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 guoing 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, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


I am taking a little break from K's birthday sweater to do a fun little test knit for RowRow and Kades.
It is called Beekeepers Bonnet and it is absolutely adorable. I can't wait to finish it for Baby F to wear this fall.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Continuation?

I suppose this post is somewhat of a continuation of my last summer post. I am just loving this place where we live. Although the flooding we had last week wasn't exactly the most fun I have ever had. 😬 Our normally docile creek took over a lot of our land (I shared a video of it in my stories on Instagram), including flooding our basement waist deep, as well as completely flooding many of our neighbors' land and homes. It also knocked the power out and closed all the roads around us. At least we were warned before we even moved in to never store anything in the basement. I am so glad we listened to that warning. The rain has been gone for about three days now and things are drying up. However, as of right now our forecast says rain every day from Monday until August eleventh. 🙏

As I am sure you can imagine, 61 acres calls for something with a bit more power than a push mower. Granted some of the acreage is hay fields and some of it forest but there is still quite a bit leftover for us to mow on a regular basis. A riding lawnmower to the rescue. The boys watched in awe when it was delivered to our home (Baby F watched with some crazy, crazy bedhead going on). I don't know who was most excited about it's arrival - the boys,K, or Kevin. K got the honor of being the head lawnmower. A job she is thrilled to have. I think in her mind she is imagining she is driving a car as she mows. Hey, I wouldn't blame her. It is great practice for when she learns to drive - something that is not too far in the future!

I shared one of the above photos of Baby F's playspace on Instagram but forgot to share it here. You see those feathers on top of his teepee? Those were found on our land and thanks to our new favorite nature find book Bird Feathers* we discovered they are wild turkey feathers. Those photos are a bit old now. They were from when we first moved in and I hastily threw it all together (hence the wrinkled teepee). Things are a bit different now. I will have to get some photos this week to share with you. It feels so good to have space for play again.


p.s. - Our wooden trapeze bar/swing is from Wiwiurka  and Baby F's playhouse can be found here.*

*Affiliate link.

Continuation?

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 guoing 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, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

Still chugging away on K's birthday sweater. With every stitch I knit I find myself wondering why, oh why, did she pick a pattern with such thin yarn, tiny needles and is knit in pieces that I will have to sew up later? The finished product should look amazing on her which will make the process worth it in the end. At least I keep telling myself. 🙊 This is a true labor of love indeed!


What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Living in a Wilderness Wonderland

Robin eggs Robins! Four little chipping sparrow eggs resting right at eye level in the tiniest nest my children and I ever did see.

My family and I are living in a wilderness wonderland and we couldn't be happier! Well, minus the threat a lot of this wildlife has on our chickens. This country/forest life really is even more magical than one could imagine.  I can't get over all of the learning opportunities right at our doorstep. I dug out our nature journals this evening so we can take full advantage of such an opportunity and document all that is around us. Living on our property (so far) we have seen the following wilderness families being raised right before our very eyes:  black bears (1 mama with 3 cubs), bald eagles, red tailed hawks, foxes, deer, groundhogs, wild turkeys, opossums, bull frogs, toads, a large variety of birds, and one lone coyote. I wonder what we will see next...

On another note this seemed like a good time to finally share Baby F's reindeer sweater from Christmas, since it was inspired by the nature around us while living in Oregon. I can't believe I hadn't photographed it sooner. Oh wait, that's right Baby F never sits still long enough for me to get a good photo of him so I kind of gave up. 😇 That cheeky little monkey! Rav notes here.

Living in a Wilderness Wonderland

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 guoing 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, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


Not exactly a new project but something I have been working on nonetheless. This little Peter Rabbit blue cardigan was knit for L the Easter after he turned three. I didn't have any specific buttons for it so I threw on some cute honey bee ones. However I didn't have enough of them so I ended up with a mismatch buttons cardigan. Not exactly the look I was going for. Fast forward to now. Baby F found that sweater in a pile of WIPs and fell in love with it. He isn't quite big enough to wear it yet but his enthusiasm was just the push I needed to sew on new buttons and give it a proper cleaning. I purchased those beautiful toggle buttons from Taryn of Wooly Moss Roots at Flock and Fiber in Portland, OR last September with this very cardigan in mind (I miss you Taryn!!).  I am quite happy with my choice and can't wait for Baby F to grow into it!

 What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

*Summer*

Summer is in full swing here and although the heat can be unbearable we are trying our best to enjoy it! Yes, that means some plastic actually entered our lives. So very much the opposite of who we are but I am glad we got that little water play table for Baby F. He loves it. At least it is kept outdoors, right?! 🙈

We took a trip to Strasburg to make two little boys' dreams come true. Well, it was mostly for the bigger boy but the little one seemed to enjoy it just as much. Not only did they get to ride a train for the very first time in their lives (all our lives actually, except for Kevin) but it was Thomas the train! L has so enjoyed his Thomas books ever since he was three or four so I am sure you can imagine what a big deal this was to him.

We had to drive through Lancaster to get to Strasburg and oh my - I want to live there! Amish farm life - is there anything more beautiful?! If only it wasn't so crowded there (farm plots were small) we would live there in an instant.

My children and I have been discussing what we miss the most that is currently in storage (and has been for more than a year now 😭 ). L missed his toys and trains the most, which I figured. C missed her books and C Baby. K missed her books and furniture and one other thing - our salt rock lamps. At first I thought salt rock lamps were a rather funny thing to miss but then, with a dreamy look in her eyes, she went on to explain how cozy they made our house feel and all the good memories they brought back to her. I could not deny her sentimentality.

Shortly after our conversation I came across this article on salt lamps and my goodness, no wonder they are so missed. I forgot about all the good that they do for us and our home along with the cozy feel they bring. Although I did not realize the danger they could potentially cause for cats. Seriously, check out the article! I am kicking myself for not bringing them with us - granted when we packed I thought we only needed things for 3 - 6 months tops not over a year! I hope our salt lamps survive being in storage for so long.

p.s. Thank you so much for all of your movie recommendations. You guys are awesome! I can't wait for August!!

*Summer*

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 guoing 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, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


A couple of weeks back K was looking at the Webs catalog and she spied a sweater pattern she really liked - Scarrington by Fiona Ellis. She showed it to me and went on and on about how much she liked it. I think it was because of the yarn color but either way she was smitten with it. I took the hint and ordered the pattern and yarn (same yarn shown on the sample) to knit it for her upcoming birthday. I am glad I am starting so early because it is a bottom up sweater worked flat. That will take quite a while to finish. Not to mention my little girl is now in women's sizes so it is like knitting a sweater for me. 😲

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Our First Friday Rhythm (and Fourth of July)

Those curls! Swoon
Found these images on my camera. Looks like K was playing around when I went to get the watermelon wands:

This year's Fourth of July celebration may have been our best yet (although I don't know that I will ever be able to top the first year). I think spending all day with the chickens helped (and watching them eat watermelon). It was simple and low key as always with plenty of room for play. Each year we basically spend the entire day outside and the kids get to stay up way past their bedtimes to watch fireworks and roast vegan marshmallows over the fire. I always look forward to this day. Time spent as a family with no computers, no phones and no distractions I think we need to have more summer days/nights like this.

I have been playing with the idea of getting a projector so we can watch movies outside in the evenings under the stars. While we still do not do very much screen time, we started a tradition of having a movie night on the first Friday of each month. Don't tell anyone but we even eat some junky food like pizza and ice cream for that one day a month. *gasp* We call it First Friday Family Fun Movie Night.  A good long name to bring about giggles among the children trying to say it. So far the Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Narnia and some Shirley Temple movies have been enjoyed. It is so hard to find wholesome family movies now - we really struggle with just finding one good one a month! Any suggestions?

Our First Friday Rhythm (and Fourth of July)