Raising Painted Ladies

 Early in April I received an email letting me know that one of the resource companies that I purchase homeschool material from occasionally was doing a big butterfly larvae order and since it had been a few years since we had raised any butterflies and they were willing to ship them to me I was all over it :)

 Two months nearly passed and one day there was a surprise package that needed to be picked up at the post office. Of course silly me had completely forgotten all about the butterflies by the time we reached June and it wasn't until I saw the red 'live specimen' tags on the outside of the box that I finally remembered that we were waiting for them *grin*.

Our caterpillars were well on their way when we placed their container on the mantle in the living room so they could happily munch away. Only a few days later it seemed they started to hang from the fabric top and spin their cocoons....

and the beautiful metamorphosis from wiggly caterpillar to butterfly began resulting in six pretty orange and black painted ladies. We were all captivated by them as they slowly stretched their wings, pumping blood into them and learning how to make them work. 

 We got this little pop up mesh enclosure the first time we got butterfly larvae a number of years back and it has been fantastic for housing other little creatures besides butterflies that the kids bring home to visit... like frogs, salamanders and so on :)

 It was tempting to keep our little visitors longer so that we could enjoy their beauty but today the sun was shining and it was time to let them take their first big flight.

Each of the children took turns helping one of the butterflies out of their temporary home and enjoying the tickle of its feet on their palms before it flew away.

Butterfly and Flower

See the flower open
Its petals one by one -
Butterfly wings upon a stem
Waving in the sun.
See the flitting butterfly
In shimmering colours bright -
A flower free and flying
In the warm summer’s light.

~ Paul King

Hugs,

Rosina

Summer Solstice 2012

As we celebrated Summer Solstice it was a perfect sunny day, kissed by a light breeze as it swayed through the fields of tall grass surrounding our home. The wildflowers were all bursting heavenward in multitude and beauty as their new life that had sprouted in early spring is finally coming into its fullest :)

And just in time to!

We picked clover, buttercups and daisies to decorate our sun shaped solstice cake with.

The children enjoyed cooking hotdogs over hot embers as the fire burned low...

and warming toes chilled by running through damp grass that wasn't quite dry from the wet days before.

No one really wanted to wreck our cake by cutting into it but you know that didn't last long *grin*. I think a few even had seconds and perhaps thirds LOL.

But all the extra energy was quickly burned off by having a snowball fight in June. Oh how I love the fluffy ball shaped clusters of flowers that my snowball tree provides and they really do make for a fun summer snowball fight :)

 

As the sun finally dipped below the mountain range, streaking the sky with pinks and purples, we waited for the darkness to come so we could stoke up our fire and sit in its glow...

keeping warm, roasting marshmallows and setting our sticks aglow :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Blue Ribbon Rosette ~ Tutorial

My daughter has a fun little my first pony book that she was given on her birthday a few years ago and inside was a game to play and little paper award ribbons to give to the first, second and third place winners. Well over the years the paper rosettes have grown rather worn and we've replaced a few ourselves but this time I thought it would be fun to make a really nice one out of felt that would really last and share the tutorial on how we did it with you :)

As this was supposed to be her project with just mama supervision I got her to do all of the tracing and cutting so you might see in some of the photos that there is a little bit of black ink showing on the tips of the felt ruffles :)

We started with a glass that was 3 inches in diameter, using it as our template for our ruffled rosette and traced twelve of them to be cut out of our felt.

Once our circles were all cut out we moved onto the next step of folding them into little triangular sandwiches by folding the circle first in half and then in half again just like in the photo above for just 10 of them....

and then started to space them as evenly as we could around one of the leftover circles.

This part is a little tricky so I helped her out and to make it a little easier on myself for the spacing I took four of the folded circles and placed them onto the base at the north, east, south, and west compass points so that I had a rough idea of how far apart to put the remaining pieces.

As you pin each one down you want it to overhang your backing by about a 1/4 to 1/2 an inch. You definitely don't have to be precise! But you do want to have that extra space so when you sew on your final backing at the end it will hide any embroidery stitching and so on that will be visible on the underside.

With all of the pieces pinned down she used a bit of regular cotton sewing thread and hand stitched all the way around the base of each of the points to tack them down in place.

DON'T remove  your pins yet! Trust me keeping them in will keep your rosette nice and stable as you continue to work on it :)

So with everything stitched in place we used a smaller glass, this time 2 inches in diameter, to make our rosette center. It really doesn't matter what sizes your glasses are as long as they are both roughly 1 inch different in diameter from each other.

She thought it would be nice to use a darker blue felt for the center and I agree that it really did make the rosette pop! 

I helped again with this part, embroidering the first place onto the felt with white embroidery floss and just using a running stitch to secure it to the front of the rosette.

You will notice that you still have one of your 3 inch circles from the very beginning left over and this is going to be your backing. You will also need to cut three strips of felt 5 inches long and 3/4 of an inch wide for your ribbon tails.

Position your three ribbon tails how you would like them to look and pin them onto the backside of your rosette with their ends far enough towards the center that they will be fully  hidden when the backing is stitched on.

To finish we just used regular cotton thread again and my daughter used a simple whip stitch to secure the backing to the underside of her rosette hiding all of our knots and not so pretty stitch work *grin*.  The final touch was to add a brooch pin that I luckily had but you can easily find them at any hobby/craft store or even your local dollar store may have them down the craft isle.

And that's it!

A super cute blue ribbon rosette for the winner in your household :)

You could personalize these with pretty much any little saying. They would make great birthday boy/girl ribbons, or don't forget about Mother's day that is coming up this weekend. I can see this with #1 MOM on it just for me *grin*.

Have fun making some :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Bento Box Quilt For A Special Boy

My sister gave birth to her very first little one on May 1st making me a Tante (aunty) for the very first time! Yay, so exciting and to celebrate I want to make him his very first quilt.

I've been looking for the perfect pattern or idea for a boy's quilt for quite a while and when I saw these photos for a Modified Bento Box I sort of fell in love with it *grin*. So much in fact that when I started digging through my fabric stash I had my ipod in hand so that I could consult with her photo to match up similar colors LOL.

So far I've cut all of the center blocks out but since I don't have a pattern to give me exact amounts of fabric to cut I'm sort of just winging it when it comes to how many strips of fabric I will need. I didn't want to cut too many just in case I don't use them all so I may have to stop and do some more cutting before I get to the end but I'd rather do that then end up with a bunch of three inch strips I don't need later.

I had planned to spend the entire morning sewing away but my daughter seemed to have other plans and ended up pulling me into a little sewing project of her own so this is about all I got finished today :) I think I have about a month and a half to finish though so that should give me plenty of time to finish it... should being the operative word as I have been known to be a bit of a procrastinator. I just may end up at the baby shower with bright red blood shot eyes from pulling an extreme all nighter to get it finished in time. Let's hope not though! *grin*.

Hugs,

Rosina 

May Day Celebration

I am just bursting with joy today as I reflect on the amazing amount of fun that we had yesterday sharing in the celebration of May Day and the welcoming of Spring with a nearby Waldorf school that so generously allowed us to join in with their families.

We had never been to the park that we were all to meet at and I wasn't quite sure what to expect as we made our way down a gravel path leading behind the industrial buildings along the roadside. Not far along we crossed a wooden bridge with a small creek running below it and just beyond was a wide open field surrounded by forest.

It was as if we had stepped out of the city and directly into a country field as the surrounding brush and trees closed out all signs of the bustling streets beyond.

  

There were colorful blankets placed around the field with a cluster of children and parents in the center busily working together creating flower wreaths to be worn in their hair. The children and I found strings of ivy that had been cut into long lengths just perfect for creating the sturdy bases of our wreaths and we settled on a rainbow colored blanket to weave our ivy and flowers into wonderful floral creations to wear :)

It was so cute to see all of the little ones running around and playing in the sunshine with their flower crowns on and as everyone finished up we joined in a large circle around the May pole to get started. The littlest children in kindergarten were first as they sang and weaved around one another, sometimes into each other, but so bright were their faces as they performed what they had learned for the special day.

As each group of children took turns skipping around the May pole and winding up the ribbons in different patterns it was finally time for any visitors or parents with tots to join in and my little guy in the photo above was beyond excited as he had thought he wasn't going to get a turn *grin*.

My oldest son even took part in one of the rounds with his crown of flowers upon his head :) 

He's 13 years old and growing up so quickly but I'm so thankful that he still enjoys joining in with the younger two and has fun doing it.  

When all of the children had taken a turn around the May pole it was time for just the adults to try something a little trickier. We were all numbered either a '1' or a '2' and then both groups moved in different directions around the pole as we weaved over and under one another as the waldorf teachers sang White Coral Bells. What a challenge that proved to be *grin*. Once in a while there was a little mix up but we all giggled and smiled as we fudged through it while creating a lovely braid down the May pole.

With the festivities winding up for the afternoon we shared a lovely snack of fresh fruits and veggies, raw brownies and other goodies and made our way back home where the children have been talking about it ever since :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Betty Beefsteak & Sir-Loin Alot

It would seem that I've been sleeping, breathing and obsessing over calves for the last 4 days. Monday morning the little heifer was not quite herself and was completely uninterested in her bottle of warm milk which was a huge sign that something wasn't right and her bowel movements had been looking pretty runny. I checked the cupboard for the emergency electrolyte and mineral replacement powder that I try to have on hand all the times for calves that get the runs to help replace what their bodies loose with all of the loose stool and I was so happy to see that I had some.

By the time I returned she was lying down making little moo noises as she lay her head on my lap and really did not want to get back up. I was really getting worried that I was going to loose her :( So I spent most of the day in and out of the barn trying to get her to take sips of the electrolytes which was going painstakingly slow but a little is better than none. You shouldn't underestimate how fast one of these little guys can dehydrate but I had one more little trick up my sleeve to help her to feel better and that was to give her 30cc's of pepto bismol with one of those little baby medicine syringes every 4 hours. Some people swear by using pepto for calves with the runs and others will say it's an old wives tale and doesn't do anything at all but I have used it a few times in the past and it always does the trick!

Later that evening she was ready to take her bottle of milk again, drank a little more than she had managed in the morning and was back on her feet again. Yay! Over the next few days we continued our regime of electrolytes and pepto and I am so relieved to say that today her appetite is back and growing in leaps and bounds and her bowel movements are all back to normal :)

Sometimes the change from being moved to a new home, or the switch from fresh cow's milk to a milk replacer can trigger the upset or even the stress from so many new faces and hands wanting to pet her can do it to them but all is well in the barn again and oh by the way that's her up in the first photo... Betty Beefsteak herself. All bright eyed and bushy tailed today as she bounced around *grin*.

Heehee, don't you just love her name?! Hubby came up with them :) Well actually first Betty Beefsteak was going to be T-bone but we didn't think it was girly enough and the little boy has been named Sir-Loin Alot :)

There never seems to be enough milk for the little guy either! He makes the cutest little face when he's finished with the tip of his tongue hanging out...

but watch your backside or front side for that matter *grin*. When the bottles are empty they sometimes look for more and bump you in some not so nice places LOL. Yeah, we're going to have to break them of that habit :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Meet Our New Babies

We picked up our baby calves this morning and they are adorable! We had thought we were getting two little bull calves but actually ended up with a little heifer and one bull calf which is even better :)

They were little troopers on the long ride home, laying down nicely in the back of our horse trailer under the little shelter we had built for them to keep any wind off of them so they didn't catch a chill as they are only two weeks old and still quite susceptible to the cold and damp.

As soon as we had them unloaded and into the barn the kids were right in there with them petting and brushing them and falling hopelessly in love with them *grin*.

They seemed to settle in pretty well but they're still a little skittish and unsure of us...

but I know that as soon as we bring out the milk bottles tonight we'll win them over :)

Hugs,
Rosina

I'm In A Magazine!!!

I can't believe it!!!
I've been featured in a magazine and I think I'm going to burst from being so darn excited!!! *grin*

When my little project of recycling and reusing my children's old rubber boots that I had saved and turned into hanging flower planters had gone viral last year and started showing up all over the internet it was fun to see. But then earlier this year I was contacted by the editor of Cottages & Bungalows Magazine to see if I would allow them to print my photo with a little comment on my inspiration in their May edition and I was SO excited that they would even ask me :)

It made me think of the Dr. Hook song 'On the cover of the Rolling Stone'.... and I was going to go and buy 5 copies for my mother! LOL. Okay while I didn't quite make the cover I was definitely doing the happy dance :)

It is quite a lovely magazine full of home and garden ideas...

projects to make and tons of inspiration.

Thank you so much to all of you wonderful readers some of you which have become wonderful friends over the years as well for stopping by and saying hello and sharing about my blog as I know without all of you this wouldn't have happened :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Catching Up & A New Magazine

Somehow the few days I had intended to stay off the computer during the Easter holiday have turned into nearly 2 weeks! The days are flying by me at great speed but we had a wonderful holiday baking cookies, making and sharing in big family dinners, chasing down clues hidden all over our property for our easter hunt and getting ready for the new members of our family to arrive :)

No we're not having another baby although I really really want one *grin*, but we're adopting two new baby calves just barely a week old that we're going to bottle feed and raise. I think I may be more excited than the kids!! I just melt over their little doe eyes LOL. So we've been cleaning the cow barn and doing some repairs to it that were needed and as soon as hubby gets home from work we're going to load up the trailer and pick them up. Yay :)

I had wanted to share some pictures with you tonight as well but for some reason Flickr's new photo program Aviary and I are just not getting along and it wouldn't work for me :( I'm crossing my fingers that it's just some sort of glitch and I can get back to business soon but in the meantime I wanted to share with you this really great homesteading e-magazine I found.

The Homestead Community Post is a brand new online magazine published by the Harrison family over at Homestead Drying Racks and right now they are offering it as a free preview for anyone and totally worth checking out!

It's 40 pages long and looks just like a professionally laid out magazine unlike some of the newsletter type mags I've seen and it is full of stories, helpful tips and tricks, recipes and more. You can click on the link below to go directly to PDF of the magazine or save it to your computer or ipad to read at your leisure and check out their website as they are having a fun giveaway to kick of their magazine to :)

Homestead Community Post ~ Spring 2012

Hugs,
Rosina

We're Sending Egg Mail!

How did I not think of this?!

Mailing large plastic Easter eggs for friends and family is like having the cadbury bunny lay an egg in their mailbox but even better LOL. When I ran across the idea here I went to the nearest dollar store to see if I could find eggs big enough to hold a bunch of goodies and accommodate a mailing label that I could write on large enough to be legible.

Two stores later I hit the jackpot! Brightly colored eggs that were a good 7 - 8 inches long and didn't feel to flimsy so that they would be able to take a good knocking around in the mail truck.

We filled them with chocolate, stickers, easter stamps, bunny masks and felted eggs that we had made. Nestled it all in a bit of paper easter grass and taped them tightly shut :)

Watch your mailbox... one of these just may be for you!

Hugs,
Rosina