Where I've Been

Where have I been since September? Well, I have to say that blogging hasn't been first on my list of things to do. In the past few months, work has been a little overwhelming as well as the kids, the house, travel, etc.

I must confess that I have also been working on a little something in the past two months that I've been conceptualizing since very early this year. It's take a lot of time; more time than I'm used to, but all that thinking and planning was necessary.

You see, I have been all eaten up this year about launching a business but trying at the same to time whittle down my ideas into a concept that I am truly excited about and feel there is a need for in the sewing and crafting community.

As most of you know from reading this blog, I am also very interested and passionate about fine arts; mainly drawing and sketching. It's not very practical at this point with two toddlers to take back up that oil painting or printmaking (can you imagine?) so a sketchbook and pencil suit me just fine.

I also have been very frustrated by the lack of boys designs, projects and patterns out there in the crafting and sewing world. Now, I know that there are some out there and a lot of them are cute, but I'm looking for fun, edgy, quirky stuff. I know how easy it is to find the absolute cutest dress pattern/sweater pattern/appliqué/purse/bag/hairbow designs for my girl. I just have to click the nearest blog link to find thousands of these projects at my fingertips.

However, my little boy is just as interested in handmade or even more so than my little girl. Of course, she is only two, but I am sure she'll be making more requests down the road. Channy is always asking me if I can "knit him an umbrella", or put a dinosaur on his book bag or make him a big spider! Yes, things like that. I have yet to find the knitting pattern for an umbrella.

All that is to say that I'm proud to launch a new blog and store called Puddle Jumping Designs. It will hopefully be a collection of projects and designs geared toward boys. Right now I have a small collection of really cool appliqué patterns in the shop. I am not sure if I will stick with BigCartel as my storefront, or move the entire thing to it's own web address. Time will tell. I want to get the designs out and start blogging about boy stuff. That is not to say that I won't add the girls in there as well (see my post about William Worm and his sister, Wilhelmina). Currently, my little girl adores princess stuff as much as she loves her "dy-see-nos" (dinosaurs). Gotta love a girl like that.

Please don't think that I still won't keep up the Path, but I have to say that I am a much happier person to have a clear focus now with a blog so I may be posting to the Puddle more than the Path. But I still want to keep the Path for ALL my crafty/life stuff.

Thanks to everyone who checked on this little blog the past to years. I have made some really great friends on this site! Please check out PJD, and please come back to the Path once in a while as well.

Sincerely,
Jen

Stay on that path!

What We Did This Summer

Or to be more precise, What We Did Since the Last Post (A Sneak Peek):


So, it's been too long, eh? I think that in my absence, I've probably lost the few readers I had and for that, I apologize. Are you still there?

This summer has been wonderfully full and busy - so much so that I just now downloaded our summer photos from the cameras onto the computer. In late September. I know that's quite the norm for a lot of people, but for someone who's supposed to be a blogger, it's pretty shabby.

So, let's start with a recap of what we've been doing this summer, shall we? To start, we'll head over to the county fair where copious amounts of ice cream, hot dogs, popcorn and cotton candy were consumed (much to the delight of the kiddos):

Hubby and I were finally able to carve out some time to celebrate our anniversary (a month late but at least we celebrated). This B&B is so awesome, we just go because of the great rooms.

I wanted to live in this tub. I think I did. Directly from that weekend we celebrated at the annual Great Lakes Folk Fest like we do every year. Mainly, we stay at the dance tent and shake a leg or two and make a few friends in the process:

More sunny days at the family cottage where being lazy and eating a lot reigns supreme!

We also spent a lot of time fattening up the ducks on our local college campus. Because, you know, campus ducks need more people food.

We drove MANY miles in just a couple of weeks.

No, we don't try to suffocate our daughter, she does that herself and sleeps like a dream. The boy, on the other hand, stayed wide awake and hyper, to his parents' chagrin.

We stopped by to see the elk and see what they thought about the impending winter weather.

A lot of time was spent wandering up and down piers on one of the great lakes looking for birds, fish and making up names to imaginary yachts like "ComeonIwannalayya", "Stabin Cabin", and "College Fund". I prefer "Mortgage Part II".

Much time was spent gazing out across beautiful landscapes...


...exploring lighthouses...

...and hanging out under the Mackinac Bridge at Fort Michilimackinac. Say that 10 times fast. We had to pass the redcoat to get in (it was pretty easy considering his apparent boredom - no riots or gunfire to brighten his day).

Then on to explore a fur trader's camp:

The entire park was just wonderful. Channy spent most of the time insisting on watching and listening to a historical actor play the hammered dulcimer. I enjoyed watching a housewife make potatoes au gratin and apple cake in real dutch ovens and have her show me her (very real) stock of dried herbs and spices along with her very neat pantry. I really wanted to play too, but I think we were supposed to stay behind the ropes. Sigh.

During our travels, we also spent a lot of time checking out local libraries (a favorite past time). This one was our favorite:

Finally, we ended the season by going blueberry picking at the very end of it's season:
Good, GOOD times were had by all.

With all of that travel, I wasn't left with much time to craft, but I will report that I successfully completed a really cool hunting sock (complete with a secret message for good luck knitted down the side) that didn't fit my hubby's foot. A smidge too tight. Oh well.

Because we were traveling, I decided to whip up a great little carrying case. More on this to come.

Staying on the path...

Fooling Around

As the dog days heat up and September looms ahead (well, at least for those of you educators and parents of school-aged kids), we are just fooling around at our house. Some work gets done, for sure, but we are all enjoying the weather and gearing up for a fabulous week in northern Michigan on Lake Huron. Yippee!

The kids and I have been playing our alphabet game and it varies from day to day. We shout out letter and see who can find them first. Or we hop through the whole alphabet. Or we only find the yellow letters, blue letters, etc. So fun! Next time it rains, we'll try out numbers. For the littlest one, we are just working on color recognition.

I hope you all are busy being creative out there. I am still sketching and just now started swatching for some very thick wool socks. (Yes, these are for you, honey.)

Stay on the path!

Still Sketching

So, my Sketch A Day project is STILL going, but slowly. Definitely not exactly a sketch a day; but I'm still doodling around here and there.

This one was just a little girl I had in my head for a while. Unfortunately, she didn't come out on paper just how I imagined her. Oh well.

This one is based on a story that my son likes to tell. It involves the forest, animals, nuts and a naughty crow that he has to threaten with his bow and arrow.


I've also been drawing dogs like crazy. Particularly the relationship between dogs and little boys. I have so many ideas in my head. This little guy is all over my sketchbook:
He's sort of like my springer spaniel. I think they look alike and have sort of the same attitude (yes, my little drawn doggie has attitude). You'll be seeing more of him.

So this is sort of random. Boy is taking dog out for a poop next to a confused-looking Tyrannosaurus Rex. There's a story in that one - care to take it on Jackamo or Watoosa?
So, I'm staying on the path ... are you?

Bagging It

I really have been on the craft path these past few weeks. This little tote was an inspiration from this style and the beauty of the fabric.


The star is reverse appliqué and was so much fun to do. I haven't done needlework in a while and it reminded me of the embroidery I used to do as a child. Back then, it was just made up drawings on fabric that I would follow with my needle. I need to find those...

Stay on the path!

Still Creating ... Just Not Blogging

Summertime! I promise I am still creating, I've just really slacked in the blogging department. I'm glad to see a lot of other bloggers out there are enjoying summertime as well.

I am still knitting...


...still baking...

...and still sewing.

And YES! I am still sketching. I have some more sketches to load onto this site. Stay tuned!

And stay on that path...

A Very Happy Birthday

This past weekend was very special in our house; little Ava turned two years old. What a precious little baby she was! She slept well, ate well and was very content to sit and observe. I can remember bringing her home from the hospital and just looking at her with glee; my very own live baby doll. A girl!


Now my little, sweet lump has turned into a little lady that knows what she wants and has an opinion about everything! Even though she insists on reading the books herself, taking toys away from her big brother and throwing tantrums willy-nilly, she is quick to say she's sorry, kiss any "owie", snuggle and play.


Happy birthday sweet Miss Ava. We love watching you grow, change and develop that firey personality.

Stay on the path...