Doughnut crazy

Posted on 12/26/2009 by Maria

Kaia and I crafted felt doughnuts, stuffed with polyfill and catnip, for some of our favorite feline friends! There are all different icing and sprinkle types, for your cat’s specific tastes. We gave the first one, a raspberry icing with chocolate sprinkles, to our cats as an early gift. As you can see, they are definite doughnut fans!

“It’s MINE! All MINE!!”

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The Standoff!

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The Smackdown!

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The victor (note: Max, the tabby is at least 12 pounds… Isabella barely tips the scales at 6 pounds!)

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“It’s still mine and you can’t have it back!”

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“Oh NO!! Look out for the Giant Doughnut Stealer!!”

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What’s your favorite flavor??

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New Patterns

Posted on 12/23/2009 by Maria

I’ve put up my pattern for Leif’s Mossy Mittens

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And if you are looking for a fast gift, here is my pattern for Paper Clip Ice Skates

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Blessed Winter Solstice!

Posted on 12/21/2009 by Maria

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We have had such a wonderful last few days. Being snowed in has been a great adventure for all of us. The power was out for 24 hours, but we enjoyed the peace it brought and we kept ourselves fully entertained! There was tent building:

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There was lots of snow play (sledding, snow men, snow ball fights)!

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We’ve perfected our snow cream recipe and began experimenting with flavors!!

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Snow Cream – basic recipe:

1 cup cream, milk, or other milk like substance (coconut milk, chocolate milk, rice milk…)
1/2 cup sugar (maple syrup would work nicely too)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix well, and then add enough fresh snow to thicken like ice cream. Then enjoy!

Variations:

Mint-Chocolate Snow Cream:

To the above add: 2 Tbsp cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp. mint extract

Eggnog Snow Cream:

To the basic recipe add: 1 tsp. nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

We all enjoyed opening our gifts this morning! I’m happy to say that Kaia considered her new skirt her best gift! (Take that Santa!) She’s worn it all day and we had to order her to take it off before she went to bed. When she loves something, she can wear it until it’s worn out very fast!

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Toby’s gloves fit him perfectly and Leif likes his new stuffed, felt toys:

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Leif also seems to like his new mittens (I’ll post the pattern soon. It’s really simple!)

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I knitted myself a new hat:

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And Toby made me a oriental style shelf/unit to put above my computer!! (pictures to come once it’s installed)

This evening, we ended with a lovely meal and a yule log bread (smothered and stuffed with chocolate!)

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Have a beautiful winter!!! Hurray for the return of longer days!!

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Big Snow Day

Posted on 12/18/2009 by Maria

Well, it looks like we will be hanging out on our land for a few days, possibly weeks We are getting more snow that I’ve seen in 16 years! It’s a beautiful winter wonderland here, and Kaia is having the time of her life! She’s been in and out all day, coming in just long enough to let her clothes dry by the fire and then she’s back outside.

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I’ve been fighting a cold, along with a nasty fever, so I stayed by the fire and knit all day! I’m working on Leif’s first pair of mittens. It brought back wonderful memories of my great-aunt Pearl. She lived in NH, and though my sister and I grew up in Miami, great-aunt Pearl knit us a new pair of mittens every year. We always looked forward to them! Maybe I’ll carry on that tradition and knit a new pair of mittens and a hat for Kaia and Leif each year!

While I was knitting, Leif was kind enough to entertain himself with a ball of yarn and the phone (if we prank called you today, sorry!)

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I took him outside for a bit, but he really wasn’t sure what to make of it all…

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My garden is in there somewhere…

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Measuring the snow… So far we have 13 inches!

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Yes, that is our lawn chair they are sitting in!

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We just happened to go to the library earlier this week and got lots of books about snow and winter. One we picked up was absolutely perfect for a day like today.

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Houndsley and Catina is a lovely book about the quiet and peace two friends find in the first snow of winter.

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Sleep tight!

Ornament crafting

Posted on 12/15/2009 by Maria

We’ve had the crafting spirit in our home lately! This weekend Kaia and I made some santa ornaments after seeing them at Write-It-Down. We just happened to have everything we needed and couldn’t resist the cute little guys.

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Then we had a few friends over for more crafting. We made beeswax ornaments with beeswax from a local beekeeper! I got 5 pounds of it!! Mmmmm, the kitchen smelled yummy!

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I had some lollipop molds, so I used a dab of play dough to block where the stick would go so that the beeswax didn’t flow into that part of the mold. I also put some sparkles in the bottom of the molds. (You could put some on top too, right after pouring the beeswax in, if you want sparkles on both sides.)

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When the beeswax was cooling, but still soft, I poked holes for the ribbons.

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Then there were the glittered pine cones:

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And the pipe cleaner trees (Kaia’s is looking a bit like Charlie Brown’s tree… she said she will be putting more ornaments on later

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And once our friends went home, and Leif finally fell asleep, Kaia and I just kept going and made Cinnamon-Applesauce ornaments with the recipe that we found over at 5OrangePotatoes. I love these!! I will definitely be doing them again!! And the cool thing is that you can use any cookie cutters you want and hang them around your house all year long!! They don’t have to be holiday ornaments.

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We used some of the dough that was left over and made them into beads!! Just roll them into a little ball and poke a tooth pick through it for the hole.

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We stamped a sweet little fairy print into most of the ornaments.

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The house smells delicious!!

Sweet Rainbow Gnomes

Posted on 12/12/2009 by Maria

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There is a fantastic giveaway going on over at GardenMama today for a set of hand knit gnomes from Natural Earth Farm that are just adorable! A lot of time and love went into these sweet toys, so definitely go check them out!!

Wildcraft!

Posted on 12/8/2009 by Maria

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OK, I’ve been hearing about this board game for a while now and, I have to admit, I have been very resistant to it! I’m not totally sure why, but I think it has to do with the feeling that if I’m a good herbalist, I shouldn’t need the aid of a board game to be able to teach my kids about herbs. (I know, that is stupid… if it’s fun, who cares, right.) Still, when the game went on sale (1/2 off!) last week, I decided to give it a try. I really didn’t think Kaia was going to go for it. It doesn’t have anything to do with mermaids, castles, or the like. But, when the mail was delivered and Kaia saw the game, she flipped out! She was so excited to play, that we had to schedule an emergency “family play night” that night!

So, did I like it? I have to say, I am thoroughly impressed! It was SO flippin’ cute and fun! Kaia loved it and for once wasn’t all competitive about who won! (No one wins, it’s all about cooperation.) We all liked the story that went along with it… collecting herbs to help with our ailments…. picking huckleberries…. It is just fun! I even learned some new herbs!

Here’s how the story starts:

Grandma needs huckleberries to bake a pie. You and your cousins embark on an adventure up the mountain to collect berries as well as herbs she uses.

Will you all harvest the right plants to help with the trouble you run into along the way?

Will you make it back before nightfall?

The only way to win is by helping each other out.

Wildcraft! teaches you 25 important edible and medicinal plants and their uses in mostly first aid situations. (Wildcrafting is the harvesting of wild plants)

It also teaches team work, for you will rely on each other’s knowledge of plants and good fortune to make it to the Huckleberry Patch and safely back to Grandma’s.

You should definitely check it out! You may still be able to win a free one here. I don’t know if the contest ended yesterday or if it’s still going…

Window Stars

Posted on 12/8/2009 by Maria

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I always love seeing kite paper stars in the windows. They are so bright and happy. They fancy-up any house! With the winter coming on and it being a gray, gloomy day, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make some of these! A Toy Garden and Nova Natural Toys have nice selections and good prices on the kite paper, and there are some nice tutorials on folding the stars at Arwen Art and Duo Fiberworks. Kaia and I enjoyed this calm, concentration time as we folded our stars.

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