Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of the holiday, here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip to the British Isles Nate and I took in October 2006. Enjoy!

At St. Johns Gogarty's in Temple Bar, Dublin

 

Glendalough, County Wicklow

Also at Glendalough

In the Wicklow Mountains on the way to Glendalough

Some buskers in Dublin

Erin go Braugh!

The New Idaho Indie Works Shop!

Well, things have been quiet here on the Hen and Chick blog because I have been crazy  busy with my latest big venture! The amazing crafters from the local Etsy street team that I have been participating in for about a year, Idaho Indie Works, has just opened an actual brick and mortar store in downtown Boise!

Ask any of us, and you'll find we're quite astounded to be where we are right now. At the end of January, our president Millie Hilgert sent out an email saying, hmmm, what if we opened a store? So many people were hip to the idea that we started talking about it seriously, looking in earnest at locations, and were knocked-on-our-butts thrilled to find an affordable location available in the Pioneer Tent Building! Yes, THAT Pioneer Tent Building, the one where we throw a craft fair every first Thursday of the month, where all of our loyal followers already know where to find us! At 6th and Main in downtown Boise.

So we painted walls, painted furniture, bought shelving, and put our wares on those shelves. Sara McClaran, Aimee Nord, and many more really put in the hours and the muscle. (See the Idaho Indie Works blog for a full list of members!)

Here are a few pictures of my own items in the shop (taken by and used with permission of Crissie McDowell):

My red-headed doll, and red velvet owl.

One of my lovely baby slings made from recycled materials.

Our first day open for business was for First Thursday, March 4th. But don't worry, you didn't miss out. That was our soft opening. And though we are going at full swing, we will be having our grand opening celebration on First Thursday, April 1st! In addition to the boutique, there will be dozens of artists showing and selling their amazing creations, including members of Idaho Indie Works who are participating in the boutique, as well as those who aren't. Talk about a variety of arts and crafts! We will have music, food, wine, and a raffle. It will seriously be the place to be on April Fool's Night. So come check out the Little Team Who Could, and see what can happen in 40 days when 21 amazingly creative people get an idea and bring it to fruition!

Vintage Quilts

There is just something about sleeping under a handmade quilt. All of the care and love that went into making it somehow soothes the soul and lulls you into the sweetest sleep.

I have an amazing handmade quilt that my husband and I have had on our bed for a few months now. It is a quilt that my paternal grandmother bought in the town of Orderville, Utah as a tourist because she thought it was beautiful. She then later gave it to my mom, only to find out that Orderville was where my mom's Grandma's folks were from! Here it is on my bed.

 

I love to just lay on my bed and explore the different scraps that were used. 

 

 

On a recent trip to Iowa to visit my husband's parents, I talked to his mom about some lovely quilts on the guest bed. Turns out they were handmade by my husband's paternal grandmother. This first one is a "postage stamp" quilt. The little squares are literally the size of postage stamps. I just can't fathom doing this entire quilt by hand. 

 

 

  

And this one was in the same guest room as an extra blanket in case we were cold. It is hand quilted and cross-stitched. 

 

 

Needless to say, I sleep well when I'm in Iowa. Something about all those hours of loving dedication make for long hours of peaceful slumber. Do you have any favorite quilts?

House Thinking

I just finished reading a really great book called House Thinking: A Room-by-room Look at How We Live by Winifred Gallagher. It's a book I casually picked up at the library, never thinking it would hit me the way it did. Certainly not thinking it would be a book that would inspire me to blog about it. But it turned out to be so fascinating that I read it from cover to cover, dog-earring certain pages to come back to (sorry, local library). It changed my way of thinking about my home. The best way to describe it in a sentence is: an interesting combination of the anthropology of and evolution of the common home, and research findings of environmental psychology, explaining how our homes shape who we are.

 

This book goes beyond simple home decorating.  It talks about the history, for example, of the dining room and how when homes first had dining rooms, it was a very formal place where the family's very finest articles were displayed prominently to assert their wealth and influence to their guests. But since then, very few new homes have a formal dining room, having instead evolved into the "great room," a wide, multi-use room for dining, spending time together, watching TV, reading, and an open wall to the kitchen, so whoever is cooking can be included in the fray. I love how the author talks about the benefits and pitfalls of this great room set up. Sure it's nice to have a place where the whole family can do their individual activities near each other. But is this quality time? And how can one family member read or study, if another is watching a movie or playing video games? In a lot of ways, the great room defeats its own purpose. 

 

The book breaks the home down by room: the bathroom, the bedroom, the child's room, the basement, etc. One of the sections that I enjoyed the most talked about the neighborhood, and how suburban sprawl and poor developmental planning has essentially destroyed the sense of community our ancestors enjoyed with their neighbors. One reason for the decline is that we are forced to drive everywhere because there aren't little corner shops or cafes in a lot of suburbs, and we just drive our cars straight into our garages and never even see our neighbors.

 

This book made me think of my home and community, not to mention how I live within them, in a whole new way.