file under "what was i thinking?"

i've always been a person who believed if i think i can do it, i can. well, this week is pretty much going to test that theory once and for all. because i will manage to be in three places at once this weekend.

i'm really excited about the Holiday Shop-n-Stroll, from the awesome folks who brought us Handmade Mart. i'll be there in a tent, in december, and i'm looking forward to it!

i'm super disappointed not to actually BE at this show, a favorite of mine, but thanks to my friend emilie, my work will be at Holiday Heap. i'll be stopping by at the end to do some quick shopping, since there will be some great vendors there!

i'm trying out the Greenbelt Festival of Lights this year with the ladies of BEST. i'll be there sunday, but my work will be there on saturday too!

so, as you can see, i'll be spread pretty thin this weekend, but i have plenty of work for all of these shows thanks to my can-do attitude and lots of coffee. but since my work can't be three places at once, if there's something you're interested in, just tell me, and i'll make sure it gets to the right show. now if only someone can make sure i get to the right show!

ok, see you around this weekend!

thank you!

to all of my wonderful customers, friends, and family, thank you for letting me do what i love! as a special thanks, i'll be offering free US shipping and $1 international shipping on any order over $10, from wednesday, november 25th through monday, november 30th. just checkout as normal, use the code "thanks" in the "notes to seller" section at checkout. i'll refund your shipping via paypal once i receive payment. have fun!

happy thanksgiving!

quarantined.

image by shopworthy

well, not really, but we've learned that having a child in pre-school means having perpetual runny noses, and lots of other fun stuff. the sickness hit the day after halloween, and somehow, here we are 2/3rds of the way through november!

well, after having a busy week in the shop last week, i'm now caught up on orders, recovered and getting ready for the few shows i have in december. (you can find my schedule here.) i'm a bit behind in beefing up my etsy shop, but if there's something you want, please please contact me and i'll be happy to make it! i'm just a little behind on photos.

i'll post more on my shows soon, but in the meantime just wanted to share that we are healthy! awesome!

happy halloween!

from a hula girl,

a mischievous alien named stitch

and these guys.

images from my favorite season

sometimes we try to cram a lot of fun into our weeks. starting with the bean's field trip to the always nostalgic (for me) clark's elioak farm, for her first field trip, we kicked off our harvest season.



then we spent the weekend at baugher's, getting our pumpkins and generally getting into the autumnal spirit...


and topped the weekend off with the annual lantern parade, where rick and i decided we were definitely building our own lantern next year.


i was feeling inspired by tamara's post last week on her block party press blog which featured an amazing image of her son enjoying all that fall had to offer. with that in mind, i squashed all terrified-mom instincts and let the bean have at this bail of hay.

i was well rewarded.

flashes from the past

rick and i celebrated an anniversary this week... and i was thinking a lot about how much a different world we inhabited back when he proposed to me. i'd decided pretty early on that while marriage and kids were fun to think about, it was something i thought about as a path other people chose. i wasn't going that direction... all i wanted was to travel and have fun. a world beyond 30 never even occurred to me, like somehow at 29 everything would just end. that's it.

rick and i had been dating just a bit over a year, a year which had been really rough for me in a number of ways, when we decided to take a trip to california to see some friends of his. they lived in l.a., not too far from disneyland, and we had heard about how the haunted mansion (something we both really love) was transformed every year into a nightmare before christmas ride, something we both loved too. i remember thinking how funny it would be if he proposed to me on the ride, and it kind of left my mind as we prepared for the trip.

well, to make a long story, very short, he did propose to me, on the third ride, at the end of the day, after we had a beautiful dinner in an new orleans style restaurant right next to the haunted mansion. i was so shocked i barely left the ride standing, and after stumbling into the art gallery with all of the nightmare before christmas memorabilia, i purchased these jack and sally figures, which we used on our wedding cake. it's funny, but i totally knew we were supposed to be together after that.

i look at this picture of us, taken on that day, and i can't believe how completely unaware we were of what would be in our future. and by that, i mean our little family.

last night at dinner we were talking about halloween costumes the bean had worn, and rick pointed out the year she was a bee, which i had totally forgotten, since i hadn't made the costume. i remember this particular point in my life being so insane at my job that i didn't have the time, and clearly, barely remembered the day. it was a particularly life-affirming moment when i found this photo just to prove that she had indeed been a bumblebee one year, because just this week i was discussing with friends the role motherhood plays in our lives, and how even though i still work (at least two jobs), it's never enough, and it should be. it is.

taking a breath. i think.

i'm super excited because my brain is just whirring away... i have about 5 weeks until the next show, so i'm able to take a breath and make some fun new things... here's a preview of one of the wall pieces i'm making, and i'll also be working on some christmas pieces that i've been thinking about for some time.

i'll also be delivering an order to double dutch, so if you're in hampden you'll be able to find barrettes, headbands, and brooches there, plus i'll be working on photographing a ton of one-of-a-kind stuff to put up on my etsy shop.

maybe i won't be taking a breath after all.

squidfire! and what i'm not doing.

i'll be heading up to philadelphia next weekend for squidfire's first art mart in philly. i'm very excited to see one of my favorite cities, and there will be some fantastic vendors there as well. i should be working on making more headbands, which i sold out of last week at crafty bastards. what i am doing is nothing even remotely connected to headband-making. this includes thinking about apples, enjoying some of the october breezes, seeing a movie with a clown zombie, and thinking up at least 6 new things that i'd like to make. i've gotten a start on making some of these ideas a reality, with different degrees of success, and hopefully once we get some nice sun i can get a few images up.

until then, i'll be continuing to enjoy this beautiful season. and making headbands.