a little glimpse

a snapshot of today's workspace :)

This week I made some cute felt appliques with a plan to put them on skirts made from vintage pillowcases I've been collecting for nearly a year now. I'll have 6 ready to list in my shop by the weekend. It makes me so excited to create new things.

photoshoot :)

I probably do the annoying mom thing and share way too many photos of my daughter, but I think she's way amazing and pretty adorable. Yesterday my husband took me to the thrift shop so I could run in and do a sheet check, and I found this amazing vintage chenille bedspread. It's incredible. I want to cut it up but I haven't got the heart to do it yet. It made me want to take pictures of Emma today so after her naptime she got to be my little supermodel. It's not easy to take pictures of this little booger! The sun was going down quick so I had to snap fast. I think I got a few that I'm pretty happy with :) (I think she looks so grown in the first picture!)

Tears & A Pretty Quilt

I finished this quilt tonight. I finished the quilt top a couple of weeks ago and another quilt top last weekend, and I thought I could get them both done tonight. My plans are always too ambitious. This quilt is made from beautiful vintage linens in blues, greens, pinks & a tiny splash of purple. I had the most perfect sheet for the back of it. I had it all sandwiched together and ready to quilt, and with the first line down the middle all stitched up, I realized I had stitched the quilt to itself. It should have been an easy problem to fix, but the backing was so very thin it ripped right in the middle. After a small anxiety attack, some comfort from my husband, and help from the seam ripper (talk about a love/hate relationship!), I got the quilt top free and unharmed, but there wasn't enough of that perfect sheet for the back. ugh. I found a green gingham vintage sheet in my stash and went back to the machine (just a little more careful this time!) I'm actually kind of glad it didn't work out the first time, because I love this green sheet with it so much more. These vintage sheets are so soft and gorgeous, but they are so thin, so lesson learned. Don't sew sheet to itself. It's gonna be a booger to undo.

Sorry I've been quiet around here. I haven't been feeling too well. I have an autoimmune thyroid disease and it's crazy out of control. I've been feeling super tired and just generally sick and my thyroid levels turned out to be okay, so my doctor checked my vitamin D levels and they are super low. I usually can't take vitamins because it interferes with the medicine I take to supplement my inactive thyroid, but right now I have no choice! I'm on day 3 of the vitamins and I'm feeling a bit better already! I don't mean to rant about it but the thyroid issue has recently become a big part of my life and it's tough to deal with. I want to get myself feeling better so I can be better for my husband and for my daughter :)

duck-a

I never could forget this sweet time in my life right now. I don't even know when it started, but sometime this year Emma has learned the word "duck". It's become absolutely adorable but kind of overwhelming obsessive. I can't leave the house without a duck (or two) in my purse. There are ducks scattered throughout her playroom, living room, bathroom, and her bedroom. and my car! and my purse. There are ducks everywhere. Many have been graciously donated by family members, and some have been complusive purchases while I'm out shopping and just so happen to find something with a duck. Duck duck duck. She started saying duck like "gah-guk", and then it morphed into "guck-a", and now it's "duck-a". We fed real ducks at the lake. She thinks that geese are also ducks. We try so hard to get her to say "quack" but nothing. Just "mama", "dada", "dog", "night night", and "duck". She lines them up and points to them and says "duck-a, duck-a, duck" and when she gets to the end of the line, she starts all over again. Her face lights up at these silly yellow rubber toys. I don't know what it is, but it brings happiness to my life too, so I'm going to feed into this as long as she'll let me. She loves to read and she can spot the tiniest of ducks on a page. "DUCK-A!" Who knew that all of her books have atleast one duck hidden in there?! We probably won't get so lucky with her next favorite. Thomas did a google image search for ducks once and let Emma see the hundreds of pictures that came up, so now she'll come up to our laptops and point and say "duck-a!" ... she probably thinks that whenever we're on our computers, we're looking at duck pictures. I gave her a bath tonight and once again, she got upset that we had to leave the (wet) ducks in the tub. We're working on telling them night-night and blowing them kisses and that they'll be there to play with next time we take a bath. Duck duck duck. Life is so much sweeter with ducks around. :)

Happy Hearts Day!

Emma and I are baking cupcakes to take to my husband's work after her naptime. I think we're going to save one for our sweet neighbor and take a few up to our friends at our favorite thrift shop by our house. I still have my husband's gift to finish (an altered book full of photographs of us, our favorite songs, our favorite scriptures, etc) and he made me a necklace but won't let me see it until tonight :) We're going to finish it all off with a big dinner together tonight (the three of us!) -- heart shaped pancakes! ♥ we decided once we had Emma that we would always celebrate the big 14 together as a family, and then have a romantic dinner on the 15th :) I hope you all have the best hearts day full of hugs and fun things with the people that you love.

Emma and I are off to the bathroom floor... I mean... spa. ;) We're going to paint our toes with red, pink and glittery polishes!

Reflections

last february

It was around this time last year that I realized I needed to help myself. Not many people know that I suffered from postpartum depression after I had Emma. It was hard. Many days I would just stay in our bedroom with her. I couldn't leave the house. I couldn't get up and get dressed. I didn't really eat breakfast or lunch. I was a mess. I felt so lonely and at the same time I felt so connected to my daughter. The insane rush of hormones caused by having a baby combined with the lack of hormones caused by my thyroid disease was so awful. I didn't really have anybody to turn to other than my husband. We took baby steps together, just the three of us.

Emma and I would go on "adventures" once a week. At first I had to make myself leave the house. I knew it was good for the both of us. We started going to the antique mall and the thrift shop by my house. We walked around Target. We were patient with each other. I learned that it was possible to get dressed and leave the house with my newborn and everything was going to be okay. Sometimes I even had to nurse her in the dressing room while we were out. Our weekly adventures became more frequent and before we all knew it, spring had arrived and new habits helped change my outlook and attitude. I didn't feel so desperate any longer and I moved onto other mommy issues :)

I felt like I was less than patient with Emma yesterday and I feel awful about it. I just wasn't feeling very joyful. I felt like I was in survival mode and I'm not even sure why. My husband reminded me that Emma has her days when she's less than patient with us and we just need to try hard and work with each other. I love my family. I love my husband and I love that he's patient with me, and I love how he encourages me as a mom when I feel like I could be doing a better job. and I love my daughter and how smart she is and how big she's growing. She is such a silly joyful giggling colorful little blondie and I am excited to see what this spring has in store for us, and I am excited for all of the "adventures" that are waiting for us :)

Designing

Spending a bit of time developing some new things today. I've been struggling a lot with my business lately. My products have shifted into cute, bright & bold colored & patterned items for babies and children. I make things that I would want to buy for Emma. Moms and kids LOVE it. I love it too, but I get burnt out on sewing up bibs, even if each one is a little different. Sometimes I wish I could spend more time making jewelry and selling the pieces that I make, but that has not been my most successful venture. I've done a lot of brainstorming and thinking on where I want to take my business. I think I'm going to stick with the baby & kid business and dabble in some more sophisticated things occasionally :)

My favorite part of my business is designing. I buy a lot of fabric and sometimes it sits on the shelf for years before I find the right prints to go with it. When I design new things, I get to go fabric shopping from the hundreds of fabrics in my studio. I LOVE IT! :)



These 72 squares are being sewn up into 12 fabric stacking cubes for babies. I'm super excited about this new product I'm adding to my shop. Emma has always loved all of the fabrics in my collection, so I know other babies will love it too!