Week 26 – Garbage bag full of clothes to goodwill. About half of these were things I was keeping on hand to repurpose, but decided to let them go so I don’t have to move them in September.

Week 27 – I took a garbage bag of clothes and two big, noisy baby toys (that Hazel has outgrown and that I don’t want to move) to the consignment shop, but I forgot to photograph them. Instead, here are two pairs of jeans, leggings, and two shirts that I bought with part of the store credit from my last drop-off :)

Week 28 – Selling some records.

All of this brings me to the current week: a grocery bag of stuff to ebay (mostly camera equipment), two to goodwill, *altoids tins repurposed into Etsy shipping material, three old phone chargers finally went to the reStore after being moved from place to place in this house since November, and I sorted out a pile of my stuff at my parents’ house to go to goodwill.

*Remember when I washed out all of those altoids tins during a snow-in? I have been experimenting with packaging and shipping since then. Shipping out Etsy orders has always been the bane of my existence. I’m very fickle about how it looks, I don’t want to be wasteful, but I also don’t want to spend more time making recycled mailing materials (as in my cereal box mailer obsession, which lasted most of the winter… as in sewn bubble mailers, which were amazing and I should make more because they didn’t take that long) than I do making product to sell. I finally put my foot down and made myself come up with a packaging and shipping method that looks cute, involves a bit of upcycling, and will hopefully lend itself nicely to reuse or recycling on the other end. Have you ever heard the statistic about how many estimated bubble mailers went into landfills during the first five years of ebay? I can’t bring myself to bulk order a giant box of bubble mailers, and I don’t want to jack up my shipping prices to compensate for nicely recycled & recyclable ones. So until I can figure something else out: a plain brown paper envelope with contents wrapped in a neatly cut to fit sheet of bubble wrap. As long as my dad keeps me in altoids tins, this works perfectly. In the meantime, I am still on the lookout for a giant paper punch that’s the size & shape of the top of an altoids tin, because I’m not totally overjoyed about how they look…

Listening: Billy Bragg & Wilco
(I am) Reading: Last Child in the Woods and The Midwife
(Hazel is) Reading: The Family Book
Working on: some custom stuff; some destash sorting; in the mood to sew some more Oliver + S skirts today. Alice also needs some new clothes. hmm.

We’ve starting to seep in, a little bit, to this house that is not our house. It’s much more colorful. And it might almost be time to collect it all into boxes and go.

After topping off a bag of stuff for Goodwill yesterday, I went through our closet putting together outfits for the wedding festivities this weekend, and I ended up with another full bag to donate. I’m on a roll! Maybe I’ll be caught up the week after next, after we’ve gotten back from Toronto. The turnover rate of stuff entering and exiting our life, even since we unloaded the last uhaul, is astounding. Particularly because we DON’T SHOP. We know people who shop as a hobby and are constantly acquiring new and better things, and we’ve never done that in our entire adult lives. So why do I feel like we always get so much new (or newused) stuff between moves?

Week fourteen.

At this time tomorrow, we’ll be on our way to our beloved city. Friends, a wedding, music, playdates, chinatown beads (for a custom project and for my mom – I WILL control myself!), the dollarama, Tankhouse Ale… aahh! We’re coming back home next Wednesday. See you back here then :)

Listening: The Avett Brothers
(I am) Reading: just finished Jesus Land – brutal, and very good
(Hazel is) Reading: Gallop!

Week 13 – bag of stuff to Goodwill.

Hazel’s first collection. She almost always brings a little something home from a walk, after carrying it around the whole time and refusing to drop it to catch herself when she falls. How long will I keep these rocks and other bits of nature?

Aaaaanddddd… the April Spotted Box! A lot of people seem to think doing these sample boxes has become a waste of time / product / money, but this one has been featured in Mothering magazine a couple of times recently, so I was excited to take a gamble and try it again. Besides, sending in enough samples to get a full-sized box for yourself is totally worth it. My box contained stuff from:

Moonlodge Medicines
Small Wonders Wipes
Mama Marsh’s Creations
For Crying Out Loud
Polkadot Pickle
Monkey Butt Designs
Knot for Ewe
Happy Booty Boutique
Amy’s Blankies
FOE Your Diaper
Carver Creations
Sugar Chills
Cat and Ace Creations
Mama’s Bug A Boo
Southern Belle Charms
Wee Ones
Creative Cupcake
Frost Fish Cove Soaps
Joyful Rose
Lil’ Outlaws
Jenna E. Krueger
Custom Candy Creations

So many good creations! In addition to lots of generous gift certificates and discount codes, I got candy, stationery, accessories, body products, cloth diapering stuff (diaper stuff, cloth wipes and solution, diaper pail powder, etc.), craft supplies, a full sized bag of herbal infusion, nursing accessories, soaps, cleaning supplies… the whole box looks and smells overwhelmingly delicious!

I might do another one towards the end of summer, depending on when we move. It looks like the end is in sight, and we’ll be moving at the end of June or in September. We’ll know in… June. Eek! We’ll live with Mikey’s mom until next summer. Sound familiar? We’ve gone around and around and over and under and through it and temporary cohabitation seems like the only solution that will keep Hazel in full-time Mommycare and Mikey in full-time school mode. Those are the two most important things to us for the time being – not (gasp) living in a place of our own or avoiding more debt or any of that silly stuff. Hazel at home. Mikey working on his degree. Must. Finish. Phd. Must. Finish.

We really hope it happens in September and not June, because summer in Morgantown is fun. And summer up here on this mountain will be beautiful and shaded and relaxing. And we’re close to Pittsburgh, where Mikey just started recording a new record. And we’re close to university libraries. And it wouldn’t mean moving twice in seven months.

But… yesterday I packed a box. Just in case it’s June. Now I’m going to go see if the Budget Rentals giftcard that you can get for Coke points can be used on a moving truck and not just car rentals. Edit: you can’t, and two free magazine subscriptions is enough (for now!). I will use my points for ordering prints of photos :)

Listening: Belle & Sebastian
(I am) Reading: Jesus Land, which I’m having to take slow since it’s gut-wrenching
(Hazel is) Reading: Strega Nona
Working on: everything but preparation for a week in Toronto is at a halt

Since Mikey and I still have some time before we have to decide what kind of “precedent” we’ll set in regards to an “Easter basket” for our children, and since Hazel’s first two Easters have come at a time of great discovery in her short little life, we’ve used it as an excuse to buy and make her things both years (i.e., totally spoil her with stuff, which we normally don’t do). Last year she had really just started playing with toys hardcore so she got a basket full of board books and little toys and her beloved silks. This year she is all of a sudden pretending and doing lots of outdoor things, so we filled her spring basket with outdoor toys and books and things for pretend. (Don’t worry, she’s not deprived of candy – she has lots of grandparents.)

I have had my eye on these eggs by Imagination Kids for awhile. I had a feeling she’d really like them. Whoa mama, did she like them. I didn’t think she’d ever get around to looking at the rest of what was in her basket. Can you tell she’s oozing excitement?

I made this little trio of bunnies from this free pattern on wee wonderfuls. They are made from fat quarters I received as part of a fabric exchange with friends, a remnant of fleece, and they are stuffed with bits of chopped up old tshirts (thus making them my new year’s resolution for the week, which I realize I’m WAY behind on). I’ll tell you, using a rotary cutter to, um, savagely destory several old tshirts was a very good release after WVU’s loss to Duke on Saturday night. My hands did not stop shaking the whole game so her bunnies are overall a little lumpy and imperfect, but the tshirt chopping – THAT I did very, very well. I love the weight the filling gives to them, too.

So, since I was getting caught up on resolutions, the other day it occurred to me to photograph this thing we do as I assembled one after putting away dry things from the kitchen drain basket. We got the idea from friends in Canada: we chop the tops off of soymilk / juice cartons as shown, scrub them out really well and then slide two together. They make perfect giant blocks like these, but not pretty. Hazel totally does not care that they aren’t pretty. I suppose someday she’ll make them pretty. You would not believe how sturdy these things are.

I get excited when I have a good repurposing resolution. I need to keep those going. I think that gets me caught up to the week before last. This whole week I’m playing catch-up with all kinds of stuff, so I’ll try to bring myself current. I do have a goodwill bag going but I haven’t dropped it off yet so it doesn’t count.

Listening: dog-scratching; husband-typing; CCR in my head; THUNDER!!! in my sky
(I am) Reading: The Poisonwood Bible
(Hazel is) Reading: Pond Circle
(Thinking about) working on: Hazel’s summer clothes – I should do this soon, right? All I’ve made are pajamas. She is living in skirts and capris from last year.

Well… I think that’s over. Three days of sleep deprivation was rounded out nicely by a morning of sleeping in and then a happy baby exploring this foreign terrain known as The Yard.

I realize I’ve gotten behind on my new year’s resolution – I’ve been doing things and just not photographing and posting them, so here is my catch up for weeks eight, nine, and ten.

Thinned a big heap of Hazel’s outgrown / winter clothes – 2/3 put back for future babes and the rest into a box of clothes waiting for the consignment shop to start taking winter things sometime this summer.

Sock & underwear purge – a thrilling Saturday night.

Thinned out some beads and charms – these will eventually make their way into the destashed supplies for sale in my Etsy shop.

Last week we were talking with Mikey’s mom about the possibility of adding her to our family cell phone plan to save her some money. We did all of the research and she picked out a phone and was all set to deposit money for it into our bank account when I got a piece of AT&T junk mail (that I almost threw away without reading) offering a code for a really nice phone for free if you added another line to your family plan. She and Mikey are always, always falling into things like that. She wasn’t even surprised when I told her to forget about the bank deposit because she could get a much nicer phone for free.

So, this morning when I was packaging up Etsy orders I started thinking that maybe I should try something a bit more sustainable when I next need to print business cards. After dinner I opened up my email to find an Etsy newsletter, which included this link – 50 free business cards from moo.com. They do reeealllyyyyy nice, delicious printing, but I’ve always opted for cheaper options. Even though this offer includes a small ad on each business card and $5.00 for shipping, I took them up on it anyway because the ad offers a discount code to whoever gets the card. I wanted to see how they turned out using my photos, and was impressed by the sustainability of the cards: 100% recycled / recyclable / biodegradable, chlorine free, and manufactured using wind power. I hope they are pretty! I really should have business cards that actually feature photos of my products, and Moo lets you do a mix of lots of different photos in the same order of cards. Possibly worth the extra money – we’ll see when they get here.

Listening: Will Oldham
(I am) Reading: The Poisonwood Bible
(Hazel is) Reading: Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
Working on: blue & gold blanket (which I always work on to ease the distress of having a molar-getting kid, for some reason); Easter basket goodies; custom jewels

I am so, so, so close to having not a single Etsy thing that needs to be photographed. This feels so good. I have about five things that I knew needed to be redone but forgot to add to today’s mix, a little box of vintage earrings to price/sort/photograph, and anything I might come across that needs to be redone from the hundreds of photos I took today and yesterday… almost, almost, almost there. Almost caught up on photographs means almost 100% caught up with Etsy in general. I’m still trying to decide if I even want to finish a big batch of resin pendants that are partially done, since I’ve started making glass ones that I like much better and will soon start listing. Other than that I have no projects in the works – everything is DONE. Promo things are done. I’ve got a bit of packaging supplies to finish. It’s going to be so strange to be caught up and be able to start working on brand new things for my shop. I will have enough packaging and promo stuff to last me through part of the summer, at least, so I can just MAKE things. New things that have only existed in my brain. Weird.

If I hadn’t “lost” my macro filters for three months I’d be so much further along. “Lost”… because all along they were in a box clearly labeled “camera stuff”. Mikey kept saying “are you sure they aren’t in that box?”… and I’d say “yes, I’ve had them out since we moved home”… and ugh. I can’t trust my own memory anymore. Is this what it feels like to be 75? Is it the same as having a toddler?

Since I unearthed my filters two days ago and could finally dive into everything I had waiting, Hazel has been so ignored for the past two afternoons while the light is right for pictures. Today when I finished I tried to make it up to her by reading her a massive pile of books, including these spring-ey books. Then I gave her my old cell phone to play with while I cooked supper – she had many long and important conversations, with lots of gestures and yelling. She looked like a tiny executive. I don’t know where she learned this. Mikey and I don’t yell at people on the phone.

Here’s last week’s resolution, which I kept forgetting to photograph: a garbage bag full of clothing and toys to consign whenever we get out of the house and down the interstate:

Listening: Tom Petty
(I am) Reading: The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers
(Hazel is) Reading: all of the above
Working on: blanket; pajamas; Etsy catch-up