Tree of Seasons Gets Hoppy

Last year Easter was so early that I never made a scene for my tree of seasons.  So this year I decided to 'hop' on it (excuse the pun!).  However, it took me two tries.

Here's the first attempt:

There are two things I didn't like.  First, it was too bare.  The scene needed more.  Second, and this has been rattling around in my brain since I first made this scene, I felt the pieces were too small.  I wanted the animals to have more importance than the tree itself, so felt they needed to be larger.  So back to the drawing board!

Here's the second attempt:

Right now the only I would change would be the eggs.  I think they would have popped more if I had just made solid eggs instead.  On the positive side, I love the size of the animals.  They leave less negative space and the detail just turns out better the bigger the the images get.  

I'm really very happy with version, except that now I'm going to have to go back and remake all my other characters!  Oh well, I'll tackle it one month at a time.  Next month, I'm making a new birthday scene since Rowan will be turning 3!

In other random news, there's a lot of new babies arriving in the next few months, including my first niece/nephew!  So I'm thinking about making some burp clothes with cute appliqués on them.  Maybe that will be a new line for my shop!

Catching Up With Mickey

Ages ago I started working on a Mickey Mouse themed quiet book for Rowan.  Off and on again I've slowly been plugging away at it.  Here's the pages I've finished so far:

First page

Velcro the clubhouse together

Page 2

The buttons are sewn on the page

Page 3

Page 4

Goofy even has his signature pineapple underpants!

Page 5

Page 6

Velcro the different hats on Donald

Page 7

I used faux fur for Daisy's ponytail

Page 8

Finger puppets!

This is one of Rowan's favorite pages so far!

Page 9

The puzzle pieces attach with velcro.  However, I wish I had used a different image for the puzzle.  It's actually trickier than you'd think!

Page 10

Toodles has glue, a screwdriver, a hammer, and of course, the mystery mouse-ka tool!

Page 15

(No I didn't miscount, there's 4 pages I haven't finished yet.)

Practice your numbers

Page 16 & 17

There's the shoe garage, mistletoe mountain, the sandy desert, and Mickey Lake.  

The fact that I know all these places explains why my brain can no longer retain useful information.

Page 18

This is currently Rowan's all time favorite page.  He loves going fishing for gooey fish!  

There's a magnet inside the 'hook' and those are paper clips sticking out of the fish.

There's still 4 more pages to go, and thankfully those aren't quite as detailed as some of the above pages.  Of course, there will be a cover, too.  

Sadly, I will not be selling these books in the future.  While it hasn't been particularly difficult to make, it's pretty time consuming.  Oddly, most of the time is spent just cutting out all the little pieces!  My plan, however, is to eventually sell a pattern with instructions.  When I get it all ready, would anyone like to test it out for me and see if it makes sense?  Pretty place?  With cupcakes?

Pretty Room Update #3

I finally got the pom-pom trim I ordered in the mail and went to town with it!  It's cute and a bit kitschy.  I love it!

I added the pink trim and some interfacing to my valence.  If I had been thinking, I would have interfaced it to begin with.  Without the interfacing, the light would show right through it!

The pink is a bit brighter than the pink on the fabric, but it matches the lampshade and the spray painted cork board frame and thread rack.

The white trim on the lamp really ups the cute factor!

I'm seriously in love with the pom-pom trim and keep finding myself wondering what else in my house needs some!

The next item I think I want to tackle for the room are some fun pillow shams.  I just need to figure out what I want to put on them.  Any ideas?