I'm sitting here right now trying to decide how much of our personal life I want to share online, but I feel like I need to give some explanation for our actions. Our family is going through a difficult time right now, and it is impossible trying to keep a quality online presence while we are entrenched in a family crisis. Had we known what the near future had in store for us, we would never have opened our shop right now.

My father has Alzheimer and this week we are transitioning him into a home. The hurt goes beyond words and there are many things we need to do as a family over the next few weeks to make this happen and to help him and my mother adjust.

Instead of trying to keep up with everything, with our hearts and minds somewhere else, we decided we need to walk away from Wee Folk Art... the blog, Facebook and the shop... for the time being. We will leave the site up so everyone can still use the our patterns and curriculum.

Our plan is to return to Wee Folk Art when we have all made the necessary adjustments. In the meantime, we hope you will still find inspiration in our site. It has been a labor of love and it will give us great joy to know that it is still being used in our absence.

Fondly,

Kimara  

If we seemed to have been rather elusive this week, its because we've been hard at work creating our Spring Gnomes for Wee Hands. Look for the tutorial in the next day or two. Plus, these mega sized gnomes will be available in Wee Folk Art Market Place in sets of two in the next couple of days. I always feel like I'm bragging, but I love the colors and designs on these little... I mean BIG guys! They were also very cooperative for the photo shoot :) Watch for them soon!

Green and Orange Gnomes

Purple and Pink Gnomes

Blue and Yellow Gnomes

Just the perfect size for Wee Hands :)

 

Due to many requests, Wee Folk Art Market Place in now open all day, everyday. That way, you can place orders whenever you like.

To keep our lives from spinning out of control, we will only ship twice a week. 

We are now accepting international orders. For everyone outside of the US, please make sure to read about our SHIPPING POLICY before you place an order.

If you have any questions concerning the shop please contact us: weefolkart@yahoo.com.

Remember, we are still in "beta mode" and we will be trying out different things to find out what works the best. PLEASE be patient with us :)   

Do you have any idea how much fun it is collecting things for the shop? It's AWESOME! As we are putting together the shop and making it our own, we think about the things we like and use, and those things we think our readers will like, which not amazingly, is very similar :)

Having said that... Michelle and I try to be conscientious consumers. We like to buy local, organic and sustainable products. We like to support cottage industries and small shops. We also like to buy Fair Trade products. Although there is no single definition of Fair Trade, the tag above gives a quick summation of Fair Trade:

Why Fair Trade?

Fair Trade is a system focused on alleviating global poverty and promoting sustainability through ethical global trade. By supporting fair trade products, you are taking a step towards making the world a better place.

Why buy Fair Trade?
~It respects and appreciates the hard work of people.
~It provides a living wage for marginalized producers.
~Fair trade is anti-slavery, anti-child labor.
~It supports the conservation of the environment.
~It empowers women and minorities.
~It is a way of making your voice be heard to demand equal rights worldwide.

If you are interested in learning more about Fair Trade, visit Fair Trade Federation.  

Over the next few months, we will be adding many Fair Trade items to our shop. Another nice thing about owning our own shop, we get to sell the things we would buy ourselves! How cool is that? Whenever possible, we like to use reusable bags, whether at the grocery store or at the local Farmers Market. We also use them all around our house filled to the brim with our various crafting projects. Although this is a smart ecological practice, there is no reason in the world for the bags not to be beautiful and fun!

For starters, we are adding 2 different Fair Trade Bags to Wee Folk Art Market Place. These are what I call "market bags" as opposed to "grocery bags". By MY definition, market bags are flat rectangles sewn together, whereas grocery bags have an additional panel added, creating a flat bottom. Our two styles of bags are:

Assorted Jute Shoppers

Eco Shopper

 

If you are a little kid growing up in a household that blogs you learn 2 things very early:

First, how to ignore cameras, and second,

to assess the "blog worthiness" of everything you do. It isn't necessarily a standard you want your children to adopt, but it kinda goes with the territory. So often, they hear the adults in their life say, "This is blog worthy" when they've made a yummy dessert, crafted an impromptu project, or observe the wee ones doing something remarkable. (And with wee ones, what isn't remarkable?)

The other morning, when Fairy came over and gave me this beautiful coaster she just finished knitting for me and said, "Gammy, you can put that on the blog if you want to."

Well... not only is the coaster blog worthy, it deserves a tutorial. So here it is :)

Fairy's Knit Coaster

Finished size: Mine is 4 1/2" to 5" by 4 1/4" - Rather looks like a few extra stitches were added along the way, but it just makes it more creative and beautiful :)

Materials:
worsted weight wool
size 8 needles

Directions:
Cast on 20ish stitches.

Knit 20 rows or as many as you need to make it "square-ish".

Bind off.

Then, give it to your Gammy or anyone else you love, and know that they will treasure it always!

Thank you so much, Fairy. Gammy loves you to the moon and back!

BTW... The Gnome Love coffee mug is available HERE at our Cafe Press Shop.