connoisseur

We had a beautiful and full weekend that I wish to share but it also threw off our rhythm so right now it's later than usual and I am much too sleepy to type. I couldn't just not post though, so I thought I would share these pictures I took of Baby L today. He caught on to the baby sign for flower this week and was thrilled to show us how many flowers he could find and smell. I love watching his cute little nose scrunch up as he sniffs them. And just look at him taking in the sweet scent (if you would call a dandelion's scent sweet) with his eyes closed, savoring each moment as if it was the scent of Heaven. That baby of mine is a real connoisseur of flowers, let me tell you!

More pictures from our weekend after I have had some rest!

connoisseur

Sponsored Giveaway : Celebrate the Rhythm of Life

All photos courtesy Lisa Boisvert Mackenzie

I am quite happy to introduce to you one of my sponsors Celebrate the Rhythm of Life created by Lisa Boisvert Mackenzie. I first discovered Lisa a few years ago through her free online group Waldorf Early Childhood Bringing it Home. This group is a great resource for parents and those who care for young children and wish to bring a Waldorf experience/education to the children in their lives. It has really helped me over the years, especially when we were living in Virginia without a local Waldorf community.

I have had the pleasure of getting to know Lisa a little better over the past couple of months and I have to say it has been such an honor. She is such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Waldorf education, parenting and just about everything else. I am beginning to wonder what doesn't she do?! Lisa is an early childhood educator on sabbatical this year to be focused on writing and creating community online. You can read more about Lisa's inspiring story here.

Here is a bit about her wonderful program, in her own words:

Celebrate Daily Life with Children

Focus on a simple, natural slower paced, soulful life with children by implementing daily, weekly and monthly rhythms through the year full of nurturing, artistic, domestic and social activities that deeply nourish family life for children and adults alike. Protect the wonder of childhood and revisit your own sense of awe. Bring gratitude and reverence into daily life in an authentic manner. Connect with others on this path.



The Monthly Program is an online workshop with talks, presentations, videos, guest speakers and conversations, packets of supportive material (see below for more on packets) and regular support through the month.

The Yearly Program builds through the year on the monthly topics and provides a rich and interwoven experience of the essential elements of early childhood with time to slowly and gradually bring them into your life and revisit them from different angles through the year, thus deepening your experience. If something does not make sense at first, in looking at in with another lens the following month, it becomes clear.



The material is available in packets (pdf) and online with a discussion group and focus topic posts from me. If you need to see it in action, I'll make a video. Participants may sign up for the month or for the school year, from September to July. Year round participants are lifetime participants and may return next year at no charge.

Each month the material for The Celebrating the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children Program includes:

•Materials packet with verse, song, circle, finger play, story, activities
•Daily and Weekly rhythm plan (if you want it sketched out ~ it's here)
•Menus with recipes based on Steiner's grains (breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea)
•Handwork for each month with hands on tutorial
•Festival life ~ background and celebration ideas
•The Start up guide (new)
•Seasonal foods to plant, harvest and prepare with children
•My favorite book suggestions
•In the Morning Garden ( a tip each month for group programs)
•Afterschool/Enrichment Activities, Festival Life, Movement Games and Stories for the grade school child, includes circle suitable for first, second, third grader)
•Focus topic for each month
•Pedagogy behind the topic
• Practical activity with monthly topic
•Exercise to do with the topic ~ practice
•Reflection ~ questions for nurturing the inner life
•Private online discussion group
•Posts through the month on the focus topic
•Ideas for creating community where you live



That's a pretty beneficial program, wouldn't you say?!
Today Lisa is offering the month of May in her online monthly guide program - a $45 value to one of you lucky readers!



Celebrate the Rhythm of Life in Caring for Children in May will focus on sketching out the year. What do we want to bring to our children through the year? through the seasons? through the weeks and the days from September 2012 until June 2013.

•What do we have at hand to use and what do we need to procure?
•Do you want to do a 3, 4 or 6 week Circle or Main Lesson block? We'll look at the benefits and drawbacks of each.
•How often to change circle? How to change circle?
•What is circle or ring time anyway? Do you need to do it at home? Can it be easier and more fun?
•What props to use in circle and storytelling and main lesson? Props?
•We'll look at how to organize your plan and get clear on what it is you want to bring to your child, your family, yourself.
•What are the milestones you want to reach before January?
•What about the holidays, how do they fit in the plan?
With the great popularity and gratitude expressed for the Rhythm focus, we'll continue along with that, looking at our daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and yearly rhythms, bringing more form and finding more freedom within the form.

For a chance to win, simply leave a comment on this post!
If you would like additional chances to win:

-Post this giveaway to Facebook, Twitter, or your blog
-Let me know you are a dear follower of Frontier Dreams

and please make sure to come back and leave separate comments letting me know you've done so!
I will close comments the morning of Monday April 30th and announce the winner within this post that day. Please be sure to check back to see if you won!

Thank you for this opportunity Lisa, and for all the beautiful work you do. Good luck everyone! Comments closed The winner is: MamaSongbird · Oh my goodness, this would be such a blessing for our family! I've been WANTING to try her monthly program but money has been tight! Fingers crossed! Congrats! Please e-mail me at farmergopi(at)yahoo(dot)com. Thank you again Lisa!

Sponsored Giveaway : Celebrate the Rhythm of Life

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Well, my mad season is over (until late summer, at least) but I am still tying up loose ends. I finished C's Easter shrug at our first grade parents tea on Sunday and she was able to wear it the following day. Her pinafore is next on my list but I have a birthday gift to start for a certain sweet May Faire baby (who shall remain nameless to keep the surprise under wraps).

*Somewhat related photos* We finally had a couple of sunny days here in Oregon so I took advantage of it and snapped a few (too many) pics of Baby L in his birthday hat (rav notes). I can't believe it took me two months to take these. Then again, I still haven't taken any pictures of the girls in their adorable Phoebe sweaters from Christmas...

What are you working on? Happy creating!

If you would like to link up and share your current works in progress please leave your link below. It can now be either to your specific blog post or Flickr photo. There are no rules, only that your link is current and something about a craft project (of any kind) you are working on. Don't forget that there is now a KCCO Flickr group for you to share your crafting photos at anytime.

Please remember to link back here so that others who may want to join KCCO can find us.

It's as simple as that. Remember your post can be from any day of the week, it doesn't have to be today. We all love feedback so if you have a moment please leave a comment on some of the KCCO posts you may visit. I know your comments really motivate me! Now please share and inspire us all!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

soap making

If you have been following me on Pinterest then you probably saw this post coming...

There is a little cherub in my home who loves to play in water. She would spend all of her days in the bathtub, washing dishes, mopping the floor, washing her hands and/or just pouring water, if I would let her. Along with playing in the water this little cherub of mine loves to use soap. In fact she has so much fun with it that she can use up a whole bar of soap in one day. As you can imagine, with our Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap costing $4.00 a bar, we couldn't carry on this way. Yet, who am I to complain over her wanting to be clean? That's a good thing, right? (Please nod you head yes with me here.)

Thankfully, we found a solution to our soap dilemma thanks to this tutorial. It turns a bar of soap into one gallon of liquid soap. Plus it's so easy to make I could involve both my girls in making it.





We all took turns grating the soap. Then we added it to one gallon of water in a big pot on our stove top along with two tablespoons of liquid glycerin. Side note on the liquid glycerin - the tutorial says you can find it in the band-aid aisle at your local grocery store. Well, that wasn't true - at least not here in Portland, OR. I searched three different grocery stores before finally stopping at Target and asking a pharmacist if and where they had it. They did have it, but it was kept behind the counter. Little did I know that liquid glycerin was used in bomb making - YIKES! You learn something new each day...



We cooked the mixture until all of the soap dissolved and then let it sit over night. When we checked it in the morning it was cloudy and thicker looking, like it should have been, but it was still really runny. I looked over the tutorial again and realized that it called for an 8 oz bar of soap and my Dr. Bronners was 5 oz. So we grated another half of a bar of soap and added that. We let it sit again for 12 hours and then blended it in the food processor. The mixture is still not quite the right consistency but it does it's job well. We'll play with it some more in the future. In the meantime C I mean my cherub can clean her hands, toys and whatever else strikes her fancy until her heart is content.



I almost forgot to mention, once we decided we would be making our own soap we knew we needed dispensers to put it in. My love of vintage canning jars led me to this tutorial. How great is that?! I ended up buying mine off of Etsy but we need one for each sink in the house so I will be making some of my own soon.

And now for something completely different...



C had me giggling hysterically with her birthday card eye peeking antics, so naturally I had to share.



Baby L is on the verge of something big, at least that's what we are thinking. He has been very clingy, and inconsolable all week. He had a fever of 103 for a couple of days but never showed any signs of being sick. The only thing that makes him happy right now is being outdoors with his Daddy. Who knows, maybe he'll take his first steps soon or another tooth will come through. We'll have to wait and see!

soap making

What is a new birthday dress for?

Showing me how big of a step she can take in her dress









For C, a new birthday dress is for going out on secret adventures with Mama in uncharted areas of cloudy, wet, and rainy Milwaukie, OR (Dogwood park to be exact, for the locals)...













and for splashing and jumping in mud puddles before eating a birthday lunch at Bob's Red Mill. (After being rear ended driving there. Everything was fine but this was my children's first car accident so they were a bit frightened by the whole thing. A birthday to remember for them, huh?)













After all of that, a cold and very wet birthday dress is for changing out of to move on to presents, cake, and rainbow bridge stories! C's received a very big present this year: a bed of her very own from her Nana and Grandpa, Grandma and us. More on that to come!
K decorated the cake herself as a gift to C. Baby L very seriously studied how C blew out her candles and then spent a few minutes imitating her. So cute to watch!





Our rainbow cake wasn't as bright as the one posted in the tutorial. I am not sure why. Maybe the fruit needs to be in season? C had a good time making the dyes with me and watching them change the cake batter into fun colors. I used our homemade whipped cream to frost it, but the cake itself has a little bit of sugar in it. Next time I make it I will change out the sugar with maple syrup. It was a bit dense so I'll need to figure that out as well. All in all, it tasted yummy and the girls both loved that it was a rainbow.





C baby made it to the other side after her 'spa treatment'. Thank you, again, to my talented friend Yvonne for making her wig. I didn't finish all of C's gifts - like her doll papoose(she is using K's in the pictures above) or her pinafore but they will come soon enough. K stayed up with me until midnight (nearly 6 hours past bedtime) the night before C's birthday sewing like crazy. She was so excited she couldn't sleep and I truly enjoyed her company. I finished up a simple new outfit for C baby just in time while K sat finger knitting her a scarf and then sewing her a little pillow. Lots of love went into her birthday gifts, let me tell you. I have to admit that I fell fast asleep after her birthday celebration at 6:30pm on the dot with C and Baby L (who had a fever the whole day). I was exhausted but it was all worth it, as always.

After her big day yesterday, my birthday girl woke up a different child this morning. Completely out of her shell and ready to take on the world - this is what the new age of four means to C. I look forward to seeing what else she has in store for me. Happy birthday my baby girl!

p.s - In case you were wondering, C's birthday dress was made with one of my favorite 'stand-by' patterns the Claire by Portabellopixie. I made the peasant dress instead of my usual apron dress this time around. To me, it's the apron dress meets the smocked sundress (from Weekend Sewing). When I make this dress again (and I will!), I might not do the shirring around the waist to help stop it from puffing out. Linking up with Elizabeth, again.

What is a new birthday dress for?

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Notice the full laundry basket in the background...







The current state of my dining room. C's birthday makings have taken over!
There is sewing, sewing and more sewing going on along with some knitting and baking, too. I really hope to pull off a rainbow cake for her. I found a version (here) using homemade plant dyes that looks really good.

I had a friend ask me the other day if I work better under pressure, since it seems I have been doing that a lot lately - scrambling to get things together at the very last minute. That made me giggle, it would seem that way, wouldn't it?! Kevin is one of those people, he shines when everything is on him. I, on the other hand, fall apart and turn into a weeping mess of a child when under pressure. The truth is that I generally like to have things done well in advance. I am not sure what has been going on with me these past few months but hopefully I can get back on track soon.





C baby - 3 years, lots of love and many dog attacks later. She is in need of help, wouldn't you say?

I have only one more day until C's birthday (I think I need a miracle here), after that things should calm back down here and I can play catch up. Sorry for the fly-by post, again.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

If you would like to link up and share your current works in progress please leave your link below. It can now be either to your specific blog post or Flickr photo. There are no rules, only that your link is current and something about a craft project (of any kind) you are working on. Don't forget that there is now a KCCO Flickr group for you to share your crafting photos at anytime.

Please remember to link back here so that others who may want to join KCCO can find us.

It's as simple as that. Remember your post can be from any day of the week, it doesn't have to be today. We all love feedback so if you have a moment please leave a comment on some of the KCCO posts you may visit. I know your comments really motivate me! Now please share and inspire us all!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}