SouleMama

joining the club

We had such a celebratory weekend! I hosted a big birthday bash for one of my sisters, joining me this month in the Over 40 Club. Our little market in Portland was the perfect place for such a thing so that friends of hers traveling from afar could easily make it. And plenty of room for dancing and karaoke! It was such a great night. And 40, well that's a pretty great place to be, I think. We've come a long way, these three sisters and I. Four girls so close in age made for some wild times as children - in the deep imaginative play we'd dive into as little kids and then with all the drama you'd imagine from four sisters who are teenagers at the same time. Ah! But it's been one of my greatest joys in life to grow older with them at my side, as we've each created families of our own and become closer each year. They are my sisters and my best friends, and I'm so lucky to have them! And this is exactly what I told my kids as they had their normal sibling engagements this weekend, reminding them that someday, they too will be so happily throwing parties for the very little sibling irritating them now! I'm not sure they believe me now. But I know it'll come true. 

Woolen Moss {a soulemama sponsor}

Greetings from Woolen Moss!

Woolen Moss is a women's organic clothing line designed and produced in Upstate New York. We specialize in organic merino wool, an often times difficult to find material. I currently have a heavy weight double knit (when I say heavy weight, you won’t even believe it!) and a lovely drapey mid weight knit that comes in a variety of colors. We also carry a regular line of organic cotton/bamboo clothing, perfect for spring, summer, and fall. These are also available in two different weights, mid weight French Terry and light weight jersey. Your style, your fabric weight, your color, your size. All your choice, because good clothes should fit well.

Feel free to follow Woolen Moss on Instagram or Facebook for sales, updates, and general musings on life.

SouleMama: Since the last time you were featured on SouleMama, in what ways has your business grown or changed? Is there anything new you'd like to tell us about?

Kate: We’ve made a change in the studio, and I hope you’ll like it. Although we’ve always accepted and encouraged exact measurements, I often times get simple requests for in-between sizing. You know, when you just feel like you’re not quite one and not quite the other. So I’ve left behind the S, M, L etc..., and switched over to numbered sizing. So now you’ll get to choose M8 or M10 and so on. 

So at this point you’re either glad, because now your garment should be even more specific to your sizing. Or you’re having some other visceral reaction to this news because, NUMBERS. You have to attach a number to your body. And because we’ve been trained to attach so much meaning to this number, we believe that one number is better than another. But it’s simply not true. 

 

A number doesn’t tell me if you love to go hiking.

It doesn’t tell me if you like to read a good book.

It doesn’t tell me if you prefer yoga or donuts (I prefer both)

It doesn’t tell me whether you are black or white or the hundreds of shades in between.

It doesn’t tell me if you get up at 6 every day to get your kids ready for school or if you get up at 6 every day to get yourself ready for work (or both!)

It doesn’t tell me if you run marathons or run your own company.

 

A number tells me how to best fit a garment to your body.

A number gives us a common language to better communicate. 

 

I hope you’ll find this change helpful. Please do feel free to contact me with any questions!

This weekend, Woolen Moss is generously offering the following gift to ONE lucky SouleMama reader:

A pair of one of my most popular items, GAUCHOS! Perfect for soon to be spring weather. Layer them with leggings or leg warmers for cooler days, or pair them with a favorite tee for the warm sunny days. Your size, your color, enjoy!

Additionally, I’d also like to offer 15% off your entire order (excluding fabric and sale items) through the first week of May (ends May 6th). Just use code SPRING18 at checkout to receive your discount.

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To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9 am EST on Monday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winner is...

Lately I find myself uncomfortable in synthetic fibers and commercial dyes. Slowly transitioning my wardrobe to more natural fibers and slow fashion pieces. These would be a wonderful addition. Thank you for the opportunity!
Posted by: Tanya Humphreys

Finished: Mailin!

I'm pretty excited about this latest sweater, just off the needles. I made it for just this very season and this very place and time. So many of my handknit sweaters aren't exactly sweaters I'd wear on the farm - the yarn too delicate, the knitting too precious, the fit not quite right for ultimate warmth and maximum movement. But that's precisely why I made this sweater, this style, and this yarn. Super durable, super comfortable, and most definitely farm wearable. It's Mailin, knit in Sea Colors. 

The project languished for a bit this winter, but with the motivation of all that fun outside work to be done this spring, and the cool weather we've been having, I finished it up happily. And now, on this cool, damp chilly spring day in Maine, I'm wearing it. And so eager to get my hands in the dirt once again! 

Moon & Moth Magic Co {a soulemama sponsor}

Greetings from Moon & Moth Magic Co! 

At Moon & Moth Magic Co. we create magical experiences for families through our potion making supplies and kits. Our potion kits are sets of recipes, ingredients and tools that guide children to mix together imaginative concoctions they can use everyday. Some of our most popular recipes are to “Nix Nightmares”, “Slow Motion Potion”, and “Lost & Found”.  Potion makers learn about traditional folkways, plant medicine, ancient myths, and an appreciation for the art of alchemy. 

 

We make our magical supplies in our studio/barn/potion kitchen at our homestead in rural Washington. It’s a small family affair of tying ribbons and filling bottles. We are always looking for new things to tuck into our potion kits and everything we make is unique and completely magical. 

Follow Moon & Moth Magic Co. on Facebook and Instagram.

SouleMama: Since the last time you were featured on SouleMama, in what ways has your business grown or changed? Is there anything new you'd like to tell us about?

Rachel: Last year at this time we were still simply "Potion Kit” - since then we have grown up into “ Moon & Moth Magic Co.” and added new potion kits, expanded our supplies and went through a crazy fun holiday season. This year Rachel is focused on researching and writing new potions and recipes for the upcoming holiday season.  

This weekend, Moon & Moth Magic Co is generously offering the following gift to TWO lucky SouleMama readers:

This is the year of the Mermaid! For our give away we will gift two Mermaid Practitioner’s kits. Created for the water lover - the Mermaid Potion Kit celebrates the sea, mystical mermaids with ingredients like "Kelp Extract" or "Elixir of Atlantis". Potion makers learn how to attract mermaids, overcome fears of deep water and the history of Tridents.

In addition, for all readers, though Apr 30th SouleMama shoppers will get a free silk-cord potion bottle necklace with their order! Use the code NECKLACE at checkout.

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To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9 am EST on Monday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winners are...

My daughter would love this.. Beautiful offering
Posted by: Susan

I know a child whowould love this!
Posted by: Eliza

hopeful

 We've got a bit of spring fever going on around here. Both literally and symbolically. A stomach bug is running through the house (that's fun!), but thankfully it's a quick moving thing that doesn't seem to be taking us all down. Yet. But everyone else is itchy with the other kind of spring fever. As in, when will it warm up so we can go out and play? Well, today is close! As evidenced by the daffodils almost ready to bloom, the bikes scattered everywhere, the laundry on the line (I'm afraid I've become a fair-weather clothesline user of late!), and most definitely from the mud in my kitchen floor. 

It may still snow (well, let's hope not) and cold temperatures are in the forecast....but oh, we have today! Sunshine and all.

April (snow) Showers

 

Greta might be the only one excited about the fact that it continues to snow. A little bit everyday. But everyday regardless. Today it's freezing rain, which I suppose is an improvement? Still, Greta finds the one patch of snow and revels in it. We love that about her.

The rest of us are holding on! Lots of fireside time still, and thank goodness there's still wood, because brrrr!! This week is school vacation week, and while my three little ones aren't even in school, all their classes and lessons are on hold so it'll be a quiet week. I'm going to put in a few solid days of Taproot work, and then, ah....settle into some home days together with my babies. Last year at this time we were planting peas. Considering there's still snow covering all the garden beds, I'm thinking that won't happen. But fireside knitting isn't a bad second, now is it? 

Wishing you all a wonderful start to your week! 

Silk Oak {a soulemama sponsor}

Greetings from Silk Oak!

While new designs continue to emerge each season, it is the tried and true, beloved, vintage designs that keep customers coming back to get the same prints for their new babies that they remember loving when they were small. Truly my favorite part of Silk Oak!

The philosophy behind Silk Oak is a simple one- Have fun creating the best designs we can while growing a business that nurtures our families, strengthens our community and works everyday to show respect and care for the earth.

Silk Oak- Celebrating life since 1977!

Follow Silk Oak on Facebook (silk.oak.tees) and Instagram (#silkoak).

SouleMama: Since the last time you were featured on SouleMama, in what ways has your business grown or changed? Is there anything new you'd like to tell us about?

Jan: The seasons keep turning and here we are at the start of our 41st year! While we are rooted in our local community in Ithaca, NY, our worldwide tribe continues to grow. Each year’s offerings include a blend of new designs and vintage classics. 

We never imagined in 1977 that we would still find inspiration and joy 41 years later in creating our handmade goods and sharing them with the Silk Oak community. Here’s to the future!

 

This weekend, Silk Oak is generously offering the following gift to ONE lucky SouleMama reader:

a $75 gift certificate!

In addition, Silk Oak is offering 15% off your purchase from 4/14-22 with coupon code SOULEMAMA.

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To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9 am EST on Monday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winner is...

always admired these beautiful prints!
Posted by: KYM

cathartic

(Ignore the vacuum hose, the hammer, and the dust bunnies. This is a process shot and all.)

I used to lock myself in the bathroom with a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I remember it so clearly! And surely I talked about it here back in the day (like here). In our old house, home alone with just little kids all day everyday. Sometimes, I remember feeling touched out, and a little bit stressed out from the physical nature of parenting little ones every day. And sometimes that seemed like the best sanity saving thing to do for myself...and for them. A quick bit of ice cream in the bathroom, the only door that locked in the house. No harm, no foul, and Mama walks out feeling refreshed, right? Right.

This Monday was a stressful parenting day. Teens are hard. They are amazing and awesome and fun and all of that - without a doubt, and I am their biggest champions, I assure you - but just like sometimes awesome babies are hard, sometimes awesome teens are hard too. Or at least parenting them can be hard at times. Really, really hard. I crashed pretty hard on Monday night after dealing with with a whole lot of stuff, and woke up Tuesday morning, extremely grateful that it happens to also be my home day. With work off my plate, and no classes to drive the kids to, I knew just what the day was going to hold the very moment I woke up at 5:30 am to usher my big boys out the door to school.

And that's how I found myself asking Harper to help me move the piano at 6am. We did that, and then about a million other things. From one room to another, out to the barn, in from the barn, up the stairs and down the stairs. It was an epic furniture/house rearrange, one that brought just the messy, dusty, sweaty work that I so obviously needed. It was a cathartic clean, this one. And something that I've had in the back of my head for a while as something to do, a way to make our space work better for who we all are right now in our family life. I thought I was waiting for new furniture to do the job, but Tuesday morning I decided there was no need for new furniture right this minute anyway. Because sometimes all it takes is putting something in a new place to see the whole space differently. 

Man, that felt good. So good. And it still feels good, and everyone is happy about the changes. And I'm incredibly grateful that I chose that as a way to work through some of that stress (I feel better now). Maybe it's progress from the ice cream in the bathroom?

Though....I have to tell you about the ice cream in full disclosure. Halfway through the day, I was fading on my moving energy. The kids had long left my project for other play, but I asked them to help me move the last piles of books to the new bookshelf location. "If you can help me finish this up," I told them, "I'll be right back with something fun." 

And that's how I found myself sitting at the kitchen table a few hours later with my three littles....and each of them their own pint of Ben and Jerry's. 

As it goes.

 

milestones everyday

Oh the family milestones! They come like waves these days, with a family this size. One right after the another, sometimes overlapping and with just a moment to catch our breath. But hopefully with enough time for us to pause and notice, remember and reflect, celebrate and appreciate. There was a lot of that this weekend, with the lot of us (neighbor Bruce included, still at our house) gathered around the table as often as we could amidst activities. Ani got a visit from the tooth fairy in acknowledgement of the big gap in her mouth these days (my last toothless kid, gosh I love it when those top two teeth are missing, there's not much cuter in all the world). I found myself dressing up as Calvin for a costume party/auction at his school (I think I pulled it off okay. Though as he was dressing me, his signature salmon-colored Vineyard Vines pants wouldn't button up, and so he said, "It's okay, Mom, I have some elastic waist pants too." Ouch.) 

And my not-so-little Ezra turned fifteen. Though, as I was making his birthday pie (apple, always!), I caught myself just before putting it in the oven as I had accidentally cut out the numbers "14." Nope. He's 15, Mom....catch up! We celebrated with his favorite meal of Chicken Tikka Masala, apple pie, and kitchen karaoke. As we do. He starts driver's ed this week. 

And time keeps marching on. 

Urban Baby Bonnets {a soulemama sponsor}

Greetings from Urban Baby Bonnets!  

Are you ready for summer? Protect your little one with an adorable sun hat from UB2! Rated UPF 50+ (the highest possible rating for clothing), our hats are functional, adorable, and will protect your little one-- NO SLATHERING NECESSARY! This UPF 50+ certification is achieved through the design and construction of the hats-- NO chemicals are ever applied to the hats! Plus, our hats are machine washable, reversible, provide discreet breastfeeding and are guaranteed for life.

 

UB2 was started by Colette Palamar in 2008 when her daughter was gifted a gorgeous handmade bonnet. The gift was too small, and to honor the giver (Colette's grandmother), she decided to make one that did! And once out in the world, people constantly commented on her daughter's bonnet... so she decided to make more. And now, UB2 ships bonnets all over the US and around the world!  

 

Although Colette doesn't make all of the hats anymore, each hat is handmade in the homes of local women. The sewists help set their wages, and take great pride in the craft of the product. Each hat is made honestly and with love. Each purchase helps support real people doing work they love. 

This weekend, Urban Baby Bonnets is generously offering the following gift to ONE lucky SouleMama reader:

$25 gift certificate towards any hat of your choice!

In addition, Urban Baby Bonnets is offering all SouleMama readers 10% off your order with the code Soule10-- one week only! Expires 4/14.

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To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9 am EST on Sunday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winner is...

Oh! I know two lil ones who would love these as we eagerly await getting to the Maine beaches this summer....one for the very first time. Yay Summer and yay hats!! Thank you for your generous offer!
Posted by: Anna Lucia Pelletier

Gado Gado

A friend was with my kiddos yesterday, and I came home to this delightful spread out on the counter for our dinner. (Such a gift, I tell you!) It's the Gado Gado from Feeding a Family by Sarah Waldman. I love this book, and have been using it lots myself, but this isn't a recipe I was necessarily drawn to on my own. I'm so glad for my friend who led me to it this way - it was a perfect easy weeknight meal that let people pick what they wanted (always a hit with my kids, that concept). 

I'm hoping to do another marathon Sunday dinner prep this weekend, storing up meals for the week. I'll keep track of what I do along the way and keep you posted!

Until then...wishing you a lovely start to your weekend, wherever you!

the fifth season

It's officially mud season here in Maine! Today is a warm and rainy day, and I am pretty sure that by the end of it, we won't have a lick of snow left on the ground here. In it's place, of course, is a giant mud pit. But that will dry and flowers will come up and ah! Spring will come! (More snow could come too, what do I know?) 

Things have been wild at Cove Street for me with Taproot - we moved our warehouse to Portland last week and began shipping from here this week. It feels so good to have everything in one space, and I'm grateful to all the helping hands who got it done on a deadline! I'm still feeling sore from all that lifting! Maybe last week wasn't the best week to start running too.... (ouch! but yay!).

Now that we're settled, Open Craft Night is back on! Tonight at 84 Cove Street from 6-8 pm, come on by for a free night of connection, craft and goodness. I'm happy to pull my knitting needles out once again and sit a spell. Just the perfect thing for a rainy April day.