Sunday Signage: Always Remember

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Fab Foto Friday: Tell Your Friend(s)

Did'ja hear? 

Several shops on Etsy are now able to accept credit cards and Sweet Baby Dolly is one of them! You no longer have to be redirected to PayPal upon placing your order if the seller you are buying from is participating. Let's put on our polka dots and dance.

Yee hoo!

 

Give her some space.
Let her decide.
Let her do it alone.
Keep that opinion to yourself.
Sing along to her kind of music.
These are things I'm constantly repeating to myself in my head.
Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this parenting thing, we've entered a new phase. Actually we entered it about a year ago, but I'm just catching on.

My favorite girl in the entire world turned 7 today.
 I will not bore you with the "where did the time go?" or the "it seems like just yesterday..." because you know what I'm talking about. Her birthdays have always been exciting for me, but I'm finding this one tricky. I wouldn't say I'm sad, it just feels different.
Maybe it's her increased independence? Not because I'm sad that she doesn't need me to do things for her. More because it seems like she's becoming a real person. An actual human who moves through the world in her own way based on who she is, and what her surroundings/family/teachers/peers have taught her. She's just so capable of so much. She is her own little person with her own little  BIG ideas.

Everyday I try to focus on being the person she needs me to be, and not trying to make her the person I want her to be. I want her to be her.

Sunday Signage: feeling blessed

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Fab Foto Friday: Mobile Baby

Another cute vintage photo! This one is my mom (I think?).

We've had our own little baby on the move for the past week. Which means that while I type this I've got one eye on the computer screen and one eye on the baby heading straight for the lamp cord. NO!

So,  if you have any infinitely tiny specimens on your floor I will send my baby over, and he will pick them up for you. And put them in his mouth.

Happy Friday!

 

I QUIT! ...wait, no I don't!

Hello Friends,
Just thought you should know that two days ago I decided to hang up my needles. I told myself that I just wasn't going to be able to manage, to balance (as mentioned before), to be and do everything. Fall is coming up, it's a super busy time for Sweet Baby Dolly on Etsy, and I had no idea how I was going to swing it with our new little love bundle of a man baby (now crawling!) around the house.

So I put away my needles. I emptied my yarn basket. And I cried. And I cleaned the house for an entire day. And I made an apple pie. All of this of course, in between playing and taking care of the children folk. My husband and daughter both tried to persuade me not to quit, but I just said NO.

What was I THINKING? Clearly I wasn't thinking. I can't QUIT! Yes, it's hard, but is that who I want to be? Is that what I want to teach my babies? That when it gets hard you just quit!? NO.

Plus I'm obsessed with it. For the horrifying 28 hours that I decided I wasn't doing it anymore, I felt like I didn't even know who I was. I love knitting, designing, selling, my customers, my computer, my needles, my YARN! I need to have a part of my life that exists beyond the domestic (call me a bad mother/wife, I dare you).

So my dear Friends, I'm back in biz. My shop is open and ready to go. A few changes, a few new designs, and million more to come. I'm just going to have to take it a bit easier this fall, not take so many orders, stay up a little later, and get up a little earlier. I can handle it. I think.

Here's a peek of a few new little cuties...

... more to come, I promise!



This Old House

I love old houses. Pictures of homes, old neighborhoods, farmhouses... I sit and stare at them and think about how the day the last board was set, the pride the owner must have had, and the people who inhabited them. Not a day goes by that I don't feel the soul of this old house we're living in. I've spent a little too much time thinking about the lives that have lived here and what went on in these rooms.

The day before we were leaving for our big family vacation, the house was a disaster and I was running around, trying get things organized for the trip. I heard the dog bark and I saw a man walking through the yard. 
Aw great, somebody's here.
There's a tight County Commissioner campaign going on here, and I assumed it was a politician asking for our vote. I was a total mess with a baby on my hip and okay fine, I wasn't wearing a bra. I asked my husband to deal with the matter, so he stepped outside to talk to the fella.
He was out there for a while, and I noticed two other women, and then I saw them taking pictures. I thought maybe they were with the historical society or something and decided to put on a bra and head out there.
Too late. My husband came in the house. Expressionless, he said "Oh, it was some lady... her Great Grandfather built the place."
WHA? I was silent. I just looked at him, hoping he was joking.
"She's from Belgium. She has a pillow that her Grandma made with a picture of the house on it."
Oh my GAD, are you SERIOUS?
He was serious.
Well did they want to come in? Has she been here before? Did she speak English? Did she tell you about her grandparents? How long is she in town? Who was she with? Did she show you the pillow? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?
I ran out to snag them before they left, but they were already gone. 
And then I think I actually felt a tiny piece of my heart crumble.
The moral of this story is: When you get up in the morning put on a bra, tidy up, and answer the door when someone drops by. Usually when a stranger comes a knockin' they're kind of a pest, asking me to buy something, or vote for them, or fix their car. I never would have imagined I'd miss out on such an extraordinary visitor.
And to the poor Belgian woman whose ancestors built the Gustave Lanz house in Scott County MN: I'm so sorry you traveled across the world and paid a visit to a monument of your family's history and weren't invited in. Feel free to contact me via this blog or my Etsy shop. I would love to chat with you!