Pass it On.....

Yesterday, while browsing the lovely blogs from Kiwi Mummy Blogs, this post from Dear Colleen caught my eye:

I got an email this morning from Rebecca Marshall a student who follows me on facebook. She was just asking for five minutes to help her with a project. When I was studying I was forever trying to get people to help me with this sort of thing so I really understand what an uphill struggle it can be. 

CAN YOU HELP? Here's the brief: 

The theme is "because we are all different and need different things"....and she needs participants to write anything they want, on anything they like (on the above theme). then scan or photograph it and email it to her by hum, sorry tuesday.  (From Jen: actually, this deadline has been extended - - Friday of this week, but the earlier the better.)

The above is what Colleen creatively came up with, but all I did was take a photo from my sketchbook - - a note I'd written to myself the night before about some things I want to refocus on.  I titled it "wishes," but I think of these as needs.

 This really only took me a few minutes.  Like Colleen, I well remember being a student and trying to get help for these sorts of things.   If you have something you think could help Rebecca, please email by Friday at: iamrebecca@live.com

Also, if you are so inclined, feel free to re-post this, and widen the circle of helpers. 

Thank you so much!!

P.S.  Rebecca is not only an art student, but a new mother as well.  Kudos to her!  I am so impressed.

Cozy Monday

Outside it is wet, wet, wet;  The weather reports are predicting record rainfall for the next three days or so.... Second to sun, I love a good rainstorm next -- preferably with thunder and lightning, though we haven't seen those yet.  I resign myself happily to a few days of indoor activities, and sigh, the inability to do laundry.... (Conveniently, we've never purchased a dryer.  We just use a laundry line, which I love, but which also certainly has it's limitations during a rainy stretch.)

This morning, I had the chance to sit at my desk while the rain pounded outside.  The kids colluded wonderfully with my desire to do a few sketches -- baby A took an extra long nap, while S sat with his headphones on, listening to one audio book after another. **

I have an old book with gorgeous photographs of trees and shrubs that I picked up ages ago at a garage sale -- long before Seedling was even a glimmer in my eye.  I used a few of the photos for a mobile when S was a baby, and I think I planned to cut out others and use them for cards or mix-cd covers, but I'm so glad I never got around to it. 

This morning I cozied up with a hot mug of tea, an Anzac biscuit, and a notebook.

I have new stock arriving from My Baby and Me this week, and I'm feeling full of ideas and creative energy.  I can't wait to get to work!  I've absolutely loved hearing all of your suggestions in the Seedling giveaway comments.  Thank you so much for taking the time to share them with me. 

Hope you are all having lovely Mondays also.....


P.S. ** Audio Books -- these have continued to be a wonderful discovery.  On a whim, I did a search for kids' stories on itunes, and found an incredible (free) collection from many different sources.  We've now increased our audio book library by about a hundred-fold.  Of course, S wants to hear the same stories over and over, but we're gradually increasing our repertoire.

Just one giveaway after another around here!

It has been incredibly exciting to connect with so many new people via the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway.  Amazing!  Thank you so much all of you fans, likers, readers, and followers -- it's wonderful to "meet" you through your comments and your own blogs.

To celebrate and to show you how much I appreciate each one of you, I want to hold another giveaway, this time via my Felt shop.  All you need to do to enter is visit my shop and leave a comment here on the blog about which piece of organic baby-wear you like best, and why you'd like to win it.  For extra credit, feel free to also comment on a print you might like to see in the future.  (I'm about to get a bunch of new stock, and I'd love to try out some fresh designs.)  The winner will be drawn randomly by the random number generator and will win their selected item.   Simply comment in the next week, and I will post the winner here on the 30th of May.  This giveaway is open internationally.  Everyone welcome!

Good luck!

Merino YOU! (And the winner is.....)

First, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you.  Thank you to all of you that entered this, my first Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway.  Participating in the giveaway and making new connections with all of you has been an amazing experience.  Thank you all for your comments and thank you for following the Seedling blog or for "liking" Seedling Clothing on Facebook.   Your support and interest are absolutely invaluable to me!

At exactly 4 pm New Zealand time, I used the random.org (by the way, such a cool site) random number generator, which produced the number 84.    I counted backward three times (a task that feels particularly difficult at this moment -- I think the ol' mama brain needs more frequent workouts....) and came up with the winner:  Vintage Queen Nina of Mannheim, Germany!!  Congratulations, Nina!  I'm so excited to package up your scarf and send it off across the world.  If you could email your details to seedlingclothing@gmail.com, I would be much obliged!  I'll send your parcel first thing Monday morning.

Again, thank you, everyone for entering my first giveaway.  To celebrate all of you and for reaching the milestone of 100 fans on Facebook and over 75 followers on the blog, I'll be hosting another giveaway, beginning later tonight!  I'll post details a bit later once the wee ones are tucked up in bed.

~ Jen

Dye! Dye! Dye!

Let it be said: I'm not much of a pink person.  However, as indicated by a few items of mysteriously pink clothing lingering in storage, this may not have always been the case.  I unearthed three pieces that would be perfectly fine, cute even, if only they weren't so.....well, pink. (Pink lovers, don't abandon me now!  Pink certainly has its merits -- just not on me.)

Pink, meh.  But red -- hey!  I like red!  Pink and red are closely related -- dying from one color to the other should work, right?   Well yes, sort of.  It took three attempts to get the shade I was after.  Mexican Red -- not really so red.  Tulip red -- also, not particularly red.  Finally, crimson -- mostly, pretty much red.  I now know that I may have been using too much material with my first two laundry-sink attempts.  (Word to the wise, when they say to use rubber gloves, they mean it.   Also, probably best not to wear your favorite sweater when working with dye.  Not that I would know anything about that.)  I ended up spending a bit more money in this revamp than I anticipated, but once I got going I was determined to make these things wearable, darnit!

I'm happy with the final shade -- still a hint of pink, but a really rich, vibrant hue that certainly leans more toward red.  Definitely wearable.   Definitely deserving of a future outside the storage boxes.

I love how the dye hasn't stuck to any of the synthetic material -- in this case the stitching and embroidery.

Hooray, success!  Now I'm inspired to dole out a few more dye jobs -- what will emerge next from those deep, deep storage boxes? 

**This is the day of the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway....   I will let the random number generator work it's magic at 4pm NZ time.  Good luck to all of you!!**

The Roastery

Welcome to our own little coffee cottage industry!  We began roasting our own green beans a few months ago -- one of those DIY skills, like bread-baking, that feels especially satisfying.   To be honest, it's a deceptively simple process....Our "roastery" consists of a popcorn maker and a corner of our garage.  We buy fair-trade, single-origin green beans from a local coffee shop for about a quarter of the price of roasted beans, and away we go!  There is a bounty of information about roasting your own on the web -- just type "coffee roasting+popcorn maker" into your search engine.  (Alternately, here or here may be good places to begin.  N.B. there are all sorts of important safety precautions that go along with this method -- please don't burn your house down!)

Learning the ins and outs of home roasting can take a few weeks -- through trial and error, we've found that we like a really dark roast that goes for as long as 6-7 minutes, and that leaving the beans uncovered for at least 24 hours after roasting results in a much improved taste. 

We roast our beans in a Breville popcorn popper we picked up for free, and we choose to roast without the lid on at all (the popper gets really hot, and it almost seems like the plastic lid could melt.)  We feel fine about the chaff (the outer part of the bean, which can create a bit of a mess) being less contained since it's outside in the garage.

My husband and S usually take on this piece of work -- S can help sift the beans and enjoys stirring them afterward during the cooling process.   I'm happy to let them go to it!  The smell of home-roasted beans wafting into the kitchen while I make dinner is just divine....And home-roasted brew, well, it's not exactly the same as coffee that's professionally roasted, but it's still pretty darn good  -- and getting better and better the more we experiment.  Plus, nothing tastes quite like a hot cup of self-sufficiency and economy  (stirred well to taste.)

Cheers!

**  Just one more day of the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway -- please be sure to enter if you haven't yet!**

Tank Dress

Oh!  How I love this little girl.   As she grows and becomes more upright, it's been fun to dress her in a few, well, dresses.   Because she inherits most of her older brother's clothing, and I'm happy to have her in primarily gender-neutral blues, greens, grays, reds and browns, I realize that I may sometimes need to make a special effort to embrace her feminine side as well.  Thus was born this dress -- the first I've made for baby A.  It's the product of another storage-box upcycle -- a tank I love, but which is seldom worn.    I simply trimmed a band at the waist to make it shorter, added three pleats to the neck, and hemmed along the inner arm holes to make them child-size.  Finally, I added ribbons to bring the waist in a bit.  I'm liking the results, and I'm happy to think that this dress will fit for quite a while -- through the toddler years, becoming a tunic as my girl gets bigger.

Amazingly, our autumn days still warm up enough for this dress to be worn on it's own; but it would also be easy to pair this with leggings and a cardigan in the coming months.  Yes, it's been good to celebrate a bit of femininity!  I can see more of these to come.

P.S.... My Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway will be continuing for two more days.  To all those that have left comments and have become followers, likers, or fans -- thank you so much!  It's wonderful to connect with so many new people.   I'll be hosting a giveaway of a different sort to celebrate 100 fans on Facebook, and over 60 followers on the blog; it will begin immediately after my Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway ends.  Details to come.