I have so many ideas for this site and my shop, but they all have to wait. My real job is going nuts right now. After a painfully slow spring and summer, I’m getting hit hard with new clients, new projects, and tons of crazy deadlines. I’m absolutely not complaining. It’s actually a huge relief and I’m rocking it, but it means that my sewing machine will be collecting dust for a while longer.

I can only promise to try to get back here soon and share some pictures of a few things I managed to make last month before things got completely out of hand. And I definitely do still plan to restock the shop with fall/winter items. I have a few prototypes already, and plenty of supplies. It’s really just a matter of production time.

In the meantime, I’m proud to announce that I now have my own tab on Offbeat Mama — check out the brand spanking new Resources page!

And I’ll close with a moment of cute from DandelionBoy’s uber-crafty robot-themed 2nd birthday party:

DandelionBoy has been doing a lot of painting lately, and I was inspired by my friend Nikole to do something interesting with his creations. A dear friend has been going through a very difficult time, so we made her this banner.

Tonight I’m prepping rectangles of fabric for a communal prayer flag crafting project at the annual Meadowfabulous campout this weekend. I look forward to sharing photos of how that turns out!

Welcome Offbeat Mamas! I’m very excited to be featured by my friend Ariel on her wonderful Offbeat Mama blog today. Her post includes a SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER for my shop — so don’t miss it!!

If this is your first time here, thanks so much for visiting! My little business is still in its infancy, but I’m doing my best to pick up speed. I hope you’ll check out my Etsy shop and definitely let me know if you have any custom requests.

More new items coming as fast as I can manage, with this little dude demanding my attention.

“It’s hard to be a badass when you’re wearing a unicorn shirt,” says Deanna. But I think she does an impressive job in this picture.

I loved doing this custom order for her and her niece. There will be more unicorn toddler shirts and baby onesies in the shop within the next few weeks, and I’m also working on some dinosaur options. Both will be on colorful organic cotton. Yay!

I’ve been busy with my real job, which is a good thing, but it hasn’t left much time for other types of creating. The most crafty thing I’ve had to blog for the past week was this little needlepoint rainbow house that I found at Goodwill for 99 cents. It had a dingy frame, but I just spray-painted it with some paint I had around for another project and now I love it. The year 1981 is written in marker on the back.

We finished the bookshelves and I spent some glorious hours sorting through my long lost paperfriends retrieved from storage.

It may not look like it, but I actually did manage to do some serious purging. We took several boxes of books to Twice Sold Tales, where they were joyfully received and earned us $90 in credit. Also, one of their roving kitties delighted DandelionBoy by nibbling a steady stream of treats from his hand.

But even with all that free credit, I was forced to go to Elliott Bay Books and purchase Patti Smith’s Just Kids on Monday. I just couldn’t wait another day for the paperback to come out after listening to the two-part Bookworm interview. And as of page 113, Patti has not let me down. This book is wonderful – honest, eloquent, fascinating, empathetic, and inspiring. It’s been a torment to put it down every time I’ve had to, and I think this may end up being the first time in a very long time that I’ll finish a book in under a week. There are plenty of other more practically urgent things for me to do, but ever since the bookshelf project I have been powerless over the drive to glue my face to a printed page as often as possible.

This is a photograph of a public art project by members of the French Canadian BIJIOS collective. I found them through Abigail Doan’s inspiring art blog. To the degree I can understand it, since their blog is in French, their work seems fantastic, but the real reason I’m blogging this image is because I’m obsessed with those folding wooden boxes. They’ve been tapping at the back of my brain for a couple weeks now. Aren’t they freaking gorgeous?

Apparently there are quite a few vintage wooden folding sewing boxes out there, but this particular design is just so beautiful. I love the way it seems to arch its wings as it fans outward. It’s a true fantasy for an obsessive organizer like me. I have no idea what I’d put in it, but I could come up with a dozen great possibilities. That would be half the fun — deciding what was worthy of the box, arranging objects in each compartment, carefully juxtaposing colors and shapes, creating beautiful vignettes that also serve my creative efforts.

I realize I sound dreadfully avaricious. I WANT ONE. Unfortunately, the only similar one I’ve seen so far on Ebay is $50, including shipping, so I’m going to have to wait a little while before splurging.

Another busy week with only the tiniest of baby steps taken in terms of growing the shop. This weekend we’ll have DandelionBoy’s baby cousin in town, along with his mama and papa, so things will just have to wait a little longer.

Here’s something to brighten your day – UNICORNS! These are four color samples I put together for a custom order of two adult shirts inspired by this onesie.

Also, we’re well on our way to having my dream bookshelves in our bedroom. Once we get the rest of the shelves up, we’ll be able to take a bunch of boxes of books out of storage, which is going to make me SO HAPPY.

Lately I’ve been worrying that some people may be turned off from buying some of my stuff because it’s made from used materials, especially the vintage bed sheets. This thought occurred to me before I even launched the shop, but I didn’t want to plant seeds of doubt in anyone’s mind, so I didn’t address it head on. However, after some consideration, I’ve decided that it couldn’t hurt to offer some reassurance. Even as a diehard thrifter who loves upcycled goodies, I know I would appreciate knowing that a crafter took cleanliness and quality seriously, especially if I was purchasing something that should only be washed in cold water.

So today I added the following at the end of all my upcycled clothing listings:

ABOUT VINTAGE MATERIALS

When I choose vintage bed sheets, pre-worn clothing, and other used materials for my work, I examine them carefully for stains and damage. I then scrupulously machine wash them in hot water, usually twice, including a rinse cycle with baking soda, to ensure that they are 100% sanitary and fresh-smelling. If small imperfections remain, I either use them as inspiration for embellishment (stitching, appliqué, etc.) or avoid using that area of the fabric. You can be confident that all upcycled items from the Vocabulary are clean and pristine.

Thoughts? Feedback? Did this concern occur to you? Do you think this note will adequately address it? Is there anything else I should consider or add?

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of Etsy, and I was going to try to meet a few fellow crafters at the Etsy Craft Party at Vermilion Gallery here on Cap Hill. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it for a variety of boring family logistics reasons. But I still wanted to share the cute business cards I made in preparation.

I’m feeling good about my most recent shop addition, the haiku nighties, and finishing up a few more baby items before embarking on something new. I have to keep remembering that this is a side project and (so far at least) the business model is not remotely viable as anything more than (eventually, hopefully) a small trickle of supplementary income — even if I get to the point where I sell as much as I can physically produce in the time I have available.

My real goal is to justify time and space for my creativity. Making things helps me think and keeps me inspired. When I feel like a boring person who does nothing but work and do laundry and change diapers and read picture books about ducks, this project gives me an excuse to open up one of the many drawers in my office that are stuffed to bursting with scraps of beautiful fabric, scribbled ideas, journals, and other signs of life that remind me that there’s more to me than my daily responsibilities and that it’s been there all along. When I do this, I’m more likely to write, more likely to take care of my body, and more likely to do all kinds of other great things that I want to prioritize in my life.

So, I’m trying to keep it simple. That means keeping the marketing side of things as minimal as my years of working in marketing allow, not stressing about turning a profit, and focusing on the creative process. Make what I can make, sell what I can sell, and keep exploring. That’s my creative manifesto – for now, at least.

I’m still trying to get the hang of making time to blog again. I hope you’ll bear with me. The past week was super-busy. I’m working on a new website for a massage therapist friend, making lots of stuff for the shop (nighties available by Tuesday at the latest, I PROMISE), managing a ton of house and finance stuff (including refinancing our car – FUN!), and getting repeatedly bitten by the spring cleaning bug (before & after shots may be coming soon). Plus, there’s that little matter of spending most of my waking hours with an extremely busy toddler.

This is a post I started almost a week ago…

One of the best things about sewing more is the opportunity to really listen to music. I listen to podcasts sometimes too (especially This American Life and the New Yorker fiction), but lately I’ve mostly been blissing out on indie pop and folk. I have to thank our extraordinarily talented PT nanny Shenandoah Davis for introducing me to a lot of it. Her music has been such a fantastic bonus to having her in our lives, and DandelionBoy loves her so much.

I thought I’d share a few of my recent faves:

Laura Marling – I’m warming up to her new album but the original EP and first album are amazing.

French Quarter - I had never heard of Stephen Steinbrink until his band played in a show at 20/20 Cycle with Shenandoah and some other folks. So young and so talented, and this little album is such a gem. I love every song. I’ve probably played this more than anything else the past couple weeks.

First Aid Kit – These Swedish sisters can SING, and that’s pretty much all I have to say about why their music is awesome. Thanks to Lori for the heads up about their show at the Vera Project, which was fantastic.

Samantha Crain – She blew me away when she opened for First Aid Kit at the Vera Project. She’s considered folk or even country (!) and some songs definitely fit that bill, but there’s a lot more going on here. Her MySpace influences give you a bit of an idea: radiohead, berry, sam cooke, jason molina, sleater-kinney, anais nin, breece d’j pancake, fritz scholder.

I’m also joining everyone else in loving Janelle Monae’s new ArchAndroid. I’ve even been trying to get my legs to cooperate in doing the tightrope dance. And, after burning out on it a few months ago, I’ve revived my love for the dreamy, exotic Suburbs of Goa stream on somafm.

I’m still tweaking the sizing and trying to get good photographs, but I can hardly wait to get some women’s clothing items into the shop. I’ve got three skirts almost ready to go, and I’ve almost pinned down the design for a sweet and summery short nightie that I’ll be able to make to order in a variety of vintage fabrics. Here’s a quick sneak peek of the first fabric combo. Just a couple more days till I can show you more!