Need a Baby Toy?

If you are looking for a toy for a baby/toddler, please let me recommend you check this shop on etsy. She makes the most wonderful soft toys for the little ones.

I purchased several things from her, including the ball pictured here. It is a perfect size for small hands and comes with a little bell inside. It is soft and easy to handle and her fabric choices are wonderful whether you are buying for a boy or girl.

She makes these balls in several sizes. She also makes great little animals that are just perfect for wee ones to hang on to and chew to their hearts content. And you can feel very comfortable that there is none of that naughty stuff you have to worry about these days.

My grandson was here to visit this week end and he seems to just love his ball! I was amazed at his ability to play catch at 9 months old. I am sure that this colorful, easy to handle ball had something to do with why he was so good at it - but mostly it is just because he is a genius!

So if you are in the market, give her shop a look. I think you will be please with what you see.

Tried Something New

One of my best clients at my shop on etsy Custom Ordered these bags. She plans to use them as Sock Knitting Project Bags. They are about 8 inches high and have a 6 inches across the round bottom.

When she placed the order and requested the special fabric, I was very excited to work out a pattern to make the bags to her specifications. After several stops and starts, I finally got them to come out ok. I tell you - the round bottom thing was not as easy as I thought it was going to be! I am sure there is a secret formula somewhere is sewing land with tricks on how to make this application easy. But, I don't know the secret so I struggled to have the circumference of the upper bag match the circumference of the circle bottom.

Anyway, I am thinking about making a few more in various sizes and giving them a try on etsy. There are other people who also make them so I am a little hesitant about stepping on toes. But my fabric choices usually are a little outside the norm so maybe I would be appealing to a different audience.

Let me know what you think of the bags and about my listing them on etsy. More importantly - if you know the "trick" to easy application of the round bottom - PLEASE SHARE!

Another Backyard Friend

Anyone who knows us, knows that we seem to have a wildlife sanctuary going on in our backyard. Like most of you, we have a large bird feeder on our deck that we keep filled for the many birds that frequent our woods. Grampy keeps building and adding more birdhouses of various types so those birds that build in a house have several to choose from.

However, our wildlife extends way beyond birds. We have a grouping of FLYING SQUIRRELS that comes to visit us every night. They are nocturnal so they come around after dark. Grampy has built them special feeders and we buy special food just for them. What a treat they are to watch. We have a couple of raccoon that visit every so often. They come up on the deck and try to eat the squirrel food. We also are visited by a friendly possum - again, he is looking for any tidbits of leftover squirrel food he might find.

In the winter we feed a herd of about 13 deer every night. We see them infrequently during the summer. But, they do treat us at least once a summer by bringing their fawns up for us to see. We also have turkey (not often but enough to make it exciting), coyote, rabbits, woodchuck and an occasional pheasant.

We have a pair of mallard ducks that comes back every year. They spend their lazy summer days swimming around in our fish pond and relaxing in the shade of my flowerbed. Unfortunately, they have never brought their babies to our pond for us to see and enjoy.

This hawk is our newest addition to the backyard zoo. He started hanging around and seemed to show little or no fear of Grampy when he got up close to him once when he was eating something on the ground. So we threw out some venison we had in the freezer that had been there way too long and needed to be disposed of anyway. So now he hangs around all the time waiting for us to throw some more goodies out for him.

I told Grampy that we are never going to be able to move - we have way too many creatures depending on us!

I Found a Great New Shop on etsy!!!

Ok - I found this great shop on etsy and I wanted to share it with you. If you are looking for quality wood toys, this is a great place to start your search! Amazing! I have put a link to this shop over there on the left under Places and Things I Like.

Now, I can't actually show you my purchase. Shhhh! it is a secret! Just suffice it to say that I have a grandson that is going to be very, very happy come his birthday or Christmas or just when I can't stand it any longer and give it to him just to see his smiley little face!

Just a note to all you toy buyers out there - etsy is a wonderful place to find toys for all ages. There is a wide variety of stuff for all ages and interests. Here is where you can find that special, unique gift. I have had a real struggle buying toy-type gifts for my grandchildren because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find something different AND something that you feel comfortable giving - knowing full well that the first place it is going to go is in the mouth!

Anyway, The Countree Toy Shoppe should be your jumping off place for exploring the wonderful world of etsy toys!

Something Old is New Again

About 15 or 20 years ago I saw this little child's chair at an auction and fell in love with it. I fell further in love when the owner told me the story of the chair. She was around 80 at the time and told me that her father had made the chair for her when she was five years old.

I bought the chair and brought it home. I did not have small children anymore and did not yet have grandchildren, but the chair had a special place in my home from that day forward. After time, the seat split and it was no longer safe for little behinds to sit on. By now I did have grandchildren, so I kept a plant on the chair so my granddaughters would not sit on it and get pinched in a very sensitive area!

Ah! If this chair could talk! The stories it could tell. I look at it and imagine that father from long ago carefully handcrafting this chair for his beloved daughter. I can envision him in my mind carefully selecting, cutting and sanding the wood for this gift to his daughter. I can almost see him lovingly running his hand over the seat with that special smile that father's have for their children making sure that it is smooth and perfect. I imagine the pride and joy in his eye as he presents his precious child with this gift on a Christmas morning or maybe a birthday. A true gift from the heart.

Obviously the daughter loved the chair. She kept it long after she could no longer sit on it or have tea parties or do her embroidery or any of the other wonderful things she did on her special chair.

She kept it and passed it on to her children. My minds eye sees her children sitting upon this chair reading, having tea parties, or using it at the "kids" table at family gatherings. And then they too outgrew the chair.

But still she kept the chair. And then another generation of children used the chair - her grandchildren. Again, the old chair her father had crafted so many years ago hosted the games of childhood. Again the old chair was brought out and used to bring a little love and joy to the play of childhood. And perhaps there were great grandchildren - yet another generation to benefit from this wonderful gift from a father to his child.

Now the chair is going pass on to a new generation and a new family. Grampy has lovingly restored this chair to close to its' original condition. He took it apart, re glued, sanded, stained and varnished it so that it is once again beautiful. I watched as he lovingly ran his hand over the seat to make sure it was smooth and perfect. And, he had that special smile that grandfathers have for their grandchildren.

This chair is going to our grandson. We hope that he will find hours of fun sitting at this chair reading a book, drawing a special picture for mommy or daddy, or just sitting at the window watching the birds hop around in the yard. And who knows, maybe someday he will lovingly run his hand over the chair as he contemplates giving this chair to HIS child - and he will have that special smile..............

The UGLY Bag

OK, so I made this bag and listed it in my etsy shop yesterday. It is a Large Farmer's Market Bag. I think it is a nice bag that features a heavy duty cotton canvas lining which makes it extra sturdy.

I sent a picture of it to my daughter. I always send her pictures of some of my new ideas just to get her feedback. I like to use her as my sounding board because she is very honest and does not just say stuff to make me feel good.

Her response to this bag? She said it was "lame"! She liked the concept but hated the fabric. What is wrong with me? When I saw this fabric it just shouted "Farmer's Market" to me. Do you think it is an age thing or is it really bad and I have really bad taste?

I have a feeling that this bag might run its' course on etsy and then become my own personal Farmer's Market bag. And when that happens, my daughter will just have to pretend she doesn't know me when we go to market. :)

I have another daughter and I am hoping that she will still go to market with me! I am pretty sure that my granddaughers will still walk around the market with me - they are 4 and 6 - what do they know about high fashion?

If You Need an Evening Bag........

you might want to check my etsy shop! I recently started listing some hand knit evening bags. Some of these I made a couple of years ago and had stuck them in a drawer and forgot about them. The small pastel clutch I made last week.

I see these bags as "special use" type bags. They are for when you need a special bag for an evening out. If you carry as much junk around in your everyday purse as I do, these bags are probably a little too small.

Anyway, give them a look see. And keep checking back to my shop as I have some more "found" bags and I have been working on some more of the small clutch-styles and will be listing these from time to time. Thanks!