Keeping it Real Monday.

Whew! What a weekend. We've been picking up the pieces after having a booth at the Bijou Market, and now getting ready  for our booth at Quilt Market in 4 weeks. And then there have been a few hiccups like having our mini-van in the shop for 2 weeks after a terrible car crash (did you see that one on my twitter?) and oh....did I mention that my brother is getting married this week? Mix in a few colds and normal life with kids and a house and yard, and this is what the house has been looking like:

The one thing that goes first when things get crazy are the normal: dishes and laundry...and floors, and well....it all just seems a blur sometimes. So, lest you think that life behind the screen is as pretty as my blog facade, please take notice: running a full-time shop & business with freelancing books and designs while mothering 3 kids who are home most of the day isn't always roses.

Like these clothes at the bottom of the stairs? I think they've been there for at least 3 days now.

And I'm not even showing you my car or laundry room!

Sometimes, I think we're so used to seeing things with such a pretty spin on blogs these days (and for good reason--it's important for me to focus on the positive when I blog...it keeps me motivated to see the beautiful during every day life...which is oh so needed when life is less than pretty)....it's important for you to know that as glamourous as it sounds to be a book illustrator, blogger, fabric designer, home owner....things aren't necessarily pretty around here! It takes a lot of focus to keep it all in check.

I still don't have it figured out! But since I am the housekeeper AND everything else....the role of housekeeper does take a back seat when things get overly busy. I don't like it at all. I hate a messy house! But....it's the sacrifice you make for running an at home business and being an artist. It just is.

And it goes along perfectly with my all time favorite motto (poem):

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,for children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

-by Ruth Hamilton, 1958

And so there you have it. Real life today.  I just went around my house clicking the camera today...no edits here.

But with that, I will say that the combination of your AMAZING responses on the survey (which ends today, FYI), and the need to make some changes around here to let this growing business suit our family a bit better, you will be seeing some changes around the shop. And soon. So stay tuned! It's always hard to make changes, but since I've been in this for my family from the very beginning, changes are inevitable. I'll talk more about that later...

Happy Monday!

Fresh Start.

I am a new woman!!!!!

Ok, maybe a little dramatic. But, really? I feel like my old self again.

I have mentioned a few times that my old DSLR camera decided it was done. But its untimely death left me with no suitable alternative (we were gifted a point and shoot to get us through...but honetsly...I don't even know how to use those any more!)

So...6 months later, my pennies added up to this.

And I can't tell you how happy I am! I am not a professional photographer by any means. But somehow my camera was like my second pair of eyes. And I didn't even realize it until my first one broke. The past 2 days I've been walking around the house documenting everything. I'm back in business folks.

But even better....what this means for the blog is that I finally can start posting more of the projects I've been working on! Horray! Cause I've been a busy woman and haven't been able to show you what's going on behind this screen.

I have big plans. Just you wait.

P.S. If you are wondering if this is going to turn into a "look how cute my baby is" blog,  don't you worry.  It won't. But come on folks.... Look how cute that baby is! :)

A little super hero in me.....

My kids play super hero all the time. But one is usually the hero, and the other....his wife.

It's really cute, you know: Addie in her apron and clip-on earrings goes around making beds and singing tunes while she scrubs the floor with a pretty fabric remnant of mine.

Ian karate kicking imaginary villains out the window and clearing all evil out of the house while showing off his latest moves.

Put them together, and you have a turbo-deep cleaning-master-super-force.

That's what I am hoping to be over the weekend. Some weekends are for playing, but this one is a deep-cleaning and project making!

I hope you have a fantastic weekend! What about you? Are you working or playing this weekend? Hope you're playing...but if not, throw in a few karate kicks and a cute apron, and you'll be singing a tune for sure.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

I'm running out of pictures to post with my camera broken...but this one fits perfectly for today.

We are all just a bit silly over here: the children are wildly excited about Christmas, and I'm wildly trying to get ready for it!

But things are a bit more calm today. We are snowed in and trapped in a winter wonderland. I don't think it's going to stop snowing until wednesday. I don't even care that my car got stuck today trying to get to my house, and that I had to walk a quarter of a mile to get home...all with a baby in tow. It's the best feeling to walk into a cosy house when the rest of the world is perfectly wintery white!

Well, with Christmas here, I'm going to be blogging quite a bit less. I may pop in here and there, but nothing regular till the new year. But I'll have lots to post about when I get back!

Happy Christmas everyone!  I'm wishing you the best of Christmases....lots of time with your families....and lots of wonderful memories!

Love,

Sarah

**It's too late now to order before Christmas, but don't forget the 2011 Calendars we have in the shop still!

Lots of love.

This week has been awesome. Full. Busy. Crazy. Wonderful. Sentimental. Magical.

I'm realizing it's Wednesday and I've not even visited the blog to stop in and say hi! Well, I have a few good reasons.

First. The stomach flu. Have you had it yet? It started with the baby, and has been passing itself very generously up the line. Thank you, stomach flu. We've had enough, and you can go home now.

Second. Weddings. My husband's baby sister (well, not so baby at 25) is getting married this week! She's in for a gorgeous white, winter wedding. We're so happy for her and her husband-to-be is just as great. Our kids are big fans of them both, and as they live close to us, we have been so lucky to watch their friendship turn into this! Weddings are wonderful, aren't they?

Here are some engagement pics by Tara B. Photography. Aren't they a darling couple?

Third: On the wedding theme, Kenneth and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary this week too! In fact, on his sister's wedding day. I've been thinking so much about her wedding, that I've nearly forgotten the significance of our own 10 years!!! It's seriously amazing to have this:

turn to this:

and this:

I won't spend time gushing here, but I'm so lucky to be married to my very best, best friend. So, so lucky!

Birds get fast food.

So the conversation started like this:

IAN: Where do earffworms go in the winter, Mom?

ME: Um, I don't know. I think they freeze. Or maybe they hibernate. I'll read about it.

IAN: What do birds eat in the winter then?

ME: Well, they find whatever they can.

IAN: Ok. I'll start collecting.

1/2 hour later Ian comes to get me with his collection pictured above:

IAN: Look mom. This is for the birds to eat in the winter!

ME: Oh! That's great! There's one problem though. Birds don't eat rocks. Or flower petals. Maybe we can collect something else.

IAN: Like what? How can we feed them mom? The earffworms will freeeee-eeee-eeze (insert hyper shivering child here).

ME: Hey, I know...let's talk to Dad when he gets home, and maybe we can have a family project to build a bird feeder this weekend. We can go to the store...and...

IAN: Is Dad home yet? I'll wait on the porch.

4 hours later:

Evidently, Kenneth didn't even get to come inside the house. While I was getting Ella up from her nap, I came out on the back porch to see this. The man was building before he even had time to put his bag down.

OK. Don't freak out and send me hate mail. Yes, my almost 5 year old is inches away from a scary blade...of course he was never close to it while it was on. He was in charge of marking the wood. But we're of the school of thought that if you teach children young, they understand danger and how to act around it. Ian learned how to saute onions on the stove at age three, for instance...attended by an adult of course. But anyways....I have to cover myself because, you know, this is the internet and I've been sent hate mail for things like having my 1 year old in point shoes. Anyways...I digress....

So what I thought was going to turn into a fun weekend long project, took exactly an hour. We had scrap fence pieces laying around, and some tools to boot.

birdhouse-tools.jpg

It got quite loud...but never boring.

Ken built a little hinged rooftop so we could pour the seed in and out easily. And the large tray would allow multiple birds to eat at the same time. (We have some big birds around here, and the last thing I wanted was to encourage fighting. Can you tell I'm a mom of 3 children under 5?)

And Voila. A simple solution to frozen earthworms.

It took a about 3 days for the birds to figure out it was there, and to come often. Now, we have birds we've never even seen before! Namely the really tiny ones that stay hidden. I'm going to have to start learning more about birds now...and it makes me so happy. Ella yells, "Ba! Ba!" and the children have learned to stop talking (yelling) at breakfast when they see the birds in the feeder so they don't scare them away.

Perfect. I'm starting to feel ready for winter already. We're keeping the birds happy in our corner of the earth. Or at least we're keeping the birds close to us so we can feel there is still life when winter erases most of it away. Either way, I'm happy.

Autumn.

This is the view out of my back Kitchen window. We live in a little fixer-upper bungalow, but we bought this place for the views. Seeing trees and sky and mountains first thing every day makes me so happy!

Since this is the first fall, we didn't know what color the trees would be out back. And the color is....Yellow!

I've been on a yellow kick lately, and so this is making me so happy. Lovely yellow locust trees. And can you see the snow on the mountain?

Autumn around here is always coupled with snow. But I love it.