Lately I have felt drawn to near mundane practicality with the things I am designing and making, it is quite a good thing. With the Farmers Market starting in just a few short weeks, I've been busy planning new designs and getting very busy with the making end of things.
This season I've been encouraging my creativity to look at the everyday items we use. To work those items into my offerings and make them as beautiful and special as a hand-embroidered tote or a mantra quilt, both are wonderful to have but can feel like such an indulgence. I am trying to go into these next few months showing awareness and compassion with regards to where people are at with their spending.
One of the things we've been trying to express to our girl here in our home is that difficult economic times are not necessarily about people being out of money (because even if you are, that is too scary for kids to think about), it also has to do with how people choose to spend the money they do have (ah, empowering!). What is really worth parting with your hard (and sometimes too few) earned dollars?
So my focus this year is to become extremely practical in my designs and therefore my offerings. I am especially interested in items that could better protect the health of our natural world... trees, animals and children alike. There are several ideas in the works... many fresh, new, and simple things will be shared here over the next few weeks! 
The time I spend making lunch for my family each morning is quite special to me. As I type this I'm thinking that I'm not really sure if they know this or not... hmm. Preparing the food that will be sent off with my family into the world each day is not something I try to rush through just to check it off the busy mama list and move on to the next item. I try to have a variety of fresh and homemade things on hand, and my hope is to make lunch a little different and equally interesting each day. I usually do this on the early side of the morning, before Emily is even awake, I'm happiest when I give myself about a 1/2 - 3/4 of an hour of time to make it all happen. It's not always perfectly graceful (please don't get the impression that it is) and there are certainly mornings where Adam pitches in and takes over when I have other things to take care of. But mostly, it is a very sweet and sacred part of my day.
Recently I watched the movie How to Cook Your Life. There was a point in the movie where a woman (I believe she was a nurse) said that cooking/preparing food for others is the most holy thing we can do each day. I can't even begin to express how perfectly that makes sense to me.
So, a lunchbag is one of the designs I've been brewing. The lunchbag that we send our children and partners off with each day carries so much more than a sandwich and an apple...
I'm not ready to call this my final draft, I still have some function and design elements to tweak a bit. But part of the fun of being in a family where crafty things are made for 'work', is that you get to keep and enjoy the cast-offs! Emily was pretty happy to tote her new bag to school today. ;)
And not to feel left out... 
Mama got herself a little cast-off too!
