Spring Work and Painting Silk

Today I will pick up where I left off yesterday and continue purging and rearranging. Nearly spring seems like a good time to get the house in order and work on the general flow of it. Tait says I'm just like my mother and constantly moving things around. I'm not just like her. I honestly don't do it nearly as much as she does, but I like to keep working it til it works just right for us.





On Friday our friends come over and we made silk fairies. I'm becoming a little obsessed with painting the silks. Watercolors will wash out so they're not suitable for play silks, but they make lovely puppets and floaty dolls and my silks for curtains came so I'm super excited to paint them! I'll try to share the fairies in a day or so and I have a puppet to put in the shop, so stay tuned and have a beautiful Monday!

Life's a Mess

Dear friends, here we are near the end of February with spring only a month away. Right now I feel very much like a bear, hibernating in her cave. So very close to the earth reawakening and filling up with new life and yet still very much a barren winter landscape. It makes me not want to do anything, just stop awhile til it's time to exhale again.
We had snow on Sunday! I was totally unprepared for that and if you will recallI had already written it down in blog form (which is very much like stone, no?) that it absolutely would not happen this winter. So, there we were, Tait, the girls and I, out for the afternoon having lunch, buying groceries and picking out carpet for the girls' room and here it comes!It was lovely. Didn't last too awfully long, just long enough too cover the ground pretty well and send the girls off to bed with visions of snowflakes dancing through their heads. It melted away fairly quickly the next day, giving the girls just enough time to go out in it, stomp around a bit and come back in declaring it too cold and wet.

I thought you might want a look at my dirty house today. No, really, I was in the middle of pulling things out from under the girls' beds... yarn, toys, beeswax, orange peels, socks, and decided instead of getting aggravated I would grab the camera and see these wonderful, childish messes from another angle.

Much loved books that are taken to bed every night, animals, handmade books...

Crayons, coloring books and bits of paper all over and under the dining table. I couldn't bear to show you under the table, I shudder to think of it!

This one must climb!

Baby dolls abandoned in the middle of the floor. What a mess they make! I go through the house all of the day, every day, picking up after them. I frequently begrudge it. I frequently tell Tait, when he comes home from work, that all I've gotten accomplished all day was cleaning one mess after another of theirs. Getting them to help me clean is mostly a battle. A battle that I don't want to fight. Rebecca, of Bending Birches, wrote just the other day about this. It has been on my mind and so her post really resonated with me. Modeling and imitation.. this really is the key to so much of child rearing, isn't it? I am trying to be very mindful of the attitude that I bring to my work, remember that three sets of small eyes are always watching. One day they will be ready to make the decision on their own about keeping their space, they will get there. But I want them to get there without the battles and frustration, instead at their own pace (which may very well be when they move out and have to clean their own home).
I have to admit that it feels like home to see their childish things about.

Do you have any tried and true and gentle and respectful way to deal with children's messes?

Waldorf Puppet Making

I finished the puppet up last night. Gosh, I'm so happy with how she turned out!

I used wool locks for her hair. I really love the soft look they give her. As though she weren't soft enough, yeah. This was my first time using locks. They were such fun to arrange and needle felt into place. The whole thing was a lot of fun to work on. I can't wait to make up a bunch more. You may even find a few in my little shop at some point.

It's a rainy dreary day out so I couldn't really capture the loveliness of the silk. But we painted them with watercolors and it has such a gorgeous shift of pink to peach to yellow. I loved the results of this technique so much that I'm going to paint some larger silk pieces to make curtains for the girls' bedroom window.

And I'm going to send you off with a winner for this week's giveaway....

Sunshine Mama

Congratulations! I'm going to contact you right now and you will have till 2-21 to get back to me. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, friends!

Mama Crafts

Today I had some mama crafting time with a friend. We made puppets from silk squares while our little ones played together. Crafting is one of my very favorite things to do, but creating with friends is even better.









We went our own way with them but you can see much of my inspiration here.

I'll be back here tomorrow to show you the finished product and I'll have a winner for you of this week's giveaway. You still have some time to enter if you haven't.

Highlights of a Birthday... Number 5

Today my Zoe is five. Five years old. Today there were presents opened when mama still had sleep in her eyes. Today a special cup was toted around all day (Thank you, Laura, she loves it!) and a t-shirt made by mama just the night before was proudly worn and shown off to everyone.



A set of toys from Anne Moze came just the day before and are so loved already. She and Kaiya played with these beautiful figures all evening. What a joy to sit and listen to them making up stories together!



One more shirt I didn't finish in time (but just finished up now that they've gone to bed). You can find the pattern for this one here.

We read 'On the Day You Were Born' in bed this morning. I can barely make it through the ending... "We're so glad you've come!". So, so very glad, Zoe Gail!

XOXO

Happy Valentine's Day!

Meltdown Monday Giveaway

Comments on this giveaway are now closed.

How has your Monday been? Mine is drawing to a close. It was a rather productive day here. I made a bunch of beeswax candle and cleaned the house. And now I have a giveaway for you!
This week's giveaway is coming from Jennifer, who runs a little Etsy shop known as Two Little Dragons. I am absolutely smitten with her sweet, needle felted dolls. Let's get to know Jennifer today.

Hi, and welcome to Meltdown Monday! Tell us a littleabout yourself so we can know the person behind the work.
Hi, I am Jennifer and I am a Home schooling, Waldorf inspired, stay at home Mom to two very active little boys. I was a professional ballet dancer and retired when I had my first child. Now I try and fill our days with creativity, art, and wonder. When I am not off exploring the beautiful forests that surround our home, I can be found in the kitchen baking and cooking, usually with eager little helpers.

What inspires your creations?
I take inspiration from the beauty of nature around me, because it is so plentiful where I live, but largely I take it from my children. I watch their eyes light up as we tell a story using a doll or animal and for them, it truly comes alive. When I am trying to think of what I will create next, I often look at what they are playing and what stories they are most intrigued with. I try to listen as they describe what they are seeing at that time of year in Nature, how the world is being viewed through little people's eyes. I try to make sure that each thing I create, is done as a child would see it. Their perspective on things can be so different than that of an adult.

How do you balance 'making' with mothering?
Hmm, not sure I balance it, but right now let's just say I am managing it. I work on the simple form of an item during the day when the boys are playing by themselves. It is my busy handwork and they love to join in and felt things along side with me. This is often our handwork
for the day and even if they aren't felting they usually grab whatever they are working on and sit with me. I do the detail work at night, after they are in bed. It is hard to try and remember to make time for work, and then time for being with them completely. It is a constant work in progress.

Thank you so much for for joining us for Meltdown Monday!
Thank you for having me, it is truly my pleasure.

This lovely little root child is just waking up from a long winter's sleep and bringing with her the fresh spring grass. Perfect for your Nature Table, seasonal display, or for re enacting the wonderful Sibylle von Olfers' story of "Mother Nature and her Root Children". She stands approximately 4 inches tall and is completely needle felted. She is intended for use as a story prop and display, but would be suitable for gentle play by older children (5+).

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. Whatever.

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 Jennifer's blog
Add her Etsy shop to your favorites

I will randomly pick a winner on Sunday February 19th 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!

Lately

I've taken exactly two pictures this week. Here they are.. the girls with their heads bent together, pouring over their coloring books. Some days they color all day long. No exaggeration. It' s kick they're on, I suppose.
There's not a whole lot to update you on. I'm off this week. Really can't find my rhythm. I have lots of plans on my mind and I'm kind of absorbed by them. I haven't knit in days (gasp!), just have been thinking lots about where I want to go from here.
I am preparing to make a seed order order. So much fun to sit and dream of a warm spring garden, brimming with greens and herbs! I came upon a few pins yesterday... salves, tinctures, teas, that type of thing and ended up finding a whole bunch and stuck them in my Kitchen Apothecary. I was so inspired by Amanda Soule's apothecary cupboard. I really want to set something like that up. All the little things I need in there to heal and soothe my family. I ordered this book, too.
By the way, Kaiya's doctor wants her on a daily steroid in her nubulizer and an antihistamine daily, for gosh knows who when, for her asthma. I've not been doing it daily. I don't like pumping her little body full of that garbage, it really affects her adversely and I really want to find a more natural way of dealing with it. Please know, I will do what it takes to care for my daughter. I won't sit by and do nothing while she suffers and I do give her what she needs when she needs it. But as far as preventive medicine I just feel there must be a better way. Now, I have found a few things that I would like to start trying but I was hoping that perhaps one of my dear readers would have some advice/experience on treating and preventing asthma naturally. I just so happen to run across the book 'Natural Remedies for Your Child's Asthma' and the Goodwill the other day. I'm hoping it will be chock full of great ideas!



Well, the girls are up. Here's to a new day. Have beautiful one, friends!

Sunday

I hope you all (who celebrate) enjoyed a nice Candlemas this past week. Here, it was such lovely week and truly felt as though Mother Earth and her root children were busily preparing, down below, for Spring. And though the groundhog did see he shadow I can't imagine North Carolina is in for anymore winter to speak of . I could be wrong, we shall see. Snow would still be very nice...

We made our first dip candles, well, Kaiya and I. This was an exercise in patience for her. She actually had to scrap and redo one because she was letting it flop and the wax broke.

We used a small milk bottle that I cut the top off of and, as you can see, I had to place it in water in a pot on the stove a couple of times to remelt it.
She did two and I did two and the I made some votives using toilet paper rolls.

Our sun bread was made using this recipe. It turned out really good!

I have a winner for the Love Bunny giveaway.....

Tanya M

Congrats, Tanya! I will email you in just a bit and you will have 48 hours to get back with me.

Today

We took the girls to the science center and the park today, my Waldorf mama friend and I. There was a dinosaur exhibit at the science center and Zoe loves dinosaurs. But the second we walked through the door she was terrified and begged to leave. So we saw the permanent exhibits instead, which never get too old for them. Afterward, we headed to the park with our lunch, since it was such a warm and beautiful day. We ate, the girls played and then we walk along the bridge that trails through woods, overlooking the duck pond.

I love our time with these friends and the girls really do, too. The mama and I have so much in common and share much the same goals for what we want for our children. So far, we haven't found any other Waldorf inspired homeschoolers nearby to join us, but to us, the quality of the connection we do have is much more valuable than a large group of families with not much in common and dissimilar goals and values.
By the way, some of you say that you wish you could find other Waldorf inspired families in your area. So I wanted to tell you, I found her by posting in the Mothering forums, under 'Finding Your Tribe'. You may not find gobs of like minded folks but perhaps one or two families like we did, and, really, that means the world to find someone you can really connect with.





















River fell asleep in the car on the way home. As soon as I unbuckled her car seat she opened her eyes and said "Quack quack! Quack quack!".