new batch of hats, new mosey kiddo!

i have just realized i have the perfect in house hat model & field tester- hooray! and as it turns out my friend kristina at stella photography is a wiz at capturing both!

we just came out with this new cozy hat design for winter 2009.
introducing: THE CHILDREN of the FOREST HAT! tah daaah!
it's fashioned after a vintage knit pattern i have been fawning over for years.
it employes 2 great cozy-ing strategies:
1. it falls down and around the ears for a wind free winter sans earaches and blustery colds.
2. it attaches securely to kindly children by tying like a scarf under their wee chins.

let me know what you think~!

it's always martha! martha! martha!

and thank goodness!
we here at mosey handmade are delighted, thrilled and even elated to have been picked (along with 19 others out of over 3,200!) as a finalist in the Martha Stewart Weddings & Etsy DIY contest.
we couldn't be more proud!
congrats go out to all the finalist and everyone who participated in entering their loveliest wedding goodies!

a return to the real

oh dearies. it has been too long.
but right now as the rain hums outside my window and the wee one sleeps deeply above me i am able to get a bit of the old me back. i am at my breakfast nook window with the laptop and a cup of french pressed coffee, a scone half eaten beside me.
i have already washed my face, scrubbed my teeth and put on the clothes of the day.
the dishes are done, a load of laundry is brewing and all the baby things are picked up and put away.
i have discovered that the saying:"a place for everything and everything in it's place"
is not a mere suggestion but a mantra.
it is the only sane way to get through the day around here between trying to sew, run a household and smile and laugh with baby em.
i miss my friends. online and offline. the offline friends are free to stop by now and again or drop a line...but dear inter-nest friends how i miss our comments, light emails, and blogswaps.
taggies and no tag backs.
i hope that this is the fall of getting back into the swing of it...cos my arm is out of practice
but
my mind is blooming with possibilities.
to alla my internest friends out there- a big "hello, how's it been"
"me- i'm doing fine."
xoxoxo

acorn sweetlings

i love terrariums, don't we all../but i wanted to make something for those with a not so green thumb, something that could just sit on the windowsill and BE.
so here they are: the acorn sweetlings.
captured and contained in recycled glass jars and perfect for your shelf or desk or windowsill!
i'll be offering a whole lil' series of these guys at the renegade craft fair in san francisco next weekend, so stop by to bring home your very own specimen!

morning doves.

yes, doves that were made this morning that is!
getting ready for the renegade craft fair in san francisco this year. figured with baby em in tow i ought to be in my home town with helpers! em on my back and crafts on the tables! summer fun!!
i have been busy sculpting up a new batch of 'dear doves' nests!
since my old birds (feather and foam craft birds) are now officially extinct i have been making my own. these are a second version of the first built-by-me-doves. i feel like these have a daintier look and feel more like the original birds. what do you think?

spring-lings: polka dots to peonies

more little clay birdies added to the shop today!
they are so cute all lined up and ready to fly away...
spring is finally creeping into summer as june is fast approaching in maine. i love the way the house feels all warmed by the sun in the mornings and cooled by the ocean breeze at night. summer has a smell. like grass and peony baked all day in the sun caught up on a light breeze. the house creakes more with the humidity. the back door sticks a bit in it's jam. all the floor boards that were 'plumb' are now lifting here and there at the corners.
alexander has mowed this lawn twice in two weeks and we are enjoying napping in the back room whilst he runs the mower steadily below. my new little one tucked under my wing.

the new hatchlings...a.k.a. my spring ~ fling

the story goes a lil' something like this:
the birds i used to use in my beloved "dear doves" cake topper are fast becoming extinct. and what can i do, you say?
make 'em myself!
after a little bit if shaping and reshaping and a trip to the toaster oven here we have it - the newest mosey hatchlings! each named after a different flower from my garden and available in the shop.

winter recap: february

oh feb. baby em came home with us! my mom stayed on a few extra weeks (thanks mom!) and we celebrated a valentines with so many goodies sent to us in the mail! we looooove getting mail. it was so cute seeing things addressed to em. seeing her tiny name in print. in the handwriting of my grandmother, my little sister, my dear friends. i love the look of her name scrawled across a pink envelope in the flowy script of lucinda, the bold caps of karen, the organized bite sized lettering of iris, the dandy scroll of elizabeth and the shakey cursive and serifs of my grandmother.

oh how the world loves her.
p.s. hat by ms. shelley at waldorfmama
atc's by iris at craftymamalibrarian

new mosey holiday collection!

lady lamington wristlettes - a more dainty version of the wristwarmer , named after elizabeth's famed and elusive petite fours.
treeling cuffs - sure to keep you cozy and stylish.
wee treeling leg warmers- inspired by all the new little sprouts coming into this world!

holly-bells are ringing.

here at mosey we are proud to be a part of the poppytalk handmade holiday market again this year!
our holly-bell wristlets were featured in their newsletter this week!
be sure to check out the guide for some GREAT holiday gifting!!!!

something old and new borrowed and blue

the pearl rosette is from my great grandma's wedding dress.
(thanks ammie)
all the girls on that side of the family have had a bit of her dress with them on there wedding day. even my mom. she wore hers on her veil and so did i.
the pearls are form both my maternal and paternal grandma's.
the hands are mine and my little sisters.

diy wedding diary: project two

the apple tartletts.

these little babies were made easily by just cutting out a round of dough. filling each tartlette with one apple slice and a tad of sweet sweet apple jelly. fold over and press the border with a fork. top with a bit of rosemary and egg wash, pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes. voila!
that's our priestess in there with her hands in the dough. see liz later blessing our rings and the tartlettes make there debut at 'apple hour'.. our version of the after ceremony cocktail hour.

diy wedding diary: project one

the savory pies.
these are the root vegetable pies being made with love. we washed and peeled, boiled and roasted, rolled our dough and pinched each tiny individual pie crust to perfection. there were over a hundred pies in total...but only about 35 of the roasted root vegetable.

11 days

life is a little bit fuzzy rigt now ~ but just about to come into full focus.

wow. it has been a long time since my last post. you know the camera has been packed up and sent off with almost everything else we own to the new house. well- the new old house. {we are actully moving back to our same dear little house we left behind in september} alexander and i have been in gloucester this past school year teaching at a waldorf school together. couldn't have been more homesick. we are glad to be heading back north to our little cove in belfast! cape ann was good to us, and we met many good friends but it was just not quite our speed. even though gloucester is on the ocean, it did not incite long walks and picnics and sea- glass hunts like my rocky maine coast does. we missed the pace in maine, the slow deliberate lull, the smell of the good clean ocean, the waking up and walking everywhere we need to be. life in maine is good. sweet. and very local. we love that. well with just one week of school left - we have moved everything home - and are getting by with just the bare bones.
the computer will be boxed up today and we are off to cambridge to stay with alex's folks and get some good visiting time in with old friends there.
well dearies- when i next write you i'll be sure to include some pictures of the new shop and house and coast.
much love.

do you ever make something you really don't want to give up. but then you do in a way 'cos you know it's one of your best things?

well - that was how my morning went. plus i had left my good scissors at ash's and was trying desperately to make due with a veeeery old pair of fiskars that i have let alex have a while back.. and wouldn't you know it i sliced my finger right open.
man- those fiskars would not cut a buttonhole open but were not shy when it came to my hands.
blast.
oh -well - i'm okay now, no stitches or anything.

on another note:
this summer i am going to start featuring some of mosey handmades artists. that is to say- those who's wares we are selling at the brick and mortar will all get a little blog love.

look for those posts starting in the magical month of june.
happy day everyone!

mosey's: "it made my fridge" contest!

okay. one more thing. i've got a little thing going called:
"it made my fridge"
post five things/people who 'made my fridge' and your name goes into the hat.
the name i choose at the end of the week wins one of my teensy nests! check them out here!
here's the link for a more detailed photos: {click me}
happy hunting!
xo

p.s. got the idea after shelley of waldorf mama spied a friend on there. thanks shelley.

brambles "feather your nest" event.

a whole day dedicated to feathering your nest! making your space a spring delight.

yes, we know. there was no way we could have said no.
and so we rummaged and gently pieced and worried over which german millinery supplies would do.
and now here they go~ off to market.
we threw in some felted birdies for good measure.
bye~bye dears!

from the great atlantic to the mighty midwest.

you know i was born in st. louis. land locked except for the ozarks and the mighty Missouri river.
we moved to the east coast when i was 8.
as soon as i saw the ocean i was in love.
now, when i was a kid moving to the east coast you could find seaglass all day long. and we did. brang home ball jars full of the stuff. you could find pottery, bits of broken tea cups, plates, perfume bottles, old glass soda bottles. and even the blue glass.
over the years it all got eaten up by the steady stream of coastal tourists and probably people quit throwing there trash over board and many things stopped being put into and sold out of glass jars. what a shame. i had so loved to beach comb.
but there is a small length of beach on the coast of maine that still holds amazing sea~glass finds.
a few years back, i was in luck. my friend elizabeth took me to " the secret sea~glass beach" .. really it is. you have to sneak into it a bit- but boy is it ever full of magical treasures. so much so that i had to wonder--okay what wise guy is dumping antique bottles and china into the ocean??
but it's just an undisovered little cove. a place not many people bother to get to..and so the sea~glass has been rolling around in it's rocky undertow for years.
now we go, and we try not to be too greedy but we do take..and throw back those that are not ready yet.
this is to say that:
i sent a package to renegade handmade in chicago today. among it's contents were 2 nests with a bit of seaglass tucked among their felted eggs. it was like sending back a bit of this rocky coast..postmarked, tagged and headed west towards the river bottoms. the place where the first trickle of sea heads out and around towards something more grand.