Mama Squirrel

Collective Upcycle Holiday '12

Although Collective Upcycle's Holiday '12 pop-up shop does not officially open until next week (check out the opening party on Tuesday the 27th) you can get a sneak peek of what will be available during Cleveland's Winterfest TODAY!  Celebrate Small Business Saturday by purchasing items handmade from upcycled materials by local crafters!

The Milk Belly Princess and I took some Fuzzy Wigs, pins and hair clips down to this season's location in the Colonial Arcade (also known as the Colonial Marketplace) at 530 Euclid Avenue. Here is Miss Princess with our basket full of Fuzzy Wigs:

All of the loveys in the basket are made with the sleeves of cashmere sweaters and are very soft and cuddly.  I'm not sure if all of the dolls this season will be made this way, but I'll see what I can do.

Although Princess was excited to drive out to CU with me and took great pleasure in selecting her own dancing horse ornament made by the amazing Kris Barnes, her attention span was short.  I wanted to walk around the store,take pictures and read the artists' stories on their hang tags and business cards, but she wanted to get home and hang her horse on the tree.

The opening party for this season's pop-up shop is Tuesday November 27th from 6-8 PM.  You can read detailed information about dates, hours and parking for Collective Upcycle here.  I will be at Tuesday's party and plan to take more pictures.  For now, I'll leave you with a couple I managed to take on my way out the door.

These vinyl collage trees really caught my eye.  Volunteering at Zerolandfill, I saw LOTS of vinyl wallcovering. and I love how the artist grouped similar colors together.  I also appreciate how these trees are for sale, but double as seasonal decor in the shop.  

This little pin made me smile.  I admire anyone who can take small, discrete findings and transform them into something so endearing.

Undecking the Halls

As much as I love Christmas decorations, having them in my own house after Christmas makes me feel like this:

So on Thursday while The Mister took Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess out for some fun with their cousins, I undecorated the house.  Actually, I should say redecorated because putting away the Christmas decorations allowed me to return some of the items that were moved last month to accomodate them.  Without the pictures of the girls sitting on Santa's lap on  the mantle, there was room for my kokeshi dolls.  I think they're happy to be home.

I also had space to display my new felt hoop from Little Pink House.

Actually, I bought this for myself months ago when Melissa Crowe sold some of the work she displayed in her show.   But I felt guilty buying myself a gift for no reason, so I saved it for Christmas and didn't open the package until Sunday morning.  I know that one of the ropes on the swing looks a bit wonky, but The Mister took care of the problem shortly after this picture was taken.  He has more patience and more of an eye for detail when it comes to such things, which is one of the many ways in which we compliment each other.  Melissa Crowe is a really talented English professor/writer/artist and somoene I look up to.  She  blogs at Checkout Girl and was the creator of the pattern for the felt play mat that I wrote about here (Melissa's post about this toy is here).  

While most of the decorations went into the attic until next year, it was time to say goodbye forever to our gingerbread house and tree.  
They were placed in the backyard in hopes that some of our furry friends would help themselves.  Sure enough, after the rest of us were asleep in our beds, The Mister snapped this picture of a hungry visitor.

At this point the tree had completely disappeared.  The next morning the house was on its side with bite shaped chunks missing from the walls.

Handmade Happiness

I've already shown you the dolls and the kitties I made for Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess, but today I want to share four more gifts from this Christmas that made me smile. The first is this pair of earrings The Mister picked out for me.

To say The Mister is not a fan of shopping is an understatement akin to "Gee, that Michael Phelps is a pretty good swimmer."  If given the choice between Christmas shopping or poking himself in the eye with a sharp stick...OK, The Mister would still probably choose shopping, but he would think long and hard about it first.  So that's  why I really love these earrings from Bead Paradise.  I appreciate that he was willing to show his love for me by going outside of his comfort zone.  I also love them because...well look at them!  Peacock feathers!  I've always thought they were the prettiest feathers of all.  When they were feeling particularly proud or victorious, my little cousins in Hawaii used to do what they called "The Peacock Dance."  They would flap their arms, strut and chant "Peacock, peacock, peacock dance!"  I think I might have to do this the first time I don these earrings.

The next gift is one that I finished for The Milk Belly Princess.  I say finished because she actually started it herself on the night that we did this.  She drew the picture and then lost interest before sewing it into a pillow.  The clean lines and facial expression of the cat were too wonderful to stay stuck in the Milk Belly Princess'  overflowing bin of works in progress.  When I saw the blue patterned flannel on sale as a remnant at the fabric store, I knew it would be a perfect back for the cat.  Here is the finished pillow that I made and gave to The Milk Belly Princess on Chrsitmas morning.  The fabric it is sitting on is what I used for the back.  

In this post I described my visit to Collective Upcycle and the beautiful necklaces made of vinyl flooring by Nicole McGee of Plenty Underfoot.  After reading my post and listening to me rave about Nicole's store and her necklaces, my parents paid a visit to Collective Upcycle and this was waiting under their tree for me on Christmas morning.

Although Collective Upcycle is closed for the season, they will be popping up again this summer and I will keep you posted as more details become available.  

In addition to receiving handmade gifts,  my mom knows that I like to make my own to give to others.  After all, she's probably been my most enthusiastic homemade gift recipient for upwards of three decades.  She is a fan of estate sales and flea markets and is always on the lookout for raw material for my crafts.  Here's the gift that elicited the biggest reaction from me when I opened it.

Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess laughed at me as I shrieked and flapped my arms up and down when I saw this giant bottle for the first time.  The Mister was puzzled that I was so excited about something that he would have just thrown away.  

It wasn't long before I had all of the buttons organized into this:

If only I had the same enthusiasm for organizing the rest of my house.

Of Christmas Past: My Edition

Before we get too far away from Christmas, I want to share with you some decorations that I hold dear. (I wrote about The Mister's in this post a few weeks ago.)

In this post I wrote about the ornaments made from sequins, beads and pins in a house in Ohio City and how they reminded me of the ornaments my Grandma Evelyn made for me.  She wasn't my biological grandmother, but she raised me like she was.  Grandma Evelyn was the nanny my parents hired when my mother went back to work after I was born.  She was with me every weekday starting when I was six weeks old until the end of my third grade school year.  Even after she stopped working for my parents we kept in touch until shortly before her death when she moved from her apartment to a nursing home.  Like all of us, she had her flaws, but, in the long run, hers really didn't matter to me.  In addition to giving me a decade-long obsession with "The Guiding Light" and a cynical attitude about the government, she also gave me a lot of love, which far outweighed the other stuff.  Here are two of my favorite Grandma Evelyn ornaments:

Even though I was a bit of a tomboy this sparkly pink ornament still really appealed to me, but the jack in the box was my favorite.

In my previous post about this kind of ornament, I said that I was having trouble finding kits to make my own. My awesome crafty friend Haley (and author of Labor of Love: Tales of a Knitting Mom ) recommended Herrschners where I found this cupcake along with several others.  Thanks Haley!

While Grandma Evelyn's ornaments are placed at the top of my tree so curious little hands don't pull the pins out, this guy is heavy and needs a home on one of the lower boughs.  

My Uncle John enjoyed baking bread, rehabbing old houses and making things out of stained glass.  For a couple of Christmases during my grade school years he made a lot of stained glass Christmas decorations and gave most away as gifts.  This soldier decorated the tree at my parents' house for most of my childhood.  They  also have three wise men, two angels and two candle holders Uncle John made for them, all out of stained glass.  I'm not sure what happened to the wise men or the angels, but  the candle holders were one of the first things I noticed when we visited my parents this Christmas. 

Unfortunately, at the time when Uncle John was making his stained glass creations, I was more interested in  factory made gifts from the mall than those lovingly handmade by my relatives.  I'm not sure I ever showed any appreciation for his work while Uncle John was alive. I hope other people close to him did.  This summer it will be fifteen years since he passed away. For Christmas, I honored the house-rehabbing part of Uncle John my making a donation to Habitat for Humanity at The Alternative Christmas Bazaar at church.

My Uncle John was the husband of my mom's older sister, my Aunt Diane.  My mom had two sisters, but I never knew my Aunt Nancy even thought she was only a year younger than my mother and they were great playmates.  She died of a brain tumor right around her seventh birthday.  Since she was so young when she died, she didn't have very many possessions, but she did have some dolls.  Nancy's angel doll adorns the top of my parents Christmas tree every year.  

I love the sweet face on this doll.  She has bright features, but she still looks like an innocent little girl.

The last decoartion I want to show you is part of a pair, but when I was ready to write this post I could only find one.  Each year when this reindeer and his doppleganger come down from the attic I give one to each of my girls to play with for the holiday and I'm not sure where The Milk Belly Princess has hers squirreled away.  

This little guy doesn't look like much.  He's not handmade or old enough to be considered "vintage," but he does play music...sort of.  If you squeeze his tummy, a voice that's supposed to be Santa yells "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" and then some sing-songy little children say "Santa Claus is coming to town."  Before we had children, I used to startle The Mister by putting one of these in front of each of his ears and blasting him with Christmas cheer.  

This silly stuffed animal is special to me because it was given to me by my Grandma Audrey (my mom's mom) on one of her last Christmases before she died.  She was an elementary school teacher and had an affinity for the kinds of decorations and holiday celebrations that small children enjoy.  This made her a big hit with me even after I wasn't so small any more.  She also had some serious mental health issues that made visiting with her on a bad day akin to walking in a mine field.  But this reindeer toy reminds me of the best, happiest parts of her...and isn't that how we all want to be remembered?

Eager Eve

For me, the magic of Christmas crests on Christmas Eve.  Most believe that Baby Jesus was born in the middle of the night, so this is when  the magic of the Christmas Story is at its zenith.  Even in the more secular world off food and presents, anticipation is so pure and simple before it gets mixed with the complications of reality.  On Chrsitmas Eve, everyone is thrilled with the potential of what's to come and knows it will be wonderful.  No one has  had a chance to realize that they burnt the ham or offended their sister by buying her a sweater two sizes too small.

After church on Christmas Eve, Little Tiger, The Milk Belly Princess and I went for a walk to look at Christmas lights while The Mister made dinner.  We returned home, the girls took a bath and we sat down to our traditional Christmas Eve feast of pizza with chicken and pasta:

As you can see, we've engaged in this tradtion for quite awhile.  Here is a picture of The Mister and I eating the same Christmas Eve dinner at our old house eight years ago in 2003:

Hmm..leopard print slippers?  Must've seemed like a good idea at the time.  Anyway, after dinner, the girls helped The Mister make cookies for Santa.   In Kevin's family, it is a Costello tradition to put M&Ms on top of Santa's cookies.

The girls set out the cookies: The Milk Belly Princess left out a special drawing for Santa:
...and then it was time for bed...for the little ones anyway.

I wasn't quite finished with one of the gifts I wanted to give Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess, so I had to stay up a little later to finish.  That might be an understatement.  According to the NORAD Santa Tracker, he was was in the Falkland Islands when the girls went to bed and leaving San Francisco before I turned in for the night.  But I really didn't mind.  It's part of being a mom to little kids, right?  Besides, after everyone else went to bed, I enjoyed sewing and listening to carols in the light of the Christmas tree.  All was calm and bright indeed.

I thought the Katie Kitties I made from Hilary Lang's booked turned out really well.  Here they are waiting for the girls in the stockings their Grammy made for them:

and here's the picture I took of our tree right before I went to bed, all pretty and peaceful before the craziness of the morning:

It looks a little foggy and blurry, but I don't mind.  At 3:00 AM, that's how I felt too.

Christmas Eve Eve

Ever since I was a little kid, December 23rd (or, as I call it, "Christmas Eve Eve") has marked the day when all of my enthusiasm about Christmas hits a fever pitch.  When I was little, I would ask my parents to take me out to see a Christmas movie on December 23rd because I felt that was a pleasant distraction to make the time go faster until Santa made his visit.  

Here are some scenes from Christmas Eve Eve last night at Casa de Costello.  While The Mister read Christmas stories to The Milk Belly Princess:

Little Tiger and I worked on our button trees:

I mentioned in this post that I wanted to make my own variation of the bead tree that the Mister's sister Kate made for us, but that I wanted to put my own spin on it.  After looking in my own craft stash for what I had a lot of

I decided on buttons.  Here are some pictures of our trees.  I had so many white buttons that I made a small forest.

The forest will stay at our house and be displayed every year on our kitchen table.  I wanted to do this for my mom, but she already has so many Christmas decorations that I don't think she has space for more than one tree.  Here is the tree I made for her.

Little Tiger's tree is still a work in progess, but I really like how colorful it is.

I hope you are savoring the delicious anticipation of this evening and tomorrow.  Merry Christmas!

Hello Dollies!

As we approach Christmas, I'm working like mad to finish all of the gifts I've spent the past few months starting for the girls.  Today I was able to complete these lovely ladies:

My favorite little detail is the lady bug buttons from Bead Paradise that compliment the lady bugs in the dresses.  To make the dolls I used this pattern created by the amazing Emily Martin. If you've never visited her at The Black Apple you really should.  She also has an Etsy shop where she sells prints of her wonderful art work.  Her blog post about her studio inspired me to work on my own creative space. 

Speaking of creating, I need to get back to finishing some more projects for the girls.  I hope you are enjoying these days before Christmas.  The anticipation of something exciting and fun is one of the best parts of the whole experience.

Christmas in Ohio City

A few weeks ago my friend Laura and I went on a holiday tour of Ohio City.  We took Lolly the Trolley from The Garage Bar on West 25th Street to a drop off point across the street from the old YMCA and toured six disctinctive homes decorated for the holidays.  Prior to this experience, my impression of Ohio City was that it was a place for young urban professionals to store their stuff while they worked downtown and played in the plethora of bars and restuarants in the area.  

The fact that I had this impression is evidence that I'd never really spent much time in Ohio City because, boy, was I wrong.  Several of the houses belonged to families with small children and their holiday decor reflected that.  This display of Christmas stockings made me want to go home and sew up a set for my own family.  I love the simplicity of the felt letters hand sewn onto the stockings.  The English teacher part of me appreciates the integration of the quote from "Twas the Night Before Christmas" into the decor.

I also thought this was a brilliant way to display Christmas cards.  Laura and I guessed that the first cards to arrive form the initial border of the tree while the rest are used to fill in the outline.  I like that the shape of cards adds another layer of decoration; the cards themselves are festive, but they all work together to form a larger decoration.

In the kitchen of one of the houses, several wine corks and pine scraps were used to create a tiny forest.   Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess would get a kick out of setting something like this up in our house.

My favorite house proudly displayed decorations that reminded me of my childhood, like this ornament made from sequins and pins.  It was one of several hanging from ribbon on tension rods at the top of the door frame near the main entrance.  My Grandma Evelyn used to make these from kits and give them to me.  As a small child I was dazzled by the shiny sequins.   

The lady of the house told a beautiful story about how her parents worked together to make all of these ornaments for their first Christmas as a married couple back in the 70s.  Seeing them displayed so nicely made me want to search online for a place that sells kits so I can make some of my own.  A small tree with just these kinds of ornaments in different shapes and colors in my bedroom next year would be divine...but so far I haven't had any luck.  

I'm guessing the parents of the lady of the house were also responsible for this since it follows the same aesthetic:

When I was little, I had a friend whose mother made her whole family stockings with felt and sequins.  I thought they were the coolest and wished my family had a similar matched set, but I was the only one in my house who was enamored with sparkly crafts.  Eventually, I grew very attached to the stocking my mother made for me when I was a baby.  More about that in my next post when I highlight some of the decorations from my Christmases past.

Winter Goals of The Milk Belly Princess

After school,  I was able to get into The Milk Belly Princess' room to get pictures of her winter goals.  These were taken in the late afternoon in the middle of winter, so I had to use a flash that, unfortunately, reflected off the back of the dresser.  When she dictated the first goal, there was a BIG emphasis on the parties being HERE, at our house.  At the time, we were gearing up for a pre-Christmas crafting play date with some little friends and TMBP was REALLY excited about this.  Both girls had a blast.  My amazing friend Laura came over with her niece, Miss P, to help with games and face painting which TMBP LOVED.   Here she is getting a snowflake painted on her cheek...the only kind of body art her mama will ever approve of for her:
 And here are the rest of her goals:

We've been doing this for a year and, so far, "Get ice cream from ice cream places" has been a goal for EVERY season...a girl after my own heart.

Decking the Halls

As a small child I remember BEGGING my mother to bring down the Christmas decorations.  She always refused until after Thanksgiving....actually until December.  I know this is, at least in part, due to the fact that she has what is probably the world's largest collection of craft-show turkeys.  Pinecones, clay, old forks, you name the medium, she has a turkey rendered in it.  So November was designated as the month to pay the turkeys their due.  

One of the benefits of being an adult is the ability to call the shots with respect to holiday decorating. Now that I am a mama and my household's chief holiday decorator,  I can break out the Christmas decorations whenever I want.  I'm partial to the weekend before Thanksgiving.  I like enjoying my decorations as part of my eager anticipation of the holiday.  Once Christmas is over, I like to take things down rather quickly. This year I'm shooting for the 28th, but definitely by New Year's Eve.  

So Little Tiger, The Milk Belly Princess and I have officially decked our halls.  There were only two casualty ornaments and no tears shed (by me) over either of them.   Here's The Milk Belly Princess decorating the tree.  When tree-trimming with short helpers, you end up with a tree that looks like this:
Ninety percent of the ornaments are in one small patch about two and a half feet from the bottom of the tree. ..but I wouldn't have it any other way.