Hooray for Tuesday + New Totes + I am feeling better

Hello all of you sweet people who come to visit! Thank you so very much to the very encouraging and kind people that sent nice thoughts my way in the last couple of days...you are so appreciated. I mean that, I really do. This whole blog thing is such a funny animal, bringing all of these like-minded people into each other's every-day existance. Even though it's a bit removed, it still helps remind me of all of the lovely, creative, kind people that are scattered about that I get to meet (well, through pictures and letters, anyway). I love it.

SO, a few exciting and fun little things to show you guys...one is the basket for my friends Klon (real name!) & Katharine's new baby (and their already-born baby, Bela).

Everything except for the tiny book ("Chicken Soup with Rice", one of my very favorite Maurice Sendak stories!) & rolled up blankets (cough*Target*cough) are handmade. The funny patterned bibs (sushi & dancing cute zombie-looking-people) are from this lovely etsy seller, My Dolce Baby. Her baby things are just lovely (and smelled very good, too!) The pirate bear (I love him so) was for Bela, the big brother, because isn't it nice to be the person already in the world and get a few presents when this new person enters the scene? I think so. The painting pair and bluebird are also mine. One of the greatest things to me about "working outta da home" as Clint says, is that I actually have the time to make gifts for people when I need or want to, and make them just the way I want to do it. Because that is really important to me.
Another of the greatest feelings is needing a gift that maybe you can't make, or won't have time to make, and being able to go to all of the handmade "superstores" of the web (Etsy, Cut&Paste, etc.) and feel so happy about the objects themselves and the person who made them. There is a definite downside to the whole Etsy phenomenon, though, which bugs me every time I'm there (which is so, so often). My most snobby beef with Etsy as a shopper, is that it is in no way curated, so there is alot of kinda crummy/dull/badly designed or made stuff you often have to wade through to find the gems (but there are plenty of gems!).

Item #2 is more happy shop stuff! 2 new Isobels were just added to the Black Apple Shop . You can get a peek right here, though:

      

Good grief, these girls are cute. They make me one happy lady.

Also, in Black Apple News...my totes are here (the ones that were sent away to the printers a few weeks ago!

   

They'll be up in the shop later today! I decided that I'm going to line each one with a different, cute, new/vintage cotton print. This will not only make them sturdier/more fun/everything good, they'll have a bit more of my hand in them, which is important to me. I already got crackin on several of them:

Well, so that's that! OH! There'll be Samplers today! It'll be later on, though, I'll probably post them around 5 pm East Coast Time. There'll be 3. or maybe 4. So get your Sampler grabbing mitts on!
Happy Tuesday!