Bliss Beyond Naptime

Corners of Our Home and Cornered for an Interview

Came home yesterday from a trip to town (I asked the Universe for a shelving unit to keep Edie's drawing and art paraphernalia together and out of Kale's paper-thirsty reach so I had to see if it delivered yet - not yet) and found this 'boot-kay' waiting for us. I asked Craig if he knew who they were from and he said no. So I said, 'well, they must be from my new best friend - she's classy like that' - well, I guess she's not (kidding) because apparently they're from our neighbour who dropped them off as a thank you for Craig feeding their koi while they were away. Sweet! They were so stellar to wake up to this morning. Next year we're planting more flowers!

Our chickens are loving a free range lifestyle with the over abundance of grasshoppers on our property. We're loving life with fewer grasshoppers plus some hopped-up yolks. Barney's loving the entertainment  I think even though he's playing all Mr Cool Guy about it. Here's another outdoor corner though it's our junky corner (again, cue in in the banjo). We're the type of household that needs four junk drawers in the kitchen and one whole junk wall outside.The glass door Barney's lounging by is actually a door to our bathroom which is cool for some occassions. I used it as an escape hatch the first time I cut Edie's hair. I started crying because she immediately aged a year and didn't look like a baby anymore; "mummy just has to step outside for a second...". The door sucks though for occassions like ten minutes ago when I walking on tip toes so as not to wake The Boy, go into the bathroom with a brand spanking new Mothering magazine and there's Barney staring at me from outside, meowing the whole time - on the cusp of waking the sleeping child in the room next door. Not exactly relaxing.

One last corner: before Craig's epic wipeout last week he started working on another wood shed. This one is situated right beside his office so he doesn't have to lug logs alllll the way from over here. Notice the nice detaling on the bents (is that what you call them?). Hey, he's crafty too!

And, finally, would like to share that I was featured on an amazing blog of a Vancouver-based artista - Christina of Akane Design. Thank you so much, Sweetie. That was some fun! Check it out for some reader specials.

Summertime Falls

Just like a mermaid saying goodbye to her tail, so must we start our farewell to these magical summer days. The days still have their hot flashes but my ovaries contracting toward my spine after a jump in the river reminds me that we better get our Vitamin D-rich sun injections in while we can. That's okay, fall's my season, remember? Things to get excited about:

From spirocreations. Handmade boots! What a luxury these would be. Mama needs her some boots.

Or how bout these vintage pair from whiteelephant sale? Maybe more in my budget range until my shops really take off. Need me some heels for when I need to get gussied up some. The gum boots just are cutting it anymore.

And of course, fall means knitting circle starts up again. Actually, it never stopped but have spent the summer trying to figure out when the little lad needs me around. Seems like I have a small window from 6 to 7:30 to go A-wall. Not sure how much I can knit in that meager time frame when you budget in travel time but it looks like this free pattern, the Stella Pixie hat could be whipped up pretty quick. Plus, Buddy likes to rip off anything covering his cute little noggin so perhaps the strap would be quite strappin and useful. Speaking of Buddy, he's up, must go - yeah! he slept in until 8:30 (after much prompting of the boob persuassion at 6:30). Harvest as much rays as you can!

Don't Have a Cowl - Make One!

Hey, hey, it's Etsy Friday! Yes, I know I started this intent a couple of years ago and it kind of petered out but let's breathe new life into this favourite day of the week for so many people. Fridays - Etsy and Pizza and a Movie night!

I'll be interviewing some artists I know in real life and perhaps it will morph into artists I wish I knew in real life. This week I'm unveiling my newest product idea - the Felt Cowl Kit. One gets to pick out the art fiber from my Tangerine Dream Batt collection (most of my batts have lots of sparklies)and a custom dyed silk ribbon. Kit includes instructions and tools needed to make a cozy slip over your head neck warmer. Perfect gift to someone who wants to be a little craftier and just needs a little hand holding and a paypal account.

Next week, some interesting answers to some interesting questions from some interesting people!

Garden Gnome and Banged Up Dome

Look what we found lurking among the potatoes: a little Fritter. Just want to squeeeeze him! But that would wake him up right now. We don't want that to happen quiet yet. We had a pretty action packed week. Have I mentioned how lucky we are to have an emergency room nurse living next door? Craig went to drop off Edie at Art Club his usual style - pulling her on the Chariot trailer. He came home informing me had a wicked bail on his way home. Split his helmet open! Poor love, after I started crying telling him to 'hang in there, Baby' and 'I don't know what I'd do without you-oo-oo (that's me crying after saying 'you' by the way) we called Pearl who is so getting a sweater from me I just decided seeing as how she practically lives here with all the house calls over the years.

 

Can't remember, did I share that she came over just last week to help out the little Gnome up there with a squished bee in his hand? Why yes I did - the BumbleBee post. Pearl advised we take Evil Kenievel to the hospital to get him checked out. After an x-ray to the necker regions, the doctor told us to keep an eye out for any strange behaviour. Well, that left a lot open to interpretation.

I'm not sure if there was any significant change in personality but let's say the last 48 hours I kind of feel like I'm married to a new man. He's super gimped that's for sure but I've also noticed we've been laughing together a lot more than normal. Kind of like the old days, pre-kids, when we use to bang a bong on a regular basis (to clarify - we use to inhale). Maybe it's because it hurts him all over when he gets a giggle fit and I have the LAOM sickness my buddy Brenda's been afflicted with for many years (Laugh At Others Misfortunes)and I'm subconciously being funnier than normal. Or maybe it's because everytime I ask him to take a photo of me wearing a new creation he tells me I'm a joke and then we both start laughing our heads off and yet I continue to post pictures of my projects all over the internets? Oh, I just don't know. The Universe works in mysterious ways. My Leg of Glam top is up in my shop now by the way - roflmao. Hoo, I kill me.

Somethin' for Mutton

I made a mutton top yesterday. I poked my nose into Craig's office before lunch for my daily ritual of inviting him out for our walk to the mailbox and when the rest of me and my poofy sleeves finally squeezed through the screen door he said "whoa". That's a lot coming from Craig. I was all like "what is it? What's all the excitement about?" and he told me his giddiness was due to my looking like Wonderwoman in my new shirt. Before I knew it he jumped off his chair like he was hopped up on speed or something, grabbed his camera, grabbed my hand and dragged me out next to the scary decrepit old outhouse and insisted on a photo shoot right then and there.

Okay, maybe it didn't go down exactly like that, but I love the top, the poofiness of it all and he really did say I look like Wonder Woman in it. I'll hang on to that one as a compliment. So it's a keeper. The pattern's a freebie over at Burdastyle. SO much fun this site! Don't stress if you can't sew and you really need a Wonderpersonae for I might add some kind of version of this to the Jupiter shop. I'm going to play around with it a bit more, maybe add some high ribbing to the cuffs and waist band or try to infuse a shot of gold bullet proof wrist bands somehow. Now, where did I park that hunk of junk invisible plane? Can never find the darn thing...

Home as School

The blogging Gods have not been smiling down on me. It's been dreary weather and my camera's on the fritz. Hopefully a shot of freshly charged batteries will do the trick. If not maybe it's high time Edie owned herself her very own camera. With this dreary weather, which I don't mind so much other than the melancholy haze that tends to surround me, the coolness in the air is giving me a fall preview, which incidently according to Chinese medicine, is my season (though definately not the case with that whole color swatches around your neck business - I'm soooo winter). As I mentioned, we're going to have a kindergarten attempt around here and the curriculum should be on its way any day now. Edie and I had a crafty moment that gave me a sense of what's to come with this more organized playtiming together. It's been a while since we actually sat down and did the same project at the same time side by side. She's usually blissed out drawing beside me while I'm blissed out spinning, knitting or up to some other no crafty good.

We attempted to make felted balls. One for a gift for a little girl who just had a birthday the other for our toy basket. It didn't work out though. The merino top layer felted much faster than the corridale core. But, that's okay. We'll try again next time using all corridale. No tears happened because we were left balless. It was apparrent the process was worth the lack of cajones - lots of laughs, coffee and pink were involved which equals the best time for us both. I think this homeschooling adventure's going to be a riot. A quiet riot of course - lest we wake up the sleeping giant.

Brown-Eyed Susans, Black-Eyed Kathies

So cute, Edie had a boyfriend come over (a friend that's a boy - don't want this all over the Perez Hilton type sites) and he brought her flowers... awwww! His mom and I had lots of note swapping to do. She too has decided to homeschool her boy this year on a Kindergarten level. I was nursing Kale to sleep last night and realized that every single mom that I consider a friend out here is homeschooling. And there's  a lot. And not for the lack of schools around here. There's a public school smack dab in the middle of town and a real cool alternative school spearheaded by hippies in the seventies that has recently relocated downtown too. There's so many reasons to homeschool, for our family anyway, I just find it interesting that all these families discovered similar reasons on their own as well. So if anyone has experience with Live Education please let me know! That's the course we're heading toward. At least for two years of Kindergarten anyway. After that we're leaning toward Christopherus; both of these are Waldorf-based. So much to learn! Luckily, learning's fun. Or should be. Thus, homeschooling (then unschooling later on - mwah,ha, ha).

 

And finally, I hopped back on the wheel again. Must come up with a name for the spinning wheel - how do you spell Kway-lood? Quaalude apparently (just googled). It relaxes me so. I decided to come up with a line celebrating the opening of the second shop. The yarn above is part of my Jupiter Dreams space series.  And now for the Black-Eyed Kathies bit of the post title- Ay Karumba! Yesterday I sold four items in the While Jupiter Dreams shop! Things are a bit different over there in that when I sell something I have to then make it. Which is cool. I get off on the rush. But I'm hopping now, excited about the fall plans and fun challenges ahead.

Itty Bitty Obi

Shout out to Nytesong for the bright idea for creating some obi sashes for kids too! Funny that Universal consciousness phenomena; the kids and I were gearing up for our morning walk to the mailbox and Edie tied one of her scarves around her waist proclaiming it to be her obi. I remember thinking, "how sad. The kid doesn't have her own obi. Oh, well." Then I totally forgot about it. Then reading the comment I was like "What a great idea! Deja vu, man." So thanks for collaborating with me, kind of, on this one and here I whipped one up for Munchkin in pink and purple - her two most favourite things in the world other than kisses from Kale, kisses from her chickens and bobbing in her swimming donut. Going to plunk it into the shop now!

Spoiled Little Brat

We had some gnarly smokey Sunday going on. This time not from my cooking but from neighbouring forest fire, so the morning light was eerie and beautiful. I think these shots captured the warmth in the air. And talk about heart warmth, these were made especially for Kale by my dearest friend. Wish I could link to her shop because she makes the cutest hand sewn baby booties ever but we're still in talks about that. We're still in talks about everything because, well, we talk everyday! We have lots in common; four year old girly girls, nine-ish month old girly boys and an almost unhealthy love for cream and butter. I'll let you know when her shop materializes.

And how's this for caputuring my unoffical tag line: Like Soulemama. But on acid...? Months ago, Soulemama was sharing how her boy (remember how she got the bright idea to whip up another photogenic kid when she found out I was pregnant?) was ready to get started on solids so she carved him up a bowl and spoon with her bare feet while she was knitting. Well, Kale looks like he could down a burger these days (other than the lack of teeth I suppose) so I sent Craig out to make like Soulepapa and carve him up a bowl already. Instead he dropped into my most favourite brick and morter store in the world, Maplerose, and picked him up a pre-carved one (like Soulepapa...on acid). I have yet to buff it up with beeswax and breastmilk (kidding) but that's okay - he seems totally uninterested in solids yet. Probably because the finger tip of avocado I offered him gave him the runs for a week. A little gun shy now.

And, on the new shop front...the obi's are up! The obi's are up! Custom-dyed to your liking, raw silk noil Japanese obi-belt inspired kidney warmers. Whoa. That was a finger-tip full!