Category Archives: celebrations and festivals

Welcoming Seraphina

Our littlest one was officially welcomed into the world and into our community with a shower of blessings and rose petals.  As with our vow renewal, it rained and the ceremony had to be moved indoors at the last minute.  I planned everything in pastels.  A friend showed up unexpectedly bearing huge bouquets of flowers in the brightest and boldest of hues; a complete riot, so entirely different from everything I had imagined and completely perfect.

Our Sweet Wild Violet wore the gown and bonnet I made for her sister 5 years earlier.  It was a bit too warm to add in the stockings as well.  I love that they both were able to wear it.  Still I wanted to make her something special of her own.  The party was to be an all day event.  Since it didn’t seem practical to keep her in the gown all day, a party dress was in order!  I decided to give the Lizzy Dress another go using the chart this time.  The yarn is Knit Picks Diadem in ‘Azurite’, blue, blue…deep blue…like the ocean and the sky, her eyes when she was tiny, her beautifully formed umbilical cord, our birth tub!

Rosebud had a new frock of her own to coordinate.  I modified this pattern for the bodice.  Originally I pictured it with a floral skirt, featuring hints of that same blue.  I think there was a specific Liberty of London print that I kept seeing in my mind whenever I closed my eyes.  Then I remembered this amazing single yard of green Radiance, cotton silk blend, that I had tucked away for a special occasion.  I thought the combination a bit daring really.  The silhouette has kind of a regency feel with the empire waist, scooped neck, slightly puffed sleeves, but the striking colors make me think of some of the really bold fashions that started appearing in the 1920′s.  Kind of a The House of Eliott vibe.  Together they put me in mind of the skyline around our home…treetops reaching up into the deep blue of an early autumn sky.  She looked a tiny goddess in it.

I wanted to get some really nice photos of my girls in their dresses, but I didn’t take most of the candid shots that day.  The pictures of Seraphina in her gown and most of the decorative detail ones are mine, but most of the rest were taken by other people as my camera got passed around throughout the day.  I’ll have to try to get some better ones for posterity’s sake.

By
baby things, celebrations and festivals, Food, Kids, sewing, Yarn Crafts
6 Replies

midsummer

We came home to peonies just on the verge of bursting into full, frothy blossom, blooming peas and the very first ripe strawberries of the season.  We’ve now entered that time of intense growth.  I swear, everything in the garden, including the weeds (!) doubled in size over the last week.

We may have gone a bit over-board with the Summer Solstice treats.  One morning for breakfast it was lavender scones (we modified this recipe) topped with whipped coconut cream and dew covered strawberries fresh from our garden.  The following afternoon peach cobbler for baking day, with the last of the frozen peaches from last year.  There will be more soon!  Delicious ripe peaches on our trees, bought in cases from the orchard, available for snacking whenever we please, oh I can’t wait.  Then there were strawberries, dried in the oven, just because we never tried it before.  One batch came out a little over-done, one a bit under, but we every last one of them anyway.  The summer sweets don’t seem to be stopping any time soon.  We baked strawberry rhubarb pie today.  It was fabulous, but now I’m out of honey, maple syrup and every possible kind of flour.  So, I guess things will let up a bit…at least until shopping day.  I’ve been indulging my sweet tooth these last few weeks.  I’m being quite naughty.  I don’t care and you can’t make me.

Only a child of mine would deem an axe a necessary tool for making floral crowns!  A little bit into the process Elijah decided that some birch bark would really be “just the thing”, moments later he reappeared with axe slung over his shoulder and a decent chunk of tree dragging behind.  Floral crown making somehow morphed into iris leaf plaiting.  They are wondering if it can be wound into a hat like straw.  My pantry is festooned in yards of iris leaf braid.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the experience of being a teenager.  By next year we will have two such creatures in our house.  I myself was a very typical teen.  When my parents went away for the weekend when I was 16, I threw…a dinner party.  I served fettuccine alfredo and garlic green beans (because you’ve got to have your veggies. duh.).  There were other things too, but I distinctly remember preparing the fettuccine and the beans.  Fresh green beans from the little produce market that I worked at part time during the summer.  Because, come on, what kid would serve frozen green beans to guests?!?  Lame-o!  I bought myself a set of new candlesticks to use as a center piece.  They were made from a combination of clear and teal glass in three different heights.  There was piano music playing softly in the background as guests arrived and sparkling cider all chilled and ready to serve with dinner.  I only wish I could remember what I served for desert.

By
celebrations and festivals, crafts, Food, Holidays, Homeschooling, Kids
2 Replies

12

Sweater details:
Guston in Wool of the Andes Tweed, color: ‘Reindeer Heather’, with horse buttons found on Etsy.  Somehow this yarn wasn’t nearly as soft as the Wool of the Andes Tweed that I worked with before.

 

For his birthday we bought him paddock boots and half-chaps.  I’m sure this must have come as a great surprise, what with him having spent the entire month prior walking around with his nose in a Dover Saddlery catalog.  And leaving it in conspicuous places…conveniently left opened to certain dog-eared pages, with lots of dark circles…and stars….and very specific sizing notes in the margins.  Just in case that wasn’t enough for us to go on, he took to chanting various brand and item names in a sort of song that he just kind of wove into whatever he was doing throughout the day, you know, real casual like.  It was kind of catchy.  After the first day or two some of the other kids started singing along.

 

On his birthday night he asked to watch “Singin’ in the Rain“.  Goodness I love this boy!

 

By
celebrations and festivals, Kids, Yarn Crafts
4 Replies

May Day

Nothing went as planned and yet, everything was just as it should be; dancing, music, friends, family and what eventually turned in to a beautiful spring day.  We danced the May Pole, dyed eggs and shared brunch with our neighbors.  In the afternoon; the beach…first trip of the season for most, first trip of a lifetime for one.  Happy children back on, near and sometimes (just briefly) in the water.  Tic tac toe in the sand.  Apparently none of our sand toys survived the year.  Galen brought a garden hoe instead.  Mairi planted stick “trees”.  Steve used paddles to signal to Iain and Elijah who had kayaked off to an island.  Galen used them to be a bird.

By
celebrations and festivals, crafts, Holidays, Kids, Waldorf
1 Reply

Spring

Bread birds ~ We used this recipe for the bread

It’s finally starting to feel a bit spring like here.  We’ve had some warm days.  Slowly, slowly, slowly there is a bit of work and a bit of growth happening in the garden.  The weekend before last we planted a couple of trees, including an apricot for Seraphina.  Steve brought home a whole tray of various violets and her brothers and sister planted them all beneath her tree in the warm spring sunshine.  It snowed two days later because that’s the way spring is here…give and take, back and forth, really almost right up until summer when the steady warm weather truly settles in.  The pansies and violas made a cluster of little snow mounds under her tree.  The patch of wild ginger that Galen and Mairi Rose planted didn’t fair well under the snow.

We hung swings in the front yard.  Just four of them for now, dangling from beams of wood, strung from tree to tree.  We did this once before, at our old house, the Easter that Galen was a baby.  Rosebud excitedly told me that all we need is a slide and it will be just like we have our own real playground.

It was all the rage to try to extract the treats from your Easter basket as though you were a horse.  This is perfectly reasonable behavior, yes?

We ended up with some strangely colored eggs this year.  We didn’t have our usual dye stuffs on hand so did some experimenting.  If anyone is looking to make grey eggs, we unwittingly discovered about 4 different options for you.

Baby girl received a new Easter bonnet and such a rosy-posy, kissable little dumpling was she.  She has officially been sick more than half her life at this point.  Just a little cold really.  Unless you happen to be a very tiny person with a very tiny nose, in which case it’s a pretty big and overwhelmingly miserable thing.

Sunday was glorious, with the temperature hovering around 60.  I spent a lot of time trying to convince my children that this does not constitute “swelteringly hot” nor “scorching hot”, neither is it justification for a water fight to keep them from “dying of heat”.  They wholeheartedly disagree.  I’ll happily keep my sweater on, thank you.  After the egg hunt the Papa Bear and boys started up a game of wiffle ball, while Mairi made sand cakes, complete with real birthday candles, on the sidelines.  In between games they pitch to her and let her hit a good many balls before going back to their play.  My sister and I sat field-side; watching, knitting (both of us) and nursing (just me).  Her making an ascot with a pretty leaf pattern at the ends, me going back and forth between a cardigan for me and Elijah’s birthday sweater, depending on how free my hands were at the time.  Wiffle ball morphed into football, with Steve on his knees in the end zone, and teammate Galen jumping joyously into his arms.  After a very long while we decided to go for a walk, just to the edge of the woods, where the water was rushing and falling under and around the path and the kids settled in to game after game of “Pooh Sticks”, before heading home for dinner.

Our neighbor brought us over some beautiful Pysanky.

This blue and orange one was painted specifically with blessings for Seraphina in mind.

Wasn’t that a lovely gift?

By
baby things, celebrations and festivals, crafts, Gardens, Holidays, Kids, Life
3 Replies

made

The details on some of Galen’s birthday gifts….

First up some pants.  Somehow, all of the sudden none of his pants seem to fit, it’s amazing how that seems to happen overnight sometimes!  The few pairs that did still fit were uncomfortable or in poor shape.  He prefers comfy “mommy pants”, meaning mama-made, though he does sometimes call them maternity pants on account of the stretchy waist bands.  This first pair is our favorite.  They are reversible pants made out of two layers of flannel.

  And the other side:

Pair #2:

Brown corduroy that reverses to flannel…

And #3:

A pair of single layer twill pants, made with spring in mind.

Iain and Elijah carved him a ukelele holder…

And of course there was a birthday sweater…

Remember his need for a very particular birthday sweater this year?  I made the largest size, added 4 extra increases and several inches to both the sleeves and the body.  Fingers crossed that this one should last him a while!

And now everyone has one.

By
celebrations and festivals, crafts, Kids, sewing, Yarn Crafts
4 Replies

Celebrated

An eighth birthday in the midst of an ice-storm…

There were mama-made gifts and a brother made gift and the gift of visiting family from far away.

I put the chords to “Happy Birthday” in his Wonder Book, which inspired a full out sing-along of every song he’s ever played.

There was a special dinner and gingerbread…

and one splurge of a very cool gift.

He’s been wanting a camera for ages and this year we set out to see if we could find him one.  Nothing that we came across was very satisfying…that is, until we found the Bigshot build it yourself camera kit, which also happened to be way more money then we wanted to spend.  The problem was, after we saw that, nothing else came even close to comparing for this boy of ours who truly needs to know exactly how everything works.  Finally we asked a couple of other people to chip in and went for it.

Of course it absolutely had to be built right away…

Self portrait from this morning.  He’s really enjoying the timer setting!

By
celebrations and festivals, Food, Homeschooling, Kids
2 Replies

Week in the Life Friday

More snow and another day at home for everyone.

I’ve decided that a picture together every year is a nice Valentine’s day tradition.

Galen was hilarious.  He came down dressed in a complete suit and bow tie and started helping with dinner.  As he worked he began to shed one thing after another until he was grating potatoes wearing nothing but shorts.

Should we even talk about these ones?

No, I don’t think we should.

By
celebrations and festivals, Food, Holidays, Kids, Life, photography, snapshots
1 Reply