The little man and I spent a beautiful two hours outside this morning, walking to the post office and bringing a certain someone his forgotten lunch. I put together a nifty hand-me-down stroller from a bandmate of mine (while V looked on in amusement) and we hit the road! It was sunny as all get-out, but only 37 degrees, so when we got home I heated up some tomato-free chili. Yum!

Yesterday I received 100 zippers in the mail. Yahoo! I'd been eagerly anticipating their arrival so I could start making my new upcycled coin purses! They're just the right size for ID, credit card, and some cash for a purse-less night on the town (or for a mess-free diaper bag.) You'll be able to find the first one on my etsy shop tomorrow!

I've been thinking, I originally started cooking for the week to save time (which it does) and my mind (also does), but there have been other benefits I've found.

-Saving Money. Always popular. We eat all natural and organic and local when we can, which can get spendy, but cooking in such large quantities has cut our grocery bill in half. That's right, I said in half

-Less Waste.  Face it, we all know about the starving children in Africa, it's not always enough to make us eat all the half-servings of random leftovers. When I use up all the ingredients I buy, and I cook exactly 10 portions, we see way less waste in the compost and in the garbage.

That's right, the first batch of monsters is done! Here they are in all their glory. You can find the first fun, plush monster on my etsy shop today.

No! This is actually the roast pan from making my tomato-free tomato sauce this weekend. BUT, I am getting very excited about printing and I'm seeing possibilities everywhere! At the moment I am making stencils for my bleach pen, getting out my textile inks, designing motifs, and eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new printing book, Prints Charming, by two lovely ladies in Australia with really fabulous fabric ideas. I will definitely share once it arrives.

Please forgive me if you are not a "kids" person.
This weekend, I was freaking out about my amazing baby, the crazy mother-child bond, and the most intimate relationship in my entire life. We spend at least 20 hours of each day in physical contact with each other, I'm pretty sure I haven't done that with anyone else since I was a baby.
Since his arrival, we have done everything together. In the beginning, that mostly meant I didn't do very much. When he slept, I slept. When he ate, I ate, etc. He is nearly five months old now, and we are doing so much more. It is the coolest things in the world to get to be reintroduced to your own life through the eyes of your very own child.
On Sunday, we crocheted together (he thinks double crochet is hilarious), we did 100 loads of laundry together (okay, more like 4), we made delicious almond butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies together, the only thing we don't do together is shower (and that's mostly because my showers are way too hot for baby skin).
I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to spend every minute with him, I know it's a luxury many many parents don't have.

Do you have a parenting treasure to share? I would love to hear about it. Leave it in a comment!

We'll hear the verdict on this week's recipes, look at some of my husband's ridiculously good photography, and more! See you then!

So, I don't really get spring cleaning fever... but I do get spring project fever. Something about the added sunshine makes my head spin with ideas for new things to do and renewed energy for projects nearly forgotten. Today I will share some of my most burning ideas with you and I invite you to share yours in a comment!

The little guy has begun the dance of tooth-growing and it has served to focus some of his interests. He is no interested in any toys that don't feel good in his mouth. His favorite has actually been the prefolds that I use for soaking up the various liquids that come with babies. I thought it might me more enjoyable for him to have some variety (and for me to have something prettier than white cotton), hence this project.
I pulled out some fat quarters of Anna Maria Horner's gorgeous flannels and my trim/ribbon/webbing collection and got to work. This tag blanket was shockingly easy to put together. I cut 13" squares from each of the fabrics and 4" pieces of each of the trims one morning before he woke up. That same night I sat down at the sewing machines while the Freds were in bed reading and whipped it up in about 15 minutes. He's chewing on it at this very moment- the best review possible!

These are actually just two of a set of five half yards I ordered a few weeks ago from an Etsy shop based in India. They are authentic and unique to Maharastra. Awesome, no? Made from cotton with a bit of silk, they feel lovely and have a beautiful subtle sheen. I can't wait for little Fred to stop growing quite so fast so I can make him some pants! Probably not until next holiday season. I guess that's a good time for fancy pants.

This is a first test of the bleach pen. Last weekend I got some sodium metabisulfite so I could neutralize bleach and keep it from destroying fabric and I've been itching to experiment! I like the color result on these deconstructed pants, but I think I'm going to make stencils for next time to get crisper edges. The lines on the left are from the narrow tip and the circles on the right were created with the fat tip.

I have been collecting unwanted Tshirts for years. I have used them for all kinds of things. I've made dresses, rugs, scarves, you name it, but I'm always looking for something new, something that doesn't scream "I'm a cut up Tshirt". This week, I attempted a doily placemat and a giant friendship bracelet, both unsuccessful. What's great about failure though is that is leads to success. In working with these strips in so many different ways I find I can really get a feel for the material and divorce it from my preconceived notions of what a Tshirt can do.

I think I've found my next Tshirt project- I promise to share when I have a winner.

Since all of my products are made from repurposed materials, and many of them are made from textiles, when the local thrift stores have bag sales, I am a happy girl.
In my mind (meaning I have yet to make an official prototype), the fabrics on the left will be paired with the polished version of my bleach test above for some lovely rectangular throw pillows. Stripes and plaids with simple circles and dots- delicious!
The fabric on the right will be turned into more bibs and baby hats. I have discovered that I have a surprising affinity for paisley. I never go out intending to find paisley, but I have at least 6 different paisleys in my studio right now. Hmmm...

Aside from all these juicy projects above, I am also working on four birthday presents that can't be photographed right now (for obvious reasons) but I think they're going to turn out fantastically and I will share their secrets soon.

Over the weekend I will be posting my tasty borscht recipe (who doesn't like pink food?) and I will be making mushroom stroganoff, tomato-free chili, steel-cut oats to feed an army, a fancy chocolate cake, and chocolate pudding popsicles, yum! Will post recipes next week. Enjoy your weekend!

So, I had all these big plans for my post today, lots of action words and colorful photography describing all kinds of productivity on my part. I also had quite an extensive to-do list for today.
This is what happened instead.
Little V sleeps in my arms at night, which works out wonderfully for us 99% of the time. He can eat whenever he's hungry and doesn't have to wake up for it and neither do I. We almost always wake up at the same time. Today was different. I woke up a little after 8, ready to get cracking on my list and V was still sound asleep. I stayed there with him, enjoying watching a sleeping baby (who wouldn't?) until about 9 when I really REALLY had to get up.
I gently moved his head off my arm and watched for a moment as he usually wakes up as soon as I move. He started snoring. I worked on some quiet deconstruction projects on the landing outside the bedroom, checking on him frequently. He wakes up happy and I want to keep him that way, so I try to be close when he wakes up.
Finally, just before 10, his eyes open and he starts telling stories and singing songs. Yay! We can start the day!
So, we are downstairs, I'm eating breakfast, he's eating breakfast, I'm checking my email, I look down, and he's asleep again. I had not planned for this. I was not ready to occupy myself through a nap, especially what turned out to be a 2 hour nap!
By the time he woke up again, I had realized that this was an excellent reminder for me to SLOW DOWN. Productivity is all well and good, but it can't compare to the smile I get when my little boy is well-fed, well-rested, and well-snuggled.

We also got a lovely reminder from our local police officers this week. There is no overnight parking on the street in winter as we get a bajillion inches of snow every year. We forgot to get our car off the street for the first time in five years this week. The next morning, there was a piece of neon green paper on the windshield. We figured it was a ticket. Instead, we found this:

So it is now much much later than I usually like to post, as my day has been full of reminders to savor the moment and stop rushing. So I will. I'm going to go snuggle my baby and read a book!
Check back Friday for project madness!

Those of you who live in places where it's sunny and you have grass already can ignore the first half of this post. For the rest of you, I have posted my grownup hot cocoa recipe to get us through the (hopefully) last few weeks of winter.

My husband is on a lot of committees. I am very proud of his dedication to the community, but often grumbly when he is gone acting on that dedication. Fortunately for us, this month one of his duties is fun and family-friendly! He is hosting weekly tango nights for the community for the month of March. No, he is not an expert tango dancer, they have someone else teaching lessons, he's just the representative from Finlandia University making sure everything goes okay. Still. This past Friday was our first one, we did the first half of the lesson together with little Fred in the BabyBjörn (which worked surprisingly well), but after about an hour my back was getting tired so I took a breather. When I came back, the Freds were not sitting where I had left them, but out on the dance floor! I know, insert cheesy "awww" here. It was very sweet and pretty much made my weekend.

After a full week of quality control, I have determined that the veggie soup I made last week is, indeed, delicious enough to share. Go to my cooking page or just click on my veggie soup recipe.
For once I managed to actually get all my cooking done on Sunday this week, very exciting, with only a little food processing to do this morning.
This week's menu:
Oatmeal Casserole for breakfasts
Borscht with Chevre for lunch/dinner
Root Veggie Casserole with Buttermilk Rye Biscuits also for lunch/dinner

I promise to post the recipes later this week if they are as yummy as they look.

Also, in case you skipped the first half, I also added my grownup hot cocoa recipe.

A happy Friday to everyone! It has been a bit of a harrowing morning here in my house, unfortunately. Today I'm going to share some of my favorite artists, but first I have to share my embarrassing bad mom moment.

I should preface this story by explaining the situation a little bit. I am afraid of spiders. I can't look at pictures of them because I imagine those pictures crawling on me under the covers at night while I'm trying to sleep. I also seem to attract spiders. Not so much anymore, but spiders used to follow me wherever I went. I'm pretty sure I could find spiders in Antarctica.

I have been working on this fear for over ten years. I've gotten a LOT better. For the most part, spiders that are less than one inch across do not bother me unless they are on my face. However....

The old houses in Hancock, where I live, have what I call "seasonal spiders". We see them in the Spring and in the Fall and rarely in between. These are not normal spiders though. The only spiders I personally have seen that are bigger are the cane spiders in Hawai'i. These buggers are the size of the palm of my hand and they can MOVE. They can probably run faster than me, not that I run all that fast, but I'm like a thousand times their size.

The up side of these particular spiders is that they are so heavy they can't climb. They stay on the first floor and they stay on the ground. Or so I thought.

The little guy and I woke up at around nine and had our nice, happy morning snuggle time and then we got up and went to the bathroom so I could change his diaper. Both of these rooms are on the second floor of our house. We're laughing and playing and then one of these big mama spiders walks right past my feet. The maternal instincts that I was sure would turn me into some fierce warrior to protect my child completely abandoned me and I ran from the room shrieking. Five started crying and I had to go downstairs to put shoes on before I could force myself to go back in and rescue my baby.

The only thing that mitigates my guilt at all is that I knew he was safe up high on the changing table...

As embarrassing as it was to call my husband at work and beg him to come home to kill a spider or let us move to another state before lunch, that is exactly what I did. Big Fred, wonderful man that he is, dutifully came home and hunted for the spider. The bad thing about not being afraid of spiders though is that he doesn't have the adrenaline and paranoia to help him find them. He declared the beast gone and got ready to leave. I convinced him to go with me while I changed the diaper just for a minute. As I timidly re-checked everywhere that Fred had, I discovered that my nightmares had indeed come true and not only did that horrible spider make it to the second floor but he had climbed up the wall behind my husband, leaving no safe zone for me at all. Yes, I abandoned my child once again as I  ran from the room shrieking.

So I'm now sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, baby on my lap, where I can monitor my perimeter constantly and attempt to take my mind off the invasion with some of my favorite artists. Enjoy!

Sanna is a half-Finnish half-English illustrator and printmaker. I think her work is incredible. Her designs are inspired by her childhood summers spent in Finland, rich with nature and folklore. She's done work for album covers, candy wrappers, milk cartons, plus she's developing her own line of products. She also dis several designs for Marimekko a few years ago, they are featured in the pictures below. Click on any of the pics to check out her site.

You may recognize her work from my last post as well. I have a set of her postcards framed in the baby decorations. It was actually what we built all the decor around.

Cilla is a Swedish artist whose works always seems to revolve around textiles. She uses unconventional materials to depict traditional textile patterns like in the glass floor mosaic below and the plastic bead picture below that. She also designed several fabrics for Ikea. Click to see what they currently have of hers. Click either of the top to pictures to go to her blog. She hasn't posted in years, but it has some more great pictures of her work.

I got her book, Knitprovisation, for Christmas in 2008 and it rocked my world. Her stuff is bizarre and not for the faint of heart, but it's also amazing and beautiful and incredibly creative. Click on the picture to see it on Amazon.

Do these two artists get you in the mood for all things Scandinavian? Check out my Scandinavian-themed treasury on etsy! Come back Monday for some new recipes and perhaps a new product update...

The littlest man of the house has been under the weather this week, so today my post will be full of things he likes. He's snoring in my lap right now, but it sounds just like a cat purring and I love every second of it.

My husband and I did not know the gender of our baby ahead of time. This caused a lot of confusion amongst many of our well-wishers who asked, "but how will you decorate the nursery?" This, in turn, confused me. Why does my baby need a whole room of his own? He can't even roll over, what does he need square footage for? Also, the excessive genderization (I know, it's not a word) of babies is kind of a pet peeve of mine. I just don't get this whole pink/blue thing- cats are for girls, dogs are for boys etc. Honestly, unless you take their diapers off, boy babies and girl babies look exactly the same. No one should be expected to tell them apart, and no one should be offended when nobody can. I certainly don't mind when someone guesses that my son is a daughter.
So, small rant out of the way, my real point of the story is that even though Fred V sleeps with us and doesn't have a nursery, we still like baby decorations. We just put them all over the house. I guess it helps that we love bright colors, toys, and didn't end up with any plastic junk.
I would love to hear about other alternative nursery ideas!

Mini Studio Tour!
Thought I'd share the better parts of my workspace today. I recently had to accommodate some more materials and they are not organized yet, so we're skipping the 360.

I sit here. At my beautiful, wonderful, trusty sewing machine. My parents found it at a garage sale for something ridiculous like $20 in perfect condition, with all sorts of attachments and fancy things. When I'm not using it, it folds back to a table and I can use my serger. Hooray for small space solutions!

As I sit, to my right I have things that help me to remember that beauty comes in all sorts of packages and is often most delightful when unexpected.
On the far right of this picture is our award-winning jellyfish light. It is the second-best collaborative effort between my husband and myself. Fred did the wire sculpture and I created the fabric with a cornmeal resist.

Behind me is my fabric. Ah fabric. This is the prettiest shelf. It contains fat quarters and scraps. There is also a yardage shelf, a home decor shelf, a sweater shelf, a T-shirt and button-down shirt shelf, and an I don't know what this is, but I'm going to take it apart shelf. I love fabric.
Check back Friday for an ode to my favorite designers!

Happy Monday morning folks! We're getting a bit of a late start today, the little guy and I slept in until 10:30 - kind of unbelievable. I've got some new products, some old products coming back, and other good stuff to write about today, but first, by request, a link to the oatmeal casserole recipe I use. It is adapted from a recipe given to me by my sister-in-law, who somehow manages to cook healthy and delicious food for five children. Obviously, everything she does is amazing.

Old Product Coming Back - Yay!

Any of you familiar with Rispok's very first products will likely remember my fused-plastic wallets. That's right folks, I'm hoping to have more wallets ready as early as next week! I've been out of stock for nearly a year (I know, bad business) due to morning sickness and later giant, pregnant bellies, but I have hired out my piece fusing and am thrilled to be back in production.
The coming months will see a return of billfolds and zipper pouches and new products like cosmetic bags and change purses.

I usually cook for the whole week on Sunday when big Fred can play with little Fred, but since we didn't get home from Madison until Monday, I was cooking on Tuesday with a tiny sous chef. Luckily, we already had our recipes planned out and they were full of steps that could be done and left for an hour or two.
Food for the week is almost always a big pot of soup, a casserole, a breakfast dish, and salad fixings. This week I made a pesto veggie pasta dish, taco fixings, and a pannukakku with cherry cabernet sauce.
I'd love to hear your strategies for cooking with a family- leave them in a comment!

Pannukakku with Cherry Cabernet sauce- Gluten Free!

I thought I'd share this week's breakfast recipe with you. If you're not gluten-free, just use regular flour in place of the oat flour.
Where we live in the UP is chock full of Finns and Finnish recipes, crafts, and products abound. This recipe is adapted from Finnish Touches Recipes and Traditions released by Penfield Books.

Pannukakku is a Finnish baked pancake. Aside from being baked in the oven, it is also closer to custard than a traditional American pancake. It is delicious served with my cherry sauce, fruit preserves, or just lemon juice and powdered sugar.

Ingredients for pannukakku

4 eggs
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 Cups milk (you can use any you like, I use full-fat goat milk because I don't do well with cow milk)
1 Teaspoon salt
1 2/3 Cup oat flour (again, easy to sub wheat flour in here if you like)

Preheat oven to 425. Beat eggs and sugar until thick and foamy (I use a stand mixer, and hand one would probably work well too- I wouldn't recommend this recipe be done by hand though). Add milk and salt, mix well. Add in half of the flour and beat for a minute. Add the rest of the flour and beat for 10 more minutes. Grease an oven pan that's at least 8 by 11.5 -you don't want it to be too thick, thinner is better. When you're done mixing pour the batter into the pan and put it immediately into the oven. Bake for around 25 minutes. It should be brown on the sides and bubbly and brownish on top.

Ingredients for cherry cabernet sauce
at least 1 Cup dried tart cherries
1/3 Cup sugar (more or less to taste)
enough Cabernet and cherry juice or water to cover cherries

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan. Bring to boil over medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until cherries look a bit plump. Let cool and mix in food processor to desired consistency.

This sauce is great on ice cream, pancakes, even toast!

The Freds and I had a very exciting time in Madison, Wi this past weekend. We taught the little guy how to protest (although he couldn't really join in on the call and response) and he felt so at home that he napped through most of it.

As a former Wisconsinite and life-long union supporter, it was an incredibly emotional few hours for me. The dedication of those who have been there for going on two weeks is breathtaking. These are both exciting and very frightening times.

I am so proud to be from a state where so many people will not stand idly by while our democratic process is sold to the highest bidder. I send you all my love, support, and strength.

On a significantly lighter note, we went to an amazing juggling show on Sunday that was well-worth the six hour drive to Madison. My fake twin brother Jay Gilligan, who spends most of his year teaching and performing in Europe, comes to the states once or twice a year to do a Shoebox Tour. He usually brings some other incredible performers and they do shows, often in small venues, in the cities where he has American friends he'd like to visit.
This spring he brought Wes Peden with him. Wes is also from the states and, like Jay, spends most of his time performing in Europe. I was lucky enough to have met Wes a few years ago when my husband and I were in Sweden so I knew what a treat we were in for.
Jay and Wes are fantastic jugglers and performers on their own, but together they were certainly more than the sum of their parts. It was a wonderful and rare experience (especially in the States) to see two men over six feet tall juggle with such an awareness of their physical presence. It was such a beautiful show without being feminine at all- there was a group of beer-drinking macho dudes sitting behind me exclaiming that this was the best damn show they'd ever seen.
I linked the pictures below to their personal websites, but you can see if they're playing in your town here.

So obviously I enjoyed their show, but what I took home with me and thought about on the drive back was a new clothing brand.

I have on occasion made costumes for Jay and his cohorts, but with a brand-new baby I had been out of commission for a while. I was delighted to see what they had worn for this tour. They both had on shirts by Humör, a new Danish brand inspired by urban life and strangeness.

This is the shirt that Wes wore, accessorized with a red bow-tie. Perfect.

I love the unusual construction and the use of different angles for the plaid.

I have quite a stash of deconstructed button-down shirts in my studio and I have been busy plotting what to do with them since I saw this shirt.

Below is a picture of more Humör wear. Anyone who has seen my own fashion will know that this is like a basket full of unicorns for me. Except for the doofy mustache, that guy is so my boyfriend. I think I've made my point.

I'm off to finish my cooking for the week- I'll have some wonderful recipes to share tomorrow. Enjoy!