I especially love these items and want to snatch them up for my girls.

This Fern Elf House made by Willodel has amazing detail!

This basket full of gnomes by FeeVertalaine would be perfect for Easter.

This Waldorf doll by NobbyOrganics has the sweetest face and I love her bobbed haircut.

I can picture my kids coloring with these all-natural woodland bunny crayons made by Earth Grown Crayons.

Take a look at the Natural Kid’s Gift Guide and I think you’ll be impressed. I’m honored to be included with such beautiful things!

When I first started selling things on Etsy, nearly 2 years ago, I was focusing on selling hats for babies.  My hats are still a big part of what I sell but I’ve added new items such as the water bottle covers,  coin purses and french press cozies.  Suddenly having Mama in my business name didn’t  fit my entire line of products.

I realized something was wrong when I became hesitant to tell people my business name because I felt it gave the wrong impression about my products.  I didn’t want to be identified by just being someone’s mama and I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea that I only made things for kids.

I thought about my name for several months before I made a decision and found myself being gradually more uncomfortable with my name.  I had already made hundreds of sales and had a fairly established following both on etsy and locally but I finally made the decision to change my name and, in a way, start over.

So why Sesame Seed Designs?

Practically:

• It’s not product specific and allows me to grow my product lines without moving outside the scope of my name.
• When I imagine it on tags on my products, I can imagine it on items for men, women and children and it works on them all.

Personally:

• If you’ve read my previous blog posts, you know that I refer to my daughter as Sesame (the story is here) so it’s a bit of an homage to her.  Like the story behind her Sesame nickname, the name Sesame Seed Designs is a reminder that big things all start small. I had no expectations when I first listed a few items on etsy but wholesale requests started coming in after only a few weeks and my sales have steadily increased in the last 2 years.

It wasn’t as hard as I’d imagined to get buyers to find me at my new site and I’m really excited and happy to have a name that I love and that can grow with me!  I had some fabulous people help me out- Erin from EdUB Graphic Designs created my fantastic new logo.  She listened to what I wanted and quickly came up with a logo that I love!  Mark and Jennie from Angelic Touch Designs did the work of converting my old website to this new easy-to-use, WordPress one.  They did really fantastic work and were super pleasant to work with.

Changing my name to something that really fits me feels really good and I only wish I had done it sooner! I don’t push my etsy products on you lovely blog readers very often so I’ll get back to my crafty ways next time.

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.

Adding to my feeling of being an official business, Etsy picked one of my baby hats made from a green recycled sweater to grace its front page on Earth Day. I’m in a screen shot mood so here’s a picture of that.

1. The weather has been nuts. It’s spring-like one day and hailing the next. It’s confusing but we still manage to get outside and enjoy the sun, even if it is a bit chilly.


(Why yes, that is my clapotis you see in the bottom of the stroller. The bright rainbow blanket was crocheted my one of sesame’s many great-aunts. We rarely leave the house without something handmade.)

2. We all got the flu. Thankfully not the puking kind, but the fever,chills, lay on the couch and feel like you’re going to die kind. Oh, and it lasted forever. I’d feel better and think I was getting over it when suddenly the 102 degree fever would come back. We freaked out about Sesame’s temp of 105 and took her to the doctor but there was nothing they could do so we came home and slept for a week. The only nice part was that my busybody toddler finally snuggled with me.
3. My mom came to visit and Sesame called her grandma for the 1st time (well, technically “gam-pa” but we knew what she meant) and it was nice to see them have so much fun together. The hysterical toddler screaming “GAM-PA” through her tears as we drove away from the airport was heartbreaking though. She is no longer welcome on trips to the airport to drop off visitors.
4. I made a ton of cashmere hats and I’m getting them all listed in my etsy shop. they’re made from recycled sweaters and have cute springtime designs on them. Just in time for Easter!



5. Sesame decided she was done sleeping in a crib and decided that the best way to tell us was to fling herself over the edge in the middle of the night. Thankfully her only injury was a bit of rug-burn on her cheek. We got a toddler bed the same weekend and she loves it and sleeps really well in it, though the actual putting her to bed part is nightmarish.
6. I’ve been knitting and finished a pair of socks but don’t have any pictures yet. You’ll just have to trust me that they’re gorgeous.
7. I made an awesome find at Title Wave, the bookstore that sells library cast-offs. All these relatively current knitting magazines for $1 each! That’s the best $5 I’ve spent in a long time.



8. Mike and have planned an awesome garden for this summer and have started planting some cool stuff. I’ll share it all with you as soon as I get some pictures. We’ve stopped being members of our CSA, even though we love it and it’ll be sad to not be supporting Laura, “our” farmer anymore. I hope she understands. It’s just too much money right now so we’re going to grow a bunch of our own veggies this summer. I’m really excited!

I was a vendor in Crafty Wonderland‘s Super Colossal Holiday Sale in December, which was a success despite freak Portland snow and ice. In case I wasn’t sure before, I am now convinced that Portlanders are nuts about handmade stuff. I love love love this city. Due to my underemployed status and Mike’s of being laid off, I had no money to spend and it would have been sad to spend all day among such fabulous handmade goodness if it weren’t for the fact that my mom just happened to be visiting that weekend.

These were the goodies we found under our tree on Christmas. (Thanks Mom!)

First up, a completely adorable onesie for sesame from B Hive Designs. In case you’re thinking, hey I’d wear a shirt like that, you can. I’d totally buy it, except for the money thing and the fact that I’m not into matching mother-daughter outfits. It was cool to get a onesie from B Hive because the lady behind those cute prints bought one of my hats at Crafty in October and was nice enough to mention it on her blog.

This is not really a cupcake (though sesame was super proud of herself for climbing up to the table to get it and was caught eating the sprinkles off the top). It’s a bath fizzy from MeMe Cosmetics and it really does smell like summer. I also got some coconut lip balm that I love because other than feeling nice on my lips and being all natural, sesame likes to take it and swipe it across her cheeks. What’s not to love about a toddler who smells like coconut?’ I could just eat her.

Adorning my bare wall in my new tree-house office I have this fabulous calendar. I’ve admired Sweet Bonny online and am super excited to have 12 awesome designs to put up on my wall!

Not to be left out, Mike got this nice notebook with a beer theme made by Two Guitars. Fitting, no?’ Beer and guitars are two of Mike’s favorite things. Now he can write down all his thoughts on beer. Or something.

In other (etsy) news,I’m starting to make more water bottle covers made from recycled sweaters and I love them all. Sesame wanted to keep this one for herself. I can’t say that I didn’t want her to have it but it was a custom order so off it went.

One of my hats made it onto the front page of Etsy again just before Christmas! There’s my cashmere hat in the 2nd row. I was excited to see it there. That little navy blue one is actually still for sale. It could be yours!

In the last week we’ve had snow and ice and lots of overreacting byt weather forcasters but this weekend the storm really came! We have about a foot of snow and it’s still coming down. This is Portland, people! We usually get a little snow and some ice but this is nuts. The first pictures are from yesterday when, with chains on the car, we could get out and go to a Christmas party.

Today there’s no leaving the house but we can sure play in the yard! Sesame liked “sledding” until she fell in the snow and her hands got really cold. I realized that I am a failure as a knitter because my baby has NO MITTENS! Really- how long would it take me to knit some? Maybe an hour? What is wrong with me?

Those pants she’s wearing are her Noro pants I knitted her last summer. I don’t think I ever blogged about them. I love them and wish I could knit myself an adult pair! Her cute blue hat is one of my recycled sweater hats that I sell on Etsy. I loved that one and had to keep it for her. Unlike last winter, she likes wearing my hats now and that makes me a happy mama. A similar hat actually made it onto the front page of Etsy on Friday. I just happened to see it and it made me feel a little like a celebrity. Do you see it?’ It’s the blue hat near the bottom of the screen.

Yesterday they were featured on Craft Magazine’s blog! You can see the post here.

So I think I’ll start making water bottle covers like this regularly and make them available in my shop because I loved making them so much. If you’re interested in one, let me know. I love custom orders and would be happy to make one with the design of your choice.

That thought leads me to my next piece of news. I’m starting a Thinking Mama newsletter! You can sign up here and I’ll periodically send out info on new products and special deals just for subscribers. There’s also a link to sign up on my sidebar.

So are buttons- lots and lots of buttons. I bought these from an etsy seller and got them in the mail yesterday. Who knew buttons would make me so happy? Why does the simple act of sorting little buttons make me so happy? I loved sorting them and happy to find another use for my cute deviled egg tray. It makes a fabulous button tray! They can’t stay there forever but for now they make a nice centerpiece on the table. Or they would if there weren’t so much other stuff on the table right now. Look for them soon on my coin purses in my etsy shop!

Another happy thing on my dining room table are my little seedlings! This cute little guy (girl?) is a baby cucumber. I also have tomatoes and basil sprouting. I can’t wait to get my garden planted! It hailed last weekend, though, so it’ll take some time for the ground to warm up. In the meantime, they’re happy on the table.

My next happy thing to share is also a little sad. Sesame stated walking!! She’s not too proficient yet but she definitely prefers it to crawling. She’s not even 11 months old and I’m a little sad that she’s growing up so fast. She seems so big (yet tiny at the same time!) when she’s walking across the room.

I’m also really happy that I’m done knitting my Hemlock Ring Blanket. I thought I was going to die of boredom while I was binding off but I survived. It just needs a little embellishing and then I can give it away. It’s gorgeous but I’ll be glad to be finished with it.

I was on the front page of Etsy a week ago! I missed seeing it but luckily someone put up a screen capture on Flickr so I was able to see it. There’s my coffee sleeve in the top right corner! It’s like I’m famous. Or was for an hour or so.

That’s it for now. I hope you all have lots of happy things too!

Speaking of my etsy store, I want to thank everyone who came out to Crafty Wonderland last weekend! I had a pretty nasty cold but still had fun and sold a ton of stuff. In my fog of congestion, I forgot the camera so I don’t have any pictures for you. But, I have all kinds of new springy things in my store for your viewing enjoyment.

It’s good timing too because there’s a HUGE sale going on! Portland etsy sellers have banded together and we’re having a big BOGO sale this weekend only! Check out this website to see which sellers are participating. Each seller has set their own sale terms. Me? I’ll give you a free coffee sleeve with every purchase over $20. There some truly amazing deals to be had so support Portland crafters and check out our shops.

Oh, I’ve been knitting too. I’m almost done with these cute little baby/toddler socks and I’m writing up the pattern for you. I’ll try to post it this weekend.