-full. he stressed about making stuff to sell. on a brilliant note bryan suggested he sell his paper airplanes for a quarter each.

you should have seen his face light up!

he set up a little booth and i made a little sign.

he ended up giving them away (kinda like his mama!)

plus he was too distracted by the playground.

but him in his shark zoodie and bodie in his skunk zoodie were my best advertisement of the day.

that night at dinner Bryan led grace and thanked the Lord that the boys have a mama that appreciates handmade and loves to share her gift with our community and my heart just opened up and spilled out and i couldn't have felt prouder...that my boys were all a part of it...from Bryan setting up and tearing down and helping me market my booth...and Bryson telling people his mama made his sweatshirt and wanting to sit with me...and Bodie wearing his hood all day...and Bobby being oh so patient...makes it all worth it...despite my actual sales :)

Sweet B at the Fremont Community Market

hello friends! we are all so busy right now - i know you probably still have shopping to do, so why not support a local school, support handmade and your local community...oh and eat YUMMMY sandwiches from Kut-N-Sow and see lil' ol me!

I will be at the Fremont Holiday Community Market - details here

Fremont Elementary School - Tomorrow - Saturday the 11th from 8-3 - 4000 E. 4th Street, Long Beach, CA 90814

Along with my zoodies, i will also have my vintage stuff and my handmade stuff too! so a little something for everyone!

Hope to see you there!
C

Long Beach Patchwork Re-Cap

whew! i am tired! and jazzed...but tired...patchwork happened yesterday...thank you to everyone who came out and said hi! it means a lot to have your support...we didn't get a lot of pictures...i had asked Bryan, but he was busy chasing down 2 boys who happened to be running all over the place...not sure why because when i have them they always stay in a line right behind me with their hands clasped behind their backs...right? moving on...

so the coolest thing about doing shows for me is interacting with the people. there is so little of that "on-line" apart from a couple of emails possibly. but to see the kids and parents respond to the things we make is really neat and encouraging. it makes me want to do more shows because of it...but maybe after a nice resting period.

Linz made some darling bibs...i snagged a couple...3 actually...they are perfect because the tops of all of Bodie's shirts are destroyed...rendering a lot of them non-passer-down-a-ble...i have tried everything to get some of the stains out...it is the drool combined with food products and whatever else he finds to put in his mouth - all collecting on the tops of shirts...so this way he is much more fashionably dirty...

rashelle with her mama...giving bryan the stink eye for taking her picture...sorry rashelle - it was one of the only ones!









and linz wasnt quite ready for her close-up either...

this is me and my marketing/PR rep Liz of Lascaze PR...she is amazing and if you stopped by while she was around she probably put a zoodie on your child and convinced you they needed one...love her!

that was also a highlight for me was to see people's reactions to them...by far the parents seemed a lot more excited than the children, and i had a lot of people ask if i make adult sizes...but to see people interact with them was really neat and encouraging...because truthfully sometimes i think they are a little silly...but other times i think they are fabulous...so to get any type of encouragement is motivating!

i did do some shopping too! later i will post some links and pics of some of my favorite vendors...and there were a lot of good ones!

My Swedish Phase

in preparation for Patchwork Long Beach...BTW...June 27th at the Marine Stadium...you going? you should! anyway...in preparation, i have been using up old fabrics and turning it into dresses and realized i have a major Swedish thing going on...i can not stay away from the blue and yellow...or that gingham...

in my defense, at $2/yard...its hard not to fall in love with gingham!

i almost gave up on this pattern because the last couple i made did not turn out right, but after recently seeing a couple of babes wearing the dress like this that i made for them still after a year and a half and one still wears it after 2 years i believe...well, it made me a believer. that plus they are super easy to make!

i am going to wait to post these to the shop until after the show...maybe even after august...because if this little babe #3 does happen to be a girl...she will be mostly swedish after all :)

Patchwork Indie Arts and Crafts Festival

i am very excited to announce that friendkidly will be at Patchwork in Long Beach. June 27th at Marine Stadium Park (Appian way and Nieto) from 11 - 5. If you are in the area...or even if you aren't...its worth the time and drive. they have the raddest vendors - tons of homemade lovliness - food, baby stuff, big kid stuff, music - and its all good...seriously. its not your incense and rasta crocheted handbags and vendors that sell shirts with kitschy stoopid phrases...its good stuff people. so put it on your calendar. and stop by and say hi.!

hot rod shirt

we had another t-shirt making round this weekend...my sister and liz even got in on the fun. i love having a backyard to be able to craft - it makes clean-up all the more easier, which makes me want to do it, which makes bryson a happy boy - he loves to create as much as i do :)

so another car shirt for him...i really like how it turned out - the little red hot rod was a nice suggestion from B. i have already had 3 different guys ask for an adult version...maybe Sweet B should look into a men's line? funny...i used to work for a men's fashion magazine and always thought how boring men's fashion is...pants and shorts and shirts...snooze! now look at me...all knee-deep in little boys! and who knew it could be as fun as making dresses? well...quite nearly as fun anyway :)

crafting shirts

the boys and i took a nice long walk this morning and afternoon- stopping at the beach to play - along our local main street to shop and sight see and at the nearby park to run around and have a picnic - even big B joined us at the park for lunch. the weather was amazing and Bodie even waited till we got back to nap...which meant i could even rest - not nap, but rest...i rarely get to sit for longer than 10 minutes, so this is excitement. this was a pretty close to perfect morning for us.

i realize that bryson needs to be active early and focused on something, or else our day sees more chaos and fights and bad attitudes than is warranted. but if i get him out of the house and active and on a mission, we can have a seamless day. i think i have known this about him since he was 18 months and we started going to the park every day...every day...at 9:30...every day....or else. it hasnt changed.

anyway - i was also thinking to myself how easy it was with just one...how much we could do in one day and still enjoy the day...how i used to have a regular craft time with him every afternoon. now it is more like once a week. granted, i am working in the office more, but with 2 - there is rarely a day like today. and soon there will be 3...and schedules will be adjusted again...and less will get done in a day....and i am still trying to mentally prep myself for that. i switch between anxiety and excitement approximately 346 times each day. but given it all, my day is filled with more love and excitement with my 2 boys. i am so so blessed to have each of them and wouldnt change it for the world and i know this little soul will change our lives, but it will ultimately be for the better and i do look forward to that.

so today was a pretty amazing day - i got to clear my head and mind and also create with BOTH my boys. how fun! Bryson was experimenting with mixing colors and creating his own names for them and Bodie experimented with tasting paint and getting marker everywhere. fun times.

the bike shirt is Bodie's and the ant shirt is Bryson's. this is Bryson saying..."i think the ants are looking for dirt. they like to eat dirt." i told him they like sweet things, "no, i think they like dirt" whatever!

these are my favorite tees at the moment - American Apparel's tri-blend tee (polyester, cotton & rayon) - it is so super soft...like a thrifted tee...love them...

i guess he is saluting here? not sure...but at least you can see the little strawberry on the sleeve the ants are going for? i thought this shirt would be so BOY, but it kinda looks girly to me too? its transgender...

Shop Update! Dresses Galore!

I had the community market/fair at Fremont Elementary today to help raise money for the school's tech/science lab. what a great school...what a great community. this will be Bryson's school if he goes to Public school and what a great introduction to the school i had today. We met the principal (who happens to attend the same church as we do...hurrah) and a lot of the parents and their kiddos as well. these are some of the only pics we took, but i love it because this is so what happens during a craft show - one or more of the kiddos running around, some in the booth, some out. it was a great day, but mainly because i shared a booth with Angie. Angie used to have a little shop called The Outfit. Sadly, they are closing, but for a good cause - Angie became a mommy to her third child 6 weeks ago (her and her sweet baby girl Esme shown here) and is putting her efforts there - where they belong. And guess what? you can benefit! She is having a huge sale over there...so go here and check out her store!!

I scored this sweet little hat for the Bode-ster from her...he loves it for seconds at a time...hopefully we can keep reminding him how cool it is!

So if you have been paying attention, i have been making a slurry of little wee girls' dresses and no models to speak of to post decent pics up in the shop, but thanks to dear Angie i was able to purchase a wee mannequin from her. by far the easiest model to work with ;) however, this model only fits 2T and up, so my smaller dresses still need a little bod until they can go as well.

i was able to post some things up in the shop today - a bunch of stuff for 2T! so if you were looking...i'm just sayin!

another craft fair...

i am such a good little blogger when it comes to really random and mostly unimportant things...but when it comes to the shop and bizness i get all lame...

i am in a craft fair this weekend...sorry for the late notice...its at Fremont Elementary on 4th and Termino this Saturday from 8am - 1pm...its to raise money for the elementary school's science lab, which is in danger of leaving the school due to the never-ending budget cuts.

if you are around - stop by! it should be a cute little community market.

i haven't been whipping up too much new stuff because i have been making actual sales! can you believe it? after about 6 months of silence, i have had 7 orders in the past 2 weeks - 4 of those being zoodies...good stuff! i have had some friends and family also place some orders, which i am always more than happy to do.  its so fun to create something together with someone.

part of my new years resolution was to use up my fabric before i went off and bought new stuff (the exception being if i was out of a type of fabric - like flannel for baby blankets, etc). so i ruined all that when i stopped at M&L Fabrics in Anaheim because a certain "friend" told me about how great it is...(thanks a lot rashelle....now i dream about that store!). but i am slowly using all the gingham i bought there...havent finished the quilt yet, but once i have a good 5 or 6 hours to kill i am totally on it :)

so my sister ordered a dress for a 1 year old birthday girl and i whipped up 2 - one for her and one for the shop, whichever she doesn't choose will be for sale on saturday. so let me know which one SB...it is about 12-18 months i would say...the blue and orange one is super duper soft and the pear one is a bit fuller.

i am planning on doing more craft fairs in the upcoming months so stay tuned and hopefully i will get better at announcing and giving people actual planning time :)

i cant believe i am doing this again...

i mean a quilt...not this pregnancy...although at the moment, after a day like today, that too. but back to the quilt. i had no intention of doing/starting a quilt. in fact my "projects" box is overflowing with already cut pattern pieces and "need-to-do" birthday presents and my fabric bins are also overflowing and i certainly didnt need to go buying any fabric - just cause i fell in love with the gingham and the colors and thought how cute a comforter that would make...certainly i didnt need to do that. but that is, in fact, precisely what i did the other week and for a week have been cutting little 5x5 inch squares....garrr...right now i am pretty mad at myself for starting this cause i cant stop!




i am completely blaming this on pregnancy hormones. because this is a little shade of crazy right now. i have this awkward obsession at the moment with aqua and orange and gray...it is overtaking my closet and the boys' room and it just makes me happy...so i found this gingham and wanted to just marry them all. it is satisfying some weird tick in my crafty brain i guess. so this is big and has taken quite a few of my evenings up, but i am pretty happy with it. i know i have to completely take out the last row because it is about a half inch off, but other than that i can live with the other mistakes. i still am undecided about the backing and have a lot of gingham leftover, that i am just obsessed with as well - it was only $2 a yard, so its not like i went too nutzoid...but still. i need someone to snap me out of it and keep me on track. i have a craft fair coming up and at this rate i am not going to have anything in my booth!

so all this rambling to say - i need your help...i have a brown gingham that i was originally thinking of using as the backing - not sure if it is too harsh...i was thinking a gray linen border that would match the big gray linen squares and then strips of the gray and brown gingham on the back...i guess at the time i was thinking it could be reversible if the colors change in the room...but also - i do have all the gingham in the quilt leftover...or i could do just a plain white back...and i am crafted out at this point and need some help...so please...HELP!

Frog and Lizard Wreath

This actually happens quite a bit in my house...where i  get the urge to create something really girly and cute and then Bryson objects with a much dirtier and boy-ier idea...

i had purchased this foam wreath at a craft store a while back with thoughts of a beautiful Spring flower-y wreath...well after watching an episode of LIFE last night Bryson decided that a bug wreath would be much better...

Please excuse the poor quality pics. alls i did was wrap some yarn (in about 3' long pieces and tied the ends in the back together) around the wreath and glue gun on the $1 store frogs...

Voila! a perfect wreath for the boys' room door...

The Pink Parlour Craft Fair Review and Recap

so...as i told you before...friendkidly was at The Pink Parlour craft fair at the Santa Anita Racetrack yesterday - Sunday...We found out about a week and a half ago that we were doing it, so not much time to prepare, but off we went!
(do you see our bargain wagon? aren't we genius? except kids all day wanted to play in it and i think it ticked off the mamas...ha!)

it was linsey and i all day...which is always nice to be able to sit and relax with a girlfriend without being interrupted by little munchkins all day...we wish we were interrupted more by customers all day, but that is a different story.
(BTW - can you see her darling skirts here?)

it was family day at the races, so our hubbys and babes came and enjoyed the bounce house and junk food and our hubbys wagered a few races...so i think all were entertained to some degree, which is nice - its usually not a fun-filled day for dad and the boys at a craft fair...dunno why! thats my kind of day!

so here is the low-down...this was definitely NOT our crowd. not a lot of mamas...more like a lot of rock-a-billy single gals and guys wearing their flower hair accessories...the girls wore the flowers...not the guys...anyway...across from us was a corset booth that got all sorts of crazy action...so that should tell you something...the moms that were there were dressed ummm....how to say it? not our style? their kids wore little skulls and had shirts that said "i love my mom and her tattoos" and the boys were wearing Ed Hardy-like shirts...i dunno...definitely not "cutesy homemade" like we do...i hope that doesnt sound judgemental...i'm just saying that we werent the best fit for this show...


so we know our crowd for sure better now...i think Patchwork is definitely a better fit for us...we did sell some stuff, but definitely a let down as far as sales went...

BUT...it is always energizing for me to see this community of DO-ers and MAKE-ers and crafters - the people we meet and the things they make are always encouraging! it is such a cool community to be a part of and a huge reason why i keep doing it even though i make no money...

I think we will stick to shows that seem to be a better fit...or else i will learn how to make corsets and flower hair accessories...and skull onesies...

angry ginger people

Bryson and Daddy made gingerbread men...one is mommy and one is Bryson...i think they both look a little angry...what do ginger-people have to be angry about anyway? i guess if someone was about to eat you....that would make you made too....

i love that bryan is able to spend time with the boys like this...during the day...while i sit in the office and try to concentrate...and work...and stay off-line...oops...i better get back to work...i am making myself feel guilty now!

One Day Left! Belmont Heights United Methodiest Church Craft Fair

one day left to get all this home-made goodness! lotsa lotsa baby stuff, kid stuff, candles, cookies, pajama bottoms that apparently are the hot ticket, hair goodies! come support handmade! if you live in Long Beach please stop by Friday Dec 4th from 11 - 4!! and bring your checkbook! or cash!

Belmont Heights United Methodist Church
317 Termino Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90814