New Footies Print, Inspired by Mom & Baby

We recently ran a large group order for our customers signed up on our yahoo news group. It was a lot of fun to put together custom footies for our customers where they were able to pick out the footie fabric and wool colors. This was a particularly fun print. I had this fabric sitting in my stash for quite some time and had never used it. I pulled it out for this custom order and put it with the blue wool and the result was one of my favorite combos. It is such a fun print and the name Solana (named for Solana Beach, California and the little girl who inspired these footies) fits it perfectly.

Lots of Changes in Store for 2009!

Our new footie fabrics are finally in and are being sewed up as quickly as possible. The fabric is incredibly soft and fluffy. We are also moving to a new location in beautiful Heber Springs and closing on the property today. To start with, it will be a workspace/shipping area only with the potential to grow into retail space in the future as we continue to grow. We are very excited about these changes and thank our customers for helping to making this possible. New patterns are being stocked daily and we have also added an "outlet" section on the website.

Gluten & Eczema????

As many of you know, my little boy who is now 4 has been plagued with eczema since he was a few months old. It has mostly settled in on his legs down around his ankles. We tried cutting out dairy for a few weeks and there was no change. Then we thought the culprit may have been eggs. We cut them out and no change. It would seemingly flare up for no reason at all. When it was at its worst, we took him to the dermatologist and I tried to find out from her what internally could be causing this???? She wanted to only give me creams filled with crap and tret the symptoms. They worked at first and then quit working. I thought, well, I guess he will grow out of it. He turned 4 last September and guess what.... he hasn't outgrown it. He has always been skinny but I felt he just has a high metabolism like me. No big deal. I was talking online with another mom and as moms do, we discussed poop. Caleb may kill me for this later talking about his poop, but the boy has always pooped 2-3 times a day and it was never "normal" stuff. I chalked this up to high metabolism again and dubbed him Sir Poopalot :) I never put the 2 together until I started researching, but the symptoms really seem to line up with a gluten sensitivity. I don't think his body is absorbing the nutrients he needs. Along with being skinny and the eczema, I have noticed his hair seems a little dry and he just overall doesn't seem healthy like he should. I am very excited to try this new theory about the gluten because for once, the symptoms seem to line up. We will be on our way to the health food store for some snacks and some bread that he can eat hopefully. If this is it, we should know in a few days.

On a more fun note, the kids put together a gingerbread house. They had so much fun. A day later they ate most of the candy off and demolished it :)

I will be back to update in a few days about the gluten prognosis. This has got to be the answer. We have struggled with this so long and it is so hard to see my baby afflicted with this mess.

The World's Worst Blogger

That is me. I have come to realize I just stink at blogging. We have had soooo much going on and I barely have time to breathe. Even though Caleb is now 4 years old, he seems to be more demanding of my time than ever. Running a full time business from home and helping James with his really wears me very thin many days. I am very excited about where Woollybottoms is heading for 2009. We spent months developing a perfect fabric to start using in our footies made from a yummy blend of 80% wool, 10% cashmere, and 10% angora. It is incredibly soft and just perfect. I know at first many were like WAIT!!!! We want our recycled wool!!!! The truth is, I can not meet the demand in numbers dealing with recycled wool only. It is unpredictable to work with and does not offer the consistency in product that we want. We will continue to offer recycled wool and are NOT doing away with it. Working with recycled wool is a passion of mine that will not be done away with. This is merely going to be an expansion to help alleviate the supply issues. I would love to eliminate the whole stalking thing and that is my goal for 2009.

As for what I have been doing here around the house, we decided to paint our kitchen cabinets after living here for about 10 years. The house was built in 1962 and the cabinets were honey stained pine with ugly beaten copper hardware. I wanted to go white being the conservative that I am, but James wanted color so I went and picked up all kinds of samples. We ended up going with tomato salsa RED!!!! I was a little freaked out at first but now that it is up, I LOVE it. I would post a pic but James has the doors at his shop and they are still being painted. With the cold and rainy weather, drying time is taking MUCH longer than anticipated so the doors are still off. I feel like my whole life is exposed to everyone since everything is out in the open. For the cost of a gallon of primer and paint and a LOT of muscle power, it looks like a new kitchen.

I also wanted to share this adorable coat of Caleb's. Now that we have ours, I can share :) It is made from wool and lined in THE cutest vintage cowboy print. Priscilla of Bebops makes the most adoable coats for kids and they are each so unique and timeless. This is the Audubon coat and we love it. You can find her shop here: http://hyenacart.com/Be-Bops/

My New Best Friend

Move over June Cleaver... I am tearing it up in the kitchen now. I work a LOT of hours through the week including odd hours at night, helping my husband with paperwork at his business, taking care of kids, yadda yadda. Sometimes I don't even schedule time to shop for groceries much less cook. So I end up staring blankly into the pantry and either give up immediately and go out to eat, call James and ask him to bring home something frozen, or throw together something pitiful. I hate to cook but not because I can't do it, but because I was not organized. People, I had spices that expired in 2001 in my cabinet and moldy things in my fridge. I buy healthy food with good intentions and then it goes to waste much of the time. So I came across this site, Relish http://www.relishrelish.com and was skeptical. I thought why should I pay $7 per month to have someone tell me what to eat and probably be some kind of recipes where I couldn't even find half the stuff on the list much less the time to make all this stuff. So I thought eh, I will try it for 3 months and see. I am going into week 3 now and there is no turning back. I am spending a little more at the grocery store now, but I am not eating out. I am feeding my family healthy stuff. Everyone is happy to see what I am making at night and the food is sooooo good!!! I am buying things that I would have never picked up before and my cart is filled with fresh fruits and veggies. I bought Bok Choy last week people! Never had it before or even knew what to do with it. The only down side is I am having to buy a lot of spices and things that I didn't have before which really isn't a bad thing, but I am spending more than I would like every week. I know it will get better once I get my spice "base" down. I love how you have 15 meals to choose from and you get an organized list and menu to follow. We are semi-vegetarian here (we eat fish and chicken) and have have had no problem coming up with a wonderful menu every week. Sometimes I choose something that may call for beef or pork and if it really sounds good, I substitute for chicken or turkey. We ususually have leftovers every meal so there is plenty for lunch which is really great. So, overall I give it a huge thumbs up and it is worth a try.

Our new goats!

I have been so busy with working around here that I realized I had not taken time to update this blog lately. Well, I did something to my back so here I sit :) I occasionally have this nerve at the bottom of my spine that gets pinched or something and pain shoots down my lower back and one leg and man it hurts. We have had our goats for a little over a week now. Ashton is our lighter colored goat and she is 50% Nubian and 50% Toggenburg. She has a super sweet personality and she is loud. She hollers Maaaaaaaa every time you step outside. According to her, she never gets anything to eat. Our dark goat is a purebred French Alpine by the name of Opal. She is the boss of the 2 and she growls at Ashton when food is involved. According to her, she never eats either :) They are both very tame and love to be petted and we are already in love with them. James who really did not want goats at all has become quite attached. He was out there building them a little shelter. They are very curious animals and the kids really enjoy them. We have plans to actually fence in a large part of our property so they can have lots of roaming space. They are both pregnant so come early March, we should have some new little babies.

Our chickens are growing as well. We still have all 9 babies (most of them roosters though I am afraid). They are big enough now where I let them out in the yard during the day. They are all hand tamed and I walk through the yard and I hear a mass of running chickens at my feet. I thought this picture was kind of funny since they were all in the middle of something. I love living here. It is so much fun!

Fun with Interlock Scraps

So I have this overflowing tote of interlock wool scraps. I had just run out of the one color of wool I was using and didn't have enough to create a waistband for a pair of pants last week. I have had this idea for about a year and just never DID it. So, I sat down and did it finally and I really like how it turned out and it was fun to do. So, introducing the patchwork yoga style pants.