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.

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.

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.

Why not start in my own backyard?’ I do wage war on dandelions each spring but when it comes down to it, it’s hard for the scientist in me to not admire these tough little plants. with their long roots and hardy seeds that disperse far across the yard with the slightest breeze, they seem perfectly evolved to take over the neighborhood.

Then there are the flowers- bright yellow sunbursts. They deserve a little admiration.

Crabapple trees are blooming down the street.

And a neighbor has these cute, tiny blue flowers filling their yard.

I love seeing the beautiful trilliums appear in the forest. I love that their color varies from white

to pale pink

to deep purple.

All of the images are of coin purses/pouches made from recycled wool and cashmere sweaters. Some are available in my etsy shop now and the rest will be added soon.

I’m inspired to go create some more. Where do you find inspiration?

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!

Let’s begin.

We went on Baby’s First Camping Trip and it was a ton of fun and way easier than I thought camping with sesame would be. We were at the beautiful Lake Selmac in southern Oregon.

Sesame had her first encounter with blackberries and they turned her into a blackberry monster!

Mike and I picked a ton of fruit (57 pounds of peaches alone!) while sesame just ate the berries and got good and dirty. We did a ton of jam-making, canning and freezing. Come on over in February and we’ll serve you some delicious peach pie!

I entered some knitting in the state fair and everything got a ribbon! The empty space on the bottom right should have a picture of this cardigan (it got 3rd) but somehow it didn’t make it onto flickr.

We went on camping trip #2 and braved a cold, drizzly weekend at Cape Lookout with 5 other families and 7 kids.

We did a lot of playing and I knitted and, oh yeah, worked full time and made stuff for my etsy shop.

That was a busy 2 months!!

Next up- what I knitted this summer.

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.

Mike wears the hat a lot and that makes me happy. Even though it’s alpaca, which tends to stretch out, it has held it’s shape nicely. I love knitting things that get a lot of wear and still look nice!

P.S. I’m going to be at Crafty Wonderland on Sunday! I’ll be selling stuff from my shop as well as some new things that aren’t listed there yet. If you’re in the area,stop by and say hi!

This is the best picture I have of her wearing her star pants that I finished last week. They’re the Perfection Pants from Wooly Wonder and I used exactly one skein of a New Zealand Wool, if that’s really what it’s called. I lost the label so this really means nothing to you. The yellow is Cascade 220 and I added it to keep her from looking too much like Kermit the Frog.

Yes, that is Bigfoot Bunny behind her! Much to my delight, she has taken an interest in the cute little guy. And yes, that is the charger for some electronic gadget in her mouth. For our sanity, sometimes we need to just give in.

While I try to pin her down to get some more pictures of recent knits, I’ll leave you with these. This is a picture of her wearing this sweater with the infamous elephant buttons that I knit long ago, before she was born. Before I even knew that she was a she.

It was the first thing I knit for the baby. I could hardly tell there was a baby in me and holding this tiny little sweater in my hands made it feel so much more real. This sweater will always be special to me and I’ll be sad when she outgrows it.

Besides knitting, I’ve been making things that I’ll be adding to my shop over the next week or so. I just love these little birds! They remind me that spring is around the corner.

Thanks for the well wishes regarding my school application. Some of you wondered what program I’m applying to. I have my MS in biology and I’d like to do some more research and get a PhD too. My area of focus is ecology. I like to be outside looking at all the cool things nature has to offer. It’ll be cool if it works out but I won’t be crushed if it doesn’t, though the waiting might kill me.