Grand Modest-at-Best Opening of Stinky Boy! Tomorrow

I have been trying oh-so very hard to get myself together for a big Grand Opening of my shop tomorrow. Alas, a wave of The Nasty Snots has hit my household, so the opening will not be nearly as Grand as I had hoped. I will open tomorrow, though, and thought I would offer a preview of some of the items I'll be offering:

Bottle o'Rum Baby Rattles!
I made something similar to this for Huck when he was a baby. It makes for pretty cute pictures when you prop them next to a sleeping baby (see: drunken baby Huck). I think this design needs a little modification, but you'll definitely be seeing this (and variations on this theme) in the shop.

Toy Holsters!
These are pretty cool. Like fanny packs, but awesome. Huck absolutely loves his. They are perfect for bringing just a few toys with you to a park or playdate. The belt works for keeping pants up, too, so bonus!

Crayon Monster Bags!
You've seen these before. In fact, I'm proud to say that my original Monster Totes made the Craftster.org Best of 2010 list! I will offer a variety of sizes and styles. This one is a messenger bag that's big enough for an older kid or even an adult. Even though the bags are for kids, all of my bags will have longer straps so that The Person Who Always Ends Up Carrying Everything can throw it over her shoulder.

And that's probably about it for tomorrow! But I assure you I have plenty of ideas up my sleeve, and all stuff boys, boys, boys! I'll be working hard have the shop stocked with more than three measly items : /

And just a reminder that I'll be on luvinthemommyhood on Thursday with a tutorial (with templates!) for some Macho Men Coasters:

Spreadin' the Love, February Blog Tour and Stinky Boy!

I'm excited to announce that on February 1st, I will be re-launching my Etsy shop under a new name and theme: Stinky Boy! Featuring handmade goodies for little fellas. As part of the promotion, I'll be doing a blog tour on some fantastic blogs. Each week in February, I'll be visiting a different blog with the following themes:
Week 1 - luvinthemommyhood, project TBD
Week 2 - Felt-o-Rama, felted ring bowl tutorial
Week 3 - Rae Gun Ramblings, Top Secret Chicken and Vegetable Nugget Recipe
Week 4 - Made by Rae (as part of the Celebrate the Boy event), Monster Art Tote tutorial + giveaway!

Each week, I'll let you know where you can find me and what I'll be posting about. And, for all of February, I'll be offering a special 20% off deal in the shop with the coupon code STINKYLOVE

It's going to be fun month! I guess I should get off of the computer and start working on some of these projects!

Felted Ring Bowl with Heart and Initials

We are going to an engagement party this weekend, and I picked up this cool Anniversary Dishtowel from Anthropologie to give as a little gift. It lists all of the traditional anniversary gifts up to the sixtieth anniversary. When I purchased it, the woman at the checkout offered me a gift box, to which I said "Sure!" (because, as I'm sure you remember and use as daily your mantra, the first step to a perfectly wrapped present is to acquire a box). Now the box she gave me was the right length and width, but way to deep for a dishtowel. But it is an Anthro box, and therefore awesome quality and gorgeous in itself, and a total waste to not use. So I had a dilemma. Deep box, flat little dishtowel. What to do? I had no choice but to make something else to go in the box with the dishtowel.

I love to give ring bowls as engagement or wedding gifts. They are a perfect gift for just about every couple, small, inexpensive, and practical. I'd never made one myself, but I still have a bunch of wool roving that needs to be used up. To make this bowl, I layered the roving around a styrofoam form, then began jabbing away with my felting needle. Once it was mostly felted, I removed it from the form and moved on to wet felting. This shrunk and firmed it up quite a bit, and I formed it into the shape I wanted. I allowed it to dry, and went back in with my needle and patched up any thin spots. Then I needle felted a heart and embroidered it with some cotton embroidery floss in a scratchy style to matches the towel. Finally, I needle felted the heart into the bottom of the bowl.

Whereabouts

Hello! Hello! I'm here! Right here. If you want to blame anybody for my long absence, you can blame this guy:

He has been throwing absolute fits every time I sit on the computer. He starts shoving his hand under my butt and yells at me to GET UP NOW, MAMA! He does not like competition for my attention, and he won't be showed up by a machine, thank you very much. (Really, I just wanted to show you that ridiculous picture.)

This is a little late, but I've made a few New Year's Resolutions I wanted to share:
1) Dishes done every night. EVERY NIGHT. Even if it feels like the torture of the damned. Every night.
2) Find something like Fly Lady that isn't annoying like Fly Lady. I want the day-to-day homekeeping plan without the inspirational crap.
3) Read some Suze Orman books, and figure out why we are still living paycheck to paycheck.
4) No drastic haircuts this year. Trimming the split ends only. And minimal ponytails.
5) Make a serious effort with Etsy and try to bring in a couple of hundred dolla dolla bills a month.
6) Work on that book of mine. For real. Get the proposal done already!
7) Throw out all of that stuff I don't need like Foy did.

So far, I have been doing awesome with #1. Something snapped in me mid-December, and I have been a dirty dish fiend every day. I somehow came across a blog that led me to Fly Lady, and she told me to shine my sink. I thought that was silly, because I had just had a new sink installed, so of course it was already shiny. But then I went to my sink, and it had water spots all over it! Crusties, even! My week-old sink! I absolutely freaked and scrubbed the crap out of that sink, and I shine that baby every night now. It has been nothing short of life-changing. My clean kitchen invites me to cook more because I'm not overwhelmed by the idea of scrubbing out a stinking, moldy pot first. I started tidying up my livingroom every night, too. It is incredible that I am able to invite someone over without the anxiety of the frantic clean-up before hand. I'm not saying it's spotless, but it isn't embarrassing any more.

Mr. GET OFF THE COMPUTER is waking up now.