News Flash

I’ve survived the toddler birthday extravaganza, complete with another cake and more celebrating on June 2, her actual birthday.  The summer camp I direct starts in a week and a half and I’ve been busy getting ready for it.  I finally had a weekend to relax last weekend and it was so nice!

With the sunny weather, and little bit of rain, we’ve had, our garden has really taken off!  I love watching the plants grow and Sesame loves to pretend to kill slugs with her shovel and to inspect the “babies” as she calls the plants.  This morning she even pulled up a chair and just sat and watched the garden for a while.

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.

Party Girl

Little Sesame turns 2 tomorrow and we had her party on Saturday.  It was a hot, sunny day but luckily our backyard had plenty of shade.

Here’s her birthday banner in action.

There were plenty of friends for Mike and I to hang out with but little Sesame had some buddies to play with too.

There were cupcakes to be eaten.  They’re carrot-pineapple cupcakes with a little cream cheese frosting and since the birthday girl loves birds (or bees, as she calls them), I decorated them with bird’s nests made from kataifi (shredded phyllo dough) and little jelly bean eggs.   The frosting is colored with natural colorings- raspberry for pink, blueberry for lavender and turmeric for the yellow.  I made a ton of cupcakes and only had one left after everyone went home.  I want some more!

There were also a few presents to be opened.  Sesame loved all her things but her stuffed dolphin and Hello Kitty purse and wallet were definitely the biggest hits.

I actually made her pretty party dress!  It’s the first thing I’ve sewed using a real pattern and with things like gathers and buttonholes in a long time.  I got the pattern from that*darn*kat on Etsy and it was really easy to make.  I want one in my size!

It was a fun birthday party and I can’t believe my little girl is (almost) 2!

It’s almost birthday time!

My kiddo is just about to turn 2!  It feels like time is flying by but then it also feels like little Sesame has been with us a lot longer than just 2 years.  I barely remember life before her sometimes!  We’re having a birthday bash this weekend and I whipped up this cute and colorful banner for her party.

I cut the triangles out with the top edge along the fold of the fabric, so they’re double sided.  They’ll probably flip around when the wind blows them so I wanted them to be pretty on both sides.  I folded them with the wrong sides together and sewed along the edges using the rolled hem stitch on my serger.  (side note: My husband is awesome.  When I told him I was sewing the flags he said, “You’re not sewing, you’re overlocking.”) The letters are cut from white felt and I attached them with fabric glue.

I attached them all together by sewing a length of rick-rack along the top edge.  I can’t wait to hang them up for her party!

Now that she’s nearly 2, Sesame is getting to be quite helpful around the house.  At least she thinks she’s helping.  Here she’s trying to wash the dishes.  She mostly just got water all over.  Notice where she’s standing- not on the platform of her learning tower, but on the rail.  The kid is fearless.

She’s wearing some shorts that I just finished knitting.  She wears a wool soaker (or woolly as we call them) at night so these will be nice for the summer.  They’re a short version of the Perfection Pants that I’ve knitted before.  I used one skein of Cascade 220 Quatro that I had left over from a cardigan I knitted.  I embroidered some flowers to make them a little cuter and added some extra stitches in the bind-off of the cuffs so it made a little ruffle. It just needs a drawstring.  They were falling off of her when I took this picture- her little bottom is not really so square shaped.

Custom Goodness

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.

Spring Lace

First I want to thank you all for the nice comments, emails, and tweets about my new website. I’m still adding some pictures to it and tweaking it a little but I’m really excited about it.

I have several finished items that I’ve neglected to share on the blog.  I keep wearing them and forgetting to take a picture and when I do think of taking a picture, they’re in the laundry or some other unphotographable state.  But no more!  What’s more, even though I knitted them a while ago, they’re lace so I’m thoroughly enjoying them this grey, sunny, hailing, heat wave, cloudy, normal Portland spring.  Winter and Summer fight over who should dominate Spring, but eventually Summer always wins out.

In the meantime, I will wear these lovely green socks.  The pattern is Polly Jean (though I had Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean stuck in my head the entire time I spent knitting them) and it’s a free pattern!  I changed it up a little.  I subtracted a couple stitches from the cast-on since I like my socks pretty snug.  I also opted to not to the twisted stitches, though they do look pretty, just because I don’t like to knit twisted stitches.

Thirdly, I did a basic 2×2 ribbing for the cuff instead of the 1×1 ribbing called for in the pattern.  I like how snug the cuffs are but I did lose the way 1×1 ribbing would have flowed right into the main pattern.  To that I say oh well. I love these socks! I also love that the yarn was free.  It’s Louet Gems that I won in a contest.  How awesome is that.

Another free lace pattern with free yarn.  These super soft fingerless mitts are Cafe Au Lait Mitts (free Rav download).

The yarn is Bouton d’Or Ksar and I got it from a secret pal a while back.  It’s 50% camel and 50% wool and is so amazingly soft!  I had 2 balls of it and I have maybe 1/2 a ball left.  I wish I had a thousand balls of this yarn.  I changed not a thing on this pattern and I love love love my mitts.

In other news, I have doing a ton of gardening!  I really want to put a picture of my garden on here but, like my knitting, every time I think of it, the conditions aren’t quite right for picture taking.  Things are starting to grow and I’m excited for the summer when everything will be leafy and full of vegetables. I’m looking forward to a summer full of yummy salads like this one from Eco Metro!

Happy, Mama!

Happy Mama’s Day is too much for Sesame to say so she shortens it to “Happy, Mama!”  Mike and she even wrote Happy Mama down our front steps and sidewalk with sidewalk chalk.  So cute.

I wanted to make something nice for my mom and actually found the time to do it.  I thought I had it done and in the mail in time but I was wrong.  Sadly she didn’t get it in time to open it on Mother’s Day but now that she has it, I can post it here.

I saw little mini scrapbooks at Michaels and had a “hey, I could make that!” moment.  I cut the pages out of an old cereal box then covered them with small pieces of scrapbook paper that I found at work.  The whole book is smaller than an index card.  I cut the pages to be different widths and cut pretty designs into the edges.  I love this picture on the front.  It’s my mom and little baby me.

would have liked to put a picture of my grandma with my mom when she was younger, so that it could be chronological, but this is one of the only pictures I have of them together.  This picture was the last one taken of my grandma.  I miss her.  The picture on the right is my mom with my 2 day old brother.  I was a month shy of 2, almost exactly the age Sesame is now.

I’m lacking in photos from my childhood (lots exist but none are in my possession) so I jumped ahead to some big milestones- my brother’s high school graduation, my wedding and newborn Sesame.

Then comes a picture of my mom with little Sesame and an accordion-folded mother’s day message.

Mike helped me pick out this picture.  It’s my mom with her 2 kids and granddaughter.  I think it’s a cute picture for the back page.

It’s pretty, it cost nothing, I got to use stuff from the recycle bin and I made it in one evening.  Perfect!

I Feel So Official

I have a brand new website!  I decided that I need a more official web presence so I bought my own domain name – ThinkingMamaDesigns.com- a while back.  I’ve finally finished building my website (with lots of help from Mike) and it’s actually up on the web!  My blog will stay here for now but eventually we’ll get it integrated with the website as well. Please go check it out and let me know what you think!  So far only a handful of people have seen it so I’d love some honest feedback.  Here’s a screen shot of the home page.

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.

Inspired

Oh spring, I do love thee.  There’s nothing like a walk in the woods, or just in the neighborhood, to find some gorgeous crafty inspiration.

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 Reason to Not Hate Redding, CA

Okay, so maybe hate is too strong of a word for a city that I have only passed through on road trips but let me tell you a few things about it.

-It’s hot, really hot.  Most of my drives through Redding happen during the summer and I am not a lover of hot weather.

-Redding was the site of our “Worst Pizza Ever” dining experience.

-It’s confusing.  The lovely (okay, mostly boring), straight, easy to follow I5 crosses another highway in Redding, making it difficult to get back to I5 if you get off at the wrong place.

-Then there’s this Redding story:  7 years ago Mike and I moved from California to Washington.  Mike and his brother, Mark,  (and a cat) drove the moving van and I followed in our car (also with a cat- the one who never shut up.)  This was before everyone had a cell phone and I didn’t have one.  What we did have were cb radios so we could talk to each other.  When they worked.  Now, you never really notice how many U-Haul trucks are on the road until you are trying to follow one.  The one we rented had Arizona plates and a particular scene painted in the side so it was fairly easy to keep track of. Then came Redding.  Mike exited I5 onto the other highway, which I thought was strange.  Maybe they were looking for a bathroom break?  But we had recently stopped at a rest area.  Hmmm.  I tried to use the CB radio to ask them what they were doing but they didn’t answer.  I pulled in to the other lane and sped up to get along side of them so I could wave and give them the “where are we going?” shrug.  That’s when I saw that the driver of the U-Haul wasn’t Mike.  I had been following the WRONG U-Haul on the WRONG highway!  I was totally lost and had to stop and call Mike from a pay phone, which, come to think of it, may have been the last time I used one of those relics.  I eventually met up with them at a rest stop 30 miles or so north and I kept a closer watch for the rest of the trip.

After so many years, I have finally found something good in Redding!  The Turtle Bay Exploration Park (sweetened by the fact that we got in free thanks to our OMSI membership) made an awesome rest stop on our road trip with the toddler!  It’s close to the highway and there was no getting lost.  We saw lots of cool animals and walked across the gorgeous Sundial Bridge.  On the other side of the bridge is a large botanical garden but we didn’t venture that far due to the chilly wind.

There was also a nice outdoor play area for kiddos and a nice spot to have our picnic lunch before getting back in the car for 7 more hours.

My favorite part? The gecko exhibit and this cool one with the equally cool name.  I must admit that were I on the naming committee (if such a thing existed) for this guy and I heard the suggestion of Satanic Leaf-Tailed gecko, I probably would have argued against putting such an evil-sounding name on a cool little creature.  What’s done is done so I may as well enjoy it now.  I don’t know about the satanic part, but his tail sure does look like a leaf!

I’m gonna be a spinner!

Look at my newest toy! I love her already.  Apparently so does Sesame.

It’s an Ashford Traveller and I bought it from a really sweet family who used to own a bunch of sheep but they’ve sold their land and haven’t had sheep for quite a few years.  They were sad to be selling their spinning wheels but they took a lot of time and showed me how to use it and even gave me a bunch of wool from their sheep.

So I spun some.  It’s not great but I’m happy because it’s the fist yarn I’ve spun on a wheel and it’s not completely ugly.  (I did take a drop spindle class a while back but maybe I shouldn’t tell you that lest you think I should be a better spinner than I am.  I never did it enough to get good at it so I feel like I’m starting all over here.)

I fully realize that what I’m about to say could totally change in the next few months so just bear with me and try not to laugh.  I don’t really want to spin wool.  My drive for getting the spinning wheel is that I really want to spin the fiber from my angora bunnies.  Right now, that’s kind of it.  I know, angora is slippery and hard to spin and I should learn to spin with wool first.  Okay, I will.  But I’ll still try the angora, since I have a free supply and can mess up all I want.

It’s heavenly.  I can’t wait until I can spin it well.

On the chicken front: Our chicks are getting big!  They are pretty much fully feathered now and I hardly recognized them after not seeing them for 8 days.  This is what they looked like a few days before we went on vacation.  They were 4 weeks old then.  the still had puffs of downy feather around their necks and they were small!

Today they turned 6 weeks old and they got their first outside adventure to celebrate. They were very reluctant at first, what with frightening green grass and all, but eventually I dumped them out of their box and seemed to enjoy it. It was so cute to see them pecking at the grass and flapping their not-so-little wings.