I always find that September is a great time to go back over my New Years goals and see where I’m at, assess and then most likely create new ones depending on how things are going. Seems to fit with the spirit of learning with kids going back to school. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and am taking a biz class of sorts and something that stood out to me was that successful biz owners Think Big but Start Small. Sounds simple enough right? But it can be tricky, putting some of those BIG ideas on the back burner. (It’s so hard for me!) I think this principle applies to all aspects of our lives -not just biz. I’m finding it helpful with parenting, creativity, general health goals and everything really. I feel like sometimes I have so many branches of growth sprouting up in my life and growing at different speeds – it can def be hard to attend to all of them, giving them the care that they need. But I’m trying to step back and assess the essentials and choose what needs most care. (Which can be hard to decipher some times!). Have you read Essentialism by Greg McKeoen? I so appreciate the advice to start early and small on your big ideas. Finding minimal ways to work on bigs goals right now and each day. I have such big goals I can feel overwhelmed at times. Goals for my house, my family, my marriage, my career, my health etc. To beat burnout I’m learning I can do something small for each of these each day. What about you? Do you find this to be true? How do you “create a routine that enshrines the essential?” As McKeoen suggests. Any experiences you can share? 

You can find a print of this post in my shop here.

I’m so in love with how Jenner Brown, friend and film maker, captured our ‘Summer Nostaglia’ collaboration with Wren & James. A collection that brings girls and their dolls together in matching pinafores. You can see more from our collection and from the amazing photo shoot here, here, and here.

And if you have to watch it about three times over, don’t worry you’re not alone! We love it so and just can’t get enough.

We’re so excited to announce the launch of our collaboration ‘Summer Nostaglia’ that has been in the works for over a year with timeless children’s wear designer Kiley of Wren and James. Together we created 4 unique pinafores for both little girls and their dolls to wear. We wanted something that reminded us of the simple and playful summers of the past. Where children played with simple rag dolls and roamed on boardwalks, beaches and small town carnivals. Eating cotton candy and joining in hula hooping, jump rope and other past time favorite games. 

I illustrated little bunnies for our grey ‘bunny print‘ matching pinafores, and inky blue and soft clay hand painted stripes for the ‘blue stripe’ and ‘clay stripe‘ matching doll and girl pinafores. We also have an adorable ‘color block‘ pinafore with raw edge pockets (that I’m obsessed with) that is made with hand dyed rose linen and has my heart. Each pinafore is linen and beautifully made in the US. Each doll is hand sewn and has a hand painted with soft velvety hair, perfect for snuggling. Each are my favorite.

We also named the dolls in this collection after our girls, Amelia, Mazie, Margot, Greta, and then Kiana (after our sweet model here on the right) and Imogen. You can get each girl in any of the four pinafores to match your daughters dress and in a variety of hair styles: pigtails, top knot and side buns. We also have a few doll dresses in stripes that you can purchase separately for another dress your doll can change into!

We’re so excited about seeing everything finally come together and are in love with this photoshoot with Tracy Layne Photography.

We can’t wait to see which doll and pinafore you pick out! Start here!

In addition to new prints (in several sizes) in the shop, I dropped a few more dolls today. These are technically the second drop of our Spring Whimsy collection but as summer is right around the corner it soon became clear to me that these gals are most definitely Summer Solstice Sisters. 

Each girl has their own special story like little Marlow here.

Marlow is Meg‘s little sister and loves to play fancy. Coconut popsicles, homemade with her sister, are her favorite summer time treat.

Oversized at 26″ long, and one of a kind, Marlow is perfect for playful performances and night time cuddles. She has dark brown velvet hair tied up in two side buns and is wearing a pale pink 4 square dress, with fur vest, felt ball necklace, cream felt laurel crown and black mary jane shoes. She is hand made with a hand painted face.

Se more sisters here.