Finished lanterns
I was going to post a tutorial for making the wet on wet painting lanterns but then I saw the wonderful Grace of Uncommone Grace posted one. Hers is really beautiful and easy to follow. You can see it here.
We had our little Martinmas lantern walk Wednesday night. Even though it was just the 3 of us walking around our neighborhood the girls still really enjoyed themselves. I ended up having C carry a plastic lantern that K's friend Fiona gave her last year. We live on a mountain and our street is nothing but bumps and uphill climbing, so it seemed like the best bet. C ended up stumbling and dropping her lantern about 4 times on our walk so it ended up being a wise choice, indeed!
My 'marshmallow' girls, bundled up so cozy warm, before our walk (They could barely put their arms down in those coats, it made us laugh the whole night).
As you can see it was impossible for me to get photos of them in the dark.
As I mentioned in the title, this post is really random!
Thanks to tours at our local Waldorf schools, my friend Marina, and living in such a 'green' area I am now obsessed with tree stumps and reclaimed wood. I am really hoping to find a huge tree stump that would be big enough to put the girls' dollhouse on. I can just see it in my head, it would almost look like a tree house! So far, though, I have not had any luck in my searching. Although, I did get a cute little willow tree stump that a kind man offered us. Haven't decided what I will do with that just yet, though.
Our house is a fixer-upper and we are finding all kinds of things that need to be removed or selvaged. A couple of things I am not sure of that to do with are the wood fencing seen above as well as wood from our deck that we are removing. I don't want to just get rid of this wood, especially the fencing, it has a beauty of it's own. Yet, I am not sure what I could make out of it? My husband is not into wood working so I will be doing all of this myself. I was thinking shelves, somehow or... I don't know. I am having a hard time envisioning the wood as something else. Any thoughts? What would you do with all of this wood?
Last but not least, I wanted to share a couple of beautiful crowns that some talented mamas recently made inspired by my tutorial. These made me grin from ear to ear, especially seeing them on their sweet little ones!
{Crown and photos by Jennifer Griesemer Sullivan}
Crown made by Heidi of Spiritual Knitter can be seen here
I have had others e-mailed to me as well, and I hope to share them soon after I contact the creators. Please keep them coming! It makes me happier than you could possibly imagine!
On that note I wish you a wonderful and restful weekend!
18 comments:
What lovely crowns!
You gave me such a laugh talking about tree stumps! I am obsessed with finding multiple sized stumps for our play area and I drive my husband crazy searching for them! Whenever we find one,it is usually filled with bugs and/or dirt or is much too big to even carry! I am now about to call a tree removal service and ask them if they are willing to help us!
love your little marshmallow puffs. so sweet.
the wood...save it, yes! you are right. i haven't any ideas, but am sure someone will.
your front door is darling!
Your girls are SO adorable heading out on their lantern walk. They must have really enjoyed it. :) The crowns look lovely. Thanks for sharing. I love seeing everyone's birthday crown ideas.
We also recently purchased a house that needs lots of work and there are all kinds of things scattered throughout the property that are just awaiting some creative uses... Such as old doors and windows and lots and lots of tires:)
Warm wishes.
You could make head boards (for beds) out of that wood.
You could make hanging pot racks
Love your blog!!!
Also can you please tell me how you had a successful lantern walk (and with two kids, oh my!) and didn't go crazy in the process??? We took our three year old out and I about lost my nerve, not exactly the picturesque event I had envisioned! With two near fires and a child who only wanted to run and kept hushing my singing, the night ended in tears by everyone...ugg! I would love to hear how you keep your emotions in check when you have expectations for events, and holidays. Surely I am not the only one out here who gets lost in expectation-vile.
thanks for the link, nicole! sounds like you had a fun celebration.
Those little matching jackets are so sweet.
I was going to suggest head boards with the wood as well. And if you just can't find a use for it, you can always try posting it on craigslist. The PDX craigslist is very active.
Oh! I forgot to mention my idea for all of the beatiful older wood. I would save it for a couple of years-if you can stand it-and have your daughters help you construct a play-fort of some kind. You could build it yourselves now,but what a more lovely experience it would be to have them be a part of it!The book Last Child in the Woods talks very wisely of the experience of fort building for children.
aw, sure wish you could have been with our group for our lantern walk! sounds like you had a great time with your littles though. ;)
we have some old barn wood that i want hubby to make some picture frames with. that's just one little idea. how fun to have all that wood to work with. i am sure you will come up with some great ideas!
I like your tree house/ stump idea very much and can't wait to see what you come up with! love, Beth
What about a candleholder with the reclaimed wood? It might look really neat with some pillar candles nestled in the holes left in the wood. Very much enjoy your blog!
My mother in law loved to make frames for art and photos out of this wood. Glad you had a great Martinmas!
Aren't those crowns wonderful?!
I love the idea of a headboard out of the fencing, our bed doesn't have one :) I love all of them though, maybe I can make the headboard, frames, and candle holder. Hmmm.... Now to figure out how to do it!
Michelle - Oh goodness! I know how that goes! The first lantern walk we did with K was a bit crazy. She was all over the place. I think the only reasonit went well this year was because the both were used to it...if that makes sense.
But I let my emotions go crazy when I expect things to go a certain way,too. I am trying to let go more but it is indeed hard! I wish I had some words of wisdom for you but I go though the same thing. I'm nervous for Christmas this year b/c this is the 1st year we are really celebrating it..... Eeeek!
Thank you everyoen for all your help, yet again!!! <3
Love the crown that Jennifer Griesemer Sullivan made from your tutorial! Does she have a blog you can link to?
I will e-mail her and check :) I'll let you know!
Here's her blog:
http://littlerednuggets.blogspot.com/
Sorry I was so slow in posting this!
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