Bringing it All Back Home

I'm sitting at the kitchen table a cup of warm tea by my side and I am staring at our grateful bowl. Our grateful bowl is a coconut -like shell bowl filled with trinkets,seashells, tiny pine cones, rocks and special buttons. Each night or before any meal we try to pick one special item from the bowl and share what we are thankful for. I have so much to be thankful for in this new year. I'm thankful for this new little person we call Guthrie Jackson. Born in July,what a big, silly, boy he is becoming. He delights us all- it is especially wonderful to watch his big 4 year old sister, Hazel tend to him. Making him laugh, dancing, singing, feeding him she is doing great at being a mama's best helper!

I'm also grateful for our view. Since our house is just a wee little cottage, I can see the beautiful, frozen lake from my kitchen table. Mostly frozen you can see the occasional swan making it's way through. A beautiful winter sight.

The holidays came and left so quickly this year. I think I am still in a fog- daily I am getting headaches, not exactly sure why but I have a sneaky suspicion that my sugar intake as of the last year has something to do with it. I have started to make small changes- in my coffee ( which I don't really drink a lot of) I use honey as the sweetener of choice. The same goes for making hot cocoa (which I have at least 1 cup a day). I didn't make any real, hardy resolutions, but in my head there are a few mantras I have yet to put on paper.

This holiday season, our little shop Hobocamp Crafts was busy enough, but I have not put much new in the shop. However I have things in my shop I made before I even had children and luckily they are not food-based so they sit in my shop waiting for the right owner to scoop them up! 

Lately I have been sewing for my family.Something I usually feel guilty doing. I guess I think that if I am sewing for the house or myself- I could be sewing something to make and sell and bring in money... it's kind of a curse doing something you love sometimes. But ANYHOW- For Christmas I made a bunch of pillows (Joann's was selling beautiful upholstery samples) that I made use of by making sweet, little pillows for my mother and mother-in-law. I made Hazel a crayon roll and all of the girls got cute little pillows made from recycled t-shirts. This is really one of the easiest and aesthetically pleasing, quick gifts to make. It also is super eco-friendly. Saving your favorite t-shirt and cutting it into a square, rectangle or even the perimeter of the design. You can use a machine or by hand. Add little tags of ribbon peeking out of the edge- use crazy buttons to accentuate the design (eyes perhaps?!). Either way it ends up being adorable, kids love it and you can reuse and open up an old pillow for stuffing, use sewing scraps and wool or put anything soft and pillow-like inside... maybe even add some dried herbs like lavender. I also made our new addition, Guthrie a tag blanket and some other things that my brain-fogged memory is forgetting.

Since Hazel is now 4! We thought for a brief moment she might get to go to Kindergarten in September, but the cut off date is Dec 1st. She was born Dec 2nd-- how lame, can you even believe that! But honestly, when this all came to a head the other day I felt anxious that a year- our last year together- would have been taken so quickly. I've vowed to myself that although she'll be in preschool 3 days a week- I'd like to try and home school her the rest of the time. Look into an actual curriculum otherwise I worry she will be very bored in the 3rd year of preschool.

So basically, not a whole lot has changed since I last blogged here. I want to try to sneak away and share a little bit each day even if it is just a paragraph. I'm off Facebook at the moment (well because anyone who uses FB knows there is a time a a place for taking a hiatus) and frankly right before the new year was my time and it feels really great!

Hope your new year is shaping up too!

Irene Goodnight

Autumnal Wee Pennant, originally uploaded by hobocampcrafts.

I had to use this title. On the way home from the pharmacy tonight, I saw it written on at least 3 of the churches I passed. Since my mother, my daughter and I all have such a connection to this song and all weathered the storm- it made sense.
I won't lie, I was very scared for the storm. I didn't know what to expect and as the weather changes for the new season we are taking the blows as homeowners. Before when it rained or snowed or we had a bad storm- as long as we were out of the weather we were OK. Now there is a little bit more at stake, like our livelihood and the roof of this little cottage. Thankfully all the trees huddled close and the root cellar soaked up what water did leak in. Sunday night, Zach tore off the tape I had put up on one of the windows and we breathed a sigh of relief. We were very fortunate. Many of our friends are still out of electric and water etc. Everyone is working as hard as can be.

Next week Hazel starts school. This week we went to their Clean Up Day to familiarize her with the kids and toys.

Today I stitched this pennant. More soon!

Sale in the Shop!

To gear up for Fall, we are featuring our button bags on SALE for $25. Regularly $40. These are durable, sweet bags with hand-stitched button designs. Zach, who does most of the sewing for these projects- made one for Hazel- that she uses as her Halloween treat bag... although he must have made it with a whole in the bottom because he ends up with all the candy!


I was pretty pregnant in the last photo! I look pretty tired too lol! These totes are perfect for carrying a few books, magazines, knitting or the like. If you use the word HOBO in the message- you'll get free shipping~
visit the shop!

xo
M

Wednesday

Hi There!


I'm trying to make my way back into doing... sewing, blogging and turning a small profit from Hobocamp. Hazel will be 3 in December and since she was born and I became sick I have had just enough energy to get me through the day only to pass out on the couch at 7 o'clock. Thankfully, Zach is willing to put her down almost every night so I can fold clothes,sew, clean and or just relax. The last few nights I have used my time for sewing.. so there are a few things I want to share this week. I always wanted to start fall (my beloved season) early... I have my fabrics out and that is just what I have been doing.






Along with the cuffs, I've been mending clothes for Hazel. We think we may have found a preschool for her that is affordable and seems to be a perfect place for our special girl to grow. I would love to homeschool her through her preschool years- but I think what she needs most is socialization with children. She knows her Alphabet to & fro, she can count to 30- and has a great vocabulary (forgive me for being so proud!) but what she really does need is the play with kids .. so I do hope this all works out.

Back to the grind- school hasn't started yet and our swim lessons at the lake have ended- I'm so grateful for the story times at local libraries to keep somewhat of a schedule for us. We've really been trying to stay busy. My diet and medication are still amazingly working... so grateful for that. So grateful for many things.

More Updates to come- New Cuffs in the Shop Now!
here!

A Quick Update

A Pretty Old picture- because Hazel still has her Binky- but maybe right after we got Bella- Novemberish. You know how I love the fall & bundling-up weather! They both look so sweet here- I couldn't resist!

Lately I have been devoting a small block of time to serious couponing. I've always used coupons, but after watching TLC's Extreme Couponing, I have started to look at coupons in a different more serious way. OUr savings have really doubled, if not tripled.. It does make me feel better about how I am contributing- however we are still using the same amount of money and are not able to get it down like the people do in the show. Again we are in NY and it seems like prices and stores are more strict..? Anyhow, I'll show you a couple of my free or super cheap items very soon!

This Friday will be Zach and my 5 year anniversary of marriage and our 1 year anniversary of buying our little cottage! We've accomplished a lot- but there is still so much to do. I feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of yard work... we still don't have a fence, which makes living on a busy road scary. I feel like I can't turn my back with a little one. I can't pull weeds and get on my knees and plant and I know I am complaining- I just have a fear of the yard without the fence. So we've got to work on it. Then the poison ivy...it's growing and since I was little all I needed to do was look at it the wrong way and I'd wake up covered in it. So pulling those weeds are kind of scary.

Uploading current pictures has been a challenge, I don't get a lot of computer time- since Zach now works from home and I've been a little lazy. But I am going to try to work on that too. In Hobocamp news- we've got some new ideas bubbling and my machine has been stitching away. I just snagged some more velcro for these:

in the swing

This will be short, because I think part of why I took such a hiatus from this little place was because the blogging was feeling like I HAD to do it rather than I WANTED to. Funny how our brains work sometimes! After our computer crashed- we lost practically everything. I was grateful to have this blog and be able to reminisce and see all that I posted over the years.

Hazel is 2 1/2, I have been on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet since March and it's working! My Colitis is mostly always in check and I am able to better understand what I can and can't eat. Zach has switched jobs and is now able to work from home with exception for 1-2 days a week when he travels into the city. So much is changing. Our cats still lounge and meow at us to fetch them food, Bella the puppy dog still chews everything in sight- but she's trying. We've got a wee container garden.. Ozark strawberries, tons of basil ( my favorite thing to grow), tomatoes,lavender,beans,cilantro,Russian kale and spearmint & apple mint.

Way Back When...

Some New Items in the Shop! Snack Bags!

This little girl is my WHOLE world!

silly big boy Jasper

and Papa's world too-- Iron girl?!


We are coming on 1 year of home ownership- which is kind of crazy! We love it- but had NO idea just how tough it was going to be. Every day we try to make a little bit of progress, whether it's hanging a picture frame,switching out curtains or hanging a new plant. The nesting still goes on. The crafting is starting up and I am trying to climb out of the cold weather funk. Inspiration come to me~

springy

This was the scene in our house about 2 1/2 weeks ago when first Hazel came down with a virus/flu, then I came down with it and papa soon followed. It was scary to have a babe with a 103 temp, but we were able to keep it under control and this little bean was quite the trooper. Happily we are all feeling better and I think looking forward to a sunnier, brighter day moving forward.

On the sunnier note, I attended a gardening seminar at a local library today. I was grateful my mother could babysit,since Zach was helping his brother. I got a large packet chock full of info and some great tips. I wish there was more time for the master gardener to speak about organic gardening, but I did see yet another event focusing solely on organic gardening. Not too much going on here, choosing seeds and plants and containers. I thought we'd do raised beds, but I am leaning more towards containers- with the spotty sunlight we get. More soon~
Happy Spring~