allsorts

They're back

So the dollhouse has been rather quiet lately, sitting there in a sunny corner of the bedroom. But now...

those cheeky bunnies are back. They've been redecorating...

dying Easter eggs...

and inviting all their relatives to visit.

Well, there goes the neighborhood... again.

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - Hope you have a hoppy happy Easter!

Lula... the fashionable paper bunny

So, you have probably been wondered if I'd fallen off the planet. Nope, I've been playing with paper dolls!  I'm very pleased to introduce my first paper doll, Miss Lula Bunny.She was inspired by the dress-up activity on my web site, and has evolved from digital to a fabric design, to paper, to magnetic and back again to paper. I suppose you'd say I've been working on this one way or the other for years. So I am pretty excited to put this out there.

Miss Lula is four years old, four inches high, and has a very full schedule of social activities. She comes with four outfits that you can mix and match for a multitude of looks: party princess, play date, dance recital and swim time.

I used 60 lb. premium glossy photo paper, and archival inks, which gives a very colorful and vivid result. Also, I wanted to solve the issue paper dolls typically have with being floppy and not standing up properly. So I put on my engineering hat and designed a nifty card stock brace that allows her to stand up straight and not droop. Here is the complete set...

... which is now available in my etsy shop!  I really hope you like it, because I loved creating this and wouldn't mind designing a few more!

Cheers,

Jenny

Unfortunately...

How about a little diversion? 

I have been cracking up all morning over this meme that Monica shared on her facebook page.  Here's how to play... just do a Google search of the phrase "unfortunately, _______" but put your first name in the blank (be sure to enclose it all in quotation marks).  The resultant phrases are hilarious if you have a slightly twisted sense of humor and an appreciation for random absurdity.

Some examples...

Unfortunately, Jenny never had much of a chance; she was sidelined into 'tramp' roles from the word go.

Unfortunately, Jenny's good, but she's not that good.

Unfortunately, Jenny can only accept cash or a personal cheque.

Unfortunately, Jenny has very little to do in this movie except look pretty, but even her great beauty is concealed most of the time.

Unfortunately, Jenny is anything but honorable, she’s obsessive, manipulative, immature and flat out bipolar.

Unfortunately, Jenny wasn’t able to pick up the puppy until after 4:00 p.m.

Unfortunately, Jenny's bullying dark side is what she'll be remembered for.

Unfortunately, Jenny is possessed by Muriel's ghost, and the fun (revenge) begins.

Unfortunately, Jenny didn’t throw her Diet Coke on Mark and scream, “Shut the **** up about that homewrecking ****!"

Unfortunately, Jenny didn't wield the cowbell on Breakin' Up.

I think that last one might be my favorite.

Go ahead, try it! If you decide to play along leave your favorite result in a comment, and a link back to your blog if you like.

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - I thought an image from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket would be fitting. This is from book six, artwork by the amazing and masterful Brett Helquist.

Faces in places...

Another photo for the Faces in Places group on Flickr... I came across this snap from 2004 of the back of a vintage clock. I think he looks confused. And oddly, this was from yesterday...

Like every Saturday we had breakfast at Cindi's. But Ro got his bagel to go, so he could enjoy it later. Soon as I saw his plate, he had to wait until I'd snapped a photo of his contented snack. These two join this one from a few months ago.

Today I'm priming and painting a mirror that's been gathering dust in my garage since the last garage sale. My plan is for it to go above the mantle in my bedroom. Its been really dark today, but I'll try to take some photos when it is finished and up.

Anyone else noticed bloglines is going crazy today? I checked earlier and it said I had 1700 new posts to read. Um, I know bloggers like to talk but that is a bit excessive, no?  ;o)

Cheers,

Jenny

Home (really) Sweet Home

How to indulge your sweet tooth without all those pesky cavities? Hop on over to my latest activity and decorate a gingerbread house! Its a lot less messy than making the real thing, and almost as tasty. Easy peasy clean-up, too... just hit refresh to reset the candies and start over!

Hope you like it, I drew it up and wrote the code last Sunday, before Katy arrived and the craziness of Thanksgiving set in. So how was your Turkey Day? Mine was fantastic! We drove down to Lake Charles and feasted with my dad's side of the family. Wonderful food and truly excellent company, there was so much to be thankful for.

Anyhoo, back to work now (me that is). Have fun decorating! Oh, I added a linky button to my sidebar or you can click here to play with the candy cottage. And I warn you, I probably will add more candies to the page at some point... its almost irresistible!

Cheers,

Jenny

Change of seasons for Zoe

Halloween is over, so its time to change from Halloween Zoe to Christmas Zoe! But first, I couldn't resist adding a few new pieces to her winter wardrobe. So click here to dress Miss Zoe for Christmas, or click the button in the sidebar. Have fun!

Cheers,

Jenny

Tasty red gingham

1. Vintage Alphabet Book 2. Heart Yo-Yo and Vintage Button 3. Vintage apron 4. Thrifted Find 5. Day 43/365 6. Happy Birthday Sienna 7. Recipe Books 8. Loads a lids 9. Red Gingham Wristlet 10. Red Gingham Yoyo 11. Apron pocket detail 12. Picnic

A yummy collection of red gingham pics on Flickr. Consider it a bit of a "palette cleanser" as I make the transition from Halloween to Christmas colors.

Cheers,

Jenny

Jean Eugene

Toxi Magnum (Monica of Happy Zombie) shared this hilarious meme and issued a general tag. I laughed so hard I had to try it myself! If you want to play, consider yourself tagged, too.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car),
Itsy Infiniti

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie),
Mocha Gingersnap

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name),
J-Har

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal),
Red Bunny

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born),
Ann Chicago

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first),
Har-Je

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink),
The Blue Espresso

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers),
Eddie Joe

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy),
Vanilla Chocolate

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ),
Jean Eugene

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter),
Bradwell Birmingham

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower).
Autumn Freesia

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Peach Pajamasy

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree),
Yogurt Dogwood

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”),
The Stitching Thunderstorm Tour

Fun, huh?

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - there are several more wonderful Scandinavian blogs to add to my list now... I'll post the new ones tomorrow!

Don't look at this if you have just taken a sip of tea

Couldn't resist posting this pic of a vintage children's sewing kit, spotted on Vintage Flower. The blog's in French, so I can't find out more about this little set, but the name cracked up the kid in me.

Think I'll ever grow up?

Cheerio,

Jenny

If you can dress it, they will come

If you've visited the activities page on my illustration site, I'm sure you are familiar with Miss Bunnyfur. Just like Zoe, you can dress her in a variety of outfits, and also decorate her room! I've been meaning to create some more activities like these, they are so much fun to play with, kids (and that means all of us) love them! Since I often get asked the secret, I will let you in on it... I used this tutorial on how to create drag and drop javascript. You have to know basic html, but if you do, it is fairly easy, just time consuming, fiddly stuff.

The reason I bring this up, is that this week I checked my web stats and got a huge shock! Last Monday, my activities page had over 6,500 visitors! Turned out they were coming from this site, which links to all sorts of online dress up activities.

I am continually fascinated with the information that you can learn from your web site or blog stats. Its great to know how many people are visiting, but more interesting to see what countries they live in, and follow the trail back to see how they found you. For example, this is a map of recent visitors to my activities page:

Isn't that cool? Here's a shout out to Myanmar!

Another useful source of stat info is technorati, which tells you what sites have linked to any url. You can also search by key or tag words to find even more sites that would interest you. I love to visit blogs that link to mine, its a sure bet that we like a lot of the same things! Of course I check out the other sites they link to, and next thing you know, I've spent an hour or two just traveling around the internet.

They don't call it the world wide web for nothing!

Cheers,

Jenny