Sprout Natural Parenting is opening a store on Church Street in October. They currently have a store in Brattleboro VT.

Here is a blurb from their brochure:

Sprout is a retail storefront and online store dedicated to natural parenting. New England's most comprehensive and holistic natuarl parenting store. Everything you need for the pregnant mom, baby and young child: slings and carriers, cloth diapers, organic and ecofriendly children's clothing and shoes, breastfeeding support & supplies, gear, furniture, books & resources, natural health, nursing & maternity wear, wooden, waldorf & montessori toys

They also have a changing station, play cubbies, nursing chair, gift registry, shipping & phone orders.

Sprout was voted "Best of Vermont Eco-conscious Baby Shop" by Boston Magazine in 2007

they will be located at 110 Church street in October. For those local folks they are talking over the space where Discover Channel store used to be.

The brattleboro location is 57 elliot street, brattleboro 802-254-2600

online store coming soon

Yeah I am pretty much going to camp out the night before they open and probably just end up living in their store. It is about time we got a store like this. I have been dreaming of doing something like this one day but at least someone is doing it and doing it very well it seems.

Mama Says

Rockergirrl has joined Mama Says as a new contributor.

Mama Says is a collobrative blog. A vehicle for the voice of the mother.

Linda began Mama Says in 2004. It has evolved from a print newsletter to a blog/list-serv + political/social action circle.

Linda is also the owner of Vermont Diaper Company
She has many other ventures up her sleeve. I have a feeling we will be colloborating quite a bit in the near future.

Recent Toy recalls

Everyone is in a tizzy over the latest recall. Everyone agrees something needs to be done. My solution? Stop spending money on these companies who choose to continue to use factories which are not abiding by our laws. We can blame China as a whole all we want but the reality is the company who chooses where their manufacturing will be done. It is up to the company to make sure the factories are producing products which pass our countries laws and standards. It is up the the company to do better testing etc. China is not all to blame. Fisher Price, Mattel and so on are also to blame. So stop supporting them. Choose to spend your money on better quality products. Choose to spend your money on a company who isn't shoving characters and kid advertising down our throats.

so that is my two cents. Don't ban just the country of China. Look also at the offending businesses that continue to choose factories that they fail to oversee properly.

Here are some alternatives
Rosie Hippo
Nova Natural
And for a plastic alternative Playmobil - Playmobil is a European company who makes high quality plastic toy figures and settings. Most of their products are for older children but they do now have a line called 1*2*3 for the little ones. The pieces are bigger etc. I love their products and my kids love their products. It is the only plastic stuff we own. They engage a child's imagination. They don't just just spin around making stupid noises.

Enzo lost his first tooth today. He actually started crying when it fell out. He was extremely upset because he said he didn't want it to be over. He didn't want it to fall out. It took us a while to calm him down. Enzo has always been an emotional kid. He is very sensitive to things that most kids his age would not even pick up on. He reminds me a lot of myself when I was little. Although he said he was upset because he wanted to keep wiggling the tooth I could tell there was much more going on inside of him that perhaps even he could no verbalize. The phase where a child loses there teeth means they are leaving an part of their childhood behind as they enter a new phase. He of course does not know about this but I am sure there is something inside of him that feels it. I can vividly remember having a hard time with every phase of growing up. Inside I would be very upset at the thought and signs that I was growing up. Perhaps it was because I was the youngest and I felt bad that my parents were losing their baby. Perhaps I was just scared to lose my childhood. I had a small pang in my heart when I watched Enzo cry today. A small part of me wanted to cry with him and for him. A part of me could remember and relate to the mixed emotions one feels when phased with the obstacles, excitement and worry of growing up.

Strut Fashion Show

Mark your calendars now. The South End Art Hop is quickly approaching. This year I am proud to announce I will unveiling a few pieces from my new collection at the Strut Fashion show put on by the Art hop. There are two dates for the fashion show this year. The main clothing categories will show on Friday Sept7th at 9pm. The show I will be in is on Saturday Sept8th at 3pm for jewelry, accessories and kids.

I am very excited about my new collection. I have been busy preparing for it. Birthing a new collection is exciting. I love all aspects of it. Right now I am finishing up the three pieces I will be presenting at the fashion show. This collection is something completely new for me. It is very different from everything I have done up to this point. I hope you will join me on Saturday Sept 8th for the big unveiling.

What a weekend. On Saturday we headed down to our CSA farm to pick our weekly share of flowers and beans. We do our veggie pick up on Thursdays but they allow you to do the pick you own portions anytime during the week. It allows us to wait until the weekend when JB can come with us. The kids loving going there and it such a lovely place to be. Saturday night JB and I had our second date all year. My lovely neighbors offered to babysit the kids again. They are the best neighbors I could ever ask for. I feel so lucky to live next to them. We decided to go to an early movie and ended up seeing Stardust. I liked it. Some my think it was cheesy but we both actually enjoyed it. It was a cross between The Princess Bride and The Holy Grail. After the movie we sat outside of a local watering hole and had a beer.

It was so nice to be out with JB. It was amazing to be downtown on a Saturday night too.

Kid Rock

My absolute favorite children's musician Justin Roberts is coming to Higher Ground Music in South Burlington on October 13th for a special Noontime show.

If you have kids you cannot miss this show. I am super picky about what kind of children's music gets played in this house. No Barney crap here. This guy is enjoyable for both kids and adults. I actually like putting his CD on to listen to with the kids. If you are looking to buy one to get to know his music a bit better I recommend Great Big Sun as your first choice. It is by far the BEST.

Updates

My mom is out of the hospital Things are still unknown right now and I will post more as I know more but for now I would rather not. Life changes and family changes and we will get through whatever obstacles are ahead because that is what families do.

Enzo has his first loose tooth. I can't believe it. The dentist noticed it a few months ago at his cleaning but it wasn't until recently that it became all wobbly. He seems too young to me (he will be 6 in October) but the dentist said it happens between ages 6 and 7. I is yet another milestone. A big one for me though. the change of teeth. I am not a Waldorf purist by any means. My children do not even attend Waldorf schools. I have however been reading Waldorf inspired parenting books since I was pregnant and have incorporated many aspects of it into our home life. In Waldorf world the change of the teeth is a significant time for children. It demonstrates physical changes as well as an awakening to the world which eventually leads to the child exiting the early childhood behind.

I already see many changes in him both physically and mentally. I am so proud to watch this growth but at the same time I cannot deny a slight sadness I feel as well.

For Mom

Summer at Stricker's Pond
Originally uploaded by Mingfong

My mom is in the hospital. These flowers are for you mom.

xoxo

Isn't it ironic?

Ok this is insane. I wrote the post yesterday about getting all my replacement music from when my basement flooded a few months ago and you will never believe what happened yesterday. My freakin' basement flooded AGAIN. I thought I was going to lose my mind. The exact same thing happened as before. I put in a load of laundry, came upstairs to hang towels on the clothes line and then started dinner. About an hour later I went to wash a few dishes and noticed there was no hot water. I could hear the wash downstairs still going and all of a sudden I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I opened the basement door, walked downstairs and proceeded to scream "Oh no not again" at the top of my lungs. The entire basement was once again flooded with water. This time it wasn't as bad. We had almost 6 inches last time. This looked more like 2 inches but still it covered corner to corner of the basement. I started freaking out and the kids started freaking out. I felt so bad that I could not stay in control.

This really came at a bad time. I just had contractors here the same day telling me how much I was going to have to spend to fix extensive window rot I have going with three windows in our house. Now I have a deductible to pay and a new washer to buy. Also JB has been working 7 days a week until midnight and now all of a sudden we have to both be available somehow to clean up the basement. That won't go over very well at his work. So Serve Pro came out once again and installed a pump last night. All the water is now gone but we now must have their industrial sized dehumidifiers and fans going down there for several days until it is all dried out.

So I am pretty much a stress case. I feel overwhelmed. I really didn't need to add going to the Laundromat three times a week to my already hectic life. I don't need another thing I can't afford to pay for go wrong with this house. I need things to calm down. I need my husband to not have to work so much so we can share the load more. I need a vacation.

Music to my ears

A few months ago my basement flooded. The bad news is we lost many boxes of books and cassette tapes. The good news is we got insurance money to replace them. Since cassettes are no longer being produced we were able to spend money on CDs. I haven't bought much new music in the past few years. One of the luxury items I had to give up when I chose to quit my job. So you can image how exciting it was for me to be given a dollar figure and told to go shopping on Amazon. It was extremely hard. There was so much pressure. How do you choose what to get? Well I just got my shipment in. You might be surprised by the selection but here we go.

Pearl Jam - the latest one
Wilco - Sky blue sky
Son Volt - The Search
Modest Mouse - Good news for people who love bad news
Neko Case - Ffox Confessor brings the flood
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
Sarah McLachlan - Surfacig
Neil Young - Prairie Wind
The Donnas - Gold metal
Evanescence - Fallen
R.E.M. - The best of the IRS years
The Postal Service - Give it up
Tori Amos - Bee keeper
Built to Spill - There's nothing wrong with love
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Norah Jones - Come away with me
Bob Marley - Legend
Belle and Sebastian - if you're feeling sinister
Brightblack Morning light
Pink - I'm not dead
My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
Tori Amos - American doll posse
Modest Mouse - We were dead before
Ryan Adams - Rock n roll
Cat Power - The Greatest
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Bright Eyes - I'm wide awake it's morning
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Kelly Clarkson - My December (ok shut up)
Heavenly States - Black Comet
Joss Stone - Mind, body soul

Now I just need to find time during the day when I can safly listen to some of these without my kids picking up some new bad words.

Strap it on

I bought myself a new guitar this weekend. I am quite thrilled. When I moved to CA in 1998 I had to sell my cherry red Fender strat because I had decided to only take my acoustic with me. I have been without an electric since then. This weekend E an I headed to our local music store for a big sale they were having. Our mission was to get him some drum sticks because he started taking lessons. Well we came home with a bit more than drum sticks. I also found a great deal on a Fender Squire that came with a mini amp and I just could not pass it up. I am in love. It is actually the inspiration I needed to practice more and practice differently.

BeforeAfter

I dug up my hastas last fall and since then the side of my house has been bare. I thought with the cart load of flowers I bought the other day I should use some to fill in the space.

Flower score

This was my cart at the end of my trip. It barely fit in my car with two kids and a dog.

Claussen's is having a All-U-Can Carry sale starting today.
All you can carry for $20.00 or a cart load for $40.00

I chose the cart and ended up with probably hundreds of dollars worth of flowers.

It felt like Christmas today.

This I believe

On October 7, 2006 Michelle Gardner-Quinn was brutally murdered. She was a UVM student. She was taken from our downtown streets and forever taken away from us. I did not know her personally but the crime shook up our entire community.

Two days before she was murdered she submitted an essay to her environmental studies class. This video made for Live Earth contains experts of that essay. The essay is read by Tipper Gore, Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Sheryl Crow, Meg Ryan, Emily Proctor and Michelle's Mother Diane Gardner Quinn.

World Breastfeeding Week is Coming!

Burlington's Celebration, sponsored by the Chittenden County Breastfeeding Promotion Coalition and La Leche League of Burlington, will be held on August 4th, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm, at Contois Auditorium in City Hall, on Church Street, downtown Burlington.

Read more info on the event here.

I attended the event last year and it was wonderful and empowering. I will attend this year for sure.

Please pass this info on. Spread the word. Get involved.

In support of all the strong women out there I know I give you this.

My friend over at Vinceland wrote this amazing post called

Girls are the New Guys

I think it is fantastic and so is he.

He gives a shout out to me in it too so I thought I would return the favor.

Give it a read.

Sorry

So I wanted to apologize for getting all crafty on this blog lately. I have been toying with getting rid of my studio blog and combining it into this one and then changing the name. I have decided however to keep them separate. I will continue on here with my opinionated rants and raves regarding parenting, products and sometimes politics. My studio blog will continue on its own as my creative space.

see you back on the dark side soon.

Exciting News

Starting Wednesday I will be selling earrings at Studio STK's Art to Go store in Burlington VT.

These 5 will be the first pairs I deliver on Wednesday. If you are not local do not worry. They will be launching an ecommerce site soon. So stay tuned.

Stop in if you are local or check back on the site for the launch of their new online shop.

I am

I am an artist. It has taken me almost 20 years to be able to finally use that label. Since school I have dabbled in so many different things only half doing them well that I never felt worthy of that title. I have been writing poetry since elementary school, taught myself guitar, took up photography, pottery, singing and jewelry making in high school. Through college and beyond I still did many of these hobbies in my spare time but I was always jealous of friends of mine who had one direct interest.

Becoming a parent has changed me. It has given me the confidence I needed to pursue my dreams and finally see myself as a creative soul. Many people believe that having children will hurt their creative edge. For me it sharpened mine. I now have more drive to embrace my hobbies and own them as my own. I now find creativity in areas I never imagined. Cooking, gardening and home improvements are other areas of home inspired creativity I immerse myself in on a daily basis. Whether it is making homemade pesto from our garden grown basil or painting my front door purple I choose to make my home a place of inspiration through color, design and lots of flowers. All of this feeds my current passion for designing jewelry and also keeps me writing and playing guitar as well.

I am an artist. I choose wear this title with pride. I choose to be whoever I want to be. I choose to never back down from my dreams. I choose to show my children the importance of finding their passion.

I am creative, strong, weak and driven. I want to dream and weep, write and scream, play lost songs to searching souls. I want to raise my sons to be anything but the ordinary. I am a seeker, a dreamer , a dancer in the darkness.