WIP Wednesday: The Gnome & The Quest for Mosaic Moon

First things first!
Anyone happen to have a half or full skein of Mosaic Moon Montana Targhee yarn (or something similar worsted) in the Rose Bouquet colorway they'd be willing to sell me?
I am in the middle of knitting K a gnome hat and I am almost out of yarn with more than half of the hat to go. I can not find that yarn anywhere. If I didn't already knit the matching mittens I would just scrap this project and start over but I really don't want to have to undo all this work. HELP!

Ok now that I got that out there on to my other WIPs.



I finished up the 2 sweater ornaments to match the girls sweaters from last year and this year. They came out so cute! I love how fast they were to knit, too. I decided to help my memory I would embroider the year they received the sweater on the back. As you can see I didn't do the best job with that. I think I am going to re-do it in a different stitch.




I just need to sew in the ends on this one.

Yesterday, the girls and I decided to start on some of our felted acorn ornaments.


Yum, yum! My favorite colors!!


The girls had so much fun in the soapy bubbles


K is still working on her finger knit garland for the tree this year


A quick teasel hedgehog

Also currently working on:
- catching up on e-mails from way back before we even left for the Oregon Trail. Eeeeek!! If I owe you an e-mail, it's coming soon, I'm sorry!
- researching lazure techniques and how to make the 'Peach Blossom' color. Finding information on this is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
- more ornaments and Christmas gifts

Wow, that ended up being a long WIP post! I am trying to make the best of this time before we move into the house because I know I won't be able to craft for quite awhile then.
What are you working on?
Happy creating!

WIP Wednesday: The Gnome & The Quest for Mosaic Moon

Defeating the Dragon

I am Micha-el's helper,
Like his light shining bright,
I come to you.

I am Micha-el's helper,
Like his lyre strong and clear,
I come to you.

-M.L. Channer, from Autumn by Wynstones Press

Tomorrow is Michaelmas and it truly is one of K's favorite celebrations. It is a festival for St. Michael who is known as the conqueror of the dragon and who gives strength to people. This is the time when we look within ourselves to defeat our own inner dragons. In anticipation we have been singing songs, reciting poems, making swords and pretending to be dragons. We also have been reading Dragon Baked Bread, which is such a wonderful book, perfect for Autumn time. K loves that it is a small girl who saves the kingdom (and not the usual strong man).
We plan on spending the morning at the Micha-el Institute School for their Michaelmas celebration. Their wonderful Kindergarten teacher invited us. We met her last week. K was captivated by her (especially once we learned her name is Sita, which is K's imaginary friend's name). Later in the day we will read St. George and the Dragon. It is quite a long story for her age but it's only read once a year and that makes it special enough to pay attention to.



We currently have a make-shift nature table set up for Michaelmas, (along with some birthday leftovers) in the temporary apartment. Nothing special but the girls still love it. K's eyes lit up so brightly when she saw it first set up. She was excited to add all of her nature finds, and she added quite a few as you can see!





I wish you all strength, courage and hope for the upcoming seasons and beyond!

Defeating the Dragon

Nesting

We are finally starting to experience the crisp, cool weather of Oregon that until now was something of fairy tales. This refreshing, brisk air is bringing me back to life, but also warning me that our family is completely unprepared for cold weather. I am knitting mittens, hats and scarves like a madwoman as well as scouring thrift stores for woolens, warm boots, jackets and sweaters. What an exciting rush of nesting this all is!

Speaking of nesting, the girls and I saw the most amazing nest on a nature walk last week. It was literally stuck on the side of a tree. I didn't have my camera with me so we decided we'd come back to it another day. When we did, it was gone. K, luckily, found it nearby on the ground. I had never seen anything like it. It was so small and flimsy, unlike nests we are used to. It was made of moss and some kind of fiber.





Amazing, isn't it?! Anyone happen to know what kind of bird makes these nests?
Since it had fallen in a high traffic area we brought it home for our make-shift nature table (more pictures of that coming next week).



Now I am off to put on my running shoes, grab a dog and head out in this beautiful weather. Have a great weekend!

Nesting

WIP Wednesday: Child of the Forest

As promised here are a couple more pictures of K's 'Children of the Forest' hat. I haven't had the chance to get any of the hat by itself yet. She loves it and it was so simple to make. I found it in last years fall edition of Living Crafts. I contacted the creator of the pattern and had her send me a kit with the beautiful plant dyed wool.



K's sweater came out pretty well, too. She put it on right after she opened it. I adjusted the pattern a bit changing the needle size to make it a tighter knit, and also added length to it so she can wear it next year. I apparently didn't add enough length on the arms though, because they fit perfectly right now, so I will just have to add more stitches to those next year.

My current WIPs are geared towards the upcoming Winter season.



Since I made 3 of the same sweater this year (1 for K, 1 for C and 1 for K's best friend) I thought it would be fitting to make a mini ornament sweater out of the same yarn. I can't wait to see how it turns out. Maybe that will be another new tradition, I already make the girls matching sweaters every year so why not an ornament for the tree, as well? Am I going a bit overboard here???



I also am working on some test patterns for the ornament I want to make for the Winter Ornament Swap I have planned. Of course as luck would have it this picture is as far as I will get on this ornament until we move into our house. Apparently, I forgot to bring my wool stuffing with me so it's in storage somewhere. Yeah, I could just go buy more but I have so much of it already, it seems pointless, SO I wait...

What is everyone else up to? Anyone thinking ahead to the Holiday season, too? Or am I the only crazy one?

Happy creating everyone!!!

WIP Wednesday: Child of the Forest

4 Years After Crossing the Rainbow Bridge...

My sweet little K turned four on Saturday.
We made the day fully circled around K's desires and let her plan everything.
Here is a glimpse at her special day:


This years birthday ring addition (looks just like her kitty Midnight)


Cake topper from my 4th birthday


Make-shift birthday table






I finished her replacement slipper just in time and K baby got a new special outfit.


Reading her new book with Daddy


A butterfly opens her gifts from Nana and Grandma


K requested to play at her future school's playground




Admiring the creek on the school's property



I think she truly enjoyed her day!

4 Years After Crossing the Rainbow Bridge...

Acorn Gathering

The girls and I took a nice nature walk yesterday afternoon searching for acorn caps (we plan on making more felted acorns for our tree this year, since our cats destroyed the ones we previously made). I knew of an oak tree down the road that would be perfect for our hunt.



K left her bike and my bag at a nearby tree while we took her nature-gathering bag with us for our bounty. C chose to carry the bag for us.



As we were busy searching through the grass for our buried treasures, a couple of squirrels came by and welcomed us to Oregon. We were quite excited to see them because we have a deep love for squirrels and were sad we had not seen any since we arrived.

One of the squirrels came especially close, gathering his own treasures, and ran up the oak tree in a flash. We lost sight of him about halfway up, but could hear his chatter echo throughout the woods. We enjoyed our squirrel watching break and then got back to work, only to be interrupted a few moments later. We heard a loud ker-plunk next to us. It was an acorn. Father wind must have made it fall, no biggie. You would expect that to happen while standing under an oak tree. Then another ker-plunk closer to where we were searching, and another even closer now accompanied with lots of chattering. That can't be father wind! I went to examine one of the fallen acorns and saw...



it was half-eaten still fresh with teeth marks!!

I looked up and saw that very same squirrel high in the tree looking down at us. That silly squirrel decided we wore out our welcome and needed to move away from his stash!! We got his message, apologized for stealing his treasure and moved on to another area of the woods giggling all the way. We love our crazy critters!!



Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend!

Acorn Gathering

WIP Wednesday is back!!

Toadstool hat

Hooray! I am finally able to devote time to WIP Wednesday, again! Oh, how I have missed it these past couple of weeks.

I finished up K's very special best friend's birthday present. Her birthday is tomorrow, I hope it arrives in time. I mailed it Tuesday morning. I would post pictures but I don't want to ruin the surprise for her!
Saturday is K's 4th birthday so my current WIPs are for her. I have all of her presents done except for one. I am finishing up her toadstool hat, I just have to add some more spots and fix some of my stitches (as I am sure you can see in the pic!)

I am knitting a couple things at the same time right now. Working on some ornaments at night when the girls are asleep (because these require my attention) and a slipper for K during the day. We somehow lost or packed away one of K's felted slippers I made her. I don't know how we managed that! Poor K can't wait until we un-pack in October to find her missing slipper so I am knitting up another one for her quick. The yarn is actually 2 different yarns I wound together to make one thick yarn - perfect for felting!


Slipper in progress

I am very excited to announce a Winter ornament swap is in the works as well as my first giveaway! Just look over at the top of sidebar on your right hand side! I will add links to the photos as soon as I have everything prepared. Stay tuned for more info on both of those.
With that said I am off to continue with birthday preparations. I hope you are all having a great week!
Happy creating!

WIP Wednesday is back!!

Rhythm, please!

After ten days on the road with out any kind of rhythm the girls are beside themselves. I think they are doing amazing with the circumstances given but they need their rhythm to be at peace with themselves. K more than anyone. She thrives best with a rhythm she knows she can count on. Rudolf Steiner stressed the importance of rhythm as the “carrier of life.” I can truly see the need in my girls. Little ones need familiarity and predictability. If they always know what to expect they therefor experience a sense of order and security in their lives.

It has only been a few days but it has been a bit of a struggle to get a new rhythm going. We can not completely fall back on our old tried and true routines because we do not have the means to. Although we are happy to have shelter, our current living situation is less than ideal. We are currently in a crammed, furnished, week to week rental apartment until we close on our house in October. Most of our belongings are in storage. So the simple things that K loves so much like baking day can not be done. But we do have our wet on wet painting supplies, the means to do circle time, beautiful nature around us, cleaning days, and our daily songs amongst other things to get us back on track. One day at a time a new rhythm is very slowly emerging.

We discovered that the more we are out of this apartment the better it seems to be. The girls need space so that they can just be. We decided to spend the weekend exploring on foot (no more car rides, please!)walking our dogs everywhere we could. Oregon truly is beautiful and has so much to offer!


A beautiful park by our apartment


Look, look! (Yes, she has an empty yogurt cup filled with nature finds in her hands)

The other day, K picked a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me from a hill down the road. K encountered her first snake in the wild there and was thrilled! He was scared by us and slithered into the bushes, but oh what a sight! We were told there are no poisonous snakes in Oregon (but we will research this, just to make sure.) so we look forward to showing K how to handle them.







We have her flowers in a bottle on our kitchen table.

We have more adventures to share,news on our future school and house, and I hope to be back with my WIP Wednesday posts this week. I am exhausted and need to get back to working on that rhythm! Have a great Monday!

Rhythm, please!

Travel Log : Day 10 - The end of the trail

Go west, paradise is there
you'll have all that you can eat of milk & honey over there...

The end of the trail is here! Although it didn't take us the 6 months it took the original pioneers, our 10 days were wonderful yet still long enough for us weary travelers. We are ready to claim our land and settle in paradise.






Flowers outside our hotel in Oregon


I can not begin to tell you how happy this made me!!






I love how everything in this city is Oregon Trail related


The OFFICIAL ending point of the trail. I was tempted to kiss it but restrained myself.


The only thing left at the center

The End of the Oregon Trail Center, a place we were very much looking forward to visiting, very sadly closed down for good on Labor Day. We just missed it. I spoke with some of the workers there as they were packing up, and you could see they were all heart broken over this (after mentioning something about lack of funding). I felt horrible. I can't believe they could close down such a place, especially after following the trail ourselves - it has become part of us now.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who followed us on our journey. We will miss all that we got to experience but we are looking forward to settling down, too. I hope we didn't bore you too much over the past couple of weeks, and maybe even sparked some interest to explore the trail. I look forward to embracing our next chapter in life with open arms. I'll be back Monday after a weekend of exploring our surroundings. One last time - Happy trails to you!!
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I have to extend my thanks and gratitude to all of you for your heartwarming responses to my last post. It was hard on me to witness that day after day. I honestly was a bit apprehensive to post my emotions on the matter. I decided to do it anyways because this blog has become a journal of sorts for me and it doesnt make sense to hide who I am or what I am feeling even if it is completely un-related to the usual. Thank you so very much for allowing me to share, especially being so far from everyone I know, and the life that I know. This is an emotional time for me, for sure. Thank you again.

Travel Log : Day 10 - The end of the trail