Toy Crafting Crush

I know, I know--it was less than a month ago that came forth with my sappy blog crush confession for Sweet, Sweet Life.  Call me fickle if you will, but I choose to believe I have room enough in my heart for BOTH Sweet, Sweet Life and Matsutake.  Besides, they are totally different blogs--Amy 's blog is full of happy, diverse discoveries each day, while Katie's is full of her own fantastic wooden toy designs and snarky commentary on her domestic life.  I do LOVE THEM BOTH.  But, I digress because what I really want to tell you about is Katie's toys, her blog and her Etsy shop.  Well, let's allow the photos to speak for themselves.... 

I mean, c'mon.  How can you not love her work?  It manages to feel both modern and vintage at the same time.  And I am not the only raving fan, since Martha invited her to be on her show a while back to share how to make her paper mache pull toys (see the tutorial here--on Martha's site).  

And then, on top of all her toys that are so good they make you want to gather one of each up and hoard them all for yourself in your own workshop, she also does these FRICKIN AMAZING crafty tutorials on her blog.  Like this play stove...

...or these sweet little Where the Wild Things Are looking creatures made from cardboard toilet paper tubes (reduce, reuse, my friends)...

...or this hedgehog pencil holder she somehow envisioned rising out of an empty plastic sodapop bottle...

I mean, it is mind blowing, really, what Katie is doing over in her neck of the woods (which also happens to be near my neck of the woods since she too lives in Minnesota).  Oh, and did I mention she also designs her own sewing patterns?    I may have to make one of these squirrels for a Toy Society drop now (even though I hate squirrels because they ransack our garden and gnaw holes in our compost pail and burrow in  the attic of our house--buttholes--but somehow when I look at Katie's squirrel design I suddenly ADORE squirrels and want to go  bring them a bucket of  unshelled walnuts or something and then I want to make one of these for myself and cuddle up with it at night...)

Are you crushing on Matsutake as much as I am yet?  Well, go find Katie's blog here, and her Etsy shop here and by all means, enjoy yourself.   After discovering Katie's blog, I read it straight through like I was reading the current issue of a magazine from cover to cover--so settle in with a cup of tea and some cookies or something because you may be sitting in front of your computer for a while.  (And, Amy?  I still totally dig you--really).