Waldorf Window Star, Fourth of July Style {tutorial}

Just in time for fourth of July- a red, white and blue window star! You don't need to be teaching geometry in a Waldorf school (when these are typically made) to decorate your home with them. This tutorial shows the basic checkered pattern window star, which is one of my favorites and is also a good pattern to start out with if you haven't made a traditional Waldorf window star before. I decided to not do the traditional order of red, white, blue because I didn't want the blue and red to overlap making a purple design in the star. We used kite paper to make ours but tissue paper would work, too.

While they are not necessary, a rotary cutter and mat really do help with this project. For years I have been using a ruler and scissors to create my window stars but my squares never turned out even so they always lined up funny making my stars rather wonky.

Supplies needed:
-glue stick
-rotary cutter and mat or ruler and scissors
-8 squares of kite paper or tissue paper, 4 of them in white, 2 in blue and 2 in red. I cut my squares 3" x 3", this made the finished star about 8 1/2 ".

Let's begin: Step 1 - Fold your square corner to corner, and then again on the opposite corners so it have creases that create an X. Repeat this and all of the following steps with your other 7 squares. Step 2 - Now fold one corner so the point is touching in the center. Do the same to the opposite corner. Make sure the two corners line up so you don't end up with a crooked pattern. Step 3 - Fold the top toward the middle on one side. Do the same on the opposite side, again make sure they line up nicely. Although you can see in my red square below, I didn't do the best job lining them up.
Step 4 - Now you are ready to put your eight folded pieces together. Take a white piece and with your glue stick, glue it on top of a red piece along it's crease. Add a blue piece on top of the white piece, again, lining it over the crease. Continue in this manner following the color pattern of red, white, blue, white, red, white, blue, white, until all 8 are glued on. Put a small dab of glue on each star point, hang it in you window and watch it's true beauty unfold as the sun's rays shine through it. Enjoy!

Waldorf Window Star, Fourth of July Style {tutorial}

Potatoes and innocence

He is always pointing his fingers - I have no idea where he got it from, but it appears to be his thing. Our little Simpkin Jackie O' Kitten had to spend the day at the vet's office last week for her spay appointment. When we dropped her off, K overheard the vet mention "heat" and thought it was some horrible sickness. With a concerned and extremely serious face she asked me if we can get heat or if only cats and dogs get it. I am so thankful for her innocence as I am not ready to have the talk, yet.

Since Simpkin's appointment was in Boise, an hour's drive from us, we decided to stay in the area and have a picnic in the rose garden and then check out the Idaho State Historical Museum. There was a lot of focus on the pioneers, Native Americans and even the Oregon Trail, so we ended up spending hours there soaking it all in. The girls love museums, and really I need to be better about visiting them more often. Little L, on the other hand, is not quite ready to spend long periods of time looking at things he can't touch, but thankfully they had some interactive displays that helped him through it. Being a topping on a potato was, by far, his favorite.

I was hoping to spend a lot of time at this particular museum this upcoming school year since K will be in third grade and that year is focused on farming and building. But the museum will be closing in August for three years (!) due to renovations. It looks like we better visit as often as we can until then, and I had better make some changes to our lesson plan.

Oh and p.s. -  I pulled out Beyond the birds and the bees when we arrived back home that evening. I guess it's probably a good idea to get a head start and prepare myself, even if I really don't want to.

Potatoes and innocence

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


I have the honor of test knitting another one of my friend Katherine's beautiful knitting designs. Remember her lovely Martinmas sweater? It's still one of our favorites. Her latest creation is the Blossom tee, and I will be knitting the size six which means that C will be the lucky recipient. I am hoping to wind my yarn and start on it tonight while indulging in an episode of Shark Wranglers.

I also have a little sewing going on. I wanted to make a shirt to go with Little L's surfer shorts. I can't decide if I am butchering some rare Heather Ross fabric or if I might pull off something cute. We'll have to see!

In unrelated news -
Imagine legally adopting a child from another country. Imagine doing all of the required steps, checking all of the right boxes, and hearing the news that your adopted child is finally legally ready to join your family! Now imagine you are told that while the child is yours in every legal way, you cannot bring your child home to the US.

This is the reality for the parents of more than 350 children legally adopted from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including my friend Erin that I posted about a couple of months back. These orphaned children have families in the US waiting, but they cannot come home to them because of the imposition of a ban on exit permissions by the DRC government. While all adoption requirements have been fulfilled, these children cannot leave the DRC until this ban is lifted.

In addition to the 350 children ready to come home to their adoptive families, there are more than 400 children in the process of adoption, many of whom will soon be added to the list of children unable to come into their American families until the ban on exit permissions is lifted.
50 American families whose adopted children are currently stuck in DRC will be meeting with over 100 Members of Congress on June 24 and 25 to urge further Congressional involvement in helping these children to come home and to resolve this urgent human rights crisis.

"Both Ends Burning" is organizing a candlelight vigil with these families on the Senate-Side Lawn of the Capitol (across from the Supreme Court Building) on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 at 6:00 pm.

We would be honored if you would join us and the adoptive families to honor the children waiting... and to remember those child angels for whom the wait was just too long.

Tonight at 6:00 pm we are lighting a candle for all the children and families in the DRC. Won't you join us?

What are you working on?! Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

A sweater for summer and a funny little story of gratitude

Well, not really for summer! We had a really windy day and on a whim I thought to try L's birthday sweater on him - it actually fits enough that he can wear it now. Obviously, pictures were in order (always have to try to get pictures before the handmade garment becomes very well loved. *ahem*) His cardigan is called The Gramps. I think the name is what got me to knit it in the first place. I love the look of it. I modified it a bit and my more detailed notes can be found on my rav page. The sleeves ended up a bit longer than I intended but that seems to happen to me whenever I knit things bottom up. Otherwise, the fit is good. Still a bit big but I do believe he will get at least one winter out of it. The yarn colorway is called happiness and it is dyed exclusively for Happy Knits back in Portland, OR. I think it may be my most favorite blue ever. It's so gorgeous in person. The buttons are from Wooly Moss Roots, also located back home in Oregon.

On an unrelated note, I finished reading Growing Up Duggar, and although it is geared more towards young women, I enjoyed it. I think it will help my girls in the future and I look forward to them reading it one day. I have since picked up Raising a Soul Surfer: One Family's Epic Tale, and can't put it down. I am half way through even though I just started it a couple of days ago (granted, it's only around 200 pages). Sadly, that's fast for me, at least since I had more than one child. Before then I would have finished a book like that in a day. Now I can only seem to find time to read at night and I usually fall asleep while trying to do so. To those of you that accomplish a lot of reading - how and when do you do it? I can't imagine trying to read during the day but maybe I need to try? I would love your input.

And on yet another note, a little story from my morning. My children and I were quite happy that we arrived early enough to Mass to join in the rosary. The only downfall to this was that it extended our time at church by about thirty minutes, and that equals an eternity in toddler time. Little L lost it when he couldn't get his money (that he had been saving for this day) out fast enough to put in the basket when it came around. We stepped outside for a few minutes to help him through it but he had had enough and just wanted to stay outside. I talked to a couple of people after Mass finished trying to make my introvert self come out of my shell but felt so silly. I really don't know how to make small talk, and end up stumbling over my words probably looking like a big mess. I hope I get over that someday. It's hard to make friends in new places when you can't talk!

We piled into the van and as I was backing out of our parking spot, another one of my children was complaining about something. I was just so distracted by that particular child, and thoughts of my inability to speak, that I thought I possibly hit the car behind me with my van, but I wasn't sure. Yeah, completely distracted, huh? It's sad when you don't know if you even did something or not! I got out and checked for damage. I didn't see anything so I thought maybe I was just imagining it but I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a possibility that I actually did hit the car. I stood there for a minute and thankfully the car's owner was just coming out of the church to leave. I explained my distraction to her, what I had thought happened, and that I honestly wasn't sure if I hit her car or not. She smiled and said she remembered those days with small children, told me not to worry about it and went back to her car. Then she shouted out, "Nice to meet you, by the way!"
I didn't catch her name, but I am so thankful for her example of understanding and kindness just when I needed it the most. I don't think that was merely a coincidence.

A sweater for summer and a funny little story of gratitude

Coming clean

"...and the children love the rain! Splashing in the puddles, splashy, splashy wet. Splashing in the puddles, how wet can we get? All the earth does love the rain..."

Oh yesterday was a glorious day! For the second time in the past six months that we have been in Idaho - it rained! And while everyone else around us ran indoors, my family and I ran outside to enjoy every moment of it. It was a good thing too, for it lasted only fifteen minutes. We were all happily drenched by the time the clouds cleared. With big smiles and raised spirits we went inside to change into dry clothes and drink some hot tea.
-----------------------------------
Today I walked into my girls' room to find it utterly destroyed for about the sixth time in the last two weeks. They have been making big messes at night and then taking days to clean them up (like the three days it took them to clean it up before Little L's big boy celebration.) Seeing their room this way after they cleaned it up, yet again, yesterday was the last straw. In a haze, I stepped out of their room and next thing I knew, I was walking through the girls' room with a garbage bag. I muttered something about "too much stuff" and left the room with the bag filled to the top.

Then I sat there wondering what just happened. Obviously I mentally lost it, but we have been doing simplicity parenting (and living simply) since before Kim John Payne wrote a book about it! I have written post after post on how less is more, but somehow or other clutter snuck into our home and  my mind, keeping me from seeing the truth. I thought about it and I realized that the guilt I carry for taking my children away from our beloved school led me into a downward spiral of allowing too many unnecessary things to slip in. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it took me months and an endlessly messy room to finally see it. The funny thing is that when I went back to apologize for my wrongdoing and talk to my girls about it all, K mentioned that C said she was glad to not have all of that stuff in their room anymore. I could see the relief in their eyes. Glancing around their now clutterless room, I felt it too. I get overwhelmed and allow myself to become defeated before I even begin so very easily, and my children are the same way. Again, I should have seen that. When I have more than I can deal with I tend to make piles to get to later, but then I never get to them. I end up just moving the piles from one spot to another. It drives Kevin crazy, and honestly it drives me crazy, too! It all comes back to clutter.

Tomorrow I plan to make things right. I will start by going through that garbage bag with my girls and have high hopes that we can donate most of it to children who need it more than we do.

Coming clean

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

in progress finished

Sorry for my absence yesterday. I was feeling a bit down and out with all that's going on in our world. I purposely stay away from the news as I tend to be very sensitive to doom and gloom and I really don't want to bring any if that into our home BUT the latest news on Monsanto suing Vermont, the honeybee death rate too high for their survival, and the current sate of our soon to be shark less oceans had me in quite a hopeless mood. Thankfully my children reminded me that the world is good, and I truly believe they will help be the change we need (I just hope it won't be too late!) So I am coming back around.

In Crafting On news, I found another project I started back in the early spring - surfer shorts! - and am finishing them up. I also thought I would share L's little pillow case I made him for his big transition.

What are you working on?! Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Our new nighttime rhythm {thank you!}

On Tuesday Little L asked me if he could sleep in his own bed. I explained that I hadn't set it up yet but that we could do it Wednesday night. He seemed to like the idea. As I talked about it with the girls they felt that he needed some sort of celebration or party for such a big milestone. K said it was like he was graduating. I thought it sounded like a wonderful idea (and great motivation for the girls to finally finish cleaning their room that they started working on the day before) so the girls and I made our plans.

When Wednesday came, the girls woke up, bathed, got themselves and Little L dressed in what they felt was their finest party attire (please notice the bow tie on L - ack, cuteness overload!), and set to work drawing pictures to be presents for Little L. I worked on a lemon cake. We used our favorite recipe but opted to have frosting this time around. When the girls finished their pictures I asked them to help me set up his corner of the room. I had removed our dresser the day before (it was severely damaged by the movers anyways) to make room for his bed. Thankfully our bedroom is just big enough for our bed and his.

We made his bed a space all his own. I sewed him a new construction vehicles pillowcase for his little pillow, hung bookshelves for sleepy time browsing, made his bed with new (to us) shark sheets and quilt, and the girls hung their pictures on the walls above his bed. We then went outside for lunch and cake and showed him his new space afterwards. He was ready to go to bed that minute but had to wait.

After dinner we did our usual bedtime routine (it's still pretty much the same as what I posted a couple of years back here, but add on a few chores involving kitties and minus the nursing), and after I tucked the girls into their beds Little L and I went into our room. By this time it was 6:30. I already hade some lavender essential oil burning nearby to help him ease into this new transition. Little L hopped into his bed as I closed the curtains and set a water bottle and hankie on a little chair next to his bed. I tucked him in and read Freddie's Blanket which, in my opinion, is the quintessential book for such a transition. As I read about Freddie's Mama wrapping Freddie up in his new blanket, I pulled the blanket I knit for Little L while he was still in my womb up on him. He snuggled up to it and smiled. After I finished the story, I explained to him that it was bedtime and he needed to stay in his bed unless he really needed me. Then we said our goodnights and I walked into the room just across from ours. He seemed rather content with the whole situation. I mentally prepared myself for him staying up to the late hours of the night as he has been doing these past couple of months. But when I popped my head in at 7:16, I couldn't believe my eyes, something magical had happened - he fell asleep! He really was ready for his own space. Granted he hopped back in bed with me around midnight but at least he started the night out in his own bed - really that's what matters so that we can all get our much needed rest and down time.

Of course, I don't expect every night will go this smoothly (in fact he came to visit me a couple of times as I typed this, but then fell asleep by 7:46) but I am thankful for this positive beginning and the proof I needed that this is a step in the right direction for him - the right thing at the right time. Thank you again to all of you for your suggestions and support! I wanted to share a really helpful link from LifeWays on sleep, naptime and bedtime my dear friend gave me. It's really a huge help. You can find it here.

Our new nighttime rhythm {thank you!}