new year's names that sparkle

Happy early New Year to all my lovely readers!!  Are you attending New Year's Eve parties? Will you be wearing sparkles like the ever iconic Francoise Hardy or setting off fireworks with your neighbors?

We'll be having a quiet, intimate celebration here with just the stars in our windows for some sparkle. Or perhaps we'll head out into the backyard to toast the new year over a small fire. But something tells me our festivities will be well ended much before midnight, all our heads dreaming on pillows when the new year comes ringing in. 

However early in the evening, we'll be celebrating. I love the idea that each year we take the time to reflect, to put old issues to rest and create new dreams, wishes, and yes, all those resolutions and promises. I also enjoy thinking about the unique beginning brewing inside the sleepy winter--winter as the cozy, nurturing womb. Winter sure feels that way to me more and more as I get a bit older, like a real rejuvenating resting place.  It's such a gentle reminder of all the great cycles. I'm sure you've all seen the name Season floating around, which I rather like for this time of year. I think there is maybe no time more appropriate for this name than on this holiday where we are, perhaps more obviously than any other time of the year, celebrating the passing of one cycle and the beginning of another. And in keeping with the idea of using this holiday to really reflect on the passing of time, the Finnish Aika ('time') seems a fitting choice. Or perhaps the herb name Thyme may link subtly enough to the idea while serving a sort of double meaning--it makes a lovely middle name. 

2012 is the year of the Dragon in Chinese astrology. The Dragon isn't quite the scary figure here, so names inspired by it could make interesting choices, like the Latin Draco, also the name of the twinkling dragon constellation in our beautiful night sky.  Further, with each animal in the Chinese zodiac, various years are associated with one of five elements-- Where 1964's dragons were wood dragons, for example,  2012's will be water dragons. And there are certainly plenty of water inspired names out there to be sought.

What's your favorite element of the holiday? Do you enjoy the reflection, the new dreams? Perhaps you simply love the glamor of getting gussied up, tossing back something bubbly and lighting a sparkler in the cool air?  I like the kisses!

Here are my favorite names inspired by the glamor, glow, sparkle, festivity and newness of the time of year:


Velvet (an oft chosen fabric for new year's dress)

Muriel ('sparkling ocean' this is so perfect because it encompasses the water element for this year's water dragon, and the sparkling element of new years! And it's just so pretty.)

Merrill (ditto for boy)

Amaryllis ('sparkling and new')

Silver

Sterling

Argene

Taji (Japanese, silver and gold color)

Golden

Ophir ('gold')

Glow

Berdine ('glowing girl')

Zerach ('glowing')

Lalla ( the glamourous heroine of Lalla Rookh. this one feels super festive to me)

Gala

Jubilee

Mab ('joy' and the monarch of the fairies, so perfectly celebratory!)

Blythe (we all wish for this in the new year!)

Festus ('festive')

Fiametta ('flame')

Ziv ('radiance'. I love this name so much!)

Norbetta ('northern brightness')

Norbert (ditto. this is so soft and bold for a little boy, and it can still yield 'Bertie')

Zohara ('light and splendor'. I love Zo.)

Ardith ('spiritual prosperity'...something most of us wish for each year.)

Jethra (abudance)

Venturo ('fortune')

Osher ('good fortune')

Bonaventure (this saintly name also links to 'fortune'.)

Fortune (duh)

Clover (for the luck we all wish for in the new year)

Beryl (a gemstone symbol of good luck)

Berilo (from beryl)

Mouna ('wish')

Wish

Roya ('dream')

Reve ('dream' French)

Draumur ('dream' Icelandic)

Unelma ('dream' Finnish)

Yume ('dream' Japanese)

Oberon (part of one of the most infamous  dreams. love this as a way to get  'Bear'.)

Hermia (ditto Oberon)

Erhard (strong resolve)

Gilbert (bright promise... like a resolution, perhaps)

Pandra (dragon)

Drake (dragon)

Draco

Ryuu ('dragon spirit' Japanese)

Elliot (from Pete's Dragon)

Dover ('water'... for the year's water element)

Tallulah (water name)

Yara ('water girl')

Ondine (have to include this mythological 'wave' name with water names. there's also Undine)

Edmar ('sea')

Ripple


Lake


Umi

Newlin ('new pond')

Nouvel ('new')

Neo

Neoma ('new moon' great to celebrate both cycles and newness!)

Season


Aika


Thyme


Eve


Midnight


Francoise (from image)

(images: one , two, three)

in my stocking

A string of holiday gift and activity posts wouldn't be complete without a list of some of the beauties I woke up to this year from my thoughtful husband. And no, not all of these goodies were actually in my stocking santa hat. 

-- Portrait paintings of each of our girls by Tel-Avivian artist, Tali, of shop Tush Tush. This is something I've been wanting for a long time. I just can't decide if I want Nona's to be current, or from her babyhood or early toddlerhood, so that I capture both girls at the same stage of growth. I know I want the coloring of both portraits to be like that in the painting of Jane (first image). 

--a beautiful, vintage woven and leather tote from shop Santoki Vintage. Santoki means 'mountain rabbit' in Korean (second image). This one is so perfect for all our trips to the library!

--the 2012 leah duncan calendar (third image) here. 

--a new lens for my camera. This was a total surprise and I'm so excited. I've wanted to really delve into photography for such a long time now.  I also got a half day photography class to learn how to use my camera and lens properly. This doesn't have any names associated with it (yet) but I'm too excited not to share!

-- a very compact, white turntable. In some attempt to get rid of a lot of things in our home, I agreed to finally let go of my old stash of vinyl since I haven't had a record player in about seven years. After watching me go through my pile of records, reciting the memories attached to the various pieces of music,  my sweet husband decided to just get me the turntable rather than have me toss the albums. The girls and I have had so much fun listening to records together. Nona has already mastered the art of gently working the needle and has listened to Bambi about twenty times in two days. I'm stuck on Hank Williams (my uncle used to play him during our Christmas gatherings when I was growing up) and Joan Baez.

From today:

Hank

Joan

Bambi

Duncan

William

Santoki

Jane

Tali

Baez

This completes my holiday round up-- things will return to normal from here.  I'm super excited for all that's brewing for the new year!

(images: credited and linked to throughout post)

crown + cookie

Please forgive the length of today's post--I intended for this to be three separate posts, but here it is two days before Christmas, and I haven't posted any of it yet. Add this to my hyper excitement for the coming week and healthy editing just can't be expected! But it's the holidays, so we indulge a little extra, right?

With a four year old and one year old, the best crafts involve keeping it simple, keeping it outdoors, and keeping it in cookies. I'm lucky to not have not gone into even one. single. store. this year.  This freed up lots of time for our chosen gift-crafts. There was the gathering phase, the making phase, and the adornment and delivery phase, and each were so fun.

 We made a lot of the stuff outside, just after gathering it, and I felt so much more connected to the process while breathing the cool winter air and standing over fallen rosemary needles with sap-sticky hands. When our cheeks got too rosy, we continued crafting indoors over warm drinks, and then finished up on our last day of making over a cookie picnic on the living room floor, Johnny Mathis and Bing keeping us company. After all was finally completed, we took the goodies to our neighbors, wearing a bit of our holiday fun on our heads. Some favorite names we delivered to: Joan, Sylvia, and Irene.

--The mistletoe: I'm continually inspired by Jaime Rough of the blog Found While Walking, so much so that I made a little pledge to collect natural treasures on daily walks, even in the cold. The arrangements she makes are so lovely and they inspired our "mistletoe" this year (with not a trace of actual mistletoe in it.) The giant wheat-like bush (pictured above) isn't very holiday like, but I couldn't resist including it in our version of the come-kiss-me plant, and it also made for a wonderful binding material.

-- The flower crowns:  We took the girls to a St. Lucia and Nona was most taken with the crowns. I knew I had to make some for us, and then when I saw this (thank you Nicolette and Jennifer), the inspiration totally seized me. We used Rosemary from our backyard as the base. We added Cypress (from the neighbor's yard) and Lilies and other greenery from a  bouquet.  There are many 'crown' names (I mentioned my dad's and Steve Jobs' here, along with all of the offshoots of Steven), but my favorites are Tsifira, Etienne and Nezer.  The potential plants for crown and wreath making are so very vast that I'll save them all for list time!

--The many wreaths, from rosemary to silver tinsel: We went a little wreath crazy, but Nona loves to make them. I wish I remembered where I first got the tinsel or rag tutorials a long while ago, but I do not. Tinsel is a bit flashy to my eye, but Nona really loves it-- everyone needs some sparkle here and there! The materials traditionally used for wreaths are similar to those for crowns. Wreaths and crowns are basically the same thing, historically. Apollo and Daphne are some ancient figures linked to them. As they were brought into Christian tradition, they were relevant for their circle shape, as circles have no beginning or end. Yep, I could see Circle working for both symbolic reasons and that it's such a pretty sounding word; I would definitely save it for the middle spot, though.

The following name doesn't mean 'wreath', but it sounds like it--when I was a little girl, one of my mother's friends was Reatha (Ms. Reatha, that is--I'm from the southern US, after all). I love the idea of a little Reatha going by Ree (my great grandmother's name.) There's the Hawaiian Kalei (ka-lay-ee), which does mean 'wreath', and I also like Garland as a name, which has versions Garlande (French) and Garldina. While tinsel is certainly a very pretty word, I might not recommend using it for a name--it's PVC and who wants to honor that? It's made to mimic ice cycles, and there are some pretty 'ice' names: Glace (French for 'ice'),  Hielo (Spanish), Siku (Danish 'sea ice') and there's the similar-to-ice-substance Frost, which I've suggested a lot on this blog-- it's just so darn pretty, both as a substance and word, so I really love this nature name. You might also consider the color of tinsel, Silver, which is such a lovely name. It's meaning may also be found in: Argento, Sterling, Lujane, and Argene (which I briefly considered for our second after repeatedly dreaming of dripping silver apples during the pregnancy.)

-- The plant mobiles: I found the inspiration here  and we went crazy on these. Like fifty of them crazy. The result would be smoother and prettier with a more petite type of yarn/string, like the one shown in the tutorial (the result is also smoother without toddler hands doing the tying and wrapping), but we used a thick jute because it's easier for Nona to work with (and the joy of those toddler hands doing the tying and wrapping is well worth the added bulk to the look of the things.)  We used branches, rosemary (again), some anonymous plant with red berries resembling Holly, and Cypress. We used lilies on a few, too.

--The cookies:  I made a lemon-rosemary batch and a chocolate chip.  I used this vegan recipe for all of the dough (I'm automatically on board when I see Maple syrup), but for the lemon cookies, I replaced the chocolate chips with the juice of one Lemon, Zest from the peel, and a dash of Honey. and Rosemary. because rosemary was in every freaking thing else we made, so why not?  The lemon cookies were a bit hard to get off the pan, and not very pretty, but man oh man they were so good!

--The bells: Okay, I use them all year long, but now is definitely a time for bells. And you all know how I feel about -bell smooshes, so I'll give some that I think are fresh in the list. There's also Suzu (japanese for bell) and Kello (Finnish) because you all also know by now that I just can't write a post without hunting down the Japanese and Finnish translations of everything.

--The month and season: the reason for all of this making? December. In October I suggested a set of names relating to the month of December in a consultation, from the month name, itself, to it's related goddess name (Decima) and it's gemstones and flowers. And the holiday season brings another name to mind, Holiday.  I'd  put something very traditional upfront.

--The random door/branch photo:  Nona snagged this clipping from me (from a J. Crew catalog), which I'd recently taken to my hair stylist. She insists that it says "I want to be alone in my room" and asked that we tape it to her door. She says the branch is the magic to key to her room for when the door is shut and can only be opened by magic. Beyond being sweet and funny to my heart, I think it's pretty on/in her door.

So from today's post: 

Johnny 

Bing

Reatha (Ree)

Kalei (ka-lay-ee)

Garland

Garlande

Garldina

Apollo

Daphne

Artemis (relates to deer)

Glace

Hielo


Siku

Frost

Circle

Silver

Argento

Sterling

Lujane

Argene

Evergreen (see Midwinter's post on this one)

Midori (green)

Cloris (ditto)

Berilo (green gemstone)

Crimson (for the red berries)

Garnet (red gemstone)

Carnelian (red stone)

Ormand (red)

Rufus (red)

Rosemary

Cypress

Laurel

Bay

Branch

Holly

Elderberry

Juniper

Pine

Shorepine

Snowpine

Snowberry

Spruce

Hemlock

Cedar

Azara

Hawthorn 

Timber

Twine

Snowlily (in honor the lilies in our crowns and wreaths)

Riverlily (the red river lily blooms this time of year, too....as do....)

Camellia

Cookie (I still like this as a nickname)

Lemon

Honey

Maple


Zest

Suzu

Kello

Ritabelle

Florabel

Magdabel

Carol (for our singing)

Lucia

December

Holiday

Decima

Turquoise

Poinsettia 

Holly

Joan

Sylvia

Irene (love nickname Nitsa for this 'peace' name.)

Zuzu (We're watching It's a Wonderful Life right this very second. Oh how I adore this name! There's also George, Mary, Violet, Harry and Clarence, all fantastic names.)

And for some combos:

Carol Carnelian (Coco)

Joan Riverlily  (no one in baby's or likely parents' generations will think 'Joan Rivers.' Joan needs a uber feminine, soft, quirky smoosh of a middle name, and it needs her.)

Decima Honey

Ormand Elderberry (could potentially be too descriptive, but Ormand is pretty subtle as a color name)

Johnny Garnet 

Cypress Magdabell (Sissy)

Cedar Bing

Suzu Argene  (silver bells!  but really subtle. perfect for the season.)

Sylvia Shorepine

Juniper Lujane

Nitza Glace

Kello Frost


Apolline December (Polly) 

Garlande Camellia 

Lucia Irene 


Timber Apollo


Azara Daphne


Berilo Twine


Artemis Silver 


Suzannah Spruce (Zuzu)

Mary Zest


George Evergreen


Harry Hemlock 


Violet Florabel


Clarence Snowpine

There are so many more holiday names, what are your favorites?  And I'm really curious about your traditions, from the old to the new ones you are creating as you go-what are they?

Happy Hanukka!! Stellar Solstice!!! Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!!

(images: all mine)

stocking stuffer names

Okay, so we don't actually have stockings this year. We accidentally started something a few years back which has sort of become a tradition: we hang plaid santa hats, empty them of their goodies and then we each wear one for gift opening. So, in the hats this year will be Mast Brothers chocolate bars, photo/story books of the girls (for husband) and beautifully scented Mama K play dough. Grandparents, aunts and uncles will also be getting chocolate bars and photo books, both fantastic for savoring.

--I first encountered the Mast Brothers chocolate on Jennifer Causey's The Maker's Project (where I also got the first image. thank you, Jennifer!) here.   I was immediately mesmerized and knew I had to try it out. Then when I saw this amazing mini documentary by The Scout, I knew this chocolate was the perfect gift for my family members, who all love chocolate and stories of this nature. Rick and Michael Mast hand craft the chocolate in Brooklyn, work responsibly with farms from within the American Catskills to farms in the Dominican Republic (I LOVE this film about their relationships with the farmers. Yes, all caps/bold love), and they are even going to Sail the Atlantic to pick up ingredients! I simply love their story, and their chocolate. Flavors to be found in their Coco bars: Hickory, Plum, Sarsaparilla, Cherry, Mint, Frankie (frankie's olive oil), Olive (ditto), Pepper, Maine, Sea (from sea salt created with solar salt houses!)

--The last batch of play dough I made for my oldest is long dried, and I guarantee it didn't smell or look like the these smelly clays from shop Mama K. They're gluten free, pretty, and made from only natural oils and vegetable colorants.  Mama K lives in Seattle and is mama to daughters, Olimpia and Pepper! We got the stocking stuffer kit with all seven mini versions of each scent.   They will be a only-while-baby-is-napping toy because baby still likes to eat things like heaping scoops of mud, for example (yesterday.) As big sister grows more reluctant to having quite time, herself, these will help encourage her to play quietly while little sister sleeps; she'll actually be begging to have some "private time", I'm guessing.  Though, I might just enjoy playing with them as much as she does; I really can't resist aroma therapy that involves using my hands! The names of the clay you can find at Mama K? Bergamot, Chamomile, Geranium, Lavender, Lemongrass, and sweet Orange.

--And here are some names of people receiving the Mast Brothers chocolate bars and picture books of the girls: Thurman, Marlene, Dorothy 'Dot', Colleen, and Norma.  Any of these ready for a revival?

From today's inspirations:

Coco


Bean


Rick


Michael 


Mast


Sail


Atlantic


Scout


Hickory (love)


Plum (ever the fan of Plum)


Sarsaparilla, (oh the cute nickname options here: Sassy, Rilla, Prilla, Pia)


Cherry 


Mint 


Frankie 


Olive


Maine 


Sea


Olimpia


Pepper

Bergamot


Chamomile


Geranium


Lavender


Lemongrass (okay, this might be a bit much, but Lemon is cute cute cute!)


Orange


Thurman 


Marlene (I really see this one picking up in the next five years!)


Dorothy 'Dot' 


Colleen


Norma 



And with vintage names and food names comprising today's list, you know I can't resist name combos:

Sarsaparilla Colleen

Coco Marlene 


Thurman Atlantic


Frankie Mint


Dorothy Geranium 


Hickory Michael 


Norma Bean


Olimpia Olive

Have you guys tried this chocolate? What of the names? Any other names out there you'd love to see paired with them?

Stay tuned for names inspired by our Holiday crafts and activities!

 (images: chocolate bars here, juju-mine, play clay here)

holiday sweaters + names for knitters

I sincerely love holiday sweaters like the ones above, and  I'm pretty obsessed with hand knit items and wool, in general, so Santa came a bit early to deliver some wooly goodies for the cooler weather. Of course, this has me thinking about the people, hands and names attached to it all, along with great names for those who love knitting!  

In the first two photos you'll find vintage, hand knit sweaters from Canadian shop, Bondplace Vintage. These are mine and the girls' official holiday sweaters. Mine actually isn't very holiday like at all, but I couldn't resist it. It's warmer (and certainly cozier!) than most of my coats, so I've been living in it while we make holiday decorations in the back yard-- I think that makes it my holiday sweater!  The sweaters came with a lovely note and wooden deer ornament, and I just couldn't be happier with them. My only regret is that I didn't snatch up this  hooded penguin sweater and this Mulberry sweater. I rather like the sound of Mulberry, and think it has some pretty great nickname options. Bondplace has a lot of vintage, hand knit goodies and they're having a sale for the holidays!

The third photo features a yellow hand knit sweater I picked up at a thrift store for $2.50! It's the softest sweater in the world and has stayed super nice without much care and with a lot of wear. The pants  ('woolies') are great for cloth diapering or over a pair of leggings for the really cold days. I'm almost sad for the sweater that was repurposed to make them because it must have been a really rad sweater!  Also rad? the name of the shop: Flora Gayle.

The ivory fisherman sweater in the fourth photo is a vintage, hand knit goodie I bought on ebay from Rita in Oregon. I was so happy to discover her name because Rita is also my mothers' name (who was also a knitter).  The awesome kneepad (!!!) woolies are from shop Cloth Diaper Club.

The beautiful blue-green sweater in the fifth photo is a  hand knit sweater I found for $2.00 (alongside the yellow one) at the thrift store. What I love so much, besides the  color, pattern and brown bear buttons (!!!), is that it still has it's "Merry Christmas. Hand knit by Betsy" tag attached.  I'll never know who originally received this little treasure from Betsy or why she gave it up, but the tag makes me absolutely giddy with a feeling of specialness, as if Betsy had intended it for us all along.  She hadn't, but needless to say, I'm happy it's we who get to enjoy her hard work and thoughtfulness!  The scarf was a gift, and I'm unaware of it's maker. The crocheted, peach booties are from shop Lovey Dovey Boutique (Love and Dove are both beautiful names on people, too!)  Dovey is actually shop owner Jenna's surname; I sure hope someone down the line in her family opts to use it!

The sixth photo features another sweater from Rita's shop and more Dovey booties. The hat is mine (from J. Crew last year) but it looks better on Nona and she loves to wear it! 

The seventh features blue heart-patch pants, again by Flora Gayle-- I just couldn't resist posting a photo with Valo June's sweet, little hand! 

The eighth photo is of the softest-ever pair of woolies by Joy Barry (here). I'm so in love with the color! It goes with absolutely everything. 

The ninth photo is a little set from the 1950's I picked up on ebay from a lady named Trudy! 

And the tenth and final photo is a collection of our absolute most precious treasures. They were all knit and hand stitched by my mother, Rita Gail (second Rita and second Gail today, linked through knitting. love it.) Her knitting journey is really quite inspirational. My mother didn't even start knitting until she was almost fifty, just several years before her death, and she loved almost nothing more. I remind myself of this when I feel tempted to fall into the "I still haven't....and I'm in my thirties now!" mindset. This will be our first Christmas without my beautiful mother, so these pretties are featured prominently in our home and we look at them daily. I'm so proud and admiring of my mom for, amongst so many other things, how she always continued to grow and search throughout her adult life, to always find new things to love, new challenges, new friends; never ever being too proud to show her humble, curious nature to her children, to show us that she was a work in progress.   I'm so happy to feature these special pieces of her story. (the monkey is called Baby Lulu, after a song).

Finally, there are some interesting names to be found in the world of knitting.  Even though weaving and knitting are technically different practices, weft (a type of knitting) comes from wefan, meaning "to weave", so I think Weaver and its related Loom (which I've mentioned a few times before) are names to consider if you love knitting.  Selvedge might work for the last child born to a knitting family. There's also Purl, as in the purl stitch, though this one is a bit tricky given that it could sound like a yooneek spelling of Pearl, so I might just stick to Pearl and consider it associated enough.  Another type of stitch? the Moss stitch can honor knitting and nature at the same time; moss is absolutely one of my favorite things to stop and study with my girls, one of the most brilliant colors in the universe! 

Notorious knitters include Elisabeth Zimmerman, Alice Starmore, Julia Hopson, and Magda Sayeg who's known for starting the knit graffiti movement 'yarn bombing' in the U.S. (so. super. neat.)  Clotho, from the Greek's version of the Parcae was the spinner of the thread of life, and we know I'm fond of the Roman's version. And if Yarn, itself, doesn't seem an attractive name choice, there are yarns made from Cotton, Flax, Jute and Nettle.  There's the latin Neo, which means to spin thread and yarn, to interweave.  Yarn in Basque is Hari, Lanka in Finnish, Fio in Portuguese. and Keito in Japanese. Stitch, which seems an appropriate analogy for a child within a family, is Sutetchi in Japanese, Ommel in Finnish, and Sauma in Icelandic. 

From today's inspirations:

Bond

Mulberry 

Flora Gayle

Rita

Betsy

Love

Dove

Dovey

Joy

Trudy

Lulu

Weaver

Loom

Selvedge

Pearl

Moss

Elisabeth

Alice 

Julia

Magda


Clotho

Cotton

Flax

Jute

Nettle

Neo

Hari

Lanka

Fio

Keito

Sutetchi 

Ommel

Sauma

Any potential knitting names I've left out?  Would you consider honoring a favorite hobby in naming someone?  How would you pair these?

(images: mine. I really want to occasionally use this blog to help me learn photography and styling...so thanks for your patience! Hopefully you'll get to watch growth unfolding, which is always one of my favorite things in reading a blog; I love to start with beginning posts and see how they evolve.) 

Stay tuned for names inspired by holiday decorations and activities! 

Ask: Megan Nielson of Design Diary

That's oh-so-lovely clothing designer Megan Nielsen above. She hails from Perth, but currently lives in the U.S. with her husband and two children, 'Bunny' and 'Buddy'.  I was so happy to stumble upon her blog and find such a warm soul, lovely garments, and super fun DIY tutorials. 

a giant thank you to Megan Neilsen for giving us our interview today for Ask!

Megan makes and sells patterns in addition to garments, and there are maternity patterns amongst them. Maternity!  The adorable names on Megan's patterns? Pina and Rie (My own great grandmother was a Ree).   She has recently gotten into designing for children, as well, and I can't wait to see more. 

Megan's newest winter line, Country Roads, will be available for purchase this Saturday, December 17, in her online store, featuring the Meadow, Kelly and Chantilly skirts and the Ridgeway, Sudley and Peidmont blouses. Peidmont is a "long sleeve sister" to the Banksia. I'm thrilled the beautiful Banksia got a new sibling--the navy blue silk is so pretty!

The online lookbook for Country Roads was a beautiful collaboration with Tania (model) of the blog, What Would a Nerd Wear, and Sydney Poulton (photographer) of the blog The Daybook (who I previously featured here). Congratulations, Megan, on such a pretty winter collection!

Here are some of Megan's lovely garments from a past fall collection:

And while her recent Christmas garland and stocking tutorials will certainly help you find your holiday groove, her mint green shorts will have you wanting to rewind a bit back to summer time-- I mean, if there were ever a reason to deal with the heat! 

Megan regularly offers generous advice on starting your own clothing lines and businesses, and her support of the independent design community doesn't stop there; she also regularly features

interviews with independent designers! Her most recent is with Lyndsay Senerchia of shop Seams to Be (below).

I love the sense of community that forms around handmade living, small businesses, and peer support. Everyone benefits from this type of supportive community, designers and consumers alike.

And speaking of handmade and recycled goodies, I think I'm going to be heading to the thrift store where Megan found this amazing stack of fabric! Maybe they'll have more plaids and checks?  I'm so curious about what's going to be made with it!

So let's talk to Megan Nielson!

1. I know you opt to share with the public only what you call your children, and not their full names, so how did you arrive at their nicknames?

On my blog I call my kids Bunny and Buddy - they're both names my husband came up with actually! When I was pregnant with our daughter, my husband used to tell everyone we were having a "honey bunny;" when she was born the name stuck, and over time we just started calling her Bunny. Unfortunately, now that she is a little older she won't let me call her that anymore (it makes me so sad!). Our son's nickname came about pretty organically too. Since the beginning he's been a cuddling kind of kid, and he was very colicky, so my husband used to hold him for many hours at night when he was small so i could sleep. He called him his "little buddy", and now we just call him Buddy!

 2.Were there any almost names for your children that didn't end up making the cut? 

Oh we had so much trouble choosing names! We are suckers for biblical names, so for our daughter we were huge fans of Rachel and Rebecca.  I was also pushing for Caro - it was a name from a book I read as a child and just loved. For our son we really had a tough time. Once again, we really loved biblical names, so David was a favourite, but the biggest contender was Christopher, which is actually my husband's name. In the end we just couldn't bear to think he would be known his entire life as Junior, Little Chris, CJ or something. But for me, Cameron was my favourite for a long time. It's a family name that goes back to my first relatively to immigrate to South Africa, escaping religious persecution. I love his story; it's a beautiful rags to riches kind of tale, and one my family loves to tell - I hope that one day a Cameron can be part of our family again. 

3. I love the names Pina and Rie!  Can you share where they come from and why you picked them for your garments?

Aww thank you! Rie is actually the pet name my father calls my mother :) Her name is Muriel, and when they were first married everyone called her "Mue" as a nickname, which he hated, so he started calling her Rie - I've always loved it! I think it's one of my favourite names ever. Pina was my Oumagrootjie’s (Great Grandmother's) nickname. Her name was Phillipina Johanna (named after the apostles Philip and John) but that's a long name! So everyone always called her Pina - i think it's so pretty!

4. Any favorite names right now? 

Cameron is still one of my favourite names. I hope that if we have another little boy in the future that i can call him that.

5. I recently saw that you found a great pack of vintage fabric at the thrift store (pictured above). Any plans yet as to what you're going to do with  it? Have you used any of it already? 

Oh yes!! That was such a find! I really almost died when i saw that box - so many gorgeous fabrics! I actually have a lot of plans for them! I've already used some of the plaids for clothing for my son, and I have some dresses planned for the florals. To be honest, I just can't resist a floral dress :) it's one of my many weaknesses!

6. Do you ever gain inspiration from other disciplines: music, film, gardening? Can you talk a bit about what inspires your design aesthetic? 

Funnily enough, most of my inspirations come from areas outside of fashion. I'm heavily influenced by nature and landscapes, they just really speak to me. I'm a really nostalgic, sentimental person, so most of the time my designs are a reflection of how I'm feeling, and what kind of mood I get from the outdoors. 

7. Do you imagine the women who might wear your creations? What are their stories? 

I absolutely imagine the women who wear my creations! I generally think of them as young women with well curated closets, who appreciate quality and details and think carefully when they get dressed. I imagine them wearing my designs everyday no matter where they going, just because they make them feel pretty. I really think beautiful clothing can influence your mood - and I always hope that when women wear my pieces that they walk out the door feeling amazing, confident and gorgeous! A lot of the time I use my friends as muses - it really helps me to imagine the girl.

7. Do you appreciate the same qualities in names as you do in clothing design? 

Definitely - I really enjoy names that are nostalgic, and a little unusual. The same with clothing - i feel like my designs nod to the past subtly and are different from what you see in any store.

8. Sweetest parenting moment in the last month? 

Gosh there have honestly been so many. This has been a really lovely month for both my kids. I think for my son it was when he gave me a kiss for the first time. He's such a boy, and though he's cuddly, he's never actually kissed either my husband or I; but a few weeks ago when I was reading him a book he just looked up at me and kissed me, and it was one of the sweetest things of my whole life. I will remember that forever. With my daughter -- since she's 3 she's very into imagination games-- her favourite thing to play is mommies and babies right now. You learn a lot about the way you parent from how your kids act when they pretend to be you! I was just touched beyond belief when I overheard her tucking her toy kitten into bed, telling it how much she loved it and how special it was, and finally praying for it and singing the same lullaby i sing to her each night. It was too precious!  

9. Favorite word? 

Bokke - it's an Afrikaans word (my mom is Afrikaans) and it means "little buck" or "little dear", it's something South Africans will say in reference to a pretty girl - and i've always loved it. 

10. Favorite song? 

Gosh of all time? It's an unusual one, especially since it's not of my generation - but I love "Take on Me" by Aha.

11. Favorite book? 

Ooo that's hard, for me it's really a 3 way tie. Each year I read Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), North & South (Elizabeth Gaskel) and Nine Couches Waiting (Mary Stewart). They are always duking it out for first place :) I'm a romantic, can you tell? 

12. Anything new on the horizon for you that you can tell us about? 

Right now i'm really just working my butt off! I'm finishing up my Fall collection (my very very late fall collection) and working on new sewing patterns for my pattern line (some womens wear and childrens wear actually). It's all fun and exciting!

Name game time!  please help me create a name by answering the following questions:

1. A color or you love to work with:

Coral - one of my current favourite colours!

2. For the middle name, please pick a name that you heard more in Australia, but don't hear much in the U.S.: 

Nicole! I knew sooo many back home, and haven't heard of a single one here :)

There you have it: Coral Nicole. Beautiful! 

And from today's inspirations, names found alongside Megan's garments, patterns, children and musings:

Megan

Bunny

Buddy

Coral Nicole

Phillipina Johana

Muriel ('Rie')

Mue

David

Christopher

Cameron

Phillip

John

Caro

Rebecca

Rachel

Bokke

Jane

Elisabeth

Mary

Stuart

Sudley

Tania

Sydney 

Ridgeway

Piedmont 

Banksia (a family of Australian flowers, which can yield Banks, Sia, Nia, Bani, even Betty)

Chantilly

Meadow

Rie 

Pina

Dune

Plains (I've seen a Fields, why not Plains?)

Desert

Horizon

Day (from the Midday top, though Midday, itself, could be an option for some.)

Eucalypt

Brumby

Darling

Range

Kelly

Matilda Bay (too great to split the name of this dress up)

Jewel 

Sea

A few pairings from this bunch that strike my fancy:

Muriel Meadow


Phillip Plains 


Sudly Christopher


Jane Eucalypt 


John Piedmont Brumby (Monty)

Stuart Buddy


Banskia Rie 

Elisabeth Day (Betty Day--double name)

Mary Jewel (double name)


Rebecca Dune ('Rue')

Thank you again, Megan! It was such fun talking with you. Best of luck to you and thank you for all the wonderful inspiration.

What do you think, readers? Any more pairings you'd like to see with any of these? Plan to try out any DIY projects, yourselves?  

Happy Weekend!

(images: all courtesy of Megan Neilson, by Megan Neilson, by Sydney Poulton, by Brett Dierolf, by Bryan Skeen)