Bliss Beyond Naptime

Half Calf De-calf

How we happened upon our soulcow was pure kismet. This summer we were so lucky to have a sweet bloggy friend of mine, Catherine and her family of Catherine et les Fees ,swing by on their way home from the Yukon for a visit. She and her husband are really learned in the realm of all things cow. Her partner took one look at our pasture and suggested to us, because it's not the biggest pasture around, looking into getting a Dexter cow. The more research I did on Dexters the more I was sold. They're so little compared to the average cow, they're a heritage breed plus the milk has extra large fat globules. I love me an extra fat globuled latte in the morning!

So we decided on Dexter so the next step was to ask the Universe for one. The next day I simply uttered to my friend our newest farm foray fantasy and she mentioned she just saw an ad for a Dexter not too far from our valley, close to the nearest town. I immediately checked out the link she sent me, called the seller and we ended up chatting on the phone for about a half hour.

Turns out the Mama I was talking to is a Waldorf teacher, we had mutual friends, we both had two young children, boy and girl and we both are fiber artists. Long story short, she's one of my lady friends now.

So the next day after that the whole family piled into the car to check out the little cow, with Craig muttering the whole way there "we're not getting a cow" (oh man, remind me to do a vlog of my impersonation of Craig. It's dead on. You can do it too! Just try to sound like you just woke up. ). And needless to say, we fell in love pretty much right away. The former owners couldn't absolutely gaurentee that Daisy was with child, but they were pretty darn sure. So we just had our fingers crossed for the last few months hoping that they were indeed reading cow body language accurately. And sure enough, one morning when I was milking her I saw the unmistakable kicking of little hooves in her belly region. It was such and emotional moment. Again, couldn't help myself. Had to kiss that snotty nose.

And as you can tell from this shot, there is no mistaking it. She's kind of losing her heifer-ish figure. Unless, of course, she's just simply eating way too much hay this winter and the kicking I saw is just some wicked gas. Time will tell. May 15th to be exact.

And speaking of moo; I just scored me, through Etsy, a whole whack of free business cards from Moo. Of course the catch is there is smathering of logos on the front of them but each of the 50 cards has a different photo of one of my products on it along with all my info on the other. I figure these will be cool for some local marketing; like leaving them at coffee shops or handing them out to the nakeds at the beach. Moo is cool! And not only for the name, which just happens to be my power word this year; but have you ever seen their mini-cards? So cute. MOO!

Smock Over Water

 

I've been having myself some green dreams lately. The seed catalogues are starting to arrive in the mail, I saw Daisy's baby kick from inside her round belly, and I'm playing around with my spring collection sketches and beginning to work on some of the prototypes. The flavour I'm going for this year is 'Busy Backwoods Mama gets Gussied Up to go to Town'. Or something like that. The collection presents many layers to deal with the transition from spring to summer, practical pieces to stay comfortable and that girlish cute factor to feel presentable and authentic to your true stylish self.

I started off playing with the smock top. As you may already know about me; I love smocks! So practical yet flirty in a filthy kind of way. I got much inspiration from retro patterns from the fifties and will be contributing my own design features to them. To help me out on that front I scored me from Ebay this classic pattern making book:

Brand new from Amazon this book costs a pretty penny but it's apparently a must-have and the older edition seems to offer most of what's inside the new one for way less. One thing I bet the new one is lacking in:

These awesome eighties glamour girl sketches. The book is thick and super stuffed with this eighties vibe. Bonus! So I'm currently working on the smock and I'm using some less expensive material I found from a yard sale to act as a muslin.

That you see up there is a very rough beginning to get sizing and proportions figured out. The final garment is hopefully going to be constructed with hemp with maybe some floral cotton ala seventies pillow cases type fold up hem pockets. Us Backwood Mamas need us lots of them there pockets to pick up all them critters we come up across next to the moonshine jugs! At least we'll look cute doing such things.

It's All in the Name

Just a super quick post to say: aren't these beautiful? These gorgeous armwarmers are found in this stunning shop: EarthenPurl. A while back Jill purchased Zonapellucida from my shop and was kind enough to share with me what she whipped up with it. So funny, one week I decided to name all these yarns after a few of the blogs I love and they all sold within days of listing. Might have to try that again.

There's the yarn named after one of my sweetest bloggy friends; Zona Pellucida. I still have to google what the heck that means. Sounds cool though. So off I go to get some spinning in before bedtime so I can better stock up ye old shoppe. I will begin to listen to the Happiness Project while I do so. Hmm... sounds like a good yarn name to me!

Gnomey, Gnomey, Don't You Know Me?

Check it out, it's the gnome stretch around here! I'm making a friend this melton wool hoodie type pullover jacket thingy but the hood bit came out too small. So I turned the whoopsie daisy to a watchy wha wha. Hmmm. What's the opposite of 'whoopsie daisy'? And just as quick as picking up a baking pan with no oven mitts on (remember that Brenda?) I released it back to the universe; aka posted it up on my esty shop. Have to say  it passed the test. I wore it to the mailbox trek and back and it kept my noggin nicely insulated from the face-freezing Arctic front that is keeping me and kids huddled up together inside, crafting up some winter storms.

This morning Edie finished up her very first sewing project ever! I don't know if you remember way back in January I got her her very first sewing basket? Well, back then we started immediatly on a flannel doll that turned out to be just about the cutest thing to grace our house. She is so very proud of herself. Now she can totally thread and knot a needle herself, braid yarn hair, sew a hem and securely sew a hat onto a head. Ouch! Let's hope she doesn't have to use that life skill too often!She lovingly drew eyes and a sweet mouth onto the babe and is now dreaming up a name for her.

And little Miss Yet-to-be-named gives the best hugs. She just kind of lies there limp on your shoulder. It's real cute how she does that. Kind of like a newborn. Edie has that twinkle in her eye I recognize and know oh so well. She wants to start a new project. Like, now. I promised her after the doll we'll start some finger knitting. I got her a magic ball of yarn with some felted farm animals lurking inside that will jump out at her while she knits a rainbow garland for the Chirstmas tree. Yippeeee! Her and I hunkered down, knitting by the fire, arguing over who loves each other more... all the pieces are falling into place.

A Quick Boo

Hope everyone had the Happiest of Halloween. We took Edie and Kale trick or treating for the first time ever. Our usual plan to take them to the Waldorf walk of enchantment fell through because Mama dropped the pumpkin on that one and they were all booked up on the early bookings (we are the house of early bedtimes) so I proposed to Edie we go trick or treating. What's that, she wondered. I told her the gist of it and she said, "you're kidding". And I said nope. She then proceeded to laugh her head off. "Why would they give you candy?" she asked when she came up for breath. And I told her that's just what they do.

So we went but the monkey didn't really care for it much though. She's too shy to hold out a bag to complete strangers and she's not a candy kid. That's cool. Saves us the dentist bills I suppose. Though I did tell her that if we leave the bag of candy in the fairy house they'll replace it with a special treat.

Caribou faerie
Originally uploaded by Fig & Me.

And speaking of special treats check out this little beauty that is sporting some Tangerine Dream Dreads! Fabulous Fabs emailed me a link to her flickr account that just got uploaded with a bunch of shots of dolls sporting my yarn as hair. How incredibly cute is this? Fab has the sweetest little shop that is so tempting for adoption in a serious Angelina way. Especially this time of year when birthdays and Christmas are just around the corner!

Funny enough, the day before Trish sent me a photo of what she did with the garlic yarn she scored from the Garlic Festival.Here's the ravelry page incase you want to see how she kept her neck area protected this Halloween from those glamorous, toothy pale folk.

 

Leg Up on Being Warmer

Look at my beautiful friend Anni. She is also an amazing designer that I have gushed about a few times here over the years. Way back in the day when this blog was nothing more than an infant, I had a post blubbering on how much I loved my legwarmers, and a hat I've been wearing almost everday lately actually,  I scored from Anni. Like, waaaaaay back. My second post ever to be exact.

Holy boney bat, Batman! Man, I was such a kook back in the day. The good news is that Anni has since opened up an etsy shop and it's stocked full of accessories to propel you closer to Anni's fabulousness factor. She's got some stellar style that one. Her incredibly cute and talented ten year old daughter too has a shop that donates to local animal charities. Really fun place to check out. Quickly, there is even a hedgehog!

 

And speaking of real cute and daughters and legwarmers and good style, here's Edie sporting the pants with built in legwarmers I was saying I was going to make this week. These were successful. I have had a very intense/distracting week so it took me about four sewing sessions to complete (there was more seam ripping going on here than actual sewing time by far) but it was worth it; she hasn't taken them off since.

I found the pattern again in Carefree Clothes for Girls. She's so funny, Mama's little weirdo. First she shut down any suggestions of projects to make for her from the book but now she's loving everything I asked her to give a chance too. See? Mama knows best. Plus it helps if I threaten to make them for a cousin instead. Mwah ha, ha (Happy Halloween by the way). Now, I'm going to whip one up for another pair for another special little girl (I'm sure I can pull this off with my eyes closed now after sewing this one pair about ten times) and then one for a special little mama. Moi. Ha, ha.

 

I'll DIFY in a Jiffy

I've recently came across DIY Couture. Rosie Martin is the brains and braun behind this venture which walks even the most beginner sewer through easy to fallow steps via photos and illustrations along a collection of twelve fun and fabulous wardrobe essentials. Check it out here. I went ahead and purchased the only three booklets currently available and am awaiting with abated breath (just joking, I don't inhale anymore) for the rest to come up. I'm especially stoked about the shrug and jumpsuit instructions!

And for the DIFY part of the post; Rosie has kindly given me permission to sell the creations I whip up from her series so if you're not into DIY, I'll DIFY (do it for you) over at the Jupiter shop.

Using  the hooded cape instructions, I am offering both the full length hooded cape pictured above and a mini verision as well. Both can be whipped up in plaid wool and are lined in natural raw silk. I'm plum out of the houndstooth up there but I'm going to see if I can source some more out because it's demand!

I actually got to sport this one on my trip to town this weekend. I love it (and not just because they make my knockers look huge. Okay, fine. It's a little jump that's giving that optical illusion. We have to thank Tyra Banks for that Top Modelling tip again.), got lots of compliments and then, of course, Indian summer busted out around lunchtime and I was forced to take it off. It's tricky sometimes to look fabulous and sweaty simultaneously.

My plan is to go through the whole DIY Couture collection and share with you here reviews of the booklet and the variations I came up with and also feature them in my shop to sell with the offer of fabric choice, because, my stash is getting that big and I'm having fun with DIY Couture! I think you should too. But, don't forget, if you're iffy I'll DIFY.

Late Bloomers

I can't believe it took me almost to the end of July to get my summer hot pant-style bloomers up into my shop. But they're here! And I'm just in the midst of washing this pale green pretty crinkle fabric to make more. I'm running low on ribbons that cinch in at the sides for more poof factor. Question: should I stock up on more satin ribbons or go for silk? Hmmmm...

I'm almost done with my sewing frenzy and am already washing up some sweet, fresh from the farm smelling fleece to stock up the yarn shop. Off to creep out of our cool cave and pick some more kale.

How Do You Like Dem... Things?

Is it just around here or is spring an incredibly busy time of year? Here the little spud is showing off the last of last year's potatoes we just harvested. We kept them out in the garden where Craig would hop up to fetch us some all winter long for comfort food fixings whenever we clapped our hands above our heads. They, and he, were, are, really stellar. Now last year's potato bed is housing some lettuce. Edie's really, really excited about Caesar salad straight from the garden (I was putting romaine in context for her ).

Busy nerding out all the way with our new garden journal...

Pouring over garden books and flower ideas from my gardening guru (one of them anyways) ...

And taking a moment now and then to take in the cuteness of it all (lots of booby-on-the-hammock breaks).

Plus, it's the season of celebration here in our little community. The annual May Day Festivities are next week and I'm donating the soft spun yarn up there to the silent auction to help raise funds for the water shed committee. I also donated a skein to another silent auction this weekend at a friend's shop grand opening. Wish I would have remember to get a picture of that Monster yarn. Maybe at the par-tay. Busy bee! I have now an hour to finish up some Harem Scarem pants someone ordered and get started on spring quiche for supper tonight then, dig, dig, dig! Yup, still digging that god forsaken hole. Think I can see China now, the rain is gone (insert musical notes here).

Smells Like Spring Spirit

There's a whiff in the air that is not totally unfamiliar in these parts, but no, it's actually skunk cabbage. We were swimming in this stuff over at the Horniman and now we're blessed to enjoy this definitive marker of spring here too. Oh yeah, apparently the first nations used the leaves as saran-a-wrap; as in to wrap up leftovers in as oppose to some kinky way I'm sure.

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For orientation's sake, here's a sketch of the layout: Just behind our home you will find the kids' fairy house which is a sweet little nook in the woods that offers a seating area and just enough room for hugging the trees which provide the ceiling. This is also the brownies' favorite place to leave special gifts. Right behind the fairy house are the 'stairs' that take you 'upstairs' which in the alternate Universe are actually a faint pathway and the upper part of the hill behind the house respectively. But if you go 'down the hallway' you will come to the spring and that's were all the stink happens. Edie's looking a little leery in the shot for she bailed in there last week. Came into the house soaked in mud from her hair to her toes which were still lodged in her once-pink rainboots. She thought it was pretty hilarious. Then Kale pulled the same number two days later. Always trying to one up his big sis.

 

These series of events excited me enough to make a skunk cabbage skein. The five buds are actually silk cocoons. Doesn't smell like much or offer food storage solutions but sure is pretty and squishy!