Crafting with the littles

Two art projects the kids and I worked on  this week. First: yogurt container fairy house. And second handmade Coptic-stitch nature journals. 

Outside treasures

(From our garden: asparagus, an arrowhead, and lemon balm)

fleeting

I've been wandering in the woods, searching out colors  and delicate patterns. Soon the forest will be thick with stinging nettles and poisen ivy and twisting green brambles. Soon it will be a fight instead of a walk. I love this fleeting time between the monochromatic browns of winter and choking green of summer. This week in particular with the dogwood trees in bloom above the forest floor, I love. 

Rainy day work

monogram / initial love necklace

Our new personalized cluster necklaces featuring a bouquet of wildflowers ~ aka weeds... Queen Anne's Lace, Dandelions, and Burdock. 

I made it with Mother's Day in mind, but really it could symbolize any loves in your life. I love how it turned out.

Here is the necklace in my Etsy shop!

Four!

Today he turned four... 

half-ideas

I had the heat on high in my studio today. I was working on a little bit of this project and a little bit of another project. So many bits and pieces and half ideas are swirling around in my brain. It was nice to spend the day trying to pin some of those ideas into reality.

introducing!

I'd like to officially introduce you to Downtown and River! They are an 8 month old brother-sister pair that we adopted from our local no-kill shelter. They are slowly warming up to life with two noisy kids... It is a lot to take in I am sure. 

Transitions, good transitions

Yesterday we took down our tree and put the ornaments and Christmas stuff away. The last of our family left today...

I love that we have had a bit of leeway to decide when we wanted to jump back into our work full-time because we are self-employed. It has been so nice to sleep in and drink our coffee leisurely in our pjs. To sit by the fire and to play board games~ so many board games this vacation! *sigh*

Parts of getting back into work sound exciting, like pulling out my paints for the  first time in 2014. Parts sound daunting, like the fact that we are doing our first big wholesale show in a month and a half (and we have SO SO much to learn and figure out for it.) The show we are doing is the Baltimore ACC (American Craft Council) trade show. We were invited right around Thanksgiving just when things were getting Holiday crazy for us. So now that the holidays are over we have to start focusing on it. I don't want it to be obvious to the customers that we are complete newbies to the trade show thingy. New and fresh yes, but not new and clueless. ;-) 

Time to dive in! 

Happy 2014

I love the idea of a clean slate in this new year, a forgiveness to ourselves of the shortcomings and mistakes made last year, and the ability to grow and further cultivate the successes we had. 

Wishing us all health, love, and contentment in 2014! Thanks for being here! 🎉🎊🎈🎉🎊