(Re)Open for Business

After a long absence the Plumm shop is re-opening for business...I have taken essentially a year off to really be home with my boys. Running Plumm was just requiring SO much more of my time than I had anticipated at it's launch...and that was on top of actually making all the bags and hats to stock the shop with!

But! Now! The boys are in school FIVE days a week and I really, truly have the time to give to my business WITHOUT taking it away from anyone else. It feels very good to be at this place in my life that I have been telling myself I would get to...but never really beleived I would reach. In the past six years my life has gone from being all about me, to all about the boys...and now we seem to have achieved a nice balance, somewhere in between...let's see how long I can maintain it!

Above are a few photos of the Fall/Winter 2009 line...The Hanna and the Harper bags are in the shop now.

The Night Before...

Tomorrow is our 'Friends Thanksgiving' dinner.
The table is set, the toilets are scrubbed, the children are washed, the fancy cheeses are chilling, and I am so excited.

We will all cook together while chatting and sipping wine. The children will be supervised by everyone and no one. We'll all sit down to a proper dinner. Board games will be played. Deserts will abound. The fire will be lit.

The day will fly by.

Some Tea...

We are all in this odd state of wonky-ness.

You know how a family falls in and out of their rhythm from time to time? We have fallen out a bit over here. Veered away from an easy stride and begun to overshoot in every direction.

The kids are behaving erratically. I am overreacting. Stuff is piling up around the perimeters. The giggles just don't seem to come as easy.

I feel that it is somehow my responsibility to get us back in the flow...although I can never remember how I did it the time before. Is it something I can control or is it just a mix of time and a bit of surrender that corrects everything?
Is it my efforts to control things too much that cause the whole wonky thing to begin in the first place? Either way I end up accepting much of the responsibility. Too much.

My plan this time...more surrender, more tea, less fretting.

I guess, on the upside, this means we will once again find a comfortable balance between all that we try to squeeze into and out of our days....and with that will come the easy smile of realizing we've done it yet again.

I haven't really been crafting lately. What little bit I have done hasn't been very well documented. I'm not sure what that's all about. I have a ton of ideas, most of the supplies, even little bits of free time here and there. Maybe it's the somewhat daunting list of crafting ahead of me for the holiday season? Maybe it's just the natural ebb and flow of the creative process? I do find that my drive to create tends to come in waves. Maybe I'm one of those 'better under pressure' types? Maybe I've had a brain transplant I'm unaware of?


Nevertheless, I'm vowing today to create something every day, or at least part of something. I will get in that studio for at least a few minutes a day...Photo's to follow, of course.

Pumpkins and Not So Scary Crows...

We had a delightful weekend doing all things Halloween-y around here. What a truly Californian Halloween...carving pumpkins barefoot and shirtless.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Clementine Crazy...

We inherited this very prolific seedless citrus tree when we bought our house. I think she's a Clementine but am not absolutely sure. Every year around this time she is absolutely overburdened with fruit, to the point where I am sure the branches will all snap off one by one. I know I should probably be doing something to assist my poor tree through these fruit bearing months, when she is slumped over with offerings, but I've no idea what. Like some sort of thwarted Citrus Midwife.

The fruit from this tree is absolutely amazing...It's sweet and juicy. Perfect. The kids can just walk up and grab a Clementine right off the tree, peel it, and eat it with no worries because there are never any seeds.

And believe me they do.

No matter how many times I go out and sweep up, our lanai will be littered with little bits of orange peel from now until Christmas . Eventually, after Thanksgiving, when it's cold and rainy, I'll begin to care much less about there being orange confetti scattered about. It'll still be there waiting for me in the spring, believe it or not, as a little reminder.

Today we savored the first of hundreds of this season's Clementine's...it did not disappoint.

A Handmade Holiday Season...

(a couple 'in progress' photos of a Metro diaper bag I made for my good friend Lucia. for some reason it never occured to me to take any photos of the finished bag. (smacks forehead.))

I took the Pledge this morning! So, if you are a holiday gift recipient of mine you have a bitsy clue as to what type of gift you may be receiving (as if you didn't already have a hunch it was going to be handmade!).

Now you know with certainty, no McGifts from me. Depending on which side of the handmade fence you sit this may be good or bad news ;-)

*Pledge Bonus*

No last minute runs to the dreaded Mall. I have been to a Mall one time in the last year and it was absolutely under duress (and was closley related to my being a bridesmaid). I also have not stepped foot into a T@rget in the last 2 months or a Wall M@rt in the last 2 years (the T@rget addiction was harder to break, let me tell ya). It has been truly life altering. Really. Life outside the 'stuff for stuff's sake' realm is not as scary as I thought it may be. My goal is to never return...

I'll report back...

Our Morning Walk...

Here are some photo's from this morning's walk.


We live in your average 1950's California Ranch style suburban neighborhood, which I adore...but just across a little stream about a block from here you enter this etherial neighborhood that seems like it was carefully relocated from elsewhere. Like a movie set depicting someplace much more rural than this little city we spend most of our days in. I feel like I am walking across a bridge exiting Northern California and entering Vermont or Connecticut (I've never been, but this is what I imagine it's like). Like popping through the Wardrobe to Narnia. It takes my breath away every time and makes me feel so grateful.

The funny thing is that when we bought this house we didn't have a clue this little haven existed. Imagine our surprise when we took our first walk not long after moving in and stumbled on our little passageway. It was like discovering a buried treasure in the backyard.

Needless to say most of our walks take us across the little bridge.

The Converted...

(Cute photos of my boys which are completely unrelated to this post. Kai is a frog and Luke is a dog for Halloween this year)

I have completely sucked two of my dearest friends in to the world of sewing. It all began very innocently with a simple sewing lesson here and there, then some simple gifts.

Now, they are full fledged sew-a-holics, fabric-o-philes, project-a-thoner's.

I didn't realize how badly I wanted a little sewing company until I got a taste of it...It has become my primary goal to keep them on the side of the converted. It shouldn't be too hard though...once you've been bitten by the sewing bug how can you go back?! You will never look at another cute bag, blanket, curtain, top or potholder without thinking... 'I could SO make that...and I could make it delectable!'

The Bounty...

As promised..photo's of our Pumpkin Patch Bounty.
The 2 huge pumpkins are actually compliments of Nona and Grandpa's Garden.
I have the great fortune of having a father-in-law who is an amazing gardener
and a Mother-in-law who always thinks of her kids and grandkids when planting time rolls around. We also have a sweet collection of mini-pumpkins Nona thoughtfully planted so there would be enough for everyone she loves. They also keep us stocked up on all sizes of tomatoes and zucchini all summer long. We are a lucky bunch!
I appreciate these gifts of fresh, healthy food more and more every year. When I first met my Hubs I had never experienced the joy of a fat, red, juicy tomato fresh from the garden. Let alone chard, broccolli, zucchini, corn, squash and pumpkins. Ever since that first bite I have been a believer. I look forward to that first basket of tomatoes every year and kick off the season the same way each time...The first tomato is sliced into generous sized slices, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper, then devoured.

On the topic of fresh, homegrown food I just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I adored the book and highly recommend it. I think it is the perfect read for this time of year as we all prepare to celebrate the harvest bounty with our families.

What we've been up to...

We've been easing gently into Fall around here. I picked up my knitting again, found some cozy reading spots for rainy days, gotten all the board games out, gathered some seasonal treasures for our nature bowl, and created a new studio for myself. Every thing's just rolling along.

One of our great reading spots...get's alot of use by the boys.

My new friend...A 1950's Necchi, made it Italy. She's amazing. I named her Bella.

My new Studio space.

A couple bags I have in the studio.

My old (sorta) reliable machine on her desk. That's Sylvia the half lady.

The boys playing Candy Land on a rainy day.

Our Nature Bowl...we fill it with seasonal treasures. Leaves and pumpkins in the Fall, flowers and seed pods in the Spring.....etc.

Yesterday's Art project.

My most recent Thrift store score...and most favorite chair of all time...
sitting nicely with our magazine rack full of two of my other favorite things...
Dwell and Atomic Ranch Magazines.


Hope Fall is finding it's way into your space as well.

Golden Gate..

We recently had a great day trip to San Francisco...or as we call it 'The City' (apparently the city we actually live in doesn't count)...to sort of mark the end of our summer. We went to the aquarium and then to our favorite beach under the Golden Gate. One of the many great things about this beach is that you just can't take a bad photo there. I mean how can you flub up a photo with one of the most famous bridges in the world as your back drop?!

This is really the first summers end since the kids were born, or since college for that matter, that has required any 'marking'. I enjoyed that feeling that this was the beginning of an annual tradition. The first of many end of summer celebrations. Luke has started back to preschool for his first full year of school, albeit only two mornings a week. We will now fall into the schedule of parents everywhere with a winter break, a spring break, and a glorious summer break. Up until now, as parents of babies and toddlers, we have enjoyed (and occasionally dreaded) this very free form, days running together, devil may care sort of existence. Now, as the structure of polite society is slowly being imposed upon us, I find I am a tad resistant and even a tad more totally relieved.
Relieved to be sharing the task of ushering Luke into adulthood, even if just for 5 hours a week.
Relieved to have those same 5 hours alone with Kai.
Relieved to have successfully reached yet another marker in the parenting road.

Birthday Bash

The boys had their birthday party this weekend. What fun they had! They received many wonderful gifts and, even better, many donations were made in their names to various deserving charities. There were bubbles, Strawberry Shortcakes (Thanks Melanie!), a pinata, sprinklers, friends - big and small-, family, and lots of sunshine!

June...

So, June is a jam packed month for us. This month holds so many of our special days....Our anniversary, both Kai's and Luke's birthdays, Fathers Day, and the anniversary of our 'First Decree' in Kai's adoption (basically the day we got 'The Call'). Very often,although not this year, our anniversary or Kai's birthday will fall on Fathers day, which makes that day double sweet.

This is also always a time of reflection and internal celebration for me. I am reminded constantly by all of these days of remembrance and recognition of how incredibly fortunate I am. I sometimes get caught up in the busyness of the 'planning' and lose sight of how fortunate am I to have all of these moments to commemorate.

This year will be our first June with Kai and for this reason I really feel the urge to overdo each of our celebrations. Last year June was very bittersweet...we celebrated Kai's birthday, which happened to fall on Fathers day, without him. It was very difficult. And Luke's birthday was a very intimate affair because we were packing and preparing for our journey to Taiwan to meet our son.

So this year, here we are, all together, and that is cause for a month of celebrating.

And so it begins...

Today is Luke's first day of preschool...He is actually there right now. It's one of those events in my life as a mom that I had imagined from the beginning. In my mind it was a day of joy...excitement at Luke moving to the next step, his world expanding.

I am not one of those overly protective types and am always eager for my kids to have new experiences. Because of this I am a bit surprised at how affected I am by today. I have had that adrenalin-y, knot in stomach, nervous feeling since yesterday morning...and it's not letting up. I guess once he is home, and I can begin to attempt to decipher his descriptions of the morning, I'll settle down a bit.

The thing is it's not about Luke being under the care of someone else that is bothering me the most, I trust his teacher. It's more about the era of Luke being just ours, only ours, not shared with anybody else, not subject to the demands of anyone else's schedule or ideas.. is over. Not that I wanted that to last forever...I am just feeling a bit shaky realizing I've had my go and now is the beginning of the world getting to slowly edge it's way in.

I know this all sounds a bit dramatic and blubbery...but my entire life shifted the day Luke was born and he, and then Kai, became the entire focus of every day. So...I became pretty freakin' invested emotionally in every little milestone.

That makes today a big day.

Staying home and caring for my guys is almost my entire life. So when one of them gains a little bit more independence, I feel pride and at the same time a little unsettled. I know in not too long I will readjust and this will be the new normal. I also know that this is just the first of many days like this. But today it just feels especially poignant because it's the first.

Of Course Luke seemed so ready and so happy to take on this new challenge. He couldn't wait to get started...saying "drive faster' as we were on our way there.

Oh, and no little tote was made. Luke decide he didn't want to spend the day before preschool shopping for fabric. Oh well. We kept pretty busy in the garden.