I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to everyone! Whether you are a mother, are going to be a mother or have a mother (in other words, everyone), have a wonderful day today! This is a picture of me and Lucy from last year, tiny baby Lucy - she was only about 2 months old. This little girl has changed my entire life and I am honored to celebrate being her mother today. :)
Whew! Mother's Day week at a floral shop is crazy. The shop I work at is smaller and less busy than others, but when you're used to a certain flow and then all of a sudden you have a stack of orders it gets a little exhausting. I had 2 Starbucks double shots today, which is a lot of caffeine for me. I felt like I was fumbling everything today. I knocked over a full bucket of water in the cooler and made a small flood, I broke a vase, and signed my name "Amanda Colors" on an invoice - haha. My coworker had just said "Look at the colors in this arrangement!" and I was trying to do 2 things at once. The delivery guy was laughing at me. :) It's been crazy, I feel like I've hardly seen Lucy this week! I have a feeling she's going to start walking in the next couple weeks, she keeps standing by herself and takes a step then sits down. She's been a little cranky too, and I hear babies get grumpy when they're trying to learn a new skill and get frustrated. I'm not sure what to think about her walking, I think in some ways it will be easier and in others be harder. We will see what happens.
I haven't had time to do much other than work lately. These guys are in progress:
And I put her in my Etsy shop:
Other things...I'm waiting for a custom designed header for my blog and a banner for my Etsy shop that I ordered here. It looks like she does a great job and I'm excited to see what they look like! I'm also on the waiting list to get my own booth or case at the Farmer's Co-Op Antique and Crafters Mall here in Redmond, I sooo hope I get one soon, I'm really excited to have my own little space to sell my things in. Cross your fingers for me! :)
Hope everyone's having a good week - and a nice weekend!
I've been trying to take a walk every day, and for some reason I always take the same route. We go by this cute little farm on the way (that's probably the reason I take that route, actually). They have llamas, a sweet little pony that always comes up the fence if he's out, cows, chickens and ducks. I've always wanted a little farm so I love looking at their animals. It's funny where we live because there are still farms, but there are new developments going up all around them. I'm glad there are farms around us - I like taking Lucy to see the animals, I think it's good for her.
Llamas - I almost never think about the fact that other people in the US have probably never seen a llama. There are llama farms everywhere here and I've been seeing them since I was little. They're almost as common as cows here! Do you have llamas where you live?
White ducks (running from us)
Baby cows!
Lucy likes our walk, see? That's a smile underneath that paci. She's wearing her new pink hoodie from American Apparel. I finally got a chance to go in there when we were in Portland, I think we each got something!
Fruit tree blossoms are finally starting to come out, I'm happy! I've been waiting for my crabapple tree to blossom, they're so pretty. They start out as a deep red and as they open they're more of a deep pink. Here's a picture of the buds:
I saw these too, I thought they were pretty. This was a neighbor's tree:
I'll post pictures of our crabapple when all the flowers are in bloom. :)
Today was so, so nice out! I think it got up to 80 degrees or even higher! It was beautiful! This morning Dustin, Lucy and I took a walk around the neighborhood. Later in the afternoon I picked up my little sister Monica from school and we bought and planted these:
Butter lettuce in containers
Geranium surrounded by strawberries, also in a container
Smokey Joe had to get in on the photography action!
In honor of Cinco de Mayo (Happy Cinco de Mayo!) I made enchiladas:
It was such a nice, relaxing day! Now I have to gear up for the big week ahead. I work at a florist, and it's Mother's Day week! It will be crazy and I will be tired. But that's just how it goes. I'll have fun anyways. :)
On our way back home from Portland we had to go through the desert (Biggs Junction past the Dalles for you Oregonians) since the Santiam pass was really snowy and icy. We passed through Shaniko, a ghost town, and had time to drive around and look at some of the buildings. We'd only ever driven past it before. What a neat place! These pictures are some I took out of the car window pretty fast, I'm sure I could have gotten better ones but sometimes you just have to be in the moment, ya know? :)
I love the old abandoned homesteads out in the Oregon desert left over from the settlers. I hate that they're slowly disappearing - it's rough out there in the wind and grit, and many of them are being torn down because they're "eyesores". I think they're amazing pieces of history and that people should treat them with more respect. I had the opportunity as a child to explore the high desert with my dad quite a bit, and have been in one of the abandoned homesteads that he found. It had floral wallpaper peeling away from the walls, which for some reason is the thing that stands out most vividly to me about being there. It seems like such a hopeful and optimistic thing, and really speaks about the women who came to these places to live. It couldn't have been easy - the Oregon high desert is really harsh - and was probably lonely. To me it seems like women trying to make the best of a situation, when they may or may not have wanted to be there in the first place.
So I've started a (somewhat lofty) goal of putting an item on Etsy per day. Telling all of you makes me feel that much more official about it. :) I've read that it's one of the best ways to get traffic to your Etsy site so I'm going to try it and see where it goes. The pictures are of things from the last 2 days; a sleeping baby (safe for babies), a hand-sewn fabric necklace and an hand sewn altered vintage cardigan, size 2T-3T. My goal is not to kill myself doing this, if I miss a day here and there I will be fine with it. And if what goes on Etsy is just craft supplies that day instead of something I made I will be fine with that too. I really want to do better with my Etsy site, and we'll see what happens!
I got this from a blog I read called Momilani's Moments. It's called Pay it Forward and the idea is that the first 3 people to comment on this blog post will get a surprise gift from me (please put your email down as well so I can contact you). Then in return, you should post this on your blog and give a surprise gift to your first 3 people who comment as well. Sounds pretty fun, I just need 3 people to comment and play! :) Here's the info from the original site that started this.
PAY IT FORWARD -
Here's an idea I picked up from Deena: Someone will have a chance to get a surprise from me, on a surprise date, in the next 365 days.
Here are the rules:
1.~Leave
a comment on my blog that says you want to play. First three folks to
comment will get a gift from ME. (If I don't know it already, let me
know how I can contact you, an e-mail is fine.)
2.~Do the same thing
on your blog!The first three folks who leave a comment and commit to
doing this on their blog, too, will get a surprise from YOU at a
surprise time in the next 365 days!
If you've yet to meet her, treat yourself by visiting this extraordinary woman. Click here to read her story.
So comment away, you get a surprise and get to make 3 other people happy as well!
This is where we stayed when we visited Portland:
<--- Huge bamboo, they were so pretty!
We had so much fun here! The rental house is a little studio in the Hawthorne area of Portland, which was perfect for us because I tend to get nervous about Lucy in hotels. She gets pretty loud and I always feel like I'm disturbing the other guests. I couldn't get over how beautiful the grounds were! Trees and bamboo towered and cast filtered sunlight over everything. To a Redmond girl used to dryness and "brownery" the greenery was a breath of fresh air. Whenever I'm in Portland I can't stop staring at the plants! They're so, so green and huge! And the flowers everywhere are incredible. I like where I live but I am so tired of junipers, pines and sagebrush! Those plants have their own beauty but I've seen them all my life.
I love these two more than words can say and feel so honored to have them in my life. It was so nice to get away, just the 3 of us!
Dustin, Lucy and I went to Portland for the first time since she was born over the last 4 days, it was so much fun! Lucy and I have been there by ourselves a couple times but this was the first time as a family. The weather was typical Portland weather, little rain sprinkles but nothing too bad. The sun came out off and on. Dustin took Luce to the zoo by himself while I went shopping with my sister in law Holly. Here's some pictures Dustin took/had taken of Lucy at the zoo:
Eating her zoo kids meal
Liking the turtles
Lucy and Daddy and a bear
Being cute
Trying to get out?
Dustin said she was so good the entire time, she didn't fuss at all and really liked the big animals. Her favorites were the bears, big cats, giraffes and elephants. She was super excited about seeing them, and was wiggling and laughing. It makes sense that she liked the biggest animals because I imagine anything dog or cat sized would be boring to her. She has those at home. :) I'm glad they had such a good time together!
I got this beautiful box in the mail today from Nell Nere on Swap-bot, I love it! It's a little work of art. It's cedar too, so it smells wonderful! It's collaged all around with lots of pictures and little charms and things. Can I mention again how much I'm in love with Swap-bot? Seriously. It's so much fun, I get things in the mail almost every day and I love meeting new people. I think I've completed almost 50 swaps now! Poor Dustin just left to go mail packages for me - there were 7 of them! He's such a nice husband. Although I think he's been just as excited as I am when a package comes. Today when the box came I was folding laundry, he brought the package in and stood there until I opened it. :)
I bought these beautiful old candy/chocolate boxes yesterday at an antique store that was having a sale. I'm so in love with the colors, the ribbon, the flowers, the satin ruffles, everything! I'm amazed that these have made it all this time (I think they're from the 50s). I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet (if anything) right now they're just sitting on my craft shelves for inspiration. They remind me of the pretty 50s prom dresses with all the satin and tulle.
I bought these 2 books the other day, Softies and French Inspired Jewelry. I love both of them. The second one is by the owner of French General, they have the coolest stuff! So far from Softies I've made this little dog:
And Dustin wants me to make him this for his desk at work:
It's a poop! I am so embarrassed that I'm going to be sewing a poop for my husband. Actually, he wants 3 of them! I told him I would if he bought me the stuff to make it, and he took me to the fabric store the next day! Today he asked me again when I was going to make it for him. :) I'll post pictures, but I'm still embarrassed about it. I know everyone at his work is probably going to want one as well, they're kind of weird that way.
