the shop the shop!

It's monday mid morning, a few things done with more to do as always. I just put a couple of things into the littlebighead shop (and still awaiting the holiday postcards to come)!

Little Hare Asleep, original illustration is up for sale, as well as the five postcard set too..

and my recent illustration, inspired by the short story "The Cannon" found in "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link...

"In winter, ghosts are easy to spot. There are stories about winter ghosts found tangled like lice in their lover's hair..."

Done with my new india inks which I am so in love with.

I also have a few originals on sale: When Summer comes, so do they, Grandfather Bear and Little Pumpkinhead.

Now, to attempt to make a papier mache craft, along with maybe a couple of other holiday themed crafts and then maybe, just maybe, a nap!

journal goodness, a bee girl and a little merriness...

1. Can't wait to receive these wonderful sketchbooks and notebooks from the ever so awesome, The Black Apple (photos from her etsy shop)...


The wolf is for me and little red is for natalie come christmas time...


also, one for me and one for her (the alphabet one)


2. New, The BeeKeeper in the shop...


3. I need to finish up a design sketch to get the ball rolling for a very wonderful someone. Also, a doll to fill and finish for another special someone. An original to frame and send to Kentucky. Envelope and packages to buy, fill and send. And...Awaiting a new holiday postcard for this season. Be Merry all!!

happy friday

Friday. Lovely, wonderful friday. Feeling happy and blessed, especially because one of my commissioned works is finished. An old friend of mine wanted a little something that represented her and her business, Sparrow Memories. She is wonderfully creative and takes amazing photos so I am so happy to have done this work for her and very happy that she is as pleased as I am.

I also have two other exciting things I am working on for others and a couple of other ideas to hopefully put up in the shop soon. November is zoomin by (I can't believe it's already mid to late in the month). I wanted to make a holiday postcard for this year like I did last year so I suppose I better get started ASAP!

Happy Friday Everyone!!

saturday the fourteenth

Thank you to all my wonderful family and friends who sent me such sweet wishes on my birthday. I am truly blessed and forever grateful :)




(yes, it's me, taken by my daughter)






(another photo taken by Natalie)

I have everything I've ever wanted and needed right here with me ♥

lovely oddities

Last Wednesday Nat and Rick both had the day off so we went to visit the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles for the first time...and we all fell in love...

I took lots of photos and we tried our best to see everything we could (The African Mammals, North American Mammals, Hall of Birds, Dino Lab, Minerals and Stones, Discovery Center, Insect Zoo, etc. etc). It's funny, I never thought I would like taxidermied creatures and animal skeletons so much!







































Wonderful exploring! More photos on my flickr :)

fall answers

While perusing my reader today, I found Rebecca's answers and thought I would follow suit (along with my newly handmade doll, completed yesterday, litte miss Ava Blackbird)...

what is your current obsession?
making dolls, wooden spoons, silent films and other old movies and autumn soups.

what are you wearing now?
a flaxed colored knitted 'grandma' sweater, a navy blue top and a folksy, flowing brown, blue and beige floral skirt.

do you nap a lot?
i like to.

who was the last person you hugged?
my little bubelah, natalie

if you were a tree, what tree would you be?
a chestnut tree (according to the tree horoscope shared by rebecca.)

what's for dinner?
not sure yet but would love some soup and bread.

what was the last thing you bought?

a birthday present for my friend's six year old daughter

what are you listening to right now?
the sufjan stevens radio on pandora currently playing 'plasticities' by andrew bird

what is your favorite weather and why?
rain in the fall. i love the crispness in the air, the chill that surrounds with golden and red leaves and i adore the rain. always have, always will.

what time do you usually wake up?
about 7:15ish in the morning.

what is your most challenging goal right now?
being a good wife, a good mother, getting motivated to be physical and being kind to myself.

if you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be?
a beautiful old house with lots of rooms. maybe victorian, with a lot of land for trees, a garden and for hide and seek in a place between the woods and the sea. somewhere maybe off the coast of northern/central california.

3 dream vacation spots:
the british isle, rural japan, puerto rico

what movies can you watch over and over?
the royal tenenbums, all the harry potters, lord of the rings and pirates of the caribbean movies, hellboy 2 (i really like visual fantasty as you can tell), life as a house, the virgin suicides, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, etc. etc.

what is your favourite tea?
there are so many! lavender earl grey, chamomile honey, darjeeling, lapsang souchong, and natalie's very own fairy flower blend tea

what are you reading right now?
jonathan strange and mr norrell by susanna clarke

praying god's word by beth moore (for women's biblestudy)

what is your current guilty pleasure?
relaxing when i shouldn't be! ;)

where is the landscape of your mind?
wow, who knows...admist a seaweed forest at the bottom of the sea or tangled in brambles in a hidden forest...

you have one wish:
to always be happy with myself...

what are your answers?

moon, stars, a painting and a spoon

These are the things that came about on wednesday and friday. Wednesday is early day for Nat and I always like to try to find little things for us to do. She handed me a couple of her books that morning and I found a craft on how to make a celestial mobile. Since we seem to collect things for later craft use, I already had a small branch for us to work with. I brought out the cardboard, cut them into shapes, took out the foil, glue stick and glitter and let her go to work. Once the moon and stars were complete, we punched the holes into the moon and stars and i tied them up with our twine.







During the down time of this project, Natalie began a painting, actually, a portrait of me. I was so very flattered and really loved seeing her creativity and artistry at work.




Here is Natalie with her 'masterpiece'!

I am always on the lookout for new things to try and create. Lately, I've been starting to get obsessed with beautiful wooden spoons. While at the store the other day I saw a few I really wanted to purchase but instead, bought a pack of wooden spoons that I could paint faces on and perhaps, even, make them into little dolls. Yes, spoon dolls. So this is what I came up with...


The face, painted with acrylics and a matte finish.




The doll, completed with felt and material dress (filled with material scraps) and finished off with a braided yarn scarf.


She's a bit quirky looking but I like it. We will see how future spoon dolls come about. Until then, Happy weekend...

luna lapin

My first twig and yarn doll in the littlebighead shop is Luna Lapin. She is a sweet off white colored rabbit in a black chenille yarn dress. I think she is graceful and a bit whimsical standing on one foot as she poses. The first of dolls to enter my shop, she is extra special. Especially when Natalie wants to keep her ;)

november begins

Already four days into the month of November. On the first I told myself that things will start all over and I will have a new beginning. It doesn't matter that the year is almost over, or that this can be a hard time to start anew with the holiday season upon us. I have to do it. I have to change. I need to get better. My body and mind needs to get healthier for so many reasons. For myself and for my family. My GERD is acting up a bit and I know that I am over for my height. I saw the photos from Halloween and I was not happy. I want to be happy again. Can't I be without sounding or being vain? It's tough for women, isn't it? The balance of all these things. Well, here's to new beginnings...



...and here's to getting on the ball for other things too. I am going to start creating more again and I have a few commissioned projects to do which I am pretty excited about. I am having a hard time getting the new look for my website up (www.mylittlebighead.com). For now though, I still have the old look, which is at littlebighead.tumblr.com and now, a new online portfolio at littlebighead.carbonmade.com.

A few new favorite things:

• Candi Mandi blog
• Thrush Etsy Shop
• Wicked Pen Etsy Shop
• fall recipes from The Kitchen Sink Recipes

all hallow's eve

What a great Halloween we had! We began the day with a little baking. I knew we couldn't have a spooky autumn day without it so I looked around and finally found a yummy recipe Nat and I could do, Halloween Spice Cake. We changed ours just a tad bit. We omitted the cocoa, used dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar and poured the batter into muffin tins rather than a loaf pan. It's more of a bread type but it was perfect as mini cakes (what we were calling them). Natalie is very much like me where she likes to name things we have 'created'. She named this Autumn Spice Cake and I'm more inclined to that name than to the Halloween one.

We also didn't add the powdered sugar on top but believe me, it doesn't need it. They came out so good and I even thought maybe next time I will add walnuts to it. After the bread cakes were done, I started to make some Cinnamon Pumpkin seeds as well. I had them in the oven for 20 minutes, took them out, stirred butter, cinnamon and salt and popped them back in for awhile more. Very good too :)



Rick came with a few treats as well, like Boylan's Birch Beer, one of my favorite vintage sodas. Actually, this one was Creamy Red Birch Beer, a soda with both natural birch oils and vanilla. Delicious!



The real photo taking began once my mother in law, step father in law, sister in law and nephew came. Look how cute momma and son are!





Evening was quickly approaching and it was time for Natalie's transformation into the classic story book character Madeline. She was just perfect, with the yellow hat and spray painted red hair as well. She couldn't wait for Halloween to begin and as we waited for my friend, her husband and their daughter to arrive, Nat was eagerly handing out candy for early trick or treaters.



Yvette and family arrived and it was time to saddle up everyone for our neighborhood trick or treating. Even little Ezra costumed up into the cutest hot dog we all wanted to gobble up!

And the night truly begins...











It was a great night. Nat's costume was a hit with almost everyone and she had to complete the charm by saying 'au revoir' after her thank yous for the candy. I had to restrain her for being a mile ahead of the rest of the group but I know how exciting it is for kids. All the kids made out great (how couldn't a storybook character, an autumn witch and a mini hot dog not?) and us parents and grandparents had a great time as well.



Hoping everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween too :)