melissa

About melissa

I am "a hippie with a minivan". A mom of four who has chosen to take the less travelled roads in parenting. We are a unschooling family and learn through life without punishments or rewards. I am a Needle Felting Artist, I love being in the Kitchen, and love to share my passion of Natural Parenting through Workshops and Mentoring. We have a big dream of living on the road and we are in the process of converting a bus!

Coming out of stagnancy…

I can’t believe that it has been more than a month since I have written here. It feel like I have been stagnant since the fall. I worked like crazy to do my craft fairs, the Khéna’s birthday (He is now 7!) and then we had the holidays and then Willa’s birthday…

She is 4!!! Can you believe it!!

But besides that, I was just without energy and without drive to do anything. The kids have their interests and keep themselves busy, the cat are crazy and keep us laughing. I am still needle felting and I have made a few more sales in Etsy. And I have been going to a knitting group on Thursday evenings… well… we are two and she knits and I needle felt, but it gets me out.

But other than that, we haven’t done much.

Finally in the last week though, I am starting to snap out of it.
– Last week I went into the bus and took all of the measurements again so that we can start planning more.
– Yesterday, I uploaded about 150 pictures to Flickr. I hadn’t put any up since October.
– In the last week I put a few new things up on Etsy and started to write again in the teams that I am in to get more views and make more contacts.
– I have updated my blog, worked on the bus blog, added new needle felts to my portfolio page, and have been working on writing more letters for potential sponsorships.

Now I need to make more effort in writing here again.

And I promise that I will do so…

The emotions of decluttering

I got up this morning and I saw a bag that I made over the weekend ready to leave for donations. I glared at it and walked by it, planning to ignore it. I went to the bathroom, and, there stood three big bins full to the brim with more clothes that no longer fit the kids. I just need to get rid of this stuff. I had tried many times, took the time to take pictures and post each item to a local Facebook page. Had a few random pieces leave, which I had to rummage through the bins to find, and then the page was deleted and I never put them back up. As much as I wanted to have it all gone, each time I put pictures up or saw them, or touched them if I rummaged through the bin, each time… I felt a bit of panic.

I would imagine how that piece of clothing looked on one of my kids, I could imagine cuddling them while they were wearing those clothes. I could reminisce about how small they use to be and be in awe at how time goes by so quickly and how big they have become.

But this morning something clicked. I sat down at the computer and instead of posting pictures I just posted a simple message on another local Facebook page. “Clothes Lot for girl born in Jan. newborn to 2-3 years. Message me if interested.” I got a message back within about 2 minutes. She asked a price, I gave her one and she accepted. That was it. But she didn’t have a car to come get it. She lives in the old part of the city where most people have very low incomes, which is not far so I had no problem with running it over and it also made me feel a bit better that the clothes were going to someone who needed them.

I transferred the clothes from the bins to the bags, trying to not look much at the clothes but of course I saw my favourites and 3 items did make their way out, but then I took a big breathe, said “no more” and I closed the bags up and set them aside. I looked around for more things and made another bag and then was left with a big bin of miscellaneous boys clothes. So, I decided to donate it all. I asked her if she had any other kids. She said no, but asked why and I told her about the extra bag. She said she had a friend with a young boy so if I was going to donate it I could always leave it with her first. No problem. So there at the bottom of the stairs were 6 full garbage bags worth of clothing ready to leave.

Once Simon got home he put everything in the car along with a little baby chair that I had offered her also.

My heart tightened; It was all in the car and out of the house. I wanted to go and rescue it.

He went to start the car for me and the car wouldn’t start. It was the third time in as many weeks, and though yes we are in a cold snap, today was not that bad of a day so it confirmed what I already knew, that my battery was dying. I called Roadside Assistance and was put on the call back cue with at least an hour of wait (last week I waited 9 hours in cue!) I called the garage and asked if I could stop by for a new battery tonight if I was boosted in time and asked if he had a battery in stock. He said yes, but not too late. Simon asked why I didn’t just wait for tomorrow but I knew that I needed it all out and gone tonight, my emotions were running high. I got the call back and bit more than an hour later and within 20 min the tow truck was there. I left right away and headed straight to the garage. Almost too late. Of course it was not a straight forward job because the battery that he had didn’t exactly fit right but after a small welcomed modification it was done and I was on my way. One step closer. As I unloaded the bags I started feeling lighter and I started feeling a bit sick.

Though I would not exactly see call myself a hoarder, I can recognize that I have many of the traits and I do have a hard time letting go of certain things. I have talked about it before, but years ago I did have a thrift store/garage sale shopping habit that I broke cold turkey one day. I was tired of the clutter that was overrunning our lives and our home. Especially in certain rooms. I never looked back and we are still working on getting stuff out and we are slowly starting to get the upper hand. But there are still those feelings that come with letting go of certain items. Not with all, not even close anymore and not as much as it used to be, but definitely with some. And tonight I definitely felt it.

So I drove away and dropped one last bag off of unrelated items at the donation centre and then made my way back home. It was liberating… but it also made me anxious.

I feel lighter, the house feels lighter and thinking about it I still feel slightly sick, but I also feel that I have just made a big step. I have a few more to make, but with each one, we get closer to getting down to a manageable amount of stuff and having only stuff that we need and love and use. Each step gets us closer to a more realistic amount of stuff that will be able to accompany us in our dream of being on the road. Each step can be really hard to make but you just have to take the step and let things follow through because then you have to get ready to make that next one.

I little while after I got home, I got a message saying that she was going through the clothes and she was so happy. That they were much more then she expected and that there were so many beautiful items.

That felt good.

So, how do you deal with Clutter and items that you love but have no more use for. Baby clothes, favourite kids toys, favourite books? Do you even feel like I do and feel a bit sick and have trouble saying goodbye to items? What are your tricks? I would love to know.

Second Craft Fair…

I had my second craft fair this weekend and wow, what a difference! This fair (Old Skool Crafts) was much bigger than the other though it was not that big according to some of the vendors that I talked to. I really do think that for the crowd, my needle felts stood out. I didn’t stop for a minute. There were always people at the table and they stayed and talked and many bought. I was so busy that I barely was able to stop and talk to friends that came to see me and it was impossible to get even a small conversation in.

Colin came and spend the day with me on Saturday. He was a great help to get things brought in and set up in the morning and then he found a friend and spent the day mostly with her. When he wasn’t with her he was at my side reading, snacking or just watching. When I went to the bathroom at one point I came back and saw that not only was he keeping an eye on the table but he was actually showing people at the table how needle felting works. It was a really good day for both of us and it was fun having a mom/son day like that.

On Sunday the whole family came and spent the day which was also great. The kids got used to being in the hall and found new friends, went out for lunch and tried the homemade treats at the little café. This was in a church basement and they were selling these large portions of baked goods for .75. The kids all got one in the morning and then in the afternoon, one by one they came and got a bit of money for another.

At one point I was talking with someone at my table and Willa came up to me and kept on asking me to look. She was holding a piece of cake in a plate with a napkin and looked so proud. I said “Oh Lucky you, go sit down and eat it”… so she did.

Then Simon came to see me. “Did you give her money for the cake?” he asked…
“um no?… I thought you did”…
then he said… “She had a bit of money in her pocket… I think some is missing and she said she paid for it”
He then took a dollar and went to the counter. She had indeed went to the counter on her own, gave .20 and got a piece of cake. The ladies refused for us to pay the difference…
When he got back to her… she said her catch phrase….. “I Told You” in her sing-song voice.

I think that moment was the highlight of my day 🙂

So here is a little tally….

The pieces most talked about and which brought people to the table.

Definitely my Cat, the Mushroom House and Cthulhu. I was on the corner of an isle and the Mushroom house was on the top of the display I had and it really brought people to my table. My cat was another that caught the eye, even though he was right in the middle of my table. There were even some that saw his bum from browsing the tables behind me and came to see him.

A Cthulhu fan can always be spotted when they saw Cthulhu first. He was also a hit among some of the vendors also and even starred in a few pics and travelled around the room a couple of times.

What I thought would sell better but didn’t at this fair…

My earrings and my cards. I really wish they would have done better but I think it was just not the right crowd for them.

What did really well… Ornaments were the biggest hit. Especially the 5-15$ range ones though a couple higher priced ones went also, especially the baby penguins.

A couple of my bigger pieces and animals have also made their way out. My brown bear, my first pig, one of my foxes, my hedgehogs, the polar bear I made recently and I think the hardest to let go of and the biggest piece that I have sold to date is my mushroom girl. It had a little twinge in my heart when she got picked but it was also a great feeling and I know that she will be loved.

In the last week or so my orders on Etsy have also picked up. With the craft fair and the Etsy orders it feels like this has really started. That my creations not only mean something to me but to others and with this I am contibulting not only to the family financially but I am also putting money towards our bus and future.

My first craft fair…

After weeks of getting ready and making an inventory, I had my first craft fair this weekend. Though I would have loved for it to be a lot better than it turned out to be, I am not too disappointed.

I was really happy with my display and I think that it was a great start. I might have a few things that I might tweak but I felt really good about the way my things were presented.

I set it up the night before on my kitchen table and then took pictures so that it would be easy to set up in the morning…

Once I got to the craft fair, it was easy to set up which was great because my mom was supposed to be with me but not only did she go to the wrong place, she also ran out of gas, so having everything well packed and easy to set up was great!
So what did I have?

The green three shelf box on the right was a Winners find, and though I paid a bit more than I would have liked to, I really like the box and it will be great for other uses. It has a chalk board on the side (or in my case the top as I have it standing up)

The little staircase/shelf is something I found a local Facebook selling group and it was only 3 houses away and 10$. I found some cheap paint in the error paints at Rona for 6$ and gave it a touch up of light blue instead of the dark brown that it used to be.

The three wooden boxes were Dollarama finds and cost 5$ for all three.

The little bench in the middle was my Mother-in-Law’s bench from when she was a little girl and was passed used by Simon and then my children.

The various baskets and bowls were items that I had around the house.

The table-cloth and curtains were cheap table cloths that I sewed and the sign is a Vinyl sign from Vistaprint.

Here is what it finally looked like once set up with my sign and everything…

That glass bowl in the middle was a last-minute addition. My grandmothers punch bowl which has now come to me. I used it to hold my wool so show people and to hold the wool I was using to needle felt on scene.

When there were people, I had really great comments and feedback about my creations and my display. Not only did people see my table when they walked in, but they came to my table, and listened while I explained the needle felting technique and I was able to engage them and get them interested. I loved every minute of that part. I gave out a lot of cards and people were even asking if I gave workshops (I am seriously considering it) and some came to my table 3-4 times during their stay.

The disappointing part though was the lack of people in general which of course meant a lack of sales and lots of time just talking with my mom, other vendors or needle felting. However, I was able to cover my table and make a bit more which was more than some over the weekend. I think it being black friday weekend, a small village, other fairs close by and a lack of advertising all had their factors.

Next weekend I am having another craft fair and this time it is in Montreal so hopefully there will be more people and more of “my people”.

http://www.oldskoolcrafts.webs.com/

If you are in or around Montreal, come check it out and stop in to say Hi! I would love to meet you!

Whisper and Misty

Losing our two cats so close together was very emotional and there was an emptiness to the house that could not be ignored. It felt like a very quick decision, and slightly like a betrayal to the memory of our two that were being missed, to bring two kittens in our home right away. But I do not regret it doing so in the least. They needed us, as much as we needed them. They were living about 15min away under a balcony in the country near a busy road and with the temperatures getting colder and the environment in which they were living , I am not sure if they would have survived.

They have now been with us for over a week and they have been a welcome distraction and we have been enjoying getting to know them for their own personalities, though it is hard at times to not compare them to the two that we have lost.

When they arrived, both kittens had runny noses and runny eyes. Now… they are healthy and happy.

Misty was very shy at first and stayed in the carrier but she was not scared of us and welcomed us picking her up and cuddling her. She is a real lap cat who will stay on your lap for hours. Whisper on the other hand was all too ready to play and explore. For being out in the wild, they were very social and had nothing to fear from us humans.

They were both very hungry… Whisper would eat quickly and just gulp all of his food down and then he would go to Misty’s bowl. We quickly understood why he was much bigger and stronger than she was. She was likely not getting enough to eat. It took a day or two of us needed to watch when they ate so that she got her fair share but after a few full bellies and meals that kept on coming, Whisper became less ravenous and started to leave his plate when he was full. The first times that he did that, Misty went to his bowl to finish his food as to make a point.

The great thing about sibling cats is that they always have a friend. I could not have imagined separating these two. They compliment each other perfectly…

Misty would sleep in her carrier and would stay there most of the day, but for a couple of days she would come out for an hour or two to sleep in the sun. She didn’t want to play but that didn’t stop her brother.

But all was forgiven…

I kept them in the bathroom with their litter and food in the night for about a week. For the last few days however, we have been letting them loose in the night and they quickly discovered the warmth of comfort of our beds and will come and cuddle us in the night. Whisper actually likes to be under the blankets.

Misty rarely goes in her carrier anymore and instead has been choosing to either sleep near us in little spots that keep her a bit hidden… like in Wilhelmina’s toy bin among the stuffed animals.
She has also started to play a bit more but I have a feeling that she will be a very laid back cat even as she grows. She has grown in the last week and has a full round tummy now but even though she is the same height standing up as her brother she much shorter in length and is smaller than her brother. She rarely purrs and when she does it is just a very slight sound. You can pick her up and put her down on your lap or move her to another spot and she will just fall asleep and stay there for hours.

Whisper feels like he has doubled in the last week and he loves to climb and explore. He is in a constant state of motion. He carries things around in his mouth and is always ready to play and attack his sister (who is now fighting back with more strength). He purrs before you even touch him and it rumbles through his body loudly. He loves to cuddle his sister though and looks for her when she is hiding. He makes a little sound in delight when he finds her and then starts to purr and then goes in to cuddle.

Misty and Whisper