Woodland Ornament Craft Along!

We have some holiday crafting going on here lately!  Above are some beeswax dipped pine cones.  Mmmm, I love the smell of beeswax.

Which is why I knew I had to make this when I saw it on Small Things, a beeswax nativity set.  It was so fun to make and I even made a set for a friend too. Talk about beautiful and inexpensive! 

It sits on our mantle right next to our birth of Jesus silhouette.  Michael was so excited to see it lit the other night.




We also have some fairy ornaments in the works!  This year I would love to have a handmade, woodland/ fairyland Christmas tree. Please check out my Handmade Christmas Pinterest board.  It is a selection of projects I'd like to accomplish.  A couple of them are ornaments I've made for my MamaWestWind shop but now would love to make for us.  I will only get to a few of the projects I'm sure, so I've intentionally kept this board small and manageable. I love Pinterest but whoa can it get overwhelming.  So, I'm going to make one ornament style per week, at least 3 ornaments each if not more. So, by the week before Christmas I will have at least 12 new woodland/ fairyland ornaments plus a bunch of beeswax dipped pine cones. 

Are you interested in joining me?  Every week I'll blog about the project of the week and then later the finished project. You can follow along with me or select your own favorite projects to do.  By Christmas I should have one lovely handmade tree.  For more handmade ideas visit my King Winter in the Wood board.  (This is the overwhelming Pinterest board!)  I would love to see & hear all about your handmade decor projects, so please leave a link to yours.  We can have ourselves a Holiday Craft Along!

First up are these ornaments from Willodel blog.  She has written an awesome tutorial for them.  Mine will be slightly different.  I'll show you how they've turned out at the end of the week.  Join me, won't you!?

Until next time...

Elves on Woodland Craft Along

So our ornament this week was Christine Clemmensen's Pipe Cleaner Elves! Michael loved this project.  He made two elves especially for he and his brother to play with, the green ones on the tree above.  I love their faces, crabby elves!

The boys wouldn't even let me photograph them properly because they wouldn't give them up long enough! I added a string to one of my ornaments and then wondered why. They are large enough that they sit on the branches of the tree quite well and would be fun just sitting on a shelf too. 

Singing elves, so very Merry! So, just one more project to go on our Handmade Christmas tree.  Not sure what it will be. I'm thinking we are sorely lacking animals in our "woodland" theme.  Maybe some cinnamon ornament animals!  

Visit my Handmade Christmas Pinterest board, where I'm selecting my projects.  This board has grown longer lately, have you noticed?  Such are the "evils" of Pinterest!

So, what have you been crafting lately?  Link in the comments below.

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...

Woodland Ornament CRAFT ALONG

This week for the Woodland Ornament Craft Along, Michael and I made Fairy Pine Cone Ornaments from Lucinda of Willodel's tutorial. We used her tutorial as a jumping off point and made our own version.  I had already made these bead heads with eyes and glued with pipe cleaners for another ornament I make for my MamaWestWind shop. So their arms are glued right into the little bead head. 

 

Michael loved Lucinda's gnome capped ornament so he decided to make his own version if it. He blanket stitched the hat so well, I was impressed.  We hadn't sewn in awhile and I thought he would need extra help but before I knew it he was finished. He said "Mama, we need to sew more often.  I could help you with your shop!"

We tried a couple of different types of wings. We needle felted wings for two of the ornaments. Michael chose blue for his. 

He was so proud of his work. The needle felting inspired him and he wanted to felt more and more.  He made a gingerbread man for his brother to play with and started a bunny for his brother's Christmas present.  Too sweet! 

I needle felted the red leaves on the ornament in the back.  The needle felting was a lot of work so for the next two ornaments I cut leaves from green, upcycled wool.

After all of that, I dipped them in beeswax because by then I was a beeswax dipping fool!  I had a bunch of pine cone ornaments that I was dipping and also making beeswax nativity sets for friends.  I think that lovely aroma completely went to my head.  I do not recommend dipping!  The ornaments sleeves, some hands & wing tips were waxed accidentally, hahaha.  If you do want to beeswax them, I would paint the wax on or pour the wax over the pine cone maybe, but be more careful than I was!

Anyway, we love how pudgy & cute they came out. So, four ornaments are finished on my quest to have a handmade woodland tree this year. 

Please craft along with me on my Woodland Ornament Craft along!  I will be selecting Ornaments from my Handmade Christmas Pinterest Board and making them throughout the month of December.  The goal is a beautiful handmade woodland tree.  Follow me & my boy as we craft and please join in and link to your projects! They can be the projects we've selected here or your own.  Either way we would love to see them! 

So next week our project will be, needle felted toadstool ornaments!  Because what's a woodland theme without toadstools!? I'll be using this tutorial at Magic Onions. 

Join me, won't you!? Enter your link below.

Star Ladder Advent

This year we are making our first advent calendar!  Last year we had Mary & Joesph slowly walk about the room until they reached the nature table. This was such fun but I realized we do not have much furniture to accomplish this with.  I do love this tradition though, it really helps us remember the meaning of this season for our family.

This year we will be adding a Star Ladder from the book All Year Round.  There are 23 yellow felt stars glued to this blue ribbon. I really have to find a way to pretty it up, as this bare wall is not doing it for me.

The end of the ribbon will be our nature table where we will have a nativity set up and a candle will be lit on Christmas eve.  Right now we have some mischievous Jack Frost dolls that have taken it over! They will be kicked out or at least moved over.

Today I'm working on the angels who will slowly descend our ribbon.  These are tiny, only about two inches long and made with wool batting & roving.  I've made two because I'm gifting an advent ribbon to a friend and her children.

I'll show you our finished Star Ladder soon.

Please craft along with me on my Woodland Ornament Craft along.  I will be selecting Ornaments from my Handmade Christmas Pinterest Board and making them through out the month of December.  The goal is a beautiful handmade woodland tree.  Follow me as we craft and please join in and link to your projects.  At the end of this week I'll be sharing our Willodel inspired Fairy Pinecone Ornaments.

Until next time...

Craft Along, Elf Ornaments!

Our ornament this week is going to be mighty cute!  The photo above is from the blog, Christine Clemmensen.  I've shared her photo here with permission. Her blog is just beautiful and isn't her Pipe Cleaner Elf just darling?!  We will be working on these and have our finished elves to show you at the end of the week.  Meanwhile I'm also working on some darling little star babies!  My, oh my are we sick of crafting yet?  No, not yet.

Go by and see my Pinterest board, Handmade Christmas. Each week until Christmas we will be making a different kind of ornament from this board for our newly crafted handmade woodland tree.  Last week we made toadstool ornaments and a garland and the week before we made, hand dipped beeswax pinecones and  Willodel's Pine Cone Fairies.

This is fun!  What are you making?

I also wanted to mention the giveaway happening on Small Things!  It's an awesome giveaway, with tons of prizes all to benefit my blogger friend, Lisa at Hullabaloo Homestead.  Her family is having to move this holiday season and needs help, so this giveaway is to benefit her family.  Read Lisa's amazing story here and go enter that giveaway! 

Until next time...

Growing Up...

 

So, my little Owen is getting soooooo big.  At the end of this month he will be three and a half years old &  he is finally weaned! 

We follow attachment parenting, we did the family bed thing and I always wanted to do child led weaning.  However, my eldest son would have gone on nursing indefinitely I think if I hadn't weaned him myself.  Yikes he was tough case!  I have been ready to wean Owen now for a long time, but he, not so. When he turned three years old I told him we would no longer be nursing. This after lots of preparing him ahead of time. He was so upset that I finally yielded to only at bed time. He did so well with this transition.  Then Papa started getting him to bed often this last month and before we knew it he hadn't nursed in three days. 

After the three days I did our bedtime routine and he asked to nurse. I told him the milk had all gone away, that he was such a big boy he hadn't remembered to nurse in three days!  He was very sad and cried himself to sleep that night. (With me close by of course. Though he didn't want to be touched!) He was sad but not inconsolable like his brother had been. The next day and every evening after that he's asked me if the "milkies" were still gone. He said, "They will not come back?" with a shake of his head.  I told him the milk doesn't come unless a Mommy has a baby.  That babies have a magic that makes milk come and he's such a big boy that he doesn't need the milk anymore.  Well, that might have been the wrong thing to say.

Last night he told me a story at bedtime.  He said, "Babies are angel fairies and they come down from the sky with wands and fairy dust and they have magic to bring the nursies back. You can have a baby and then I can nurse!" I am paraphrasing. What he said was so much cuter than I can remember.  He went on and on and I asked him lots of questions and he loved being the storyteller for a change. It was such a special bedtime that I wanted to record it & remember. 

 

We just recently got this trundle bed from a friend of ours and decorated their room a bit.  My husband says it finally looks like a real room.  Before we had mattresses on the floor, which was fine & functional but we're much happier with this.  Owen sleeps on the trundle.  He comes into our room early in the morning to snuggle but he loves having his own bed.

Both my babies are growing up! Thanks for allowing this Mama a little sentimentality today.

~~~

Next week come by for our Holiday Craft Along!  I am working with my son Michael to make an all handmade woodland tree this year.  We'll be selecting from my Handmade Christmas Pinterest Board and making ornaments throughout the month of December.  Follow me & my boy as we craft and please join in and link to your holiday projects. We would love to see them! 

Toadstool Ornaments, Woodland Ornament Craft Along

So we've crafted our toadstool ornaments!  I think we're definitely going to need to craft some more because I'd love to see the tree filled with these! Oh and when I say we, I suppose I mean me, because Michael opted out of this one.  I don't blame him as they are small and I stabbed myself a few times.  

I made the fully, needle felted variety, above.

 

 

The twig stemmed variety. 

And Michael's smart idea, the bead stemmed variety.

 

My favorite is the twig stemmed.  

 

As I was making them I put them on our pine cone garland to keep them safe and out of the way. 

And lo and behold I made something I LOVE!  Sorry the pics aren't better.  I can't seem to take a decent picture of it. So here's our pretty woodland garland.  Made with plain wooden ornaments found at the hobby store, beeswax dipped pine cones and needle felted toadstools all strung on hemp string. 

Yes, I'm definitely going to need some more...

 

Thank you to Donni of Magic Onions for your awesome toadstool tutorial!

So, we are well on our way to our goal of a handmade woodland tree! We have beeswax dipped pinecones, toadstools & pinecone fairies.  Next up are Christine Clemmensen's : Pipe Cleaner Elves.  Check out my Pinterest Handmade Christmas board to see them & more ornament ideas. I'm not sure how elves fit in my woodland theme but they are too cute not to include!

 Ok, I know you all are making beautiful things this season.  Leave your links in the comments below.  We would love to see!  

Northern Adventure: Woodworking

The one thing that really inspired me about the Waldorf school I toured was the truly handmade-ness of it all.  The toys that I saw at the school were handmade by the teachers and parents out of materials they have in abundance around them. Some little wooden animals and people I saw were very rustic, not painted or "finished" beyond very little sanding. The nature tables were often built on a big stump of a wood. A beautiful circle and canopy outside was made from stumps for chairs and fallen branches. Play structures inside made of plywood and branches. Decorations were created from strung leaves. The decor was truly bringing the outside in! That was very inspiring to me. I want my kids to play with toys that foster creativity but I can't break the bank to make that happen so, I went to work...

 (In progress & some of these are still in progress.The rabbit is being saved for Easter.)

There is something so beautiful about the unfinished look but I just had to paint and finish them.

I was so lucky to have access to my Dad-in-law's saw and sander in NY.  Wow, would I be in trouble if I always had access to these tools!  He was also kind enough to give me some wood scraps he had laying around.

Owen's favorite song for awhile now has been "Old McDonald", so I just had to make him a farm animal set for Christmas.  There was originally a cow in here too, but he didn't make the cut. It was quite a challenge to draw them and chisel them just so. 

I freehand drew them from the Nova Natural catalog. They definitely look similar to their wooden toys but I think they have their own style about them as well.  I also love mamaroots on etsy, and here at her lovely blog. Her work inspired a few other ones I have in the works.

For Michael I made a woodland animal set, again using Nova Natural as a reference.  I couldn't get mine quite as sculpted as theirs.  For finishing I used hand chisels and rasps, so that's why I'm sure. 

When I saw this knot in the wood, I knew I had to incorporate it into a tree.  I love the way it came out. I painted them all using watercolor and finished them with a homemade beeswax finish.  Here's the recipe I used at Wee Folk Art. 

 

 Play silks from BeneathTheRowanTree

Then my Mom happened to have these little unfinished "building" blocks that she had been saving in the craft cupboard for a "someday" project. We pulled them out and loved using them for storytelling.  She had 2 houses, a barn, and church.  I started duplicating them before she said we could have them.  So, I made a couple more houses, and the castle and sanded and finished them all.  

We're having fun developing a world for these little creatures in our imaginations.  Each story they are apart of gives us a little more inspiration about who they are.  They are starting to take on their own little personalities. 

I have a bagful of cut and in progress animals, trees, mushrooms, etc. in the works.  I can't wait to see my boy's faces as they appear on the nature table throughout the year.