I’m really excited to introduce you to my friend Kathy! I worked with her to redesign her blog, and in the process was blown away by her amazing life! She has two great etsy shop, a beautiful home you have to see to believe and lives in rural British Columbia. She has some great perspective on fitting blogging into a busy life, and on the importance of handmade.

Tell us about yourself- what you do, your family & the life you live!

I’m Kathy Stowell. I blog from a straw bale house nestled in a mountain town in the interior of BC. My husband, two kids and I live on seven acres where we try to grow as much of our own food as possible. We also keep seven laying hens, an ornary rooster and the sweetest milking cow named Daisy who is due to have a baby in mid-May. From this home base I homeschool my daughter and run two Etsy shops, While Tangerine Dreams, where I sell my hand spun art yarn, and While Jupiter Dreams, where I sell handmade clothes with a sustainable, yet comfy, edge.

When did you start blogging and what drew you to it? How do you make time for it with a young family?

I started blogging in 2006. I just learned how to knit and was introduced to the crafty online community. Blogging was initially a way to record and share my projects with other crafters. Soon after those bloggy begginings we moved from the city to our current home in the sticks and so the blog has also served the purpose to keep our family and friends posted on our current homesteading adventures and press release recent pictures of the little Craiglettes! I make time for blogging by trying to get up before said Craiglettes, make my morning latte and try to get as much blogging done before they wake up. If the smell of the coffee wakes them up before I’m done drinking it they know better not to talk to me so instead they play with Craig while he tries to do his morning yoga practice.

Your home is so beautiful, how did you get the incredible colours on the walls?

This painting technique is called Lazure. It involves really large brushes (they kind of look like giant shoe shine brushes) and many thin layers of translucent paint. They use this technique in Waldorf classrooms for its subtle healing properties. After taking a mommy and me type program at the local Waldorf school I never wanted to leave because of the way the walls made me feel I’ve returned to the womb. When finally they had security remove me from the premises I realized that since I couldn’t take myself to the Waldorf school (we live too far to commute the kids there everyday anyway) we would have to bring the Waldorf school to us. At least the walls, anyway! My dear friend and guru of mine painted them for us. I’m very much in love with the results!

I love the name of your e-course “Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp”- what does being a Backwoods Mama mean to you?

Thank you! Being a Backswoods Mama is not necessarily where one lives but more of a deep desire to return to slower and simpler times. Backwoods Mamas like to seek out a connection with their local environment and with those who share it with them. Backwoods Mamas also like to learn how to create neccessities, and the occasional luxury, from scratch and love communing with nature by taking on tasks seasonally to work with the natural ebb and flow of energy. Backwoods Mamas also like to look cute while they’re changing the world one homegrown tomato or one handmade outfit at a time!

You have two etsy shops, one for your clothing line and one for your yarn. How did you learn to sew and spin? Why is handmade important to you?

My mother is an avid seamstress. My first memories are literally being next to her while she’s sewing and listening to Simon and Garfunkel. She’s taught me to both knit and sew many times while I was growing up but I felt I just never had the patience to carry on the torch. Then I had kids, which I think worked out my patience muscles, and now I can’t get enough sewing or knitting time in! Spinning grew out of my love for knitting. I think it spawned from the joy I had from squishing a new skein of yarn. You can’t get much more intimate with yarn than squishing it into shape in the first place!

Handmade is important to me because I feel sadly there is much disconnection in our world today. Handmade is something everyone can do and just the gesture of attempting of making something by hand is a prayer to the healing of our planet and each other. And getting a little piece of someone else’s energy into an article of clothing to wear, or a painting that hangs in your home, a cup of real chai for your belly, how sacred is that? Handmade is important to me because we need more sacredness in our lives today.

Working with Kathy was really wonderful, and I was excited to create a space for her that was inspired by the painting technique in her home. I also wanted her design to have lots of soft edges, like the yarn in her shop and the soft corners in her straw bale home.

It was really fun to work on a project that stretched me to create something that would really fit her unique style- I love the results! You can visit While Tangerine Dreams here, Kathy is an avid blogger and would be a great addition to your blogroll :)