I've been working a fair amount on the quilt the last two days. It's going quite well, perhaps in spite of all the "help" I've been getting. 5 likes to pull on anything he can get his hands on that comes from higher than he can see, so it's kind of like playing some demented sewing video game- get the fabric ready, turn your sewing machine on, and SEW the seam before the TROLLS rip the pedal out from under your foot! And make sure none of your fabric hangs over the table or the TROLLS will eat that too!

But really, the top is about half done. Pictures Monday, or perhaps Wednesday. There is no white.

You're going to thing I'm completely insane, or one of those freaky Christmas-obsessed folks, but....

I made my xmas list today. Not for presents I want, but who I need to shop/make for and what my plans are.

Seriously, it's purely out of practicality.

I try to make as many of my gifts as humanly possible, and we do some family exchanges where you don't even know who you're giving to until November, so if I want to make nice things for gifts WHILE making nice rispok product to sell....
I have to start early.

I've been getting ready for the holidays early for years, but last year I was almost entirely done by November 1, thanks to nesting instinct, an October 27 due date, and a little bit of craziness, and it was AWESOME.
While everyone else is out shopping, and considering mass murder while being herded through consumer-dom and barraged with insipid canned holiday music, I can be home, enjoying time with my family, making truffles, explaining to relatives why I don't want a Christmas tree. So much better.

I will also admit that while I made my list today, I thought of the things on that list over the past few months. My husband thinks I'm completely nuts, but he doesn't get to complain because I do all of his shopping for him. Early.

This is Arrow. He lives in Korea. He's wearing a bib I made. I also made the teething necklace. There are lots more pictures of him, his hip Mama and Papa, and their sweet life in Korea on his Mama's blog Seoul Connection. You can find cool bibs I made for all the hip babies in your life at my etsy shop Rispok.

This morning we traveled back in time; instead of our lovely spring, it was a white winter wonderland! As beautiful as I find the snow (and believe me, I do, I have CHOSEN to live in the land of snow), it is not as much fun to do errands in a stroller on such a day...

So we snuggled extra long this morning, got up, and snuggled some more! My little man is just barely getting the hang of rolling over, so spend most of the day lying on the floor anyway.
After a luxurious morning, I had a fantastic bleach pen/ stencil run - I'll be posting a tutorial soon. It got me so jazzed up about printing and stenciling and I started cutting out more stencils and sketching out more ideas and then....
my new printing book arrived!

This fabulous book, Prints Charming, is by two amazing ladies in Australia who have some really great ideas and projects. We immediately sat down and looked at all the pictures and read a few of the words. All of their projects are two-pronged, printing + sewing, my favorite! The book is organized by room and there is at least one copyright-free motif and several projects for each. My head is nearly bursting with inspiration. Between these women and Lotta Jansdotter, I can't look at anything without wondering what kind of print it would make. Will post a show and tell ASAP.

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.

Greetings! The site is still somewhat under construction, but I am ready to go!

I have been monkeying around with my business for almost two years, but I'm jumping in with both feet now. I left my job as a gallery director to focus on sewing for rispok and raising my son. I spent the last year developing products that I can make in a naptime or with a baby on my lap and I am excited to announce that it is working.

I will be writing a lot about things I do to keep our six month winter interesting in the next few weeks, including recipes, projects, and music.

Find out more about me and my goals for this site here and check back regularly for new posts!