Welcome June Sponsors

The very warmest of welcomes to new sponsor:


Armadillo Dreams - makes Waldorf inspired high quality handmade wooden toys for kids of all ages . We are a husband/wife shop run by Dustin and Amanda Cowell in Redmond, Oregon. All of the handmade Waldorf toys we sell are made from natural materials, friendly for little hands and handcrafted with love! Check out their newly launched site!

Welcome back (and thank you!) to my returning sponsors:

Artterro is all about creativity! Our eco art projects inspire you to create unique works of art. It’s easy when you’re using our beautiful, natural materials like wool felt, recycled handmade paper and more.

Adirondack Patterns and Handmade Babies sells not only Waldorf Inspired Dolls, but simple sewing, crochet, and knitting patterns that inspire creativity. Over 60 patterns including those on cloth diaper sewing, complete instructions for making several Waldorf style dolls and accessories, clothing tutorials, and accessories for little ones.

Butterbean - Healthy sunscreen for little sprouts (our personal favorite!) and now offering organic lip balms and healthy herbal bug spray.

Nature Girl Herbals - Natural and organic body care, with your body and the earth's health in mind.

Buddha Hill - Buddha Hill makes a forest full of heirloom quality hand sewn playthings created one at a time from natural, sustainable materials. You will find Forest and Prairie Dolls, swans, hedgehogs, mice with hats and many other whimsical woodland creatures there. Shop owner Kathryn's mission is to encourage creative, peaceful play. She believes in making playthings that give children feelings of warmth, comfort, and happiness.

Alphabet Glue - Alphabet Glue is a downloadable e-magazine for families who love books. Filled with activities, printables, projects, and plenty of inspiration, Alphabet Glue was created in hopes of helping more families to incorporate creativity, imagination and all things literary into their everyday routines. Each issue contains leveled book recommendations organized by theme, bookmaking tutorials, storybuilding activities, and hands-on projects that complement favorite titles in children’s literature. From stories to science experiments, Alphabet Glue has a little something for everyone.

Lilla Rose - At Lilla Rose you will find unique, functional, and well-made hair jewelry. From beautiful hair sticks to the very simple-to-use Flexi Clip, there's something for every style and length of hair. Stay in touch with Lilla Rose Independent Consultant Joy Kincaid on Facebook to hear about the latest news and sales!

The Puppenstube - The Puppenstube carries all of Waldorf doll maker extraordinaire Christine's handmade creations (like Waldorf dolls, gnomes, puppets, hand knit accessories for adults and children alike - just to name a few) as well as Heartwood Arts, Buntspechte, grain mills and more!

Gypsy Forest - Handcrafted quilts, play silks, aprons and more! living - creative open ended play - earth friendly designs - organic fibers - made in the USA

Brambleberry Yarns - Beautiful, nature friendly dyed yarns and fibers. Located in the Pacific North West, (right here in Oregon!) shop owner Cynthia finds our breathtaking views and plants inspiring her yarns as well as finding their way into her dye pots.

Luna Grey Fiber Arts - Jackie creates colorful, hand dyed, natural fiber yarn in her home studio on the western slopes of Colorado. Each skein is hand painted or kettle dyed making for truly one-of-a-kind works of art.

Wooly Moss Roots - Wooly Moss Roots offers wooden buttons, wooly delights and herbal goodness. We provide high quality handmade wooden buttons in a variety of reclaimed woods, for knitters, sewers, and crafters.

Mariposa Forest - Mariposa Forest, a world of imagination delivered to your mailbox. We send seasonal stories from the forest to your child by old fashioned snail mail. Their own special mail, delivered right to them.

Sparkle Stories - Sparkle Stories produces weekly audio stories for children and families around the world. Our original Story Series follow the seasons, inspiring a sense of wonder and magic throughout the year.

GLOB - GLOB specializes in botanically crafted paints made from fruits, vegetables, flowers and spices with natural food-grade ingredients and organic extracts. GLOB arts and crafts products are sourced from natural, recyclable and biodegradable materials.

Frost Lane - Bret and Nadja Van der Stroom raise a few animals and six children on a couple of acres in Tennessee. Their Etsy shop, Frost Lane, features an eclectic mix of handmade items they enjoy making and using themselves.

Simply Playing - Carries Waldorf inspired all natural plant dyed wool toys that bring out your child's imagination including crowns, garlands, and wands to assist in their journey.

Spring Creek Store - Located in the Portland Waldorf School, the Spring Creek Store carries all your Waldorf needs from books and school/art supplies to handmade gifts and gently used consignment.

I can honestly say, from the very bottom of my heart, just how very grateful my family and I are for the continued support of my sponsors and all of you who take the time to stop by and visit this space of mine. It means more than words could say. THANK YOU!!

For affordable sponsorship with ever growing exposure please contact me: FarmerGOPI@yahoo.com

Welcome June Sponsors

Love and hope can go so far

Today I am asking for your love and hope. I only just recently found out that my longtime friend, Sara, from my hometown back east has been dealing with a Mother's nightmare. Sara is one of those people that everyone loves (and with good reason). She can make you smile even on your worst days. Knowing that she is going through this breaks my heart. I instantly knew I needed to do whatever I could to help her and her beautiful daughter.

Please read her daughter's story:

"Aayla Drew is a vibrant, amazingly smart six year old who loves bugs and princesses. She lives with her mom Sara, a single mother who works nights as a labor and delivery nurse. She recently started kindergarten, loves baseball and spending time with her grandparents and her cousin Owen, a pediatric cancer survivor.

Since the time Aayla started walking she has displayed mobility issues that began with stiffness and stumbling, and has progressed to include pain in her legs and feet, lots of falls, and the inability to run. She has bravely endured two MRIs of her brain, a painful lumbar puncture, numerous blood tests, countless doctor visits and physical therapy. Aayla and her family don't have a diagnosis yet! Her mom's biggest fear is that they don't know what's coming around the corner, what other medical issues might be involved with her mysterious condition, and what to expect for the future. She wants to have an answer to tell her daughter when she asks "Mom, when will the doctors fix my legs?" Aayla's neurologist says the next step is a spinal MRI. However, their insurance company has denied the procedure twice, saying that it's "not medically necessary", despite her history and ongoing struggles. Sara and her neurologist are both disputing the decision, but with Aayla's condition deteriorating, they can't wait another 6 months to find out whether they've been rejected again. If they can pay for the procedure without insurance, Aayla could have some answers now! The spinal MRI will cost upwards of $5,000 out of pocket, which is more than Sara can afford on her own, but will be easy for us to raise! The remaining $5,000 of our goal will go to help cover medical costs that have already been incurred, and to pay for Aayla's continuing physical therapy. Please help us reach this very attainable goal to give this sweet six year old some answers."

Thanks to Sara's friend Emily (for setting up this fundraiser), they are currently at 40% of their goal with only 56 days left to raise the funds. If you feel inspired to, you can donate here or by clicking the widget currently on my sidebar.

Money is necessary, unfortunately, but love and hope go just as far, if not farther. Please put Aayla and Sara in your thoughts and prayers. It does so much more than you could ever know! What everyone in this world truly needs is love, above all things. Lets show Aayla and her family just how powerful love can be. We can make a difference in this world, one person at a time!

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Love,
Nicole

Love and hope can go so far

Keep Calm Craft On {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 and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


Ah yes, this is the life for me: nights spent knitting outside until neither the glow of the campfire nor the moon could shed light on my work. Thanks to those fun, late nights I am now about 90% done with the body on my cardigan. I am just about to start the leaf motifs. Who knows, maybe I'll finish it before 2015 after all! I am so very happy with my yarn choice for this project. It's hard to see in the photograph above but the colorway (called "moss") has the most stunning variegation. It reminds me so much of all the shades of green we see here in Portland. I keep changing my mind on what to call this sweater but each name it is dubbed always has something to do with Oregon.

What are you working on?! Happy creating!

 p.s. Brambleberry yarns is having a moving sale! Use the code MOVINGSALE at checkout to receive 25% off your entire order from now until midnight May 30, 2013. {plus shipping is free for orders over $100.} The code is good for use at both the website and Etsy. Go check it out and get some of my favorite yarn before it's all gone! I snagged some worsted yarn in the mushroom colorway to knit up a sweater for Little L this fall.

If you would like to link up and share your current works in progress (or finished works) 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 from my own experience just how much your comments really motivate me! Now please share and inspire us all!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

a day in pictures

After 3 1/2 years of living without a working sink in our main bathroom, water has returned! Our "maintenance men team" of Kevin and Little L restored the sink to working order after 6 trips to Home Depot to get it just right. It was a big learning process for Kevin (and all his helpers) as he had never done anything like this before, but I think it really helped to build confidence to tackle more "do it yourself" projects. Out first watermelon of the year was enjoyed with dinner tonight. Quite a treat for us. As for Little L's opinion of it ...the verdict is still out. After I got Little L down (who no longer sleeps), we spent the evening outside reading a favorite story, and making s'mores for our very first time. Kevin and I grew up making them as children but not since then. Vegan marshmallow substitutes didn't come about until recently. The girls had a lot of fun with them. C just loved gobbling them up while K enjoyed cooking them over the fire more so than eating them.

Speaking of that sweet baby of mine - he is awake once again! Poor little guy is going through something right now. I just have to keep reminding my sleep-deprived self that this is just a short season in his life.
Wishing you all a beautiful Memorial Day!

a day in pictures

Learning to let go

What a wild ride these past couple of weeks have been. Our world was turned upside down with Kevin's orders, and just when I thought I was already on my knees, we were rocked again with devastating news about a family member. To put it simply - I am learning to let go. Reading has become a refuge for me (I can't put this one down).

Some extraordinary things happened, as well. After my post about our move, I felt like I had a ticking time bomb on my hands. We sat our children down to break the news before it accidentally came to them through other means.
The girls took it really well. I mean they were 'bouncing up and down in their seats asking when exactly we were going to leave' excited. K loved following the Oregon Trail when we moved here so I know she will enjoy our drive to Idaho (and even more Oregon Trail adventures along the way) but I am curious as to how she'll do once we are there. She did say that certain people had to move with us. Oh, how I wish that could be! I do hope there will be lots of visits since we will only be about seven hours away. She seemed okay with the idea of homeschooling, too, so that was a load off my shoulders. I know there will be ups and downs as we go forward on this journey but we'll just take it one step at a time. Right now, the children are excited so we will be, too!

K and her class had their end of the year play. Each grade does their own - think of it as "finals" for Waldorf schools. K's play was entitled "The Water Nixie" and K played the water nixie. It was a bit bittersweet for me. What a talented and beautiful class she has. They are truly exceptional. We will miss them so much.

Little L held a caterpillar for the first time. It was thoroughly entertaining. He was a bit afraid of the fuzzy thing with legs at first, refusing to even let it touch his clothes. He quickly grew to love it and let it crawl all over him.

Oh, and that first photo is from Mother's day but it just seemed fitting. It captures our life-loving, silly family quite well!

Learning to let go

Keep Calm Craft On {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 and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


I finished up the last of C's (very late) birthday gifts - her doll's matching birthday outfit. It's a little birthday tradition in our family for the girls' dolls to get new clothes. After all, it's their birthday, too. I made the doll skirt the same way I made C's and the top is a modified version of the girl's cap sleeved spring shirt pattern. The rav page for the top can be found here. I plan on adding more detailed notes as soon as C lets me borrow the top back for a moment.

Please forgive the state of the model. As you can see, C's loves her so very much. It's funny to see just how much C can love her doll in the few short months since her "spa treatment" last Christmas.
I admit it is a lot of work to fix her doll every year but I consider it a privilege to do so. It's such a special thing to have a child cherish a doll so much. I know this time is fleeting, so I am soaking it in while I can!

What are you working on?!

If you would like to link up and share your current works in progress (or finished works) 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 from my own experience just how much your comments really motivate me! Now please share and inspire us all!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Changes

I intended to do another post last week but the time it took to transfer my photographs from one computer to another took a lot longer than I anticipated. I'm sure it didn't help that I waited until only a couple of hours before I would sit down to type my post up.

We ended up giving in and buying a new laptop last Wednesday. I had just finally paid off my credit card back on May 1st. I didn't really want to spend anything at all, but I decided on a budget of $400. That way I could pay it off in a couple of months. I walked into the computer store with that amount in my head, but I quickly allowed myself to get sucked into a $1,200 Mac. The huge screen for my photographs was what got me. Thankfully Kevin reigned me back in and I walked out with a computer within my budget.

I think we gave the salesmen a good chuckle. Apparently our old laptop was a dinosaur and a lot of the features I was accustomed to are now obsolete. It was a struggle just to find a laptop that had a disc drive (for the occasional movie nights Kevin and I have). Yes, we know we are way behind the times. They tried to sell us on computers that can be hooked up with an IPhone, IPad and/or television. None of which are items we own.

I swear electronic stores are like the twilight zone for me. We were only in there for an hour but it felt like an eternity and I left feeling absolutely drained of all my energy. At least it's done with now. The girls, on the other hand, had a blast pushing buttons on everything. And here I thought they would be bored to tears. Ha!

The screen on this computer is smaller and quite different from my last one. I am still getting used to it. It's hard to tell if my photos are in focus or not on it, not to mention that they all look oversaturated. I don't know if it's the photo viewing software on here or the resolution. I hope I can figure it out soon, just in case I need to exchange it. Perhaps it's just another change I need to get used to. Who knew I had such a hard time dealing with change?!

I do have more news to share on our move but I have managed to exhaust myself reliving that shopping experience. So for now, let's just enjoy my two littlest ones having fun in the garden and I'll go work on my photograph issues a bit more. See you back here for KCCO and then later again in the week. Thanks for sticking with me through all of this!

p.s. - Just in case you were wondering, C is wearing her Easter Sunday sweater and Little L is wearing his pants I made him the other week.

Changes

Keep Calm Craft On {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 and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

I am without a photograph yet again. My computer has been on it's last leg for over a year now but it finally just couldn't make it any longer. I am thankful that it lasted as long as it did. Now to hopefully find an inexpensive one to take it's place.

As for my project this week, I don't really have a lot to share. I am still  knitting my Greenfield cardigan at a snail's pace.  I need to switch back over to sewing, though. I just realized that K only has about three short sleeve dresses that fit her at the moment.

Thank you so much for your support, encouragement and gentle words yesterday!! I feel I must apologize for that melodramatic post. I could tell that you guys find complaining about as attractive as I do! I did plan on editing it to take away all that doom and gloom but then I decided that I should just be honest with myself and all of you. I was in a rough spot when I originally typed that up. I can't lie, this is a hard pill for me to swallow, but I do know that everything happens for a reason and that good things will come of it. When you really think about it,the simple gift of life itself is beautiful, so who am I to complain?!


What are you working on?!

If you would like to link up and share your current works in progress (or finished works) 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 from my own experience just how much your comments really motivate me! Now please share and inspire us all!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

{take 2} Our dream comes to an end

Some of you may have seen the unedited version of this post last week. I apologize for alarming any of you, but thank you so much for your e-mails voicing your concern. They really touched me. I felt the post was too doom and gloom so I thought I should just come back to it. Of course, when I went to hit the "save" button, I hit the "publish" one instead. *Sigh* Have I mentioned how computer savvy I am? I was also hoping to break the news to our children before posting it here, but I don't want to keep everyone in the dark any longer. While I am planning to tell them this week, I just please ask that anyone who knows us locally, to not say a word in front of them about it.

"...We live in a time of hard tests for humanity, of hard tests which must become still harder. We live in a time in which a whole host of old forms of civilization to which men still erroneously cling, are sinking into the abyss, a time in which the claim insistently arises that man must find his way to something new." - Rudolf Steiner

Hello everyone. I have been a bit out of touch lately, I know. My normal sanguine self has become very melancholic. I am not sure how to share recent news that we have received. I was hoping to have had an epiphany by now and be able to share it all with grace (instead of self pity), maybe even seeing the bright side to it all.  But, in all honesty, I will be happy to just get through typing this up with out sobbing.

Kevin recently received orders that we are to move to Idaho this September. We had just finished up a date night watching Colonial House together and were getting ready for bed when the news came. My heart sank as I let out a loud cry upon hearing the news. Our dream finally came true of living in a community of like-minded people and having our children in a Waldorf school, and now that dream is coming to an end. Not to mention my newly found church community that my family and I are so very fond of. I always knew there was a possibility of having to move from here but I pushed it so far back in my head so that I wouldn't have to face it. I guess I thought that if we did move maybe we'd be closer to family or at least near another school. Idaho doesn't have either of these.

I have been a bit of a gypsy for most of my life - even before I met Kevin. Every time I would move from one state (or country) to another I would be thrilled at the thought, no matter how much I loved my current location. Always a fun new adventure to look forward to! This is the first time in my life that I am incredibly depressed, feeling hopeless, and just down right unhappy about the thought of moving. It's very unlike me.

I am anxious about trying to sell this house of ours in such a short amount of time, too. I won't lie. It's pretty much a disaster. We bought it as a "fixer-upper" but never were able to afford to do anything to it, thanks to the bank messing up our mortgage. I don't know what we are going to do about that. A short sale is a possibility but that would damage our credit for three years and we need to be able to buy a house in Idaho. It's hard to find a rental that will accept three children and seven pets.

There actually is a Waldorf school in Idaho but it's much too far away from where we will be (somewhere near Boise) so I will be homeschooling all of my children. This prospect excites me and scares me to death at the same time (mostly the latter). I love the general idea of homeschooling, but I just don't know if it is something that I personally can do.  Teaching Waldorf kindergarten at home is so very different from the actual grades. Not to mention that I have spent the past seven years studying Waldorf early childhood education, but haven't even begun digging into the grades. I know that they say Waldorf homeschooling is very different from attending an actual school but I need to find some way to make it as close as possible...for K's sake. She is thriving beyond imagination at her school. I just can't see how I could. I don't feel qualified. Never mind the fact that I don't know how to speak German, how to do eurythmy, how to play the recorder amongst many other things. I do, however, remember a bit of Spanish. That's a plus, right?!

We haven't said a word to our little ones yet. We are just trying to find the right time. I know my K will be just as devastated as I am and I don't want to ruin her last few weeks of school. It breaks my heart to think of telling her.

Kevin will go back to his old job and that is a very good thing. No longer will we have to go all week without seeing him, but instead he'll be working a normal 9-5 job. He also wants to help with the homeschooling. I am pretty thrilled over that!

Ugh, I am sorry. I know venting and complaining is so unattractive but I just need to get this all out there. Then maybe I can move forward to acceptance. I know there is a greater plan for my family and I, and that we will be able to understand it more once we are on the other side of all this, but it's hard to wrap my head around right now. We have been so very blessed to have had the chance to live out our dream for these past four years. I am eternally grateful for that and will hold every moment deep in my heart. And who knows, maybe after these next four years maybe we will be able to come back. For now I just want to relish what little time we have left.



On our morning drive to school the other day, we were all discussing our farm we dream of having someday. Totally out of the blue K said, "When we have our farm, I want to homeschool instead of going to a school away from home. That way I can spend more time taking care of the animals."
I cried when she said this, feeling so very grateful for the message that, no matter what, as long as we are together everything will be all right.

{take 2} Our dream comes to an end