Just Makin' It

In early December 2013 there was a Book Fair at the kids' elementary school. There was also a craft fair attached to the event, and I had the crazy idea to sell my wares at it. I wasn't quite sure what my wares were....but I got sewing and crafting and had an eclectic grouping of handmade goods to sell come time.

Because I had a mix of items, I wasn't sure what to call my new little "business." I had the thought that if things sold well, I would consider doing more craft fairs throughout the year and might even open an etsy shop. I wanted to start off with a clever name and finally came up with "Just Makin' It." The tag line: "Crafts Made During Those Rare Quiet Mom Moments." It was supposed to be a sort of play on words for the handmade nature of the goods and the feeling that many a harried mother has of "just makin' it" through the day. It also gave me the freedom to have a variety of crafty things to sell. I don't know if people got it--or even paid much attention to it at the fair--but I was pleased with it.

I worked hard during spare moments for several weeks, cutting, sewing, stuffing, gluing, and more. I was so anxious on the day of that I had trouble sleeping and got up early to attach my price tags. Damon found me in my bathrobe at the kitchen table with a hole punch and some string.

My products included hair clips, kids' aprons, stuffed animals, headband hangers, and a significant stock of leftovers from Damon's mother's dancewear business that she gave me to sell.

The stuffed animals, which my kids had dubbed "Fleecy Friends," were definitely the best sellers. I had bluebirds, elephants, penguins, whales, and frogs. I'm not sure which one was my favorite. I designed all of them (with some template-searching help on Google) and am proud of how they turned out.

The hair clips had pretty stiff competition and I only sold a couple of those, and the headband hangers were a complete bust. I'm not sure people understood and caught the vision of their purpose, even though I had a display. (Personally, I think they're brilliant and ours has totally saved us from a mess of headbands in a drawer or on the floor in our bathroom.)

I sold a few aprons, a couple of the Watercolour skirts, and many of the Watercolour scarves/ties. What I didn't sell became a great stash for birthday gifts throughout the last year as my kiddos got invited to parties, so none of my work was for naught.

It was a fun experience and I'm glad I did it. My enthusiasm and motivation did wane after the event. Truthfully, it was difficult to find other venues for selling; I did dedicate some time after the holidays to searching for other craft fairs. I wasn't really ready to launch an etsy shop. From here, if I press on with any of this, it will probably be in the Fleecy Friends department. They were fun to design and popular with the customers (and the birthday gift recipients). Hmmm...just writing this post is giving me a little itch to get out the fleece....

SLO Children's Museum

On November 30, 2013, two days after Thanksgiving, we visited the Children's Museum in San Luis Obispo with Uncle Jotham, Aunt Dana, cousins Cassie, Braden, and Kara, and Grandma and Grandpa. We were quite a crew, and gratefully the small museum wasn't too crowded. We had great fun exploring the many hands-on exhibits.

We tried to build earthquake-proof structures . . .

and played with magnets . . .

and "spinny discs."

Grandpa was served lunch at the Cosmic Cafe by chefs Gunnar and Holly.

There were firefighters...

Cassie, Gunnar, Braden, and Holly

...and crime fighters.

In all, it was lots of fun for all the kids--big and small.

Back in the Saddle

I've had a few encounters recently that have encouraged me to return to blogging. I was moving along pretty consistently in the spring and then got derailed by some Picasa/Blogger photo uploading issues. It just got harder to blog. (Why do they have to change things that are working?) Then life kept humming right along while blogs--mine and my friends--continued to fall by the wayside. Who's blogging anymore?

Turns out, a few people are. And I enjoy reading their blogs. Julia, Liz, Maren, Marisa: Way to keep at it!

Who was reading my blog? I wasn't sure. But then a chance mis-text reconnected me with a friend to whom I hadn't talked in years! She said that she liked to follow my blog. Really? A reader? I thought maybe I should get back at it, even if it was just for an audience of one. (Thank you, Heather.)

Finally, during a schoolyard chat with yet another friend, I was reminded of one of the real reasons I ever started blogging in the first place: it's a record of my family's life. Simple as that. Whether anyone else is doing theirs or reading mine, this blog is where--for now--I've chosen to record what happens. It's my history. It's my family's history. That's worth the effort.

So, now that the Thanksgiving holiday is only a few days away, I've got some serious history to catch up on. The last post I published was from Thanksgiving 2013. I've got a whole year to record, and I'm going to do it. It'll take awhile, but I can do it.

Time at the Beach

Have I mentioned that Damon's parents built a house by the beach? It's a pretty great spot, and after eating our Thanksgiving dinner, most of us took a walk down the street to see the sunset over (or into?) the ocean.

This photo gives a good representation of how far down the street you have to go to get to the beach--not far. When I took it I was probably just one house past Craig's and Joanna's. There's the ocean. That's a cliff there, so you have to go down one of a couple sets of stairs to actually get to the beach, which at high tide is completely covered.

Cousins at sunset:

Turn around! You're missing it! (They didn't miss it.)

On Sunday afternoon we all wandered down to the beach again. Joanna was a few minutes behind us and I caught her looking out to sea on the cliff before she joined us down at the tide pools.

It was such a gorgeous day. It was actually December 1st! Can you believe it? It was nearly 80 degrees. I regretted only packing jeans because I was hot just strolling to and from the ocean. We loved the chance to soak up some sun and seek out anemones, hermit crabs, sea urchins, and the occasional starfish.

Wherein We Give Thanks

Thanksgiving weekend at Grandma's and Grandpa's house was lots of fun. This year we were joined by Damon's brother Jotham and his family.  After the Turkey Trot it was time to join Joanna in the kitchen to get our feast ready. Thankfully, she's got an enormous kitchen with plenty of room for lots of food and lots of cooks.

Aunt Dana worked with Maggie and Cassie to help build a veggie turkey tray that Grandma spotted in a magazine.

Voila! Isn't it cute?  And it was tasty way to munch while we waited for the rest of dinner.

Here's Joanna posing with the beautiful feast before we started to dig in. I made the stuffing and green Jell-o (a.k.a. Pond Scum). Damon made the rolls. They were so buttery and yummy. The turkey was great. Joanna also made a new sweet potato recipe that had cooked pears in it. It might sound strange, but it was SO GOOD. Everything was delicious, of course.

The kiddie table. (It's pretty hard to get a serious picture out of Cassie. It makes us all laugh.)

Gunnar had a drumstick! As I recall, he made a pretty decent dent in it. (The photo makes it look as long as his arm, but it wasn't quite that big.)

And, here's baby Kara, joining the grown-ups at their table. Last year Jotham and Dana didn't come for Thanksgiving because this little one was just a week old. Now she's eating dinner with us!

We are so thankful to be living closer to family now. It has been one of the true highlights of our time in California thus far. Holiday time, especially, has been that much more special because we get to share it with family now.

Pismo Beach Turkey Trot

We went to Damon's parents' in Shell Beach for Thanksgiving. On Thursday morning we rallied the kids, including our niece Cassie, to run on the beach in the second annual Turkey Trot on Pismo Beach.

The information on the website was not totally clear and we showed up way too early. After waiting around for 15-30 minutes, we finally heard an announcement that said the start of the run was still a good 30 minutes away!

We weren't the only ones who were expecting an earlier start, and so a good many families (i.e. people with children who were losing patience) just decided to go for it anyway. All of the distance markers were already in place, so we took off.  That's me below, on the right. Gunnar (in green) and Holly (in yellow) are to my left. This was after the half-mile turnaround point, so we were already heading back to the pier.

Since I'd just been getting into running over the previous year or so, I was keen to actually run the whole mile without stopping--and to encourage my kids to do the same. Cassie, however, was not so keen. Damon stayed back with her (and the camera).

She got going...eventually...and in spurts. Here's a shot where she raced ahead of Uncle Damon:

Holly, Gunnar, and I clocked in at a respectable 14 minutes. I think that's a pretty good mile time for a 3-year-old! Holly ran almost the whole way. Maggie and Adah finished a few minutes ahead of us. Maggie ran barefoot. I was proud of all the kids for giving it a shot.

Here's the kid crew at the finish line. 

Damon decided to stay on and do the 10k course with the crowd and then strolled back to the house. I took the kiddos home for de-sanding and getting ready for the feast. This was a fun way to start our Thanksgiving morning and to focus on physical activity and being healthy---before chowing down.

I'm Still Here

I've had a bit of trouble with Blogger, Picasa, and uploading photos, which has really slowed down my blogging, as you can see. It seems that blogs are becoming a bit passe, what with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. I definitely see that among my friends and family. Notice the sidebar and how many people haven't updated their blogs in the last 6 months, or even year.

Still, I like blogging. I like the way it makes my chronicle my family's life. I used to scrapbook. I wish I still did. However, like many a young mother I know, I fruitlessly long for a room with a locking door where I can spread out my crafts to work in peace, or leave for later when it's not peaceful. So, for now...and maybe forever more, I don't scrapbook. I blog.

At least, here's me trying.

Mt Tamalpais Trail Run

After watching (via the Internet) his brother Justin complete the 100-mile Run Rabbit Run trail race in Colorado, Damon decided it was time to train for another ultra-marathon himself. (Remember the Badger Mountain Challenge?) He signed up for the 50k Mt. Tamalpais Trail Run, and then went about inviting friends, co-workers, and family to join him. He got one taker: my brother Jed.

The race was on November 16, 2013. Damon's parents came up for the weekend. Damon's dad took him to the starting line early in the morning, and the rest of us joined them in the afternoon. We met my sister-in-law Joette at the finish line and awaited the runners.

Mid-way through the grueling (there was a ladder!) trail that went through the Marin Headlands up to Mt. Tamalpais, Jed realized that he was not going to make it the full 50 kilometers during the allotted time. He decided to shift to the 30k trail, and completed that in 5 hours and 44 minutes. We and he were all still very proud of this accomplishment. This was Jed's first long-distance running race ever.

Damon stuck it out and completed his 50 k in 7 hours 11 minutes 36 seconds. (The clock in the photo below says 7:13:02, but his official "chip time" was shorter since he was at the back of the pack at the starting line.) The kids joined him for the last 50 yards or so; that's Maggie next to him.

Here are the victorious runners. Can you tell who's been resting at the finish line longer?

Damon was exhausted. We let him relax on the grass for a bit, but then we dragged him to our niece's first birthday party before finally taking him home.

Jed declared that he NEVER needed to do anything like that again. He was glad he did it and felt proud, but had NO desire to ever do anything like it again . . . until Damon talked to him a few days later. He was already coming around to the idea of trying it again next year. 50k all the way next time!!

Leaf Olympics

We have some nice large trees in our yard. They drop lots and lots of leaves. In the fall I got my children excited to help me clean them up by enthusiastically announcing THE LEAF OLYMPICS!! I thought it was a rather clever idea.

Our first event was not captured on film and was also not very successful. We tipped our green trash bin on its side and tried to blow the leaves directly into it using the leaf blower. It didn't really work. It really just made them fly up in the air. Still, everyone got a turn clearing the driveway and the rocks by our sidewalk with the leaf blower. Once they were in the gutter we used rakes and brooms to get them in the bin.

The next event was much more fun: leaf hurdles Really, it just involved raking the leaves into long parallel piles so that the kids could run and jump over them. This was a great success.

And, with only minimal grumbling (compared to some other clean-up-the-yard attempts), everyone stuck around to help when the athletic competition was complete. We got all the leaves into the bin and had a nice clean yard.

Good thinking, Mom.

P.S. Notice the autumn wardrobe. It was the first week of November. Good thing those leaves were falling, or we might have assumed it was still summer.