Interview with Marie of Knecht Ruprecht & a Giveaway

{All photos by Marie}

Marie is the very talented owner of Knecht Ruprecht, a shop dedicated to handcrafted treasures for babies and children made from natural, organic, ecologically friendly and pure materials. I first came across Marie through Waldorf Mama and instantly fell in love with her creations. After my recent purchase of one of her beautiful lanterns, I thought I really needed to share her amazing work with all of you. I asked her is she would be willing to do a short interview and she kindly agreed.
Enjoy!



1. What is your inspiration for your beautiful creations?

My daughter Klara Alma is inspiring my work very much. She shows me in our daily life what is essential with dolls and toys in general and what is not. My claim in doll making is always to find what is essential, to limit it on that and put soul into my creations.
Also the memories of my own childhood spent in a very natural and rural countryside and also the processes going on in the cycle of the year in nature are a great source of inspiration for me as a doll maker.



2. We love dolls in our house. They are involved in everything that my daughters do. Why do you think dolls are so important to children's play?

I would like to start my answer with Words by Shariffa Oppenheimer in regards to Waldorf dolls.
"As the child nurtures & mothers the doll, he is - not simply metaphorically but also in reality - caring for himself. It is important therefore, that we offer a doll that closely resembles him/her, not so much in features but rather in proportion. The child's "felt experience" of the doll will remain with him/her. So let's keep the doll simple, proportional & tactfully truthful."
It can be said that a doll for a child is something like the "second I". Everything learned and experienced by the child can be repeated in doll play. If the child is progressing something, the doll will do the same very soon, too. If the child is sick for example and has some fever, it's doll will get in contact with the thermometer soon too.



3. I read in your Etsy Bio that you grew up in an artistic family. How do you think that influenced you?

I grew up in a family of artists, with lots of self made and handcrafted things around me. My parents made most of my toys by themselves. I was always around in the atelier of my parents and was raised to be creative very soon. Since I had my daughter, I started to make her things just like my mother did for me when I was a child. I just love all things handmade and unique and I choose to provide and surround my family and myself with beautiful and lovingly handmade goods. I think that things that are made by hand, using only natural materials, are instilled with a spiritedness that is not present in other kinds of things.



4. What role, if any, has your Waldorf education played in shaping you as a parent?

Waldorf with all its facets feels just home for me. It is just natural and absolutely no question for me to parent "waldorf" since I felt very comfortable with it when I was young.
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Thank you so much for all your wonderful answers, Marie! To learn more about Marie and view her creations please visit:

ETSY Shop: www.ruprecht.etsy.com
DaWanda Shop: www.KnechtRuprecht.dawanda.com
Blog: www.knechtruprechtdolls.blogspot.com

Now, not only was Marie kind enough to allow me to interview her but she was gracious enough to do a giveaway, as well! This is for one of her adorable walnut babies pictured below.





To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment, maybe even share your thoughts on dolls and their place in your child's life. I will close comments next Sunday November 29th at 6pm PST and announce the randomly chosen winner the following day in my Monday morning post.
Now please check out Marie's stores and blog and go leave a comment, already! :)

Good luck everyone!!

Baby Blues

I recently found out one of my very closest friends growing up is due to have her first baby next week. We haven't been the best at staying in touch over the past few years but even so she is still like family to me and one of the dearest souls I have ever known. I think about her almost every day and miss our crazy adventures.


Me (on the right) and my dear friend right
before a crazy road trip back in 2002. Oh we were such goofs!!

Upon hearing the news I knew I had to get cracking and make something for her. I only had a couple days to make it so that I could get it in the mail to arrive before next week. So I decided I would make my favorite booties and a matching hat. The patterns are both really gender neutral which works out really well because she is having a boy, (all my other patterns are rather girly).


I forgot how tiny newborn booties are!

I knew right away what yarn I wanted to use. I have had this beautiful yarn stashed away for a couple of years now just waiting for the perfect project and I had finally found it. It's O-Wool Balance which is an organic yarn consisting of 50% wool and 50% cotton, perfect weight for a baby living in San Diego, CA. I love the colorway, it reminds me so very much of my dear friend's beautiful blue eyes.


K baby had to model the hat for me

I plan on making more for her little guy but for now I hope this package arrives in time for his appearance in this world.

On another note -
I am excited to announce that my birthday crown tutorial is featured on Apartment Therapy - Ohdeedoh. You can see it here. I was shocked when they contacted me about it. I love their website and am completely honored they would want to include me. There are some amazing crowns featured on there as well, please go check it out!

I am off to rearrange more furniture and try to create a second 'frontier' in our home. Wishing you all the time to reconnect with loved ones this weekend. Have a great one!

WIP Wednesday: The Heart Of Advent

One of the many beeswax ornaments K and I made the other day inspired by my friend's blog

Last Saturday our future school had their 'Heart of Advent' event. This is a yearly event for the parents to get together to learn new crafts, create beautiful decorations for the holidays, make gifts for friends and family and gather projects to do at home with our children. As soon as I found out about it, I knew I just had to go. Since it was a parents only event the school kindly offered childcare for kids two and older in one of their kindergarten classrooms. This tiny detail was what made it an awesome experience, not only for me but for K as well (She wants nothing more than to be in school right now but her age and finances make it impossible until next year). Kevin agreed to watch C for 2 hours so everything worked out perfectly.


Wooly sheep still in progress

I dropped K off in the classroom and she never even looked back, then I was off to create. I thought 2 hours would be enough time but really I could have spent the whole day there. I only got to three tables, and didn't finish a single project in that short amount of time but it was all so perfect. Everyone there was so kind, helpful and just soothing to be around. Even the atmosphere as a whole was incredibly calming. They had the most beautiful piano music being played by a very talented student, and the smell of warm beeswax all through the halls.


Wool felt photo album

I was able to start a tiny little sheep at one table (and took home supplies to make another one, as well as a camel),and a wool felted photo album (which will be a gift for K for Christmas) at another. But the highlight for me was the wool roving angel, not because of the project itself, although it is very beautiful, but because of the woman teaching it. When I first saw her there was just this kindness and sincerity in her eyes that was so warming. As she taught me we talked about our families and places we have lived. It ends up she runs a Waldorf inspired daycare from her house literally down the road from our house! We could walk to see her whenever we want. Pretty crazy since families at the school drive from all over northern Oregon to attend. After the amazement of finding that out, she asked me my daughters names and when I told her K's name she said she knew a girl by that name back in New York. I instantly knew who she was talking about because K's name is pretty rare, there are only 3 of them that we know of, and all 3 know each other. The two of us were completely taken back by the fact that we both knew this one inspiring family. What are the odds?! I ended up spending most of my two hours at that table talking with her. The girls and I are already making plans to go for a walk one of these days and visit. We can't wait!


Wool roving angel

Every time I look at that angel I will think about what a wonderful time I had at that event. It was truly an amazing, amazing experience. It was an opportunity to slow down, be creative, enjoy the company of other adults (which never happens for me), while preparing for the season that is coming all to soon! I still can't get over how fortunate we are to be here and just how much I love this community.
Now to finish up the wooly animals and the photo album...

Happy Creating!!

Budding Photographer: A Guest Blogger of sorts

{Photo by K}

Lately, I just have not had the inspiration to pick up my camera at all so I let K do it for me. She knows how special my camera is to me so she was beside herself when I told her she could use it and showed her how.
I know my photography is nothing special and has plenty of room for improvement but even so, it is such a big part of me. Ever since my late teens it has been a huge outlet for me, something I just can't seem to live without, so to see K show such an interest in it made me giddy with excitement. So, of course, I just had to share this moment with you!

K's pictures in her own words:


{My first picture, I was really trying to take a picture of kitty *giggles*}


{I got kitty dressed in Banana Baby's clothes for her session and asked her to sit still}


{The farmer visiting the other Daddy farmer}



Who knows, maybe photography will become K's outlet, too. I look forward to many more photography sessions to come! Perhaps I need to get her her own camera though.....

Wishing you and your little ones many moments of creative fun!

Random Friday Musings

Finished lanterns

I was going to post a tutorial for making the wet on wet painting lanterns but then I saw the wonderful Grace of Uncommone Grace posted one. Hers is really beautiful and easy to follow. You can see it here.

We had our little Martinmas lantern walk Wednesday night. Even though it was just the 3 of us walking around our neighborhood the girls still really enjoyed themselves. I ended up having C carry a plastic lantern that K's friend Fiona gave her last year. We live on a mountain and our street is nothing but bumps and uphill climbing, so it seemed like the best bet. C ended up stumbling and dropping her lantern about 4 times on our walk so it ended up being a wise choice, indeed!


My 'marshmallow' girls, bundled up so cozy warm, before our walk (They could barely put their arms down in those coats, it made us laugh the whole night).


As you can see it was impossible for me to get photos of them in the dark.

As I mentioned in the title, this post is really random!

Thanks to tours at our local Waldorf schools, my friend Marina, and living in such a 'green' area I am now obsessed with tree stumps and reclaimed wood. I am really hoping to find a huge tree stump that would be big enough to put the girls' dollhouse on. I can just see it in my head, it would almost look like a tree house! So far, though, I have not had any luck in my searching. Although, I did get a cute little willow tree stump that a kind man offered us. Haven't decided what I will do with that just yet, though.



Our house is a fixer-upper and we are finding all kinds of things that need to be removed or selvaged. A couple of things I am not sure of that to do with are the wood fencing seen above as well as wood from our deck that we are removing. I don't want to just get rid of this wood, especially the fencing, it has a beauty of it's own. Yet, I am not sure what I could make out of it? My husband is not into wood working so I will be doing all of this myself. I was thinking shelves, somehow or... I don't know. I am having a hard time envisioning the wood as something else. Any thoughts? What would you do with all of this wood?

Last but not least, I wanted to share a couple of beautiful crowns that some talented mamas recently made inspired by my tutorial. These made me grin from ear to ear, especially seeing them on their sweet little ones!




{Crown and photos by Jennifer Griesemer Sullivan}

Crown made by Heidi of Spiritual Knitter can be seen here

I have had others e-mailed to me as well, and I hope to share them soon after I contact the creators. Please keep them coming! It makes me happier than you could possibly imagine!

On that note I wish you a wonderful and restful weekend!

Happy Martinmas!

The daylight fast is dwindling
My little lamp needs kindling
Let your beams shine far
Into the dark night
Little lantern guard me
With your precious light

We interrupt our regularly scheduled WIP Wednesday post to wish you all a wonderful and peaceful Martinmas!

The girls and I have been preparing since Monday, reading the story of St.Martin and boxing up some warm clothes to donate to the homeless. I actually wish we were doing more 'charity wise' but it just snuck up on me this year so I didn't have a lot of time to plan.

Then we started on our lanterns. We did 2 different kinds this year.



We made our first by just simply decorating a glass jar with tissue paper and wheat glue. K had a lot of fun with that one. We decided to keep that one on our table as our meal candle since glass and little ones walking on concrete don't really go well together!



Then on Tuesday we started a lantern out of a painting. This is the lantern K will carry on our lantern walk. K painted some paper using the wet on wet painting technique, then we let it dry. *A note on paper for wet on wet painting. Make sure you buy the good thick paper. We bought some thinner wet on wet painting paper for this project and it didn't hold up very well and also made the paint colors more muted. We learned our mistake!*





I went over her painting with a light coat of oil last night and this morning we are going to assemble the lantern so it is all ready for our lantern walk tonight. We don't know of any public lantern walks happening around here so the girls and I will walk around our neighborhood after the sun sets. It feels a bit strange because this is our first year not celebrating Martinmas with our dear friend Tiffeni. We miss her so much! On that note, I thought I'd share a few moments from the last 2 years here and here (the last one was before I made this blog public. How funny!).



A couple of our Martinmas pictures on our nature table. We have others throughout the house.



Wishing you all warmth and moments of introspection during this special time!

My Frontier

Photos of my grandpa when he was in the Army Air Force during WWII

I have been thinking a lot about your kind words last Wednesday and they reminded me of something Rahima mentioned at her conference. She spoke about creating a 'frontier' in a house of chaos. Of course, I loved her choice of words! Basically, she was saying if things seem to be chaotic and it seems like you don't have anything in order pick one area to work on and keep up with that area. Once you have it under control it will be easier to move onto other areas. That really does make sense! She spoke of this referring to rhythm as well as areas of the home.



So with your words and Rahima's teachings in mind I decided to make my 'frontier' in our home. I won't lie, I took the easy way out. I choose the simplest room in our whole house - the dining room. There are only 3 pieces of furniture in the room, it needs to be painted and we don't have any blinds or shelves to hang our art yet, so it's far from being done. I just wanted this space to be clear.

After moving boxes out and arranging the furniture, I took a good look and thought about what we use this space for. Meals, of course. The dining room is actually our main eating space. We do not have room in our kitchen for a table. But we also use it for our family arts and crafts. With this in mind I decided to store our art supplies in our cabinet in there for easier access.



The girls and I thought that cabinet would be perfect for our nature table, too. We haven't had a true nature table since we left Virginia in August and we have missed it so very much. This all came together with perfect timing because we received our beautiful Seasons Round package from my swap partner Meg of Sew Liberated. She really did an amazing job!




Preparing for Martinmas


Our beloved bat from mamaroots





So now I have my frontier and it truly is saving my sanity! My slump is a thing of the past and I am excited to get back to creating. I hope this motivates me to continue on and get our house in order so my head can feel in order.

Happy Monday everyone!

Down Time

Chop, chop, chip-ity chop
Cut off bottom
Cut off the top
What we have left,
We'll put in the pot
Chop, chop, chip-ity chop



Thank you everyone for your wonderful words of wisdom and kindness. I have been taking the past couple of days 'off' and just enjoying this crisp, cool time of the year with my girls.



We all really enjoyed making a simple homemade vegetable soup together (recipe from The Waldorf School Book of Soups) I cut the veggies, K sang the song and helped C put the veggies in the pot. It was team work at it's best. The recipe really is as easy as it gets. Throw fresh veggies in a pot, add water and butter or margarine then simmer. We started a loaf of bread earlier in the day as well and that was baking the same time the soup was simmering. Oh my, the house smelled wonderful!



Another cool weather treat we have been enjoying is the warmth of the fire. It really does warm your soul, especially when you are sick or just down and out. Nothing is more healing.
We didn't have any firewood so we went on a scavenger hunt in our backyard. What better place to find fallen wood than a forest, right?! We were able to find quite a bit, mostly wet and covered in moss but it still produced fire, none the less.


K finds some twigs for our fire (wearing my Yankees hat, making her Great-Grandpa smile down on her from above - Go Yankees!!)


Kevin's 'working man hands'


Joy!


Sleep, baby, sleep

My sweet cranky baby was finally soothed to sleep rocking with me in my rocking chair in front of the fire. A million thoughts of things I could get done ran through my head for a brief moment, but I didn't move. I soaked up every little second I could get of her in her dreamland state, hoping to memorize her cute little chubby, sleeping face, knowing all to soon these moments will be gone. K was still helping Kevin gather wood and saw C sleeping in my lap. She ran and told Kevin that C was asleep in my lap and that I must be her guardian angel watching over her. Yeah, I turned into a puddle of mush upon hearing that! How did I get so lucky?! It's moments like that, that completely melt my heart and make all the chaos the girls can bring just disappear.

Wishing you all have many 'mama mush' moments this weekend!
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On a side note: I have received quite a few e-mails asking about the girls plates and such. I wasn't able to find the info on K's set until now. K's white with blue dots enamelware (plates,bowls and matching cups) are by Gluckskafer I bought our set a couple years ago from my dear friend Tiffeni but I am sure if you google the company you will be able to find them online.
C's wooden bowls, spoons, forks and little wooden mug are from Nova Natural
I hope that helps everyone!

WIP Wednesday: A Photographic Journey

Temporary yarn shelf

...because honestly I am just too exhausted today! I think *gasp* I am getting a bit burnt out on holiday crafts already. I contribute it to the fact that we are still living out of boxes, furniture is just thrown haphazardly into each room, my temporary yarn shelf came crashing down yesterday, and C is teething and clingy. I have lost all motivation to do anything, let alone find the time to craft. I am hoping to get back into the swing of things soon. Maybe this will re-inspire me...


Kitty toys


K's present {part three} from St.Nicholas to go with:


K's present {part one} from St. Nicholas


C's Lyala Hoodie


K's Stellaluna

I just have to add a note about K's bat. Remember how I said I goof things up when I rush? Well, that bat is the perfect example. I finished her up Halloween night and something didn't look right. It wasn't until today that I figured it out. I sewed her wings on backwards. Of course I can't fix it now because K would notice, and that would crush her dreams of the Halloween fairy. I guess they don't look that bad but I know it will irk me for quite a while.
I may hang a sign above my desk - NO RUSHING!

Ok everyone I hope you are having a great week! Send some of your creative mojo my way, please and help me get out of my slump!!

Happy creating!

A Bat's House

Halloween day started out with last minute decisions on K's costume (She ended up being a butterfly) and pumpkin carving. We had fun deciding on the pumpkin's face. All four of us sat at the girls table and drew a pumpkin face. In the end we let K pick and she liked Daddy's the best.





Carving was followed by a visit to our Farmers Market for trick or treating...





where C and K were given beautiful beeswax butterflies by our local bee keeper. This was the best treat of all! The girls loved smelling them over and over again.



After a yummy homemade soup dinner we went out for trick or treating,



K's face says it all (and sadly this is the only decent pic I got of her in her costume), we were utterly confused. There was not a single soul out trick or treating on our street and no one answered their doors. We tried a couple more streets and found a total of 4 houses that welcomed trick or treaters. We called it quits after that, the girls were exhausted from all that walking. Kevin and I felt horrible for them but the girls didn't seem to care, they were perfectly content with those 4 houses. So it all worked out. We got home and K emptied out her trick or treat bag, picked 4 pieces of candy she could keep to eat the next day (thank you Boatbaby for that idea!), and then left the rest out for the Halloween Fairy. C's candy was left out as well.

Once the girls were in bed I rushed to finish a present from the Halloween fairy. I finished it up and then realized I couldn't have one gift for the girls to share, they would fight like cats and dogs over it! So I dug out the box to pull out another gift. The box is a box hidden away from the girls filled with a few random presents for times like this. Most of the presents are for when the girls are older that I just had to get (because of a good deal or some other reason I justified in my head) but there are a few for now, too. I searched through the box and found the perfect thing for C. I knew K would love what I made so I had to let her have that. I ran upstairs to our dining room, where they left their candy, and put K's present in her empty trick or treat bag and C's in her own, then set the big present for the both of them in the center of the table. Phew! Finally done! Kevin and I enjoyed a few pieces of the fairy's candy and called it a night.



The next morning the girls woke up and ran to their bags. Kevin and I decided the best present we could get for K was a real bat house. For more than a year now K has been talking about bat houses and about how she wanted one in our next house. Well, here we are in our next house so that bat house just had to be here, too!



C giggled with delight at her owl so that ended up being a good choice as a last minute gift...



and K loved her knitted bat. She named it Stellaluna and fed it leftover pieces of pumpkin from our morning carving. This dirty hand picture is all I got of that bat, K had it in a sling most of the day. Maybe she'll let me get some better pictures tomorrow.

So overall Halloween and the Halloween Fairy's visit were a success. The girls didn't miss their candy at all, especially after opening their honey sticks.





I hope you all had a great one!! I hope to see you for WIP Wednesday. Now it's really time for me to kick the gift making into high gear!

Nurturing is Invisible

What builds a home

Last weekend, as you know, I was fortunate enough to attend the Rahima Baldwin conference at Cedarwood Waldorf School. It was as wonderful as I imagined it would be. Rahima is such an amazing speaker, she really reaches out to everyone. I think everyone there left on a high after hearing her speak. Her question and answer session was almost as insightful as her speech itself. It was so great to be around so many Waldorf parents, I have to say I have never seen so many knitting needles going at once!

Some highlights that really got to me from her speech:

"Nurturing is invisible"

How true is that?! Does your significant other ever ask you what you did all day at home with the kids and you can not come up with one thing? You know you've done so much, calmed down fears, rescued dearly loved dolls from dragons (or in our house - Paw Paw), sang silly songs, alleviated melt downs, kissed away boo boos; the list just keeps going.... But yet you can't seem to put it into words.

"Doing things rhythmically simplifies life"

I think that one speaks for itself.

"Teach tolerance but stand strong"

That one really got to me because I really try to teach tolerance but standing strong is hard for me. With C it's a bit easier but with K I know I am a push over at times and I need to work on that.

A couple other great quotes to note:

"Children learn what they live"

"Reverence and Gratitude - two of the most important things in life"


The 8th graders played us some beautiful music as we left to raise money for a field trip to Costa Rica.

One of the high points of the conference for me was meeting Kyrie and Kate. I don't think I could express how sweet both of these ladies are. I felt so comfortable and at home with both of them. And Kyrie's sweet baby girl - OH MY! Her beautiful pictures don't even begin to do justice for her cuteness!! Kyrie and Kate are both even sweeter than their blogs could ever try to show. If you haven't checked them out before, please do so now! Thank you ladies for the wonderful day!!

I did not take any pictures of the conference itself other than the first image on this post but I did get a few shots of the classrooms during the tour at Cedarwood.
I will leave you with those as I get back to my Halloween madness! Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!




The daily classroom rhythm


Entering one of the Kindergarten classrooms


Rainbow of play cloths


Beautiful window


Kindergarten toys



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I just re-read this post and I must apologize. I typed this up on about 2 hours of sleep so my brain is still in sleep mode!

WIP Wednesday: Holiday Confusion

A peek into my WIP basket

Is it Halloween? Or is it Christmas? I can't tell anymore. As usual I have quite a few things going on at once. I finally decided on what the Halloween Fairy is bringing the girls. One part of it was bought and the other is currently being made. I don't have any pictures yet, I just started it last night. I am rushing like crazy to finish it by this weekend and I should have it done in time. The only problem with doing it last minute like this is that I rush which tends to cause mistakes and sloppy work. I need to try and keep myself in check and make this nice for the girls...


Pocket Mice

I started on the kitties' Christmas presents. They will each get at least one wool mouse with catnip and wool stuffing inside, perhaps there will even be a bell in some of them. The ones I made last year for them were a big hit, they are completely falling apart. This time I am knitting them in bright colors to make them easier for us to find. I am hoping to make 2 for each of them 1 big and 1 small. They like the small ones so they can carry them around the house, but the big ones to bat around. Don't ask me how I find the time to notice those kinds of things!


Late night assembly

We went to Ikea last weekend (Which requires a huge THANK YOU to all of you for your help!) and I found my desk and chair. That's all I could afford for now so the shelving, etc will come later. I can't wait to get set up! I assembled my chair but Kevin and I are currently working on putting my desk together one screw at a time. Slow going there with his hectic work schedule and my endless crafting but I have a feeling it will be done by next week. Now, clearing space among all the boxes for my desk; that's another story.

A couple of things I did manage to finish this week are:


Our Korknissee

This little guy was a super fast and easy knit. My mom gave me some wine corks last year for this project and I didn't get around to it until now. I am not too happy with his face so I will probably switch out the cork. I am thinking of adding a string to his hat to make him into an ornament. I planned on making a bunch of these guys because they look so nice set up together but I only have a couple corks with out writing printed on them so I will have to wait until I can find more.


Falling leaves

I have always loved the beautiful needle felted mobiles made by naturechild on Etsy, have you ever seen them? I just could not justify buying one. So the girls and I made a mobile of our own inspired by naturechild. Granted our little mobile is nowhere near as wonderful as hers but it makes up happy. We dipped the leaves in beeswax and tied them on then made a swing for our autumn fairy to sit on. I wanted to use a branch instead of the mini wreath to hang the leaves and swing from but we couldn't find one that was just right, maybe next Autumn we will, though :) The wreath still works. The girls love her and that's all that matters. She is currently swinging in our kitchen over the girls' play table.

Thank you, again, everyone for all your help. I hope you are all done or near done with whatever Halloween projects you have going on. If not, know I'm up late finishing last minute with you!

Happy Creating!

Rhythmically Speaking

I have been receiving quite a few e-mails about rhythm lately so I thought I would share where we currently are at.
Slowly, very slowly, things are coming together in our new home. Baking day is back, to every one's delight, as well as some other weekly rhythms. Our daily rhythm is still a bit of a struggle with unpacking and finding things amongst piles of boxes, but our night time rhythm is truly golden. It has always been our one thing we can count on. I truly enjoy our time together as a family at night.

Here's a little glimpse into our night life, but, honestly, it starts in the late afternoon. Around 3:30 is when the girls and I start making supper and singing our dinnertime songs. Then we set the table and light our candle.


Our current dinner candle set up (tea lights in the Jack-o-lanterns)

K helps me set the table by getting her dishes that we keep in a cabinet within her reach. She puts them away after they are washed, as well. She loves being able to help, that's why it is so important to us to have these things accessible to her.


K's cabinet with her plates and silverware

We eat our dinner at 5:00, clean up and then have some quiet play time.


Toy set up in the living room (we haven't painted our walls yet or unboxed everything)

But the real signal for the girls that it is time for bed is when I sing the 'brush your teeth' song:

Brush, brush, brush your teeth
Brush them everyday ohhhhhh
Brush, brush, brush your teeth
Before you go out to play

Brush them even longer now
Brush in little circles now

Brush, brush, brush your teeth
Brush them everyday
- Mary Thienes Schunemann



No matter where they are at in the house they come running into the bathroom to brush their teeth. I just can not express how valuable singing is in our house. Sometimes it's the only thing that gets us through the day!


My monkey girl

We then pick out our bed time story and get into our PJs. We end our night by cuddling in bed together and reading our story. Then the 'moon is Round' verse is recited and it's lights out.

That's what works for our family. Our girls thrive on consistency. If we were to skip any of our steps chaos would ensue. Believe me, we learned the hard way with them!

What is your night time rhythm (for you and/or the little ones)? How did you find it?

Family Time

We found some rare and unexpected family time this morning so I am taking advantage of it. I hope you all understand! Have a great weekend!!





Although, I have to quickly add how excited I am about meeting up with some amazing blogging mamas tomorrow at the Rahima Baldwin Dancy (author of 'You Are Your Child's First Teacher) conference.

WIP Wednesday: When Good Projects Go Bad

I almost didn't share this crafting mishap out of sheer embarrassment but then I thought you would all get a kick out of this.



Last weekend I picked up some beautiful, sweet smelling beeswax from our local beekeeper at the farmers market. I had many projects in thought for this beeswax but one in particular that I just couldn't wait to do. That was my first mistake, not waiting to think the project out...



I found this cookie mold (at least I think that's what it is) at the thrift store when we first moved here and thought it would make the perfect beeswax impression to hang in our window for the winter. I just could not wait to get my hands on some beeswax to make it. Well, once I got the beeswax I literally ran home and started melting it to pour into the mold. As you may have noticed the mold is ceramic which makes getting the beeswax out tricky, to say the least. So here's brilliant idea number 1: I thought to make the boiling hot beeswax not stick, I'd just put saran wrap over the mold. Yeah, like I said brilliant idea. So of course a soon as one drop of the hot beeswax touched the saran wrap, it melted it. Realizing I did not think that through at all, I took off the saran wrap, paused for a moment to consider waiting until I figured out how to make it not stick, then carelessly proceeded to put the beeswax into the mold. That was my second brilliant idea for the day.



Looks great, doesn't it? I thought so, too. But of course as expected once the beeswax hardened it was stuck like glue. I ended up sticking the mold in the oven and remelting the beeswax to pour it out of the mold. Now, I have a mold with beeswax residue that I can't get off. *sigh* What on earth was I thinking?! All I can do is plea temporary insanity and put my beeswax projects on hold until I regroup. Back to knitting!


C's Lyala Hoodie preparation

Since you are all so amazing with your ideas and help I thought I would throw another dilemma out there for you...
I want to find a desk similar to Amanda Soule's wonderful studio desk (the long thin desk with her sewing machine and computer on it). I honestly don't care what it looks like, just that it is long and thin like that so I can have all my projects on it at once. I was thinking even a folding table might work but I am afraid of that not being sturdy enough. I have tried looking at our local thrift stores and on craigslist but I honestly don't even know how to search for it. Is it a desk or a table?
What do you think?

Lastly, to make up for my 'what was I thinking' moment I did at least finish up a Christmas present. Can't say for who, though ;)



Happy creating!