May Day

Happy May Day, friends! I'm so sorry for the absence. The phone company worked on the lines on Friday and (as usual) knocked out our phone in the process. It took us til yesterday evening to get them back out here to restore it. And, wouldn't you know it, our neighbor's got disconnected when they did. Sheesh!
Anyway, I was super busy those few days anyway.... craft show on Saturday and working on a May Day craft for the girls to enjoy.

This turned out so sweet. If you want to make your own, I use a pre-cut dowel from the craft stores (you can find them in packs in the unfinished wood section) and a wooden wheel, found in the same place. I used one of the teeny cups from that section, I believe they're marked as candle cups, as the topper. It was a tight fit and, as I needed it to fit over the ribbons, I sanded the dowel a bit to allow for a little wiggle room. Glue the ribbons to the top and then glue all of the wooden pieces together and the whole thing stands quite nicely on it's own.

The dolls are a variation of this tutorial. I used a straight pin to have them hold the ribbons, I didn't want it to be permanent.



Here's a branch of snowy May
A branch the fairies gave me
Who would like to dance today
With the branch the fairies gave me?
Dance away. dance away
Holding high the branch of May.
Dance away, dance away
Holding high the branch of May.

From Festivals, Family and Food

We've been singing this song in our circle time so yesterday the girls and I made ribbons wands to dance while we sing. I made a hole in the top of the dowel with a push pin before screwing in the closed hook (can be found in the picture framing section of craft store or in the wood working of some).



Even the littlest enjoyed picking out her ribbons, though, I had to thread and tie.



And today we're going to make cones like these to fill with some things for our neighbors. A cake may be in order, too.
We're looking forward to driving up the mountain to celebrate with the semi-local Waldorf school at their May Faire on Saturday. How are you celebrating today?

Oh, and I've not forgotten about the winner....

CrippleHorse

Congratulations! I'll email you right now and you have through 5/3 to get back with me.

And for everyone else I'm offering a special price for these dolls this week only.

Have a very happy day!

Meltdown Monday Giveaway

Comments on this giveaway are now closed.

Hello friends! How did your Monday go? Mine is winding down and I'm about ready to hit the hay! But first I wanted to stop in with a little Meltdown giveaway.



Remember these little ones? I want to make one just for you, or someone you love. One winner will receive one of these lavender filled travel doll necklaces, your choice of boy or girl. It won't be one of these pictured here, I will make one special and the colors will be a surprise.


OK, so to enter leave me a comment. You can let me know how your Monday is going or, better yet, tell me how you beat the dreadful Meltdown Monday or just say hi.

For additional entries;
(leave a separate comment for each entry, if you don't, they count as one)
Tweet this (include @thiscosylife in your tweet)
Share on Facebook
Blog this giveaway
Follow this blog
Add my Etsy shop to your favorites
Like This Cosy Life on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter

I will randomly pick a winner on Sunday April 29th and announce here, on my blog. (Please, make sure I have a way to contact you!) This giveaway is open worldwide.

PS: If anyone is interested in participating in a Monday Meltdown giveaway, here on my blog, contact me here. Whether an item from your Etsy shop or just a little something you would like to give away to brighten someone's Monday, it's all good!

A Giveaway and a Giveaway Winner

Happy Earth Day, everyone! I am just stopping in very quickly to tell you about an awesome giveaway that I am participating in over on the Natural Kids blog. All of the goodies you see below are up for grabs from my fellow Natural Kids team members.

Including this playset of mine... Blossom Mama and Her Petal Baby.



And , of course, I am came by to announce a winner for this week's Meltdown Monday giveaway.

Grace

Congratulations! I'll email you right now and you will have through 4/24 to get back with me.

Have a great Earth Day Sunday!

Stitchin'

I've been working on something new for the shop. Deviating from my knitting needles for a moment to do a little stitch work with felt. It was all that crafting I did for Easter.... I must admit, I love felt! And there's just something about hand sewing.

I made up two more tonight. They're sewn from wool felt I painted with water colors and filled with lavender buds for a calming effect. The girls came first but I think I love the gnomey boys the most. All of them can be found in my shop here.

I'm actually preparing for a last minute craft show, held on a local farm. It was supposed to be for the 12th of May, but their strawberries came in early and they moved it up to next Saturday. Eek! It's OK, though. I've got this!

Today

It's April and the sun is calling! We got out today and tried to make a dent in all the yard work that needed to be done. Monkey grass... who's bright idea was it to plant monkey grass? It should have been cut back a month ago. Oops!



My help didn't last long. The two older girls said they wanted to go play in the front yard. When River and I went in for a drink of water we found them painting... it was everywhere!

Trying to catch the ant tickling her leg.

She climbed into my lap and said 'On't some bb's (their word for breast milk).' I said nothing and continued to work. She said nothing and proceeded too 'help'.

P.S.Don't forget to this week's very sheep-ish giveaway.

Meltdown Monday Giveaway

Comments on this giveaway are now closed.

Today I'd like to introduce you to Karen, who stocks her shop Little Wool full of sweet, wool treasures. I am especially fond of her little animals, hand sewn from wool felt. Let's get to know her a little better.

Tell us a little about yourself so we can get to know the person behind the work.

I find it a difficult thing to sum myself up in a few words because I truly believe that I am still very much a work in progress. My focus in the now revolves around my three girls who are all in various stages of becoming the women they will be. During the quiet moments I find myself making things for them, my partner, myself and our home.

What inspires your creations?

My inspiration comes from the natural world. I enjoy creating things that highlight the world around us...whether it be the changing of the seasons, or the wonderful gifts of trees, sticks, animals and stones it brings forth. Many of our homeschooling days are spent wandering around the wilder spaces in our city and countryside and gathering supplies.

How do you balance 'making' with mothering?

As my girls get older I am finding that there is more time for me to create with the purpose of "stocking my shelves" so to speak. Most of my LittleWool creating still happens at night once the house is quiet(er). I also find that nothing passes the time while waiting up for my teenagers like needlecraft - needlefelting brings about particular satisfaction ;-).

This week Karen is offering the set above, Mama and Baby Sheep.
This Mama and baby sheep set is one of my absolute favorite toys to create. I was so excited after I created my first one, that I knew my creating journey was just beginning. I hand sew the sheep using linen thread, vintage wool blankets or sweaters and wool batting as the stuffing. Then I needlefelt wool locks onto the body of the sheep.

OK, so to enter leave me a comment. You can let me know how your Monday is going or, better yet, tell me how you beat the dreadful Meltdown Monday or just say hi.

For additional entries;
(leave a separate comment for each entry, if you don't, they count as one)
Tweet this (include @thiscosylife in your tweet)
Share on Facebook
Blog this giveaway
Follow Karen's blog
Add her Etsy shop to your favorites
Like This Cosy Life on Facebook

I will randomly pick a winner on Sunday April 22nd and announce here, on my blog. (Please, make sure I have a way to contact you!) This giveaway is open worldwide.

PS: If anyone is interested in participating in a Monday Meltdown giveaway, here on my blog, contact me here. Whether an item from your Etsy shop or just a little something you would like to give away to brighten someone's Monday, it's all good!

Working

Kaiya has picked up needle felting recently. Literally, picked it up while I was working on Easter crafts. She's really enjoying it so I think we make work more with it this coming week. I'm also getting lots of work done outside and will continue with that. Feeling so productive!

I have a winner of the Mermaid Doll....

Joey

Congratulations! I've already contacted you so get back to me asap with your mailing address.

Watching

My girls have taken to setting up many 'tea' parties at their little round table in their playroom. We recently moved almost all of their toys and things into the front room, which had served as office and craft supply room. They're now directly between the living room and kitchen. It's now mainly their space and they've never played with their things more. Children want to be were everyone else is. Close to where mama works and cooks, not tucked away in their bedroom.







The sacrifice of space is well worth it to be able to watch them play and imitate so near me. And what could make a house a home more than the bright and joyful spaces of children?

Critters

We finally cleaned up our little greenhouse today. It was pretty messy since last year and we've yet to start any seeds. I had such high hopes for an early start but things don't always work out the way we plan. But today we got it started, anyway, and the greenhouse cleaned. Seems while we were neglecting the space lots of little critters has taken up residence. My bug-lovin' gal, Zoe, was too happy to find something creeping or slithering under just about everything she turned over.







Tomorrow we'll actually get something started growing in there!

P.S. We're on dandelions this week. I just wanted to share this little ditty with you. Scroll all the way to the bottom. And the lyrics are found here (we just sing the first two verses).

P.P.S. Don't forget to enter to win the Waldorf Mermaid Doll.

Meltdown Monday Giveaway

Comments on this giveaway are now closed.

Good morning and happy Monday! How was your holiday weekend? We had such a great weekend, but, you know, I'm always relieved when a holiday passes so I can start on new projects and look ahead. I'm going to have a busy week. Many things I've been putting off I will get to and I can even feel a list coming on!
But to start things off I'm checking in here with a new giveaway. This week we're being joined yet again by Melissa, of Wild Faerie Caps. Maybe you've ran across her here before? One of her giveaways, perhaps, or maybe it was when I was showing off the weather and day of the week gnomes she made for us.

But this week Melissa is here to show us what's new in her shop. So, Melissa, what's been happening since your last giveaway here?

In the past few months I have discovered an amazing love of doll making - Waldorf inspired dolls, to be precise. My shop languished while I indulged this new craft, though I've kept up with some custom orders of gnomes. While I do still enjoy making peg gnomes, sewing little dolls has been a really great change. When I'm not sewing, I'm knitting like a crazy person (that is, when my boys let me). My yarn stash has gotten out of control so I've been trying to tame it by using my most beautiful yarns for doll hair and longies. In the near future I hope to expand into spinning and dyeing my own yarns.

Today Melissa is very generously offering one lucky reader the chance to win this beautiful mermaid doll in the last three photos above.
She's about 11 inches long. Her skin is a cotton blend and she's stuffed with wool. Her tail is crocheted pima cotton/modal. Her hair is an unknown fiber (linen, she thinks). Her top is hand dyed wool.

OK, so to enter leave me a comment. You can let me know how your Monday is going or, better yet, tell me how you beat the dreadful Meltdown Monday or just say hi.

For additional entries;
(leave a separate comment for each entry, if you don't, they count as one)
Tweet this (include @thiscosylife in your tweet)
Share on Facebook
Blog this giveawayFollow Melissa's blog
Add her Esty shop to your favorites
Like This Cosy Life on Facebook

I will randomly pick a winner on Sunday April 15th and announce here, on my blog. (Please, make sure I have a way to contact you!)

PS: If anyone is interested in participating in a Monday Meltdown giveaway, here on my blog, contact me here. Whether an item from your Etsy shop or just a little something you would like to give away to brighten someone's Monday, it's all good!

Easter

It's been a very full and happy Easter weekend here. Yesterday friends came over and hunted eggs and there was lots of yummy food. I still love egg hunts. I don't hunt, of course, but still...

Something that really makes me sad, though, is a child with an empty basket while others are brimming over. I just couldn't let it happen. Here I sat, just a couple of days ago, Googling 'how to make Easter egg hunt fair'. Seriously. When all else fails, Google it! I did find some good suggestions but didn't feel like they applied to our hunt. Like, give each child a color. But we had wet felt eggs, real hollowed eggs and the sewn felt ones I made. So, since I knew exactly how many children there would be I made six nests of like eggs (jelly beans together, lavender necklaces together) and the girls (most of my friends have girls) all worked together to find the nests. Of course, this means I had to make them a little harder to find than I normally do. It worked out really well!







More Easter crafting, The little felted duck pond and rabbit were for Kaiya and Zoe's baskets and the birds nest for our nature table. I used this pattern for the eggs.

I made six of these little babes in their wool cradle for the egg hunt. I got the idea from here. I'm not even close to being talented with needle felting so, while I normally prefer no face, I thought they might not be able to tell they're babies (they still look like owls) so they got eyes and mouths.

And these beautiful rabbits were made by Lucinda. I love these!



Happy Easter to you all who celebrate and happy Spring!


PS Here is the giveaway winner this week;

Elizabeth

Congratulations! I will contact you in just two shakes of a lamb's tail and you have through 4//10 to get back with me.