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...is what my seven-year-old said Saturday after returning late at night from a family vacation. We spent a beautiful week with my family (all 14 of us!) and while we had a wonderful time, it is always nice to be back home.
The sun, the beach and lots of fresh air was a nice break from our fast approaching cold winter ahead.
More photos at Flickr.
...time to start working on the ornaments.
I'm signing off until after the holiday. For those of you who celebrate, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! xx,kristin
One of our projects at the preschool that remains the same year after year is the harvest candle the children make. It is their gift to their family to honor and share Thanksgiving. I wrote about them once before, and not much has changed.
Most of the items we use to decorate the birch candle holder are things the children have found on their nature walks. Some of it comes from the pantry, and some are treasures that have been gathered by friends to share.
I always marvel at how the simple items can come together in such a distictive way that is special to the child who creates it. It brought them so much joy to create this special gift.
It was Leslie who got me thinking about printing on fabric. I couldn't resist signing up for her swap, so began playing.
First I went to the kitchen to see how different utensils worked for stamping. It was fun to make patterns with the variety of tools, but I found it too challenging to get good results with the ink.
Next I played with stamps, some commercial, some i carved myself. I also experimented with squares of foam.
Wanting to test a stencil, i worked with some fancy lace paper.
Pretty, but was not sure how to line up the edges to cover an entire fat quarter.
More playing then I finally came up with a pattern that I liked.
For the swap fabrics, I used four different colors of paint (Martha Stewart satin) on a 100% Organic white cotton. I chose four stamps and did a repeat design covering the entire piece of fabric.
After heat setting them with a hot iron, they were ready to go.
These are all on their way to Australia.
Julen's BFF turns four today. He was adament that he had to make him some gnomes out of willow like the ones we have at the preschool. While he couldn't handle most of the sawing or much of the whittling of the gnome hats, he did give it his best effort. The sanding, painting and rubbing with the wax/jojoba oil mixture was all him though. He was quite satisfied with all his hard work...as he should be...they are adorable!
Now it's my turn. We will have a birthday celebration for this sweet boy at preschool today. You may recall how I struggled with birthday gift ideas last month, but for this boy I knew exactly what I wanted to give him...I was determined to make him a dragon. After all, it's been his favorite play this fall. Sure...I could have used the pattern that was published in Rhythm of the Home, or the one that can be found in the latest publication of Living Craft, but instead I tried creating my own pattern. I struggled a bit, and it needs a bit of tweaking, but I'm happy with how he turned out.
The true test will be if my little friend is happy with him too.
I finished two scarves from my long list.
With the lovely hand-spun chunky yarn this one stitched up very quickly.
Details:
Mistake Scarf
Pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and also can be found on The Purl bee
CO 23 stitches on #13 needles using locally hand-dyed, hand-spun chunky wool yarn
Next was this green bandana style scarf.
Details:
Goldie Neckerchief
Pattern by Rachel at Cornflower Blue
CO 3 stitches + increases on #2 needles using thrifted organic cotton yarn
I found it really difficult to get a decent photo of myself in the scarf, but Julen was happy to model it for me.
1. Untitled, 2. fading autumn leaves, 3. Autumn Leaves Are Still There, 4. Autumn Fire Colour Wheel, 5. Photinia Rainbow, 6. Kim Rooster, 7. Laubhaufen, 8. Herbstfarben, 9. Boston Ivy Leaf Line
I was playing with my boys in the yard yesterday and we were attempting to create landart out of the leaves in our yard but the gusts were a force and blew every creation before we could finish making it. It is a strong reminder that autumn is soon to give way to winter.
It was quite satisfying then to create a mosaic of some of the beautiful leaf works found in the Natural Art pool at Flickr.
We celebrated Martinmas at the preschool a few days before Halloween. This year we veered away from the balloon lanterns of previous years and tried something new.
It was quite an involved process. We used one day of handwork for each of the below steps to make these sweet lanterns.
We started with watercolor painting
Next we went on a nature walk to find just the right leaf. Then the kids ironed their leaves between two pieces of wax paper.
Then, we cut out a window using a template and glued in the leaf.
Finally...assembly. The children all attached their own handles using a maple leaf brad.
They lit up the night beautifully.
Previous Martinmas festivals can be found here.
(My seven-year-old did not have school on the day we were pressing the leaves so came to preschool with me and asked if he could tell the children a story while they were waiting their turn to iron. I hesistated briefly wondering what story he might share, and to my delight he came up with a darling tale of Mother Nature and her lantern. I didn't want to forget it and wrote it down as soon as I got home. Here it is , for anyone who is interested in reading it... Mother Nature and The Lantern.)
In September I began a quest to knit up a bunch of scarves so there would always be a clean and dry one to choose from in the coming winter months. What I have succeeded in doing is making myself a little crazy. By casting on too many scarves, I find myself getting confused by what pattern I'm working on and I'm making too many mistakes...like...slipping a stitch when I should be purling. I like knowing that I'm not alone in doing this and feel just like friend Anneli when she wrote, it's too hard to resist seeing how a new yarn or pattern will perform. She finds she runs out of knitting needles...that's never been my problem...
Here's what I've been working on...
Airy Scarf
Pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
CO 22 stitches on #10 needles using a locally spun kidlin lace
Mistake Scarf
Pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and also can be found on The Purl bee
CO 23 stitches on #13 needles using locally hand-dyed, hand-spun chunky wool yarn
Goldie Neckerchief
Pattern by Rachel at Cornflower Blue
CO 3 stitches + increases on #2 needles using thrifted organic cotton yarn
Eve's Rib
Pattern from friend Becky and can be found in the comments here
CO 27 stitches on #8 using Patons Pure Organic Cotton
Scrappy Lengthwise Scarf
Pattern via Ravelry
CO 400 stitches on #7 circular needles using thrifted crewel yarn (I started this one way back here)
Linen Stitch Scarf
A pattern can be found here
CO 54 stitches on #3 needles using Noro Kureyon sock yarn (this just might be the scarf that won't happen...it takes about an hour to knit an inch...I feel like I'm knitting fabric, but I just love watching each new color blend in)
One Row Scarf
Pattern by The Yarn Harlot
CO 34 stitches on #8 needles using Patons Pure Organic cotton
Holding Hands Feeding Ducks
Pattern found at Ravelry
CO 34 stitches on #8 needles using Malabrigo Worsted
Whew! If I ever get these off the needles, I'll never feel chilly this winter! Sad thing is, I'm STILL looking at new patterns I'd like to try.
One day I'll put my Ravelry account to good use and start posting finished projects over there.
Happy November First! Gratitude month. At least that's how I always think of November. There is so very much to be grateful for and I try to remember to pause each day to be thankful for everything that is good in my life. Today, I'd just like to pause and say thank you to YOU! This community of creative bloggers feeds my soul every day and I continue to inspired by all of you and l appreciate your friendship more than you could ever know.
(this photo for is for you, dear)
