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
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).
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 :)
("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
About a month ago I came upon a fullt functional, albeit heavy and extremely outdated, digital camera; memory card and everything. My sanity saving idea at the time was to pop in some new batteries and let Little Mr. click to his hearts' content.
That little project spawned what I've been calling Toddlervision. I'm even set up a tumblr account just for posting his photos. It's called...you guessed it - Toddlervision (http://toddlervision.tumblr.com/).
Some of the shots are understandably blurry, and I'll admit that the camera is too big for his little hands, but he makes it work. But the clarity in some shots is pretty amazing. I'll be posting new photos on the tumblr site a couple times a week. It's a photo-only site so there'll be none of my rambling :)
Here's a little sample of what Toddlervision is all about
"Mommy!! She try to take my camera!"
So much has been happening I barely had time to write any of it down
The shop:
I sold two items in my first month over at Modern Mouse in Alameda (yay!).
The ladies that run that store are great and I need to figure out a way to hang out there more; Oh yea-I'm trying to be a Modern Mouse groupie. Plus, on top of having amazing merchandise, they have a monthly craft night. I think it's perfect for anyone looking for a craft night that's not in San Francisco.
(hmmmm ...sideways iphone photo)
I've been working on a few new things for the shop. More of the beaded necklaces in awesome color combos like this one
also, lots of tiny crochet
one done...more in progress
Then there's Little Mr and Ms Lady
Oh, and I have to update you on the Craft Hope bracelet project.
So come back soon (maybe even later today), and often, for updates on all of that plus a new tutorial I've been working on that's magical.
If you're anything like me you've entered more than a couple blog give-aways - and never won. Well, about a month ago all that changed for me because I won somethng.
who? Me?
And it wasn't just any ole' thing, I was picked to recieve a hand made gift of my choosing made just for me. I told Tif what I wanted my keychain to say and then, one day, this came in the mail
So pretty, I love when non-bill and non-junk mail arrives.
Tif (of halu halo) also bestoed upon me the
I'm not quite sure if that means that I, who happens to be a blogger, am stylish...or that the blog that I write is stylish; I like to think that it's a little of each.
In any case, as per the award rules (not sure who's in charge of that) I need to divulge 7 random things about myself. so here we go:
1. We've lived in this house for almot 2 years and there's still barely anything on the walls. Our bedroom - nothing. It looks sad - but wall hangings are always at the botton of the list.
2. I really want a dog, but my desire for a dog isn't strong enough to overpower my desire NOT to be responsible for another living being right now.
3. As much as I love food, cooking, baking, tryng new recipes, and new flavors - I would be ok if i needed to live off of cereal....for a little while at least.
4. I've been shopping almost exclusively at Trader Joes for so long that large 'supermarkets' annoy me. Things like canned tomatoes are never where I think they should be.
5. I'm thinking about taking dance classes again. Mr. Man has his weekly basketball game - I need to work on reclaiming some time for me.
6. I love sleeping, but I'm terrible at going to bed.
7. I used to be a morning person; I hope I can be a morning person again some day
Do you see what I see??
That's right, those are my neclaces in an almost professional looking display tag.
Why?
Because simple truths is in a store!!!!! wooooo hoooooo!!! do the running man, do the running man...uhh uhh yea!
OK - I just had to get that out. Here are the specifics - for those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, if you haven't checked out Modern Mouse in Alameda, you should. Everything they sell is handmade by (mostly) local artists - now including ME!
The first batch of merchandise includes: spiral (regular and mini) and hoop crocheted earrings
and my beaded necklaces.
I'm hoping to also add my recycled T accessories and the coffee cup cozies later this year.
The packaging part was somewhat difficult. I knew that I wanted the necklaces to hang, but finding hang tags for necklaces is not easy. So much so that I ended up making my own. For the earrings I used my tiny hole hole-puncher and turned my moo cards into earring cards.
The best thing about the earring display is that when someone buys my earrings they automatically have my business card and a photo of another type product I make.
winner!
Thanks for hanging in through a few weeks of spotty posts while I got everything prepped.
In other news - why is it still raining? We doing usually get rainy, hot chocolate weather in the middle of May, but that's exactly what I'm about to make; a mug of spicy hot chocolate mmmmm
so much has been going on - I'm pretty excited to share BUT I'm trying to stay focused. Awesome news to come this weekend.
In other news
Today, May 11, was my birthday.
So I baked
something I knew I'd like and could enjoy the rest of the week
cheddar jalapeno scones
From this recipe on smitten kitchen.
she got rice cereal - I got these
Then Mr. Man came home and brought me these
yea, good times
Happy birthday to me :)
What did you think of my tutorial? Should I do more?
Even though it's tricky to attempt to teach someting with out actually interacting with anyone , it was really fun to put together.
I think maybe the next tutorial I'll do will be on the magic ring. Any other requests or suggestions?
In other news, look at this:
via www.elizabethabernathy.com
It's a pocket garden!
Sometimes after staring at the vastness of our yard
(vast by Bay Area standards anyway), I think it'd be nice to have something so managable that it fits in your pocket.
via crafthope.com
Last year, through Craft Hope, I was able to donate a couple of red scarves to orphans here in the US who had aged out of the system AND had made it into college!
This year Craft Hope has partnered with Orphan Outreach to collect handmade bracelets for orphans in Russia.
I'll let you go to the Craft Hope site for more information but here's a couple statistics for you:
In Russia, 60% of girl orphans become prostitutes and 70% of male orphans become hardened criminals.
*sigh*
I've already started, I hope you'll join me.
via llevoelinvierno.blogspot.com
These wings are just wonderful!
If I add them to my list of "things i want to make", I might actually get them done before Little Miss turns 3.
Do keep in mind that this Wednesday she'll be 4 months old.
It's a pretty long list.
I spent some time browsing DIY section over on Design Sponge (which I love) and came across two projects that really make me want to bust out the sewing machine:
via www.designspongeonline.com
and this one
Plus, with pic-nik and play ground weather coming up I'd really like to make some more snack bags in different sizes...and perhaps some out of oil cloth so they could be wiped off easily...But in order to do any of these, I'd first have to clean off the table; again.
So I'm back at work.
*sigh*
OK - it's not really that bad. It's nice getting up in the morning and having some place to go; not so nice trying to organize a toddler, infant and a husband all out the door with lunches in hand - along with extra diapers and nap-time blankets....*double sigh*
Heading back to the office after being gone for 4 months feels a bit like the first day of school; and I was obsessive about the first day of school. Seriously. Really. I'm not kidding.
Each fall, a week or so before school started, I would spend hours planning every outfit I would wear, and what day I would wear it; for the first two weeks of school. I had a chart that listed the options -
Tops | Bottoms | Accessories
I planned it out from my hair clips and earrings to my socks and shoes. And socks were important. Socks were big, slouchy, and often worn in multiples - color coordinated of course.
That is not to say that I was at all fashionable.
(I loved that sweatshirt)
I started my outfit plotting in the 6th grade out of necessity. I was going from a private, Catholic school to a public school with no dress code. Say whatever you want about uniforms in schools, I, from experiencing both sides of the coin, think they're AWESOME.
Where was I going with this.....? Ah yes, back to work (we can discuss school uniforms at a later date if anyone is interested).
This time around I didn't plan my outfits ahead of time (that's a lie), but I did buy myself some work appropriate clothing in my current 'nursing mommy' size. Which means no to button down shirts and yes to the 'curvy cut' pants.
Here are a few fun things that I didn't get, but that doesn't make them any less fun.
This lunch bag could make any PB&J seem almost elegant.
I made something similar to these little snack bags a while back. My snack bags have a little fold over top that I like better than the velcro for certain things.
Oh, and this back pack over at Moop is so much cuter than mine.
But until mine falls apart or I can pawn in off on some unsuspecting family member, I will just make do with what I have. No matter now utilitarian.
Do you see this mess of a kitchen counter? Yup - that belongs to me.
But if you lean down at the right angle then you can make the plate of cookies on the messy counter look like this:
And then there's the product photos...
I was in the middle of taking photos of my new rings and kept shooting during a few product adjustments.
Wanna know what I was doing when I took this photo?
yup - holding Little Miss. I try to get most of my pictures taken during nap times but, occasionally someone wakes up right when I'm trying to get those last few shots in while the light is still where I want it to be.
If you look in the back ground you can see Mr. Man. What you can't see all that clearly is that Little Mr. is laying (asleep) on his lap after waking up prematurely from a nap. He ended up having his "daddy lap nap" for almost an hour.
I also got to take this picture
I can't stand whining
I have a two and a half year old so there's lots of whining in my house. I also have a 3 month old so there's much more whining in my future.
I'm going back to work on Monday - and I'm OK with it.
I'm also in the awesome position of being able to work from home 2 days a week. Yea, I know.
By the end of the year I want to be able to do 100 pushups, in a row. The most
I've ever done is 35 (I'm only at 27 right now). There apparently are 'apps' galore for getting to 100 pushups but I figure if I keep doing my pushups twice a day, every day (ok most days) and add 1 or 2 each week, I should be able to beat Jillian in an arm wresteling contest by Christmas.
I'm not sure if push-ups and arm wrestling use the same muscles.
My husband is napping on the couch right now and he's adorable.
I have a dimple in my bottom lip that I used to not like because I wanted "real" (cheek) dimples - but at some point in college I decided that I loved it. That seemed like a better idea seeing as how it's a part of my face and all.
I have lots of (in my opinion) awesome ideas but I haven't figured how to find time to persue them all.
I'd like to take up photgraphy again. You know, with a manual (DSLR) camera and everything.
Two of my favorite rings sold a little bit ago and that left my ring selection lacking so I put together 6 more. Here a some picures of a few.
This is one of my new petite blooms
In completely unrelated news, this is my last week of maternity leave.
I know right? Adorable.
AND
I am not even responsible for this awesomeness. Mr Man lets me sleep in with Little Ms while he hangs out with our early riser (I used to be a morning person, honest!). Well, one morning I finally make my way out of the room and I'm greeted with this beautiful table. I immediately picture baked goods that can be prepared, pizza dough that can be topped....but the real wonderfulness is just being able to sit down with a plate of food without having to excavate a space.
