Art Star Recap

Well we are just about recovered from the events of the past few weeks (the prepartions, the traveling, the show). Aside from the insane wind on the first day, the weather was amazing last weekend. I was really happy with my booth by about 4:30 on Sunday when I finally had everything set up the way I wanted it. You'd have to ask my SIL to be sure but I think I was asleep for the entire first day. I sort of let her communicate with the customers as well as recieve any complements that rolled in. Sometimes it's hard for me to do that stuff especially if I haven't slept well in a week. Mostly a lot of sloppy silly sentences would have spewed out of me if I had opened my mouth on that first day.

After the show was over we had tons of great food on both days. Saturday we stopped for chinese food- which is something we have given up on lately because Lancaster/Pittsburgh have really bad vegetarian options. But China town is awesome. We ate at Singapore Vegetarian and I can't wait to go back there again when we are in Philly this July. Yum! I got the Pepper "Steak" and it was so good. On Sunday we stopped at Govinda's on our way out of town for the "Chicken Cheese Steak". Also very tasty, although I probably could have eaten five of them-
I was hungry Ok? Long weekend.

The biggest let down of the weekend was not being able to put up the whole display the way I had imagined it. It was just too windy to have the wall of my tent up, so i couldn't put up my cute little sweater gallery display that I was planning. Someday

I'll have that all up and running to show you.
The best part of the weekend was meandering around the bazaar with my little M2. She was having a meltdown extraordinaire so I took her for a little walk. We got to see all the other vendors and pick out all of our favorite treasures. She was so nice to spend time with once she calmed down a little from all the excitement of the trip.

For most of the time Whatshisface took the kids around to see all the sights of the city like the Liberty Bell, Old City, Museums. He even got C3 a little Betsy Ross hat so she wouldn't burn in the bright sunlight.

C3 Snuggling with her new Tigerflight squirrel "Sophie"

We made some purchases. M1 and C3 got some sweet new plushies from Tigerflight.
M1 with her new owl.

M2 got a little Timmy the tadpole from So Softies complete with his own sweater. Of course M2 then proceeded to ransack my inventory and dress Timmy up in one of my Dolly Seamonster Hoods. Evidently I now make Timmy the Tadpole gear knockoffs?

Timmy the Tadpole in his octopus costume.
And of course the weekend wouldn't be complete without a surprise visit from my parents. M2 was especially happy for some quality Popop time.

M2 with Popop behind the booth overlooking the Delaware River

Many thanks to all our friends and family who came to support us this weekend. And of course thanks to all the wonderful Philly customers. We had a really great time.

New Old Fabrics

This weekend was all about the fabric. I spent most of last week designing and tweaking some fabrics to print with Spoonflower. I wanted to design my own hankies to use for these fun Lumpkin hobo sacks I've been selling for awhile.

I designed this hanky in four colors and it is right at this minute being printed on 100% organic cotton sateen over at Spoonflower...

I have a bunch of new little treats to fill in the sacks too. I'm really pleased with how these little bindles have evolved. They are very popular at craft shows since they are so inexpensive and sweet. So I'll be making LOTS of these for Art Star.

.............................

In other fabric news- My SIL and I went to the Salvation Army Fabric Fair on Saturday and let me just tell you I got a crazy amount of fabric for the amazing price of $35.00! Crrrrazy!

There are at least 40 yards of fabric here. It was AMAZING! I can't wait for next year. They are so efficient there with the tables and the check out. They had tons of notions, patterns and yarn that I didn't even bother looking at due to my already overstimulated head. Plus they had huge bolts of fabrics for sale too. I'm just so happy to have such a great source of good vintage/ second hand fabrics to use for Lumpkin so close by.
Some of the fabric contents are a little suspect. They had them on the tables marked COTTONS, but I may have to put them under the microscope and see for sure.
...........................

I also sent this design over to Spoonflower. I might not have time to make much with this print for Art Star but I will surely be offering these as fat quarters there. It's a very cute watercolor Lumpy combined with my new Lumpkin colors.


Everything is coming along nicely. Now I just have to figure a way to keep up with this Lumpkin work and clean up my house for an upcoming visit from family in a couple weeks. Ha! somethings gotta give soon. I have a feeling I'll have to lay off Lumpkin for a couple days in favor of some clean toilets and fur-free floors.
I'll be back later this week!

Luxe Lumpy Pod

I just listed three of these in the shop this weekend. I've been working on these little Lumpkin playsets for awhile. In 2008 they were in their own little tote with all of their accessories- they were a big hit. I sold out at craft shows before I ever had a chance to list them in the online shop. This past Christmas 2009 I debuted the pod style of the less "Luxe" version made of recycled cottons and wools and again they sold out immediately in one day! I sold this "Luxe" version in an unfinished form at last Summer's Crafty Bastards but they were missing the pod (I hadn't invented that yet) and they had no pillows either. So I finally finished them and here they are...

Hand-batiked Organic Cotton Lumpkin
Wool stuffing
Hand-embroidered...

Hand made mini quilt reverses to an embroidered place setting.
Pink/Burgundy pillow.
Recycled wool Pod dwelling.

Mind you, this is not the traditional habitat for Lumpkins (they usually live in hollowed out gourds) I think of this as more of a Lumpkin camp out.

It really is a wonderful little mini playset to keep in a child's pocket or a mama's bag in case an emergency play session is in order.
Have I mentioned that I LOVE these?

cut ahead three months...

... aaand here we are. It's been a while. I've finally settled into this Pittsburgh place and I'm starting to feel right at home. I've been waiting to come back to this blog until I was ready to come back for good. And here I am. Ready as I'll ever be. I'm hoping to blog at least 3 times per week. (new goal) I've been really busy working and planning lately. This week I'm going to apply to my first craft show of the year. I gave the blog and etsy shop a little face lift. I've begun to experiment with a new look for my product photography and I think I'm just about there. It feels good to peek my head out of the ground just in time for Spring. Doesn't it seem like Spring is the ACTUAL beginning of the new year? It sure feels that way to me. So let's just do a nice review of all the highlights from this crazy Winter that this little blog missed out on and then we will close that chapter and move on to the next season.

OK I'm going to try and jam as much as possible into this post so brace yourself for some montage action...

Let's see... where did I leave off...
Christmas?
It was a great holiday season for us. M1 and M2 were beyond thrilled with their new room. We surprised them with it on Christmas morning. I really have to take a picture of it now that its all decorated.

I've also been doing some new knitting. I've finished two new handspun sweaters so far this year. Here is a little taste of my new look for the Lumpkin line...

I've been using my backdrop from my craft show booth for the background and taking the pictures in the new room which is so bright and perfect.

We got tons of snow here in Pittsburgh and we managed to take a little wintry weekend camping trip with our favorite Ohioans...

Last month was the official start of the birthday season around here...

Right before my birthday this year I gave myself a pep talk about not being disappointed by another lackluster birthday as a grownup. Ha! Sorry but I really missed those parties and presents of my childhood- it still stings after all these adult years. Amazingly I was showered with gifts and love this year! Dunk got me my first serger! Woohoo! Such a surprise. It's a beauty. The girls made some beautiful things at school. M2 made a felted heart and M1 made a quilted sachet card. My parents even came out with a cake for me and a check to put towards my first spinning wheel (any input on which to choose is appreciated)! WHAT?!? That was crazy. Look out- 2010 is the year of the Lumpkin!

M2 turned 6 last weekend and we celebrated yet again! We took her to this crazy toy store and ice skating and ice cream. She loved being spoiled. The celebration at school was magical. She was looking so forward to wearing the rainbow crown and cape. It was beautiful. I made her a little doll bed out of a clementine crate for her special doll along with some new clothing. She was ecstatic!

Well I guess that brings us up to date now. Next week I'll be posting some new Lumpkin items in the shop and on the blog.

Until then...

I MADE IT Jr. Market Sunday!!!

I've been super busy working on a gi-normous Lumpkin event starting next weekend (more on that tomorrow I hope) But right now I have a different announcement...

If your in Pittsburgh this weekend come out to the

I MADE IT Market at the
Children's Museum from 12-4pm 11/22/09

I will be there with all my Lumpkin goodies just in time for your little lumpkins this Holiday season. There will be tons of great stuff on sale for the kiddos and isn't it about time you treated them to a visit to the museum anyway?

(here's a clue for the next event!)

See you there!

Mention you read about this on my blog and get 10% off your entire purchase at the event.

Hello again

Let's catch up shall we? March was crazy month.

On the day of my last post at the beginning of March, C3 thought it would be a good time to start crawling. And standing up. And driving me crazy. It's taken me a month to figure out a way to contain her to one area for most of the time while still allowing her some space to explore. Here she comes crawling over to me now:) My favorite baby age is that time when they can sit up on their own but they can't crawl away yet... with her it only lasted 4 days.
Four blissful days, and then she was off.
T.R.O.U.B.L.E

In some continuing education news, this past month I got myself a present with some of my birthday money. Here is my Little Meggie with my first kick-spindled yarn. At first I thought it was more even awkward than the drop spindle but now that I've moved on to my second attempt at kicking I'm really happy with it.

It's nice to have both hands free for a little while before I have to wind it on the spindle. I think the yarn is more uniformly spun too. Eventually when I grow up and get myself a real spinning wheel the girls will have a lot of fun with the Meggie. I actually got a nice chunk of merino roving recently to let them practice with the drop spindle soon. M1 has been especially interested in my spinning lately since she's doing her farming unit in school this year and they have spent a lot of time discussing different fibers and textiles.

In March I also managed to finish three new sweaters. Two of which feature Rachel-Marie's Autumn Patchouli handspun yarn. The most beautiful yarn!
One of which has already been sent to it's new home in Canada....
And this one that sort of matches...
And this one I made from a Hobbledehoy batt that I spun pre-Meggie...
So far I've made 8 sweaters this year! You can check out my progress each month in my Year of Sweaters flickr set.

Well, I think we're all caught up now. This month I'll be a better blogger, I swear. There will be lots of exciting things happening here in Lumpkin Land soon. Next week the girls visit the Pittsburgh school so we can finally decide if the Lumpkins will set up a more permanent shop there this Summer. And there are lots of other Lumpkin plans in the works too- as usual:)
We'll talk again soon...

Gifts, Gifts and more Gifts

First of all, let's say Happy Birthday to M2 who turned five on Saturday!

She is such a fun-loving kid. She opened her presents and was truly surprised and thrilled with each and every one. She requested a strawberry cake with vanilla icing. I delivered. Keep in mind that home made organic vegan strawberry cakes and no added coloring are NOT pink. So her response was "Wow, nice...it's not pink, huh?" I think she (and the rest of the skeptics) were thrilled with the taste though. I should really write down the recipe before I forget it.

I still didn't manage to finish my doll for her but she will get the first one as soon as I finish them. I DID manage to make her a new Maezy dress in a print that she loves and a little matching dress for her doll. (Note my awesome ballooning skills.)

It was such a great day for her. She's getting to be such a big girl. Pretty soon she'll be in Kindergarten! Yikes.

And our gift receiving doesn't stop there.
I entered into one of the One World One Heart giveaways on the Pumpkinhaus blog. And I won! I couldn't believe it... I never win! I got this great 'little lumpkinmaus' figurine named Marcy (unrelated to my Lumpkin, but just as fun:) AND as a great surprise bonus Dani threw in some beautiful tye-dyed T-shirts and pinwheel barrettes for each of my gals. It was such a fun package to open. The girls got so excited about it. Here they are modeling...

and here's my new little Marcy paling around with one of M1's beeswax snails...

I think maybe Mr. Snail sleeps inside her little belly door at night when we go to sleep;)

And last but not least,
I picked up my new yarn from Rachel-Marie last week for a custom sweater order and it was beautiful as usual. It's my first time using the Autumn Patchouli and it's crrrrazy pretty!

I was happy to discover that she also gave me a couple more of her beautiful hand dyed yarns as a gift. I think I'll incorporate the purple into the sweater (pictures coming soon!)

I'll leave you with my (finally) finished Orange Frogfest sweater (also made with KDG yarn). It turned out really cute but MAN did it give me some grief. I would have to charge $500 to compensate for the mamahours I put into that thing, but it was a good learning experience.

Hopefully, I'll list it in the shop soon. (don't worry it won't cost that much;)

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts we have recieved!
(And for my family that's reading this, check out this Chet and Edgar update.)

Snow day

This morning the snow was slow to show it's face. First we had a 2 hour delay and then finally they announced school was canceled and at that, it began to snow. Sounds odd, huh? Even though it hadn't quite hit by school time, it was coming and the schools around here don't like to take their chances on parents and kids venturing out into slick conditions. And there was a Nor'easter coming! Personally I love snow days. I feel absolutely no pressure to do anything at all. I have no idea why and despite the fact that ALL of my days are technically free from the pressures of a traditional 9-5 job, a snow day puts me into a completely different mindset. Suddenly my kids are all home with me during the day (much like they were all weekend?- yes, but now there is no bickering, the girls are basking in the glow of freshly fallen snow, holding hands and snuggling- they're like best friends on a snow day.) And we sort of feel like pioneers. I don't even feel the need to go out and shovel (ok, so the neighbors hate me). So far today the girls ventured out into the backyard for some pre-sledding snow fun (drat! I promised to taking them sledding... might need to reconsider that one.) Afterwards they came inside for a hot bowl of homemade soup.

As for me, I'm trying to sort through the progress of all of my projects. Last week I accomplished almost nothing at all on the sewing machine, but there was this one thing. I had one piece of organic cotton sitting under the presser foot all week and I kept going to it whenever I had a chance- sewing this stylized wood-grainy pattern. It's the last element for a new batch of little Lumpy play sets I'm finishing up. I'll use the wood grained fabric to make the little totes.

I also blocked sweater #5 of the year. It's an actual boy sweater! I know, I was shocked too. I've struggled so long to figure out what to make for little lads. I'm pretty happy with the sweater. It's as close to camo colored as i plan on getting. I'm calling it Mossy Boss. In related news, sweater #4 of the year has taken a turn for the worse. That sweater has become the bane of my existence. I say that too often, but seriously it's driving me crazy. I always start a sweater out not really knowing where it's going, but that sweater is terrible, I've frogged the sleeves at least twice already and look out because here comes the third! i also have to redo the pod pocket and figure out something to do with the bottom of it (already been frogged once) I should call that sweater Evil Orange Frogfest. It's sure to be a hot seller.

Tomorrow I pick up my yarn for my first custom sweater of the year. I'm excited to go to LYS I haven't been there for a while and I have some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket.
For right now, I have a dirty diaper to tend to and new little bunch of batts that just arrived and are calling my name...
Happy snow day to all you Nor'easterners out there!

Slime and Sun

Let's start out with a little something distasteful and grim for this Friday the 13th shall we?
Last night the baby got some sort of belly bug and she threw up all the contents of her belly (and then some). That really was so sad to see. I wanted to sleep with the light on just to watch her and make sure she was OK- that idea was vetoed. She wouldn't nurse she just sort of retched every 5 minutes and then passed out. Finally a few hours after her final hurl she woke me to let me know she was ready to refill the belly and so far she's been fine ever since. I just have this awful fear that we will all be stricken now. When M1 was almost a year old she got some sort of bug and did the same thing for a night and then a couple of days later I was in class at the time and I had to leave early because I felt so nauseated. I picked up M1 from her Nanny Nan's and rushed home to find that her daddy was home from work early too and we both were so sick that we had to call my parents to come get M1. I have a very vivid memory of my parents calling to check on us and we were both laying in a heap of filth and trying desperately to crawl (really crawling) out to reach the phone but we missed it. I have never felt as weak as that moment when I was stricken with the M1 plague as we call it. A couple hours later that night both sets of grandparents were all raging with the plague too. It was so horrible- always of reminds me of this classic tale. That was more than 8 years ago and every time one of the kids starts getting sick I'm still convinced it's the return of the plague! Well, how's that for a spooky tale of bile and retchedness?

Moving on...
Before the sad events of last night, we had a pretty nice week. We got a little preview Spring around here and it was very welcome. I actually got to take the little ones out without a jackets for some fresh air two days ago. C3 loved playing in her pen for a couple of hours. Babies find traffic noises to be calming I think. And M2 got to burn through some of her endless energy thrashing around in the sunshine...

As for the biggest Lumpkin, she made me very proud using my sewing machine for the first time ever. She's usually very reluctant and somewhat scared to try anything new especially if there is even a minuscule chance that she might hurt herself in any way. I knew she'd do fine. And her first project? Little surprise valentine pouches. We came up with the idea after a friend of ours brought these cute little felt pouches full of favors to her birthday party. We opted to use paper because it comes in lots of cool valentine patterns and it will be easier to tear open. I sewed up the sides will she was at school and when she came home she stuffed the them with stickers, tiny Nerd boxes (our favorite), and some tiny paper heart confetti. I explained how everything worked and she had took some practice runs on some scrap paper and then she took over and sealed each little pouch on the sewing machine all by herself. (proud much?)

Tomorrow we head out to Pittsburgh for "Mid-winter break" (it's some sort of Waldorf invention I think, and I love it). I'm not taking my sewing machine in an effort to pay some good ole' fashion attention to my own little pack of Lumpkins. Not that they need it or anything. I'm going to try out the vacation mode on Etsy for the first time. I'm also very confident that a weeks vacation will be enough to inspire me to list the rest of the items I've been stalling on for so long when I return.
On tap for next week
(and the reason why I'll likely gain 30 lb and develop a soy allergy if we move to Pgh):
vegan pizza
vegan ice cream
vegan blt
followed by
vegan belly ache
(see above)

I'm going to do a little Valentine post tomorrow if I get a chance.
See you then!

A Little Randomness

I was tagged a whiiiile ago by this lady and more recently by this lady and by a bunch of people on facebook. So here are 8 random things about me that I'll share with you. Since I fear I've worn out my tagging welcome with most of my blog buddies, I'll just leave it open.

If you want to play along, please do.

#1. I always start projects in the middle. And I usually have no exit strategy if it blows up in my face.

#2. I dream of one day entering a quilt into quilt exhibition. (And have it accepted.) I already have my designs in mind, I'm just not brave enough to start yet.

#3. My three daughters middle names (Mary, Celeste, Nancy) are after their great/grandmothers who died soon before each one was born. Sometimes I imagine my daughters are the reincarnated souls of those women. Especially when I get frustrated with them. You can't really be too harsh with Grammy Cook-Cook, now can you?

#4. I avoided coffee for years because I feared becoming hooked. It's the same reason I never tried a cigarette. I was right about getting hooked. Oh so right.

#5. The self-reflection required to think up random things about myself makes me queezy.

#6. I have 7 dead houseplants "living" in my house right now. I have a black thumb over the winter months.

#7. I used to be on the swim team in high school and sometimes I think I'd like to join an adult team.

#8. One of my first purchases on Etsy was this clutch. Look familiar? After I had bought the original, Flamestitch recreated it for use in the Pretty Little Patchwork book. I didn't realize it, and when I saw the book I thought, wait a minute that's my bag. And when I looked at mine it was slightly different. So I sort of have a famous bag. I've always kept it on a shelf in my dining room because it's so cute. It makes me feel like I have good taste. Ha. I guess lots of people will have them now that the pattern is published :)

Right now I'm working on packaging up the buttons I made last week and as soon as I do, they'll be in the shop along with this...
and this...
and maybe some more.

Sickies and Such

Like almost everyone else I know, we've been a sick bunch here in Lumpkin Land. We've got the drippiest noses in town. The littlest Lump got it the worst. She spent most of last week bundled in the sling. Then she lost her voice and I practically broke my back carrying her everywhere. It doesn't get much more pitiful.

Aside from the illness, I got my camera cord back!!!!! Which means I've been a photo fool and I'll have so many things ready to list in my shop update TOMORROW! I have a bunch of sweaters that need to be listed including a brand new one in bamboo that reminds me of tulips. I also have a ton of balaclavas that should be listed if they want to get some use this winter.

In other knitting news, I've knitting up some tiny clothing for the dolls that I've been dreaming of in my head. I've only worked on the pattern for the bodies once- a couple of months ago. But the heads I've had knit up for the better part of a year and now I'm busy making clothing for bodyless dolls. I even know exactly how the faces will be embroidered- it's just the darn body construction that has me wondering. It's still a mystery, but I'm getting closer.
Her head is a knittydirtygirl sample batt that I spun up. The heads came out of wanting to find a use for the little leftovers of the fancy handspun yarns I use for my sweaters.

Today was a button making day. I have some bamboo that I dyed back when I did the last batch of batiks and I'm now in the slow process of spinning (very sloooow process). So I thought I'd make some buttons to match. I really like this funky pansyish set.
But my favorite ones are on the tulip sweater;) I made some extras to just sell as supplies (we'll see how that goes). Getting out the clay was fun but it means that we are living like slobs today. It's one of the pitfalls of working at home. Some days I'm very productive at making Lumpkin stuff but the house is wrecked by the end of the day. I'm sure some people manage to have it both ways but lets just say that those buttons are the only pretty things I have to show for today.

I have a couple games of tag to catch up on but I'll have to get to that next time...

CAM, WinterFair, New Cards, and Stuffing Swap

Whoa I feel really busy. But it's a good kind of feeling. I usually work very well under pressure. Actually I don't really know how I work without pressure because I have a habit of stacking all of my deadlines on the same day or in this case weekend. So yes, I have two show schedule for this weekend. And there is the big Think Local First Lumpkin event too. Luckily I can set up for both show the night before.

If you're in Lancaster this weekend I encourage you to attend BOTH of these events!
No really- it's crucial that you do so.

You certainly can't miss the over 60 vendors at CAM his weekend. There will be music and treats and plenty of handmade goodness to help you knock some items off the ol' Christmas list.

And then there's Winter Fair.If you have children, then you NEED to be there! It's the most magical holiday event in this region. I really mean that.
Also, if you attend these events you're likely to find me, and what more could you ask?

In other news, I got my new business cards from the Green Printer and they look amazing! As I expected, the paper is not quite as thick at my previous cards and they aren't quite at shiny, but they are really great cards and they appear to be very durable, bright, clear, just wonderful. I'm so proud of the design. It's very bright and busy and fun on one side and clear and informative on the other.

OK, no more time to dillydally.

With so much to do today, I'd better make a list.

Here's my schedule for the day:

Make advent calender(5 days late)- DONE
Finish making notebooks today- decorate tonight
Finish items for the Stuffing Swap
(I've been calling it that for some reason)
(I know I'm always the last one to
finish things, but they'll get there- I swear)
Print product photos for the booth display
Label and price a couple of items
Bake and Frost 2 dozen Cupcakes
Pick up the car from the shop
Set up the booth at Eastern Market
Buy a Christmas tree

I feel like there is something missing here, but it seems like such an outlandishly long list that I'll end it there. Oh wait-that's right...
Take a shower and burn these pj's in which
I've had two consecutive 'jammie days'

That oughta do it.