Knight and The Lady Giveaway

Don't miss out on this amazing oppertunity to win these beautiful works of art!  Enter Castle of Costa Mesa's Giveaway here.  Can't you just imagine the beautiful stories this couple would inspire?

Gnomes

I had a 50% off coupon for our local craft store, so I decided to try my hand at a word burning tool.  I have never been a great artist and I do not have a steady hand but the tool ended up costing $8.  I figured I would have a go at it.  

I found it a bit hard to work with, and my designs came out um....primitive shall we say?  But I had fun and I think the gnomes came out really cute. 

First, I burned the designs, then water colored their bodies, and then sealed them with beeswax before gluing on their acorn or felt hats.  I think these will make sweet little Valentine's Day gifts for the children in our Playgarden and will provide some good practice for me.  I also listed them in my Etsy shop almost at cost, to reflect that these are practice gnomes, but I think I made them affordable enough that someone could actually hand these out instead of paper Valentines.  If you are interested I am selling the acorn capped gnomes for .75 cents each to my Blog readers and Facebook friends, when you purchase 20 or more.  Just send me a message on Etsy.

I also made a set of weather gnomes, that I had planned on using with our weather verse.  When the little ones wake up we go to the front door to see what the weather is today, We say this little verse from Little Acorn Learning,

Good morning to the glad new day, Whatever the skies let fall, If storm or sunshine, it is sent, A loving gift to all. For Sunshine: Good morning to the sunshine fair, That lights this world of ours, Good morning to the singing birds, Good morning to the flowers! For Clouds or Rain: Good-morning to the friendly clouds That bring refreshing rain, Which patters out "Good-morning, dears!' Against the window pane. For Snow: Good-morning to the lovely snow, That lies so soft and deep Above the little tender seeds In mother earth asleep. And then I showed them the gnomes and told them about their symbols.  They were both able to pick out which one was rain.  Although I'm not sure if they really understood the symbols on the gnomes yet, we will have to see how it shows up in their play over the next few days.  I often don't realize how much they understand until I see them imitate it later. I don't know if they can make the connection with the sun in the sky and the little sunshine symbol on the gnome yet, and they have not seen snow since before they turned one, so I don't think that is a clear concept for them yet either, but rain, we know rain!   Kiera was not interested in putting our little rain gnome on the nature table after we determined today too was raining. We have had our fair share of rain this week!   She cleared off her little table and grabbed the wand we use for story time and went to creating a little story with our new little weather gnomes.

Playsilks

 A playsilk was one of the first toys I purchased for Eoghan.  I drapped it over his basinet, let him grasp it, chew on it, played peek-a-boo, and covered him up with it,  and even tied little knots in it to fashion a doll.   His "silkie" quickly became his favorite toy.  Almost 2 years later we still play with that "silkie" daily.  There is something luxurious about playing with silk. I love watching it float down as we spread it out over the table to set up for story time,  taking a few minutes to pause and watch it flutter really sets the tone, for the magic of our story.

Our silkies have been used as landscapes and backdrops to our stories,  soups in our play kitchen, blankets and carriers for our dolls.  They have created forts, provided curtains for puppet shows,  have been fashioned in to all sorts of clothing for dress up,  and even become mighty rivers in our movement journeys!

I really believe playsilks are one of the best investments one can make in a toy that will provide years of entertainment for a child.  There are so many beautiful playsilks available on Etsy and I too have begun offering them for $5 in my Etsy Shop for those of you who don't want to have to deal with boiling pots of hot water and dyes all over your counters!

 You can however easily make them yourself and I think watching the colors come out is half the fun.
  I purchase the undyed silks from Dharma Trading Company and have tried a few different types of dyes, from Kool-aid to coffee beans all of which creating wonderfully beautiful silks! There are some great tutorials online on how to use different dyes with playsilks so I won't bother to post the step by step process here.  But my most recent batch I did a little differently than I have seen suggested online. I dyed with Coffee first  allowed them to dry fully then gave them a second dye bath in water tinted with food coloring.  I really love the way the colors came out a little more earthy with the coffee base.  I think on my next batch I may reverse the process and do the bright dyes first then give them a coffee bath and see what the difference is.

Shared on Friday's Nature Table at the Magic Onions.

Gnome Giveaway

I have been having so much fun watching this little gnomes "come to life" as I craft them.  Each one really does have their own personality.  They are based on a description of Gnomes described by a woman who is said to communicate with them in "Zwerge".  The book is written in German and I have not read it, but my understanding is that the gnomes are Nature's intelligence as depicted by their large heads. Apparently Gnomes do not like to be depicted as "little men" and this body style is more accurate according to the book. 

 One of my New Year's resolutions is to maintain a little Etsy shop to help offset my crafting addiction costs. So as promised and in hopes of increasing visibility to both my blog and Etsy shop, I am offering one of my gnomes as a giveaway, you can either choose one already made from my Etsy Shop or I will custom make one for you with your choice of outfit, hat and hair.   To enter follow my blog and leave a comment below.  To gain extra entries favorite my Etsy Shop and leave a comment below letting me know you did for one extra entry, and share this post either on your Facebook page or Blog for another entry, leave me a link in the comments section below.  

Thanks everyone and best of luck and I will ship to anywhere in the world. Comments will Close for this Giveaway February 1st, I will announce the random winner on February 2nd here on my blog.

Shared on Waldorf Wednesday at Seasons of Joy Blog.

A Birthday Gift

 My dear friend's little boy is turning 4 tomorrow! He's grown so much this year, has really turned into a little man.  He began his first year at our local Waldorf School and has really blossomed there.

Despite my friend's repeated attempts to ask her friends and family to refrain from gifting her son with media based toys, she lamented over the mountains of Transformer and Batman toys her son received this Christmas feeling defeated.  He loves those toys, but she has worked really hard since he has started at The Waldorf School to try to introduce him to toys that encourage more open ended play.

I know how hard she is struggling and how she feels nobody is taking her request/concerns about the media toys seriously.  So I decided to gift her son with a story.  I needle felted  a carrot, knitted then felted a little mouse, and knitted a chicken, a horse and the cutest little gnome I ever did see (if I do say so myself).

The story is inspired by this story which is inspired by The Giant Turnip, I believe.

One day horse saw what looked like a enormous carrot growing in Farmer's field, deciding this carrot would make a fine lunch, he tried and tried to pull it from the ground, but could not loosen it from the earth. 

Chicken saw horse struggling and came over to help, Horse and Chicken pulled and pulled but could not loosen it from the earth. 

Mouse watching the goings on, came to help. Horse, Chicken and Mouse pulled and pulled but could not loosen it from the earth. 

Mouse said he would ask his friend, Gnome to help. Mouse tapped on the earth and asked if gnome would help.

 Out popped gnome explaining, "I didn't know you wanted the carrot, I've been tugging on the other end this whole time!" 

So gnome came to help. Horse, Chicken, Mouse and Gnome pulled on the carrot and it popped right out of the earth, but horse fell onto chicken who fell onto mouse who fell onto gnome.

 Horse got up and said," I'm sorry chicken", Chicken said, "I'm sorry mouse" and Mouse said, "I'm sorry gnome". Nobody was hurt so they all laughed and enjoyed one enormous carrot  for lunch together.

I am so in love with the way this little gnome turned out.  I think I am going to knit up a few more in different color ways, I forsee my very first give away in the very near future.  The pattern is the same pattern my friend Claudia used for her second grade students and is available on her blog.

Holiday Gifts

This Holiday Season I am focusing more on experiences, creating traditions for the little ones, and slowing down instead of material things, and the stress of the typical holiday rush, rush, rush.

A few of the experiences we have done or are planning to do include: a nature walk in our woods gathering holiday greenery and decorating our house, a week of stories about St. Nicholas, concluding with a few treasures found in their shoes, a trip to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to see the lights, a spiral walk with friends, a St. Nicholas/Santa Lucia celebration at a friends house, baking saffron rolls and a week of Santa Lucia stories, The Charlottesville Holiday Bizarre trip with friends, a Yule celebration with friends, our own Yule celebration with a few presents, a trip downtown to see the lights and the trains, and four weeks celebrating advent with a little story about the mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms for each of their weeks, a Christmas meal with my grandmother, mother and father and a few more presents, and baking "holiday festive foods" instead of bread on our weekly "baking day". I'd like to add a day of sledding, snowman building and snow angels to the list!  As magical as I think all of the above things are, I was just truly gifted with one experience that trumps them all!  A friend of mine's son wanted to pawn his cello to by his mother a gift this year, touched by the sentiment she posted this on Facebook, where another friend of her's suggested he busk downtown to earn money instead, which gave me the wonderful idea of hiring him to do a concert for our playgroup and other friends and family.  The idea morphed into a wonderful afternoon, we are going to set up tree stumps around a bonfire, where he will play some holiday songs for us, then his mother, a Waldorf teacher, is going to do a puppet show based on the Chinese tale "The Rabbit and the Carrot" from the book "Spring" , then we will have some light refreshments and free play and conclude with a walk around our spiral.  I am so excited I just know the children are going to love this so much more than any toy I could give them.

At this age a huge influx of toys and gifts would just overwhelm them and my children (as I'm sure every parent feels) have far too much!

I made each of the little one's a special blanket, they each are getting a tin of beeswax block crayons, a special book, and a new set of Stockmar watercolors to share. Kiera is getting a cute little wooden tea set, and I am making her a collection of felt tea bags, and Eoghan is getting a little gnome tree fort from Willodel with some peg doll gnomes I made.

Hoping for a simple, nourishing holiday season. Shared with our beautiful friends and family.

Even the littles Need to take a moment to rest.  We just collected some greens to decorate our home with on a longer than usual nature walk.

Handmade Holiday Toy Exchange

A few photo's from my Handmade Holiday Toy Exchange on Saturday.  

I wish I had remembered to take photos of all the beautiful toys that were crafted but I got so excited in seeing what everyone made, I forgot all about photos.  I did take a few photos of the gifts I received the next morning as you will see below, but there were so many amazing crafts I really wish I had documented them all!

Our Advent Wreath and Gnomes welcoming friends our table

Some beeswax snowflakes and holiday greenery the littles and I collected on a nature walk

Clementines and Pomegranates

a few sugary treats and gluhwein

Sugarplums (thanks to Sparkle Stories for the recipe).

Goodies waiting to be opened

Homemade sparkle play dough scented with doTERRA oils

Walking blocks

A sweet little ball

This darling little gnome featured in "A Little Farm Story" about protecting the hens.

The gnomes and trees I made for the exchange

It was such a lovely evening filled with great conversations and such creativity, we have decide have one of these every season.  I already cannot wait for our Spring Exchange.

We are the Wintertide Gnomes

Meet my dear friends Adalbold  Crystaldrift, Varick Frostshine, and Arnulf Twinklesnow who are currently cosied up in their little pouches, resting before their work with Father Winter begins.  You see these gnomes are charged with gathering up little crystals of sunlight during the summer and keeping them safe until Father Winter covers Mother Earth with his beautiful blanket of snow.  Once she is aptly covered my dear friends here sprinkle the crystals of sunlight on top of the blanket, so whenever you see the snow shimmer in the Sun's rays or twinkle under the Moon's light you will know that the magic of these gnomes is afoot.

Shared on The Magic Onions' Friday's Nature Table.

Homemade Holiday Toy Exchange

Although I am very tempted to do a 100% handmade holiday this year, there are simply a few things we need to replenish our supplies on such as stockmar beeswax block crayons and watercolors, and a few holiday books I would like to add to our collection, so sadly we won't be 100% handmade this year.  Although I do want to focus heavily on handmade items which inspired me to host my first Handmade Holiday Toy Exchange.   So far I have nine other Mamas signed up, we are going to split up into groups of 3.   Each Mama will craft 2 toys to exchange with their group mates.  

I started working on my toys today.  I needle felted some pine trees and made a little winter gnome.  I think I am going to either knit a snowflake pocket necklace or make one from felt for the little gnomes to hide in.  I'll post more pictures when I am done, but could not resist despite our 78 degrees today setting up a little winter scene for my gnome to play in.

Waiting for his dwarf friends to arrive

Enjoying the company of the dwarfs.  (and a back view)

Thank you Wee Folk Art for the pattern that inspired my wonderland gnomes.

A few more gnomes came to join the party

I wonder what the topic of conversation is....

Hurricane Sandy

We are gearing up for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy today around lunch time, I have tried to get the littles outside as much as possible before she arrives because they are predicting she'll be around for a couple of days, and hurricane winds in the deep deep woods is just not good news, we lost our shed in a hurricane earlier this year when a very large oak tree came crashing down.

The Weather Faeries checking to see if it is safe to go play this morning.

Looks good just a little wet, but not too much wind

Play is such important work for children, I do not keep all of their toys in their rooms or just in the playroom, there are lovely things to be played with in every room of the house, but our sun room, has become the only place in the house dedicated to play.  I snapped a few photos of our little room to show where we will be spending the next few days as we ride out the hurricane.

a few Steiner dolls 

the children's playstand, with
baskets of musical items, blocks, felt balls,
 playsilks and a few other goodies.

Baby Nigel and his little dragon waiting
to go for a ride in the wagon.

The children's table and chairs I leave the silk
and fruit bowl set
up for them unless we are doing arts
 and crafts then the table is covered in smock cloth.

One of the bookcases in the playroom, mostly housing elemental stackers and wooden fruits and vegetable for chopping stored in the basket in the corner.

Our very loved and often used play kitchen

a few additional shelves in the room

I hope everyone stays safe, and Sandy passes quickly, I'll be sitting on the comfy green couch in our playroom working on a purple plain pickles vest.

Sweet Giveaway

Here is a very sweet giveaway from Nicole at Frontier Dreams, one of my favorite Waldorf inspired blogs, and Heike from Belambolo.   It ends October 30th so make sure you stop by before then!  She has some really cute handmade outfits for Waldorf dolls in her Etsy shop and some very cute dolls.  I just love the little fox print dress set!

  I think Lotus, the first Waldorf doll I made is in need of some new clothes.  I plan on making her a pair of pajamas, and a winter play outfit as a yule gift for Kiera this year.  She is just now becoming interested in dressing her dolls, or more specifically undressing them.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

Game Day

Thursday is game and craft day  in our Little Acorn Learning 5 Day Program so we made a variation of the suggested knock down the castle game.  We just had a new shed built and I collected the scrap wood from the workers, sanded it, painted it and sealed them with beeswax to make blocks.  I set them up in our living room for a few rounds of bowling. 

The kids thought it was super fun to throw their outdoor balls inside the house!

Strike!

One of the misconceptions about Waldorf toys is that they are all very expensive, and yes some can be, but most can easily be made or found in nature what you save by making your own toys allows you to spend a bit more on a few special pieces.  Our blocks are a favorite toy and cost us nothing!