The Rowdy Pea

snow day friends

 

Yes, it's more little waldorf acorn dolls.  Will I ever get tired of making these guys? I don't think so.  Not so far anyway. Thank goodness for Etsy or they'd be taking over the house.  In fact, Josh joked about being Gulliver for Halloween, tying some ropes around his body and attaching little acorn-capped Lilliputians all over clothes. Ha!! He probably does feel a little like Gulliver some days.

The acorn girls above are based on my sister and me and all the fun we used to have during those long snowy winters in northern Michigan. A childhood memory in felt and wool. And since I had another wooden sled I decided to make a pair of boys, too.  These sets are for sale at Etsy, but I think I'll make one more for our winter nature table. We've had snow twice already, so I guess it's time to get the pumpkins out of there and put in some winter things already.  The days just keep clicking along, it seems like I just put out the autumn things and here it's time to change it again.  That nature table sure can keep a mama busy.

 

the art studio

 

I'm so happy to report that Ivo is once again interested in doing art.  Seeing his supplies arranged in their new environment has made them more appealing somehow, and with the colder weather bringing us indoors more and more, he's made quite a little studio for himself in the breakfast nook.  Last week we arranged some "wonders of nature" and set up the paints. How funny that even though there is no real attempt to mimic the forms of these natural objects, their simple presence enlivens the senses and brings the artistic efforts into focus. I mostly just painted on the paper, but Ivo filled his paper and was then moved to cover a few shells and a lotus seed head with a beautiful wash of blue. 

This weekend I'm going to scan through all of my waldorf and preschool art books and try to come up with some good ideas to keep in mind for the upcoming weeks. We've fallen out of the habit of doing our handwork projects, so maybe we can even pick that up again in time for holiday gift giving.  I was trying to hold off on the Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving, but I think if we want to do handmade-by-Ivo gifts it's better to start early and go slow and steady.  So if you have any ideas or links to share I would love to hear them!

for great grampa bub, our humble hero

 

May Peace Prevail on Earth!

To see an uplifting video message from children around the world, click here.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Veterans Day and can find some time for reflection on this day's message of world peace.

leaves, leaves, leaves

 

The Blue Hills have been a leaf wonderland ever since we arrived. The past couple of days brought enough wind and rain to finish off most of the trees and take the cornflake-crunch out of the leaves on the ground, but not before we had lots of fall fun. Ivo and Josh spent almost a whole day building a debris hut by Uncle Sam's house.  It doesn't look like much more than a pile of leaves in the photo, but if you click on the link you can see all the steps that went into building it.  Josh likes to sleep in a natural shelter when he goes camping or backpacking. I do not. I like to stay at a Holiday Inn. (We compromise with a tent.) Ivo takes after his dad of course and was very excited by the prospect of spending the night in the debris hut.  He even said, "And Mama you can sleep in it too! With me and Josh in the leaves!" I told Josh I was afraid that Ivo, being so little, would drown in the leaves during the night. Yeah he thinks I'm nuts. But he knows I wouldn't sleep a wink knowing my sweet baby was under a pile of leaves deep in bear country, so he didn't press the issue. Old spoilsport mama. 

 

Today the boys are headed out to explore the woods, and I'm going to scout around the quilting shop down the block from our new house. I didn't even know it was there until I did a google search for fabric shops in our area of the state, and the first hit that popped up was right in our neighborhood. They even specialize in Janome sewing machines. Josh saw the website, read about the 4,000 bolts of quilt fabric and said, "This looks like trouble!"  I told him he and Ivo can build an inside debris hut with my scraps. And sleep in it too.

birthday crowns

I made these wool felt birthday crowns for a woman in California who wanted her son and daughter to have heirloom quality crowns (with matching doll-size crowns) to celebrate family birthdays for generations to come.  No pressure, right? HA! I wanted to get these just exactly right.  Luckily for me she pretty much knew exactly what she wanted and was able to describe that to me. So I can't take credit for the basic design but it was really fun to choose the felt and the ribbon trim. I used plant-dyed wool felt from Weir Dolls and Crafts and the trim is from our local fabric and craft shop. Well, it used to be our local shop when we lived in Minnesota. I miss it dearly! But my checking account does not, hee hee.  These crowns were such a fun project, here is another view of them: