Busy, busy.......

The Christmas Faire at our local Waldorf Schoool is next Saturday. Eeek! I have signed up as a guest vendor and am frantically trying to get enough stuff made to make it worth my while to be there from 10 - 3:30 and miss out on all the fun the rest of the family will have. Also, although we are homeschooling the girls, we participate in the Parent and Tot classes offered through the school (at our house) and as participants in that program we are asked to contribute 24 items for the children's store.

The gnomes are my contribution. They are tiny. The little hand reaching out into the sea of gnomes in the bottom left of the last picture is 18 month old Tigerlily's hand. That should give you an idea of the size. As a child I remember that all the toys I truly loved were tiny, the tinier the better. So whenever I make toys I am always drawn to making the smallest things possible.

Once I've made everything I plan to take some pictures and post them. Wish me luck!

The one that didn't get away

As I mentioned earlier we were able to sneak the cutest kitty mug at the thrift store the other day without Olivia noticing. We were, unfortunately, not quick enough to get this one too. Isn't this little pig sweet? How could anyone get rid of this lovely little thing? For some strange reason Olivia refuses to admit that it's a pig...She insisted that we call it a dog for a day or two.

Yule is in the air....already!!!

Well, the big winter holiday around here is Yule. We celebrate for 12 days beginning on the eve of the winter solstice. Last year (pictured above) was our first year and it was fantastic.

The only draw back to celebrating for 12 days is that we exchange 12 gifts. We will be opening gifts from family on some of the days and we will be giving each other a poem on another but the fact still remains that we will need to give the girls about 6 gifts. We live on a very tight budget, so I can stay home, and try to not over consume. As the winter holiday approaches we always try to make a lot of things for the girls as well as find things in the thrift stores. We are off to a good start this year........

I have just learnt how to needle felt. Started out with these balls. One will be for Olivia and one for Tigerlily. I'm not sure which one will go to which girl yet.

Can you believe our luck? Not only were we lucky enough to find this mug complete with lid for $1 but we were even able to hide and purchase it before Olivia had any clue what we were up to.

Last but definitely not least, in my opinion. I made this gnome. Once it was just a handful of roving and look at it now! It's a stand alone gnome.

Todd and I made these while we were practicing our needle felting. They will be donated to Todd's school to sell at their Christmas Faire as a thank you for letting us use their felting needles and coloured roving. I will also have a guest vendors table there and am frantically trying to craft up some stock.

Thrifty, thrifty.....

Today I got my self these lovely new mugs at a thrift store. Ours keep breaking and I was really hoping to find something I liked to replace them. I LOVE these. The fact that all 4 cost me $3 appeals to my thrifty side doesn't hurt but I really have a thing with anything that has hearts and little designs on it. I think it has something to do with growing up in Sweden.

I am going to try to make a date with myself to go thrifting once a week. I may even try to go alone. I never do anything alone and I think that I need something to do by myself. Plus, thrifting with a 4 year old and a 18 month old in tow can be very challenging.

Mystery solved.....

I now know why I was feeling so slow yesterday. I woke up this morning with a painful nose and sinuses. Boo hoo. I'm sick. I've applied my peppermint halo to get rid of my headache, taken my vitamin C and I've downed my oil of oregano to try to speed up the healing.

Thanks for the comments about my last post. I live in Canada so Mandragore may work for me. I'm afraid to use the "other sellers" on Amazon for some reason (isn't that silly?). I have also asked the woman who orders books at our local Waldorf school to try to get them for me when she places her order for the winter faire. I'll see what she says and if she can't get it I'll get it from Madragore I think. Amanda, I do think that these books would be appropriate for Ivo. Olivia loves ours at 4 years old.

I'm so excited!! Tonight we are attending a lantern walk at our local Waldorf Preschool in celebration of the Martinmas festival. The festival celebrates St.Martin who is celebrated for tearing his cloak in two to warm a beggar on a cold night. Although we lean more toward earth centered religious views we celebrate this festival as a time for light in the darkness and a reminder to care for all people.

Tigerlily's lantern is a little worse for wear. Can you guess why?

Last year we lived in another town and attended a fantastic Martinmas celebration the likes of which I suspect I will never see again. There was a real horse there for crying out loud!! I am however excited to spend sometime in the dark with my family and friends singing and thinking of caring about others.

Fall back....

Something about being an hour behind is really messing with my body today. The girls slept to 6:30 this morning which is when they would normally get up and so I got up then too (as I always do). Something about today is really making me feel sleepy. I can only imagine that it's related to the time change that took place yesterday. Is this a sign of old age? Can my body just not keep up? I have travelled from continent to continent all my life and never really suffered from jet lag but this must be how it feels. I am drinking coffee to try to catch up. Too bad it's decaf :p.

I'm aiming for a mellow afternoon. So far things are going well. Olivia is cutting (a new obsession of hers) and Lily is napping. Phew! This Mama is actually getting a bit of a needed break.

I am desperately searching for this book. We have Winter. Spring and Summer seem to be available everywhere but I can't find Autumn anywhere. Tigerlily loves the one we have and we would like to get her the other 3 in the series for Yule this year. Any suggestions?

Boo!

Happy Halloween and Samhain!!

Well yesterday was busy!!

I had to make a costume for Tigerlily. It took me most of the morning to decide what to do and then the rest of the afternoon to do it. So my little duckling was born. I know it's not great but I needed something to keep her warm and comfy. Sorry about the dark pictures but I was lucky I even got any pictures.





About a week ago Olivia decided that she wanted to dress up a snake hatching from an egg. The same rules applied regarding comfort and ease of movement.


Also, we celebrated Samhaim (pronounced Sawen) by taking some time to think about those of us who we have known who have passed away and may be visiting us today.

Toot, toot

Oh my!! I was so flattered to read all the lovely things that dmillison had to say about my carrot babies on her blog. She sure has some lovely things in her Etsy shop as well and I am not saying that because she complimented me first. I really love her sock babies and to top it all off they are even organic.

I swear that I am in the middle of working on a big huge catch up post but I just had to sneak this in because I am so excited!!!

Long time...Long post

Well it seems that I am unable to sit down and blog more than once a week right now. This is going to be a big post....sorry. As you will be able to tell from the pictures the weather here is cold. The snow suits may seem like overkill but when the wind picks up it is freezing here.

This Friday we attended our local Waldorf school's Halloween alternative. It is called the Enchanted Garden and it is so nice. This was our 3rd year. There were wood cutters, gnomes, bakers, little red riding hood, a flutist, and angels. Unfortunately, I have no pictures as my snapping away would have ruined the mood.

This Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends. We went on a hay ride, picked some pumpkins and Olivia and her friends went on a ride that was just for them and got lost in a hay maze (she's the one in the red toque).

Sunday we went to an event at a local organic pear farm. It was so lovely. There was live music, free organic food and tea, crafts for kids, a farm tour and a huge pile of leaves to play in. We all had a blast. We went for a little walk in the orchard and found some HUGE old pear trees. Many of them had gnome doors in them. Olivia was thrilled to run from one to the other tree to find more and more doors. We even found a chimney in one tree.

On Monday we went for our regularly scheduled nature walk. We had missed 2 Mondays due to sicknesses and man did we miss a lot! The leaves have all lost most of their leaves and it is beautiful. I am so happy that I get to experience this with my children and even more happy that I will continue to get to do so even when they are "school age". While their peers are stuck in stuffy, poorly lit classrooms my girls and I will be out in nature enjoying all the seasons to their fullest. Even on Monday all of Olivia's friends were in preschool while were out on this walk.

We took our usual route through the "deep dark forest" which was quite light with the canopy of leaves gone, found a wasps nest (or was it a fairy home?) hiding up high in a tree once hidden but now exposed,we found a HUGE gnome door at the foot of a tree,

sat on a big rock watching the river flow by and tried our hardest to catch leaves as they floated down. It was a really nice day.

I am now off to try to come up with a costume for Tigerlily for tomorrow..... Wish me luck!

Off to the nut farm.......

I don't think that today could have been more beautiful. It could have been warmer but we really had a great morning together at a local nut farm. We were able to walk around picking up nuts and looking at them as well as enjoying each others company and seeing all the splendid leaves.

Look at this tree!!!! It took Todd, Olivia and myself holding hands to hug this one. It looks so sinister bare and gnarled against the sky.

Tigerlily carried this little hazelnut quite far.
These chestnuts made my day. the jacket is like a million sharp little needles and inside they are soft and furry. I always really enjoy finding chestnuts all huddled up together in there little homes. These ones are here in my home now. I just couldn't leave them behind.

What a weekend!!!

This was one busy weekend!!! Late Friday afternoon Olivia's new MEC snowsuit arrived in the mail. When we put Olivia's on to try it out Lily wanted hers on too so the two of them paraded around like some sort of deranged colourful astronauts.

I am doing a trade with an MDC mama. She gets a wool stuffed, wool felt Mama and baby bear and I get a Boob nursing shirt. I spent quiet a bit of time on Saturday working on the cub. Here it is. Now I have to wait for the felt for Mama to arrive. Wool felt is so wonderful. It is sofft and strong. It is in no way comparable to that craft felt that is made of plastic.

Sunday was Todd's birthday. I made him a HUGE breakfast of scrambled tofu, hash browns with green onion and red pepper and veggie sausage links. After that big rock was sitting in our tummies we went for a family bike ride downtown for coffee. Getting there was so hard on me. I couldn't figure out why it was so much work then Todd noticed that my rear tire was almost completely flat. We filled it up and then it was smooth sailing.

After the coffee we had a quick lunch and then just hung out until supper time. We had a pizza party (whole wheat crusts and soy cheese) and then this pie. The filling is made from tofu, honey and vanilla and was so good. My parents came to the party too.

Now I have a sick girl hanging on me. I guess that this weekend was a little too much for her to handle.

Just a little walk through the neighbourhood

Well tonight we heard a funny noise outside. Todd looked out the window to find an excavator knocking down some trees and an embankment. Off we went for a walk. Olivia was scared of the machine and Tigerlily just wanted to play in the lovely smelling dirt. It is in the picture behind Olivia look for the lights and you will find it.

We walked a little further along to look at the trees they had cut down up the street. They had mowed down a HUGE old tree.

Todd was just standing there looking around when he found a bird house that had been knocked down. We have taken it home and he and Olivia are planning to spruce it up for the birds in the spring.

Why are all the trees being torn up in our neighbourhood? Well, there is a new bike path going in. I have mixed emotions about this as I am sad to see these amazing trees being knocked down but at the same time this path may encourage more people to bike instead of driving. I guess I'll just have to think about it for a while.

Today is lovely!!

Well today is thanksgiving up here in Canada and we are having a lovely day off. This morning the girls and I took Todd out for the nature walk that we take every Monday and now Olivia is off to spend some time at my mom's house. We had our big meal of seitan, garlic mashed potatoes, corn, dressing and gravy last night so there's no pressure to cook something big today. We can just enjoy this extra day together.

I forgot my camera this morning so there are no pictures of the walk but maybe I will be able to get something up here soon. I personally dislike reading blog posts that don't have pictures. I promise to get better at remembering to take (and download) pictures so I can post them here.

Also, thank you to those of you who left me comments. I can't believe that there are people out there that are reading this!!

Happy thanksgiving!!!

Someone payed off my student loan :o

I can't believe it!!! It happened at the beginning of June and I only just found out yesterday. Todd and I have been saving up to pay of our 2 smaller student loans leaving us with his one big loan to contend with and we had just saved enough to pay my loan off. I called the student loan office to confirm my loan total and the woman told me that it was zero..nada...zip. No loan. She said that it had been paid off in full in early June. I sure am happy and wishing I knew how this happened. I don't know anyone who would pay it off.

So yesterday I went down to the bank and payed his loan off instead. I'm ecstatic about the fact that we are about 6 months ahead of where we planned to be in terms of getting rid of these loans.

Thank you universe!!!!!!

The fall is here!

These are the pictures that are currently on our seasonal blackboards. We made these boards in the summer while Todd was home from work by painting 2 MDF boards that are 4' x 2' with chalkboard paint. Now he is in charge of adding art work to them as the seasons shift. I wish I was able to do some of the drawing but I just don't have the talent or experience. Since I took these pictures he has added a squirrel to the daytime (leafy) tree and a little mouse is also hiding in the roots for Olivia to find.

It is our intention as a family to mark the seasons in our home to really emphasize to the girls what is happening out of doors. Another tool we are using is a nature table.

Olivia really got into the chalk painting as well. She is really into playing with the table. She has a mouse that she pretends is a squirrel gathering nuts. Tigerlily is really into taking the squashes down and biting and dropping them. Maybe next year she'll be able to use the nature table a little bit more creatively. The strange faceless person is a person that Olivia made at the Parent and Tot class we attend that is offered through our local Waldorf school (the one where Todd works). This is the closest thing that to school that our girls will ever experience if everything goes according to plan. The little person is still a work in progress but she really wanted it up there. We bring found items from nature when we are out and about and bring them to the table when we get home. We've had a nature table for a while now but this year Olivia really gets it. I love watching her playing with and collecting things for the nature table.

My first entry.....

Well, I've hummed and hahed (how do you spell that?) about what to write in my first ever post. It has been almost a week since I created this blog and have not written anything because I feel that the first entry had to be spectacular. I've just had to accept that it will not be spectacular or else it will never get written.

So here it is. My first post. It's much less spectacular than I had imagined it to be.