Autumn Leaves

Autumn is here. The leaves are falling but sadly they are not changing - just falling green and brown. Too much rain here the past couple of months. I am holding out for the explosion of color that I know will still happen, just like the autumns I remember growing up in New York.

Autumn Leaves

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, 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 finally went out and bought some stuffing so that I could finish working on my life sized pumpkin. I am currently deciding how exactly I want to do the stem. It is being made with smaller needles and worsted yarn (vs. the super bulky I used for the pumpkin itself).

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Once a King or Queen of Narnia (13!)

...Always a King or Queen of Narnia.

My 2nd and final attempt at Turkish Delight. It was a total failure but they ate it anyway. Tea with Mr. Tumnus. Mrs. Beaver's marmalade roll. Susan Pevensie dress

My baby girl is 13. How can that be? My first born - the one who made me a mama. It is all so bittersweet. I wrote a little about the complexity of being the first born on my IG account last week. Her kindergarten teacher always told me that  K chose to come first and knew what she was getting herself into. I always find comfort in that, knowing how hard it can be to be the oldest - the one that your parents learn to parent from. I am so grateful for her and really don't know how I deserve her or any of my children.

I have never seen K smile as much as she did on her 13th birthday. I think I hit the nail on the head with all of the Narnia decorations, food and whatnots. She wore her Susan Pevensie dress all day long and enjoyed her time with family. I think the icing on the cake was daddy spending the entire day with her - something she has been needing for a long time.

We enjoyed our usual birthday treats: apple doughnuts with apple cider, pumpkin hand pies and pumpkin soup but this year we added in Narnia treats from the Narnia cookbook: Lucy's roasted apples, Mrs. Beavers marmalade roll, turkish delight, along with other yummies that I can't remember at the moment (I spent the whole day before her birthday cooking and baking so it is all a blur now).

K's gifts were all things she needed/wanted. Her choices are so much more grown up and practical now - rainboots, a bigger water bottle, clothes... Such a change from all the whimsical things I used to give/make her in the past. I was secretly very happy that she asked me to sew her that Susan Pevensie dress - their is still some magic of childhood in her and this mams needed to see that!

Once a King or Queen of Narnia (13!)

Crafting On - Narnia Style

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, 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.



Last minute birthday prep happening over here, per usual.  I need to finish up her Susan Pevensie dress, make a banner and then bake/cook all day tomorrow as she requested most of the recipes in the Narnia Cookbook. Wish me luck!

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On - Narnia Style

A Glimpse of Our Future?

We took a field trip to Owen's Farm over the weekend to tie in our recent studies: animals and one of my personal favorite subjects - wool! We were told about the event by a sweet mama in my local Wild + Free group. The farm was doing their annual sheep sorting and we got to help guide the sheep a bit. It was such a fun experience. We also toured their farm while we were there. Our children were all so happy. The girls lamented over their need to ride horses again. I don't blame them. There is nothing like it. I still miss riding horses from my own childhood. Not to mention how much the connection, confidence and skills developed through horseback riding really help children through the turbulent time of adolescence. Honestly, I feel the riding at their ages really is a need.

Talking with the owners and watching them work made us even more excited for our future farm (I pray it isn't in the too far distant future) I look forward to a flock of our own along with goats, honeybees and horses. Who knows what other animal we'll throw in there. We do seem to have a habit of rescuing any critter we come in contact with 🙈

I can't wait to go back to the farm and get some local wool to work with. What a dream that will be. Local wool I dye myself and then knit up for my children. The only thing that could top that is woll off my own sheep.

A Glimpse of Our Future?

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, 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.

 Well, I got as far as I could with my chunky knit pumpkin. I was to the point of stuffing it when I realized I didn't have any stuffing. Oops. Pictured above is the children's handwork from school - weaving on forked branches. I'll share after photos when they are all done.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Our First Week of Homeschool 2018

Dye baths Left to Right: goldenrod, pokeberry, grass, carrot and beets carrot dye bath beet dye bath C'sfingerless gloves before pokeberry dye bath I feel rather silly posting this now as we are about to start our third week of school tomorrow morning but things are going so well (so far) that I just had to share. My children have all been very diligent and perseverant for the most part with everything we have done. Somehow I have been on the ball and waking up in the wee hours of the mornings to make sure we are all on schedule. I pray the year continues in this manner.

Our first week included nature walks to our creek, (including one day that was so hot we decided to take a swim) dyeing silks with natural dyes (some worked but most of them didn't, however I attribute that to not properly mordanting them. Honestly, I never had any hope for the carrot or grass dyes, though), memorized a verse and made use of our leftover corners from making the chalkboard by turning them into mountains (to cement the verse in our brains), oh and we had special guests in the schoolroom - two of our chickens. This. This is how I envisioned homeschooling. Not the way I had been doing it in the past - stressed out and done in. This is the way it was meant to be.

Our First Week of Homeschool 2018