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.