A Calm Mind

Today we managed to get out of the house by 10:00 a.m.! That might not sound like a big deal to some, but this is not easy for me yet.  It took about an hour and a half of running around the house at a frenzied pace trying to get the three of us fed, dressed, and bags packed to go on a nature walk with some friends from our Attachment Parenting group. Really, some days getting out of the house with both kids by myself seems like mission impossible.

Once we are in the car though, we have to endure Ember screaming the entire way to our destination. She hates, hates, hates the car seat. When does this get better? It is really wearing on me. She is fed, taken to the potty (we practice elimination communication) and has a clean diaper on when we leave. But she always cries. Always. She finally fell asleep about 20 minutes in to the 25 minute ride. She has a toy to play with and I try singing to her, talking to her and even reaching around my seat to touch her so she knows I am there. Nothing works and it makes me sad (not to mention the headache it gives me).

Anyway, we were really glad to get out of the car once we were at the wildlife sanctuary.  I am so glad we went.

This was the first real walk in the woods we have taken since Ember was born. We go walking often in our neighborhood which has some nice paths, but it just isn’t the same as being in the woods.

As we headed down the short walk to the pond, all my stressed melted away. The busy chatter in my mind that never wants to turn off was silenced. Walking in the woods is the best meditation there is. When I have meditated at home, it is always a struggle. I have to fight my mind to get it to be quiet. I know that is what the practice of meditation is all about, but when we were on our walk, I found my mind was calm and quiet without me having to do anything. I just had to be there. Be present. Enjoy the smell of woods and hear the birds. Watch the leaves falling. Not hard at all.

Giant sized leaves were discovered.

Beautiful textures on trees were noticed.

Mossy covered fallen trees were touched.

And we just sat. Enjoying the view (even though the pond was nearly empty of water). The silence was wonderful.

I loved being outside today and look forward to more outdoor meditation soon. I think it is what cures me.

And the winner is…

Imene of A Journey to a Simple Happy Life!  Congrats Imene! Look for an email from me today. Thanks to everyone else that entered.

Lady Luck and a Giveaway

I have been one very lucky lady over the past few weeks. I won two awesome giveaways and receiveded the best swap package ever through the vintage swap. I am going pay it forward and share some of the goodies I got in the vintage giveaway because I have way more than I can use. More details about that at the end of the post.

The first wonderful giveaway I won was hosted by the amazing Garden Mama. If you haven’t checked out her blog, you are missing out. She has the most beautiful children, photos and words to go with them. The prize I won was this set of adorable hand knit creatures and fall garland made by Suzanne of  Down in the Meadow Market.  These little animals are beautifully made and will be kept tucked away unti next month when Kage turns two.  I can’t wait to give them to him on his birthday.

I couldn’t believe I was the lucky winner. See, the thing is, only three days  before Garden Mama posted her giveaway, I stumbled across Suzanne’s Etsy shop on my own and thought to myself, “What a lovely garland! I would love to have that myself. Maybe I will try to make one.” And I did start one. That is what this long felted i-cord was for. I will be saving that i-cord for a winter or spring garland now that I have this beautiful one hanging in my dining room right were I wanted it the first time I saw it! How amazing is that? Love at first sight I think. Thank you Suzanne! I you haven’t checked out her Etsy store, stop on by. She has so many wonderful hand made items there that will make special gifts for the upcoming holidays.

This fabulous package that showed up at my door was from my Vintage Swap partner Sarah. I squealed with delight as I pulled out each item. She could have started and ended with the pyrex dish and I woul have been thrilled because it is so cute and matches my mixing bowl set.

But, she went on and included this vintage apron which I adore and have been wearing already. The lace pieces were hand made by her great grandmother’s uncle! I feel so priveledged to have these and will be saving them until I find just the right use for them. The Learn How To book is a wonderful vintage booklet explaining the arts of crochet, knitting and needlecraft and was fun to read through. The Vogart item is a hand embroidery pattern consisting of seven different flowers, one for each day of the week.  I can’t wait to find a special place to use this as well. I forgot to include a beatiful vintage table cloth in the photo. Thank you so much Sarah! I treasure all your items. It was wonderful getting to know you. Thank you to Heather as well for hosting the swap.

The second giveaway I won was from Jessica at A Little Bunny. She had stumbled across a huge stash of vintage patterns and goodies during one of her shopping trips. She was kind enough to share some of them and I was the lucky winner! Here are three of my favorite patterns.

Here is an old Butterick ad I found in the box. The graphic designer in me loves this and it is hanging  in my sewing room now.

Thank you so much Jessica! This was such an awesome gift.  Jessica  sent me so much stuff that I am going to offer some as a giveaway myself. There is just no way I could ever use all the patterns she sent me, so I have pulled out my favorites and have a small box of vintage goodness ready to pass on to another lucky winner. Post your comment here by Monday, Nov. 9 at 9 p.m. EST to be entered to win.  I will select one lucky winner via random number generator and post the winner on Tuesday.

W.I.P. Wednesday

I feel so all over the place this week as my projects here show. I have way too many projects started and am having a hard time focusing and getting them done. I think I need to sit down with my to-do list and prioritize them because I am feeling all out of sorts.

Morgan, the oldest of my three younger sisters, saved me by giving me two Halloween costumes her daughters wore in years past.  I was unmotivated to make costumes this year so I really appreciated her bailing me out!  Ember got a bumble bee costume and Kage received a darling little tiger costume that he just loves and has been wearing around the house every day.

I sewed a ribbon/hair band for Ember to go with her bumble bee Halloween costume. I didn’t dress her up or take her out to trick or treat – she is just too small and I didn’t see the point. I only made this bow to match her costume so I can take a photo of her in it, which I still need to do. Is that silly or what? I feel like if I don’t get a photo of her in a costume for her first Halloween I will have mommy guilt about it for a long time.

I am trying to get my other sister’s Yule gift done this week so I can give it to her before she leaves. Megan leaves on Saturday and won’t be home until March when she is done with her service in the Peace Corps.  I won’t say what this gift is though until next week in case she checks the blog.

I had been holding onto hope that Kage would be potty learned by this winter, but he isn’t quite there yet. Since it is getting cool here and shorts  are not keeping him warm enough, I needed to get some wool pants sewn for him asap. He didn’t have one pair that fit him from last winter – he has grown so much.  I spent almost a full day last weekend sewing pants for him.

These are made from two recycled wool sweaters. The blue pair is from a J. Crew sweater. I added some cute monkey pockets to make them more like cargos. The grey pair is from a Gap sweater and have snowflakes on them which are perfect for the season.

I also had some wool interlock fabric which I used to make these two pair. I finally got motivated to use my embroidery machine again and added this adorable samurai boy to the legs.

An action shot …

These lounge pants are made from a pair of recycled flannel pants.

Another random project I finished this week  is a scrappy wool garland. I am drowning in wool scraps and need to come up with some new projects to use them up. As much as I used for this project, I barely made a dent in my scrap stash. For this garland I cut out squares 2×2 inches from green, red and white wool scraps and then threaded them all onto some yarn. It is long enough to hang across my fireplace – maybe 7 feet or so. I can’t wait to decorate for Yule!

Fall festival

We spent one morning this past week visiting the local fall festival. The weather was slightly overcast, but it wasn’t cold or rainy thankfully. This was our first year going to this annual festival and boy did we have fun. I was surprised by just how big it was. Kage had a fantastic time going down lots of big slides, checking out piglets, cows, goats and other cute animals, and going on a hay ride.

Lucky for me, my sister (who is home visiting for another week) and her boyfriend were able to come with us which made the trip that much more special. I miss spending time with her and the kids miss their auntie too. The festival is geared more towards kids, but all the slides brought out the big kid in each of us. These were really, really big slides and one that was underground too. Very cool!

My sister who is home from Nicaragua and her boyfriend.

Lots of cute baby piglets – they were only a month old.

While checking out the goat area, Kage posed for a photo.

His visit with the cows was really funny. This was the first time he had been up close and personal with a cow before. The cows were all lined up and waiting to be fed, but we had not bought any cow food, so they started mooing. The look on Kage’s face was priceless. He didn’t know what to make of the noise. When I told him it was just the cows mooing and asking for food, he thought it was great and started smiling!

He also got to drive a cool, old, rusty tractor.

Before we left, he  picked out a couple of small pumpkins to take home. He has been enjoying both cooking with them in his play kitchen and using them as soccer balls and dropping them to see if they will bounce. I have a feeling the pumpkins will be in lots of pieces soon rather than later.

W.I.P. Wednedsday – Quilted Rainbow Pencil Rolls

I am sooo excited with how these rainbow colored pencil rolls turned out! They are just so cute and they really did not take long to do at all. I made two, one for my niece who just turned six and the other who turned three.

I used a natural color linen for the outside along with natural colored twill for the ties.

I customized each roll by appliqueing a large “J” and “B”,  which are their initials, on the outside.

For the six year old I made a larger 12 pencil holder and for the three year old an 8 pencil holder.

They look so pretty all rolled up.

I will be making one for Kage soon to hold his twig pencil set. These make such great gifts for kids!

She’s Here!

Welcome home Megan! Not much time to blog tonight since I am enjoying the evening with my sister and her boyfriend. Here is her welcome home sign that Kage and I made which I wrote about a few days ago. In the photo is my sweet little niece that wanted to help me take the picture. The sign says “Welcome Home Megan and Eli” in Spanish. It has been a looong time since my Spanish class in college, so I was pretty sure I got the ending wrong on the word “Bienvenida” (which they confirmed for me when they got here), but they understood what I meant and appreciated the gesture since Eli doesn’t speak English. I think the sign turned out pretty great myself and Megan loved it so much she wants to keep it.  Hope you had a great weekend!

Enjoying Autumn

We had such a wonderful walk yesterday. It was 78 degrees – at full 35 degrees warmer than last week! The skies were blue and filled with small clouds and there was a tiny hint of a breezde – enough to blow a few leaves down off the trees. I took my camera with me this time to capture some of the beautiful autumn colors.

This is a tree I really love. It is our neighbor’s tree, the ones who live directly across the street from us.  This is the tree we see out our dining room window. It makes for a pretty view while we are sitting at the table for meals or craft time.  Having big, old trees is one of the nice things about living in an older neighborhood.

A sun kissed tree. I love how in the early stages it almost looks like the tops of the trees have been kissed by the sun. That is what I always think anyway.

All shades of yellows….

… and oranges.

Some greens and reds to get me excited about the rest of the holidays this year.

Kage brought his treasure bag to collect acorns and not too long into the walk had his hands full of goodies. He learned what sap is once his hands became sticky from the pine cones.

We have been enjoying the book Autumn for the past few weeks. It is such a beautiful book and I really understand now how reading seasonal books helps the kids connect with what is going on around them. The book has lots of beautiful images and no words, so we can make up our own stories as we look through it. All the stories in the book he can relive when we go out on our walks.

Kage loves this page where the kids are collecting acorns.

He looks for his own.

And quickly finds one.

He really enjoys talking about this squirrel and his home full of acorns.

Yesterday, I spotted a tree that had a large hole in the base and pointed it out to him. He was so excited and spent a while looking for the squirrel and talking about the squirrel collecting acorns. It is fun now that he is so verbal. We have some really good conversations.

The welcome home sign is done. I am just waiting for a little more light in the house so I can take a nice picture. It is still a bit dark in here this morning.  Only a few hours left until I see my sister! She is also bringing her boyfriend with her, so we get to meet him for the first time. We can’t wait to meet him too!

Welcome Home Art

My younger sister is coming home tomorrow! I am so excited to see her. She has been serving in the Peace Corps for almost two years. She is stationed in Nicaragua and is helping educate the local people on pregnancy/birth control and several other health initiatives. She is doing some really meaningful work and I am so proud of her. She will be home to visit us for two weeks before returning to finish out her term which ends in March of next year.

I thought my sister’s home coming  was the perfect excuse to break out the arts and crafts today. Not that you ever need an reason to create other than for the joy of creating, that is for sure,  but we haven’t been doing much art yet due to Kage’s age and interest. I think he is finally starting to be old enough to get the idea that the paint, glue, colors, and paper are to work with and not to eat. Although he did try to taste the glue today, but what kid hasn’t eaten glue at some point during elementary school?

We started working on the cards first, using water colors to create a background.

Once the cards were done, I set them aside to dry and we started on the welcome home sign. I cut apart a cardboard box I found in the garage (since this was an impromptu activity I went with what we had on hand) and used that as the base of the sign since it would not fall apart with all the water and glue I new would end up on it.

Kage had a great time ripping up the tissue paper which we then glued down to the card board. I diluted some Yes! paste with water to make a very runny glue. Kage used the brush to paint glue all over the cardboard and then we stuck the tissue paper on it. Finally, more glue water was painted over the tissue to hold it all down.

By the time we were done with the first step of this project, the water color paper was done drying and I gave Kage his beeswax colors to draw with.  He loves playing with these colors as objects as much as he loves coloring with them. I love how wonderful they smell too – almost good enough to eat.

While we colored on our cards, Ember chilled out on her mat and watched, looking cute as always. Her new thing today is spinning in circles on her tummy. She is growing so fast!

Finally, we wrapped up a very impromptu and fun first art session with p.b. & j and pickles. An odd combination for sure, but I suggested the sandwiches for lunch and Kage asked for the pickles and we were in a collarborative mood still so that was lunch.

I made the bread using the recipe mentioned here. I am so happy with this recipe. It is much lighter and more like traditional store bought sandwich bread than the last loaf I made. I baked the loaf on Monday and it is still quite fresh. I am really impressed and will be making this weekly from now on.

The cardboard is outside drying now and later this afternoon, after our walk, we will work on the “Welcome Home” part and hang it over our fireplace. I still have no idea exactly how I am going to do this second part, I guess we will just wing it. That seems to be the best way to create art sometimes. I’ll be sure to post the finished product in the next post.

Regarding the missing W.I.P. Wednesday post, well, I was just plain tired last night and didn’t have the energy to do it. While I have been sewing a ton and had lots to share, I gave myself permission to miss a week. Sometimes there just isn’t enough time and energy in the day to get everything done.

Hello Sun!

After six long days of cold, rainy, overcast skies, the sun has come back out. It was so nice to see the sun shining through the windows once more. The past few days indoors involved lots of baking and sewing. The cold rainy weather always makes me want to cook. Why is that?

We baked up ginger bread cookies, a new kind of bread and yummy chocolate cake. This chocolate cake recipe is from The Joy of Vegan Baking and even with out the icing tasted great. I loved how easy this was to put together as well.

Paired with a hot cup of tea, this cake was a great afternoon snack.

Kage was developing a serious case of cabin fever, as was I. So today after his nap, we headed outside and played around the yard for a while enjoying the sunshine and the slightly warmer weather.

He was happy to get use of his chalk again since drawing on a wet deck doesn’t work so well.

He found his trusty old friend the mop bucket. This bucket has seen more use than most of his toys. It has wheels which makes it extra fun since he can push it around the deck and torment our dogs by chasing them.

He asked for the tongs of course. Today he grilled up some acorns we collected on our walk last week along with his favorite rocks. I can post the recipe if anyone is interested.

He also melted my heart by picking a leaf and bringing it to me to “make Mama happy”.

My sweet little boy. May you always be so thoughtful.

Hope you also had a happy, sun-filled, Monday!