School Book Fair

I have been busy !

My kids are at a wondefull school and I head up the book fair each year, it is alot of work but when you hear the children running the halls shouting "The book fair is here, the book fair is here" then its all worthwhile.

I also love doing the showcase window, its not easy to take good pics, bad lighting metal window frames obscuring the view, but its coming along nicely... 

Actually looking at it now the tree is a little wonky, and I think I like the rolled paper trees rather than the cut out tree, or rather the cut out tree looks like it belongs in a different forest .... arghhh ... and i'd liket o put a light inside the house, and have a bi-plane flying around in the sky .. and have the letters animate around the showcase ... and ... and..... and....

Valentines Day is coming up fast ! .. it seems that by now I should remember that Valentines Day, Easter, birthdays, Halloween etc etc all happen at the same time every year, they are not suprise parties - so why do I always feel rushed ??

Anyway ..  this year at least I have some acorn cozy valentines .. some with little heart charms inside, some where the necklace is a charm at the front and a tiny heart charm at the top which sicks at the nape of your neck - and where the cozy is just a "wrapping" for the necklace and can been worn or removed ...

 

Thanks to Gleeson and Ava for modeling.

Everytime I go to pick up my kids from school I am mobbed by kids ( yesterday Brownies ) clamouring for Planet Sockling tinies ... sewing sewing sewing, I am now getting obsessed by buttons - I scored a great bag of assorted ones yesterday at a thrift store.

 

It is very cute when I see even some of the 11 year old boys holing on to their little tinies around the school yard ....

Well well well .. an long gap I know, father ill, Christmas, NewYear, birthdays, children back to school all check, now ready to go ( finally) into the bright New Year.

So Socklings have been a fabulous sucess, so much so I have bagged PlanetSockling.com, although it is not up and running yet - probably next week at the soonest, but I have jane@planetsockling.com for you to send me all of your fabulous sockling pictures, sockling requests etc etc.

I'm working on several ideas for Valentines day - watch this space ( and etsy AND planet sockling ) later this week to see them.

A little sparse on the posts recently, I've been busy making socklings as they have now been officially named. They are for sale in MonkeyHouse toys in Silverlake find them online at  http://monkeyhousetoys.com/ or in the real live store at 2874 Rowena Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90039

Otherwise I have found these by Michelle Made Me ( although I suspect they are all over the internet they are so cute ! ) :

Aren't they lovely ? and green ... recycled junkmail, although I have recycled most of mine already. I haven't wished for junkmail before !

 

Her how to is here:

http://www.michelemademe.com/2011/11/reader-question-how-do-you-cut-your.html

good luck!

I did these a while ago for my friend Kim Walls, founder CEO etc of Episencial.  I worked on the packaging design for some of her products, anyway, for a while I was coming up with ways to re-use the packaging for her products. So I though being that this is the season of wasteful packaging I'd share some of these designs with you:

These were the boxes I used - from the Eric Carle Hungry Caterpiller line

Firstly cut then  apples, plums caterpillars etc out ..

If you look at the top right pear above and the , that was the reverse side of the box - plain off white, so I coloured in the image of the pear and caterpillar so when the mobile hangs there are images on both sides ... 

 ... and make a little "slice" in the card - only the thickness of the card, if you just cut one snip with scissors it won't sit right - trust me on this ....

 

... slide them together ...

Then all you need to do is string them up, I've used some of the cotton crochet yarn I use for my acorn cozies ..

 

The tricky part is balancing them so the mobile really works, I can't help with this bit ! its going to be purely trial and error on your part. 

What I did do was hang two loosely on the stick and then adjust them and only then tighten the knots ... 

 And there you have it - your very own Eric Carle mobile .... have fun.

Make ... Create ....

Happy Thanksgiving !

I thought I'd add a few little bean bag guys to my shop.

I'm not sure how to categorize these, juggling balls ? desk friends ? paperweights ? or just little cuties ? Although there isn't a category for cutie in the etsy menus.