Taylor Made designs

Happy Birthday Davis

my baby girl turned 4 this weekend.
4. 
how did that happen?

Davis is growing up way too fast. She's my baby girl – but really, she is no longer a baby. She talks in full, complex sentences. A lot. She draws + paints. A lot. And, she is quite good! She dresses herself, mainly in skirts + dresses, actually, anything fancy. {The girl is a born fashionista} She has a laugh that is totally contagious, and a smile that will melt your heart. Just look at her face –  How could you not love her? She is quite popular with the kids at school. She's like Norm from cheers. Whenever we arrive somewhere, we are always greeted with cheers of, "yeah! Davis!" which of course, is so endearing to hear. Sweet, polite, but totally mischievous, she is, without a doubt...the daughter I always dreamed of having.

Well this weekend we just had a little party with my side of the family to celebrate her turning four. She will have two more parties before the end of the summer. One with Neal's family, the other a kid's party. Davis wanted a Teddy Bear theme. She art directed me with the drawing of the bear. Telling me how big to make the eyes, nose, etc. What colour she wanted. She was very specific. We only had three girl cousins at the party, so I quickly put together party favors. I bought lip gloss, made chocolate lollipops, made little labels for the tubes of MM's, and made spiral notebooks up. I made the cake as well, and again, totally art directed by Davis. The girl knows exactly what she likes – a bit like her mother :)

I have plenty of photos from the party... which I'll upload to my flickr account. {mainly for my sister michelle who lives in New Orleans and couldn't make it up north}

Thanks for stopping by! I have been busy, and have a lot of things to show for it. But need to take photos. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the summer.

Life's a Beach

We've been hanging at the beach lately. The kids just love to play in the water. I love to read my book + relax. At home I always feel compelled to do something productive. At the beach, after I settle the kids, our blanket, chairs, cooler etc. there is nothing more for me to do, but enjoy myself. It's such a treat :)

Friday night we stayed late at the beach, enjoying the cooler air. We love having dinner there. A lot of times we grill, but it was so hot on Friday, I decided to just pick up sandwiches at au bo po. {au bon pain for those not fluent in french slang :) } It was around 8:45pm, the clouds looked ominous and all of the sudden a wind squall appeared. Cold wind whipped off the ocean, hitting us full blast. It was amazing. I don't think we have ever packed up our stuff so fast. {This is why I love the concept of driving your car right onto the beach.} Anyway, it was a mad exodus off the beach... we got home and as we unpacked the car + cooler, the thunder + lightening started. Then the rain. The storm felt like it was right over our house reminding us how violent mother nature can be!

Today I have some work to finish up, library books to return + pick up + some weeding to do. Happy Monday everyone!

Podcasts

So, one of my very favorite shows/podcasts has been canceled and I'm quite sad about it. Not sad, as in, I'm going to shed some tears, but sad enough to write a post about it :)

Everyday, since December, I have been listening to the Bryant Park Project by NPR via my iPod. My iTunes would download the show automatically and I would listen while I did work in my studio. It became one of my daily rituals. It was just announced on Monday that they are going to cancel it!

"National Public Radio officials are expected on Monday to tell the staff members of "Bryant Park Project" that their experimental weekday morning program, designed to draw a younger audience to public radio and capture listeners who had moved online, is being canceled.

The last broadcast of this New York-based program, which many listeners tuned into at npr.org rather than over the air, is expected to be on July 25. It's an expensive failure -- the first-year budget was more than $2 million -- and comes at a time when NPR is facing the same financial constraints as other news media thanks to higher costs and a downturn in underwriting."  via The New York TImes.

I'm really quite bummed out about it. I hardly watch the news. {calling John Stewart my main news source is a bit of a stretch} I don't really read the newspapers. So listening to this podcast really helped to inform me about "stuff". World stuff, local stuff, cultural stuff. {you get the picture} I swear, my IQ went up a few points, just because I listened to it.

So now I am on the hunt to find some new podcasts.
A couple of other podcasts I listened to went "bye bye" in April, so I am asking you all... do you listen to any good podcasts?

Currently, this is what I've been downloading:
Chicago Public Radio presents This American Life,  hosted by Ira Glass
This is one fantastic podcast. I can't begin to tell you how great, how poignant the stories are.  Truly, one of my absolute favorite podcasts ever. Also, if you poke around their archives you can find some of their favorite episodes to listen to.

NPR Podcasts (library)
When I've listened to everything on my podcasts, and I don't want to listen to music, I'll sometimes go and check out all the different podcasts offered by NPR. It's a hit or miss... sometimes I'll hit a great podcast, and other times, I just tune it out.

The Lost Podcast with Jay + Jack
My husband and I love the TV show LOST. Neal found this podcast last year and we became addicted. If you like the show LOST, you'll totally enjoy this podcast. They don't really talk spoilers – they try to figure out what the hell happened on the show, what things mean, who they like or dislike etc. totally fun. This was a weekly podcast. Now, they are just podcasting about "stuff" which I don't really care for, till LOST is back in January 09!

TV Talk with GMMR + Ducky
These guys are local to me. {here in boston} and their podcast is all about tv. What's good, what sucks. I find them entertaining . The podcast is light + fun to listen to. I don't watch that much TV... but the shows I do watch, I love. (Lost, Friday night lights, Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, Project Runway}  They are the ones that turned me onto "How I Met Your Mother". {one of the funniest shows on TV.} They are not consistent with their schedule. {they both have full-time jobs and are busy} But when I see a new show on my iPod, I smile.

Scene Unscene Movie Reviews
This podcast is all about the movies. I just recently found it, and it's ok. They review current movies playing in the theater. And since the only movies I happen to see are kid's movies, it's helpful when I'm trying to figure out what movies I want to rent from Netflix. They swear a bit, and it can be a bit crude at times so I make sure the kids aren't hanging out with me in my studio when I am listening to them.

Do you have a favorite podcast that you are willing to share with me?

All I want...

is some extra cash so I can go and buy these things :) I know, it's not gonna happen. I have too many other "things" that I need, want, have to have... so for now, I like to just document my wants in the hopes that someone out there will say,"hell, that girl should have those things" and buy them for me. Ah sweet dreams, sweet dreams :)

Coral Bag by Thomas Paul. I'm big on all the things ocean + sea, and this bag falls right into this category.

Jewelry by Heather Moore. Gorgeous huh? Check out her website. You can build your own necklace + bracelet. If you are local, you can check out my good friend Dava's store on Newbury Street called MATSU. Dava has a lot of different charms available (she can special order just for you too) plus, she just oozes style and will help you select just the perfect items.

Pillow by Thomas Paul. I own about six Thomas Paul pillows already, but like handbags, I girl can never have enough :) They are the perfect accessory to a room.

Two Piece Walnut Trivet. These wooden trivets are adorable + clever. The shape reminds me of my dingbat that I use.

White bowl. Just timeless beauty. The shape is so organic. Just lovely.

Really now, aren't they all just so pretty? I've been so productive, making serious headway on my To-Do-List, that I could give one of these things to myself as a reward...but believe it or not, I'm just not like that. My personality is more... If I want something bad enough, I just buy it :) That's how I roll...Who needs a reward program?  That's too "Pavlov's dog" for me :)

But seriously...I'm so glad I made a list, really prioritized + gave myself deadlines. I've realized, a deadline is my best inspiration :) I still have a list a mile long, but at least I have tackled some of the projects that I had been procrastinating on for months. It feels sweet to finally have them done :) So what  project(s) do you want to start or do this summer? I'll post about mine later this week!

wall.e

We took the kids to see wall.e this weekend. They loved it. Both Neal + I loved it.
By far, one of my favorite movies... ever. Honest. It's that good. I want to see it again!

Oh, I've made a HUGE to-do-list and I'm making serious progress on it. (while still enjoying our summer)

Thank you all for your kind words regarding my aunt.

Blueberry Muffins

We've been making blueberry muffins for the past week. The kids love to help make them + of course, eat them :) I can't wait for blueberry picking so we can use fresh local berries. yummy.

On some really sad news...My aunt Joanne, "auntie", my mum's sister,  who we loved dearly passed away on the 4th. She was diagnosis with a brain tumor in late January. They originally gave her 18 months. She went through chemo + treatment. Despite the fact she had a terminal illness, I think we all thought God was going to let her win a few small battles along the way, knowing she couldn't win the war. But as we all know, God has his own plans and sometimes they don't align with ours.

I feel sad. I feel sad for my mum. I feel sad for my cousin + her family. I feel sad for my aunt's friends. I feel sad for HER. She had so much more living to do. So many people loved her. 

I was sitting at my desk the other night, going through some old photos and found a great photo of my mum + auntie – looking all healthy and happy. Davis walked into my room and said, "oh mummy, is that nana + her sister?" and I said, "yes, honey, it is. But my aunt is gone now. She's with God." At this point, Davis was sitting on my lap...she took both her little hands, and cupped my face and said, so very seriously, "Mumma, don't you ever leave me... ok?" And then gave me a kiss. Of course, I swore, I wouldn't.

ribbit!

Here's another custom silkscreened ribbon order I completed over the weekend. I think it came out great. Two rolls will be cut up for tags, and the other roll will be used as ribbon for packaging.

I get a lot of emails from people wondering how many "tags" one can get from a spool of ribbon. A lot depends on the size of the type. (so far, most of the type, ie..FroggieBaby™,  measures over 2 inches) I usually leave .5 on each side of the type allowing enough room to cut and then sew the tags into your product.

The average amount is @75 tags per spool. I then give @ 10 more cut tags from my test strip that I do. So that's about .41 cents per tag. Now if you have a smaller type, like the one I did for Mary Ann's grandmother, where we only used her initials I counted over 150 tags from a single spool! That brings the cost to about .23 cents per tag! sweet.

The other thing people email me about is my packaging for the ribbon. If someone has a "brand" in place I try to create spool labels that match their brand. For FroggieBaby, she has a distinct brand, which helps me to create really cute labels.

Feel free to email me with additional questions. I'd be happy to answer any of them.
Thanks to everyone for their orders. I so appreciate it.

More Gocco Printed Ribbon

This weekend I printed up four rolls of custom silkscreened ribbon. Pictured here are two orders I finished and got in the mail today. Tomorrow I will finish packaging up the other order. Because of the heat + the high humidity I had quite a time getting the ink to lay down on the ribbon nicely. Took me forever! I had to employ every little trick I knew to get a good impression. Which of course didn't faze me... because everything I seem to to do, takes forever!

I am contemplating on taking a quilting class this summer with my sister. I have been wanting to make a funky quilt for my bedroom out of the black + white fabrics I have been collecting. Amandajean, of crazy mom quilts, has totally inspired me. If you are into quilting, or want to learn, you have to visit her site. She's amazing + her quilts are too.