5 years, stuck on my eyes. 5 years, what a surprise.....

yeah, i've been slacking! well, at least when it comes to maintaining this blog that is. we have been putting our all into finalizing last minute details for the packaging of our goods and the like, as this saturday will kick off our 5th summer at the riverfront market. 5 years, i can hardly believe it! i smile when i think about our first year with our hodgepodge setup & the stuff we were making & selling then. i mean, i wasn't even a mama yet (and let me tell ya, being pregnant & being a mom has definitely prevented those early saturday mornings where i was still slightly drunk from the karaoke/dance-athon that started the night before. try selling my wares to strangers with maker's mark still fresh on my breath in a voice raw from belting out red hot chili peppers songs the night before. ahhh, those were the days! i could never pull off such a feat these days. and to be honest, i really wouldn't care to. i have a dance party everyday and night with this little boy who totally reshaped our lives. ahem, where were we?) okay, so i've only been a mama for 17 months, 2 weeks & 5 days, but still. being a mother has been rather enlightening. plus, i've had a lot more time to devote to creating since quitting the day job.  and while we're still doing a lot of the same; jewelry, photography, paper & fabric goods, etc., we're doing them with a little more precision. it'll be good to get back out in the heat! i'm looking forward to mingling with the other awesome crafters, making fast friends with random strangers, running across the road to use the potty & spending most of our earnings on organic produce & amish baked goods! well, maybe all except that last part. we're actually going try to earn as much & spend as little as possible this summer and have planned ahead and finally planted a garden! we'll still have to buy blueberries and a few other things, but we've "weeded" out a lot of regular purchases. wha wha! 

speaking of spending as little as possible. our materials fund has been little to none which has forced us to look at the things we already own (the things that fill up many a drawer & craft closet around here). we've collected lots of things over time & it's about time they got used! lots of up-cycling going on around here lately. t-shirts, old dictionaries, moby wraps, an atlas, etc. here's a couple of necklaces & bracelet that i've made out of H's old homemade moby wrap. oh, and a photo of my little boy in it last summer when it was first made. 

my goodness does time fly! this child has grown so much that front carrying isn't really an option. we also upgraded to a soft buckle carrier which is a lot nicer to our backs. apparently, i subconsciously stuck with similar colors. here's a photo of the carrier taken at it's unveiling, about 8 months ago). 

i based the design off of a few other carriers (baby hawk mei tai & ergo to name a few). it's been a dream and is still in working order today, but my toddler, like most, would much rather use his own two feet to get from point A to point B. and who am i to intervene with that. 

until next time party people! i leave you with this, a photo of an old church-no more. it was just recently bulldozed. i think it's been empty for awhile, but the sign was always reassuring.