Valentines

Valentines, Valentines, Valentines. We had fun making them, receiving them and giving them away to teachers, family and friends. Sam and I painted paper with watercolor to make our Valentines for school as seen below. The weaving was quite hard with the heavy watercolor paper so Sam just watched this part. We found the idea in the wonderful book All Year Round.

Here are the Valentines Sam received at school. His teachers had each child make 1 card and then exchanged. One girl made some for everyone - hers is the small valentine on a stick.

This lovely creation is from his teacher Miss Melissa and Miss Annette. They also used paper painted in watercolors which I found sweet that we had the same idea. Inside they placed the valentine from the children and a finger knitted bracelet from Miss Annette.

At the end of Sam's school day we parents had the pleasure of participating in a special Valentine Circle of songs and dances. It was all about a Kingdom on Valentines Day and at the close we learned the "key" to the kingdom is love. So, each child was given their own key to the kingdom necklace to remember the day.

Here's my Valentine for Sam using the same watercolor paper and some ribbon.

Here's one of the many Valentines from Daddy. He choose to have no words pointing out to me Sam cannot read so why have words - it's all about the love anyway.

Well, there it is Valentines, Valentines, Valentines. We all had a wonderful day filled with hugs kisses, a little chocolate and lots of love. How was your Valentines Day?

Candlemas (a few days late)

We're just in our 2nd year of Waldorf Preschool with our son Samion and I'm trying hard to bring the Festival life he experiences in school home. So, Candlemas was this week and he made a lovely rolled beeswax candle in school and sang songs about light. My intention was to make candles at home that same day, but alas it did not come to fruition. Today is usually Sam's day with his Poppa while I work on my wands and crowns for Etsy. But since Poppa is currently out of town I had Sam today and candle making was on our agenda.

Sam by the backdoor chipped away at the ice made from the ice dams melting on our roof.

We started cutting the wicks by having Sam cut while I held the wick. Then we watched the wax melt on the stove top. I purchased little votive glass jars as we did not have enough beeswax to dip for tapers (frankly that process is still too slow for Samion.) After making a few of these glass votives we decided to try making snow candles which I read about on In These Hills blog. We made a hole in a snowbank in the backyard, suspended a wick from a pencil above it and poured in the wax. These came out as fun little blobs which we will try to float in a bowl of water as a centerpiece.

Here's the snow candle cooling

Sam holding up the now cooled snow candle blob.

A fun closeup of the organic nature of snow candles.

Our bounty of the day along with Samion's rolled taper from school.

I hope you all enjoyed Candlemas and had the time to make candles with your little one. The best part is your whole house gets to smell like sweet honey - YUM!

Crowns, Crowns, Crowns and More Crowns

I've been thinking about Valentine's Day items for my Etsy Shop and I'm busily at work. Making crowns, crowns, crowns (it was wands, wands, wands, but I needed a break.) These crowns really sell well at Wonderment, the shop I wholesale to in Minneapolis, but not so well online. How do you get across the tactile feel of knitted wool over the internet? How they fit so comfortably and fit such a wide variety of ages etc. My photos are pretty basic and I "try" to have my son Sam model for me, but they always look a bit goofy. I've decided to try a professional photographer my ceramist friend Emily uses for photographing her work.

Sam looking goofy in crown or sterile crown all by it's lonesome - you decide.

The prospect of professional photos is exciting, but a little daunting since I don't really know how to describe what I want. My son will be modeling the "boy" crowns and my niece the "girl" crowns and hopefully some new garland wreaths I'm presently working on. Sarah, the photographer, suggested to find white tops that would be a appropriate styles for crowns as they might show in the photos. Well, let me tell you that idea was a fun one to pursue. I began at Etsy of course (I took the handmade pledge after all) and found this pirate shirt for Sam and this peasant top for Anya. They'll will look so cute, especially if they follow Sarah's directions (cross your fingers for me.)

It's funny but I felt a little out of place asking a photographer to take photos of my crowns and wands as they are only toys after all. Strange how you can downplay yourself so easily. I have my MFA in Metal Arts from years ago and I don't feel that's the road for me anymore, but it still seems like it's more important than making toys. Yet, I LOVE making toys. I wonder when I'll let the old image go of Art being more important than Craft. Hmm...I didn't think I'd wax so philosophical at the start of writing this post I wonder what happened.

Waldorf Dolls

Wonderment is a fabulous toy store in Minneapolis that caters to the Waldorf family. They often have classes on making toys too and by far their most popular is making Waldorf Dolls. After struggling with a kit, taking a class that was canceled half way through I decided to try this class. It was wonderful and as the store owner predicted very empowering. Eight women sat down at 10:00 am on a rainy Saturday morning knowing zilch to ending at 4:00 pm that same day with a finished 16" Waldorf Doll. It was so amazing the transformation of cloth, wool and thread to this little person with a personality all his own. I made mine in the image of my child with auburn hair and hazel eyes. I purchased an outfit from the instructor to get him ready to give to my son Sam who was, with Daddy, picking me up (life with one car can be tricky) at the end of the class.

The class doll is in clothes and the kit doll just has a hat so far.

I was tired and in a bit of a daze as 4:00 pm hit and I heard a little voice behind me say "Mama?" I turned to Sam and showed him his new doll which he immediately hugged and said "I love him." Wow! I was so pleased my hard work and effort elicited this response - what more could you ask for?

With my new knowledge under my belt, as well as those few extra pounds (where do they come from ? Certainly not chocolate!), I decided to tackle my half made doll kit. So, today I made my second doll. He too is a boy but with blue eyes, Sam's request, and red hair - no clothes yet. What a wonderful feeling to know I could make this doll on my own! An old half completed project now finished and useful - hurray!

Getting the eyes right was so much trickier than I thought, but I'm pleased with the end result.

Sam is loving them with that special boy love of hugs one moment and wacking him on furniture the next. I hope they hold up to such affection. He named them Sheepy and Lamby. Kind of fitting when you think of all the wool used to make them yes? I'm off to make them socks now - wish me luck!

Flower Wand Third and Final Design

Thanks to all of you who left comments for my flower wands. With your help I've come up with a third and I think final version. I made the shape more regular, cut a smaller center and made that center have two layers. The result you can see below.

I'm currently out of pink felt so I used orange instead, but the following flower wands will be pink with maybe a purple one here and there to keep it interesting. Now I just have to make lots and lots for the May Faire at Sam's Waldorf School. What else can say May in Minnesota but flowers finally waking up. Thank you Root Children!

New Gnomes and Wand Design Help

We just came back from a trip to Northern Minnesota. We went with friends to their family cabin (post and pics to follow soon) close to the city of Walker. It's about a 4 hour car ride from the cities which translated into lots of knitting time - Yeah! So, I knitted on the way there, stitched wands while there and knitted again on the way back - it was a fun trip.

With only a few colors of yarn with me I made many yellow items: chicks (for Sam's Kindergarten Class) standing gnomes, gnome dolls and a cat. Here is the pair of my Sunshine standing gnomes, which are laying down oddly enough for the photo.

I need to wash and card some more wool for stuffing the other knitted goodies. So, they will have to wait a few days more for their photo op.

The new wand design is of a flower, two versions, but I'm not satisfied yet. Here is a picture of both and maybe you could leave me some comments on which you like better, suggestions for changes or starting a totally new design. My thought is that the rounded one is better, but it needs to be more regular (I drew it freehand) like the crispness of the stars or hearts. What do you think?

I'm waiting for more pink felt from mamajudes, but I might make a couple of light orange flowers in the interim. Is Spring inspiring you too?

Making Window Stars

Well I finally tackled a project I've been dying to try - making window stars. You know those beautiful translucent stars you see at Waldorf schools? I've purchased some in the past from harvestmoonbyhand on etsy, but I wanted so many(you know every season a different color scheme etc.) that the cost would have been prohibitive.

With the purchase of this book and some kite paper from Wonderment I was ready to begin. I did look at the book Magical Window Stars, but the stars were quite complex and confusing to my Mama fogged mind.

To start I cut my large square into four small ones and began folding each piece as per the directions.

Then I stared gluing each pieces folds down, then all the pieces into one star! It wasn't too hard and the directions were very easy to follow. Here is the results.

I made green for St. Patrick's day and for the coming Spring here in Minnesota - only 12 more days to go! Really the snow is melting and the weather is a balmy 45 degrees (I know not too balmy in most people's eyes but after being frozen all Winter with temps in the single digits and below it is a major relief!) Here are two others I made this morning.

I'm very pleased with the results and can't wait for what Sam will think when he comes home from school. I think I'll still buy the more complicated stars from harvestmoonbyhand as they intimidate me too much, but these basic ones are for me to make in the future. Maybe I'll do some rainbow ones for Sam's room? What projects have you been working on lately?

New Wands

So, to have a small respite from knitting I've been working on some wand designs. This is the latest - a star wand. I was inspired by MamaJudes beautiful plant dyed rainbow bulky wool yarn and matching felt. The wooden dowel is wrapped in yarn creating a beautiful rainbow. I used my favorite blanket stitch on the star edges and smaller star applique. Again, the only unnatural element is the ribbons in blue, green, and yellow. The wand is for sale now in my etsy shop. I'm hoping to make a few more designs to sell in the shop as well as at the big May Fair event at my son's Waldorf school.

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.

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.

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!