. . . and do I have a lot to share.
I certainly didn’t intend to have such a long blogging hiatus but it happened anyway. It started with my summer from hell. Soon after the lovely birthday party, summer camp started. Lots went wrong- mostly database issues resulting in registration issues and unhappy parents mad at me- but also 3 staff members quitting in the 1st 2 weeks of camp for a variety of (mostly) understandable reasons and it all made me want to go home and not come back.
Oh, it wasn’t all bad. In the end almost 1000 kids had a great time and my cool-on-the-outside-freaking-out-on-the-inside demeanor served me well and resulted in what everyone said was the best summer of camp ever. Yay me. In the midst of that, I had no energy left to write and once I stopped it was hard to start back up. I’ve probably written 25 posts in my head but that does you no good.
Since I left you, my garden grew and grew and we canned a whole lot of delicious produce. We planted giant sunflowers and now have so many seeds!
Buffy, Oolong and Wynonna grew up and started laying delicious eggs. One hen tried to fake us out by laying 14 eggs in a secret spot before we found them! Then last month, sadly and suddenly, Wynonna died mysteriously, and seemingly peacefully, overnight. So we got 2 new hens- Matcha (an Americauna) and Brown Betty (a Welsummer) but they’re not laying yet and I don’t have any pictures of them yet. Now Oolong is molting so she’s not laying either so we’re down to one laying hen. For now.
After camp was over we took an fun, relaxing camping trip to Paradise Creek in the Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington. We relaxed and explored, ate smores, hiked on a path to nowhere and admired the pretty colors of the volcanic rocks that were all along the creek.
I’ve only really been knitting in the past couple of weeks but I have plenty of projects that will show up here in the next few weeks. The same goes for spinning.
I renamed my business and moved everything over to a brand new shop and website. The story of why will come soon. I love my new name and logo and am gearing up for the busy shopping season.
That’s the quick and dirty lowdown. I’ve got to start small. It feels good to get some words out there and I’ll be a little more detailed in my next posts.
Tags: chickens, Gardening, travel
Posted in Celebrate, Gardening, Places, Seasons, Summer, The Outdoors, travel | 1 Comment »
I’ve survived the toddler birthday extravaganza, complete with another cake and more celebrating on June 2, her actual birthday. The summer camp I direct starts in a week and a half and I’ve been busy getting ready for it. I finally had a weekend to relax last weekend and it was so nice!
With the sunny weather, and little bit of rain, we’ve had, our garden has really taken off! I love watching the plants grow and Sesame loves to pretend to kill slugs with her shovel and to inspect the “babies” as she calls the plants. This morning she even pulled up a chair and just sat and watched the garden for a while.
So far we’ve eaten broccoli from the garden and will have fava beans and snap peas soon. We’re also growing lettuce, garlic, leeks, a million onions, kale, spinach, kohlrabi, 3 types of tomatoes, purple string beans, 2 types of shelling beans, japanese eggplants, jalapeno peppers, gypsy peppers, carrots, 2 types of potatos, basil and a few other herbs. Whew, that’s a lot! I’m really excited about having so much fresh produce right in my backyard! We also have raspberry, strawberry and blueberry plants. We’ve been enjoying the strawberries for about a week now and I just ate my first ripe blueberry this morning. Delicious!
I’m getting ready for some fun craft shows and art fairs this summer and have been working on a new product. I have this french press cover listed in my shop and several more will be for sale soon. Mike and I tested it out and it definitely keeps coffee warm longer and it adds some style to a french press.
Like my other items for sale, it’s made from a recycled wool sweater. This one is actually a wool/angora blend so it has a little extra softness. I tried some different methods of closing it and finally settled on these beaded ties. They wrap around the buttons so it can be closed as snugly as you’d like. It makes the cover a little adjustable so it’ll fit different brands that may be slightly different sizes.
Etsy is having a “yart sale” today through Sunday. It’s like a yard sale, but with art. I have a whole section of specially discounted items and you can search for “yart” on etsy to see what other good deals are out there.
Tags: etsy, Gardening, ThinkingMama
Posted in Gardening, The Outdoors | 1 Comment »
Little Sesame turns 2 tomorrow and we had her party on Saturday. It was a hot, sunny day but luckily our backyard had plenty of shade.
Here’s her birthday banner in action.
There were plenty of friends for Mike and I to hang out with but little Sesame had some buddies to play with too.
There were cupcakes to be eaten. They’re carrot-pineapple cupcakes with a little cream cheese frosting and since the birthday girl loves birds (or bees, as she calls them), I decorated them with bird’s nests made from kataifi (shredded phyllo dough) and little jelly bean eggs.’ The frosting is colored with natural colorings- raspberry for pink, blueberry for lavender and turmeric for the yellow. I made a ton of cupcakes and only had one left after everyone went home. I want some more!
There were also a few presents to be opened. Sesame loved all her things but her stuffed dolphin and Hello Kitty purse and wallet were definitely the biggest hits.
I actually made her pretty party dress! It’s the first thing I’ve sewed using a real pattern and with things like gathers and buttonholes in a long time. I got the pattern from that*darn*kat on Etsy and it was really easy to make. I want one in my size!
It was a fun birthday party and I can’t believe my little girl is (almost) 2!
Tags: birthday party, Children, Sewing, summer
Posted in Birthday, Celebrate, Create, Sewing | 6 Comments »
My kiddo is just about to turn 2! It feels like time is flying by but then it also feels like little Sesame has been with us a lot longer than just 2 years. I barely remember life before her sometimes! We’re having a birthday bash this weekend and I whipped up this cute and colorful banner for her party.
I cut the triangles out with the top edge along the fold of the fabric, so they’re double sided. They’ll probably flip around when the wind blows them so I wanted them to be pretty on both sides. I folded them with the wrong sides together and sewed along the edges using the rolled hem stitch on my serger. (side note: My husband is awesome. When I told him I was sewing the flags he said, “You’re not sewing, you’re overlocking.”) The letters are cut from white felt and I attached them with fabric glue.
I attached them all together by sewing a length of rick-rack along the top edge. I can’t wait to hang them up for her party!
Now that she’s nearly 2, Sesame is getting to be quite helpful around the house. At least she thinks she’s helping. Here she’s trying to wash the dishes. She mostly just got water all over. Notice where she’s standing- not on the platform of her learning tower, but on the rail. The kid is fearless.
She’s wearing some shorts that I just finished knitting. She wears a wool soaker (or woolly as we call them) at night so these will be nice for the summer. They’re a short version of the Perfection Pants that I’ve knitted before. I used one skein of Cascade 220 Quatro that I had left over from a cardigan I knitted. I embroidered some flowers to make them a little cuter and added some extra stitches in the bind-off of the cuffs so it made a little ruffle. It just needs a drawstring. They were falling off of her when I took this picture- her little bottom is not really so square shaped.
Tags: baby knitting, Children, FOs 2009, Sewing, tutorials
Posted in Birthday, Celebrate, Create, Sewing | No Comments »
I’ve been working on several custom orders lately and have been really enjoying them. I like the challenge of making new designs but even more, I like taking customer’s ideas and turning them into something pretty!
Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to do things for myself but I try to squeeze it in. Sesame loves her Klean Kanteen water bottle and I finally made her a felted wool cover of her own. I feel bad that I made so many covers for other kids before she finally got one but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
I’m also working on some new products for my shop and the festivals I’ll be doing this summer. 
For the latest news and updates on the things I’ve been working on, subscribe to my newsletter! You’ll also get some exclusive discounts and offers and now, if you sign up by the end of the month, you’ll be eligible to win a cute, cozy coffee sleeve! I’ll randomly choose one subscriber who’ll win a coffee sleeve of my choice.
Tags: contest, ThinkingMama
Posted in Create, Felted Sweaters | No Comments »
