Poppet Printing Class

My lovely friend Andrea has an amazing space in her home that she has dedicated to an art space.

It's SO NICE!  And so is she!  She's hosting a couple of Janamade classes in the spring!

I am teaching the Fabric Printing class on April 7th!  It will be really fun, I am going to provide cotton scarves and we'll make stamps using lino, or hot glue or stencils if you want!  And you'll get to keep the scarf when you are done.

Not too shabby if you ask me!

AND in May I'll host a workshop where we'll be painting with BLEACH!  Cute and fun results!

Please email Andrea if you are interested in taking the printing class in April.
xo

Fridge Fudge

Let me share a very good thing with you.
This is Fridge Fudge.

It is HEALTHY.  It is technically GOOD FOR YOU.
The fact that it is insanely delicious has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on it's goodness.

And it's really, really delicious.

I usually make it in a rectangular pan, lined with parchment, but I received these great little silicon muffin cups for christmas and I am kind of using them for everything right now, so I thought I'd give the Fudge a try.

Total Success.

They just pop right out and you can inhale or savor.  Whatever your style may be.

(forgive me these pictures, it was a DO It Now Before They Are All Eaten situation this morning, and I am not set up as a food stylist!)

Here.  Make some!

Fridge Fudge
1/2 c nut butter (I use almond butter most of the time, but I've done it with tahini and they were great too)
1/3 c coconut oil
1/4 c agave or honey or maple syrup
pinch of salt to taste (I really like a hit of salt so I am pretty generous)
dash of vanilla
1/3 c cocoa powder or carob powder (I was reading yesterday that cocoa has crazy iron in it so eat up!)
1 c combination of almond meal, nuts, seeds, oats, dried fruit
     (this is the great this about this recipe.  The Fudge pictured above is almond meal, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, craisins and hemp hearts! But I've made it before with candied ginger, walnuts, raisins, coconut, slivered almonds... you can even swap the vanilla for almond extract.  THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!)

On the stove over low heat, melt the nut butter and coconut oil until smooth.  Remove from heat and stir in everything else.

Pour into a little dish lined with parchment, OR if you've got them, these silicon muffin cups worked great!  It made 12 cups last night.

Put your dish or cups into the freezer for 30 minutes and then they are set and ready to enjoy!
They keep in the fridge once they've been set, but they have never lasted longer than maybe 24 hours around here (IF they were lucky!) so I can't tell you how long they would keep for if you didn't eat them for some reason.

I DARE you to try to not eat them.

xo

Toddler Tuesdays :: Pizza is introduced

We tried Pizza for the first time.

We like it.

(this kid ate three slices!)

xox

Baby Molly

A couple of years ago I shared a fundraiser in support of Baby Molly Campbell, a tiny local who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia shortly after she was born.

The little sweetheart relapsed not long ago and the community is holding another silent auction on her behalf that is coming up next week.

I have donated a pair of Copper Barnacle Earrings, and this town has been pretty incredible and the items available for this auction are absolutely amazing.

Please come down to support little Molly and her family at Koffee on Haultain this coming Saturday, March 2.

information is available here at the families website

Ugh, head colds are lame

We've all got one.  That's why it's been a little bare around here this week.

But I have some fun stuff to share next week so don't give up on me yet!

xox

Toddler Tuesdays :: Sonny Incognito

I am going to start a new feature here to share little tidbits of My Boy Sonny.
Just little glimpses of what he's up to and share with you the Incredible World of The Toddler.

Because seriously.  It's pretty spectacular.

Just look at this guy!  He's out, lounging in comfort with his good buddy Duck.  Trying on some sweet shades.

xox

Janalope handmade... stamp!

A little peek at my Janalope stamp, that I hand carved for the Critter's hang tags.

You might think that I would share a picture of the hang tag all freshly stamped and not the stamp THAT HAS NOT YET BEEN CARVED.

But that would just be too close to Practical and Professional.  And while I am both of those things (mostly) it's also nearing midnight and I am having a blast prepping up posts (ON A SCHEDULE!  whaaat?) that I can't stop now to set up, stamp and then photograph the finished thing.

Plus Geoff is sleeping and that would just be mean.
(my desk is in the bedroom!)

Sushi cones for lunch (or as I have started to call them, Sushi Burritos)

Calling them burritos is totally unfair.  They are delicious Cone Rolls and I shouldn't be obnoxious.
But I had never tried one before a few weeks ago, where on a whim, and an open minded food choice feeling (when you've got restrictions like we do trying new foods is hit and miss) I ordered one when I was out for lunch with my Sister and my Mom and I am HOOKED.

The first thing I thought was "Oh it's a delicious sushi burrito!" and it stuck in my head.

Oh and they are SO GOOD!
I decided to try and recreate them at home last week when we had a friend staying with us from the mainland and it was the perfect build your own lunch!

We usually have sheets of nori around for Sonny, as they are nice healthy snacks and the kid LOVES it.  And we had everything else in the pantry just waiting for me to figure it out.

I made a simple salmon salad with a can of sockeye and some vegan mayo (Sonny and I are off eggs) and sliced up avacado and cucumbers and prepped the brown rice with some rice wine vinegar.

Some braggs and tamari on the side and we were rolling (har har!)

I found a photo tutorial on rolling the cones here via Pinterest.

I expect that we will be eating these a lot around here for a while!

Sonny & the Sticker Bandit

We have entered the Age of The Sticker around these parts.
I wasn't so sure if we would encounter it with Sonny because he is such a busy kid, but he received a book of sticker pages from my Mom and we now find stickers ALL OVER THE HOUSE.

I think it's adorable to see them pop up unexpectedly.  But Geoff is not so keen.

It would seem that Sonny got his love of leaving stickers everywhere from me... a trait that his dad is not impressed with.
(I will take the stickers off of fruit and vegetables and stick them on the sink.  And then completely forget about their existence.  I actually had a belt when I was a teen that would get COVERED in veggie stickers because my dad felt the same way!  And since I ALWAYS wore this belt, everysingleday, it was a no brainer.  But alas for my poor husband, leggings and skinnies do not require belts!)

The Fox Fair revisited

I love the ladies who put together The Fox.  Oh boy do I.
I look forward to The Fox every year, and I always have a great time.

I decided that since I was SO TIRED and up SO LATE the nights leading up to it that I would break my No Caffeine rule (I am NOT allowed to have caffeine.  Medical professionals have told me so) but I broke my rule and put half of a Tetley tea bag into my morning herbal tea.

Whoa nelly there is a reason I am not allowed to have it!  There are a couple actually, but I am specifically referring to the LUNATIC that I became by 10 am.

I was so hyped up and zippy that I am sure I made some of the other vendors cringe.
Maybe not ACTUALLY cringe, but I was so self aware of how Incredibly Perky I was feeling that I actually considered taking a jog around the block at one point just to use up some of the energy!

JUST THINK OF WHAT I COULD GET DONE IN A DAY! 

And because of my increased energy levels, I didn't stop and think to take photos throughout the day like I had planned.
I did get a couple of shots of set up and at the end of the day though.

 

Just look at those curtains!  And how cute my Market Partner is!  Ack it kills me!

The New Copper Barnacle earrings were a big hit, and I am back at my bench this week to make more and to fill orders for a couple of custom bracelets and to prep packages to go out to Real Live Boutiques! 

xox

On parenting and working from home

I am sitting here listening to Sonny call for us from his bedroom.  He's been at it on and off for AN HOUR.  He used to be so good at bedtime, just nursing to sleep and then staying asleep all night.

I will admit, it kind of fluffed our feathers.  Yes!  He IS sleeping through the night already.
We did a little bit of mild sleep training when he was 7 months old.  Up until that, he slept on me.
On Me.
For 7 straight months I was restrained by a very sweet, wiggly shift manager who demanded that I HOLD THE F STILL for 8 hours.
Which honestly wasn't so bad, we slept pretty well.  Until we didn't.

And then we moved him to his own bed in his own room and it only took him a couple of weeks to figure it out and he was at it again, sleeping though the night.

A dream really.

And then I started working at home again, at night after he went to sleep and it was pretty good at first.  But lately, the last month or so, he's not going to bed easily any more.
He's chatting to us, to his sleepy buddies, his blanket, whoever will listen.  And then he is yelling at us to come and get him.  And what was once a solid 7:30 bedtime has now evolved into an 8:30 bedtime with an hour, AN HOUR of heart wrenching crying and hair pulling...on both sides of the door.

And I try SO HARD to not resent this hour.  This frustrating, hateful hour that we are now anticipating every night, this STUPID hour that holds me out of the studio because I can't start working until he's asleep, which means that instead of working until 11 I am now working until Midnight and then I am waking up a groggy, grumpy zombie person who shuffles around glaring at the world in general and resents having a studio in her BEDROOM FOR PETE'S SAKE, and I wonder if I should just pack it all in and get a regular job (which I really don't want to do, but maybe then I could leave work at work and have my evenings free for my family and my sanity.)

But the idea of packing up my gear makes me CRINGE.  I feel like I am finally on to something here and making it happen, little by little.  And if I pack it all in I will ALWAYS wonder.  And regret.  And resent.

So.  Now that I have written this while listening to Him fall asleep, FINALLY, I am going to shut down the computer, head into the bedroom and work, really hard for at least three hours (1 am tonight folks) so that I will have some really beautiful bangles and earrings to sell at the Fox, and fill a couple of orders (THANK YOU!) and put together packages for accounts that have been waiting patiently for me to spend this time.

That I kind of really love.

Making beautiful things that I hope women will wear and love and share with their little ones, when those little one's aren't so little anymore.

So good night computer, good night blog.

Good night grumpy baby.  I love you so.

February Fox Fair!!

Only one more day until the Fox Fair!  Saturday Feb 9th from 10-4 at the Fernwood Community Center on Gladstone!!

I'll have Barnacle earrings, silver and brass Bangles, some silver AMMAS Prospector pendants and I am hoping to have enough time to finish up a few Anemone pendants as well.

Not to mention that Floating Gold Iceberg, Morena, Nook, Jennifer Riddell Jewellery, Modern Faire, Love Monkey and SO MANY MORE will be there!

Fetch Eyewear

I just stumbled across this website for Fetch eyewear.
It's essentially a non profit animal rescue organization that set up an online eye wear shop to support their efforts.

Pretty incredible!  The frames are all $125 and they are really cute!
I particularly like the Margot and the Sadie

AMMAS Prospector Necklace

I have been working out a disc pendant in my head for a very long time.
If you follow me on pinterest you will notice a theme in a lot of my jewellery board.  And that theme is that I like simple, everyday pieces that can be layered with other, flashier statement jewellery.

(maybe that doesn't shine through specifically, but that IS what I like.  Also it's easy for me to say that because I am the one doing the pinning and I know my own dear self in this regard.  In others not so much maybe, but we're all works in progress right?)

Regardless, I have been stewing on a simple disc pendant because I LOVE the classics, and my eye grabs onto the subtle flash of light that reflects off of something that sits close to the throat.

But I have been re working it over and over in my head because I need to make mine a little bit interesting, something that you wouldn't necessarily see everywhere, and it needed to have a bit of meaning.

This is the first finished AMMAS Prospector pendant.
It's made entirely from reclaimed 14k yellow gold.  The pendant itself is the very first engagement ring that I made for myself, and the chain was my Gramma's.  I opened up the chain and added the pendant directly into it, because that is a style that I REALLY like.

I used the fuzing technique that I use with my AMMAS series (which will be put back into production again... I am working through the materials I have on hand, trying not to bring in any more until I've worked through some of it, and I am nearly out of silver!) and I had a crescent moon floating around in my head too.

So.

Here it is.

What do you think?

I am hoping to make a couple more in silver for the Fox Fair next week.

Easy Banana Ice Cream

So.  We've been pretty good about keeping our sweets to the weekend.
(I say this as I LITERALLY just finished eating a chocolate donut... it's Tuesday)

This past weekend we had an Earl Grey Tea Cake from The Flying Apron Cookbook.
Quite delish.  Vegan and gluten free and sweetened with maple syrup and honey.

And LAST weekend, the weekend after the SUPER INTENSE CHOCOLATE CAKE EXPERIENCE we went with something a little lighter and tried the 2 ingredient banana ice cream that's made it's way across the Pinterest scene.  A bit like a floozy, you saw it everywhere.

But it gets around for a reason.  It's damn good.

It was easy as heck (again, a bit floozy), literally 2 ingredients and a blender is all we used.
And we saved half of it in the freezer for the next day and it totally held up.  The texture was still smooth like a soft serve ice cream and no flavour changes.

We will definitely make it again!

I used the images and the recipe found here.

Bookhou is a company that I admire.  Their blog has been on my list for a long time, and Arounna's designs and aesthetic are so clean and lovely.

I came across this post on her blog Bookhou At Home and it resonated with me as I am also a small business, and I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine about how I constantly undersell myself and how it is such a struggle for me to find a balance between what my work is worth and what I think the market will bear.

Other designers and makers, how do you reconcile your pricing?

I recognize that part of my issue is that I have a hard time separating my self from my work.  I am sure I am not the only artist/designer/crafter to struggle with this, but I can't seem to find a place in my head to pull the two apart.  While I know that Janamade is not ME, I spend so much time immersed in JM that it's hard to find the edges I guess.

It's a work in progress for sure!

*all images above are from Bookhou At Home*

Rebecca's trade

My friend Rebecca is a Knitter.  (notice the capital letter?  I'm serious when I say this... I have never met anyone with a passion for knitting like this gal.  Check out her blog Nook)

Before Christmas we had worked out a trade for a few of her fabulous Iris Monsters  (Sonny needed one, and I got a couple extras for my sister's twins as gifts) and this is the piece I made for her.

She gave me free reign on it, just saying that if it was a pendant, she preferred a long chain.

When I got into designing it, I kind of couldn't help myself and engraved a ball of yarn and needles into the pendant! 
It will darken over time, making the yarn stand out as she wears it.

She hasn't seen it in person yet, and I hope she's happy!
StinkEye the Monster gets a lot of love