Forward Motion

The end is in sight! Soon I will see my daughter again in the middle of the day when her mind wanders with fresh curiosity. For the past three months, it's been rushed morning, tired evenings and a few good weekends together. She may be "fine" but I'm ready for a change. We've got four weeks to go and I'm looking forward to the end. A dear thank you, flooded with gratitude, to all of you who have supported me over the course of the most hectic time of my life (so far). Pushing me to keep on keeping on in that forward motion has kept my feet on the ground many times while my head was spinning with crazy.

Today this image speaks to be. It's delightfully colorful, and there is certainly a whole lot of cute. I adore all the little creatures busily exploring and observing with fairy tale-like wonder. Perhaps most curious of all, the westward directionality of everyone and everything in this picture reminds me that there is reward for following that forward motion, and seeing it through. It's been a long time coming.

I'm gonna tell you a story mama...

"Once there was bird in a great great valley
and that kite helped him home."

Loma Jane, Age 2.5


Photo circa Winter 2005

something old, something new

Instead of continuing to whine over my limited time for anything fun outside of my studies, I plugged in my sewing machine today. Turns out I still know how to thread the bobbin. Smile. Loma and I opened up the old chest of sweaters and started cutting and sewing. By the end of it all, I myself was wearing something "new" by fusing together a couple of old cashmere sweaters from the stash.

I also created yet another banner for the shop. I thought it was time to welcome in the Autumn/Winter months with a serene image that will make people want to put their kids in cashmere lounge pants. That's about as creative as it gets around here until I can scrape off the glue that is attaching me to my computer. Soon these days of reflection, writing, redundancy, writing, reflection and writing for school will come to a close. Come December, I just might start slapping stuff together for holiday prezzies. Happy pumpkin carving this week!

Craft Talk

Lookie here! Hipsters doing felted wool projects. Well, here's essentially what we do at Treebottom Wool, except generally smaller and cuter for little people. Imagine this video with fewer spinning screens and bouncing hipster punks, and wah-lah! A Treebottom Wool tutorial!

But since "compare" and "contrast" are some hot ticket academic vocabulary words this week in the second grade, they're burning in my mind right now. Let's do a little compare and contrast, shall we?

Harvesting the Fruits of Labor and Love

This week marked a series of notable events resulting from the months and years of hard work and sincere dedication of some people and things dear to me.

The kids and I completed the final project of my multi-lesson unit for our 2nd and 3rd graders that will be used in my PACT for my teaching credential (aka: a really big deal in my world). The unit was designed to teach kids about creating imagery through writing. The week ended with a group effort transmediation project using clay as their medium to create team creatures! Though the critique I received from my mentor teacher was mostly positive, she did say it was rather "chaotic." Thankfully, Ben reminded me that chaos is our greatest teacher. All in all the kids had fun, and for now, that's my goal.


A fruitful harvest was had at the Treebottom Ranch this weekend. Years of blood, sweat, and possibly even tears (though none of those Henry brothers would ever let you see the actual tears) have gone into 18 acres of beloved grape vines. Whether they like it or not, these boys know each and every one of these plants intimately. This season, a couple more tons of grapes were harvested than anticipated, which was very happy making. Loma Jane and I were there to document the event.




And a big celebratory Yahoooooooooooooo!!!!!!! Goes out to two sets of some of my greatest friends who tied the knot on 10/10/09! I could only make it to one of the two weddings, but I love them all dearly and my heart swells with delight knowing that so much loving support went into the making of big parties (with LOTS of dancing) in celebration of true love and rock solid commitment. In the words of their DJ, "Sarah and Melissa are the cutest couple in the world." That's a big statement, but it's highly possible. See for yourself:

Good Morning Sun!

*One of my favorite photos of all time brought to you by Marlon's dad. As I begin the adventure of teaching kid authors to add more detail to to their writing by 'painting a picture' with words for their readers, I thought a picturesque visual of a child in the waking morn would lend a hand to my inspiration. It does. It also lends a smile to my face, warmth to my heart and a little hope to my soul for our children.

Bright Light

It's been a dark couple of weeks. Nothing I can't handle, but many thing I would have preferred not to have happened. The bright light at the end of my dark tunnel was the Sonoma County Book Festival. At last, an extracurricular activity I can justify (to myself) going to!

In Summary:
Who?
Anyone! And some published authors and other literacy enthusiasts.

What?
A book festival!!! Book talks, book signings, story readings, and BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!!!


When?
Last weekend!

Where?
Downtown Santa Rosa (can you believe it?)
Why?
To celebrate reading, writing and everything in between!


It was a pleasure to see books and people in the streets instead of cars for a day.

Collection Day

Today was a lucky day.
Seems we were featured three times! Each one representing the variety found at Treebottom Wool. Thank you to yankin2002 for including our hands and heart of the earth hoodie in the most gorgeous pastiche of colorful upcycled goods:

And another big thanks goes out to a vintage seller Kitschkitch who writes a great blog at Inspired by Etsy. Today she included our hanging snail shell spider plant kit in a stunning collection of live home decor:

Last but not least, our woodsy friends at codilollyskye treasured our Trees on M' Knees longies (top right) in this Natural Kids treasury collection:

Sidewalk Cracks

Today in class we talked about the incessant poking and prodding we (teachers) do to kids to get them to write with more detail by using describing words.

Our task as students was to mimic the poetic style of George Ella Lyon in her piece Where I'm from, in which she uses primarily nouns to create some impressively rich imagery. In the five minutes we had, here's my very own masterpiece:

I am made of garden veggies and 'made from scratch'
I'm from meals by mom and baths with dad
I'm from adventure tales told after dark
I know well the sidewalk cracks, the railroad tracks and the secret potion woods
Like our clothes, our names are recycled and reinvented
I came from the the days of riding bicycles freely and writing for the love of it.

Dear readers,
Where are you from?
Yours,
Tegan

Thank You!

We realized that a year of Treebottom Wool came and went without notice. We've decided to thank all of our supporters for making this past year so much fun! Nothing says thank you like a SALE! So with the introduction of many new designs, we bring you special people of our past and present this:

click on image to enlarge