Turns out I don't really enjoy blogging. I started this blog thinking that it would be fun to share things that I make but I came to find out that blogging is kind of tedious to me. Good to know, right?

Plus, little Miss is keeping me quite busy - not giving me too much time to craft anything, much less share it on the information superhighway (yes, that is how Alex and I like to refer to the internet).

So, all this to say, I am retiring my blog after it's very short-lived existence. Buuut, you can friend me on Facebook: Rachel Goochey.

Thanks, all!

bits and bobs

I am about 95% finished with an amazing birthday gift that Alma and I (ok, admittedly, she did it all. i wasn't really any help) are making for my mom. I'd tell you all about it but I don't want to let the surprise out. The only hint: it is featuring one of my favorite breeds of canines. Not that that narrows it down at all... wiener dog, great dane, mastiff, scottie dog, boxer, pit bull...

This Easter dress is slowly being made for Alma. I think it will be super cute and it's my first project that involved schirring, which is basically awesome. Unfortunately I made the bodice WAY too small and need to start that part over. It's so frustrating when you think you're making real progress on a project only to be set back about five steps. Live and learn, right?

Even though we have lived in Boise for over a year I feel like it's taking me a while to make good friends. I mean, I have a lot of acquaintances but no one that I feel like I can just call up to go for coffee. Because of this, I volunteered to be the point person to organize a "new mom's" group through the birth center where I had Alma. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this! Apparently they have had quite a few clients express interest in such a group so I am hoping that this will be an awesome opportunity to get like-minded ladies connected. And since my natural birth experience was so important to me, it will be really fun to meet other women who feel the same way!

I know I had something else that I wanted to tell you all but my brain has frozen. It must be the dirty-dishes-laundry-drying-all-over-the-house-projects-to-finish brain fuzz. 

And is it bad for me to admit how addicted I am to playing Mahjong Titans? It's the perfect way to pass the time while I'm nursing if I don't have a good book going at the time. I swear, it is so satisfying to hear the little tiles "click" on my computer when I find an awesome match. I'm a Mahjong Master!

sewing again

I finished five new hats this morning and that felt really good. Of course, each hat was sewn without a hitch until I got to the last step of each one when they decided to throw five different curveballs at me. Thanks, hats. I really appreciate that. Granted, it was also a morning when I apparently decided to see how many beginner's sewing errors I could make. But all that aside, and they are done! I'm hoping to get some yoga bags done next because I want to have some new items when I make my crafting world re-entry at the Boise State Earth Day event. I have some fun ideas lined up!

I think I like the red one the best!

I had a moment of insanity and thought it would be fun to share pictures of my sewing loft. I call it insane because now you can look at these pictures and see how much of a slob I really am and judge me unconditionally. At least I'm busy, right?

My cutting table which consists of a folding table that I got for $15 at the thrift store and a new huge self-healing mat that I got my my birthday.

This is where I really look messy. Oops.

My $4 thrift store vintage singer. We have a love/hate relationship.

National Geographic inspiration wall!

I call this my storage closet. Alex calls it "deep storage."

Our absurd collection of books that we insist on toting around the country with us when we move. And that is why I have huge muscles.

I have transom windows all along the back wall of the loft and the front looks over my living room where we have huge windows as well. I love the lighting.

What do you like best about your crafty space?

restructuring

Big things are on the horizon for bellefourche! Since the little bug has been born my sewing has been put on hold, thus my etsy page is dead and my consignment wares are looking a bit thin. I have been needing motivation to get things back up and running and my good friend at Bricolage provided just that. They are restructuring how their store runs and are ending their consignment program, so in the meantime I decided to pull my merchandise from their stock and give myself a chance to rethink how I am running my business. So, look forward to new ideas, more merchandise, better organization and (hopefully!) more reliable blogging from me.

I make big promises here, but can I keep them?

One thing that is keeping me busy for the next few weeks is an order for 100 tote bags! No, no, don't worry - I am not endeavoring to sew 100 tote bags on my own. As a matter of fact, it's not even my order. My mom was asked to make 100 tote bags for this seasons CSA customers with Global Gardens. Being such a humongous order, she asked me to help out. And since Alma Jay is virtually an appendage of me, she got to help out.

No, this is not my kitchen. This is my mom's house. My kitchen is frightfully smaller and not so nicely coordinated.

Isn't my girl getting so big?!

Sad news

Well this has been a really crappy week for multiple reasons. You know how sometimes it just feels like things pile up unexpectedly? That has been my week, ending with getting up at 5am with a congested baby who is crying because she can't breathe through her nose. Right now she is sleeping on my lap as I type this from our rocking chair. Poor Alma.

The climax of my week, though, was having to rehome my dogs. After we had the baby home for a few weeks we just realized that two boxers, a one bedroom apartment with no yard and a new baby don't mix very well. Nevermind the fact that our littler dog, Wanda, has separation anxiety and housetraining issues. After a lot of discussions with the husband, and a lot of crying (on both of our parts), we realized that we needed to find new homes for Lincoln and Wanda. Fortunately, our good friend Matt and his brother were able to adopt Lincoln and give her tons of attention and a fenced backyard. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find a home for Wanda. We tried Craigslist, mass emails, announcing at church, word of mouth and Petfinder and no one seemed able to take her. Finally on Thursday Alex and I brought her to the humane society and it was just about the hardest thing I have ever done. I cried a lot. I really love those pups.

Crafty things that I have done lately... don't get your hopes up too high

Long ago I posted links to castle peeps fabric and the pattern for a mei tai carrier. Lo and behold, I have finally made said carrier and I love it. I managed to get it done before Alma was born (she's actually snoozing in it as I type!) and I think that so far it has been my favorite and most useful baby item that I have made. She rides in it when we run errands, walk the dogs, while I do the dishes, run laundry down to the laundry room. And the total bonus: it puts her right to sleep!

Sorry for the mirror picture. I'm at home alone so I couldn't cajole Alex into taking pictures of me.

The first sewing project that I've undertaken since Alma has been born was this awesome changing pad. When we embarked on our first outting I realized that I didn't have a changing pad for her but my mom found this great tutorial on HomemadebyJill (posted for last year's Celebrate the Boy... which I am kind of obsessed with despite the fact that I have a girl. Isn't it the coolest idea, though?). I had a fair amount of the Castle Peeps fabric left and since Alma's first real adventure was to the fabric store, I bought some awesome laminated cotton fabric to use as the waterproof inside. The pattern was really easy but I kind of botched up the corners with the bias tape (which, by the way, was made courtesy of my little sister and given to me in my Christmas stocking!) - don't look too closely in the pictures. I think that this changing pad would make an awesome baby gift for someone.

But my most recent (and most favorite) project has been these awesome buttons! My local crafting team went together to buy a shared button maker (hallelujah!) and last week I took my first go at it. Instead of a baby shower for Alma, we had an open house for her at a new local coffee shop - the District Coffee House - and Alex had the genius idea to make "it's a girl!" buttons with little cigars on them. My mom and I made about fifty of them and we passed them out at Alma's party. Along with those pins, I made a bunch of bellefourche pins, plus fun vintage map pins. I'm trying to borrow the button maker again this week so I can go crazy and make a bunch more!

As seen on Alma's diaper bag - she loves sporting the bellefourche pride.

My pile of buttons that I'm not sure of what to do with now. I just like admiring them!

it worked!

After weeks of bed rest and prelabor and false alarms, Valentine's Day brought us a beautiful healthy baby girl!

Here's our gal - Alma Jay Goochey, 6lbs 8oz, 19in!

First trip out of the house was to the fabric store. She is destined to be a crafting baby!

Check out more info and pictures about her at our family blog, The Fox Den.

last day of bed rest!

If a month ago someone had told me that I would need to go on a week and a half of bed rest with this baby, I probably would have been so excited at the thought of laying on the couch for days on end and watching movies. But then I got wicked sick for a week and did that anyway. I spent a week finishing up all of my library books and watching my Netflix movies. Once I was feeling better I was so excited to start all of my anticipatory baby sewing - plus, my back is finally feeling better so I was super game for camping out at my sewing machine.

Not so. Baby G decided to try to come a little early and my midwives prescribed bed rest until February 3, when Baby is officially full-term. So I settled back into my nest on the couch, requested new books from the library and frantically updated my Netflix queue. I have spent the last 10 days watching every and any movie, reading random books, finding crafts that I want to sew but can't yet and beating my husband's butt during some extremely competitive games of UNO.  As of midnight tonight, though, all of that ends and I get to be a regular person again. When I walk the dogs in the morning tomorrow it will be the first time I have set foot outside of our apartment since I went to my midwife appointment on last Friday. My spouse has promised me any kind of takeout PLUS frozen yogurt for dinner tonight as a reward for being successfully inactive for a week and a half (if you know my personality at all, inactivity does not suit me well... I have a bit of high-strung, nervous energy to work off most of the time).

Unplanned for down time has given me a chance to appreciate silly things in my life that I don't normally think about, though, so here is a glimpse of some happy things from my bed rest:

1. My weird dogs, who have been excellent furry companions for days on end.

2. The pdf pattern for these super cute baby sneakers that I bought from sewingwithme and can't wait to sew.

3. My parents, who are super nutty and felt bad that I couldn't go to the McCall winter carnival last weekend so they brought the carnival to me (Lincoln was less than thrilled about this).

4. My spouse, who loves me despite my currently massive dimensions and my ability to obliterate him at UNO MOD.

5. And, of course, the Bambino. Not that I have ever not appreciated this kid, but the last 10 days have made me so excited to meet it!

i can't help but love this.

This is a drawing by my friend Joyce Rice who lives in Chicago. I subscribe to her doodle blog, Teeny Robots, and you should too because a couple of times a week she posts hilarious drawings and paintings such as these. The dear husband and I think this drawing is so funny that it is currently the background on our computer. Go Extreme Brobots! And not only is Joyce a talented artist, but she is an awesome seamstress and has a great Etsy shop. Go Joyce, go!

I am at home and am extremely sick. Not fun. My crafting-to-sell has been put on hold until after the bambino arrives and then I have a whole arsenal of ideas to get cracking on. In the meantime, I have an awesome stack of Michael Miller fabric waiting to be made into crib sheets and changing pad covers and I splurged and ordered two pieces of fabric from Fabric.com which will be sewn into a carseat cover and a baby carrier. 

 

I am the most excited about turning the afore-pictured "Castle Peeps" fabric by Lizzy House into this awesome Mei Tai carrier that I bought the pattern for from Sew Liberated. Three cheers for baby sewing projects!

But until the sewing can begin, I need this head cold from hell to clear up so I can vacate the nest I have created on our couch and start being a real person again. 

Oh and by the way, our holidays out here in Boise were fabulous and I hope all of yours were as well! I really need to get into a better habit of blogging...

how bizarre, how bazaar.

Come to the Meridian Middle School Holiday Craft Bazaar (or the MMSHCB, as it could be conveniently shortened to. just kidding) this weekend if you're in the Treasure Valley and needing an awesome handmade fix. I will have all of my goodies there along with other fun folks from Idaho Indie Works. Some of the other vendors you can expect to see are my awesome mom with Geneva Designs (she has rad new crayon/playing card rolls), Asia with her Sinfully Natural soaps (they are so cute!), Cara with LuLu and ChaCha (if I have a girl, I may just buy up all of her inventory) and Sean and Christina with their Great Custom Furniture (that I seriously gush over everytime I see it. It makes me wish that I were childsize so I could use it myself).

Also, I have made some killer new winter cycling caps and they will be there too! If you don't live in the Treasure Valley, you'll be able to check out my new hats once they hit my etsy... which could be in a few weeks considering the madness of craft fairs, moving apartments and going to Minnesota that I have in my very near future.

Featured on PlanetGreen!

I had the joy of checking my email the other day and finding a message from the Etsy Marketing Team saying that they had submitted a photo of one of my hats for a handmade slideshow on PlanetGreen, a Discovery.com website. You can check out the awesome collection of handmade goodies HERE and see not only my hat, but also my lovely husband who's head it adorns.

In birthday news: my beautiful dog Lincoln turns three tomorrow. Unfortunately for her, all that this momentous occasion merits is maybe a can of dog food and an extra long walk. Three cheers for Lincoln!

And if it's not exciting enough that my dog is having a birthday... I have a new nephew! Welcome to the world, Miles Raymond Christensen!

leaves are falling!

How is it already October 3rd? I love it! We walked the dogs to the market the other day and Lincoln loved crunching through the leaves almost as much as I did. October is such a fabulous month, made even more fabulous by the fact that we are taking a trip to Portland in two weeks - right in the middle of October.

Life has been busy in Boise. I sent my first wholesale order of hats and bike gear to our friends at Blue City Cycles in Chicago. Owen and Clare started this shop about a year ago and since I have not been able to check it out yet, if you're in Chicago you should go and support their Bridgeport bike shop!

In a similar vein, as soon as Bricolage (downtown Boise, Bannock and 8th - underneath Thomas Hammer) re-opens on November 12th, you and all you love will be able to purchase bellefourche hats from their awesome little shop. Jules and Chelsea have come up with a great collection of local goods to pair with their own handcrafted items to make an excellent shopping experience.

I have come up with a fun new winter hat design but, of course, I forgot to take a picture of one of the new hats before I mailed them all to Chicago. Silly me. Fortunately, this week should see a few more hats made and if you want to head down to Idaho Indie Works on First Thursday (this week, October 7, 5-9p) you can see what's new in the bellefourche inventory.

So I realize it's kind of annoying to post pictures like this but I'm just pretty proud. Baby is still growing growing growing and you can finally kind of tell!

and you can see my new haircut, too!

yup. it's right in there.

A sad thing that has developed in my life is this: my spouse has been enjoying graphic novels and comic books lately and I feel left out. I mean, why can't I enjoy them too? Why don't I like them? I'm the girl who has read nearly every Orson Scott Card book. I love Neil Gaiman. This should be right up my alley. Oh, DC Comics, why do you make me feel so inferior?

And current favorite song: "Dance Yrself Clean" by LCD Soundsystem. I have come up with a perfect dance for it and do this dance whenever able. I have tried to teach it to the dogs but they seem to have four left paws.

Next up in the sewing scene: Top tube protectors. Cute kitchen towels. A hat for my own head (what!). More winter hats. I'm trying to be a busy bee.

The Surliest of Mermaids

This blog is an homage to my friend Emmy, of Surly Mermaid Fused Glass!

Why is Emmy so fine? you may ask, and I will reply How can I count the ways? So here is a brief list of reasons:

1. She makes amazing fused glass jewelry and sells it at incredibly afforable prices.
2. She is an excellent craft fair tent neighbor (she will even share raspberries and french fries with you!).
3. She is a generous jewelry gift giver (even gave me a necklace for my mom).
4. She runs a cool vintage/supply shop on Etsy.
5. She gave us like over $200 worth of baby gear for FREE!! Her little gal is almost two and has grown out of her Snugli and baby bathtub, etc, so Emmy thought we could use it.

So all that to say, if you ever see Surly Mermaid Fused Glass at a craft event in Boise, go and buy some sweet jewelry from her and say that bellefourche sent you!

Pretty sure I'm happy here

Moving across the country is always a roller coaster (at least for me it is). It seems like on a daily basis I vacillate between feeling excited about the new possibilities ahead of me, to feeling lonely and confused as to why we decided to leave what we knew was comfortable.

But this weekend, I decided that I'm pretty sure I'm happy here.

The spouse and I set up my first booth (yay! hooray!) at The Big Le Boise craft fair on Saturday and I was pretty nervous. From past experience in Chicago and Minneapolis, the crafting community can be pretty competitive and somewhat petty so you never really know what you're getting yourself into. Boise, on the other hand, rocked my world.

From what I've seen with the crafting community in Boise, there is a definite sense of comraderie and encouragement and basically, it made me not feel like an idiot on Saturday.

All that said, the day went well despite insane winds and less browsers than I had hoped for.

The husband just walked in the door. Can you imagine ever getting eaten by a river beaver? They have terrible teeth and I'm glad he was not nabbed into their clutches as he biked home. The greenbelt can be a dangerous place with all of that herbivorous fauna lurking in the shadows.

An Unforgiving Shoulder

After years of wearing a messenger bag and working espresso bars I have managed to develop a pinched nerve in my left shoulder. For the most part it doesn't hurt but these last few weeks my messenger bag (and even backpacks!) have been killing my shoulder whenever I bike. Combining that with the general discomfort of being pregnant, bike commuting is getting less and less fun right now. Fortunately, my husband rocks. On a lazy night last week we biked to the coop to pick up some deli dinner and he said he would just bring his big backpack and that I should forgo a bag in order to give my shoulder a break. Well hallelujah! I forgot how fun and freeing it can be to bike without a backpack! I felt like a kid just zipping along with no plans or expectations since I didn't have anything weighing me down. Sometimes I think I get too encumbered with "getting the most" out of my bike commuting that I turn biking into drudgery and forget how fun it can be to just go for a bike ride without any real agenda.

And also: three cheers for the Boise Coop's potato samosas and sour cream chicken enchiladas!

Thanks to: Damien, for asking me to save his favorite tshirt which then gave me inspiration for my newest project - Upcycled Graphic T's! This inspiration also gave me a reason to enlist husband to come to 99cent day at Savers and became an impromptu date of interpreting old family reunion and high school band tshirts. And because the husband is so awesome, he managed to find me a wicked version of this tshirt:

Admittedly, I was way too selfish to want to use this shirt to sell. Sorry!

And the last update: due to unreasonable amounts of zucchini thrust upon us (seriously people, learn your lesson. Stop growing zucchini! It is a vicious monster that will take over your garden and turn you into strange versions of yourselves that cause you to go around forcing these little summer squash onto your unsuspecting acquaintances) I have been going through quite a bout of baking chocolate chip zucchini bread. My dear spouse has been giving me a hard time for eating most of it myself and not leaving much for him. My dog, Lincoln, must have heard his complaints. To even the score, she decided to gobble down nearly an entire loaf herself. Lucky dog - it's a good thing I love you or else you would be out on the streets!

a beginning

New blog. Fairly new town. Business back up and running. Husband starts grad school tomorrow. Lots of beginnings. Excited? Oh yes.

First venture in Boise crafting: setting up a table at Idaho Indie Works downtown for First Thursday. There were lots of lookers but not many buyers. But I met some people so that's a plus! Also, check out the new bellefourche banner that I made the morning of the event and hung over my table. I know, it's awesome!

yes that is an awesome wagon/carriage thing behind me!

Next event: Boise Weekly's Craft Bastards Block Party, August 28th! At Sixth and Broad from 10am - 10pm Boise Weekly is having bands, a Vespa giveaway, a bloody mary contest and, of course, awesome crafty booths. I know a few other vendors who will be there and it should be a lot of crazy cool stuff for sale.

First on my agenda for sewing tomorrow: dog bowties. Lincoln and Wanda need to spruce up their wardrobes and I can't think of any way that is more hilarious to do it.