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.

Treasured

My hunter/gatherer roots are never far from the surface.  Or maybe I'm descended from pirates and all of this can be traced back to a centuries-old desire for buried treasure.  There has to be something more than the simple practicality of saving money that causes me to get childishly excited any time I have an opportunity to mine for gems on the secondary market.  The night before Zerolandfill or an estate or rummage sale my eager anticipation mirrors that of  preschoolers quequing up at the starting line of an Easter egg hunt.

I'm not proud  to admit it, but over the past week I've visited my church more than I did this entire summer.  It started with Sorting Sunday when the entire congregation stayed after the 10:30 service to help  move all of the donations for our annual Trash and Treasure Sale from the large mult-purpose room to the various places where they would be sold.  

Although I tried to play it cool, I was excited to open each new box of  donations to see what was inside.  The fact that most of it was pretty ordinary made the exceptions all the more thrilling.  I didn't think much of the blue and white striped copy paper box as I approached it.  Upon closer inspection, I saw "Dollhouse + Furniture" printed on it in faint blue ballpoint pen.  When I opened the lid, I tried not to squeal with glee.   Check it out:

Not a doll house, but a fashion boutique, four small shoppers and an assortment of tops, skirts, hats, wigs--even a cape.  I looked everywhere, but was unable to find a single clue about the name, manufacturer or date of this toy.  The name "Madeline" was written on the bottom of two of the doll's in blue ink, so I'm guessing that was who owned at least half of the set.  Maybe the other two dolls belonged to a sister? 

I knew Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess would love this toy.  It was still there when I arrived at church to price sale items on Monday, so I scooped it up.  I thought about saving it for Christmas, but The Milk Belly Princess saw me gathering all of the pieces and it was over. We brought the play set home and were in the midst of giving the dolls and their clothes a bath on our front stoop when Little Tiger arrived home on the school bus.  She was happy to join us.

Since we brought the dolls and their boutique home on Monday it has usurped everything else as the favorite toy in our house.  Several times during the early afternoons, I've stopped what I was doing to listen to The Milk Belly Princess croon to the dolls, making them talk and sing to each other.  I tried to sneak up on her and get some candid shots, but she was on to me.  For as much as she loves imaginary play, she hates it when she thinks anyone is watching or listening.  So this was the best I could do:   

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Stick Doll Fun

Anyone who is a regular on Pinterest knows that pinning a project idea and actually seeing it through to completion are two very different things.  I currently have 720 pins and the number of Pinterest-inspired projects I've completed is...significantly less than that.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a pin that led me to a tutorial for how to make Miss Lolly Dolly at Teawagontales and I knew I had to do this with my girls.  All you need are craft sticks, colored pens and washi tape.  Jane has a fantastic tutorial on her blog, so I won't get into that here, but I did want to share our dolls with you.  The background play scape is courtesy of The Milk Belly Princess.  I'm not sure about the species of the little animal in the lower right hand corner of the paper, but its sweetness is making my teeth hurt.

Here are the dolls made by me:

These were created by Little Tiger:

One of the best parts of this craft is that the dolls are endlessly customizable.  Both Little Tiger and The Mister made their own miniature copies of The Milk Belly Princess dressed in doll versions of the outfit she was wearing that day.

Speaking of the Milk Belly Princess, here's her doll collection:

Let's take a closer look at my favorite.  Look at that big, friendly smile:

I hope there was something this week that made you this happy.

 

Sew Much Fun!

Thursday was my last Basic Hand Sewing class of the summer session. Both of my week-long classes were full of amazing students who were eager to learn and take creative risks. Just look at this pillow made by a six year old student featuring the ultimate fantasy animal--A Rainbow Unicorn Pegasus:  

This picture shows this little guy as a work in progress, but he was just as adorable the next day when he was finished by the second grader who made him.  If I remember correctly, she named him Scraps.

Although I'm sad to say good bye to my summer sewing group, I'm looking forward to the classes I will be teaching in the fall  including a monthly embroidery class called Hoopin' It Up and Simple Gifts, a class where students can learn to sew and make something for everyone on their Christmas list!  You can read more  about these and other creative opportunities in the BAYarts Fall Newsletter.  

Since I'm blessed with two wonderful, creative  children the sewing lessons continue beyond my BAYarts classroom.  We spent quite a bit of time sewing this weekend because Little Tiger wanted to make some clothes for her American Girl Doll.  With minimal guidance from me, she completed a scarf, hat and pants.  When she was finished, she was very proud and pleased to dress her doll in its new finery.

I was especially impressed with the scarf.  She wanted to applique a sun onto one end of the scarf and her six year old hands sewed each little orange ray on individually.  Here's a closer look at her handiwork: 

I wasn't planning on breaking out the machine with her anytime soon, but that may change.  I think she's almost ready.  Does anyone have any age guidelines or advice for teaching machine sewing to young children?  

Oodles of (Used) Noodles

Collective Upcycle's summer pop-up is officialy closed.  After closing time on Sunday, The Milk Belly Princess and I stopped at the shop to pick up the unsold Fuzzy Wigs.  Robin Neorr of The T Shirt Diaries was there with her daughter so the little girls played together while Robin and I helped clean up.  

Everything in Collective Upcycle is made from repurposed materials, including the decor.  This season that meant a lot of colorful paper chains made from paint samples and red pool noodles.  Pool noodle slices were strung together to make garlands that festooned the ceiling and walls.  Hundreds of red pool noodles were glued and stacked together to create a giant wall that divided the show room from the storage space in the back.  This wall was especially helpful during last week's clothes swap.

The noodles were previously used in some sort of exhibition and Collective Upcycle acquired them afterwards to decorate the summer shop.  After the shop closed, no one really knew what to do with them so they were being offered to anyone who could give them a good home.

When Robin asked her little girl if she wanted to take some home to make a small table and chair, she gave me a brilliant idea.  We've never had a children's pinic table in our backyard and these noodles, in appropriately-sized clusters, would fit the bill.  They're sturdy, waterproof and free!  I eagerly selected a big noodle cluster for a table and four smaller clusters as the chairs. The girls enjoyed breakfast with them yesterday morning.

Then, at the request of Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess, they were temporarily moved indoors so some guests could enjoy an evening tea party.

Although My Friend Mandy and Bitty Baby would have you think otherwise with their unsteady posture, I assure you only water was served at this gathering.

Pop In!

In this post I concluded with a picture and promised to tell you more about it later.  The photo was taken by The Mister when he brought Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess to visit me during my volunteer hours at Collective Upcycle last Friday.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Collective Upcycle, it is a seasonal pop-up shop featuring work made from recycled and repurposed materials.  I wrote about CU's winter pop-up in Shaker Square in this post.  

Since June 7th, Collective Upcycle's summer pop-up shop has been occupying 6706 Detroit Road in the Gordon Square Arts District.  This is the same retail space it was in last summer, but what's different is that this year I HAVE STUFF  FOR SALE THERE!!!

This is my first foray into the world of selling my work and I'm really excited.  I've been making things for my family and friends for years, but I've never had the opportunity to sell my work to people I don't know.  

I'm selling dolls made of felted sweaters and other repurposed materials.  After days of trying to think of a name for them I finally settled on Fuzzy Wigs.  Why?  Well, I was taking pictures of the dolls before I dropped them off at CU and, to carry them all outside into my front yard, I put them in a big basket.  When they were all in the basket together they looked like this:

They reminded me of a silly nickname my mother called me when I was young (despite the fact that I had poker-straight hair).  When I posted this picture to Facebook the caption was something like "not much here...just a bunch of fuzzy wigs" and their name was born.  Here's a picture of what they look like from the front:

In addition to Fuzzy Wigs, here are some other items for sale through Sunday at Collective Upcycle:

Robin Neorr of The T Shirt Diaries is selling skirts and dresses made of  upcycled T shirts.  Her creations come in sizes for both women and children.  Here she is on CU's opening night holding one of her pieces:

Reclaimed Cleveland takes building materials from torn down structures in Cleveland and makes household items and beautiful furniture like this chair.  I sat in it while I was volunteering last week and it is really comfortable.  It would be MINE except, well, the life choice I wrote about here  has limited my budget for the forseeable future.  Every piece from Reclaimed Cleveland has a serial number on it which can be used to find out where the materials for your item originated.  I believe this chair is made from a former church pew.

These accessories were made by Maudy Paden of Sewing by Maudy.  Maudy is a seamstress who is selling hair clips and brooches made of beads and fabric to help fund her daughter's study abroad adventure.  

Jeanetta Ho makes beautiful jewelry from objects she finds in nature like this necklace and earrings made from tiny twigs: 

If you prefer more colorful jewelry, check out these earrings made from Legos:

When Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess came to visit they had a fantastic time running around the store and identifying the original materials of the pieces that were for sale.  While they were pleased to recognize magnets as originally being bottle caps and bracelets made of bicycle chains there were some things that stumped them.  For example, at 6 and 4 years old, they had no idea what this used to be:

This is the last weekend for Collective Upcycle.  The shop is open today (Friday) and tomorrow from 12-9 and on Sunday until 5. Whether you think my Fuzzy Wigs are cute or creepy, there is a lot of other stuff there, so you should definitely check it out.

All Creatures Maimed and Broken

A few months ago The Mister made this video of Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess talking about every doll or stuffed animal they've cared enough to name.  I'm not sharing this because I expect you to watch the entire 22 minute extravaganza, but there are a couple of reasons why I wanted to mention it here.

 

First, I think it was a novel idea for a home movie that I'll appreciate even more when the girls have outgrown these dolls and stuffed animals.  (Or in the cases of those scary baby dolls, when they leave in the middle of the night to go live with another family.)

 The second reason I wanted to share this today is because I noticed that in the movie several of the animals have  colorful tape "casts" wound around one or more of their limbs.  I'm not sure if the toys are clumsy or if they fight while we sleep, but there seems to be an increasing number of injured animals around here.

The game will start suddenly.  One of the girls will be looking at a book when she suddenly lifts up head, jumps up and states (a la Wonderpets) "There's an animal in trouble!"

The child who makes the declaration will then attempt to throw her voice to simulate the distress call of a small injured creature cowering in a remote corner of the house.  Both girls will run upstairs or into the next room and, after some rustling  emerge with their newest patient, cuddling it while crooning and stroking its fur.    Legs, paws, tails, fins and backs are healed with masking tape and index cards.  Usually this is all that was necessary, but some animals like Annie the Horse require a more complicated, involved treatment.

I'm not sure what happened to poor Annie, but apparently the only cure for what ailed her involved tissues being taped all over her body.  Medicine was then administered by applying water to the tissues with a paint brush.  

Hmm...looks like certain spots needed to be treated with colored bits of tissue paper as well.  The whole procedure was performed in hushed tones and with the kind of hyper focus I hope my actual doctors give to their work.

 Admittedly, this is one of the less environmentally-friendly games played here at Casa de Costello what with the tape and tissues.  But the compassion the girls show for each other and their patient during this type of play is so good to watch.

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.