Forty-Two Roads DIY play kitchen

I just saw the cutest thing...
A DIY play kitchen build out of corrugated cardboard.

Forty-Two Roads shows off her construction of the kitchen on her blog.

http://fortytworoads.blogspot.com/2007/10/toy-kitchen-is-finished.html

You can buy the instructions at her etsy site...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7832306

This would make a great holiday gift...

check it out..

Upcoming Holiday Show

Topknots will be at the

HOLIDAY CRAFT EXTRAVAGANZA
hosted by MICE (Michigan Indie Crafters of Etsy.com)
Saturday, December 8th
11am - 6pm
Royal Oak, 214 East 4th Street
one block east of Main St @ the VFW Acorn Post

Topknots Ballerinas

I spotted a couple Topknots Ballerinas all dressed up for Halloween.
Look how cute they are in their onesie, tutu and shoes....

Check out my Slide Show!

Pretty Piggies

I have been working and slaving getting these new shoes made...Here is my third prototype and it is really close to how I want it so I thought I would share....They are an infant/toddler soft shoe( not really made for walking outside) The bottoms do have the no slip grip on them though.I am going to whip some more up in the pink, red and a red brocade

The end of summer

We have been so busy wrapping up the summer and preparing for school, I have been a huge slacker with my work...

My Dh is awesome and sent me on a girls weekend with a girlfriend in Vegas a couple weeks ago. That was great. I didn't quite know what to do with myself for 3 days and no responsibility.
I did make some lists though to help prioritize what I need to get done.

My Dh is a teacher and he has been back to work almost a week now. The kids go back tomorrow- one is starting Junior high , the other starting Kindergarten. Then there are still two at home.

This week, though , my butt is getting in gear. I have a show coming up in 8 weeks and I have to build up my stash...
I have some yummy new fabrics on their way and am going out to collect the rest of my supplies today. Then there are going to be some late nights coming up..
Hopefully I will have some more new goodies to share in a couple days.

Happy Birthday dresses

Well things have been really busy over here.

My two youngest both had birthday's(1st and 3rd) in the last two weeks.

We had a huge family party last Saturday to celebrate their birthday's as well as my little niece's 1st birthday.

So, I thought it would be cute to make matching dresses and bows for my little girl and my niece.

Here they are.

They both looked so cute together.

It reminds me of when my sister and I were little and my grandmother used to make us matching dresses.

Of course , I didn't think it was so cute when I was 9 and wearing a matching dresses with my 5 year old sister.

Check out my new space

I really love my husband.

I had been doing most of my sewing up in our bedroom on an old library table that belonged to my parents. It was really hard to get things done since the kids usually wanted to be down in the basement playing, the iron and washing machine were down there- two floors down.

When my husband asked if I would like my sewing space moved from our bedroom to the basement, I just thought he would move my table down and call it a day. We could make a little space for my table across from the washer and dryer in the laundry room.

Little did I know he was going to build me a new space with storage and a cutting table and everything....WOW

He got the tables completed a couple months ago. This week he put the finishing touches on by putting up my white board, pegboard and corkboard. I LOVE IT!!!

YAY Kevin!

I feel all official and everything.

Here come the shopping cart covers

The very first thing I ever sold was a shopping cart cover. I knew a lady through my mom's group who wanted one , so I did some research and whipped one up for her.

After making that one, everyone kept asking me for one. I wasn't really pleased with the usability of the original one so I spent about 6 months trying to come up with the best pattern. One that would be easy to use, easy to carry , easy to clean.I know what it is like trying to shop with 3 preschool aged children so I wanted something that you could do with one hand.

I spent day after day driving up to Target, Costco, and Meijer measuring the carts, going back to measure the fabric, and back again with each cover I would come up with to see what worked the best.

After one or two prototypes I finally think I have found the right pattern and combination of features to make a nice but affordable shopping cart cover that works well on most carts including the warehouse shopping carts.

So far they are my most requested item.

Above are a couple pictures of some I completed in the last week.

Why Topknots??

Some people have wondered about the origin of the name Topknots.

Well, here you go...

My littlest one has a whole bunch of hair on the top of her head. It would just hang in her eyes. So, up in a topknot it went.

But, it looks a little bare , don't you think?
So, I started making hair bows for girls to dress up my little one's topknot.



And that is how the Topknots name was born too.

Headbands

I am working on some new headbands. These are some I whipped up this week.
I have a few more cut out I am going to play around with thise week. I might add some casing around the elastic but I might not. I haven't decided.
I wore around the black one the other day with a pony tail - I was very comfy. Forgot I had it on and it kept the whispies out of my face.

I made the pink and red polka dotted one for my daughter.
I am going to make both adult and girl size.
I should get some into the shop this week

I might try little girl( infant /toddler size) too.
I am going to try it out on my 11 month old and see how much she will tolerate it before I go ahead making more.