kat craft fever

meet the girls

2012-01-27T15:41:00.001-08:00

we started last august with 6 -week old baby chicks. after a few months we realized that 2 were roosters. they are no longer with us. bummer, since they had the best names, dottie and freckle. yup, i named them!

we are total newbies with chickens. one thing i never thought would happen is that chicken tv is the best thing ever! seriously, when we can't find a member of the family, generally they will wander back in the house after hanging out with the chickens. when they were smaller and in a smaller space, we would grab lunch and pull up lawn chairs to watch them. i can't explain it.

these 2 are oreo and shadow. don't ask me who is who, the kids somehow have a way to tell them apart, but i can never remember. one of them is super vocal and likes to peck parts of us to see if we are edible. and no, that is not a head board falling apart behind them. yes, our dog wants them.

this is spirit. a neighbor kid named her. he also wears a mood ring.

buttercup, the kid's favorite.

she used to let them hold her a lot, now she's quick and runs. i think she was getting ready to peck the camera lens. aren't they so freakin' cute? my friend mel told me that it's no wonder i enjoy hanging out with the chickens so much. she checked my chinese animal sign and it's a rooster. go figure!

i'm stoked!

2011-08-14T11:55:00.001-07:00

saying that dates me. sometimes there is no better word to use. i'm a dork, and i don't care because i am so stoked! i have needed something to store my most frequently used knitting items, not my needles. those are stored in a floral vintage suitcase. look at the lovely companion i found to sit close to my side of the bed...

it's an ottoman covered in vinyl, read: easy to clean. it has a nice comfy top. the insides are white laminate so no snagging of my yarn. oh, happy me.

as a bonus i found another amazing serving dish!

and here's a sneak peak into some vintage barbie that is making it's way into marley's room! barbie of the 70's and i have similiar taste, i wonder if she's a knitter?

i won! i won!

2011-08-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

i have been in the crafty blogland for years and years. i have entered tons of giveaways, and have never won. woa bessy, my luck is changing! i just won a book from mmmcrafts!

it's the above papercraft book from kathreen at whipup. i love whipup, and i have kathreen's mini quilt book. i'm so excited, these are her 2 new books. larissa of mmmcrafts has a project in here (the cover project i believe). i am looking forward to exploring the papercraft world with marley, she thinks of this book as another birthday gift. fine by me! thanks so much to larissa for the giveaway! speaking of birthdays...

i need to tell you about this other amazing book . we got sewing school for marley for her 8th birthday, along with her own sewing kit. i found a pink measuring tape, got her kid's purple sewing scissors, cute dotty pins, cute needle threaders, and sewing pins. we were spot on! she loves her kit, and has made about 4 or 5 projects in the book. she cut out the pattern for the needle book, felt bracelt, eye cover and pin cushion. she has already made all of those items, including not 1 but 3 of the eye covers! here is hers and her daddy's...

summer blur

2011-08-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

it's hard to believe that summer is passing so quickly. for us in the pacific northwest it may be because we have not really had summer weather. it's a non-summer summer, we're still in our sweat shirts and jeans. we have had a few warm days, but we have not turned on our air conditioning once! i'm not complaining though because i remember how stressful it was to live in temperatures that had heat indexes over 100 like my friends and family have dealt with back east.

we have been having lots of fun!

it started in june when my friend jenn and her fiance came for a visit from north carolina. her fiance actually used to live here (small world!) we all camped at the coast together. my family joined for one night but ended up getting rained on. still it was a blast and great to see them!

the kids and i attended a civil war reenactment on the 4th of july. i actually saw a bald eagle fly over our car on the way there. jasper is a huge history and war buff, especially civil war and wwII. the battle was the battle at bull run, see the ladies getting ready to bring their picnics to watch the battle? it was amazing to feel like you were there. the camps were so awesome to walk around and really feel like you walked up to people living during that time. the people love what they are doing so much and really loved sharing their knowledge. marley got a kick out of the clothes, so they were both so happy.

we followed the women's world cup. the united states ladies rock it! unless you live under a rock (shame) then you know we made it to the final game. i'm not quite sure what happens to me during these world games, but i love them and love the connection to the world. the above is a lego flag with a lego abby wombach and lego hope solo my kids made. they also made a soccer field with players.

marley and i then went to the coast for an all girl camping trip. it was so fun and relaxing. doing the dishes outside watching the waves is not a bad way to do dishes. we loved our camp site and are trying to plan another trip. my friend carolyn is an uberorganizer so it went off without a hitch. thanks carolyn!

i then went from long...

to short. this style is actually easier to keep up with than long for me. the weather here made my long hair frizzy which drove me nuts. i can shower, add a little product and it's super cute with natural wave on the long pieces. i love it!

then there was tackling the huge yard, garden and messy house for more east coast company, yay! chris' friend and his girlfriend came for a kamakaze few days. we blazed around town, visited friends with them, went to the coast and back to silver falls where we made it to 7 of the 10 falls. the best part? the kids did it with no complaining!

while our friends were here there was late night sewing and prepping for this beautiful girl to turn 8! my baby is 8, she is sweet, calm, creative, kind and enthusiastic. we celebrated for 2 days of being lucky enough to share our lives with her. happy birthday my favorite girl!

awaiting baby

2011-07-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

no, not me silly!
another surprise baby (the baby's sweet parents did not find out the gender)
who is due to arrive any day now! it's so exciting for all of us. we wear yarn all of us ladies wove around our wrists as we sat beside one another in a big circle. the yarn reminds us throughout our busy days that our mama friend is getting ready to labor, that she could use our sweet thoughts and blessings, some parenting help, a meal or a treat. we shared our blessing and words of love in our big circle. we lit candles, we laughed, we cried, we hugged and shared stories and food. she had some pampering, some gifts and lots of extra love. she was uplifted. all our mama goddesses should be. how i would have loved to have had one before my sweet little ones arrived. it's very soul healing to attend these circles and i feel so happy and touched that i have had the honor to attend several of these since we have moved here.

beautiful blessingways, circles of love.

here's the gift i made my beautiful mama friend...

i love these baby pants, don't they look so comfy?

soft washable wool, elastic waist with an i-cord drawstring, and the legs are slightly flared, love them! i even feel i did an excellent job seeming up the inseam. they are here on ravelry, the yarn is happy feet by plymouth yarn.

please excuse the lighting, we were having some rainy days when i took these.

i realized after knitting several gifts for nonknitters that washing directions are a good thing to pass along. the thought of handknits being ruined in the wash is a don't go there thing.

have you ever noticed the great prints on packaging? i love patterns and keep pieces of packaging that can be made into cards, or gift tags, etc. this is the side of a kleenex box cut with pinking shears. i went into a scrapbooking shop in porltand and found a small notebook of crafty stickers and i have been putting them on whatever with the yarn of the item so the mamas know how to wash them. yay, so cute!

i feel so happy to make gifts with my hands. i feel like i infuse them with my love for the one i am making for. my days and energy are infused in these handmade gifts. if i have made you something, that's how i feel about it. i love doing it. if someone asks how long it takes to make some gifts i have no clue. what if you sold it they sometimes ask, i have no idea. it's my love and time so i feel it's priceless.

i am in such a happy, lovey mood aren't i? the suns been shining , we've been doing lots of fun things with lots of down time and i am feeling like my normal self. i got my hair cut short...weee! more pictures and posts to follow. enjoy this beautiful day

strawberries!

2011-07-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

every fall and into winter since we have lived in oregon, i have wished that we had picked more berries the previous summer. oregon berries are so sweet and delicious, so eating frozen other berries does not come anywhere close to the taste. oregon is known for growing awesome berries, and every summer i want more! one thing we really need is a freezer, more money to pick and the time to pick and prepare the bounty, be it jams and/ or freezing.

usually i pick with the kids. our general yield for one trip is about 20 lbs. this time chris came with us...and our yield for 1 1/2 hours was... 49 lbs!!! woot! the weather was breezy and not too hot, the fields were bursting with tons of ripe, big berries.

in between going to my son's american kenpo karate belt test where he earned his 6th belt, a green belt, going out with friends to celebrate aforementioned belt testing, making dinner for some new friends who bought a house i was processing berries. the trick to freezing them is gently washed berries layed out on your freezer shelves in a single layer, and then when frozen placed in freezer bags.

we also love strawberry freezer jam. it's like sunshine in a jar all winter long! we also gave a jar to each of our older, retired neighbors. they were so thankful. it's important to us to show our kids how to build community so we share with our neighbors, and give them surprises (like on may day) and assist them with yard work and such.

another strawberrry favorite is the strawberry/lemon bread from claire's. here's marley making a loaf totally by herself, no more small kids around here. :)

summer lovin'

2011-06-21T19:32:00.001-07:00

happy summer solstice everyone!

summer is just barely starting here, but i reeeeaaaaaaalllllly appreciated the sunshine and warm temperatures we had today. the kids and i were outside a lot (as long as j could stand it with his allergies). i did a little weeding in the garden and picked some strawberries, and photographed our growing bounty. we repotted some plants, marley made a paper sun for our nature table and i am now off to make homemade whip cream to put on our yummy strawberries! we said a blessing to the fathers at dinner that we had outside with candles. after strawberries we will attend a solstice bonfire down the road. i'm ready for the warm temperatures, but feel a little sad, as i do on summer solstice, about the longest day ending and our shorter days to come.

this week isn't as busy as last week so i have found myself cruising around the internet more. i so appreciate an updated chock full of ideas blog. of course, because of my life, i am attracted to the crafty/mom blogs. i love getting ideas for craft projects for me as well as the kids, or good recipes, or find out about a good book, etc. some recent finds that have me smiling are:

***this awesome hat pattern by betz white. perfect for marley and i, and maybe even a certain almost 12 year old boy :)

***this family friendly music festival blog post on hip mountain mama

***this blog, skip to my lou, has a craft camp to do with kids, yay!

***i'm really looking forward to making strawberry freezer jam again thanks to house on hill road, mmmmmmm........yummy

***thinking about recycling t-shirts, possibly to make a reinvention skirt by maya made (again a great pattern for me and my sweet girl!)

we're looking forward to another friend visiting this summer, and taking that opportunity to see more of oregon. i would love to try our hand with camping again, nothing says summer like camping. we will also hopefully rev up our letterboxing/ hiking. hope you all had a lovely summer's day :)

better with sunshine and sewing

2011-06-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

thanks for all of the kind words my friends!

it is humbling to deal with something that is so out of my control... i know that it isn't just me, and i also know that now is the time for sunshine here. hopefully i will be seeing more of this

for the next several months!

this is what it looked like heading up to the northern part of the oregon coast yesterday.... ahhh, sweet sunshine i love you. i will post more on our quick trip when i am more rested.

i came across cakie's a-frame tent and i loved it because 1. you can use a vintage sheet and 2. what a fun thing for marley to play in while we were camping! i have to say that i need to shorten my fabric so it lays more taut with the frame, but it was a hit for all of the younger kids. both blogs are full of lots of fun things so check them out sometime!

another recent blog inspired project was the birthday # shirt that house on hill road makes for her daughters. the younger set loves telling folks how old they are and i remembered seeing these lovelies. with the t-shirt our sweet 5 year old friend got 2 barrettes, one made by marley and one made by me. ....and i forgot to take pictures of them both. eek! i'm so bummed when i do that! here's my girl working on her feather and fake flower barrette.

spoil sport, negative nellie, whatever

2011-06-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

i c a n n o t t a k e t h i s w e a t h e r a n y l o n g e r.

i mean really, it's june and my nose is running and it's not allergies. my finger tips and feet are so cold i'm wondering where my slippers are.

i'm crabby and i'm cold. there's always high hopes for some freakin' sunshine, and they get dashed again. i can't get anything painted outside and my motivation and my mood are crap.

sorry, no sun shiney words here. it's my major struggle living here, even jacked up on my vitamin d supplements i wonder where my motivated, happy-go-lucky, spunky self is because i miss her. the crabby, constantly tired lady who lives here is a freak. i wish i could shake myself out of it, but it's so hard. i still have the start and stop problem with my hand crafts. it seems i lose my mojo after i barely have started. i look forward to bed waaaay to much. it's hard. it really is, and none of this affects my husband which doesn't help his understanding. now we're talking special expensive lights and therapy. i need some art action and sunshine people. i fantasize about hopping on a plane and getting the heck out of here.

i know, i know this place is amazingly beautiful and all that. there is so much i can appreciate about living here. truthfully i don't think i can survive here much longer. it feels like i'm losing myself. i really don't want this to be a downer post. i can rally, moslty, and homeschool my kids, run errands, play board games, go to our homeschool groups, see friends...but it's all hard.

that's where i am right now. that's what my ebb and flow post was about, that's my lack of motivation, my crabbiness that is epic here, my impatience, my sadness (well, that and being soooo far from so many nearest and dearest to me). i'm struggling.

enough said.... i'm ready to get on with the day. pack for a camping trip, with lots of fleece and hopefully a big fire. one of my east coastie friends is here! yay!

knitting

2011-06-07T19:55:00.001-07:00

to quote my sweet mama, "i'm so tickled!"

i have attempted to teach both of my kids to knit and/or finger knit, and use one of those mushroom thingys, to no avail. not interested. i pretty much have had a knitting project in my hands since living in oregon, i think the chillier climate is more conducive to handling wool for more months. i am just guessing that seeing me constantly knitting, they've sort of picked up the rhythm of knitting, i felt that way about growing up with a constant knitter.

whatever it is, we sat down briefly one night last week and i showed them casting on and the knit stitch. and now they're both off and running! marley has decided that working toward a goal is more satisfying, which i think jasper will be doing soon as well.

marley told me that she is very inspired by her friend eleanor who knits her own dolls and accessories, and she's just a few years older than marley. i think jasper feels very inspired by our adult male friend ladd who recently declared a new signature look for himself, by wearing a handmade, by him, item every day, knitting being one of his crafts of choice.

they each purchased their own bamboo knitting needles, look at those old aluminum honkers jasper is trying to knit with above! we used melanie falick's book kid's knitting. i love this book and found her illustrations a great way to relearn knitting after 20 years. i have spoken to our local waldorf handwork teacher, and this is her book of choice as well.

i am excited for the kids, making something with your own two hands is so satisfying !

the ebb and flow

2011-05-31T20:50:00.001-07:00

standing behind our house, looking down to the 2nd level of the yard where the creek is. there is a bridge over the creek. beyond that driveway that goes over the bridge is all woods. and trees, and trees.

i do yoga every morning facing this amazing view ( i should really get a better picture that will do it justice!) i breathe in all of the wonder mother nature has placed here for me to enjoy...all of the trees, the plants and the animals that inhabit this amazing ecosystem. we see deer on a regular basis, rabbits, owls, skunks, hawks, snakes, bats and the occasional raccoon, and a huge array of birds.

it comforts and soothes me. it reminds me that life continues and
in all it's simplicity, it's beautiful.

we lost a huge tree on our property this past winter. with all of our rain the root system right next to the creek could no longer support the amazing tree and it slowly fell, over the course of days. before it took it's final fall, chris trimmed it so it would not damage the house. and once it had made it's final fall, our landlord hired a friend of ours to cut up the tree. we thought our friend was going to take the wood for her stove, but the wood sat until marley and chris decided to make a little hobbit house. it makes everyone smile, and we all go back to that place in our minds and memories where our amazing forests hold special connections to us, and even in it's simplest forms, it's beautiful.

awaiting the warmth

2011-05-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

i am ready for it to be warm, and stay warm for hours.
not yet here in our part of oregon.
we still have days of clouds and chilly rain,
and we have days of warmth and sunshine.
it's a slow dance between the two. slowly, slowly the sun and warmth stay longer
that's what i'm ready for

and so are our gardens.
gardening is big talk here, we like our healthy organic, locally grown, personally grown food.

chris has always loved gardening, give him a project outside in the dirt
and he is a happy man.

we were lucky that this house had a fenced garden with 4 raised beds.
the fence keeps out the deer and other critters, and provides growing space
for the berries and hops. yup, as in for beer
and no, we have done nothing with them. we may try to change that.

the big, black barrel in the above picture is our composter provided by the city.
they also pick up a full can of garden/ food waste to turn into composting.

worms!

one of jasper's homeschooling projects is a worm bin
of course my family was very excited to have another way to compost.
the kids are dumping the worms into the bin, and now voila
they will do their good work as decomposers
and my family will feed and water them.
the worms are fed items we would normally put into our composter,
veggie and fruit scraps, plant clippings, etc.
they will even eat paper bags, mmmmm.... yummy

our window sills and shower stalls and heat vents have been covered
for months with seedlings that are slowly finding their way outside
into our window boxes and our hoop garden.

chris wanted more garden space and a longer grow period.

the spring winds almost ruined this for him,
but the plants are thriving in there. he keeps the temperature optimal

as soon as the last bit of snow melts from the top of mary's peak
we're hoping that our outside garden will be as bountiful as our hoop garden!

happy growing!

i made it and more goddess love

2011-05-05T12:59:00.001-07:00

i did! i made these pants, i'm so excited!
can you tell these are the first item of clothing i've ever made?
and they fit her, and they aren't wonky in the least bit, except the stripes are a tiny bit off on the sides. i sort of forgot to pay attention to that.

i placed a favorite pair of her yoga pants on the fabric,
which was folded over once
right sides together and traced a leg,
then flipped the yoga pants and traced out the other leg same as the first on new fabric.
then i just cut around them, leaving about 1/4" seam everywhere,
except on the cuffs i left over 1" and the waist band even more
for ample room to fold over and sew over elastic ( 1/2").
i read somewhere to remember to stretch out the waist band
on the pants you are tracing so you have enough fabric for your new waist band.
then i sewed up the outside of the legs and the inseam.
sewed the crotch area and then the hem, and lastly the waist band with the elastic.
the package of the elastic has more specific directions if you need them.

i have sewn dolls and bags, and cloaks and capes...
and now i've accomplished this. phew!

we found this fabric at a thrift store, and it is perfect for my girl.
she loves pink and brown, and there are flowers and paisleys.
perfect thing to cheer her up on a day she wasn't feeling so well.

oh happy dance!

i made some super yummy goddess bread for beltane.
can you tell it's the goddess?
spiral belly, her arms and then her head?
this bread was delicious...orange zest in it
with a glaze of egg whites, powdered sugar, honey and almond slices

(sorry, these pictures were taken in haste, as most of them are!)
we have been moving into a direction of celebrating the seasons, of celebrating mother earth
i love helping the kids, and us as well, make connections that don't exist in our empty consumerist holidays these days.

this is what feels right to us, and it's so great.
our community has a lot of pagan leanings as well.
there are full moon gatherings, solstice parties, may poles...
we've definitely landed in the right place.

for years i searched for connections to what my ideals jived with.
i have found a wealth of information on the web
and in books like circle round, celebrating the great mother, and
just recently pagan homeschooling.
the goddess bread recipe is from circle round.
only 5 1/2 more weeks until summer solstice!

happy beltane, happy may day!

2011-05-01T14:05:00.001-07:00

it's a beautiful spring day in our valley,
marley and i were so excited to honor the green man and the goddess,
and to welcome the fairies!

we decided to make little treats for our neighbors

we made cone baskets, with ribbons to hang them on door knobs
we made tags that said "happy may day"
i made tissue paper flowers and marley made paper flowers to put in them

marley loves doing crafty things like this, especially to be given in love

here is my little goddess ready to deliver the flowers
and little heart and flower shaped cookies we made

here is our little altar/ nature table
we have added a fairy picture and little rainbow candle we have
do you see the adorable blue bunny marley hand made on the right?
i need a beautiful goddess for our little sacred space
our green man is too big for this little space too, but we bid hello to him

we were not able to attend the may day celebration
(with the beautiful may pole)
because we attended sophie's run
that was so great and really meant a lot to my kids

i love how kind-hearted they are,
it means a lot to them to help our neighbors, who are older
and become a part of a community raising money and awareness for others
my heart is so full on this bountiful day, i hope yours is too!

***if you're wondering,
japser was on a well deserved hang out day with a friend,
he's been recovering from a nasty bout of strep throat!***

super finds!

2011-04-07T12:09:00.001-07:00

moving to a chillier climate has made me crave totally different materials in my life, not only what i wear, but what i surround myself with in my home. that's why my felted sweater chairs and knitted and felted pillows work so well here. they would have been way too warm back on the coast of virginia.

i was so excited to find a stack of these beautiful little wooden bowls at the thrift shop the other day, for only 50 cents each! what a steal :) they are beautiful, warm to the touch and the perfect dish for children to handle, i'm so over plastic.

i've noticed i am more drawn to stoneware here (such as the above striped bowl). almost all of our plates are stoneware and i even scored some hand thrown wine goblets, which i love some of our local pinot noirs in. did you know our valley is known for our pinot noirs and pinot gris? this rainy, chilly weather is great for lots of things!

speaking of hand thrown, i've never shared my favorite hot tea mug. it's made by a local potter who is the homeschool clay teacher, as well as teacher of many adult and child classes at the art center. she's super bad ass too and skate's on the sick town derby dames.
i love the black and white stripes, the feel of the mug and how the design looks like a heart.
i heart my mug!

life's funny, and so great

2011-04-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

i told a friend the other day that i haven't blogged much lately because i am not crafting much. well, ya know my blog is called kat craft fever. oh, i still have the fever, but something funny is happening with it lately. i'm stumbling on it. i'm unfocused with it, truly not by my own design. i start projects, with a pattern in mind and something craps out along the way. the yarn doesn't seem to fit the pattern, the sizing is wrong for me, the sizing is wrong even if i guage it. now that's a bummer. i need projects. i constantly have projects, and reading material (as a total aside) readily available for those moments i can totally focus on them, such as being at karate class. all in all i have knit about 7 fingerless gloves and 3 cowls. i have ripped out (frogged) 7 fingerless gloves and 3 cowls. so, i'm stumbling. i'm also apathetic for some reason. i finished my sweater, my first sweater ever! i bought 3 beautiful hand pressed glass buttons, and all i have left to do is sew them on the sweater. it's been sitting in a bag for months. whatever. i'm not stressed by it. when i feel the urge to make, i will go with it. what i'm really focused on right now is food and movement. moving my body that is. the yoga and the hooping. but, oh goodness, it's been so much more than that. a long connected trail of dots being connected to other dots. the end result is how good i feel. it's crazy how things are connected to each other. i would read about a specific diet in a book about anger. i would hear about the same specific diet in a yoga dvd. a musician we love listening to is a yogi, and then i discover how much i love the yoga he practices. one of my other favorite musicians has a cd for my new favorite yoga practice. you see how this is going. it's all connected. hello? i'm listening and having a great time doing so. i know i sound corny, but it feels good to feel good. i could blather on about how these things have been swirling together in my life, but i'm hungry and i want to go hang out with my family so how about some of my favorite links (besides my other 2 favorites i posted about last time :) ) - i love what the organic sister has to say lately. really makes you pause and think. she nails it! -the kind diet by alicia silverstone is such a comprehensive, down to earth book about going vegan. it's a must have for me! -gabrielle roth has a cd for your jivamukti yoga practice, i'm patiently waiting for my copy -i love the creative way emily recycles clothes! i need some sewing time -we made these in one our homeschool groups this week, the can be hats, bowls or rugs depending on how tight your weave is i hope everyone has a great weekend, it's beautiful here. don't hate us, we'll have lots more chilly and rainy days before our beautiful summer arrives :edited to add hula hoop rugs!

feeling good

2011-03-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

i am so excited because i am truly feeling good!

i have mentioned before my struggles the past few years here. i was on a major roller coaster with my emotions, felt exhausted and foggy when i am normally a very energetic person, and felt i was just having a hard time with simple things like returning phone calls, etc. i finally had had enough and asked my doctor to check my levels. lo and behold my vitamin d was deficient enough to where my acupuncturist suggested a 10,000 iu supplement at least until i could bring my levels up. not long after i started taking them i regained my familiar self, i've been so happy about that!

now let me back up and tell you that i started running at the age of 11, and have been an avid runner ever since. i used to love it so much i would run twice a day. the only time i did not run was right after i had my babies. that all changed during our cross country move. once we were here, in our house with our things i tried to get back into running. i was doing fine, even during the rainy season, but only because chris was unemployed. i vacillated with running and not running until this past year when i just stopped because both of my children decided to learn at home. trying to motivate them to ride with me, or anything of the sort was not working. i was becoming frustrated and truly missed being in shape. i like feeling strong, and fit, both emotionally and physically.

i needed to make it happen. i had to think differently about how i worked out. leaving the house was not an option, and spending the money to go to a public place was not an option. what we do have are yoga mats for everyone and a slew of dvds, vhs tapes and yoga cards. after about 2 years of making excuses i started back to my yoga practice by taking advantage of our late, relaxed mornings and older children who do not need me for every little thing. hello, michael franti and yoga in the morning? not a bad way to start the day :)

fast forward to 2 months of a regular yoga practice and i am so excited! it helps me in so many ways, and rewards me for my small commitment. i am not holding back. i am gathering information on different styles, i've subscribed to yoga journal, i have been checking out dvds from the library to find where i truly want to be in my practice now. the kids each have their own mat, we have kids yoga cards and dvds, and they are totally welcome to join me or use any of our tapes or dvds. my goal is to do it every morning, which actually means i am doing it at least 5 days a week. before i do anything else i put on my yoga clothes and pull out my mat. i have been sore, i am not doing hot yoga, but i am feeling strong!

i have also decided to put that same commitment into my hooping. yes, hula hooping. i have always loved doing it, it's such a fun way to get some exercise that i feel really compliments my yoga practice. we made hoops several years back with some friends from irrigation tubing. i ordered the beginner hoopdancing dvd by hoopgirl. we have several different sizes and weights now in hoops, and marley and i are both really excited to learn more and more. it's so fun and invigorating, you can do it too!

i have also been greatly inspired by sara and her blog(s). her blog is happy hoop which has all sorts of information and fun links. i actually found her looking at dreads on flickr. she is so inspiring, happy and colorful. she has had lots of great adventures and is chock full of good food information on her happy foody blog. you'll be over there for hours now :)

hello saturday...

2011-02-26T12:12:00.001-08:00

i'm so excited you're here.

i spent my first hour awake stretching and bending and working hard with my yoga practice.

i'm showered and ready to venture into the world of laughing and hugs and color with feathers, friends and family.

it's still freezing outside with bits of snow remaining, so i hope to warm my family with baked goods and yummy food.

i plan to sew and set out 2 completed pillows filled with whimsy, color, and love.

i wish for everyone a lovely saturday as well.

celebrating imperfection

2011-02-22T13:28:00.001-08:00

there are so many things i want to learn to do and so many things i want learn about. we live in such a big, wide, interesting world that i feel overwhelmed with not having enough time for it all. i then feel sad to think of all those unhappy years i spent just trying to fit in, trying to be just the right way to survive my day, my week, or my year. or to be someone else's idea of what i should be, just be accepted, at school or at home.

i realize and now have a greater understanding that my mom's need for fitting in, not only for her, but for us 3 kids as well, was all about shedding a past and being from a foreign country. during that time and where we started our lives in america foreigners were ostracized. but, dang , i still fantasize how our lives could have been if the fitting in, and doing the "right" thing weren't there. all that wasted time that could have been spent exploring more and creating more and finding our authentic selves.

as i grew up i struggled a lot. i never fit in. i could never identify with a specific group to fit in, well that is until is discovered punk rock. to this day it holds a special spot in my heart. it was my mecca for acceptance of everyone, a d.i.y. attitude, freedom in creativity with everything from art, music, decorating, to fashion mixed with large amounts of angst. i loved my time heavily involved in the scene. it certainly did not make me more accepted at school, and it threw my mom and step-dad into a tailspin of it's supposed evils. for me it was a place to feel connected, it was special.

i hope that if my kids need a scene like that ever that i will support them. i hope i let them sit and day dream enough. i hope i let them start and stop, and make mistakes enough. i hope i do these things now and for always. i hope they find outlets for their emotions instead of thinking the way they are isn't good enough so they have to drown out their pain with alcohol or drugs.

a lot of times i describe myself as in a day dream. i zone out a lot, and i like to spend large amounts of time starting and stopping things, sometimes never finishing what i started. it took until i was in my 20s to feel that i was okay. that even though i did not identify with a specific group of people and i seemed kind of crazy, that i was okay being this way. just being me.

here i am many years later and i still struggle with that. i still fear not being good enough or doing something the supposed right way. i question my choices too often. how stupid and sad is that?! living here in this area is so healing. you can let your freak flag fly no matter how big or small it is. being at home with my kids and letting them live a beautiful life of freedom from structure has been so healing as well.but, how can i allow them to try things and either give up (which is okay!) or make mistakes, if i don't allow myself the same acceptance?

*****

i purchased a quilt some time back that needed some mending. do you remember it? some of the small squares on the front needed stitching or replacing. several of the women in the thrift store that day told me that i could whip stitch squares back on, i assume that is so you don't go through the batting and back fabric. i gave it a try and whip stitched a few spots and gave up. it was boring and the end result wasn't that exciting so i put it down. the quilt is a favorite with my family, it's their go to blanket when snuggling up on the couch. how could it not be, it's soft and well worn. it's still their favorite with the rips and shreds of fabric hanging off.

this past christmas chris got me a new sewing machine. i had been using the old machine i inherited from my mom. this new machine is fancy- it's the fashion mate by singer. it has 48 decorative stitches. needless to say i felt intimidated. i assumed to do it right i would have to read the booklets, and maybe also watch the dvd, i couldn't just jump in. so the machine has sat untouched, just like the quilt, and i have become frustrated with myself. i didn't trust enough in myself to do either project correctly.

this past sunday i declared a sewing day. chris and jasper would be out of town all day into the night, and marley had an all day play date the day before and would want some quiet. i decided i would not sit online, i would not clean, i would not cook, i would sew. i also decided to be brave and jump in and make mistakes. so i went for it.

i have stitched through the quilt

i've put ribbon, fabric scraps and patches on it.

i've made mistakes. guess what? i don't care. i've had a blast learning to use my new machine, i have laughed at my mistakes and have wondered solutions to challenges that came up, but i am rejoicing in my bravery. i did it while stumbling along the way. i want to hug myself. that is something i definitely want my kids to learn.
i'm so glad that i'm not a perfectionist!

it's rainy outside

2011-02-17T11:23:00.000-08:00

and it's chilly. disclaimer: okay, it's sunny out right now, but when i started this post it was rainy. we have actually had amazing weather here lately. did you see the pictures from my brother's visit? it rained only once when he was here and it was brief. our weather now is fairly normal (i'm still pretty new to oregon), so we all know how to hunker down and deal with it. just like if you live where it is snowy and cold, proper gear is ideal.

i've talked about the gear issue before here. i have a way better understanding three years in now. we each own several rain coats, because you need different levels of warmth. everyone has rain pants, we have different thicknesses of gloves, scarves and hats. a great need to feed into my knitting habit i might add. :) it's the same thing with boots and coats, there are lots of different products and it's so awesome when you get your needs met. i have found several ways to meet my needs.

1. organic cotton leg warmers from maggie's-

i got these my first year here thankfully at our local co-op, and there's only a few months i don't wear them. there's a saying here "if you don't like the weather wait 10 minutes". with that in mind layers are the best. you want to be able to put on and take off as the weather fluctuates and changes. these fit the bill. i also wear knee highs a lot, especially if i know it's going to stay cold all day, or better yet, a pair of maggie's tights.

2. what i wish i purchased my first year, but am so glad i now have are silks-

i don't do poly anything next to my skin, and i just assumed silks would be spendy. but i keep an eye on sales and free shipping for land's end, so i scored a tank and leggings that were very affordable. i love these! i want to get a long sleeve shirt and another pair of leggings for when these are being laundered. silk feels so good. they are thin enough if i need to step into a rest room to remove them, i could pop them into my bag easily.

3. neck warmth-

the very european look of wrapping a fine cotton scarf on your neck i get now. if i can keep something warm on my neck it makes a huge difference in how cold i feel. i have some fine cotton scarves, but i have also knitted myself several soft wool scarves in various shapes and designs that i wear all day, not just outside. my favorite is the dolores park cowl by six one seven . i'm knitting myself my third one! i think i must make the yoshimi loop scarf too, you just can't have too many scarves.

4. my soft star moccasins-

these are the best. i walk in the house, take off my shoes and put them on. they are elastic around the ankle so you do not have to worry about tripping out of them. when you order a pair they are made to fit your feet. you can choose your materials, and colors. and the folks who own/work there are the best kind of people. go to the site and read all about them and how they got started. i actually bring them with me to people's homes that don't have a wood stove, i like to stay warm, what can i say!

-other ways to stay warm: coconut hot chocolate from this months online mothering magazine**

-i really want to make these from five green acres

-loving the new iron and wine, i cannot get enough of his music

** i am so sad to hear that mothering magazine will cease publication. mothering was a lifeline for me having my first child and wanting to attachment parent in a place where that was not the norm. i've heard it said a lot, and i feel it myself, it grew up with my kids and it will be sadly missed. thank you for the 35 years you did publish and reach out to all of us.

a sitting spot

2011-02-16T19:55:00.000-08:00

one thing i love about our rental house is our mud room. want to know who named it that? someone in oregon. we do lots of mud here. i think we have more dog towels to wipe their feet and clean their muddy, wet bodies than we do regular people towels, but i digress. :)

our mud room had the wall space so we could hang coat hooks for the many coats we need, underneath we put shoe racks because the shoes must come off when entering anyone's house here...it's an unwritten rule which i love. there's also a dirty sink for craft projects , and yup you guessed it, mud. the tall storage unit is (ah hem) ikea (yes, we love ikea). it stores lots of hats, scarfs, and gloves. the lower containers house tools we use in the house and pet stuff. behind the flower curtain is the washer and dryer. there's even a cute, little window over the sink so it's not super dark in there. the one thing we do not understand? white linoleum. in. oregon.

but, there's space. we really appreciate that. there's extra wall space to the right of the washer/dryer, it's to your left when you walk in. we kept sticking an extra piece of furniture there. first the vintage china hutch which now houses completed lego ships, then a dresser. one day it dawned on me that we needed a sitting spot. we do boots here, for the majority of the year. rain boots, hiking boots, warm boots. as we all know boots are not so easy to put on and off without a proper seat.

we finally have a proper bench and i swear it makes me happy every time we get ready to leave or come back home. i usually don't keep the basket there, and i do try to keep the bench clutter free. the molger bench is from ikea ,of course! we actually found the bench when looking for more shoe racks. i couldn't find the shoe racks but found the bench with the same slatted look. i'm so glad. come on in, take a seat and take off your boots. oooh, i should put a basket full of slippers next to the bench now.

we used to say we were twins

2011-02-10T20:08:00.000-08:00

we did, we are only 1 year, 2 months and 11 days apart.

we had a great time with my brother. chris was able to take off friday, so we were able to travel around to some of our favorite visitation spots in our neck of the oregon woods. when we weren't hiking or driving somewhere we were playing lots of galaga. so funny, i thought we'd be into pack man. andy played with the kids a lot too, polly pockets, yoga and wrestling. he was able to watch one of jasper's karate classes. he's not on facebook so we had fun looking at people we knew from various places we lived growing up, we tracked down andy's roomate and our friend from college. yup, we went to the same college. we lived in the same apartments, just the next building over. it's funny now when i talk about college because a lot of people in my life are from ecu. my brother, my husband, my sister-in-law, and a whole gaggle of friends i consider family, and some cousins from my step-dad's family. we got to talk about crazy family stuff, missing our mom and still thinking about calling her. we laughed about funny things growing up, told my kid's stories about pets we had and trips we took.

sigh....i'm really sad he's gone now. so are my kids. he's my only family i am close to anymore. lots of relationships fell apart after my mom died. i remember calling him up one day and making him promise me that nothing would ever come between us, that no one could ever put a wedge in our relationship. i did not realize at the time how profound that was. lots of things have happened, but andy and i, we're tight. we text a lot and talk and skype, but i have to say, it's not the same as being able to visit and share holidays like we used to.

my kids must feel that too. they have said such sweet things that take my breath away. marley said she felt as if her heart were breaking after he left. jasper said he felt a really special connection with his uncle.

he turns 40 tomorrow. we celebrated with him his last night here with comfort food my mom made every day after thanksgiving, turkey fricasse and some yummy marble cake. thanks for the visit andy, happy birthday. we love you!

yaquina bay and my brother

2011-02-04T09:40:00.001-08:00

magnum knitting

2011-01-31T13:35:00.001-08:00

after seeing joelle hoverson's books all over the blogs i read, and being a huge fan of her {online} shop and blog purl soho i finally broke down and purchased her book more last minute knitted gifts

i'm so happy i did. so many times i have purchased knitting books only to discover that i really don't knit many of the projects in the book. not this one. it's broken down by time guesstimates which is so helpful. the book also has lots of patterns i like to knit or want to knit like blankets, hats, baby sweaters, seat covers, scarves, fingerless mitts, etc. ding, ding it's a winner!

for my girl mel's birthday this year i decided to knit her a big, warm, woolly scarf. i chose the big lace scarf from this book.

i was so excited to use yarn called magnum (cascade yarns magnum) and to use huge knitting needles. size 17! i felt like wilma flintstone.

our other happenings...

*i'm marvelling at how fast the house gets clean with two helpers

*we're talking about and painting forest ecosystems

*we attended a celebration of the anniversary of lego's patent on thursday (for friday)

*i'm so enjoying how good it feels to do my yoga practice every morning

*and finally, we're getting ready to share our lovely town and parts of our state with my brother who is flying in from the east coast this week. we're so excited!

welcome to the world

2011-01-28T18:57:00.000-08:00

feeling honored to have witnessed an amazing mama bring her baby forth into our world. i am humbled by the pure joy of life. i revel in wishing this friend, and another friend born many moons before on this day, an extraordinary birth day. my heart is so full of wonder and love, isn't life beautiful and amazing!

the sit down list

2011-01-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

one time consuming step toward a copied pillow. my man did some crafting for me when he ironed on some heat and bond. i sat in a chair and told him what to do, wish i had my camera handy at the moment.

another pair of knit pick's 2-needle fingerless gloves by susan lawrence made with the amazing debbie bliss cashmerino aran (those are marley's rockstar nails ;) )

loved the easy knitting and softness of the shroom hat by lee juvan on knitty using the super bulky outer yarn by spud & chloe

used the rest of my spud & chloe, along with 2 beautiful gifted to me hand-spun yarns to make marley a shroom hat too

she loves it!

yay for me, my results were good. now i am trying to get on with my life, and boy did it busy right back up! i am sort of missing last week and being forced to sit and rest because i was able to get quite a few things finished on my sit down list. granted, another week and i think i could have finished up all of the crafts i have started, and the gifts i need finished right now. it will happen, along with life and that's good enough for me.

warning: do not move here

2011-01-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

when we first moved to oregon from the east coast people would ask us what it was like. our standard answer was, and still is, that it's like another planet. we don't live in portland directly, but do have a lot of the same quirkiness here. when i watched the part about the chicken named collin i almost fell off my chair!

check out this show portlandia.

just remember i warned you not to move here. it rains a lot and there are no jobs. enough said.

prettying up and recovering

2011-01-12T09:22:00.001-08:00

i know, i know, it's past christmas season so why am i talking about this christmas craft book?
we have big windows in our dining room and i knew they would look boring and naked after i removed all of the christmas decorations, so i had been mulling ideas around in my mind as to how to add a little something to sass them up. i had this book laying around because i really wanted to make the straw stars, which i thought i had straw for from my mom. when i went to get the straw i couldn't find it. i checked online and found the supplies at a child's dream, and lo and behold i discovered that not only did they have the straw, they have the awesome waxed kite paper to make the big stars that we made at the waldorf school, and they have the foil my mom use to use to make hand rolled stars that. are. amazing.

i decided to wait to order the supplies and be really prepared for the solstice season next year, order the stuff early and we'll have a crafty period before the madness starts. that's my plan.

but, the windows still needed some love. our new printer has been printing out pages of paper we would rather not have. i hate the waste and would rather not even have to recycle waste, i would rather use it. along came the 8-point stars in a smaller version.

super easy, as long as the four sides are equal. marley and i also made these out of other found material and used them to sass up packages. we used wrapping paper scraps, craft paper scraps and other printed pages.

they looked great and so do our windows with the stars and felted balls i ordered off of etsy last year. now i just need some new white lights in the window. i almost scored a few l.e.d. packages on clearance, but lost them to a woman i talked into using l.e.d! the book will stay out now, it's not just for the holidays.

i'm doing well recovering from my minor surgery monday. i have to minimize my activity, not easy, but i am trying to take advantage of down time and play lots of board games with the kids, watch movies and snuggle, knit and whatever else can be taken care of sitting. i'm hoping to hear some good news by the end of the week so i can move on and get back into my life!

(delayed) thrifty thursday

2011-01-06T15:58:00.000-08:00

i promise, it was not my intention to go to the thrift store and buy stuff. but, honestly who wouldn't want a little prize for waiting in the line to consign goods for 45 minutes, only to find out that you can only consign 15 per turn. so instead of handing over the doll bunkbed and the box full of dishes i gave them the pokemon party invitations, thank you cards and confetti!! back in the car the other items went. i'm learning. i am usually too impatient to sell items, nor do we have space, but making a 75% profit at our local folk thrift store isn't bad. we only have a few thrift stores in town, and everyone thrifts.

i did get a new blanket for the couch, but haven't had a chance to snap a pic. i also didn't snap the superhero sheet, sesame street sheets or the awesome ski pants i scored for marley. it was a good haul. i did snap pictures of these 2 items marley got. i grew up in the 70's and have a soft spot for anything that has that flair. rock art, is right up there. on drift wood no less! i have not come across pieces like this before, it sure does make me smile.

this bag is amazing.

it's lined with a wood handle. and the needlework is perfect. i wonder what her name is? nancy? nan? she was probably the envy of the girl's in her class, except i wonder if she wishes she could swap off the cover. this bag isn't one of those.

i'm having a little surgical procedure monday morning. i've been running around like a mad woman trying to take care of house things that require furniture moving and lifting. hopefully the results will come back all clear.

happy new year, welcome january!

2011-01-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

like most people i love reorganizing, cleaning up and starting anew for the new year. the months of crafting and shopping are finished. thanks has been given. the sun has been celebrated. it's now time to buckle down, be quiet and get to know ourselves again. it's time to start accomplishing the goals we've set down in our minds. it's time for a quiet reprieve. i love the ying and yang of life like this. i loved the crazy madness of all the holidays, as much as i am now so excited about the cocooning of the winter ahead. welcome january, i'm so glad you're here.

during these last busy months of the season of celebrating i work a lot, and i live a busy life with my children at home. i spend lots of moments day dreaming about things i want to change in our home, things i want to make, and moments of downtime i crave. the moment i wake up from welcoming another trip around the sun is the moment i get busy on these day dreams. with my psyche and vitamin d well balanced this go around, i am pumped up to go forth!

a change we just made in our main living space seems huge to me. you've got to remember that i love interior design, i cannot turn my mind off from fun things i want to do in my house. it's just who i am. i do these changes on a budget, and i have to say, i like the challenge. i'm not a huge shopper or label collector. so without further ado.... check out our new couch cover and coffee table!

our couch is from ikea. we love it because it's comfortable and when/if we move we can add to it or change the configuration. we can take the chaise off, add an arm and make it a solo piece. we can take the chaise off, add on to the couch piece and make it an l-shape couch. plus, they have lots of covers for this couch. it's the karlstad. (don't know why they put a white couch on a white background!) do you remember the old cover?

it's so dark, yack! coming from the coast of virginia where it is bright and sunny every day was a big switch. the natural light here is so different. my fun, bright colors there look almost garish here. i knew i wanted to go lighter with furnishings here. finding the balance of lighter with warmth is important because it's chillier here for a longer time. too much white can almost seem cold. textiles and wood can add the warmth. that's why i am covering my dining chairs with felted wool sweaters, i get my color with warmth. i am working on more knitted projects for the couch,and we're making sure our wood is a lighter wood. that's why i wanted a wood coffee table, you guessed it, for warmth! i found the perfect one at a thrift store. i love the modern, clean lines of this table. it's perfect.

i've been planning and scheming our household changes, slowly albeit the funding, and had been scouring scandinavian blogs, so i was so excited to see that these ideas were also running through wise craft's mind too! she referenced some great books. my design ideas are way more colorful and i love mixing patterns, and lots of them so i rev up my own taste with the ideas presented in scandinavian design. if you come across some inspiration i would love, let me know, pretty please!

happy solstice!

2010-12-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

isn't this the cutest gingerbread man? i had him with me when we attended two of our homeschool gatherings on thursday and everyone, adult and child alike, were smitten. where is he from you ask? i found him at elsie marley. meg is a rock star crafter, along with being a mama. she was kind enough to share him.

he makes me smile!

we're off on our solstice activity making. this town is really into celebrating solstice, the light is BIG here and we all want to graciously welcome it back. enjoy your shortest day, and the next, welcoming more light back again!

happiness is...

2010-12-17T11:19:00.001-08:00

** art, especially my children's **

** natural beauty **

** thrifty scores **

** spending my days with my loves **

cake!

2010-12-14T19:17:00.000-08:00

mmm.... just looking at this picture makes my mouth water. marble cake. my mom was german and, as i have mentioned before, we were raised on some traditional german foods. the cakes mom made were always moist, but dense cakes and i love them. super moist, sugary cakes coated in frosting do not make me very happy. and fondant? yack! just a light sprinkling of powdered sugar or a drizzle of chocolate or orange glaze is what i love. there are 3 main cakes mom made a lot that i miss - marble cake, apple cake and pound cake with chocolate drizzle. mom always made a cake for any visit, or a special dinner. she loved any reason to celebrate, so my friends and my husband distinctly remember her cakes too. warms my heart.

why i never thought about trying to recreate mom's cake, instead of just craving them is beyond me. one day when i was cruising around the internet i stumbled upon a german blog kitchen klatsch and she was posting about marble cake! it made me so excited, so i used her recipe (after tracking down substitutes for their sugars and a digitized scale to get their measurements!). it was super yummy, but not exactly like my mom's. it reminded me that i was given my mom's old, falling apart red cookbook that i remembered she used all the time.

which led me to read about dr. oetker, and his products. they're very popular in europe, and can be found in smatterings around here. the key ingredient mom always had on hand was powdered vanilla sugar, which i located at world market.

this is what we thought of the outcome!

* i think i may try this cake next via angry chicken blog

*i updated my flickr account finally, only to now find out my fees are due!

* i know i am horrible at figuring out this lighting thing with my awesome nikon d60 and our dreary days. it's a new year's resolution, please be patient.

{this moment}

2010-12-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

{this moment}- a friday ritual (on saturday this time!). a single photo- no words -capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. a moment i want to pause, savor and remember. inspired by soule mama..

*** happy weekend! ***

little houses

2010-12-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

after the inspire co. holiday craft ezine came out the kids and i prepared to make the little houses. we used some craft materials i had never used before like snow-tex, and i was introduced to the awesome micro serrated scissors by tim holtz . they did take several days to make because of wait time with drying. marley, who is 7, did not mind one bit. every step was fun for her. the houses are fabulous, so sparkly and full of personality! we used embellishments from michael's and from bake it pretty.

after we had started this project, i received my dec/jan 2010 of bust magazine. they have a holiday craft project of little houses called little house on the table. all you need for their little houses is the magazine (obviously!) card stock (i was thinking foam core too), a decent printer, and something to color them with. as with any proper little village, lights are optional, but isn't the light what it's all about?

score!

2010-11-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

oh yes, i did. on the hunt for sweaters and just to see what christmas goodies are out there, we popped into a local thrift shop last week. the thrifting gods rewarded me. yes, they did with not one but two items i have been wanting for years!

a cake tin, yay!

it only has that one little dent on the front, and it was cheap $5. it latches and has a handle so we can get take it to a potluck. just perfect and at last i have one.

also, i scored a mini ceramic table top tree! not only is it white, it has changeable ornaments that are lights or flowers, and there are a few birds and even 1 butterfly. it's about 1 foot tall. it's also a music box, not kidding. it was glazed as a gift for helen and john, merry christmas love mom and dad, 1966! i'm so smitten. i have a smaller green one that i love, and look how good they look together.

it's also in keeping with my white theme. i almost left the shop without it. while i was talking to the clerk walking out, a light bulb went off in my head and i remembered that i had a $5 gift card from the humane society because we volunteer there. this shop is run by all volunteers and all donations bring in money for the humane society. so awesome!

on a side note jasper was so bummed about our fake white tree "not smelling like christmas". when we were in target yesterday i picked up a meyer's soy pine candle. it does the trick perfectly.

this week

2010-11-27T10:13:00.001-08:00

...was really busy and fun!

we have been crafting together almost every day. it's a project that took longer than i expected (allowing for drying time), but i love the outcome and will share soon.

we got some unexpected snow! it stuck around for a few days without icy roads, it looked beautiful and my kids played and played in it, until their gear was mud covered. they got an unexpected play date with friends too, which turned into me going to harry potter. (jasper and chris had already gone to see it, and marley did not want to)

after a yummy and fun thanksgiving with friends, and a dual sleepover, i busted out the christmas decorations and we decked the halls yesterday. i will be working a lot until christmas, and i really wanted to take advantage of my one weekend off. we opted for the white tree (still working on whitening our living space!) it really helps the decorations to pop.

ho-ho- ho, now there will be more time for crafting and shopping!

this moment

2010-11-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

{this moment} - a friday ritual inspired by soulemama. a single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. a moment i want to pause, savor and remember.

***

happy weekend!

inspired!

2010-11-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

i have loved amy's blog for a long time, and truly have been inspired by her so many times.

to my great joy i checked out her blog this morning and discovered her christmas inspired magazine! it is awesome, truly. i will not have a huge amount of time for christmas crafting (my favorite crafting time), but i certainly want to do some projects with marley.

i am very excited to make felt trees, cereal box houses and tags, at the very least this year. mary engelbreit even has a project in here, yay, i feel so excited now about christmas. it's never too early for that is it?

Open publication - Free publishing - More happy

i heart my chairs!

2010-11-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

more felted sweaters in use! i was so excited when i thought of this idea for several reasons.

1. i think the felted sweaters will wear well over time, and because they are felted i think they will hold up well to lots of use by children.

and 2. i love that all of the chairs are white, if i ever do get a big wood farm table and we have more space, any additional chairs we acquire can be painted white for cohesion.

3. with all of the seat covers being mixed felted sweaters i never have to worry about running out of the fabric. they also are in keeping with my new design goal in our home (i can't help it, i'm a trained interior designer!), they are mostly white and have color and mixed patterns. sigh... they make me happy.

one of the benefits of living in a chilly climate is being able to use wool more often. my knitted and felted pillow was such a hit last year, it's not surprising to see us all trying to get to the sweater chairs first!

sweater weather

2010-11-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

it's chilly here this fall already! halloween was actually a cold evening so i was relieved that our costume accessories were warm. marley, chris and i were gnomes and i made our hats out of felted sweaters. you know how much i love working with felted sweaters. i made up my own pattern by tracing a witch hat of marleys with tracing paper. i added several inches along the brim for my hat and chris' hat. after felting the sweater i iron the felt several times to help flatten it. i do spray it with water while i am doing it. i then embroidered a flower with button for my hat and marley's. the flower pattern is from amy karol's book, bend the rules with sewing. chris had a leaf on his. i just realized that jasper is wearing chris' outfit in these pictures.

i wore my mom's dirndl, which is the traditional german female dress, blouse and apron. perfect for being a gnome. chris had a big wool sweater with a leather utility belt, baggy pants and his shoes. we each had rosy cheeks. i also made chris' beard, which was a huge hit! i was very influenced by i made you a beard. i traced a pattern on tracing paper, 3 layers and cut them out of a thrifted white fleece vest. i sewed the 3 layers along the top with the thinnest bias tape. this way he could easily tie it on.

tomorrow i will post another project i am working on with felted sweaters, yay. until then, stay warm!

time blur

2010-11-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

life is going by so fast right now. we are pretty busy, i say pretty busy instead of really busy because i have only one child who is involved in activities. i truly admire my friends with more than two children who are pulling off crazy busy schedules. i love this time in my life, the time i treasure homeschooling with my children, experiencing life with them. it is just going by too fast.

i also work part time. my part time work with a catering company is shifts that are usually 6, 8 or even 10 hour days. when i work, i work a long day and it is on my feet 99 % of the time. it's lifting and carrying heavy things. i'm toast when the days are over. and if the day is especially long, i am super tired the next day.

we are in 2 homeschooling groups, which is new this year, and i am very thankful for. the kids also love going to a homeschool pottery class every week. then there's several days of karate and now jasper and i (i have to be with him) volunteer at the humane society. then there's all the playdates. all this socializing we already do is still not enough for my kids most weeks!

i have to remind myself that it won't always be like this. i also realize that our time with our children at home is such a small amount, in their lifetimes and ours. i am letting go of what i thought and am embracing the right now. i don't want to live in a space of yearning for something else while i totally miss the right now. this town is a good lesson in that as well. we are super busy in the summer and fall. you could be busy every weekend up until now. unless you are into the football season. so about this time when you are so overtired, overstimulated and oversocialized our winter sets in. we cacoon here big time. i will be able to craft more, be home alone more (with the kids), and get caught up on other things. there is not a whole lot going on in our small town in the winter and into early spring. we have our drizzly rain and our cloud coverage. i do appreciate what this brings. the amazing beauty we are surrounded by, the bountiful harvest from our valley and the endless green. i'm ready, sort of. the gray gets me, but i'm working on that...i love my mack daddy vitamin d pills!

***

some things we are digging in our busy lives right now are;

*home education magazine*

maybe it's the 70's looking covers, i'm not sure, but i had not really ever been into this magazine. until now that is. i realized it was time to subscribe when i panicked when a library copy was borrowed and lost, not because of library fines , but because there was a cool idea in the magazine that i had not written down the reference for yet! we have found some great ideas in here, and have been introduced to so many great must-have books. i also really dig the varied homeschoolers represented in these pages.

*historic american girl books*

marley has an american girl and loves her, a lot. she's not a historic girl, but the exposure has led to marley's interest in the historic girls. we had read several of the girls series, like a year or so ago with mild interest. she now has a renewed interest and so we have now read the addy series (6 books + ) , and we have also checked out the addy craft book, the addy cook book and welcome to addy's world * 1864. there is also a homeschool curriculum for the historic american girls. we have the addy section and pick and choose fun things to do from it. jasper is really into the civil war, so we spend lots of time reading and looking at books about the war, slavery, the underground railroad, etc.

**brickforge minifigs**

they custom make mold and cast figures' accessories for legos. jasper is really into the stuff for star wars and halo. very, very cool stuff. jasper received a mini camera/video recorder for his birthday ( i know i am lame and didn't post his birthday), and he makes videos and does reviews. these add to that for him, and playing and creating custom sets. we recently rearranged his room again to make a better work area for this purpose. he's much happier with it now.

the kids are also having fun taking quizzes online for books they have read at book adventure, jasper has recently discovered mad magazine (yes, it's still around!), and i have some fun crafty accomplishments to share soon.

* this moment *

2010-11-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

{this moment - inspired by soulemama}. a friday ritual. a single photo -no words - capturing a single moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. a moment i want to pause, savor and remember.

have a great weekend!

***

{this moment}

2010-10-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

{this moment- inspired by soulemama} - a friday ritual. a single photo -no words- capturing a single moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. a moment i want to pause, savor, and remember.

*** happy weekend!***

oregon's coast

2010-10-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

another day checking out the beautiful oregon coast. all of the beaches are open to the public, and luckily they also have switchback paths leading down to the beach itself.

on this day we explored devil's churn. named for the tides cutting into the rock, that coupled with the power of the pacific ocean creates this "churn"

the power of the ocean here stopped me in my tracks. we were very cautious of getting too close to the ocean, this spot is known for "sneaker" waves. no thanks. chris took tons of pictures!

alsea falls

2010-10-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

i'm so behind in blogging about so many fun things we've done! so, here we go. as i have mentioned before we do letterboxing. i love it for so many reasons including adding an extra fun element to hiking with the kids. we try to remember to check if a location we are going to visit has a letter box. here we are on one of our day trips checking out the beauty around us in oregon. it still takes my breath away. unfortunately we never found this box!

{ This moment }

2010-10-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Soule Mama: a Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to you're 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Happy Weekend!

i'm digging it

2010-09-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

this will not be a rambly post. it is a list of what i am totally digging right now. join me, won't you? tell me what you are digging right now! i love hearing from you ;)

1. listening to theivery corporation. i had heard them years ago, sort of forgot about them and then rediscovered them through my children's home school ceramics teacher. they are a great mix of my favorite kinds of music, mellow with enough energy to keep me up!

2. another musician i am loving to have recently discovered is neko case. we utilize our awesome library so i had to wait until they purchased her cd middle cyclone, love it.

3. watching my kids discover how many things make a great swing... rope (obviously), a rope ladder, dog leash, and boffers!

4. having long hair. i had talked a blue streak about growing out my hair, but with the humidity back in virginia i never made it far. it is now past my shoulders. i am having fun with all the things you can do with long hair. it is so much easier than short hair. short hair is high maintenance people.

5. hearing my children voice their feelings, especially when they feel we could have handled something differently. wow. talk about good therapy.

6. i am so excited to share that i have a mostly completed sweater!! it's a huge step for a knitter, and dang if you people will not hear about it over and over. i have finished the body and am currently working on one sleeve. it is looking good. here's a sneak peak ;)

it stills needs to be blocked too, but i made it!

7. i am digging having a husband who is really getting into fresh food (thanks to his job!) and as an off shoot of that and being in this community, he's also really getting into natural medicine, herbs and homeopathics. told you we were evolving.

8. finally, just a small blurb for feeling thankful for taking a small step toward something i have had in my head for years. and a great friend taking the steps with me. it feels good to take the first step, it's always the hardest isn't it? more on that as it develops, because we may want you to be a part of it!

9. the woods. i am so thankful for living in a state, and especially a town with lots of forests and tons of hiking trails. the earth and nature grounds me unlike anything i could purchase or consume. it is powerful and i am so thankful every day i get out of my house. we have checked out 2 better known areas with the kids in the last 2 months, i will share that next time. they were both awe inspiring. i am so thankful for the people who had the foresight to preserve the wonderful land that surrounds us.

i've got 2 turntables and a microphone

2010-09-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

funny how when i started this blog i felt sure it would be about crafting, and that i would give back to the online crafting community i love. then i thought it would be all about our unschooling journey, i mean heck, i actually live in a very large community of varied home schoolers. we are so fortunate!

what i have realized since our move to oregon, and the adjustment i am still feeling, is that my life is not about the completion of crafts my family and i have created. sure we do that a lot, but it in no way dictates or takes up a lot of our time. i have also realized that right now i do not want to spend a lot of time focusing on always making hand made gifts. i loosened up my crafting goals because i needed to weigh them against my family time and if it made me feel stressed.

when it comes to homeschooling, it is truly about our own family flow, a process. it's bits and pieces and moments. it's apologies and helpful book reading. it's crying and hugging and laughing. it's celebration and anger. our focus is not on one idea, it's on the process of all of us, our wants and our desires. we all love each other and want to live a life as together as possible. adjusting to this is not the easiest process, but oh is it worth it. this is coupled with a whole life change. we moved from the east coast, with a mortgage and a child in private school. a corporate job and 2 nice cars. what came with that was more than we wanted. stress and a feeling of hectic energy that never seemed to go away. feelings of isolation from not living a life we truly enjoyed. we also did not feel that it was the way we wanted to raise our children. so we left.

our journey to move and settle here has not been easy. the collapse of the economy and living in a smallish town made job finding even harder. shopping is not great, nor is thrifting. i have had so many moments of panic, this isn't the way it's supposed to be, the plan in my head, the struggles we feel. recently i have reflected upon a lot of it and have realized that in a way it is all so refreshing. i can't worry about shopping because we don't have the money, and heck do we really need a new whatever the fleeting thought is about? i have come to realize that knitting or sewing exactly what i need brings a whole new level of satisfaction! i embellish clothes and trade with friends. we hand down outgrown kids clothes and welcome anything from others. we garden and share our bounty with friends, as they do with us. we welcome suggestions for work and do the jobs and never once feel less than because of it. i clean the house of a woman i think is fantastic, and never have i once felt weird about it. chris is employed and it has been hard not to focus on wishing for a higher paycheck and better insurance and money for a bigger car, but in reality i really really feel fortunate to have 2 cars, and the option to bike anywhere in my town. i feel fortunate that we do have some insurance. he has been looking for a better job, but as we all know it's a tough market out there. what we're hoping this may lead to is us finally going forth with one of our famous day dreams. maybe one day we'll have our own business. i feel fortunate to get my eggs from my friends chickens. i feel fortunate to eat fresh elk my friend's husband hunted. our life is more about basics, and appreciating them. it goes hand in hand with having my children home. no one we hang out with has huge houses, or super fancy furniture. it's not a priority to most people. we have learned to be together in a smaller space and have an appreciation for what we do have.

it's not been easy, but we're evolving in so many ways. i am happy to say that i truly am happy and are appreciative of our life, right now, just the way it is. thank you universe, and thank you to all the wonderful people in our life.

this is big

2010-08-16T16:39:00.001-07:00

this is chris (on the left)

this is chris' garden

this is the huge zucchini chris grew!

yup, it's 16" long and

yes, it is organic.

welcome to the fertile valley.

packing

2010-08-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

the kids and i are headed to the big city to hang out with some friends. we've got a list of things we want to do... it all depends on the motivation of 6 of us (4 kids)!

we also will get to see one of my all time favorite bands, the b-52s!!

in order to aid in packing i've printed off house on hill road's picture packing list. so cute!
have a great end of week/weekend ;)

7!

2010-08-09T10:44:00.001-07:00

she was just 1,

now she's a beautiful, self-confident 7- year old fashionista!

the kids and i had a great time decorating for her honorary day.

cupcake lanterns courtesy of bake it pretty, mama made celebration buntings

and marley and jasper made celebration posters

there was even an extra special poster made by her brother,

which recieved an excited "yes!" from the birthday girl

we made a beautiful hand drawn timeline of her 7 years

bringing us joy

special gifts of polly pocket, clothes and amazing hand made american girl doll clothes

from silly monkey, well made and awesome prices. lots of matching outfits

with her doll

rainbow cupcakes was one small request she had

beautiful and tasty! bake it pretty polka dot papers and edible flowers

martha's yellow cupcake recipe and buttercream icing

a fancy tea party with 2 friends, and then a movie night with mama

a great day for us all celebrating the life of this amazing little girl!

hello, says my jacket

2010-08-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

the hello is a little tricky to see with the lighting, but you get the gist of it. the hello is in a turquoisey color, i started off with it being red but i wanted something a little more subtle. now my jacket is totally unique, i love it! patterns are from my favorite sublime stitching.

hope everyone has a great weekend. we'll be celebrating my baby turning 7!

education through south park

2010-08-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

the craziest thing happened one day when jasper was watching tv, he learned about something new. yup, it actually happens. south park aired an episode where they recreated the civil war. there are several really cool things about this. the first cool thing is that neither chris, nor i, are into historical wars. i don't remember anything i had to memorize for a test. nothing. i know i'm not alone in this.

jasper became so inspired by this episode he scoured the library for books and had the librarian help him locate books on cd to listen to. not even kids books, adult. he would listen to them going to sleep or when he was in his room building with legos. which leads me to tell you that he recreated armies from the civil war with legos, which led him to looking at lego creations online about the civil war, which led him to seeing creations that were based on wwII. yup again, he became interested in wwII. he went back to the library and got books on wwII. he also scoured the tv for shows on wars. he found lots of great stuff on the history channel. one night he watched a show on wwII literally for about 10 minutes, and then spent at least 1 hour recreating a tank. he also became interested in recreating a helicopter and the men.

as i mentioned earlier i don't share this interest. my job as an unschooling mama is to help him find this information, and anything related to it that he might be interested in. we're also going to attend some recreations of the civil war, living history stuff.

these interests keep morphing and changing. some of the interest fizzes out, and that is perfectly okay. he may come back to it at some point, or not.

regardless we're here to marvel, provide information and stay out of the way. his lego star wars interest has changed as well. he makes wardrobe changes on those teeny tiny characters, and is now even using clay to carve helmets, and sharpies to customize them. it's so cool to see these interests weave in and around each other and lead to new things.

chris and i just chatted about south park. i have to admit, neither of us were fans of south park. just like most people, we thought it was inappropriate and obnoxious, and no way was our kid watching it. wanting to embrace whatever our children are interested in, we let him watch it, and we watch it with jasper. and we talk about what we're watching. he loves it, and actually had a marathon of viewing for awhile. the episodes have great wit and humor. they touch on history, politics, social issues, and entertainment. they're funny, but can make you take a pause and think. crazy i know. we have had so many discussions with jasper that i am not sure how they would have come about otherwise. i'm just so glad we're open to letting life, and my son's education flow like this.

well, hello!

2010-07-29T13:32:00.001-07:00

i have been absent. i don't really know why, i have not even been very good at socializing lately. life stuff is a little stressful right now and i feel like i am bitchy and crabby. no one wants to hear that.

luckily i have some wonderful friends who are saying out loud all the great things they do for and with their children. it started with flo's post and then ronnie thought it would make a great blog carnival. it has touched my heart so much and made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside to read everyone's posts. and so i feel it is the perfect way to say hello again to blogging. hello!

i'm that mom...who helps my son find storage for all of his lego star wars boxes because they are so inspiring to him.

i'm that mom...who spends hours joyfully (usually!) rehanging my daughter's vast wardrobe because i love her joy in clothes and accessories, and i choose not to look at the amount as excessive.

i'm that mom...who swells with pride when my kind children say no and stand up to adults, because only they are the authorities to themselves, and no one else is.

i'm that mom...who watches the same episodes of their favorite shows over and over and over again, simply because they love it.

i'm that mom...who asks my children their opinions and gives them choices for most things, because having choices is empowering for everyone, no matter what their age. i also do not judge nor shame them for changing their minds.

i'm that mom...who has always had a family bed, and always will because i never want my children to feel lonely and afraid, especially at night.

i'm that mom...that gets hugged and kissed and told "i love you" over and over every day by my wonderful kids, and that is how i know we're on the right path.

flower power

2010-06-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

remember this? my $1 vintage picnic basket?

it needed a little sassing up on top. it was just the scratched up and beaten up faux wood top.

now it is shiny, happy flowers. mod podge baby, it rocks!

self-motivation, american girl doll style

2010-06-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

on a recent playdate at our house marley came across the book that came with her american girl doll (not the 'how to take care of your doll's hair' book, oh yes), but an activity book to do with your american girl doll. it is page after page of crafts you can do for your doll.

can i just tell you that my girl and her friend spent hours making these set ups for the doll. i would name her, but marley does not really name her dolls. she has a few names that she rotates around with her dolls and stuffed animals, so at any given moment their names can change.

above is hot chocolate, a flower pot and flowers (which now reside next to the danger flowers in the living room), a table setting , and hop scotch. i really like the american girl doll books and dolls. the stories are well-written, but not too sugar coated. their are even smaller books about real girls around the world, lots of positive messages. but taking care of the hair, that's a whole other story! the stuff is spendy too, but someone let me in on great secret, silly monkey. awesome clothes and accessories that won't break the bank.

first day of summer and we have blue skies and sunshine... yay! enjoy your first day of summer too!

flat mitchell

2010-06-14T17:18:00.000-07:00

a few months back a large manilla envelope came in the mail addressed to my kids from virginia beach. i couldn't figure it out as i walked back to the house, but was happily surprised to find my nephew in flat stanley form inside smiling up at me with a big 'ole picture of his face and a cartoon body he colored. it made my day!

have you read this book?

i had not, don't know how i missed it with 2 kids, but the story is that stanley gets flattened and mailed ( i presume accidentally) to a friend and has lots of adventures. stanley has so many adventures there are like 6 or more books about his adventures. very cute idea, and the letter with flat mitchell asked that we take flat mitchell around where we live and take pictures with him to send back, along with post cards, etc. sounded fun to us!

we faced 2 obstacles during mitchells time with us... one the weather. we have a misty rain and clouds a lot, for lots of months... like most of the year. and then, when we were out in nicer weather we had to remember to bring flat mitchell and a good camera. all in all we had a great time doing it, got some good pictures with mitchell and we able to share some great information about our state with his class.

one book i referenced a lot was b is for beaver

every state has one of these alphabet books, i think they're great, even though i'm a smidge older than their target reader. a hem. here's a sampling of what we sent back to virginia beach.

the willamette river runs through our town, as does the marys river. aren't flat mitchell and marley so cute ;)

"w is also for the willamette river, the centerpiece of the valley that shares it's name. it is the largest river that starts and stops inside oregon. it is over 300 miles long. in 1998 the willamette river was proclaimed one of the nation's 14 american heritage rivers, an honor reserved for rivers of national significance historically, culturally, and environmentally."~from b is for beaver

marley, jasper, and some friends behind the school which is located outside of town with amazing views of the coast mountain range, especially marys peak which is the tallest peak in the coast range. the school is nestled among fields and fields, lots of tree farms, and animal farms such as alpaca, sheep, horses, and goats. marley is holding flat mitchell.

"the douglas fir is found throughout oregon and is one of the biggest trees in the world. nearly half of our state is covered with trees and many of them are douglas fir.

the douglas fir grows very straight and is said to be harder than concrete. it's used to make telephone poles and railroad ties. builders use it to frame houses, churches, and schools. the tree is also found in homes during the holidays. oregon produces more christmas trees than any other state and families find the douglas fir a favorite to decorate.

the rocky mountain douglas fir national champion is located in deschutes national forest near the jefferson lake trail. the champion tree is 24 feet around and 114 feet tall." ~from b is for beaver

marley in front of one of the 5-6 tree farms we pass on our 15 minute drive to school.

"the willamette valley was the promised land for many emigrants on the oregon trail. the valley is important to oregon's economy. with it's fertile land, it is the nation's top producer of filberts, grass seed, peppermint, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, marionberries, and christmas trees."

jasper with flat mitchell at mount hood getting ready to spend the day snowboarding with his dad! mount hood is about 2 1/2 hours from our house.

"mount hood is the tallest mountain in the state of oregon and is part of the cascade mountains. the cascades comprise one of the most magnificent natural playgrounds in the world. this collage of green forest and black basalt outcroppings is topped by extinct volcano cones covered with snow. plenty of lakes, rivers, and waterfalls provide a pleasing contrast to the earth tones here.

in addition, six national forests, six federal wilderness areas, and oregon's only national park crater lake, are found in the oregon cascades. add to this list the bevy of luxury resorts, nine developed ski areas, hundreds of miles of cross-country skiing and snowmobiling trails, as well as numerous waterways teeming with fish, and you have all the accoutrements for roughing it in style.

mount hood is oregon's highest and best-known mountain. it rises 11, 239 feet above sea level. in addition to being the state's highest mountain, mount hood also boasts the most ski areas, five in all." ~from moon handbooks oregon by elizabeth and mark morris

hope you enjoyed a little tour of our state, happy tuesday!

back it up a little

2010-06-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

we celebrated several things in may, before the conference,

but i'm just getting around to posting about it. better late than never i say!

first chris turned 44.

really, i still feel like i'm in my 20's. how does this happen so fast?

and then jasper tested for, and received his orange belt.

he is still digging karate big time.

i'm amazed at how much the kids remember. when they test they have to test through all of the previous belts moves as well. some of our friends were there watching their kids test, and the instructors encouraged us to cheer for all of the kids. it was a good time. the belts are getting darker, you know what that means right? he's moving on up!

aftermath

2010-06-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

LIFE is Good Unschooling Conference 2009 from Beachbum on Vimeo.

this is from last year, but such a great representation of the conference!

we're back from the LIFE is good conference, and wow, we had a great time... as usual! this was our third year, and i have to say for me the conference has been like a stew. i get different things out of it every time i go, and i personally feel like a different person year after year. our first time we had moved cross country and had been here literally about 1 -2 weeks. i was pretty hyped up, but did not know anyone. jasper was all over the place and immediately made friends, but marley was still super shy. my experience was hanging out in the hall, or a brief stint or two at the pool. it felt so freeing to talk about my children and parenting in ways that i had not been able to where we had lived before. now i was having pretty deep conversations with men and women, about attachment parenting and not sending our kids to school and all of us being happy and excited about it. i knew i had missed a lot at that first conference, but i felt so full of love and support when we left, it was so hard to go!

last year we were friends with quite a few families, so even though chris could not attend i was able to attend a few chats with a little help from our friends. it was also so joyful to see my kids, especially jasper, see friends again, from all over the world. there's lots of love at these things! i had made friendships that first year that have grown and morphed over the last 2 years as well, and i truly cannot imagine not having these people in my life.

the love and support of everyone of all ages is immense at the conference. it is a love fest, and i think that is what i truly come away with every year. i was able to sit and chat with several people i had met in the past, but this time we made an effort to stretch our friendship. i sat next to a famous musician and sold our crafty wares, next to a 5 year old selling balloons, another mama selling pottery and a 13 year old selling monster purses.... and we were all equal! there were chats in the hallway with a small crowd, chats in the lobby, chats at the pool in the pouring rain (our kids were swimming in the heated pool). i popped into 2 chats, and hosted a funshop. i met lots of new to me folks, and new to the scene folks. it was so good.

amy steinberg was the famous, and mind blowing musician, who's crafty too. she is amazingly energetic, excited, and outspoken. she has a lot to say and gets you involved in the emotions of it physically, as well as mentally. you feel invigorated and empowered listening to amy, and talking to her one on one is no different! she even noticed that my hair has gotten long this past year, really do you know how many shows she must play every year!!

this is an older photo of them, but i think it's cute!

i also met kimya dawson!!!, and her sweet daughter. same as amy, she is an f'in cool lady. i was really inspired by her calm demeanor, softly spoken with powerful meaning. kimya and panda had on lots of killer d.i.y. clothes that we chatted about... i love repurposed clothes and i loved seeing what they both had on every day. her performance was magnificent! she's fun, quirky but has a lot to say and doesn't hold back. having kimya and then amy play was perfect, they really do seem to have a lot in common. another way cool thing about both of these ladies, they both got a lot out of the conference. they were both excited about it, and talked about it and are still talking about it!

i was lucky enough to buy her cd alphabutt from her, and have her sign it, she ended up selling out so i was so, jiggity-jig, excited i got one. ;) doo doo never sounded so sweet as when kimya sings it. and the enormity of how much she loves her daughter is evident all over this cd, and being with them, it was there all the time. joyous.

and since i love crafty i came home with some sweet finds! mary (the conference diva) has a great set up, any day you can bring your wares and plop down at one of the table and sell.

i traded a fabric banner for this awesome monster purse, doesn't that make you smile!

picture courtesy of cat maree on etsy

and i bought some upcycled gift card earrings, my favorite kind of art. these are by cat maree, she' s on etsy. mine are big diamond patterned with rainbow colors, love them! and both amy steinberg and kimya dawson bought a pair ;)

i am a dork

2010-05-26T12:04:00.001-07:00

dear flickr,

i know i have not updated my pictures in ages. sometimes i cannot believe how busy life is, but you really are on my to do list. i promise we will spend some time together this summer. just to let you know though, we pnw'ers have a hard time staying inside in the summer. perfect weather guaranteed for a few months. there's lots of festivals and watering holes to visit. really, don't worry. you're on the list along with making pom poms to hang in dottie (my spotted car),

photo courtesy of larissa holland at mmmcrafts!

a tooth fairy pillow for marley (we have awesome vintage sparkly pipe cleaners to use), an ironing board cover ( i made marley a dress which is spotted now thanks to something on that dang board), chair painting,

photo courtesy of flint knits

sweater knitting (2 for me now!), etc. oh, and i have to make sure the resident 6 1/2 year old and 10 1/2 year old have a fun summer. we're good right?

why am i spelling out my crafty to do list to you flickr? i have a conference to attend tomorrow and i have yet to finish my crafty endeavors for it, nor have i packed a single thing. marley has already packed 2 of her 3 doll's suitcases, maybe she'll help me.

more makin'

2010-05-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

we had a fun time at a birthday party this weekend for a sweet 4-year old. she is getting ready to have surgery on her leg, and will be in a cast, so any gift that can help her feel content sitting for awhile is a bonus. cruising on the internet one day i came across this awesome pencil case, i love the pencil rolls that i usually make as gifts, but for a 4-year old tying is not feasible.

looks like a purse, cute strap and all

but, look how awesome! one side can store mini notebooks and the other has the divided compartments for pencils or twist up crayons. i love it, and i think it is easy enough for her to open and close herself. happy birthday maggie! and thanks fran for the tutorial. ;)

protection

2010-05-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

i finally finished my phone case, and am so pleased with it! it is design based on marley's drawing. i think the bird is so freakin' cute! the case itself is a felted sweater sleeve. i love working with felted sweaters, it's just so easy. i also really wanted something durable since it would be tossed around, a lot. this fits the bill. i decided to velcro it for ease of opening, even though my huge buttons that look like records (remember those?) would have rocked this design.

in other news...want to learn about something new?

ever eat a purple potato?

these are okinawan sweet potatos, but they're actually grown in hawaii. they are so yummy, and sweet. we just boiled them, mashed them with a little coconut milk. that was all chris and i ate for dinner one night. i don't think they are very easy to find, and they're spendy. but if you ever get a chance to eat one, do, you won't be dissapointed!

baby tank

2010-05-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

isn't this the sweetest thing?

our friends kim and kyle just had a baby girl, and considering they have already seen 90 degree weather i knew booties or a hat would not be ideal knitted baby gifts. and knitted baby gifts are the best because they are easy, quick knits and it's ok to splurge on amazing spendy yarn, you won't need much! this is a cotton i picked up at our local shop, ahem... unfortunately i cannot find the tag to tell you the brand. i do have to say that i love, love how the colors morphed into a groovy, psychedelic pattern on the bottom part of the dress. perfect for them. ;)

the pattern is by knitting pure & simple. this is pattern #266 little girl's sundress or jumper. it was knit in the round, super easy with only seaming the straps on the back. the owner of our local yarn shop said that she and several of the folks who work there use these patterns and they are great. good thing, because i am going to make marley a children's tunic sweater with another one of these patterns. i am hoping if i start smaller and move up in size i will finally get my sweater finished!!

and for the cherry on the cake...

i scored a pair of soft stars at the high school yard sale, that are brand new for only 50 cents! you could have knocked me over with a feather. these shoes are the best for new walkers, because they are still pretty flexible and the sole is a little thicker than a moccasin. and they are local, we all love soft star and most folks own at least one pair. each pair of shoes are hand made in their cool shop, and the original owner, and current owners are awesome folks. they have a great online shop too. the quality is top notch! ;)

happy veggies!

2010-05-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

you all know about the dirty dozen list, right? those are the 12 most pesticide laden fruits and vegetables. the ones you should not consume unless they are organic? we have the list scratched out on pieces of paper...one for each of our wallets and one inside our cabinet door in the kitchen for easy reference. yes, we both pull out our list at the store if we are unsure about a fruit or veggie. and truly food tastes SO much better without chemicals, do a taste test, you will be convinced.

so, anyone that knows me, knows that i like visually pleasing things. cute things. i'm sure i will be a crazy old lady with bright mix matched clothes and lots of knick knacks's, and i'm ok with this. i like eccentricity. i digress, my point is .... i found a CUTE dirty dozen list that the artist heidi kenney posted on her blog for all of us to enjoy. further in her blog she mentions a reader printed her list out and put it in a luggage identification tag and hooked it on her reusable grocery bag!

how cute are these fruits and veggies?

if you are really feeling the fruit and veggie love to brighten your shopping experience you can buy this pattern on her fabric from spoonflower and make a reusable grocery bag.

that.would.make.me.smile.every.time.
that's important people!
(this is her picture and her bag)

heidi kenney is a non-stop producer of fun, fun art and killer craft ideas. she is one of the few bloggers i check in with on a regular basis. we have several of her stuffed creations, everyday cute objects with faces...who can resist? check her out, you won't be disappointed!

springtime in oregon

2010-05-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

springtime in the valley in oregon is truly a little bit of everything... cold and rainy, warm and sunny, and with intermittent hail. we enjoy it all (sniggety - snig) because of all of the green we enjoy year round! here's some snaps of some of our spring thus far.

first there was easter egg hunting after a little parade, up in the forest all bundled up

then there was a little hail, which added some extra fun to a playdate, and was saved in the freezer for weeks

there was warm weather to welcome the winklers from portland,

and to walk together in the procession of the species
celebrating the great mother and all of her beings on earth day!

now we're getting ready for the conference, and summer time!

lego boy

2010-04-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

jasper's lego collection and his love of lego star wars has been an ongoing passion for years. his room is smallish, and his collection of legos was getting way past the point of tossing them all into a big basket. he would drag legos to the dining room table and build sets a lot. cool, except that is the only place we can eat, aside from the hard a$$ bar stools at the kitchen counter!

i spent quite a bit of time on flickr searching for ideas of how other lego lovers organized their lego rooms. so fascinating to see how people of all ages with a huge passion with lego take their "work" space so seriously, i love it! anyone with a passion for anything can understand this. even if you are a voracious reader, you need a comfy space to sit and good lighting. jasper and i talked about what he really desired in his room, and ideas he grooved on from lego builders he saw on youtube.

and over the course of a few days...it all came together (with lots of mama and sister sifting through and separating all of his legos!)

i give you lego boy studios!

1. the #1 thing he did not have and really wanted was a place to build sets...not on the floor, such as desk top space or table top space. he likes to build battle scenes and well, ya know the star wars ships are pretty big! we had a coffee table with no where to go except outside so in that came. he likes it pulled out in the middle of his room so he can get all around it. he also builds stuff on his desk, we are still sorting out where the frog tank can go, possibly back to the kitchen counter. now jasper can leave sets with his big gray base plates set out as long as he wants with no one disturbing them. not in the picture is the floor lamp that he uses like a spot light on the set. he makes youtube videos and snaps pictures here.

2. the #2 most important thing was that his legos needed to be separated and easily accessible. these ikea drawers are perfect, he just pulls out the bins and sets them down where ever he is building. the legos are divided up by color, the way jasper likes to find pieces, he says that he remembers what a piece looks like by it's color. this also makes pick up, which i do usually every day for a few minutes, way easier. we've talked about what he does not want me to disturb, and what is ok to pick up. works great for us!

3. organizing the teeny tiny pieces was very important. trying to find these minuscule pieces in a big basket was SO time consuming for him. i would rather he be able to find everything he needs within seconds, to keep that creativity flowing! the above box has all the people parts that are not put together. the drawers on the china cabinet under the shelves house complete lego star wars mini figs and regular action figures (non-lego). his are mostly built, but this way if there is a lone weapon or head or arm floating around i know where to put it, and if lost he knows where to search for it first.

the picture above this box is a box of the teeniest lego pieces, i don't even know what they're called, but he knows which ones are in there and which ones are in their color coded box.

oh, and a side note for anyone organizing legos.... we keep his wind shields in one of the drawers as well, thrown into a basket or box they tend to get scratched. i saw on some one's flickr picture that they nailed a base plate to the wall and hung their wind shields up on it... brilliant!

4. another very important organizational tool jasper craved was a place to display his built lego star war's ships. imagine some of these huge ships sitting around on his floor! this is an inexpensive china cabinet from a thrift store without it's glass. he used the cabinet doors below to store the boxes from these ships, which he likes to reference. a lot of these ships have special holding spots (where you should pick them up), and if you don't know that you can cause them to come apart when handling them. this enables him to play with them when he wants, but keeps all others from handling them without jasper there. he also loves showing these off, who wouldn't, there's lots of work involved and they are so cool!

we moved all of the items we deemed unnecessary out of his room... the dresser because he only likes to wear t-shirts, the occasional sweatshirt and shorts or pants. all the shirts are hung up and pants are folded and put into the red ikea lockers. his socks are in a lego bin on one of the locker shelves. all of his books except for lego or star wars books were moved to a bookshelf he shares with marley, which is conveniently located in my room where i like to sit to read to them. it was great helping him to create a room he loves to meet his needs, not a standard bedroom set up. as his needs change we will do what we can to help him meet them. right now the next goal is counters all around the room for building, hopefully in our next place if space allows!

mmm... mmm.. good!

2010-03-31T10:55:00.000-07:00

i have promised this recipe to several people, some whom i remember, others i don't so this is a good way to cover that.

so here it is my friends! i received this recipe at a recipe exchange, just a few friends who got together for coffee and gave each other copies of their favorite 6 recipes. there is no author listed on this.

Yellow Tofu
(if you don't like tofu, try to get over it, this is yummy!)

fry on high heat 5 minutes flipping constantly
2 lbs. of extra firm tofu (pressed & cubed)
2-3 Tbsp of sesame oil (for frying)

turn heat to medium and add one at a time mix well:
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. dill weed
1/2 tsp. salt (optional)
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. curry

turn heat back up and add:
two cloves of garlic chopped or 1 tsp. powder
1/8 cup light soy sauce

turn heat down to low and add
1/4 to 1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes

goes well as a stir fry with veggies and rice.
if you want it more salty use 1 lb. tofu

we season our veggies the same way sometimes
and serve it over brown rice with a little tamari
and sesame seeds mixed in the rice like this guy

yum, yum i love this recipe!! enjoy.

and so this is not a picture less post, here's jasper at mt. hood...
totally random, i know ;)

living the dream

2010-03-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

i have held a mental picture in my mind of my dream home, not really the house itself, but the placement and energy and activity of our dream home. i have to say the reason i fell in love with this painting at goodwill is because i think it captures the essence of where that home would be. the colors, the trees, the mountains, the water and the space.

yesterday's activities captured the energy i have always envisioned at our dream home.

my kids had friends over from 9:30 am on. it's sunday at 11 and they are still here. it was a beautiful day yesterday, the kids were in and out all day long. we kept the doors opened, the dog and the kids were in and out, i kept food and drinks supplied and helped locate what was needed for whichever game they were playing. there was a moment when a couple of the kids were smashing our big plastic frosty the snowman and several kids were on the trampoline with nerf guns and boffers and a super soaker, there was lots of laughing and i just stopped, looked around and grinned. it was peaceful chaos. the kids were so happy and kids can be loud, and they need to be able to be loud. i recently read about a mom supplying her angry son old furniture to smash to help him get his aggression out. so when the kids started to smash frosty it made me feel good. it's all about the outlets for emotions.

at one point they all layed down on the trampoline and looked up at the sky and said this is heaven. that made my heart swell, it's exactly what i have always envisioned our family home to be like, lots of kids wanting to come over and my kids wanting to be here with us, with their friends. when jasper wanted 4 friends over for a play date we made it happen. bliss i tell you, and it feels so good.

we are having a great time embracing marley and jasper's most recent passions. for marley it's still all about clothes, and fashion. i have to say i really enjoy seeing her check out what other people are wearing. we have lots of discussions about clothes, have checked out some fun, fun books on fashion through the ages. we spent an hour at the toy store on friday, she had more tooth fairy money (see picture below) we got a really cool clothing design kit with a light box and films to trace and embellish. we're going to get project runway on netflix, on a friend's suggestion (thanks mel!) it will be interesting to see what she thinks of the process of designing and making clothes. i recently scored a decent sewing machine at a yard sale and a table that we keep out so they are welcome to sew whenever and whatever they want. jasper has made several capes for himself and his teeny clones. marley has designed and sewn an index card holder with a slot for a pen. we're still working on them remembering how to thread the machine! i have hang ups about myself so i really want to give them free reign on unleashing what ever ideas they have, so i try to stay away from their creative processes.

for jasper every day is about star wars and legos. for the last several years he has been incredibly passionate about building with legos. we have rearranged his room and added a china cabinet for displaying built creations and a low table to build on. he is also creating you tube videos. his goal is a stop motion animated video that is about 1 hour long.

our final big news is, the second front tooth is out. finally knocked out by a hot dog. her first reaction was devastation because she thought she swallowed it. luckily we found it laying on the floor behind her. phew!

rite of passage

2010-03-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

where you will find my kids these days

good times!

here's the funny part, well to everyone but me. i get excited and tend to jump into things and, ah hem.... don't read all the directions before i get started. i had almost all the springs on when i realized i was doing it wrong. it was really hard to do it this way. when i took them all out and put them on the way they were supposed to be put on, it was much easier!

a little tidbit

2010-03-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

it's great to keep the kids fueled up, but hard to know when just the right time to feed them is. a lot of times it's best to keep a consistent food source for them. they keep nibbling and don't get to the crashing point of hunger. i forget about it sometimes, but was recently reminded about sandra dodd's monkey platters. we have so much fun with these, and there is hardly ever any food left over. check out all the fun ideas on sandra's site.

with a lot of kids (and adults too) presentation is huge. that was what i was trying for with the bento boxes. marley loves that, jasper not so much. everyone's different and that is what makes the world beautiful!

but... wait until you see what our friend got us!!

i introduce to you the TIDBIT TREE

i know, isn't it fabulous? just think of the possibilities! gretchen said they had one growing up and they would put gum drops on it. the meat piesces and pickles kill me in this picture, so 70's. the date on the paper is 1984, the company is chadwick. i hope you find one too ;)

home again!

2010-02-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

let me explain something to some confused adults, parents specifically. when you ask your child if they want to do something and they say no, and you make them do it anyway and you think they have fun, you didn't "show" them you were right. not everyone sulks and pouts, or maybe they have yet to learn that skill. what you are teaching them is that their opinion does not matter. i understand that sometimes we have to do things we may not want to do at that moment. what you can do is talk about it, with options, and understanding. maybe you as the adult need to compromise a little. stop and think about overriding their opinions all the time because you think you know better. think about what it teaches them. how about them being told to do something that is inappropriate and they can't seem to find the words, or the courage to say no and mean it. think about that in the context of them being older and offered something they really don't want to try and not having the confidence to say no and mean it. scary isn't it? think about them getting a little older and making really big decisions, and then not feeling confident in their decision and second guessing that decision, and feeling stuck, HUGE isn't it? their opinions matter, you are not only raising your child physically, but emotionally. what you say now greatly shapes them. stop and think about it long and hard.

on the flip side think about empowering your children no matter what age they are. things are not always black and white. look for options, compromise, feel the gift of being able to help empower them.

okay, i had to put that out there. this has come up with a parent i know in relation to letting my child choose to attend school or not. this parent told me she overrides her child's choice on doing things, and then she chuckled to me about it. she probably has the best intentions, but it is irking me big time. one instance was attending an optional activity. this obviously strikes a nerve with me, thank goodness. i have the ability and the joy of giving choice to my children right now. i am so thankful for that.

speaking of making decisions, and what's making us happy... my girl has decided to come home from school. it feels so great to say yes, YES because we can make it work for her. and yes to someone who makes a decision and never looks back. she feels confident, at the age of 6. i love that!

it's our first day of rain after 6 sunny days with mild temperatures. what a great day for brownies and whip it with my family.

i'm off, to love and empower my children some more. do the same you won't regret it, just ask anyone who has lost their child.

happy love day

2010-02-14T13:00:00.000-08:00

the sun is shining and we are free to be and do as we want today,
can't get much better than that, can you?

i wanted to share a few things that are making us happy
and filling us with lovely warmth around here...

the kiddies and i went to the store the other day after jasper decided that he did in fact want to participate in valentines giving at school. off we went to where we could get some store bought, mass-produced character valentines. i kept those thoughts to myself though. we went to the aisle looked at their offerings and my lovely boy said "i want mine to be hand made". oh yes, yes, let's do that! he has not ever expressed a sentiment for hand made necessarily. he is not super crafty, but he does love legos, and is constantly building and creating with those. i thought one of his awesome star wars drawings would be the perfect art to share with his friends, so to another store we went for reddish card stock, and it was decided we would make our own envelopes. the super heart warming part of this story, besides his beautiful art... was the whole family really wanted to be a part of helping him finish his representation of himself to his class. it was such a sweet time, we all happily cut, glued, folded or taped. it made him feel like a million bucks. that's the best part.

letters ripped from magazines spelled out his sentiment,
copied along with his clone trooper drawing.

the envelope was made of magazine pages, and a piece of candy was taped to each.

jasper documented our working family

embracing more color and more things that make us our hearts sing in our main living space is also making us all very happy. here's some snapshots i captured today as the sun shone outside.

i finished the pillow! the back is made of a red felted sweater. we all LOVE this pillow. seriously, we fight over who can lean on it. even the cat gets in on the action. it is so soft! i am in the process of putting together a smaller cover made of felted sweaters, and have started knitting another cover, we can't have fighting over something we can have more of now can we?!

do you see those cool tin flowers? i recently picked those up in eugene. they are called danger flowers made by ruby the resourceress. i tried to link her site but it does not seem to be up any more. they are cut lids and bottle caps, and the stems are wire hangers! they make me so happy, and are my favorite kind of art, recycled. i love when you can look at items in a whole new way, especially discarded items.

enjoy your day friends, lots of love to you today.

therapy

2010-02-10T11:41:00.001-08:00

good winter therapy for us this past friday was to go to hoodoo ski resort and tube for 5 straight hours! it was the perfect day, 8" of new snow, beautiful sunny blue skies with mild temperatures and no more than 5 other families there at a time with us. we laughed and laughed and laughed. i'm the only one who wiped out luckily, my tube stopped on a slow down mat and i was flung out hard. we chatted up the workers for some new tubing skills, got a spin or a push from them, and realized if we sat on one another in a single tube we could really fly. we walked over and checked out the ski mountain, marley's first time seeing it, and she was excited. we could watch the skiers and snowboarders on the mountain while we were doing our thing. i got pretty excited to see snowmobilers. i may have to try that next time!

hello february! hello my thrifting mojo!

2010-02-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

i have really missed thrifting a lot on a regular schedule, well i didn't schedule my thrifting, but i made dang sure i went at least once a week to my local favorites in virginia. it's all about patience people. you go on a regular basis, some days are hits, and some are misses. every now and then the thrifting gods line everything up and your thrifting mojo kicks in. that's how my last few thrifting ventures have gone. marley and i spent the day thrifting in eugene this past thursday... the first one we went into we were in there for 1 1/2 hours! then carolyn and i checked out a few local places this weekend. last week i thought hmm.... i sure would like to add to my globe collection. i checked craigslist a few times (not so great in a smallish town) and ebay, which is all about the serious collectors. my goal was a few dollars each, i'm not a serious collector, i just want specific colors. the gods listened, they bestowed a tin globe about10" tall that has had some serious loving. when i set it on the counter i said "oh, i did not see the dent". the sales lady said, "i'll knock the price down to $3". YAY! now we're talkin'.

i snagged quite a few things to break for mosaics, well, at least i tell chris that about lots of dishes i buy. i love mixed patterns... and when i saw these lovely kitchy salt and pepper shakers, i knew they needed to be out. they make me smile and remind me of our fellow virginians amy and jaime living in california. and the fabric place mat, look at it, so fun!

great fabric, look it's vintage strawberry shortcake. we are big fan of hers, and rainbow brite. there is a look alike running around my house right now....

look what i scored this past weekend thrifting with carolyn...

it makes me think of oceans, i love the coloring. we have not yet taken them down to look at changes with names of countries, but i hope there is some age to them!

and last but not least, some storage solutions. i'm sure you can tell from my pictures that a lot of our time is spent in one big open room. there is only so much wall space, and it's dominated by big furniture. we really need unique ways for storage. the great thing is the kids are old enough to remember what is where when they need it.
i think they need some fun stickers on them! and the vintage picnic basket is my version of the hip handwoven baskets lots of folks use here for the farmer's market and outings that require stuff. mine was a whopping $2.50. thank you thrifting gods! i'm off to felt my sweaters and play with the returned homeschooler who is maquerading as rainbow brite, enjoy your day!

things that make me want to clap my hands

2010-01-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

seriously, this wedding bouquet would have looked perfect with my wedding dress, my pillbox hat and fabulous 40's inspired shoes...maybe we should renew our vows.... I LOVE THIS! found here made by amanda heer. thanks to sweet jessie for the head's up.

love

2010-01-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

a few new favorite things that i love

and the front of the pillow has been felted

and now armed with a minor threat cd and some bleach i must go conquer the poo explosion from a sewage blockage in my bathroom!

spreading on the color

2010-01-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

i've been working hard on the color love here in our little house, and trying to squeeze in the big purge and pick-up too. as mentioned on my side bar, i am pretty good at avoiding the housework requirements. give me a few projects and i am a happy camper!

i started the knitted, then felted pillow. i am so excited... the colors scream happy to me and i am hoping the felted aspect enables it to hold up well to pets and kids. i spied a beautiful felted pillow at yarn store in portland. every knitting store has a comfy seating area for knitty get togethers. this seating area had not only a few knitted blankets folded and shining of love, color and craft, but a few pillows. not only was i smitten with one special skein of yarn, but this one pillow stole my heart. it is from alterknits felt,

and after it was felted, you stitch it together with big 'ole stitches. it was beautiful. being the frugal girl that i am i decided to check ravelry for a free pattern. i found one, with a pattern i love too, bonus! it is from knit picks. i bought my yarn from a local craft store and have been taking this pillow with me everywhere. isn't it great to take your craft with you everywhere? i've knit waiting in the dentists office, waiting at the school, knitting at karate...energy from our life is in there.

isn't it happy?

i have also decided to change out the curtain on the year long cabinet. it really needed punch of color. i found this hidden in the back of my fabric stash. it is such a beautiful quilt topper. cutting it will be tough, but i figure it is better than this never being used. i love all of the different patterns.

the area behind the couch definitely needed some fresh new energy. my first thought was to replace both the mola's, but after making the picture collage i felt like the monkey could stay. he's such a happy guy. i also added a crewel flower arrangement and an old charcoal drawing my brother did. i really like the simplicity of his picture.

i have more pillows to work on and will share those as they transpire. but first i'm off to target, the word on the street is that they have globes that look vintage ;)

hello january ,hello twenty ten!

2010-01-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

back to routine we go. the kids were excited to see their friends at school today, and jasper is jumping out of his skin to get to karate. i did mention that he is a yellow belt now correct? ;)

wow twenty ten. sounds crazy doesn't it? people seem to be more introspective this new year than the past it seems. i have read a lot on blogs, had talks with friends and even heard an astrologer on the radio this morning talk about how this is a big transition year, a transition to simpler more introspective living. people are craving it, and in a lot of cases are living it out of neccessity. i find it sort of comforting that we moved to a town that is all about that. and that we live a very handmade life. i want to embrace it even more, get back into my mosaics and furniture painting and maybe start doing some trading. goods for goods. work at the market, things like that. i feel content. my kids are happy. we feel so fortunate chris has a job with benefits. we have a roof over our head. i know i am doing a lot of personal introspection as well... turning 40 and at the same time finding out that the man who i thought was my dad and who died when i was 5, was actually not my dad. my dad is alive. yup, told you i had the rug pulled out from under me. it feels very surreal.

and 40. who knew it would freak me out so much. i did not expect it to, but wow it makes me really realize that i am aging quickly and i want to embrace life, do and be who and what i really want to be. which brings me back to that introspection. slowing down the less important things and living fully present with my family. taking care of my health, being as kind, compassionate and respectful as i can.

i so love what my friend sarah wrote about the new year, her look back at her children's growth this past year. their new teeth, their growing bodies, their personality changes. such a beautiful post! and the parenting... and just being yourself and trying your best and failing and getting back up. perfect. i feel the same way my friend. and i too want to be in the serene part of the ocean.

thank you to whoever is reading this and supporting me in my crafty and family endeavors. i have lurked in this online community for years, and am so happy to be a participant now and look forward to becoming even more involved in the near future. i have some goals here as well.

happy new year to you all, i sincerely hope we all continue to grow and do and be all that we want to be in this new year, this new decade.

where, oh where, did december go?

2009-12-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

all the planning, crafting, shopping, working, thanking, decorating, celebrating and eating.... zoom, done. we have been so busy, but having so much fun. i was up until 1 am for nights on end finishing gifts and crafts, and even set aside a few projects to finish this week for my mental health. my house is a complete disaster, it's bursting at the seems, there's piles of food leftover in the fridge, piles of things needing to be put away, reboxed, donated or looked at.

but do you know what i want to do? really, really want to do? some redecorating of course! now that we have lived here in the pacific northwest for almost 2 years i am craving way more white in my home. i have been spending my spare moments scouring lots of scandinavian blogger's homes. they know where i am coming from. i may have danced around my house and rejoiced gleefully when i found lisbeth's home on the sweet sweet life blog. sigh..... i have looked at her pictures over and over and over again. white with color. forget minimizing and adding lots of white, i need more color! more patterns! luckily my man made the statement of the day, i like flowers. flowers it is! i am geared up to knit this pillow... as soon as i find the colors i want. i am going to make a pillow case out of recycled sweaters, change the fabric on the year long cabinet... and slap some white paint on my dining room chairs. i do recall saying this before. it is a challenge to do in the pacific northwest, with no garage or basement, 3 animals, and 2 kids rooms with no space to paint. i'm going to make it work people. then i am going to get some pleather in portland to solve the constant aggravation aka the fabric on the dining room chairs.

ok, deep breath. i can't share any pictures with you of what i have done because it's dark out. but i can show you my most crafted christmas item. made with recycled sweaters..

the birds are from betz white's book

the owl's are my design..which thanks to my crafty 6 year old has changed slightly. marley helped me embroider the eyes on one owl and made the stitches around the eye "like the sun mommy". i love them like that! (it was too late and i was too tired for picture taking after that batch of owls).

there was also some holiday knitting... a pair of fetching gloves

for my niece and the 2-needle fingerless gloves for my nephews. and the jasper and marley dolls for another niece. now it is only crafting for me and my family. i did not get a solstice gift made for my kids because i was so busy working. and marley did ask why i never make them stuff! first though, the tree needs to go, i'm over it. it feels too cramped in here. the rest of the week will be fun day trips with the kids. oh, a big shout out to my little man who moved up to a yellow belt, and is so happy and excited. what are you up to this week?

shine on

2009-12-20T00:12:00.000-08:00

i have had wreaths brewing around in my mind for years. i patiently waited to pack and move cross country because i did not want to put a lot of work into a wreath and then have it ruined in the move, so here we are moved and it's time for some wreaths. there are so many awesome wreaths out there, i wish we had lots more spaces so i could make several of the variations i have seen.

i just love all of the creative bloggers sharing their ideas with us! when i saw this wreath on sweet jessie, i knew that it was the one for this year because it is sparkly and that is what we need on our grey rainy days here. can i just tell you that i love this wreath, it makes me smile a lot when i see it... i don't know if i can stand for it to be outside because i want to look at it all the time!

i'm still debating the bow.... happy shiny, sparkly days to you ;)

dear taylor

2009-12-15T19:06:00.000-08:00

here are your cousins that live so far away.

now you can play with them every day.

love, aunt kitty

from amy karol's bend the rules with fabric

p.s. if you talk to taylor don't tell her, it's a christmas surprise!

lots of love

2009-12-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

1. it's been a busy time here, not just in our home, but our community. i posted a comment on my facebook this past week about loving my life because i am surrounded by beauty and kindness every day. i truly feel grateful every day for both. i have been witness to so much generosity from our community for several families we know who have experienced loss recently, and they were immediately embraced and their needs met whatever those needs were, whether it was replacing lost items or a hug and unspoken words to heal.

2. this leads me to feel so thankful for living in a smaller town. i will admit that it makes me a little crazy sometimes, but to see how people gather and pull together to help others brings me to tears so often. there is a great sense of responsibility here to do and be better for our community, and our outer communities. people do not just work and go home, most people i know volunteer for several organizations, or donate their time and talents for causes. beautiful.

3. i appreciate how slow and careful my community members drove last night. while at work in the next town our area was covered in a layer of ice. my normal 15-20 minute drive took an extra hour, and once in town i was rerouted. i gave thanks several times to how cautiously most people drove, especially when passing. whenever i thought i could speed up i would see a car in a ditch, or left on the side of the road, or in an accident and was reminded i had all the time in the world to make it home safely to my family, and to keep others safe.

4. on a lighter note i was very appreciative the other day while baking, and being home with a sick and crying child for my lovely handmade apron from a dear friend (it was like a hug when i needed it! thanks sarah ;) ), parchment paper for easy clean up and 11 straight days of sunshine.

5. i am so thankful for my 2 part time jobs. lots of people need work right now, and i feel like when i put the words out into the universe of my need for work, several dear friends helped me to make it happen. i also have a great time working with so many wonderful people! lucky me.

in between lots of hustle and bustle, which i admit i do enjoy, there has been some holiday crafting. i first spotted these angel family ornaments last year on danielle's blog and wrote it on my calender as a reminder to make this year. i am so glad i did, marley has loved working on these with me. i cut out the pictures, cardboard and paper, and glue them on and she is in charge of decorating and picking out colors and objects for the angels to hold. she is really into writing right now and has written the year and different messages on the backs of them. i already feel like they are magnificent treasures! thanks so much for the idea danielle. she is amazing, every time i look at her blog i seriously want to clap my hands!

have an amazing and beautiful weekend everyone!

i'm still happily here

2009-12-08T21:43:00.001-08:00

hi all, i'm still here and thinking my happy thoughts. how about you? things have been crazy and we're cycling some serious ick in this house, but i've got a list brewing in my head and some great christmas tree information to share. let's get going...

1. i love being married to a man that does the grocery shopping. we'll skip the part where he does it because he doesn't want me to spend too much money 'cuz it rocks that he does it!

2. i love my netti pot...sinus cleanse what-have-you. it feels so great to release that pressure. have you tried leaning over and touching your toe with your free hand? try it, it's a whole other level of cleanse.

3. i love living in a town with no highways and no traffic, unless you count football games which can be MAJOR traffic backed up for hours. on a daily basis, none. one day we were driving home and were stopped at a light, marley said she could not believe the traffic. there were about 10 cars stopped at the light in each lane.

4. i am so thankful to lunapads for the divacup. it makes my cycle take a back seat to my busy life, and it's comfortable. seriously. i C A N N O T imagine E V E R using a tampon again. the thought of it makes me want to cringe.

5. i am so thankful for being able to get a doctor's appoinment within a few hours of needing it. and for him giving me an idea for one last ditch effort to get the pain and pressure out of my ears and sinus cavitites before going the antibiotic route.

i've got more to share for another day, i'm so excited! see practice makes perfect... or at least fake until you can make it and it's working so far.

so today marley and i were fascinated to see a helicopter at a tree farm across the street from the school hoisting up bundles of trees and dropping them into a truck. then we noticed a man parked next to us on a walkie talkie watching the loading also. i rolled down my window and asked if he worked for the farm. he did and was willing to answer some of our questions. they are the largest tree farm around, holiday tree farms. they ship out 1 million trees a season. they ship trees to places like puerto rico, mexico city, and hawaii. crazy amazing isn't it? there was a guy in the field hooking the line from the helicopter to the tree bundle, the helicopter lifts the bundle and the man in the field uses his remote to drop the trees into the truck. they were running 5 trucks, with 150-175 trees per truck load. he said after they finished that they were done for the season! where's your tree from?

oh happy day

2009-12-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

i am really digging this thankful list. i think about what brings me joy constantly now. when i am stressed about something i tend to want to make rash decisions, i think i need a quick fix. i have that flight or fight thing down, unfortunately it's mostly flight. maybe now that i am older and wiser (ahem), that will settle down.

1. i am so thankful for legos. jasper is an absolute fanatic for lego star wars. marley is really getting into creating things with him, such as tree ornaments. jasper has gotten into so many things because of legos, and they make him so happy.

2. i love having a 6-year-old who is as into christmas, if not more than i am. i mean really into it with wanting to decorate, bake, craft, the music makes her feel sentimental... the whole 9 yards. we are only going to have more and more fun with this!

3. i love living in a town that grows the most christmas trees. i have always loved christmas and live trees, and now i get to look at them year round lined up in their neat little rows at various stages of growth. the tree farms are everywhere, there is a very small distinction between town and country living here. we watched them start chopping months back and now we see trucks going all over the place with them. it lends itself to a very festive holiday mood. and what it means for locals is our choice of amazing trees for very cheap. like $30 for our 7 ft. tall grand fir (i think i got the name correct.) one woman who works at a tree farm told me they shipped trees to asia this season!

4. crock pots rock my socks off. they make your house smell so yummy for hours and hours and then you have a delicious warm meal when you are ready for it.

5. i am so happy about fabric. more so than ever before because i can finally sew a little, and i see so many possibilities with any fabric. case in point is my fabric chain for the tree. just like a paper chain but made with fabric. i will just keep adding to it and will see those fabrics for years to come! i first saw the idea on the small object blog.

off to finish decorating the tree with my assistant. and there's more sun to enjoy.... sigh.....

my life is right now

2009-12-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

i will admit it. my attitude has been crap. i could blame it on lots of things like big changes, stressful life choices, or major upheavals, but hey i am the driver of this boat. i don't like being this way and i would hate to impact my children in such a negative way. so i have decided to focus on what makes me smile every day.... and oh there are lots of things. my goal is to stick to 5 things, without getting too deep i would like to do this every day. i want to celebrate every day.

1. my husband warming up and defrosting our car this morning! i did not even ask him to do it, and it rocked to get into a toasty car for our lovely drive in the country.

2. the sun shining on a frosty morning causing everything to sparkle!

3. a beautiful family picture a friend captured. we rarely have a family picture and it is perfect for our christmas card this year! yay!

4. my children's small intimate school. it's perfect for us. and i love (as do they) their teachers.

5. my children's existence. they humble me, and drive me to be and do better every day and i am so thankful for that. seeing them grow and change every day and innately do their best because that's what kids do, is so inspiring.

have a great wednesday everyone!

hello december!

2009-12-01T15:48:00.000-08:00

what a month november was... it seems to have gone by in a blur. i found out the craziest thing on halloween morning and have been riding an emotional roller coaster ever since. getting out of town this past weekend was very helpful. portland is so fun, and so are the winklers. they are such good therapy and i am so thankful for their friendship and their incredible hospitality every time i am there. thank you winklers, you are golden! friday night carolyn and i went to the kennedy school. it is so beautiful, and it was so fun to walk around and discover what they have done with all of the rooms. and the art was so inspiring. the next day we had a ladies day out and about. we hit up my favorite places... a yarn store, antique store, thrift store and then off to ikea for meatballs and more shopping. on sunday we went to a super fun performance by do jump! called tiger lilly and sunny lu. AMAZING! it's acting, acrobatics, theater and music. such a great weekend leading up to....

yup, i turned 40 yesterday. my hubby pulled off a surprise potluck gathering. he had hand written invitations, made chili and a 3 layer chocolate cake! one friend took me for a pear martini and everyone else gathered at our house. it was low key because of it being the first monday after a vacation/ weekend, but it was perfect. i feel so loved by friends and family, near and far. i thank you all from the bottom of my heart. i am ready for this new decade of my life. ( i think!)

gobble! gobble!

2009-11-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Give Thanks Day Everyone!

(kid's hand turkey design courtesy of the crafty crow '08)

love these!

2009-11-21T09:37:00.000-08:00

how long has hallmark been doing this? where have i been and why didn't i know?

they are carrying vintage fisher price toys as ornaments. and knowing hallmark, they probably have had different ones every christmas. oh, a collection of these would be so great on our 5' tall white vintage tree....maybe we should have a toy tree... how fun!

but wait...need a great gift for a girl on the go? these are a stellar present.

anything that uses i.p. freely in it's description is noteworthy! you know how much i love bust magazine! here's their description :

"I.P. Freely! Now you can pee all you can pee without copping a squat. Just take the flat cardboard cone and press down until it pops open, then press it over your poon and you'll be able to pee standing up. Perfect for camping, festivals, bus and plane bathrooms. One pack contains 3 biodegradable cones."

oh i know some ladies who could get a lot of use out of these!

kat craft fever

meet the girls

i'm stoked!

i won! i won!

summer blur

awaiting baby

strawberries!

summer lovin'

better with sunshine and sewing

spoil sport, negative nellie, whatever

knitting

the ebb and flow

awaiting the warmth

i made it and more goddess love

happy beltane, happy may day!

super finds!

life's funny, and so great

feeling good

hello saturday...

celebrating imperfection

it's rainy outside

a sitting spot

we used to say we were twins

yaquina bay and my brother

magnum knitting

welcome to the world

the sit down list

warning: do not move here

prettying up and recovering

(delayed) thrifty thursday

happy new year, welcome january!

happy solstice!

happiness is...

cake!

{this moment}

little houses

score!

this week

this moment

inspired!

i heart my chairs!

sweater weather

time blur

*** this moment ***

{this moment}

oregon's coast

alsea falls

{ This moment }

i'm digging it

i've got 2 turntables and a microphone

this is big

packing

7!

hello, says my jacket

education through south park

well, hello!

flower power

self-motivation, american girl doll style

flat mitchell

back it up a little

aftermath

i am a dork

more makin'

protection

baby tank

happy veggies!

springtime in oregon

lego boy

mmm... mmm.. good!

living the dream

rite of passage

a little tidbit

home again!

happy love day

therapy

hello february! hello my thrifting mojo!

things that make me want to clap my hands

love

spreading on the color

hello january ,hello twenty ten!

* this moment *