My Summer

High Times

This past weekend found the JLF high up in the California mountains at High Sierra Music Festival. Four days of music, sun, trees, dirt, skin and smiles all around. I was far too busy merrymaking to take pictures, which is probably best for all parties involved.

**this photo here was taken by 1yen at flickr.com**
My words, as well as any still picture I could have snapped, fall short of describing the scene at High Sierra: the energy, the constant movement, the colors, the feeling. Since it only comes but once a year, everyone's more than happy to let it all hang out, which I suppose is why I hesitate to take photos. You know, "What happens at High Sierra stays at High Sierra."
Here's a little video tour of the most memorable moments from this year's freakiness. Again, nowhere near the same as being there, but at least not as hot.

These parades happen daily, providing the recommended daily dose of booty-shaking.
My favorite night of the Festival was the one my husband and I spent watching this band, Dr. Dog, tear it apart until 4 in the morning. I am now obsessed.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, blending hip hop and old time like it's that easy.

The ever-present hoopers and spinners decorate the festival in circles.

And last but not least, my favorite pair of brothers performed this same version of my favorite song they sing. I think they might have even been wearing the same clothes. Mmmmm.

I relish the yearly opportunity to revive the freak in me, but it's also lovely to come home to a peaceful, clean, shaded space.
Until next year.

Scarlett's Blog

Hi my name is Scarlett and I am seven.Last night I cooked dinner.My mom told me how to cook it.Icooked greanbeans.And I cooked pasta. I diced tamatose.I found a holapaneo in the greanbeans.While we were eating dinner we played my favoret game.UNO.I love that game.My Daddy won two games and Mommy also won two games.I only won one game. I love to cook!It makes me feel importent.I like contribute to the family espesely when people like the food that you cooked!Sometimes I cook
whith yarn in my bedroom !I folow a cookbook called BILLS OPEN KITCHEN!
I have a baby sister!I love her she lahfs!

Dreams Made Real

I'm a very left-brain person. When it comes to creating things, I like to follow instructions. In the kitchen, I'm all about measuring cups and recipes. I'd really rather trace than draw free-handed. My favorite thing about Legos is the little step-by-step book that tells you what to make & how to make it. I love trying out complicated knitting patterns, but I can't even begin to imagine how a person could make such a pattern up.

The same goes for sewing, for the most part, which is why I leave most of the designing to my right-brained artistic partner. She has the vision, makes it into a pattern, and then I follow it. It's always worked well.

This year, though, I found myself determined to make some dresses on my own. I couldn't jump completely out of my comfort zone, so I followed (sometimes quite closely) a few different inspirations.

The first came from the cover of an old Cookie magazine.

The dress just spoke to me, so I made my own version, fresh for Spring:

The second and third are sixties-style shift dresses, a la Twiggy.

She rocked a shift dress like no other, but I thought I'd try my hand at a couple of girl-sized
numbers. No pattern, just a picture of a pattern (baby steps).

This one turned out quite Twiggy-ish if I do say so myself.

These first two will be available this Summer at our booth at the St. Helena Farmer's Market.

The third, my favorite (which I'm keeping for my own little style icon) was born when I saw this on modcloth.com:

I upcycled a ruffly dress I picked up at a thrift store and...

Now Mazzy has her own shift dress to rock at a certain highly anticipated wedding we're attending in September. Plus, I made a new limited edition of our Traveling Dress, which is available now in our shop!!

The itch has been officially scratched.

A Dull Moment, Please.

Accident: (n.) a specific, unexpected, unusual and unintended external action

which occurs in a particular time and place, with no apparent and

deliberate cause but with marked, generally negative, effects.

We're two down on accidents here in the Jones household, and if karma comes in threes, I suppose I should lock my kids inside a padded room. Okay, separate padded rooms.

Accident #1: Hokey Pokey Head Trauma

Last week, at a small birthday gathering for a dear friend, my husband was at the piano playing a round of "Hokey Pokey" with an enthusiastic (this was after birthday cookies) group of our collective kids. Eden, my 3-year-old, turned herself around with a little too much gusto and slammed head-first into the piano bench, with markedly negative effects.

She cried (loudly), it bled (a lot), I had a little shock seizure (?!), and then it was over. We avoided the emergency room only because there was already a doctor in the house. Once the trauma subsided, Eden was just the same as before: laughing and singing. Except now she had this

But before the trauma had subsided, there was definitely a few moments where I thought that she (and we) would never be the same. Hence the seizure, I suppose.
But while I was beside myself, her resilience just amazed me. Five minutes (or maybe ten) of painfully intense crying and it was all over. Like, what's next? Why are you all standing there staring at me? Let's move on.

So we did. And then, a mere two days later...

Accident #2: Surrounded by Bees

My two girls were out playing in the woods, where they often play and where we'd just had a birthday party a week before, when Eden was stung by a bee.

It was a yellow jacket, actually, but a sting is a sting.

Daddy ran to her rescue and by the time he got back to the house with her, I heard Mazzy out there screaming. I mean screaming. I ran out there as fast as I could, which was nowhere near fast enough, and by the time I got to her there were still about six bees going after her.

So she's screaming, I'm crying, batting bees and ripping her clothes off, we're running back to the house, (a distance of about fifty yards) and all I could think was, "This is why people exercise."

Let me say here that I have lots of friends who run for fun, and I never have understood what's fun about it. But after running across a field carrying my six-year-old, I was beyond out of breath and it occurred to me in a new way why running (when it's not an emergency) could be useful.

Back to the point.

Safe back at the house, Mazzy explained what happened, which was this: Eden started crying, saying she'd been bit by a bug and Mazzy was trying to figure out what was wrong when she saw a bee. Then she saw more bees and finally she discovered their hive in the ground. Feeling fierce and protective, she grabbed a stick and started whacking away at the hive. She got stung ten times and was scared half to death when I met her in the field.

Again, her resilience was amazing. I've been stung plenty of times, and it hurts. But I've never been stung multiple times at once. Mazzy got stung TEN times, and she was over it in about five (or maybe ten) minutes.

I think we've all learned something here. But is Eden going to stop dancing? Or are my girls going to stop playing in the woods? We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope for our luck to change.

And, armed with Mazzy's map, we're going to get even with those bees.

It Takes A Village

It's hard to pin Mother's Day down, because every year it's different. First it's Kindergarten crafts you bring home to your own mom, then it's phone calls to her from your college apartment. Eventually it becomes your own: first when you're pregnant and anticipating what motherhood will be, and finally when you're in it, when motherhood is your reality.

No matter where we are along this evolution, as women, we can't help but be a bit sentimental on Mother's Day. Sentimental and appreciative. So today, this Mother's Day, I'm going to gush like only a mother can.

I am joined on this path of child-raising by five very close friends, and it's them who I want to pause and appreciate this year. (If you're reading this, you're probably one of them, but if not, please forgive the personalness of this post, I simply can't help myself.)

It's so easy to take your friends and family for granted. They're always there, a short car ride or phone call away. You see them all the time. But really, to have this close-knit circle of six such different women, who've all arrived at this place and time by their own circumstance, who've become so like family, is truly magical.

They are amazing women, each of them in their own way, and amazing mothers.

Raising and nurturing not only their own children, but all the others' as well.

As we weave this web of friendship and family, we teach our kids the value of community.
That burdens are always lighter when shared, joys are so much greater when multiplied, and that smiles are the best kind of contagious.

I think they're catching on.

So, thank you, my people, my girls, for all your love and support, for sharing your kids with me, and for taking such good care of mine. I love you all dearly.

And a Happy Mother's Day to you and yours.