simpletruths

Late night crafting

This is why I do most my knitting and crocheting late at night or during my commute. If I don't, something will end up on a toe or in a mouth...

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!

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).

 

What's going on?

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.

 

 

 

who - me?

 

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

 

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 :)

Back to work in style

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.

from artifact bag co.

This lunch bag could make any PB&J seem almost elegant.

 

from BebelooshMini on etsy

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.

 

Random weekend thoughts

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.

This will not become a hair blog, but

OK- This shows the hair growth better than that last picture.

Last April:

 

Today:

It's not blown out or anything - I just stretched it some using hair bands (It's a slightly inolved process that I won't get into here but if you're interested go to youtube and search for "banding natural hair")

 

One Year

Remember when I decided to cut my hair:

Well, it's been a year....

 

Yea, that's pretty fun.  I need to post a picture of the big blown out fro

Etsy renewing observations

For those of you not familiar with the inner workings of Etsy, when vendors (like myself) post our items to our shop there is a listing fee of .20 cents.  When customers are searching through the various categories the default way the items are listed are in  order of posting.  (i.e. the earrings I listed last month are probably way down ob page 22 by now).  One way to keep you items near the top - and have a better chance of your merchandise being spotted, is to relist (for another $.20 for each item).

 

Lots of etsy sellers have said that relisting has really helped to improve their visibility and therefore their sales - makes sense to me.

 

For the past couple of weeks I've been renewing certain products on etsy with more regularity - every day or every other day depending on how far down the list they've fallen when I do certain searches.

I do believe that staying at the top of the heap so to speak is very helpful, and I HAVE gotten a couple of sales BUT the question becomes how cost effective is it to relist a $5 item at $.20 for each relisting? hmmmm. Good payoff if it sells after one or two relisting cycles - but if it doesn't then I'm not sure. 

One thing that I can't put a price on are the treasuries.  In the past 2 weeks I've been featured in 9 different treasuries.  I've also gotten more than twice that number in favorites either for my shop or specific items.  So then how do I translate all that love into sales?

I'm still trying to figure that out.

 

Oh - and what do you think of this necklace?  Something I've been playing around with.

Post-Partum expectations

*sigh*

I just watched a video on Youtube of a woman discussing how she got into such great shape within 3 months atfer her baby was born - even after she awaited the alloted 4 -6 weeks. First, I just want to say that she's in amazing shape but she was willing to do something that I'm just not willing to do in the slightest.

She worked out for 3 hours,

in a row,

every day,

for a month

from 3:30 to 6:30am.

Not gonna happen. Plus, I just made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies :D

My barbie's job was to look pretty...

via www.wbez.org

...but if my daughter is into Barbie later on, maybe hers will be an architect.

Check out the full story over HERE.

Threaded Comments

Very exicted about being able to reply comments within a thread and via email simultantiously. So, if anyone's been holding back on the comments - bring them on!

Name that vegetable!

This arrived in our CSA box today. Anyone have any ideas?

Anyone...

Anyone...

 

Bueller....Beuller....

string cheese, crab legs and cherries

This is what Big Mr said when in response to the question:

 

If you were on a desert island, what three foods would you want to have with you?

 

What about you?

toddler, job, pregnant, husband, house, food, craft ...... me

Most days I try to get a lot in.

There's the job...

The pregnancy...

The toddler...

The husband...

The house...

The food...

The filling of orders, prepping of materials and designing of new stuff...

Then there's the convergence of everything on this blog.

 

And, honestly, I try to do an amazing job and all of them...just not all at the same time. For example right now the house, while it isn't a full on mess, definitely looks like regular, busy people live here.   I'm fine with my house not looking like a page in out of a Pottery Barn catalogue, but I'll admit that it would be nice to see more than half of the dining table at any one time; one can dream.

As much as I love cooking, weekday meals can be a serious time suck so I've been planning most meals based on how many days of dinner (and lunch) I can get out of it.  I made something similar to this on Wednesday and we closed out the week with it. Just don't ask me when I got around to actually cleaning the pan...

(source)

 

My maternity leave officially starts on Thanksgiving and, more than anything, I'm looking forward to devoting a big chunk of time each day to doing nothing more than napping or going to a movie.

playing with my hair

Back in April I cut my hair down to about 1/4".

 

It was pretty great and extra low maintenance. Over the past few months it's been growing like a weed (thank you pregnancy) which means more up keep - but that also means I get to play. 

 

April

 

August:  

September: 

 

Last week: 

This week: 

 

I want to find or make more flower clips. They're perfect days when I don't feel like doing much

Recycled scrap paper notebooks

There's this great tutorial on Design*Sponge about DIY Recycled Scrap Paper Notebooks that I want to try out.

via www.designspongeonline.com

This is not the first time I've written about notebooks.  And it's not as if I need any more laying around. 

But, for the record I've been sooooo disciplined about my notebook purchases or, better, lack of notebook purchases. No easy feat mind you; especially when I work half a block from a stationary store that has there journals on sale for a full month twice a year.

via www.designspongeonline.com

This is such a great rainy day craft project.  Although, honestly, I need more project ideas about as much as a need more notebooks).

It would be a great excuse reason to get a few rolls of this Japanese decorative tape I've been eying.

via www.prettytape.etsy.com

I love blank notebooks. sigh.