Valentine Sweeties...

Valentine's Day is coming up and I am having so much fun making little gnome & toadstool tot sweeties. 

Little Valentine bears are in theme too.  Come and visit my shop, MamaWestWind, to see all the Valentine pretties.

Until next time...

MamaWestWind SALE

Hi all!  I have so many lovely Holiday gifts, just waiting for the right home!  Please enjoy this 10% off coupon (HOLIDAY14), to my shop, MamaWestWind!  Now through December 19th. 

Until next time...

MamaWestWind Giveaway Winner!

I am very excited to announce the winner of the Snowflake Baby (by random number generator)  is... Daffodil Angel who said, "I particularly like Waldorf Snowflake Baby Necklace. I have Favorited you on Etsy (a while back now)"

Congratulations Daffodil Angel!   

Stop by and visit my shop for more Snowflake Necklaces, Gnomes, Angel Ornaments and more!  Thank you all who participated and shared the giveaway!  

Until next time...

MamaWestWind, Holiday Giveaway!

I am having a giveaway! This time here at Chocolate Eyes. I'm giving away one of these sweet, Snow Baby Necklaces.  This necklace is fun to wear or just display over the nature table.  The little gnome baby can stay in his pouch or come out to play.  Or if the winner prefers I can shorten the string to make it an ornament. 

I am very excited to announce the winner of the Snowflake Baby (by random number generator)  is... Daffodil Angel who said, "I particularly like Waldorf Snowflake Baby Necklace. I have Favorited you on Etsy (a while back now)"

Congratulations Daffodil Angel!  

To enter this giveaway...

• Go to my MamaWestWind etsy shop and tell me your favorite item OR something new you would like to see me make.  Don't forget to favorite MamaWestWind on etsy.
• For a 2nd entry become a fan or tell me you are already a fan of my MamaWestWind facebook page.
• For a 3rd entry share this giveaway on facebook, twitter, your blog, or tell a friend. 

The winner must be a follower of this blog.  The winner will have 24 hours to claim their prize by sending me their address or even an address of someone they wish to gift their necklace to.

I will end this giveaway Friday December 12, 2014 at 8 pm mountain standard time.

Let the game begin!  Until next time...

Small Business Saturday, GIVEAWAY!

I'm holding a giveaway at my MamaWestWind facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/MamaWestWind. 

Please come and enter and become a fan to get a special 10% off coupon code, valid for today and tomorrow only.  I have some lovely items all perfect for tucking into a Christmas stocking.  More dolls on their way to my shop as well, so keep checking in with me. 

 

Visit them all at MamaWestWind.  Until next time...

Guest Blogger & Wool Flower Tutorial

I am honored to have Lori Campbell here today as my guest blogger!  You all may know Lori from her awesome shop and blog, Beneath the Rowan Tree.  Time to get out those wool yarn scraps, Lori has a lovely project in mind for them.

***

Beneath the Rowan Tree has been making hand dyed and handmade children's toys since 2007. Artisan Lori Campbell has recently quit her 20 year career to focus on BTRT full time (along with parenting and homeschooling).  To bring this dream to full life BTRT has launched a Kickstarter campaign to create a line of hand dyed wool yarns and a studio.  Please visit the Kickstarter at 
http://tinyurl.com/Kickin-itBTRT -- and consider becoming part of the project as a backer, receiving some wonderful hand dyed rewards and sharing the link with others. They have until March 5th to meet their funding goal.  This tutorial comes from the Beneath the Rowan Tree blog.

This is a perfect project for using up pretty bits of yarn.

I love to make them with handspun and/or single ply, but they would work well with plied wool yarn as well.
Attach a bobby pin or hair elastic for a one of a kind hair decoration.  Or add a brooch pin, even stitch them right to your finished garment for a sweet embellishment.  Stitch a piece of wool felt to the back for stability and you have a pretty button!

Materials:

• Various scraps of WOOL yarn in desired colours
• Scissors
• Felting needle (any size, I prefer 38 stars)
• Hair elastics, bobby pins, brooch pins or button shafts as you choose
• embroidery floss or thread for finishing
• green roving and felting mat if you intend to make leaves OR green commercial felt

Instructions :
1) Choose a length of yarn (length will depend on size of blossom in mind).
18" will make a quarter sized blossom.
Start a spiral, keeping the yarn flat as you wind.

2) Using your felting needle, slide it carefully into the side of your spiral.
Take care not to bend your needle, as it may snap.
Also, mind your fingers!  This craft is sure to give you at least a couple of good pokes!

Sliding it carefully in and out at various points around your spiral, you should hear and feel the "shh" sound of fibers locking as you withdraw your needle.  At this point you simple need to tack the spiral together well enough to enable you to continue to wind it while maintaining a flat plane. (pardon my dye stained fingers!)

3) Continue to wind and tack until your spiral reaches the desired size.

4) When you have your blossom at the size you need, use your needle in the same manner as above, this time going carefully and intentionally around the whole spiral with firm stabs that reach to the center to stabilize the piece.
Avoid stabbing the needle right through and out the other side, as this will leave 'tufts' of fiber on your finished piece.
The tail is best slipped behind the piece and carefully felted down against the back (stabbing at a perpendicular angle to the piece in this case, careful not to go through the front).
Use your needle to tidy up the shape and any errant tufts.
When you are finished you should have a spiral that holds together like one solid piece.

5) Finishing: 

• for hair pretties, stitch the spiral securely to the hair elastic
• for a bobby pin, use a strong adhesive and place a dab on the back of the spiral, 'smoosh' this in to the fibers and let dry.  You will use this 'pad' you have created to adhere the spiral to the bobby pin plate so that you are attaching adhesive to adhesive.
• for a brooch, stitch the spiral to a locking bar pin or other
• for a pendant, either stitch or adhere to a bail (use adhesion suggestion as above)
• for a button, stitch a piece of commercial felt to the back t ensure the spiral functions as one solid piece for buttoning.  Stitch to garment or button shank.
• make leaves with roving and needlefelting, felt to the back, OR cutout leaves from commercial felt and stitch to back.

Have fun!
This tutorial is provided freely, but it does represent hard work on the part of the designer and author. No part of it may be reproduced without the author's permission.
It may not be reprinted or reproduced for commercial purposes or for profit.
If you use items created from this tutorial for commercial purposes, credit to the designer would be appreciated! 
Copyright, Lori Campbell/ Beneath the Rowan Tree, 2010 ©

Grab a Cup of Tea...

Are you working on that holiday shopping list?  This black Friday instead of racing to the crowded, big box store in the wee hours of the morning, grab a cup of tea and check out the Natural Kids Team 2013 Holiday Gift Guide!  No need to go out in the cold. Point and click and spend your hard earned dollars on beautiful, natural, handmade.  The money you spend on these gifts will go directly to the maker, no middleman, no sweat shop, just hard working families.

This guide is a feast for the eyes, enjoy...

Until next time...

Strawberry Party Preparations...

Serious party prep is under way for Owen's strawberry themed birthday party. I'm a little nervous I'll never get it all done.  The crafty stuff I always enjoy but the cleaning, cooking & baking often sends me to Frazzleville!  Praying for peace & harmony & a hefty sized dose of energy.  Can't wait to show you it all completed, in my head it looks beautiful. 

Shout out to Felt Path for the inspiration behind the above crown.  She made a lovely crown that is on my Pinterest party board, "A Shindig, a Hoopla".  Her little boy fairy is much cuter.  I made the toadstool cap into a strawberry cap, (hmmm, messy cap, right?)  and added my strawberries and greenery. I kind of find this crown funny because snails like to eat strawberries so I think this little Berry fairy is saying "Ok, eat a little and then move off, Mr. Snail".  He has to protect the berries, right?  Or perhaps he says, "Eat away friend, these are abundant for your use". I digress, clearly needle felting for hours has addled my brain.

What are you working on lately?

Little Woodlanders Giveaway!

Rachel of Little Woodlanders is a fellow Natural Kids Team member. She is living in England with her husband and two darling little girls. Recently Rachel and I chatted about her etsy shop, Little Woodlanders. 

Your shop is one of my favorite wooden toy shops on etsy, your toys are just so darling! When did you begin woodworking? How did you decide to open Little Woodlanders?

I started making wooden toys for my children for Christmas presents at the end of 2011. Some people saw my toys commissioned me to make some other things for them, such as babywearing figures. People kept saying I should open an Etsy shop, so I did! I opened the shop in January 2012, and the first things I sold were little animals.
 

How do you come up with new ideas?

I come up with new ideas when I see my children playing, by looking outside at nature, and from children's books. Usually while we're at the library and I'm flicking through books looking for good ones to take home, I get some great ideas!

Can you walk us through a little of your process?

My process begins with drawing my ideas on paper, cutting them out, sizing them, and ending up with a final pattern. Then I trace the pattern onto wood and cut it out with my scroll saw. After it's been cut out, I sand it, wood burn if necessary, and paint. Finally, once it's dried, I oil it with my homemade beeswax and olive oil polish.

What's your favorite part of making wooden toys?

I have two favorite parts of making toys. One is when I have just come in from cutting out some brand new toy ideas, and give them to my children to test out in the rough, and see them spend so much time and having so much fun with them, and they're not even finished yet! Then I know they'll be a hit! Another is just as I'm finishing them up, with the oiling, and I see how they have come from a piece of plain wood into a beautiful toy!

I love that you have your own testing professionals! How else do your daughters figure in? How do you balance Motherhood & business. 

It’s really difficult, but thankfully my girls are very good at playing together and occupying themselves. They spend a lot of time drawing and making up and acting out games and stories. So, if I need to sneak off to another room for an hour to work, they usually can entertain themselves. The older they get, the more they play on their own together, and the more I can get done!

New toys this season.

 Rainbow Inspiration blocks.

 Toadstools

Girl & Horse Toy set.

Rachel has generously offered to giveaway her Life Cycle of a Frog toy to one lucky Chocolate Eyes reader!  This wooden toy life cycle of a frog set is a wonderful toy for learning about the metamorphosis of a frog! The set comes with a pond, frog's eggs, a tadpole and a frog.

She is also offering the following discount!  15% off, using Coupon code LITTLEW15, expires next Tuesday the 18th.

• To enter the giveaway you must be a follower of this blog. Please go to Little Woodlanders etsy shop and come back & leave a comment saying which is your favorite Little Woodlanders item.  This giveaway is open world wide!  Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win.

• For a 2nd entry follow Little Woodlanders blog.

• For a 3rd entry like Little Woodlanders on facebook or become a follower on Twitter.

• For a 4th entry, fb, tweet, pin or blog this giveaway, come back and leave a link.  

 Find LittleWoodlanders at:

Shop: www.littlewoodlanders.etsy.com  
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LittleWoodlanders
Twitter: twitter.com/LWoodlanders
Blog: www.littlewoodlanders.com
Pinterest: pinterest.com/lwoodlanders/
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/87684407@N06/  

Thanks so much for chatting with me Rachel! Until next time...

Comments are closed. Winner is Shannon F! 

Easter Morning...

 

 

We had a fun Easter morn, well after a while.  Michael woke up at about five in the morning trying to see if the Easter bunny had come yet.  Since it was still dark I told him to go back to bed!  By some miracle he actually did.  Then later he woke me up crying to say that the Easter bunny had forgotten him. You see the Easter bunny decided that since Michael is 8 he could look a little harder for his basket this year.  The Easter bunny put Owen's basket on his dining room chair and Michael's inside the dining room cabinet with the door ajar.  When Michael didn't find his he assumed the worst!  I told him we should make a thorough search before assuming such a thing.  All was well after he found it!

It's our tradition to have a foiled chocolate Easter egg hunt and so as soon as they woke up they started snitching them.  Especially Owen who was just beyond thrilled!  We laughed over the funny places the Easter bunny had chosen.  All day long they were spying eggs that they had not found earlier.

In addition to chocolate and a couple small toys they each found a special book beneath their basket, The Story of the Rabbit Children and The Story of King Lion both by Sibylle von Olfers.  Owen has gotten quite a kick out of all the interesting foods that the animals bring King Lion. They also found a fun new toy, the beautiful bunny play set featured above.  I've been eying Eve's Little Earthlings etsy shop for awhile now and was thrilled to win this set in a giveaway!  Her work does not disappoint,  this toy is made so beautifully. Little bunny is stuffed so solidly that it has a pleasing weight to it.  And her sewing is so artful and detailed right down to the leaves and moss that decorates the bag.  Both the boys were thrilled and added the two felt bunnies we made last year to make a family. 

For breakfast we had boiled eggs and ham of course, along with some yummy half wheat cinnamon rolls.  I have a large roll recipe and so I make dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls out of the same bread batter.  For our dinner rolls I thought it would be fun to make these bunny shaped rolls.  Well, pulling them out of the oven after baking I thought hmmm, what a transformation!  My cute bunny rolls had turned into little half Venus of Willendorfs.  She had "risen"! Wouldn't these be great rolls to make for a blessing way?!  My boys didn't notice but me and my husband thought it was pretty funny!  I'm thinking if I want to try bunny rolls next year I'll use a much softer dough.  Well, that was our Easter.  Did you celebrate Easter?  How was it?  

Until next time...