Gnomes!!!!

I have a few fun new costumes to share that are brand new this year to my Etsy shop, HumbleLuna.

Introducing the Gnomes!

 

The Gnome boy has a fun swirly beard.....

And the girl has long braids and a flower in her cap...

The gnome costumes are inspired by a Halloween costume I made for Solomon four years ago when he was Nalah's age...you can see it here.

These new costumes were also inspired by an awesome thrift store find from several months back. I found this beautiful Gnome pop up book that is over 30 years old in mint condition. All of the pop up elements still work!! There are gears to turn and gnomes to slide and tabs to pull and the best part is the last page where the gnome is playing on a tiny swing that really swings. I was so thrilled to find this treasure I almost couldn't believe it. I have a weak spot for beautiful Children's books. Since Nalah is still very wee and likes to rip things and color in every book she finds I have it stashed away in a safe place. We take it out and look at it often, But I can seem to leave this wonderful book out where it could be damaged.

The Gnome hats are currently made to order. In the very near future I am planning to make different colors options available for the hats and the beard/braid colors. I may even sell them pre-made in different sizes. At the moment I feel more comfortable making custom hats to insure it is a good fit, I think once I make a zillion of these I will have the sizing down. I am also planning to make some Christmas Gnomes since the white bearded gnome could easily also be a Santa costume!

If you are interested in my Gnome hats please visit my Etsy shop Here.

Thank you so much, your support of my handmade costumes helps my family a great deal and we are very grateful for each and every sale.

Misty Morning....

I was so inspired by the gorgeous dewy spiderwebs on the walk to my son's school this morning that I got a little distracted from my obligations. I just love foggy mornings.

Autumn day trippin'...

This October has blessed us with amazing weather the last few weeks, nothing but sunshine and warm temperatures. Our family time is precious and rare these days and I have had a major urge to get out and enjoy the weather while it is so glorious. Ben is so sweet to agree to my spontaneous road trips despite having to travel so far for work during the week.

This weekend we traveled east along the Columbia River on Saturday for a visit to my new favorite thrift store to track down some missing element of our Halloween costumes, and a trip to an off the beaten path pumpkin patch with no crowds and a free corn maze.

On Sunday we headed west to a beautiful park in the Columbia River Gorge near the bridge of the gods. We got a close look of the river boats and walked out to a small island in the river with an amazing view. 

When our time together is so rare it is even harder to stay home and tackle chores and paperwork and costume orders. Lately we have been blowing it all of to just hang out and have fun. Which is fun at the moment but Sunday evenings are always a mad scramble to catch up on all the things we ignored all weekend, which is not so fun. Our carefree weekends make Mondays even harder. I sure wish we could be together as family more than two days a week it would take a little pressure off the weekends.

 

 

 

Goat Friends....

My Portland friends have been teasing me with Facebook posts about playing with goats,feeding goats, and holding baby goats. I was like WHERE ARE THEY!!!!??? It isn't news I have a goat problem and want one for my very own, but since that wont be happening anytime soon this is the next best thing! I know where to go when  a need a goat fix, no more waiting a year for the Flock and Fiber Festival.

On 12th and Belmont in an empty grass lot there is a small herd of mostly male goats with a mama and her two babies. You can visit them whenever you want and feed them through the gate but if the gate is open you can go in and...touch them and maybe even get lucky enough to have a  newborn baby goat fall asleep in your lap,what could be better?(well, besides a newborn human?) I just love their teeny tiny horns.

I have already been there twice since finding them last weekend especially since my camera died on my first visit and I was hoping to get some photos for drawing reference. 

 I had to pull a foot of my hair out of a goat throat which was pretty gross, don't ever turn your back on a goat.

Yarn Along: A Cat in a Hat

 I am joining along with Ginny from Small Things today for the Yarn Along. Please follow the link to join along.

I went a little crazy last week with cabin fever and decided I had to knit my cat Milo a "Raspberry Beret". He was less than impressed...

 His sister Lola was a much calmer model.

 

Click this and then go back up and look at the photos again, it's even better with a soundtrack ;)

I also knit Nalah a pair of legwarmers during our drive down to the Kite Festival.

I opened my mail to a fun surprise last week, Storey Pulishing sent me a copy of Knit Christmas Stockings, edited by Gwen W.Steege. I have always wanted to learn to knit designs in multiple colors and a Christmas stocking would be a perfect first project for that. There are some wonderful patterns an whimsical charts. I wish I had more time to knit these days, if I did I would freak out and try to knit stockings for all of my kids this year in a design with their names and dancing animals in a rainbow of colors. Yeah, I will save that for another year. 

Right now I am still knitting toddler fingerless gloves to sell over the holidays, everything else is on hold for a bit. I am dreaming of knitting a red sweater for myself...

  

Kite Festival 2013

This years Kite Festival in Lincoln City was kind of disappointing compared to the other years we have gone. When we got there there were no kites in the air and Whitney Houston music blaring and a bunch of people sitting around staring at each other. Low winds make for a shitty kite festival, who knew the weather could be too nice.

It started out badly with  Solomon getting knocked own by a wave an getting soaked, he had a cold and I was hoping he wouldn't get wet. Then a beautiful sea bird died right in front of us and Nalah had a screaming tantrum.

 We almost left the Festival to go rock hunting but when we went back to the car to get our picnic goodies the winds picked up and they were able to get most of them up in the air again. We were able to have a picnic in the sun and watch the kites. The weather was so beautiful there were actually people swimming.

The drive to and from the coast took forever, we took a new route and it apparently was not the quickest route. But I got to have an actual conversation with my husband which is a rare treat with him away from home most of the time. I usually drive when we travel( cause I am a control freak) but he drove this time an I was able to knit Nalah a pair of legwarmers on the rive down alone. 

Here are some links the the Kite Festival in better years:

2011

2009