We've Moved!

I decided to move the blog to Wordpress. You can read all about it and see the new blog here: MesaMcFaul.wordpress.com. I hope you join us at our new home!

"Cranbarry"

Jack has been doing really well in kindergarten - his reading and spelling are amazing! His teacher says he's one of her top readers. The boy can read practically anything now.

Last week I needed a few things from the store and told Jack what they were. He decided to write us a list so we wouldn't forget. They had just practiced the letter "q" at school, so they were fresh in his mind when he was writing his "g's." It was so cute I had to share. I think I told him that eggs has two g's, but the rest was his own spelling.

Merry Christmas!

People Perfect

With the magic of the internet I have been reunited with someone who knew me as a little kid and it's been really neat to get to know her again and trade stories about that time. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact dates, but we lived together when I was about 4 to 8 I think. Right around Jack's age. She is some years older so she remembers a lot more than I do and it's interesting to see the other side of what I remember.

She just told me a story that I thought was hysterical and so exactly me, I had to share. I was probably about 6:

I had a funny memory recently. You used to make up words and post them on the fridge. You were intent on improving the english language. One word that has always stuck with me was "people perfect". It was a very astute observation at such a young age, you were aware that perfection was impossible because it was a subjective term and therefore decided to revise it to reflect that it depended on who was declaring perfection. I thought it was brilliant, and still do :-)

I love that! People perfect. I remember hearing when I was 7 years old about a study or theory that said something like children don't develop rational thought until age 7 and I was so offended. I scrutinized my thoughts and theories and the way I saw the world and the conclusions I was able to come up with and was so disturbed that someone would say something like that. I remember being in preschool and staring out the window at a few objects on either side of the yard and trying to plot the fastest way to get between the two and I thought about going in a curve or going in a straight line and I remember taking note in my head that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line - which is obvious, I know, but it was the mathematical way I went about coming to that conclusion at just a few years old that always struck me as funny.

And I look at Jack who is learning so much in Kindergarten and doing so amazingly well at school and I get such a kick out of his observations. It's so fun to see what theories he comes up with.

Homebody

Noby's my little homebody. He likes snuggles and lying on the couch and eating bananas and snuggling some more and playing at home with Jack. At home. He likes home. Sure, he has fun at school and he'll go to the park, but he wants to go home after school and often he wants to go home about halfway through our trips to the park. The last time we went to Water World he was done about 15 minutes into our trip. He kept tugging at my arm telling me he wanted to go home. I told him we weren't going to leave yet, we just got there, so he said he wanted to snuggle. We lay down on a lounge chair together but he wasn't happy until he was covered from head to toe in two towels so no sunlight got through. Silly boy. He stayed there until it was time to leave!

Yesterday I asked the boys if they wanted to go to the gym some time that day. Noby said, "YEAH!" and Jack said, "NOOO!" They went back and forth for a bit then Jack said, "I want to stay home, I like staying at home," and Noby said, "No, I like staying home" (pointing at his chest for emphasis) "and I want to go to the gym!"



And now, a note from Noby himself:
NMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMLLLLLLL K,JSXQY/098766543210986756543210987654232109876543210987654321098765432109877654321UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Very Astute Observation

Me: "Rrrg! You guys are so destructive!"
Jack: "That's because you had two boys. You shouldn't have two boys. Just one boy. Or one girl."
Me: --

Shop Talk

I've been working furiously the past several days getting pictures of all my inventory that didn't sell at Peddler's Fair - which, if I may interrupt myself, takes a lot of time! I've set up a little area in my house with a backdrop and a light so I don't have to spend a lot of time setting up when I find a few minutes to take pictures, but taking a bunch of good pictures at the right angles that properly show off my stuff is hard! Anyway, I've been busy taking a million pictures, editing the ones that make the cut, writing descriptions of my items (ugh, now THAT'S a drag) and figuring out the other little details like the shipping cost of each item and listing all my stuff on Etsy. Phew! But my shop is really pretty now and you should go take a look. www.katemcfauldesigns.etsy.com.

On top of that, our schedules are now permanently turned upside down because starting today we HAVE A SCHOOL AGED CHILD. Yes, it's true, Jack had his first day at kindergarten. He's still there, so I can't report back yet on how it went, but it's all very precious. I get a little teary thinking about how big he is. Noby starts school himself next week! He's a big preschooler now.

Sniffle.

While I go off and fret over my aging children you can take a look at some of the items I've been working on for my shop:

Group Photo!

I thought this was a sweet series of pictures. It's so rare that they're actually in the same place and looking in the same direction AND I have a camera in my hands. If they're in the same place and I have a camera they won't look at me. If they're in the same place and they're looking at me I don't have a camera. If I have a camera and they're looking at me they're not any where near enough to each other to be in the same frame. That would make a good Venn Diagram. With the middle being a tiny pinpoint of overlap when all three things overlap!

Okay, so the urge struck me and I had to go with it. I made a Venn Diagram showing my plight:

P.S. Brie, I totally thought of you when I made that chart. ;o)

Give and you shall receive...

I just noticed that my Farmer's Market Bag is in a nice bright treasury of its own!

Click the picture - expires Monday!

99 Red Balloons - Etsy Treasury

I made an Etsy Treasury! I called it "99 Red Balloons... with attitude." I like how dark and twisted some of them are. =) Click on the picture! It will help promote my Treasury! Clicking the individual items will help promote it, too!

Needs a new 'do

Speaking of haircuts, someone else is due for one, too...

New 'do

Jack has been looking a little like a member of the Beatles lately, all shaggy and super fly with his sideburns, so we gave him his back-to-school haircut today:

Pretty baby.

Peddling Myself

The Peddler's Fair on Saturday went really well! I finished sewing about 5pm the day before and I got so much done that day! I was really stressed in the morning but my mom came over to help before she had to go to work and I managed to finish about $500 worth of inventory by the end of the day which was a huge relief. As soon as I was done sewing on Friday most of the stress I had for the show was gone. But I still had a LOT to do before I could go to bed. By the time I ran some last minute errands, gave the boys dinner, organized my stuff, put the boys to bed, packed everything up, ate a late dinner, ironed my items and loaded up the car it was midnight. I had gotten about three hours of sleep the night before (and four hours the night before that, and the night before that...) so I was ready to pass out about 9pm. By midnight I was ridiculously tired. And I had to wake up at 2:30 for booth set-up. Just in case you were wondering, five hours of sleep over two nights is NOT ENOUGH.

But I powered through and by the time I got down to my booth space I was so excited! I thought setting up my tent, my tables and all my items all by myself was going to be a lot harder but by the time I was done I realized I could have gotten at least another hour of sleep. Oh well! At least it wasn't harder than I thought it would be.

And I LOVED how my booth looked when it was all set up! I felt so professional. =)

I didn't get the tent until Wednesday, I made the walls and my sign myself on Thursday, and finished up my inventory Friday. Phew! I really liked how put together it all looked. I even got complimented on my walls. And the mesh that I used to hang my items from? Those are pieces of the shelving that hold my fabric. I had been stressing FOREVER about finding a way to display bags (they're terrible at sitting upright when nothing is in them!) and a week before the event I realized if I took my shelf apart I'd have the perfect thing to hang hooks from! But I didn't have any hooks and they were SO expensive at the hardware store, so I bought a roll of wire and made my own. What was neat was that after it was all put together you couldn't tell that it was so homemade. My back table was actually my ironing board (a large piece of plywood I covered with fleece) set on two stand-up shelves sitting on an aerobics step of all things to raise it up to the right height. Looked like a regular table when covered with a table cloth! Wee!

The day went really well. I got GREAT feedback from so many people. Apparently (if I had known this before I would have been even MORE nervous) there are judges at the fair that rate the vendors for future acceptance to the show. My judge really liked me - she gave me her first perfect score of the day! That was huge for me. I've been nervous before about fitting in with the seasoned vendors, so to be given high marks by a fair official felt so good!

Oh, and my most popular item? These little crayon bags for kids - holds crayons in the sleeves in the front and folded paper inside. I think almost every person who passed by my booth cooed over how cute they were.

Around 4pm I started crashing and no amount of caffeine was keeping me alert. I got home about 5:30, sore and exhausted (I hurt my back loading and unloading all my stuff all by myself before the event - thankfully my Mom and her friend were there to help me break it down at the end!) and after telling Matt a few things about the show I passed out on my office floor. Out like a light.

It was a great, confidence building show. I feel like I can take on any show now that I've done so well at the Peddler's Fair!

Peddler's Fair

I mentioned in January that I was applying to three big shows this summer. I got in to the first two but I'm not sure if I ever mentioned I also got into the third! It's the Peddler's Fair, it's huge, there are tons of people that go to it and IT'S TOMORROW! Totally nervous.

I've never been in a show this big and what I realized in the weeks leading up to it is that it's awfully hard to get ready for something like this with the boys so little and home all summer! I REALLY wish I had gotten more sewing done, but with set-up less than 24 hours away there's not much I can do about that except be happy with what I HAVE been able to do.

Ugh. Nerves woke me up at 3am this morning and I have to start setting up my booth at around 3am tomorrow so I'm not sure if I'm going to get a chance to sleep again until Saturday night - I'm going to be so tired!

Speaking of set-up being less than 24 hours away, I better go and get all the last minute stuff done that I can! If you're local stop by Peddler's Fair tomorrow and see my booth!

What's that? You want a picture of the boys? You mean celebrating my crafty accomplishments isn't enough? Fine. Here's a picture of Jack on his birthday in July (he's FIVE now!), about to blow out his candles, looking shocked, like he's never seen birthday candles before!

Happy now? =)

Fancy Meeting You Here

*cough, cough*

Wow, it's dusty in here. Let me just get rid of these cobwebs (ew, when did THAT thing die in here?) and pull the cover off my chair...

*blowing dust off keyboard*

I could barely open to the door to this blog, it was really stuck.

*more coughing*

As you can tell I took a little time off from blogging. I am having a REALLY busy and stressful summer and I needed to cut back on some of my obligations.

I'm going to be in the biggest show I've ever done this coming Saturday (eeek!) and I'm not NEARLY as ready as I'd like to be, but I can't do as much as I'd like with the boys home for the summer! If you're around Benicia this weekend check out the Peddler's Fair on Saturday. It's an all day show with TONS of vendors. It usually gets about 40,000 shoppers, so I'm pretty nervous!

I will leave you with a picture of the boys. Taken in June on a trip to Sea Ranch.

Puppy Dog Eyes

How can I say no to this face?!

Quilt Show Tomorrow!

If you're in Benicia this weekend come by the Clocktower (1189 Washington) for the quilt show! I'll have my first booth of the season there (a prime spot right up front) and there are lots of great quilts and fabulous vendors.

I'm totally freaked out. They let people set up stuff today from 2pm to 7pm. I showed up at 5pm to set up my tables - I'm going to iron my stuff tonight and put it out tomorrow before the show - and everyone there was already done displaying their stuff. Done and gone. And they had expertly set-up booths with tons of inventory. I went home and whipped up a good panic to hang out in. I'm feeling so stressed that I should have a ton more inventory but at the same time feeling like I did what I could, I make everything by hand and it's all high-quality so these things take time and for goodness sake I have two little kids at home who demand about 90% of my attention when they're around so what the heck do I expect? I've been working SO hard, I have over $2,000 worth of inventory to bring - not too shabby considering people keep BUYING my damn products! I have a show to get ready for folks! Stop buying my inventory before I get to show it! But seriously, not a bad problem to have - "Wah! I don't have enough because I sold it all!"

Hm. Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah, show tomorrow, freaking out, wish I made more, but nearly impossible to do more than I did. Unless I gave up sleeping. Anyone know if that's doable yet? I have another show in two months and that might come in handy...

There's something wrong with this picture

And it's not the look of total adoration from Lola...

Yes, it's the fact I have a DOG in a BABY SLING! What a pathetic scene...

Billy Blob

If I had time to write a real post (okay, if I wasn't surfing the internet while half-dead from exhaustion - my first show of the season is a big one and it's 11.5 days away!) I would write such a post but I'm phoning it in right now. But this is good - real good. Much better than a half-dead exhausted post. Okay fine, to sum up, I'm tired, Matt is "gustatorial" (his word, don't ask), Jack is reading, Noby is peeing in the toilet and Lola turned out to be the best dog ever.

Okay, on to the good stuff. Remember Billy Bob's crazy interview a few weeks ago? This video includes the "subtext subtitles" and is the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

Enjoy. (For more enjoyment click this link to see the original version - it's widescreen and my blog is cutting off the right hand side: Cracked.com post)

It's A Girl!

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family - Lola! After several months of waiting and deliberating and thinking and choosing we are now the proud parents of a little girl!

Click here to continue reading about Lola!

Lola!

Lola is an INCREDIBLY sweet four year old Chihuahua mix. She's 12 pounds and all she wants to do is 'nuggle, which makes her perfect for our family! We picked her up from Arf yesterday afternoon and so far she's just been the sweetest thing and hasn't even barked yet. She trots around after me and if I sit down she plops on my lap. She was a stray and doesn't seem like she's ever been a family pet, but surprisingly she has the manners and temperament of one. She's totally treat-driven (which will make training her easier), she walks wonderfully on a leash (rarely stopping to sniff stuff - and when she does she looks at me until I tell her it's okay. It's so weird!) and last night when I went to bed she pawed at the covers until she could get under them then popped her head out and rested it on my shoulder. She even sleeps like a person!

When we brought her home we put the cat in the bedroom upstairs for a few hours (with food and a litter box) and let Lola explore and get comfortable. When we let Sarah out Lola caught sight of her and got scared but then snuggled up with me on the couch. Sarah was sniffing all around wondering what the heck we brought home with us. At one point Lola was lying on the couch and Sarah was hovering on the back of the couch sniffing down at her, their noses about a foot apart, but I had a pillow propped up between them so they couldn't see each other. After a few minutes they both gave up and went to sleep. Matt said we were lucky to have the two laziest animals ever. "If I had the energy to move my head I would get you!" Today they are a little wary of each other but coexisting peacefully. Lola is a little smaller than the cat and is definitely the one who's more afraid. If they come across each other they back up a little, smell each other, then walk past, giving each other plenty of space.

Today we had an Easter party at Jack's school and I didn't know what to do with Lola. She's hasn't yet adjusted to her crate so I didn't want to leave her in that for an hour or two and she's not potty trained yet so I didn't want to leave her out. I thought about leaving her in her crate in the car but didn't think she'd like that either. So I brought a shoulder bag I had made years ago and carried her in, hoping the school wouldn't mind. She spent the entire 1.5 hours in the bag, totally happy, with her head poking out. She seemed to get a little nervous when she first saw all the kids, but she calmed down, never barked, and the school loved her. She let everyone pet her and seemed to enjoy the attention and being close to me.

The boys LOVE her (Jack was pretty scared of her at first but has seemed to warm up) and they like getting her toys and her treats and petting her and taking her for walks. They are such good doggy-parents!

So that's where we are so far. She's an EXCELLENT addition to Casa Cornett!

Quick!

Take a look at this pretty, peachy Etsy Treasury I got into yesterday! It expires at 2:45pm Sunday so look fast! (Every new visitor to the page, and every click on an item in that page boosts the popularity of the treasury making it - and my stuff! - more visible! So go ahead and click!)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=50171

I wouldn't want to be the bird

Jack did a few drawings this morning.

"Br Has" (Bird House):

Cat:

Poor birds. They have no idea what's coming.

---

Jack writes all the time now. Often what he writes is only loosely based in reality, but I don't care and I rarely correct him. I think it's fabulous he's guessing and thinking it through and using his four-year-old logic to figure it out. There's no reason for him to need to know exactly how to spell "giraffe" so if he wants to spell it "gaf" that's fine with me! He hasn't even started kindergarten yet, and I have a feeling they're not sticklers for spelling there...

He did this picture yesterday before I woke up and wrote all the names all by himself! Matt wants to know why he's the smallest one in the picture...

And here's one he did last week before school. "I lav tecrs b Jack":

Means "I love teachers, by Jack. JACK" With drawings of his three teachers. =)

Still Here

I'm sick - again. Guh. But I'm still here and updates coming soon!

Unauthorized Commercial for Trader Joe's

This is so wonderfully funny!

Jack's Funny Valentine

Jack's Valentines Day party at school was last Thursday and Jack came home determined to make a Valentine for the director of the school, Miss LaRhonda. Jack calls her "Miss MaRhonda." I've tried telling him that it's LaRhonda but each time I do he shakes his head and smiles and tells me I'm being silly, like I was trying to get one over on him, so I've given up.

The morning after the party, while I was cleaning the kitchen, Jack got out a piece of paper and a crayon and set out writing his valentine all by himself. At one point he comes into the kitchen, asks me how to make an "R" and I wave my finger in the air, down, around and out, to show him. I peek at him while he goes back to his paper, practices the R on the corner of the page and finishes up.

When he shows it to me I'm shocked! He's only 4.5 and hasn't been writing letters for more than six months and what he wrote might look to some like a jumble of letters, but if you look at it closely you can see the thought that was behind it:

Okay, I'll explain. The "HB" is like "Ha-B" for "Happy":

Valentine is a pretty big word, but he did pretty well:

"Miss" is just an M:

Then he writes the "Ma" part of "MaRhonda":

This is when he comes asking for clarification on this tricky R business and practices it in the corner:

Then he finishes it with "Rnod" for "Rhonda":

Not bad for a little guy! He missed most of the vowels and seems to have no concept of space between words but I was mighty impressed.

James and his peach

Jack and I have been reading Roald Dahl's James and The Giant Peach, a few chapters before bed each night. It's Jack's first chapter book and he loves it! Where we read it is even more special, but that will come in a following post. Anyway, today he painted on the computer a picture of the Peach, with James on the right, the Ladybug in the middle and the Old Green Grasshopper on the left. I love this picture! Jack is very proud of it, too.

Oh, and the green thing at the bottom is their green carpet. =)

'Nother One

I love it when my stuff finds its way into other people's Treasuries. It feels good! I didn't even know I was in this one:

That's my Maui Bag - third row down, far left.

(In case you don't know, a Treasury is a collection of items from various people's shops on Etsy. People create Treasuries out of items that they think are pretty, or that follow some theme, or are all the same color, or whatever. You're not supposed to put your own items in a Treasury, so it's purely to showcase other people's work. It's really cool to be in a Treasury - you get lots of hits when you're in a popular one!)

Speaking of Etsy, this product of mine has been an unexpected hit in my Etsy shop! I've been working hard at making inventory for my upcoming shows, but I keep having to stop to make more of these pin cushions:

They have a little bag to hold scraps, stray threads, small supplies, etc. and they're so cute!

Online Portfolio

I've been working furiously lately (as you can probably tell by the length between posts and the fact that I keep going on about how I've been working really hard...) and one of the things I have been working on is my new portfolio! Check it out:



If you want to see a bigger version click here. Thanks for looking!

Published - again!

So, there's this famous knitter, Vickie Howell. She has a few TV shows on the DIY Network, she's written a bunch of books and been in loads of magazines (including the latest issue of Craft Magazine) - anyway, she's writing a new book, CraftCorps - and my profile is going to be in it!

I'm SOO excited. I just got a confirmation email that mine will be included (with the notice that due to the final manuscript editing process they can't guarantee that every profile will be included - but STILL! Dang!) The email also said that they need a head shot as well as a picture of me working in my studio (well, my office in the corner of my living room) and now I'm freaking out even more. I desperately need someone to take a few good pictures of me...

Oh dear.

Dear Noby,
You have not napped in days and this is very troublesome. It can only mean bad things. You are 2 1/2 and therefor your mother requires a few hours in the middle of the day to BE ALONE. Seriously. I don't care what you do with your time in bed but it needs to be QUIET. Sleeping would be a nice option. A well-rested toddler is a happier toddler and has a well-rested, happier mother.

GO TO SLEEP.

Update: Ahhh, it's an hour later and I can hear snoring all the way from down the hall. Good boy.

Poor Noby - Updated

Poor Noby had a rough morning. He slept in until right before we had to leave to take him to daycare, and when I took off his sleeper I saw that his diaper had popped while he was sleeping and he was covered in the sticky little absorbant crystals that are inside the diaper.

So I plopped him in the shower, which is probably his least favorite thing to do. Then I had to brush his hair, which is his second least favorite thing. He was so cranky and warm from sleeping that I thought I should take his temperature which he hates and is his third least favorite thing. Then I had to put on his medicated face lotion for his dermatitis which is his fourth least favorite thing. By the time we were ready to leave the house the poor guy was sobbing. He was really upset when I left him at daycare. I tried to give him extra hugs but that just made him clingier. Poor guy. 

But I had to leave him because Jack and I had errands to do! One of our errands was to mail off another order from my Etsy site (I don't much like the post office but I love making sales!) and the other one was to drop off my application to be a vendor at a show in July. I handed my application to the woman in charge of the event and she asked if I had done this event before. I told her I hadn't so she looked over my submitted photos and accepted me on the spot! Yay!

I'm planning on three big shows this summer and I was invited to the first and accepted to the second. Just waiting on the third! Wish me luck!

Update - 1:41pm: NOW Noby has a fever. This kid can't catch a break today!

Good Boys

This afternoon I had to go to the post office to deliver an order off my Etsy site and I wasn't too thrilled about going with the boys. They can get a little antsy standing in line and sound really echoes there. As I was putting on Noby's shoes I told him it was very important to be a good boy at the Post Office. He said, "Okay, I be good boy," as Sarah (our kitty) was walking by. Noby gets such a kick out of the kitty, but Sarah makes sure to stay far away from the boys, so it's always a treat when he gets to see her up close. Noby cackled at the cat and told me that Sarah was a good "boy", too. Then he told Sarah, "I be good boy, Sarah. Oh! I like your tail." Noby turned to me with a look of concentration and said, "Where's my tail? I don't have a tail!" and he stood up and felt his bottom just to make sure. He thought for a few moments and said, "My tail is... my poo poo!" Very clever, Noby, very clever.

---

A few minutes later we were in the car and I told Jack (who was getting a little loud):

Me: "Show me you know how to be quiet in the Post Office and practice now. If you can't do it we're not getting out of the car and going into the Post Office."
Jack: "You mean we'll drive around forever?? And never get out of the car?"
Me: "...Yes." (He just handed that to me, how could I resist?) "If you can't be quiet we will never get out of the car."

For the rest of the drive the only sound Jack made was a very quiet yet very persistent "sshhhh!" when Noby said anything louder than a whisper. And they were both very good at the Post Office.