Busy Busy Busy!!

My blog has not had any love from me in a while! I am sooo busy! Not only have I been finishing orders in the madness of the holiday rush, but I have been making all of Gracie and Annelie's presents, and making new pictures for my soon-to-be- shop. Next, I have to clean my atrociously messy house. It has suffered some serious neglect!! And my mother-in-law is coming to stay for seven weeks, so I better get to work soon!!!

I just want to say a great big THANK YOU!!! for all the support you wonderful bloggers have given me about opening my new shop!! I am going to do it, even though it terrifies me! I have no formal art training past my high school art classes ten years ago, so I have always felt a bit inferior when it comes to drawing. But I guess now is as good a time as any to test the waters and at least build up a nice portfolio. My life long dream is to write and illustrate children's books, so at least I am getting some good drawing time in! And the best part is that Gracie is always happy to set up her own paper and crayons along side of me and draw draw draw. She is very talented!

See you all after the craziness has died down!!

Elegant Snobbery

My decolletage is quite impressive, Lydia mused as she smiled inwardly.

Okay, I am kind of toying with the idea of opening a second shop on Etsy. Or maybe phasing out Tootsie and Grace baby boutique completely and just focusing on my illustrations for awhile. Really undecided.

You see, sewing isn't my first love. Not by a long shot. I didn't even begin sewing until seven months ago, so it certainly isn't something I have been doing my whole life!

Drawing, on the other hand -- especially with colored pencils-- has been my favorite pastime since I was a wee little thing with a pack of Crayolas. I didn't want to open a shop with my illustrations because I *gasp* hate rejection. But I recently figured, I'll never be successful as an illustrator anyway, if I never even take the chance!!

I love sewing, but I just never have the time with my two little ladies constantly getting underfoot. They can't help it, of course. But I am tired (literally) of staying up until two in the morning just to finish a sewing project!! The idea of opening a new shop and focusing strictly on art for the time being is soooooo nice!!!

So there just might be a new shop in town come the new year --- Elegant Snobbery. That'll be me!

At the top is the latest picture taped to my drawing board. Meet Lydia.

Fun.

I need to have it scanned as my camera unfortunately doesn't capture all the color and detail. But it is a nice start, I think!

Whats going on!?!?!

Have you seen my shop lately? Me neither!!

Tootsie and Grace is closed for the holidays. I am overwhelmed and underpaid, and throwing in the towel to play with my kids and have a great holiday season.

But don't worry, I'll still be around!! Enjoy your own holidays everyone!

TAGGED!!!

I have been tagged by Candice from Kopah

I’m to share seven random/weird facts about myself, post the rules, and then tag seven other people.

My 7 random/weird facts about myself:

DISCLAIMER--- Your are about to learn things about me that you probably wish you didn’t know. Please don’t stop being my blog buddy after reading this. I’m not crazy. Just quirky.

1. I watch documentaries. I love them. Luckily my husband does too, but I’m telling you… movie night might seem a little boring at our place!! My most recently watched documentaries include:

*Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism—all about the Republican bias of Fox News

*Once in a Lifetime—about the soccer sensation of the New York Cosmos

*Deliver Us from Evil—about corruption and pedophilia inside the Catholic church

*Air Guitar Nation—about the Air Guitar Championships (really awesome!!)

*Slavery & the Making of America—nuff said

*The Corporation—about the rise of corporations and the impact they have on our lives

*Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport—about the kids escaping by underground railroad, during Hitler’s heyday.

*Grass—about marijuana prohibition in the US throughout history (this was my favorite)

*Jesus Camp—about the evangelical army of children and their way of life as they spread their fundamentalist views

*Soldiers in the Army of God—about pro-life extremist who call themselves “Army of God”

There are more…. My husband and I watch PBS all the time. All of the above were from Netflix, though.

2. I still have a little girlhood love for mermaids, fairies and fairy tales. I never out grew it! I collect mermaids, especially, but have a lot of fairy and frog prince stuff (mostly gifts from people who know me) I can’t help it, I just love it all!! I have always loved my name because it means, “maiden of the sea.”

--btw, this is a fabulous painting, isn't it? I will be blogging my friend and favorite artist, Brian Nishimoto soon!!

3. When it comes to keeping my house tidy—forget it. I am a total slob, as is my husband. But I am a bit OCD about kitchen cabinet doors. THEY HAVE TO BE CLOSED!!!

4. I don’t drive. I know I have mentioned it before in my blog, but it is a pretty serious issue with me. I was seeing a hypnotherapist last spring, but it didn’t work. I have my drivers license, but I have not driven a car in several years. Even then, I only drove around my town and never on a freeway. I would also never drive with my kids in the car. I have panic attacks.

All this said, the number one wish in my life is for me to get over my driving “issue.” I dream of driving every single day and think that my lack of driving is why I don’t have any friends in Texas. I mean how can I, when I don’t drive to playgroup, or anywhere else where I could potentially be social? If it wasn’t for the Etsy forums, I’d be a recluse!!

5. I have a passion for pirate history and lore. I know, you are thinking it isn’t unusual with the love for pirates that has taken over the world since Pirates of the Caribbean movies came out, but my passion is a little different. I have wanted to be a pirate historian for about 10 years and have sooooo many books and papers and research on pirates. In fact, the reason I chose Bath when I did my study abroad, was because it was located next to Bristol, which is where Blackbeard the pirate was born and raised (omg, that is insane, isn’t it?). I even noticed all of the pirate mistakes Disney made when filming the Pirates movies.

6. I am trying to go green. I guess not completely, since that is such a hard thing to do, but I am trying my best! Here are a few of the ways I have tried to reduce my waste.

*I have stopped using paper towels, and only use washcloths now. This is why I added washcloths to my shop, because I love them so much!! I used to go through a paper towel roll a week, but now it has been a few months without any!!

*I don’t use plastic bags when I go to the grocery store. I either use the back of my stroller, or a cloth sack.

7. If I could travel back in time to any period in history, I would choose Regency England. I love learning about this time period, and reading and watching Jane Austin. I have always loved this era, but I never appreciated it quite as much until I was living in Bath, where Jane Austin lived during the Regency era. So much of Bath is still from that era and it is just so beautiful!!

Great books to read if you are interested in this time period as well, include:

*What Jane Austin Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

* The Gorgeous Georgians

Okay, that is me.

The rules:
Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

My 7 tags: Um… I need to add to this list as I meet new bloggers. I don’t really know a lot who have not already been tagged!!

1.) Katie-- Fresh Squeezed
2.)Amy-- Herbst Handmade

Light Box Building 101: A Tutorial

The key to taking great pictures when you live in a place that doesn't get much light (like my apartment, which is totally blocked by trees and doesn't get any natural light whatsoever) is using a light box.

It doesn't take much to build a good light box. Here is a list of all that you will need:

1 good sized packing box. We have moved so much that we have about thirty of them laying about (Actually, that's a lie. We have about thirty of them still filled with all the things we know we will never need, but I can't bear to throw away in the event that we do need it someday. Like miniature Gap jean jackets, which are too uncomfortable to stick a new born baby in, but too small to put a baby who is over 8 lbs in).

White tissue paper

Tape and a craft knife

White poster board

First, you will want to cut windows in three sides of the box. The box becomes very flimsy, so be careful!!

Next, chase your ten month old away several times and plead for your husband to take her so you can get your project finished.

Give up on chasing said ten month old, after she tries strangulating herself on one of the box sides.

Convince husband that building your light box is key to running a successful business, and that the only way to do that, is for him to physically hold ten month old until you are finished as she is known to never leave Mommy's side, especially when Mommy is doing something that does not involve her.

Next, begin taping the tissue paper to the sides and top of the box.

After successfully and painstakingly taping up two of the sides, begin chasing ten month old again, because husband has forgotten to watch her and is too engrossed in football to notice baby destroying project.


Give up.

What are you crazy? Who builds things out of flimsy cardboard boxes and tissue paper, anyway!!!

Okay, some people do. And for those of you who are interested in a working tutorial, check out this one by Strobist.

Enjoy!

xoxo,

Are You The Perfect Mom?

I took some dumb online quiz, because I am a born-procrastinator and will find any kind of excuse to put off emptying the dishwasher...

Are You The Perfect Mom?

Well I was curious so I answered all of the questions. This was what I got back:

***
Your answer: No answer given

Arnold Schwarzenegger may be the "Governator," but he played a pregnant FATHER in the 1994 movie Junior. Oh, if only it were possible…
***

What?? Okay nice little fact about the Governator, but seriously...

Now I have to empty the dishwasher. And I don't even know if I'm the perfect mom!!!

Buy Handmade: Holiday Gift #2

I posted before about how I took the handmade pledge and have been buying like crazy on Etsy for my holiday gifts. Here I go again! I am particularly fond of the cheerful holiday photos I am putting as my header photo for this little series. These are last year's Christmas pictures. Will and I sent out our first (and potentially last-- we are rubbish at getting holiday photos mailed out) Christmas cards, complete with a nice selection of photos of us looking cheesier than the Cleavers. Most of our friends got the joke, but some people said, "My what a beautiful family you are!" The vest actually hides the fact that I was 8 months pregnant with Annelie!! Don't worry, there are more photos to come!

In other news, my blog is looking a bit different, isn't it? After all of the craziness with Etsy's gift guide going on, I decided to host a gift guide of my own, where anyone who wants to be included can be. I posted a forum thread (here) and let people decide what they wanted featured and what category they wanted it in. Nice bit of promotion for other sellers, and I am all about that! You can also find some of my favorite shops tucked in amongst the other items. Like Pretty Girl Things, by Camille aka GorgeousRedhead. As if I haven't blogged her enough, here I go again! This time I am here to say I have bought from her shop and am ooohing and aaahhing because I love what I bought so much.

Too bad it isn't for me!!! The thing I love best about the holidays is finding wonderful and personal gifts to give to the people I love. The thing I hate most about the holidays is I usually want to keep them for myself...

I bought this pendant from Pretty Girl Things for my friend Starrlette (if you are reading this... well, here is your gift. You know I am awful with surprises, Starr!!). Starr is a very vampy Marilyn loving lady and this pendant is called the Starlett pendant. No kidding!

Well, I love it and so will Starr. And someday I will finally have some pocket money to shop for myself!

Here are some other wonderful finds from her shop which you can find at http://www.gorgeousredhead.etsy.com


Shop till you drop, ladies!