Bliss Beyond Naptime

Backwoods Mama Series: Karen

Welcome to the final interview of my series profiling some of my favourite Backwoods Mamas from my online sewing ecourse Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp. This is the lovely Karen from the blog Daily Dialect.

After the interview I have a little giveaway announcement to celebrate the fact that the snow is finally gone in these parts and I can see my garden beds and could possibly wear something other than my Sorrels for a few months :)

Hello Karen! It was so much fun to have you join us in the Spring Sew Camp! What inspired  you to learn how to make your own clothes?

Since I was very young, I've loved designing and making clothes. In school I would doodle fashion designs on my papers all the time. Luckily, my mom signed us up for 4H and I learned sewing. I made a lot of my clothes until Jr High, when it became "uncool". By college, I was sewing again. I entered a couple of fashion shows that were sponsored by the school fashion department, even winning one of them! But I was an art major, and the fashion industry was not my style, so to speak, and I let it go.

These days, technology and online selling has allowed for various aesthetics and lifestyles to prevail in the fashion world, so there is hope for my fashion career yet... and Spring Sew Camp helped energize that dream again!

Yay fashion careers! You're so speaking to the Project Runway watcher in me. So tell me, what's your fave from the ecourse: bloomers, tops, smock or ruched dress? 

Hard to decide, but I'll say my favorite project is the top. One, because I wear it all the time and two, because it was very fun to learn to sew with knits, which I had not done much of previously. I was enthralled with the double needle... of course the cute bloomers and smock are great for gardening and the dress is a fabulous basic too.

It's hard to decide sometimes, hey? I like to wear them all at the same time. Luckily layering is huge out here in the deep woods. What does your inner Backwoods Mama look like?

I have a very do-it-yourself mentality. Not that I do everything myself, but I'd like to. I like tradition and old objects. Our home is 130 years old. I don't like to pick between living a country lifestyle and social city living, so we live in the town I grew up in, near the edge but still close enough to walk downtown. We're town dwellers with a permaculture-type garden but the social aspect of town makes up for the lack of a woodlot, and my dad brings us freshly chopped wood from their woods for our fireplace... 

Awww... Dad! So, how did you find the ecourse itself? Did you find you got enough support and information?

It was very supportive and there are are a variety of ways to interact: the video, the flickr group, the written instructions, so whatever your preferred method of learning, you can tap into it. The ecourse was my first one ever and it is the only way I can take a class these days with the full time nature of parenting. I could go at my own pace, and the videos made it feel personal. The class kept me moving forward even after it was over; I made up my own projects and continued the fun!

 Yay, continued fun! Speaking of fun, share with us your perfect day.

 Wake up, make a hot breakfast for everyone in the family and while it cooks, I read blogs. Then we eat and start the day together. Scott goes to his office in the backyard to work and Lukas draws while I get ready for the day. Around 10, L and I  go on a walk downtown for coffee (real backwoods of us!) and play with whomever we see downtown.  Then home to make lunch, eat together as a family again, then more drawing time and mama has a nap or reading time for 20 minutes. Then some afternoon gardening or a creative indoor activity (or a babysitter arrives and I can do a more intense creative activity, like adult clothing sewing...) Then, make dinner, eat together, bath, bed for the little guy and a long bath for mama once he's asleep, then one or two of the following: blogging, writing, reading, movies, creative time time with Scott and another day is over!

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And with that another interview with a past participant is over and to celebrate the end of this series I want to give away a spot in my Backwoods Mama Sew Camp Ecourse to one lucky commenter. If you've Sew Camped it up already I can either give you a spot in the Indian Summer Camp, or if you've been there, done that, I can pass your winnings to a friend of your choosing.

Please leave a comment before on which prize you'd like, if it's for yourself or a friend and if you'd like to double your chances, leave a second comment letting me know if you've either tweeted, facebooked or blogged about this giveway. Comments will be closed on Saturday at noon PST and I'll announce the winner shortly thereafter. Good luck!!!

Comments closed for sure now! (I don't know if you caught this yesterday but I thought it was today and so we have two winners!). The second winner is Whitney from Lucky Beads Me! Yay! I'll be contacting you soon lucky lady ;)

 

Imperfectly Backwoods

 I grew up with a master seamstress of a mother (ooooo, that sounds so straight from the hood!) who in my youth has sweetly and in the most motherly lovingly way imaginable attempted to teach me many times over this amazingly cool life skill of making your own clothes. But funny enough, I never really go into it until I had kids of my own. I often wonder if that was just due to maturity (stifle of snicker here) or, not be rude, because my mom's not around.

To put it gently my mom and I have different sewing/living styles. Maybe it's a personality thing or because of the way she was taught (by a hoity-toity haute couture type) but she is impecable with her mad skillz! I remember working alongside her feeling my energy drain quickly after the giddy initial planning of the project stage as I had to rip out seams and start things over and over again because it wasn't. just. so. I eventually felt I didn't have, or ever will have, the eye for detail or the patience required to be a proper, card carrying seamstress.

This week in my creative coaching training we were asked to think back to a moment when we were able to overcome this very common roadblock to creativity; perfectionism. For me it was the discovery of the Japanese philosophy of wabi sabi; the beauty in imperfection.

Craig and I were introduced to this worldview together. I can't remember how exactly but he wrote me a poem around that time, when we were still fresh, called Wabi Kathy (gush) and this was how I started falling in love with sewing and seeing more beauty in the world in general.

My Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp is a testament of the not taking it too serious bit. The important part is having fun with the process, taking shortcuts when the opportunity presents itself and then daring to wear your beautifully imperfect creation out. Or at least in the garden. Or on the couch. Either way what happens in the Backwoods, stays in the Backwoods.

For today's vlog entry, I cracked this video out of my Top Secret Backwoods Mama Access Only Vlog Vault to show you a sample of what one of the classes is like to see if you'd like to take my hand and go into the deep not-so-scary Backwoods with me. Just don't forget your bread crumbs!

 

 

And you might be interested to know that Campers are eligible to take part in an affiliate program. If a camp purchase is traced back to you you get 50% of the sale! Get two of your buddies to join and voila; free spring wardrobe! Kinda.

Elderberry and Hair Follicles

After visiting an old dear friend of mine one spring morning we were chatting by her front door saying goodbye and I smelled the smell I detest most in the world. It smelled like cat marking going on. I asked her if she got a cat and she said it was her elderberry tree that was situated right next to her front door. I never heard of such a thing. So just in case, do not plant an elderberry tree by your front door. These trees grow in abundance in our area, all along the roadsides even, and we have about five of them growing wild on our property. But I never noticed them smelling like anything less than heavenly; especially when the pretty miniature flower blossom clusters open in the summer. Perhaps there’s an angry cat in my friend's midst she’s not aware of.

 So in the summer we carefully collect these blossoms that smell like the tops of the heads of newborns and cook up a syrup to use as a concentrate in ice filled glass of water. This is Craig's favourite. I think it talks to the Kool-Aid kid in him.  And then at this time of year we pick off whack loads of the berries to make jelly, syrup and tincture. The jelly is probably one of my favourites of the jam and jelly persuassion of treats but the bonus is it is full of antioxidants and immune enhancing properties that even my naturopath suggests the whole family taking a hit of everyday to keep illness at bay.

For the jelly I followed this basic recipe and it was made in time for when Edie caught that double whammy of nasty soul fever/stomach bug. A little bit of the jelly on fresh baked bread brought comfort to both ailments.  On that same link there are directions to make syrup you can administer to whomever in the family needs a sweet boost either administered straight up or drizzled on yogurt or pancakes.

And the tincture is a cinch; pick enough of the well washed berries off of their stemmy  clusters and fill a quart sized mason jar to the brim with them.  Fill up the jar with enough vodka to cover and then seal tight. Keep the jar on a sunny window sill while remembering to give them a gentle shake every day. In about three weeks, strain out the berries, place the purple vodka into a sleek flask you can tuck into your coat pocket rockstar style (wipe that Smirnoff your face – I was just joking. Any kind of glass bottle will suffice) and give yourself and your adult partner a teaspoon a day and your kids half that dose.  Other health care providers suggested I dilute the kids’ dosage into a glass of boiling water first to evaporate the alcohol content but nothing gets the kids aligned with early bedtimes then mommy’s special ‘movie time with daddy’ medicine. (Again, kidding.)

And totally not related to elderberry fixings but just about the cutest thing I’ve seen all weekend (other than Daisy and Meatballs joyfully jumping through a massive pile of leaves Craig built for them in the middle of their pasture yesterday. Over and over again. I  almost died from the cuteness of it all)! Miss Fab from Fig and Me  shared with me yet another creation of hers that she utilized one of my art yarns, Moe,  in one of the most delightful ways; as hair for her amazing Waldorf-style dolls.

That Fabs is one talented lady. See the before? I never in my wildest dreams thought that this would end up as hair. But it works! Just like the elderberry tincture. See how I smoothly linked these two topics together?

There's Lead Where?

When my mom was visiting here the kids would watch in fascination each morning and night as she would use various cleansers, toners and moisturizing products on her face. Yes, we need to replace that bathroom curtain with a door one of these days! My mom would explain to them she was feeding her face. I remember too watching this ritual when I was little thinking how when I grow up I would too would carry that Oil of Olay sponsored torch.

I was pretty on top of that plan all throughout my twenties, cleansing with chi chi products, going in for bi-annual facials for tweaks and extractions. But something about moving out to the bush (or was it having kids, too busy blogging maybe) I kind of dropped that routine in a big way. To be honest I only really wash my face in the shower which isn't like a daily occurance.

And then last week I saw a book in the little bookstore in town with the note attached to reading "This is good". Jennie doesn't huck these accolades lightly so I had to pick up this book called There's Lead in Your Lipstick.

What an eye opener! Craig's been telling me this for ages but I wasn't listening (what an ear opener?) but the shampoo we've been using for years is not all that's it's organically cracked up to be (heads up on Avalon products). So that's like; ew. And heads up as well on anything with fragrances. You only want to put things on your person scented with essential oils only for fragrances are a cocktail blend of chemicals and Lord knows what. We purchased a Burt's Bees baby shampoo and the whole house just reeeeeked afterwards; quite possibley triggering a neck/headache in me for I still have that bionic nose lingering from pregnancy days. I just started reading the book so I'll have more to say on the matter in the near future but the first couple of chapters were not only informative but also inspired me to take some better care of my face.

The author gets into the science of skin and suggests how best to support this dance of rejuvenate and repair. She suggests to cleanse with a gentle cleanser in the evening and in the morning to only exfoiliate to unveil this beautiful new layer lurking underneath all the dead stuff. Cool! She also offers recipes along with ethically organic product alternatives to choose from (mostly Canadian sources which is especially sweet for me, eh?) so I quickly made an version of the cleansing grains she recommends using ingredients I had handy dandy in the pantry:

1/2 cup of finely ground almonds

1/2 cup ground oats

1/4 cup chamomile

1/4 cup poppyseeds

10 drops of lavender essential oil

I stirred all these ingredients together and placed it in a glass jar. To use,mix a teaspoon in your hand with a little water to make a paste then scrub, scrub, scrub and rinse off. It's especially nice if you can do this outside on a hot summer day. I couldn't believe how smooth and fortified my face felt aftwards. It was like it was talking to me saying "Thank you. For God's sake finally!" Next up is to seek out or make some kind of right before bed moisturizing cleanser.  Any recommendations? Do you have a face care routine that's pretty simple and clean (ha, ha)?