“Let us pause in life’s pleasures, and count its many tears.”

I’m probably not the first person to post this video/song as a New Year’s Day post, but nonetheless, I’m feeling like you might just need to watch this. Natalie graciously put up with me listening to this version on repeat in the car today (well, by graciously, I mean she fell asleep to it — I think that counts). It’s on the album “Appalachian Journey“. Just. Love. It. So. Much.

And it seems so appropriate today somehow.

So here’s to the good times a-comin’. I hope 2011 was the best year of your life, but if it was sucktastic like I know it was for some of my nearest and dearest, may this bring you some solace, maybe a few tears and some hope.

New originals have been unearthed! These were painted earlier in the year; prints coming soon, as well as more originals from prints already in the shop. Click the images or here to buy.

I’m cooking up some exciting things in the studio these days. Go ahead and sign up for the newsletter and you’ll be in on all the super-awesome secret stuff (and by secret I mean a coupon code for holiday shopping!) SIGN UP HERE — but don’t worry if you’re already on the list, you’ll get it all too! Eeeeee!!!!

Also — everything in the shop now ships for FREE (yes, that’s free shipping! on everything!) through the end of the year. I guess I’m just feeling generous? Yippee!

Maybe it was the October snow? But I’m ready for the (winter) holidays!

our little monkey on her 2nd Halloween

]]> http://www.lauriecoyledesigns.com/blog/2011/11/3110/feed/ 1 http://www.lauriecoyledesigns.com/blog/2011/08/3049/ http://www.lauriecoyledesigns.com/blog/2011/08/3049/#comments Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:36:59 +0000 Laurie May http://www.lauriecoyledesigns.com/blog/?p=3049

I was going to reopen my Etsy shop this weekend.

But instead, I’m going to cook, and clean, and sort baby clothes. Do yoga, share photos, send presents to new babies and friends. Buy wedding gifts and eat brownies. Pet the cat. Try to be nicer to my amazing husband. Plan a beach vacation. And maybe even watch some “Master Chef” on hulu. I am keeping busy and learning to live a little simpler and enjoy spending time with Nat and John and friends and our dog. I have been mending toys and clothes, but I haven’t made anything in over a moth. And I’m ok with that.

It’s some sort of transition and I’m embracing it.

If you had told me a few years ago, or even one year ago, that I’d be leaning away from owning a small artistic/creative business to be a “homemaker” with a part-time job in someone else’s business, I would have probably said you were crazy. But here we are. I’m trying to go on a low-stress diet, and I think it’s working. More-or-less, of course.

For now, it’s a wait-and-see, and that’s really ok. Isn’t it? I still have big things up my sleeves, and I’m not abandoning the creating or the business I’ve built, but I’m pushing it a little farther back on the shelf I put it on last month. I hope it doesn’t get too dusty up there, but I think I know how to clean it up if it does.

It’s finally (finally!) truly, really, actually summer here in the Berkshires!

Everything is green and lush and buzzing and blooming and chirping, and we are swimming as much as possible and we are enjoying the company of friends and family, and sitting on the deck, and watching fireflies.

This summer is different than other summers, though. We are also going to bed early and chasing a little girl who desperately wants to run everywhere, but really isn’t quite able to. She gets to frustrated when we slow her down! But of course with running-when-you-really-don’t-know-how comes falling, and crying, and new bumps and bruises. Her knees are bruised and she has another one on her cheek, but she doesn’t care! The girl has practically no fear! Unless, of course, you are a stranger, who your mother might leave you with. Then you are scary and horrible and how-dare-you. But that’s just the way it goes. If you are within mom’s reach, everything must be safe. Ah, if only it were so, little one!

But we are also enjoying seeing the excitement of summer through her eyes. She was so little last summer that she didn’t really get to experience much of it, except being really hot all the time (it was so hot!). But this year is different. She is walking and running and talking and experiencing all there is to experience! The world is so exciting to her! And I want to keep it that way.

So we are retreating this week, going to pretend we are also on vacation! This was a little idea I had the other night — we live in a place where thousands of people come for vacations every summer. Why not join them? And we have some family coming in from the west coast, some of whom have never been here, so I’ve decided Natalie and I are going to join them on some of their vacation! (I hope they don’t mind if we tag along?!) This might include, but is not limited to, swimming a lot, hiking and canoeing (ok babies might not come canoeing!), visiting our local museums and galleries, shopping and maybe eating too much, but definitely lolling around, chatting, drinking lemonade and resting. Oh and of course not working. That’s the part I really like. Lately I have been in a constant feeling-guilty-if-I’m-not-working-but-not-having-time-to-work mode, and it’s getting a little exhausting. So here’s to letting myself off the hook and going on staycation! Have a happy 4th, y’all!

Last Thursday this little baby turned One!

I hardly believe it. How far we’ve come!

We had an awesome party on Saturday, thrown my my amazing mom, Natalie’s Grammy. It was lots of fun, full of family and a few friends. She loved having everyone sing to her! It was so funny to watch her notice that they were all singing, TO HER, TOGETHER! she loved loved loved it.

And she even ate a little bit of her low-sugar cake thingy (more like a frosted pancake, perhaps? It wasn’t bad, though) that I made for her (we made traditional cake for everyone else, but she’s still not had much sugar so I thought I’d keep it that way a little while longer!).

She also loved opening presents. We were sure she’d only open a few and get distracted, but she was all like “what’s next?” That is, until she opened a doll stroller. ALL SHE EVER WANTED. Once it was set up she practically jumped over me to get to it and start pushing it around! Too cute. She kind of wants to push it from the front most of the time, but who am I to judge?

Our babybear is growing up so fast!

I made a little list not long ago on the other blog of things she can say, but now that she’s officially one, here’s a list of her accomplishments thus far:

• Things she can say: hi, Dada, Mama, meow, arf-arf, kitty, doggie, baby (bebe), na-na (i.e. Natalie, or “give it to me/Natalie”), me-me (”Grammy”), duck, owl, down, no, yessss, that.

• Other sound effects: mmm (”moo”), brmm (tractor, car), wee-wee (as in “this little piggy went to market”), an awesome pig snort, a slurping pretend drinking sound, lip-smacking pretend eating sound, a horse-foot clicking/clopping sound, and she bounces up and down like she’s riding a horse when she sees one.

• Sign-language signs: milk, more, food/eat, water, baby, sleep, waves hi and bye, and she points all the time.

• Record # of hours slept at once: 13

• She has been feeding herself since she was 7 months old. She hasn’t mastered the spoon yet, but can get tiny pieces and big pieces and all in-between. She loves most things she’s tried, but her favorites are broccoli, cucumber, bread, banana and pasta (a girl after her Dada’s heart!). She is not fond of cheese and I’m ok with that (cheese being one of my weaknesses, something I’m working on giving up!). She also loves graham crackers, well really any kind of cracker, pizza crust and tiny sips of green juice. She drinks water from her straw cup, and gets really mad at any kind of non-chewy sippy cup spout or having to tip a sippy cup too high. Can’t blame her.

• No crawling, lots of walking — almost running now. She can roll both ways like a champ, and almost does a somersault when she falls sometimes, but not on purpose! The day she got her stitches she learned to get herself up from the floor to walking. She can climb small steps but hasn’t even tried the stairs (thank goodness!).

• She likes to use her imagination and feeds her toy animals and dolls all the time. She’s also started trying to dress and undress the dolls, and has been trying to help dress herself for a while now.

It’s kind of like she’s a KID. Unbelievable. hehe.

also, this was the scene out our front door this past tuesday morning:

after the snowpocalypse showed up. I can’t remember a storm this huge since I was a kid. It was pretty amazing. And nice that we didn’t have anywhere to be on Monday, when mother nature dumped 20 inches of the stuff on us. It happened to be my (30th!) birthday, too, so we will definitely be remembering this one! Some of my lovely friends came to us that evening, bringing gifts and cupcakes and booze. It was fantastic! Tonight we’re staying in, perhaps reminicing about this big ‘ol year we’ve had and looking forward to the next one, full of first steps and second words (she definitely has “hi!” down), and all kinds of other firsts we can’t even imagine. Here’s to a great year ahead!

And the winner is…. Jean!! {I am so excited to send this off to you, Jean!}

Here’s her favorite holiday crafting memory:

Jean has a wonderful craft business going, Woolart, but I really hope this book helps her out in her pursuits of more craftiness in her future. We had the pleasure of seeing Jean at the BerkshrieMade Holiday Craft Show a few weeks ago, and got some awesome fulled booties for Natalie, an ADORABLE owl hat and a cute cute diorama ornament from her! I trust she’ll have more goods for sale in her Etsy shop soon… as soon as she gets a little free time from running her new farm in Maine, that is!

As for me and my favorite holiday crafting memories? One of mine is quite similar to Jean’s, actually! Every year my brothers and cousins and I would gather at my Grandma’s house a week or two before Christmas to decorate gingerbread cookies, as described in this post from last year, including listening to “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” and the Chipmunk’s Christmas album.

that's me, gazing up on my brother's cookie decorating. Circa 1984?

I also loved making these little paper Easter baskets with my other Grandma every year. We would cut out little eggs from colored construction paper, to place inside our baskets made of paper stapled together to make a pouch, decorated with a drawn-on basket-weave pattern. I really thought those were the bees knees. I’m totally planning to make them every year with Natalie when she can, you know, wield a pair of scissors, or, um, talk.

So this one time, I became friends with a very lovely and inspiring girl named Kari. We used to go out to “business” lunches when we both worked in jobs we didn’t like very much; we’d dream about starting our own businesses and being crafty everyday, and we’d talk about crazy things like having babies or writing books. Then we got the chance to work together in jobs we liked very much, and we kept on dreaming and got crafty together, Kari inspired me to develop my Etsy shop and product line, and we were always reading design and craft blogs while on our breaks. Then the store we worked at closed, and we had to move on to other things.

So maybe you can imagine that this year was a very big year for both of us, having different kinds of babies! You know about mine, but do you know about Kari’s BOOK? She wrote “The Handmade Marketplace“, which was ranked #1 Craft Book of the year by Amazon! Yay Kari!

It is chock full of all kinds of useful information about starting and running a crafty business, and selling your crafts locally, globally and online. Oh did I mention that I’m in it? Yeah, well, that was a fun perk to being friends with the author; as I’ve just been getting my business going these last few years, I was so thrilled to be included alongside so many amazing artists, crafters and bloggers such as Mati Rose McDonough, Diane Gilleland, Emily Martin, Grace Bonney, and Holly Becker; I think I did an ok job offering the “beginner’s perspective”, though. hehe.

So that’s the background. That all leads up to the fact that I am going to give away a copy of the book! It would be a wonderful gift for the crafty girl or guy in your life, or to yourself if you have ever entertained the thought of starting up your very own little craft biz!

**TO ENTER**

Just leave a comment here about a favorite holiday craft memory. This could be anything: a special handmade birthday gift from a friend; something you and your mom made together every year when you were a kid (my mom was a stellar snow-sculpture-maker!); or maybe even a baking project you embarked on (collapsed gingerbread house, anyone?). The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator.

Entries will close at 12 noon EST Friday December 17. Good luck!

******

Oh and as a side note, Kari is offering her second e-course starting in January! Fresh Start will be four weeks of exploring your crafty business goals and ways to achieve them, while giving you valuable tools that will help make your dreams come true along the way! {Also, she is writing a follow-up book! It’s true! We are such lucky little crafters!}