Exploring Life In The Grit Of The Earth
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 Metro Swim [...]
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 ball [...]
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 a [...]
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 having [...]
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 went [...]
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
pinch of salt
1/3 cup sugar
Mix all [...]
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 [...]
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 of [...]
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 a blender and mix up.
You can eat [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Dec 17th, 2008
Posted in Do It Yourself, General on Dec 13th, 2008
Toby heads out to the little cabin every morning to start a fire and begin working. It doesn’t warm up out there for a few hours, and it’s hard for him to keep his hands warm while he’s typing. So, I made him some fingerless gloves, AKA Manly Mitts. Aren’t they cute? [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering on Dec 7th, 2008
I’ve been feeling really crafty lately! It all started this past Wed. when Kaia and I went to a kids knitting circle. She’s been wanting to learn how to knit, but isn’t really ready to use knitting needles, so we went to the circle to see if we could get some tips for [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Dec 1st, 2008
Ok, so it’s the only garlic chowder I’ve ever tried, but it is fantastic! I got the recipe from a restaurant in San Francisco called ‘The Stinking Rose’, where every dish is full of garlic. (I found the recipe on-line, so I imagine it’s ok to pass it on.) This recipe made [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Nov 24th, 2008
I’ve been doing lots of baking lately, and am really enjoying our new kitchen! I never have made much bread… maybe a little here and there in my bread maker. I have a vague memory of making bread with my mother when I was young and thinking how hard it was to get [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Holistic Medicine, Mothering, building our home on Nov 16th, 2008
Check out what I picked off of the roof yesterday! There are lots of calendula flowering, too… if they don’t freeze tonight, I may harvest them and make a nice oil or something.
And, since I begin my third trimester tomorrow (Oh My God!! Where did time go??!!) I thought I’d post a belly [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Nov 7th, 2008
I’ve been making my own soap for about 10 years now. It started out as glycerine soaps, but they melted away so quickly. One of my first dates with Toby was making lye soaps, so it’s been lye every since. I love making a big batch of yummy smelling soap, having enough [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, General, Mothering, Organic Gardening, Pets, building our home on Nov 7th, 2008
Here’s all the lard after it was canned. Looks like creamy milk, doesn’t it! I’m really enjoying using it to cook up eggs, veggies, etc…
Kaia and I spent some time making some holiday soaps. This was a batch of Wintergreen/Sweet Orange soap, and she’s mixing in a little cinnamon powder ‘to make [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Oct 28th, 2008
I’ve been reading a lot of books on food lately… Real Food by Nina Planck, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Know your Fats by Mary Enig… All of them have got me thinking about my own use and consumption of fats. I primarily use Olive Oil (imported), Coconut Oil (imported), and Butter [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Sep 12th, 2008
I can’t stop canning things! Unfortunately, each recipe gets sweeter. I really need to work on adding some vegetables to the canning mix! Shesh!
This is the Apple Berry Syrup that I mentioned in the last post…
Yesterday, I canned up a 1/2 bushel of peaches!!
We made Spiced Peaches in a very light syrup, [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, General on Sep 9th, 2008
Kaia and I went apple picking yesterday at the Long Branch Environmental Education Center, about 30 minutes north of us. They have 57 varieties of heritage apples! But they also had a ton of blueberries ripe and ready for picking. So, we ended up getting ~a gallon of blueberries and ~35 pounds [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Sep 4th, 2008
Man! I am on a canning roll! Look out, or I might just stuff you in a jar and plop you in the hot water bath!
Here’s the recipe I used for tonight’s extravaganza. It was given to me by a friend.
Herbed Figs
~20 ripe figs, quartered
1 Tbsp. water
2 tsp. sugar (raw or brown)
pinch [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Aug 27th, 2008
Kaia and I spent most of yesterday canning up Jams of every sort… there was Raspberry jam, Strawberry-Raspberry Jam, Blueberry-Blackberry-Raspberry-Strawberry Jam… and they all came out perfect and delicious! We found great, simple recipes in the Pomona Pectin Boxes, and they only used a little honey.
Here’s the “Everyberry Jam” on the stove: