Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.In 1971, Congress established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May and as a federal holiday.i
Take a moment to remember the original reason for Memorial Day and the men and women who gave their lives for our country.
Have a great Memorial Day and enjoy the weekend whatever you’re doing.
Posted onMay 26, 2016byMarla|Comments Off on Refreshing Peppermint Sugar Scrub
My giant mint plant makes my tin look tiny.
Most of the year, I am a lavender kind of girl. I love the smooth, relaxing, floral scent, but when the weather turns hot and muggy, and I spend a lot of time outside getting dirty in the garden, at the end of the day I really only want one thing: cooling, refreshing peppermint. Peppermint soap is delicious, but after a long day of working in the sun, nothing is more luxurious than a peppermint sugar scrub.
I love sugar scrub. I use the recipe I’m sharing today on my face daily. It’s also perfect to rub into your hands and forearms if you type or knit a lot, or, you know, constantly.
My go to carrier oil for sugar scrubs is coconut. It’s easy to work with and not too heavy to use as a facial cleanser, while still being an effective moisturizer. I like to use a fine-granule sugar in my face scrubs. Regular old table sugar is just about perfect.
This recipe fills one of my 4 oz metal tins, but a good rule of thumb is to use twice as much sugar as coconut oil to fill whatever container you think is pretty or practical. A container with a lid is best to keep water out of your scrub, and you should always store your scrub outside your shower.
Refreshing Peppermint Sugar Scrub
1/3 C coconut oil, softened slightly but not melted
2/3 C sugar
7-10 drops peppermint essential oil
Stir together in small mixing bowl, then transfer to tin
To Use: wet skin, scrub into skin, rinse, pat dry.
Don’t want to make it? This product will be available for purchase form Tiny Dino Soapworks soon!
I generally like to knit my own samples. Sometimes, though, timewise, that just doesn’t work out, and I have a sample knitter do the samples for me.
A good sample knitter — one who knits the pattern as written, doesn’t make assumptions, gets gauge, works to the agreed deadline, etc — is worth their weight in gold. An awesome sample knitter — such as Annette, who’s done quite a few samples (Revetment, Caridwen, Breakwater, to name a few) for me recently — is priceless. She does the above plus catches mistakes I’ve missed, she’s fast as lightning, and she’s an incredible knitter. I trust her to block the finished objects – not something I’d generally ask a sample knitter!
I was planning on doing a companion shawl to Estuarine (currently in testing here), shown to the left, that would be a little more approachable yet still have some of the same features. The Morro Shawl is a sideways-knit, crescent-shaped shawl, offered in two sizes (two different yarn weights) (but is also extremely customizable to your gauge and yarn quantity). It has the same dot knit textured pattern and the same cable-y wavy lace and cable edging, but both are worked at the same time (no knitted on edging, no picking up stitches).
May 8th. That was the last time I blogged. Holy cow, y’all. I’m not sure I’ve ever gone that long!
I have no excuse, really. Have I been busy? Yes. But, no more than usual this time of year. At the moment I am waiting for my suuuuuuper slow technology to work so I can upload pictures.
Since I’ve been here we all nearly needed to get our boating licenses, what with all the rain. I was beginning to fear summer would never come. I’m still afraid we may have an overly wet summer.
Normally waiting for May before shearing means the sheep are more than ready to lose their wool. It’s a relief when it finally all comes off, and they happily wander back to the hay, feeling light and cool and happy.
This year? Not so much.
First, I had to pen them in the garage, of all places. It has been so wet and muddy that there was no good place to keep them where they’d stay dry waiting for Emily to get here. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what a bunch of sheep penned together for 3 days will do to a space; it was quite a mess to clean up afterward. As for letting them back out into the field after getting shorn….well. It was not only still raining, but much chillier than you’d want for your newly-naked ovines.
But yesterday – yesterday at last! We finally had a day with no rain at all. It’s been gloriously sunny and hot. It’s felt downright luxurious to be able to check on and feed the animals, weed the gardens, and collect eggs without getting rained on the entire time.
The downside, of course, is finding two giant black snakes coiled up together in one of the coops yesterday afternoon. They’d availed themselves of the eggs in there and left at some point of their own volition. I have no idea where they went, but now I have the heebie-jeebies big time. I didn’t disturb them, because lord knows I had a million scenarios play out in my head of how I’d manage it, and none of them ended well for me. Thankfully, our neighbor across the street has offered to come get them out for me, should they return.
They’re not back today, thankfully. I walked very carefully into all the gardens and kept a wary eye out while weeding and spreading out diatomaceous earth (I’ll conquer those squash bugs this year, dammit). I had to replant the melon and cucumbers, thanks to some sneaky vole activity (why can’t the snakes pick on the voles instead of the chickens? Gah!), and I had to gather back the errant chicks that had squeezed out of their pen. I saw no snakes. I hope it stays that way.
And look! Radishes are finally coming in! And chard!
And little white flowers on my ever-expanding raspberry bushes!
Miss Piper, lounging in the hay
Sweet Dilly is FINALLY off steroids. Hopefully her platelets and red blood cells continue to stay within normal levels.
1. Being pregnant is hard.
2. I want to sleep all of the time, but constant sleep is not conducive to the doing of the stuff.
3. Like gardening
We might get some zucchini!
4. Those blackberries tho
Our blackberry bush has gotten massive this year, and look at all those potential future berries.
5. I’ve been dropping hints here and there about starting a soap company. I am ever so slowly building an inventory, but see #1 for more info. But here’s a sneak peak.
From left to right: french vanilla soap, sandalwood soap, piney-woodsy-manly soap, earl grey soap, and lavender bath salts
6. I’m hoping to launch the soap company before the baby comes (in 11ish weeks!), but if not, look for it before the holidays. (And if you’re interested in my pumpkin spice soap, let me know soon, so I know how much of it to make this summer!)
7. De-cluttering ground to a halt, because we had to do all of the things in April and May. We started tackling the two last big projects this past weekend: the big kid room and my studio. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
8. I am preparing a query to send to an agent for the book I wrote last year.
9. I realize I should probably try more than one agent, but baby steps.
10. While I didn’t set out to write a romance, my first book project turned out to be one. While thinking about a second project, I thought I might try to write a romance on purpose, so I found a book on romance novel writing.
11. As I’m reading this book, a lot of the advice felt familiar, and I remembered that I have a degree in creative writing, and you know, have apparently already written a romance novel, so I’m probably doing OK. (I read the whole thing anyway.)
12. It’s not a bad book if you’re just starting out though. Plus, she uses illustrations from a bunch of different books, and some are so intriguing I now have a whole new list of books to look up.
13. I am kind of excited to plan another novel project.
14. Except, I’m not so good at the planning part.
15. I love writing by the seat of my pants, but it’s not very efficient, so I am attempting to outline my next book before I start writing. It kind of sounds like torture.
16. In between being writerly, building a new business, and you know, growing a baby, I’ve been doing a little knitting.
Action shots once there’s a baby to wrap in it, I promise.
17. I wanted to make this new wee one a nice, heirloom quality baby blanket that didn’t use all of my brain power. Enter the twinkle blanket.
18. It’s knit out of 100% merino, undyed, and I am in love.
What have you been up to? (And what kind of soap do you want?)
The Elms was the summer residence of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind of Philadelphia and New York. Mr. Berwind made his fortune in the coal industry. In 1898, the Berwinds engaged Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer to design a house modeled after the mid-18th century French chateau d’Asnieres (c.1750) outside Paris.
The original Elms circa 1897.
I think the Elms might be my favorite…I mean they’re all beautiful in their over the top ornate way but somehow the Elms seems to be more cozy if that’s possible. Or perhaps it’s the fact that this piece of history came within weeks of being torn down !
The Elms was the summer residence of Edward and Sarah Berwind of Philadelphia and New York. In 1922 Mrs. Berwind died, and Edward asked his youngest sister Julia Berwind to move in and become the hostess of The Elms. In 1936 when he died he willed the house to Julia who lived there until she died in 1961.
This according to Wikipedia: Childless, Julia Berwind willed the estate to a nephew, who did not want it and fruitlessly tried to pass The Elms to someone else in the family. Finally the family auctioned off the contents of the estate and sold the property to a developer who wanted to tear it down. In 1962, just weeks before its date with the wrecking ball, The Elms was purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County for $116,000. Since then, the house has been open to the public for tours. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.
Let’s take a look around the house and gardens before heading off to my favorite part of the tour !!!
The conservatory… I could spend all my time in here…
The back lawn and gardens…
Julia A Berwind, sister of Edward Berwind.
According to Wikipedia: Edward asked his youngest sister Julia A. Berwind to move in and become the hostess of The Elms after his wife died. In 1936, when he died, he willed the house to Julia, who was well known in Newport. She would invite children from the nearby Fifth Ward (a working-class immigrant neighborhood) to the estate for milk and cookies. She had a love for cars and would drive around Newport every day in one of her luxury cars. This was somewhat shocking to the rest of Newport society where it was considered “unladylike” for women to drive themselves.
Now let’s get around to my favorite part … the Servant Life Tour. It’s 82 steps up to the 3td floor. A balustrade around the roof of the mansion hides the entire dormitory-style third floor where single female and male servants lived in 16 rooms with 3 bathrooms. Married staff lived offsite. The back staircase kept the staff very much behind the scenes as they went about their duties,
There was also access to the roof and a beautiful view of Newport..
From there we headed back down the 82 steps to the basement to view the coal-fired furnaces and the tunnel from which the coal is brought into the basement from a nearby street, there’s a little coal in the corner to give you an idea of how massive this coal storage area was. Seen here is also the laundry room and kitchen.
That concludes the tour of the three mansions we visited. But that’s not all so stay tuned for more. In the meantime let your imagination take you away to a midnight stroll in the garden… happy dreaming.
Finch & Foxglove 2016: V. Lommatzsch, N. Kaiser, L. Kirkbride, M. Penny, A. Bentley, T. Paget, C.B. Keller, and me at the front
It's just a few days post-Surtex, and I've got a lot of follow-up emails to write (yay!). Before things get too crazy, though, I wanted to post my initial thoughts on investing and exhibiting at a tradeshow like Surtex.
If you've followed my blog for a long time, you know that I have been in the creative industries for many years, but was on maternity leave and focused on textiles and sewing in 2014-2015. I knew that if I was going to get back into illustration in a serious way, that I had to be strategic. Having a toddler and an artistic career is a balancing act to say the least! So, I knew I had to really plan out how I was going to do that! First, I had to make sure my work was top-notch before I exhibited. So, late 2014 through 2015 was all about brushing up my skills and updating my portfolio. In the summer of 2015, I started my art collective Finch & Foxglove and created a safe space for sharing work and getting feedback. And in order to freshen up my contacts, I also started sending my work to dream clients (essentially cold-calling). In doing research about which clients attend what shows, this led me to figure out that... Surtex is not for everyone. What kind of art do you make? Is your work best suited for fabric or apparel? Then this isn't your best show. Check out Quilt Market, Printsource, or Premier Vision. Is your work appealing to a broad audience or is it super-niche? If your work is super-cool-edgy-badass, know that the majority of Surtex attendees' end customers are your average American. There are some attendees looking for this, but you should be in contact with your dream clients long before the show and ask them what shows they attend. Is this the show your dream clients attend? No? You might be better served by exhibiting at NSS or selling directly at Renegade Crafts. Check your expectations. I think Happy Happy's 2015 Surtex Recap has a great Q&A session with their artists that covers expectations and the industries that attended in 2015. It was slightly different this year. And finally, where are you in your career? Are you on a fixed income or deep in debt because... Surtex is SUPER expensive. Got $10k? Well, that's what our 10'x20' booth cost. Honestly, it was actually more expensive than that, but that gives you a rough idea of what you're gonna be spending for a double booth. This size is a necessity when showing with 6 or more people. Ronnie Walter's blog post "To Surtex or Not to Surtex" did a really great job on explaining just how expensive the show real-estate is, and how this may or may not be the right avenue for you. This, my friends, is why I chose to start my own collective!
Finch & Foxglove's 2016 Surtex Booth
Surtex is really big. It's not as big as it used to be, but still. You'll be among 150+ exhibitors at Surtex showing illustrations and designs, neighboring 200+ exhibitors at NSS, and I have no idea how many ateliers for ICFF. All 3 shows run concurrently at the Javits Center. Are you good with people? Do you have work that will stand out? Exhibiting at Surtex is complicated. Booth specs. Contracts. Logistics. Shipping. Air travel. Lodging. Booth insurance anyone? And the Surtex exhibitor's website is deep. I'm talking nested within nested within nested menu items that would take several months just to uncover. Do instruction manuals scare you? Get ready for an ancient PDF made up of 20 years of random applications packaged together also known as "The Exhibitor's Manual". If project management isn't your thing, hire out.
Surtex is in NYC. What Surtex does have is a great location that is easily accessible via the 7 train, and access to a ton of contacts in the stationery, paper goods, home decor, gift manufacturing, toys, and textiles industries. So if your work fits those markets it might be worth it for you! Also, this mix of attendees changes every year since you cannot predict who will (or won't) attend.
Lingering Questions How should I best show my work? Ready to go solo? What about group exhibiting? What's the best way to form a collective? So how do you get these attendees to come to see your work? That, my friends I'll leave for another post... or maybe a book? As far as blog posts go, this one's gettin' way too long!
I was planning on doing a companion shawl to Estuarine (currently in testing 
There was also access to the roof and a beautiful view of Newport..
