Wham-A Whale of a Ham

When I was a young lass my Momsters and I watched lots of old movies. One of our favorites was "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy.

Throughout the movie Mr. Blandings has to deal with the still-relevant ins and outs of building a home. Concurrently, he also has to work full time as an adverstising agent. His charge: to come up with a slogan for Wham, a product intentionally similar to Spam.

One of his not so brilliant ideas was, "Wham, a whale of a ham". This slogan didn't fly, but it still makes me snicker.


In honor of Mr. Blandings and his Wham I have curated a bevy of Whale goodies.

Felted whale pursie Made by Jaz

Chet and Dot handmade buttons

Earrings by Imogene and Annie

Corduroy plush by The Sleepy Fox

AndWabasabi's whale cross stitch pattern

Whale hat by Black Sheep Barn



Necklace Loyalty and Blood




Whale hair clip Pammy Dawn

St. Johns Pride

When I taught 3rd grade my students and I studied the bridges of our fair city, Portland, Oregon. This awesome suspension bridge in North Portland, the St. Johns bridge, proved to be the most popular amongst my students. It certainly had the most "ooh and ahh" factor.

Even though I grew up in Portland I never went over this Gotham City-esque bridge until I was in high school, when my friends and I would eagerly drive around any part of the city as long as we were seemingly" independent" of our parents.

As North Portland's popularity grows and grows (a.k.a. gentrification) the bridge becomes more of a recognizable and celebrated icon of the NoPo, and of the city at large.

As a tribute to my beautiful city and it's beautiful bridge I have found some excellent St. Johns' eye candy:

Rad, rad, rad! I just purchased this letterpress card from BitterSugar. Like many crafty folk I love my letterpress, but this takes the proverbial cake. Such a simple and delicate image.










Check out this sweet Gocco print from Art Shark Designs. It's entitled Portland Love. The red umbrellas are super cute. Artist Megan Nolton has a series of "City Love" prints on her site. Check it out.


















Get your very own organic cotton "Johnny" pillow by Crazy Coconut. The shop also carries another version of the pillow featuring tiny St. Johns bridges.













Michelle Ramin does great mixed media work. Here is her "St. Johns Bridge in Purple Sky".

2009- Year of the Octopus!

So the octopus is the new owl (popular animal icon of 2008), which subsequently replaced the bird (popular animal icon of 2007). Word.

During the past few (snowed-in) days I have collected a vast amount of evidence that points to the advent of the octopus! So be prepared to find this 8-tentacled creature out and about in 2009.

Here are my Octopus Finds:

What a delightful Gocco print from Sepia Lepus' shop. Notice the octopus is having a tea party with a mini-submarine, thus proving that under-water inter-species friendship is possible!








Check out these swanky Octopi ties from Detroit-based Toy Breaker. Now you or your man-friend can look stylish while ringing in the New
Year of the Octopus!







Look, look, look! It's an Octo-Owl! See, here's proof that the two power animals are battling it out for animal icon of 2009. Whoever thought of this must be on a wave of genius. Be the first on your block to have an Octo-Owl babydoll top from Dead Worry's shop.






Need a housewarming gift? How about this guy from Artisan Wood Crafting? He's cute and squiggly and made of wood. Who doesn't need an octopus to protect their home?








Spread the octopus love with this cute red tote bag from Margaret Kelly's shop. No one will mess with you if you're carrying this baby around.







Look at this sweet plush softie. His name is Hans and he comes from Dolls for Friends' shop. He looks like he's been through a lot of hard times, so if he becomes yours, take care of him, okay?

Softies, Blankies and Things We Love to Love

I just bought my oldest stepson Dirty Wow Wow. It contains professionally photographed childhood stuffed animals and blankies and other things people loved and still love. Ezra still carries around his Titi blankie. Unconsciously he rubs the satiny blankie edges between his fingers. It's pretty freaking cute.

Admitedly I still have my childhood blankie PomPoms. The thing I love the most about my blankie is that he features fabric with skateboarding frogs on it! I like to think that the skateboarding frogs were a premonition of my marriage to my skateboarding husband. Not to be forgotten is my Tigger stuffed animal I got when I was 7. It was a gift from my Auntie Annie on our trip to Disneyland. I've always felt a little concerned that Tigs might feel a bit insecure as he arrived 7 years after PomPoms, but I believe they've gotten used to each other by now.

Many of my friends still have their childhood blankies and stuffed animals. Most don't readily admit it, but eventually it comes out. I'm loud and proud about mine. I sleep better when PomPoms is tucked under my chin and Tigs is nestled against my chest.
In the spirit of embracing the love of childhood objects of comfort I have found a melange of sweet things to gift to the next generation.



Here's Owl Mama from Needlings, a Canadian maker of hand-sewn plushies and other cute things. She makes me go, "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh...." and smile.












Wow! At first I thought this softie from Danielleorama's shop was a pug-like creature, but I came to find out it is called Garvy Beaverling. Huh, what's that? Still, super cuterific.



Look at little Bugbear from Portland's Perfect Children! I'm guessing it's a bug/bear combo. What a happy mixed breed!







Sweet, it's Darcy! Isn't she darling? I really think that she could out-cute everyone else here. I especially love her bow-leggedness. She comes from Morning Glori's shop in Cinncinnati, Ohio.

Lookin' good in the winter. Is it possible?

Listen, I adore Stacy London and Clinton Kelly from TLC's What Not to Wear. I watch rerun marathons of their show. Their fashion-based snarkiness is just what mamas likes here. However, the fashionable duo would undoubtedly scoff at lowly peeps, like myself, who are oblivious and are still wearing last year's Gap sale sweaters ($23.99 and still going strong-ish).

Now that the Pacific Northwest has turned itself over to "winter storm watch" hysteria everyone is looking fugly. You know who you are. Mismatched hats, gloves that have a Napolean Dynomite quality, down jackets that smell like last year's wintertime bonfire/your basement. That's me, too. My down jacket's lining is tearing apart and I've got a wool hat that was pink back in 2004, when I bought it, but has now taken on a dirty, stained mauve tone.

So, in light of the "winter storm" outside I gathered together some cute wintry weather gear, all from small-time craftsters and artisans. Take a look:




Katherine McConnell makes cute and reasonably priced clothing here in Portland. Her Etsy shop has nicely tailored things for women. Clean, simple lines and neutral, earthy tones that most can pull off without a problem.



Sarah Seven has pretty little things for dainty-like ladies. I like this wooly-cashmere ruffle scarf. Her full collection can be seen here.












I am predicting that this year's owl is the octopus. You know what I mean, right? First it was the bird, then the owl, now the octopus. Seattle-based Chickabird makes cute men's zip-ups and hoodies like this one.










Check out these cuties! Candy-striped mittens are the new black. I swear! See what else Felt Sew Good's shop has to offer.

Geekery for Geeks

I live with three hardcore geeks. Hours can pass and all I hear are snippets of conversations about circuits, the space-time continuum, portals to the 17th dimension or someplace, robot science, prehistoric mammals, the freakin' Silmarillion, the SERVER.....blah,blah,blah.

If I were really listening I might learn something about such things, but instead I usually just start sewing or knitting or contemplating tea parties with my yet-to-be-conceived girl children.


So as this is the gift-giving time of year I thought I would compile a Geekery Gift Guide.

For the developing nerd mind, Electric Boogaloo's Nerdy Baby ABC Flashcards. Note: B is for Binary Code, another topic of discussion in my house. Snore...

For the geeky lovebugs Builder's Studio has created a sweet nerdy buggy wooden cake topper. If you have an entomologist bride or groom-to-be in your life this may be the perfect pre-wedding gift.






For the retro geek who has an interest in home decor how about these Pacman coasters? Just Beaded makes crafty things out of perler beads, and guess what? The shop is owned by a 10-year! Snaps!





For the Japanese culture-obsessed geek (and there seems to be no short supply of those) River Kat makes a series of sushi USB Flash Drives (2GB). Now your geek can transfer his or her REALLY IMPORTANT information in sushi style.


Finally, do you have a geeky lady in your life? I'm sure you do, but it's not me, that's for sure. So if you're in the market here is a fabulous fabric-button robot bracelet from Fluffington.

Pug vs. Weiner vs. Baby Opossum

An analysis of cuteness factors:

Pugs

Cuteness Factor: 9

Truth be told I've been yearning for a pug since way back in 2006. I know, it's been an agonizing 2, almost 3 years. Can't really remember the first time I laid eyes upon a pug, but once I did I knew I had to have one.

Through my constant chatter on pug-related topics my stepsons have become equally enthralled with the idea of becoming a pug-owners. The husband, not so much. Apparently pugs are loud breathers and sometimes their eyes bug out of their heads so much that they actually become dislodged from their eye-hole and need to be pushed back. Yuck!

Weiners

Cuteness Factor: 7

My Momsters owns a weiner dog named Rudy. It was her life long dream to own one and as soon as I was out of the house she adopted the requisite canine replacement child. Rudy is cute, but he is also a very bad dog. Recently he bit my husband's leg so bad that it swelled up and got pussy and gross. However, Rudy still has the cute factor and can get away with it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Rudy was asked to leave puppy-training school after one class. Hmmm...

Baby Opossums

Cuteness Factor: N/A

And now for the opossum. Why a opossum, you ask. Well, this past spring the husband and stepsons found a baby opossum. Somehow they managed to coax the poor thing into a box. Now what to do with it? Why make money off it, of course! The boys figured they could charge viewing fees at the local New Season's market. Which they did and turned a tidy profit of $5 or 6.
Baby opossum, who had by then been given the family name of Jethro, was soon released back into it's naturally disgusting habitat. I'm sure the $5 or 6 went to Legos or something, but still, I've never made $$$ off an animal before.

Obviously my first choice is the beloved Pug! How about you?

I Heart Nikki McClure

I first discovered Nikki McClure in a little PDX gift shop. I love the bold lines, simple colors and crispness of her work. Much of her artwork carries a sense of home and domesticity.

So she creates these by cutting from a single sheet of paper with an X-acto knife. And I thought I was detail-oriented. Her work trumps my handstitchery any day!

Find her online shop here! She has prints, cards, books, calendars, and more!