favorite shop friday: petit plat

Two birthdays ago Karl gave my a dollhouse! A beautiful Victorian inspired dollhouse that I get to put together myself (if Karl doesn't beat me to it) and paint and, best of all, decorate! Right now the dollhouse is stored away in an unused room until we can get the upstairs farther along in our renovations but I finally get around to looking for teeny tiny sofas and beds and armoires I will also be filling the teeny tiny kitchen cupboards with the teeny tiny food of Stephanie Kilgast from her shop Petit Plat.

No that's not my breakfast (I wish!)...

nor is this my dinner...

Isn't her work amazing?

Don't have a dollhouse? Stephenie also makes her looks-good-enough-to-eat food into jewelry. Find her shop at http://petitplat.etsy.com.

pumpkin patch

happy belated birthday

Two months ago today, Axel turned 1!

August 8th was a Sunday so we invited the family over for dinner to celebrate. Axel had fun opening gifts and playing with the wrapping paper and he loved the banners and mobiles I made to decorate. I think he had a pretty happy birthday!

Invitations, front and back:

I made his 1 onesie with some scrap fabric.

The mobiles were easy peasy to make...here's the tutorial from Project Wedding.

And the cake...

...came from I Am Baker. Very tasty!

6 months old and super-cute!

favorite shop friday: bibitty

I like being bilingual and I hope Axel will be bilingual, too. Today's shop can help get him started.

Bibitty creates and sells alphabets with gorgeous and charming imagery in several languages including English...



French...


Italian...



Spanish...

These alphabets are so gorgeous, in fact, I can easily imagine using them to decorate more than a nursery...a living room, a study, a kitchen...

Check out Bibitty's world of words at http://bibitty.etsy.com/ and their blog at http://bibitty.blogspot.com/.

a fairy is born

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl." - Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.

Last Thursday, Axel laughed for the first time!!

He developed a little giggle that was really just a quick exhale when he smiled sometimes. But Thursday evening I was watching something on TV and Karl was in Axel's room changing his diaper and singing to him and I begin to notice a giggle between Karl's singing. By the time I make it into his room, that giggle has become a full out laugh!

I grabbed my camera and made a little video of Axel laughing for his very first time...

favorite shop friday: letterary press

Personally, I feel the slow death of the hand written word a sad one. I appreciate the ease and speed of the digital age, but there was always something about finding a letter in your mailbox that makes you feel that someone out there really loves you...and you have tangible evidence of your friendship.

Letterary Press offers cards with quotes from great writers to inspire us to in turn write and preserve the most important and intimate words to each other.

You'll find great literary minds such as Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau and many others to help you communicate your thoughts...

Marty of Letteraery Press uses only soy based inks and salvaged or recycled papers for her cards and they're all beautifully letter pressed.

Find all her lovely designs and inspired words at http://letterarypress.etsy.com/.