Give a Kitty for Valentines Day

I just finished some great new knitted kitty cats just in time for Valentine's Day. I usually stick to natural color combinations for my cats, but I had some left over pink mohair yarn - just enough for a cat. You'll notice from my etsy shop I've been adding mohair to the gnomes too. There's something about fuzziness that makes me think of love and Valentine's Day. So, here's my new trio of Valentine's Day Cats: Miss Bubblegum, Valentine Red and Cat in the Cream.

New - Valentine Heart Magic Wands

I just made a new item for my etsy shop - Valentine Heart Magic Wands! They are made from some wonderful plant dyed felt I purchased from a fellow etsian MamaJudes. It's a lovely wool rayon felt which is thick and soft. I wanted a new item for Valentine's Day and my son gave me the idea as he was running around with his dragon wand from Sarah's Silks. The heart is simply blanket stitched and stuffed with wool roving to give it some depth. The only thing not natural is the ribbons which are sadly polyester. All that's needed is an imaginative child and the magic begins.

My Gnomes in Their New Home

We had a Holiday Fair at Sam's Waldorf School were I sold my knitted gnomes, cats and bags. Many of the kids who attend there went home with a gnome or two. One family, who now home school their girls, bought five. They were instantly absorbed into the family. The girls made them a paper house with knitted rugs and blankets of their own creation for their new gnome family. Their very creative Waldorf loving Mama took these photos which I wanted to share with all of you. Enjoy!

Construction with Yarn

My son Sam REALLY wants to learn how to knit as Mama knits constantly. I tell him when he's old enough he'll learn it at his Waldorf School and I will help too. Of course this explanation does not satisfy an active 3 1/2 year old! So, I end up giving him a small ball of yarn to play with and this is the result.

Here is our front door knob which connects through the living room and down the hall to Sam's bedroom door knob below.

Now we're back to the front door handle with the shower squeegee tied up. Sam calls these obstacle courses and indeed it does make getting around the house interesting. My dear husband is clean crew for these endeavors and does all the winding unraveling - god bless him!

A Birthday and Lemonade from Lemons...

I had my birthday yesterday and what a day it was! I awoke to "Happy Birthday MAMA!" from my son followed by a pancake breakfast (that I didn't cook - yay!), beautiful flowers, scrumptious truffles, lunch at Lucia's (our favorite restaurant in Minneapolis), thrifting at the Goodwill and a day spent with my husband who took the day off. I'm so grateful to have such a giving loving family!

Our birthday ring showing I'm now 38 (oh so close to 40 - agh!) and have a winter birthday, love gnomes, live in a yellow house and have a son who can't be left out so hence his birthday bee was added. I love this tradition of the birthday ring which we started for Sam, but now use to celebrate everyone in the family including Grandma!

Lovely yellow roses adding such joy to our house with the bleak and frigid weather outside. The lovely vase was my Grandmother's and really makes any bouquet spectacular.

Here's our table's winter centerpiece with a fantastic needle felted King Winter I purchased from darialvovsky on etsy.

I was so excited to finish my Snow Gnome for the winter display. Dan calls him a Snome! Silly , but fun.

Sam had his first scissor incident today. He was making a dragon out of a plastic bag (I think he got the idea from kites we've seen) just shredding it to bits. Then he must have gotten bored and snipped 2 holes in his pillow form IKEA. It's a good reminder to Mama to be in the same room with him while he's cutting - oh well! So, I took some inspiration from Wee Folk Art and appliqued some wool felt hearts to cover the holes. I think it turned out well, although where I start the blanket stitch and end is a bit messy. But, the pillow was saved! Thus lemonade from lemons.

Fall

Fall is my favorite season. The colors, the smell and simply the feel of the air when you walk outside. I was out taking pictures of my new Christmas Gnomes and Christmas Ornament this morning and had snap a photo of the beautiful frost.

My son Sam is enamored with my little stories of Jack "Jackie" Frost. His latest question being "Does he live here too?" (I assumed meaning our neighborhood.) Which I found funny as I never thought to mention his home in my stories. Then realized home is so important to a child that of course he would wonder where he lived. Do any of you have any fun Jack Frost stories to share?

Here are my homage to Autumn Gnomes which are available in my etsy shop and as a giveaway on Contemporary Earth Mama's Blog this coming Monday the 16th. Drop a comment on her blog for a chance to win. Bring a little Fall into your home today.

It Finally Got Us....Flu is Here

Well, my little three year old caught the flu this past weekend. We've been extremely lucky as this is only the 2nd time he's been really sick. He's got a temp and can't keep food down poor little boy, and is sleeping fitfully. We have no T.V., but brought out the movie projector to pass the time. I feel so guilty about this as as a rule we try to limit media to hopefully none or most likely an hour a week. So, now Sam is getting an onslaught, but I don't know what else to do as he's so miserable. Any suggestions on amusing a sick child would be greatly appreciated.

Here we are snuggling on our couch, as he wants his Mama next to him all day (I've gotten lots of knitting down at least.) He didn't even want his picture taken...poor little guy.

Halloween

Here's my Sam as a cow for Halloween. It was the only non violent costume that fit him from our local used clothing store, but luckily he didn't mind. In fact, Sam embraced it wholeheartedly and actually wore his costume this year (last Halloween he just carried his lion suit around with him.) This was his first year of actually going door to door with Daddy. He basically just went around our block visiting with the neighbors, and not once saying "Trick or Treat" so I'm told. The best part was watching him play with his candy - not eat it mind you - just playing. I wonder how long that will last.

Fire, Lunch and Compost Pit

It was a gray but warmer October day - the perfect day for a fire in our little backyard. Mama was the master fire builder. Looks pretty good huh? Fires always remind me of camping, one of our favorite activities, which we don't do enough.

Lunch was a simple affair of goat cheese on Wasa crackers for the adults, cheddar cheese and crackers for Sam and apples.

Sam, who usually is all over the place during meals, focused on the fire, sat still and ate. Maybe we should have fires everyday?

I imagine Sam is thinking - "Is she taking my picture?"

The fire made a dramatic collapse after about 30 minutes.

Dan's project for the day was to dig a compost pit which we could put our compost bin on top of to increase it's capacity. We seem to always run out of room for our kitchen scraps mid winter, so this effort will hopefully solve the problem. I feel we still need another bin, but space is such an issue in our little backyard. We already have a shade garden, kitchen garden, raspberry patch, sandbox, playhouse, fire pit and tables and chairs. Oh ya, there is a bit of room left to play - thank goodness!

Before the hole was filled and covered, Sam had such fun getting in a out of it! All by himself no less - what a three year old!

Daddy and Sam together in the compost pit. I love this photo as it really captures the fun of the afternoon.

What I'm Knitting Now...

As you may have read from my SOCKS! post, I had to purchase a whole skein of yarn for the 2" of toe I was short. So, now I needed a way to use a partial skein of yarn (normally enough to make 1 sock.) What I came up with are these "almost" knee high socks. I used some green sock yarn my mother had left over (no idea what brand) and purchased the blue yarn from Blue Sky Alpacas. I'm pretty happy with them except for their length. Probably I should have checked their length one last time before I started ribbing - sigh. Sock number 2 is underway and I will increase the length; going back to increase the length of the first. I took a pattern out of Socks From the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson and just knit in garter skipping the lacework. They are so quick with the stripes adding all the interest. What I'm not looking forward to is weaving in all the ends - yuck.

Fall Harvest Orchard

I meant to post this in September when we visited the farm, but writing hasn't been happening too much as you can very well see. We took our niece Alex and nephew Tyler to Fall Harvest Orchard in Delano, MN for apple picking and good old farm fun! It was a gray day, but warm and good times were had by all. Oddly enough when I went through my pictures of our day there were none of us picking apples. The big hit with everyone was burying each other in the corn bin and holding the baby animals. Here's a few photos:

Nephew Tyler fully buried. Later he even let his head be covered with corn.

Everyone chipping in to cover Dan.

Sam just loved the tactile quality of the corn. Hmmm...maybe we should have a cornbox instead of a sandbox at home?

Tyler, who is allergic to cats, was so enthralled by picking up the baby goats and the different breeds and ages of chicks that he just couldn't stop himself when it came to the farm cats.


Sam did manage to pick this goat up; I did not manage to get a picture of that moment.

Dan holding the special fluffy breed of chickens they raise.

We all feed the goats oats, played tether ball, ate brats, picked gourds, took a tractor ride, picked apples thoroughly enjoying our day at the farm. I wish the weather stayed warm enough so we could have gone back, but we'll just have to wait again until next year. It was a wonderful day with my family.

Oh, I almost forgot to include the ubiquitous tractor photo. Here's Alex - isn't she lovely?

Sheep Shearing Day

On Saturday we went to Misty Meadows Icelandic farm in Minnetrista, MN to watch the sheep get sheared, the fleeces skirted, and play with wool! Here are a few photos of our day.

This woman who did the shearing was amazing. She was gentle, firm and quick. Just a few minutes was all it took her to shear off a fleece and all in one piece!

Dan with the HUGE pumpkin!

Dad and Sam at the" helm" of the tractor. Where are you going Sam? It was so great to have a warmer sunny day as Fall here in Minnesota has been cold and wet this year.

Time to go home. It was a fun day and mom bought lots of yummy fall wool to make wool felt for our Centerpiece and our Nature Table. Here are the results.


This was such a fun and EASY project. We had just learned how to felt in our Parent/Child class "Seedlings" held at Sam's school Spring Hill Waldorf School in Excelsior, MN. I might do a tutorial on it for when I make some felt for our winter displays.