Bliss Beyond Naptime

Backwoods Mama Sew Grad Profile

 

Meet Amylynn! One of the first participants of my online sewing class, Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp and is now a sweet online buddy of mine. Amylynn lives just outside of Washington DC with her husband and small son, Jack. She blogs over at Farm Girl Studio.

 

Hi Amy. Tell me what inspires you to make your own clothes?

I got so tired last year of clothing that I was purchasing fall apart after only a few wears. This inspired me to make clothing that lasted, and I knew that was made from quality craftmanship. Also knowing that my clothing was unique and that I wasn't going to run into someone that had the same shirt design as me was a plus. 

  I come from a long line of artisans on my paternal side. They made clothing, furniture, quilts, utensils, baskets out of necessity, and grew their own food, raised and butchered their own animals. I think their spirits are guiding my way through this new way of life. I especially think my great-grandmother is smiling up in heaven knowing that I am passing along their sewing/quilting craftmanship.

 Ooooo... I love that image; heavenly, smiling, great-grandma :) What Backwoods Mama philosphies do you like to embrace?

   The importance of good quality food is very important to us. Knowing where our food comes from, which can be a little difficult city living. We just put in our first garden in our new home. I want to my son Jack to know where our vegtables come from, and they are not grown in the grocery store! We also joined a CSA and can visit the farm and take farms tours and visit the animals!

    My Mother has just built a chicken coop. On our last visit we helped her get her new baby chicks in order and explained to Jack that our hard boiled eggs come from  chickens.    This summer we also to plan to can again. This time I plan to can with my brother who lives closer to us. Knowing what is in our foods is a good feeling!

       I also want my son to know that clothing can be made and not bought and plan to teach him to sew when he is old enough. Right now he currently sits on my lap when he is super still and I show him how his pants are made.

 

So, how did you find the ecourse? Be honest ~ I promise I won't cry even though I'm super sleep deprived from house training a super cute puppy these days!

The course was amazing! Since I am a stay at home Momma and my husband travels alot I cannot get out as much and take classes. This class was like I was right there attending the class in person. I couldn't wait for my son to take his nap so I could get to work on the next project and check out the instructional video.

I considered myself a beginner with sewing machines, and didn't know too much on certain skills such as hems,and ruffels. Heck, I never made a pocket before or even sewed with knits! This class really made me more confident in sewing and made me want to sew more clothing!  

 

Tell me Amy, what does your perfect Backwoods Mama day look like?  

Being a stay at home Momma, I don't get too much time to myself. So this would be my day to reconnect with my spirit!

   I would bring out my trusty sewing machine. I would relocate it to my kitchen table. I love my downstairs studio area but I miss being able to open up windows and listen to the birds outside and feel the soft spring breezes filter through our house. I would sew some sort of clothing for myself, not a difficult pattern so I can let in some creative energy. 

  Then I would go out to my garden in our backyard, and do what needs to be done for the day. Did I mention I love to garden in my pajamas? I love wearing my flannel pajama pants with little birds on it. They are one of my favorite PJ bottom's from an Amy Butler pattern. One of my New Year's resolutions was to wear my Pajama's more!

    After my gardening duties I would take a nice hot bath with lavendar oil and bath salts. I would bring with me some nice reading material. Like the new Taproot Magazine, Dwell magazine or the Simplicity Parenting book.

      A nice nap would be in order with no distractions. Just a nice restful nap! Aahhh, that sounds so good.

      Then I would go downstairs and watch a movie that I have been wanting to see on Netflix or go downtairs to my basement studio and paint. I love painting on wood and mixing papers, and pencils to my work. 

       For dinner I would light up some bee's wax candles and eat a fresh garden salad before the boys come home from their adventurous day!

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Thank you Amylynn! You can have a cozy pajama pants wearing good time too by signing up for my Backwoods Mama Spring Ecourse here . And until end of day April 2nd I'll mail new sign ups the bonus of a hard copy of all the pattern pieces! Wohoo ~ paper!

 

This Moment ~ Full of Thanks

 

I'd like to take a moment to thank my dad for driving nine hours straight from his place, across the border to the States, then straight on over to our place drop off this little guy:

 

 

My dad kept calling us on the road last Saturday informing us he's not sure if he can make it because he was considering turning around and keeping him due to his insane cuteness. But he persevered through the cramp-inducing adorableness and swung by our place around midnight.

He was then only able to stay over night then after Sunday morning pancakes he had to head back home to tend to a work project.

But before left he left me this sweet gift I wanted to share with you guys ~ this photo of him and my mom on their wedding day in 1964 in Peru.

 

 

That momement captured them just on the cusp on their adventure-filled 21 year marriage (like, literally adventure-filled. Like small airplane loaded with three small children and young, worried mother emergency landing in remote jungles amongst natives style adventures).

And then there is me these days. My idea of epic adventure is taking the afternooon off to drive out to the hotsprings. Oh, wait a minute, there's this baby puppy whining at my feet at the moment. Let the adventure begin!

Love,

Kathy

 

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Want to join me in my slow speed adventure called the pursuit of Mama Bliss? My ebook, The Bliss Filled Mama, is crammed with my personal approach to mama self-care and guarding time to embrace your creative needs while still parenting at optimum efficiency. Plus, with me reading it to you in the included audio, it's like we're best friends for a whole hour! BFF me now!

 

 

Backwoods Mama Sew Grads

I'm excited to do a little series here profiling some of the sweet mamas that I've had the pleasure to meet through my sewing ecourse Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp. The best part of putting together this ecourse was establishing some special friendships with so many like-minded mamas.

The first profile we have here is of Nikki who happens to be one of those sweet bonus buddies. And speaking of bonus, hang on to the end of the interview to catch in on special offer to those who sign up for Spring Sew Camp before end of day April 2nd!

Nikki is a stay at home mama to two (Kelwyn 4 and Adeline 2) little ones, and wife to a loving and supportive husband.  She blogs over at Wild Violets. She loves to bake, make herbal potions, knit, sew, quilt and do as much fiber spinning as she can. She also just welcomed a beautiful angora bunny, Violet Star, to her home for a sweet pet and, of course, fiber!

Hey there, lovely Nikki. What was your favourite project from Spring Sew Camp?

My favorite project from the Spring Sew Camp was the smock.  I used a robin's egg blue linen fabric, lovely for the all the life returning around us this time of year.  It is so comfy, functional and cute.  I spend most of my days with my little ones outside playing, gardening, exploring and getting dirty.  The big pockets are always handy as there seems to always be something my 2 need or want me to hold one of their treasures.

Cute! What can we find in your smock pockets these days?

Flowers, leaves, rocks, sticks, seed packets, tissues and angora rabbit treats.

Those sound like some happy pockets! Tell me about your world. Like, how handmade are your surroundings?

I have bits of handmade all over my home.  It fills me with love and joy to be surrounded by items others have made with their hands and hearts.  Our couch has handmade pillows, quilts and crocheted afghans to bring comfort and warmth.  My daughter's bed has a quilt made by her great Grandmother and a pink crocheted afghan given to me as a little girl from my Grandmother.  My walls have beautiful prints from a dear friends art work.  Handmade table linens and tea towels from my grandmothers, pottery in the kitchen, needle felted and knitted toy animals for my little ones, and more quilts than I could ever dream of to keep me warm as I knit through the winter.

Quilts! That is the new frontier I want to start dabbling in next. Would you mind telling our beautiful readers out there about your experience with Sew Camp itself?

The format of the sewing course was perfect for me.  I was able to sew at night when the lilttle ones were asleep, from my computer and in my pajamas (hot chocolate or a glass of wine in hand too:)).  I could watch your video tutorials as much as I needed, stop if something came up and take a day off if something came up.  If I had a question about fabric or my sewing project you quickly responded to get me back on path.  The patterns were easy to follow, fit nicely and turned out great!

Thank you Nikki! If that doesn't get sewing mamas to sign up then I don't know what will! Wait a minute, I think I just thought of something...

With purchase of Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp before I put Daisy to bed on April 2nd, participants will recieve, in the mail, a hardcopy of all the pattern pieces for all the Spring projects (hand drawn by moi) so you can bypass the whole printing out and taping together of patterns step and a love note scrawled onto a spring flavoured watercolor (hand or foot painted then handwritten by moi as well)! Lucky ladies!

Please ensure that your paypal address is the one you want the goods sent to, and if you want to be sure please email me your current mailing address.

Happy smock, bloomers, top and dress making!

Love,

Kathy

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Be sure to sign up for the weekly Mama Bliss E-zine to stay on top of all the news, specials and ways to nab more bits of bliss througout your busy mama-ing day. With sign up you also get my ebook Handmade Time: How to Squeeze in a Little More Crafting Everyday. Yay, more lucky ladies!

 

Our Little Angel

 We named him Angel and he's living up to the name (for the most part).

When Kale was born it took us about two months to come up with a name that befitted his deliciousness, hardiness and astounishing nutritional value to the soul. But for those two months I was hounding Craig (ha, ha) that we should name hime "Angel". But Craig said no because a) it's his turn to name a kid and b) growing up with such a name might cause too much pressure on him to feel compelled to become a professional baseball player. So I did what I do. I pouted.

I pouted and vowed one day, oh yes, one day, I will have a miniature daschund named Angel. Or a at least a Newfoundland.

I did a lot of research into the breed and then into breeders and found one who has a cult like following and holds the genetic fixings for some celebrity status pups. I told her I wanted the world's chillest little hot dog and she suggested picking from an upcoming litter composed from a love match of a really laid-back duo and so we waited for that one.

I told Edie my idea of Angel for a name for the puppy and she insisted that the puppy has to be white in order for the name to be legit. I thought it would be pretty slim chance that a white puppy would happen considering that mama was pitch black and the dada was black and tan. In a litter of six, five of them pretty much black, a little cream guy was born - eeks! Angel!

I called the breeder at eight in the morning screaming "I'll take the cream!" and she was kind enough to appease me. And he is fitting in really smoothly too. Happy little guy. But then I realized my mentor, Goddess Leonie,  has a pup named Angel too. Coincidence? Or am I just one step closer to my cult member status. Want to join me in the Goddess circle? Her Creative Goddess ecourse begins tomorrow and with membership you get all the courses for free. I love that. (I also love being an affiate by the way because this is authentic gushing you're reading here.)

The final phase of membership, after finding yourself a cream or white puppy and naming it Angel, is the forehead tatoo but you can do what I did and just get your family members to promise to stop you before it gets to that point.

Much love,

Kathy

 

Speaking of cult - join me in the cult of bliss! Free ebook on Squeezing In More Creative Time with sign up for my weekly e-zine: Mama Bliss!

Pretzels and Puppies

We've been reading this sweet little book about the world's longest (and therefore the most handsome) daschund named Pretzel who falls in love with a lady doxie but she doesn't care for him because, she says, length doesn't impress her. Funny.

This is definitely up there in their top ten cute list of their kids' book collection. The writer and illustrater team are both the same as the Curious George series' so it offers that blast of hubba bubba flavoured past to me and the story's really adorable (starts with and ends with a litter of puppies ~ not to ruin the ending).

But then we found ourselves with a real hankering for pretzels. And puppies. For the pretzel bit I lucked out and found a recipe in our Baking With Children cookbook for real deal pretzels. Like the kind you drop into boiling sugared water before you throw them in the oven.

If you don't happen to have this particular book kicking around I found a similar recipe here.They turned out really good and chewy. Espcially tasty with with fancy mustard on top. Only problem is I ate one, went for a short ski at lunch, and then when got back after not too long they were all gone! Little stinkers this is my family. That's okay, lucky they're cute.

(And speaking of cute, family, short, long, little stinky...)

That takes care for the craving for pretzels bit. As for the puppy part...

We're keeping the fancy mustard off this one! Welcome home little Angel :)

Much love,

K-Wow

Ack! The bliss here these days is too much at times. Let me share some of this sweet nectar with you! You can read or listen or both to my ebook The Bliss-Filled Mama:Self-care for Soulful Mothering (and Puppy Owning) but then be sure to smother the bliss around!

This Moment ~ Backwoods Manicure

Have a glorious, springy, blissful weekend!

 

If you want to get all the Bliss Beyond Naptime trimmings be sure to sign up for a free subscription to my free weekly ezine: Mama Bliss and get with that a free copy of my ebook Handmade Time: How to Squeeze a Little More Crafting Everyday  by signing up here!

 

much love,

Kathy KWoww

SS Wednesday: Sew, Love, and Relax

 

Last year I interviewed my mama while she was here for her annual spring visit. I condensed it down to the sew love highlights but if you want to see the full, unedited version you can kick back for the full duration of a cup of tea and witness the look of  my mama's motherly concern around my mental health when I unveil to her the secret of my inner French child named Madeline.

This was filmed last spring whilst I was in the midst of launching my Spring Sewing Course which you can sign up for here. And once again it's the season to get our smocks and bloomers on! So tell a friend, or don't tell her and then make a whack of these sweet spring flavoured frocks and then sell them them to her from your Etsy shop! :)

Vlog ~ Crazy for Daisy

 

We've come a long way in our relationship with our divine bovine, Miss Daisy. It took us a while to get comfortable with each other and to figure out a routine that works but I think we have it down pat!

Right now we leave her with her baby, Meatballs, together throughout the day (she's practicing attachment parenting with him) and then we separate them at night (not very AP that part now that I think of it) so we only have to milk her once a day and have the option to skip it all together if Craig's out of town or are busy with something else in the morning.

It's a beautiful part of my morning routine this milking time. I squeeze it in right after my morning latte and getting some blogging action in. I get the feeling she loves morning coffee breath!

Off to hit publish and get my milking ensemble on and give Daisy a squeeze or two!

This Moment ~ Ant Farm

{this moment} - 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. ~Amanda Soule

SS Wednesday: The Turbanator

image from Karen Walker

This Sustainable Style Wednesday post comes dangerously close to being an SS Thursday one due to me being so silly busy! The last full moon was a doozy for me resulting in this post being short and sweet. Being so busy to tend to many of the things that usually make feel in balanced I did what any card carrying creative would do in times of such stress.

I created.

I needed a project that was super quick and practical. And seeing as how I've been too busy to even get a shower in these days, coverage of greasy hair was as practical as creative goals gets. I got pretty darn inspired when I saw the above image from pinterest and quickly searched for a tuban making tutorial and found a nice one here.

Et Voila. Took me ten minutes and just seeing Edie's face as she saw me slip it on was worth every precious second.

K-Wow: So.... what do you think?

Edie: It's weird.

K-Wow: Like cute-weird?

Edie: Freaky-weird.

K-Wow: I'll be back (talking like the Turbanator)

Edie: (Stares blankly. Clearly the pop culture reference flew straight over her little Waldorfy educated head.)