Come Join Me Over At Rhythm of the Home Today

I'm so excited! The new winter edition of Rhythm of the Home is out and I'm sharing how to carve your own rubber stamps over there today :)

So grab a cup of tea and enjoy all of the wonderful articles, recipes and crafts being shared and check out the giveaway over at the Rhythm of the Home blog that is going on today as well to kick off the new edition. See you there!

Hugs,

Rosina

Counting Down

The magic of the Christmas season is building at our home :)

Yesterday I bundled up the children, grabbed a hand saw and we all headed out for a little trek in the frosty fresh air. I love to keep everything a secret so they had no idea what their mama was up to except that I needed them to spot a nice thick tree limb that we could cut down for something special *grin*. When they finally decided that a nearby maple tree had the nicest limbs, my oldest cut off one for us to bring indoors.

You can just imagine the puzzled looks on their faces when I proceeded to hang it up with a couple of ribbons below the mantle over our fireplace....

but it all started to make sense when I pulled out the very first little felt decoration with a number one on it for them to hang :)

The maple limb is going to hold each of our little stuffed creations that make up our advent calendar this year :)

In previous years we have occasionally had those store bought calendars where the doors pop open to reveal a little chocolate and some really sweet paper ones with Christmas scenes beneath each little flap but this time I wanted to use one that we made ourselves.

The children helped sew and stuff some of the decorations and others I made after they went to bed so they would be a surprise and to number each of the decorations I needle felted the numbers onto the fronts of each one free hand using some pretty colored corriedale rovings that I have. I can't wait until a few more days have passed to see them start to line up all down the maple limb :)

I don't think I have been this excited about the holidays in quite a few years and I have quite a list of little crafts to make and special outings to take each day with the children as we grow nearer to the 24th :)

Our favorite Christmas books have been pulled from the shelves and placed within easy reach with more coming that I've ordered from the library and I pulled out the pretty linen with its red Scandinavian border in the above photo from my special stash for sewing a table runner to be placed on the coffee table beneath our advent candle holder and manger scene. The mantle is ready for fresh greenery and paper snowflakes and soon I think our tree will make an appearance to *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 :)

Firewood

Firewood seems to consume a great many months of our lives. In the fall it starts with the loading of wheelbarrows and the lighting of stoves which continues through the many winter months and spring brings the cutting and chopping of more wood to replenish the woodshed.

K has been out alongside my dad helping this year.


Together they have been cutting down some of the leaning alders and cutting them into the exact lengths needed to fit our woodstoves.

My younger two have been out checking out what they've been up to as well. They love to use the rounds as balance beams, seeing who can last the longest as they walk along them rolling from side to side :)

One big perk to having a growing boy is that he can help with some of the manly chores. With his dad away for work so much of the time this is definitely appreciated by this mama...



Plus there are some monetary rewards that make the work just a little bit sweeter *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Little Helper

When wood heat is your only source of warmth in your home one can never seem to have enough firewood *grin*.

The steep road that my dad has cut up through the mountain behind our home is not suitable for driving on during the summer months because the ground is just to soft but in the dead of winter when the ground has finally frozen rock solid you can drive all the way to the top. A ride up or down is not for the faint of heart though. On the way up the nose of the truck just points towards the sky and with the road being so narrow it feels like the slightest wrong move may send you plummeting over the edge *grin*. I swear the man is fearless!

My youngest guy was so happy to help with firewood today :)

Even though there were smaller sticks that he could easily move in the back of the truck he was drawn to the oversized rounds that required a lot of 'man' power *grin*. He tries so hard up with big brother and Opa!

The temperature has warmed up slightly today and the clouds started to roll in. It's always nice to have that little bit of cloudy insulation during the night time. It makes my job of keeping the house warm easier :) There's talk of snow for tomorrow to so I'm hoping that we wake up to a fresh blanket of snow in the morning!

Hugs,
Rosina

New Bed For The Boy

We had a bit of a belated Christmas present for my oldest son this morning :) We were finally able to pick up the new mattress we had ordered quite a while back and put together the long awaited new bed that Hubby had made for him :)

Hubby has been working away on building it for him in the garage during his spare moments when he was home from work using spruce planks, routering, sanding and monogramming it into a special bed just for K :)

I am so excited for him to finally have a really nice bed!

Previously he had the bottom half of a bunk bed that we had been given when he was just little and the mattress was quite lumpy so this is going to make for some amazing sleep time with a brand spanking new mattress to sleep on.

Of course the younger ones had to test out big brother's bed... just to make sure that he was going to like it *grin*.

Hubby has one more bed to make for my daughter now and we were making plans today for how he might construct it. I want hers to be a little bit more girly so we're going to peruse the pre-made moldings at the lumber store next time we're in the city and see what we can incorporate into her foot and head boards. Maybe a poster bed with a frilly topped canopy might be nice to *grin*. No matter how he makes it I know she is just going to love whatever her daddy makes just for her :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Fairy House in Progress

As part of our handmade Christmas I had great plans for a little fairy house for my daughter but with Hubby being away for work so much this month I needed a new master builder *grin*. Thank goodness my oldest son loves to work with wood and he has taken on the job of building the house for her :) It is coming along fabulously! I had wanted to share newer photos of it today but when I went to take photos my camera battery was dead so I'll have to try and snap some more photos later to show you how it turns out!

He's constructing it out of alder and pine wood and I thought that instead of just putting in square windows it would be fun to make them circular so we used my dad's hole cutting attachment for his drill and popped them out and added little room dividers so that she could create different little spaces after :)

The big highlight of the house is the elevator! See the hole in the bottom of the floor? Well that is actually the top floor and we have a little circular elevator that will drop through the floor down to the bottom level that is wound up and down on a wooden dowling and old wooden thread spool :) She is going to love it.

Today he finished putting the door on with tiny little brass hinges, all of the windows have little wooden crossbars dissecting them into 4 window panes and the shutters were in the process of being glued on :)

I'm in charge of making curtains, flower swags, crocheted carpets, plus I have a dandy idea for a little hanging chandelier. Now if only I had just a few more days.... christmas is just around the corner and I'm finally feeling the crunch!!!

How are your holiday projects coming along? Maybe I'll be the only one up till dawn the night before christmas eve finishing mine up LOL.

Hugs,
Rosina

A New Bed For The Boy

My husband loves to make things just as much as I do and has a real passion for woodworking :) He started making beds last spring when my youngest started to escape his crib and was in need of a big boy bed and now it's my oldest sons turn for a new bed.

To make each bed special for the boys he monograms their first initial on the headboard with a router and I think it's such a neat thing for the kids to have a bed that is uniquely their own :)

Hubby is making K's out of rough spruce lumber and he builds them with a slat bottom so that the mattress can be set right upon them and then there is no need to purchase a box spring. It makes a nice high bed to :) All that's left is some more router work on the posts, sanding and a finishing coat of clear stain so that it will keep it's beautiful natural look. They're definitely skookum and can stand up to boyish rough and tumble play *grin*.

My little girl is just about ready to move out of her toddler bed so I've got some girly bed plans that I'm going to get hubby to look at next.... maybe I'll get him to put her initial in a heart :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Hiding Out ~ Outdoor Challenge Day 23

What to do when the pouring rain and wind returns....

Why you hide out in the woodshed! *grin*
The weather has taken a turn for the worst again but in our quest to make sure that we get outside at least once every day this month I thought that the perfect place to play would be in the woodshed :)



It's also the perfect place to hunt for salamanders! We dug around in the lumber pile and underneath the wood and were able to spot a couple of different ones but the little guys were much to quick for us today and we just couldn't catch one to share with you :(

My oldest son K has taken a liking to splitting wood and I couldn't be happier :) Just look at the size of the pile that needs to be split & stacked!! And that's only half of it!

He's been working away at it slowly and his dad is going to be so proud of him when he gets home :) Hubby is gone for weeks at a time as a tugboat captain so any extra help with the 'manly' chores is always greatly appreciated. You should have seen K the first day he came in from splitting though. He was so gung ho to get started that he worked out there most of the day and when he came in just before dinner he was so tired that he fell fast asleep on the couch by 5:30pm LOL. I think he's definitely deserving of a little raise in his allowance for taking on this mammoth pile!

Do you have photos of your children enjoying the outdoors? Visit The Great Outdoors Challenge to join in the fun and you can also visit other participants and see what sort of nature fun they have been having by clicking on the names below :)

~ Rosina

Art in the Park ~ Chainsaw Carvings

Today was the annual Art in the Park event in our hometown and it's always lots of fun :) There is live music, face painting, lunch, craft vendors and of course the main highlight... the chainsaw carvers!!

There were three of them this weekend and when we arrived just after lunch they were in full swing. I just loved the carving above with its big rock cod fish swimming around the mountain of rocks. It's amazing that this carving started with a giant cedar log and was transformed into a fantastic statue all with the use of a chainsaw!

Bears are a very popular animal to carve and this one is looking really great.

There's much more to it than just wildly carving away at a log to! This fellow is actually consulting a book with a photo of a bear and using it to mark his next chainsaw cuts :)

Another amazing carving of a river otter.

Just look at the detail in the work. He's using his chainsaw to define the otter's fur. You've got to be awful careful, one slip of those spinning teeth and you might cut off a vital part of your sculpture!

This mother wolf and her pups was one of many carvings that were on site today and available for purchase. They cost a pretty penny but wouldn't you just love one of them in your yard?!

This is one of the chainsaw carvings done in previous years. We love to wander through the park and check out all of the older carvings :)

Campbell River also has a really great chainsaw carving competition that takes place around Canada Day and there are TONS of carvers to watch work. After it is all finished the carvings are placed around the city. It's fun to come across them in different spots throughout the year :)

~ Rosina