For Being in Love . . .

Whew! It's been a long while! It is now officially my favorite time of the year - hot hot hot - 95 degrees and sort of murky and the nights are warm and misty and the air feels so alive that you can almost hear it! I know that I am a small percentage of people that love this type of weather but I do love it and am happy as a little pig in mud.

My absence from any regular blog posts was due to the Buyers Market of American Craft show - this year it was held at the Baltimore Convention Center and was a bit earlier than in years past - July rather than August. This show has been truly life changing as far as my little Pea Soup company is concerned and I am forever grateful to all of those that organize it and all of the buyers that come out and place orders and support American handmade art and craft and of course to the friends new and old that are like family to me!

So you can see where the title of the post comes from. I love what I do, I love what I make and I love all the support and encouragement from everyone! Many thanks.

This little frame is also part of the series of small frames that I made as new items this year - I have shown the little nursery frames here a few posts back and this is the same size as those. I just love the way the little girl fairy is looking at the little boy fairy. They are indeed in love.

The Internet Gnomes

I am beginning to think that there are little gremlins inside my computer that are taking things - Etsy listings, blog postings, photos . . . okay, maybe I just have too many things going on in my brain at once and am not keeping very good track of my Internet work . . . OR it could be these fine gentlemen?

Who doesn't love gnomes??? I honestly don't know why it took me so long to include them in the Pea Soup cast of characters - fairies, elves, gnomes seem like the obvious next step and here they are - they are available in the Etsy shop as a pin or as a larger size ornament. I LOVE their little beards and booties - I had so much fun trying to figure out how to get them just right. We can't have a gnome scurrying about without proper footwear! Which reminds me of this book that I poured over while I was designing these guys. I bought it for $2 at my local library's used book sale - what a steal!! If you get a chance - get yourself a copy of this adorable and so well done and imaginative book!

Jolly Juggling Jesters

I always go back to the jester - there is just something about him that I love. I have been making this little jester pin for quite sometime -

And I have made a larger version as an ornament now and then. When I first started making the wall hangings - which are a totally new concept for me just this year - I of course made the juggling jolly jester wall hanging first! (And kept one for myself which sits on my work table!) Here it is:

I was fortunate enough to make a batch of these in different colors for this amazing place! And here they are - done in different color combos - talk about a very fun time in the studio making these!

How can you not smile when you see them all lined up like that!?

Oh, and the jester pin was just added for sale here!

Baby Boys and Baby Girls

There seems to be many little bundles arriving as of late - lots of little cute beans sprouting up everywhere! Many best wishes to all of those that I know and love that have just had a baby or are about to have a baby and to all of you out there that are new parents!!!

These little wall hangings were made for the big February show and I am just getting around to getting them in to the shops - there is a little girl baby bean here.

The super great thing about these is I will personalize them for you - yep, I will stamp the little name right on the frame - and the date of birth too! Fun! And a very thoughtful gift I might add! :)

Calling all Birthday Boys and Girls

Or at least those of us that should want to buy a special card for said special birthday boy and/or girl . . .

I can't think of a better way to say "Happy Birthday to you" than with a cheeky little felt cake. This card is definitely a keeper. And is available here.

Happy Birthday to you and you and you this weekend and for the rest - Have a sunny, relaxing, and very fun Memorial Day weekend!

Love

Happy Monday morning to everyone!

It finally feels like summer here and I am so happy about that! Everything is green and alive and it smells amazing - this sweet fresh smell of the flowers and leaves - love it!

So it makes it hard to stay indoors and my schedule is slowly going back to my favorite configuration - work late into the night and spend the days outdoors enjoying! There must be some sort of balance after all!

Speaking of studio, there the Stitcher frame is up in the Etsy shop here.

And an oldie but a goodie - the mended love ornament. Here's one from a recent batch for an order. It is sweet and simple and folksy and I do love the sentiment - it's patched and mended, but still perfect in it's imperfections - sounds like the real thing?

In Stitches

We have had days and days of rain on end. It is now getting to the point that we forget that it is raining and you don't even think about an umbrella or getting wet - the rain just is. Which has made for some sleepy, mellow, slow-moving days in the studio and not too much else. The good news is, the sun broke free from the grey clouds this afternoon and I immediately ran out to do my errands - just so I could be a part of it for a minute . . .

But now it's back to overcast and back into the studio, getting ready for the first Ligonier Country Market of the season on Saturday (the only day in the 10 day forecast not calling for rain!) And finishing up some of these little ones - another of the framed pieces that I introduced this year.

This one is called "In Stitches" and features a little stitcher in a green sweater and a khaki skirt. She's stitching away on a little cross-stitch sampler.

And will soon be in the webshops too!

Wednesday's Work

I am really good at meaning to take in-progress photos and then remember only when everything is packed and off it it's destination . . . which is the case today unfortunately BUT I did manage to take a couple of quick snaps of some of the work on the work desk.

This may look like a field of black-eyed Susans, but actually they are Jack o'Lantern eyes.

This is very serious work that I do to be sure, here are a few miniatures for some little school frames. The cursive strips will go above the chalkboard, the chalkboard (on the black card stock) and tiny graded papers (A+ of course!)

Final product!

I am hoping to begin carrying these little frames in the webshops. I do have a little butterfly fairy frame in the Etsy shop if anyone is interested in checking it out!

Blooms, Buds and Babies

On the work desk this week - blooms and more blooms. The first shot is of a batch of special order zinnias. Every time time I look at them the word POW! comes into my head - they are so bright and comic-book-looking to me. I wouldn't normally work with this color palette and have been very much enjoying the new color combos. They need to be stitched of course to call them done.

But these lovelies are done. These are for an order going out next week. I am in love with the white, orange, turquoise one in the center (fruit loops anyone?)



And last but in no way least - my best friend Susan is expecting! And her shower is tomorrow. I have just finished the favors for the occasion - a little pot with seeds and a little plug of soil to plant - these were wrapped in the green fabric, tied with yellow ribbons and I added a little daffodil. The little card has growing instructions on the back. Springy! And easy and I hope everyone likes them!

May everyone have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Flutter-by Butterfly

I am so very excited about this.

I started creating wall art/mixed-media pieces for my shows and shops and I am really excited to start adding some to the web shops! The first one is the Butterfly Fairy.

I think that this would look so cute hanging in a little girl's room. Because it is always the wonderful people that buy my work that give me the best ideas - this is where the idea for the framed pieces came from. I had a wonderful customer very excitedly show me a shadow box frame of several of my ornaments that she had created to display them. I loved it. Another customer had taken a fairy pin and framed it for a baby shower gift - brilliant! So here they are all stitched up and assembled and ready for your wall!

More to come in the Etsy and Dawanda shops soon!

Spring Things

Though it is a very dark and dreary, lamps-on-all-day sort of day, there is an assortment of springy things on the studio table.

A batch of the little flower pins for an order:

Miniature flower pots freshly painted:

Even stamping tags has a spring theme to it:

Who's ready for spring!?

Pea Soup Studio Tour

I love LOVE getting sneak peaks into other artists' studios. How people work is so fascinating to me. So, I thought it would be fun to share my own studio with all of you.

Here is a close-up of my little tackle box of bits and buttons. . . No, you aren't seeing things - there are drawers labeled "Smarty Pants" and "Jingles" and "Candy Canes" I love my job.

Here is a shot of my work table that runs the length of the "L" shaped studio. There's orders of framed pieces, tooth fairies and my color chart hanging out here.

Here we have the short side of the "L" where all the actual making takes place. It is pretty spiffy in this shot (as spiffy as it gets!)

Hope that you enjoyed the mini-studio tour! Back to work for me!

On a Snowy Thursday in March

I am having a hard time getting my mind around two things. One that it is the last day of the month of March. And two, that it has been snowing on and off for two days. . . Springtime?!

The cold and gray weather has me inside at the work table (so that is a good thing) and on the table, as always, is an assortment of work . . . flowers, butterflies, fairies, mushrooms - very spring-like and very bright. Just the thing for a snowy day! Here are some snapshots -

Bits that will become flowers -

This may seem very random, but I just made some teeth for some hard-working tooth fairies and was aghast at how real they looked . . . too real. . . .

Yikes, so, to remedy this? How everything is remedy in Pea Soup World - a little blush and a smiley face . . . much better!

On the table - Monday Edition

I thought it would be fun to give you a little glimpse in to the Pea Soup studio work table - I always have lots of different projects going on at once - right now it's mostly orders that I am working on. I have the tiniest of tiny fairies that will eventually become a small framed piece -

And these little hearts go with the fairies -

And another framed piece features a little jolly juggling jester - of course and no jester is complete with a bit of blush for rosy cheeks!

And five pretty birds all finished and in a row!

Bunnies . . . and my assistants . . .

There are lots and lots of bunnies that have been hopping around on my work desk lately. Most of them are off to their new homes. I saved a few for the web shops and will be adding them periodically. Here is a little batch of oldies but goodies bunnies that I have been making for some time (in some sort of variation.)

Along with bunnies - there have been lots and lots of lots of things on the Pea Soup work table - I don't even know where to begin! Luckily I have these little ones to help me with all those tiny stitches . . .

Who?

Sorry.

I couldn't resist the title of the post. And I cannot resist the owls. I know, I am probably way past the style trend on this one, but with almost everything else - I am oblivious to these things anyway. I love owls. I have always loved owls. When thinking about this post (owl post . . . ) I thought about all of the the things that I own that are owl related. My favorite being my necklaces . . .

The one above and this one below are vintage purchased on Etsy.

The last one - I want to say Charlotte Russe for about $6!

Then there is this guy - made of pine cones - I think he's suppose to be a Christmas ornament but NO he lives in my kitchen year-round.

And there's more - so it's no wonder that I would eventually get around to making some owls. I did some owl patches a few years back and sort of taking from that design, I did these pins:

Totally fun to make and with the other new designs for this year (including the trees from yesterday's post) and some that you haven't seen yet - gnomes, mushrooms and the like - they all sort of feel right together and make a nice new batch of designs. Look for these in the Etsy and DaWanda shops too!