Enjoying Winter

I had to share this photo. Love my huge puppy. What a goof!

It has been a wonderful winter and I have been spoiled with plenty of snow. I'm not gonna even complain about it. I LOVE THE SNOW! I've been looking toward a winter like this for years. Bring on the slippers, extra sweaters, candles, cuddles and even an unplowed driveway (We are lucky to live in staff housing and don't have to drive to work ;). I look forward to days where we just stop and "survive" together. Lets take a chill and enjoy each others company, and just stop going and doing things. Spring will be here before we know it, so for now, I'll enjoy these moments.

I just love these old duple characters. 

 While being snowed in we played with LOTS of legos. The kids even learned to collaborate and build things together which was a huge bonus. Since rearranging their room and giving them adequate storage for their belongings I've found they focus more on the toys/ activities they have out and really enjoy them for longer periods of time. I think they have even discovered toys they didn't know they had. By rearranging things it had given us a chance to figure out what would be good to donate, save, or throw away (if broken). It's almost sad how they don't play with the little baby toys now. hmmm to save or not to save ;)

I've been embroidering more. Small things, but still time consuming. I usually favor projects I can complete in a day or two, but lately I've been thinking "bigger" or more complicated.  I've shared two embroideries that were fairly simple but there is more to them. The peace sign was made with a gazillion french and colonial knots. A sort of therapeutic piece I worked on while catching up on some of my favorite shows on hulu. I'm hoping to turn it into a patch. It was stitched onto a fabric recycled from a bank bag. It's super thick and just lovely to touch.

This super small embroidery of a beet is going to be part of a veggie series I'm working on. I have a carrot to add, but it's not photographed yet.
I'm thinking of a nicer framed project, cut out the mini embroideries in rectangles and mount them on a coordinating fabric or paper and frame in a shallow shadow box. Those are my thoughts now, but we will see if they change as I get further into the project.

As I was inspired by all these veggies in my art I came to realize my body was really craving more too. Do you ever get that? For instance my body was aching for raw carrots. My fix was carrot juice with a few minimal add ins. My go to recipe is always dark leafy greens and a few other randoms. The current favorite go to (and what's photographed above) is a remix of my classic green drink.

inch of ginger

half a lemon

3 yellow beets (greens included)

half bunch of kale

 half bunch parsley 

one or two apples

one mega carrot (or about five normal sized ones)

quarter bunch mint <- my secret weapon

1/4 teaspoon spirulina 

I basically tweak my green recipe to accommodate whats in my fridge and amounts I'd like to save for future juicing. I don't like to make large batches because to me fresh is best. After drinking this I tend to feel better physically, mentally, and spiritually. Something about taking in all kinda of veggies and fruit really grounds me and helps start my day. Some days I can just stare at the beautiful colored foam (although somedays it isn't very pretty if you add the rainbow of veggies).

Overall I've fallen in love with my juicer, but I think it is time to move on. This was a good starter machine, but I've grown and I would like to get a masticating juicer next. :) Yey tax refund! 

And I just couldn't resist sharing a photo of my stuck up kitty. She's grown beautifully and is a sweetheart... when she wants to be. 

Winter has been good to me this season. For many reasons I couldn't hardly explain. Like others crave sunshine, I crave frost. I'm soaking it in and letting every part of my being enjoy.  

New Creations

We did a few shows this summer, but our favorite was the Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing Michigan. We had a blast for the two days we were there and great people stopped by our tent.  It was wonderful to share with so many types of people our different pieces of arts and crafts we’ve been creating this year.

I’ve personally been focusing on embroideries with a few paper goods thrown into the mix. My eyes have been giving me some off and on troubles so whenever I can I like to do some detailed work in my embroideries.  All of my embroideries are freehand, which means I don’t use anyone’s patterns or apply any transfers to my fabrics.  Sometimes if it is a more detailed piece I’ll sketch a rough idea of what some shapes should look like beforehand. Generally I just let my needle and thread go with it.

What I love about doing everything freehand is that everything is bound to be one of a kind whether it’s because of the textures, shapes, and nearly always colors. (I have a terrible time keeping track of my colors since many of them are thrifted or bought from random places.  So far loosing track of the color number of my thread has only come back to bite me in the butt once and I have not been able to complete a project because of it.

Typically I work on a small scale of simple designs. I have even made a few patches out of my ultra tiny pieces. I’m in love with them and I can’t wait to make more (yey Skabootn’s). Lately though, I have been aching to work on a much larger scale. Maybe I’ll make a piece that is a few feet long and epic for a large empty space on someone’s wall. It’s hard to finalize all my ideas and get started on one!

I thought I’d share a few photos of some new pieces that we have done this summer. Some are in the shop and some aren’t but I was excited to share with everyone the types of things we have been interested in lately. 

We have an Instagram account now! Our user name is @mumre find us and follow us! You'll find a lot of our current projects on there before anywhere else! 

BACON! This was a challenging embroidery done on a recycled T-shirt sleeve with no stabilizer. I'm proud of the minimal amount of stretching. ;p

This bacon piece was done on some vintage scrap fabric and i had to put it in a vintage spring hoop. I love this piece, but it is still available in our shop to buy!

I'm still really into these vintage romance comic books. This piece is smaller in a 5 inch hoop. 

One of my tinier embroideries to date and my mom helped me make it into a iron-on / sew-on patch. Loved making this! I can't wait to make more. Any one want a custom patch? Just let us know on our Etsy site!

I had a chance to work on this wonderfully cute piece for a close college friend recently. This piece was embroidered onto a vintage piece of fabric and backed with yellow scrap of T-shirt in the back to kind of shine through the small holes in the fabric.  Since this was a special piece to work on I put this piece in one of my favorite wooden hoops. I've never had another one like it so far and it was marked princesses on the bottom so it seemed perfect. :)

I'd love to share more, but motherly duties are calling once again.  It's a miracle I've  been able to post this much today! Like I mentioned before, follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see what we are up to during the week.
Hope everyone had a fantastic summer. Now it's time for my favorite seasons of the year!

- Hannah

Summer Is Coming!

We've been getting back into the swing of summer here. Sending out applications for different craft shows in the area and I can't help but get excited. I love the atmosphere while being at the shows. And they all have their own different feel. Some shows are more home style.  It's less about the vendors and what they have and more about everyone in the community coming together and doing something together. Others are so full of creativity and inspiration you can't help but want to get back home and try something new and exciting. I like both settings, but I'm mostly excited to be doing this with my partner in crime, Rachel! It's coming on a year of doing this together. We've learned a lot and still have much to learn, but I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. Thanks for being awesome Rach!

Every chance I get I'm drawing some kind of simple design in my sketchbook for either an embroidery or watercolor.. sometimes both. For me the two techniques go hand in hand. I treat my embroideries much like my paintings and I prefer my paintings simple and bold. I thought I'd share some favorite projects, but be sure to checkout our latest in the Mumre shop regularly! 

Simple bold and beautiful embroidery floss bookmarks.

The beginning of something random... Not sure what yet.

Pick up sticks! It's one of my childhood favorites.  Heck, it's still one of my favorites. I fell in love with this design so much I have been doing watercolors of it too. Maybe some bookmarks next?

This nostalgic piece is on Etsy too.

Colorful Practice

I've been on a creative high these past few weeks. Partially due to my health getting back on track, but also because I've gotten ahold of some awesome supplies to work with. I've kind of forgotten what it was like to create with quality products. 


I thought I would share some of my newest projects some are favorites and some are experimental, some I consider disasters, but I use them to grow and get better so who cares right? I've been mainly working on embroidery and since getting my new watercolor set I've gotten back into drawing and painting too. 

A little study I did on an old watercolor set I have.
These don't do it justice, but it was fun learning and practicing some different looks.

I'm loving this new watercolor set.  In fact I loved it so much I had to get one for Rachel too!
We've been on fire with new illustrations and ideas ever since. It's a wonderful set that is so easy to pick up and get painting where ever you are. I'm not even a watercolor kind of gal and with my kids constantly running up to me and needing my attention it is hard to sometimes sit down and paint. With this set I'm able to pull it out and put it away quickly as I need it.

I've been drawn to designs that can easily adopt any color. You can go so many directions by just changing up the color pallet and I like that. It is a phase I'm in I guess, but it's a bright colorful phase and I'll bit hitting it full force while I'm enjoying it! 

Getting into the warm weather spirit by painting all kind of colorful popsicles.  

Bubbles!! I'm in love with this simplistic piece, I'll definitely be doing more in all kinds of colors. So fun!

Who doesn't love bacon?! Since I've been transitioning to a healthier diet I've come to know bacon on another level.  It's like the candy of meats! 

One of my more intricate pieces I've done lately. This salmon color is one of my favorites lately. Gotta love the hints of bright pink too. I painted this hoop to match to give it that extra pop of color. It's available in our Etsy shop so check it out!

It's morel hunting season again! We've only found a couple so far this year (actually only my husband has). Even though we haven't found many it's still fun to go hunting for them all over the camp ground. I've been addicted to the shapes and colors of these mushrooms both for embroidery inspiration and watercolor drawings.

And finally I'd like to introduce our newest little one, Token. We originally were going to name her Monopoly, but then we migrated to Monopoly Token and went from there. She is a complete sweet heart and only 5 weeks old! 

Rachel and I are preparing to do some shows in the summer. We have some local shows in Syracuse Indiana, and North Webster. Also, we are hoping to do one in Lansing too. We are looking to revamp the look of our booth and focus more on certain items just for shows and have other items exclusively in our Etsy shop. It's exciting to try new things! 

Our Vacation to The Sunny State

As a Christmas present from the in-laws our family of four got to go to Florida this past January to visit them in their new home. It was exciting not only because it was a two week vacation, but also because it was a new experience for my husband and the boys. None of them had been to the ocean before and I just had to take them to my old stomping grounds in Sarasota.  Our first trip to the beach was to Siesta Key Beach. That was the beach I went to the most often and the sand is by far the finest sand I have yet to experience. We also made trips to Lido Key and Clearwater Beach. The closest beach for us to visit during the trip was Clearwater Beach and it was also the best one we went to for beach-combing with the family. 

These are my favorite finds from Lido Key

This little vial contains miniature shells and fragments of a starfish skeleton. It also has the little "doves" from a very small sand dollar that my husband found but it didn't last the trip home. :( 

From left to right the broken sand dollar my husband found, Lido Beach sand, Siesta Key Beach sand and the little fragments I mentioned earlier. It fascinates me how different the sand can be between Lido and Siesta but they are right next to each other.

My littlest turned one year old during our trip! We just had a cute quiet party at Grandmomma and Granddad's house with a homemade birthday cake. He wasn't too aware of the fact that it was his birthday, but we had fun celebrating anyway. 

My favorite photo from the whole trip.

Crazy spanish moss on most of the trees down there. I'm not sure whether I like it or not.

Grandmomma was looking forward to this moment. Taking her grandson on the merry-go-round at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Tobiah had a great time there. He got to meet Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jessie. He loved the Buzz Lightyear and Little Mermaid ride the best.

We did a great deal of thrifting during our trip. Grandmomma picked up this small motorcycle bike for my son as a surprise. He fell in love with it. Once we put some training wheels on it we had a hard time keeping him off of it. Luckily the places where my in-laws live they mostly drive golf carts around so the roads are pretty clear and safe.

I worked on two projects while I was down there. My Mother-inlaw just happened to have   a yellow that was perfect for finishing off my cheese embroidery. The color was just a little off, but it is only noticeable to me. I actually liked the contrast it added since one of the cheeses was marbled already (The swiss cheese was the one I ran out of thread for). Since I was in the summer spirit in the winter I also worked on a beach ball. Simple and free hand with some french knots for some fun texture. I love the simplicity of some of the designs I've been working on. These are both available on our Mumre Etsy shop right now too!

The lighthearted designs of single objects somehow help me reminisce on the better things in life. I tend to think back on my childhood when I played with my sister outside everyday, or hanging out with all the cousins at our family get togethers. I also get excited about our little family's future. Raising our kids on this beautiful campground, growing up with their cousins, and all of our own special memories we will create. 



It's been a busy couple of months for my family and I hope to post about everything soon! Sorry it's been a while!

- Hannah

Joyful January

Happy New Year Friends!  Wow!  I've realized, the holidays are even crazier when your family is larger!  It feels good to be home and relaxing after all the traveling, and gift making.  Have you made any New Years Resolutions this year?  I felt very influenced by an article by Apartment Therapy called 10 Simple Things to Make You Happier at Home when it came to making my "resolutions".  

One thing that stuck out to me, from the list of things, was "Make your bed".  I know that sounds simple, but for me, it's not.  I rarely make my bed, and when I do, it's usually right before I get into it at night.  I love having a neat bedroom, and having my bed made makes my life feel less cluttered and more clean.  When my bed is made, it makes me want to keep the rest of my room clean.  

Not only is my goal to make my bed everyday, but also to get out of my pajamas.  I started to realize that when I wear my PJs all day, I feel less productive, so I become less productive.  Which floods my mind with negative thinking about myself.  It's crazy how something so small, can make such a difference to me!  So far, it has been going very well!  I hope it's something that will become a habit for me.

Cypress in her Birthday Suit, playing on my made bed. :)

This past month has been a month of gift making for myself and my family.  I finally finished a quilt that I started over a.year.ago.  It is made of scarves that I have collected throughout the years.  Most of them were found at thrift stores or antique stores.  The backing is dark green flannel and I sewed vintage buttons between the scarf squares and in the center of them. It feels really good to have it finished and its so nice and cozy!  

Scarf Quilt!

Close up of the quilt and one of the vintage buttons.

In other news, Cypress is growing up.  She eats a lot to say the least.  And for Cypress, with age comes less breast feeding and more playing and eating solid food.  I am really going to miss it when she stops.  Hannah and I are big advocates of the breast.  We love caring for our babies in such a beautiful, nurturing way!  Hannah has been a huge influence in my bravery to nurse in public, and my breast feeding journey in general.  She is such a strong and amazing mother!  I am so thankful for her and her encouragement, especially during these early stages of motherhood.  

My favorite picture of me and Cypress.  She's taking a break from eating to smile for the camera.

Three Years Old

My sons birthday was at the beginning of December. He turned three years old! time has flown and yet it seems like so long ago that I gave birth to him. I've had a blast watching him develop his own personality. Now I finally get why nearly all mothers say their kids are going to do great things. It's totally true in this case though. ;) This kid is going to do some amazing things! 

Here are a few quick facts about my newly three year olds personality.

He is a neat freak when it comes to his hands and face.
He loves all superheros. Iron Man, Capitan America, Batman, and Thor are his favorites.
Oatmeal with maple syrup is his favorite breakfast food.
Every morning he asks to get dressed and loves picking out his shirt.
He loves to wrestle with his dad and brother.
Orange, Pink, and Blue are his favorite colors.
He crawls into bed with us nearly every night at about four in the morning.
He is a realist, but has just begun to play pretend!
He asks to visit his family everyday.
Yo Gabba Gabba is his favorite TV show. He can't get enough of the dancing and singing!
His favorite song of the year was Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO. His current favorite is Ho Hey by the Lumineers.
He is a rockstar at heart and enjoys rocking out on his guitar.
He loves tattoos and people who have them.
He thinks his little brother is the funniest person alive.

We made some ornaments for the birds! Its was his first time giving a gift he made mostly himself. He loved handing out the little bags to his family.

This is my favorite season of the year. I enjoy my time with family and looking out the window and hoping for snow. With all the festivities it's hard to keep on track with blogging. The celebrations are dying back down now and hopefully we will get into a normal routine for postings again! My family will be going to Florida in about three weeks! Be ready for a photo overload when we get back from that trip. Another day I'll have to show you all my new Skabootn's I got for Christmas this year! So exciting! But since I can't wait here is one of them!

Yeah that's a real seahorse.

Be sure to check out our shop on Etsy. We have a bunch of prices marked down to make way for some inventory revamp. 

Happy New Year!

- Hannah