I've said it before and I'll say it again, by far the most precious things we own are those things made by people we admire, people who send their hearts out with the things they create. 

This week, we found a package in a flowerpot outside our door when we came home from the park. 

Inside the package was an unexpected gift for Q - a tooth faerie pouch with a handmade tooth faerie attached.

 Q is still a ways from loosing her first tooth, but she is well acquainted with the phenomenon (thanks to Amy Sedaris, and Q's early addiction to Yo Gabba Gabba).

 So she immediately recognized the nature of the gift she had received, and it renewed in her the fervor of excitement and anticipation of experiencing her first wobbly tooth.

 Her joy was plain, and she has carried the tiny, gossamer bag with her ever since, hopefully testing each of her front teeth in turn every couple of hours or so.

I can't even quantify the value of the gifts we have received from loving and creative souls around the world. Each has its own special place in Q's heart (and, of course, mine) and its treasured place in her room. 

Thank you, Lisa P, for thinking to make us feel special. It means more than you can know. OX

 Attitude.

She seems to have had an extra helping of it for breakfast this morning. 

Off to the museum this morning with her camera bag (it contains a dragon instead of a camera), and her "important papers".

 Q in a rare moment of feminine indulgence...

Yah, it lasted all of about ten minutes ;)

She does occasionally enjoy the pleasures of a dancing skirt. 

Psst - if you haven't yet, go read her interview over at Pirouette today!

Dress by Imagination Couture

 My intrepid adventurer.

Is it me, or does she take after my mother?

 Here she is, scaling the free-climbing rock at REI...yes, in a dress, and rubber sandals.

 Sigh. 

Does this make me a bad mother?

 Sure, I used to stand under her with both hands hovering an inch from her posterior. But these days, she is so very independent and sure-footed. 

"No, mommy!" she says, pointing to the curb, "You stay riiiiight there! I do it ALL BY."

 And clearly, she can do it "all by". And then some.

 It's only a matter of time before I'm obsolete, like last year's iPhone. 

Because, as anyone can see, there she is, all the way up there, all by herself in her dress and sandals - with no help whatsoever from me.

 In my defense, the reason she was wearing a dress and rubber sandals is that we were on our way to the confluence to do some pre-season wading.

 Which we proceeded to do. 

Or, more accurately, she proceeded to do. Since I, after all, am merely the woman behind the camera.

 Oh, yes, she is very near to being launched into the world on her own.

Near...but I still have a few years left. A few precious, priceless years. 

Just let me enjoy them, please!

 A few, very random things on a busy and blustery spring day. 

First, this week Q wants to wear nothing but this "keroppi" (frog) dress that her LaoLao gave her.

Nevermind that it snowed a bit last night, and is more sweater-and-scarf weather than sundress weather at the moment. Nevermind that LaoLao gave this dress to her almost two years ago, and it is sized for a 2-year-old. It was designed to be an oversized dress, so since she's skinny she can just squeeze into it still, though it is now a micro-mini, and hardly decent.

 Also, Q had me design this cat for her yesterday. 

We saw a cat that bristled when we walked by with the dogs, and ever since there is nothing quite as hilarious to her as a bristling cat. 

So a bristling cat I made for her. 

She likes it so much that I may have to have it printed on a t-shirt for her.

 

In the mail came these "fragile" stickers that I ordered from a shop in Japan. 

I finally got tired of writing "fragile" all over my boxes when I ship them, and this was far and away my favorite design for a fragile sticker.

 When it came the packaging was so beautiful that I had to save it all, from the blue-patterned paper bag that held the stickers to the translucent paper tape with its Liberty-esque pattern of tiny flowers, to these gorgeous Beatrix Potter stamps, which I will save forever.

And finally, I belatedly ordered the first print issue of papier mache magazine, which is even more gorgeous in person that one might imagine it would be...I love everything about papier mache. 

And what a pleasure to see the ad I designed for Suvi Ainoa in the back, large as life!

 Last hours in NYC...

 this is what Q does while we're packing.

 Q and her personal protector, the king of the lizards, who bravely fights off the "scratchy monsters" of her nightmares.

 Q in the morning...all honey-skinned and rumple-haired...

...with her steampunk goggles on.

UPDATE: Thanks to so many good people, the first set of prints that I listed in the shop all sold over the first weekend, allowing me to donate a substantial amount to Japan relief. 

Thank you SO much to everyone who purchased.

 The weather this early spring has been so very warm, so deceptively, irrationally warm, that it's sometimes startling to see that no flowers yet bloom on the trees, that only the very first hint of green buds are peeking out on the very earliest trees, and that nothing has yet dared bloom in the gardens save a few crocuses. March is known to be the snowiest month in Colorado, and typically the ski resorts depend on it, but you wouldn't know it here in Denver this year.

 Because of the unusually warm weather, we have already spent numerous days down by the confluence of the rivers, wading and sunbathing and collecting pebbles.  I'd venture to say that Q is already getting a suntan.

 And I mean....how frickin' cute is this little sun suit? Who would've guessed that Q would be wearing it so soon. This is from the spring/summer collection at Anais & I. 

I illustrate for Jane, the designer at Anais & I, and I also consider her a friend, but it reflects no prejudice when I say that I just adore her designs. Each and every piece we've ordered is just so perfect on Q...so easy to wear, so perfectly designed, so effortlessly chic - and this one might be the best one yet!

The bag, btw, was made by Cara at Made In Mommy. Q has a lot of bags, but this is her favorite beach bag.

 Isn't she just a little water nymph?

 I think that there is no more soothing form of meditation on a warm spring afternoon than sitting on a rock and watching children play in the water.

 Writing on the air.

 Long legs, both of us.

 Of course, this IS Colorado, so there's usually something like this going on nearby.

 Pretty pretty girl. 

When I say that, she says, "No! Not pretty. Just Q."