WREN handmade

Camping trip

Hi,

I can't believe how the summer has flown by. We have been away quite a bit and had lots of family visiting.  One fun thing we did recently was go on a 5 night camping trip in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It was Leo's first time camping and he loved it. Lots of new things to touch and ways to get dirty! We camped in Watkins Glen State Park and did some hiking and exploring small towns during the days.

In Watkins Glen the Gorge trail was amazing!

We cooked lots of good food over the campfire.

I picked a bunch of wild raspberries and we make hobo pies with them, yum.

All in all camping is a nice (and inexpensive!) way to enjoy the outdoors and relax. 

Renegade 2011

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my booth at Renegade this year! Saturday was pretty miserable with the mist and rain but Sunday was beautiful and we had a great crowd. I almost canceled because of the forecast and I'm so glad I didn't. Here are some pics of my table. Wish I could have shopped more but I was pretty tied to my booth.

These larger scale hairclips were new and sold out! I will try to stock my Etsy shop with these (and other crochet items) soon.

Renegade Craft Fair this weekend!

I am once again participating in the Renegade Craft Fair here in Brooklyn. It's this weekend June 11 +12 from 11am-7pm both days. Drop by and say hi, it's always a great sale. I'll have booth #140 sharing with Marcie McGoldrick Design. Crossing my fingers for good weather!

Backyard

I've been working on the backyard quite a bit lately. We moved here in the fall so this is our first spring and summer here. It's definitely a work in progress. At some point we will replace the chain link fence with something nicer and we'd love to put in brick cobble stones. But for now we are loving just having an outdoor space of our own, a rarity in New York City. I figured I would show pictures now and then late in the summer when things have filled in.

Trying out tomato plants, hope we get some good ones!

I planted a mini vegetable garden in a 3' x 3' raised bed, we'll see how it does! I've never tried this before.

Even when we looked at the house, we always loved this little hidden door in the back. It leads into the garage.

The previous owner had nice pergolas built both for our entrance and the backyard. I've planted wisteria for both. Hoping it takes over and covers the wood. This should be a cool before and after if it works.

There is a nice hydrangea bush (no idea what color the blooms will be), a holly bush (which is unruly and takes over) and a peach tree. I planted impatiens under the tree.

It's been so nice to have a spot to go in the morning and have my coffee or work on crochet projects or sewing outside. There is always a baby calling me away though just when I get into a project. Oh well, he a good distraction.

Crocheted mobile

I was happy to contribute a project to the book Vintage Craft Workshop by Cathy Callahan. The book is finally out and it's great to see it in print. We were asked to reinterpret a vintage craft, you can see mine in the spread below. I used a similar pattern to what I use for my crochet necklaces but scaled them up for the mobile. It's really fun to see all the vintage projects and new interpretations, check it out!

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a very sweet first Mother's day. We had a picnic in the park with a few other babies and parents and the weather was beautiful. Leo (all by himself) picked out some nice treats for me; a few great Liberty patterns, some Fika jam and chocolate and Harney and Sons tea. I guess he knows his mama, ha!

Happy Mother's Day to all especially both Leo's grandmas, you are a blessing to us!

These lilacs are from the backyard and are SO fragrant.

Sun hats

 I have been wanting to make a sun hat for Leo for some time now. He is so fair he pretty much needs this any time we go outside. I found a great hat pattern in the Little Things to Sew by Oliver + S. The first one I made was too big but the second one (extra small) fits great and now I have one for when Leo gets older. I added ties to the small one but it isn't even really necessary if it fits pretty snug. Overall pretty easy and so cute!

Happy Spring!

We hosted an Easter brunch yesterday which was quite festive and fun. Surprisingly the weather was very warm, in the 70's and all the trees and plants are in bloom in Brooklyn. What a nice celebration of spring.

I cut some flowering pear branches from the tree outside for some last minute arrangements.

I decorated eggs this year with a wax stylus, traditional Paas dyes and a few darker Ukranian dye colors. I drew freehand patterns and also made "placecards" using eggs for each person attending. The stylus is a little tricky to make perfect lines, so I decided to embrace the wobbly lines and more organic look.

Each person got a hard boiled egg with their name on it, to eat then or take home.

I was happy to set the table using my LuRay dishes which I think looked very Eastery in the pastel shades.

The napkins are from Winter Water Factory and the linen runner is from Dwell Studio.

Our friend Katie brought a nice assortment of cheeses and made these cute labels for them.

I made orange poppy seed cupcakes from the May issue of Martha Stewart Living. The whole poppy story is really inspiring!

All in all, a nice afternoon. Sorry I didn't get any shots with the actual people, it's always a whirlwind once the party starts when you are hosting. Hope everyone had a nice Passover or Easter!

Leo's finally gets his own room.

Even though we moved to our new house back in November, we just lately moved Leo into his own room. We had all been sharing the "rec room" basement. Now Leo is getting the best spot in the place, with my coveted window looking out at the birdfeeder and yard. It's been nice to contain all his toys and stuff and let him freely play in there. He does try to escape though every chance he gets now that he is a pro at crawling! I had a lot of fun putting his room together.

The whale wall decal and the Leo print are from Little Lion Studio on Etsy.

I made a curtain out of thick denim which blocks the light for daytime naps.

Red and white quilts

On Tuesday Leo and I saw this show. It was an amazing display of quilts. The presentation and range of designs made it totally worth the trip. Unfortunately it was only up for a few days. Leo also seemed to really like it since he likes to look up at graphic things and lights. If you can believe one woman collected all these!