Naturally Crafted Mama

Giving motivation a swift kick in the bum

2012-01-27T14:38:00.001-05:00

I've recently discovered the joys of WI-fi.... via smartphones and a dusted off laptop. Oh the endless possibilities for a mom of two toddlers.... as I write this entry on my phone i'm daydreaming of my grand re-entry into cyberspace. Look out!

wishing you....

2012-01-01T11:01:00.003-05:00

happy new year's! wishing you peace, love, joy, health, prosperity, excitement and adventure in 2012!

the birth of noah

2011-12-08T20:40:00.003-05:00

keeping right up with the timely manner that i posted tanner's birth story (oh wait, that only took me a year, i'm going on a year and a month for noah's!), i wanted to share noah's birth story. noah turned one on november 18. i have to say that this was most likely the fastest feeling year of my life so far. without further ado, here's the story of my sweet spark of a boy's entrance into the world....

Noah Patrick, born November 18, 2010 at 6:06am. 9 pounds 3 ounces, 21 ½ inches long.

I had another good pregnancy with Noah. As with Tanner, I felt good most of the time, didn’t have any morning sickness. I suffered the same gut wrenching heartburn that I suffered with Tanner. My only other pregnancy suffering this time around was about half way through I started suffering from sciatica. It would come at the most random times, one minute I would be walking perfectly fine, the next minute I thought I would fall to the floor with the shooting pain in my butt. It struck the worst at night when I would almost become paralyzed when trying to roll over. It was bad, but my doctor shared horror stories of women coming in who couldn’t even stand up straight. As with the heartburn, the sciatica nearly disappeared right after birth. Having a summer pregnancy wore me out more than with Tanner. Oh yeah, and the fact that I had a one year old running about!

Noah’s due date fell right around Thanksgiving, but the ultrasound gave the date to be November 18. At the end of October I started dilating to 2 centimeters. This time around I didn’t completely freak, knowing that last time I went 5 weeks at 2 centimeters. On November 17 I went in for my prenatal appointment and my doctor did an internal exam and was surprised to find I was 5 ½ centimeters dilated! Once again I was laboring without knowing it. I reminded her that when I had Tanner I had been in labor all day and didn’t know it, arriving at the hospital a couple centimeters shy of being fully dilated.

My doctor recommended two options- because I am one of the lucky ladies who doesn’t know she’s in labor she gave me the option to go home and pack my bag and then come back to be induced. Her reasoning was so that I avoided accidentally giving birth at the grocery store (she was half joking). I immediately shot that option down. Being induced scared me to no end, most of the labor horror stories I’ve heard involved induction. No way. So my other option was to come back later in the afternoon and be rechecked to see how things were moving along. I opted for that.

So later that afternoon I went back and was still 5 ½ centimeters. We scheduled another checkup for two days later. My doctor firmly told me that if I felt ANY signs of labor to call her right away so my husband didn’t end up delivering that baby on the side of the highway…. Which in the end he almost did!

That night around 9pm I started feeling crampy and knew I was in labor. I had a feeling I wasn’t quite ready but following my doctors advice I called her and she recommended I head to the birthing center at the hospital. We dropped Tanner off at grammie and gramps and headed to the hospital, arriving about 10 pm. They checked me and I was still only 5 ½ centimeters and my cramping had subsided a bit. There was no way I wanted to hang out at the hospital all night long, even despite chancing that the baby would come sooner than expected. So I managed to convince the nurses to call my doctor and convince her to let me go home. And that’s what we did. I went to bed as soon as we got home, expecting I might be awakened.

I slept a bit, my mind being too anxious to sleep soundly. At about 3am I started to cramp again, but much stronger. I had a feeling I was definitely laboring this time, so I started timing contractions. They were so random that I held off waking Pat and just laid in bed riding them out. At about 5am they started getting stronger and I decided to go downstairs and walk around a bit. By the time I got down the stairs and into the bathroom they were really strong….. I had forgotten that they tend to pick up strength and speed when walking! I had an instant wave of panic when I realized I might have laid in bed too long. I yelled up to Pat to get up, we had to leave NOW!!! Pat flew out of bed and we drove the 15-20 minutes to the hospital.

We arrived at 5:30am and I hustled to the birthing center. They weren’t expecting me because my doctor had said that if we didn’t get a chance to call ahead of time that was fine. So the first nurse I encountered was a tad rude, mistaking me for a gal who apparently had been trying to get induced. When I explained that I was not that girl and I was in labor for sure, she brought me right into a delivery room and got me set up. She noticed I appeared to be in pain and immediately did an internal before actually checking me into the hospital and doing all the paperwork and questioning mumbo jumbo. Immediately she yells down the hall “call the doctor, she’s 9 centimeters!!!”. The doctor arrived within a few minutes and they got the monitors and stuff on me and she examined me as well. My water hadn’t broken yet, so they gave it a few more contractions and then she suggested breaking my water. I was hesitant at first, but figured at 9 ½ centimeters I was about to have this kid, and decided to let her do it.

Within a few minutes I started having the urge to push. This is the part I remember the most with Tanner, that absolutely amazing sensation as your body gives you no option but to push. I pushed a few more times than with Tanner (with Tanner I pushed about 3 times and he was out) but it was still a very short time and then out came Noah. He arrived at 6:06am (a mere 36 minutes after we arrived at the hospital…. Yes Pat definitely could have been delivering this one in the car!!!!). He was such a chunky little guy; head full of hair and a big perfectly round face. When they told me that he weighed 9 pounds 3 ounces I was shocked, a whole pound heavier than Tanner!

I was blessed with another beautiful, short and sweet, natural birth that I wish every woman could experience. It is an experience that always reminds me at how powerful and strong women are. And this is whether they have a natural birth or not. We grow humans in us. We birth them into this world. We freakin’ rock.

fall muffins

2011-11-03T12:01:00.005-04:00

last week was the last farmer's market of the season here so i stocked up on plenty of pumpkins and winter squashes. and with the cold weather quickly upon us i've also cleaned summer dust from my baking pans. this morning i whipped up these tasty muffins to use up some of our fresh picked apples and farmer's market squash.

fall muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup flour

1/2 oat bran

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup cooked pureed pumpkin or winter squash (i just mashed up a baked squash)

1 mashed ripe banana

1 peeled and grated medium apple

1/2 cup raisins

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

3/4 cup sugar **

** i used 6 packets of stevia and 1/4 cup sugar instead- next time i think i'll eliminate the sugar all together and use 8 packets of stevia (sorry, i don't have the measuring amount for the stevia, we use the SweetLeaf brand)

1/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. mix together all dry ingredients. add remaining ingredients and mix together until all dry ingredients are moist. fill lined cupcake tins to approximately 3/4 full. bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

makes approximately 18 muffins

these tasty and healthy snack muffins were approved by all of us.... so much so that i think another batch will be in order in a few days :)

making the full circle

2011-11-03T10:33:00.007-04:00

saturday:::

my much awaited order of garlic, a raspberry bush, and a grape vine arrived for fall planting. the murmurs of snow from during the week were getting louder, and by the time the goodies arrived on my porch there was a full blown rant of a nor'easter heading our way with the likes of 6 to 18 inches of snow. i chocked it up to silly weatherman delusions. it's october. in connecticut. we don't get major snowstorms in october. maybe the end of december, but not the end of october. it would be a day of rain.

so i recruited my number one helper to run the dump truck while i ran the excavator, and set to work getting a row dug around a much neglected spring bed.

those odd looks from the neighbors were ignored. after all, they were the ones getting out snow shovels in october.

but then halfway through digging our garlic trench the flakes began to fall. hmph. it will change to rain soon enough so let's pack up our gardening stuff and head inside for lunch.

hmmmm it doesn't seem to be changing yet..... wait, is there almost an inch of snow out there already??? so then the mad scramble to get the plants in commenced.

with a quick goodbye to the first year perennial garden i carved out during the summer. all those beautiful blanket flowers that were in full bloom i'm sure will be a mess by tomorrow, when surely all this snow will be gone.

while waiting for the snow to stop and gardening to resume i rigged up a little experiment with my late planted sugar snap peas. a very sunny window in our cold pantry might make a perfect home for these guys. mmmmm sugar snap peas fresh picked from our pantry??? that would be awesome.

and so the day went on. and so did the snow. and then the night came. and the snow kept coming.

sunday:::

and then we awoke to the perfectly predicted (bravo weathermen, bravo!) half a foot of snow. in october. in connecticut.

oops what is that orange thing under all that snow? ooooooooo yeah, pumpkin carving would have been an excellent activity to pass the day away yesterday.

the boys and papa headed out to check on family members who lost power and i felt lucky that we live so close to the start of the grid. my power was on while over half of the town and the surrounding towns were without power. it's amazing the mess an october snowstorm can do! trees down everywhere, wires down everywhere.

and while they were out i took some time to reaffirm the necessity of my stash.

one cream colored felted thrift store sweater that hasn't been turned into longies yet, check. one piece of craft felt that hasn't been turned into felt potatoes yet, just enough to stitch up a pirate vest in less than 10 minutes, check. one felt collector's pouch stitched up in the springtime, check. and one pair of now too short pants stitched up last winter, check. oh and don't forget that bird on the shoulder who never quite makes it back into the christmas box year after year, check.

the cutest damn pirate suit in less than a half hour. stash reaffirmed.

oh and that pumpkin. how again is it halloween eve and the pumpkin hasn't been carved? this is after all my favorite halloween activity.

especially when i have such a creative request from tanner. when asked what he wants mama to carve into the pumpkin, he promptly came up with a raccoon, a moon, and a garbage can. and so it was.

monday:::

and then there was the year when halloween was postponed. that snow is still on the ground. the trees are still on the ground. the power lines are still on the ground. in october. in connecticut. declaring a state of emergency, the town decided to encourage the postponement of halloween to saturday. but that didn't stop us from dressing up and visiting all our in the dark local family members.

tuesday:::

what were we doing again before that freak snowstorm threw us a kink?

garlic!!!

and so it happened that by late tuesday morning the sunny half of our yard had finally melted enough to get that garlic planted and get the raspberry bush planted as well.

now to just get the grape vine planted before the real winter arrives....

when the woods give you bugs

2011-10-25T20:58:00.004-04:00

here in connecticut i've found that the woods become almost unbearable with bugs at certain times of the year. at some point in the summer the heat and the rains combine to create a mosquito bomb. most years i've retreated. but this year i found a natural way to fight back.

Natural Mosquito Repellent
1 tsp rose geranium essential oil
1/2 tsp lavender essential oil
1/2 tsp catnip essential oil ***
2 tsp rubbing alcohol/ or grain alcohol/ or vodka
7 ounces water

combine essential oils with the alcohol. add the water to a spray bottle (i like to use one with an atomizer spray nozzle). add the essential oil mix to the water, put nozzle on and shake. shake well before applying to exposed skin and clothes. reapply as needed. as with any sort of body product, do a test patch to test for sensitivity before using.

i found on really buggy days we usually had to reapply about an hour into our woods time. but that's just fine with me if it's a natural alternative to those icky chemical bug sprays that may work a bit longer. this summer i used this on myself and both boys with much success.

*** my favorite part of this recipe is the scientific data supporting catnip being a more effective mosquito repellent then DEET. however, if you don't have access to catnip oil, i've made this mix without it with good results as well.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

and then there is the fall, when connecticut, which happens to be the lyme disease epicenter of the country, becomes over run with ticks. we have them all year long, but i've found personally that i have the most problems with them in the fall. and this year is no exception. in fact it's been the worst i can remember. this past weekend i had such a horrible experience as i traveled off on a less used trail with a friend and our dogs (thankfully sans kids). during the hike i easily pulled off a dozen or so crawling on my clothing and then i came home to realize our boy duke had become almost infested with them in a mere 2 hours in the woods. after many hours of baths, multiple vacuuming sessions, brushings, and going over duke and the house with a fine tooth comb so to speak, i managed to get the tick situation eliminated. but not without completely freaking out at the thought that those disease carrying parasites had literally taken over my dog and living room for a few hours. taken over MY space. the space that my babes play on. and with that i've decided it's in my best interest to avoid the woods for a few weeks until a freeze knocks those bastards down a bit.

but making a positive out of a negative, this forced us to find a new spot to enjoy for the next few weeks. and enjoying we are. this spot is a park built by the army engineers for flood control. after labor day they close it to vehicles so we have fun running down all the roads and visiting the birds on the beach.

open spaces

2011-10-20T22:25:00.006-04:00

most days i'm drawn to the woods. but on certain days like today, when all things align perfectly, i find myself longing for the open space of an endless field- the blue sky full of puffy clouds, the lack of humidity accompanying the early fall temperature, the constant gusts of wind, and then that glaring cool season sunlight. i love that low on the horizon sunlight, there's definitely something magical about fall and winter sunlight. the way everything seems to sparkle.

so today we headed into open space instead of the comfortable confinement of the forest. we traded rustling leaves for brown grasses and falling leaves for blowing milkweed.

most of all we just enjoyed the warm sun and blowing winds that only an open space can provide so perfectly.

mover of mountains

2011-10-07T22:57:00.003-04:00

Water

Amazing. Powerful.

Mover. Carver. Demolisher. Replenisher

Giver of life. Taker of mountains. Artist of the landscape.

You never cease to amaze me.

mama's power pancakes

2011-09-15T21:18:00.006-04:00

around here pancakes are a regular at the dining room table, whether it be for breakfast or dinner. but around here a pancake isn't just a pancake. they've been lovingly coined as "mama's power pancakes". As tanner grows from that babe who ate anything and everything from indian to italian into mr. picky two year old, i find myself having to become creative in order to get any sort of vegetable into him. some nights i daydream as i cook dinner about writing a cook book called "my best friends, the grater and the food processor. a mama's guide to getting your picky kid to eat his vegies".

and my favorite food to sneak in all those grated and pureed fruits and vegies- pancakes! it never ceases to amaze me just how many pancakes such small beings can fit into their stomachs. so i take full advantage, packing those pancakes with as much nutritional punch as i can.

for my sweet pancakes i use the following base recipe:

1 3/4 cup milk (cow, soy, almond, etc)

1/4 cup oil

2 eggs

1 3/4 cup flour

4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

and then always add in a mashed banana and a grated apple. this makes for a sweet pancake that tanner and noah love to eat without the added sugar of syrup. depending on what's in season i'll also throw in one/some of the following: blueberries, peaches, strawberries, pears. this summer i got on a beet kick and came up with the beauty.

when we're in the mood for savory, i use the above base recipe but eliminate the milk to just a splash and usually increase the salt to liking. grated potato and super finely pulsed onion replaces the apple and banana for the staple. to this i'll add things like pureed garbanzo beans (chick peas), grated zucchini, grated beets, grated carrots. one of my favorites is the middle eastern twist- potatoes, zucchini, garbanzo beans seasoned with finely pulsed onion and garlic, ground cumin and ground coriander. serve with a dipping sauce of tahini sour cream. yum!

this fall i'm going to try throwing some sweet potatoes and yams into a mix.

a few weeks ago i created this visual (and taste bud) beauty for savory- potato, beets, zucchini, and fresh chopped garden chives. seriously, how many kids can resist a PINK pancake???!!

transition

2011-09-15T21:14:00.004-04:00

as time light speeds by, we enter the season of transition between bare bums and winter boots. wishing you a happy autumn equinox.

the simple things

2011-09-15T21:03:00.004-04:00

soaking up as much of the lush green this particularly wet end of summer is providing us before we transition into the fiery colors of new england fall.

letterboxing

2011-09-15T10:23:00.004-04:00

on an average week we head into the state forest a few minutes from my house several times during the week. for the past 12 years i've headed into that same state forest thousands of times. i guess it's become my meditation, that little stretch of woods. and i never knew that hiding right beyond the trail's edge there was this thing called a letterbox. not that i would have taken much interest in it before having kids. but having two mini adventurers by my side now, i thought letterboxing would be a perfect thing to start doing with tanner and noah. so the day before hurricane irene hit, we made a quick stop at the craft store to grab a stamp pad, a few small notebooks, and a stamp. then we headed to that oh so familiar trail to find that hidden letterbox, the treasure on our adventure that day :) i found letterboxing locations for my state through our department of environmental protection (DEP) website, but i'm sure there are many more hidden throughout the state.i'd like to say it was some great magical adventure. yes, it was fun having tanner unearth the hidden bag of stamping goodness from under a big rock. i think they'll both enjoy finding the other ones scattered across the state. but that will have to wait until the cooler, drier weather makes its way here. in all honesty, this little adventure turned into a dragging two screaming kids out of the woods event very quickly. the second we stepped off the trail into the denser woods and stopped moving to start stamping, we started getting chowed. the mosquitoes were rampant. as i tried my hardest to swat the dreaded parasites off my babes and myself, i remembered why i normally avoid this area of the woods during the majority of the summer. we've had such a dry summer, perfect heading into the woods weather.... perfect for wiping all memories of myself and Duke running down that same trail most other summers, swarmed with bugs, myself wondering what on earth i was doing there. a million bug bites later and those memories were perfectly clear :)

The Birth of Tannner

2010-05-17T22:00:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow my sweet baby boy turns one, ONE!!!! For the past year I've been wanting to write this out for myself so I will always remember those small details... so be warned, it's super long :) But I wanted to share my positive natural birth story since when I was pregnant all I seemed to hear were scary horrifying birth stories of hours upon hours of pain. All I can say is WALK THAT BABY OUT mamas!!!

We found out I was pregnant in the middle of September. I knew I wanted kids at some point, but next year always sounded like a better time. So Tanner was a surprise. The night we found out I was a mix of emotions, mostly being upset and mourning life as I knew it. I was too selfish to have a baby, I had too much stuff going on to have a baby, I wasn’t READY to have a baby! But by the next morning most of that angst had developed into excitement and awe. At about 11 weeks along I had my first ultrasound- seeing that tiny baby inside of me sealed the deal- I was excited!

I was blessed to have a really easy pregnancy, and even more blessed to have a quick and “easy” delivery. I have to thank my dog Duke for that. If it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t have “walked my baby out”- he kept me active during my entire pregnancy, hiking and walking the state forest several times a week right up until the day before Tanner arrived. Whenever I was feeling lazy he would guilt me into walking him J I recall having heard it several times over the past 10 years or so, women talking about how they “walked their baby out”- I must have tucked that tidbit of info away for when I might need it in the future. And now after doing just that, I’m a firm believer in it.

May 17th, 2009- It was Sunday at about 10:45pm. Earlier that evening I had made a fresh fruit smoothie for Pat and me- we were drinking it out of wine goblets and we jokingly toasted to having a baby that night. I was four days over my due date. Pat had work in the morning so he headed to bed. I stayed up and was hanging out on the couch rough housing a little bit with Duke. Suddenly I felt a little gush of water, like I had peed. I sat there for a little while, wondering if that was what I thought it was- did my water just break, or did I just pee myself (hey, when you’re 9 months pregnant anything is possible, haha!). When I realized that it was most likely my water breaking, I yelled into Pat to wake up, my water had broke! He had just managed to fall asleep, and called back something of the sort of You’ve got to be kidding me, we have a while before we have to go to the hospital, right?!

At a little after 11pm I called my DR. Turns out it was her night off, so the on call DR called me back and told me to head to the hospital right then. We gathered our stuff and headed to the hospital, calling our family on the way down. About half way to the hospital I started feeling really crampy- super sharp cramps every few minutes. All during that day I had been feeling a little crampy, nothing uncomfortable- in fact I spent almost all day moving about sewing. My DR had told me contractions would feel like my uterus turning rock hard at the top, and that sensation moving downward as the contraction happened. So I had no idea that I was in labor all day long! I was expecting something completely different and something painful!

We got to the hospital at about 11:30pm, got checked in and set up in my delivery room. The nurses were really nice and I was feeling very comfortable with the situation. This was good since I was completely petrified of giving birth. I knew I have little to no tolerance for pain; seriously, I used to come close to passing out from changing my earrings or having a little splinter removed. During the pregnancy all I heard were labor horror stories. I was open-minded going in to labor about taking some sort of pain reliever. My plan was to go with the flow of my body- if it got to be too much for me I would ask for the pain relief. I let my nurse know that.

After getting me all set up in the room she offered me a sleeping aid so I could get some rest- from the little we knew about a typical labor and delivery, Pat and I didn’t expect to be seeing our baby until mid morning the next day. We were expecting a LONG night. And apparently our nurse thought I was a typical delivery too when she offered me the sleep aid. I went back and forth about taking it, but then decided I was really wound up and it would be nice to get some sleep before all the turmoil I was picturing labor to be. Not even a minute after taking it I ended up throwing up. This totally freaked Pat out until the nurse assured him this was typical. About an hour later we looked back at this and realized this was likely my body’s way of rejecting the sleep aid.

About 15 minutes later, probably around 1:30am, my contractions started to get a bit painful. I started getting nervous that if I had to endure another 5 hours or more of this kind of pain I wouldn’t do well. So I let my nurse know that I may want some pain relief in a little while if my contractions continued to get worse. On that, my nurse gave me an internal exam to let me know about when she thought would be a good time. I’ll never forget the puzzled look on her face as she was doing it, and says to me “Hmmm I can’t seem to find your cervix”. This sent a brief wave of panic through me- wasn’t she supposed to be an expert at this, and she can’t even find my cervix! Then the look of shock when she exclaimed “OH MY, you’re 9 ½ centimeters dialated, I need to go call the Doctor!” to which I exclaimed “WHAT, the doctor isn’t here!!!??”. She assured me the doctor would arrive in 15 minutes. She came back in a minute later as me and Pat were giddily chatting about how I had made it through the textbook hardest part of labor without hardly flinching- without any sort of pain relief. The nurse agreed and called me a trooper, saying she would have never guessed by my calmness that I was even close to being fully dilated.

Well not even a few minutes later the most amazing and intense sensation surged through my body. My body was ready to push out this baby and there was no stopping it. I felt an overwhelming urge to push, so overwhelming that I couldn’t fight it off. All I could do was do it. It was the craziest feeling I’ve ever felt in my body. The nurse was trying to talk me through “breathing it out” since the doctor had yet to arrive. For about 10 minutes I had managed to “breath out” instead of push, which worked during some of the contractions, and not so well as I naturally pushed during the other ones. All I remember during this time was that amazing sensation in my body and repeating over and over to the nurse, “WHERE’S THE DOCTOR, I NEED TO PUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The doctor finally arrived a little after 2am and I was finally able to let my body do its thing- I pushed for less than 15 minutes- Tanner made his entrance to this world at 2:27am on May 18th, 2009. They placed him right onto my chest and I said to Pat, “so is this the best present I’ve ever given you?”- a baby boy. He was so beautiful, with a thick head of almost black hair. And a big boy at 8 pounds 2 ounces and 22 inches long. And so life began as a family of three (well, six, counting our furry family members).

Tanner celebrating his first birthday:

ssshhhhhhh.... there's inspiration blooming in here

2010-03-10T21:50:00.003-05:00

I've always loved libraries. But I admit, prior to last month, it had been easily three years since I had set foot in one. I used to live in the library when I was finishing up my degree, going in there to find a quite hole to study, do homework, space out, zonk out, people watch from a 5th story window.....

My favorite way of using a library is wondering down all the aisles browsing every subject until one strikes my fancy, then I browse all the books in that section. With crafting and art being some of my favorite sections (could you have guessed?), especially since most of the libraries I go to are very tiny so I always feel like any books they have in those sections are like little gems. Gems of inspiration for me. Inspiration for this piece....

Inspired by a book on William Morris wallpapers and chintzes, a totally unexpected find in my local library. I had to hold in that squeal of delight when I stumbled across this gem. And to think, it's been in the library catalogue since the 80s and I was the first to check it out :)

My trips to the library started again last month thanks to the bookclub my friend started. Well, I guess you would call it a bookclub, we do read books and most of the time we do discuss them- over food and drinks of course :) The food has become just as important as reading the book. OK, ok, so some of us use it as an excuse to get together with other humans and eat, drink, and be merry. Like last month with Adventures of Alice in Wonderland commencing with a very happy unbirthday tea party. So what if we were drinking pina coladas in those tea cups instead of tea. And so what if not a word about the book was mentioned, there were cucumber sammies and Kahlua soaked lady fingers to be eaten! Pinkies up!

WIP wednesday

2010-03-03T09:36:00.003-05:00

Two outdated WIPs.... both are still works in progress but have come along much farther than when I managed to find a minute to snap these pics...

The wool hooded cardigan I'm making for Tanner. I'm impressing myself with this one- all kinds of new knitting skills being learned, such as putting stitches on a holder to be worked later and decreases and forming necklines. Right now I'm about 2/3 done with the body. It's working up quickly and easily. The only thing with this project is I didn't check my gauge, knowing that was a big mistake before starting, yet I still didn't do it. So this is going to be small. I think it will fit Tanner now, but in my head I was hoping to make it too big, so it would fit next year too. But in my head I knew I was feeling way too lazy to work up a gauge swatch and told myself if it was too small when I finished, I would have it for the next babe (and no I'm not pregnant again, yet, we just plan on having more kids in the future!).

And then my favorite clothing creation I've made in a long time. Too long. In this pic I had just finished ironing on the applique. Now I'm completely done with this hemp fleece tunic dress- and I LOVE how it came out. I'm still considering this one a work in progress b/c I need to photograph it and get it onto Magnolia Skies. Maybe if Tanner gives his mama a little break today I can get it done today. If not it will have to wait until this weekend because I have field work for the day job this week, no time to fit in pictures during the daylight.

clearing room

2010-02-21T23:11:00.003-05:00

I've decided that it's time to remove my Etsy listings for made to order eco clothing. While I've gotten a decent amount of orders on and (mostly) off Etsy for those pieces, it's been more of a hassle and stress than it's worth. That and now the market seems flooded with similar items.... when I first posted my made to order eco line there was already atleast a handful of Etsy sellers with the same concept- now there are easily over a dozen. I knew it wasn't the greatest idea for me to begin with, since I really don't like doing custom orders. But it served it's purpose somewhat, bringing in some extra money while I was home full time with Tanner.

By eliminating one thing, I'm clearing room for new endeavours, new adventures.

I've finally learned how to knit, again. The first time my grandmother showed me about 6 years ago, and for some reason I just couldn't get the flow. So I went back to crocheting. But I've always wanted to knit myself a sweater, and now must have been the perfect time to relearn knitting. This time around I picked it up instantly, it's felt so much more natural. I've finished up a baby alpaca hat for Tanner...

And have moved onto a wool hooded cardigan for him. I figure this will be a good step into sweater making, kind of a miniature version of what I will be making myself, fulfilling my desire :)

I can't help but to think that knitting was waiting for the perfect time to join my life.....

parenting lesson learned #1

2010-02-19T14:52:00.002-05:00

A room is not perfectly baby-proofed when there is a dirty diaper pail in it.

Learned the hard way.

I made sure all of the outlets where plugged, all cords tucked away from little hands, all objects not meant for baby fully out of reach, an array of interesting toys spread out, and a sturdy gate at the door. And into the shower I hopped, baby monitor on, enjoying my shower and listening to Tanner babble away.

Out of the shower I hopped, upstairs to check on Tanner and get dressed....

And there he was..... I just recently heard the expression "shit eating grin", and that's just the grin Tanner gave me. Hands, floor, and pajamas covered in poop, dirty disposable diapers strewn about. With a big ol' smile and a shit covered wave to mama. OH. MY. WORD. Haha!

Laugh, That's all I could do while doing a quick wipe down of Tanner and the floor before carefully carrying him down to the tub for a major scrub down. Thankfully he was entertained enough squishing poop between his fingers and it didn't appear to make its way to his mouth, which is nearly a miracle for a 9 month old baby.

I laughed for a number of reasons. Firstly, the mere fact that I had really thought I did a good job at baby proofing his room. I had two successful days at showering while he played in his room. Obviously that success ended at day three. Secondly, I clearly recall ten years ago when I had a short lived stint as a nurse's aide in a convalescent home on the dementia unit, thinking to myself when I quit that would be the last time I cleaned up a shit smeared person, walls, and bed. Obviously I had no plans at the time of having children. Thirdly, that babies are so clever. I cloth diaper during the daytime and use disposables at night. So I have two diaper pails, one that holds poop and disposable diapers, and the other that holds the slightly cleaner cloth diapers (cleaner in the sense that I knock off the poop into the other diaper pail before putting the cloth diaper into its pail). Tanner was clever enough to know which pail had the fun squishy stuff. And lastly, really, what else can you do but laugh? I guess if I was Pat I would have freaked out and thrown up, but that just makes a bigger mess. It was quite comical looking anyways.

baby love, part deux

2010-02-18T20:37:00.003-05:00

things have been busy around here.... hours spent playing and watching Tanner grow and develop, the never ending unpacking and organizing of the new house, hours have picked up at the day job, I've finally put together my new sewing space, tanner is zooming around the house hot on my tail on all fours.... this alone means vacuuming every day to avoid the fur coat he wears if i don't, along with attempting to mop the floors more often. Since I've assigned it Poppy's night to put him to bed, I'm sneaking in some time on the computer to... well, i guess waste :)

Even though Christmas was almost two months ago, I still want to share some of the beautiful things I purchase for Tanner. I knew he would be getting plenty of noisy plastic toys from family, so I decided to only purchase made in the USA, natural material toys. My favorite splurge was these wooden alphabet blocks in a pull cart by Uncle Goose.

Everything about these blocks is just fabulous... crafted in the USA out of sustainable USA harvested wood, non toxic inks, and the craftsmanship is perfect. I'm expecting these to become an heirloom of sorts. Tanner already loves knocking them around and pulling on the wooden ball to the cart. Before I know it he'll be spelling things out and I'll still be saying Where did my baby go (which is what I'm saying already as today marks his 9 month birthday).

I also bought a few handmade wooden push toys from Banished, including this cute giraffe and one of his painted fire trucks....

as well as that "learn" wooden sign for Tanner's play shelf. The craftsmanship on all of them is top notch.

The alphabet poster wasn't for Christmas, but was purchased around that time from Orange Ink. And I've mentioned that awesome Dream Big letterpress print from Roll and Tumble Press but now that it's all framed I'll gush some more about how much I love it :)

Ok, good, I got all that shared before it's officially two months past Christmas. so yeah, things are coming along around here. The number of days I feel like I'm getting my sh*t together is starting to outnumber the days I feel like nothing is getting done around here. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to share some pics of the new house soon.... I've been waiting until atleast one room is completely put together and done.... and we're getting close! Just in time for our lives to be dumped upside down again when we completey gut and remodel the kitchen :)

baby love, part one

2010-01-11T17:34:00.005-05:00

My friend Justine just had her baby, and I finally managed to get her baby package mailed out to her last week.... which means I can finally share all the goodies that I've been wanting to share for months now. This oh so luxurious baby alpaca crocheted blanket was the holdup. With the move, major work on the house, and then Christmas, it took a bit longer than I had hoped to complete :)

But so worth the wait. Baby alpaca yarn is just so luxurious. I mean, just look at this yarn. So soft and fluffy. I had a hard time parting with it, I have to admit :)

I was inspired to make her this blanket by two handmade blankets that were made for Tanner. My boss's wife made me a beautiful knitted baby alpaca throw in cream. I love this blanket. After receiving this blanket I decided that every baby needs to have one of these. Well, every baby whose mama appreciates handmade and luxurious fiber. Cause honestly it's too pricey to give to someone who can't appreciate it. But with Justine being a fiber artist, I knew this was to be my handmade gift to her. The other inspiration came from a travel sized crocheted blanket my friend Michelle made for Tanner. I made Justine's blanket travel sized too. I keep Tanner's in the car, it's the perfect size to keep him toasty warm in his car seat. And now that he's been riding in the shopping cart instead of on me in the baby wrap, the blankie comes to the stores with us too.

The other thing I made for my friend's baby is this cute patchwork quilted bib. This was inspired by her awesome quilting skills. It was my first time doing free motion quilting, so it was actually a two in one- a gift for my friend as well as practice for the quilt I'm making Tanner. It was really fun doing, and I hope the quilt goes as smoothly. Although I'm pretty sure there will be some cursing in the mix since the quilt is like 100 times the size of the bib.... and that gets pretty awkward in trying to work with.

And the things I've been dying to share for months now are the other handmade gifts that I purchased for her from Etsy. This handpainted nightlight by Earth Steps was just gorgeous! I'll definitely be getting one when we have a little extra cash.

And the seller was just awesome. I had convoed her prior to buying it, letting her know it would be a gift so to include her business info. She had misunderstood me and thought I was having it shipped to someone else, so she wanted to make sure she had the right address. This nice woman called me to confirm. On the phone. In the day of emails and texts. It was so nice of her. She had even put a nice little gift note in with the light without me requesting it, when she was thinking it was going directly to my friend. She shipped super quick too. It was by far the best customer service I've received with any online purchase.

One of the other gifts I wanted to share was this cute wooden teether by Little Sappling Toys. Super cute, very well made, and beautifully packaged. These guys were just the featured sellers on Etsy this week, so apparently they're liked by many. And the best part about these guys is they plant a tree for every order!

Baby Love, Part II to come soon.... the greatest baby love around here.... Some of the gifts I got for Tanner's first Christmas and his nursery that I'm finally able to set up! But that will have to wait till another day because that baby has been patiently reading (errr chewing) his book as his mama writes this post. Thanks Love!

winter love

2010-01-09T17:31:00.002-05:00

I forgot how much I love winter hiking. I'm not the biggest fan of winter, actually, I really don't like winter. But winter hiking, well that's what keeps me sane during the cold, blustery days of this dark season. Today we sent the babe to grandmie's and I grabbed Duke and headed out to the state forest. The day couldn't have been more perfect. My plan was to do a short stroll, with getting back to the curtain making on my mind. But once I stepped foot onto the trail, the crisp air, the pure blue sky without the blemish of a cloud in site, the late morning winter sun warming my face, all thoughts of the day's chores vanished.

Mother nature had glittered the entire forest, and as I walked I was glad that I opted not to bring my camera. I knew that if I had it I would have been distracted trying to capture the pure beauty of the sun beaming off the snow crystals, creating a rainbow of glitter scattered all around me through my polarized sunglasses. It was so beautiful. I don't think anyone could have captured just how beautiful that glitter was. Just me, Duke, the pure blue sky, and glitter all around us.

I ended up doing the full trail, without really thinking about it. My body needed it. My mind needed it. My soul needed it. For the past 9 or so years I have managed to go hiking atleast once a week, often two times, sometimes three times. Missing a week was rarity. But before today I hadn't been hiking in a month and a half. That's a long time. Last week, despite the exhaustion from Tanner keeping me up on and off all night long for four nights in a row as he fought off a tiny cold, I found myself lying awake in the middle of the night. Mind empty. But not being able to go back to sleep. I almost never suffer from even the slightest insomnia- the rare occasion when my mind won't stop going, either worrisome thoughts or thoughts so exciting I can't help but to lie awake and think about them. But last week I knew my mind and body were suffering from my lack of movement. Hiking is my meditation. I cruised right along today, not skipping a beat, making better than usual time. And I was so glad my legs kept trekking. This mama needed some breather time, away from the babe, away from the house, away from the husband, away from everything and everyone except for the beauty that surrounded me.

Until I bust out my canvas and paints, making another attempt at capturing with paints and glitter the visions in my head, I leave you with these two beauties I found while browsing Flickr- attempting to find something that somewhat captured the beauty I felt this morning on our hike. The blue sky, the oh so bright white winter sun set low in the sky, the pureness I feel breathing in the crisp air.....

Yet a completely magical and mystical place with all that rainbow glitter. A magic that couldn't be captured on camera, but magical like this scene is magical in it's own way....

favorites of the year

2010-01-01T18:06:00.004-05:00

I haven't got a chance to put together my Magnolia Skies favorite creations of the year yet, but wanted to share my favorite creation of the year- our first baby..... here's some of our family favorites of the year. 2009 was a big year for us, welcoming Tanner into our lives as well as purchasing our first home. Let's hope 2010 is just as good :)

Happy New Year!

dipping my toes into everyone's puddles

2009-11-17T23:17:00.004-05:00

With so much talk of job loss these days, I'm grateful for being blessed with the skills I have and for all the opportunities that have poured into my lap. I sometimes wonder if opportunities rain into every ones laps, but some people just aren't tuned in to jump into the puddle.

I've come to learn about myself that I'm happiest as a "Jayne of all trades".... it keeps me, well, on my toes. I tend to bore easily, so having so many puddles to jump in and out of keeps me from boredom. And it's nice that all of them allow me to have Tanner with me, including my part time dayjob as an environmental geologist.... something I feel so blessed with. About once a week I have a friend watch him so I can get in some field work, but the other couple hours a week I can bring him into the office. My current puddles include my own puddle Magnolia Skies, my environmental job, my custom dyeing for Little Hippie, and most currently.... young and hip marketing extraordinaire for a photography studio. OK, well maybe not hip, and definitely not extraordinaire..... I'm just trying to psyche myself up for this.

I just made arrangements with my old boss from the photography studio to do some marketing for them. I'll be blogging for them, keeping up a flickr site with their images, and whatever other "hip" marketing strategies I can think of. I'm really excited for this.... something easy to do from home with Tanner, and I think it is going to be fun. If you asked me 3 years ago if I would ever get back into the wedding business again, I might have shot you down with an evil eye, HISSSSSSSS, back you demon!!! But taking a breather from over the top weddings and having pursued my own path, I'm ready to jump into something new. Or old, depending how you look at it.

Anyways, this new opportunity presented itself while getting a beautiful fall portrait done with my old boss and his wife......

moonlighting on

2009-11-12T23:05:00.003-05:00

..... headbands..... lots of headbands.

Tis the season for making my headbands for the boutique Dava that I consign my goods at here in Connecticut. There is something very meditative to me about making these. I do them assembly line fashion, and even the ironing (which I despise) becomes zen like. And counting them.... counting them over and over again, stacking them in piles, the done pile, the ironed pile, the stitched pile. sewing up a set. Then counting again. Can't stop counting them. Just feels so accomplished.

Sewing them tonight while this guy sits on my serger overlooking the work. I couldn't figure out why this little guy was so intriguing to me, I found him in Tanner's crib last week and brought him into the toy rotation. But every night after Tanner was tucked in, I found myself sitting with this guy, holding him, stroking his oh so soft fur. So tonight I decided he would keep me company as I moonlighted through the headbands.

Couldn't figure out what it was about this little guy.... that is until I was uploading the photos from today's hour of fresh air over at the arrowhead grove. And I spotted this one.....

Hmmm you think? :)

convenience store?

2009-11-04T15:57:00.002-05:00

My pondering of the month is how when I hit motherhood there was no longer anything convenient about "convenient stores". seriously, whats convenient about having to fumble around unbuckling your kid, dragging him out of the car seat into the store, then fumbling around trying to buckle in your squirming little love a whole 2 minutes later? nothing. all it is is motivation to be a bad parent. Like when you start thinking, geez, I really need a gallon of milk.... i'm only going to be a minute.... and i never lose sight of the car since it's 10 feet away from the milk and the checkout line through a wall to ceiling glass window.... couldn't i just leave the kid in the car for 2 minutes????

And, well, that's that. you know you can't leave your kid in the car so you don't. but you think about it anyways, which reminds you of the old days of convenience stores. so instead you go to the grocery store, which turns out to be a good thing since you remembered you needed fresh vegies anyways.

I'm just saying, when will they make a drive through where you can pick up a gallon of milk? Cause I think that would be a money maker.

Mama and her baby bear, Halloween.

possibly my favorite...

2009-10-31T15:20:00.002-04:00

song ever.....

it's not very often i find a song that makes it into my seasonal "randomly delicious" mixes for more than one season.... this one found its way there in summer 2008 and is still going strong. Funny thing is I really can't listen to any of their other songs, just a bit too mellow for me. But this one, well i love it :)

So that's it for today, I just finished up Tanner's bear suit for Halloween tonight.... original, right? Yeah, I'm saving my originality in the costume department for when he can actually go out and trick or treat. This year we're just pushing him around in the stroller and collecting candy on his behalf.... OK i'm totally kidding on that one! This subject has come up numerous times with different friends, about seeing parents bringing around their newborn baby trick or treating and collecting candy. I get a total kick out of that. No, we'll be saving the trick or treating till he can walk and we feel OK with him receiving mass amounts of candy :) Tonight we'll just be showing him off to the grandparents so they can get their "oooos" and "awwwwwsss" in.

Anyways, I'm feeling in a kind of funny mood. Now I'm off to make up a bunch of fabric headbands for the boutique Dava I consign at here in CT.... tis the season to start stocking up my holiday stuff for Dava, especially since the sewing studio will probably be down for a good couple weeks when we move into the new house.

Happy Halloween, BWAHHHAHHHHAHHHA!

getting things done

2009-10-18T09:13:00.003-04:00

After only two months (note the sarcasm here) I've finally updated my boutique with my summer stock leftover from the festival season. WEll ok, about half of the stock. I still have a bunch of cute little toddler skirts and a couple more dresses to get onto the site, but I'm making progress!

Life has been busy lately. Aside from the obvious of being a new mom, I've also gone back to fieldwork at the dayjob, which means I'm working slightly more hours. But it's great to get out of the office, I'm so not an office kind of gal, hence going to school for earth science :) I've also been working on some custom orders, like this Hemp/organic cotton stretch jersey Easy Rider skirt (a custom spin on the made to order Easy Rider skirt on my etsy shop) I got my inspiration for the tree applique from an Ansel Adams photograph. Kind of a late Gypsy Road challenge (inspiration vs replication) rolled up in a custom order.

And the busyness I'm most excited about........

We just bought a house!!!! Well 98% bought it, we're still waiting on the "official" mortgage papers to go through, but the bank says we're in really good shape. Since August we've been searching high and low for our "perfect" first house, put bids on three different ones, and unfortunately didn't get them. This was actually our "backup" house, in case October came and we still didn't find anything. We just adore the house itself, a charming Craftsman Bungalow with lots of charm, but the yard is just not for us. We love to be outdoors so having a big yard is important to us, especially with our dog and now Tanner. So this will be the first step in home-ownership for us, but we're definitely psyched for a place to call our own and get out of this tiny second floor rental. So as long as nothing goes wrong with the mortgage, we'll be in our new house at the very end of NOvember, yahooooo!

And with buying a home comes lots of my time going into daydreaming about paint colors, kitchen remodels, being able to finally set up a nursery/bedroom for the babe..... and making furniture. yep, add that one to my list of crafts, hehe :) It's not definite yet, but Pat and I have been talking about buying a family Christmas present this year, some wood working tools. We have chatting about making our own furniture and now that we'll have a nice big workspace (the house has a big two car garage) we might be able to make that a reality. Fun fun!

keeping the circle going

2009-10-03T11:42:00.003-04:00

So the week before last I went on a bit of a shopping spree. For months now I've been doing short browsings through etsy each morning, drooling over all of the eye candy but knowing I wasn't in the position to be buying stuff. But last week we had a bit of extra cash and I also had a few gifts I needed to buy, so I jumped at the chance to keep the cirlce going, supporting my fellow handcrafters. Tanner is napping right now and I still need to get showered (as it's almost hitting noon) so I'm keeping this brief with pictures and links. Everything I ordered I loved and is high quality.

Knit hat for Tanner out of some super yummy yarns by SoWhatBabyButt

Super cute letterpress print for Tanner's new room, a little reminder to DREAM BIG. OK and to satisfy my love affair with letterpress- one of the top things on my list of "what I need to learn". by rollandtumblepress

Some prints for around the house- she was offering a buy one get one free so I ordered the lady with the birds and chose the bicycle print free. by pleasebestill

Well I have a few more to show but Tanner is calling.... so much for jumping into the shower while he naps :) I'll be back to share the others!

She's here!!!!

2009-09-13T23:53:00.003-04:00

That's right, the Magnolia Skies website is a she. And she's here and better than ever. I've just revamped a portion of the site, with the rest soon to be revamped to the new format as time permits. I hate having her in two formats, but hey, a woman's gotta get her sleep when a little man starts calling at 7 am. As it is, here I am at midnight. That's less than 8 hours of sleep tonight. Geez! Anyways, go check her new look out. And like I said, pardon the appearance (which likely means broken links too, eek!). I'd love any feedback :)

Hmmm for some reason I'm not able to add links right now, so go use the link over in the right margin. Or copy and paste www.magnoliaskies.com

Hot damn that's two posting in one day!

getting back in the groove

2009-09-13T15:36:00.003-04:00

I'm not completely there, but I'm getting there. On my ride home from the dayjob the other day I was thinking about this poor neglected blog, and added it to my list of things to get back into the groove with. Even if it's just a once weekly posting. So to start it off I'll share some of my favorite pictures from the past couple months.... some of which are proof that I still am being crafty, just behind the scenes :)

Tanner's second festival at 3 months, vending Philadelphia Folk Fest with Andrea and Natasha. We had so much fun and even got to hang out with Justine and Danielle who were also vending, so many talented ladies!

I love this picture, taken by Justine of Potomacrivergoods.com of Tanner wearing one of her batiks. This is my favorite shirt of the summer too. Another thing I've been doing behind the scenes is playing around in photoshop. I added a "seventies" effect to the picture, love it!

And more proof of my behind the scenes craftiness- an organic cotton beanie I crocheted up for Tanner the other day. I think I may add these to my website too :)

And more photoshop techniques, love this picture, Pat captured so much emotion in it. This was Tanner's first swim.

I'm also in the process of redoing my website, I've almost got the homepage all set, I'll share when it's up and running. I felt like I needed to streamline things a bit since I have less time than ever to devote to it. Hopefully this redo will make updating just a bit quicker. And with the new website will come LOTS of new goods, I've photographed and edited almost all of my leftover festival stock. And I've added a some of it already to my etsy shop in the meantime :)

I've been putting most of our family pictures up on my flickr account, which you can find the link for over in the right margin.... so glad I bought that big boy camera for my birthday last year :)

OK I'm off to try to be a little productive while the little guy naps, we had a big day of tree fruit picking.... I think we should be stocked up on apples, peaches, nectarines, and pears for the rest of the winter. At least based on how much we spent, haha! whoops :)

the giant among us...

2009-07-20T13:59:00.003-04:00

First smile caught on camera, smiling away at 7 weeks :)

2 months old to the day... little cutie.... I mean GIANT cutie.... I knew we would have a big boy when I delivered a 8 pound 2 oz, 22 inch long baby, but how big, I didn't expect GIANT big! We went for Tanner's 2 month checkup this morning and found out he is in the 95 percentile for weight and is off the chart for height!!!! For those of you not yet familiar with child lingo, that means out of 100 babies Tanner would weigh more than 95 of them and out of 100 babies Tanner would be taller than them all, hehe :)

Anyways, while my little giant is snoozing I should be taking advantage and getting some stitching done. Philly Folk is racing up on me! Yesterday I managed to finish three little girl skirts that I had started the day I went into labor. My goal is to get those onto the website sometime this week. And go blueberry picking.... and tend to the garden..... mmmmm I love the tastes of summer!

seeing blurry

2009-07-07T18:14:00.002-04:00

I just finished up this top and Tanner is still sleeping so I had big plans of getting it onto my site and into my etsy shop..... that is until I got back inside and started seeing blurry.... blurry pictures that is. We are amidst a rolling and rumbling thunderstorm but by moving the right way I was able to dash between raindrops and get some outside photographs taken. But I'm still learning how to use my big boy camera and I zoomed it on the timer and apparently it doesn't autofocus on a zoomed timer. Or if it does I haven't learned that trick yet. So all that dashing between raindrops for nothing. Well ok I did get to catch some kick ass lightning bolts and feel the earth shake during a few of the rumbles. But nothing that I had planned :) So now this top will sit until I get another chance at a photo op.

well he's here!

2009-07-02T20:09:00.004-04:00

I've been a bad blogger but this time I have the cutest little excuse.... meet Tanner Michael!

He arrived May 18th at 2:27 am, after an amazingly short and sweet natural labor.... 2 hours of labor and 15 minutes of pushing, this little guy came out, full head of hair and all!

So we've been busy enjoying this new life, enjoying summer. We even went to our first festival a couple of weeks ago- Clearwater on the Hudson River.

I vended this one- the perfect festival to break in the little guy, low key and family oriented. He did amazing!

Well I'm making this post short and sweet, off to tend to the babe. I feel like I have so much to share so hopefully I'll find some time to post regularly again. Even though I've been neglecting Magnolia Skies on the web, I've been busily stitching the past couple months for the festival season. Next up, Philadelphia Folk Fest in August. In the meantime I'm hoping to get some eco pieces on the site..... lots of ideas!

Behind the seams

2009-05-11T22:34:00.002-04:00

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth and no I'm not busily attending to a newborn..... I've just been a very neglectful internet person the past month. My last post I was in a panic thinking that I might go into labor 5 weeks early. Here I sit a month later, 3 days till my due date, still very pregnant :) For the past week I've been having more prelabor symptoms, being completely effaced (ie the baby's head has completely dropped, just waiting for the hole to open!) and dilated to 2 centimeters, feeling a bit crampy. At my Dr appointment last Wednesday she thought I had a pretty good chance of not making it to my due date since I was completely effaced already..... yep, here I still am :) And still no true contractions. We are starting to get anxious. Thankfully I still feel really good.... everyone assumes I must be miserable at this point, guess alot of women feel absolutely miserable in the last weeks. I couldn't imagine feeling miserable and anxious.

Even though I've been MIA to the internet for the past month, I've actually been quite productive, both due to this pregnancy and with some crafty goodness. Aside from getting slammed with work at the day job and working twice as much as I usually do (go figure, we get overloaded with work right before I need to take 6 weeks off! oh well, atleast we have the extra income before I'm incomless for the 6 weeks) most of my time has been going to getting our tiny apartment ready for baby..... major cleaning, reorganizing, rearranging, and putting all the baby stuff into it's place. Thankfully Pat has been very helpful with the cleaning end of things. I finally feel like things are set for this baby to arrive. We got really lucky at our baby showers, getting every item we truly need. I'm so thankful for our family and friends for being so supportive. In the coming weeks I'll share some of my favorite items that some friends and family handcrafted for this bambino, some truly beautiful things :)

As for being crafty, about a month ago I was burning the oil on the sewing machine getting some dresses and kid's skirts sewn up to send with my vending partner to Merlefest. A big part of me was really bummed that I couldn't go to this festival this year, it's my favorite one to vend. But the last thing I wanted was to go into labor 700 miles from home without any of my family! So I managed to get some "festival" dresses and super cute toddler skirts sewn up and sent them along with some of my older stock with Andrea.... so atleast my goods were there :) I always enjoy the break of making what I consider my "festival" dresses..... super simple cotton dresses where the fabric does most of the talking.

I also worked on a couple of custom orders, one for this super comfy smock dress for my uber talented pottery friend Grace. It's knee length and made of the stretchy bamboo jersey- that oh so buttery smooth fabric!

And then there was the custom wedding dress I was working on..... this is just the cotton muslin mock-up I did for the bride-to-be..... the final dress is going to be out of hemp/tencel. The gal is super tiny so the back here isn't finished, she's tinier than my dressform. But for the back I did more of a corset style, ending with a zipper up back instead of my standard elastic back. It came out really sweet and I can't wait to work on the final version.

The front is going to have 3-d flowers under the bustline, this pic shows one for an example for the bride.

Anyways, just wanted to stop in and give an update and show a few of the things I've been up to the past month before I go MIA again for awhile. Although I'm sure I'll be back as soon as bambino arrives, even just for a brief sharing of the cutest baby pics ever (hehe). Then I'll have my hands full adjusting to life as new parents, as well as preparing for the few festivals I'm still vending this summer..... and who knows, maybe I'll stop neglecting the Magnolia Skies online shop and get a few summer pieces posted for sale..... all in good time :)

oh boy, the panic has begun

2009-04-09T12:39:00.003-04:00

Just a little update on this gorgeously sunny day.... I went in for my DR appointment yesterday- you know, the routine checkup that was happening every two weeks. Only this one she started the internal exam.... and told me the baby's head was settled down into my pelvic area and I was dilated one centimeter, a little ahead of the game. What exactly that means, I'm completely clueless. As soon as I heard the words "you" and "dilated" my entire being went into freeze mode. By the time I got home I was thawing out and then the panic started to settle in. Dilated???? Me???? I'm still supposed to have 5 weeks to go. Since I was in too much of a stupor to ask the DR what being one centimeter dilated meant as far as a timeline, I immediately busted out that pregnancy book pat's sis gave me. I've been somewhat avoiding the "Birth and Labor" section, but last night was the night to stop that. Sure enough, according to that book, the first stage of labor is when the cervix starts to dilate. Just reading that gave me the chills. So. Not. Ready. Luckily they also said that this first stage of dilation to 3 centimeters can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks without the mom even knowing it's happening.

So now I'm trying not to freak out and panic that I'm going to go into labor way before my due date. I'm telling myself that a "couple weeks" surely can mean 5 weeks, and that I should remain calm until I can ask my DR at my visit next week how far along I am and if she thinks there's a good chance of me going significantly earlier than my due date. I figure that if it starts making me absolutely crazy between now and Wednesday when i see her again, I'll give her a call. But I'd like not to be that crazed, panicked pregnant woman, hehe :)

Funny how just a few days ago I was longing to get this baby out so I could start wearing my normal clothes.... those cute skirts that spring always brings.....

So here's to hoping for a VERY S L O W L Y dilating cervix to 3 centimeters. And little baby in there- I don't mind you coming a little early, but please no more than 2 weeks early..... atleast wait until after the baby shower my mom is throwing for me this way you'll atleast have a few things. Oh and just in case I'm freaking out for nothing, please try not to be too late either :)

finito!

2009-03-31T15:09:00.002-04:00

I finally finished up the last of the newborn size cloth diapers the other day. 21 total. I decided to make them in batches over the past couple months so I didn't get burned out and end up not finishing them. A plan that worked out well. I used 100% bamboo twill for the outer and hemp/organic cotton for the lining and soaker.

I had thought about making all the sizes I would need, but after chatting with a cloth diapering friend, she recommended getting some one size fits all diapers since they will last the whole diapering time of baby and reduce the amount of diapers we'll need. This was after I bought some really cute handmade fitted flannel ones in size medium from a seller on ebay. So I bought a batch of one size fits all All-in-ones and a batch of one size fits all fitteds with waterproof covers that I can use with all the diapers that aren't waterproof. I probably have way too many diapers now for the sizes past newborn, but that's ok, they'll get their use. We plan on having alteast a few kids and hopefully the majority of these diapers will be quality enough to last through all of the kids.

I finally told my mom and Pat's mom that we planned on cloth diapering. I had a feeling my mom would be cool with it since I recall her saying she had cloth diapered, but figured Pat's mom would think I was nuts since his family tends to be very disposable oriented and not very concerned about the environment. But to my surprise she seemed very open to it and had cloth diapered her kids too. So it was nice to know our choice would be supported by the grandmas :)

Anyways, now that the diapers are finished, I finally feel like I can get back to sewing for Magnolia Skies. The next couple of weeks will be spent working on some customs- I have a hemp wedding gown to get done in the next month, two smocked dresses for my oh so talented friend Grace, and a wrap top for the lovely Julie, whom I'm doing a partial trade for one these cuties she makes....

Elephant copyright of Julie of The Peaceful Peacock

Back to the woods

2009-03-22T13:52:00.004-04:00

Happy Spring Solstice! I've been MIA around here, haven't been very crafty lately. Aside from finishing up the newborn size cloth diapers, my sewing machines are collecting dust. I've mostly been working, relaxing, and preparing the house for the baby. And finally getting back into the woods! For the past 2 months or so I've only been walking the state forest road where I usually go hiking- for a combination of safety (didn't want to slip and fall in the snow and ice) and getting tired pretty quickly. But yesterday I took the Dukester and we walked the road a bit and then headed up one of the easy trails for just a bit. It was good to get back onto the trail. The state forest road is nice- a stream runs the entire length and there's hardly a soul on it..... but it's never the same as getting on the trail.

Today we went out again, only this time I convinced Pat to come along and we had a nice little family hike. This winter wasn't as unbearable as some I've had, but man I'm so glad spring is here!!!!!

32 weeks along..... getting so close!

there's no bears in Connecticut

2009-03-10T21:18:00.002-04:00

I received an email from my friend justice today, perfect timing to give me a good laugh till i cried moment in this blah week i've been having.... I guess b/t the head cold this past weekend and pat just not getting the point that my annoyance tolerance has plummeted in these last few weeks, i just haven't been feeling my usual perky self. But the following story certainly lifted me out of the slump for a bit.

Since Justice has told it so well, I'll just copy her version, and add my own thoughts when needed in the (parenthesized italics):

"Dave and I had just gotten married, and we were backpacking through part of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut with my friend since Junior High, Heather. We were staying overnight in a lean-to, which is a three sided wooden platform set up about 10 feet above ground with 5 or so giant wooden stairs leading to the opening. There are several of these placed on the trail for backpackers to use while hiking through. We didn't bring tents because of the cover of the lean-to, and just slept in our sleeping bags.

Well, we were a little cocky. Between me spending a summer in Glacier National Park in Montana and my husband's two week solo trip through Yosemite National Park, we thought CT was pretty tame. So we didn't take the precautions we really should have. Such as hanging our food away from our camp site high in the trees as not to attract any "uninvited guests". This is something we would normally do. Even camping in NH or somewhere close. But we were in CT, for crying out loud! which is arguably just a giant suburb of NYC. There aren't any bears here. Well, that's what we thought anyway. (Not to mention we were cooking in the lean-to, another no no. And I have to say, I did ask these two "professionals" if we should hang our food, but went with the flow when they said we didn't need to- we were all pretty confident that the chance of encountering a bear was too slim to worry)

So, we made pepperoni pizza's that evening for dinner. (Since we were only going out for one night we decided to go all out on camping food rather than backpacking food) Before bed we took the bag of leftover food and hung it on a hook in the front of the lean-to so the mice didn't get into it. Which was the stupidest thing we've ever done because we were basically setting a bear trap. I should mention that in the lean-to with us was a man that I call "The Mountain Man" cause I can't remember his actual name. He was probably in his 60's and had left his family for a few months to hike the entire Appalachian Trail by himself. (I swear this guy was more like 75, atleast in my memory) He was really rugged and exactly what you would picture a mountain man looking like, hence the nickname "Mountain Man". We shared our food with him and let him use our phone to call his wife. He was appreciative and essentially helped save our lives, so it was a good call helping him out. (And was very tolerant of us, since first we were cooking in the lean-to, and second we were having a little ground fire which was clearly stated as prohibited.... haha, we probably looked like inexperienced punks...) Well, he slept way on the right side of the lean-to and Dave, Heather, and I slept on the other side. Heather was pretty much positioned right in the middle of the lean-to. So late that night we went to bed, death trap unknowingly set above our heads.

Now I should mention that I don't normally sleep well outdoors. I get spooked easily and have a quite an imagination, which doesn't bode well for sleeping in dark, strange places. Sure enough, in the middle of the night, I woke up to a rustling noise outside the lean-to. I didn't want to make a big deal out of nothing and seem like a wimp, so I didn't say anything and just told myself it was probably a raccoon or something. Well, I knew it wasn't a raccoon as soon as I saw Dave pop his head up quickly. He never overreacts. He didn't say anything for a few minutes. Neither did I. I just waited for him to lay back down, again, not wanting to seem overly paranoid. It was a full moon, so everything outside was clearly visible.

That's when I felt it. Thud, thud, thud. Something....was coming up the stairs. Something big. In a period of about one second, Dave jumped straight up and started yelling and banging around. (Maybe he did this eventually, but even though I was asleep i clearly remember him at first saying something more of a calm "shoo, get out of here, shooo" to which in my sleep I thought he was merely shooing off a raccoon or something) (Of course, it seemed much longer at the time, everything moves slower when you're in danger.) And that's when I heard it.

A growl.

I've never heard anything so menacing in all my life.And I have never been so scared in my whole life. Now, you have to remember, all my bear training came from living in "Grizzly Country" in Montana. We learned that you don't mess around with bears. If you find yourself that close to one, you get into the fetal position, cover your face and neck, and you better pray to whatever it is you believe in and hope he (or she) is listening. I was inundated with horror stories of bear attacks. So my immediate reaction to the growl was to curl up in my sleeping bag and pretend I was dead. And in my mind, so should everyone else.

But Dave, knowing it was a black bear (cause it is Connecticut after all) and that they're pretty easy to scare off, started yelling at it. I was just as afraid for his life as I was for mine, and I thought he was being entirely idiotic, so I stuck my hand out of the sleeping bag and tried to pull him in so he can hide too. So all of this had taken only a few seconds and quickly jolted Mountain Man awake. So he, also seeing the bear, jumped up and started screaming at the bear and lunging at it from inside the lean-to. So, take a moment to picture this. We have the two guys jumping around making noise to scare the bear away, me hiding in the sleeping bag while yelling at Dave to lay down and play dead, and then there's Heather.

Heather is a deep sleeper. A very deep sleeper. (I had trouble falling asleep that night b/c my nose was so cold. I hate having the covers over my head b/c I feel like I'm marinating in my own breath, but I finally sucked it up and cinched up the head part of my mummy sleeping bag and was finally able to fall asleep) But after just a minute of screaming all around her, she finally woke up in a frenzy, not having any idea what's going on. (After hearing dave "shooing" the small animal away, even though I was still asleep, I knew something was wrong when I heard the Mt. Man start yelling like a wild banshee and then Dave start yelling just as loud- two men yelling, not good) All she knows at this point is that people around her are screaming for their lives. And so her immediate thought is that we're being attacked by some serial killer. Now, since she's in the middle of the lean-to, and that's right where the food was hanging, she was in the best spot for a good view of the bear, which, by this time is all the way in the lean-to with us, only a few feet away. But not knowing what was going on, she sat straight up (practically head-butting the bear) and started screaming on the top of her lungs, louder and more intense than I've ever heard someone scream. Seriously, she could have a career in horror movies. And she screamed over and over and over. (Once I came too out of my sleep to both guys screaming, my immediate instinct was to start screaming too..... this isn't the first time this has happened- when I was about 12 my family had rented a trailer at one of those "resort" type campgrounds. My bro was sleeping in the top bunk and my dad in the lower since he was having trouble sleeping and was keeping up my mom in the front bed. in the middle of the night my bro rolled out of the top bunk and my dad, still being awake, caught him. my bro was completely out of it and started screaming bloody murder, causing my other bro to wake up to some man holding onto my bro, causing him to start screaming bloody murder. I woke up to both of my bros screaming bloody murder and could only picture that someone had broken into the trailer and was killing my bros. So I started screaming bloody murder. All while both my parents were screaming over us to try to calm us down and let us know it was just them. All in a tiny little campground. i'm sure we woke the entire place)

And since I still had my head under the sleeping bag (self-preservation people!), I can only guess at what was going on. And with Heather screaming the way she was, I thought the bear got her. So I started screaming, thinking it would get me next, since I was the next closest. My head was flowing with all sorts of gruesome possibilities once the bear dragged me, sleeping bag and all, into the woods. And, always trying to be prepared, I quickly made my escape plan once it got me away.

But Heather is actually the one who saved the day. It wasn't until she started screaming that the bear left. He must have decided he didn't want to mess with that craziness, not even for pepperoni pizza. Sometimes you just don't want to get on a girl's bad side. So he slowly walked back down the steps, and the Mountain Man went running down the trail after him, knife in hand. I think I was trembling and maybe even hyperventilating at this point. I wouldn't come out until Dave told me several times the bear was gone.

Of course, I didn't sleep the rest of the night, even though everyone else did. My biggest fear was that the bear would come back with the rest of his family, or maybe some friends, like some kind of bear posse, and band together to kill us all to get the pepperoni pizza. It didn't come back. And I swore I would never sleep outdoors again. I couldn't get away with that, being married to an avid camper/hiker and all, but we're much more cautious now, even in Connecticut.

Now what's interesting about this story, was that despite Heather being the closest to the bear, in full moon lighting, with her eyes wide open, she doesn't remember ever seeing the bear. Give that a thought. My theory? Blinded by fear. (After it all had happened I was still kind of clueless as to what we were all screaming about, despite as Justice said, I had my eyes wide open and was nearly nose to nose with the bear while screaming. When I asked if it was a bear in the lean-to and everyone realized that although I was awake and staring down the bear, for some reason I never registered it, Justice and I broke down into hysterical laughter. I think we probably laughed for hours after. Until I eventually fell back to sleep, knowing that Justice wouldn't fall back to sleep and therefore was probably keeping dave awake too.... I'd be safe to fall back asleep. To this day I still go into hysterics when I think about that night)

Needless to say, we all learned a lesson. Connecticut isn't as tame as we thought.

Featured artist interview & giveaway!

2009-03-07T10:48:00.003-05:00

Happy Saturday! Happy because it's 60 degrees out today!!! Happy because the first day of spring is less than 2 weeks away! Happy that the end of winter is drawing near! Although not so happy that I feel like crap and can't quite enjoy this breath of fresh air- I seem to have come down with a nasty little head cold. Between that and the pregnancy my energy is completely spent. I never get sick, but it makes sense with my immune system currently being devoted to growing our little bambino, and with all the fun and late nights I had last weekend when Justine came to visit me. And our trip to Ikea, I'm sure a germ's paradise.

But before i go putter around the yard or sit out on the front stoop in the sun, I just wanted to send you over to my featured artist interview at Gypsy Road! Need a little motivation to head on over? How about a chance to win one of my 100% Natural Soy Candles????

what's the word, bird?

2009-03-05T19:22:00.001-05:00

taking time out to grow a little tree hugger

2009-02-21T16:11:00.005-05:00

I should have been doing the dishes, I should have been working on clothing for my site, I should have been cleaning and reorganizing my sewing room, I should have been cleaning in general, I should have been updating my website..... shoulda shoulda shoulda..... But instead I was taking some time out to grow my little tree hugger. It all started Thursday night when I came across this fabric at the fabric store.

It was too cute that I couldn't pass it up, but at first I couldn't figure out what I would do with it.... then as I passed through the aisles of flannels and nursery prints.... Duh!..... a baby blanket! What better way than to start instilling values into our kiddo from the get go with this adorable cozy little blanket. I decided to back it with some cozy brown flannel, and while I was in the flannel aisle I spotted two other adorable prints. And even better, I actually managed to sew up my ideas right away! Between a few hours last night and a few hours today I sewed up these two baby throws.

The other print is a flannel elephant print, too stinkin' cute since I do adore elephants. I'm set on doing the baby's room (when we eventually get to the point of having a baby room) in a bright green and seem to be drawn to an animal/tree theme. The third fabric I bought for a baby blanket is the same green and brown color scheme and has elephants, tigers, and monkeys on it. We'll see if I get around to making the third blanket, I'm just super impressed I got myself to whip these up.

And while making up these blankets I even learned a new skill- how to apply a binding. I somewhat followed these great instructions by the Heather Bailey fame. I binded these blankets with the chocolate flannel.... and LOVE how professional looking my mitered binding corners came out! At first I was just going to take the lazy way out and stitch and turn, no binding. But I'm in the process of making some baby quilts so I figured this would be the perfect chance to learn how to do a binding. And I was psyched to see with a little tutorial it's easy!

Oh and I even tried out my latest sewing tool, the magnetic seam guide. It worked pretty well, but I quickly realized it really depends on how evenly your hems are folded..... and since I was whipping up these blankets pretty quickly mine weren't very perfectly folded. But I think it will come in handy in future projects.

look ma, i done good...

2009-02-20T17:06:00.002-05:00

Ok i got a little excited when I saw that I have 17 things in my Esty shop after adding these two new tops :) Up next for the shop, a mini wrap skirt. Yep, the sleeves are getting shorter, the skirts are getting shorter, and the skin is starting to show..... spring fever (or should I just skip ahead to the good stuff and say summer fever).

I'm also in the midst of working on a plus sized wrap top for the site (still....) and am designing a full length one of a kind skirt for the site, something I haven't sewn up in a while but have been feeling the itch to stitch :)

eeeek! i'm shutting the door!

2009-02-18T21:34:00.002-05:00

So I'm fairly new to etsy (atleast upkeeping my shop) and while waiting for my newest top I sewed up to get out of the dryer, I decided to get to know etsy a little better. I've heard all about the forums, so I decided to check them out tonight. All I can say is EEEEEEK! I don't know if I was just picking the wrong threads to read, but man there was some serious bad vibes going on in there! People getting all competitive or accusing people of things or jumping down one another's throats! No thanks.... I really didn't find much of interest so I got out of there before it turned me off even more to etsy!

When crafties get nasties...... dun dun dun.....

the color of love

2009-02-15T15:50:00.006-05:00

I just added this little tunic dress to my etsy shop as part of my made to order eco line. I dyed up that red color this week and am pretty happy with it- i like the color itself, but was expecting something a bit darker and more burgandy-ish I guess. It's Oxblood Red by Dharma Trading- but I'm calling it Twilight Red :) The bamboo jersey came out a much darker and vibrant red- more of a true red, more of what I was expecting. It always amuses me to see how the different fiber contents take the dye so differently. I've found that bamboo without a doubt takes the dye the best- it just sucks it right up and always is several shades darker than the hemp. So I'm still on my quest for the "perfect" red.... I may try mixing Burgandy with some black as recommended by a fellow fabric dyer. Adding black to this oxblood red may even do the trick, guess I'll find out next time.

I have plans to dye up another color this week- maybe some avocado green? That is if my washer doesn't die on me during today's laundry..... it started making some strange noises several months back when I put it on the heavy duty setting- which is what i use to dye fabric (for lots of agitation) and for Pat's work clothing. Well this past week while dyeing the red fabric it all but died.... the screeching noises coming from that poor washer could have only been the screech of death nearing. It actually did die during the spin cycle, that poor engine just couldn't do it anymore. I turned it off for a bit and got it working again. I'm hoping with a little love I can get it to last atleast a few more months. I hate the idea of dyeing fabric in a new machine.

Well I should get back to doing something a bit more productive. I have plans for a few more tops for my eco line, and have a one of a kind hooded wrap top in the works. Depending on my day job work schedule this week and if the weather will cooperate with my plans, I'm hoping to do a photo shoot this coming weekend with my friend Emily with all the new eco line pieces. It will be nice to have better pictures of the items being worn since so many of them will be more flattering looking on someone who isn't almost 7 months pregnant! There's only so many poses I can do to minimize the bulge! With alittle motivation and self control I think I can get the pieces done up in her size this week :)

OH! And to celebrate the weekend of love, I'm offering free shipping on any clothing item (on my etsy shop or my website) to my friends and mailing list folks through Friday February 20th- just leave a note in the transaction that you are on my mailing list or read my blog and I will refund the shipping :)

behind the seams

2009-02-14T15:34:00.003-05:00

I spent a few hours yesterday trying to reorganize my sewing room- mostly to "catalog" all of my new patterns that are strewn about the room, covering every surface and littering the floor. With my little eco line of made to order clothes comes LOTS of patterns since i need 4 patterns (4 sizes) for each item. So I bagged up all of the patterns.....

And was psyched to find a perfect use for this Clementine crate.... it was just clementine season here for our grocery stores and we went through about 4 of these crates.... they're made of wood and have that pretty little clementine painted on the front- i couldn't bear to throw them out and since they are wood we couldn't recycle them. I usually store my patterns that I make in quart size ziploc bags and then organize them by garment piece (tops, skirts, pants, etc) into those plastic shoe box storage containers- this works out awesome for me....

But with the made to order patterns I stored them in gallon sized bags so I could fit all four sizes into one bag, and the clementine box was the perfect size for the gallon size bags.

I still have some major cleaning and reorganizing to do in my sewing room. It's starting to look like it did shortly after we moved into this apartment just over 2 years ago. It was so bad I did before and after shots which I'll share with you! When we first moved here I realized just how much crafty stuff I had managed to acquire. It was actually pretty embarrassing on the moving day when I had an entire pickup truck bed packed to the max with just my crafting and sewing stuff. Not including the tables or chairs. When I first started sewing I worked out of my closet. All of my fabric and machines fit perfectly in one little corner of my closet, and when I wanted to sew I would pull out my machine, set it up on a tv table and then tuck it away when I was finished. Then I upgraded to a full room when pat and I moved in together the first time. I was primarily sewing stuff for myself then so I still only had my sewing machine and a small stash of fabric (maybe a tote bin full if that). Then I decided to go back to college and get a degree, so i moved back in with my parents to make things easier for myself to accomplish that goal. There I had an entire corner of their basement for my crafting/sewing area. It was during that time that I started making clothing to sew, accumulated a massive fabric stash, got my serger, and started working with body herbals. So when I moved from my parent's house back in with pat to this apartment just over two years ago, my crafting stash had morphed from a sewing machine and a small tote of fabric into 3 machines, several extra large totes of fabric, a dresser full of fabric, several totes of body herbal supplies, and a few totes and several boxes of miscellaneous crafting supplies..... along with a table and a couple of chairs. And here's the mess it was 2 years ago.....

After a couple of months of trying to work in that disaster area, I finally took a full weekend and I managed to declutter and reorganize quite a bit. Turned my sewing station a different way which made more sense, went through all those boxes and bags and bins that were scattered all over the floor and tucked in every corner and stacked against ever inch of wall space. Most were supplies that I just hadn't managed to unpack- i cringe just looking at these photos- look at all those freakin boxes stacked up under that table! Anyways, this is what my sewing room looked like after that weekend (and currently does now.... errrr.... kind of..... it definitely needs another purge and reorganize, those damn boxes are starting to take over again!)

The one corner where I have all my tote bins stacked still is pretty cramped but alteast it's much better organized. By adding the table I was able to make a space underneath to slide several bins- before it was just bin stacked on top of bin, in order to get to the bottom bin i had to remove the several on top. Now i'm able to get into every bin without having to unstack anything. And look, there's room under the table to put my legs! I left one bin under there for my scrap fabrics, this way as I cut and sew I can just toss them into the bin.

As I look around the room right now, I'm happy with the setup but am ready to do another purge and reorganize. Actually this entire apartment and our enclosed back porch is in need of one. I found out a few days ago that we are going to have to wait about 6 more months to get the mortgage. While I'm bummed that we won't be moving before this baby comes, I am so thankful I was referred to this new mortgage lady, she's been so helpful in guiding us and giving us the info we need. The other lady failed to tell us so many important things about the mortgage- I had contacted her 6 months ago to find out what we need to do to get ready for getting a mortgage. If she had taken the time of day to actually work with us (like the present lady has done) we probably wouldn't be in this situation. Turns out Pat's bad credit wasn't the reason for not being able to do the state loan (like the first lady told us)- it's b/c he currently doesn't have any open credit accounts, and with the state loan program one of their only credit requirements is that each applicant has atleast 3 open accounts. If the first lady had told us this 6 months ago when I first approached her, we could have made that happen by now. *sigh* But I'm looking at the positives right now- we have an awesome mortgage lady now who has us on the right track and is keeping us well informed, it will be summer when the baby arrives so even though i'll be dealing with 3 flights of stairs there won't be 3 inches of ice on them like there is now, i've been reassured by friends and family that the first months the baby requires very little space, and now we won't have to worry about breaking our lease. Not to mention we have several more months to stockpile more money.

So on that note, it's purge and organize and rearrange time in this little apartment of ours!

my other half blues

2009-02-10T12:47:00.002-05:00

so this is a bit of a vent about nothing to do with craftiness, so if you're here just for the crafty content I usually post about you can skip right past this entry!

Pat and I have been together for 8 years... we got married a year and a half ago. Prior to marriage we kept our finances separate for the most part. But with marriage comes the things I never really thought about. With making my "other half" official through marriage, not only was I taking him as my husband, but I was taking everything else that comes with an identity- such as credit and debt, dun dun dun.....

Shortly after our wedding I receive a letter from the IRS stating that Pat has failed to submit his federal taxes for the past two years..... what?!!! And that "he" owes several hundred dollars for those past couple years.... "he" as in "we" now that we were married. Along with the IRS letter came several other financial surprises over the months of marriage- considering we had dated for 6 years (and lived together for a couple) prior to marriage, it's amazing the financial skeletons in the closet that come out after marriage! I've always been extremely diligent with paying all of my bills on time and keeping my credit immaculate. Pat on the other hand, well, yeah not even close.

So now we have arrived at the ultimate financial test, buying our first home. I've worked so hard over the past year and a half paying down our debts and saving us a nice little chunk of change. And today we just got denied our first mortgage. Thanks to Pat. Pat and his shitty credit. Pat and his failure to give a crap about his financial future. I just want to shake him and yell and scream about responsibility and the future and what was he thinking. But instead I'm coming here to vent, this way when he gets home later tonight I can be a nice sane wife and explain calmly how his irresponsible position on finances may have just lost us our chance to have our own home in the near future.

On a more positive note, while my hopes of owning a home before this baby arrives have been stomped on a bit, I haven't lost complete hope yet. I'm working with another bank and waiting to hear back from the mortgage lady tonight. We're going through a state funded first time home buyer's program, which from what I understand isn't credit based, but the bank that offers this loan also has to approve the mortgage as well- so it's a double approval deal. So I'm hoping that it was just the bank that denied us at the one I was working with, not the state program. So there is still a little hope left. I hope..... I guess right now would be the time to be thankful that atleast one of us is financially responsible and understands credit and finances in general. Needless to say I've taken on the job of handling ALL of our finances, but I'm seeing that while I should continue to do this, perhaps it's time to start including Pat in what that consists of and how it affects us as a married couple. Hopefully by educating him he will grow to be more financially responsible- with alot of hand holding at first, but who knows, maybe eventually he'll be able to handle having his very own credit card, ha!

ahhhh the other half blues......

brown around town

2009-02-08T15:06:00.004-05:00

part of me feels like I didn't get much accomplished this week..... but I did. First off I put in quite a few hours at the day job this week, which caused my whole week to be one big blur. Things are probably going to be changing a bit at the day job- my boss has found it's time to move his home office to a "real" office, with an office manager and all. I always find it funny how things in my life just seem to fall into place. This move has come at the perfect time.... I'll be taking on the office manager position for a few days a week as well as put in a day or so of field work each week until i take my pregnancy leave. And then when the baby is here and I'm ready to go back to work I'll do the same thing, and my boss has already said I can bring the baby into the office so no need to stress what to do about that. Childcare is one thing I was starting to ponder before this office move came about. My hours have always been completely random and often last minute, so I wasn't sure how that would work out with trying to find someone to watch the baby- but then life falls into place. First things up for the office manager position is doing all the legwork on how to make me an official employee instead of an independent contractor, woot woot to that, no more getting screwed by self employment tax!

Aside from working the day job I also managed to do some behind the scenes work for Magnolia Skies, as well as get a few new pieces added to the etsy shop for my little eco line. It's a brown weekend- from all the dirt and sand littering the snowy sidewalks to my new brown pieces to the handsomest of brown boys helping me model outside.......

The Cruziana Top in stretch hemp jersey- I love the gathers in the low scoop neckline! Hehe, and lots of stretch so that I could still fit my big ol' stomach in there to model..... My goal for this month is to do a photo shoot with these new eco line items with my friend Emily.

And the Easy Rider Fleece Skirt- both of these items were samples I made up a few months back- I had to dye up some Expresso brown fabric yesterday so I threw these guys in there too. The skirt was made before I had that lightbulb moment about stretching the waistband I attached it, so I'm keeping it for myself..... it fits me perfect and I think I'll probably get use out of it until the end of the pregnancy.... that and it's so damn comfy!!!

And then the handsomest of brown boys who was helping me model outside today. Speaking of today, it's in the 50s!!! I know it's just a mid winter tease, but it's a huge difference from the teens and single digits we had during the week! The combination of the warm weather outside and starting our day off to a Beatles outtake album put me into an instant good mood this morning. After I soaked up some of the sun while modeling these new pieces, we took a car ride around town to check out the locations of some houses we found online in our price budget. I have a meeting with my bank's loan specialist to get the preapproval going- so far it looks like we'll be getting the mortgage! So now it's the big question of whether we'll find a house in our price range in the next month or so, wish us luck!

hey all you self employed, it's tax time!

2009-02-03T22:32:00.002-05:00

I just finished up our 2008 taxes.... and man do we owe big time again this year, way more than last year even though this year Pat had federal taxes taken out of his paycheck (compared to last year's taxes when both of us were self employed and neither had any taxes taken out). The difference is last year I "worked" some of the numbers to get our payment down.... this year we're attempting to get a mortgage so I did everything on the up and up.

So I'm not here to bore you to death about me doing my taxes, I'm here to share a few tips (mostly for the self employed) that saved us almost $1000 this year in taxes. First and foremost, if you're self employed, DEDUCT YOUR MILEAGE!!!!! This saved us thousands of dollars last year. For every mile you drove, you get to reduce your income by about 5o cents. Didn't keep track of your mileage? Than take a few minutes to add up approximates now...... all you crafty mamas, how many times did you drive to the fabric/craft store? how many miles to that festival or craft fair you vended? And hint hint, remember, mileage isn't something you keep receipts for (no paper trail), it's all up to you to report the mileage, hint hint.

This year I got to claim the "self employed health insurance deduction"- I only started buying health insurance for myself in November to cover my pregnancy, but for those two months left of the year it knocked $400 off of our gross income. So if you're self employed and buy your own health insurance (as long as your spouse's employer doesn't offer to pay a portion of your health insurance through their group insurance- like pat's work, they offer me insurance but don't subsidize any of mine, i would have had to pay 100% so instead i bought my own insurance somewhere else for cheaper) claim your health insurance (line 29 on form 1040).

Got student loans??? Make sure you claim your student loan interest deduction if you qualify (line 33 on 1040)- it knocked $600 off our gross income.

OH and this one should be super obvious, but if you're self employed and pay self employment tax, don't forget to deduct half of it (line 27 on 1040).

And lastly, for those of us who got screwed out of (or part of) Bush's economic stimulus check like Pat and I did b/c we were self employed (instead of $1200 that married couples got, we got $600 b/c we were self employed- paid self employment tax but that didn't count, go figure!) make sure you look into the "recovery rebate credit" (line 70 on 1040). If any of you used to read my Myspace blog, you may recall my rant and rave about how we got screwed out of half of our incentive check b/c we were self employed- CAUTION: clicking on that link will lead you to my raving blog post, for mature audiences only for Language (what can I say, I was super pissed and my trucker mouth took over, hehe). Well guess what? I just got to credit the full amount we got screwed out of, as a rebate credit- this reduced our taxes owed by $600!

OH and for anyone still going to college- look into the "education credits" (line 50 on 1040)- when i was still in college these were the Lifetime Learning and Hope Scholarship credits and they used to get me every cent of my taxes back when I was in school (one year I got $3600 back just b/c I claimed these), and same with my little bro when I had him start claiming these- there are some stipulations but it's a pretty easy to understand credit if you read through them.

Anyways, those were just some of the goodies that saved us lots of moola in this year's taxes- obviously everyone's situation is different when it comes to taxes and what credits and deductions you can take (we don't own a house or have kids, that's a whole other money savings ball game in taxes.... next year!). My advice to those who do their own (and aren't trained at it) is take the time to read through the booklet- as you go line by line on your 1040 (or whatever form you use) make sure you know what they're asking, it only take a few minutes to look it up and it might just save you some (or alot) money!!!!

unlearning knits

2009-01-30T22:46:00.003-05:00

Two nights ago I had one of those light bulb moments in my sewing. It started the day before while I was chatting with Justine about our current works in progress. She was telling me how she was making a top and added a band of hemp ribbing at the bottom hem, stretching the ribbing as she sewed it on to create a "made to wear" look (i think that was the term she used). At the time I thought it was a good idea, but didn't connect it to my sewing.... kinda went into my ear and got tucked somewhere up in that brain of mine without second thoughts on it. Well, fast forward to the next night- I had just pulled out of the dryer the fabric I had dyed up that day- some stretch hemp jersey, stretch soy microterry, and some of the infamous stretch bamboo jersey. As I folded the soy microterry I noticed what a perfect weight and drape it had, just like my favorite store bought microterry bamboo yoga pants. This made me want to make myself a pair of yoga pants out of the soy- and so I did.

But that's when that light bulb went off. Suddenly the technique Justine had mentioned the day before, the one that might as well have gone in one ear and out the other at the time of hearing it, suddenly it lit up my thoughts..... It was the perfect technique for the waistband of these pants (the ones I posted about yesterday). I had designed the pattern months ago with this eco line for etsy in mind- my goal for this line was to have perfect fitting items without any sort of adjustment mechanisms (ie drawstrings). But I was somewhat struggling with the waistband of the pants, not being able to get it fitted enough without making the body of the pants too hard to pull up over the hips. So I busted out the pattern again and made some adjustments with this new technique in mind..... and it worked perfect!!

So I was psyched to get those pants made and learn a new technique (thanks justine!). But the light bulb moment didn't go away with that accomplishment. Just a little while ago I was sitting here fooling around on the computer when suddenly that light bulb went off again. This time it was with the stretch bamboo fabric that had given me so much hell a few months back- the one I had given up trying to work with it. I realized that I had to unlearn what I had taught myself working with normal hemp jersey (no lycra content). With the hemp jersey I learned from experience that the key to getting good seams is to prevent pulling on the fabric at all while it feeds through the machine- otherwise I got ripply stretched out seams. I've perfected my sewing skills with hemp jersey, and thought I would rock it with the lycra jerseys since I've got my technique down. The technique is similar for the heavier weight lycra jerseys (such as the hemp and soy I have) but failed me miserably with the light weight uber stretchy bamboo jersey. I couldn't even get it to feed through my serger, it would get all bunchy and get eaten by the knife and feed dogs. But tonight I realized that maybe I needed to do the opposite of what I thought I should be doing- stretch the fabric as the serger pulled it through...... hmmmmm now that's an idea. I jumped up and grabbed a scrap of the bamboo jersey and tried out this idea- BRILLIANT!!! I had to start off slow, manually turning my serger wheel until a few stitches were in, then I just pulled back on the fabric as the serger did it's work- no problems at all. All that lycra made the fabric spring right back into place- no stretched out seams like I would have had with the non lycra jersey. I managed to sew up a top I had created a pattern for over the summer with a light weight knit in mind- but had tossed aside when I realized I couldn't figure out how to work with the bamboo, the fabric I had planned on using. I'm so freakin' stoked!!!!!

Funny how sometimes you need to "unlearn" things in order to learn something else :)

taking care of number one

2009-01-29T17:40:00.004-05:00

This month's challenge over at Gypsy Road is "taking care of number one"- making something for yourself! As the month rolls to a close, I ended up making myself a few things!

When the challenge was first posted I thought it would be the perfect motivation to get that pattern drafted for a dress for myself and my growing to be ginormous belly. I did end up making the dress, but something about it just isn't thrilling me. I whipped it up- literally, i went down and dirty with the stitching of this one- of course, that's almost always the case when i make stuff for myself, can't bear to spend the extra time to put out quality like I do with the stuff i sell, go figure! I've worn it knocking around the house, but probably won't wear it anywhere else. Here's a peek at the dress in my SPW for this week over on flickr....

I did however make two things that I'm really diggin' for myself! The first is an insulated Nalgene water bottle sling. I was thinking along the lines of items to sell at festivals, and decided I would keep the prototype for myself. I love it! It's made out of hemp and I added insulating batting (found this at Joann Fabrics) to help keep the beverage the temp I wanted it to be (cold in the summer, either hot or keep it from freezing in the winter). I've already used it a handful of times this month, turns out it's PERFECT for my hikes! No more awkwardly holding my bottle of water, just toss it in this sling! I decided it would be absolutely perfect if I added a keychain ring somewhere so I could attach my keys too for the days I'm without pockets.

The second thing I'm loving is this pair of soy/organic cotton micro terry wide legged pants I made myself last night. Yesterday afternoon I wasn't feeling like sewing, so I decided to keep with my goal of productivity, to dye up some fabric. I busted out the soy/organic terry/lycra micro terry I bought the end of December- this stuff is great! super buttery soft and the perfect weight/drape for some super comfy pants! And I've added a new color to my favorite dye colors- this one is Dharma's Palomino Gold, but I call it Golden Wheat :) My plans for these pants were a two in one- finish up the pattern for the eco line I want to start on my etsy shop (started!) and make myself a pair of comfy pants for my prenatal yoga class (started!). To my delight they worked out perfectly for both!

I'm really excited to finally get some ideas out into the works..... I've been planning the eco line for etsy since the end of summer- and just now getting the first two pieces into my shop. I had other plans for it, but I realized I wasn't getting anywhere with them so I should just go for it and make modifications as I go. Hopefully sometime this coming month I can take the pictures I want to take for this line and get a few more pieces added to the collection- pieces that I already have the patterns drafted for and samples made but can't model them myself b/c they're tops and look kind of funny with my protruding stomach. My hopes for this line is to reach a somewhat steady income for when the baby arrives and I'll be out of work from the day job for atleast a few months. We'll see how that goes but for right now I'm feeling good that I got part of that goal started.

it's cold out there baby!

2009-01-25T15:00:00.003-05:00

I finally sucked it up today and did some modeling outside in the back yard. Let me tell ya, it's FRIGID out there! Last night's high was 5 degrees and today is probably in the low 20s. But I love how outdoor pics come out- the color and lighting is so much truer to life so not only are they better pics but it also saves me a few editing steps in photoshop. The above show the finished version of my last WIP- Blooms of the Eve hemp hoodie.

I'll be adding that new top to my website sometime later tonight, along with this sneak peek top I gave the other night, another hemp jersey tunic top.

And this mushroom hat I crocheted up this past week while watching movies and the Home and Garden channel (I'm hooked on that channel for the new home buyer shows they have- I've learned so much and can't wait to put it to use on our first home!)

I managed to stay pretty busy this week- I sewed up these two tops and crocheted the hats at the beginning of the week, then I had an unusual 4 full days in a row of work at the day job. We had a huge environmental inspection on a General Electric site here in CT- and they needed it pronto. I thought my eyes were going to fall out of my head from going through a nearly 5 foot high pile of documents over at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Thankfully I had Nate to help me. I even put a full day in yesterday, on a Saturday! It wasn't so bad though, we met at my boss's house and the three of us worked on reports for the project all day- so much better and easier than doing reports at home, way too many distractions here.

And here's a silly little belly pic I took the other night for my SPW over on flickr- 24 weeks baby! man the time is flying by!

holding my tongue is like holding my breath....

2009-01-21T21:22:00.002-05:00

I can only do it for so long!!!! It used to be I could hold my breath for quite awhile (i love swimming!) and my tongue for not so long..... now as I'm getting older and trying my hardest to be more adult like, it's growing to be the opposite. When appropriate i'm pretty good at holding my tongue. mmmmm except for today.....

I had work for the day job today, over at the stuffy archives of our state library. It's in the basement and full of stuffy folks. Usually I don't let the stuffiness bother me, just do my job as fast as possible and then run for the hills. But there is one employee there that always manages to irk me every time. She is this semi older woman who has a serious case of OCD. She is the most anal person I have ever dealt with. I already had one run it with this lady, when she started freaking out that I was breathing on the aerial photos (background: I have to examine aerial photos of the sites we work on and I use a high powered magnifying lens in which you hold up to your eye and bring the object your magnifying up to the lens, thus getting the item really close to your face.... probably a bit funny looking but it's standard in the field- and there's no rule about how close you can look at the photos, only that you wear gloves when handling them). I nicely brushed her off that day. Then every day I have dealt with her in the viewing section, I've had to breath deeply and count to ten so I don't freak out on her. When you view the aerial photos you go into this roped off sitting area, sign in, and the attendant checks you in with your photos. You have to initial the slips you used to request the photos, then you can sit down and look at them. When you're done, you hand them back in, initial the slips again, and leave. All the other attendants take the photos and do a quick count, and then you leave- total of 30 seconds. Note: these air photos range from about 1 x 1 foot up to about 3 x 3 feet in size- big photos. not something you can stuff in your back pocket if ya know what I mean (you can only bring sheets of papers in, no bags, books, pens, coats, etc). She makes you stand there as she has her OCD attack and organizes each photo by year, then each slip by year, then matches up each photo number to each slip.... and jonsey forbid you put the photos down on the "wrong" spot on the desk, she has a minor breakdown. This takes about 5 minutes to do. It's completely ridiculous and none of the other attendants do it. It's pretty obvious that you didn't steal an air photo.

ANyways..... so today I'm in there viewing my air photos, training Nate how to do it for when I go on maternity leave. We're working along, minding our own business, the attendant is smiling and happy. When in walks ANAL. I see her twitchingly watching us, then she walks out. A few minutes later she walks back in and has a breakdown saying to me "OK OK OK YOU CANNOT BE DOING THAT TO THE PHOTOS!". me: "what? doing what to the photos?" Anal: "you're holding them too close to your face..... and look how you're holding them, you might bend them!!!! If you can't see them use a magnifying glass" Me (starting to lose my cool and show her my magnifying glass): "I can see them fine and I AM using a magnifying glass, I'm not doing anything wrong" Anal: "YES YES you are, you're... you're.... those are the rules, if you don't like them you have to leave" me: "OK lady, i'm NOT bending the photographs, GET AWAY FROM ME, I CANNOT HANDLE YOU, YOU ARE BEYOND ANAL, GO AWAY, NOW!" Anal throws a few more twitches, tells me not to bend the photos (which by no means i was even close to doing) and walks out.

Overall I did pretty good if I do say so myself. What I potentially would have said, oh, 8 years ago or so, and what I was saying in my head today is "get your medication levels checked you fucking wackjob!!!!! and then get your head out of your ass and get a life you stuffy anal old hag!"

Man I cannot handle people like that.... how the hell do these people end up getting public service jobs????

Things that go bloom in the night- WIP

2009-01-20T21:57:00.003-05:00

To me there is something magical in night blooms. Especially the fragrant ones like night blooming jasmine, releasing it's intoxicating scent into the warm night air. My current work in progress is a night blooming applique... perhaps I'm longing for those warm summer nights.... yep I can confirm that one :)

It's 10pm and I just finished up this applique and got a few orders packed up and shipped. I have a long day of work for the day job early in the morning, yet here I am wide awake and ready to get back to stitching the rest of this top. I have a feeling i'll have a hard time getting to sleep, between the lack of exercise the past few days (extreme cold and snowy/icy weather keeping me inside) and my body used to going to bed around midnight lately. Maybe I should go make a quick cuppa chamomile tea.....

sneak peek

2009-01-19T22:19:00.002-05:00

I just finished up this hemp jersey tunic.... pardon the crappy pic, our house turns from bright and sunny during the day to a dark dungeon at night- the lighting in here sucks! I'm still working on busting down my dyed hemp stash. Another piece of hemp jersey off the shelf! I love this chocolate brown and dusty rose color combo..... and this style sews up relatively quickly, so I focused on a simple yet elegant applique and added a kangaroo style pocket for a little sass. I still need to toss it in the wash and dryer to smooth out some seams- I find that no matter how careful I am when working with this jersey, occasionally the seams stretch a little when I sew, such was the case with the kangaroo pocket. But I found that tossing the garment in the wash and then dryer smooths those seams right up!

It was nice to start and finish this entire piece this evening. Now tomorrow I can start afresh with a new piece- I have another hemp jersey tunic already semi planned out in another size and another hemp jersey wrap top that I think I can do in a plus size like I had originally intended with the Cranberry Blossom wrap. I'm guessing I'll end up making another few hemp jersey tops before I get bored again with tops.... then maybe I'll move on to busting down my hemp wovens stash.... Or bust into all those new hemp and soy knits that have been calling to me from the corner of the room :) Or maybe I'll finish up one of those tossed aside works in progress that I unearthed earlier this evening. I usually don't toss aside clothing projects unless they start giving me way too much trouble or start turning out to not be what I envisioned. One of the projects I pulled out tonight was a hemp jersey wrap dress that I started just over 2 years ago. It was about when I started working with hemp jersey for the first time, when I hadn't perfected my patterns for knits yet. I tossed the dress aside when the fit wasn't what I wanted and at the time I wasn't feeling the patience to figure out a fix, but now I know it's an easy fix- just take in the side seams a bit at the waist for a defined/fitted look and it will be perfect. Then it's a blank slate for some nice applique work and I'll have a brand new dress design! Fun fun!

mouse in the house

2009-01-17T14:53:00.005-05:00

This is what my day has consisted of.....

looks like fun.... yeah sure. Yep, it's tax time. I just spent the past two and half hours entering all of my sales receipts, receipts paid, and shipping slips for the past year. It actually wasn't as bad as i thought it would be- made myself a cuppa chai tea, pulled up Itunes and turned up the volume, and entered away. I always love seeing what I actually made at the end of the year for Magnolia Skies. It's always WAY less than I expect it to be. I have to blame that on my fabric addiction. But this year was especially pathetic. I made a quarter of what I made last year in profit. And I've already made twice as much in profit this first month of the new year- although that doesn't really count, i really need to compare to a full year of incoming and outgoing. I think there was two main culprits this year for such a low profit margin- the first being a couple of very large fabric purchases towards the end of the year (fabric addiction). Fabric I haven't used yet. So there was no chance of covering costs on that- the good thing is it will be pure profit for this year. The second culprit was the fact that I worked full time for just over 2 months this past year, as opposed to my usual part time hours at the day job. BUT that is something that will surely be reflected in my profit at the day job- where I'm also considered a sole proprietor and right now have no clue how much I made for the year. My boss should be sending me my tax form any day now, and then I can do our income taxes and see how we did this year. And then see what we can get preapproved for a mortgage.... see, there is a light at the end of the tunnel :)

In other news, when making my cuppa this morning, i noticed little black nuggets in my cabinet. Yesterday I found a package of brown sugar and a package of chocolate chips with tiny rip holes at the bottom of the bags, in that same cabinet. At the time I thought our cat Rusty Peanuthead had gotten shut in there (she has a bad habit of running into any open cabinet when we're not looking) and reeked some havoc. But with the nuggets today, I put two and two together and realized over the past couple of days we must have had a mouse in the house. I was alittle surprised b/c we haven't had any mice in the apartment since moving in just over 2 years ago. But at the same time I kind of figured the frigid temps we've had over the past few days might have forced the little guy into the warmth of our house. Now i can only hope he's made his way back outside and no more of his friends will find their way in. The only other creature experience we've had here is back around Thanksgiving when we had a bat somehow get into the apartment. Yes, a bat! I had gone to bed early and pat was out in the living room watching tv. I awoke to pat screaming like a girl, ran out into the living room to find pat lying flat on his back on the couch, legs up in the air, pillow covering his head, screaming, as a bat was doing speed laps around our tiny living room, dive bombing pat every time it got to that side of the room. It was absolutely hilarious (for me). I'm not bothered by bats, so I grabbed a blanket and managed to toss it over the bat and catch it. But not before the great hunter Rusty got a few swipes at it. Man that was a comical scene. Pat screaming like a bitch, the cat going into pure stalker mode leaping around the room, a bat doing speed laps in a panic, the dog barking and leaping after the cat in confusion, and the prissy Guyman kind of standing around fluffing his fur.... oh and then me the girl saving the day :) I crack up still when I think about it.

Anyways, I've left the cabinets open in case the mouse is still around- I have faith that if he is he won't be for long, not with Rusty in the house. She's a great huntress :) "gah maybe they won't see me if I stick my head in this hole..."

Decisions, decisions

2009-01-16T19:25:00.002-05:00

sometimes it's just so hard to make decisions. When one part of you is saying GO FOR IT! and the other part of you is saying TISK TISK you know you shouldn't do that. I've been wanting to take a screenprinting class for about 6 months now. Back when I was making mad loot at my crazy health and safety position over the summer I almost signed up. Money wasn't the issue then, it was the issue of am I going to miss too many classes since we tend to be out and about more in the summer. So then I told myself I would sign up for my birthday present in November. But then I ended up getting that kick ass camera instead. And now their winter classes are starting next week and I was SO close to signing up. But this time around it's the money issue. A huge part of me is saying DO IT, this is the perfect time- you know you won't be able to take that class for a while if you wait till after the baby arrives. But then that nagging conscious in me is saying HELLO! you have a baby coming in a few months and you are planning to start house hunting in just a month, save your money! When I think about potentially buying a house in the next couple months the nagging little conscious wins. Especially when I combine that with the thought of being out of work for a few months when baby arrives. I guess I'll make a last minute decision on Monday.... or atleast find out when their next session is- I might be able to make the next session, and by then I'll know if we're buying a house or having to stay put in our apartment for a little while longer. Well atleast I know I'll be starting my prenatal yoga classes next week- Pat's dad got me a gift certificate to the yoga studio for Christmas (we drew names this year) so that classes are already over half paid for. That made that decision easy :)

Well I'm still remaining accomplished this week :) Just got finished adding these two hemp wrap tops to the site. I had big plans to make the cranberry one in a plus size so that I had a nice variety of sizes, but when I went to cut out my pattern I realized I was short almost a yard for that size. The fabric width was about 6 inches too narrow to make the plus size shirt, meaning I would have to use an extra yard..... bummer.

This weekend I have to dye up a couple batches of hemp fabric for Taylor of Little Hippie.... She's getting her spring/summer line in the works so I'll have quite a few batches to do over the next month. There's nothing better than the Fedex man showing up with a 60 yard roll of hemp fabric that I didn't have to pay for. Sure I don't get to keep it, but it's almost just as fun dyeing it up and not feeling guilty about already having way too much in my stash, hehe :)

All this cold weather (we're in a middle of an Arctic blast cold spell- single digit temperatures, brrrrrrr!) has kept me inside the past couple of days. The Dukester hasn't been too happy about it. He's just too damn cute.... here he is patiently waiting at the front door.... please oh please just take me for a hike, please pretty pretty please....

giveaway over at the Gypsy Road featured artist!

2009-01-11T19:54:00.002-05:00

The etsy team Gypsy Road that I'm part of just released it's first featured artist article, featuring the rockin' Julie of The Peaceful Peacock. We'll be doing a new featured artist each month- it will be cool to find out more about all the talented artist in that team.

So you should head over and take a few minutes to find more out about Julie.... for alittle motivation she's holding a giveaway for a set of fabric grocery totes and a cutie little scarflette!

another WIP

2009-01-10T20:02:00.002-05:00

I did mention how accomplished I've been lately, right? hehe, yes I sure have :) Today I made up a custom padded pouch (which I spaced on photographing before mailing it off to its new owner) and started another wrap top in size Medium/Large. With this brand new applique.....

I decided to go along with a theme of spinning off my common appliques to create new ones. This lotus leaf and buds will go across the front wrap section, and I'm pondering adding a full bloomed lotus to the hood. I like adding an applique in the front and back of a piece so it gives off uniqueness no matter what angle you see it at- so I'll probably end up adding the lotus to the hood. I have this top all cut out and the front applique done, machine all threaded and ready to start stitching.

I also managed to use up another piece of my hemp jersey stash! I keep almost all of my hand dyed eco fabrics on the top shelf of my fabric shelving unit.... up until a few weeks ago this shelf was packed to the absolute max.... i could hardly even pull out a piece of fabric b/c it was shoved in there so tightly. But as you can see on that right side (my knit side) there's almost 4 inches of head space now!!! And I think I've already got plans for that cranberry red jersey about halfway down the pile.

I'm planning on having this top finished up by tomorrow. And then to start on that cranberry this coming week. I'll probably hold off adding this new top until I've finished one more piece.... I don't want my mailing list folks to start feeling like I'm spamming them!

I've been taking little breaks all day- it's snowing out again and Pat is putting in another overtime shift at work with plowing, so it's just me and the animals again this Saturday evening. I'm debating whether to sew for alittle longer or go find a movie to watch and label my soap bars. I'm finding it very interesting how over the past week or so my sales are picking back up, becoming more how they were before I fell into such a creative slump this past year. I'm a firm believer that every person puts off their energy which influences what comes their way. I think this new found energy (or the return of an old energy?) I've been putting into Magnolia Skies is already working its magic :) Now let's hope I can continue to feel this inspired!

finito!

2009-01-08T15:44:00.004-05:00

Whew I'm feeling pretty accomplished this first week of the new year!! I know I could be getting even more done for Magnolia Skies, but compared to last year I'm already miles ahead! I feel like I'm falling back in my old groove of things- last year was just a big funk of some sort when it came to being creative.

I finished up this top that I gave a sneak peek of the other day. It's a hemp jersey wrap top- one of my favorite top designs. Hemp jersey that has been in my stash for quite awhile.... it feels good to start whittling down that fabric stash..... urrr or atleast my dyed fabric stash..... those 80 something yards of undyed eco fabrics stashed away in the corner of the room, they don't count.... right?..... sure.....

I also finished crocheting up this hat last night. I was planning on starting a new hat but found this one half finished in my yarn bag. I have no idea when I started it, but last night was a good time to finish it up :) Funny how the color scheme of the top and hat are the same :)

And to top it all off I got my Lavender Tea Tree handmade soap photographed. I plan on putting this on Etsy too, so this time I got a little fancier with my photography. In the past I just white out the background for my site photographs, but I notice Etsy tends to go for more elaborate photo schemes.

I'm still debating if I want to add my crocheted hats to my etsy shop too.... it seems like avid etsy sellers are either half for variety in a shop or half for a very narrow selection of goods in a shop. At first I was going to post just my eco clothing there, but then I wanted to get rid of that bamboo jersey so I added that and it sold really well, so then more fabric made it's way in there. And now the soap. hmmmm..... I guess I'm going with variety.... after all variety is the spice of life! and really I want my etsy shop to somewhat reflect my Magnolia Skies website, which I consider to be a boutique of sorts.... The only thing I've decided to limit is my clothing selection, I still only want to add my eco clothing to etsy. I'm not sure why, but that's what I'm set on right now so that's how it will be.

So to complete my accomplished feeling day, I'll be adding these new goods to my website sometime after dinner.

On the personal front, I'm feeling great! Pat and I went to my monthly check up last week and got to hear the baby's heartbeat again.... well me again and Pat for the first time. I was really glad he didn't have work that day so he could have the chance to hear it. And my second ultrasound is on Tuesday- I made it late enough for pat to come to that too, since personally I think the ultrasound is WAYYYYYY cooler than hearing the heartbeat. that first ultrasound is when it really hit me that I have a baby growing in me- and I have a feeling it will be just as jaw dropping for Pat since he didn't get to go to the first one. I've managed to get 7 cloth diapers completely finished, and have atleast half of the work done for the rest. In the next week or so I need to sit my ass down and enter all of my business stuff into my financial software to get ready for our income taxes. At the beginning of the year our state switched me over to yearly sales tax filing, instead of quarterly. Filing my sales tax quarterly for Magnolia Skies forced me to enter my stuff atleast 4 times a year, instead of letting it pile up a foot high at the end of the year like I did this year. But I just have to think of the light at the end of the tunnel.... once our income taxes are done in the beginning of February, we can go see what we can get preapproved for a mortgage. We've been wanting to buy a house for almost 2 years now, but I think this winter/early spring will finally be it for us! We're much better off financially than we've ever been, so our fingers are crossed we can get approved for something reasonable, can find a house before this baby arrives, and can break our current lease without too much harm done...... If not we'll be apartment living until September when our lease is up again.... which I prefer not but either way I think this year will be our year for buying our first house.

Anyways, I should get back to being accomplished.... my little reward break should be ending :)

WIP- a little inspiration found

2009-01-05T22:31:00.002-05:00

Here's a sneak peek of my current work in progress. Up until today I haven't found the energy or inspiration to make any clothing in the past month or so. Almost everyday I *almost* felt the urge to sew something for Magnolia Skies, but it fluttered away before I could get to sewing. But today I finally felt inspired- I'm almost done with this wrap top, just need to stitch up a few hems and I'm finished! Won't be tonight b/c I have work for the day job in the morning (thankfully i don't have to be on site until 10am!).

This applique is completely original for me.... I think I was stuck in festival mode when it came to appliques- I tend to stick to simple and quick appliques for the majority of my festival pieces to keep the majority of my work at a certain price point, such as the sweeping leaves applique I've been doing. Today I realized this and decided to drag my appliqueing ass out of festival mode and back into original mode. Sometimes it's just easier not to have to think of an applique design and go with something easy, but eventually I get bored of easy... thankfully!

This wrap top is hemp/cotton jersey- the main portion is a piece I dyed up Olive Drab- it is the very first batch of hemp jersey I dyed up! Wow that piece has been sitting patiently in my stash for awhile, haha!

I should have this on my site by the end of the week :) Off to get my beauty sleep :)

Featured! Do it yourself Fashion

2009-01-03T20:35:00.002-05:00

I was just checking my stats for my website when I realized I was so excited about being so productive today, that I forgot to upload all my new stuff to the web, haha! I did all the work, just didn't FTP it over to my site, duh! So I was curious to see how many people checked my site in the 15 or so minutes through my mailing list..... when I stumbled across a referal from Do It Yourself Fashion

It turns out back in November they featured my site for my applique work! Wow! I think this is the first time I've stumbled across someone featuring my work that I didn't know about, and man what a flattering feeling :) *blush* Thanks DIY Fashion!

While reading the article I clicked on this link giving a rundown on what to look for when buying handmade clothing. I thought it was really cool that this article exists for folks who don't really understand handmade clothing (haven't we all at some point run into someone who thinks handmade clothing means shoddy, poor quality work?). I especially liked that the author pointed out to take time and materials into consideration when looking at the price, something that I think alot of people not familiar with handmade clothing fail to think about. Anyways, I'm a blogging maniac today, two posts in one day, haha! Just wanted to share this article :)

a little bit of productivity never hurts

2009-01-03T19:33:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to start off the new year right as far as productivity goes. I feel like I wasted alot of time doing nothing in 2008 when it comes to Magnolia Skies. I only work part time as an environmental geologist, which should leave me plenty of crafty time. I should easily be able to create 2-3 new pieces each week, give or take depending on how my hours are at the day job. But that certainly wasn't the case in 2008. So to start off 2009 I added some new goods to the site. These two dresses I had in the works for awhile, but finished up last week, and now they're fresh up for sale. I didn't really feel like sewing today so instead of bumming around or wasting too much time on the computer I decided to photograph and get these new goods onto the site. Make my time a little more productive.

I adore these two dresses- the marigold yellow one is made from a hemp/tencel blend I dyed up. I love that fabric, it has an amazing drape for dresses and skirts. And I love how it hardly wrinkles (unlike some of the hemp/cotton wovens).

I even did a little crocheting while watching movies in the evening. In the winter I love curling up on the couch in the evening with some yarn and my crochet hook, all my animals curled up in various places around the room, Pat sprawled out on the other end of the sofa, and watch a good movie. I finished up this hat that I had nearly finished over this summer while camping. This one has some really yummy yarns- two super soft and airy alpaca/wool blends and a hemp/wool blend in the dark brown.

This purple tam I crocheted up last night- the light purple is a specialty wool blend yarn that has a vein of sparkly going through it- the sparkly and the colors remind me of holiday sugar plums :)

I also added a piece of hand dyed bamboo linen to my etsy shop. I might be adding a few more pieces of hand dyed eco fabrics over the next few weeks to make room for all my new eco fabrics.

So my general goal for 2009 is to be more productive with my time. I'm learning to go with my instinct more- if I don't feel like sewing don't feel guilty about it, which then leads to doing nothing, instead find something else to do like dye up some fabric (even if I don't need it right at the moment) or sit down and crochet. Or like in today's case, get some stuff onto the site that has been sitting around patiently waiting to be added. I think that's a manageable enough goal :)

Lucky You

2009-01-02T18:04:00.003-05:00

actually, Lucky me. My new Lucky Brand Jeans maternity jeans just showed up at my doorstep, 3 days before I was expecting them! Let me tell ya, those belly flap maternity pants, they SUCK! I was hoping to find a pair of under the belly pants but the few stores around us that sell maternity pants only sold the fully belly panel ones, or the couple pairs that I found that went under the belly fit all wonky and were near capris they were so short on me. After a week of wearing the full flap maternity pants, walking around with my pants crotch halfway down to my knees cause the damn things don't stay up, tugging at the uber stretchy panel since there's no belt loops, resulting in stretching it up to my boobs and the pants part not even moving.... I gave up.

I decided to try out the elastic band trick my mama gave me with my normal FAVORITE jeans- my Lucky Brand Jeans. It worked like a charm, except it's a little drafty down there and if my shirts aren't super long someone might think they're getting lucky :) A little background to my expensive jeans- my mom instilled in me the bargain shopper. I rarely buy commercial clothing full price (this whole blurb excludes handmade items), and the clearance rack is where it's at. Yep, that worked right up until I was about 24. Then I guess my body started developing those "misses" curves. No longer could I fit perfectly into any $30 jeans off the junior's rack. I wandered the stores with armloads of jeans, only to be disappointed every time. With a handful of OK fitting jeans in my closet, I longed for the days of good fitting jeans. Cause I'm a jeans kind of gal. With the exception of during the summer when i live in my skirts, and the exception of now that I'm pregnant and I live in cute dresses, I wear jeans everyday. And then one day a few years ago I wandered into Lord and Taylor in the mall, and on a whim tried on a pair of $100 jeans, the bargain shopper in me going berserk. But they were on sale for $65 so I bit the bullet and tried them. OH MY. I found the perfect jean for myself. No more wasting hours in random stores trying on every jean on the rack only to be disappointed. These were jeans made for me. Even at $100 a pair, they were a bargain for the time spent trying to find a good fitting pair, for the perfect fit, and for the amount of times I wear them, costing less than pennies a day in the end. And even better, I later learned they're made right here in the USA. Even better..... lucky me!

In my growing older I've learned that if there's two things a woman splurges on for herself in the clothing department, it's the perfect fitting daily pant (jeans in my case) and the perfect fitting bra. With those two things covered, you can look good, and feel even better. I only wish I had known that when I was younger. I'll admit I love clothing. I love how a good fitting outfit (whether handmade, store bought, clearance rack, full price jeans, etc) can top off feeling good and top off confidence.

Anyways, yes, so those new maternity jeans.... I ordered them during the pre christmas sale over on the Lucky website. They fit just like I dreamed of, just like my good ol' jeans. no more crotch down to the knees, no more stretchy band sticking out from under my shirts if I move the wrong way. They look and fit the way a jean should. As I unwrapped the packaging this sticker was the first thing to greet me. Yes, they have given me hope that I no longer have to suffer with poor fitting maternity jeans. Lucky me.

a year of creations in review

2008-12-31T13:12:00.003-05:00

This is a pretty big pic- click on it for a better view of the individual pieces.

On the very last day of 2008 my body decided to keep me sleeping in until 12:10 pm.... so in my bad winter habit of not being able to get out of bed in the morning (although today was especially pathetic) I've managed to miss the last morning of the year. oh well! Since i've already slept half the day away i decided in the spirit of non-production I'd spend another chunk of time going through my pictures to find my favorite creations of the year. Considering I didn't add that many new things to my site this year, I actually created quite a few things for the 3 festivals i vended. I was on a dress kick this year for the festivals. A goal for this coming year is to create separate galleries for each kind of item- so hopefully I'll eventually share all the cute dresses I stitched up this year that were sold at the festivals! This was the first year I took the time to photograph everything I made- in the previous years I ran out of time before festivals to photograph my stock, and there's been quite a few times I wanted to kick myself in the ass for not getting a picture of a certain creation before it was snatched up at the festival. But oh well, live and learn, this year I learned to better document all of my creations, that taking a few minutes per piece is worth it.

As for themes in my creations, this year seemed to be the sweeping leaves and the fly by night swallow appliques. Leaves are always my favorite applique so they're always showing up in the majority of my pieces. This year I created my favorite applique yet, the abstract peacock. I also managed to stitch up some cute kiddo clothes, with the jumper dress shown above featuring one of my other fav appliques, the elephant. I discovered my favorite fabric yet, 100% bamboo fleece, and fell in love with a few new eco fabrics such as stretch hemp jersey and soy terry (this one was an end of the year find, still waiting to dive into it!). And while going through my creations I realized that I didn't do much crocheting this year, but I have a feeling this winter may be a little more productive with crocheting.

Anyways, it's growing even later in the afternoon, I need to get showered and dressed, the dog is patiently waiting to go outside, and I have orders to pack and walk to the post office in the snow (oh it's snowing on this last day of the year too!). I hope everyone out there has a safe and happy new year's eve! Here's to health, happiness, and prosperity in the new year! Oh ok one more thing before I "start" my day- can you believe it's going to be 2009??? I grew up on the Jetson's and can remember thinking when I was little that the 2000s would be the space age like in the Jetson's- hehe, yep some technology has advanced and developed quite a bit, but all in all we're still pretty much the same.... well flying cars aren't standard, i don't yet have a robot maid, I still need to shower and dress myself, and we don't live in saucer houses in the sky....

who would have thought.....

2008-12-29T19:48:00.004-05:00

photograph by twelve paws over on flickr

well atleast i would have never thought at this moment in time my free computer time would be consumed by cloth diapers. While we're excited and have already welcomed this little baby growing within me into our family, this pregnancy was not planned.... not prevented, but not planned either. After we got married we kind of went with the idea of fate deciding our future regarding children. And here I am just over a year later, 5 months pregnant and spending what seems like way too much time researching just one aspect of raising this baby- cloth diapering. I've made the decision to try to cloth diapers.... i honestly had never even pondered the thought of what kind of diapering I would use with my children until a few months ago. I know some women dream of the day when they have their first child, and all the ways they'll go about raising it. i wasn't one of them.

Luckily for me, the internet is so full of open arm resources on the subject- so many mamas sharing their trials and errors and what worked and what didn't. I've spent so many hours over the past couple weeks researching the subject that i'm feeling near expert on the subject for someone who has not yet actually used a cloth diaper. all the terms, abbreviations, types of systems, so much to learn. But I think i've settled on using the fitted diaper style for the newborn stage. And once the baby is born I'll go from there, once i really become the expert (i'm guessing that changing 12-18 diapers a day during the newborn stage makes you an expert pretty fast, hehe). Thanks to the lovely Julie for sharing all of her mama resources, I found this fitted pattern by Mama Bird for a fitted diaper that hopefully will do the trick for the tricky (or so i've read, haha!) breastfed newborn cloth diapering. Julie also so very kindly sent me a set of her own contoured diaper pattern, which I think will be a good and faster to sew option when things start to firm up in the messy #2 department. I chose to start off with the fitted style b/c of the leg and back elastics helping to prevent "blowouts" common to newborns (see all this new lingo i've learned!).

So I spent a few hours today starting my diaper sewing. I haven't really been in the mood to sew clothing lately, so I figured atleast this would make good use out of my time when I'm not working at the day job. Just based on what I have in my stash, I'm going with a 100% bamboo twill outer and a hemp/organic cotton fleece inner. I'm using the hemp fleece for the soaker too, and am still debating whether or not to throw in a layer of microterry (the synthetic kind found in the automotive section, from what i hear they can hold an enormous volume of liquid) in the very center of the soaker for added absorption. I got the outer layer and inner layer of the diaper cut out today- 24 of them. I was aiming for 30 newborn diapers but underestimated the shrinkage of my fabrics. I have about a quarter of the soakers cut out, but then i ran out of the washed hemp fleece- this stuff really shrinks in length. I lost almost a foot from a 3 yard cut just from shrinkage. The shrinkage in width was pretty minimal, but definitely there.

I find it odd that I'm so looking forward to finishing up the very first one, holding it up, doing the whole Ooooo and Ahhhhhh thing when i see this little tiny cloth diaper and imagining this little tiny baby fitting in it. I guess my motherly instinct and a bit of nesting is starting to develop :) Anyways, that's what I've been up to in sewing. I'll get back to everyone in 6 months on whether or not I was even close to prepared to cloth diaper, and if all the stuff i read actually pertains to this kiddo. Haha!

OH and I did do a little clothing sewing this week too.... January's challenge over at Gypsy Road is to make something for yourself.... I used this as the motivation to design and sew a new dress for myself. I had fun with it b/c I went down and dirty with the actual sewing- I made it out of hemp jersey and skipped the serging, just straight stitched it since the knit won't fray. I just need to change the neckline to something a little more flattering for me and I'll post some pics.

making a difference?

2008-12-22T23:21:00.004-05:00

Today I finally "unlazied" myself and updated my site with several new items from my summer festival vending stock that I was too lazy to add to my site until now. And not only did I get myself to photograph, measure, and add all the new stuff to my site, I even dragged my ass out onto my frigid front porch to take some modeled outdoor photographs. Ideally I would have gone into the backyard for a better quality picture, but i was cold enough stepping outside that the front porch had to do. I used to always model any of the clothing I could fit into because I think it's good to show the item on a human to get a better idea of fit. I used to always photograph these modeled pics outside. But laziness and being tired of dealing with uncooperative weather had me skipping these pics this year. So now hopefully I'll get back into the habit.

I also photographed some older items being modeled from my last update. Personally I think showing a piece of clothing on a human makes a difference when buying online..... but that's just my opinion when shopping online for clothing, I wonder if it makes a difference with the majority of everyone else shopping online? I really like this detail shot of the Sweeping Leaves Bamboo Fleece top. Done with my new camera- oh man does this camera rock when it comes to self portraits (ie me modeling the clothing)- it has a timer option that takes the picture only when the camera sees your face. so no more setting the timer and running over in place to try to get there in time and fix myself before the camera clicks. it rocks!

So one of the downfalls of being too cold to go into my backyard to take the pics is my backdrop on my porch is pretty shitty. It's distracting. So I use my photoshop skills to try to make it better. This is the original, straight out of the camera.

The background is really distracting. In the 7 years I worked at a photography studio, I managed to learn lots of good tips on editing photographs. Who knew that job would come so much in handy in the future! At the studio I learned burn burn burn in photoshop. Burn down the edges and corners of the photograph to make the subject pop. And that's what I usually do when I get that in depth with editing. So that's what I did with this picture so try to draw the attention to the subject, burn down the background as seen in this picture below.

Except in this case I wasn't feeling satisfied with the results. Burning down the background usually can work wonders, but with this particular background it didn't. And that's when my brain clicked and thought Dodge dodge dodge. if burning down the background didn't work, then maybe lightening up the back ground would work. Well in the photo below I selected the background and lightened it in Levels, but Dodging would yield very similar results.... the method i chose I just found easier to make it an even lightness.

I'm pretty happy with the results considering with what I was dealing with. The subject definitely pops more than with the burning. Of course this method gives the picture a very distinct look- that it's obviously been altered. This obviously wouldn't work with most pictures, but for me it works in this case it's a product picture.

Anyways, I spent way too much time editing those photographs. I'd much rather have to do minimal editing, which requires a decent background. Unfortunately a decent outdoor background is very limited at my apartment. I would definitely have to venture out past my front porch.... into the cold.... cold.... cold backyard that is covered with 8 inches of snow. yep, I'll be making do with these porch shots for a while!

happy winter solstice!

2008-12-21T15:55:00.002-05:00

Happy Winter Solstice! Here in Connecticut we're bringing in the first day of winter with lots of snow! It started on Friday- we got about 6 inches, the first official "snowstorm" of the year. Pat pulled a 16 hour day on Friday, plowing at his work. So it was just me and the Dukester. I snapped these pics about halfway through the snowstorm....

I love that tree picture! Duke loves the snow! We ended up going for a short walk with Michelle and Chi dog from downstairs, then we all hung out in the yard for about 2 hours, letting the dogs wrestle each other in the snow.

Yesterday I ran a few errands with pat as my chauffeur, had to get a few packages to the post office- I've made a few etsy sales over the past week, getting rid of all the black stretch bamboo fabric I ordered. When I realized I needed to set aside some time and patience to figure out the best way to sew with this fabric, I listed all of the black I had so I wasn't just sitting on a pile of money wasted. I'm thinking I'll dye up a good chunk of the natural I ordered and list it on etsy too, since the black sold so quickly for me. I'd have to charge several dollars more a yard to cover my labor and dye materials for the hand dyed fabric, but we'll see how that goes. I just feel bad about having so much yardage sitting around, since I know it will be awhile before I sit down with the fabric again to figure out the best method of sewing with such a stretchy fabric.

And today, the official first day of winter, we are getting more snow! we got another 2.5 inches today, for a total of about 8.5 inches on the ground now since friday. It's so beautiful out, what a great way to bring in the first day of winter! and maybe we'll have that storybook white christmas this year.

Pat's working overtime again today (couldn't have asked for better timing to be getting a big ol' paycheck from all the overtime he'll put in this weekend!) so I finished up some computer work for the day job, ate some shrimp cocktail (mmm my fav!) and homemade chili that my dad stopped by and surprised me with this afternoon, and hung outside with the dog for a little while for him to tire himself out in the snow. I woke up feeling the itch to update my site with all the leftover stock I have from the summer festivals. But I have to photograph everything and the sun is starting to set so I don't see that happening today.... maybe I'll work on that a bit tomorrow.

With the new year's just around the corner, I've been doing some thinking about the upcoming year. It's going to be a huge year of change for us.... with the thought of having to stay at home for at least a couple months at the end of spring, I've been rolling some ideas around in my head about my website. I've been wanting to redo it for awhile now, and am thinking of ways to bring in more income with my part time business for when the baby arrives. I know I'll most likely want to go back to work a day or two a week at the day job- that's just me, I can foresee the need to get out of the house and be with adults or else I'll go nutty. But in the few months when that won't be possible, it will be nice to be able to use my sewing and crafting skills to bring in the extra income we'll need to not have to really tighten our budget and stress money. I've relied on the income of my website for short periods of time in the past, and I know it's possible, I just need to focus and have a good plan for when the time comes.

anyways, hope everyone is staying warm!

Winter Solstice challenge- tis' the season!

2008-12-17T19:17:00.003-05:00

I recently became part of the Etsy Teams group Gypsy Road. It's a brand spankin' new group, but the plan is to have a monthly challenge each month, with this month's being the Winter Solstice challenge. So I wanted to share what I've been creating to celebrate this winter solstice. This cute little tote and zipper pouch set is for our 5 year old niece. The tote is a mini tote, measuring only about 9"x12", perfect size for a youngster. My idea behind this set is turning it into an artist tote. I bought a bunch of sticker pads, doodle books, coloring books, papers, a little artist set with all kinds of markers and crayons to stuff into that little tote. I still have to pick up some funky pens and pencils, and maybe a few tasty lip balms to toss into the zipper pouch. As funny as it may sound, our niece is really hard to buy for, in my opinion- she's an only child and has more toys than you can imagine. I can't bring myself to buy her another cheesy plastic toy to add to her collection, plus I'm sure Grandma and her mom and dad have that all covered. She's learning to write right now and loves to color, so I'm hoping this artist tote set will bring her some fun. Plus it's not too childish looking, so maybe it will last for a few years.

This year that's the only gift I'm making, with the exception of giving my mom some of my homemade soaps and soy candles to add to her gift and the cookie tins I do up for the members of our immediate family. If I had to pick a theme for this year's presents, I think it would be Functionality. I mostly bought items that were needed, yet were a bit of a splurge compared to basic necessity.... haha, that's a vague one, don't know who's reading this so I don't want to get into specifics :)

We went to a local tree farm this past weekend and cut down our Christmas tree..... we just discovered this farm and I was really excited to have the option of a fresh tree this year (instead of purchasing from a roadside stand) both for the freshness factor and knowing that we were supporting a local farm instead of who knows at the road stand. We brought along the Dukester and all had a good time. It was hard trying to decide which one should come home with us, but we finally settled on this one. Haha, but it looked much smaller in the wild! When we got it into our house it nearly took up the entire hallway room (we have an odd hallway that is the size of a small room), whoops! We debated what to do and then decided this was the only spot in our house for our tree without having to do MAJOR furniture rearranging, so out came pat's saw and with a little pruning of the back side we managed to squeeze it back into the corner quite a bit. It still looks a bit big, but it's grown on us :)

On one of the design blogs I was reading, they mentioned doing up easy swags in place of traditional wreaths. I had collected these perfect pine cones a few years ago and they were just sitting patiently in a bag waiting to be put to use. I used some of the branches we trimmed from the bottom of our tree, and whipped up these simple but festive swags in just a few minutes. I'm giving this mini one to my mother in law for her front door to celebrate the winter solstice.

And this larger one I hung out on the front of our porch

Anyways, those are my winter solstice creations so far. Considering I really don't like winter, I do really love the holidays. Aside from being with the people we love, there's nothing better than walking into my warm house to the smell of fresh pine and all our ornaments dancing in the lights!

soap!

2008-12-12T18:07:00.004-05:00

no catchy title today, let's get down to business.... the business of making soap! I've been making soap using the cold process method for about 4 years now. To me it is a really rewarding task. Who doesn't use soap (or some sort of cleanser) and who wouldn't love a high quality, natural soap.... way better than the cheap commercial soaps you buy in 12 packs at your local store. Why, you may ask? In a short version, commercial soaps use the hot process method in which the naturally occurring glycerin (excellent moisturizer, draws moisture to the skin) is removed and sold for a profit to lotion companies, often petroleum products are used along with all kinds of unnecessary chemicals. In the cold process method, the moisturizing glycerin is retained and (depending on the soaper) natural, recognizable ingredients are used.

There are a million different cold process soap devoted websites and books out there, so i'm not going to go into the how-to..... If you are interested in making soap I highly recommend spending a nice chunk of time researching and learning the how- for the simple reason that you are dealing with a dangerous chemical, lye. For anyone familiar with basic chemistry (yeah, you remember those chemistry labs in high school and college!) soapmaking is the process of an acid neutralizing a base, with the oils you use in the soap being the acid, and the lye being the base, neutralizing to create soap. And for everyone who has seen Fight Club, you know what lye can do. It is a very strong base that if it gets on your exposed skin, can burn a hole right through, especially if water/moisture is introduced. And no, don't splash water on it, because that will raise the temperature a couple hundred degrees. Jonesy forbid you get some on you (gloves, goggles are a must), you need to neutralize it with an acid, such as vinegar. Anyways, I'm getting offtrack with what I want to post, just know that if you are interested take the time to learn and take the proper precautions while making it, and you will be very happy :)

I wanted to share a recipe for anyone who wants to get into soap making but isn't ready to jump into using more exotic expensive oils (ie oils you can't find at the grocery store). This recipe uses vegetable shortening, which can be bought very cheaply at your local grocery store, significantly reducing the price compared to using more specialty oils such as jojoba, avocado, sweet almond oil, etc. that you may want to experiment with if you decide you love making soap. This recipe is from the book Making Soaps and Scents by Catherine Bardey:

12 ounces coconut oil

12 ounces olive oil

20 ounces vegetable shortening

16 ounces water

6 ounces lye

I used this recipe for my very first two batches of soap, and I was glad it was relatively cheap (compared to the oils I use now) b/c one of those batches didn't work out due to a newbie mistake I made. Again, I'm not getting into the process of making it, there is tons of info out there. While doing a quick search for the method I use (reduced water) I came across this site AquaSapone that seems to be quite informative on making soap. Once you get the hang of cold process soap making you may want to try out the reduced water method, which significantly reduces the amount of time needed to cure your soap (what makes the bar of soap hard- when left to cure water evaporates out leaving a harder bar). I stumbled across this method just out of trial and error with recipes, but then realized it was an actual method, which is also explained very well in the above site.

Anyways, I just wanted to share a tidbit of info on soapmaking and that "cheaper" recipe for newbies to try out without sinking in too much money while getting the hang of things.

This batch that I made at the beginning of the week is all natural and scented with Lavender and Tea tree oil, and has a light sprinkling of dried lavender buds throughout.

I finally used the new soap mold I designed and Pat made for me.... it kicks ass! I just need to find the right cutting utensil now (it needs to be close to 2 feet long!) and it will create perfectly cut bars in minutes.... something I really struggled with my old "log" mold. And this mold was designed to hold twice as much soap as my old one! I have 30 bars of "big boy" bars- they're a whopping 5.5 oz to 6.5 oz big, compared to my usual 4 to 5 oz bars. I've seen these molds going for about $60 each, but with my carpenter husband and my plans I managed to have one for under $20, sweet! This batch needs to cure another week or so and I need to do some light trimming of a few bars, and then i'll be back to using my own soap, man it's been too long! .... sorry Dr. Bronner's, your soap rocks but there's no better soap than using soap you made yourself!

well crack my nuts and call me reminiscent

2008-12-11T19:14:00.002-05:00

I had to run to the grocery store yesterday to pick up some missing ingredients from the lentil stew I was making.... in the bakery section I spotted a whole section devoted to nuts in their shells.... and once again I began to reminisce the days spent with my grandparents. Every Christmas my grandma would have an open house sort of celebration, and she always had an abundant supply of mixed nuts and nutcrackers scattered around the house on various tables. I used to love cracking open the nuts! And when I was much younger I could never figure out why we were allowed to eat these acorns, but not the ones out in the yard.... then as I got older i discovered those "acorns" in the mixed nuts weren't acorns at all, but similar looking hazelnuts. So to celebrate the memory of my grandparents this holiday season, i picked up a big bag of shelled mixed nuts and a nut cracker set :) One of my bros was over last night and we spent a good while hanging out at the kitchen table cracking nuts....

anyways, really i'm just taking a little break (ie procrastinating) from the computer work I've been doing for the day job. I'm close to putting in an 8 hour day of it.... only thanks to the jury duty i had today, bleh! But it wasn't bad, i was out by noon, and able to put a good 3 hours of work in while I awaited the whole jury selection process. This is good for me, I HATE day job computer work! Pat laughs at me whenever he's home and I'm doing day job computer work because the only way my mind can tolerate it and remain somewhat focused is if I verbalize everything I'm doing in funny voices, little made up songs, repeating phrases repeatedly, making funny noises..... oddly enough it's the way I remain focused..... thankfully i'm able to control it when in public, otherwise i'd be the loony lady that everyone avoids in the library.

Well i do have something crafty to share, but I really need to get back to work before the night comes to an end..... I finally made up some soap and have pics and processes to share, probably won't be tonight since I have work early in the morn tomorrow but maybe I'll make that tomorrow night's goal :) until then......

the cat's out

2008-12-10T13:48:00.004-05:00

No, no, not those cats, they're indoor kitties :) I'm talking about that metaphorical cat that hangs out in the bag of untolds and secrets. And i'm letting him out of that bag- I'm pregnant! Our first bambino is due May 14th... I'm currently about 19 weeks along, and feeling great! Here's our first picture of the baby, at about 13 1/2 weeks..... yep, i have an alien growing in me.....

I just started showing right after Thanksgiving at about 18 weeks and snapped this first baby bump picture..... but really I wasn't quite sure if i was actually "showing"- I'm pretty convinced that was about 1/2 baby bump, 1/2 five days of Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers pigout.

And no that's not a dislodged twin back there, that's just my naturally voluptuous bum.

So i've been feeling really great so far. I've had a few cravings that stand out- cheeseburgers and lemons (not together). I swear I've eaten more cheeseburgers than I have in the past 5 years total. And lemons..... man all I want is a big ol' glass of fresh squeezed lemonade, and that's exactly what i've been having. We drew names on Pat's side of the family for christmas presents this year, with a $50 limit- we're supposed to supply a short lists of "wants" in that price range.... all I really want for Christmas is a 50 pound bag of lemons for squeezing and enough juicy cheeseburgers to make up whatever price difference there is :)

Just this past week I stopped being able to button my regular jeans.... I guess not too bad, made it 18 weeks without having to get new pants. I've still been doing my regular hikes with the dog and plan to throughout the rest of the pregnancy.... that's how i get my exercise. Although i'll be the first to admit I've been feeling a little lazier than usual.

Anyways, I felt it was time to share with my online friends :) I also posted my new-ish Flickr account link over on the sidebar.... I'm planning on using it more often now to document my creations, my growing belly, and life in general- kind of like a picture blog i guess.

flurry of chaos

2008-12-03T19:54:00.007-05:00

This is what my sewing/work table looked like this morning as I hurriedly tagged and labeled 60 headbands and socks for Dava. Mass chaos at it's best in my sewing studio. Why oh why do I do this? If only I took 5 minutes to put away all the stuff I had to dig out to complete this order, I would have had more than a 6 inch space to fill out my tags and label my items! But I was running late (this is what happens when I wake up a half hour before I wanted to be somewhere, still having to tag and label 60 items, shower, take care of the animals, drive 20 minutes to get there, etc)

Last year I had the pleasure of making a connection at the Green Expo I vended- sales were slow that day but the vending coordinator happened to be Coleen, owner of the boutique Dava in Hamden, Connecticut. She really dug my stuff and offered me a consignment spot at the store. When she first offered and mentioned the consignment fee (40%) I was flattered and thanked her, but thought in my head that there was no way I could do a 40% consignment fee on my clothing. As it is I charge close to wholesale for my one of a kinds. But then she looked through my prices and noted that the prices would have to be much higher at her store. Cool! So I marked all my goods up 40% and gave it a try. I sent a handful of clothing items, a dozen or so fabric headbands, and 10 pairs of hand dyed hemp socks. I didn't expect much with the clothing since the prices were so high, but ended up selling 2 pieces. I sold half of the headbands and sold all of the hemp socks within a couple days of dropping them off. We decided that my clothing wasn't moving fast enough to continue consignment, but she begged me for a "million more pairs" of the hemp socks! I have to give full credit to my friend Justine for introducing me to these KICK ASS socks- they are without a doubt the best socks around. She sells a tie-dyed version in her shop.

Last year I did a combo of solid dyed and salt dyed socks for Dava. This year I decided to focus mostly on the salt dyed ones since that's what Coleen said sold first, and I love the outcome! Here's a closeup of two colors- Lilac and Better Blue Green from Dharma.

I love the color bursts you get from dyeing this method. All I do is soak the fabric in a soda ash solution for 15 minutes, making sure the fabric is completely saturated. Get some old salt shakers and fill them up 3/4 with salt. I then add about 1 teaspoon of dry fiber reactive dye to the salt (the amount will depend on how big of a salt shaker you're using and the affect you're wanting.... just try out a few different amounts, it's fun!). Take the fabric out of the soda ash solution, gently wring it out (i like to leave it pretty damp so the color seeps in better), and then start sprinkling away with the salt shaker dye! B/c the dye wasn't dissolved, all the colors that make up that particular color come bursting out on the fabric. The salt helps intensify the color and I've read that it draws the dye towards itself. Once I'm done I put the fabric into a plastic bag and let it sit overnight (~8-10 hours) or longer (up to 24). At first it may look like you have a muddy mess (especially if you used multiple colors throughout the fabric) but for me it always washes away and leaves me with well defined color bursts. I like to squish the fabric a little while sprinkling to spread the dye. So after leaving it to sit, wash it out and see the surprise! Fun! I dyed up about 25 pairs of these socks this year for Dava.

The other thing I sent this year was my fabric headbands. Back in September I was back and forth on doing the local harvest fest in my town. I couldn't decide if it would be worth my time, but decided to start stocking up just in case. I made about 25 of these headbands, then decided last minute I wasn't going to do the fair. So there they sat until today. I debated whether to put them on etsy but when I did a quick search I was disappointed at how low similar headbands were selling for (averaging $6-$8). It wasn't worth my time unless I sold them for atleast $12, which is how much I sell them for at festivals (I ain't no sweatshop laborer over here!), so I decided NAY on etsy. So you know how much they sell for at Dava? $20! and they sell! It always amazes me the differences in prices from market to market. I do well selling them at $12 at festivals but doubt they would sell well any higher. On etsy I doubt I would sell any seeing the average price is almost half of what I need to sell them at. At a little brick and mortar boutique, they sell for almost 2 times the price I sell them at (and she gets $17 for my hemp socks and said they flew out the door like hotcakes!)!

And speaking of being disappointed with prices on Etsy, I went on yesterday and noticed a crocheted Ipod cozy on the front page, going for $20. I was impressed at the price (I had never thought about how much I would charge to make one) and that she had sold a handful. It made me dig out the cozy I crocheted 2 years ago for my Ipod.....

and made me think that might be something I could add to my etsy shop for the winter, when I like to crochet in the evenings.... the perfect motivation item- crochets up much faster than a hat so I could potentially make a few each night and feel accomplished! I love making hats but just like sewing, sometimes I need to throw in those quick projects for the instant gratification accomplishment factor. I made mine out of wool, and lightly felted it (I would like to see how it would look more felted). So I did a quick search on Etsy to see how popular of an item these were, and there goes the disappointment...... it seemed like every other listing was $5 or $6 dollars. Most of them were just using acrylics, but still. Like I said before, I'm not a sweatshop laborer, I need to charge a decent wage for my time. I guess I don't know anything about these sellers, who knows, maybe they're record breaking speed crocheters. I know these cozies don't take that long to crochet up, but even then, are they taking their supplies into consideration (I know the buttons I like usually cost about 50 cents each), the time it's taking them to list the item, to photograph it, to edit the photographs, to ship the item? Sure, if I didn't take any of that into consideration I might be able to charge $6 for one, depending on how fast I was crocheting that night.

Whew, that was a bit of rant! haha! Anyways, it felt good bringing a big ol' box of goodies over to Dava for consignment.... I hope most of it finds new homes :) Tomorrow I'll be going through all my supplies that have been coming in the past few days, and getting some things restocked in my shop..... mmmmm I'm feeling the holiday flurry!

tagged! what i'm thankful for...

2008-11-30T21:31:00.003-05:00

my friend justice has tagged me again- 5 things i'm thankful for this year. I'm going to change it up alittle to 5 UNIMPORTANT things i'm thankful for. The most important thing i'm thankful for is my family and friends (including my furry family members) so it would get kind of boring repeating 5 things about that :)

1. Wrist warmers for when i'm spending too much time on the computer.... no more ice cold hands!

2. That toasted Portugese roll and butter I just ate- man I wish I had another!

3. Reminiscing with my best friend Amber about when my grandpa used to bring us home "porkchop cookies" when he had a job in Bridgeport- they were these ginormous (about 8 inches round) chocolate chip cookies from a portugese bakery, like no cookie i've ever tasted. We crack up now that we know where the "porkchop" part came from, if only we had known what we were saying back in the day.... we just thought that was the name of the cookie, not some rude nickname for portugese people. (FIY i don't think my grandpa had anything against portugese people)

4. Hemp socks from my hemp supplier- man these are the most kick ass socks around! Thanks Justine for introducing me to them!

5. This one falls more under the important things i'm thankful for- the beyond generous bonus check my boss gave me this year. I have one of the most kick ass bosses around! And it's the times like when i looked at the number on that check that reminds me that I'm thankful for finishing up my degree depsite how hard it was those last few sememsters.

I'm not tagging anyone specific this time, so consider yourself tagged if you're reading this! tag, you're it :)

why hello there....

2008-11-30T11:15:00.003-05:00

I've been desperately wanting (and partly needing) a new digital camera, both for personal use and for photographing stuff for my shop. I was still using my very first digital camera, a bottom line Kodak EasyShare 3.1 megapixels. The one that I dropped accidentally several months after I got it for my birthday, ever since having to tape the battery door shut with packing tape. It has been a wonderful friend, capturing many good times and enabling me to have my website. But since I used to be into photography for a hobby, back when digital didn't exist and I had my lovely SLR film cameras, I longed for a better quality digital camera. So when my birthday came around this year, falling in time with my very generous bonus check at the day job, I splurged on myself and got this lovely Canon Power Shot SX10 for my present. From the moments I laid eyes on it on Amazon.com, I heard Carrie Bradshaw's voice echoing in my head, "why hello there..." (only i think that line is probably her saying that to a pair of designer shoes, hehe). This baby has a whopping 10 megapixels and a 20x optical zoom! SWEET! I think I can finally get those pictures I've been envisioning. I still have to go through the manual better and adjust the flash settings if possible, but overall I'm enjoying this camera tremendously!

Here are some of my subjects for practice..... Guyman (the black beauty) has such a shiny silky coat that it is almost impossible to get a decent picture of him. If I use a flash, he's all blown out from it reflecting off his super shiny coat (we call him the oil slick b/c he's so silky) and if I don't' use a flash he's too dark unless I get him in the perfect natural light. But Rusty Peanuthead and the Dukester photographed up pretty well.

I also tried out the macro setting and photographed a bunch of these shell earrings that I found in a drawer in my sewing studio. 2 years ago I bought a bunch of pretty shells from a bead store and made up a bunch of earrings. Apparently I got bored (lazy) of photographing them and getting them on my site, b/c half of them were tucked away in this drawer, forgotten about. The other half have sold, so I decided these needed a good home and am working on getting the pics edited and getting them onto etsy. I hope to have them in my shop and possibly on my website tonight or tomorrow.

Well it's 11:30am and I'm still sitting here in my PJs.... need to get showered and head over to my Dad's for Thanksgiving dinner #2 (all those leftovers I ate don't count as meals, right?)

the price went up HOW much???!!!!

2008-11-21T14:47:00.002-05:00

This is a rant, so beware.... I'll try to make it short :) Today I spent a good chunk of time going through my herbal supply bins trying to figure out what I need to restock. I decided I wanted to restock my roll-on body oils and body butters, as well as my soy candles for this holiday season- so I needed to figure out what essential oils I was out of and what containers needed to be ordered. When I made this decision to restock these items a week or so ago, suddenly I've had a whole bunch of orders from my bath and body page for the roll-ons, so I took that as a sign today to get my ass in gear and get things ordered.

I haven't placed a body herbal order in what seems like forever. I recall Danielle telling me months and months ago how Patchouli essential oil prices skyrocketed, but since I still had plenty of patchouli left, i kind of forgot about it. Well I'll tell ya, i nearly died when i saw just how much the price went up. It alteast tripled in price since my last restock. SO NOT COOL. I'm pretty sure last time i ordered it (probably last year sometime) I paid about $20. Today that same size was listed for $66! Are you kidding me!??? And as I added everything else into my cart I noticed a few other things that had ridiculous increases, such as the jars I use for my body butters. And my soy candle supplies- almost everything doubled! Luckily I bought massive amounts of soy wax the first time I did the candles, so I have lots of that left. And shipping prices! Yep, those were quite obnoxious as well! And I understand why, I mean diesel fuel is still really expensive even though regular gas has now dropped to below $2 at about half of the gas stations around me (YAHOOOOOOOOO!).

So now I have to add onto my jumbo list of things to do, "recalculate prices". Unfortunately I forsee having to raise most of my prices in my body herbals. After making all of my purchases today, and crossing off that on my to-do list, I had to laugh at my "see if it will still be profitable if I lower my soy candle prices"- whelp I guess I can cross that one off my list with a big NOPE! BOOOOOOOOOOO!

If I had $45 to spend....

2008-11-18T16:33:00.003-05:00

.... on a calender, it would definitely be on this gorgeous one by The Nora Whynot Press. I've really been digging all the letterpressed and printed calenders so many of my favorite blog reads have been featuring, but this one takes the cake! I think it's the contrast of her bright prints against the lovely recycled boardbox (Ooooo and it's even got an eco-friendly spin!). I've always been drawn to that color contrast. If you happen to have some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket for this calender, head on over to her etsy shop. Oh and I love the idea that you can use the images as artwork even after the year is over, sweet!

Anyways, I spotted this calender while browsing my bloglines and in the spirit of procrastinating (I formed a HUGE to-do list today at work, gearing up for the holidays this year), just thought I'd share :)

My sincerest of apologies

2008-11-14T09:39:00.004-05:00

Dear Stretch Hemp Jersey,

I am writing with my sincerest apologies to you. I'm sure I don't have to remind you of the humiliation I must have caused you several weeks ago as I badmouthed hemp jersey. I admit I was blinded by the sensual qualities of bamboo jersey- the beautiful sheen, the buttery softness. But now I must admit I was very wrong to write off hemp jersey as a whole. I was presumptuous in assuming all hemp jersey was created equally- and as the old saying goes, I've made an ass out of you and me. You and lycra make the most wonderful team- so easy to get along with in all aspects, excellent at working well with others. Even my most trusted assistant Mr. Kenmore Serger and Ms. Huskystar Sewing Machine hold you in the highest esteem after dealing with Stretch Bamboo Jersey yesterday. While they are the most open-minded assistants I know, and don't hold judgements until working with you fabrics, they fully agree that you are much easier and wonderful to work with than the single-minded Stretch Bamboo Jersey- who caused hell in the sewing studio yesterday.

I am happy to announce that I will be using you in all my designs that I was planning on using the boisterous Stretch Hemp Bamboo in and I look forward to a wonderful working relationship with you. Once again, please accept my sincerest apologies for assuming all hemp jersey was created equally, for now I know that you, Stretch Hemp Jersey, have proven me wrong.

Most humbly yours,
ms.magnoliaskies

PS- Please let your cousin Regular Hemp Jersey know that although we had a wonderful relationship in the past, I have to move on to bigger and better things- you Stretch Hemp Jersey!

oh these??? oh they're just to keep my sewing sanity

2008-11-13T15:02:00.003-05:00

Every so often I need a quick sew to make me start to feel accomplished again. I whipped these cute wrist warmers up last night out of some bamboo fleece scraps. I own a couple pairs of knitted wrist warmers but none of them compare to the buttery smoothness of these ones! Come the cold weather I live in my wrist warmers when on the computer, all that typing gets my hands cold!

So I whipped these cuties up for myself last night in the middle of feeling slightly unaccomplished. Earlier in the day I was feeling quite accomplished when I finished the final sample of the newest top I designed- I LOVE it (I'm hoping to have a sneak peek pic in my next post)! But later in the evening when I was hoping to have already started/finished the first sample of my newest dress, I hadn't even finished my pattern yet. And today as I'm having sewing woes with this new dress (well the fabric chosen for the new dress.... remember that blissful bamboo fabric.... well i'm in fabric hell right now..... but that will be a later post) I slipped my hands into these little wrist warmers and suddenly everything was better.... well not really but my cold hands were nice and toasty :)

thanks for making me smile today

2008-11-11T19:27:00.004-05:00

Over the years I've been blessed by lots of feedback on my products. I've had several people email me wondering how I got so many people to give me feedback, so I figured I'd share with everyone. When I make a sale I try to always send a "thank you" email (although I must be the first to admit I'd been slacking on this over the summer but have forced myself to make this a necessary again) and in this email I let the customer know that I would love to hear what they think of the item when it arrives. And when I ship the item, I always make sure to hand write a little note thanking them again and letting them know I'd love to hear what they think. I think the email is key b/c then you are already making it easier for the person to send you a quick note as they don't have to search for an email, just hit reply.

The reason I always let people know I would love to hear what they think is because in my opinion we as a society have grown so used to buying things online where things are so anonymous and impersonal, that sometimes we just need a little reminder when we're dealing with an online seller that tries to make things personal and cares tremendously what people think about their products- the products they have put their heart and soul into making. Taking the moment to let people know that I really love to hear what they think of their new purchase has brought me many "made days" when I receive a nice little note, kind of like today.

Over the weekend I finished up a custom crocheted hat for a lovely gal Katherine. She received it yesterday and was kind enough to send along this little note, making my day:

Heather,
I just got the tam yesterday and it is beautiful! I absolutely love it! Your craftsmanship is excellent and I can't forsee taking it off anytime soon. The other tams I have don't even compete with yours! I would love to seek you out in the future perhaps for another tam since what you made for me is so perfect! Again, thank you so much for working with me to create my ideal tam. Be well,
Katherine.

It's the notes like these that keep me going when sales are dreadfully slow like they currently are. When I start questioning the appeal of my products, when the little bit of doubt starts creeping in- a customer like Katherine takes the moment to make my day and remind me just why I do what I do.

A few other things that have made me smile today is the new design for a stretch hemp jersey top that I made up the sample for today. I adore the shirt and the fabric even more- I was afraid that having so much stretch to it would cause the fabric to "ripple" at the seams- a problem I sometimes have with the non stretch jersey. But much to my surprise there was absolutely no rippling- I guess the lycra helps prevent the stretching out, as odd as that seemed to me. This is a beautiful fabric and I can't wait to see how it dyes up. I just have to tweak the pattern slightly, then finish drafting the pattern for a bamboo dress and make up the sample/tweak the pattern, then I'll be ready to do a garment dye batch with all my new patterns! I'm expecting by the end of next week (well depending on how much work I have at the day job) I will be able to debut the new designs, finally!

In all my eco fabric bliss, working up the samples, the Dukester patiently awaits our outside time. Yesterday him and the cats were rolling around in a pile of hemp fleece scraps bound for the garbage that had fallen to the floor. Afterwards he nudged me and I looked down to find his head covered in little white fleece balls. Adoring the way the white fleece looked against his shiny chocolate coat, and always loving to "torture" my animals with too much love, I gave Dukie a little bow tie of hemp fleece..... see, everyone looks good in hemp! Isn't he just adorable? I've been smiling since yesterday everytime I look at that white fleece bow tied around his neck.

and of course I can't forget about the other two furry friends that keep me company during the day. I miss the days when they used to sleep together like this.... the little things that keep me smiling....

tis' the season- bangin' bran muffin recipe & indian apple fun

2008-11-07T16:47:00.005-05:00

When we were grocery shopping last weekend, I was picking out the fruits and vegetables when BAM! a big ol' display of pomegranates had me at a dead stop. Instantly I started reminiscing my childhood with two of my favorite people in the world, my grandma and grandpa. WAYYYY before pomegranates became the "in" thing to be eating, way back in the mid 80s, my grandparents would get us all worked up for our "indian apples". It was a treat we only had once or twice a year, usually in the same month. Every year my grandparents would give us each a pomegranate to eat, which they referred to as indian apples. I haven't had a chance to look up if anyone else refers to them as indian apples or where that nickname comes from, but I'm guessing it has to do with their color and the time of year they're available (what we always called indian summer- early fall). I loved getting my indian apple. So when I spotted the pomegranates in the store last week, I couldn't resist buying one.

I haven't eaten a pomegranate in probably over 10 years. When we got home i dug right in..... well, kind of. I was kind of clueless as to how to eat it. I racked my brain for any memories of actually eating them, but no luck. So I resorted to a quick search on the internet which informed me to cut it in half, peel back the skin and membranes to expose those gem like fruited seeds, grab a handful, and suck away, spitting out the seeds once you've mashed and sucked all the juice off of them. Mmmmm Mmmm Mmmmm. So good!

And as an hour passed as I picked and sucked one half of my indian apple, I realized my grandparents were pretty smart about giving us pomegranates. Not only are they super healthy, but they take FOREVER to eat! Just think, hand out an indian apple to each grandkid, get them all set up for eating, then precious silence for a good chunk of time as all the kids picked, sucked, and spit. Yep, I'll be using that on my kids!

Fall- the season of pomegranates here in CT and the season I get back into baking. I love to cook and bake. I hate cleaning up afterwards, but the process of cooking and then getting to be in food bliss, I love it. I find that during the spring and summer I don't bake very much, but as soon as the leaves start changing I get the urge to bust out some baking. Today is the first baking I've done since last winter, with the exception of a few birthday cakes, but those are mandatory so they don't count.

I've been needing something packing a punch with nutrients and healthy goodness to snack on, and stumbled across the mention of bran muffins in some reading. When I think of bran muffins I think of kind of bland, eh muffins. Not my favorite. But I thought with some raisins and some walnuts they could be OK, so I bought a box of oat bran this past weekend too. And to my delight, there was a delicious sounding bran muffin recipe right on the box, Banana Bran Muffins.

Here's the recipe, along with changes/additions I made to turn these delicious sounding Banana Bran Muffins into some Bangin' Banana Cranberry Raisin Coconut Nut Bran Muffins.... hehe, yep, I like to pack in the ingredients! The first part of the recipe is off the box, straightforward. The second part is what I added, but I don't use measurements, I'm more of the pour and pinch kind of gal, so use your own judgement. If your super anal about measurements, stick to the first part and I'm sure you won't be disappointed either.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 cup oat bran

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

2 mashed rip bananas

1/2 cup butter, at room temp

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

My Additions:

I doubled the recipe so this is for double-

I decreased the banana to 3 instead of 4, added some fresh cranberries (just poured them in, probably about enough to get 3 cranberries in each muffin, maybe about 1 and 1/2 cups), added some raisins (probably about half a cup), grated unsweetened coconut (again probably about 1 cup)

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 F. Butter or line standard muffin tins.

In one bowl stir together flour, bran, baking soda, salt, and nuts. In another bowl beat together banana and butter until mixed. Add brown sugar, egg, (cranberries, raisins, and coconut) and beat until completely mixed. Add dry ingredients from other bowl and stir until just blended.

Spoon into muffin tins, filling each cup about 3/4 full. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes about 12 muffins (remember the additional ingredients I added were for a doubled recipe, yielding just over 24 muffins)

Taster's NOTES: Naturally I had to sample one muffin from each tin, just to make sure they were OK, hehe :) These are DELICIOUS! The bananas really add a great sweetness to the muffins, in fact if you're trying to limit your sugar intake I'd say you could cut the amount of brown sugar in half and still have a tasty, slightly sweet muffin. With the full sugar and bananas (even eliminating one banana on my doubled recipe) these are nice and sweet. The coconut adds another dimension to the taste, and the raisins are of course sweet little nuggets in the muffins. The fresh cranberries are soooo good in these muffins! Not only do they add a nice burst of color to them, but they taste great mixed with the sweet muffin. No bitterness at all.

And the best thing about these muffins is the nutritious punch they pack. These are the ideal snack for a pregnant woman too, with all the key nutrients she needs- the bran is high in protein and fiber, the walnuts high in protein and omegas, the bananas high in folic acid, and the cranberries high in antioxidants.

HOpe you enjoy!

sewing- pushing the limits

2008-11-06T15:21:00.007-05:00

Work at the day job has been non existent this week. Only the most flexible of people could handle my day job- I have no set hours or days, as the work comes in my boss calls me. Sometimes it's a week ahead of time, most times it's the night before. I love it. I love not having to dread going to work. As much as I enjoy my day job, it's a job, working for someone else, and I do find myself dreading it when I know a week ahead of time. It's that nagging thought of geeze I have to go to work. When I find out the night before there's really no time to think about having to go to work.

Anyways, I'm trying really hard to use this slow week to focus on my personal business. As I've mentioned in previous posts I got a huge shipment of eco fabrics in a while ago now, and have some brand new ideas for this fabric. I have all the ideas sketched. But then comes the part I dread the most about sewing clothing. Designing the pattern. All those measurements, the trial and error of getting the fit right. I hate it. I love dreaming up ideas for new styles, I love sewing them, I love wearing them..... But I hate drafting the patterns for them. It's such a time suck. So this week I've finalized the pattern for a pair of gauchos and for a skirt. I have the patterns for a top all drafted and the pattern for a dress partially drafted, but still need to sew up samples and start the pattern tweaking. Oh how I would love if just once the first pattern drafting would work out perfect, no tweaking. And I say that I have the patterns for the skirt and gauchos finalized, I should clarify that I have them finalized for ONE size. That means I still have four other sizes to draft. But I consider it finalized b/c the hardest part is over. Now I just compare the pattern to actual measurements and transfer that to the other sizes. It's a cake walk compared to initial drafting (ummmm I sound pretty confident here.... I'm hoping confidence will transfer into actual doing..... yep.... I'm confident that the other sizes will be so much easier now..... yep..... ummmmmm..... oh yeah, confidence..... yep)

The fabrics I'm working with and the styles I'm designing are really pushing my limits as far as pattern drafting goes. My goal for this group of new styles was to completely eliminate adjustable parts (ie drawstrings) and have each item be completely fitted. I've found this very challenging without having been taught any formal pattern drafting. In my ideal world there would be a fashion school closer than 2 hours away (F.I.T. in NYC) that I could take a pattern drafting class at. But there isn't so I settled with buying pattern drafting software for the computer several years ago. While this software has helped me immensely, it leaves much to be desired. It doesn't work well for fitted stretch garments at all. It gets the patterns extremely close to perfect size wise (for non stretch/fitted garments) but still requires tweaking almost all the time. So this means you still need to have basic pattern drafting skills, or atleast be a good problem solver. I started off just being a good problem solver, and then through trial and error and this software, began to learn the basics of pattern drafting.

So with all my frustration with the pattern drafting stage of things right now, I'm VERY excited on one thing- it looks like I'll be able to garment dye all of my pieces!!!! Originally I was putting off drafting the patterns because I wanted to garment dye everything, but didn't know how to go about accounting for fabric shrinkage. Well I did but it seemed like way too much work and brain power. But the other day, after putting this off for weeks now, I broke out my new rolls of fabric with plans of cutting up the yardage and pre dyeing it all. No garment dyeing. But as I unrolled the fabric I noticed how perfectly flat everything was, how perfectly lined up the folds were in the tubular knits. Oh man this would be perfect for my patterns, no ironing, no relining up the grain for folds. I couldn't resist. I laid out my pattern for the gauchos and cut away. I figured one yard of the fabric wasn't too much to waste. And this would be the ultimate test since not only was I using non preshrunk fabric, but I was mixing 2 different fabrics that I thought for sure would have different shrinkage rates, resulting in a wonky looking item. But I sewed up the gauchos, tossed them into the wash and dryer, and wha La! PERFECT! I noticed a little bit of upward shrinkage on the hemp fleece, but the two fabrics didn't seem to shrink "in", and they didn't seem to shrink at different rates. Man I can't tell you how relieved I felt! This eliminates so much time in my process. Now I can unroll the fabric from the bolt, cut my pieces, sew, prewash sewn items, dye, done. Compared to making the items out of predyed fabric which I was going to do because I didn't have the energy to figure out shrinkage factors in pattern making- unroll fabric from bolt, measure out the yardage I need for each piece, cut, wash fabric, dry fabric, dye fabric, iron fabric, cut out pieces, sew, wash and dry item. Not only does it save SO much time, it also conserves so much energy. I'm completely eliminating a wash and two dries. WOOOOO HOOOOO!

Well I guess I should be off doing something productive.... like finishing the patterns and samples for the top and dress.... and scrubbing down the shower before other life forms start growing in there....

Oh but before I go I'll share this cute picture of my family (minus Guyman)- this is the second time this week I've caught the Dukester and Rusty Peanuthead sleeping together- when we first got Duke the cats were terrified of him, but came around pretty quickly. But still they have never been comfortable enough to sleep together. Yeah it's the Duke's fault, he likes to chase them around and bite their heads (not viciously, playfully- it mostly ends up in the cat's being covered in dog drool). Guyman still keeps his ground with the Duke, but it seems like Duke and Rusty have formed quite the bond lately. And isn't it sweet that they're sharing Pat's attention, instead of Duke getting jealous :)

i do it for the luxury....

2008-10-28T19:13:00.004-04:00

Once upon a time when I would get burnt out on sewing, I would instantly jump into my other crafty passion, body herbals. For me, body herbals have never been a big seller on my site. BUT, they sold well enough to cover all the materials in each batch, meaning I got free luxury bath and body items to my delight. I've been making cold process soaps for about 3 years now, and I'm lucky to say that for the past 3 years I haven't touched a commercial bar of soap. That is, until about 6 months ago. About 6 months ago I'm ashamed to say I lost all urge to take over the kitchen and turn it into my little bath and body laboratory. I haven't made a batch of soap in over 6 months. Saying that makes me cringe. But as ashamed as I am to say that, I'm happy to say that even though I haven't had the luxury of free luxury handmade soap, I HAVE NOT returned to using commercial crap soap. I have the luxury of an awesome grocery store that has an awesome selection of organics and all natural products, including Dr. Bronner's cold process soap at a not so bad price for cold process non commercial soap. OK, I'll also admit that I get a bit of a kick watching the checkout clerk's face when they ring up the single $3.55 bar of soap that costs more than the 12 pack of Irish Spring or Dial they're used to ringing up. Yep, I'm pretty particular about my soap :)

Two holiday seasons ago I was all stocked up with my handmade soap and decided to really market them for the holidays. I did cute little soap bundles and ordered these cool ceramic soap dishes made by an artisan out of Texas. I also added my 100% all natural soy candles and the aromatherapy room sprays that year too. It was a good year for sales in my bath and body section. Looking back at the product pics of the soap bundles and soap dishes is inspiring to get my but back into bath and body product making!

I got thinking about my lack of luxury body product making when the lovely Janell posted about questioning the label on her newest bath salts. And that reminded me of the hours upon hours of brain racking to get a label that I was somewhat satisfied with. Because I know with alot of these products, especially being sold on the internet where the smell can't sell itself, product appearance is the seller. I'm far from being a graphic artist, so I had a lot of trouble getting the look I wanted for my products. Some, like my body butters (sadly another product that I haven't made in even longer than the soap.... but I just dug out my shea butter the other day for some dry skin on my face, and noticed the pounds of raw butters in my stash..... body butters making a come back this holiday season at Magnolia Skies?) and lip balm (oh there was nothing better than having an endless supply of lip balm on hand, nothing's worse than running out and always forgetting to pick more up at the store!) labels, still are just "ehhhh" to me.

Much better than the first versions (my standard body butters still have the original labels, definitely need to update those), but still not quite my final vision. Actually the only label I'm completely satisfied with are the aromatherapy room sprays. Took me hours, but between the gorgeous brushed metal bottles and the color play on the labels, I'm very content with those. Now too bad they're far from being a best seller. But that's where my free luxury comes in, made enough to cover the costs and now I get free room spray :)

Anyways, I felt like rambling on a bit about my body herbals.... perhaps to inspire myself to dig out my 3 giant storage bins of supplies and put them to use. I mean, Dr. Bronner's soap is kick ass, but my handmade soap takes the ring any day, in my personal opinion, hehe :) That and it must be some sort of sin to be hording so many essential oils and butters and base oils :)

A day in the life....

2008-10-23T20:08:00.002-04:00

... of an environmental geologist. Yep, that's me. I know I focus this blog on my crafting hobby/job/business, but I also work part time as an environmental geologist.
a day in the life....

I remembered my camera today and decided to take a video of me standing around freezing my ass off watching the drillers install a bedrock well. is it really only october???? It's friggin fridgid out there! We drilled all day yesterday too and when i got home I couldn't get the chill out of my bones.... so not ready for even colder weather. the downside of my job, I love working outside in the summer, even during heatwaves, the heat doesn't bother me. but the cold! hot damn, let it drop below 65 and my nose turns red and runny and I'm cold! it was in the high 40s yesterday, overcast, sucked! anyways, here's a short video of what i sometimes do at the dayjob....

7 randoms

2008-10-20T20:36:00.005-04:00

i was tagged by my good friend justice to post 7 randoms about myself. I'm going to cheat alittle and use a few from my previous randoms post :)

1. I have a ridiculous fear of spiders. So bad that I often have nightmares about them, that they're on my pillows, hanging from my ceiling. I wake up in complete terror, hiding under the covers or screaming obscenities, until Pat turns on the light to show me, no spiders. The semester I had field geology we were walking through webs all the time, and that's when i realized i have issues b/c I started having the nightmares nightly. It got to the point where I had to teach myself to realize I was dreaming... ya know, only stay under the covers for a few minutes instead of 10 minutes, and not having to turn on the light and ransack my bed making sure they didn't go into hiding :)

2. I'm a bit like a chameleon in that I can usually easily adapt to any social situation i'm put into.... this is a new realization for me, so thought i'd share :) I'm a bit of a social butterfly, and get in a slump if i don't get enough personal interaction. I thrive on the energy of people.

3. I self diagnosed myself with CDAS... Can Do Anything Syndrome. I think I can do anything and everything, and am a bit of a perfectionist at the same time. So i get a little distressed when I realize that I can't do that or i can't do that perfectly, haha! It's rough when I admit to myself that I Can't Do Everything :) I'm slowly changing my thinking so that when I see something I really like, instead of thinking, "Oh i can do that, I'll just do it myself", I instead acknowledge that Yes, I MAY be able to do that, but sometimes it's just better to leave it for someone else to do. How can I develop my favorite skills if I'm off doing a million things at once, without concentrating on a few. Although I'm all for trying everything once :)

4. I seriously think I suffer from a mild case of narcolepsy when driving in the car. As soon as I start driving I get overwhelmingly sleepy, sometimes to the point where it's painful to keep my eyelids open and I seriously consider pulling over to take a power nap. so not cool.

5. I often find myself mixing in spanish words when talking to myself, the dog and cats, or at any other time I find myself rambling on to no one in particular. And no, I'm not fluent in spanish, far from it.

6. I would shrivel up and decay if I didn't get into the woods atleast a few times a week- and I oddly prefer hiking by myself (well always with the dog, but sans other people). I guess it's kind of meditative for me.

7. I like stale popcorn- make it fresh (no microwave popcorn here!) with butter and let it sit in a bag overnight, mmm mmm good! I also liked those cheese curl things stale too, although I haven't had those in years.

So that's my 7 randoms for tonight. I'm going to tag Justine, Danielle, and Janelle, so if ya feel like it, random away chicas!

Dyeing for the perfect relationship

2008-10-19T20:58:00.006-04:00

So in my last post I mentioned big plans of working all weekend on new patterns for my new eco fabric pieces that have been dancing around in my head for months now. Yep. sure. like I really did that. I mean, it was the weekend. Nope, instead I went shopping yesterday for warm clothes when I realized most of my sweaters and the few long sleeved shirts I have felt too short this fall. Funny, every year it seems my tops get longer and longer. I gasp at the thought of wearing just below the belly button shirts in high school, but i did. And then today Pat and I took the Dukester for a nice fall hike.

But it wasn't ALL fun and play, I did get some work done. A couple of months ago I was contacted by a local company who recently started an eco children's line of clothing. Taylor was looking for someone to do their in house dyeing of hemp fabric, and found my site and saw we lived in the same state and thought it was fate that she had to contact me. And it's been the perfect dyeing relationship every since (ok, so i've only done 3 batches so far, but hey....). The reason it's so perfect for me is b/c Taylor sends me ALL of the supplies, so my end is strictly labor. We arranged cost by the batch, so there's no number cruching trying to figure out all the supplies that went into the dye bath. It's a flat rate every time, which means I don't have to dread anything in the process. And let me tell ya, there's nothing better than getting a big package of fabric dyes and hemp fabric without the bill sitting on your credit card. Sure, I don't get to keep the end results, but I enjoy dyeing alot and it's given me the opportunity to try out a few colors that I never would have tried working for myself. Like today, Hot Pink and Alpine Blue were on the agenda.

Me and my washing machine have become good buddies since I started dyeing fabrics. And the best thing about this washing machine, she doesn't mind staying a little rainbow colored when I'm too lazy to wash her out. I had Pat snap this picture of the Hot Pink fabric as I was folding it for shipping. This will probably be the last time you see me wrapped or anywhere near this color of hemp fabric! Great vibrant color for kiddos, but so not my kind of color! Alpine Blue is getting rinsed right now and I'm excited to see how it comes out once it's all dried. That's one of my favorite things about dyeing fabric, you never (or atleast I don't) really know what's going to come out of your dryer.

And while the fabric was agitating in the washer, I took the opportunity to update my Etsy shop and bring it back into existence. I was a very bad Etsian and hadn't paid my bill in months. I kind of have a love hate relationship with Etsy. I haven't used it much for selling, but there are things I love about it (ie. that it's a great marketplace for handmade stuff) and things I hate about it (ie. it gets WAY too saturated). But I figure with it only costing 20 cents to list an item, it's at the very least a cheap way of advertising if nothing else.

when plans backfire

2008-10-17T10:26:00.004-04:00

So as I've mentioned in previous posts, my big plan was to spend this month using up stockpiled eco fabrics in my stash. I planned on making enough items to at least cover the cost of the HUGE eco fabric order that arrived a few weeks ago. I was doing good. I made 5 new things, got 4 of them posted onto the website, have a dress that needs to be added still. I was on a roll. That is, until no sales came in from the update. hmmmmm.....

my first reaction was to get a bit down. My stuff usually sells pretty quickly, especially if I post more than a few items- at least one or two would sell right away. But I look around at other stitcher's sites and see alot of people struggling with the same thing. And I know we're in a shitty ass economy.

So instead of staying down about the lack of sales, I've decided to take a different route. I've decided that was a sign to dive into that new stash of bamboos and stretch hemps that just arrived, and get going with my master plan that I've been formulating over the past couple of months. Patterns need to start getting drafted, fabrics need to start getting dyed, my etsy shop and website need a little revamping, and I need to start experimenting with garment dyeing. I've garment dyed before, but would like to try it out on some new pieces I've been daydreaming about. But the problem now is the fabrics I'm using aren't preshrunk. hmmmm. and I'd really prefer not to have to preshrink all the fabric (alot of energy goes into that, not to mention having to cut the fabric up to fit into the washing machine). So I figure I can figure out the shrinkage rate of the fabrics, and then alter the patterns to accommodate this. This seems like a headache to me, but it's the only thing I can come up with.

But there are a few pieces that I want to mix fabrics. And that's where I become completely stumped. B/c I know for a fact that the shrinkage rates are going to be completely different. and so I think I'll have to nix the garment dyeing on those pieces, just do yardage dyeing and hope I have enough fabric.

It's all these little but big questions that keep my bogged down and prevents me from going on with my plans. Sometimes I just can't get myself to dive right in without a carefully thought out plan of how to tackle everything. and then things get put off. and then things never get done. It's a vicious cycle, and it accounts for a large amount of the "stuff" in my sewing studio. Projects that just never made it past the thinking stage, yet being me, I pre bought all the supplies- cause that's just me.

Anyways, it's late in the morning and i'm still sitting here in my PJs. The cats are hungry, the dog wants to go for a hike, my body wants a shower, and I have to go pick up supplies for the day job. By the time I do all that it will be time to make dinner, and my day will be shot. So my plan for the non existent day of sewing is to get my sewing studio completely cleared and clean tonight, this way this weekend I can have plenty of space to make a huge mess again when I start drafting patterns. Adios!

The pumpkin I carved for Halloween- too bad it's already rotted and won't make it that long- yep, next time before I spend 3 hours carving an elaborate design, I'll be sure to get a freshly picked pumpkin instead of one from the local grocery store!

A bamboo fleece and hemp/cotton jersey top that I added to the site in the most recent update.... this one is super cozy and one of my fav color combos- green and purple!

gotta love the camera timer....

2008-10-09T19:38:00.004-04:00

if my camera didn't have a timer on it, i wouldn't have any "look how it looks on a real person" pictures for my website. Unfortunately I just can't rely on someone else to take them, mostly b/c i'm limited to pat and my mom as the only people i feel ok about asking for slave labor. pat- well let's just say i can see what would happen after say the second time of asking him to take pictures "huff puff huff puff, again! i just did this for you! i'm watching the football game, can you wait a little while?!" with four hours going by and suddenly it's pitch black outside and no more photo taking chance. my mom- well she lives 15 minutes away and it would be a pain in the butt to have to driver to their house every time i need something photographed. but mostly, she just plain sucks at taking pictures! she's the queen of blurry and cut off head photographs.

I know I can just skip the modeled photographs, which I sometimes have to if I can't squeeze into the item or if I'm feeling extremely unphotogenic. But personally I prefer to see a clothing item modeled on a person if I can't try it on in person. It may be silly b/c most likely the person modeling it doesn' t have my body shape, but it gives a better perspective on how the item fits in general on a person with real body features as opposed to a stiff plastic mannequin.

I see some other stitchers with these beautiful artistic looking modeled photographs and am envious. hmmm if only i could find someone else to model the clothes so i can take the photos that i'm imagining in my head. hmmmm now that's a thought- maybe it's not the photographs, maybe it's the model..... hmmmm now that's something to think about!

This is a top i made at the beginning of the week- made out of hemp/cotton jersey. I managed to make one new item a day for the past three days! Plus I have a pair of pants from last week, and I plan on making a new item tomorrow- five new items for the site! And all from hemp, and all from my old hemp stash. In fact, the two colors seen in the above top were some of the very first hemp jersey I ever dyed, going back over 2 years ago. Anyways, I can't wait to share my other new items, I have big plans of getting all the new pieces onto the site this weekend. So far I'm proud of myself, I promised I would use up a good chunk of my old eco fabric stash before I dove into the new goodies I got in the last post, and so far I'm doing good :)

a long time coming

2008-10-01T21:23:00.002-04:00

a long time coming.... in a few ways that's exactly what this post is about. first off, it's been a long time since I last blogged here- life outside of craftiness got crazy busy and I went back to personal blogging over on myspace. I'll admit it, I love my Myspace blog. I feel like it's the only place I can blab away to my friends without actually blabbing away to one of them in specific. It's just too convenient a way to check in to see what your friends are up to, I post a blog, and my friends are notified, whether they want to be or not. Here, not so much.

Anyways, so the inspiration to come back to my crafty blog is I just finished up a very interested temporary full time job during which I was craft time deprived. I was ok with it at first, but in the last week or so I started jonesing to get back into my studio. I found myself daydreaming of luxury eco fabrics..... oh how it had been so long since I've let myself purchase some more eco fabric. and for good reason, I'll admit, since I have quite a hord of it waiting to be used. But I've been good so I let myself indulge.

and indulge i did. if there is a fabric blissdom, i'm there. I went all out this time. yards upon yards of bliss. And i've made it official, bamboo is my eco fabric of choice for knit fabrics. All these years I've devoted myself to hemp.... as much as I love hemp, there's always been something lacking in the knit department. For wovens, I still prefer hemp over bamboo. Alteast for now. I purchased some 100% bamboo twill last year, and as much as I loved the sheen and texture, man did that stuff wrinkle to no end! even worse than hemp. I'm left with close to 10 yards of it, not knowing yet what I can sew that can handle looking permanently wrinkled. A stitchin friend suggested tiered skirts, and that just may be an idea.

But as far as hemp knits go, I've always felt that once I dyed them up, they always came out kind of rough looking. Not horrible, but just something that irked me a bit about it. Then I came across 100% bamboo fleece last year.... oh. my. blissdom. yes, bamboo fleece, 100% bliss. the smoothest silkiest bliss ever. blew the hemp fleece I'd been using right out of the water to the moon. and that was my first encounter with bamboo knit. tonight is my second encounter. I ordered some 95% bamboo 5% spandex knit.... and let me tell you, silky smoothness, luxury sheen..... hot damn! this stuff is HOT! There's no going back now, bamboo is my main thang as far as eco knits go. unfortunately the selection is slim as far as weights and textures go, but I'm hoping with time this will expand just as it did with the hemp.

not to give up completely on hemp knits, I decided to give a lycra blend a try. I ordered a hemp cotton lycra jersey and a hemp cotton lycra ribbed jersey. Based on swatches, I had a feeling the lycra may add a little of that smoothness I so adored with the bamboo. So hemp, you're on your last stand with me, once I dye up these lycra blends I will make my decision as to whether I will be going strictly bamboo or not.

But in all this bliss, my heart is aching for the one fabric I didn't get- the bamboo fleece. it was out of stock so I settled with the hemp fleece again (which much to my surprise was much lighter in weight that the batch I got a few winters back). I know the hemp can't compare to the bamboo when it comes to fleece, but I have some ideas I want to get going on, and the hemp will have to do until the bamboo is back in stock.

So I've indulged in ALOT of fabric this time around. That was a long time coming, this was my biggest eco fabric order yet as far as cost goes. Along time coming that I've had these ideas in my head and now have the fabric to execute them with. BUT, I've told myself that before I bust into all this new fabric, I will create a bunch of new items over the next month with the fabric I already have on my shelves, and cover the cost of the new fabric before I bust into it. OK OK OK, so maybe I'll let myself unwrap the bamboo jersey since I can't get the vision of wrapping myself up like a mummy in it. silky.

Naturally Crafted Mama

Giving motivation a swift kick in the bum

wishing you....

the birth of noah

fall muffins

making the full circle

when the woods give you bugs

open spaces

mover of mountains

mama's power pancakes

transition

the simple things

letterboxing

The Birth of Tannner

ssshhhhhhh.... there's inspiration blooming in here

WIP wednesday

clearing room

parenting lesson learned #1

baby love, part deux

baby love, part one

winter love

favorites of the year

dipping my toes into everyone's puddles

*moonlighting* on

convenience store?

possibly my favorite...

getting things done

keeping the circle going

She's here!!!!

getting back in the groove

the giant among us...

seeing blurry

well he's here!

Behind the seams

oh boy, the panic has begun

finito!

Back to the woods

there's no bears in Connecticut

Featured artist interview & giveaway!

what's the word, bird?

taking time out to grow a little tree hugger

look ma, i done good...

eeeek! i'm shutting the door!

the color of love

behind the seams

my other half blues

brown around town

hey all you self employed, it's tax time!

unlearning knits

taking care of number one

it's cold out there baby!

holding my tongue is like holding my breath....

Things that go bloom in the night- WIP

sneak peek

mouse in the house

Decisions, decisions

giveaway over at the Gypsy Road featured artist!

another WIP

finito!

WIP- a little inspiration found

Featured! Do it yourself Fashion

a little bit of productivity never hurts

Lucky You

a year of creations in review

who would have thought.....

making a difference?

happy winter solstice!

Winter Solstice challenge- tis' the season!

soap!

well crack my nuts and call me reminiscent

the cat's out

flurry of chaos

tagged! what i'm thankful for...

why hello there....

the price went up HOW much???!!!!

If I had $45 to spend....

My sincerest of apologies

oh these??? oh they're just to keep my sewing sanity

thanks for making me smile today

tis' the season- bangin' bran muffin recipe & indian apple fun

moonlighting on