Waldorf Craft Fair

 A few days ago I got an email with a reminder about the Waldorf craft fair that was happening today and a little teaser that there would be activities and singing for the children while we were there :)

 When we arrived we found that they had all of the classrooms set up as different little stations. There was one room full of all the wonderful bits and bobs to buy with playsilks, crowns, wands, felt playmats, candles, wooden toys and so much more. Then there was the craft room where the children took turns at the tables sanding and polishing wooden tree rounds for candle stick holders and then rolling sheets of beeswax to make candles for their holders. In other rooms there was singing, puppet shows, snacks and an enchanted cookie house where we went into a dimly lit space with twinkle lights while we were sprinkled with faerie dust and sang to while we picked out our favorite gingerbread cookie to eat :) So much fun!!

 There just happened to be oodles of activities going on in the city today while we were there so we had a chance to go to the farmer's market, another craft fair where I got a funky burl candle holder and if we had stayed long enough we would have even been able to see a parade but I wanted to get home before it got to late and even so I ended up driving in the dark *grin*.

So after a late dinner and quick moment to put my feet up I realized that we had to get our advent countdown calendar out. I had nearly forgot that today was the 1st!

 

Luckily I had saved the maple branch that we had cut and used last year so I retrieved it from its hiding place in the laundry room and brought out some ribbon to tie it up so it is now dangling beneath the mantle. Each day one of the children will be able to find a little felt ornament with the day's number needle felted onto it to be hung up on the branch as we count down the days until the 24th :)

Thank goodness no one seemed to mind that Mama was a little behind on the decorations this year *grin*. 

Hugs,

Rosina

Mini Heart Bunting Valentine Cards & One For You

Each year the kids and I have fun making valentine cards to give away to friends and family and in addition to this we decided that it would be fun to participate in a valentine card swap this year as well that will provide us with oodles of mail which is just plain fun anytime.

What I hadn't anticipated was making 38 cards! Yes, that was definitely more than I ever could have imagined but creating things with the kids is always fun :)

I love making bunting and my daughter always wants to use my sewing machine so I thought I'd combine the two together and so our little mini heart bunting cards came to life :)

We started by cutting out little rectangles of burlap fabric slightly smaller than the face of our cards and pulled out a few threads from each of the sides to give it a frayed appearance. Then between the two of us we traced over 120 miniature little hearts onto the paper side of some Heat n Bond paper that we would later iron onto an assortment of red fabrics.

With our hearts traced, ironed onto our fabrics, cut out and then permanently affixed to the top of our burlap rectangles in a semi circle formation it was time to get stitching!

Using a nice bright red thread my daughter stitched on the string for our bunting so that it no longer looked like our hearts were just floating all alone finishing the mini heart bunting...

And then she took each of the finished burlap rectangles and stitched each of them to the front side of each of our little note cards. So much more simpler than mucking around with glue and then waiting for everything to dry! Plus getting to use mama's sewing machine is always such a treat :)

I just love how they turned out with their little red stitching from the sewing machine and I was so happy that my daughter had so much fun sewing them. Originally I thought that she would maybe make it through half of the cards we had to make but she just wanted to keep sewing and sewing which actually turned out to be a good thing because we now have extras to share with you!

So if you or your children would like a little surprise Valentine card sent to you in the mail just let me now in the comments below and make sure you leave me a way to get in contact with you for your address :)

The first five commenters will have one personally sent to you by my happy heart stitcher *grin*.

All of the Valentine cards have now been spoken for :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Halloween Fun and Sewing

The Halloween fun was in full swing here today :)

I had been putting off carving the pumpkins we had picked because we have a rogue bear on our property again right now and I didn't want to take a chance that we would carve them and he would eat them! But with Halloween already tomorrow we couldn't wait any longer so I set up an outdoor carving station for the children this year :) We dragged out a couple of saw horses and an old table top I keep for crafting and put them in the backyard where they could muck about as they cleaned their pumpkins, making as much mess as they like and I didn't have to worry about it getting stuck to the kitchen carpet *grin*.

So much ooey gooey fun!

While they scooped I picked out all of the seeds. I can't wait to roast them tomorrow in the oven with a little bit of sea salt and olive oil. Yummy.

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With all of the messy scooping finished we moved back indoors where it was much warmer and finished carving their faces. I can't help but giggle every time I see this one that my 5 year old did :) Those eyes are hilarious! I can't wait to show you the one my oldest son did this year to, but he has asked me to wait as it's surprise for the rest of our family and he doesn't want to take a chance that someone will see it on here ahead of time :)

A couple of years ago we started making Halloween gingerbread houses and they are so much fun to build. Who says gingerbread is only for Christmas!

Of course you can never have enough candy corn for this sort of project. Just don't eat to many of them. Those little triangles of sugar are SO sweet. I had to count out just a few for each of the children or I knew they would free range in the bowl and I didn't want them to eat to many :)

After all the pasting of the icing, sticking gum drops, licking fingers and squabbling over who used to many sprinkles we had one great Halloween house.

All three of my children asked for hooded cloaks this year so I spent most of today repurposing old fabric that we found at the salvation army into hooded cloaks :) We don't go out trick or treating but we do like to dress up so usually I just go and buy them some fun costumes after Halloween is over and they are on super discount but this year they wanted to dress up for our party so mama had some sewing to do.

All of the pieces of fabric were different sizes and weights and I didn't have a pattern so we did a lot of cutting and measuring while each one laid on top of their material *grin*. I just love this heavy brocade with it's greens and golds that L picked out. It is heavy and silky and it just seemed like the perfect material for a cloak. Unfortunately there wasn't quite enough to make it ankle length but I think it turned out well just below the knee :)

And I love the hood! Oh my, I think I need one to *grin*. Her tiny head just gets swallowed up in it as she peers out and she loves it :)

I had hoped to get some of my party food prepared today but no such luck :) So tomorrow I will be a slave to the kitchen until time to unveil my horrific creations LOL. What are you doing for Halloween?

Hugs,
Rosina

Gnome Snack Mats

I love crafting with felt!

The creative possibilities are endless when you get going with it *grin*. In the winter edition of Rhythm of the Home is an article on making snack mats and I just fell in love with the idea of a special little mat for each child to enjoy a snack on :) So out came my giant stash of felt and linen fabrics and I set to work cutting out little Tomten.

Applique is sort of like a jigsaw puzzle as your fit your pieces together, overlapping edges, stitching them together...

and watching the images appear :)

The original pattern called for a 7 x 9 inch square of linen but I decided to make it slightly larger at 8 x 10 inches because my tree and gnomes were a little bit larger than I had anticipated *grin*. Another thing that I did differently was that I stitched all of my felt pieces onto one single layer of linen so that all of my stitch work on the backside would be nicely hidden inside the layers of the mat and not visible on the backside of my finished mat like in the pattern. I just thought it looked tidier that way if someone happened to flip it over to check it out as all of the little stitched pieces made for quite a jumble :)

I just love how they turned out!
So far I have just finished these two but I have one more boy gnome cut out and ready to be sewn and then I will have one for each of the children. I just know they are going to go crazy over them :)

Hugs,
Rosina

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

Acorn Goodness

My little stumpwork acorn turned out fabulous!! I was a little worried that the threads I wrapped the felt core with were looking a little disheveled but I think it turned out pretty good for a first go at this kind of needle work *grin*.

The pattern called for hand stitching around the top of the thread acorn to create the cap but as it happens I have a cup full of dried acorns from last fall :) So I pried apart a few of them taking the nuts out of their caps until I found one that was a perfect fit. With my trusty rusty glue gun I glued the cap on.

LOVE it!! My mom is working on some leaf collages that she's framing and we were playing around tonight with them and my little acorn fit in just perfectly. You know what that means though... yup, she wants one to *grin*.

I think I'm going to have to make LOTS more *grin*. I'm a little nutty for acorns LOL.
Hugs,
Rosina

Valentine's Garland ~ 'Sew' Easy To Make!

We are totally into Valentine's Day mode around here! I know it's a little bit early but if we don't do it now we may not do it at all *grin*. I love paper garland and thought it would be so much fun to make a Valentine themed one.

I made some quick cardboard templates of X's, O's, hearts & kissy lips. Of course we had to have big kissy lips to go with our X's & O's which if you aren't familiar are for kisses & hugs. Perfect for Valentine's day :) I made the templates out of an empty cereal box and traced them onto construction paper and then my little crafty helper, L, cut them all out for me :) Kids and scissors just seem to go hand in hand so this was one fun project.

Then came the fun part for mom :) I took each piece, repeating them in a pattern and sewed them all together with the sewing machine. So easy!! I mean there is no work involved. The machine stitches through them without any trouble and as I finished each one I gently pulled it and the thread out in equal intervals between each piece.

Done :) We swapped the kitchen curtain and put up a fun red gingham one, hung our newly made valentine garland & added some cute little tin birdies that I attached to the curtain to :)

It is so stinking cute and anyone can make this! Have fun creating one of your own :)

~ Rosina