More books and such

You never really know what you're going to get here, do you?  The toddler life?  Craft?  Efforts at art?  Mama musings?  Tangents...  I've always thought if I was an artist critics would go, "Well, it's absolutely unlike anything she's ever done" each time I had a show (irregardless of whether it worked or not).  I just like a little of this and a little of that, but I suppose patterns emerge.  And it helps to have a clean page look here, at least, unlike the piles of sewing and toys and library books and mail that change our home landscape by the hour.  Speaking of, I just enjoyed this post from one of my favorite sites to visit (she leads a very creative life and writes honestly about being a mama).

Anyhow, if you thought the craft book explosion was something (In Stitches is waiting-- "Egads," as the mayor's daughter would say in The Music Man!), check these out: These two Japanese books have come home to live with me.  We had a really lovely dinner with Kristin and her family on our way home from our vacation.  I ordered two little pieces of oilcloth last November (one of my first online purchases ever) and one thing led to another.  Nowadays I feel like she's a part of all my days and I hers, and I absolutely love working with Kristin on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog.  It's one of those things in life that falls into place and just works.  It was so much better to meet Kristin in person though, and her family is just the group of people you'd want to spend an evening with.  Her home was just beautiful and I wanted to linger and delight over the fabric (what an amazing grouping all in one place-- Kristin has a fantastic eye) but it would have been totally antisocial to give up ice cream for fabric!  Anyhow, these are from Kristin and she selected the best of all possible Japanese books for me (that good eye), all wrapped up in that beautiful fabric.

The embroidery book (ISBN 4-8347-2498-0) has all sorts of great designs and prompted me to buy my very first water-soluble pen and get to work.  It also includes various bag styles that incorporate embroidery (with patterns for all).

I love these simple birds on the blue. 

All Your Kids Need (ISBN 978-4-579-11133-6) has everything you could want for a child just heading off to school in Japan (I say in Japan because there's even a section on the best Bento lunches).  Everything's in here, from children's clothing to applique felt designs, millions of bag styles, costumes, softies... Patterns and step-by-step instruction for all (fairly easy to figure out from the diagrams, etc.).  It's a great spring board for ideas for kid items and it's hefty at over 180 pages.  A great book.

It probably goes without saying that we don't have funds for books like these. 

They're an incredible treat, something to return to over and over for ideas and I discovered I can actually read a lot of them from my old Japanese junior high days. 

As if that wasn't enough, Lauren, who lovingly packages fabric orders from the shop (and does all sorts of fantastic things to keep SMS running smoothly, like designing site graphics, etc.) was there with Matt.  They're on the cusp of big things with their graphic design business and probably just in life, and were great people to hang out with.  Lauren's learning how to sew, falling in love with fabric and creates these beautiful necklaces to sell in Portland and now (I just noticed!) in the Sew, Mama, Sew shop.  She gave one to me.  Thanks again, Lauren.  All in all, a pretty great evening.

Here's my first little Japanese book-inspired elephant:

Comments

[supa]

oh my gracious! those books are far, far too cute. I love them.

Let us know how your other projects from there go; I think your elephant is just darling.

Lauren's necklace is great, too. I didn't even know SMS had that sort of thing for sale!

[Sarah Jackson]

Darling books! I just bought my first embroidery patterns and we're going to try them out this weekend. Yours looks fabulous. Happy weekend!

[Addie]

Love that embroidery book! Do you have any more information? I'd love to try to find a copy of it for myself...

[Vasilisa]

What a cute cute little elephant! Those books pay themselves back! You don't need to go and see a therapist, because books like this cheer a little stay-at-home-mum up sooo much! Hence, you actually save money, don't you??

[tiffany]

i must find that first book as we want to go back to japan to stay and i want to know how to make all the necessities. lovely elephant. hope you are having a great weekend. xo

[Steph]

I love love love that embroidery book!!

[Chara Michele]

What great books, lucky you! :)

[elizabeth]

oh i love, love, love that embroidery book!

great blog :)