Our annual Muddy Creek Corn Maze day family fun

For many years now we have been going to the Muddy Creek Corn Maze.

I’ll be sad when the kids are too old to want to go. This might be my favorite family picture ever.

This one came out pretty good without Max the goofball in it.

Cute kids- Lauren, Henry and Max

Nick made a new friend. Or rather I made him stand next to it  so I could take the picture.

Children of the corn- Henry and Aidan.

Ahhh the Moo Train. Max was terrified and wanted me to ride with him but the

owner said it would be too heavy so he had to man up and go alone. He ended

up facing his fears and loving it and went a second time. The picture is of Henry

who had no fear,only excitement. And our friends the Mayfields are behind him.

Hark, I see a pumpkin.

The always cute Kai and lovely Mom Amy with Ryan and Nick on the wagon ride.

Max looking jolly.

Good times!

What’s been happening?

Lot’s of things. We painted the kids room a couple of weeks ago. It was long overdue.

I had forgotten how much I dislike painting.

We had to paint over Henry’s wall art from when he was little. So we took some

pictures to save it for posterity. The room is now a lovely “Emerald Coast” teal.

I had to bribe the kids to let me take pictures of them in Stephanie’s shirts for her website:

Sasquatch Designs

I took the kids to the Shrewsbury Renaissance Fair Last Saturday. It was a beautiful

setting with perfect weather.

Yet somehow the most interesting part for the kids was Ye Olde Port- a Potty.

I had to drag them away from the sink you pump with your foot after patiently waiting

for them to lose interest for about 15 minutes.

Nick is getting birthday punches from his boys before diving into his cheesecake.

I made him his annual birthday vegetarian sushi.

Henry’s first day of school as a fourth grader.

One of the more exciting things happening around here is the long awaited pouring

and construction of a humungous concrete back patio. It will have a little overhang

built too. It’s like a little slab of Brooklyn in my Oregon paradise.

There is lots of exciting things happening in our business too. We just sent off our

first shipment to “Made In Oregon” of our Little Glass Flower Earrings.

They will be in all 11 stores! We have other big news but until the deal is signed

and completely on I will keep it secret.

Making Waves–Hair Toys

I added a fun assortment of wavy sticks to our Etsy shop. They are great for holding hair or shawls. The waves give a little extra grip. And they are priced right at $8.50- $9.50 depending on the metal. We don’t have them in sterling silver yet in our shop but they will cost more because of the price of silver. So get rid of those pencils you’ve been using to keep your hair up.

This is the Aluminum Hair Stick / Shawl Pin - Wavy Trinity Clover Loops .
We make them in aluminum, brass, copper and sterling silver. The aluminum is the lightest and also the most bendable. Which means it may not work well on very long and / or heavy hair. Some of our customers prefer to use 2 of them on their heavier hair.


This is the Brass Wavy Hair Stick / Shawl Pin - Simple Spiral Waves. Brass is the heaviest and strongest of the metals we use. It is the least likely to bend. Copper is inbetween aluminum and brass when it comes to strength and flexibility. We  can make them any length you’d like for no extra cost (Except for the sterling silver sticks which cost significantly more and we need to charge extra per inch.)

Our train trip to visit cousins in southern California

Last week we took a big long overdue vacation to visit our cousins Peter, Victoria, Harry and Charlotte. They live in Altadena ,CA. Ever since Nick’s cross country train journey in February he has been hooked on First Class train travel.

The excitement builds as Max,Henry and Nick wait at the train station for our train to arrive.

It was awesome hanging out in the Parlor Car.

The guys played a round of “Munchkin”-a sort of board/card game.

The views on the train trip were wonderful. This is a shot from the dining car looking
at what I think are spinach fields in central California.We had a family sleeping car.We all
slept fairly well but I would compare it at times to be being trapped in a padded cell with monkeys.

We went to the California Science Center on Friday which was a great deal at my favorite price-free.

Max, Henry and Harry at the Science Center.
The next day we surprised the kids with the trek to Legoland in Carldbad. The drive took
an hour longer than expected due to  traffic. Gee what a surprise-NOT. Henry was feeling somewhat car sick. Upon arrival we stepped out of the car and started walking towards the entrance and Henry made a spectacular human vomit fountain of fluorescent orange Cheetos. It got all over him, my legs and Max’s feet. He just missed the shiny nice Escalade we were standing next too but left them a delightful surprise to step over to get into the driver’s seat when the owners returned from their day at Legoland.  (We did attempt to wash as much of it away with water as possible.)After cleaning up we continued once again.

Here is Nick in front of the impressive Lego miniland display (the best part of Legoland
in my not so humble opinion.) Let me just say that the cost of entering Legoland was far
from my favorite price. As a cheapwad the $250 entrance fee for the 4 of us, which included a one child free coupon and AAA discount, was a harsh way to begin the day. And it never really lived up to that fee for me.
.
But the kids had fun. Here are the happy cousins.


All the ride lines were 45 + minutes long. This was the only ride we did all day.
The kids aren’t really that into rides so luckily it wasn’t that big a deal to them.

Henry is examining his new lego set.

Peter and Nick relaxing while the kids continued to still have massive amounts
of energy running around .

Back at home the cousins played Legos and Harry was also impressed with Henry’s wii skills.

Henry took this picture of Victoria and me on the morning we left. It was really great
to spend time with them in their new home.

All my pictures were taken with my smart phone because I didn’t want to carry around another camera. It was hard to really capture the scenery out the window of the train or the constant movement of the kids.

I believe this is San Luis Obispo.

Klamath Lake area with Mount Shasta in the distance.

Back home in beautiful Oregon.

New big and small shawl pins and flowers

Here’s the new anchor design as a brass shawl pin in the shop.

I’ve been getting requests for larger sized pins that would work well for long hair.

So I made a few of these Big Treble Clef pins and brought them to the Saturday market 2 weeks

ago and they sold quickly. I’ve now added the copper version into our shop. It would work well

on a bulky shawl or scarf or in big heavy long hair or dreadlocks.

Here it is in my hand for a size perspective . I’ve been spending some time reading

the Long Hair Community Forums and unTamedTresses to see what customers an

d long hair afficionados have to say about our hair forks and sticks. Most of it is good stuff.

Aluminum while light isn’t great for heavy hair but works well in some types- like mine.

But until you try it in your own hair it’s just too hard to know for sure.

I also made a new Little Copper Treble Clef pin meant for light fingering weight lacey shawls or scarfs.

I’ve been reaching the end of my supplies of these lovely Czech glass flower beads. Some of the colors I use are no longer available. But I got nice amount of

these sweet translucent pink flowers and  my favorite peridot colored glass leaves.

Spring happenings in the garden

Long before I had kids I was an ambitious gardener.I am so glad I planted to these

yellow iris bulbs so long ago that continue to come up year after year with no help from me.

This busy bee is enjoying the foxglove that reseeds itself and randomly shows up

in different places every year.

Ahhh- so soon if all goes according to plan and I don’t count my chickens before they hatch

or my cherries before they ripen we will be gorging ourselves on Royal Anne cherries

from the tree we planted right in the middle of the front yard the year we first bought

this place about 18 years ago.

Anchors away

I have been wanting to come up with a good wire design for an anchor pendant.

Things have slowed down enough that I had time to experiment and now have the silver and brass version in our shop.

I liked the way it looks like rope adding a nautical flavor to the design.

I’ll be adding the copper version too as soon as I get some decent pictures.

Sterling Silver Anchor Pendant - Wire Rope Anchor Necklace

Brass Anchor Pendant - Wire Rope Anchor Necklace