May becomes an early June

Bonus point to anyone how knows where the title of the post comes from.



Not a whole lot going on. Swimming in a sea of custom bridal orders. These pics are just a few of the orders I've been working on. Fun but challenging as I've been sick off and on, and Cory has been gone. In the midst of bridal season, and already looking to transition for the Holidays. I learned my lesson last Christmas and will start the process of stocking up soon.








Halloway played a camp last week, and will be heading back out on the 23rd for a mini tour of Michigan/Illinois. If anyone happens to be going to Cornerstone Festival this year, be sure to catch Halloway and The Southern Sea (both of the bands my hubby is in). I will try to get stage info/a complete tour schedule up in the next couple of days.





By the way, this last clutch pictured is available for sale in the shop here.

Also, just saw the video for Grizzly Bear's Two Weeks. So very love this band.

new interview and giveaway

Just a very short update to inform you that the blog 'A Little Etsy Love' was kind enough to interview me. You can read the interview and enter for the chance to win a Little Keeper in your choice of fabric right here.

You can also read the full interview here.

Thanks!

Yucks

My little family is sickly today. In spite of my better judgement, we went out last night to celebrate my 30th birthday. I actually woke up feeling sick but rescheduling would have been a nightmare with everything my family has going on right now, so I decided to push on through. Not one of my better decisions - by the end of the evening, Claire and I both had fevers and Josie developed a pretty heinous cough. I still had a wonderful time despite being drugged out on benadryl.

Sick days - such a massive waste of time!
When I had a 'real' job I could at least revel in the fact that I wasn't at work - at a boring job that I hated. Now I am left sitting helplessly on the lounge thinking "I could be making stuff for the shop, or working on custom orders, or making pillows for the living room..."

Speaking of which I bought fabric to make new pillows for the living room in February - when we bought our new furniture - and still haven't touched it.
I'm going to make a list of "some day" projects, as in "some day I'll get to that", and try to get it finished by the end of the summer.

Here are the things I've been putting off/haven't had time to do:
- make living room pillows
- make bedroom curtains for my room
- make bedroom curtains for the girl's room
- sew at least three dresses for each of the girls
- finish josie's quilt (shameful! she's ten months old now!)
- finish josie's baby bag (see above)
- make matching cosmetic pouches for the overflow of junk I have in our tiny bathroom
- make myself a purse that was in now way intended, from start to end, for the shop

I could go on, but that seems like enough for now. All of that quite aside from shop goals. I learned my lesson last year and will get a head start on preparing the shop for Christmas.
Anyhow, I will revisit this list as I get stuff accomplished, and may even have a tutorial or two up my sleeve!

Oh! And this brand new lovely wristlet design will soon be featured in the shop:







It's a wristlet with wallet in front and a small pocket for phone, ipod, keys, etc. I am probably one of the few moms-with-small-children out there that prefers to carry a small bag - in fact, I very often carry only a clutch - so I definitely see one of these in my future. Not sure of what to call it yet... hmm, will have to think on that.

Sad to say, but even blogging has worn me out today. Going back to the couch to do sudoko and feel unproductive!

Having fun this weekend hanging out with my mother-in-law, doing some free style fabric piecing for a special order, and looking at all of the wonderful things coming out of this year's Quilt Market. Already lusting after so many things, especially this and this.

Went thrifting today. No amazing finds, but faithful next time will be better!

In over my head....

Up until about two months ago, Claire seemed to be adjusting quite well to having a younger sister.

Seemed.

About the time Josie learned to crawl, cruise, say "Mama", "Dada", etc. Claire started acting out. A lot. In her three plus years of life we've still not found a discipline style that works well for Claire. Everything just sort of rolls of her back, like "No Biggie". She is extremely stubborn and independent (no comment as to where she got those qualities from....)
And so rather than try to mold Claire to our expectations, I've been forced to acknowledge that the way we are doing things just isn't working.

She is, at least at this point in time, a high maintenance kiddo. In the past I've been very wary of parenting styles that center strongly around the child. It just seems very backwards, after infanthood, to let a child maintain so much control over the family. And, in truth, the only effective parenting style that I know of is a God centered one. But in trying to avoid a child-centered home, I think Cory and I have swung too far in the other direction.

All of this is to say that today began the great unschooling experiment in our household. I cannot say at this point in time whether or not this will be something that we'll stick with past preschool. In fact, I have long looked forward to the kids being in school so that I can concentrate a bit more on my shop in the future. But for now, she is at home. And home needs to be a place that is intellectually stimulating as I suspect much of her acting out comes from pure boredom (the part that isn't driven by a quest for attention stolen by Josie).

For now the shop will be something I work on only during hours in which the girls are away or sleeping. My mother takes them fairly often, so I will have some opportunities during the week. I don't plan to slow down with the shop, but rather work more diligently when I have the free time.

Right now I am trying to figure out how a child directed idea of learning fits in with a selfless, Godward heart. I am not sure but I guess we will figure it out as we go!

Right now Claire is very interested in art, which I suppose she comes by naturally, and plants/seeds, so that is what we are going to explore for the time being. I really hope this works well for her. I think she might be a good fit for this learning style as she is incredibly quick to learn when self-motivated, but extremely so to learn when she feels like she's being 'taught'.

I don't know. It seems as though I'm blindly feeling my way through this one, but isn't that how all parents feel?