We had no idea there was a squirrel nest somewhere near the top of our house. And we all wished we wouldn’t have discovered it the way we did, finding a sweet newborn baby squirrel squeaking away, in the front yard. I had never seen a baby squirrel up close before, and despite having declared the adult versions of these animals a lifelong enemy due to a series of unfortunate squirrel break-and-enters in my bachelor days (and some swiped bagels and apartments full of squirrel leavings) – my heart broke a little bit for this sweet baby. I was once again swept into that primal place we as mothers get to visit when we birth our own children – a place of vulnerability and wishing and hoping.

We tried to make the baby as warm and comfortable as possible, waiting for the Mama squirrel to come and claim her baby, rescue it and put it back in the nest. But we knew that she knew that baby was hurt, and she had to feed herself after birthing all of her babies, and take care of all the rest of them. It’s nature’s way, we told ourselves. But the sweet baby, lying on its side, breathing deeply and so very new to this world… well… it captured our hearts, as I’m sure all newborn baby anything can.

After a day of watching, out of the way of the mother who we hoped to come… we buried the little squirrel in our backyard and were all at least a little relieved it was not in any more pain. Difficult lessons for little ones to learn – the starkness of life and death is hard to swallow sometimes.

That afternoon my daughter and I set to work making lots and lots of window stars to shine the rainbows of light inwards and outwards, hoping to bring more light this way. And the daffodils decided (finally!) to peek their yellow heads out that afternoon. A sure sign that life goes on, and is still very very beautiful.

It was hard to list this last little team if fresh frocks, though their size 2 or 3T made it easier to resist spiriting thm away an pretending we had never deigned + intended these for the shop (hee). My mom and shop partner made these, turning her many decades of clothes design + textiles work into sweet dresses that seem so very right now.

The color-block mint one is made with a cotton linen blend we found in a local store, and has 4 little buttons at the back to close it.

And these are new versions of our Ava chevron dress – one in olive green with turquoise, and the other in orange with royal blue.

The little details matter so much. And since we try to design sustainably so that the clothes can last beyond one season (hopefully beyond one year), there is an extra button hole at the shoulders for adjusting as she grows… and an extra few inches in the handsewn hemp to let down. And dresses can become tunics… can become shirts!

And this Mama is itching for a few new summer dresses – oh, Pinterest has made that quite intense (people have been pinning the most gorgeous dresses!) Are you doing any sewing for yourself these days? Wishing you a wonderful start to your week.

… feet,, that is. Feet that are now standing, and walking and growing too fast but still the target of tons of slobbery kisses and big-sister-zerberts. We took newborn feet photos a year or so ago now, his wrinkly delicate-looking feet sitting on top of his sister’s. I wanted to start a new project: document our kids’ feet differently every yeat. A sort of eclectic collection of feet art.

To start our project, we decided to use paint this year – two shades of green all-purpose kids paint and acid-free  watercolor paper.

I can’t wait to start my little feet art nook in the house. Have you done anything like this? Have any other ideas for other years? I was thinking about outside-feet-in-the-grass photos, ink prints and food-feet things like lining up lima beans next to feet.

And on the subject of sweet (oh, baby toes), lemonade stand season is approaching and I ran across this fabulous + entertaining interview with NYC kids about their ventures in the summer lemonade business. Note to self: let still-learning-to-spell daughter make the sign, apparently it might jumpstart her profts!

(that’s a photo from last summer….)

This morning there is snow falling. A thin but solid little blanket of white snow has blanketed our Ottawa neighborhood this morning of April 23rd and I think, for once, it’s a wonderful thing we are a tad disorganized and late and haven’t managed to take the winter tires off the car yet. Ha!

There has been heavy rain, and blistering sun and strong 90 km/hour winds all in the last week or so here – it has all been rather mixed up and unexpected. Rather like watching our man-cub approach his impending first birthday. Just when we are sure he will walk, as he has been standing for months and even jumping and shuffling a wee bit, we notice that he has decided to shift away – to decidedly crawl for awhile longer, at least. That he could do it but isn’t quite ready. Watching him discover this strange world of ours, especially outside where the trees and the birds are marvelous and awe-inspiring.

And there has been so much discovery inside ourselves too, about patience and healing and finding our way as a family. About watching another person uncurl and unfold and how ever so gently we need to support that and give it space to happen. About the power and depth of love siblings can have – stronger than any bond I have ever witnessed.

All of this has discovery has made me feel more grounded than ever before. Amid the rain, the snow and the hot sun feeding the delicate flowers, there is a strength and a solidity to living these days that is new and different. And ever so wonderful.

They are predicting chilly rain and then snowy rain slush here in Ottawa over the next few days. After the summery sun here it’s hard to believe, but I think I won’t be the slightest bit bothered by the inclement weather. I think (I really am crossing fingers and toes here) that my little man-cub, who is about to have his first birthday, is finally healing. Thank you to everyone who has offered advice and stories about eczema and candida and healing. It has meant a great deal to me, to us.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Here are some fabulous things I saw this week:

- thank you for sayin’ it just like it is

- I’m now on the hunt for a giant (cattle water trough-size?) galvanized tub for the backyard thanks to this lovely blog

- I have my eyes on this fat 8th set to make this (adding, as Anna suggested, some bits of Liberty I have around…)

- and I’m officially in love with side braids. lots of them… like this

She slid into this world all of a sudden, this sweet baby girl we know… right in her own kitchen, the midwife rushing up the steps to her home… And so we thought it was just right to make her a big rainbow since they too come out, all of a sudden, bringing with them magic and beauty, and making everyone smile.

We needle-felted 28 balls, hanging in the order my crafting partner and 5 year-old decided. Mostly dark to light, in color groupings, 7 to a string. We hung them from Ottawa River driftwood.

It ended up being rather hige – about 2 feet across, and 2 feet down. Despite this, the wool rainbow should still twist and turn in the breeze, dancing a bit for the sweet new baby who surprised us all.

p.s. we are offering custom mobiles like this in the shop. I hope to get one made and ready to ship, but all myy spare moments have been pouring into this fabulous new book, which I hope to tell you about this week. It will ait right alongside my copy of The Red Tent – did you love that book too?

Do you ever feel like there’s just too much paper around?

We’ve been dreaming of display-type  bookshelves for a few years now, ever since we had our first little reader and realized how much better it would be to actually see the book covers. And to allow her to choose, selecting from Mama and Daddy-edited shelves.  The ability to rotate, curate, and make themes. Inspired by the wonderful library display bookshelves in our own neighborhood branch. After years of having piles of books, in piles, we decided we were going to do something about that. Ah, the “something about that”. Then we (very surprisingly) became pregnant and … fast forward to now. When the bookshelves finally made it onto The Short Short List.

With help from his father-in-law and somewhat extremely keen daughter, my partner put this little one together in a few hours. With some sustainable pine, though I think our next one two will be walnut.

We made a few fixes adaptations, especially adding a rear dowel on all the shelves as our 100 year old mouldings on the walls mean the shelf sits back from the wall just enough to let books fall out the back (if we didn’t have the dowelling there).

Now we have a wonderful place to see our books.

And, speaking of paper, last weekend we were delighted to have our little organic toys and kids’ accessories written up in our local Ottawa Citizen newspaper. It has helped us connect with even more local customers, who can always pick up their orders from one of our homes here in Ottawa, rather than pay to have it shipped. This helps us support “shop local” even though we are currently selling online. So neat. And to see our work in the paper? A huge, tummy-tickling  thrill.

(photo at the top via Flick here)

Hope you are having a lovely weekend, and see you back here with that retro feather hat tutorial I promised last week.