Sale!

Even though we did not have school again yesterday (due to the hurricane), I was there until 9:45 last night, trying to whip my room into shape. Argggh. Must. Slurp. Coffee.Our Halloween Totes are on sale through Saturday.
Lining fabrics currently available:
We have some exciting new designs available.
That's all I can manage for today. Sorry! LOL

WE HAVE POWER!!

NO, THIS IS NOT OUR YARD.
This is the yard of a friend who lives a few miles away. Luckily, the tree missed both her house and their neighbor's house. My friend says the root ball is 6'-8' tall!!

Really, Irene was not nearly as bad as was predicted and not as bad as Hurricane Isabel, where there were trees down like this EVERYWHERE.

well, at least we do have power now...it came back on at 3:30 AM!!!

Thankfully, we had no damage at all, other than the loss of power since Saturday morning. And even MORE thankfully, the storm had weakened enough by the time it got to CT (where Sarah, Zoey and Trevor live) that it did no damage there...just dumped a lot of rain.

AND, school is closed for today, so maybe I can catch up on my orders.

I'll try to post more soon.
Just wanted to check in and say that we are okay!

SEVERE THREAT AREA

First, it was the fire in NC's Dismal Swamp (what a name!) We are so far southeast in VA that we might as well BE in NC. The smoke blows in and it's hazy and burns your eyes...

Secondly, we had an EARTHQUAKE. Granted, I didn't feel it. But STILL. Just weird.

And now, we are in the SEVERE threat area from Hurricane Irene.

Be thinking of us and if I'm quiet for a while, it probably means we lost power. They are letting us out of school at noon today...

Fingers crossed!!!

Last Day of Freedom Sparks SALE

My summer is OVER.
I report back to school at 8 AM tomorrow.
I will be resplendent in my bright lime-green shirt.
(That's not my choice. Don't ask.)
I actually bought this shirt. AND another one that's more appropriate.
I'm getting a haircut and then probably just moping around.
I put our Tooth Fairy Pillows on sale, just to cheer myself up.
20% off. Email me if you're interested. soggybottomsbabyduds[at]yahoo[dot]com
Off to mope now.

Two Posts in One Day!

This is NOT our house!!
I guess there was an earthquake, but we didn't feel a thing.

Just popping in to say that although we are like an hour from the epicenter of today's earthquake in VA, we felt NOTHING where I live. Poor Trevor (our younger son)...Sarah (his wife) told him about it and he tried 6 times to call us, but Verizon was down (from call volume, not due to damage) and he just got a fast busy signal. I guess he was picturing this
Anyway, if you were aware that we live in VA and wondered if we had disappeared into a giant crack in the earth...NO, we have not. But thanks for caring!

Crazy Eyes

I have them.
I just came back from my annual contact lens exam.
My pupils are dilated. REALLY big.
Which would not be so bad if my eyes were a lighter color.
Like this.

However, MY eyes are really dark brown, and they look more like this.

Like someone you wouldn't want to see if you answered your door.

Like the mayor in a Class-B horror movie called Wrong Turn into Psychoville.

I guess the bright side they will eventually fix themselves and look normal.
And in the meantime, at least I just LOOK crazy. Not like these people:





Not like Ted Bundy. There was no "fixing" that guy.
That last picture scares the H*ll out of me, LOL. You, too?

A Rock

This is my house.

Really, it's not. But I do feel like it.

First, I didn't know about Waldorf toys (or Waldorf Education), which would not be a big deal if I hadn't been an early childhood educator for 22+ years.

And now, I somehow missed out on the next coming of Facebook.

I'm talking about Pinterest. (CLICK HERE to go there.) Pinterest is an online bulletin-board-type-thing where you can "pin" pictures of links that interest you.

(Get it?? PIN + INTEREST = Pinterest.) Hah.

I admit, Pinterest does not sound too exciting. But if you're like me, you've got really bad bookmark issues and were only waiting for some genius to come up with a solution.

Maybe you continually bookmark yummy-sounding recipes you find online, to the point where your list of bookmarks is ridiculous and you've got to scroll down it forever to find the link you're looking for and then you can't bake the darn cookies anyway, because the bookmark went into some strange folder or something.

Or you bookmark links to cool stuff you could actually make and forget what you called them.

Or you bookmark a bunch of similar things (like say, oh...maybe 10 different peasant dress patterns you like on Etsy) and then you have to visit EACH AND EVERY Etsy bookmark you've saved because you have no idea which link is the peasant dress with long sleeves and stripe down the front.
Or maybe you've resorted to creating bookmark titles that make you want to scream, like Peasant Dress With Long Sleeves And Stripe Down The Front, or Peasant Dress Kinda Like Twirl Dress But Not As Full, etc.

That's where Pinterest is so great. You can "pin" a picture, a short description and a link all at the same time onto your bulletin board, so you can find things easily. You can see cool stuff other people have pinned and you can re-pin it for yourself.

Like quotes:


and jokes:


and things that appeal to your weird taste in art.:

You can create different boards, so your links are not all smooshed into the same place. You can follow people with similar interests and people with similar interests can follow you.

YOU CAN MARKET YOURSELF BY PINNING PICTURES OF ITEMS YOU MAKE TO SELL.

And it's all FREE.


CLICK HERE to come see me on Pinterest. Admittedly, I don't have much up there yet and two of my boards are totally blank, but cut me a break, I just joined this morning!!

And NO, I AM NOT A PAID SPOKESPERSON, LOL. I'm just the newest Pinterest addict!

Waldorf Toys

NO, I DID NOT MAKE THIS! This adorable creation is from Fairyfolk and can be found HERE.
I love it when I learn something new, don't you?
I found this adorable mouse on Etsy and was intrigued by the term "Waldorf doll", which I'd never heard of. CLICK HERE to read the explanation I found.

From what I can tell, the basic goal with Waldorf toys is to
stimulate kids' imaginations. THAT struck a nerve with me. Any teacher can tell you that imagination is a rare commodity in kids today.

I think that a large part of the problem is that toys nowadays don't require kids to use their imagination. Some toys don't even really ALLOW it! For example, look at this doll:Cute enough and undeniably a happy baby.
BUT WE ALL KNOW THAT BABIES DON'T ALWAYS HAVE THIS EXPRESSION. (Trust me...I just came back from BABYLAND,and the babies did NOT always look like that!)

Sometimes babies are fussy or hungry or over-tired or over-stimulated or need to be changed or bored or hungry or goodness-knows-what, but they sure don't look like THAT a lot of the time. So that doll's frozen smile tends to limit the child's creative play.

Now look at a Waldorf-style doll:See how much less structured her face is? Look at her 'suggestion' of a mouth! This doll's mood could be anything the child cared to imagine.

And this does not just apply to dolls. THIS

would encourage imagination much more than THIS.

Now, don't think I've gone all "granola" on ya. After all, we are still the same Nannie and Pop-Pop who bought Zoey THIS

I guess maybe it's just good to mix in some of THIS once in a while!

Something New

Sometimes customers have the BEST ideas. Like the lady who asked if we could include a letter from the "Tooth Fairy" with her child's Tooth Fairy Pillow.Such a simple request, but she reported that it totally made her son's day. So now we include the Tooth Fairy Letter with each Tooth Fairy Pillow order. AND we mail the Tooth Fairy Pillow directly to the child. (You know how kids love to get mail! Imagine getting mail from the TOOTH FAIRY!!)

And just the other day, there was a lady who contacted me
about our owl cardholder/keychains.

She wanted one just like the purple cardholder below, but she wanted the owl to be big enough to hold her Droid. And with a strap, to make it into a wristlet.

Here's the wristlet I came up with, in the picture below. I used the bigger, zippered owl design. It's easily twice as big as the little owl cardholder. You can kind of get a feel for the size difference between the two owls if you know that the snap hook on each is the same size. The wristlet is big enough for a large cell phone, keys, credit cards, a lipstick...

I listed them on Etsy (CLICK HERE)
and I'm so excited that I think I'll make one for myself!
Whaddya think?? CUTE, right?!?!!

Hmmmm....TA-DAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

[NOTE: I just finished listing this jumper for sale. CLICK HERE to see more photos of the jumper on Etsy and CLICK HERE for Facebook.]

Okay, I think I've been hinting around that I have been up to something big. Or maybe I've only been hinting around in my own head, which is scary. Anyway, later today I will FINALLY be listing on Etsy and Facebook our FIRST garment for sale in our new line of boutique couture clothing!!!!!

So, without further ado, check out the ADORABLE Tasha modeling our Halloween Patchwork Jumper!!!!! OMG, COULD she be cuter?!Remember that post where I talked about going above and beyond? (If not, CLICK HERE to see a great effort and to contrast that with a POOR effort, CLICK HERE!)

Look at all the different settings, poses and accessories Tasha's mom came up with! She really showcased the versatility of our jumper in both warmer and cooler weather.Check out Tasha's giant purple hair puffs, polka-dotted sandals, cute purple witch hat, striped leggins' and even those zingy orange bows on her sneakers.Her pictures were back lightning fast and mom is a great communicator, too. Tasha has been ill these last couple of days, so mom let me know there would be a slight delay in shooting her pics with a long-sleeved shirt under the jumper.Tasha and her mom obviously take pride in their work. You'd better BELIEVE I'll be booking Miss Tasha again!!!!!!

I am BACK!!!!!!!!!! Did You Miss Me??

Did you even know I was gone?? LOL
We were in Grandbabyland, this time in CT.
Here are just a few proud Nannie pics of Zoey
(can you even believe she is ONE already?!??)
and Avery!!
They were hilarious together. Zoey kept doing things like this,
and like this,
which made Avery look like this.
As a kindergarten teacher,
I can tell you that they BOTH sit for an incredibly long time
when someone reads to them.
I was amazed. I read that book
5 times in a row to Zoey!!
I have K kids who can't sit that long for a story!!

Okay, just three more.
This is a giraffe hat I had custom made for Avery.Zoey got an custom owl hat, but she hates hats,
so this is Avery modeling it.And check out the cute Dora birthday dress
I made Zoey. She has matching bloomers, LOL!