You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2008.
Congratulations to Lacey, our winner of the Nautical Soft Block Set! Lacey, please email us your shipping information so we can get this in the mail to you!
Keep your eye out for more FREE Vintage Fridays. You never know when another might pop up! Thanks to all who entered and a very MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!
Amber (kindly left a comment in the last post) reminded me of one of my own childhood Christmas memories in the not so (well, maybe so) distant past. Remember that year in the early 80s when it seemed like every child in the world had to have a Cabbage Patch Kid for Christmas? Honestly, I was a kid, so I probably can’t really remember the true magnitude of the frenzy. I just remember that I HAD TO HAVE ONE.
Now, 25 years later, I can appreciate what my mom went through to get me AND my sister a doll. (Mom likes to remind us.) And I will say that I have misty, water-colored memories of that Christmas — the year I woke up and saw that golden-haired doll with the pigtails and pink lace dress waiting for me. I guess it says a lot that I still remember that doll so vividly and even remember her name: Gussie Annette. You done good, Mom!
In honor of their 25th birthday, Cabbage Patch Kids re-released their dolls this holiday season with the exact same hair, facial expressions and clothing they had in 1983. Hope they didn’t recycle the names too! (Sorry, Gussie.)
To celebrate the holidays with all of you, The Baby Gardner is happy to announce our holiday-edition of FREE Vintage Friday! This Personalized Nautical Soft Block Set with Drawstring Bag ($40 value) is a perfect gift for baby. Each block makes a different noise: rattle, bell, and squeaker. Vintage-inspired cotton prints including anchors, sailors, geometrics and ticking stripes are featured on each block. Blocks are housed neatly inside the coordinating drawstring bag. This giveaway set will be personalized with the word ‘baby’.
Win it! Just leave a comment on this post briefly describing your most memorable Christmas moment as a child. Giveaway ends Monday, 12/22 at 11pm GMT. Winner will be announced on Tuesday and chosen at random. Good luck!
Want one of your own? This set is available exclusively at The Baby Gardner and can be personalized with your own little one’s name!
Hey there. It’s been a while. The ‘Handmade Held Hostage’ situation has thrown us for a loop around here. Thanks for all of the incredible support and rallying that the crafting community has created — literally on a dime. I’m very optimistic that our voices will be heard and revisions will be made to the law.
I wanted to share Part 2 of my Crafting for Christmas posts. A few years back, my siblings (one sis, one bro) and I decided that we would only exchange gifts if we all agreed not to go out and spend a lot of money, but instead we would each make something. Well, that wasn’t a big stretch for my sister or myself, but the two of us were very curious to see what my brother would come up with. Paper airplanes? Toxic brownies?
In the back of my mind, I already knew what I wanted to do. I had had good intentions (for years) to make a large Santa-style family loot bag. We often do a lot of traveling around the holidays. It was a pain trying to load up all the presents each time (usually in a laundry basket), making sure none got left behind and all arrived safely. So I thought it would be handy and kind of cool to have a personalized family loot bag that we could load up with the appropriate presents ahead of time, grab it and go. Great idea, right? But I never did it until the year of the “sibling handmade challenge”. That gave me the motivation to get it done and I liked the idea of all three of our families having one.
I had a lot of fun making them. Again, I love that applique and gingham! I used some drapery weight fabric to make each bag and large satin rope to create the drawstring that cinches closed. The top of each bag folds down to make a big cuff with pom-pom trim added to the edge. As far as the applique design, I just went for it — cutting shapes out of the fabric freehand. I had a general idea of what I wanted it to look like, but you could also sketch your design out on tracing paper first. I added some fun trim and buttons and voila! Here’s my sister’s bag:
Now, when we meet at our parents’ house for the holidays, the loot bags are in tow. And the best part is, when all the gifts have been opened, we load up the bags with the gifts we’ve received and know exactly which bag to grab when it’s time to head home.
BTW, for that “sibling handmade challenge”, my sis drew a portrait of Gracie & Aidan that I treasure. Brother cheated and bought us gifts! Should have known!
My friend and fellow artisan, Laurie at Old School Acres, brought this to my attention today. How it’s flown under the radar for so many months, I do not know. But I am disheartened and concerned more than I can say — not only for small artisan shops like The Baby Gardner, but especially for the indie artists themselves who’s livelihood comes from their talent and their craft. The impact this measure could have on the industry as a whole is unbearable to imagine.
Sounds pretty somber, I know. I could never describe the circumstances as succinctly as Liz and Kristen from CoolMomPicks.com, so here’s the scoop in their own words…
Of course we’re all for strengthening the safety standards of mass-produced toys made in China, and banning toxins like phthalates and lead. But this year, the CPSC passed the ill-conceived Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act which goes into effect in two months and will absolutely decimate the small toy manufacturers, independent artisans, and crafters who have already earned the public trust.
They will all go out of business. Period.
Moms who sew beautiful handmade waldorf dolls out of home, artists who have spent decades hand-carving trucks and cars out of natural woods, that guy at the craft show who sold you the cute handmade puzzle–even larger US companies who employ local workers and have not once had any sort of safety issue will no longer be able to sell their toys. Not without investing tens of thousands of dollars into third-party testing and labeling, just to prove that toys that never had a single chemical in them still don’t have a single chemical in them.
In other words, handmade toys will now be illegal.
So many of our past reviewees are pleading for your help. Here’s what you can do:
Thanks mamas. We know we can help make a difference and preserve this important cottage industry, keep good honest people in business, and protect the playthings we all love best of all. -Liz and Kristen and the whole CMP staff
Edited to add: It would seem this act impacts not just toys, but all children’s products including clothing, hair accessories, shoes – pretty much everything we feature on CoolMomPicks.com. Please please, if you do one thing today, shoot off an email or two, will you?
It almost sounds like a terrible hoax, an email chain gone too far. Wish it was. What I hope it is for all of us, is a call to action. Have you emailed your congress person today?
[This post by Business is Personal is the most thought-provoking article I've read on the issue. Check out his list of 'reasons to care.' Wow.]
After Master Aidan was born in 2005, I kind of knew he was going to be the caboose of the family, so to speak. When I was little, I always said I was going to have 10 children when I grew up. I’d still love to have those 10 kids in theory, but in practice, maybe not. Two kiddies, two parents. We try to keep an even playing field around here.
So anyway, we had little Aidan that July and I really wanted to make stockings for Christmas that year. Wasn’t really sure how at first. I just knew that ideally I wanted them to look somewhat vintage and I wanted to like them enough to keep using them until the kids are grown — in the hopes that one day they’ll be reminders of happy childhood Christmases and their mom’s limited sewing skills. (Read my soapbox about that topic in the previous post.)
Before I give you the 411 about crafting these stockings, let me just insert an opinion here: Applique and zigzag stitching is the greatest thing ever! I decided to sketch out my own patterns to applique and had a lot of fun mixing different fabrics. I used antique white felt for the stocking itself and lined it with green gingham. (Gingham is the other greatest thing ever.) I embellished each one with buttons and frills and big jingle bells at the toes for good measure.
Now the ‘monogramming’ was tricky. I don’t monogram, so I had to figure out a way to monogram without monogramming — hence, the tricky part. I found some small gold wire ribbon that I twisted into names and handstitched them in place with clear thread. Pretty smart, eh? (It took me forever to figure something out that would work. Don’t give me too much credit.)
Here’s some close-ups of the results…
I keep hearing that song on the radio. We have a station here that plays nothing but Christmas music throughout December (you probably have one of those too). Seems like every time I turn it on, Julie Andrews is belting this one out. I never really considered it a Christmas song or Sound of Music (one of my all-time favorites) a Christmas movie, but okay. Works for me. In the movie, I guess the children are preparing for a holiday concert if I remember it right. I’m way over-thinking this. Moving on…
My favorite things… I’ve kind of been on a hunt the last several years in search of vintage ornaments similar to those that were on our tree when I was a kid. My mother sold all our ornaments in a garage sale years ago. (She knows I love to give her flack about this.) We lived several states apart at the time, so I didn’t even know about the horror until long after the fact. Her reasoning? She wanted to ‘start fresh’ with the tree. And I get that, I do. But it kills me to think about it. I can still remember our tree vividly from all those Christmases growing up. My mom even HANDMADE a bunch of those original ornaments (felt gingerbread men, bells, santas, etc.). How could she sell them a decade later at a garage sale for 25 cents? Can you tell this 
is a sore spot for me? Don’t get me wrong. My mom is the greatest and she did hang on to sentimental things from our childhood. Unfortunately, the tree stuff — the stuff she made — just wasn’t among them. The upside is that the whole incident reminded me that stuff is just stuff. And it also made me realize that sometimes that stuff can hold childhood memories for the little ones we love most.
My kids may or may not grow up to be the sentimental sap their mom is, but in case they are, I’m making a conscious effort to keep small reminders of their past.
Favorite #1: Vintage Elf: Is he the cutest thing or what? Found him and a few of his buddies at a flea market last year. He’s a total flashback from my childhood. The cool thing is that at the base of his head he has this candy cane-wrapped wire that you can actually twist around the branch of the tree rather than your standard hooks.
Favorite #2: Vintage Stocking: Yep. This is the real deal. This held my very own loot from Santa every year when I was little. Mom held on to this one! It’s made from red felt and lace. Gold glitter sequins spell out my name. It actually inspired me to make handmade stockings for my own family that we now use every year. I’ll have to share them with you in a future post.
Favorite #3: Vintage Santa: Check out this jolly vintage Santa. I was able to grab him and an entire bag of his clones at an estate sale a few years back for $5! Score! Just like the elf, his hat is felt and he has that hard plastic face reminiscent of the 60s and 70s. He also has a fluffy spun cotton beard and his ‘made in japan’ label on the back.
Just as a side note, you’ll probably also notice in this photo that we have a ‘fake’ Christmas tree. I ADORE live Christmas trees. They are beautiful and smell wonderful. And I admire my friends that use them. I know that picking out the tree every year is a tradition for lots of families. If I had any sort of green thumb, I’d probably be tempted to go that route myself. But I don’t. And that makes them a pine-needles-everywhere, fire-hazard nightmare that scares me to death. So I’ll have to stick to enjoying them from afar.
Favorite #4: Vintage Christmas Place Card Holders: I keep telling myself that I’m going to use these at a big Christmas dinner, but so far it hasn’t happened. We usually go to the grandparents’ house for big family dinners, so I haven’t had the chance. I’ve also thought about using them in an altered art project. I found them in mint condition in their original box and couldn’t resist the urge. They’re really tiny. Only about 1-1/2″ tall.
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