worky worky

so i think i have decided what to do about the shop and the spring/summer overload... the retail portion of the bizness will be closed from may 7th until june 1st. that way i have a week to tie up loose orders before we leave for vacation and a week and a half after we get back to work on more wholesale stuff and get ready for summer retail season. i hope no one gets incredibly mad that the shop is closed for almost a month... but, well... they'll have to live with it i guess! woohoo, little break for me! atleast in theory right?

mellow?

well, why not two videos in a day? here's another, slightly more amusing, one from this morning. isa really enjoys being on the couch, but it usually means alot of work for anyone within arms reach. the thing she loves most about the couch is jumping on it, flailing around, inadvertently falling off, etc. and as you can imagine, that gets old very fast. so i've been trying to reitterate that the couch is for sitting, not flailing. and so i remind her to please be "mellow" while she is there, so that the two of us can actually enjoy sitting. as you can see, it's hit or miss, but atleast she likes the word itself!

can-cakes and bewwies

we thought it was due time for a video as it's been a while. and this morning isa was being quite talkative during breakfast so the timing was good. of course as soon as the camera came out, she clammed up. but it's still cute enough that atleast the grandparents will appreciate it!

the sickness...

isa says, "look! no hands!" but on another note...

as if the last fifteen colds had not been enough? the sickness has struck again. awesome. isa and the mommy have been under the weather for a few days now, and while isa seems to be doing better today... well, the mommy? she would be content to crawl in bed for the next week and not come out! we are all so over being sick, yet we are still sick. sigh.

i am seriously considering closing the retail shop for the next month. not because that's the smart business thing to do, but because there is too much wholesale work to be done and still keep up with retail orders. i'm not complaining, really i'm not. but there just aren't enough hours in the day. granted, things will get much more manageable after may 7th or so, but then we head to georgia (and the beach! yay!) for a week and half and we'll have to pick up where we left off. at this point, there is plenty of wholesale work to be done through the summer (all going to singapore, oddly enough) and while i don't want to be close the retail shop all summer... well, when is enough enough? and while we're asking rhetorical questions, what the h*ll was i thinking anyway?

buddies :-)

mountain baby

yeah, yeah. we know. it's been a sparse week in blogville. but life is beyong busy around here, so that's our excuse. but being that some folks *ahem ahem* are getting antsy we thought we'd make a little post. these pictures were from the weekend. isa and the daddy had some grand adventures while the mommy worked. it was a "fun weekend" for creative energies and so goose got to tag along on saturday while the older folks did a little climbing. she was a trooper, and while she never napped, she did hang out in the shade with daddy for some restful snuggles. our little mountain baby.

oh and before we forget... Happy Twenty Months Goose!

a kite!

being that there is never a shortage of wind here in wyoming, we thought it was about time to go fly a kite! and grandpa and grandma schneider agreed... as they brought isa a ladybug kite from ohio! we thought it would be a fun activity for the goose, though i don't think anyone anticipated exactly how much fun it would be. she thoroughly enjoyed herself and even flew the kite herself! the only time that became problematic is when she learned how to throw the handle rather than hang on. or when she got so excited she had to clap for herself-- and subsequently let go of the handle on accident. but that more laughs for everyone, as grandpa and daddy had to try to chase the kite down across the field. maybe isa had an alterior motive all along!

the diva

another installment...

...of flashback friday. brought to you by isa at 1 month.

she gets it!

ok, sorry but there are no super cute photos to accompany this post. but! there are lots of exciting developments in the world of isa lately. being that we are first time parents and new to this whole toddler thing-- we are completely blown away by the new things isa understands on a daily basis. for a while we wondered if it was a fluke, but more and more she is actually showing us how much she understands. every day it's something new... from puzzles to naming random body parts, to out of the blue observations while we are out and about.

most recently, we have been astonished by how much she understands in the way of commands. i can ask her to go put her clothes in the laundry (in her closet) and she will gather them up and take them to the basket. or if you ask her to get her blue hat, sure enough she goes and finds the only blue hat she owns. or if you ask her to go to the kitchen to find her milk... immediately she's off to the kitchen to find it and brings it right back to show you. some of the more amusing incidents involve conversation we might be having that are not directed towards her. like yesterday, she and phil were biking to the store and i recommended he take a blanket for her as it was getting chilly. so as soon as the words left my mouth, she walks across the house and into her room, opens her chest of blankets and brings one to daddy! say what?! who is this kid anyway?

so maybe this is normal 19 month old stuff, but for the newbies-- well, we're blown away and enjoying every minute of it!

weekend warrior

this is the first "normal" weekend we've had for a while and it was nice to get back in the swing of things. after so much travel it was a treat to just be here, all three of us, for an entire weekend. granted, weekends for the mommy mean full days of work (which are actually enjoyable, as i can finally cross things off the list!) and lots of quality time for goose and daddy. speaking of which, they unpacked and cleaned up the bike trailer this weekend and we took it for its first seasonal spin yesterday! now that isa is alot bigger, she appears to be even more comfortable and enjoyed a little en route entertainment of book reading (to herself). and today, the two also went swimming at the pool. every time we take isa to pool it confirms our suspicion that she is actually part fish. but that's another post entirely.

back to the weekend though-- it's usually a reminder of how long that perverbial list is getting, in terms of worky worky. i hired another "employee" last week and we got to do a little sewing together on saturday! i was floored by the amount of interest i received from the job posting too! Jessie, the newbie, will be a great addition and i am pleased to work with her. but all this growth really has me wondering how long the ole sweatshop can maintain itself. the question of "how big, how fast" has come to mind again and i am even more willing to look into manufacturing options for the near future. so, we'll see. but in the meatime, here's to more and longer weekends here at the sweatshop!

voila!

the new dress pictures are up! woohoo!

flashback friday!

we thought we'd do a little summer flashback for this friday's installment. these pictures are from our friends' wedding in bozeman last year. the goose was about 11 months old and danced her little barefeet off! i think the entire crowd enjoyed it!

our little introvert?

the older isa gets, the more learn about her. about what she likes and doesn't like, her personality, her style. i am starting to think that she is a bit of an introvert. and i don't mean that in a negative way at all. she can be quite outgoing when she wants to, and other than a few bouts of normal seperation anxiety she generally "never meets a stranger." she enjoys being around her little buddies and her babysitters. i say that she is a seeming introvert because she is quite happy to be by herself for chunks of time as well. it seems to recharge her and she is usually in a much better mood on the other end of her little solitude session. this might also explain why she is often happy as a clam to lay in her crib (with her blankie and sock monkey) and jabber to herself for hours. this is how most "naps" go in our house lately as she is sleeping less and less during the day.

now, before anyone gets their panties in a wad and thinks we leave her in her crib alone all day-- i assure that is not the case. but the time she does spend there, during her "naptime", she really seems to enjoy it. the quiet, the coolness, the softness of her bed, her sock monkey and blankie. apparently it's what a girl wants around here these days. as for me, i know very little about this introvert business-- as that's an adjective that has never been used to describe the mommy! now lying in bed for hours? i could use a little of that too, come to think of it.

ok, so i'm impatient?

i just couldn't wait any longer! the dresses are up in the shop! kristy is in the process of getting the final pictures to me, but i couldn't wait any longer (and i was tired of being hounded by a certain retailer in malaysia. yes, malaysia... weird huh?). so the "still" photos are up and they will have to suffice for now. hopefully the beautiful action shots will be up shortly. but these aren't half bad in the meantime eh? go! go now! check them out would you!

la casa (not so nueva)

some of you might remember that this time last year, we were just moving into our new house and posted some pictures from various corners of our home. and that we never posted any pictures of our bedroom, mostly because it was sadly neglected and there was little to photograph. but now, a year later, we have put some energy into it! new floor, antique armoir, and now more changes. it's been a fun challenge-- to make it what we would like it to be, and not to spend much money. so, about $50 and a few cans of paint later... here we are! the birds on the wall were a little project that mom and i completed, as well as painting the thrift store side table. the black dresser used to be metalic blue (yes, metallic blue) and was left in the house when the previous owner moved out. with a little black paint and some new hardware, plus some man-tool work from daddy, it's good as new and looks a million times better! there are still some details to be finished-- hanging the mirror, getting another side table, etc. but it's mostly done and we've enjoyed the challenge! ta da!