Weekend Glimpses

We are enjoying an extended weekend but I couldn't resist sharing a few glimpses.






Notice the mallard duck all the way to the left, Nara on the right







Our neighbors have goats!! We saw them walking the goats down the street the other night.






Be back in this space Wednesday!!

Weekend Glimpses

Little Mama

Well, I knew this day would come but I didn't think it would happen this quickly. K has always loved to embroider with me, but ever since I started using my sewing machine more she has been really antsy to give it a try.


C picking fabric for K to use

I don't feel quite ready to have her use a machine just yet (never mind she couldn't reach the pedal anyways) so I needed to find some kind of compromise. She told me she really wanted to make clothes for her baby dolls. I went to my studio/sewing room hoping for some inspiration. Out of the corner of my eye I spied a lovely package that I won from Julia at Adirondack Mama (Who makes me miss my hometown in New York so much). Inside of it was all kinds of fabric pieces that I had yet to organize and put away. I grabbed a handful of them, some embroidery floss and a sharp needle and brought it all to K.


Starting to sew

I showed her how to hand sew and within minutes she was cutting fabric and sewing away. Here's her first completed outfit - a cape and skirt for Purple Grandma Baby (C gave her that name):



She was oh so proud of herself! She now has a basket of fabric, embroidery floss and a sharp needle (stored in a glass jar so C can't get to it) in her art cabinet so she can create doll clothes whenever she desires. I actually caught her sewing in bed last night - be still my heart! I have a feeling our dolls are about to have a whole new K-made wardrobe.


Bed head :)

Wishing you all a magical Memorial Day weekend!

Little Mama

WIP Wednesday : Prairie Girl

Glimpses of a project in the works for K and her skuut adventures:





I finished up the play dress for K (using that fabric on sale to make this a $4 dress & bloomers set) and she loves it. Kevin nicknamed her Prairie Priya (Priya is her middle name) because she looks like a little prairie girl wearing it. I may have to sew her a little pinafore for her to complete the look. The pattern for the dress is Butterick B4176 view B and the pattern for the bloomers is McCall's M4505





I love the pattern it's fast and easy. I added about three inches in length to it and a pocket (thanks to Mary) for nature finds. It seems like the perfect play dress for her so I will surely be making more from this pattern in the future. I think the next time around I will change the closing in the back, though.
I am not sure what I did wrong, but the elastic on her sleeves keeps tucking under. Maybe I made the elastic too tight? As you can see - I am definitely learning as I go.





On the topic of dresses : I wanted to ask all of you if you have any personal favorite patterns for winter/fall dresses. I am going to the fabric store this Friday because they are having a big sale on patterns so I thought I would stock up now. With the weather here, I think we will get more use out of long sleeved dresses and jumpers, etc than the short sleeved ones. Thank you, thank you for your input!

Happy creating!!

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Also the winner of the Waldorf Connection contest is:
Mom2Three said...
What a wonderful giveaway. I love Donna's stuff and I love Nicole's blog...very inspiring.

Kristine

Kristine please e-mail me at farmergopi@yahoo.com. Thanks!!

WIP Wednesday : Prairie Girl

Impromptu Celebration

Preparations

The other day I was on the phone with my dear friend Marina while watching K pick flowers. K brought me some tall grass and told me we had 'wheat growing in our very own backyard'. She went inside and asked for something to grind it into flour. I gave her our mortar and pestle and she went to work grinding the grass with all of her might.


The concoction


Ready for baking

After working on her flour for quite some time she asked me if she could make a real cake with it. My first reaction was to say no, thinking of the mess that would be made, but then I thought why not?! What a fun experience for her and great way for her to learn more about the process of baking. So I let her have at it with out any direction or input from me. C came to help her out and they combined rice drink, their 'wheat grass' and whole wheat flour in a bowl. They mixed it up and poured it into one of my pans. K said it was a wheat cake. I guess the idea of cake made her think of birthdays because then a huge smile crossed her face and she announced it was K baby's birthday.


K with her birthday doll, presents and decorations she set up


K's birthday chain decoration

She ran off and wrapped some presents for K baby and then decorated the birthday table for her, too. I thought as a special treat I would bake cupcakes for them. I used this incredibly scrumptious recipe from my friend Sarahbeth back in Virginia. It's actually relatively healthy and sugar-free to boot! It tastes incredible by itself but K wanted K baby's cupcake to have frosting so I whipped up just enough for three cupcakes quick (so they rest could stay frosting and sugar-free). We put the cupcakes and K's wheat cake in the oven while C and K frosted their cupcakes. We then put two candles in K baby's (K said it was her second birthday).


Frosting her cupcake (Ughh at the paper wrappers, they were leftovers from years ago)


Mealtime candle/birthday ring set up by K (We eat by candlelight every meal)

The we all sat down at the birthday table, lit the candles and sang happy birthday. K helped K baby blow out her candles and we feasted. They both said they liked the wheat cake but only had a couple bites of it (while devouring their cupcakes).


K baby's yummies


Blowing out the candles


C's yummies



All of our guests partied until they could no longer keep their eyes open.



Impromptu celebrations are so much fun! We have done them in the past but I have a feeling after this one they will be happening even more often.

Happy Monday!
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A few of you asked about our schooling choices for the girls in my last post and I can see how it can be confusing! I am going to try and explain it...
We have to pack up and move every four years for my husband's job so in four years we will be leaving Oregon :( It's wonderful for us to dream that we will always be near a Waldorf school but more than likely we will not be. I am pretty much counting on these four years here to be the only years we are able to attend a school. Because of the timing of this K will end up experiencing kindergarten and first grade in school but C won't be old enough to start schooling until after we move. Once we move both girls will be home schooled. So for K it will be a transition but for C that's just how it will always be. I feel fortunate to be in such a large Waldorf community here and I plan on taking everything in and learning as much as I can. I hope that helped explained it a bit and didn't just add to the confusion!

Impromptu Celebration

WIP Wednesday : Finding My New Rhythm

To finish up with my projects from Kids clothes week, I thought I would share some recent sewing adventures. I say 'adventures' because I am truly a creature of habit... Knitting has been my habit for almost four years now so switching gears over to sewing is a challenge for me. I am not as happy with my end results when it comes to sewing as I am with my knitting. Then again, I often have to remind myself that I didn't like my knitting results when I first started out, either. So I am trying to stick with it in hopes that sewing will come back to me and I will feel confident and comfortable with what I make in the future.

Phew! Ok enough rambling, onwards!



For a quick project Tuesday morning I made K a fabric headband. I figured it will start to get too hot for her to wear her wool knitted headbands pretty soon, so some thin cotton fabric ones seemed like a good solution. I couldn't find a pattern anywhere so I just made one up. I used up the last of the scraps from her bonnet to make this tester. It fits great but just needs a couple minor adjustments and then it will be perfect. I hope to make her quite a few for the summer months as well as a few smaller ones for C. Both of my girls constantly have bangs in their eyes, poor things.



I found some fabric on sale last weekend that seemed great for play dresses. It only ended up costing me $8.00 for enough fabric to make two play dresses with matching bloomers! I was so happy to find such a deal, now I am hoping I can continue in this direction. $4.00 a dress is cheaper than anything I could ever find at a thrift store, plus they are even more special because they are made with love... or so I am hoping!

I needed to add length to the dress pattern above but didn't have any tape so I had to make do with painters tape. Ha! Whatever gets the job done, right?! And yes, I am using my husband's childhood ruler.



Now to try my hand at making my own bias tape to finish off the collar on this dress. I plan on working on that tonight. I have a new rhythm going of knitting on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights (and whenever I can during the day, any day of the week) and sewing on the other nights. I am enjoying it quite a bit.



Lastly -



I finished the hem on K's dress, which thankfully is all even now, and I made bloomers to match K's dress and a pair to match C's, as well.




Picture taken before I finished the hem

Back to the sewing machine I go.
Happy creating!!

WIP Wednesday : Finding My New Rhythm

Market Time

Toadstools for the girls' kitchen

We had such a fun family weekend. We celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday *cough* Because Kevin forgot last Sunday... *cough* and it was such a sweet day. Then we spent Sunday out and about. We started out early in the morning checking out a local flea market. Kevin, C and the dogs went for a walk while K and I looked around. I was quite giddy to be there, I love hunting for vintage treasures, and being there with K brought back so many fond memories of flea market shopping with my Grandpa when I was little. It felt so good to be there and to chat with all of the vendors. I felt very much at home.


$5 for a set of five of my favorite canning jars? Now that's more like it!


Cute little tin for some sewing notions


Vintage linen love

I found so many goodies I wanted to bring home with me (and oh so well priced) but time and our budget limited me to just a few items. *Need I mention my dream truck was for sale there?! An old 1940's Ford farm truck! Someday perhaps...*


Country Festival


A lovely vendor gave K a book


K left the market with an angel she fell in love with

After our flea market fun, we all went to Nara's search and rescue training about an hour away (which explains why the flea market find pics are in the woods!). It was in a different location this time, so new land for us to explore. We spent most of the day hiking and playing while Kevin and Nara did training, and then cooled off in the creek before heading home.


Hiking


Bug friend (they were everywhere there!)




Nature girl


Nara swimming



I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I'll be back Wednesday with some sewing adventures!

Market Time