bubbledog blog

beautiful day

Well, after a week of a lot of rain and a whole lot of humitidy, it finally seems like there is going to be a beautiful day.  There's a gentle breeze, the sun seems just perfectly warm, and it is insanely comfortable both in and outside.  It's still morning, so it may change, but I have my fingers crossed!   

The dogs are already loving the day and have wanted to be outside all morning.  They've each found a nice patch of sun to take a nap in and if I go inside, I don't hear any scratching at the screen door... like right now.

I took dozens of pictures of the dogs this morning - because they didn't run when they heard the "beep" of my camera starting.  My dogs are like celebrities and I'm like the paparazzi... I'm just waiting for one of them to learn how to put a paw up in the lens. 

Please forgive the sepia tone madness... I forgot that it wasn't the late nineties anymore :)

happy birthday poppy!

Happy birthday to Poppy the chihuahua.  On her 9th birthday, she had a busy day of napping, eating, and playing fetch.  How does she manage to fit it all in her crazy schedule each day!  She even squeezed in some time for this quick photo shoot. 

crafts for the week july 23rd through 27th

There has been a lot of crafting going on this week... as usual.  I've been working on a couple custom orders, some of my regualr items, and my first collaboration.

First up is this GIANT tote bag that I helped make.  Laura from dogboneart desgined this amazing image and screen printed the fabric.  I was in charge of the measuring, cutting, and sewing.  I love the finished project and it would be great for someone with kids as it is plenty large enough to carry tons of stuff .  This bag will be available at Laura's etsy shop.

Over the last few months, Laura has been helping me do some screen printing of my own.  My first solo screen (without any help... I'm so proud) was a deer.  I printed the deer on several different cotton prints and I am going to be using them in a variety of projects.  Here is an image of one that I stretched like canvas to create a mini wall hanging.

Last up are these little blue bird note cards that I printed on my Gocco.  They are flat notes that have the image on one side and them room to write a short message on the back.  These will be avalable soon (with the deer above) in my etsy shop.

donkey kong

As I sort through all of my "treasures", I get on mini collecting kicks that consume me for a few weeks before I am able to get back to normal life.  The problem with wanting these older items is that you can't just buy them whenever you want... I guess that is the whole fun part of collecting though.  It's just so frustrating! 

For some time now, I have been wanting to get a full set of these Donkey Kong pvc figurines made by Coleco in 1982.  I only have the big D man himself and none of the other figures... though I am not even sure how many others exist.

It's tricky to find eighties Donkey Kong items on Ebay because there is so much new stuff out there... and I just want my old barrel slingin' Mario hatin' pal!  I do have a lot of 80's DK stickers to post, so I will start with a few today...

Several old school video games had a sticker like the one shown at right... I know I have at least DK, Pac-Man, Frogger, and Centipede.  If you didn't know what this game was, this sticker would be an absolute mystery - "HELP!... I've got cat whiskers on my face, an ape boyfriend, and someone is coming up a ladder with a hammer the size of my leg!"  I make fun of the graphics, yet, I love them.

Also in the sticker pile are these puffy stickers by Diamond Toymakers.  Not only are they puffy, but some also have googly eyes.  Attention eighties sticker collectors...please behold their awesomeness below!

0060

 

Last night was my father's 60th surprise birthday party.  My family and I have been planning it for the last few weeks.  Since my father basically told us that he wanted a party for his sixtieth birthday, we decided to go with a kiddie type theme party... and since my father is a huge James Bond fan, the theme selection was a no brainer.  So, last night we introduced the new agent... 0060. 

Of course, we had to create a movie poster for this new Bond character... my brother and I worked on the poster late Tuesday night.  We got the (obvious) inspiration from the "Dr. No" poster found on the cover of James Bond Movie Posters: The Official 007 Collection and from the movie "Goldfinger"... oops, we somehow forgot the G....  Since our parents now have four cats living with them, we decided to include them in on the fun by replacing the infamous character of Pussy Galore with "pussycats galore."   

I think the party was a success.  Family and friends all seemed to enjoy themselves.  There was plenty of food and there was plenty of drink and all of our Martinis were served "shaken and not stirred."  The evening came to a close with an outdoor showing of "Casino Royale" projected on a 16 by 25 foot screen in my backyard... the remnants of which can be seen billowing in the breeze below.

 

garmisch

I'm not quite sure where (or what) "Garmisch" is, but I assume from this music box that it is German.  I recently came across this little gem while unpacking one of my many moving boxes.  I found it at a yard sale a few years back and scored it for $1.  There are three parts: the base and two little polka danicin' cuties.  I originally bought it out of guilt because when I was looking at it, I knocked it over and broke off the little woman's head (though she's all glued up now and doing just fine).   

I love this music box though.  You place the little figurines on top of the box.  When you crank it up, the music starts and the guy and the girl dance around each other spinning around the perimeter of the box while each twirl individually in place at the same time.  It is some kind of magnetic brilliance that is a sight to be seen... one of those cheesy things that is just amazing to behold!

Jealous?

thanks power outage

Once upon a time (about two weeks ago), there was a power outage.  At the time of said outage, I had been working busily on my sewing machine.  As with any outage, it was very frustrating...  my well laid sewing plans had been thwarted.  There was no computer, no tv, and it was even too dark to read.  Feeling threatened by the thought of just sitting idly, I whipped out my Gocco screen printer and started working by candlelight.  I combined an existing drawing of mine with some tissue paper blobs and came up with these cool colorful tree cards.  In the dark, it was hard to even tell what they looked like, but when I saw them the next morning, I was quite pleased.

Fast forward about two weeks later and I was very excited to see these cards appear on design*sponge last Friday!

WARNING!!!  Shameless plug alert: the cards are available at my etsy shop.

a smile at the end of the rainbow

I found some old eighties craft magazines that I thought I might give me some cool craft ideas.... well, not so much.  I forgot that 80's crafts were HORRIBLE!  The magazines did provide some laughs and a couple of cool advertisements like this Jell-O add above.  The only problem I would see with this cake is that I would need to make all five flavors...  I would want to make them and then line them up just like this photo and then, of course, never eat them.  Here is the Jell-O Rainbow Cake recipe.  Enjoy!

my wants and desires

The mere sight of the front of The Official Sticker Catalog from Toys To Grow On brings back such strong and vivid childhood memories for me.  I think I spent the majority of 1984 thumbing through this catalog... to the point where the pages just sort of disintegrated.  When I saw one on ebay last year, I just had to buy it.  Though it cost me twenty bucks, it has been worth every penny in sweet, sweet nostalgic bliss!

I can remember looking through this catalog every night before I went to bed and it travelled in my backpack (secretly) everyday to school.  As a ten year old, I didn't have a ton of extra cash lying around, so I didn't really buy anything from the catalog, but that wouldn't keep me from dreaming.  Some of the items I did eventually get...

1.  A tub of Mrs. Grossman's stickers.  I got the "originals" and I think they never left the tub.  I can still hear and feel the plastic top open.  I was on top of the world with what felt like an endless supply of stickers.  On a side note, though I never had it, I would have given my left (or possibly even my right) arm for the Garfield set below the Grossman tubs.   

2.  I loved the look of the prismatic stickers in these greeting cards.  I still don't know who made them, but I desperately wanted them.  I really just wanted the stickers and though I never got this set, I did get a card with the prism stickers in it for my birthday in October of '84.  However, It wasn't any of these cute designs shown in the catalog... no, it was a hideous prism clown!

3.  Last, but not least, I convinced my parents to order me this set of Animal Toots.  I loved these stickers and had I known what "petite" meant, I would have known that they weren't counting each strip of stickers, but rather each teeny, eeny, weeny, tiny sticker.  I felt so scammed, used, and stupid.  What woud "65 colorful designs" mean to you at the ripe age of 10? 

The last scan to share today is their Swell Smells page.  I would die to have any of these sets today.  Over the last six years, I have been amassing my vintage 80's scratch and sniff sticker collection.  It is a highly addictive hobby (ok, maybe "obsession" would be more appropriate).  I had to scan the whole page to show it in all its glory.  If you have ever bought old stickers on ebay, look at the prices and then pick your jaw up off the floor!

   

To look a lot more great vintage stickers, check out my friend Amy's site at www.vintagestickers.com.

    

freshly made

For the last two weeks, I have been on a crafting rampage.  Mostly to stock up for the holiday shopping season, but also because I just can't help myself... I'm like a crafting junky.  Last year, it was very difficult to keep up with demand before the holidays as I was making each piece as I went with no inventory.  This year, I hope to be more prepared.

These Neopolitan Ice Cream Zipper Pouches were good sellers for me last year.  I have made some improvements this time around by upgrading to a wool blend felt (so soft and fuzzy) and finding a better pink zipper to match the strawberry ice cream. 

Continuing in the sweets arena, I have also been working on some tote bags with cupcake appliques.  I figured out a better way to sew my totes and that has helped me speed up the assemblege process, but I would still consider myself slow as molasses in the production department.  These totes are made entirely of cotton canvas with the exception of the wool felt applique on the front.  I have been making both vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and icing and some with and some without sprinkles.

Last, but not least, I have been busy making more cat wallets.  These have been, by far, my most popular item.  I still wish I could streamline the process more.  My design involves tracing and cutting 11 pieces (one of the few items I've made that I also created a pattern), appliqueing 6 of those pieces, assembling & sewing the 5 main pieces, and then hand stitching around the exterior of the wallet.  I would love to simplify the process, but I am just so happy with the end result.  This time around, I have experimented with some blue kitties.