Howl-o-ween at the zoo

On Sunday we visited the zoo for their annual trick or treat Howl-o-ween scavenger hunt event. It was pouring down rain and quite late in the afternoon so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Solomon was handsomely rewarded with all kinds of crunchy organic environmentaly friendly chocolates at the end. Go Oregon zoo, you hippies!

I finally finished Solomon's Green Lantern costume that morning. I should know better and make costumes for my own children way before my Halloween orders come in, but I always procrastinate and frantically make their costumes just the day or two before. But it is such a bummer to make a costume to every last detail only to have to cover it up with a raincoat the only time you ever get a chance to wear it.

Nalah still needs a few things made for her costume. Can't wait to share pictures of the whole crew later this week! 

Happy and safe Halloween to everyone!

This Moment: first gym time

A moment from my week to cherish and remember, inspired by Soulemama.

Dragon Tail Winner!

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Congrats to Tiffany Pryor Jonah who won my dragon tail costume!( winner was chosen by random number generator according to order of comments). Thanks so much to all who entered and for all the suggestions for future costumes. I plan on doing a different giveaway each month until the end of the year, so please stop back for another chance to win HumbleLuna clothing or costumes. Also I would like to give all my blog friends a 20% discount on all my products until the end of the year. Discount code is: HappyMoon. Thanks so much!

Yarn Along

 I am joining along with Ginny today for the Yarn Along, Yay! It seem like forever. There has been a serious lack of knitting going on these days due to lack of down time and a case of carpel tunnel syndrome from all night sewing marathons( I sell costumes on Etsy) there has been very little to report. I made my husband his annual birthday hat with some beautiful hand spun yarn I found at the Flock and Fiber Festival however, other than that.....

I am sewing together a little vest for Nalah. This vest was knit about six or seven year ago when I was in Art School, I had a MAD case of baby fever and was knitting baby sweaters for babies that were only wishful daydreams at the time. I starting knitting this sweater from Oat Couture called the "fishermen t-shirt" with a beautiful sock yarn I found at a local shop. Well it took me quite a while to knit this and it was never finished because i ran out of yarn just after the first sleeve was finished. I just decided that I would  rip it out and make something else, but it hibernated safely in my yarn stash until this summer when my mom was out for a visit and she suggested I just sew it up as a baby vest.DUh!Right? WHy didn't I think of that? All I needed to do was use the yarn in the one, useless sleeve to knit the sides together and voila.....baby vest. Not a failure after all. As you can see I still need to sew in some loose ends and sew on a few buttons at the top of the sleeves and hopefully my last baby...second baby after this sweater was started....will get to wear it and get a few pictures taken in it. 

 

Well the flowers are so pretty they sort of steal the show in my picture but that is okay. I bought them from a stand on the side of a country road last weekend when we were coming home from the pumpkin patch. I have been tempted in the past but never stopped I am so glad I did, they really brighten up the whole house and the last several days have been very dark and dreary. A little treat for myself for sewing my fingers off for work when the kids are asleep, when I would rather be watching movies or reading....

 

  And speaking of reading, I am reading a fantastic book right now called In the Kingdom of Men by Kim Barnes, I am really enjoying it, It is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is about a poor young woman from Oklahoma who moves to Saudi Arabia for her husbands job with the oil industry.  I have the habit of being drawn to books set in the Middle East when I am postpartum, hmm,wonder why that is? I read The Red Tent and A Thousand Splendid Suns when  my second child was a babe, both which brought me to tears, and I also highly recommend.

Any hoo, you can read more about In the Kingdom of Men here.

What are you knitting these days?

 and p.s. After listening to all my moaning about sewing costumes you might want to click here to join my Giveaway for a toddler dragon tail costume!

October Bliss..

It is my favorite time of year again! Pumpkin Patch time! We decided to visit a new farm this year instead of heading out to our regular spot. It was fun to visit a new farm and despite going on a weekend it was much less crowded then we had anticipated.

I love Ben's facial expression here...lol. Perfect.






Check out the size of that apple. It was bigger than Nalah's head, no kidding. We actually bought it, (how could we resist?)and made an apple crisp out of one apple. It was over five cups of apple when peeled and chopped! The farm claims to use very low amounts of chemicals and sprays so I wonder what the secret to the heirloom apples are? 


I was hoping to get the perfect shot of all my kids, but my battery died shortly after this one.. Solomon was excited because he spotted a tiny pumpkin for Nalah :)

Are you ready for Halloween yet?
~Visit my previous post for a chance to win a dragon tail from Humbleluna !~

Dragon Tail Costume Giveaway!

If you would like a chance to win a dragon tail costume from HumbeLuna please leave a comment telling me an animal or fantasy creature costume you would like to see me add to my shop, or maybe a creative costume from your childhood or what your children are going to be for Halloween this year?

Also for double chance to win like my shop on Etsy, or Facebook, or follow along with us at Under the Humble Moon. Thanks so much! I will close comments and chose a winner on Sunday, October 21st. Please make sure to leave your e-mail or link to your blog so I can contact you if you win.
~Thanks, Good luck!~

This Moment... the seasons last harvest

A moment to cherish and remember from our week. Joining along with Amanda from Soulemama, come share your moment too!

October days and a reccommended read for all mamas

Thank you all for your encouraging words regarding my last post I appreciate the support. Things are still up in the air as far as what we are going to do, but I am taking a break from worrying about it to stock up my Etsy shop and fill Halloween costume orders. A successful costume season would help us out a lot, I might not make enough for us to move but maybe enough so we can stay at our current home a few more months. I am planning another yearly  HumbleLuna dragon tail costume give away this weekend so please stop back for that..also a discount for anyone who mentions my blog.

I have been so busy trying to fill Halloween orders, staying up until the wee hours of the night, but busy is good, no it is great, It makes me feel like I can actually do something to help.  

I came across this fantastic article yesterday and this blog post by Beth Berry about how we as Mother's feel inadequate because we compare our lives to the perfect images we see in magazines or perhaps other blogs and sites such as Pinterest that are supposed to inspire but often make you feel depressed. Facebook is the worst, I often feel really down after I see all the exotic vacation pictures and perfect yoga bodies of people from my past. I have been trying to  avoid this pressure as much as possible lately as my real life situation is less than ideal and there is no way I can keep making myself feel bad for the things I don't have or can not provide for my kids. I am not a "things" oriented person but I feel like, living were I do in a trendy city, I am constantly reminded of all the things I don't have. I would love to send my kids to Montessori School, shop exclusively at the health food store, go on vacations(more than never),and shop at thrift store because it's trendy and green, not because I have to. Also to make colorful fresh home cooked vegetarian meals every night that my kids would actually eat and have the corners of my home look like something you would Pin in your "dream home" folder on Pinterest. 

 Ack, not going to happen. I am just trying to make it through the day. My blog helps me to focus on the good things in my life rather than the bad so I know from the outside looking in my life could look pretty stress free and ideal, that is simply because I chose not to share a lot of the negatives of my life here on my blog. I don't think life is always easy for most people, or anyone really,we all have our issues, lets remind ourselves to be happy without the constant need or pressure to have more, or be perfect mothers with perfect houses and perfect bodies, but it isn't always an easy thing to do.

 *****

Solomon and I got in the decorating spirit the other day and decided to make a scare crow and decorate the mantle in an Autumn theme. Pine cones from the neighborhood and cute sunflower paper doilies make for a pretty cute cheerful little bunting.

The scare crow is just a few sticks an old flannel that Papa wore when we were in High School, and the straw hat Sollie scored at the Oregon Country Fair, we added some wool roving dreads, but I think he really needs head, or a face at least so maybe a pumpkin will do...

They kind of look like brothers, no?

 The spiders are busy this time of year, this one made a home on our front porch. I have to be careful not to break webs with my face as they are all over the place this time of year.

Who is that handsome jungle tiger?

This is his favorite napping spot.

 

This beauty smells as good as she looks. Too bad there isn't a blogger scratch and sniff button :)

 

Be Well, thanks for stopping by. 

Don't forget to stop back this weekend for a chance to win a dragon costume from my Etsy shop!

7 Months

Looking for Home...

Our landlords have decided to increase rent by several hundred dollars starting in November so that leaves my family and I in search of a new home. We just moved down to the lower apartment from the upstairs earlier this summer, we have lived in this house for over 8 years.
We were sort of "tricked" out of the upstairs because the landlords wanted to renovate it to increase the value of the home. They didn't do a thing to the place when we moved in and the lady before us lived there for 17 years, so yeah it was badly in need of repair as you can imagine.
I didn't want to move down at first, seemed like a lot of work to essentially go nowhere, especially when we have a new baby and I would be doing the packing alone. But it is much nicer down here, wood floors, high ceilings, huge windows, a south facing garden,closer to the washing machine and a man cave room in the basement for Ben's projects. I was already picturing where we would put the Christmas tree and excited that we had a big enough place to host Birthday Parties in but I was getting ahead of myself.
Our landlords have been good to us in the past, understanding of late Rent during tough times, but they are tired of helping us out and are ready to make as much money as they can off of this place. But it is their house, after all, not ours.
We live in a very trendy neighborhood, right off of a funky main street filled with bars and fun restaraunts, coffee shops and cute little stores. Prices for homes in this area are nuts. There was an "Open House" for a rental the other day with a line down the block! Yikes.So many people are willing to pay more to live here. We are going to have plenty of competition if we want to stay in this area.
If we could afford to stick it out for a few months and pay the extra we would, just to get through the holiday season and then move in the spring. But we simply can not afford the increase, there is no way, especailly now that we have the added cost of Preschool payments and the fact that we are still working to pay off the Midwives for Nalah's birth.
I am feeling stressed as I look for rentals, the cost of living in the city is so stinking high. I haven't seen a place near us that we could afford yet. It is pretty stressful. I don't know where we will end up but hoping it will work out somehow. 

A dream house on the Lewis River...

I have always liked A frame houses, this cute little one is out on the Oregon Coast..looks kinda sad...could use some new curtains.