Hobos & Little Birds

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!