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...

Homefire Retreat Getaway

Lately, I've been hard at work preparing for my upcoming toy making workshop. We will be making these leaf sprite bendy dolls.  The work shop will be held this Sunday at the Homefire Retreat, given by Radical Homemakers of New Mexico in Santa Fe.  I'm so happy to be presenting but even more thrilled to be attending the other workshops. Workshops such as The Garden in Winter, Autumn in the Kitchen, & Celebrating the Light with Story, Song, and Verse.  

My husband and I honeymooned in Santa Fe, so we decided to make it a weekend getaway.  The kids will be staying with our good friends and we will have ourselves a weekend away!  We'll have 2 nights, and a day together to explore Santa Fe.  Then while I'm at the retreat my husband will be checking out the famous Canyon Road galleries.  We haven't done anything like this since Michael was born (almost 9 years ago) so we're pretty excited!  The boys are excited too, they have been counting the days until their weekend sleepover.

I can't wait to share toy making with this group and learn more about Radical Homemaking.

Until next time...

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! 

Make an Upcyceld Snuggle Doll

I recently made this sweet little snuggle doll as a gift for a little guy I miss.  This is an easy, last minute gift to make. 

First, take a soft felted sweater and cut a part of the sleeve.  Mine is a super soft cashmere and it's cut from the end of the sleeve at the cuff. Then I cut a small oval out of it.  I cut another gray/beige oval for the face.  Again, I used cashmere but you can use any upcycled wool or wool felt.

 I sewed two brown eyes with embroidery floss.  I also sewed a bit of hair to the face.

Then I pinned it and sewed around the face. I stuffed it with bamboo stuffing and blanket stitched the bottom and top.  Then I felt like he need to be a little more dressed up.

I apologize for this pic, by this point it was dark outside.  I made a hat and little pouch/ sweater out of purple cashmere.  The hat is made from a hem and I used a running stitch to scrunch it at the hat's point. I blanket stitched the side. For the pouch/ sweater, also a sleeve, I blanket stitched the bottom and turned it over at the top to form a cuff.

Lastly, I sewed the hat and sweater on with little stitches on the sides.  I think it's pretty cute!  I hope my little guy loves it.

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.

fairy made...

So here is the completed Sugar Fairy gift, a little bit worn and played with. Last year Owen was really too little to care about the Sugar Fairy.  He loved trick or treating and the candy but he was 2 1/2 years old and not as aware as he is now.  This year I told him the story of the Sugar Fairy and he loved the story but as we got closer to Halloween he made comments like, "I am not giving my candy to the fairies!" Michael told him he had no compassion!  As we started off trick or treating in our neighborhood, Owen told one of the first people we saw, "This is supposed to go to the fairies but I am not giving them one bit!" lol.  So I figured I would maybe set their tree stump and owls aside and give it to them for Christmas. The problem is Michael still really wanted the Sugar Fairy to come! What would happen if Michael found a gift and Owen didn't?  I wasn't sure what to do. When we got home they ate plenty of candy.  Then we picked out 10 pieces and put them back in their bags.  The rest was to go to the fairy. I waited for arguments from Owen and none came. He was very happy to have his 10 pieces.  How much more does a child need, really?  So, we put the candy outside and I waited for their reaction in the morning.  They were both very excited to see their gift and played with it all morning.

I think Michael suspects this year.  He is almost 8 but really still wants to believe.  He said, "Mommy, the fairies stole your wool again!"  I said, 'Honey there is plenty of wool in the world".  Later when we were talking about what to make or buy for their cousins for Christmas, Michael said maybe you could make them a tree stump like ours?  I said, "I wouldn't know how Michael, that's fairy made! "  That seemed to satisfy him.  Oh, but that day is coming.  I have told him sincerely that Santa is the spirit of giving.  & that gnomes & fairies are something I've never really seen but choose to believe in & I have no evidence to say they don't exist. Don't we all love to play at these games?  It seems parents are having just as much fun as their children playing Santa, hiding gifts and keeping the magic alive.  What's more real than the love behind that?

Anyway, I digress. Halloween was a fabulous time. I put no effort into their costumes.  Owen was a bee, Michael a vampire.  We wanted to draw a vampire face with our Lyra face pencils but Michael refused. We had friends over, a Ninja & Star wars character.  I took horrible dark, blurry pictures all night and no pictures of the food!  We had pumpkin stew, bone bread, warm cider & cream cheese pumpkin muffins.  It was too much fun.  How was your Halloween? 

Until next time...

Michaelmas Swords

You may have noticed our Michaelmas swords about the table at our dragon feast.  The boys never quite lose sight of them since we rehabilitated them last week.

Last year we bought some inexpensive unfinished swords at the Renaissance fair. I had planned to finish them but never did and they were looking really sad, scarred & dirty.  We fixed them up by sanding them smooth. Then the kids chose what they wanted on their swords and I drew, wood burned, painted them with watercolors & finished with beeswax. Michael wanted a dragon & flames on his. I suppose technically a Michaelmas sword should have a cross on it, but a dragon was asked for and so it was given.

Owen would barely let me touch his beloved sword.  After much persuasion he let me sand it clean & smooth & beeswax it.  I was afraid what he would say when he saw it for the first time because the beeswax gives unfinished wood a more yellowed hue.  (Yes, he is that particular.)  However, he surprised me & asked, "ahh, think it's glowing?!" He was excited & after seeing how nice it cleaned up he wanted his wood-burned and painted too.

Here's my sleepy fire gnome.  He hasn't put the sword down very often since. Only today he turned it into a jet, (with the help of a few other toys) and then a candle with the flame handle sticking out of a boot!  Last night he flipped an outdoor chair on it's back, added another chair on top, his sword was a shifter and he was driving a truck.  This one simple toy can be just anything.

Until next time...

Dressing Dolls...

I have some fun ideas for more baby doll pegs.  I swear, I'm still a little girl who likes to dress up her dolls.  My husband always "accused" me of having our babies just so I could dress them,  lol. 

I had to share my new etsy banner!  It's the first one I designed that I truly love. Only a couple more hours to enter my giveaway of your choice of any Wearable Baby Doll at my shop.  Enter while you can!

Until next time...

Michaelmas Festival Week!

Happy Michaelmas!  Our week has been so much fun!  There was the chalkboard drawing that the kids woke up to on Monday.  They love it.  I'm beginning to enjoy chalk drawing.  This was the first time I tried wetting the chalk to get more vibrant colors.  I like the result though it really eats up the chalk so I'll be burning through our chalk set fairly quickly. 

 

If you thought my banner picture of the beautiful Fall leaves was from around here you would be mistaken.  I took that picture last year in NY.  This is what it looks like right now here in the Southwest.  Beautiful blue skies, warm sunny days and green, green, green.  The nights are cool though and we can smell Autumn coming.  Though our Autumn is not quite as colorful as back east it's still a lovely time of year.   My Mom recently sent me a text from NY saying, "mmm, can you smell the Concord grapes?"  Ooh, so mean!  Concord grapes ripening has to be my favorite Fall smell ever!  Roasting chilles is one amazing Fall aroma here in the Southwest.  Can you smell the chile Mom?!  (All in good fun of course.)

Anyway, I digress.

A dear friend of mine sent us this soy candle and some beeswax wax for decorating it.   Thank you so much my friend!  I'll have to work on my dragon sculpting skills.  I've seen some really beautiful Michaelmas candles online. Mine is quite grotesque. 

The candle has been one of our most favorite things about this week.  We light it every evening at dinner time and Michael all on his own exclaimed, "the flame is St. Michael's sword and he's defeating the dragon!"  I was so surprised to hear him say this as I had just read in All Year Round, "The flame becomes Michael's fiery sword subduing the dragon day by day until he is banished completely." 

 

I had wanted to have this dragon finished at the beginning of the week but to no avail.  I always underestimate how much time it takes to make these things.  I found this pattern at Rhythm of the Home.  I made him using an up-cycled wool sweater from my stash.

 
This week we began reading The Festival of Stones by Reg Down.  The book begins with stories of Michaelmas and so everyday we've read the next short chapter of the continuing story. Then we do a project to correspond to our usual activity days.  Baking day brought these pumpkin chocolate chip bars.   Very yummy and a big hit!    

The only colored leaves we've found so far are some yellow and yellow/green leaves.  So we made really easy crowns using orange & yellow felt and glue.  I sewed the ends together to fit their heads. The boys had fun placing their leaves and helping glue.

I also told a story called the Strong Boy, by Christine Natale about a boy who learns from Saint Michael how to use his strength for good.  My favorite line of the story is “When strength and freedom are joined with love and healing, all evil can be overcome and great things can happen!” It is a beautiful and meaningful story.  One that resonates with Michael as a big brother I think, in using his strength wisely with his little brother. 

We made cardboard swords.  They were super fun to make but only lasted a little while.  Michael said his is called the "Truth of God"!  I am seriously amazed at his ability to completely grasp the spirit of Michaelmas with just a couple of stories & crafts.

 

My chivalrous knights were slaying Autumn dragons all throughout the house and yard.  I know the "Truth of God" is more eternal then the swords turned out to be!

There was no hitting with them but just swinging them through the air left them floppy fairly quickly.  We'll have to figure out some simple wooden ones for next year.  Michael is already asking for a special wooden sword of his own.  Hmmm, maybe a seventh year Birthday gift?  Though that seems a little dangerous with a two year old in the house! 

 

After the swords went floppy they had the best time with the skinny little box we cut them from.  Silly boys!

Today we made our dragon bread using the Harvest Loaf story and recipe in All Year Round.  Michael really loved the story. 

He grew to be quite a fat dragon and was gobbled by all.  Tomorrow evening we're having a Michaelmas bonfire with Papa. We'll be roasting our dinner & desert over the fire. It promises to be a fun night!

Until next time...