Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Featured Seller Tuesday!

     Back in the early stages of my pregnancy, when I knew I shouldn't buy things for the baby yet but I just couldn't resist, I ran across a review of EcoAyris on OffbeatMama.com (which is one of my FAVORITE websites!). It's important to note that I have a little bit of a love for sign language. I was taught it at a young age when my aunt was teaching a special ed class at a public school district that horrendously put their deaf students in with their other special education students. In college I tried to take sign language as my language credit, but was denied because 'there is not cultural component to sign language'. For one class in college I wrote a paper on the intersectionality of disability and sexual abuse, concentrating on deaf populations. Now I have plans, should I ever decide to have another child, to adopt a deaf child. Deaf children are more likely to be put up for adoption and to flounder in the foster system than other children, they are also more likely to suffer abuse and neglect. They are also often misrepresented as being mentally handicapped instead of just physically.
     Anyways, EcoAyris had an amazing untreated wooden teether of a hand making the commonly misinterpreted 'i love you' sign. This is the hand sign that Obama was doing in those horrible Obama-is-a-satanist emails:
So, what better than to get my child a teether that really says 'i love you' but is commonly misunderstood as being a satanist symbol!
I got the teether quickly and it's GREAT! I was a little hesitant to get a wooden teether, but it's incredibly smooth and is safer than plastic teethers that have harsh chemicals and can be destroyed by baby teeth over time. Other online reviews of the product (by people who already have children) say that the teether holds up to wear and abuse better than any other product they've had, and that they can see them quickly turning into items to be passed down to future children. It also feels great to buy products from a family who hand makes everything!!
   So, in november, only a couple months into my pregnancy, I purchased this AWESOME teether! I'll have to post a little more about it (and maybe a picture) when the baby's here and actually using it.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Judgement Frustrations

    I'll be the first to admit it; I'm a young mother. I'm also young to be married. But when something is right, it's right and there's no point in waiting. I even was the one to ask HIM to marry ME! But, all that said, I can not Stand when someone who has never met me or even said two words to me feels that they are allowed to make judgements about me and my life.

    Some background: I look younger than I am.. before I was pregnant I was still being asked what highschool I go to. In fact, I am 22 and have already graduated college with a (useless) bachelors degree in Psychology as well as Gender and Women's Studies. I'm sure that I'll appreciate my youthful appearance some time down the line, but right now it is just annoying.  For years I was one of those people who swore that I would never get married and Never Ever have children (at least not of my own body, I'm still terrified of childbirth). Well, finding the right person to share my life with changed that first part, and somehow even changed the second!

    So flash forward to today: I'm walking through a grocery store, buying some fresh fruit while J (the hubby) looked at some protein drinks for me, and in that half a minute that we were seperated one man about 40 years old gives me a look of complete Disgust. Not a little ew look, but like he just puked a little in his mouth because there was this young pregnant woman who was unattended in a grocery store. And this wasn't the first time. I've even heard comments and been told that someone was 'so sorry'. Sorry? You don't know anything about me or my situation, and even if I Was this teenage mother that you've assumed I am, it's Still incredibly rude to make your own judgements about someone else's choices.

    Yesterday, while J was at work I ran into a similar situation. I was thrifting at a Salvation Army for costuming accessories and had stopped to grab some baby clothes for when the baby is finally here. Through the entirety of my time there I was getting those aweful 'pitty looks' from people. I'm sorry, you're shopping at the Salvation Army the same as me.. One person even went so far as to comment to whoever they were shopping with that it was "so sad". Yes, because getting a ton of clothes for the price of one new outfit was 'sad', choosing to save my money for a nicer crib and to be able to take my baby places when she's born is 'sad', and choosing to support a nonprofit organization (even though they are religiously slanted, there aren't any other good thrift stores in the area) instead of buying new clothes made in third-world sweatshops is 'sad'. -sarcasm-

    It makes me want to SCREAM and these are only a couple of recent similar occurrences.

    I think I'm going to stay home for the rest of my pregnancy, or at least only leave the house with the hubby close by my side.. but that would be giving in and I am determined to NEVER be a week woman who lets others decide what is ok and what isn't. So out I go, with my dreads and my head held high. And really, screw those people who think that they have any right to judge me, my life, or my family!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Bloggy Intentions

    The decision to start a new blog was made after realizing that I read a TON of other people's blogs, and that I was losing touch with myself (see first post). It's meant to be a way for me to analyze my decisions and make sure that my life stays interesting! The way I figure it, a more interesting Life means a more interesting Blog, which means more Readers! It also helps keeps me from falling in the Stress/Fatigue/Mommy Routine that keeps threatening to overtake me.

    So here are some of my Intentions with this blog:
  • Tuesday: highlight an online seller, usually an Etsy.com seller, and choose a favorite product of theirs. I'm going to try to limit this to promoting individuals (so no big conglomerate websites that order products from china, etc...), but an extremely exceptional website that isn't an individual producer may get featured occasionally. A particularly amazing blog might also get featured once in a while.
  • Thursday: take the time to learn and write out instructions to a craft, sewing project, recipe, etc... and post it on here for whoever ends up reading this. The intention is to keep my abilities fresh and to participate in the open flow of creative ideas. 
  • Sale Finds: to post pictures of the things I find in my garage/estate/rummage/thrift sale adventures. 
  • Family Pics: to post pictures of myself, my family, and my home relatively often. I always enjoy seeing pictures from other individual's blogs and hope that readers will enjoy seeing my pictures too! (speaking of, my camera is out of batteries... another thing for the ToDo list)
  • Along with the family pictures, I plan on writing a lot about what happens in my family, developments, hurdles found as a feminist full-time mom, etc...
  • Discuss political and feminist news and articles, probably weekly. I was going to assign a day of the week to post this on, but I think it makes more sense to post whenever I find some topic of interest (which is really quite often).
    There are a few reasons that I'm posting my intentions openly; so that you know what to expect if you decide to read my blog, and so that I can be held to these expectations and use the list when I'm feeling some writers block. 

    And, in an effort to keep with my intentions, and to minimize the text-i-ness of this post, here's a pic from my (our) wedding:
I love that boy.

Rummage/Estate/Garage/Thrift Sale Finds

   Yesterday, after dropping the hubby at work for his 12 hour day, I decided to hit some rummage/estate/garage/thrift sales to find either baby things or things to resell on Etsy.com. I ended up with a few good finds, some junk, and a nice pile of baby clothes. Here are some of my finds:


Turns out the tin isn't as old as I thought, but it's actually still full of tea. Even though it's not old, I got a great deal and it's an interesting find. Oh, and my kitty decided to make a guest appearance. He was very interested in playing on the fabric I had laid on the ground. Here's a better picture of the tin:

Another tea tin that I snagged.. this one actually IS old! I can't decide if I should offer it on its own or should use it as creative packaging for a feltie...

Another tin that I found, this one I should have taken some extra time to look at.. it's a reproduction of an older tin, but the reproduction was mass-produced and sold as some kitschy thing.. still, it'll make great creative packaging for a feltie!

This is an AWESOME vintage wood purse. The art on it dates from the 50's and although the lacquer is a little cracked in places, it's still in great condition.

A small pin that I found, really unique, and seems to be the best kept example of it that I can find online (a lot of the same pins I found auctioned well even though they were tarnished and had broken clasps!). Not to mention that I think the Etsy crowd will love this!

Last but not least, this is just a small clip thing that I found.. it appears to be old, but there's no stamp or any other way to identify it. I'm planning on re-purposing it in some craft of jewelry project.

    I'm too lazy to take pictures of the pile of baby clothes right now, or the tea cup and tea pot set that I got for myself..

    My intention is to build up some stock of little stuffed felt animals (felties), other crafts, and vintage items before officially opening my Etsy.com store. Unfortunately I keep deciding that I like all the felties I've made too much to sell them, so I need to make more!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Me, lately.

   Upon reflection, I've come to realize that I have lost myself lately. Not that I had changed to make anyone else happy. Not that I got swept up in a crowd. Not that I had really changed in any overly dramatic way. Just that I had gotten lazy. I still cared about the same issues and believed the same things, I was just too lazy to do anything about it.

   So, this is Me. This is me reclaiming every part of my identity and making a point of being the person that I am even through exhaustion and stress and change. This is me vowing to tell the truth to myself and to you, whoever you are. Who am I? I am a Nerdy Hippie Feminist Housewife with a child on the way who Crafts and functions as a Jack-Of-All-Trades when I can get the contracts and the sales to help bring some money in. I am currently in the process of dreadlocking my hair for the upteenth time because that's what truly makes me feel like the Earth-Mother that I need and want to be.

    My husband is also a Nerdy Hippie Feminist Jack-of-all-Trades who shares my dreams of owning a small farm, raising Alpaca and our own food, and escaping from society. We have a sick tendency of saying the same thing at the same time and loving eachother until our friends want to puke. He loves and respects me, and tries to share all of the household chores evenly, even after a really long day of work. I have no idea how I got so Lucky.

    I guess I should probably share some pregnancy details too, since that seems to be all that anyone wants to talk to me about since I started showing... I'm currently either 29 or 30 weeks along depending on what evidence you're looking at, meaning that I have about 10 weeks left. The baby is female, but we've outlawed all pink and dolls and cooking toys until my daughter can point to something that she wants on her own. We are purposefully not influencing her in any direciton (OK, so that's partially a lie, we'll be influincing her towards Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and towards an open and accepting outlook).