Source: prudentbaby.com via Joriel on Pinterest

Behold my collection, happily toasting in the windowsill.

Succulents are the perfect plants – gorgeous, virtually infinite in variety and color, and nearly impossible to kill. All I need is more windowspace!

Click to see all of yelahneb's beautiful photos on Flickr

I’m waiting for details and hoping that a dozen people didn’t respond before I did. We wouldn’t get our own plot because it’s all communal, so I’m not sure exactly how the planning and planting process works, but I’m optimistic. DandelionBoy and I have been really really really wanting to work a bit of land. We planted a little container garden on our back patio a couple weeks ago, even taking a chance on some shade-tolerant veggies (carrots, kale, and mizuna lettuces). It’s been a lot of fun, but some of them are already looking peaked. There’s just not enough sun back there! Fingers crossed…

I saw this image on a sticker a long while back, and I decided there should be a word for when you add roots or branches to something else, or otherwise make something like a tree. Like anthropomorphize, but for trees instead of people. The obvious choice was “arbormorphic” and, not surprisingly, it’s already in use and I just couldn’t recall hearing it before. Here’s an example of something cool, geeky, and  arbormorphic.

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:

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.