When my husband and I bought the house we live in, we were just two crazy single kids in love. We had been living in an apartment downtown over the city’s Republican headquarters (we weren’t spying, I swear!) and were shopping for a house because it was in the middle of that housing market thing where everyone and their dog was getting mortgages. We saw this house and thought it was just perfect for the two of us — two bedrooms, just enough space to be cozy but not cramped, tiny backyard we could put a garden in, monthly payments lower than our rent.

I remember the day we went to sign the papers. I had a gig that night at a local bar (in my past life I was a singer/songwriter with the guitar) and I dedicated my performance to Aaron because he “bought me a house” (I remember saying that in the mic to the bar and being really proud of him). After we got home though I didn’t feel so hot and got this weird sinking feeling. We stopped off at CVS and I picked up a pregnancy test. Surprise!!

Anyway, we’ve lived here for three years and we’ve made TONS of progress on the house, but it’s really tiny for our soon-to-be family of four. I find that I spend almost 90% of my home-time in one of two places and I thought I’d write a little about them both: my creative space/sewing area and my garden.

I share a sewing studio with my husband who uses the room as an office and all of this actually happens in our dining room. We’re in the process of finishing the attic for a studio but I honestly don’t know if it’ll happen. In the meanwhile, I make do with one bookshelf and have to keep most of my fabric and all of my bolts up in closets and wrapped up in storage.

I got my sewing desk at a thrift shop for $2, changed the hardware and painted it blue. It’s *just* big enough to fit my sewing machine and serger, but nothing else. Next to it, I have a shelf where I keep fabrics larger than half a yard that have been pre-washed.

The bookshelf opposite holds my inkpads, tape, the wraps that I use when I package orders, buttons and notions for yoyos. The second shelf is fat quarters and scraps and the third shelf has unwashed yardage and embroidery notions. In my dream world, this shelf is replaced by an Expedit shelf from Ikea (maybe this weekend cause they’re going to be on sale). The unfortunate thing about the dining room is that there isn’t a lot of wall space to put shelves.I’d love to have some place I can keep all my fabric and notions readily available, but that will not be my dining room for sure! One of the nice features of my dining room though is that our table has two extra leafs that pull out and it makes a nice cutting table (I just have to keep the rotary cutter off the tabletop).

My second sanctuary in this house is the garden, which I’ve blogged about before. In the last few weeks we’ve gotten a lot of progress done in the garden. We’ve installed rain barrels to collect the run-off water from our roof and that’s been AWESOME for watering our plots. Here’s our garden as of today:

We do square foot gardening and I’ve got three boxes. Two are veggies and one is just a wild herb bed. We also have a pepper patch, a strawberry patch, rhubarb (you can’t have strawberries without rhubarb!), some random eggplants and cabbage planted throughout our yard, and a big plot for garlic. This week we’re going to dig three trenches to try trench gardening some zucchini, squash and melons.

I think our garlic plot is my favorite so far this year because we did all the hard work for it last fall and it’s grown as if by magic (I’ve totally forgotten all the work we put in to it). I also like it because it’s along the side of our house next to the alley and I wonder what people think of it when they walk by! The elephant garlic plants are near the end and they are HUGE already! They probably stand nearly three feet tall at this point. We need to mulch it down again before it gets too hot, but I’m pretty stoked about all the garlic that is going to come up from this.

I probably spend as much time outside gardening this time of year as I do sewing. It helps that Sullivan is totally happy to be outside as much as possible (me sewing doesn’t seem to entertain him as much). It seems that we’re going to be living here for the next several years anyway and we’re both of the opinion that we need to make the most of it.

What is your creative space like? Do you have a sanctuary in your home? Blog about it and let me know the link!

With caffeine, all things are possible. That’s been Aaron’s mantra the past sixteen weeks and his efforts finally paid off on Friday when he finally got his BA. His family flew in Friday morning for the weekend and my mother came over and we all got to see him in his glorious robes and hat walking in commencement.

Saturday we had a little open house gathering (which Aaron decorated the above cake for). His parents played with Sullivan pretty much nonstop all weekend and we ate lots of chips and hummus and fruit salad and it was just really nice.

I had bad dreams last night though and got up at 6 a.m. this morning. Not much else to do, I made my second hat with the Clover patterns. I still haven’t gotten any pictures that do the hat justice to how cute it actually is!

Here are some more pictures of my weekend:

Am so, so tired! I either need some caffeine or I need to go to bed.

I did a bit of blog maintenance — light maintenance, that is, because the web department is all busy graduating today (harumph!). Now I have a sidebar with LINKS! Links to blogs that I read in my Google Reader! I was so thrilled when I found a wordpress plugin that could just import links from my reader, I gotta say. Some of the blogs I read are about food, some are about craft stuff and some are just people I know and love from the intertube!

I’ve been looking for a way to respond to comments that puts the response on my blog (as well as in your inbox), but no luck so far. If you know of such a plugin, please let me know!

In other blog-related news, the Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog is once again sponsoring a giveaway. Some of you might have done this in December. Basically, crafty blogs from all over the world are going to have giveaways on May 27. There will be a list of all the participating blogs on the SMS blog.

Well I’m going to be having a giveaway for this! YAY! Actually, I’m going to be giving away three different prizes that day! One will be cloth-pad related, one will be something handmade that is not cloth-pad related and one will be a yummy package of vintage craft supplies. You will have to come back to find out how to enter (you’ll need to leave a comment on a post, duh!). I just wanted to give you a heads up.

I finished a charm pack of yoyos and I calculated that I will only need 3560 more yoyos to finish my quilt top . Yes!! Other than that, I haven’t done much sewing this week because my in-laws are coming into town (they’ll be here in a few hours) and we’re having a graduation party for Aaron tomorrow.

I got an A- on my thesis project (the minus because I never bothered to write up an annotated bibliography) and an A on my poetry portfolio. I’m pretty happy with that! Oh and I got an A in my biology course which is a miracle! I think my poetry portfolio might be the beginnings of a chapbook too. This whole semester I had been thinking I wasn’t doing great work, but after looking at what I’ve produced, I’m pleased as punch.

Today I have a ton of stuff to get done and it’s going to be a crazy weekend! Until I blog again…

Friday afternoon, after catching up on some custom orders, I sat down with my $2 consignment shop fabric and cut out the Made By Rae spring ruffle top that was featured on the Sew Mama Sew blog last week. Despite being obnoxiously pregnant, the blouse fits perfectly (I may have alterned the ruffles a bit and added some to the length — Friday’s a haze right now!). I didn’t sew the pleats down and I’m pretty happy with that decision too (my chest is happier this way as well!). I can’t decide if it’s the shirt that makes my boobs look ginormous or if it’s just the pregnancy hormones… yikes!

The photo was taken after wearing the shirt all day and playing with Sullivan, which is why it’s sort of wrinkly. Sorry! And because I know everyone wants to see just how obnoxiously pregnant I am:

There you go!Yup. That belly is OUT THERE.

Things are going pretty good on the pregnancy front, I think. The wee lass is moving around quite a bit and I’m pretty much waddling around. I’m feeling much better after getting on some iron tablets and we have an ultrasound in a few weeks to see if my placenta has moved (I have previa). And then it’s just a few more weeks of waiting!

We honestly haven’t done a thing for the new baby. She and Sullivan are going to have to share a room, which means half of Sullivan’s things are going to have to be moved out. We’re planning on putting Sullivan’s crib back together and getting him a proper toddler bed too. It’s kind of funny, I had just gotten to the point where things didn’t need to be “baby proofed” and now here comes another! Hopefully she won’t be as tenacious as Sullivan (and of course, for the first six months or so, she’ll be largely immobile).

We just have to get through the next two weeks. My thesis is due on Wednesday! Aaron is graduating in two weeks and his parents are flying in for the weekend and we’re having a party. I’m so proud of my hubby! He’s been working so hard for his Bachelor’s degree — doing it while holding down a job at the same time. He’ll be getting a bachelors in natural science and math and an associates degree in chemistry all at the same time (he already has an associates in accounting).

Yesterday we visited with my parents and they found him a bicycle at a yard sale! I can’t believe he’s big enough to ride a bike yet, but apparently he’s not too far off from it. He loved sitting on it and being pushed around, but didn’t figure out how to pedal it. We had to leave it at my parents house because our neighborhood isn’t safe enough for little kids on bikes (unfortunately). But he can ride it whenever we go over there to visit (and hopefully we’ll be moving in a couple years anyway).

That’s my mom. Isn’t she pretty?

Aaron’s trying to show him how it’s done.

I have more craft stuff to take pictures of and blog about, but it’s thesis time!

I actually went to the ceramics lab yesterday evening, intent on working on my teapot project for a few hours. It’s the second of two projects we were supposed to have finished by the end of the semester (which is next week). As you can see, I still need to build a spout and handle and I know I’m not going to get anything glazed before the semester is over. My ceramics instructor assures me though that I shouldn’t worry about my grade and he’ll let me come in and finish up over the summer.

Well I actually left early because I wasn’t feeling very well and sitting in the hard plastic chairs hurt and I figured I’d come home and sew and pack orders to mail out. Instead, twenty minutes after I got home we were running around like headless chickens packing up the dog to take to the emergency vet because he was spewing blood out of the wrong end. The bad end… Let me just say it was the grossest thing I’ve ever seen (and I’ve given birth!). I was so scared and after what happened with Frank (our cat), I was really worried I was going to lose another pet.

The dog means quite a bit to me. He’s my dog. Bowie, it turns out, just got into some garbage or ate a dead bird or something and had a bad bacterial infection. He got some shots and some meds and the vet sent us home last night. He spent the night and most of today penned up in the kitchen so he wouldn’t make a mess on the carpet, but he’s feeling much better today and hasn’t had any accidents.

The whole episode was really traumatic for me and I’m just not sure how I’d deal if something went wrong with one of my kids.  Nothing got sewn, packed or shipped yesterday so now I’m behind on orders for the etsy shop. I didn’t have time to do anything today either — with the sick dog and the toddler who was really upset because the dog was sick and had to be in another room.

It’s been raining all week long and we’ve had serious cabin fever. After our post office trip today I took Sullivan to the library and we stopped in at this new consignment shop in town. I managed to score a new rotary cutter, four fat quarters and two yards of a Robert Kaufman cotton print for $9! Fantastic! That was my prize for surviving yesterday, I think.

Today marks my two year anniversary of selling cloth pads on etsy! I have to say, I was planning on doing something extra spech for the whole thing, but I got so preoccupied with Bowie I totally forgot and really, wouldn’t have had any time to anyway. Tomorrow is going to be all about working to catch up on orders!

Despite being insanely busy, this week actually was pretty good. And it’s about to get better because I’m waiting for dear husband to come home with a big black bean burger smothered in jalapenos!

Saturday I went to our local fabric store, The Stitching Nook. They were having a big truck sale (they’re a Viking/Husqvarna dealer) and I got a new serger!

It’s a Huskylock 936.It’s not the Babylock Imagine Wave I had been lusting over, but I’m so so so so happy with this machine and I got a great deal at the truck sale, I couldn’t pass it up! It has a 5-thread overlock and can do a cover-stitch! COVER STITCH PEOPLE! I will so be making all of my own pants now! I’m still getting to know my new serger. I haven’t been able to serge those sharp corners like I could on my little Janome, but I’m confident that I’ll get there!

Tuesday I almost got my pot finished in ceramics class. I’m sorry all I have is a crappy camera phone pic right now. I’ll bring my camera to class next week and take better photos. I’ve been carving robots into it and I carved the last robot. I just need to let it dry out a bit and then do a final sanding. I’ve got one last project too, but I’m not 100% sure I’ll finish it (it’s a teapot) by the time the semester’s over (in two weeks! OMG!).

On Wednesday I gave my presentation for my senior seminar project. This is the “thesis” I’m supposed to write in order to graduate with that highly coveted BA in English. My project is all about rendering English language haiku and whether or not the Japanese cultural aesthetics associated with the classical form are translatable for (specifically) American writers. In my paper I explore haiku as a form, as a genre and as a spiritual path that writers undertake. It’s all very interesting if you’re into haiku, I promise! Otherwise it might be a little tedious. Well the good news is that despite my babysitter being sick and having to take Sullivan to class with me (and that was a disaster, let me tell you! My two year old is definitely not ready for college!), my presentation went really well and my paper is almost done. I was so exhausted after wrangling Sullivan and doing the presentation that I totally skipped my poetry class.

I managed a shop update with a new kind of pad pattern! You can see and read all about my hot new fold-out pad here (I won’t bore those who aren’t interested in menstrual products ). I spent yesterday and today working on the serger and practicing mostly.

I did a little bit of thrifting on Thursday too.

I managed to score some old Raggedy Ann and Andy pictures for the kids room (that sounds weird to say… kids) for a cool buck. I got Sullivan a whole box of unused coloring books for $2. AND I got a floor quilting/embroidery hoop for a dollar, but it’s still in the trunk of the car because I’m not sure where I’m going to put it (have I mentioned that I need a studio for all my craft stuff?).

I did start a little fun sewing project, but I haven’t had the chance to take pics, so I’ll blog about it more whenI have visual aids.

We also managed to get outside for a bit today. It was like, 70 degrees out!

This is our garlic crop. It’s planted on the side of our house next to the alley. I just hope no one tries to steal it once it’s ready for harvest!!

Last pic, I promise:

Until I blog again!!

Sullivan’s birthday party was a big hit. He got lots of loot and we were all in sugar comas by the end of the day. Coupled with Easter today… well, let’s just say there’s a lot of chocolate in this house. A LOT.

A lady in my ceramics class baked the cake for us and she did a fantastic job. It was a 3D train cake and Sullivan was very impressed. We had lots of balloons and lots of hummus and homemade pizza. I wish I would have taken more photos, but I was too busy having fun. Well, there are lots of photos on my flickr stream.

I had a chance to give my mother her birthday present that I hinted at on another post.

This purse was made from a pattern in the Japanese craft book Natural Fabric Zakka & Komono Pattern Vol. 2 that I got from Pomadour24 on eBay (she also has an etsy shop with the same username). The ISBN number is 4-8347-2492-1 if you need to buy it elsewhere. It’s a really cute and fun book. I’ve got my eye on some other Japanese craft books — specifically clothing patterns, but I’m holding off till I’m not obnoxiously pregnant anymore.

I don’t know when the next shop update will be. I have a few things to list, but don’t expect a lot for the next two weeks. My thesis presentation is due a week from Wednesday, which means I should probably start working on it, right?

I have managed to start a new section on this website that explains cloth menstrual pads — since I get a lot of questions about that through email and etsy, hopefully this will be a starting point to answer those. I’ve only got three pages written and it’s a work-in-progress, but I have outlines for the other pages and I’m excited about finishing it.

Okay, I have to go figure out something for dinner tonight. Preferably something that doesn’t contain lots and lots of sugar!

There has been so SO much going on. I just don’t even know where to start.

That is what 60 pads look like all piled up on my dining room table! That has been the monster project I’ve been working on ALL MONTH in addition to sewing and stocking the etsy shop and trying* to keep up with schoolwork. I have to say, I’m SO glad that they are now out of my house! That was officially the biggest order I’ve ever fulfilled and it really wiped so much out of me. I mentioned in my last post that I have been anemic? Well I haven’t even had the energy to work my snap press — so I had to enlist my hubby to help with that.

I’m feeling much better now though. On Friday I attended and presented at the university undergraduate Women’s & Gender Studies conference. That was really cool, but I feel like it took me an entire week to prepare for it and the whole weekend to recover! My thesis presentation is due in two weeks and I haven’t even started that part of it! Ooops! At least ceramics is going well.

Last night in ceramics I started carving robots in my pot. Aaron doodles these adorable robots and I made him draw some for me to trace and carve in my ceramics project. I actually had a lot of fun in class last night. It was so relaxing to just be out of the house.

Sullivan’s turning TWO on Saturday so of course I have to plan an elaborate party now. I’m sure this will eat up most of the next few days and I’ll need another week to recover from that. I have a lot of gifts planned that I need to make him still. Ooops! Basically my plan is to sew all day Thursday and Friday and then the party is Saturday. I’ll have a bunch of homework due on Sunday that will probably keep me busy all day too. Uggh!

If I haven’t replied to your etsy convo it’s not because I’m ignoring you! Well, if you’re wanting me to do work, maybe I am putting you off a little bit though — just because things are so hectic at the moment! Having that big order out of the way has gone a long way to de-stress me, but there’s lots of stress in the future because I’m wrangling with suppliers right now. Basically, a few things about my products will have to change because of the way I’d been getting materials.

For example, I have about seven yards of hemp left and NO IDEA when I’ll be able to get some more at a low enough price that it’s even feasible to continue to use it. Prices on materials have gone up significantly lately and what I paid for my last few bales is no longer, unfortunately. I’ve got some organic cotton that I’m going to start phasing into my shop once I have time to cut and prep it all. I think that organic cotton is the choice for me. I know that most other pad makers are really into bamboo, but I just haven’t found an economical weight of fleece that is as durable as hemp or cotton. I think bamboo is great for tops and bamboo velour is very lush and so much softer than hemp velour (bamboo is pretty much the softest type of fleece out there too), BUT I just don’t think it’s a good match for me right now — and I always pick materials and fabrics that I would choose for my own pads.

The other thing that is going to have to change is the snaps I currently use. When I bought my snap press I didn’t know much about them — and I bought a certain brand that I’ve never been very happy with. Well I found out I can get a custom set of dyes for my press so that I can use other snaps. I may or may not then be switching to metal snaps. I’m still in the “testing” phase for the snaps I want to use. Until then, the only color poly-resin snaps I can offer is taupe. I want to use up what I have left of the old snaps before I make the switch.

Okay, there’s more, but I’ve got to get some work done around the house because I have a full day of classes today!

Uh. This is pretty much how I feel right now! (we were doing plaster casting at ceramics last night too and someone wanted a cast of a baby doll face…)

So it turns out that the reason I’ve felt so droopy lately is that I’ve been super anemic! My midwife thinks that my diet is good, but I don’t eat enough. Of course, it’s not like I have time to eat. So I got some iron pills today and hopefully I’ll start to perk up. I had my glucose test and that is all good. Good blood pressure and everything else checks out. Just really really low iron.

I spent most of last night and this morning near or in tears because I was so miserable and tired and I couldn’t think at all. I’m glad that it turns out there’s a potential medical reason and I’m not just going crazy or am being really lazy!

I got 20 yards of organic cotton in the mail today and I’ve been so tired that I haven’t even opened it to look at it. I’m going to do a small dye lot of five different colors — maybe this weekend or next week, depending on when I have the energy back. I don’t want to overwork myself because last night I was so stressed out and exhausted I started dry heaving and the midwife told me that can cause contractions to start, which I totally don’t need right now.

I need to relax. I want to relax. I just have to have some time to relax. I’ve got five more weeks of school left (five more weeks to finish my thesis! OIY) and then about 6 weeks after school ends I think I’ll have the baby. So those six weeks should be like my resting quiet time, right?

Yeah, not with a silly Sullivan busting into my inkpad stash when I’m distracted by google reader…

I really need a vacation. Somewhere warm and tropical please! Even though I got a lot done today I once again have swollen feet and I’m practically in labor I’m so uncomfortable right now.

I updated the etsy shop with some raw silk liners and hand-dyed hemp liners I found cuts of in my scrap bag. I also managed to make it to the rehersal for the Women’s Studies conference I’m attending Friday (and presenting a paper at) — despite a very late stuck-in-traffic husband AND a never-ending paper jam on my printer. Dishes, lunch, laundry, motherly duties, grocery shopping, etc., yeah. Check those off for the day.

However my list of things I want to have done and my list of things I’m actually able to do seems to be really out of sync! I can’t figure out how some moms do it. I’m so jealous of those crafty mom blogs I read who make all their baby’s clothes and run successful businesses and write inspiring crafty books and post photos of their artfully decorated and immaculate houses! I feel so behind on everything and that I’m always running to catch up. Any good time-management tips for people with little people AND businesses AND school AND hobbies? Maybe I just want it all!

At least I want an artfully decorated and immaculate house. Hmmmm.