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