Oh Ms.Soule, you will be the death of me, (but in a GOOD way!)

*disclaimer* I have noticed this post gets googled a lot and I am not sure why! I don't want anything from this post taken out of content or the wrong way!!! This is my open love letter to all that the amazing and talented Soulemama is and does!
C's doll birthday crown in progress

Tee hee. What are you doing to me? I was finally able to get a copy of your book and it's amazing and so inspiring just like your blog. But now I allowed myself to go overboard. That is no one's fault but my own, though. I'm taking on too much and spreading myself too thin with all the ideas floating around in my head. How do you create so many beautiful things with 4 kids?! Please do tell. I can't seem to get just one thing done with 2 kids. BUT I am learning it is all about balance, and I need to find mine. Thank you for inspiring me to try and persevere!

I got myself in over my head with homemade things for C's birthday. It all started with the sheep yoke neck cardigan,that's almost done I just have to do the duplicate stitching on the sheep.
-Then there's C's birthday crown, I've barely started that.I have the 2 layers of the crown cut out and 1 detail so far but that's it.
-Now of course I decided that C's first doll she'll be getting needs (like K's K baby, C will have C baby) a matching birthday crown as well. That at least is 95% done, I just need to finish sewing it up and trimming any flaws. C's baby is coming from Gopita's Dolls on Etsy. I had the pleasure of meeting her and her dear family years ago when I lived in PA. Her work is amazing and 100% filled with love. Everyone should check her out!
-The Spring tablecloth for her birthday table,haven't done anything with that yet.
-And then there's the biggest time consumer...a sleepy sack for C baby. C,since birth has slept in a sleepy sack every night. It's part of our night time routine. She knows when she sees that, it's time for bed. So her baby needs one, too! There isn't a pattern for one so I am making my own. I had it all figured out for DK weight yarn and after many good ups got it set. Then I ran out of yarn and have no way of buying more b/c K threw away the label on me months ago. Soooooo I had to rip all of that out. Now I just finished dying some worsted weight yarn to use. I just hope this will be enough but now I have to re-figure out the entire pattern I made because my gauge will be off. So once the yarn dries I'll be knitting up another swatch *sigh*.
-I know I have a lot more I'm making too but my brain can't seem to function right now after thinking about all of those things!

Did I mention I don't have a working sewing machine so I have to do all this by hand? It' actually really nice sewing by hand but when you have a deadline it's a bit scary!!

Wow,typing it all out it looks like I don't have that much to do,but trust me it's a lot! It doesn't help I only get from 8-11pm each night to work on these things.

Just to clarify, I love Amanda Soule, and all that she does! I can not wait for her new book to come out. We all know how much I love Martha Stewart and Amanda ( to me ) is like the younger AP, Waldorf version of her. I'm just frazzled right now and wish I could sit down with her and a nice cup of tea and chat about anything and everything but also have her explain in many details how she does it!

Now to make this post a bit less about my crafting depression here's some things that are making me happy right now:


K's nature table in her room




Our family nature table in the playroom (which has all ready changed by the way. This pic is from last weekend.)


Above the nature table


Spring birds coming out

Oh Ms.Soule, you will be the death of me, (but in a GOOD way!)

The Root Children Appeared!

...and I am still behind. Ughhhh. Will we ever get better? Anyway, let's just enjoy Spring time!

Mother Earth woke up the root children and they came up from their winter home Saturday morning. Here is our root child waiting for the girls on our kitchen table in front of the festivity stand. When the girls see her they know Spring is officially here. We got this root child from Syrendell on Etsy. I saw it in their flickr photostream and knew it was the perfect thing to announce Spring! We have a tiny obsession here with 'The Story of the Root Children' just like we do with 'Starmoney'. It is one of our absolute favorite stories.

















We looked out the back window to see a basket and spring colored playcloth waiting for the girls (C is too little to carry one yet so K did all the work).
























A happy gnome hanging out on the garden fence waiting to be found
























More goodies waiting








I am sad to say there was nothing handmade by me this year. With all the preparations for C's birthday next month (making her birthday crown, a birthday crown to match for her 1st baby doll,designing and then knitting a sleepy sack for her baby doll,finishing her sheep yoke neck cardigan, and so much more!), I just didn't have the time or energy. Next year should be back to normal.


We put up our root children light,and took down the star money one.


K baby got dressed to celebrate the season, too!


K picked me a bouquet of 'flowers',that melted my heart!

I have lots more pics to add of our nature tables and how we celebrated Springs arrival (hint it involves gardening!) but I will post those a bit later since this post is all ready overwhelmed with pics!
Happy Spring everyone!!

The Root Children Appeared!

slowly getting better

Thank you everyone for your kind words and well wishes. We are on the road to recovery,thank goodness! Hopefully the excitement of Spring will get the last of the sickness out of us.


The girls have been enjoying some cuddle and play time with our furry family members.






I can't express enough how good of a sport Midnight is with those girls!


I'm digging through my photos on here and found these from last month's circle time.
I believe circle time at Kinderhaus is our favorite time of the month!




Today we are spending the day slowly taking down our winter decorations to put the Spring ones up in their place. Due to everyone being sick,and Kevin wanting to participate,we are celebrating the 1st day of Spring tomorrow (Saturday) instead of today. Be on the lookout for the root children to make their appearance here :)

slowly getting better

Happy St. Patrick's Day

From all of us :)

One happy:























One...ummm..not to thrilled!





































































Ahhh much better!























We are all sick..AGAIN and miserable. It's been raining non-stop the past few days. (That explains my horrible photos,too by the way! no light and sickness) The girls have cabin fever and we are running out of ideas! Eeeek!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Painting Day,Love and Peace

This is rather all over the place so bear with me!
Today was painting day and we changed it up a bit. K has been working with the color yellow for months now so I decided it was time to move on to another color. She is now using red,while I use up the last of the yellow (You are supposed to paint along with your child,but in a childlike manner).

We picked up a 'magic crayon' at Kinderhaus on Tuesday and K loved it! It's beeswax and you first drawn on your paper with it,then you wet your paper like normal for wet on wet painting, brush on your paint and voila



the paint won't stick to where you colored. This is similar to how batik clothing is made :)

K wanted to experiment with her blue beeswax crayon to see if it would do the same thing...it kind of did...



C is almost as in love with Midnight as K is. She is always searching him out to cuddle and giggle with. Midnight is so great and easy going. He's perfect for the girls.


Geisha on the other hand is still spooked easily (she was a rescue cat) and stays far away from the girlies. But she will still pose for the camera.



Lastly I had to share a find at Kinderhaus Toys

Painting Day,Love and Peace

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We love you! Thank you for all that you do for us.

Love,
K,C and Nicole

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Beauty,Crafts and Clutter

Odd combination, huh? First: Beauty.

Here are the other 2 rotating prints we have. (The first one I posted here ) These ones are hanging up in our playroom. They are in the merati (I think that's what they called it) frames while the one in K's room is in the birch frame. I am hoping to get the squirrel print someday to go with these.






The clutter on my blog has finally gotten to me! So don't mind as I redo,remove and clear up around here. There are some things I don't even know why I put them up here :p I mean who needs to know my post-preggo weight loss really? Besides I lost all that about 6 months ago. Tee hee. Then theres the 'followers' section on my blog. I noticed a lot of people had this on their blog so I just went ahead and added it but then I started thinking about it and really why do I need that on here? For me personally it feels like it's saying 'Hey look at me, I think I am important!'. I love everyone who even bothers to see my silly little blog,and feel honored anyone would even want to check it out <3 but I can admire all of them from my dashboard on here. I don't know, maybe I'm being silly and I don't feel this way about other people that have it on their blogs, but for me it just bugs me and feels like a vanity thing, kwim?

Along with that going on is the usual knitting. I knitted some toasties the other day. They knit up fast (just a couple hours) and are so warm amd cute! I'm starting my Odessa hat to match them soon. Can you believe that in my 3 years of knitting those toasties were the first thing I ever made for myself?!
I have so much I want to knit for the girls mostly but a couple things for myself too. I guess I should add on the buttons and finish weaving in the ends on C's birthday sheep yoke neck cardigan. but I have other important things to get done to...
check out this wool felt and fabric for C's birthday crown (fabric is for covering the elastic in the back of the crown)!! Very Spring looking,no? Can you believe in only 2 months she will be 1?!



Then this spring fabric to make the table cloth for the birthday table


K's birthday crown was featured on Gossamer Thistledown blog last month :) Thats where I get the most lovely wool felt from. Every time I look at those pics I am reminded to change the embroidery thread color around the crown. The white still feels to bright and contrasting to me. Any thoughts on what color to change it to?

I plan on posting a tutorial on how I make my birthday crowns as I make C's. I didn't find a pattern I really liked so I made my own. Be on the lookout for that!

Beauty,Crafts and Clutter

Thank You King Winter

...for visiting us for the very first time since we moved here four years ago!
We had SNOW yesterday in Virginia! Who knew it could happen? It was only about 2-3 inches which is nothing for me growing up in Syracuse,NY but for the people here that's a blizzard! Everything was shut down, Kevin didn't even have to go to work!! We had a fun family day. I can't wait until we move this summer to somewhere that has the four seasons so we get winter again every year. We love winter. I personally can't stand the heat at all so living in Virginia has been challenging for me (weather and season wise,only) to say the least.


Highlights from our day-



snow dog



nah nah you can't catch me



There are mama made mittens under there somewhere



Trying some snow



As soon as I woke up and saw the snow falling I had to run outside in my PJ's and put food in the backyard bird feeder,squirrel feeder and front yard bird feeder. I was afraid the birds wouldn't find food since it never snows here.




Mrs. Thaw was sweeping away winter on our nature table but since King Winter made his appearance we decided to quickly re-do the table and add a new postcard and felted snowman made by Little Elf's Toyshop on Etsy.





We made a paper cardinal to celebrate too :)



Long live Winter!!!

Thank You King Winter