A pair of special footies for a sweet little guy...

I was contacted by a momma over the weekend whose little guy had suffered some pretty severe burns on his leg and foot. So, he has some pretty good sized bandages that keep him from being able to wear shoes and play outside (since everything needs to stay covered up especially during outdoor play). My son Caleb had been a victim of a pretty good burn himself so I can relate to that mess pretty well myself. So, we put our minds together to create something that could stretch over the leg and foot yet be tough enough to handle some play time outside. I hand dyed some 97/3 heavier weight interlock in a nice darker sage color and used recycled leather for a full foot bottom and toe coverage. Our original thought was to do a full leather foot top and bottom but that would not allow for the stretch needed on the foot area. So, here is the result and I am really pleased at how it turned out. Not only is it functional, but I think he will look pretty darn cute as well :)

Oh, and yes I know I am due for a garden update... I will grab some pics later today. I haven't forgotten :)

Follow the Garden Progress!

Good grief! It has been 2 months since I have blogged. I didn't realize I had slacked that badly. I have been extremely busy with several new wholesale accounts and training our first employee.... Yeah! So, after last year's pitiful garden, I am making time this year to get my passion going again. I have always enjoyed gardening for as long as I can remember. When we first moved to this house, I loved the huge yard. However the dirt pretty much stinks. It is all weeds and little rocks and just sad dirt in general. I had James to work quickly and we started with 4 raised beds out in the middle of the yard. That of course wasn't enough and I had him add some more the next year and then get rid of the grass in between the beds. The little white picket fence was salvaged from my mom and makes a nice backdrop for the humongous Arapaho blackberries and raspberries. I should have taken a before picture. Everything was filled with weeds and took me a couple of weeks of hand labor. If you let neglect happen, the weeds take over in no time. Caleb has been out there pulling as well so now you see the result. I don't can vegetables so please don't ask me about that :) I don't have the time or the patience. I just pack a bunch of different things into the beds and we eat them as we pick them. Grilling veggies on the back deck is lots of fun. If it is freezable and we have extra, we "might" freeze them but pretty much it is a pick and eat fest. OK, so here is what we have planted. We have strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries that come back every year. In the middle is an herb bed with different herbs that come back as well. This year I planted a few snap peas (first time to try those) along the back fence, yellow squash, zuchinni squash, picnic watermelons (my favorite thing to grow!) green peppers, eggplants, cantaloupe (another first), okra, and cucumbers, green beans (I have failed on those the last 2 years thanks to bunnies) and tomatos. I think that is it. You really can get quite a bit into a small space and we only plant a few plants of each. There are a few things starting to pop up after a few days. My poor chickens have been banished to stay in the pen. Normally I let them stay out with me in the yard when I am out there but they tear up everything. Needless to say, they are not real happy and they pace at the door.

So, here are a few pictures and I will try and update weekly with the scoop. Our neighbors have cows next door in a field. I noticed some really great poop right across the fence. I may scoop it over and throw it in the beds. Cow poop is the best thing ever!

Blah!

So about a month or so ago, I blogged about my miracle of grapefruit & Zicam. It has come through for me yet again. So Monday afternoon I started noticing that feeling you get right as you are starting to get sick. The flu has been going around horribly and I just knew that is what I was getting. All my energy was sucked out of me and I started feeling achy and nauseous. I immediately ate a grapefruit, crunched up the seeds and ate those too, sqeezed out the juice and drank that, and then Zicam up the nose and went to bed. Tuesday rolled around and I was feeling about the same, but no worse. I did the same thing in the morning and I was soooo tired. I could tell my body was actually trying to fight this thing but didn't know if it would win this time around. I pretty much rested and actually laid down and took a nap during the day. I repeated the grapefruit/Zicam thing right before bed. This morning I got up and I am still a little tired feeling, but the body aches are going away and my head is totally clear. In the past, I know I would be laid up in the bed with tissue inserted up my nose by this time. I had struggled for years with an immune system that didn't seem to fight off anything.... I was always sick. It is so nice to actually have it working doing what it is supposed to... of course watch me get it full blown by tomorrow LOL :)

A Day in the Life Continued...

So of course my day didn't unfold as I had planned yesterday. You always have something come up and you have to change it all around. I feel like I am getting sick.... body aches and slugishness. Just plain blah. I have started back on my Zicam & grapefruit regimine but I don't know if I can hold this one back. I plan on taking it easy for the next few days and taking a nap today. Half of my face and head feel hot which is really weird. I am glad I cooked some chicken yesterday and saved the broth. I think I will make some warm chicken noodle soup later today.

So, if you are wondering about this critter here, this is a possum which is quite common here in Arkansas. I had come in the house at about midnight yesterday and was preparing my grapefruit (which I managed to squirt directly into my eye by the way) and I hear something outside the door. I always set the bag of trash out the door for James to do something with (which usually ends up being a few days so I don't know why I even bother sometimes). I peer out the window to see what it is. We have had a racoon in the past and a cat. I look out there and see this oversized possum that has made ever so neatly a tiny hole just big enough to dig his nose into. I open the door and bang on the glass storm door which is less than 2 feet away from this thing expecting it to run away in fear. It turns around, looks at me and actually comes right up to the door. If I opened the door, it seriously would have come in the house. So, I took the opportunity to go get the camera and snap a shot. By this time, my cat was at the door face to face with this thing and she was not a happy camper. She was hissing and growling. She was already irritated because she wanted me to go to bed since she likes to sleep in the same room as me (yes she is a cat that prefers a certain bed time at NIGHT!) The possum finished eating I think a can of tuna and then walked off ever so calmly. Now I know why I passed 2 dead ones on the way to school this morning. They are just not the smartest.

A Day in the Life...

of being a work at home mom. So, in doing my morning computer routine, the idea was proposed of blogging a day in the working mom's life and I thought, what a great idea! It was spur of the moment, so I didn't have a chance to "prepare" and be super mom of the day and this would be totally unscripted. I didn't go to bed until 2am last night as I had a large rush order that I had to get done and finish washing everything. The new store is having their grand opening Saturday, so I HAD to work hard and fast. I crashed on the couch and then at 6:30, the day had began. I managed to get up (still wearing clothes from yesterday) and crawled back into bed hitting snooze every 7 minutes for the next half hour. Then I had 45 minutes to peel Sarah out of bed and tell her each step of the way to getting ready. She is 7, going on 8, yet I have to tell her to get up, get dressed, brush teeth, yadda yadda. The routine is the same every day but if I don't poke her along the way, she just stops and I find her sitting in front of the little heater in the bathroom. I brush my teeth and change into some fresh clothes and trudge along getting her ready for school. I usually let Caleb sleep until right before time to go but most of the time he gets up on his own at about 7:15 or so. Then he has to have all the lights off because they hurt his eyes when he first gets up and he may be cranky, or really happy. You just never know.... he is SO my child. We are out the door by 7:45 and we were out 2 minutes early today. How, I will never know. I pray I don't have to get out of my car as my hair was (is) scary and there is no make up on. I don't even want to drive through anywhere.... I am a mess. So we arrive back at home and I feed Caleb some breakfast. I usually skip it and drink a homemade cold frappucino that James gets up and makes every morning for both of us. I open the refrigerator and smile as it is lovingly waiting for me every morning. He is awesome.... they are better than Starbucks!

Now that we are settled in at home at about 8:30, I give in to the TV monster and let Caleb watch Noggin for about 30 minutes or so while I follow up on emails that came in over the weekend. Then I pay bills and pay for sweaters that arrived over the weekend and have to fight the urge to crawl back into bed. After that is taken care of, I will be crawling into the shower and will emerge as super mom and by this time it will be about 10am. Caleb and I will go out into the sewing building for a few hours and do a little work. I need to maintain my machines (which I do every week) by oiling and cleaning them up. Then I will sew a bit and by that time it will be lunch time. We will come in and eat then it will be time for a nap. I will snuggle up with Caleb and read a story (my favorite time of day!). Once he goes down, it is back to work for me. I will do the computer thing, package up a few orders and get them ready to ship, and straighten the house up. I have to do all this in about an hour and a half. James picks up Sarah from school and keeps her at work with him since school ends at 2.... right in the middle of nap time. By about 3:30, Caleb and I will head to town to the post office and stop by and see James. Once we come home, it is time to think about dinner. James really helps with this and makes dinner quite a bit.... he is REALLY good at it and enjoys it. The kids are bathed and in bed by 9pm and then I usually go back to sewing till midnight.

This is an average day in my crazy life. There is not much time left for anything else. Balance is such a hard thing to master. Sometimes I wonder what was I thinking... but I wouldn't have it any other way. Signing off to shower now :)

I am taking a breather after yesterday's stocking. It was fun changing it up with a night time stocking and doing some differnt kinds of listings. I was on my way outside yesterday afternoon to take the final website pics and before I opened the back door, this little bluebird caught my eye. He was perched up on the clothesline enjoying the sun after the 2 inches of snow we got the day before. I had my camera around my neck and woolies in my hand. I took my camera and zoomed in on the little guy through my back door and was really pleased on how the picture came out. It was nice just to take a short break from busy life and enjoy the surroundings.

I am currently working on the Artisan Baby site this weekend. It is a ton of work getting products together and it is like a scavenger hunt rounding up all the wonderful products. I technically haven't opened it up yet but people have been completing sales. I am just glad it is all apprarently working like it is supposed to :) I hadn't had a chance to do a test sale.

~Shannon~

I feel like a kid!

Woohoo! I am running on about 4 hours of sleep. I started sewing last night and then had this huge burst of energy (no caffeine involved LOL) and didn't go to sleep until about 2am. Despite all these weird hours I run nowadays, I am feeling great! I absolutely love what I do and feel blessed to be able to work full time at home with my kids. This year is starting off fresh and fun. I have recently come into the world of applique and it is SO fun! When I feel like bursting out of the normal and predictable pair of relaxed leg longies, I start to cutting free-handed an applique and pop it onto the wool. It is like a kid with a coloring book and really lets me relax and have fun. The kiddos are all feeling much better after several weeks of everyone being sick. I managed to avoid getting it and that was a total miracle. I have been eating 2 grapefruits a day. No, I am not on some nutty diet, but after years of my immune system letting me down, I was desparate and I have finally found something that I can actually see the results from. I eat the grapefruit and then even eat a few of the big seeds. James just cringes when he sees me chomping away on those seeds :) When a person is getting colds constantly for years, you are willing to try ANYTHING! After I am done, I squeeze the juice into a cup, add water, then add one of those Airborne tablets. Then if people are sick or I can feel I am coming down with it, I do the Zicam thing as well. I have been doing this for about a month and I notice my grocery store is having a hard time keeping their grapefruits in stock now :)

The other day I stood on my head, body propped up against a wall of course. Talk about the kids being shocked and amazed. Then finished it off with some backwards somersaults. I think James and the kids were picking their jaws up off the floor thinking that I had totally lost my mind or something. Had I been sniffing the lanolin too much or maybe ingested some wool fibers? I don't know what it is, but I feel great. Maybe it is the magic grapefruit seeds LOL :)

I suppose I better get back to work. There are several more items I need to get listed to stock today and then start tagging and packaging everything in preparation to ship out.

:) Shannon