Common SCENTS

I have just recently added a new item to my Etsy site. They are 2 oz. single tone solid perfumes.  I have been having a wonderful time creating these lovely fragrances.  I stumbled upon the idea of creating solid perfumes while reading an awesome little book (it is really a small book, size wise), "Scents and Sensibilities Creating Solid Perfumes For Well-Being" by Mandy Aftel.  My main objective was to find a way to incorporate beautiful fragrances into my jewelry.   I have been weaving hollow bead encrusted beads for many moons and came up with the idea to add a small piece of wool or cotton inside of a hollow bead which then would be scented with essential oil and incorporated into    earrings.  My idea was that the slight swinging motion of the earrings would realease a lovely fragrance for the wearer to enjoy.  My initial idea was to make these earrings scented with vanilla to act as a natural aphrodisiac.  The wearer would wear the vanilla scented earrings and when her honey was near her would get a wiff of vanilla.  Instant aphrodisiac.  It is a scientific fact that certain smells, (mostly food and flowers) often act as aphrodisiacs for men.  I made a few pair of earrings and they were a great success.  I was very pleased with the results.  I then, of course, became even more interested in fragrances and their effects on people.   I learned through Mandy Aftel's book that fragrances blossom on the skin and smell different on every person.  This gave me the idea to create perfumes stored in small vessels that could be attached to a beaded necklace.  That way the owner of the perfume could wear it around their neck and use it whenever they wanted.  I explored further and learned that for centuries solid perfumes have been made and worn as perfume lockets. Since this discovery I have been on the hunt for lovely "perfume" lockets to expand my scented jewelry line.  I am hoping to add new wearable solid perfumes to Full Throttle Gypsy in the very near future.  In the meantime however, I have 2 oz tins in cute knit pouches of deliciously sweet smelling solid perfumes for sale.  All my solid perfumes are made using all natural beeswax, jojoba oil,  essential oils and absolutes.  Stop on by the shop to see the latest solid perfume fragrances available.

It's the Balm

I have been very busy these last few months.  Christmas came and went.  Another new year began.  We moved, twice...and still all the while I have been beading, knitting, sewing, growing, exploring and having an all around wonderful winter.  All though winter has been wonderful this year, I am so looking forward to the Springtime. 

Lately I have been trying to find time to improve the quality of  the photos I post on my Etsy site.  Last weekend I sat down with my camera, camera manual, and Etsy's Seller's Guide, specificly the photography section, to see if I could learn a thing or two about taking good photos of my stuff.  It was a real confidence booster when some of the shots turned out beautiful!  One tip in the Seller's Guide that I found useful in the photography of my seed bead work was the use of a lightbox.  Sawyer (age 3yrs 11 mo.) and I built one out of things we had around the homestead. We used a large cardboard box which we then covered in the inside with white paper.  The top of the box was cut out so I could position my light source directly above the beadwork I was photographing.  It created a nice bright backdrop for my seed bead work.  The lightbox has proven to be a very useful tool, a really fun simple project, and a great lesson in photography and light.

Besides the usual beading, sewing, and knitting I work on daily, I have started making lip balms!  They are really fun to make.  Presently, (Beatrix Potter-ish) I am working out all the details for my master balm recipe.  Yesterday I infused lavender and rosebuds in grapeseed oil to be incoprerated into my balms.  The base of the balm is bees wax blended with coconut oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, hemp seed oil, and grapeseed oil.  My mom told me that she really loves vanilla in her lip balm so I made a batch today with vanilla.  The smell of bees wax and vanilla is oh so sweet.  With Spring and Summer just around the corner I am planning on making balms and salves that  help make the bumps, bruises, burns, bites and stings and all around boo boos feel a little bit better.  With a plentitude of wild medicinal plants and herbs throughout this entire region I should have a wide variety of wildcrafted rememdies that are both natural and healing.

Like I mentioned earlier we have moved again but are settling in nicely to our new homestead.  Luckily for us there are about a billion walking,running, biking, trails and a huge lake right out our back door! (Well a pond is literally out our back door) The lake is probably a 5 minute walk.  We usually go for really long walks together everyday.  Sawyer has been pretending that he is a really fast steam engine and so he runs down the trail.  Shawn and I laugh because we know we have to run with him or else if we don't he will be able to run longer and faster then us...what would we do if we couldn't catch up to him!  We also enjoy going anywhere where there is water.  Living in Washington there is definately not a shortage of that.  We have found some pretty sweet little beaches along the Samish Bay that we can literally spend hours of our day at.  Sawyer learns about the earth in a really special way on long day trips to the beach and woods.  We have a Plants of the Pacific Northwest book that we aquired last summer from some folks we met at the Maple Falls Community Garden.  We take it with us everywhere we go and make a game out of identifying all the plants, trees, moss, ferns, berries, lichen, etc around us.  Sawyer is so knowledgable about his outdoor surroundings it makes me feel proud to know that he has such a strong sense of the earth.  The beaches are really fun to explore.  You never know what you will find on any visit.  The thing about the beach is that the tides really change the landscape so dramaticly that the beach you visited two days earlier is now completely changed.

Shawn and Sawyer in a beautiful green spot.

Back to Beadin'

Oh how I love to knit.  It seems like it's all I've been doing lately.  It's a really good thing but...it's time to get back to beadin'.  My mom commented on a locket I made and it got me to remembering just how cool those little babies are.  After I got back from a wonderful bus trip to the library and a walk through downtown Bellingham with Sawyer this afternoon, (okay and a stop at the yarn store...but all I bought was one ball of yarn for Sawyer's new alien hat) I immediately began rummaging through my enourmous stash of cabachons, stones, crystals and seed beads.  I found soooo many beautiful "locket lids" just waiting to be beaded around.  It's time to turn on some good music, brew a fresh cup of Mate, and get back to beadin'.

Oh yeah...I almost forgot with all the beady excitement whirling around in my head that I finished two super lovely hats last night.  I stayed up until about 2 in the morning finishing up.  They are a custom order. One for a child and one for an adult.  I designed both and was very pleased at how they turned out.  I love it when a plan comes together...or I guess I should say a pattern.

Knit one Felt too

I am a very happy girl today.  I just got two new balls of super chunky very bright colors for some new hats I've been wanting to knit for kids.  I think the pumpkin and sky blue colors will make adorable hats for children.  My son Sawyer (3 1/2) of course "helped" me choose the colors.  I think they are wonderful.  I can't wait to knit!!!! 

Also today is looking like a good day to felt a small batch of new mittens.  I love the stripey pair.  Sawyer has really been into reading Dr. Seuss books lately.  Some of our favorites are "Star Belly Sneetches and other stories", "Scrambled Eggs Super" and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas".  The colors in  the stripey pair of mittens was inspired mostly by the holiday classic, the Grinch. Since  Dr.Suess seems to be on the brain lately  I immediately thought of the Grinch when I saw the bright limey green color.  Wouldn't it be fun to knit something "grinchy" for the holidays....so I combined it with an orangey-pink yarn, knitted it in a stripey pattern and wooo-laah...Grinch Mittens!  I can't wait to see how they felt!  The picture is of pre-felting stage, how the mittens look before I throw them into a super hot wash cycle in the washing machine.  It will take a couple days for the mittens to dry and then I will hand sew in the cuffs.  As soon as they are ready I will post them on my Etsy shop. 

And...I am really excited to have booked a Showcase spot for my knitted items on Saturday November 28th. 
I hope that it will introduce new folks to my etsy shop!

Mohave Mittens

We are full throttle gypsies...no doubt about it. This summer my family and I moved from the beautiful high desert of Taos, New Mexico to the wonderful wetness of north western Washington. We have had an adventurers summer this year...and the fall is only getting better. We visited many beautiful places such as the San Juan islands and the Gorge in George, Washington. We hiked the mountain trails of Mt Baker picking berries and identifying herbs and wild native plants and trees. We fished for rainbow trout in lakes and saw so many waterfalls that it became expected eventually our trail would lead to some source of water either rushing, babbling, falling or still. I took my son rowing on Silver Lake where we spent hours identifying lily pads, aquatic plants and animals. One of our favorite adventures was finding thousands of tiny tadpoles that had grown into tiny tree frogs. I spent many wonderful nights by the campfire listening to Shawn, my husband, playing his guitar and singing his songs. Sawyer our son would occasionally join in on his little drum and offer up his own little spin on his daddy's song.

Through out the summer season I knitted. I beaded. I knitted mittens during the heat of the day. I wanted to invoke the essence of the hot summer sun into my mittens. I felt it would really keep the wearers hands toasty warm. The idea came to me to knit mittens in the summer on my way to to the west coast. We traveled through the hot Mohave desert in May as I sat knitting my first pair of mittens that instantly became my "Mohave Mittens." It really struck me as such a wonderful thing to knit in the summer. Why wouldn't you want your mittens to be filled with the warming essence of the sunshine and the desert air. The hotter it got the faster I knit. It was like I was running on solar power, literally. I remember my goal was to knit full throttle so that I would complete an entire mitten while we were driving across the desert. I did. And so my Mohave Mittens were born. I knit seven complete pairs of mittens this summer. Not too shabby for a gal who only just taught herself how to knit in the round and read a knitting pattern the winter before in Taos. I will be putting my Mojave mittens on my etsy site, http://www.fullthrottlegypsy.etsy.com/ ready to keep your hands or someone you love hands toasty warm this winter. They are knit with 100% wool and then felted to form a solid super soft "fabric" I then hand sew a knitted cuff below the thumb for extra snugness and warmth around your wrists. The cuffs don't allow snow to get inside the mitten, and they too also are knit with 100% wool or a blend of wool and mohair. The best thing about the wool yarn is that your hands will still stay warm even when the mittens get wet. That and the fact that the suns essence is absorbed in every pair I knit will assure you toasty warm hands even during the wettest of snowball fights!

And speaking of mittens...

My three and a half year old son, Sawyer, has inspired me to make mitten cords. Mitten cords are long knitted and felted cords with button holes on each end. They slip onto a small button sewn snugly to the child's mitten. The cord runs through the arms of coat. Pretty much insuring that your little kitten won't loose his mittens! They are still a work in progress I should have his mitten cord done in the very near future. I'll post a pic when it's finished. I'll probably put a few on my etsy site too!

Check back here for new news on the etsy shop and stories about my band of gypsies.

Love and Gratitude.