Saturday, December 31, 2011

What Are You Doing...

New Year's Eve? I spent the day sleeping late, thanks to my husband, knitting lots and topped it off by baking a Blackberry and Lemon Curd Loaf (which I'm about to go have another slice of with coffee).
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At some point in the evening I plan to make some New Year's resolutions, watch The Best SNL Sketches of 2011 and knit some more. I'll probably turn in at 10 (as that's a resolution and I might as well get a jump on it) so I'd better get to it. Have a happy New Year, my friends!

Friday, December 30, 2011

The Brink of the New Year Finds Me....

... refining plans for the shop in my mind. It was very reassuring to know that I am not alone in hating working made-to-order. I've wrestled with it and finally decided that I am finished with that business, once and for all. Now, the stark reality is that my shop is fairly empty, compared to it's previously full and fat state and it's a wee bit discouraging to think how long it's going to take me to fatten it up again. But on the bright side, selling will be way less stressful and I'm feeling my creative juices flowing more than ever. See case and point below.
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Just before Christmas I had made up a set of three little kittens and very briefly put them in the shop before pulling them to give to my own wee ones on Saint Nicholas Day ("Does St. Nicholas knit, mommy?"). So now, post-holiday rush, I have expanded on that a bit and bring you a full set; mama cat, three kittens, a crochet basket, perfect for snuggling up in mama's tail, a crochet blanket and a little wooden bowl for milk.
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Swish, swish, little tails!
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Two little winter gnomes, Icicle and Snowflake. This set was first made for my River for Christmas. Her's were tucked into a little snowflake embellished pouch with a strap for carrying. Perhaps I'll make a set in a pouch for the shop sometime, too.
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And the pattern and one set of the Tomtem and the Fox have been added as well. I wanted to share a new picture of this duo to show off the curvy, wurvy tail of the fox. If you scroll down to the giveaway post (have you entered?) you'll see it was previously straight (P.S. I've updated the 'Pattern Shop' above and you can now find this one and several others I'd previously neglected adding there.).

So I am pretty much brimming over with ideas and inspiration at this point. And you would think that all the mad rushing to get to the order knitting finish line and the follow up of making last minute things for my own children would have me burnt out on knitting, but not in the slightest. Well, I guess my dry, cracked, eczema riddled right hand would tell you otherwise but it doesn't get a say in the matter. I love what I do and when things slow down and I'm able to bring all the ideas and pictures floating around in my head to life, well, that's a happy time for me.
I'm also taking the time to do some knitting for me and mine. Well, mine anyway. I almost never knit for me. I should probably amend that sometime. But right now, a dear friend of mine had a baby (new baby girl!) just before Christmas and I'm eager to make something tiny! And then there are several January birthdays around these parts (River will be two!). Look at all those exclamation points, exciting things!

So, the brink of the new year finds ma making plans and indulging my creativity. How about you?

Monday, December 26, 2011

Meltdown Monday Giveaway

Comments on this post are now closed.

How is everyone post-Christmas? I hope yours was very merry. Ours was but I really don't have very many photos to attest to that. We were all just very in the moment, enjoying one another and the camera was brought out very little. Perhaps I'll share what few I do have tomorrow or some time later this week.
For now I want to have a little giveaway, since I've not have one in a few weeks. This week I'm working on a new pattern, maybe more but this pair for share. May I introduce, the Tomten and the Fox. This particular set I've photographed has already sold but I'll have to make up another set as I work out the pattern.
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So today I am offering this complete set, the Tomten, Fox and the wee bowl and another winner will receive the pattern. Please let me know in your comment whether you are a knitter so I know whether or not to enter your name for the pattern.


OK, so to enter leave me a comment. You can let me know how your Monday is going or, better yet, tell me how you beat the dreadful Meltdown Monday or just say hi. Whatever.

For additional entries;
(leave a separate comment for each entry, if you don't, they count as one)
Tweet this (include @thiscosylife in your tweet)
Share on Facebook
Blog this giveaway
Like me on Facebook

I will randomly pick a winner on Sunday January 1st and announce here, on my blog. (Please, make sure I have a way to contact you!)

PS: If anyone is interested in participating in a Monday Meltdown giveaway, here on my blog, contact me here. Whether an item from your Etsy shop or just a little something you would like to give away to brighten someone's Monday, it's all good!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Greeting the Solstice

Winter has come at last. No snow here, not even a chance. But a stillness has settled in, a peace and I love that. This morning we slept late. My last package was mailed yesterday and I started dozing off at 9:30 last night. I'm so grateful for this time off.
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Winter books were pulled out just a while ago and two read on the spot. A couple of new ones I had purchased over the year joined our old favorites.
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Our Thanks Giving tree was transformed into a snowy winter tree with the help of the beeswax snowflakes I made last year. And we've been joined by a little sun gnome, here to greet the Solstice.
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Happy Solstice to you, friends!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Christmas Dreaming

December 15th... five days and every last order will be out the door and on their way to fill stockings and rest under someone's tree til Christmas morning. Til then I work and make plans on what few things I will make before our own Christmas morning. I have very little time to make very little and I am OK with that.
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I found a little nightstand that my husband will fashion into a kitchen for all three girls and I've acquired a few things to go with it from second hand stores. A couple of tiny pots, a small broom, a little cream and red bowl that makes me dreamy of a Scandinavian kitchen, wooden spoons and a few wooden bowls from my own kitchen, an enamelware camping coffee set my parents were throwing out... sweet things but not dumbed down. It will have a place of honor in our front room and I'm making place for a little table and chair set I hope to find in time.
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For Kaiya I have a sweet dolly that I won from Little Jenny Wren back over the summer and I'm really looking forward to giving it to her. For Zoe I am going to make a very simple doll. Zoe loves animals. I have asked her many times if she wants a dolly or animals and it's always a new animal, stuffed, figurines, etc. But this time she surprised me by asking for a doll. So I think I will do a simple baby style doll for cuddling and caring for. And for River... well, to be honest I'm not sure yet. Yes, it's so very close and I don't even know what I'm making for her! But I'm not worried.
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I had planned to open gifts on Solstice and save small stocking things for Christmas, but I won't be ready then and that's OK, too. Still going slowly, letting go of the things that really don't matter so much. I think we'll take our Christmas past the 25th and keep our lights burning through the 12 Days of Christmas, feeling inspired to do so by Grace. Little thoughts that have bloomed in me. We are staying here as much as possible, trying to stay out of the rush and the desperation that comes out in so many this time of year. Many, many times I have heard others lament that they just hate the commercialism and indulgence of Christmas. My reply has always been the same, like everything, it is what you make of it. Here in our home we can choose what we allow in and how we celebrate and the things we do and have. We stay out of stores as much as possible. I prefer not to grocery shop with the girls in tow this time of year. We stay home and we go to friends and celebrate at our own pace, in our own way. We choose. As my girls grow and go out into the world more and more on their own they will see that it's not always as we've done things, they we see there are many choices to be made and many ways to do things. And that's OK. I'm laying their foundation now, and that's all I can do. I give them what I can now, an environment and experiences and a way of life, and I don't believe that all of that will be lost just because other things are later introduced.
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It's a foundation. It's something to lean on, something to come to expect, a rhythm, tradition. Something that is unique to our family even if they can't find it out in the world later on. It's something they can always return to and, if they so choose, carry out in their own families later on.

So here we are. Making preparations in our own way and at our own pace. I think we will go ahead get our tree this Sunday, so we can do it with Daddy and have it up by Solstice. How is your holiday coming along?

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Many Hands Make St. Lucia Bread

Our Saint Lucia day was made possible by many little hands, eager to help. In lieu of the traditional saffron buns we made a beautiful braided bread. I found the recipe here.
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It was so yummy! Just sweet enough with a hint of orange. My little helpers zested oranges and cracked eggs...
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Mixing and kneading....
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And then we all rolled the candles to adorn our bread.
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Perfect! We do nothing too much for this particular day. We make our light and celebrate with an ease. There's no need to overdo.

Hope your light is shining brightly through these darkened days!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Family Day and the Third Week of Advent

It was 'family day' today. When my husband moved back in a month ago we assigned Sunday as our day together. No other obligations, just the five of us. Today we went in search of greenery for a wreath and our tree. Not to take home. I want to wait a bit longer before we bring it in, perhaps on Christmas Eve this year, or maybe we'll get it next weekend, before Solstice. I'm undecided still. But today we went hunting for a tree that was 'just perfect for our little family', as Kaiya proclaimed.
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And so we hiked into the woods a ways, found some rose hips and tiny blue berries that I'm not sure about and our tree.
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We found a wonderfully scraggly pine that is optimistically green and deemed it 'perfect!'. I haven't combed the woods for a tree in so long. We used to do it as a family so many years ago but then began buying trees. And since starting my own family we've always bought our trees, as well. But I just have no interest in doing that this year. Sure, we could get a really beautiful and symmetrical tree for just $25 only 10 miles down the road. But there's just something about that trek through the woods and bringing home the tree. It's the memory I want to give my girls. We don't have a lot of beautiful evergreens in these woods, not of realistic size anyway. But I think there is such charm in that oddball, 'Charlie Brown' tree that we find and cut down ourselves, no buying involved.
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So we tied a pink silk to one of the branches, gathered some more greens and will be back for our tree in a week or so.
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Back home, Daddy and Zoe make some rich and delicious smores bars while Kaiya and I worked on the wreath. River bopped around, 'helping' everyone.
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We pulled out the decorations and placed just a few more things around the house.. still taking the season very slowly.
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And we ended the day with the third light of Advent, butternut squash soup and hot spiced cider. Not a bad way to spend our day together.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Saint Nicholas Day

I hope you all (who celebrate) had a magical Saint Nicholas day on Tuesday. The girls received an orange, some chocolates and one of my new little kittens in their shoes. Then after breakfast we began crafting our gifts we would deliver secretly that evening.
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We made some easy peasy cookie cutter beeswax candles like the ones found here. To make them stand we used 6 layers.
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Not all the layers turned out perfectly, but that's OK, we just put those on the inside and smoothed everything out with our fingers.
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I love how they turned out. We'll be making more very soon! There was also a special guest appearance by my mom who came over and helped the girls make the banana bread.
Once everything was made we packaged them up and made some very quick deliveries before Kaiya and I had to leave for ballet class.
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By the way, thank you all so much for sharing your experiences with me on my last post. I'm glad to hear that it's not just me that has a hard time handling made to order work. I'm still thinking a lot about this, working out some details in my mind and I'll let you know what I decide on later. But that's about all I have time for today. Must get to work!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Time

I was a vendor at the Big Crafty in Asheville (NC) yesterday afternoon. I've had good sales from this particular fair in the past but this one didn't go nearly as well as I'd hoped. I did make my vendor fee back, times 2. But if you've done any craft fairs yourself you can understand this covers expenses and that's about it. I am disappointed about not doing better but it has me thinking about more than that.
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I started my little business in the spring of '09. And since then it's been steadily growing and making a decent contribution to the household. More than that, I'm able to do what I love and share it with the world. As I sat pondering between shoppers yesterday, I thought, would I be just as happy making only for myself and loved ones? And truly, the answer is no. Sure, my children love my toys and end up with a good many of them, but they only need so much. Even if I were to make toys for every child I know, a) that's actually a lot of expense that rests on me and b) I've got a lot of ideas that I want to create and still, children only need so many toys. So I create for your children (or you) and I'm able to work out all the many variations that are bumping around in my head and making for profit pushes me to always be coming up with more and I love that! I love the creative process. I don't love, however, that I'm about to spend this beautiful day making 33 tiny gnomes...
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Now, please don't get me wrong. I love what I do and the fact that my business is growing and I can make this financial contribution to my family. I just also am wishing I had more time for said family. Some days I feel like putting my needles away all day so that I can take walks and craft with the girls, or perhaps even use those needles to make something for my children. It's really been quite a while since they've had any new mama knits.
I'm not thinking of closing shop. I'm trying to think of different ways to achieve a little balance and make more time for the things that are really important to me. Right now I'm leaning towards a very set computer time schedule and maybe nixing 'made to order' from the shop. You would still be able to purchase the items I make now, but not until I'm ready to make them up and relist them. I don't know, I think it may work. Shop owners, how do you do this? What works for you and what is maddening?
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2 little girls I met at the Big crafty selling their handmade potholders.

Obviously, there is no giveaway for today, but I do have winners of last week's giveaway.

Terri Sue
and
Star

I've already emailed you both. Get back to me with your pattern choices and I'll send them to you right away!