Earthbound Inspiration

I've Moved!

2011-08-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

LONG TIME NO TYPE!

I've had a few life changes and felt I needed a new BLOG.

I would so LOVE to be in touch again, so if you're up to it,

come on over to:

www.freerangemommy.blogspot.com

I miss you!

Sunsets and Soccer

2011-04-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

It has been a while! I was just looking up an old post and realized how much I miss this blogging business.

Not much time for it lately, but I thought I'd post a few pics as we move on into Summer. Oh I can hardly wait for the sun to heat up again!!

In the meantime we've had some blustery days which don't so much make for sun bathing but they do make for some big beautiful skies, and a chilly little boy at his very first soccer practice!

beware of boobs

2011-02-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

So being rather big busted I have a real tough time finding nighties. I want just a short dress thing, a internet search tells me it's called a "chemise". Anyway - a "chemise", but with some structure up top. Some support, you know? I'm not of the bra-less sleeping set. Not comfortable at all.

They don't exist from what I can tell. I've seen close - but way out of my price range. So this weekend I took one of my wonderful and indispensable Bravado nursing tank tops, and sewed a skirt onto it. Voila! Just what I've been looking for! Why can I not find something like this to buy?

The skirt is made from the bottom of three old tshirts I layered. I did no measuring and cobbled and jerry rigged the whole way - in fact it's still a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think I will keep an eye out for sports bras and bra-in tanks at Goodwill to which I might add different types of skirts. I'd love one with some black laciness attached for a certain degree of sex appeal.

Hearts

2011-02-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

Me and Willie got our craft on with a little help from Boone and made valentines ornaments for his daycare party.

so fun.

The Power of Positive Thinking - An Experiment

2011-01-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

I want something. I want it really bad. For so many really good reasons. And I've been struggling. Because it would be such an unlikely and miraculous thing for it to happen. So I'm afraid to want it. I want to cower in "oh well, who cares" land, where, should this thing not happen, I won't be let down.

But I do believe in the power of positive thinking. So I'm trying to be brave and think positively and pour all the positive energy I have into the work I am doing to try and make the "Thing" happen.

I thought maybe you'd help me?

These pictures sort of summarize the dream for me. I'd tell you all about it, I'm not trying to be cryptic, but they probably explain themselves and I just don't yet have it in me to take my positive thinking to pen...or...whatever these words are made out of...pixels I guess.

Anyway, gaze on them, will ya? And think some positive thoughts for me.

Much positive thinking and coming true of dreams to you and yours!

More Stuff I Made

2011-01-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

So I continue to have no time on my hands. It's New Years Day and my boys are all outside playing in the big fat snowflakes that are falling down....and I really want to join them. But I also wanted to wish all of you who may still read this a very Happy New Year and post a few other things I made, because, frankly, nobody around here is much impressed!

So....

OK, totally kidding. I didn't make that one. But thrifted it! For THREE DOLLARS! I know, right!

But I did sew this robe (sorry no time to edit and rotate). Using my first ever bought pattern. I'm so proud. And the little guy loves it. And it was good timing because Joann's McCalls patterns went on sale for $.99. I bought 8 and my receipt said I saved $129 - sweet.

And then there was this ball. With that Alexander Henry fabric I love, and some bee-inspired fabric that was on sale at Joanns too. I had big plans to make a big version of this ball, but could not BELIEVE the amount of stuffing just this little guy took! I scrapped the big ball idea. Oh, and a great note I found on my search for fabric ball tutorials...cut the fabric on the bias and you don't end up with pumpkiny shaped balls.

And that's all I got for now. I'm gonna make some placemat aprons (courtesy of this tutorial over at MADE) for my best friends little girl whom I've decided will be the recipient of all things girly that I just cannot resist making.

Much love to you and yours and best wishes for the new year!!

Just Real Quick

2010-12-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging in my mind. But no time to blog for real. But I'm making it happen today. If anybody ever read this blog before, you're probably long gone. I miss you!

Anyway, I personally like going back and seeing what I've been up to, so I'm gonna soldier on when I get a sec. And oh, there's been so much to blog about! 'Tis the season! I'm hand making up a storm this Christmas. Which is just plain crazy because there is SO much going on in work world that I really should set this holiday aside for letting myself off with doing store-bought EVERYTHING. But the more I work, the more ideas I get for homemade stuff....and oh, its a vicious cycle....or a mental problem...or both.

Anyway, the only thing I have pics of is from quite a while ago, when Joanns put their flannel on sale for $1.29 a yard. And I should have gone crazy, but didn't, then had to go back when it was on sale for $2.49, and went just sort of crazy. Next year, it's on.

Anyway, made pillowcases for most family and friends. Am in the process of making rice bags/hot compresses/whatever you call them for work folks. With peppermint tea bags emptied into them. They are awesome. Hopefully will post pics before Valentines Day.

Hope you all are having a wonderful gearing-up-for-Christmas season!

P.S. Have you SEEN this fabric? It's Alexander Henry and I forget the name...something about rain. I'm in love with it.

Our tree is doomed.

Organization Obsession - A Visual Explanation of Why I Haven't Been Blogging

2010-11-23T14:55:00.000-08:00

I've spent most of my leisure time in the last three weeks taking our office/guest room/craft room from this:

To this:

Goodwill thanks me. I thank me.

I'm on to the living room, and I can't be on the computer at work as much, so I'll probably continue my frequent absences.

I'm sad, I miss it here, but I do have some posts in the ether waiting to be written, so when inspiration and spare time collide, I will see you here!

Hunting

2010-10-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

We went on a week long hunting trip to Wyoming. I can see why people love Fall so much. It was gorgeous. Though I'd share some highlights:

I just adore this one. Two little boys after several hours cooped up in the pickup.

A really great read. Inspiring. And the salt flats....great terrain to read while driving through.

Big Wonderful Wyoming. Really can't say more.

Within minutes of arriving in the area my husband had deer and antelop tags for. Harbinger of a good hunt!

My husband, just after killing his first deer. It was so good to see him happy and at home.

The deer (and antlope - we got 2 of each) were so beautiful. We are so greatful to them for the food they will provide and for the wonderful lessons they allowed us to teach our boys.

This brought back some memories! Remember your first time "driving"? I can't believe my baby is so big...

Willie, getting a piggie back ride from dad up a hill, in pursuit of the second antelope.

Beautiful campsite, beautiful family, beautiful food, and beautiful memories. And a shot or two of whiskey!

Post hunt visit to Grandma's ranch!

A new rope swing and a little brother doing his best to help his big brother out with a push.

Farmer Dylan

2010-10-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

A beautiful Fall day today - a little bit warm, but turning all orangey and cooler in the evening. Baked a pumpkin casserole then ignored the dirty house and went outside for some evening air. We harvested our first of four potato plants,

and I stirred up my compost pile. We've been piling it up for like three years now, but with it being so dang dry here I just sort of assumed nothing was happening with it. I kept putting off mixing it because I didn't want to be dissapointed when I saw what would surely be all the scraps of the previous couple of years, dried and hardened into dessicated forms of their previous selves, with no sign of decomposition. Oh me of little faith! Look what I've got!:

Dark, crumbly, delicious smelling compost!! I startled some mice out of a home they apparently have set up at the bottom of the bin - is this a bad sign? I just can't imagine it is, what with how beautifully rich the compost is looking. There's nowhere near enough to use on our vegetable garden, so I'll have to decide if I'm going to keep growing the pile, or share this yummy stuff with the perennial beds.

It was such a gorgeous evening I had to snap a few pics just to remind me of why people love Fall, and why I might like it quite a bit as well. That teeny tiny moon was just beautiful.

Willie caught me taking pictures of him riding his "Harley" back and forth on the patio like a mad man and demanded I take a few more, even though it was really too dark. But I obliged him as I am trying not to argue over the small stuff anymore, and he was really excited about it:

My camera really wasn't having it. But you get the picture, right? I wish I could bottle that enthusiasm.

Amazing People I Know and Their Treehouse Village

2010-10-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of days I posted about my amazing online friend Monica and her pottery, and today I'm posting about my friends Matt and Erica and their Treehouse Village in Costa Rica - in my life I have met some incredibly wonderful and interesting people who are doing incredibly interesting and inspiring things in the world and these two certainly stand out in that crowd!!! I won't go on and on in my own attempt to describe their project, as I think their website and the piece that aired on ABC news (!!!) this morning have it covered:

Farmama Curtains!

2010-10-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

I finally got to work on them this weekend! Inspired by Farmama's blog post from a while back, they aren't as pretty as hers, but they are pretty. I think I got conned on ebay b/c I'm pretty sure these are not handmade doilies. But oh well. On the next panel I am using some that definitely are. I figured out a trick to join the pieces so that the front and back of the seam are pretty. I'm pretty proud of myself. Im certain its an established technique, but I went about it the hard way and figured it out for myself instead of googling it. I don't know why but I just hate reading instructions! Argh!

Did you get a load of the weather we got? Last week in the 90s, this weekend, 60s and the rain came down. Got my laundry wet:

Got my goats wet:

But, looks like I get to start posting pictures of pretty skies again, so that's good:

Next time I'll try to go outside to get it heh heh.

Phantom Friends & Their Beautiful Pots

2010-10-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

My mom came to visit a couple of weeks ago. She accused me of being addicted to the internet and the "phantoms" I talk to on here. Whether she's correct about the addiction part or not is up for debate. I certainly do spend a lot of time on the internet anymore. I certainly think about what I'm missing when Im not on it. I'd certainly be very sad if I ever lost access to it. Meh, maybe addiction is somewhat accurate. Whatevs. I don't have an iphone or anything so I have to actually be at home or at work and in front of a computer to be on the internet, so by virtue of this alone, I think I'm doing better than many in maintainting contact with the real world and the real people in it.

As far as my "phantom" friends, I think my mom is just wrong. I understand where she's coming from though. They are people that have no physical presence in my life. I've met them on forums and through blogs, I've seen pictures of them and their children, I know their victories and their defeats, yet I've never shared their air. To my mom, that means they are phantoms. But what she doesn't realize, and what I never realized until I got a job that allowed me more reliable internet access in order to register on a forum, is that you can actually become very close to people without sharing their air. I know their thoughts - in fact I think I know more about them than most of their IRL (in real life for you non-forum folks) friends. I can guarantee they know more about me!

Anyway, all this to set the scene for how exciting it was to have one of my phantom friends spring to life courtesy of the US mail, in the form of her very real, very touchable, and infinitely beautiful pottery. This Summer, during my blogging hiatus, I sent her diapers. She sent me this:

Monica Pharr

She is incredible. And totally not a ghost. AND, she has an etsy shop - here

I'm pretty sure that she prefers paypal to diapers though...unless you are HER phantom friend. :-)

Treasury Love

2010-09-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting my etsy shop. It got to be a lot of pressure even though I wasn't selling a whole lot, I was practically praying I didn't get any orders. I'm thinking that is a bad sign as far as running a business goes. So I'm on hiatus and only offering my homebirth shirt. And only some sizes of that, b/c I haven't re-ordered blank shirts. It seems like I should have a plan before I reorder, and I have no plan. Sigh. I even had some interest in selling the homebirth shirt wholesale. Which I would love to do! I'd love to get the message out there! But I'm overwhelmed by the regulations for children's clothing. I'm overwhelmed by labeling, I'm overwhelmed by upfront costs. Another sigh. I wish somebody would buy the idea and then mass produce them themselves. That would make me happy I think. ANYWAY. All this is beside the point. The point is, my shirt got featured in a third lovely treasury with all things birth related, please have a closer look here. You especially have to see that great crochet pattern for the educational mama doll giving birth. How awesome is that!!!

Pumpkins, Projects, and Primping

2010-09-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

We harvested some of our pumpkins this weekend, and after a Facebook post asking for recipe ideas (which netted me 20 responses all completely drool-worthy) I ended up making some ice cream and some cookies, roasting the seeds, and freezing a bunch for future weekends. It was super fun, and the ice cream was an appropriate choice considering temperatures are still in the 90s!

I bought this bowl last week at the thrift store and I just think it is so pretty. I don't know anything about it - I see these kind of bowls all the time and they're usually pretty beat up but this one was pristine and one buck so I had to have it. I don't know what it is, I just really like the cute floral patterns on it. I imagine it's nothing special, but one of those funny things that just appeals for some reason.

I roasted the pumpkins...

mashed them all up...

and mixed some with spices and pecans, then folded in some vanilla ice cream (yes, I totally cheated. But I have no ice cream maker). It was DELICIOUS!

Then I got to work on a rag rug I've been working on forever. My original was curling terribly so I've been feeling frustrated with the whole thing. This weekend I sat down - with instructions - and found out I've been doing single crochet all wrong. Duh. Must learn to read instructions first. So I pulled it all out and re-worked it - correctly- and what do you know! It's flat. I'm currently in the process of increasing on two sides (haven't read instructions, when will I ever learn) and hoping this starts turning my rug into a rectangle. We shall see. But I'm pretty proud of it. It's super fast and rewarding too. I'm mostly using old sheets.

In other news, my son has started primping. A couple of weeks ago, he spent some time in the bathroom and came out dripping wet with this new hairstyle:

He said "I like it flat."

This morning, his dad even got in on the fun. He poked his head in the bathroom as I was getting ready and stole my bottle of gel "for Willie". This was the result:

Apparently he no longer likes it flat.

How I Feel About Mommy Fails

2010-09-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

This happened on Wednesday:

While the bigger kid was in karate class, I was chasing the littler kid around the studio trying to prevent things like this from happening. I got distracted for a second, he turned around to look at me and his little just-started-walking legs got jumbled up and down he went - smack into a sharp corner wall.

Did you know foreheads bleed...a TON? They do. Did you know I am super cool under pressure? I am. I calmly took my bloody, screaming little fellow into the bathroom and took measures to slow the fountain spurting from his head. He was furious. The dear man that owns the studio was clearly unnerved and wondered if I shouldn't be headed for the hospital. I, with visions of the emergency room bills already stacked four deep on my refrigerator from a penny-swallowing epidsode earlier this Summer (did I not tell you about that one? I'll save it for another day when I've gained a little perspective on the whole thing) hedged and waffled outwardly, while internally thinking that there was no way in H-E-double hockey sticks we were going to the emergency room. The bleeding slowed as my little man yanked furiously at my shirt, demanding the blessed comfort a little boobie might bring him. I obliged him - grateful I had such an easily accessible and effective pacifier on hand at all times. The older kids that kept peaking in to see what was going on were now getting even more of a show than they had originally bargained for! I decided I was exempt from worrying about that at this time.

It just so happened a lovely lady I had worked with at the veterinary clinic has a daughter in the karate school, and she happened to be there on Wednesday. So I asked the teacher to send her to me, and we reprised our rolls from the vet clinic - I provided restraint and soothed the savage beast, while she bandaged (and a lovely job she did wouldn't you agree?) As for my little man he nursed a while, glared at my bandaging partner, then laughed in glee when I turned the water faucet on and put the whole episode behind him.

I was left to rehash the whole episode and wonder where the mommy fail was. Was I not following closely enough? Should I have allowed that other kid to distract my attention? Should I make my son wear a helmet?

I tend to be slightly on the more hands off end of the spectrum from most moms I think. I'm a believer in injury as a more effective lesson teacher than endless repetition, nagging, and hovering on my part. I think a kid gains confidence when they learn - on their own - what is and is not really possible in this world. So I tend to back off when I see other mom's tend to dive in. I figure my roll is to prevent:

1) mortal wounds

2) permanent disfigurement and

3) astronomical hospital bills.

By that standard, this was a narrow miss (#3 - if the karate guy had is way) but I'm not gonna call it a Mommy Fail, 'cause you know, he just might stop before turning around next time!

Chalkboard Walls

2010-09-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

My heart stops anytime I see a sharpie pen unattended at kid level in our home. Why, you ask? I present to you, kid art by sharpie:

On my husband's heirloom china hutch (please let my mother in law not read this! and does anybody know how one goes about getting this out?!?!)

Some wall art...I don't know, that one on the right I sort of see two ballroom dancers - a tango perhaps?

Anyway, it ain't good. So I've been thinking about using some chalkboard paint to designate areas where wall-drawing is encouraged. I read an article over at apartment therapy which declared this trend to be very five-minutes-ago (in the comments people actually got kind of heated about why anybody would be stupid enough to put this on their walls. Really? Are there not better things to get heated about in this world?). I, however, don't care much for trend-watching, and think that this is just the ticket for us. So much so that I painted the laundry room door in our kitchen with it - a grocery list I can't lose! Awesome. And the kiddos will (hopefully) leave me alone while I cook (ha ha) and draw on the bottom half.

I worried about chalk dust, and yeah, there is some, but so far it's not enough to make me regret my decision. A wet rag and it's all gone. Here are some pics!

The kitchen/laundry room door

The boys' room. Oh by the way, check out my book slings (tutorial here) over on the right. Love these things. I'm at some point going to cut out some trees and waves from some fabric scaps and applique them on....at some point.

So, here's to no more sharpie marks on the walls and furniture!

Quilting As You Go - I found a tutorial!

2010-09-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

In my last post I posted a link to Farmama's quilt squares she's working on, and wondered how she was doing them one by one - or rather, how she was going to put them all together. Well, I didn't find out exactly what she is doing, but I did find a beautiful tutorial with drool-worthy pictures here. This tutorial shows you how to truly quilt as you go...by actually sewing your fabrics directing onto batting squares.

Hers turns out GOR-GEOUS, and huge, on just a regular home sewing machine. I'm super excited to try. I might need to work a walking foot into the budget...Enjoy!

I'm Here, Really I Am

2010-09-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

I've just been having a wild, crazy, fun, active Summer and blogging just didn't float my boat so I didn't do it. So there. Got some great pictures, though. I'll probably pull them out during the long cold dreary months to come. But I did want to share some things I made this weekend. It was my birthday so I was determined to make stuff and not feel guilty about it. And I did. To make these look cooler I probably should have done some photo editing, but I'm too eager, so here goes:

Camera strap (on the camera, so you just get to see a piece) I found about 2 yards of the turquoise and white Micheal Miller pattern at Goodwill last week for $1.99! The darker fabric is Amy Butler. And the tutorial for the strap is here.

And a log cabin quilt square inspired by my biggest blog crush, Farmama's post here (can somebody look at this link and tell me what she's doing..it looks like she's going ahead and putting the batting on and quilting them one by one? Can you do this? Then sew them together at the end? It would work great for me if this is actually possible! And how insanely beautiful is her fabric stash? I'm telling you, that woman...)

It was great - no measuring, just scraps. Perfect project for me!

And finally, a freezer stencil pillow case for my best friend's little boy..I'll let you guess his name. It's gonna be a christmas gift - the big one will be a pillow case. Then I couldn't let the outline freezer paper go to waste so I made a little patch out of it and will sew it on....something, I don't know tshirt? bag? Any suggestions? The fabric is good old dropcloth, my go to fabric for just about everything lately.

Anyway, it's good to be back and I'll try to post a little more as we move on out of Summer madness!

Even Better Than a Treasury. Even Better Than Etsy's Frontpage.

2010-08-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

I missed this when it was posted. But look where my shirt was featured. I'm swooning. I'm so incredibly honored: The Crafty Nest

First Birthday Preview

2010-08-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

So sorry I'm not around much. I will be when the weather gets gloomy, that's when I do my best reflecting and post thinking upping. For now I'm not thinking a lot, mostly just feeling the nice warm Summer air - yep, what I'm saying is there isn't a whole lot going on upstairs lately. That's worthy of posting anyway.

But I have some party planning I figured might be fun to share. A year ago Sunday I birthed my beautiful youngest boy into the water at home. THIS Sunday we celebrate it! We're going back to my parent's house, where it all began, and having a little shin dig, and quite out of character for me, I've planned a thing or two.

My wonderful sister in law sent a bulldozer shaped pinata which the boys are abstolutely ga-ga over. Being hesitant to stuff them full of candy in addition to birthday cake I had the brilliant idea of checking etsy for some sort of non sugary stuffing. Here's what I bought:

nwtoycrafters

A pack of 20 from nwtoycrafters and it was just $40 including shipping! I contacted them and insted of the old fashioned car in the upper right the substituted their sportscar model for no extra charge!

I will also include some of these:

HippoInk

Recycled crayons from HippoInk. Then I got to thinking how kiddos will need something cute to take their loot home in, and etsy delivered again with these:

jardinedepapier

Just cute. Too cute to pass up. And everything so dang affordable.

Then I got all Martha Stewart and decided to make cupcakes with some toppers. Don't know what kind of cupcakes, I'll figure that out later. Chocolate - probably. Anyway, so I got these circles:

ieevva

Approximately 2" diameter, and I made a stamp, using this tutorial. It's a hand holding up one finger, not in the bad way. In the "number one" way. So I figure I'll stamp that on the circle then use double sided tape to sandwich a toothpick with circles = cupcake topper for a one year old's birthday. I do have to mention, however, had I more time, I would have ordered these edible cake toppers because they are so insanely cute and pretty - maybe for Willie's birthday.

All of these things are waiting for me at my mom's house, so I'll report on quality when I get back. She did open up the cars, crayons, and bags though and according to my mom they are absolutely precious and she was shocked at the pricetag on the cars, so I'm thinking we're in for a treat!

I also made this birthday banner:

I did not measure a thing, just cut everything out free hand and slapped it on. I made it two sided so it could hang in a doorway. I like that we can reuse it til the cows come home.

So that's that. It's not all very matchy, but I'm not a very matchy kinda mommy. I think the boys and other kiddos will enjoy. I will try to get some fun pics to share when we get back. Til then, enjoy life!

Sunset and Playsilks

2010-08-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

Had a beautiful weekend, made some playsilks for Boone's birthday and enjoyed a beautiful Saturday evening sunset:

I used a loose interpretation of this tutorial to make these - I used orange kool-aid, blue food coloring, and coffee.

I hope your weekend was as lovely.

Wordless Wednesday I Think They Call It?

2010-08-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Haven't been around much lately sorry, been doin' stuff, this sort of stuff (OK almost wordless):

Cute hat: $1 at goodwill!

Wedding Gift

2010-07-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Went to a wedding in Crested Butte, Colorado this last weekend. It was a trip from H-E-double hockey sticks in many ways I may share when I get a bit of distance from it, but the wedding itself was absolute perfection! I grew up with the bride in northern California...we started kindergarten together and graduated high school together. After graduating college, I ran off to Colorado to work as a lift operator. Josh, the groom, had the same thought that year, and we became friends working together at Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

Years later, I hop on Facebook and reconnect with Andrea only to find her living in CB, and dating none other than my buddy Josh! Talk about a small and wonderful world!

As a gift I put my very elementary stitching skills to work and made a pillow embroidered with the bride and groom's names, wedding date, and a nice quote - added in some hearts and mountains for good measure. I am still battling symmetry deamons so the end result was rudimentary at best, but I think they'll realize there was a lot of love put into it.

I also whipped up some quilted dishcloths out of floursack material and some purple patterns I had on hand. The bride LOVES purple!

A laundry hamper served as gift wrap - after all that work I wanted to be creative with my wrapping job! Used some cut up Trader Joe's cereal boxes for the card:

Willie insisted on bringing his rope, and who would've guessed what a hit it would be? Revelers of all ages shared in the fun.

Best of all, I got to reunite with lots of friends from my early childhood as well as my post college Colorado days...the connections between us all were complex and confusing but most of all meant to be! Here's a shot of me and a bunch of people I last spoke to at our high school graduation in 1994! The night was WAY TOO SHORT!

But oh so sweet.

Firepower

2010-07-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Holy Unannounced Vacation Batman! For any of you who follow this blog I apologize! I just got swept up in the Summertime current and well, I don't know, didn't think about blogging much. Took a few pictures though, so here's a little flood of stuff.

First, a couple of pretty doilies (doilies have been on my radar since Farmama made these curtains I hope to copy one day) pretty, huh?:

Found them at Savers - who knew it wasn't a grocery store?

And a little story: My big brother the computer guy came to visit us last weekend. He is the most together person you've ever met in your whole life. He's a real planner. He's a great influence. Sometimes I think maybe I can be a good influence too, by encouraging random and unexpected activities when we get together, which is sadly not often enough. So the day before he left I had the bright idea that we all go into the hills behind our house and do some shooting. So we set off in the pickup over a bouncy dirt road through the desert - here are some action shots of the boys...bouncing:

Rowdy surveyed the landcape:

Rowdy and Willie set up some targets:

And my big brother the Computer Guy let loose a little of his inner ~~redneck~~ marksman:

360 degrees of aaaaaahhhhhhh

2010-06-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

Temps were mid 90s. Rowdy got the boys to take a simultaneous nap. I made myself a cocktail, blew up my floatie and surveyed my happy place:

A tree we planted when we moved in...wasn't that yesterday?

Need to work on landscaping here:

Happy chaos. A tidy yard means no children live there, so I'm good with the chaos:

More of our cobbled together over the years landscaping. I'm so proud of it though, I wish I had a "before" picture to share. It was bleak:

The little chlorine duck was floating with me, checking it all out:

Oh, and remember this goodwill fabric? I got crazy on Saturday night, stayed up til 1am enjoying some uninterrupted mommy time, and made this:

Isn't it fun? Again, totally novice sewer, so I might as well have flown to the moon. The tutorial for making it is here. I took heed of her note that larger busted ladies might not want to sew the front pintuck down the full 2 inches. I liked the look of it though, so instead of foregoing the pintuck entirely, I only sewed down 1 inch in front. Maybe I'm not as chesty as I thought, 'cause I think I could have gotten away with 2 inches. Oh well. I also fudged on the underarm cutaway. She had instructions for doing it properly, but I wasn't sure how to account for the fact I wasn't using the sleeve ruffles, so I ignored it. After trying it on I decided it bugged, so I just folded the material down and topstiched. Not by the book, but I think it looks perfectly fine. I may at some point do some shaping of the body - she has instructions for that too, but 1am was waaahhaayhaaay past my bedtime and it was to be my last uninterrupted time of the weekend.

Note to self after looking at these pictures though: work on the posture, and position straps while wearing the bra you plan to wear when all is said and done. We live, we learn. Hope you had a lovely weekend too!

Living On The Earth, A Hippie Bible Review

2010-06-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

A coworker, aware of my hippie tendencies, brought in a copy of her hippie bible - bought in Vermont back in the day. I was instantly transported to my childhood - this is surely what all of my and my friend's parents were reading when we were babies! I immediately did a search and was shocked to find out it's available on Amazon!!!???

In original and revised editions even! I must have it of course.

In her own hand, written script, Alicia Bay Laurel ("not my parent's name, but my favorite tree") covers wide ranging topics from tie-dying to butchering meat to bathing in low-water situations (I haven't met many hippies that made very good work of this!)

There's a lot of nakedness in the book, authentic to the time, and lots of hippie style lingo about staying stoned and making due on land that has been raped. It's great. Seriously, reading it, I feel like I'm three again. I took some pics of a few pages that were particularly near and dear, including

Homebirth

Homegrown "stuff"..um, I mean, that HAS to be what this is right:

complete with recommendations for repeating a mantra such as Aum to the growing plant, as we all know "they respond to love".

Canning:

I just love love love the hand drawings, and the recipes sound pretty amazing. I'm completely sold. I found another blogger as surprised and charmed by this book as I am, he covered more of it here, and included more pictures, quotes, and history of the book - I've only just skimmed it, but I'm sure I'll have more to talk about once I get it - I can't wait!

Here are a couple of links to the books on amazon if you're interested (left with the yellow sun is the updated version)

Weekend Plans

2010-06-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

This:

And that is all.

Jewelry For Your Trees? Yes, Please!

2010-06-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

So how beautiful is this?

meadowwren

I found it because it gets crazy windy here, and being one to try and make lemonade out of lemons I thought I might try to find a lovely little windchime to make the best of our blustery days. And I found this one, by Meadow Wren on etsy. It's $12.50 I think with shipping? I love the idea of hanging these from trees out in my garden - subtle enough, they'd add a little bit of sparkle and movement and a little accompaniment for the chirping birdies.

But I got really cheap and was like "nah, I could probably make a nice one too" and you know, went all budget conscious and stuff. This weekend I was in Joanns and noticed they have a nice little collection of decent looking beads! Not super cheesy and plasticy as I'd expected. Random selections were on a major sale too, so I got some beadalon wire ($2.97 on sale from $9.99ish) some pretty little silver pendanty beads (0.99 for four or five) and a string of green beads for I forget but under $3. And I made one. It looks like this:

Pretty nice, huh? But here's the thing, you add the costs of supplies together and it's like seven bucks, and I don't have a pretty bell/chime on mine, so no taking advantage of the wind. I do have supplies left over though, and I just ordered four bells off ebay for $5, so I can make more and use bells on them - so ultimately I come out ahead, but Meadow Wren's are still more creative. They have better beads and a very artistic eye behind them. So unless you're dying to make your own, my advice is to buy one of hers. Except maybe don't buy this one, 'cause it's mine one of these days.

Freecycle Love - pretty prettyness

2010-06-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

As promised yesterday, here is the thing of beauty I got from a lovely freecycle woman yesterday:

I'd recently been thinking on trying to find a dresser to hold linens and such in my kitchen. It's a small kitchen, but there was a little room by the back door that was only serving to collect dirty shoes - I thought I could squeeze something in there. Anyway, this woman was also offering a metal cabinet, so I told her I'd take a look at the antique dresser too to see if it would fit in my little spot. Well the metal cabinet is ugly as sin but will work great in my office closet. But I was thrilled to pieces with this dresser. Isnt' is beautiful? I don't know a darned thing about antiques, so I have no idea how old or anything, but what matters is it suits my style just right. Pretty simple but with sweet little details. It also has a mirror that attaches to the top:

The actual mirror is broken, but I'm thinking of replacing it with a chalkboard anyway - and write some nice quotes on it or what have you. Also on the frame that goes around the mirror there are those adorable little round platforms for candles....so pretty! One is broken but I think it can be fixed - she gave me the pieces.

It has this cool little top deal that opens up:

and even came with a newspaper from May of 1954 in the top drawer:

I'll have to ask her if she wants that back - right after I have a quick read!

Someday I'll have a big bedroom with a wrap around balcony and the dresser will get its mirror, some pretty candles, and go in there to help create a cozy western feel. Can't you see it with a little vase of wildflowers, some pretty bottles of something pretty smelling, a collection of simple jewelry...

For now it looks right at home in our kitchen. I can't wait to do our remodel so it has some equally pretty surroundings. For now some pretty napkins and maybe a nice bouquet of flowers will have to do.

Coming Up Roses

2010-06-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

I typed that title and realized I should have taken a picture of a rose bush that is growing actual roses for me this year! It's so exciting! I'm a pretty lackadasical (sp?) rose garden keeper, so I'm always amazed when the poor girls bloom. Anyway, no, I was talking about this fabric I picked up at the goodwill this weekend. Isn't it sweet and purty? I want a shirt from it. I'd love a peasant blouse but I don't think I'm quite up to par with sewing skills. So I'm think I'm gonna shoot for a tunic, a tutorial for which is found here. I'll not be doing the sleeve ruffles though, just the plain strap. Anyway, I'm still a bit intimidated by the whole thing, but this fabric will motivate me, or scare me further b/c I will be so sad if I waste it. Thinking positively for now.

While I was at goodwill I also picked up a pillow. I could tell it was a really nice down pillow so I went ahead and got it to serve as the pillow form for the cover I'm embroidering for my friends wedding in July. It was covered in a pretty nice black and white floral print which I figured could be a nice addition to my fabric stash as well. Imagine my excitement when I got home and opened it up to find a backup cover underneath - turned inside out for some reason - to contain all the inevitable escapee feathers. I love the hidden pillow case many times more than the black and white!

It looks a little Anna Maria Hornerish to me, don't you think? The next day I hustled back to Goodwill to see if the matching pillow was still there, but no dice. Oh well, what a deal $2.99 for a down pillow form some pretty black and white fabric for the stash, and this lovely bonus pillow case hidden within! It was like finding a Da Vinci canvas covered over by some lesser but still decent artist years later. hee!

I think I may have gotten something quite beautiful from freecycle this morning as well. I'm not sure though, it was really early and I was in a rush to get it out of the people's driveway without setting off the whole neighborhood's canine alarm clocks....a chihuahua across the street was already on alert...anyway I'll assess the situation when I get home, and let you know!

Father's Day Retrospective

2010-06-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

My kids come from a line of really good fathers. My husband and I were blessed with incredible roll models. Iconic American men.

My dad grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas during segregation. He got a football scholarship to the University of Michigan, where he met and married my mom. He went on to various endeavors as I mentioned in a previous post: professional football player, assistant college dean, probation officer, logger...He read me stories every night, changing voices for each character. He took me on walks by the ocean, bought me expensive shoes we couldn't really afford, and wrote me encouraging notes before volleyball games and important tests. He is everything a girl needs her dad to be.

Rowdy's dad grew up during the Great Depression, on a homestead in Wyoming. His family gathered and broke wild horses in the Red Desert. They survived on their own skill at living off the land. He went to World War II and served on Okinawa. He came back to Wyoming and worked as a cowboy - later he went on to build many of the roads you'll drive on if you ever visit that great state. He was everything a boy needs in a father, everything he needs to become a great man himself. He passed away last year. It was a great loss to all of us. I like to think he left a great legacy though, because his son is growing some very fine boys himself. We celebrated him yesterday:

He got a new hat:

And I got a little bit distracted by that handsome neck:

It was a Happy Father's Day.

A Couple Songs

2010-06-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

That made me proud to be a woman, a mama, and an American.

This one woke me up this morning, and it made me dance:

Then a friend shared this one with me and I sobbed and cried and had to wipe my nose a lot:

Coveting

2010-06-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

I'm a consumer. A mad, brainwashed, needer of things. I realize it's terrible, but it is a flaw that is in my core. I feel helpless in the face of it. I've improved over the years from wanting junk for junk's sake to now, where I want really really cool stuff and for really good reasons.

But still it's want, not need. It's money spent and I have such a hard time deciding if the expenditures are justified, as in they improve my family's quality of life....or are they just expenditures - that drain the bank accounts without substantial reward.

See, here is a shopping cart I have all filled up with yarn candy. Ready for me to buy and get to work on something that someday might resemble this

With shipping it comes to $40, which seems like nothing for such a bounty of beauty! But then I start the inevitable tabulating of all the other things $40 could buy....and my little cart will sit for now.

You can bet when I get home my eye will be roving for stuff to put on craigslist to raise my $40! A few years ago I coveted a little set of bookends from the Sundance catalog - they were so cute, little pewter mice, each holding up one end of your row of books - they looked so eager to help and I just couldn't resist them. Well I went to goodwill and found a vintage down North Face coat for $10, sold it on ebay for $33 (robbed! but still a profit!) sold a couple of other things, and put the mice to work on a kitchen shelf. I worked hard to get them, so I think they'll always be special to me, and I've never regretted the purchase.

Hmmmm, I think there are some cloth diapers I could unload......

Snail Mail

2010-06-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

I for one LOVE to get mail. It's part of my obsession with cloth diapers. They result in lots of "fluffy mail". I love to get mail, however I am terrible at GIVING mail. The packaging, the calculating postage, the driving to the post office...it typically results in me just accumulating things that are meant for somebody and then waiting until I see them in person to hand it all over. Most of these people I see once or twice a year, so you can imagine the list of things I was supposed to give them but forgot because I was too distracted by being excited to actually see them!

This weekend though I put together a little package with gifts for Grandma and Grandpa (the dropcloth rug Willie made them), a Father's Day gift for Grandpa (beautiful shirts from J. Crew and Gap - new with tags at Goodwill!), and a couple of quail shirts I made for my mom and my second mom Sabine (really for Sabine's birthday, but I didn't know which color shirt she'd like best so my mom gets whichever one Sabine doesn't want) I basically added a quail mama to the quail papa and baby I had on this baby shirt. Here's how they turned out:

I think they're pretty cute.

Typically when I get the gumption to send snail mail, I feel so proud of myself for getting the basics involved accomplished that I often forego wrapping the gift portion of the package. I went the extra mile this time though - I swaddled my Dad's shirts in some brown paper, the tshirts in some blue tissue and then thought up a fun way to embellish without putting a bunch of work into pretty bows that would only be smushed in the box. For this I turned to my super cool xyron sticker maker.

I dug up some great old photos of my Dad being the great father that he is, photocopied them and used my circle cutter to well, cut them into circles. Then I sent them through my sticker maker:

That top one is a photo of him when he worked in the woods in Northern California when I was just a baby. Like me, my Dad has had a very random collection of very diverse jobs over the years....

Anyway, then I stuck them on the package. Voila!

Cute, huh?

I used some previously made stickers for the tshirt package - I'd cut them from an Anthropolgie (yum) catalog:

So there you have it, fun with snail mail. The sticker maker is a great way to turn all those drool-worthy photos in magazines, or cool pictures in children's books that are falling apart at the seams and what not into nice embellishments for any surface that will take a sticker. They're not too spendy either. I got mine on ebay I think for $17 but you can buy them for like $20 at walmart - price varies according to size. You also have to buy refill cartridges for the stickum, so if you're gonna make a ton of stickers it might get a bit pricey. But for at-home small scale decorating like this? Just the trick!

My Son's Bad Behavior and Other Things I'm Grateful For

2010-06-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

Willie was a pill this morning. Except "pill" makes it sound like he was a turd but in a cute way. I didn't find it super cute at the time, so let's just say Willie was a turd this morning. His behavior made us quite late.

Then we got halfway to town and ran into traffic. There was an accident and two people died in it. We saw the helicopters ferrying them from the scene. We got stuck in traffic, and the minivan threatened to stop running. Willie continued with some not ideal behavior as we waited. When we passed, rescue workers were holding up blankets so we couldn't see the aftermath of the wreck. I could see enough though.

Perhaps because my boy had a fit about not being able to bring a dry erase marker to school, we were late and escaped the reaper's attention this morning. Perhaps not; but I'm still so grateful.

Baby Led Weaning Mayhem

2010-06-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

I'd like to share a story - a few moments in time - with a baby who feeds himself. I wish I could cue some dramatic classical music to accompany this post, 'cause it's playing in my head...

Holy Moly It's Happened Again!

2010-06-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

I'm in ANOTHER incredible treasury !!!! This time created by rockthepolkadot - a Home Birth theme:

"in honor of midwifery and babies lucky enough to be born at home." she says.

Awesome.

Brings tears to my eyes. I'm feeling the etsy love.

My homebirth tshirt is getting a lot of love. It's a topic close to my heart obviously, so I'm thinking the message is that my shirts should reflect things I am passionate about...excellent food for thought.

I'm definitely passionate about quails, folks....

Im In a Treasury!!

2010-06-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

I'm in a real live, and beautiful, treasury! The mama from mylittlegirlscloset featured me in her treasury that is themed "Who am I" - I think I love who she is - the kitties, the geek necklace, love it all! I'm so honored to be a part of it!

OK that's it, I'm buckling down this weekend and setting a goal: at the very least I will be listing my quail shirt by, lets say Tuesday. Onward and upward, people!

Tasty, Quick, and Gooey

2010-06-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

You in?

OK, here's what you need:

graham crackers - at least one

marshmallows - at least one big or 4 little

chocolate chips - at least 4

peanut butter - at least a knife full

Put your (one large or four small) marshmallow/s on a 1/2 of a graham cracker, stick it in the microwave til it starts to poof (10 secs in our relatively wimpy oven).

Pull it out and press your chocolate chips into the marshmallow.

Spread some peanut butter on your other other half of the graham cracker and put it on top of the marshmallow/chocolate to form a sandwich.

Consume the ooey/gooey goodness (as fast as you can while hiding from your children in the kitchen is optional - careful it's messy and you may be wearing evidence when you finish.)

Some Time Summertime

2010-06-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

This evening. These clouds. This freshly cut grass. These boys.

This Man.

Sewing Success!

2010-06-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

OK, these are not perfect (yeah that one in the middle - waistband is attached inside out, oops). But they are so completely functional and fit so wonderfully:

...and were made by me! And how freakin cute is that kid, huh?

To a non-cloth diaper devotee they probably look a little funny, but they are fleece soakers. Here's how it works. Fitted diapers are diapers that do not have a waterproof layer, so they need a cover over them. You can buy waterproof layers, and there are some great ones out there, but they don't breathe so great. So an alternative is using fleece or wool. You lanolize the wool which repels the moisture but still wicks the moisture out and then it evaporates. Fleece does the same thing, but doesn't require the special care that wool does. Its sounds unlikely but it is really like magic - you can have a soaked diaper under these things, but to the touch the fleece is completely dry. And now I can make them, thanks to this free pattern and a wonderful tutorial by Liberty's Belle If you aren't interested in sewing your own, but want some fleece soakers, check out her etsy store, she's taken them to a whole new level of cute:

LibertysBelle

OK, now I'm really gonna knock your socks off. Thanks to a fabulous tutorial over at diapperswappers, I overcame my fear of elastic this weekend and.....MADE A FREAKIN' DIAPER!

I can hardly stand myself at this point. I used an old tshirt, a microfiber towel for the absorbant layer, and some microfleece for the inner. But there's more! I've been talking about those pillow covers I've been working on, made of canvas dropcloth I then appliqued and embroidered...well, this weekend I used this amazing and magical tutorial and installed a zipper that looks like this:

I mean, SHUT UP, right? It is the coolest thing - you follow these crazy and bizarre step by step instructions then you cut open a seam and voila there is this beautifully and professionally installed zipper. I was on cloud nine. Nobody in my house was impressed, so I hope you are! It's the little things, you know? Here's the finished product from the point of view most non-sewing folks would think is most important:

It may not all be much in an accomplished sewer's opinion, but as far as I'm concerned I'm ready for project runway. I'd like to thank the academy, and the laundry list of great tutorials I listed above, katrina who was generous enough to share for free her soaker pattern, my husband who let me spend a huge chunk of the weekend hunched over my sewing machine with only a small amount of griping and guilt tripping, and most of all my boys, my inspiration. More on them later!

Huggies Cannot Out-Cute Cloth

2010-06-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged for a few days. I've been spending my online time in cloth diaper bliss over at diaperswappers. My little guy is just getting too long for his medium clothies and I'm in the market for some new cute fluff with a higher rise. Let me tell you buying disposable diapers was NEVER this fun. And super duper bonus, I get to sell all his mediums to raise money for the new dipes! The satisfaction of this win-win situation is just one of the many reasons I am so happy I decided on cloth this time around.

So if you're a mom, you've likely seen that Huggies has come out with a new disposable diaper that is supposed to look like jeans. I know a lot of you are thinking they are adorable and can't wait to buy them. Those of us that cloth diaper are looking around in amazement, 'cause, hello? The Huggies don't even begin to compare with even the made at home with old tshirts diapers that we are seeing for sale in the land of cloth! The stomach churning commercial that has accompanied their launch has been especially off-putting:

Seriously? Way to sexualize a toddler, Huggies. And "I poo in blue"? Did they actually hire toddlers to write the commercial?

So if you mamas out there are thinking of buying you some faux denim huggies in order to harness their debatable at best cute factor, I beg you, please take a quick look at what cloth has to offer?

And I'm just sticking with the cuteness argument, I won't even go all eco friendly on you. Here is just a very small and biased towards my taste sampling - I didn't even get into some of the "heart melting, pink fluffy cupcakes and ruffles, make you wanna breed just to try for a girl and buy more diapers" diapers that are out there...

softbums (one of our favorite!)

goodmama one size organic bamboo velour

kiwi pie fitted

They're soft and squishy, they're wholesome with elephant and giraffe prints - they're sweet babies in summertime running around in the grass....

But, you know, if you're down with the whole gel in the hair, paparazzi posing, sex object image....or just REALLY like jeans on babies, then Huggies has got your back:

This blogger shudders and exits stage left...

Weekend in Pictures

2010-06-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Because honestly to tell it all would take a year. It was a very busy weekend.

Trip to Goodwill:

Knitted another tank top, and embroidered a little heart on the front of one of them:

Line dried a sheet then played in it like I was 3:

My new "thing" whipped cream on all my coffee. It has eliminated my Starbucks requirement:

Helped Willie paint a dropcloth rug. I just need to seal it with some polyurethane and then it will be sent to grandma and grandpa. It's a picture of the ocean (it's hanging upside down - that's a "W" at the bottom):

Sat with the little guy and watched the big guys plant some tomato plants we started inside:

I did some other stuff too, I started those pillow covers on dropcloth...I've got the appliques on and am now embellishing (or desecrating, depending on how you look at it considering my embroidery skills) the Amy Butler fabrics I used to make a duck, an airplane, a kite, and a hot air balloon. The theme was "things that fly" and Willie and Rowdy got to pick the things. I also made Boone a pair of fleece diaper cover longies that ended up looking like harem pants, as well as a fleece soaker that he might fit when he turns 12 - I'm assuming he'll be out of diapers by then so I guess that was kind of a bust. Anyway, it was a nice weekend, but I'm beat!

A Couple Second Hand Scores

2010-05-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

I have a little thrift addiction I've been indulging lately. I always forget to take pics of the fun things I find, like some vintage corning and pyrex dishes I got for $2 yesterday! I did remember to document a couple of my finds from a yard sale last weekend though, so I'll share them today.

First these napkin holders. My sister had one of these and I always loved it and coveted it - just something about the sparkle! I'm not sure what they're made of - I'm gonna have to try polishing them this weekend...I can't imagine they are silver, but maybe whatever they are it will polish? I don't know, don't care really.

0.25 for all six!

I've been dreaming of some barn wood frames for a long time. I want to put black and white pictures in them and make a nice rustic looking arrangement on our wall. I see them every now and again, but they are always out of my price range for the quantity I am after. I figured maybe someday I'd score some barn wood and make my own, but now there's no need! Look at this pile! And .10 a piece!!!

Sigh, thrifty heaven!

These Western Skies

2010-05-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

Her'es a nice song to accompany this post (RIP Chris):

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is just nothing quite like the smell of sage after a nice western rain. I've made no secret of my disatisfaction with current weather patterns, but I have to say the skies have been gorgeous. Here are some pics I took on my way home last night:

And this morning the smell of sage was intoxicating...I took this picture from the gas station to try and capture the smell. Ha ha I don't know if that is possible, but I tried:

OK temps in the high 70s this weekend. I'm ready to put this wet, though beautiful, weather behind me!

Sigh, Splutter, Clang, Bang, Silence....My Etsy Shop

2010-05-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

My poor neglected little shop. It is suffering my inability to concentrate. I have so many projects on my to do list, and making screens for my shirt is not high on it. I love thinking up ideas for shirts, I just don't enjoy making the screens for them. There is so much work and so much potential for failure involved that I become easily distracted by projects I can finish in a shorter period of time, with more enjoyment, and a better chance of success. Like this, I finished that little knitted tank I talked about on Friday (please excuse the flash photography, I was just meaning to put it on a quick forum post):

It is very pink. I'm working on the assumption that 3 year old girls like pink. I'm afraid it is going to be way to big, but it is adjustable to a pretty large degree so we'll just cross our fingers on that one.

I did make some shirts this weekend. I had a request for a waterbirth shirt, so I made a nice design, I tested it and found there were a lot of speckles so I repainted the screen and then didn't bother with a retest. And it shows...lots of speckles. And the lettering is not centered, which I totally didn't notice on the screen. And the lettering got smushy, which it didn't on my test run.

Sigh. I still like the overall design, I just wish I had retested and that my lettering could be more consistent.

I love quails, so I've been working on a quail shirt for a while. This weekend I made this one, which I fancy a Father's Day shirt. Last year I got hubby a quail daddy belt buckle for Father's Day, so I guess you can say I'm consistent. Quails to me equal Father's Day motif. I really like the way the shirt came out, minus some speckles, and I don't know if it will fit well on the 0-3 month and 3-6 month shirts so that is an issue I have to figure out. Where I put the quails on the shirt makes it looks better on upright kiddos, so our non-upright little guy had to get stretched out for this photo op.

I love the picture - Daddy's holding him up, so it goes along with the whole Father's Day theme.

Then Boone got a little fussy so he really lived up to the title of this last design, which also has speckle issues:

and smushy lettering issues. Double sigh. I don't know. I love where I'm going with it, but feel like maybe it isn't quite there, as in ready to list with these photos, but if that's the case I've used up three shirts for nothing and that is just depressing and enough to make me want to take another extended break from the etsy business.

I don't get many comments on this blog, but if you're passing through and have read this far, I would love a second of your time to get your opinion on these shirts. Do you think they'd pass for a listing? Are the speckles awful, or do they give an artistic slant to them, kind of a stamped appearance? I'm just too close to the whole thing to have any perspective I think. So I'd love your thoughts, You can't hurt my feelings. I'm a rock. I'm an island. I'm a Simon and Garfunkle fan.

When Babies Attack

2010-05-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

It starts out innocently enough, scooting yourself into mom and dad's room and trying to close the door so you can play with the curain rod that's leaning in the corner behind it, and try to crawl for the first time in privacy....then it escalates when you see they're watching you...

Oh My. Oh Geez. Oh, Be Still My Heart. Some Curtains

2010-05-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

See them HERE

I'd love to post a pic of them just to bring a little beauty to my page, but I feel gross about it b/c it isn't my pretty, its Farmamas - they are so gorgeous. I did however make haste towards ebay and got these (terrible picture, I'm assuming they aren't so blurry in real life):

and will be stopping by the Goodwill to see if the floral pattern vintage sheet I've been studiously ignoring for weeks is still there. These curtains will be perfect in my office/craft room - all cheery and girly. I'm giddy with excitement.

I have to direct you to another blog that I added to my blog list today. I started out the day on an "I bet I could make a painted dropcloth rug with Willie one of these weekends" kick, and searched the internet for ideas/inspiration/things to know from people who have been there done that, and found her blog somewhere along the line. Now, I'm still going to do the rug thing, but I will also be doing some pillow covers inspired by her tablecloth, which you can peak at here. Pretty, no? I have some Amy Butler patterns laying around, I've been to afraid to touch a scissor to them for fear I will create some botched garment with her beautiful fabric and never forgive myself....so cutting out some simple animal shapes should be a nice little starter project for me. The pillow covers will be for a very motley collection of some of the most comfortable couch pillows you've ever laid your head on - it will be really nice to cover them in a coordinating color scheme.

And lest you fear I am a hopeless starter of projects that will never be finished I, um, well, I am. But I finished that starter embroidery project, right? And I've started another, which has a deadline, so I'll be showing you that soon too. And I really, really, really am thinking I can crank out these dropcloth pillow covers this weekend. The weather is going to be crappy after all.

Oh, and in the next couple of weeks I'm gonna knit this for my best friend's little girl.

GO ME!

When You Take Bad Weather Personally.....

2010-05-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

It can lead to a lot of pouting. Like this:

Except he's pouting for some other reason. I think it had to do with a bungee cord he wanted to bury and his father said no. Really I just love the outfit he put together and was looking for an excuse to post it for you.

When Yours Truly pouts, I guess it looks like no blogging for a few days. I was afraid I'd offend somebody with my negative outlook. My gloom and doom is extra ridiculous b/c it's actually really nice outside right now. But the forecast is rain and cold starting Saturday. I'm pouting pre-emptively. I should really just stop watching the news, nothing good comes of it.

On happier topics, LAST weekend was warm, sunny and spectacular. We even went to set up our little above ground pool - and came to find out that mice apparently eat vinyl. The bottom has a handful of wholes chewed out of it. Vermin! My husband considered releasing the snake in his garage. Perhaps effective rodent control. Certainly effective spouse deterrent. But then one day he might need me to fetch him a tool out of there, and that would not be happening.

So we did not set up the pool. It would not have held water. But we did play in the grass:

We rolled in the grass and tried to take pictures of little ones that were laying on our knees in bright yellow shirts that looked so cool against the increasingly gray sky:

It would look cooler if I edited the exposure, but I'm still kind of pouting and not caring about these things. We even roasted marshmallows - I used to be a burn 'em and eat 'em kind of girl, but now I'm more interested in the artistry of a perfectly browned marshmallow:

And then an actual thunderstorm moved in, with rain and lighting and cracks and pops and roars of thunder:

It was great at the time, when I thought it was nature's LAST and FINAL weather until November. But it wasn't, so looking back it just kind of makes me mad.

One thing I forgot to photograph is some rousing success on the screen making front. I've almost got my new technique down and two new designs on the way! Hopefully shirts will be made this week and photographed this weekend. Not outdoor photos though, oh no, that might cheer me up or something.

Did I mention I have a cold and can feel my vocal chords vibrating in my nose when I talk?

My Go-To Cake Recipe - Mint Chocolate Angel Food Goodness - And Some S'mores Obscenity

2010-05-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

I posted about it last week - in fact I gushed about it last week, so I guess it would be rude to go on and on and not post a recipe, right? And since I forgot my camera and therefore have no new photos to post, today will be recipe day!

Luckily it is perhaps the world's easiest recipe to remember so I can recite it off the top of my head:

INGREDIENTS

Angel Food Cake (a box or your favorite recipe)

1qt heavy whipped cream

1 cup sugar

1 tsp peppermint extract

4 heaping tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Okay, the angel food: buy box, follow directions, use angel food cake pan. (Easy so far, right? I'm embarrased to admit that until I ran across a from-scratch recipe on martha stewart dot com a couple weeks ago, I thought all angel food cakes came from a box - bangs head on desk)

So your cake is made and cooling upside down on a bottle.

Now you get out a quart of heavy whipped cream, poor in a deep bowl 'cause this can get messy.

Add 4 heaping tbsp cocoa powder. Add 1 tsp peppermint extract. Add 1 cup sugar (I usually skimp a bit on this - 1/2 cup or 3/4 cup, you'll be fine) then whip till firm peaks rise. Then refrigerate for an hour.

Then you're gonna take a big long serrated knife and cut your cake into four layers. Cut one, put on a platter, slather in whipped cream minty goodness. Cut another and repeat. When they are all piled on top of each other with whipped cream between the layers, you go to town whipped creaming the outside.

There will be leftover whipped cream - and that is an utter shame. Make it disappear. I have my way of doing this, you have yours. Moving on...

Then you can take a bar of baking chocolate and grate some chocolate shavings on the top to pretty it up. Then stick 'er in the fridge til it's time to serve. It's kinda sloppy but the sloppier it is, I swear the better it tastes.

BONUS RECIPE

OK, then if Auntie Desi is visiting, you take her advice and fire up the fire pit the next night. You make what she calls "s'mores" but they are unlike any kind of s'more you've ever had in life. Here's how: buy some pre-made brownies (or make a couple batches if you have time), cut them in half, or hey, just take two brownies, either way you need a brownie sandwich - slap on a healthy helping of marshmallow cream (or marshmallows that works too) then toss on a layer of peanut butter cups, sandwich it all together, wrap in tin foil and toss on the coals for I don't know 5-10 minutes? Then everybody change into elastic waistbands, grab a fork, unwrap that melty chocolatey marshmallow/peanut buttery goodness and go loco...in a very good way.

We've Had a Few Visitors...Snakes, Guns, and Pigeons

2010-05-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

Like this guy...

Yeah, it's a pretty cruddy picture. Kinda far away wouldn't you say?

And it's gonna stay that way.

He's a bull snake, which means he looks a lot like a rattler, but without the rattles and more importantly without the whole venemous thing. He eats rodents and really when all is said and done he is friend and not foe. Tell that to my endocrine system, 'cause its freakin' out. I snapped a pic and let the little guy lie.

We are teaching our little guy gun safety, so have been quizzing him incessently on the NRA's Eddie Eagle rules: "What do you do if you see a gun?" "Stop. Don't Touch. Leave the Room. Tell a Grown Up" - by the way I am AMAZED at how quickly he got this, I literally said it, helped him with it once and he has it down - I'm so proud! Anyway, yesterday with the arrival of the snake, Rowdy had the brilliant idea to show Willie the snake and explain that snakes are like guns and the same rules apply. So smart!

On a related note, if you are a gun-friendly family it is your duty to make sure that every child entering your home is safe - being a responsible gun owner means taking measures to keep guns out of that child's hands and to educate them as to what to do if they ever find themselves in a situation where a gun has not been properly stored - its just a reality that no matter how many steps you take to secure your firearms, you don't know 100% what measures your kid's friend's parents are taking - nobody is perfect. Cornered Cat has a fantastic section on kids and guns with tons of common sense approaches to familiarizing children with and protecting them from guns. Seriously, check it out.

But back to my original topic, visitors. This fellow showed up last Friday or Saturday:

Apparently he likes it here, 'cause he's still hanging around. Now I've never been much of a pigeon person, I associate them with loads of poop and masses of fellow pigeons. This guy though, I don't know, he's kind of growing on me. First of all, it's just him. I read that pigeons are very social critters, so I don't know what his deal is but so far he's very much a loner. And really he's kinda pretty, right? I mean you've got to admit it...he's pretty in a yucky shimmery pigeon kind of way...

He's banded on both legs. We're not sure what that means. Does he have a human that loves him somewhere? Or was he part of some hideous pigeon-torturing experience from which he just staged a heroic getaway? Is he even a "he"? He's quite the enigma, that is all that is certain.

I also read that pigeons like to roost. For the love of all that is clean and un-marred by avian crap, why does he want to roost on my patio table??? We finally got the chickens out of there and in comes this freeloader!

After I nursed Boone to sleep last night, I lay in my room watching jet contrails streak back and forth across the sky outside our window...

For once the television was turned off and I savored the peace and quiet, it was so beautiful just laying there listening to neighbors voices drifting in and out, my baby's sleeping breath, the coos and good-night crows of the chickens and rooster putting themselves to bed. And I thought of our new buddy and went to check, and there he was...

...just outside my kitchen window...crappin' on my patio table.

P.S. Someday I'll talk about my shop again. I've been trying out a new technique on the tshirts that I'm hoping will get me more standard quality prints, and having some failures, and getting down about it. And getting distracted by an embroidery project. And getting down about that too. It'll all be OK though. I have so many new designs to make up, I just need to get my new technique perfected and then I'll get rolling again and I'll tell you all about it. Have a lovely friday y'all.

Close Ups of Cool Things

2010-05-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

I have a sore throat so I don't feel much like talking today...

My Baby Turned Four Yesterday

2010-05-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

And he had one heck of a weekend. The neighbor hooked up this wagon to the back of his new ride on mower and took the boys for a ride.

Then he got to go with Papa to pick up Grandma Pam and Aunti Desi at the airport. After which Auntie Desi took him to the Carnival

Auntie Desi is an amazing human being. She kept her head through this whole breeding stage of life and decided to go child-free. Willie reaps the benefits of her resulting love for and patience with and energy for his four year old self. I mean, the woman rode the roller coaster. Need I say more? We LOVE Auntie Desi.

Then there was the whole party thing, celebrated two days before the actual birthday. My parents sent a mini-trampoline. Rave reviews.

Birthday boy even gave his little brother a bounce or two

There was decoration by Hank and Hunt

and my Never Fails Yummier Than Yummy The Only Cake I've Ever Craved On My Birthday Since I Was Eight Years Old Mint Chocolate Whipped Cream on Angel Food It Ain't Too Pretty But Man Your Mouth Can't Tell Cake

There were amazing and wonderful gifts, including this cherry red gem courtesy of, you guessed it, Auntie Desi:

Working PA system folks.

Then it was Mother's Day and it was MY turn to get spoiled. Me and Grandma Pam opted for a lovely breakfast followed by a little road trip through the country. The next day Auntie and Grandma left and we were a little adrift without their company. It was the for real birthday but the party was over. My little man woke up grumpy from a nap and had a little fit over something silly. Kinda like he used to do when he was three just a few days ago. And I took him on my lap and cuddled him and kissed him and loved him 'cause I'm never sure if its the last time he'll let me do these things...

I said hello to my boy and tried to say goodbye to my baby

But I can't, not quite yet. Maybe on his 20th birthday?

Goodwill Hunting

2010-05-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

So much has gone on this weekend, I have stuff to talk about for days. We just put my Sister in law and Mother in law on the plane and had a trip to Goodwill, so since it was a fun trip and is fresh in my mind we'll talk about that.

Today I wished I had a vintage store on etsy. There was a cream colored vintage chenille bedspread I hope finds a happy home, and the books just would not quit. Some of them are mine now:

Also a naturalist book from the 40s and Rowdy got a Boy Scouts Handbook - it teaches you to make a backpack out of your jeans, now that is impressive. I'm excited to learn crochet techniques and branch out from my endless circle making, and that bag is full of nice embroidery floss for my budding embroidery obsession. But I'd like to focus on that crazy pink one there in the middle. It's my new sewing book.

Its apparently part of a really brightly colored Time Life series. Its titled "The Art of Sewing/The Classic Techniques". It has some very helpful and basic information on pages like this:

Then it shows the potential fruit of your labor on pages like this:

This picture brings to mind the oil baron's daughter that Bud (John Travolta) cheats on Sissy (Debra Winger) with in Urban Cowboy:

I don't know, I almost feel guilty because some person capable of actually sewing clothes, and in love with styles of the 70s is probably the rightful owner of this book - let me know if you are that person or know who that person is, we can work something out.

Today is my furlough day so I'm just sort of sitting around staring at the walls while the rest of the family naps. Its a howling wind kind of day, the house is a mess, and I'm experiencing the post - really fun weekend with family visiting and now they're gone and it's back to reality blues. I'll dive into a mountain of laundry here in a bit and that ought to cheer me up.

Hope you all had a fabulous Mother's Day weekend!

A Mother's Day I Can Believe In

2010-05-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to holidays like Mother's Day. I appreciate them for their intentions, but kind of take them with a grain of salt because they are so commercial. I rarely remember to send the appropriate cards and make the appropriate phone calls, I guess I just feel like those mean more when I do it on unscheduled days when the inspiration comes from within.

That said, there's this blog I've been enjoying lately. It's beautiful, she's beautiful, and the things she writes are always beautiful. But today she really moved me and made me so proud to be a Mother.

One love indeed. Check it out here.

Pioneer Woman's Super Cool Roll-Over Photo Trick Demystified!

2010-05-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

Please note the pics at left have nothing to do with the trick I'm linking you to and discussing in this post - no rollover fun here - they have more to to with my general opinion that a post is not a post without pictures and my desire to mess around with photobucket editing tools, oh and the fact that my goat is just stinkin' cute.

Not a ton to post about today, I'm preparing for a banner weekend what with Mother's Day and Little Big Man's birthday party, the arrival of my Mother in Law and Sister in Law this afternoon...so I'll have lots to say on Monday I'm sure.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a photo trick with my fellow bloggers, in case you missed Pioneer Woman's post this morning.

It's her "Butterfly Trick" that allows you to roll over a photo and have and element of the photo change. In her case she had a picture of her dog about to eat a castrated calf testicle, and she thought perhaps not all her readers would like to see said calf testicle. Having eaten freshly cut calf testicles I myself was not averse....but I digress. She did some conjuring which made it so the picture you see has a big ol' Butterfly covering the calf nut, but when you roll your cursor over the butterfly it disappears, revealing the offending reproductive organ.

If you are interested in harnessing this particular bit of blog how-to ephemera

(here's the definition for that word in case you, like me, weren't sure if it fit this context and thought you might look it up: 2.ephemera, items designed to be useful or important for only a short time, esp. pamphlets, notices, tickets, etc. - so I guess it fits the context if you only plan on using the technique for a short time. or not. I'm not sure..)

check her post out here. It's just a bit of cut and paste code you add to your post. Doing that code manipulating always makes me feel so grown up and tech savy - I'll be looking for something gross to post just to try it out soon...Oh! Fat Baxter has a particularly ugly wound on his leg from apparently being attacked by another dog whilst galavanting around the neighborhood last week. Some of you may be interested...some not. I think I've found my very own butterfly-trick application!

Etsy Is In The Water - Hank And Hunt

2010-05-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hank and Hunt

So it's awesome to have a neighbor with kids the same age as you. It's awesome when you also like said neighbor. It's awesome when said neighbor loans you great books that get you going on embroidery, and really really really awesome when your dear neighbor will watch your littlest baby at the last minute b/c Mr. Mom got a last second phone call about a local construction company looking for blade operators.

It's fun to have neighbors that let their kiddos come over, play cowboy, and play in the sandbox...in the rain...with your kids...

...that trust your husband to conduct goat rodeos with their children in the vicinity:

And a cherry to top it all off is when your neighbor has loads more taste than you and opens a store on etsy to showcase just one little tiny corner of her creativity to the world!

Yep, my neighbor and crafting accomplice from next door, Jenny over at Hank and Hunt opened herself an etsy store selling some of her gorgeous garland/bunting beauties, one of which is pictured at the top of this post. They're awesome b/c they're a thousand times prettier than the paper stuff at walmart, plus reusable equals easier on the environment, plus they pretty much have endless applications - not all girly either. And she takes custom orders so if you really wanted to boy-ify it, you can get them with a boyish print.

Check her out, buy a garland, have a party, and invite the neighbors! Much sun and happiness to you all...

Embroidery Fun on Etsy and An Amazing Quilt Block Listing

2010-05-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

So I've actually been really good lately about not spending money like a wild woman. I've been downright frugal. I haven't even visited Goodwill in a couple of weeks. But, as I predicted, the embroidery bug has caught. And I had to just take a quick peek and search embroidery hoops on Etsy. And I found this:

MyraMelinda

It was $7.50 including shipping. And there's that beautiful lace, and that old funky broke down quilt block. And the buttons - my etsy search turned up some amazing emroidery hoop art with buttons, so I'm inspired to give that a try. So it's mine now. As are these:

LemonTorte

...~~which are nothin' fancy, but I think they'll do for wall hangings and my goodness all 8 of them were a buck, well 3 including shipping, but that beats the heck out of the ones at Joanns.~~ EDIT: Well file that under "too good to be true" - the seller just emailed me to ask which one I wanted. Guess "8 embroidery hoops 1 dollar" means 1 dollar each. Oh well, she refunded me my money right away, so I have $3 of my frugality back.

So there I got my little fix for ~~$10.50~~ $7.50 ~~and am stocked to the ears with emroidery hoops and other embellishments~~. Can't wait to get my paws on them and start stitching away. I ~~have~~ had plans for birthday presents, belated Mother's Day gifts, little man bedroom decorations...darn it, all this crossing out is making me sad that I'm not getting all those hoops after all :-(

Inspired by that first purchase I also did a quick search for quilt blocks - nothing in my price range (free) that I could get, but were I less monetarily challenged, my finger would have punched "add to cart" on this listing before my brain ever knew what happened:

roryunraveled

Evidently the shop owner found these at an estate sale in Wisconsin. If ever there were a reason to live in the midwest, folks, I'd say this is it. I just love that top block in the picture on the left - that white and aqua and green paisley/floral pattern? And she says they're from vintage feedsack fabric. Really, they made feedsacks from this stuff? Talk about the good old days. How lovely. Anyway, I wish I knew the person that ultimately buys this lot, b/c I would LOVE to take a gander at the finished product.

A Few Posts Rolled Into One

2010-05-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a pretty little bitty tiny flower brought to me by my big boy this weekend. Him and his dad picked it for me on their way back from visiting the neighbors I think. He had it very carefully pinched between his little fingers so as not to crush it. I think it's the most beautiful flower I've ever been given!

I sat it on top of my sewing machine and was struck by how it looked when backlit. Dreamy. The one with the spool of yarn is for size comparison. Please don't judge me by the dust on my machine.

I FINALLY tested out my serger. Guess what? It worked a treat! It was even quiet and smooth! It was so much better than I expected! I had cut out a square of linen to practice-embroider, and I figured it was a perfect practic-serger project as well, since that linen is dying to fray all over the place - voila:

super!

Then I practice-embroidered! The project was inpsired by the sampler pattern in that book that I just inserted a link over there and can't figure out how to get rid of, sorry. Anyway, in hers it says "Stitches I Know" but I got the first word started and realized I needed to stop at "stitch" or I was going to be off balance, so I rolled with it and changed it to "Stich in Time". It has no special conscious meaning. I'm sure I could come up with something deep if pressed. Anyway, then I just free-wheeled and tried out a bunch of stitches she explains in the book. I can see that achieving symmetry is going to be my biggest challenge...

I'm totally hooked. The colors you get to choose from are amazing, the project is tiny and portable, and quick. The texture is so nubbly and fun to touch...I can see going completely overboard with this new hobby. Everything must be embroidered!!

Then, inspired by the crown Maureen Cracknell made for her son's birthday party (which was in turn inspired by one in this book: The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections) I set to work on a crown for Willie's birthday next weekend. If I ever do get really good at sewing, I will keep this puppy around to humble me:

I didn't use a pattern, I just sorta measured his head and did some figuring in my head and some scissor cutting and five tons of winging it. It isn't as tall as I envisioned, and I didn't have the forethought (well, I did but then said screw it) to make the appliques first so there wouldn't be all that visible stitching, but whatevs...It was me, a 4 year old, an 8 month old, and a hot iron all in the same small room - I was more than a little distracted. All in all I'm impressed it turned out at all, and I like the cowboy theme with the cowboy print covering the elastic, the old striped fabric - a shirt from his dad's cowboy days, and the stars which I don't know, may not be cowboy, but they are blue and that was Willie's biggest request. He likes it too:

Happy almost birthday Willie Man. Mommy loves ya. Now go wash that face!!

Excuse My Dust - I'm Trying To Make A Button

2010-04-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

And my tutorial tells me I must post it first. :-)

Makeover

2010-04-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

So perhaps it's the beauty of a blog that when one cannot afford a trip to the Aveda salon for themselves - to remedy a few particularly bad hair weeks, nevermind days - with just a few clicks and no money spent their blog can get some new highlights here and there, a little freshening up for the change of seasons.

I pulled all of the changes from the spectacularly Summery photo above. It makes me feel cheery.

Anyway, not a lot to jabber about today, much sunshine and cheeriness to you all this weekend!

Little Things

2010-04-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

So maybe this slow to depart winter isn't so bad. Last night I got home in a driving wind and rain storm, loved on my baby a bit, and took a hot bath. These are some pictures of the cozy view out of the bathroom window. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, that damp green ground is a thing I didn't know I missed since leaving home. I've been living in various parts of the dry and dusty west for almost ten years now, so it's been a while - and I miss it.

I found out about this book, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort of Joy, while reading the amazing and inspiring blog Bloom. I searched the internet all day trying to find it without spending money on it (swaptree), but couldn't. The next day I went to fetch Rowdy out of the book section at the thrift store, and a simple glance to my left revealed its pretty pink patterned self sitting there on the 0.25 rack! I'm so happy it found its way to me, I'm just 20 pages in and so inspired! Here are a couple of quotes/passages that really speak to me and where my life is at right now:

"When money is plenty this is a man's world. When money is scarce it is a woman's world. When all else seems to have failed, the woman's instinct comes in. She gets the job. That is a reason why, in spite of all that happens, we continue to have a world." - Ladies' Home Journal, October, 1932

"Acceptance is surrendering to what is: our circumstances, our feelings, our problems, our financial status, our work, our health, our relationships with other people, the delay of our dreams. Before we can change anything in our lives, we have to recognize that this is the way it's meant to be right now. For me, acceptance has become what I call the long sigh of the soul...'Everything is going to turn out all right' This is simply part of the journey...Whatever situation exists in your life right now, accept it...Cast a glance around and acknowledge what's going on. This is my tiny kitchen with the dirty floor, this is how much I weigh, this is my checking account balance, this is where I work right now...this is okay, this is real life." - Sara Ban Breathnach

Brilliant. I love that she pulled that Ladies Home Journal quote from the depression, applied it to her situation in '95, and here I am, finding complete comfort in it during the economic woes we're experiencing in 2010. I feel like it so applies to all us lady bloggers. Most of the blogs I love to read are being written my moms, grandmothers, young women - all of whom are taking this economy and working with it. They are sharing and inspiring and creating a community of resourceful women who will ultimately get us all through these hard times, and its so nice to be even a tiny part of that.

This book is like a little guide to being grateful and finding happiness in the small things and in the abundance we already have in our lives. A lot of what she talks about are things I've started doing already, that I wish I'd started doing so much sooner - what a bunch of wasted years spent worrying! I cant' wait to hear what else she has to say, I'm pretty sure she's going to inspire me to clear out my clutter at some point...

Oh, and did you notice the other book? Embroidered Effects: Projects and Patterns to Inspire Your Stitching (Sublime Stitching) I got my floss and didn't know where to start. When I mentioned this to my lovely neighbor she loaned this book to me. It's PERFECT. Totally starts from the nitty gritty basics. Now I just need to get started.

And so I spent my lovely, waning winter evening, with a rare rain beating on the window -being inspired, preparing papers that may or may not help to lower our mortgage, knitting and drinking tea. Babies cozy in bed, dear husband reading a book with his eyes closed and glasses askance, everybody warm and cozy and healthy. Chickens and goats annoyed at the weather but snug in their houses...Now that is an evening that was easy to accept and be grateful for!

Things I Like About My Job

2010-04-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

I work for the state legislature. While there isn't a whole lot of happy stuff going on around here lately, there are some amazing things going on in grounds keeping. I may work in a windowless box, but when I get out for a walk, I get a real treat. Wanted to share some of the beauty with you today.

I never noticed this gorgeous plant last year:

I love how delicate and leggy it is, then plop! These big showy trumpets set right on top.

Isn't life amazing that you can go 33 years and then be surprised by something so beautiful? Makes me pretty optmistic about the years to come.

Some beautiful tulips - the only cut flower I like my husband to buy me 'cause they last so long. Everything else seems a waste of dollars:

I think the color of these blossoms are so beautiful, like a cherry blossom taken to the next level - I love how they lean over the wrought iron fence and create a semi-tunnel to walk under:

So I'm pretty happy - seems this whole Winter thing is going to resolve itself after all. 'Course they're calling for rain and snow tomorrow....

Pants are ALMOST FINISHED, a Preview

2010-04-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Ta Da! I'm calling them "Tiny Bubbles" I have to measure, but I think they're probably 3-6 month size - I'm going to have to get better at knitting to size rather than eyeballing it. I'm super happy with them, and will be listing them sometime this week.

I like the mixture of crafts - knitted pants and crocheted circles. When I start embroidering, maybe I'll add that in and go for the whole trifecta effect.

They have lots of fluffy diaper butt room, and the cuff can be turned up for shorter legs or for the baby that likes to rock capris.

I have some tag sewing issues that need to be ironed out. I just need to sew it on before I turn the waistband down - duly noted for my next pair, which I started last night. Anyway, I'm picturing them as the perfect summertime aprez-beach pant for your littlest surfer babe. They have a silky, almost cool to the touch hand that makes them appropriate for summer. Yeah, these and a pair of baby Uggs? Freakin' classic - oh to live by the sea again, I miss it so much.

But I can't complain too much, in contrast to my last post, here in the barren desert it was a beautiful sunny weekend, my parents came to visit, and that was great fun...spirited political discussions excluded.

Ugh. A highly liberal father and staunchly conservative husband do not make for pleasant dinner table conversation - can't we all just get along?

All in all though it was a great time and it is always so sad to see them leave.

It was also an exciting weekend as we got to test out our minivan's carrying capacity - more on that later.

Hope you all had a beautiful weekend as well!

Springtime in the Wild West

2010-04-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

This was what the sky was doing on my way home last night. It smacked of something wicked this way coming. But it was sure beautiful.

Here's what I saw when I woke up this morning:

Yup, something wicked this way came. Remember my sunburn from last weekend? It still itches, and I'm waking up to SNOW. Unbelievable.

However, if you don't like the weather in the west, wait five minutes. Something wicked will that way go. And besides, I can't say as I'm hating this springtime precip. The smell of sage is a balm for the soul. For those of you who've experienced it, maybe this picture, taken on this morning's commute, will conjure it - that spicy warm scent that drifts lightly on damp spring air:

It's mother nature's air freshener.

I remember when I first smelled sage. We lived in Wyoming, my husband's home state. Rowdy and I would hop in the big ol' Ford he calls Old Smokey and head out into the high desert for the weekend. Never had a plan, but we'd load up a six pack of beer, a pack of red vines, a bottle of water, some binoculars, our sweet dog, and hit the road.

All times of year were special, but spring was just amazing. I remember a day quite like this morning, trucking along dirt roads through the sage brush, looking for a break in a fence that evidently criss-crossed the entire state. You could see the storm clouds coming for miles and the smell of sage rising heavily from the damp ground. Eventually the rain came down. The colors of that day were incredible: purple and gray sky, deep green of the increasingly saturated sage, chocolate brown of the slippery mud. Makes me want a big old glug of Coors just thinking about it.

I remember the pickup sliding/careening on that gumbo mud down a little hill into a gully and not being very eager to climb up the other side. There was a very real prospect of getting stuck out there in the high lonesome, no shelter aside from Old Smokey and the listing remnants of an old homestead on the horizon. I really could have cared less. I could have stayed there forever.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

A Little Knitted Cuff

2010-04-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

I'm so close to finishing my first listing for knitted baby pants. Actually, the pants are finished, I'm just adding embellishment now. It's taking all I have to get to the end. If it weren't for the shop, I'd put it aside and move on to the next project (ask me how I have a pair of socks that I finished 5 years ago but have yet to weave in the ends....I have a ridiculous attention span that's how).

Anyway, last night I couldn't take it, I needed SOMETHING finished, so I whipped up this little bracelet/cuff thing.

It is in the same colors as the pants, and with the same embellishments (so it doubles as a teaser for the pants). I think it turned out kind of cute! It's sort of a girly version of 1980s sweat band things. I also like that it's summery and soft and I just love the colors.

So I don't know, I might have to add an "earthbound mommy" section to my shop and make these guys - this yarn is cotton/modal, machine washable, and comes in a spectrum of the yummiest, juiciest colors, so the combinations are endless - I can just imagine the color explosion on my shop if I made and listed a bunch in different colors. Would love to know what you all think!

Homebirth Tshirt Giveaway Ends Tomorrow

2010-04-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

Don't Forget, my Homebirth Tshirt giveaway over at Woman, Uncensored ends tomorrow!

So Much to Say! Yard Work! Sunburns! And Yarn Dying!

2010-04-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Oh my, it was a wonderful weekend! Did I accomplish everything I planned to? Absolutely not. The laundry got folded but not put away, the sink is piled high with dishes. But I don't care. I just did not want to be indoors this weekend, so I wasn't.

Let's focus on the things I did accomplish, like dying some of the yarn I got from my Old Navy sweater with Kool-Aid!

I followed these instructions. It worked great I think! I read somewhere else that you need to use wool to get good color saturation. This sweater is like 20% wool and 80% cotton. I think that is what accounts for the heathered look - the cotton didn't take up the dye as well. But that's fine, I like heathered! I used lemon lime and black cherry. I'm gonna use grape and orange to dye the rest next weekend. Now to decide on what to knit with it!?

Other than that the main order of the day was grocery shopping and chicken coop moving. Groceries are boring so I'll spare you. On to chickens. Their coop is behind our garage in a spot that doens't get enough sun so we're moving it to another unused corner of our backyard where they will get more sun and will be in closer proximity to the hose so it isn't such a pain to water them. So this is their old coop:

This is where they are moving to - Steven the goat is always down to help with moving chickens:

It doesn't look like much yet, but it will. And best of all my ladies will have this lovely view, or more importantly this lovely shade - hard to come by in Summer in the desert:

And I want my girls comfortable, 'cause they give us these:

And this, well this is just a gratuitous shot I wanted to share. Its this succulent thing that volunteers all over our front yard. Things don't just volunteer where I live - well, unless they are noxious vile weeds with spiky prongs that like to get buried in your heel - lots of those types of plants volunteer around here. But this one's kinda pretty and doesn't seem to be out to maim or kill. I like it. Anybody have any idea what it is?

And I got sunburnt - I do this every year, convince myself I'm gonna get melanoma, promise to be better next year, then do it all over again. Really dumb. And I have to come clean, I drank a little of the kool-aid. It was so good.

A Warm Fuzzy Welcome To My New Followers!

2010-04-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

I wanted to say a quick and warm welcome to all my new followers who have arrived via my homebirth shirt giveaway at Woman, Uncensored!

I am busy working on some new shirt designs, crunching my budget to find a way to order some shirts in larger sizes, and spastically jumping from one random craft project to another (see some of my recent posts if you're interested in finding out more about the to do list I've gotten myself into lately - I need to develop an edit button). All the while laundering/cooking/breastfeeding/mending boo-boos/and complaining about the weather! Just another day in the life of a Mommy!

I am beyond thrilled to have you join my new blog family, it's making it much easier to pretend I'm speaking with somebody other than myself as I blog along so self-importantly! Today I'm working on my mom's old Imac, which I'm not entirely sure how to add photos to, so I dug around in some old photographs she already had in here, and came up with the photo you see above for your visual interest.

It's an oldie but a goodie; that's me in the front row with the flower shirt (wild irises, I believe) circa I'd say 1982 or so. My Dad's up there rockin' the semi 'fro, my mom beside me in the pretty peasant blouse. The other three are our very best and very dear family friends - no blood connection, but family just the same. It's in this spirit I welcome you to sit a spell, read a bit, and comment often!

I'm so glad you're here!