Handcrafted Halloween

Hendrix was featured on one of my fave sites today, Ohdeedoh, in his gnome Halloween costume. Apparently, that was a very popular handmade choice last year.

Check it out here.

So I guess this makes him an internet superstar, just like Antoine Dodson or the double rainbow guy. Yup, pretty much all my dreams for him have come true.

A Baby Room

So I guess "I Love Cincinnati Week" only lasted two days. You see, this is why I'm no good at regular features or pre-planned themes. Oh well, I'll probably just show you the rest of the cool places I like around here whenever I feel like it.

But for today, something I actually made. YAY! I cannot wait until I am back to making on a regular basis. Not being at my sewing machine at least every other day is really making me feel weird. That, and the small precious parasite growing inside me- I also blame that.

Here are the pictures from my friend's baby boy room. I made curtains, a crib sheet using the MADE method, a crib skirt from instructions in this book, and a changing pad cover using Prudent Baby's tutorial.

She already had that white ladder in the room and had the idea to use scraps of our fabrics to hang the frames from. I think it came out very cute. 

Here you can see the sheet and skirt a little better. The skirt in Amy Butler's book just had solid panels, but I broke each side up into three strips so we could show more of the colorful fabrics. I especially love that green herringbone by Joel Dewberry.

I made the changing pad cover with soft white minkie at the top for that newborn noggin.

These are the first curtain panels I have made using blackout fabric to line. It definitely makes it a little trickier to sew, but it's so worth it for a baby room.

And here is the lamp she picked at Ikea. It matches the orange fabric perfectly. 

When she first asked for my help and I was obsessing over fabric choices on the internet, I told her she was making me want to have another baby. Little did I know, I was already preggers. But here's the thing about this baby's room- it will have to be shared with my sewing room. I think. It's either that or put both the kids in one room, which doesn't sound like a great option to me. 

Anyone out there share their creative space with a babe? How does it work? I'd love to hear anyone's experience with it. Or any experience with a newborn and toddler sharing a room. Or any experience getting someone to gift a four bedroom house to your family, no strings attached...

Cincy Shopping

Maybe I should say Cincy window shopping, since I have never once bought anything from either of the stores I am telling you about. But I have been to both many times just for a little fun and inspiration. The truth is, I'm not a big shopper and there is no way I would spend the money on any of the really amazing things in these shops. But there are definitely smaller affordable items in both.


You can find Mica 12V on Vine and 12th, of all places. It's a beautiful shop that carries both local artists and world-famous designers. You can lust over Angela Adams rugs while drooling over Cincy's own Three Sheets 2 the Wind's home textiles. Everything is uber-stylish.

But my all-time favorite place for swanky eye candy is called High Street, on Reading Road. The outside of the building is one of the places Shepherd Fairey installed a mural over the summer. This shop is really for high dollar interior designers to find their goods. I could imagine David Bromstad frequenting if he lived here. I think they also have an in-house design team for hire. Anyway, I always feel like I've stepped into London or something walking around in there. And I feel like I must have snuck in, because surely they have style-standards for who they let in a place like this.

Tomorrow, I'll show you my favorite places within walking distance from our house. Hendrix and I go on a lot of walks.

Loving Cincinnati

In honor of my beloved Reds clenching their division win (wooooooohoooooooo!!!!!) last night, I am hereby declaring the rest of this week "I Love Cincinnati Week." I realize most of you don't care one bit about the Reds or baseball, but it's really a pretty big deal around here. They haven't been much good in over 15 years, and now they are going to the playoffs and you can just feel everyone swelling with Queen City pride. I won't pretend I've been waiting that long for a good season, as we've only lived here for four years. But we did start loving going to the Reds games right away, as well as loving the city in general.

The thing is, people like to complain about living in Cincinnati a lot. A couple years ago a megachurch here started distributing bumper stickers that say "I Love Cincinnati." Now there is a knock-off that uses the same look, but says, "Cincinnati's Just OK." I think it's pretty hilarious, and I appreciate the irony. It's not like we live in NYC or anything, not even the NYC of the Midwest. BUT, there are many many good things about this area, and I'm more of a "learn to love your ground" person. I could really be happy living in lots of places, but now I live here, and I like it. So stop your complaining.

So, now that I've rambled about baseball and bumper stickers, today I want to tell you about two new-ish reasons to love the 'Nasti.

A few weeks ago, Nick and I had the chance to go on an afternoon date, so we headed downtown and tried a new restaurant in the Gateway Quarter called Senate. It was amazing.

They serve a lot of fancy Southern style food, but they are becoming known for their gourmet hot dogs. I know that sounds weird, but believe me, they are sooooo good. I'm not a hot dog person at all, but I ordered the Korean dog, which came with braised short ribs and all that other Korean-y stuff on top. Did not disappoint. And the truffle fries are to die for. Nick had goose-fat fries, also sinfully delicious. (Please don't judge my one beer, this was before I knew I was preggers.)


We also walked down to our old neighborhood on Main Street to check out the new record store that the owner of Iris Book Cafe opened right next door. It's really fun for people who like hunting through old things, and it's all from the owner's personal collection, which is amazing.

100 Bonus points for anyone who knows where that awesomely-creepy goat head used to live.

I'm in love with this cover. Maybe I'll be this foxy lady for Halloween.

Yeah, but I didn't have your number. All you wrote on this paper was your band name.

Gangsters of alliteration. 

Hmm, does a Gigolo shake his pants when they are on or off? Is this boarded up building where you do your business, or can one get a hotel room with Tony? Does that other guy have to come? These are the questions I can't answer. 

And Grand Funk wins the grand prize for all-time sexiest album cover. And just in case you didn't realize how sexy it really is, they warn you: "all the girls in the world beware!!!" You know they are serious with 3 exclamation points. 

Tomorrow, some pictures from inspiring shopping spots downtown. 

....GO REDS!

Friday Night Rice

Sometimes, when you are one and one half, you get tired of your toys. Even though you have way too many. So your mom decides to dump a bunch of rice in a bowl and take it outside.

This is fun. 

For ten, maybe fifteen minutes. 

Then you decide to do something else fun. (Wouldn't you think from the deadness on our ground that fall has arrived? Nope, still sweating and in sandals.)

Mondo Mondo

So I figured out why I love Mondo from this season of PR so much. It's because I wanted to be the kids in this commercial, but I couldn't because my mom wouldn't let me drink those worthless sugary robot-piss drinks.

If only Mondo was actually drinking a Mondo. He does dress just like those super-cool 1993 kids. 

It was Dana's Rundown that helped me come to this realization. I look forward to it every week almost as much as watching the show itself. Geeky, I know. 

Bird Watching with Kids

I watch kids of various ages 2-3 days out of the week. I've found a new boredom buster that is pretty much full-proof. It's this bird-watching activity on Prudent Baby. Hours of kid-glee.

Of course, I didn't make a fancy trail mix for the "expedition" and I just made the binoculars from cardstock instead of tp tubes. It doesn't matter. All you need is a printer and some tape and little explorers everywhere will love you forever. But then you will probably have to distract them with something delicious when you finally get sick of hiding the little bird pictures over and over and over...