Daddy's Girl

I have a brother. He used to be 6 feet 7 inches of Rompin’ Stompin’ Rugby Playin’ Law Professing Power.

These days he’s 6 feet 7 inches of Rompin’ Stompin’ Rugby Playin’ Law Professing Daddy Power.

Fortunately, he and his wife are generous enough to share lots of pictures of their beautiful daughter and the adventures their little family takes. I just love the photos of teeny girlish Rosemary nestling snuggly against his giganto chest in her carrier. She looks so thoroughly delighted with the world and her place in it. It’s good to have a daddy. Very good.

Looking at these photos, I started thinking of other daddys. A certain one sprang to mind.

Voila!

If you’re not marine biologically inclined, there are certain species of seahorses where the male carries the female’s eggs in a special pouch. When the young hatch he contracts his pouch and the babies swim out into the open sea. As a result of this excellent daddy-ship, seahorse babies have a higher rate of survival compared to fish, where many eggs are eaten before the young hatch.

This design was sketched by me and then colored in Photoshop. The original was put onto a baby t-shirt for Rosemary, but I’m considering adding it to my etsy shop.

Here’s to you, James! And to Excellent Daddys Everywhere!

Amusing Photos! Me Being a Slug!

I’ll admit I haven’t been too crafty the past couple of weeks. I seem to keep doing stuff like hanging out with friends or snuggling with my husband. I am a bad bad etsy shop owner.

Bad bad bad.

I want to start doing some sewing and I have grand plans for a cuddlefish plush and a top secret aquatic mammal, as well as some light summer skirts, but I can’t quite bring myself to start cutting the material (after making the pattern, of course!). That’s the hardest part. Well, aside from cleaning up all the bits. I hate cleaning.

When I made Rosemary’s Christmas stocking:

There were bits of velvet and silk fluff everywhere. Under chairs, stuck to the sofa, on the kitchen table, on the coffee table, on the rugs. Basically all over. But it did turn out beautifully!

Part of it is that I tear fabric for the most part, especially silks and velvets, instead of cutting it and that’s the fast train to Fluff Central. (Ooo… Fluff Central sounds like a train station for bunnies!)

So since I have no crafty business to report, I’ll post some hilarious photos of my parents’ basset hound enjoying herself on the lakeshore.

No one is more expressive than a basset hound.

Computer Generated Onesies

Wow, that sounds like some kind of cyber baby thing, doesn’t it?

Before I started on the animal puns onesies, I made these little animals on Photoshop. I like working with photoshop for these things because it’s so easy to go back and personalize things. For instance, I made a little dog with fluffy ears to represent my Cavalier, Colin. Then I changed the colors to honey blonde to represent my friend’s mixed breed (she’s golden retriever, dashund, and cocker spaniel. A craxy mix, but she looks like a teeny golden) dog, Bella, and added eyelashes and a pink heart around it. Then I took that image, darkened it and took away the eyelashes to represent my brother’s dog, Xialoum, and added the legend “Food Rival” underneath.

A tip for Photoshop users—the shape library includes a bunch of bananas. Turn ‘em sideways and they make terrific eyelashes.

Rosemary is modeling one of the little monkey onesies. For her, I added in “Property of Shing Mun Reservoir.” Shing Mun was a favorite spot of my brother’s and sister in law’s when they lived in Hong Kong. Shing Mun had lots of macaques and Jamie made up a little story about them.

Once when Jamie and Mina were in Shing Mun, they were stopped at the gates. They wouldn’t let Mina go home because they were convinced she was a monkey. Mina had to stay there with the rest of the monkeys, but Jamie and their daughter promised to visit once a week.

I have no idea if either of them actually remembers this story, but I certainly did! So when Rosemary was born, I figured she would need something like this.

This is the danger of telling me anything. It'll eventually end up on a t-shirt.