simpletruths

A New Rug for You | The Back Loop

via www.thebackloop.com

What do you think? I'm planning on adding another 2 rounds.

4 feet across is my goal.

3 weeks in

Did you make any new years' resolutions? We're 3 weeks into 2012 - how's it going?

 

 

Light box | The Back Loop

via www.thebackloop.com

If you regularly take photos of anything smaller than a newborn baby you should check this out.

jungjung

via www.jungjung.jp

seriously? amazing.

Pride

When was the last time you were this proud of yourself?

 

Little Mr. just finished that dinosaur puzzle pretty much by himself.

Thumbs up indeed.

Crochet doily rug

 

yup...

 

I'm pretty proud.

 

OK - full disclosure.  I'm not actually FINISHED, finished. I only need about 3 more yards.

So if I want to make another rug like this I'll have to remember that I need 203 yards of cording - that's awkward.

I might be hooked on XL crochet for a while, but not exclusively. I mean I don't see this being a very viable commuting project. I've gotten pretty good and knitting and crocheting while standing on BART but I think a rug might be doing a little bit too much - even for me.

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The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming!!

    When you hand make many of your gifts that's about how it feels - a date that suddenly looms dangerously close.

But I have a plan this year - I'm starting with  the gifts that need to be sent the farthest - so to my NY folks be excited - be very excited ;)

Almost done!

I'm this close to finishing the first of my secret projects. Everything should be complete, and beautiful, and photographed (with my real camera - not just my phone) this week.

In the meantime...

Don't let the grandma-doilyness of the photo fool you. The cropped areas are hiding a big surprise.

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In other news, as the little Mr and Ms get older I'm being drawn more and more to the idea of house rules. Here are some of my favorites:

 

from: http://danielandbrittneydye.blogspot.com/2010/12/house-rules.html

 

from: Cool Wall Art

The final line in this one is "If it doesn't concern you, don't mess with it"

from: The Print Boutique

 

What do you think about house rule as a poster? Do you have written rules in your house?

Secret Projects

I'm working on three Top Secret projects right now.

 

Do you want a peek?

...

...

 

and....

 

 

and then there's this...

 

tee hee hee

 

Little Curly

via ellaparry.blogspot.com

How have I not posted about Little Curly on here before?!

These are my favorite, favorite illustrations right now.

I seriously want to plaster an entire wall with these adorable images.

You should take a look too - she just opened up her very own shop.

Stay-cation

If you've been following this blog for a while you know that, despite being a bit of a shutter bug, Mr. Man and I are rarely in front of the camera at the same time. It's entirely possible that the picture below is the first one we've taken with just the two of us since Valentines dinner - last year.  Before I was even pregnant with my now 9 month old.

We both took some time off of work, to recharge, do some things around the house, have a few meals, finish a few sentences.  We did it up, true stay-cation style.

yea - this guy is my favorite

 

 

 

Little Brown Bread | Cook Republic

via www.cookrepublic.com

This is, quite possibly, the most adorable store about baking bread - ever.

What's old is new again

First a question for anyone who's ever been a vendor anywhere - How do you feel about people taking pictures of your booth; of a specific item in our booth? There is a story behind this question but I'd love your input first.

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One of my favorite things to do/places to go is the Alameda Antiques Faire that happens the first sunday of each month - weather permitting.

I don't go every month, with a full time job, a family, a sizable yard, simpletruths of course, and a myriad of other things - you can imagine that weekends are quite precious.

I did manage to head out at the crack of crack the first sunday of Oct (no seriously, it was still dark).  I took some great pictures..

Seriously, these guys had this awesome M*A*S*H* era jeep for sale.

 

Should I be excited about clothes pins?

 

When my little ones are older, and we have a house with a room or even a corner just for reading, andI have time to read. One day I'm gonna buy myself an awesome chair

 

Anyone need a cutting board?

(ok -one more)

 

Buckets were everywhere.  Which is awesome for me because, as weird as it sounds, I love buckets. This wooden one was one of my favorites.

Well, hello there!

I've finally taken my head from out of hole I'd stuck it in.  Have you ever gotten so sucked in my social media, by the constant cataloging of your 'likes' and who you're 'following'....not to mention creating circles and pins...that you just need to step away from all of it? 

that's what I did. just for a little bit.  I checked out of the online world.

What was I doing over here in my other world? Sifting through sand, shoveling rocks, making funny faces, throwing sticks at the feral cats that poop by my front door, dreaming of getting a dog. All the normal stuff - but with less multi-tasking.

 

 

 

 

I also spent some time just thinking, writing, figuring and sketching. New designs, new ideas, streamlining, expanding, new names...so many ideas.

 

suffice it to say - I'm ready to rock and roll!

Sleeves for the whole family

Over the last few weeks I've been making more cup sleeves (always fun), and I realized that I actually always have 2 or 3 in constant rotation.

 

So in the shop I have a new listing for the Family Pack

 

One of the reasons I usually have at least 2 in my purse at all times is because they're actually really useful for my Little Mr. also. We like Jamba juice - especially now that they have those fruit and veggie smoothies. Inevitably the cup will be too cold for his hands.  I pop one of these puppies on his cup and I've instantly avoided several minutes of brain numbing whining about hands that may or may not be FREEZING, and a napkin that's "not working" or "keeps falling off."

 

It's the little things in life right?

 

So the new listing is for 3 coffee cup sleeves (although, clearly there's no need to relegate them solely to the coffee realm), and combinations of solid or multi-colored sleeves.

 

 

keeping it local

We've been busy bees around here hopping from one summer activity to the next. One of my favorites so far has been going out to a small local airport, seeing a few REAL Tuskegee Airmen and getting to see some awesome propeller planes up close and personal.

 

 

Little Mr's favorite part of the event was the bouncy house and running into his older cousin while we were there.

  (these two little guys are going to take over the world - as soon as they figure out which shoe goes on which foot.)

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Crafty News:

I'm still working on my next tutorial video 

And don't forget, craft night is this Thursday.  For those of you not in the Bay Area I'll be posting pictures of the craft night fun and a tutorial on the scalloped bracelets that we'll be working on.

Knitted Bean Bag

via zilalila.com

Yes please :)

One thing I want to have in my home one day is a reading corner, reading nook, even a reading window bench.

Much of this assumes that I will, at some point in my life, actually have time to read a book again. Until then I'm fine with reading Sing Along Song over, and over, and over (and OVER) again.

Also, I've ALWAYS wanted a bean bag chair. ALWAYS. It awakens some small part of me who is still 8 years old in my strawberry shortcake laden room (I'm talking sheets, blankets, pillow case, curtains, toy box, record player and PJs - complete with red bonnet - oh yea).

Anyhow - I still want a bean bag chair but I've long since gotten over the desire for the bright blue or green pleather-type balls of mush.

But this, this I could see in my house.

 

I might even let the kids sit on it too.

 

Anyhow, if anyone makes a trip out to The Neatherlands......

Craft night!!!

Sorry for all the exclimations  - wait, not I'm not.  I'm way too excited because I'm hosting the next craft night at Modern Mouse, Thursday August 11th.

 

I'll be showing how to turn thrift store bangels into adorable bracelets like these

So, if you're in, or near Alameda, make sure you swing by craft night from 5-7

 

 

Renegade

via www.etsy.com

I want to sell every bag I have just so I can own this one.

 

Seriously.

 

So this weekend I went to Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco with a couple of friends (you may recall our previous trip out to Renegade a couple of years ago).

I went in without anything specific in mind by way of purchases and a personal cap of $40 (unless I happened upon the perfect birthday present for my mom).

Anyhow, I completely caught off guard by this beautiful piece of workmanship.

Seriously.

 

Side note - Cynically Delicious and their amazing cupcakes were in attendance. If anyone from Cyncally delicious is reading this - please, open up a store front already, in the east bay....perhaps in Alameda (just a suggestion).

 

Succulants and Strangers

I've written before about the enormity of our yard and the excitement (slash apprehension) that comes along with it. And being 2 years into the homeowning gig we've deduced that slow and steady certainly is the way.

Our most current foray is the front yard.  We've given our beloved Sycamroe tree a hair cut, dug out a small section of the front for a rocky sitting area of sorts and we're working on a rock border and walkways around the front area.

What that means for those looking in from the outside, is that our driveway doesn't get mid-day shade anymore (probably not the best plan for summer time - live and learn). Half of our now sweltering hot driveway is obstructed by a large pile of tan colored rocks, and our patio area is 3/4 filled in with those same tan colored rocks

In addition to all of the rock shoveling, dirt digging and tree swinging (we hired people to do the tree stuff), we do want some on-purpose, low mantenience, native plants.  Buy 'on purpose' I'm referring to the opposite of our current mixture of weeds, grass, and "oh that's nice - what do you think it is" types of plants.

At some point I'll plant some pretty annuals along the rock border (*sigh* once I finish the rock border) but until then I'm thinking succulents.

 

Where was I going with all of this...ah yes, here

I was walking with Little Mr, Little Miss and my mom and we passed a few people working in their front yard- prepping for 4th of July company- and they had several succulents and I was showing Little Mr the ones that were 'poky' the ones the weren't and the ones that were my favorites.  And out of the blue the woman digging in her yard says "Oh, you like that one. Do you want one?....Here you go."

If you haven't talked to any of your neighbors recently - go for a walk. Babies, toddlers, and pets make great ice breakers :)

Kale chips

("recipe" at the end of the post)

When I'm at home I'm a bit of a muncher (I believe grazer is the current term-in-use).  That being the case I try to have healthy options within availble for easy grabbing, like carrot sticks (we've been getting the tastiest carrots in our CSA box mmmmm), fruit of all kinds, and the most recent addition - Kale chips

Trust me - as healthy as I attempt to eat if any of these aren't around I have no problem diving into the nutella.

 

Little Mr. Isn't into actually eating the kale chips (or the carrot sticks....or most of the fruit...sigh) but he does like to help in the preparation.  Yesterday he saw me taking pictures right before we popped the kale in the oven and he hopped off of the chair (small mommy heart attack) and came back in a flash with his camera.

 

Only one of the Kale pictrues in this post was taken by me..the other two are from Little Mr. - can you tell which is which?

 

 The Kale chip "recipe" is a pretty simple one:

wash and dry some Kale

remove the stem (we didn't this time because we bought prewashed bagged kale - so we'll just eat around the tough parts)

toss with some olive oil

Lay them out on a cookie sheet (one layer)

sprinkle with salt

bake @300 for ~20min

mmmmmmm - crunchy