Teacher Appreciation Gifts

I am in love with making these pretty heart ornaments.  They are made out of cashmere sweaters & wool stuffing.  I love cashmere but it doesn't make good, sturdy doll making material. Through the years I've amassed a small collection of it and I'm so glad I now have a project to use it all up.  I embroidered a pretty snowflake design with shiny glass beads to sparkle on the tree.  We stamped these cute little containers with the teachers last name initial and filled it with candy & a "heart felt" thank you note.

I think I'll have to make a ton of these for my handmade tree.  I can't decide which I like better, the red cashmere with white embroidery or taupe with red embroidery.  Which is your favorite?  

Until next time...

Last Minute Christmas Crafting...

This year I did a little Christmas crafting for myself in making this simple garland with heart ornaments.  They are white wool hearts with red, beaded snowflakes.  I'm learning to embroider bit by bit.  Well, free hand embroidery I guess.  I finally learned the french knot by making these! My inspiration for the snowflake was this beautiful, delicate brooch I saw on A Polar Bear's Tale made by Waterrose on etsy.  I just love her delicate embroidery.

 

The garland is white wool wrapped twine I found at 50% off at our local craft store.  I love how simple and pretty it is.

I would love to fill our tree with hearts and these white & red wool star babies too. 

The other big craft project was making dolls for the tree house Santa brought the kids as their shared gift.  The tree house is from Magic Cabin. The furniture came from Monkeys on the Roof on etsy.  I made both boys a couple of dolls each to be the resident tree house family.  They love their tree house, it's getting played with daily.

I hate to give a bad review but I really wish I had found a source on etsy for the tree house.  It came with damaged pieces, some pieces roughly sanded, or not even finished with beeswax and not at all as pictured on the website or catalog.  The instructions on how to put it together are not helpful at all.  I really should have sent the tree house back but my littles were too excited to put it together and play with it.  I've emailed and asked Magic Cabin to replace some of the badly damaged parts & missing bolts & they have agreed to do that.  I will finish up the pieces that came rough and not waxed. 

By contrast Monkeys on the Roof furniture came exactly as pictured & exceeded my expectations.  They are sanded & polished so beautifully smooth & irresistibly touchable.  We bought the bedroom set and the table and chairs. They came in sweet, cotton bags with beautiful decorative wooden tags as well.

 Anyway, live and learn.  I'm just happy my boys are thrilled. 

Until next time...

Trimming the Tree...

We brought home our tree last night and stayed up late drinking cocoa and eggnog and decorating it.  I forget how exciting that is for children.  It's so beautiful experiencing it all over again with them.  Though, I am paying for that late night today though with a couple of cranky boys.  Ah well, we'll chock it up to making Christmas memories. 

Christmas decorating is forever a work in progress at our house.  Crafting our decorations is half the fun!  We like simple and handmade. We have very few stored decorations actually.  Most of it is made from natural materials and composted when we're done with it.  Things like pine greenery and pine cones are brought inside.  Last year we dipped pine cones in beeswax and made a garland.  This year we hung them on the Christmas tree. 

I bought a straw wreath base to make a Christmas wreath for our door this year.  Months ago I found burlap ribbon for 50% off and snapped it up.  Wrapping it was so easy. I added some pretty fabric lace ribbon too. I found pine cones outside to hot glue to the base.  Easy and beautiful.  It made me want to paint our anemic looking door to show it off.  Perhaps brick red?

Our sweet baby Jesus, the center of it all.  Click, here, for that tutorial.

  
I also found this wool for 50% off.  I want to make a garland for our dining room.  Beeswax pine cones and more toadstool ornaments maybe?  I never need much of an excuse to make toadstools or play with beeswax.

I have to make another plug for this beautiful little book.  We finished Mary's Little Donkey last night.  A special night to end it on, after decorating our tree.  If you're looking for ways to keep the spirit and meaning of Christmas at the forefront of thought with your kids, this is a great one.  There is one illustration per chapter and they are lovely, lovely pictures.  I adore this book.  I think reading it will become a Christmas time tradition for us. 

What are you crafting or reading this Holiday season?

Until next time...

Baby Jesus, Tutorial...

Gosh it's been so long since I've done any crafting for myself!  Now that my shop is slowing down I
can focus on crafting for my family and all the important things like making Christmas cookies!

I've been wanting a special baby Jesus for years. One that fits our nativity stable. Here's a simple baby I came up with.

I began by needle felting the bedding.  I used a rough wool in neutral with speckled blue & orange in it.  Then needle felted white on top of that.  They look like little oval nests.  You can use whatever colors you like of course.  I wanted neutrals and light blue. 

I used the baby pegs I often use for my shop. If you don't have these on hand you could easily use a wooden bead and a bit of stuffing for his body.  Or even needle felt his body. 

I drew eyes on him in pencil.  The blue is a square of cashmere from a re-purposed sweater.  You can use wool felt or whatever you have on hand.  I cut it with pinking shears and then folded it in half to make a triangle. I glued the baby peg in, then glued the first folded layer of cashmere down around baby.  I did this because I wanted as little glue as possible on the top layer of cashmere, so no glue can be seen.  Next I glued the corners of the blanket down.

Here he is all finished. I love the varied textures, he's so soft and snuggled looking.  I will keep him at the center of our table and on Christmas eve we'll add him to our nativity. 

If you use this tutorial please link back here,  I would love to see them. 

Until next time...

Snow Children...

Winter Holidays are upon us already!  Just 34 days until Christmas, can you beleive that?  It seems to sneak up on me every year, which is odd since it's the same day every year.  Tis the life of a parent! 

I've been busy being Santa's little elf at MamaWestWind.  I'm super excited to introduce my Snow Children dolls.  If you're familiar with the book, The Story of the Snow Children by Sibylle von Olfers, you may recognize them.  They're made to fit into a Waldorf Ring or Advent Spiral. They are very simply drawn and sealed with a non toxic, glittery varnish. 

I've also made some Winter pouch babies and new in my shop are these bendy dolls.  I plan to craft like crazy as much as I can in the next couple of weeks, so keep checking my shop for new dolls and ornaments. This is the busiest time of year for me & my shop pays for Christmas gifts as well as all our home school books and materials.  So, I thank you very much for your support of my shop! 

Also I'm thrilled to say that I've been included in the Mindful Home, Ultimate Etsy Holiday Gift Guide!  There are such beautiful items and artisans featured.  Please go check it out!

Until next time...

Our Valentine's Day!

 

What a fun Valentine's Day we had!  The day started with the table all set for the boy's and biggest boy (hubby's) surprises!  I always loved when I woke up to see my Mom had left a little Valentine treat at our plates for Valentine's Day.  The boys awoke to 2 chocolates and these little wooden Yetis from Mamaroots etsy shop.  Monsters for my monsters, thank you Mamaroots!  My darling husband gave me a card, truffles and a sweet necklace that Michael picked out for me. Oh my heart!

We had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. I made a little rainbow heart color matching game for Owen.  He liked it very much.  Michael and I also loved using them later on in Math.

We had an impromtu Valentine story about a powerful fire, made of love & light that never goes out, is constant and is never destructive and how all the creatures, man & animal are drawn to the warmth of this great fire.  I didn't realize until a couple of minutes into the story that I was relating this great fire to divine Love.  I am beginning to love storytelling and the magic that happens there. 

We had a make your own pizza day using English muffins.  After lunch we made Valentine cards for loved ones, something we neglected to do until today! 

Yes, a fun day!  How was your Valentine's Day?

Until next time...


PS: Don't forget to enter the giveaway for Margaret Bloom's new book, Making Peg Dolls!  Click here.