Holiday Fun

Our advent calendar is growing!

Each morning one of the children takes a turn hanging a new little decoration onto our tree limb as we get closer to Christmas eve :)

We're still sprucing up our mantle and today my oldest started working on a 3D silhouette of Rudolph the Reindeer that will have antlers, a red nose and will eventually be hung above the fireplace. I knew I had been hanging onto those large pieces of corrugated cardboard for a reason!

The temperature has fallen below zero and we've had a good perma freeze for the last couple of days so both of the woodstoves have been going 24/7 to keep both ends of our home warm. That means an awful lot of firewood is making its way in and out of the basement and the children have been a HUGE help :) Today all three of them went out to bring more in with big brother filling and rolling the wheelbarrow to the basement window and then the younger ones handing it in to him so that it could be stacked up right away and keep the bark mess off the floor just in case we have a repeat of our flooding again.

I've been watching the newspaper for special Christmas choral preformances that are family friendly and free which is a big perk and this Sunday one of the churches in the city is hosting a Christmas choir and I can't wait. I just love listening to the large choirs sing. So beautiful and only a few more sleeps to go *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Felted Mushrooms with a Secret

Last December I made a couple of these wonderful little felted mushrooms to send to my seasonal swap partner and I have been meaning to make more ever since and I finally got a chance to do it :)

I found a lovely tutorial for creating a secret mushroom with a great hiding spot for a message or poem to be hidden within the wooden tree limb stem. I just happened to have some alder limbs that I had cut into smaller chunks drying in the basement and used hubby's power drill to drill the hollow spot in the center and it was just perfect for a rolled scroll to fit in :)

I didn't have any sheets of red wool so instead I used some of my dyed merino wool roving that I had and created a felted circular shape. To create the wavy mushroom cap I actually put the felted wool circle on top of the wood limb and wrapped an elastic band tightly around the cap about one inch from the top. As the elastic pulled tightly around the wool it created a gathered and ruffled sort of appearance and then I through the whole thing into the dryer for about 10 mintues *grin*. When I pulled it out the heat had dried the wool up nice and tight and held its shape perfectly when I pulled the elastic band off :)

Of course since we are jumping head first into spring and we spotted our first dandelion today I thought it would be very fitting to hide one of our favorite dandelion poems inside :)

O' DANDELION

O' Dandelion, yellow as gold, what do you do all day? "I just wait here in the tall, green grass, 'till the children come to play."

O' Dandelion, yellow as gold, what do you do all night? "I wait and wait, while the cool dew falls, and my hair grows long and white."

And what do you do when your hair grows white, and the children come to play? "They take me in their dimpled hands, and blow my hair away!"

~ by Marlys Swinger

I can't wait to hide more little notes inside them for the children to find!

Hugs,
Rosina

PS. Looking for more crafty ideas or inspiration? Pop over to Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday and see what others are up to :)

Farmer's Market Find

I had a lovely Mother's Day. My husband and I, our 3 children and my mom and dad went to Painter's Lodge for their annual Mother's Day brunch buffet that is literally to die for! Anything you could wish for... it was probably there *grin*. We always joke that my 10 year old son has a bottomless pit because he nearly eats us out of house and home but even this had him licked. I wish I had a photo of him at the end of the table after he had finished his 3rd heaping plate full of food. He looked like he might have just rolled off his chair like a drum. LOL.

After brunch we had just enough time to head down to the Campbell River pier to catch the last couple minutes of the Farmer's Market. In my opinion it's not really a true farmer's market since it doesn't have much produce, artisan breads and other farmy by products, but it is loaded with lots of talented crafters! One gal had gorgeous jewelry that I had to pry myself away from but just across the way I ran into a table loaded with wool rovings. Ooooh so soft merrino in the most amazing mossy green color and more :) Darn!! I should have brought more money with me *grin*.

Where was this table when I was desperately searching for wool 6 months ago?? I just had to grab one of her little needle felting kits to come home and play with :) For five bucks I got 6 bright colors and two felting needles. Not bad at all and I can't wait to dive into it! I've got some more rovings leftover that I had found at Whipple Tree Junction last fall and I may just have to get the kids into the fun and have a little wet felting party with them and make a bunch of felt beads for necklaces :) Oh the endless possibilities of wool!

I have a copy of Julie Collings book Pretty Little Felts on the bookshelf that is just crying out to be used to so maybe I'll have to use some of my rovings to create some of her sweet little flowers :)

~ Rosina