whole parenting goods
How was your week? Was it busy, rushed, and filled with forgettable moments slushing around in your momivan in the fresh snow? Or was it calm, relaxed, spent wiping your kids’ noses, and calibrating how much longer this cold could conceivably survive? 1) It was a blend of both for me. I showered today, flossed, and tweezed my eyebrows while my sister played with the kids. So that was incredibly humanizing. She’s a saint and bought a new house in the neighborhood so we’re in full-scrubbing-and-cleaning mode. The kids are devastated she won’t be bunked up with us anymore but really excited for sleepovers and afternoons of Sudoku (the newest craze) over there. 2) AA has been in litigation which means I urge him to stay at the office til 9 or 10 so he can just pound out these briefs and he does, though he doesn’t like to miss bedtime and seeing the kids, and I make breakfast for dinner for the kids. I’m familiar with AA’s work; I can harken back to my lawyering days and remember that burning taste of stress in the back of your mouth when the deadlines are hard and recalcitrant. I’m so grateful it’s him and not me going through that heavy press of practicing law. 3) I’m on my own for long days and usually it’s ok but today I kinda ran out of tricks by 1:45 in the afternoon. We had already visited Dada at the office (well, he runs down to…
Read More
I cannot help myself. I buy knit fabric every chance I get. If only I had enough time to sew everything I wanted to! I will die with war chests of fabric in the attic! But I do have purpose with these knits I got because it’s time for your holiday custom sized kiddo leggings: FABRICS ARE IN! Run over and grab what you want if you want it now. I do them custom made, according to the sizes desired: 0-6, 6-12, 12-18, 18-24, 2T, 3T, 4T. My subscribers have already gotten their early bird discount and snagged the legging fabric they wanted to custom order for their littles! If you’re not on that list and want one more chance to get the fabric at a discount before it’s available to everyone, hop here. I’ll run an auction style sale on Instagram on Cyber Monday, November 30, with assurances people will receive their packages well in advance of Christmas! I buy limited quantities of each fabric so when it goes, it’s gone! I hate the sad emails and notes I receive about people missing out on their chance so line up, or order now! Also in the shop, four new fabrics in gift sets of contour cloths & bandit bibs. Run on over. All one-of-a-kind! Holidays with your kids in my leggings and bibs and burp cloths and caps make me oh so happy. Thank you for supporting this mama artisan shoppe! Love love love, Nell
Read More
It’s been a fascinating journey for me, to sew and create patterns, and sell the goods to friends and strangers alike at my shop, Whole Parenting Goods. I’ve learned so so so much about fabric and how forgiving or unforgiving it is, how long it takes me to do a job, and how much delight I feel when seeing babies kicking around in something I was able to make for them. Mostly, I’ve oscillated between humility and elation. My products have range from double layered blankets, bandit bibs, contoured burp cloths, leggings, skirts, caps, banners, washcloths, and then an assortment of washable wool knit blankets. I wrote a post a while back about tips to starting your etsy shop. Now I’m ticking off what I’ve learned along the way. 1) Precision and perfection. Sewing for others taught me to be precise, not a skill I had before. To truly tweak and fix and press and stitch as correctly as a human being can–not natural for me! To know it needs to stand up to wear and tear and washings and wearings informed my skills at durability. Yet, these are handmade items. No one is going to be exactly like the other. No one is going to be perfect. I’m not a perfectionist but I am always striving to be better and better. Sometimes that means I’ve had to change my pattern, or drop a product line. A few times my daughter stabbed a scissors through a leggings that I was…
Read More
This past week, I actually had an in-real-life moment that mirrored what I’m always encouraging other moms not to get worked up about little kids are just like this, right? At moms’ group, my daughter had a complete screaming fit while grabbing ahold of me, in front of everyone, while I was taking notes on the white board. I love cheering and encouraging the young mom on. I’m often thinking about the problems we face, and blabbing about it on Facebook. Or snapping a really real pic of my house’s messes and screaming kids for instagram just to say, hey, it’s okay, we are all in this hard time together. I had to cheer myself on a little bit. Because every now and then, be it at swim class or at mom’s group, or anywhere that isn’t in her comfort zone, my three and a half year old SweetPea can really lose her s*&t. And so it happened the other day. I was embarrassed, a little. I was kinda glad it was my kid and not someone else’s because I wasn’t that embarrassed. Maybe I should have been. I scanned the crowd and figured the ladies with older kids thought that looks familiar and the ladies with younger kids probably thought what the heck is her problem and why isn’t Nell doing something about it. Buckle up for a long narrative. Ready? Here’s my overwritten version of the aforementioned meltdown. 1) It was going to be a busy day. A busy, driving around, balancing boxes of napkins…
Read More
My junior high friend, Cynthia, has become one of my favorite adult mama Catholic world friends. She was actually Molly’s friend first, but I coopted her now as we go to the same parish, have kids around the same ages, and our husbands like to hang together too. We share of love of crafting and cooking, though I think she’s better at both than I am! Today I’m sharing with you about the vestments she’s hand-made for the little aspiring priests in your life. Of course, my mom bought three of these for her grandkids last year so I’m pretty partial to them, too. My oldest is five now and has had a serious hankering to become a priest since about 2. He’s fallen a bit out of this holy stage as piety swapped out for knighthood attempts (now it’s all honor and valor, so really similar, right?). BUT then I brought home Cynthia’s vestment for him and VOILA. Back to the altar making we go. But she also sells an entire KIT, people. Not just the vestments. And the three year old wears a few blue outfits and is playing “Holy Nun Mother of God Mary Jesus.” Cynthia’s going to tell you a little about herself and her work. And every single one of you is going have a 20% off coupon code for your shopping delights–use coupon code NELL20! SHOP HERE at Interior Castle Goods to support this sweet mama of five. — I know so many Catholic families who’ve…
Read More
I was dubious. Couldn’t I teach my children everything? (including how to pick up trash as shown above?) I mean, come on. I am a devoted mother. I am an educated woman. I’m at home with them. Clearly I’m their only-ever teacher on every-thing-except-Calculus-don’t-ask-me-how-I-survived-AP-Calc. Another big wrong-o lesson for this insufferable woman over here living at my house and wearing my favorite target pj dress with built in bra that’s not fit for wearing all day like I do. This summer we had the extreme fortune of a handful of dedicated and lovely young lady teachers for the kids. I couldn’t love them more. And neither could the kids. From my little feisty lady’s music class wherein she daydreamed before class about how she and Teacher Julia could somehow play the instruments–JUST US, MAMA–for the whole class instead of sharing with the other kids, to a myriad of swim coaches at the two-week boot camps that we ran back to back to back to back to back, I was floored. We indulged in plenty of sewing JUST YOU AND ME, MAMA this summer too. But I’m not the best teacher. I can’t get this machine to really work. The magic of the teacher who isn’t the mother is deep. She offers an outside voice that somehow my selective-hearing-syndrom children could hear and heed. She captured their trust and their hearts and encouraged them with the energy of a 20 some year old (oh, those days gone by) whilst I’m concerned about…
Read More