Emmett Bean Turns Three!

Hooray!  Yesterday was Emmett's 3rd birthday! We had a really fun party, that was equally geared towards kids and adults (well, maybe a little skewed towards the adults).  But the kids seemed to really enjoy the giant blue truck cake that TH and our friend Garet made together.  They worked very hard on this cake, and on top of being a big rig, and hilariously blue both inside and out, was actually quite delicious.  (Emmett's main request for his birthday cake was that it should be blue, so they really had no choice about the color) I was so busy at the beginning of the party doing all the last minute cooking etc. that I didn't even get a chance to take any photos.  I haven't thrown a big party in a long time, and I am way out of practice, and so things were a little hectic.  I probably shouldn't have had such a leisurely breakfast at the diner that morning!  Anyway, I am bummed that I have almost no photos of the party, but I do have a lot of photos of the cake making process, so I'll put those below.

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

Fall Colors in the Studio

 I have always loved the rich tone of rose gold, but of sadly the price of gold has gotten so high that it is out of most people's reach except for the most special occasions.  But I am thrilled that I have finally found a good source for rose gold fill, so I have been busy busy in the studio making new things.  And I am absolutely loving combining this beautiful metal with the black of oxidized silver, and great warm shades of silk cord.  It is so rare that I get to make things that reflect the colors of the seasons in the jewelry studio, and I feel so lucky to get to be so in sync with the lovely fall colors I am starting to see out my window.

I'm going to debut all the new work at stART on the Street in Worcester, MA this weekend, so if you are in the area please come by and check it out!  But if you aren't able to make the Worcester show I will hopefully get a good selection up on the shopping section of my site next week. 

OMG the Panda Cuteness

Check out Emmett's new lunchbox. A stack-able panda face bento box with two compartments and an elastic sweatband to hold it all together.   Available in a few styles here.

E Bean Goes To School!

Wednesday was Emmett's first day of preschool!  He was a little unsure about it at first, and was pretty worried about it in the car on the way over.  And was very sad when I left him, poor little guy.  Isn't it heart wrenching to abandon a poor scared toddler into the capable hands of his preschool teachers?  

But by the time we went to pick him up he was all smiles.  It was a battle, and it took him a couple of hours to settle in, but he did it.  Go Emmett!  And today he gets to go for his second day, and today it will be a full day, from 9-3pm, including (so they say) a nap.  How they get a room full of disoriented toddlers to nap together in one room is a complete and utter mystery to me, but I have faith!

And now we are realizing that sending a kid to school requires all kinds of additional gear, especially for a packed lunch.  Anybody have any suggestions for school lunch gear that they like?  I ordered him a pretty sweet Panda Bento Box, which hasn't yet arrived, but I'm eagerly awaiting it. But we'll need more stuff, I think.  Plus now we have to come up with creative (read not the same every day) and healthy lunches to send with him that other people will actually see!  Oh, the pressure!  Suggestions on that front anyone?

A Weekend of Not Labor

We had a very action packed labor day weekend up here, and none of it was packed with labor, which was the best part about it.  Being self-employed we almost always work at least a little bit on weekends, so this was a welcome break.  We went to quite a few picnics, one of which was thrown by friends at their lovely mountain-top spot in the photos above.  (There were actually other people at the picnic, I swear, but I somehow managed not to catch them in these photos)

I discovered my new favorite breakfast, which is a kind of poor-mans-bagel-and-lox, which is an everything bagel, chopped fresh garden tomato, capers, cream cheese, fresh red onion, and salt.  Basically everything you can put on a bagel, minus the lox.

And I finally started processing the garden produce in a way that we'll be able to enjoy it in the months to come.  Above is Smitten Kitchen's recipe for oven dried cherry tomatoes, which you can check out here.  And below is a batch of oven roasted tomatillo salsa, which you can see here.  Both very easy, and very yummy. 

So now I have staved off the garden guilt for at least a few days, and can get down to preparing for the next show of the fall season, stART on the Street, in Worcester, MA on September 16th.  Also, today is Emmett Bean's first day of preschool, so stay tuned tomorrow for the obligatory photos of the small child in clean clothes and a large backpack.  Probably organized parent would have given him a bath last night so that he was clean too, but, well, I guess that tells you what kind of parents we are. . . But I'm sure there will be many tears this morning when I drop him off, possibly both his and mine, so please think warm thoughts for us on our big day!  (And you can possibly do a little happy dance for us in our very quiet and distraction free house around 10am)