So, in the news… Erica is due at the end of July with (odds are) baby girl number 2.

This is exciting, as it will:

1. Give Autumn a moving toy to play with for the foreseeable future.

2. Fulfill replacement value reproduction

3. Reward the parents with a tax break

4. Be another cute child

5. Give the grandparents something new to talk about

This is less exciting because it will require:

1. The purchase of Diapers for a few more years

2. Another baby seat, filling the car completely

3. Tolerance of house being a disaster for additional years

4. More of Mommies time, leaving less for Daddy

5. And will reduce the number of hours that Daddy can sleep

Generally, blacksmith shops are not considered very baby friendly environments. Carpentry shops are almost as bad. And Blade smith shops the worst of both worlds, plus some sharp edges.

I don’t know why, but people seem concerned about mixing a child (or children) with limited hand to eye coordination with a scattered and disorganized pile of blades you could shave with. Go figure.

I don’t think that I have ever seen Autumn hold a knife the wrong way, and she knew what they were and what they were called before she was 2.

I keep her out of the shop mostly because I don’t have protective gear small enough and she doesn’t like to wear it when it falls off like that. Also because she makes it more likely that I will hurt myself due to the distraction.

At least she can’t really open the door to the shop while I am working yet. But I can’t imagine that day is too far away. Sigh.

And here are some recent pictures of Autumn, since I was talking about her...

With her brand new big girl skates!

And again...

and just waking up from a nap...

Happy New Year!

Lets start the new year with a look back! So much happened it is hard to remember everything! It feels like the days passed in seconds and I expect this next year to be equally busy.

This past year I was travel team captain for The Munecas Muertas roller derby team along with my friend Killer Queen. That was one of the most interesting and challenging experiences ever. I probably should not have run, but had so many people tell me they thought I would be good at it that I ran anyway. I am not one of those people who loves power, or leading things, or anything like that. I am even kind of shy, so the whole experience was way outside of my comfort zone, and the job came with a ton of paperwork. BOOOORRRIIINNNG. I became pregnant, about two months before the season ended so I removed myself from the travel team and then almost as soon as it was too late to put myself on for the last tourney, I had a miscarriage. I had a dream recently that the current travel team went to nationals! That would be so exciting!

I also opened my store, Caustic Threads, on etsy. ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/CausticThreads ) I started my account at the end of last year, but didn't actually list anything until April of last year, and since I have started listing things I have been really thrilled with how things have been going in that store. I have another store where My husband and I sell other items that we love to make, mostly Fine Art and Knives. That store is called Acrylic and Steel ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/AcrylicAndSteel ), and have to admit it has been pretty neglected since Caustic opened.

Those are the two things that stand out the most, but I also: had my gall bladder removed, started selling items on consignment, had a pregnancy, and a miscarriage, started running, lost 35 pounds, gained 40 pounds, had my blood tested A LOT, stopped eating corn syrup,traveled all around the US, played a lot of roller derby, had a great time with my husband Adam and daughter Autumn (pictured above) , went to visit my mom, laughed, cried and loved.

It has been quite a year.

I am also very excited because I am pregnant again, and things seem to be going well.

Thanks For visiting!

♥ Erica

NEW CAUSTIC THREADS:

• 
  dia de los muertos Sugar S...

  CausticThrea...
  $14.00 USD
• 
  Long Sleeved Cruiser Bicyc...

  CausticThrea...
  $22.00 USD
• 
  Sugar Skull with rhineston...

  CausticThrea...
  $12.00 USD
• 
  Key to my Heart Skeleton k...

  CausticThrea...
  $3.50 USD
• 
  Womens Octopus cotton tee...

  CausticThrea...
  $18.00 USD
• 
  Crochet Love ladies Tee Sh...

  CausticThrea...
  $18.00 USD

Adventures in T-shirt land:from the workbench

I recently sent out an order to the owner of ISLAND GIRL in Catalina, California. I hope she loves her shirts and they sell well in her store.

I sent her 15 of these, three in each size, and matching arm warmers.

I also thought this would be an awesome Item for her next order:

My thought was that the wings would actually be in burn out, not silver and the shirt would be a light blue. It isn't a totally random suggestion, she has expressed interest both in wings and in the skully heart design.

I am hoping to also get another new wholesale account, it is for a store that specializes in Roller Derby merchandise! I think it would be really fun!

This is my new design of the week, both are brand new screens. The skully heart art is not new, just the screen. This screen is a little smaller than the other one and the colors are inverted.... Right now I have a bunch of screens I want to burn.

I want to do a smaller set of wings for onesies and children's shirts, as well as some text to go on the front. I also want to reburn a few screens that have very fine lines and are hard to print. I think I should invert more designs, especially some of the ones with VERY fine lines, like my revolver screen, and for new art I plan on drawing a dinosaur. lately that has seemed very important.

and something else that is VERY VERY IMPORTANT:

Pictures of my lovely daughter Autumn. She is turning 2 this weekend!

I promised her she could watch a cartoon or two if she let me finish this post, so I guess it is time to turn the computer over to her for a little while... besides, I have 8 dresses that are VERY quickly approaching deadlines.

See you soon!

♥Erica

We had a fun and busy weekend around here, which is usual. I was hoping to have pictures of autumn in her costume to share with you all, but, I dont. The only pictures we took were on Adams new fancy smart phone. I played in the duke city derby championship bout on Saturday. My team lost but I felt like I played really well and I had a lot of fun.

On Sunday I fit the last girl for the damas dresses I am making. She was about a half an hour late, after not showing up at all for the scheduled fitting. I am not annoyed with the girl of corse, it is not her fault, it was her mother that caused her to be late and also to not show up for the scheduled fitting but it really bothers me that she wasted my time like that. I am already offering these girls a STEAL as a gift for my old co-workers daughter, so I am annoyed that she was so disrespectful of my time. After that we took Autumn trick or treating and that was soooo much fun! she was so cute! I will get some pictures soon!

Autumns birthday is coming up, here are some great handmade items that are inspired by autumns birthday:

• 

  Sweet Vanilla and Confetti...

  BiscottiQuee...

  $8.49 USD

• 

  BIRTHDAY PRINCESS RIBBON

  Joosycardco

  $5.00 USD

• 

  Swing high, in the sky. 4...

  ibitelikeamo...

  $14.99 USD

• 

  Ballet Baby Booties Amy Bu...

  BriannaBeans...

  $18.00 USD

ok, hopefully I will have something good to write about later this week!

take care!

♥Erica

I got up a little earlier than usual this morning to get some packages ready for Adam to take to the post office since I dont have any cash on me right now, and we didn't want to run out and get some last night. Oh, they are going to Canada, or I would have just shipped them through paypal.

After all my packages were either with Adam, or in out mailbox with a shipping label I seriously considered going back to sleep. Not only am I tired, but it finally started getting cold here in albuquerque after an unseasonably warm October thus far. When it is cold a few things happen, first, I take longer warmer showers, second, I stay inside more, and third but doubtably final, I have quite an urge to stay in bed much longer. It is like I have hibernation instincts that kick in or something. Anyway, I stayed up to write a blog post instead.

Above is the newest screen I have printed, this image is straight off the scanner, I had to clean it up a lot before burning the screen. I think it is pretty cute, but we will see how it does. I will post a picture of it on a shirt in my Wednesday post, along with the results from my little experiment last week and some other on going projects.

Not at all related to any surrounding pictures, I have also decided to skate in Duke City Derby's championship bout on Saturday... and I am REALLY excited :) I thought I was over roller derby, that I could retire just like that... but even if I dont have time for it anymore, I really love it. In addition to asking me to play Adam was asked to ref, but he stayed strong and said no. I expect the reffing to be questionable since they will be short staffed, but I am sure I have seen worse.

Since I am playing this upcoming weekend I decided to go to the rink formerly known as Roller King this past Sunday, and I had a blast. A few skaters came up and told me I was a great skater with really good endurance, which I suppose is true for the general public. Unfortunately, not true for me, or in relation to roller derby. My actual skating skill was fine, although some of the things I was just starting to get before my surprisingly brief hiatus (specifically crossing over while skating backwards) felt a little shaky. I don't have the endurance I would like to to play a championship bout, but I cant change that in a week, and I did do better than expected after pushing through the muscle aches. I decided I need to make sure to go skating, and JUST skate at least once a week, for myself. I miss it.

Other than that we really didn't do much this weekend. I remember doing some cleaning, but that is really boring. We also went to rocketpants' house Sunday evening, Adam dropped me off at the rink and went over and then picked me up and since he lives so close we went back there for a little while longer. It is always nice to see Jon, but I cant say it was eventful.

I have had a pretty insatiable craving for green chili lately, not chopped, it is very important that it is green chili SAUCE. Right now I would eat it with three meals a day until I couldn't stand the sight of it if it were up to me... fortunately I have other people to feed who get tired of eating the same thing every day, so I have NOT been eating it with three meals a day. It is also fortunate that I live in New Mexico, as it would be very hard to find green chili in abundance if I lived anywhere else. My only guesses are that I am pregnant again (with autumn I was craving spicy V8- which I usually hate, and for my recent failed pregnancy I wanted salsa) or that since I have cut back on fruit (and other sugars, but a lot of my sugar intake came from sweets) per a suggestion from my OBGYN, that I am craving the nutrients that I am missing from all the fruit I had been eating. Green chili has Lots of vitamin C, and some other nutrients.

Oh, the outfit autumn is wearing in these pictures is a silly little thing I whipped up for her on my surger in about 20 min. Cute.

Welp, Adam calls my posts schizophrenic , and this post is no exception. See you all tomorrow for my workbench post.

♥ Erica

An Update

Hi,

It has been an inexcusably long time since my last blog post. I have been busy, but really- everyone is busy-so here is a quick recap of what has been going on, with random photos intermittently placed.

I am having a little difficulty seeing right now, I am waiting for some clear sunlight so I can burn one of my new shirt designs. That has resulted in me staring (albeit through cloud cover) at the sun much more than is appropriate. (by the way, before I finished the preceding sentence I got just enough sunlight to burn one screen. Awesome. Still cant see though. )

Last time I wrote a blog, I was pregnant. Sadly I experienced the very common occurrence of a miscarriage. Unfortunately, just because miscarriages are frequent, does not make them any easier. I really wanted to have another baby and was very disappointed. We are currently "trying" to get pregnant again. I have not skated, I haven't really felt up to it, but I am thinking about practicing for the next few weeks so that I can play in the last game of our season, and continue to play roller derby until I get pregnant again. To add insult to injury, my body freaked out again as soon as I got pregnant and I gained at least 30 lbs in that month. It is really frustrating.

Autumn is doing well, she is crazy cute and does new fun things all the time. We have started her watching some educational programs on netflix because admittedly Adam and I occasionally need a reprieve from the rambunctious -almost- two year old. It seems like she is a little addicted though. One of the first things she asks for when she wakes up is "dora?" as in dora the explorer. You would think without a TV we would be able to keep autumn from falling in love with TV shows, but I guess not. On the other hand it has taught Autumn quite a lot. She can actually count from 1-11. Sometimes she even gets all the way to twelve!

Adam Got promoted to acting director of natural resources, which is very exciting. I also took the leap and decided to "quit my day job". Caustic threads has been VERY busy lately, and I expect that it will continue to get busier as Christmas approaches. I have gained the interest of several boutiques, and am working with one in Albuquerque. Until now she has been buying items at a wholesale discount, but she is interested in offering a wider variety of my items than her budget allows, so we are working on a consignment agreement. Awesome. One of my goals for this working from home change is to write blogs daily, however, if today is any indication I may not have time even now.

See you all tomorrow.

♥Erica

Bearing Necklaces galore.

This weekend Adam and I purchased a table at the Duke City Derby bout since I decided it was not really safe to play knowing that I am pregnant.

We made 16 or so new bearing necklaces for it, and since we were displaying all of the necklaces we needed a way to display them all.

This is what we came up with:

We made a stand out of my FIRST pair of derby skates!

When I say "we" I mean I said " I have an old pair of skates we can use" and Adam did the rest.

It is probably the best imaginable way to display skate bearing pendants.

I have never done a table or anything like this, so I don't really know what is good for sales, but we made over $300 in the four hours we were there, so I am pretty pleased. I ran a special on shirts and that went over VERY well and we sold several bearing necklaces as well. After the booth fee and supplies I would say I made about $240.

In other exciting news, we just got a wholesale order- our first- for 20.00 bearing pendants... so that is a lot of work, but the order is for other derby folks, so that is awesome.

And what kind of post would this be without a random picture of Autumn?

;)

Xoxo

Erica

Etsy, Derby, and some non-relevant pictures of autumn.

Another week has flown past so quickly I can hardly believe it happened.

There is a roller derby game this weekend and since I can't play Adam and I decided to buy a table that I can vend shirts and bearing necklaces at while the games are going on.

There is a roller derby boot camp that we are hosting and I will be helping with that in the morning. Tickets to the bout are included to the games so I am hoping to do well at my table, especially since a lot of my products are roller derby related.




I am thinking about stopping by the black market Gallery to see if anything new sold or if I need to replace anything. I guess I will do that if there is time.



I know I will miss skating and the amount of exercise I do now if I don't find another outlet, so I am trying to decide what I want to do about that. I was considering helping without the newbie program in duke city derby but I may just skate at the roller rink instead. I would probably benefit more from just skating, but I like roller derby and it would be ok to stay involved.

Than you to the family members who have sent us happy wishes!

By the way, I will not be doing daily treasuries any more, but you probably figured that out.

Have a great weekend!
Xoxo
Erica

Exciting Day!

I was surprised to find myself on the front page of etsy today! How exciting!

The treasury was really beautiful!

And, I thought I would share some pictures of my pumpkin.

This is a picture of autumn playing "dress up" she is wearing a shirt I was trying to photograph, a hair bow as a necklace, and a pair of my very old sunglasses. They were from the 90's ska resurgence when clear lenses were hot, or at least I thought they were :)

I dont know. There is something cute about faces smushed up against screens.

And THIS is extra special fancy. Autumn is trying to crawl in the cat door.

What else? well my roller derby team played a game against Assassination City this weekend and won by a pretty sizable margin, so that was fun. The reffing was pretty awful, but if the refs hadn't been there we would not have been able to sanction the bout. Other than that, I am BUSY BUSY BUSY--- and I am developing a new product. With some luck I will be able to offer a preview later this week.

Ok. I'll be back for my daily treasury this evening.

X0xo :)

♥Erica

Summer Fun With my Family

I love summer in New Mexico... but then I suppose I love most seasons in new mexico.

There is something about the dry heat and the way the hot hot sun penetrates your skin that just makes me happy.

We got autumn a cheap 3 ring pool that she REALLY enjoys...

Though I guess her expression does not indicate that.

Every day she asks to go out and play in the water. She splashes and plays with a little cup, dumping water on to the ground, and like anything she loves these days, she WAILS when we take her out, even if she is shivering and blue.

This weekend we have a roller derby game in taos, and that should be fun, though lately I have been more interested in spending time with my beautiful daughter and wonderful husband.

Have a great weekend!

XOXO

♥Erica

SO, Adam and I decided that we want to have another baby, or I should say I want to have another baby and he wants me to be happy (plus he wouldn't mind if I stopped playing roller derby).

I hated being pregnant, and the first few months of being a parent was really hard on me, but the more autumn turns into her own little person the more I love being a mom.

I have a few more games coming up and I should probably wait to try to have another baby until after regionals. After 5 years I am ready to retire from roller derby at the end of the season I think, so now is a good time to think about having another baby. I know I don't want to travel any more and I can wait until I actually get pregnant to stop playing on home teams.

The thought or retiring is very hard, but I can still skate and attend games, and lately it has been hard to motivate myself to go to practice. I haven't been feeling well and that is part of it , but I also have a lot of other things I like to do and roller derby takes up a lot of time. That said I would have to find another primary source for aerobic activity, so who knows how much time I would really have, especially with another baby.

Well,

Here are my new listings for today:
♥♥♥Brand New Threads♥♥♥
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50527219/i-love-to-sew-tote-or-reusable-shopping NEW ITEM
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50530661/unicorn-skeleton-tee-juniors-sz-m NEW DESIGN

I will be back this evening to post a treasury. Any ideas for themes?

xoxo
Erica

Caustic Sighting.

A long time friend of mine that lives in San Diego and also plays roller derby came across one of my Tee's randomly at a gift exchange her league held. She snapped this picture and sent it to me because she recognized it. What a fun surprise!

Wow. Its like I forgot I had a blog.

It's been a while, hasn't it? I can't say I actually FORGOT about my blog, but I have been tired and uninspired.

The last banner I made, the updated one was quickly insulted, It was described as tacky and distracting. So I replaced it with this:

I'm pretty happy with it.

This past weekend we went to play the Arch Rival Rollergirls and lost, we probably should have won, but our roster was four girls short, and many of the missing skaters were key skaters, so that was a bummer. I ended up with a scraped knee and came to the conclusion that skrapes hurt much more than sprains, bruises, punctures, cuts, and many other mild injuries.

Adam chimes in "But not as much as giving birth, or having gall bladder issues."

This is completely true.

I purchased a clothing showcase spot on etsy, and that was as pointless as the housewares spot I purchased for http://acrylicandsteel.etsy.com I thought maybe that the lower price point of my new store would make it more successful, but I was wrong. Oh Well, live and learn.

Last but not least, I am sick again. Very sick, but very ambiguously sick. I am so tired I dont really know what to do about it. Things I have been doing for a long time like skating and biking have become painfully fatiguing. I am feeling dizzy and nauseous. I know what you are thinking. NO, Im not pregnant. I feel as sick as I did before I started feeling better.

Well, Take care Folks,

Hope to unwind here again soon.

xoxo

Erica

Autumn is 18 months old!

This week was clearly on fast forward, it seems like I barely even got enough sleep. I never got around to my color feature, so I will post that next week. I used to have Mondays off and since I started working on Mondays again, and opened a new store I can barely keep up with anything.

I guess maybe this whole year has been on fast forward. Autumn is 18 months old today! It seems like just yesterday I was planning Autumns first birthday, and just Sunday was already my second mothers day!

Autumn amazes me and breaks my heart every day. Being a parent is an amazing journey and now I really understand what people mean when they say things like that. She can cry and scream and make huge messes, and all it takes is a hug, a smile, or a kiss to melt my heart.

Autumn is a strange girl. She is not really very affectionate, but she likes attention. As far as I can tell she is also very stubborn. She likes dried cranberries, and shoes.

My mothers day was wonderful, we went to the botanical gardens and Aquarium in Albuquerque, which is where these pictures were taken. Adam made me an awesome cleaver, which I may never use, but I REALLY think is awesome. It is hanging over our oven right now. He also gave me a wonderful book on mixed media folk art with some wonderful stories in it.

I have so much more to write about and not enough time! It seems like between Autumn, my job, roller derby and etsy I am working from the moment I get up until I go to bed!

Duke City Derby is having our first bout at the New Mexico Convention Center on Saturday, and I am sure it will be great but I am already nervous!

Have a Great Weekend!

Xoxo,
Erica