outside my window

It's beautiful outside, the load of whites is blowing like crazy on the line.  They'll be off the line soon and a load of darks will go up.  Tomorrow will be town day so I don't want to worry about laundry tomorrow.  The littlest one is outside picking dandelions to help her Dad make dandelion wine.

The shipping labels are printed, invoices sent, PUL ordered.  Now it's just some cleaning and grocery shopping to get ready for another family BBQ this weekend.

Soon to be Stocking....

Monday is my favourite day lately, all the males in the house have gone back to school and work and it's just the little girl and I home.  She's usually calm and becomes engrossed in her play since she has less interruptions with just us here, I know better than to interrupt quiet play ;-)   Right now she's watching a copy of Mary Poppins we borrowed from the library.

Our weekend was both busy and quiet.   The weather was cold and windy with hail and snow on Sunday.  I'm glad I've only put beets and peas in the garden, but hope the apple blossoms won't be too badly damaged.  

I had a request from a long time customer for some nursing pads.  I started cutting for her order, then just kept cutting and cutting and now have several pairs to list in the shop.  I'll be adding things to the shop over the day, several turned and topstitched pads and serged pads too.

County Cloth Creations Etsy Shop 

Over the Weekend

The weekend was full and good.  Thrifting some new clothes and some fabric shopping too.  Most of the fabric shopping was for my shop, I think I picked some nice ones.  It's hard picking fabric for the shop, sometimes I think I've got a great one...but then it doesn't sell like I imagined!  I still enjoy it though.   Even after all these years of making and selling pads, I don't think I'll ever tire of fabric shopping.  (Though taking my 4 year old into the fabric shop can be trying, I miss the days of popping her into the sling or strapping her into the Ergo.) This fabric trip I was very responsible and did some quick math before deciding exactly what to buy, the last few times I've been fabric shopping I got a bit of a surprise at the cash (I spent that much?!)  eeeppp!  I feel like I spent my money well and responsible spending is where it's at with me.

You can see the prints I chose for the shop on my facebook page, I've decided to move my fabric gallery to my FB page simplify things.  I found the prints below on sale too, I made the Olivia skirt into a cute skirt for Rowan.  I squeezed the skirt out of 1/2 metre of fabric, there was even enough fabric for a side pocket.

I chose the floral fabric to make myself another Washi Dress (this pattern is amazing!  it's the first time I've been able to make a wearable top for myself).   Now I'm not sure about the print.  As someone who's normally in all black this light floral print feels pretty uncomfortable.  I like that it has a retro touch to it, and it's got beautiful drape too....I guess we'll see.   The fabric for the dress only cost $9 so that's a pretty good price for a dress.

These girls are all prepped to move to our freezer this week, I've been spoiling them with treats of kimchi, and hummus, and in general extra table scraps.  They devoured that kimchi-wow!  We have 20 new chicks arriving at the end of May (15 meat birds and 5 layers).  It's our first time having meat birds (or more than 12 birds at once) but it feels good to be stepping out of our comfort zone, and to be moving forward with our hopes for this property.  There's even talk of a barter that would quickly and dramatically increase our garden space.

I've been working on our front flower garden,  this is the first year for this garden and I've already moved several perennials into it.  I'll never be a flower garden kind of gardner but I do like a little selection for some cut flowers.

I made these blueberry muffins yesterday,  they were delicious the recipe will be going into my recipe book.  I usually have good luck with King Arthur recipes....they have a morning glory muffin recipe that's amazing.

I found these pads that missed the last stocking so I'll add them to the shop today.  Have a wonderful week :)

It Worked

I haven't been able to post here for a bit because I couldn't seem to load pictures, I stopped in today to try again and well...it worked.  I was starting to think maybe keeping up with a blog might not be worth it, but really I do want to keep it going.  So here goes with some random recent pictures.

I made myself some new pocket pads, I've been wanting some breathable pads for myself (these have cotton and flannel on the back).  I tried them out this month and was quite happy with them.

A sweet little pilot cap, you'll notice some hand knits going into the shop.  I've come to a point where I knit more than my family needs, I'm now moving onto my Christmas knitting list!

Fabric shopping all. by. myself.  I only found a couple of prints I found 'shop worthy' I was mostly getting some supplies to make myself a Washi Tunic but I had hopes of finding some new prints for pads and wet bags too.  This cupcake print is pretty cute though, and I have another bit of fabric coming in the mail too, so watch for that too!

We're just coming off a 4 day power outage so I'll be spending the day baking bread and muffins and catching up on computer work.  Watch for a stocking of serged pads on Thursday, I'll be listing some second quality (serged pads) too.

Two Custom Orders

I was able to complete these orders this week.  Our internet has been painfully slow this week (our satellite provider say it's because of increased traffic due to the March break {I'm skeptical} )  I'm hoping our internet connection will be better on Monday so I can get these and a few other items listed.  I did add two wet bags to the shop today, it was just like using dial-up.  Tomorrow we'll be off to our St. Patrick's day parade and Monday will be back to school (and hopefully a normal internet connection!) 

11" long serged pads

10" long serged pads

8" panty liners 

Yarn Along....A Mossy Shalom

~Knitting~
I'm working on the first sleeve of my 'Mossy Shalom'.  The moss stitch at the yoke of the cardigan happened by accident, but I liked it and it was working stitch wise so I kept going with it.  This is all i have on the needles right now so it should be done by next week.  I really need to clean out my knitting basket before I start anything new, but I'm planning on some horses next (after seeing all of these horses!)

~Reading

I picked up Letters from the Country at a thrift shop, I wasn't expecting to like it so much but it's a great read.  It's written by season in little stories that are 3-6 pages long.  Each story is embedded with country antics, plans gone awry, and little tips and bits of information about country living and farming  (particularly sheep farming).  The author is also located somewhere in Ontario so it helps that it's somewhat local.  It's a really nice read and I'll be keeping it on my book shelf.

Snow And Some Custom Orders

Surely this will be our last snowstorm of the year?  These trees are weighted by heavy, wet snow.  I was sure the school buses would  be cancelled again today, but they're running so the boys have gone off to school.  They've had six snow days this year, which is many more than we're used to.  The power flickered this morning.  I hope we don't loose power, we can be without power for days out here.

I managed to get these custom pads sewn up the last couple days, and they'll be heading to the mail very soon....

10" Snow Folk (with single snap setting)

10" Pirates (with adjustable single snap setting)

10" Orange Minky (serged style)

The rest of my week will be spent on wet bags, 4th birthday celebrations, and a big grocery shop in town (not looking forward to that part).  For now, we'll go enjoy the snow, bring in as much fire wood as possible, check on the chickens, and take out the compost...I think we'll snow shoes!