pigtails!!

Ruby's hair is finally long enough for a couple cute little curly pigtails.

She's very mad at me in this picture because I wouldn't give her the camera. I'm a very mean mama. She's also showing off all her 8 teeth (some just poked through so they're hard to see) and the swollen spots for the other two that are working on coming.

I've been meaning to show you the father's day book that Ruby gave John. You can see a picture of it on his blog. They both think its hysterical. I'm just so proud that I found a great picture of Flight of the Conchords that I could use.

summery

Yesterday we were heading out of town to visit friends and John dropped me off to shop by myself. I spent an hour or so wandering around the antique shops and found a few great things that I'll show off another time - a vintage suitcase for Ruby to store dress-up clothes someday, some gifts for family and some cute little drinking glasses. John & Ruby picked up this massive load of strawberries from our friends whose garden is over-producing, apparently.

I think we'll make strawberry sorbet.
You Floridians will appreciate this: I also heard several times yesterday, people complaining about how muggy it was. ha! It was in the high 70s, rained a bit off an on, was overcast & the humidity was probably 60% or so. Muggy!
Last night was our second Meet Your Maker show. We had lots of big people show up - someone from the Eugene Weekly, the owner of Deluxe - a great shop in Eugene, and a director from a design festival in San Francisco. I sat between Amy & Claire, two talented and beautiful people, and talked of motherhood. It was a good night.

we're famous!

Meet Your Maker puts an ad out in the Eugene Weekly before each show. I picked it up today to check it out and found this write up about us in there!

craft show

Meet Your Maker is happening this Saturday at Midtown Marketplace in Eugene again. We're going raffle off a Meet Your Maker tote bag full of donations from the vendors - really great stuff. Part of the money from the raffle will pay for a low income artist/crafter to have a spot at a future show.
Come by and see us and tell your friends!

the makers were met

The show was a great success! I had so much fun and it was amazing to meet so many talented people. We had lots of shoppers & the venue worked out well. Most of the crafters said they would love to do this again if we would have them. I didn't sell as much as I hoped, but most vendors did really well. I had to restrain myself from buying too much, but I did manage to get a couple things for Ruby from another Megan. Ruby is asleep for the night, so I'll have her model for me tomorrow. I got this tote bag that Amy made to sell at the shows.


Amy is my Meet Your Maker partner and celebrated her birthday yesterday too. I brought her a little treat. Rhubarb coffee cake, the recipe for it on these cards, & this little tea towel.


In other exciting news, Ruby took her first step yesterday! John & I were both there to see it. She crumpled as soon as she did it & hasn't tried again since, but it was pretty exciting. We went to her friend's 1st birthday party & I think Ruby was feeling like she wasn't getting enough attention - you know, the birthday girl was the star, and there were other babies, so Ruby had to show off a bit with her little step.

meet your maker

Tomorrow is our first craft show! It all seems so surreal. I'm trying to keep my head on straight as I rush around in spare moments gathering everything together, making last minute products & finishing up organizational details. But I am so excited about it all. Yesterday our ad came out in the Eugene Weekly, which made everything seem a bit more realistic and also left me wondering, "Is this really happening?"
You can visit the show's website to see all the details and find a list of vendors with links to their sites. We have a lot of great crafters & artists that will be there.

My life is pretty great right now, and I realize it. But it is far from perfect, although it may seem that way on the blog. I don't usually write about the moments during the day that make me question what I'm doing. But I assure you I have them. Like yesterday when glass shattered all over the kitchen floor at the same time Ruby woke up. Then when I was cleaning it up, she was trying to crawl through my barricade and get to the dustpan (which she LOVES) and then ripped up a library book. I am out of practice of all this multi-tasking! Its been a year since I left teaching and I have slowed down a lot.

Oh, here she is now - waking up a bit scared because there's a fan blowing in her room. The high is 97 here today!

happy earth day

It's another rainy day here - we didn't get outside to celebrate, which just seems wrong. I should have wrapped us all up in our rain gear for a walk at least. But I did that yesterday and it poured on us and my hands were freezing by the end of our walk. I was really hoping it wouldn't rain, so I didn't bring appropriate gloves in protest. I couldn't really muster up enough energy to do it again today.

The craft show deadline to apply was on Sunday and now we're going through applicants & furiously sending emails back & forth to decide who will be accepted, preparing press releases & posters. Its fun but hard to do with only a couple spare moments here and there while Ruby busies herself briefly and I run to the computer.


I'm reading and loving The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule, whose blog I've been reading for quite a long time & I love. This is a wonderful, practical book that is really inspiring. I wish I could go peek into their home & see it all in action.

craft exchange

Remember the monster party we were invited to? We missed it. Ruby had a cold & we didn't want to infect all the other little babies. Yesterday Ruby & I went to wish the little monster a belated happy birthday. We gave him this little kitty that he immediately snuggled with, which made me so happy. Then, he gave Ruby a stuffed monster that his mama made for ALL of the babies invited to the party! I love this craft scene out here. Although, I must admit, its a bit intimidating. I feel like a slacker sometimes. But I seem to be staying quite busy. I'm working on making a bunch of stuff to sell at the craft show , knitting a hat for Ruby, and attempting to sew some window worms to maybe stop some of these drafts coming through our windows. I know, a little late on the window worms, but hopefully they'll be ready for next winter. Maybe they'll help with summer heat too?

lil' monkey

A month ago Ruby was scooting and not crawling. Now she is crawling everywhere, constantly pulling herself up to stand on whatever unstable object she can find and then grabbing on to our fingers to walk around the house. She is so excited about her new freedom and mobility. I'm excited for her, but man, my back is killing me. Last week wasn't so bad because there were three other people who could take turns with her, but now its just me all day.
Ruby also has a new face that I can't seem to capture on the camera - mostly because I have no hands free to use a camera. But this face has lots of attitude. She uses it mostly on strangers that get too close or talk to her, but I get it a lot too. She will give it to me when I tell her no or just because she feels like it. It would be really funny if didn't have "If she's like this now, what will happen when she's 13?" thoughts going through our heads.

We found a great venue for our craft show. Its going to be at Midtown Marketplace on May 17th from 6-9pm. This place has a nice restaurant, a wine bar (that will be having wine tastings going on at the same time) and a cafe & coffee bar. The last two won't be open in the evening though. It's got great atmosphere and we're really excited about it. So I'm busy trying to organize lots of stuff for that and also trying to make a bunch of products to sell. The website for the show is: MeetYourMaker.wordpress.com Spread the word! Amy (my partner in all this) is the one who made Ruby's milk shirt she's wearing in the pictures above. She sells kids' stuff & grown-up stuff.