Photo from Love From Woolly: A Lift-the-Flap Book of Woolly Gifts

Witchbaby and I chanced upon Love From Woolly: A Lift-the-Flap Book of Woolly Gifts by Nina Michaels at the bookstore last weekend while we waited for the hub to get a haircut. It was instant love—well, for me at least. Witchbaby slapped her palms against the board pages and babbled to herself, but whether it was in approval or disapproval, I cannot say.

With gorgeous illustrations by Nicola Smee, Love From Woolly is part interactive guessing game, part touch-and-feel book, with actual knitted fabric peeking out from within cut-outs of socks, mittens, hats, and scarves that Woolly has knitted for her menagerie of friends. Her handiwork is, in turn, hidden beneath movable flaps disguised as presents, and your child is invited to guess the identities of the knitted gifts based on the rhyming clues offered. Utterly charming.

Does your cutie patootie give a hoot about Ma Earth? Then enter him or her in the Eco-Cutey Photo Contest by Inhabitots—my latest writing gig—and stand to win a $50 gift certificate to the Inhabitat Shop, where you can go goo-goo-ga-ga over more green gear for your kidlet.

Photo by allthosetrees

I love these rings made from precious metal clay (i.e. reclaimed silver) and embossed with running stitches. ($29, Etsy.com)

Photo by allthosetrees

Photo by Living Creatively

Ain’t serendipity grand? I stumbled across Living Creatively recently and I’m ALL OVER its projects page. Above, a series of painted animal silhouettes, and below, a linen mobile that uses rub-on motifs to dazzling effect.

Photo by Living Creatively

Photo by TimeOut New York

Here’s a great tutorial on TimeOut New York on how to weave a swanky bracelet out of those pesky magazine-subscription cards. Unless you’re a complete mag hag, however, it might take you a while to get the 81 cards you’ll need for this project. I wonder if this will work for candy wrappers, too.

Photo by SaraBartsch

The best use for old, worn-at-the-knee jeans? Turn them into teddy bears, of course! These precious patooties are made by a stay-at-home mother of three, who obviously knows a thing or two about cute. ($10, Etsy.com)

Photo by Kunklebaby

How darling are these? Made from 100 percent domestic organic cotton by Kunklebaby over at Etsy.com. The hand-stamped seahorses absolutely SLAY ME. And I covet that pleasant blouse, and not for my kidlet. ($16-$50, Etsy.com)

Photo by Kunklebaby

Photo by Kunklebaby

Photo by Stellapop

Simply put, Stellapop is pure knitting porn, even if this erstwhile knitter has temporarily hung up her Addi Turbos for diaper-slinging duty. And designer Mary Clark should know, since she hand-knits many of the pieces herself, rallying help from local Philadelphia chicks with sticks to cast on and off with merino wool, kid mohair, and ultra-luxe cashmere.

Photo by Stellapop

Photo by Stellapop

Comic by Amy Crosthwaite

It’s like Amy Crosthwaite shone a flashlight into the dark chasm of my soul.

Photo by Camden Rose

• Baby Earth
• Blueberry Forest
• ChildTrek
• Craftsbury Kids
• EcoLeeko
• Goblin Toys
• Hazelnut Toys
• KidBean
• Little Alouette
• Little Sapling Toys
• Mahar Dry Goods
• Magic Cabin
• Maple Grace
• Natural Pod
• Oompa
• Organic Bebe
• Palumba
• Planet Happy Toys
• Stubby Pencil Studio
• Tree Hollow Toys
• UrthChild
• Wild Dill
• Willow Tree Toys

Tip: Find out if your child’s toys contain lead and other toxins at HealthyToys.org

Photo by Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

I was immediately drawn to Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea’s arresting, eye-popping packaging, but then they had to go and make a reference to Kurt Vonnegut and my heart was all aflutter. Note: The Dragonwell green tea is certified-organic.

Photo by Forest Bound

I’m completely enamored with Forest Bound, artist Alice Saunders’ absolutely breathtaking—for there is no other word for it—collection of accessories that recall a time long-past, complete with sepia-toned photographs, ink- and tear-stained love letters tied with ribbon, and the plaintive strains of Glen Miller and his orchestra crackling from a Victrola.

Photo by Forest Bound

Photo by Forest Bound

Photo by Forest Bound

Photo by Forest Bound

Witchbaby is gearing up for Earth Hour tonight. Are you?

Is this an excuse to post more pictures of the Most Adorable Kid on the Planet? (Don’t you just want to NOM those cheeks?) Yeah, okay, you got me.

Captain Planet! He’s our hero! Gonna take pollution down to zero!

The captain is back, and yes, he’s as cheesy, not to mention dated—hello Soviet Union!—as I remember. THE POWER IS YOURS…to watch episodes online at Mother Nature Network.

Art by Dover Publishing. Click to enlarge.

Every week I look forward to receiving Dover Publishing’s free weekly sampler of clip art, book excerpts, and craft projects. This week’s edition included sample pages from Cut & Color My Fun Furniture by Florence Temko, a book of cut-and-fold paper furnishings that includes a cat-and-rocking-chair tableau that I think is a hoot and a half. All that page needs is a basket of yarn and some knitting needles and you have my perfect setting.

Photo by Willywaw at Etsy.com

These gorgeous bags, handmade by Ashley Van Etten of Willywaw, make me think of boardwalk jaunts and sand squishing between your toes. Crafted from 100 percent organic cotton canvas grown and milled in the United States, then printed with water-based inks, the totes are finished off with straps made from hemp webbing. ($28-$50, Etsy.com)

Photo by Willywaw at Etsy.com

Photo by Willywaw at Etsy.com

Photo by Willywaw at Etsy.com

Gratuitous baby blogging.

Thank you for all your kind words, stories, and well wishes.

Photo by K&Company

It’s been a long time coming, but American scrapbooking companies are finally catching up to the green party bus. Just two years ago, the realm of eco-friendly scrapbooking was a wasteland in terms of commercially available supplies—which is ironic because the earliest scrapbookers were coaxed by the spirit of thrift and preservation. (And the lack of a Joanne’s within buggy-driving distance.)

Today, options made from post-consumer recycled paper—and printed with soy inks—abound. Here are some of the companies heeding the call for virgin-tree-free products:

DCWV: Green Stack Collection

K&Company: Amy Butler Lotus | Remake

Piggy Tales: Cinderella | The Steadfast Tin Soldier | The Ballad of Mulan | Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Paper Trunk: 1974 | Batik | Gigi | Jellybean | Wrangler | Maybe Baby | Socialite

Jilibean Soup: White Collection | Kraft Collection

I feel like I’ve crawled out of a very dark and deep hole, clawing the earth with bruised and broken fingers on my laborious ascent. To say that I found motherhood an adjustment would be the grossest of understatements—the ground opened up below me and swallowed me whole as I fell, Alice/Persephone/Innana-like, skirts ballooning, into the worst hell I’ve ever known. No one tells you how difficult taking care of an infant is, how the intolerable sleep deprivation and the endless divination of the needs of an inconsolable creature who cannot tell you what it wants will tax every last reserve of strength, dragging you to the brink of sanity before smashing you on the rocks of utter madness.

I’ve written about my history with depression before. When I became pregnant last year, my doctor weaned me off the antidepressants that had been so pivotal in my functioning as a normal, productive human being. So when the full fury of post-partum depression slammed into me just days after I first cradled my newborn daughter, I was completely armorless, like a burn victim without any protective skin. And when one of my cats died because he nibbled on the lilies that someone sent the baby, I blamed myself mercilessly and rued the day I ever got pregnant. Every day, all I could think of was how much I didn’t want to be a mother and how I would have traded my living child for my dead cat in a heartbeat. Most of all, I thought about how badly I wanted to die, too.

Click here for more »

Photo by Everday is a Holiday at Etsy.com

Yarn: O Wool Classic, a 100 percent certified-organic merino wool in “Evergreen,” which knit beautifully and bloomed gloriously after blocking.
Pattern: Cobblestone Pullover by Jared Flood, from the Fall 2007 issue of Interweave Knits; you can also purchase the PDF from Knitting Daily
Needles: Size 7 Addi Turbo circulars

I actually knit this last winter—it’s just taken me this long to block it and get it on my husband. I’m a lousy excuse for a knitter/wife that way. Plus, I really hate blocking, especially when it’s a huge one-piece like this because it takes FOREVER to dry in a tiny apartment, even with the windows open, and you’re constantly shooing away wool-loving cats…you get the picture.