WIP Wednesday (on Tuesday evening)

I am very happy to say that I have finished my little pumpkin. Once I had all the various pieces knitted I abandoned the pattern, and things got especially amusing when I attempted the stem, but it's done, and I think it does look like a pumpkin, so I will consider it a success.

One doll is finished too, though still naked. I have grand plans to have the dolls completed by November 1st, but I also want that little needle felted doll to be finished for our nature table, and I have not worked on her at all. She may have to take priority over the dolls. We'll see what happens...

Hope you are all having a nice cozy autumn week. I think we are about to get some snow here!

this past week...

Beautiful autumn days, some with lots of warmth from the sun, others getting very, very cold... reminding us of what is soon to come... I think I need to start mentally preparing, I do not always do well with the cold and snow... but there is certainly lots to look forward to with the upcoming holiday season.


One of our days was spent gathering cattail leaves and enjoying a walk around our small neighborhood lake.

Perhaps the baby ducks from a few months ago, now all grown...

And I am happy to say there has been quite a lot of handwork happening here lately. I missed WIP Wednesday, but next week I should have two completed dolls to show. One is finished, the second is on it's way. And Chloe has been doing a lot of knitting and needle felting. We went to visit Sara a couple days ago and Chloe spent the morning making these gifts to bring for her and Ila. The larger one is Sara with Ila in her arms. Very sweet I think. My girls have so much love for that wonderful farm family.

I have a feeling I will not return here until next week, so I will now wish you all a wonderful weekend filled with lots of autumn happiness!

first WIP Wednesday

I have been wanting to start participating in the WIP Wednesday for a while now. There is so much great creating happening there, it is so very inspiring, and by joining I hope to keep myself motivated. (Of course the real problem isn't motivation, it's time!)

All of the following projects were started in early September, and are still unfinished! Hmm, perhaps I have too much going on at once??

Here is Chloe's autumn dress, which I would have had done long ago, except that it was still summer when I started, so I decided I was getting to far ahead of the seasons, and then it sat on the rocking chair for about 6 weeks. The dress is actually finished, it is the apron that goes over it that I still need to complete. I have been saving that oak leaf fabric for many years, I think it will make a perfect autumn apron.

And then of course there are still the dolls. Started in August actually! Fortunately they are for a friend who very well understood that it would take me quite a while to finish them. They are Christmas gifts for her girls, but for my own personal crafting reasons I intend to have them finished way before then. Cause I have about 20 other things I need to get to making, and having these dolls still sitting here is a bit overwhelming. There were recently a few weeks when I wasn't able to work on them at all, but I finally got started on the hair a few days ago. Only one layer so far obviously, with the other doll still completely bald, but I actually love doing the doll hair so hopefully I will be able to work on them much more in the next week or so. And then it will be on to doll clothes. There are a couple dolls of our own eagerly awaiting new dresses too.

And then here is the most disappointing part of my recent creating. My little needle felted woman who was supposed to be on our nature table for the first day of autumn. So sad... I have never before not finished something so special that was to be a part of our seasonal celebration.

Perhaps I can have here finished in the next couple weeks so that she can at least keep us company throughout November.

And it would be nice if I could finish this little pumpkin while it is still October.
Because I'm pretty sure I should be moving on to winter holiday creating very soon!

catching up

Here are some of the pictures that I took over the past month but was unable to get onto the computer until now...

Still cannot get enough of these beautiful calendula!

There are still some blooming in the now mostly faded garden. And today I started gathering some seeds from them, to be sure we will have many more blooms next year!


Since Jason was away I was left to do the first day of autumn chalkboard drawing. Of course I did not remember to do it until late the night before, so was done a bit hastily.


The first weeks of school with Chloe were filled with many days of watercolor painting. So I made sure Chessa got some painting time of her own too. I will try to post pictures of some of their paintings soon.

What... is this not a common site out on the road where you live?


And then daddy came home! And we have been having lots of fun. (Combined with lots of rest... we are all pretty worn out for the long time apart.)

We went out and did some apple harvesting last week. Visited just a few trees and came home with about 50 pounds of apples!

Yesterday we bought ourselves an apples peeler/slicer. Seemed like a good idea. And it's cute and red. We will be baking apple pies soon, some are sliced and frozen in the freezer already, and of course the girls have been eating apples all day long!

Chickens!

I made a typo in my last post.. commented on our strange desire to have chickens.. but I only wrote "chicken"! And that makes it sound like we want to eat them, which we most definitely do not! I just find myself loving all kinds of birds more and more these past few years, and that love has now extended to chickens. But if we were to have chickens we would have to eat the eggs. At least we feel we would need to, or else it would be wasteful. (We wouldn't have a rooster so there wouldn't be unborn baby chicks to consider.) The thought of eating eggs is very strange to us though. But we also have all these great self-sufficiency homesteading desires, and eggs from chickens would add to our producing as much of our own food as possible dreams. So we have these kinds of conversations sometimes now, Jason and I, and while we are having the conversations we are like, "I can't believe we are even talking this way!"

And yes, hooray, Jason is home! But I have one more quiet evening to myself cause he had to go to bed with the girls... so very tired. Me though, I'm gonna stay up much later, maybe all the way to 9:30 or so.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Kreativ Blogger Award

My dear friend Sara at Farmama has passed on this Kreativ Blogger award to me. Recipients are supposed to do the following...

1. Copy the award to your site.

2.Link to the person to whom you received the award.

3. Nominate 7 other bloggers.

4. Link to those sites on your blog.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.

.....and you are also to list 7 things about yourself.

I do wish I could just pass this back to Sara! Such a creative, hard working, truly good person she is! But there are certainly others...

1. Heather at Shivaya Naturals

Her blog is so full of warmth, as is the home she has created for her family. Her knitting is amazing, and I wish we didn't live at apposite ends of our state so that we could spend some time sewing together!


2. Nicole at Gardenmama

I was just in awe the first time I saw Nicole's blog. The images she captures with her camera, and the images she creates with her words, are absolutely breathtaking. The correspondence we have shared the last couple months has warmed my heart. Thank you Nicole!


3. Suzanne at Down in the Meadow

There is so much prettiness and festivity happening over at Suzanne's. Even the every day moments at her home are filled with beauty. She always has such kind words to share, and brings a smile to my face.


4. Cadi at MaeheGirl

Talented and funny. She makes me laugh! And offers homeschooling encouragement. Inspiring!


5. Sarah at In These Hills

As soon as I read her Michaelmas post this week I knew I would have to include her here! Her words gave me strength when I so very much needed it.


6. Kelly at Free Flowing Ways

Nature goodness, crafting greatness, homeschooling happiness!


7. Well, I am thinking I cannot choose just one more. I'm sure we can all agree that there are just too many amazing women doing wonderful things around here, in their homes, for their families! If I read your blog it is because you are creative, inspiring, loving, a good mother, a wonderful artist... a generous person who is sharing a part of yourself and has inspired me to do the same!



I guess that means it is now time for me to share 7 things about myself...

1. I am originally from California. I was born in the Los Angeles area and lived there when I was very young, but then we moved north to Carmel. I love fog, ferns, trees, the ocean, and fairytale-like cottages. I desperately miss my home town and find it somewhat unfair that I cannot move back home, seeing as how it is one of the most expensive places in the country to live. I can visit though... hopefully soon!

2. I first came to Colorado in 1995. So I guess this is my home now. I love rivers, mountains, spruce and fir trees. And aspens. I love to watch the snow fall, I love to see the forest covered in snow. But I do not always love the snow. And I won't drive in the snow. Fortunately Jason is from Ohio and is an expert winter weather driver.

3. I like to be at home, and I like to be with my family. I really don't feel the need to get out much, except for out into the forest! Jason is the same way, (except for he feels the need to get out and go skateboarding too), and the girls also are happy to live a very home centered life. Therefore we need to make an effort to make sure that we do get out sometimes!

4. Both of our girls were born at home. Homebirth, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, cloth diapering... all of these things are/were a very important part of our life, they are just a bit in the past now and so not something I have really mentioned here before.

5. I love homeschooling. I also believe very passionately in Waldorf education. If there was an established Waldorf school nearby and we had the option of attending it would be a very, very difficult decision.

6. I taught myself to sew when I was about 19 years old. More than 17 years ago! I still have pieces of the fabrics that I first bought all those years ago, but not many of the things I ever made. I had a bad habit of making dresses, wearing them for a while, then deciding I would rather have a skirt and cutting them in half! I have also made and sold many dresses, probably more than 200! This was in the days long before etsy or anything like that, it was very hard to do and I eventually took a break. A very long break. I am still waiting to get started again, cause now there is this thing called etsy you know... (I also make all Chloe's and Chessa's dresses and skirts, and much of their other clothing too.)

7. I have been vegan for 16 years. Jason too, we both already were when we met. Also not something I have mentioned here much yet, not sure why. Maybe I will start sharing some recipes some time, cause after so many years of cooking and baking every meal for my family I seem to have become kind of good at it. I must warn you though, don't be surprised if someday you find me discussing our strange desire to have chickens. (Which for now is not accompanied by a desire to eat eggs.) You know it took us several years to decide to use wool, so maybe in ten years, our own chickens...


Okay, I did it! Now I think I shall take a break here for just a bit. I'll be back next week after spending some days doing nothing but enjoying the love of my reunited family!

a few years ago...

Some old favorites...

I have been taking pictures the last couple weeks, and when Jason gets back I will be able to get them onto the computer. I'm sure he has about 100 new pictures too. Just a few more days and he is home! Hooray!!!

I do apologize for the somewhat uninteresting blog posts lately. I suppose I could have just posted nothing instead.... Feeling so off with Jason gone, just trying to get through each day... the girls have been so wonderful, it's like Chloe is trying to be all brave and strong about her daddy being away. Whereas I just spent Michaelmas feeling totally lacking in courage. Blah, I know, sorry... Today was better though, woke up to a thunderstorm and lots of wind, made me feel excited for the day. I shall try to return soon with more happiness!

The autumn winds wail through the woods

O Michael, lend us your starry sword,
the darkness of earth fill with light.

from Movement Journeys and Circle Adventures

autumn watercolor painting

From last year, some autumn trees we painted using the wet on wet method of watercolor painting. (Sometimes I feel like it is obvious this is how we did it, but then I realize some people may not be familiar with the process.)

This first one is mine. Kind of pale, though nowhere near as light as my first attempt which looked much more like a blossoming springtime tree.

But I really love Chloe's! So much more movement and color in hers!

We had lesson time this morning followed by a long day in town. Too long really, didn't get home until almost 7 o'clock, which is the time the girls are usually going to bed. But it was a good day... a short but nice visit with a friend, and then yarn, antiques, and library. And how beautiful it is looking in our mountains these days! No longer just golden, now there is red, orange, nearly fiery color! I wish I had pictures to share with you. Also wish I could show you this wonderful Malabrigo yarn we came home with, in colors that perfectly match those amazing autumn mountains!

First week of school

As I have mentioned, last week was our first week of school. Chloe is in 3rd grade this year! This is Chessa's first official year of kindergarten, but it will be very unofficial. She did join us for circle time every day though.

It was really a very gentle beginning, with the main focus being celebrating autumn. We did a wonderful orchard circle time which we have done every autumn since Chloe was 6. The girls love it, they will never tire of it. We will only do it for the one week though since we done it for so many other years. It is from Let Us Form a Ring, an Acorn Hill Anthology. This is one of my favorite resources for circle time activities, and really helped me to understand how a circle could move, flow, breathe... I have another favorite too, which I will tell you about later in the week.

We are trying to make sure we get started on lessons early enough in the morning, about 9 or 9:30. Our morning Tuesday was a bit delayed though as we had to spend about an hour in the garden and kitchen rescuing the half frozen swiss chard. Several giant bowls full, have a which is now in the freezer, the other half has been made into soup and eaten.

We didn't really have a main lesson for the week. I just took the time to get us back into our rhythm, and introduce some of the new ideas we would be working with this year. One of which was a spelling list and special English notebook. Our spelling words for the week focused on autumn, apples, orchard, etc... We did 10. I told Chloe we would play a spelling game at the end of the week. (Spelling quiz!) She loved it. There was also some math review time. And lots of flute playing, which I wasn't sure we would get to the first week, but Chloe wanted to, and we learned a new song.

So it all went really well. (Especially since we were also dealing with the whole daddy being gone and crazy hospital incident!) Tomorrow we start our first main lesson block, Old Testament stories. I have been doing some watercolor painting practice in the evenings, want to do some more with that tomorrow night. For tonight I am going to again read through our Creation story from Roy Wilkinson's book, and then see if I can come up with an idea for Form Drawing tomorrow, something I forgot about last week!

Of course I have no recent photos for you, but here are some I never posted of more 2nd grade school work. They are from what we were calling a word family book, but I kept struggling with how exactly we wanted to approach the work. So here are a few pages that we came up with. You may have to click on them to make them bigger to see well enough.

(No, there are not 7 pictures. Let's just be impressed if I actually post every day like I said I would.)