Paro, paro, paroside

My boys have been loving the Coldplay song "Paradise", and they ask to watch the video on YouTube often. Jude can be heard singing "Paro, paro, paroside" throughout the day. I love it.

Here is the Coldplay video:

I have shared this video that Rob's friend Jean Paul made with some of his friends, and Jai loves it. The other two do as well, but Jai is amazed that all sounds were made with their voices. He likes attempting to make the drum sounds, and imitating the dances.

Here is the video: 

I love that my kids are so interested in music. They are often heard singing, and dancing throughout the day. Jai is taking Hip Hop classes, and so he does the running man, rather than walking. Music is such a great creative way to express one self, and I hope my guys hold on to their love of music. 

Too much on my mind

With Christmas swiftly approaching, craft fairs every other weekend, hockey practice twice a week (for my oldest), as well as games, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the Holiday Gift Swap I signed up for, as well as daily life of home schooling and trying to stay sane in this horrid weather,  I'm just feeling a tad overwhelmed, and a little unfocused.

I had begun my routine of waking up, getting the kids breakfast, and then heading downstairs to exercise. I like exercising. It gives me energy, and improves my appetite. For the last couple of weeks, I have yet again fallen out of my routine, which is bumming me out. It's so difficult getting back into shape.....again, and again and again.

The other day Jai said to me, after I was complaining about how I should exercise but I just can't, "Sometimes I don't feel like going doing Hip Hop, but I do it, and I'm glad I do". Children are so wise. So I dragged myself downstairs and did my exercises, and I was glad I did. I was just sitting around the house thinking of all the things I "should" be doing, rather than actually doing them, so why not use that time to exercise?

I love how my kids are in the moment, and I strive to live my life in the moment, rather than in my head thinking of everything that needs to be done.

Sometimes I think I learn more from them, then they learn from me:)

I am still going to exercise, but not a full five days a week like I was. I may bring it down to three days a week, which is a bit easier for me to wrap my head around. Plus I want to give the bump that has developed on my wrist time to heal. I think too many push ups and planks have aggravated my joint.

It's not a great picture, but my camera didn't want to focus on the bump. Maybe it didn't want to aid me in my excuse not to exercise!! 

I hope you are all doing well, and are taking time to live in the moment. Just to breath. 

Winter is here!

It was inevitable. Winter arrives every year, no matter how much I try to will it away. Last Thursday our slushy rain turned into this:

To say the least, I was not thrilled. As the evening went on, the snow began to stick, and the flakes were bigger. Some of them were the size of my fist. How do I know? Because I tried to punch them away! No. I didn't, but I wish I could:)

Luckily where we live the snow doesn't stick around for long. By the next day, we had sunshine, and all the snow was gone. 

I was inspired to make these Upcycled Christmas dress though:

 

I hope you are keeping warm, and enjoying the cold more than I am!

Autumn

Crunchy leaves, changing colours, crisp air, children laughing, running, playing. It is a beautiful time of year.

Kicking it into high gear

I'm not sure why, but it seems that my inspiration doesn't like to kick in until a week before a show. This weekend I am going to be at The Prestige here in Sooke, for the Earthly Goods Craft Fair. I applied for this show at the beginning of the summer, so it's not like it's a last minute arrangement, but for some reason I am now flooded with ideas. I have too many ideas, that I won't be able to fit everything in.

Here is a sample of what I am working on:

I have started making these upcycled long sleeve raglans with a Tree of Life design

and some little upcycled pants, also with a Tree of Life design

Here is Jude in his new upcycled long sleeve raglan.

It's so difficult to capture him when he is still. This was the best I could do.

I will also be making more of these:

 But in these colors:

Banana Peel Yellow

and Bubble Gum Pink.

I have seven booties cut out in the yellow that need to be put together, and haven't even begun taking the pink leather apart. 

More time! I need more time!

Good old Al

For Halloween, Jai dressed up as Michael Jackson, so we of coursed watched a ton of Michael Jackson videos on Youtube. These of course lead us to Weird Al Yankovic. The kids love these two videos. Jude laughs his little head off every time we watch them, which is at least once a day. They also sing the songs throughout the day, with the wrong words, which just makes it cuter!

So I thought I would share the laughs with you. They are oldies, but goodies!

I hope you are all doing well, and I also hope to share more soon. I hate using the "I've been busy" excuse, but it's kind of true.

I am constantly blogging in my head, but just can't seem to find the time to actually type out my thoughts, and when I do, it's just not quite the same as what was in my head. It's always a little rushed, and not full of substance. I'll get there soon hopefully. With the Christmas craft season here, it may be a bit of a challenge, but hopefully the new year will bring more consistency. 

I made it into the Vog Vending machine!!!

Well not literally. My booties have been accepted into the Fluevog Vending machine that will be in the new Fluevog shop opening in Calgary!

On a total whim I decided to send in a link to the leather booties in my shop, and the very next day I heard back. They asked me to send samples, and so I sent in three samples of the booties I make. At this point I decided I should start making some booties, as I had absolutely no stock. Here is what I decided to make:

They came from this jacket

The day they received them, they emailed to say they loved them, and would like to see the packaging, which was still in my head. I made my husband drive me to Micheals to find clear bags and paper. When we got home, Rob designed the logo and wording for my packaging, while I finished sewing the booties. Rob's design is so perfect, and much more beautiful than I had imagined in my head. I'm absolutely in love with it:

Isn't it just beyond perfect!

Lucky for me I had made ten of these purple booties by the time Fluevog was ready to place their order. They decided to order twelve, so I was practically done. They also would like to have a conversation about ordering a limited Fluevog addition!!!! How flippin cool is that??

Here are all the booties all packaged and almost prepped to ship:

So if you happen to live in Calgary, and happen to be in the new Fluevog shop, you can look for my leather baby booties in their Vog Vending machine. I would love a picture too!! It's just all kinds of exciting!!!