What to do With Felt Scraps

As you may imagine I have LOTS of felt scraps from making my wool felt wands. I don't like to waste or throw away anything that has a possible use left. This value leads to a house full of stuff unless I can find a use for me or give it away to someone else to use. So, far I've made smaller items like my new head wreath band, composted some (as it's all natural it can decompose, but this takes awhile), saved the tiny tiny shreds to stuff a pillow and lastly given some to my son to play with. This last one is the one I want to talk about.

Here's Sam's array of color felt scraps for threading.

My son is forever wanting to sew or knit like his mama, but as he's only 4 so it takes some thinking on my part on what he is able to make. Of course because he's 4 he doesn't want help and the project needs to make "something" (gone are the days of just stitching through fabric in an embroidery hoop - sigh.) I picked up this project from my friend Teresa, who is an early childhood teacher, of making necklaces out of small felt pieces and wooden beads. It's so simple but will keep Sam occupied for at least 15 - 30 minutes, and for a busy active boy this is a LOT of alone time. I just threaded a tapestry needle for him with thick cotton floss tying a big knot on the end and he just starts threading away. Because the felt is thin it takes some time to make a full necklace that will fit over your head. The wooden beads help speed things along if your little one gets frustrated.

Sam ever so carefully threading the felt into a long strand.

I had to add this last shot as Sam took the photo himself. I really like the angle.

Do you have any other suggestions for felt scraps? I'm always looking for ideas on how to use left over yarn, fabric and felt so please send me your ideas!

A Time for Plastic

I have a objections to plastic toys as a rule. Even my son Sam will spout off to anyone that "Mama doesn't like plastic" (especially to his grandparents who offer to purchase plastic toys for him). But we do make one exception to my rule - Duplo Legos. My mother gave us an old set of Duplos that was left over from when she did childcare back in the early nineties. Because they are so old they are just simple blocks with no "specialty" pieces that only build 1 thing. It seems like most of the new sets have either pictures on the blocks or they only make a car or spaceship etc. The Duplos come out every winter when all of his other toys begin to feel too old hat and the building begins! I mean building, building, building! He and his Dad love to build all sorts of spaceships, vehicles and houses. Here are just a few:

Sam and the great tower that was chopped in half by a swift kick.

The set comes with these cute little people. Of course my red headed boy chose the red haired Duplo person.

This is the biggest spaceship to date. Can you see Dad's Star Wars influence?

I'm partial to this one with the ladder in back. Kind of a cross between spaceship and fire truck.

As you can see much fun and creativity abounds. So, who can complain that they're plastic? Well, for once not me :) ! What kind of toys do you bring out as the winter months begin to get longer and longer?

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.

Making a Felt Pin

I was wanting to do some stitching on some felt pins I'm making and of course Sam wanted to make a pin too. I gave him some wool felt to cut and he glued some on paper and then wanted to start on his pin.


He gave me pieces which I layered in order of size. Then it was time to sew! I used a thick green cotton floss and asked Sam where to stick the needle which he would then pull through the felt.

Interest level waned after a few more stitches, so I put the pin back on to finish.

Sam calls his pin "Tin" which he explains is a kind of monster. You gotta love boys who like to combine sewing with monsters!

Strawberry Picking

We went strawberry picking today for the first time. It all started with a tractor ride to the far fields (this was by far Sam's favorite part.)

Here's Dan in his row doing the actual picking. It's a little hard on such a tall guy to have to get down so low.

You really have to hunt for the berries amongst all the foliage as they like to hide.

Of course, there is lots of eating too which Sam excelled. But, if you didn't watch him he'd put his half eaten strawberries back and grab a fresh one!

Here I am holding the bounty of the day. We picked 30 lbs. by the end of our visit and ate who knows how much! Now, off to the kitchen for some baking and freezing of such summer goodness!

Shelling Peas

I stumbled upon a fun activity to do with my family the other day - shelling peas! We went to the farmer's market Saturday morning, as is our routine, and purchased some sugar snaps peas. The skins had gotten tough so I decided to shell them and just use the peas for some fried rice I planned to make. We usually sit in the park next to the market and eat our goodies, this week cookies and black raspberries, and our son Sam runs around. So, I started shelling the peas into the now empty raspberry container, Dan was helping me and then Sam stopped running, an amazing feat in itself, and joined us. We sat and finished the lot together munching on peas and chatting - truly a lovely 10 minutes! Next week I plan to buy more to freeze and can only hope to recapture the experience!

Dying Flowers Experiment from 5 Orange Potatoes

Queen Anne's Lace Fireworks!

Don't these colored Queen Anne's Lace flowers look like fireworks? They would make a beautiful July 4th decoration and you'll have a chance to teach the kids some botony on the side. ;) I saw Joy, You know how we're an art family, do it with her family, and me being the nature girl I am HAD to try it. I've done this with carnations and celery, but this is by far my favorite flower for this experiment!


What you need:
Freshly cut Queen Anne's Lace flowers
Food coloring (we used Easter egg dye)
Clear bottles
Water


Now, simply color the water (10-20 drops) and add a flower to each bottle. Then wait, keep checking the flowers every 10 minutes. Let them sit overnight too, they get brighter and bolder with time.

We tried this experiment ourselves this weekend with Daisies, but didn't get quite the spectacular results that 5 Orange Potatoes did with her Queen Anne's Lace.

Our best color was blue.

Our next best color was orange, but it looks rather more yellow than orange.

Red was the only other we saw a color change, albeit faint.

All in all it was a fun experiment to do with my son and a very lovely centerpiece for the table. Check out the original entry
http://www.5orangepotatoes.com/2009/07/queen-annes-lace-fireworks.html