jcaroline's blog

Jessica Levitt's Timber is here

Jessica Levitt's debut fabric collection for Windham Fabrics, Timber, is here.  The design above is Dogwood and is offered in three colorways.  She has some great colorings in this collection-- I vacillate between picking the blue/gray group and the brown group as my favorite.

She is one clever designer and crafty person.  Check out the darling construction-themed party she put together for her son and these darling felt owl ornaments she made for Christmas (which I say you could easily make and display all year round).  And the darling nursery she did for her son with handpainted mosaic tile border.  Well, just check out her blog, Juicy Bits, because she offers lots of ideas and tutorials.

And don't forget-- bidding for the Fat Quarter Shop's Helping Haiti benefit ends tomorrow, Friday, at 12 noon Central time.  They've got 26 items (mostly quilts) up for auction.

Yes, she did it again.

 This photo has nothing to do with the story, but I think she looks cute in it.  And no, she doesn't wear glasses, but apparently she thinks my reading glasses enhance her dancing. 

So, for those that have been around awhile, you may remember the story of her putting the potty seat on her head and it getting stuck.  If you didn't read that exciting epistle, I'll wait for you to catch up.

Last weekend we moved the jcaroline office and Thursday night I brought home a variety of Olivia leftovers that had been at the old office:  videos, toys, potty seats.  When I got home on Thursday night, I left a box in the front hall at home, which had a potty seat on top.  (What better way to greet guests to your house, right?)  Guess what she did Friday morning as her father was getting ready to take her to school?  Stuck it over her head and then couldn't get it off.  And yes, he had to cut it off of her.

I'm not calling the manufacturer of this potty seat because now I think clearly the problem is with the child, not the maker of the seat.  So, I'm just going to look at this picture and think about how cute she is, not how ornery she can be.

Help For Haiti at the Fat Quarter Shop

Kimberly and friends at the Fat Quarter Shop put together the coolest idea to help raise money for organizations providing relief in Haiti.  They are auctioning off donated quilts and other sewn items.  If you win the bid, you need to provide proof that you donated your winning bid to one of the five agencies they list, and they'll send you the item.  What a clever way to raise money and what a clever way for you to direct where the money is going.

Shown above is the Fresh Laundry Quilt sewn by Kimberly herself.  The entire list of items for bid is listed here.  Bids are open until January 29, 2010.

Here are the instructions on how to bid.

If you don't have the funds to buy a quilt (though the opening bids are certainly reasonable), you can donate to the Red Cross and specify the Haiti Relief and Development Fund.

Digital Designs

I discovered the world of digital graphic downloads last summer.  I love that fact that great design objects are available at very reasonable prices to use in your digital scrapbooking, your blog or web designs or printed materials.  (Read the terms of use for the license you are buying to see what uses are allowed.)  Well, I found a new source called Design House Digital which just launched at the beginning of the year.

 

I found this site through Melissa Esplin's blog ISLY because she is one of the contributing designers to Design House Digital.  She has two collections available now:  Psychedelic Circus and Winterlandia.   The coolest thing (I think) is that Psychedelic Circus has a blog kit-- digital elements for blog headers, buttons, post separators. Again, great for people like me who love a good graphic, but can't create one.

While you are admiring her graphics handiwork, you should also spend some time on her blog looking at her crafty cleverness.   She has a variety of skills, but I'm always drawn to her awesome clothing redos-- my favorite is her ruffled shirt redo.  And though I'm insanely jealous of how cute she looks modeling her clothing, I try not to hold it against her. :-)  I met her last summer at Blogher and she's as nice as she is cute. 

I foresee a Shutterfly album of the kiddos out of Psychedelic Circus...

Is it 2010 yet?

Did I miss Christmas?  And New Year's?  No, I didn't but I haven't blogged in forever (as my mother pointed out), and I'm sure you've been missing the minutia of my life! 

First, I did attempt to get a good Christmas picture of the the little vixens, but as I discovered, two children do not make for ONE good picture:

 

And yes, Henry looks frightened, because I think he is.

I think the photo session is over- what do you think?  Henry does look much more relaxed now that he has been released.

We had a great Christmas seeing both sets of grandparents and all the cousins.  Olivia got a bike and Henry enjoyed eating wrapping paper.

Missouri had pretty good snow while we were there, so Olivia got to play in it.  She thought snow angels were done face down.

Apparently, that didn't phase her because she continued to eat snow.

And once again, I'm thrilled I didn't decorate for Christmas because that means I didn't have to spend my New Year's weekend taking the stuff down.  (Did you not know that I'm a Scrooge?)  I think a Fisher-Price Nativity Scene provides plenty of Christmas spirit.

I hope you and yours had a great holiday and New Year's.  This week's project is to put together a holiday/New Year's card and actually get it in the mail.  If you don't hear about it again, it's because I didn't get it done.