the big start

I am so excited we finally have a good supply of items on our new etsy shop. We spent all day yesterday taking product pictures. After many hours of planning, fabric shopping and sewing, we finally have enough items made and photographed to make our shop look real. Here are a few of the things we have added

we have a pretty wide variety of burp cloths. Our goal was to make burp cloths that fit snugly on your shoulder and to make them in patterns that might encourage dad to burp the baby as well.

Each time we make more wraps I am SO tempted to keep them all for myself.

We posted a few nursing covers. The perfect way to bond with your baby through breastfeeding while being out in public.

junk/bargain hunting

I recently attended a baby shower for my cousin in Little rock Ca. On the way to the shower my mom and I stopped by an 'antique store' in the area. The place was called Orbit and was not your normal antique store. It was more like a well organized junk yard with lots of antiques and vintage finds mixed in.

If you had the money and the ideas I'm sure you could find lots of unique decorating items here. I bought a lovely set of antique plates for 15 dollars! Here are a few pictures. My camera died after the first picture so I used my moms and dont am not sure how to get rid of the date at the bottom.

These are old camp stoves just piled in one of the many out buildings behind the shop

One of the buildings contained a whole pile of antique and vintage sewing machines. It would require a bit of digging but there were some great things in there.

There was something so fun about the way they organized everything with like items, even out in the middle of the junkyard (not pictured are piles of tubs, washing machines and old bicycles.)

This might be my favorite picture. Yes, that is a box labeled skins with vertebrae sticking out of it.

If you want to shop here you need to be prepared to wear closed toed shoes and to be very confused by the pricing. Nothing in the 'shop' is priced and the shop owner seemed to care less if anyone bought anything and was perhaps even a bit annoyed at people walking around his place. It was well worth the effort regardless of buying just to see how some old men

(who i'm pretty sure are hoarders) displayed their treasures.

Baby wearing

I love wearing my baby! It makes me so happy to have so close to me. It makes me even happier to have him calm and content while I run errands or go for a walk along the beach.

My baby seems to be happiest while I am baby wearing, and this makes me happy.

Even my husband can particapte in baby wearing and get in some quality baby time while getting some fresh air.

Because we love these baby wearing wraps SO much we made some for our Hope and Heritage shop. Like this one with a cute fabric strip on front. The bubbles say cute things like 'one big crazy family' and 'I love my family'.

My baby modeling some of our new product for us.

Mothers Day

Today I celebrated my first mothers day. The last few weeks have been busy with relatives visiting from Canada and lots of work going into preparing items for our shop (more on that later). Today's mothers day activities were the perfect way to relax and recharge. After church my husband, son and I took a drive to our local lavender fields to meet my parents. We had never been before and were pleasantly surprised by how pretty and tranquil it was.

We also visited a farm behind the lavender fields that was owned by a Messianic Christian commune called the "Twelve Tribes" where we sampled their organic produce (featuring a delicious kale/grapefruit juice) and one of the young girls took us to see their new baby goats. The hill behind the lavender field belongs to the commune and provides the community with their own Haas avocados.

The lavender fields had this lovely tea house and gift shop with a porch and lookout point.

We ended the day with a delicious picnic lunch overlooking a small field of lavender. I have been trying to eat dairy free but I couldn't resist this lovely cheese.