Category Archives: The Homestead

  • Customs, and house selling update.

    Just finished up some more customs so I thought I’d share some photos.

    These first four photos are for one mama, her postpartum stash.

    Ultimate Pads

    Ultimate II pads

    Heavy Wrap Wings

    Ultimate Heavy Flow and Nursing Pads, including a new product we’ll be ‘debuting’ shortly, milk stops.
     A waterproof ‘shield’ for backing non-waterproof nursing pads (the white contoured shapes at the bottom right).

    The non-waterproof nursing pads simply lay in these contoured milk stops, as shown in the next photo!

    These next three are for another expecting mama:

    Ultimates and Ultimate II’s

    Heavy & Medium Wrap Wings

    Light Wrap wings and PantyWraps to round out her stash

    And one last custom, Homestead Colorway, dyed by Lisa, formerly of Selah, now Becoming Art.

     

    Thanks for looking! 🙂

    As for other news, about our house selling progress.

    As some of you may remember, we have a contest, still running too, where you can try and guess the date our house is officially sold, as in the closing date, you can see the details of that here: http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/win-a-100-00-gift-certificate/

    By the way, if the date you’ve chosen has already passed, all you have to do to enter a new date is share about Homestead Emporium, and link to our shop somewhere, then come back and leave us a comment with a link to where you shared and your new guess!

    We don’t have any new news as of yet, but we have had quite a bit of interest in the last couple of weeks so we’re hopeful that after this long wait, maybe, just maybe, we could be coming close to the end some time in the some what near future. LOL That’s as much an update as I can say, because that’s as much as I know. There’s more interest, but other then that, nothing new. We had a showing today, and we have another tomorrow, both times they were out of towners hoping to move to the beautiful west coast. 🙂 Tomorrow’s showing is ‘sort of’ a second viewing. Their friends came as saw it for them first, and tomorrow they will be arriving and will come see for themselves. 🙂 We’ll see how it goes.

    In the meantime, we’ve been going full steam ahead as per usual.
    Custom orders are still heading out the door and we’ve even got some new products coming up. We will be debuting our “milk stops” as shown above, and we’ve also been approved to start offering our own Homestead Emporium “Ultimate” version of Little Comet Tails Not-So-Flat-Wrap! We’re pretty excited about these.

    Here’s a sneak peek at one I sent to a good friend. 🙂

    Homestead Emporium’s “Ultimate” Not-So-Flat-Wraps will be created with luxurious fabrics, as you’ve come to expect from us! Plus these will be pinnable, and snappiable, creating the “Ultimate” fit for your baby! One side offers luxuriously soft hand dyed bamboo velour, perfect for pinning! While the other side offers a cute print, and bamboo fleece, perfect for snappis! Super soft, super cute, super fun, and even super absorbent with ELEVEN layers of absorbency through the center!

    We hope to debut the “milk stops” on Tuesday evening at our hyencart, and the “Ultimate” Not-So-Flat-Wraps on Thursday evening at LilyPadLanding . We’ve got three ready so far, two are girly and I dare say, covered in cupcakes. 😉 The other two will be boyish, or one boyish and one gender neutral. We haven’t decided which to offer yet. 🙂

    That’s all for now! Have a great weekend, and we hope to see you all next week, on Tuesday at the shop and Thursday at LilyPadLanding!

  • We’re having a 15% off sale, Friday noon PST until Sunday midnight PST!

    We’re having a 15% off sale from Friday noon PST until Sunday midnight PST.

    Now’s the time to stock up on cloth pads from our instock shop!

    Use coupon code:
    save15

    www.hyenacart.com/homesteademporium

  • The winner is… and this week’s stocking info.

    The winner of the facial mitts set is…

    Rebecca B.

    Congratulations Rebecca, email me at homesteademporium(at)gmail.com to claim your prize!

    As for this week’s stocking info…from our hyenacart:

    The same as last week, due to yet more house showings
    (and one viewer is returning later this week!!!)
    we may not be stocking much until next week.
     
    The product we do stock this week, will be on Thursday and/or Friday.
    We are aiming to stock at LilyPadLanding on Thursday evening, for our Honu/Sea Life theme this week.
    I’m also working on some more hand dyed bamboo velour pads.
    *Our custom orders that are due to ship by the end of the month are on schedule as usual and those customers should be hearing from us by the weekend or first of next week with photos of their orders and shipping dates.
     We hope to have all our previews up by Wednesday or Thursday evening.
    We’re sorry about the inconvenience these erratic stockings cause, but this is the best we can do at this time. We really don’t want to close up shop for any length of time if we can avoid it, so this gives us the ability to keep stocking as often as we can, while we go through this busy phase of our lives.
    We truly appreciate everyone’s patience!
    And let’s hope this doesn’t carry on for much longer and life can become settled once again, on our NEW (to us) farm soon!

  • Minimal stocking this week

    We may not be stocking this week. We’ve had quite a few house showings and with each one, we loose two days of sewing/work. One day while cleaning, the next day while we’re out of the house for the showings. Between this, schooling and the regular busyness of summertime, this week isn’t looking all that good for a regular stocking.

    We are hopeful that we can get some nursing pads put up in the shop since we’ve had quite a few emails (and comments here lol) that more are needed and I do hope to get some more EnduraPads up and maybe even a few hand dyed bv pads but I just can’t make any promises. We may split up the big Post Partum Eclectic Rainbow package. I was hoping it’d be perfect for someone needing a full stash at once but so far it’s not to be, so I’ll be splitting it up and listing them as seperate and pairs of pads as well. This way, they will go to many homes. I like that idea too. 🙂

    Later this week I’ll be doing the draw for the twitter/facebook contest: http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/celebrate-mothers-day-with-20-off-1-day-only/

    This is your last chance to enter. 🙂

  • Win a $100.00 Gift Certificate!

    Yes, you read that right!

    Homestead Emporium is going to be giving one of you, a $100.00 Gift Certificate for our shop!

    Why, you ask?

    Well… we here at Homestead Emporium, would like to play a game and we want lots of participants!
    That’s where you all come in!

    As some of you already know, we are trying to sell our hobby farm so that we can obtain our life long dream of a ‘real’ farm, a much larger farm. The waiting is starting to become a little unendurable. It’s been almost 2  years  off and on now (I mistakenly put almost 3 years, but dh reminded me we first actually listed the house 2 years ago, that we started getting ready to sell, 3 years ago) and I think it’s time to have some fun with this whole waiting ‘game’. You know what they say… “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” Well, I’m no good at making lemonade, but I make a pretty darn good pad and many other great organic family products too, so I thought since I can’t  possibly invite you all over for some lemonade, why not offer up some products, for free?!

    This ‘waiting’ is what got me to thinking. This has been some what like a pregnancy, a very LOONNNGGG pregnancy mind you. Even my longest pregnancy at exactly 42 weeks didn’t feel quite as long as this waiting has been going on! But we’ve hung in there, and we’re still hanging in there, however this year feels different. We’ve had quite a few people out to look at the place who really seem to be looking for what we have to offer here. This has given us renewed hope!

    With that in mind, I started thinking about how much fun it is to play the guessing game when a woman is expecting a baby! And I thought to myself… “Why not have a Guess the Closing /Sale Date, game?!”
    So then my husband and I discussed what type of prize to give away. At first I said 50.00, but he said, “nah, that’s not enough if someone wants a post partum package, or is in need of the larger pads” (yes, my dh talks pads and yes, I realise that may not seem ‘normal’ to some but he doesn’t care. lol) So I suggested $100.00 to the winner then, and he agreed this was a good prize. 🙂 Then he said he didn’t think I should have the contest, seeing as our track record is 2 years off and on of an unsold house. He worried  that I may look a little silly if the house doesn’t sell, but I assured him that I am quite accustomed to looking the fool in life, and quite comfortable playing that role. I figure if I can’t have fun with these types of things, then what’s the point?! It’s either laugh, or cry, and I’m just not much of a crier! So I’ll make up some fun instead. 😉

    How do you enter this contest?

    Simply post here, your best guess, as to what our closing date will be for the sale of our house/hobby farm!

    What are the rules?
    How will you be sure that someone will actually win if our house remains for sale forever???

    This was a question I had to ask myself of course. With our previous ‘non-sale’ for the past almost two years, there is a chance that maybe the house won’t sell this year either! If that’s the case, then we will end this contest on the last day of September, and we will draw a winner from all those who have entered the contest! There will indeed be a winner, no matter if the house sells or not!

    So give us your best guess!
    But first, here are some tips.
    The contest will close by September 30th, and we’ll likely take our home off the market shortly after that if it doesn’t sell by that time. Because of this,  it would be wise to guess a date between now, May 17th,  and November 30th. That’s about as late a closing date as we’d be able to accept, for this year. Anything between May 16th 2009 and November 30th 2009 is fair game! You pick a date and mark it as yours. If more then one person chooses the winning date, we will draw between those names for the winner.

    The winner will be the person who guesses the closing date. This is the date that we leave this property and hand it over to the new owners. Because we are waiting upon those new owners to ‘arrive’, it will be up to them to decide on that date, it will not be our decision so your guess, is as good as ours and that’s what makes this so much fun!

    As usual, if you would like to enter our contest again, then spread the word!
    Just leave a second comment, with a second date AND a link to where you spread the word about our $100.00 gift certificate give away! It’s that easy! You can spread the word on your own blog, your twitter, your facebook, your favorite message board, where ever you please! It’s that easy. :

    _________________________________________________________________________

    Onto other news!

    We have stocked the shop! We’ve got gorgeous “Eclectic Rainbow” packages, including The Ultimate Post Partum Package!

    “Royalty” Sampler Package

    “Teeny” Ultimate Package

    “Deep” Light Pads

    And a whole lot more!

    Come and check it out and see all the previews, then come back and shop on Tuesday evening at 8pm EST, 5pm PST!

    We hope to see you then! 🙂
    www.hyenacart.com/HomesteadEmporium

  • Happenings this week at Homestead Emporium

    We will not be stocking this week.
    At the moment we are getting our home/hobby farm ready to put it back on the market and will be concentrating on this all week.
     
    We hope to have the shop well stocked again next week though, with a good variety of all our sizes and styles. 
    We have some new fabrics!
    Here’s a sneak peak at what Gigi from Natural Home Presents has sent us.
     
     
    We still have some of our previous favorites.
     
     
    And we may possibly have some swirl dyed pads from Pam of Indigo Onion as well.
     
    We will be sharing photos and more here on our blog later this week, along with a free & easy awesome contest with yet more prizes!If you have a teen daughter, or are a teen yourself, please come on over and share with us so we can help other teens. If you are feeling shy about sharing in ‘public’, don’t hesitate to email us at HomesteadEmporium(AT)gmail.com and we will be happy to post your info for you and you will still be entered in the draw!

     

    Our “Teen Info” Contest is still ongoing and we will announce the winner by Friday.
    Visit here to share your experiences & information: http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/new-stock-and-contest-info/

  • Would you like to see how we work around here?

    I thought I’d share a completely different type of post today. A post sharing how we work around here. I think this may give our customers some insight as to why we’ve chosen the name Homestead Emporium. I’d like to give you a peek into our ‘world’, through photos.

    First off, we live on the west coast of Canada. I know most people believe we have a lot of snow, a lot of the time, but actually, where we live it’s normally quite the contrary. I say normally, because this winter, for the first time in the ten years we have lived in this area, we will have a VERY white Christmas indeed!

    Here’s a photo I shot the other day of my horse, which sums things up quite well.

    To give you an idea of the layout of our ‘homestead’, here is a photo of our home, and on the center/right you can see our workshop/cabin.

    Our cabin is where we do all our sewing, cutting, fabric storage etc.. Our home is where the computer is stationed. If you see the upstairs balcony off the front of our home (it’s the building on the left of the photo) that balcony is right next to where I am sitting at the moment. This area of our home is where I do all our packaging, listings, any computer/web work etc.. When I’m conversing with you all via email, I’m sitting just inside the house with french doors next to me leading to that upper deck.

    Here is my view from that deck.

    Isn’t it beautiful? As you can see, we live amongst mountains, and lots of evergreens. This area of Canada is absolutely stunning from it’s beautiful mountain tops (you can see one in the very far distance in the center of the photo) to it’s gorgeous ocean views (none which we have from our home, but it’s not far from here!)

    Here is the cabin, from the front. This is where we go each day that we work. My younger children come with me most of the time, and on this particular day only my middle child was home. Here she is with our little dog, and one of our medium sized dogs heading to the cabin. Only our little lap dog has the priviledge of coming to work inside with us though. The other two larger dogs can’t promise me they will behave, so they hang out on the deck, on my wicker outdoor furniture, waiting for us to come back out and play with them.

    When you are a Homstead Mama, you dress for success! Especially when the cold weather comes and you have to leave your nice toasty woodstove to go work in the cabin.
    This is what dressing for success means in my world…

    Rubber boots and a warm pair of socks! That will keep your feet nice and cozy for a short trip to ‘work’. ;)

    Once inside the cabin you’ll warm up quick, if only because of our ‘fake’ fireplace in here.
    We have a countertop and sink, which comes in very handy at times! We also have a full bathroom in here, which also comes in very handy! I wouldn’t get near as much work done without it! I’d be spending half my time taking children to the bathroom in the main house, and myself too of course.

    That table is where our snaps are put on, and where the younger girls  usually cut their cotton balls.
    Right now the counter top is loaded up with fabrics, it’s not usually quite this neat. ha ha! The table is usually covered in half finished projects from cotton balls to pads, all stacked and awaiting serging or snaps.

    The cabin is newly finished, and we’ve had our place for sale for quite some time, which is why everything is pretty neutral, and there’s no pictures on the walls. If this were a cabin I would be using long term, there would be MUCH of my photography ALL over the walls. Believe you me!

    For now, we remain inspired by the windows. Big beautiful windows which I absolutely love.

    To the right of this photo you can see where I have my machines. The bare table is where our eldest daughter and I do all the fabric cutting. This table is normally covered in fabric cuts, waiting for me to sew them together. My favorite place to work is at the serger, right in front of the window.

    Would you like to see the view I see as I work/sew/serge?

    I really am blessed to have such beautiful views everywhere I turn.

    On the left side of our cabin is an area we’ve deemed the children’s nook. This is where our children do a lot of their book work (we homeschool) and their reading. They also keep their dolls and some other toys in here, and LOTS of coloring supplies. They often use the round table for coloring as well.

    It wasn’t always this way though. Often people will exclaim how ‘lucky’ we are, but this has only come from a LOT of VERY hard work.
    The cabin we work in now, certainly didn’t look this way when we first purchased this place, and it was a FAR cry from being somewhere that I could work in! Here’s what we started out with.

         

    We’ve come a long way, and we’re glad to finally be done and enjoying the fruits of our labour!
    At one time, our entire business was crammed into our tiny house. And yes, for 7 people, it is tiny. Just over 600 square feet downstairs, and just under 600 square feet upstairs! We were all VERY glad when the cabin was complete and we were able to move the fabric, and machines out of the house! We feel very blessed indeed!

    I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone for your generous support over the past years. We truly appreciate you, our loyal customers!
    Without you, Homestead Emporium and our  Homestead, would not be the same!