Easter Fun...

  

Happy Belated Easter! We had such a beautiful day yesterday.  The morning began with two, little boys waking and trying really hard not to be too loud.  It was quite cute!  My husband and I asked that they not wake us up until it was light outside so, they were quietly talking in their room.  When I woke and came out with my camera to capture their wonder, I heard my eldest shush his brother because he heard the squeak of my door.  Excited much?

 

This is the first pic I took of Michael's surprise coming out of his room. As you can see he was moving fast.  It is our tradition to hide chocolate foiled eggs, or rather the Easter bunny does. So it's always a dazzling site to see all those brightly colored foiled eggs "hidden" about. 

This year I painted some hollow, wooden eggs to fill our baskets.  So the eve before I had the boys hide 8 wooden eggs around the house.  We left a note for the Easter bunny inviting him to have an Easter egg hunt of his own and find the wooden eggs.  We hoped he might fill them up, but we didn't ask of course, that would be impolite.  I kept 2 of the wooden eggs and filled them with a special MamaWestWind bunny, from their Mama with love.

The first thing they spotted at their places at the breakfast table were some child-sized Bolga baskets from Cedar Ring Circle.  Inside was their special bunny doll filled egg.

This year the Easter Bunny found some pretty awesome Mama makers to trade with and buy from.
The boys were especially excited about their adorable knit toadstool necklaces.  The little cap can be raised to find a tube of Burt's Bees chap-stick. Plus we found that the Easter Bunny did fill those wooden eggs with candy & bubble gum and hid them with their Easter baskets.  He did enjoy his hunt and left a drawn picture of himself on our note!

After a spot of breakfast & later a second breakfast of sweet rolls the boys spent all morning playing with their Mama made bunnies at their tree house. 

 

I was so surprised that the bunny dolls seemed the hit of the day, besides the chocolate of course.  I figured since they had seen me making them for my shop, they would be old news. But no, they really seem to treasure them.  Warms this Mama's heart! 

The rest of the day was filled with good food and family.  I hope you had a lovey Easter too! 

Until next time...

Fairy Garden Accessories...

We've been in miniature mood lately.  The boys and I began by making some sweet little bowls and cups out of acorn caps.  They are surprisingly easy to make with just a file.  Then we had to set the tiny table and of course Mommy decided a couple of place mats were in order. To be honest I'm not sure the boys really cared about the place mats.  That's ok, Moms can play too.

We also played with some of the other miniatures in our craft stash.  We made wreaths to decorate the fairy garden and our gnome tree house.  We also made a little bird nest with wax eggs.

Then I happened to see this post & video, at Anne of Green Gardens.  It's a whole fairy village!  The video tells all about her process of putting it together and what plants she used.  Anyway, in the video there is a cute little hanging basket behind them while they talk.  Since I had a few of those baskets lying around I decided to make one!  Owen and I went and bought little rosemary & lemon thyme "trees" & tiny peppermint ground cover along with some teeny tiny gravel.  Where the pine cone is I want a little house.  Perhaps I'll make one.  I can't wait to see it once the plants have filled out a little.  I can see the basket from my place at the breakfast table and I kind of love it!

We also bought some herbs for the boys' fairy garden or as they like to call it the "gnome garden". So far they have put it together all by themselves. When we're finished with it, I'll post some pictures. 

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 ©

Our Fairy Garden, 2013

I keep meaning to put up photos of our fairy garden this year.  Last year we made this garden box to fit on top of an old kid's table.  This Spring, after moving, we fixed it up.

We made the moss house in the back out of an oatmeal container.  We found the hollow "tree" in the front in the desert.  Michael made a hobbit hole in the center like last year and we re-sanded and polished our wooden gnome table.  That's a sweet Margaret Bloom peg doll in the boat.  Little Owen has a fascination with hanging ropes and ribbons from trees.  So that's his funny little noose hanging from the tree.

After we got the basic design in, we planted, impatiens, lobelia and peppermint.

We moved our arbor from the nature table to the fairy garden.  Years ago I trimmed that from a twisted vine I found in our yard.

The Fairy garden, referred to in our house as the "gnome" garden is placed just outside our back door. So the boys go there nearly everyday to play with it. It keeps evolving and changing with their play.  Right now the lobelia & impatiens are looking a bit sad in our summer heat.  I may have to add something new, any ideas?  Did you make a fairy or gnome garden this year?

*Don't forget to enter the Little Woodlanders giveaway of a wooden frog cycle learning toy!  It will be up and running until this Friday evening, June 21st.*

Until next time...

Posting at Natural Kids Blog Today!

I'm very excited to be sharing this creative project over at Natural Kids blog today! 

Come & visit! 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  We had a fun filled Easter day.

Our Easter morning tradition is hunting for Easter baskets and a foiled Easter egg hunt.  My family always had a chocolate Easter egg hunt every year.  Even when we were teens, to our parents amazement,  we insisted on the Easter egg hunt!

I remember waking up as a child and coming down stairs with sleepy eyes to see the whole house sparkling with foiled eggs.  It's a fun tradition!

Michael was very sweet and helped Owen find eggs.  He told me he would find the ones up high so Owen could find the lower ones.  He's a good big brother.

All dressed up for church and this is the look Owen made when I said "smile".  He will wear nothing but these boots, even to church!



And an update on the wool Easter eggs I made.  In the name of "use what you have", I decided to dunk the wool eggs in our Easter egg dye after we finished our hard boiled eggs.  I rinsed them off just a little, squeezed the excess water out and threw them in the dryer, where they shrunk up nicely.  They don't feel as thin now and I quite like their soft colors. 

I also made a cute little bunny for the boys to find at the breakfast table.  I had hoped to make two for their baskets but ran out of time.  Michael has claimed this little one as his own so I'd better get working on the second bunny.  This kit is from The Little Gnome on etsy. 

Our day ended in finishing up, "Eggs for the Hunting", by Reg Down.  Such a beautiful book with a lovely ending.  I think it's our favorite Tiptoes book yet! 

It was a good day. Until next time...

Wool Easter Egg "attempt"...

I love the wool eggs I see on etsy and in blogs.  I find them so much more lovely & subtle in their handmade-ness than the bright colored, hard, plastic variety.  Besides, have you tried to close a plastic egg lately?! Is it just me or did they used to snap closed easier?

So anyway, I decided to make some wool eggs for the boy's Easter baskets.  I've made wool balls & felted soap before.  How hard could it be, right? 

Well, the orange "egg" in the above photo was my first attempt.  Yikes, right!?  My first mistake was that I used a large plastic egg to mold it on.  The dang egg popped open inside the wool as I was felting.  I should of taped it up, right!?! Then I think I wrapped it too thickly and with too long of a strand. 

I then went on to use my white wool, which seemed to work well.  I saw a felting soap video (after my first attempt) that mentioned using thin short layers of wool.  This time I used stone and wood eggs to felt them on.  Why didn't I think of that to begin with?! The above eggs came out ok, they are quite thin. Ah well, I think they will work.  I blanket stitched them with variegated embroidery thread in orange, yellow & rainbow.

 

The rainbow stitched ones are my favorite.  Here they are, all ready to be stuffed with Easter goodies! 

 

Next time I felt eggs I think I will have better understanding of how to make them.  My first attempts certainly taught me what not to do! 

And, I decided I just couldn't throw out that beautiful orange wool, so I snipped off the dangling pieces (lol) and cut it in half lengthwise and here it is all set to be sewed.  A baby cradle?   One of our gnomes will be all too happy to sleep in it I'm sure. 

By the way, Check out Marcy's blog, It's a Simple Life. One of my little dolls is pictured, all cozy, in a wool egg.  Can't wait to hear what her littles thought of their new Easter bunnies. I have a couple of these little bunnies left in my shop.  I won't be able to get them to you by Easter of course but if you'd like them anyway, here's a code for 10% off.  Just type in SPRING12 when you check out.

Have a wonderful Easter!  Until next time...