Exploring Life In The Grit Of The Earth
Posted in Do It Yourself, Sewing on Jan 19th, 2012
From the moment my daughter saw this in a magazine months ago, she has been begging me to make one for her. So, this morning, since we have been working on types of triangles and degrees of angles, I thought we’d work it into todays lessons. I planned on making a tutorial for you all, [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering, Sewing on Dec 30th, 2011
What beautiful holiday celebrations we have had this year! I am so grateful for the time that I have been able to spend with my friends and family. We’ve spent many days traveling to others houses to participate in their revelry and had a wonderful time! At our own home, we had a small Winter [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling, Mothering on Nov 23rd, 2011
Want a quick way to highlight your little one’s masterpiece? How about sewing a lace frame around it? Or, sew the frame on the paper first to encourage them to create. Kaia’s Poem, FALL, introchaic bimeter And Leif’s “blue train on blue train tracks in a tunnel”
Posted in Do It Yourself on Oct 23rd, 2011
I couldn’t help myself! I had to make one of my own! It is so much fun!! Should I do a tutorial for you?
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering on Oct 22nd, 2011
When Kaia and I were at the conference this past weekend, we both entered a raffle for various fun prizes. Kaia has a hard time with raffles because she gets herself very worked up about winning. So, she was pretty devastated when she didn’t win the wire tree that she’d hoped for. And it didn’t [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering on Aug 13th, 2011
I brought in a little bit of money last month with some herb sales. So, I bought myself a fancy, new ice cream maker. I’ve never had one and boy, have I been missing out!!! So far, we’ve tried mint chip, peach yogurt, and strawberry. Leif waits patiently as the ice cream maker finishing churning…
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering on Jul 22nd, 2011
Somehow, I’ve ended up with a bag full of extra garden seeds. Many are years old and some are just varieties that I didn’t care for and don’t plan on using again. So, I thought I’d use some up in a craft. Here’s what you need: Seeds Pumpkin and squashes are best, but you can [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering, Sewing on Jun 12th, 2011
Kaia and Leif LOVE playing in tents, so when I saw this project, a little A-Frame play tent, I knew we had to do it! It was so simple, we were able to make both kids their own tent in less than an hour! Kaia made the measurements while Toby drilled the holes. Then I [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Dec 21st, 2010
We had a lovely first day of winter here. We celebrated by going to see a play, opening gifts, and having friends over for a feast. So glad the days are lengthening again! Kaia’s favorite gift this year has to be her skates. She can’t wait to get to the skating rink to give them [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, General, Organic Gardening on Oct 12th, 2010
Well, the harvest is complete and most of the veggies have been canned or frozen for the winter. The pantry looks pretty good and we have lots of soups to savor when it’s cold and bitter outside! But, we also have many pounds of winter squash and sweet potatoes strewn about on the floor (we [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Sep 26th, 2010
Okay, well only one mouse was away … Kaia went to her Nana’s house for a few days. But even with the other little mousey around, this ended up being the weekend of getting stuff done! Maybe it’s the energy of fall making me want to put my house in order. Or maybe I’m just [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, General on Sep 19th, 2010
Every year around this time we have a bonfire to celebrate the coming of Fall and Toby’s B-day. But this year, we are also celebrating Kaia’s speedy recovery from the snake bite, and Toby’s new job! We have a lot to be thankful for. When I saw this post a few months ago on painting [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering, Sewing on Apr 13th, 2010
I’ve been wanting to make Leif this doll for a while now. He’s so into taking things apart, pushing buttons, pulling levers…. I thought he’d enjoy it. It was a lot of fun to make! If you want to make one for your favorite little explorer you’ll need: fabric for the body (I used an [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Mar 2nd, 2010
Kaia has been waiting, and waiting, for this project to happen. She picked out her fabric last month, but we had trouble getting the fins. They finally arrived today, so I had to get right on it! Behold – Mermaid Kaia! This was a fairly simple project to do. We got the swim fins from [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering, Pets on Dec 26th, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Dec 21st, 2009
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: There was lots of snow play (sledding, snow men, snow [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling on Dec 15th, 2009
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. Then we had a few friends over for more crafting. We made beeswax ornaments with beeswax from [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling on Dec 5th, 2009
Creating our holiday cards…
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Dec 4th, 2009
Here it is! Kaia’s Flower Fairy/Pearly Mermaid/ Blingy Princess skirt! It is a holiday gift for her and I can’t wait to give it to her! I’ve published the pattern, for free (yay!) in the links at the top of my blog! Enjoy!!
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling on Nov 10th, 2009
I have great memories of my elementary school art class. The room was dark and and crowded, but our teacher always had the greatest projects for us. One of my favorites was linoleum print making. You trace a picture onto a linoleum block, carve it out, roll paint onto it and press it onto paper, [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Oct 15th, 2009
When I found out I was pregnant with Leif, I had a blast creating a basket full of hand made toys for him. They are so fun and squishy! And something he can pass on to his children if he wants!! Garden Mama is interviewing Down in the Meadow about her hand made toys and [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Sustainable Living on Jul 6th, 2009
I have to admit, I wasn’t going to post this because I want to be the one to win that Peach Lavender Butter. But, these books look to good not to promote!!! So, check out Small Measure to find out more about her “Can-Do” contest. Ashley English, the blog and book author, and I actually [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling, Mothering on Jul 5th, 2009
We started Kaia Camp Day 4 off with a little exercise! We headed to the Dojang when Kaia, Toby, and I take Tae Kwon Do and did a little hooping. It’s the first time I’ve hooped since last November when I was 32 weeks pregnant. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to dance/hoop [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, General, Mothering on Jul 1st, 2009
We started the day off with Zucchini Pancakes!! Yum yum!! Yep, gotta get the veggies in my girl any way I can. She said she really liked them. How do you make them? Glad you asked. 2 1/4 cups flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp nutmeg [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Jun 28th, 2009
I finally finished his piggy pants!! I love how they came out. They should fit for a few winters. He’s already 20 pounds (and 4 months old!) so as he lengthens out, I imagine his belly won’t get much bigger for a few years Kaia is 6 and fits the pants (though they come [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Organic Gardening on May 31st, 2009
I know… way to many posts today… I’m just trying to get caught up! I planted 37 melon plants yesterday while the moon was in Leo… there was only room for 18 in the bed I’d made and I didn’t want to throw away the other seedlings, so I planted them in a big hill [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering on May 23rd, 2009
I’ve been experimenting today… thought you’d like the recipe. It’s really good! It even gets ‘Kaia’s Gold Star of Approval!” (I got the original recipe from Darcey) Monster Pudding: 4 small avocados 1/2 cup coconut milk 1/4 cup coconut oil 1 Tbsp. Cardamom powder 1/3 cup (or less) honey or other sweetener Put all in [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Mar 12th, 2009
I love home made bread; The aroma that fills the house, that first bite that permeates the senses, the crisp crust and soft, warm interior! Mmmmmm! I use to think that I couldn’t bake bread well, so I bought a bread maker in hopes that I would have more home baked bread. The results were [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Jan 29th, 2009
I don’t know if you could really call it nesting, ’cause my house is in shambles and I’m not really ‘creating a nest’ for the baby, but all I want to do is sit on my butt and make things. Really, it’s been going on since last Fall. So, I think this baby has some [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting on Dec 31st, 2008
Since Kaia and I took that knitting class at the beginning of the month I have been having so much fun knitting! I think I’ve really got it now! (And no, I don’t think I’m nesting yet ) First I knitting Toby some wrist/hand warmers. I got the basic pattern from a youtube video and [...]