Category Archives: crafts

maybe

Just maybe, spring might come eventually.  I’m starting to think it might be possible.  It feels like there has been a bit of a shift.  More light.  Thank goodness for the light!  Usually the grey of winter doesn’t really get to me, but this year, oh this year, it honestly felt oppressive.  I’m currently reading this book, with the optimistic hope that we’ll be hitting mud season ourselves soon.  Strange to be looking forward to mud and muck and constantly needing to mop.  But the fact is making the transition from heaps of snow to fields of flowers means a good bit of mud in-between.  So I say bring on the mud!  I’m not very far into the book, but it’s made me laugh several times already, that seems like a good sign.  As a side note: I’m looking to stock my nightstand with post-baby reading material, nothing too, too serious or too intense.  Any good book suggestions?

Other good signs; the sap is running!  We have quite a few trees tapped at this point, with buckets being emptied into barrels before bedtime each night.  And the birds….the birds are different now.  There are robins about.  Rosebud stood at the window scolding them last week for being silly enough to come out into the snow.  The occasional purple finch stops by our feeder.  The boys have reported hearing phoebes calling when they go out to chop wood.  Even the winter birds seem to be more active.  Last week we saw a pileated woodpecker, a barred owl and a bald eagle in a two day span.

Màiri and I have been working on some little embroidery projects.  Late in the afternoon, when I need to put my feet up for a bit, we sit side by side and stitch away.

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crafts, Gardens, Homeschooling, Housewifery, Kids, Life, Yarn Crafts
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Week in the Life Thursday

Snow day.  Irish dance was cancelled, the daddy worked from home.  We made moon charts and valentines.  Rosebud walked around singing “Oh My Darling, Clementine”.

Coffee filter hats (leftover from crafting) became all the rage late in the day.

Current bedtime favorites for Màiri Rose:

The Apple Pip Princess and The Dollhouse Fairy, both by Jane Ray.  “Favorite Things” and “Winter Wonderland” for songs.

For Galen:

Steve is reading him The King of Ireland’s Son, but I don’t think it’s quite made “favorite” status yet.  For songs he exclusively requests tunes that he can accompany on the ukelele.

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Books, celebrations and festivals, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, photography, snapshots
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Week in the Life: Monday

I know it looks like a weird way of cleaning out the fridge, but it’s actually math.  Please ignore the boxes in the background.  I’ve been sorting baby clothes.

Decidedly not school work.  These books are kind of the bane of my existence, but I suppose if it’s the worst they get interested in…

I set up a fun photo shoot to do with Màiri (I’ll share some pictures soon).  It was the kind of thing that takes a rather silly person to even think of trying and a completely ridiculous one to attempt it without another adult on hand to help out.  But they certainly had fun.

They came home from our excursion yesterday with clay.  This is Mossy the Gnome.  Apparently he’s not a morning person either because he looked much happier later in the day.  He gained a great many accessories as well.

Plantain crackers with all sorts of seasoning for a snack.

Dance night for the two of them.

The smell of broth simmering all day, followed by cauliflower soup for dinner.

A bit of top secret sewing for the birthday boy.

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crafts, Food, Homeschooling, Kids, Life, photography, sewing, snapshots
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Elijah’s Equestrian Art Room

Before:

When we first moved in this room was the subject of much speculation.  In a house were every other room was painted the brightest, most vibrant colors, this room was beige to the extreme.  Beige carpets, beige walls, beige trim.  Perhaps they hadn’t decided on the right vivid color yet?  I suspect that there was one person in the family who craved a calm neutral space.  Steve’s theory is that it was the punishment room…”that’s it no more color for you young man!”

After:

The details:

He chose the paint color: Yolo Colorhouse Leaf .07.

The flooring is a local wide plank white pine.

I made the valences and the curtain for the closet door for his birthday.  The valences are burlap leftover from the table coverings from our vow renewal.  The horse fabric came from this Etsy shop.

The little bookshelf was built by Steve several years ago.  The desk was another birthday present.  Steve built it by modifying the Narrow Farmhouse Table plans by Ana White to fit the space. (yup, we’re still pretty crazy about Ana here)  Elijah and I talked a lot about how best to finish it.  He wanted both wood grain and color and he wanted it to be unique.  Inspiration finally came in the form of these wooden bowls.  I used General Finishes Water Base Dye Stain in both green and blue, layering one over the other and rubbing it away in parts to give it the uneven appearance, featuring many different shades.

Owl stencil here.  We decided that the shape of the owl was most like a Great Horned Owl.  That’s what I based the colors and shading off of.  After the initial stenciling, I came back in and added some free hand details and connected all of the pieces.

The lamp over the bed.  The desk lamp came from Goodwill.

The hammock chair was a gift from my sister.

The rug by the bed was Galen’s Christmas present to Elijah last year, made of wool roving, woven on a peg loom.  We dyed the wool for the middle with oak leaves.

And all of the artwork, of course, is his own.  He highly recommends the following books: Draw and Paint Realistic Horses and Drawing Horses: A Complete Drawing Kit for Beginners.

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before and after, Books, crafts, Kids, Our Home, The Renovation Journal
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wool

The felted matryoshkas that I made Màiri several years ago are suddenly a great favorite again.  We’ve been felting every day, usually while dinner cooks.  They keep asking to do a bit more and I don’t see any reason not to.  The booties are the “Pom-Pom Booties” from Vintage Knits for Modern Babies, made with the leftover yarn from Steve’s hat.  They are so tiny that the pom-poms are almost as big as the feet!

I finished Galen’s birthday sweater and am glad to be able to devote all of my knitting time to baby things.  Though I have to admit, over the last couple of days my head has been turned by the idea of making a new cardigan for myself.  Something very basic and very wearable.  The Annabel Cardigan comes to mind.  And look, I could make one for the baby too!  But I do not have yarn for such an undertaking and I have plenty of other things to be working on, so it’s more a daydream then anything else.

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baby things, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Yarn Crafts
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Waldorf at Home: horses, horses, horses

Random pictures from trips to the stables, clearly not recent!  It’s cold here today and rather nice to think about a time when a fan blowing in your face might have been a welcome thing.

Lest you think that all we do around here is celebrate various holidays!  It’s only that was the season when I started this series and easy to find pretty pictures of that sort of thing.  But I get a lot of questions about “how we do school” and regular requests to share some of our work.  So that is what I’m trying to do here.  You will all have to bear with me though, as I am very likely to jump around, topic and time period wise, as I think of things to post about or come across old projects or pictures.

Last year Galen started first grade.  I really wanted to concentrate on working with him in the first couple weeks of school.  For the first time I introduced the concept of assignment books to the older boys.  They were each assigned a project to work on independently, with very detailed instructions as to what was expected, when it was due, etc.  Because I wanted their year to start off well also, I tried to tailor these assignments to their strengths and interests.  It seemed like a really good time for Elijah to do an in-depth research report and the logical choice of topic to entice him, well horses of course!  This is truly a head, heart and hands subject for him.  From the physical acts of riding and caring for the horses, to his horse themed artistic work, to reading and learning all he can on the subject.  Clearly there is a strong emotional component as well.

Above is just as small sampling of his finished report.  I can no longer find the tutorial that he used for the book binding, but I know that it came from this site (found! Thank you Katie!).  He really got into the project and would come to me asking, “do you think I should include a chart of all the breeds of the world?  Because I think I should.” For resources, he highly recommends The Encyclopedia of Horses & Ponies by Tamsin Pickeral. 

Looking back at these pictures, I can’t believe how he has grown as an artist in the last year and a half.

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crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Waldorf
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winter days

The weather has been strange.  I seems like I say that a lot.  But sometimes, like this winter, it’s particularly strange and I find myself quoting Mark Twain in my head time, time and time again.  “If you don’t like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.”

It keeps freezing and melting, snowing then raining.  One week we have record lows, the next record highs.  Iain and Elijah who are usually big fans of winter have declared this one a dud and are ready to move on to spring.  It was in the low 40′s here the other day and I seriously had to argue with all four of my children to convince them that they could not go outside barefoot.  They were quite convinced that I was being terribly unreasonable.  There was talk of going out and turning the soil in one of their garden beds.  I mentioned that we were supposed to be back in the single digits next week, but they didn’t seem to find that relevant.  The garden is once again under a blanket of snow so presumably out of sight, out of mind at this point.

With all of this melting and freezing, the ice has been terrible.  I’m afraid to go outside.  My hips and ankles are so unstable to begin with that I go through phases where I fall regularly walking on the nice flat, even wood floors of my home.  Things shift just enough out of place so that my feet don’t quite end up landing exactly where 30+ years of experience tell me they should.  So far I’ve always caught myself, with bruised and battered legs and arms to prove it.  But it doesn’t seem wise to take this slapstick show out on the ice.  Instead I go out and pace on the deck several times a day.  I probably look like a caged animal, but it makes me feel better.  I can see my frosty garden, the mountains through the trees and often watch children slipping and sliding and laughing on the ice below.  The fresh air does me good.  Yesterday was the first day that the ice had subsided enough that it felt safe to venture out.  Our road was in pretty good condition, but the path through the woods is still a sheet of ice, so there I had my stopping point while children ventured ahead to explore a bit.  I can live with not going out and about much; not often visiting with others, but not being about to walk around outside does feel like a hardship.

Indoors I’ve been cooking a lot.  Mostly hearty stews and things of that sort.  A friend sent me her recipe for celery soup and I made a big double batch.  I covered chicken and broccoli with the leftovers and baked that the next day.  Served over quinoa cooked in chicken broth, that hit the spot.

Window crayons, for a while the windows in our living room had a “horses of the world” theme.

Knitting, knitting, knitting.  Oh goodness, so much knitting!  At night I plug away at Galen’s birthday sweater, during the day baby knits.  Currently some spring green over-alls, though at the moment they are what Galen refers to as “over-halfs”.  The color is a nice change of pace.  Lately I seem to be stuck on shades of blue.  There has been French blue, robin’s egg blue, baby blue with flecks of cream, medium blue-grey, ice blue, sapphire blue, and uhm, other things that I haven’t gotten pictures of yet.  And before everyone says, “oh it must be a boy!”, the baby is the only one that I haven’t made anything blue for yet.  Though I do have a little button up vest in the softest of baby blues in mind.  These things happen.  A couple of years ago I think I went an entire winter knitting only in combinations of red, grey and brown.

Someone is excited for his birthday next month.

And sewing.  There has been a lot, a lot, a lot of sewing.  Rosebud sits beside me and stitches away with yarn on swaths of burlap.

Our ice rink may have melted all over the front yard.  Twice.  But our usual indoor diversions are thriving….

“Tea Party“ the game.

Drawing time

painting

making music (face crayon decorations optional)

and all sorts of pretend play.

And books of course.  Whatever would we do without books???  I’m currently reading “The Country of the Pointed Firs” by Sarah Orne Jewett.  It’s old-fashioned and quaint and charming, often rather slow and sometimes not.  I think I’m enjoying it.

 

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Books, crafts, Food, Kids, Life, Yarn Crafts
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christmas pajamas and other things

Waiting for the phone to ring for the annual reading of T’was the Night Before Christmas with Pop-pop.  The waiting is so hard.

But then…

Little squishy wax people are a specialty of Màiri and Galen’s.

I found a hand-carved crochet hook and some knitting needles in my stocking.  Only in this house!

Iain and Elijah made the little ones some cool bath toys.  (instructions here)

I had five kids up at 3:30 in the morning on Christmas day (5!), though I’m pretty sure I was the only one being kept up by the littlest.  Thankfully I was able to convince them to go back to sleep for another couple hours at least.

I’m still bored with the usual red and green Christmas pajamas.  I went with robin’s egg blue instead.  The boys were made from the same old (now out of print I believe) Kwik Sew long john pattern that I’ve made at least 20 times now.  It required quite a bit of altering for Iain who outgrew that pattern long ago.  Elijah’s in the largest size now.  Finding sewing patterns for pre-teen/teenage boys is not easy.  Màiri’s leggings were made by tracing another pair to use as the pattern.  Her nightie is Kwik Sew 3105, view A, modified for length and without the bottom edge ruffle.  The bonnet is the Angry Chicken one, only with no brim and a chin strap and button instead of ribbon tie.  The stretch fabric made it lay a little funny in the front.

Back in November the Wee Girl asked if I has started making the Christmas pajamas yet.  When I replied that I had picked out the fabric, but hadn’t started sewing yet, she told me that I better get to it because Christmas was actually really quite soon.  Then she proceeded to inform me that she required a new nightgown, since she had grown out of her one from last year, and a new sleep cap and something for her legs “like the boys get”.  Yup, that’s my low maintenance girl.

Iain and Elijah seem to have appointed themselves as heads of the holiday cheer committee.  Despite the fact that they are well past the doll play stage, all of the dolls find their way back out and get dressed up for the occasion and special decorations show up for all of the toy people.  All to make things festive for the little ones or maybe to pretend, just for a day or two that they are little ones again?  It’s very sweet.

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celebrations and festivals, crafts, Holidays, Kids, sewing, toy making
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Waldorf at Home: Celebrating the Winter Solstice

Over the years I’ve really grown to appreciate the concept of celebrating the season of a festival.  A little bit here, a little bit there, over the course of maybe a week is so much more pleasant and easier to organize and orchestrate then trying to fit everything into a single, potentially stressful, day.  For a school it makes sense to have a big festive day, but slow and easy makes more sense for a family.  And so our Solstice celebration wasn’t just one big celebration, but several days of mini-celebrations.

First we spent an afternoon making edible ornaments for the birds and other woodland creatures.  We started this tradition when Iain was a babe and everyone finds much pleasure in it.  In addition to the usual garlands and such, this year we made our own suet feeder to see if we could attract some woodpeckers closer to the house.  We drilled wide holes in a piece of firewood, filled them with out own mix of suet, peanut butter and seed, stringing it up with a bit of chain.

The following day we baked our sun bread.  I take a regular bread recipe (grain less for us these days) and replace the water with strong chamomile tea.  Then we knead in chamomile flowers and orange zest.  The children shape it into a sun.  Sometimes I’ll brush the top with a bit of orange juice.  We sprinkle sunflower seeds on top, of course, and serve it with ghee and honey.

Last night we gathered with out neighbors to sing of the returning of the sun and walk the spiral.  As we sing, each person slowly walks to the center of the spiral, where their candle is lit, then they wind their way back out, placing their candle somewhere along the path as the go.

The last several days the weather has been so strange!  Spring-like with mud and wind and mist everywhere.  There is nothing but a carrot floating in a slushy puddle where an eight foot snowman stood last week.  Crazy.  The kids were so confident in their white Christmas, but there is nothing but dreary grey.  Luckily we have lots of lights and candles about to brighten and cheer us.

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celebrations and festivals, crafts, Food, Holidays, Homeschooling, Kids, Waldorf
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birthday presents for dad

My father celebrated a big birthday last week.  We were so sorry that we couldn’t be there with him.  But we did send a little care package.  Galen wrote him a story.  The Wee Girl made him a watercolor and salt painting of “snowmen” and “snowballs” “because Pop-pop likes snow”, which is true enough.  Iain and Elijah collaborated on art project, it’s a wood burning with painted details, of a moose of course.

I thought I would go for something a bit luxurious and made him a cashmere hat.  Only it was the most disappointing cashmere ever.  First let me say that I’ve never spent so much money on a skein of yarn in my life and I’m not likely to do it again any time soon.  I asked Steve to pick me up some Jade Sapphire Brigadoon which is a washable cashmere.  The color is “Black Watch”.  I excitedly opened the bag and as soon as I touched it my face fell.  That’s it?!?  Then I spent around a week walking around randomly asking people to feel the cashmere yarn in one hand and the economy wool yarn, that was a tenth of the price, in the other and compare…the results were not good.  For some reason, Steve wasn’t overly thrilled with my suggestion that he go back to the yarn store and fondle all the yarns before purchasing a replacement.  I can’t imagine why, sounds like a perfectly lovely afternoon to me.  The yarn store is on the way home from work for him, but too far away that there was any chance of my actually making a trip there anytime soon.  Finally I sighed and balled it and started knitting.  I will say that it does feel a good deal nicer once it’s all knitted up, but I’m still not terribly impressed.

The pattern is Windschief.  I think there may be an error with the marker placement for the large size, though it’s possible that I just read it wrong.  It also ended up shorter then I would have liked.  After I finished it the first time I decided it really needed the extra length, so I ripped back to below the decrease section and added in a full inch more.  I haven’t seen it on him yet, but both of my parents say it fits nicely, so I’m glad I did.

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crafts, Kids, Yarn Crafts
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