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.

 

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:

baby fairies

 

The Baby Fairies*

 

Four tiny babes, snug as can be

Nestled in the moss at the foot of our tree

In acorn caps and wooly buntings

Fast asleep while Papa’s gone hunting

Mama stays close by, gathering seeds

And all that a fairy mother needs

To delight her babies when they awake

With a supper of thimbleberry fairy cake.

*An original poem by Ivo and me. Inspired by (mostly) real events.

 

acorn dolls at critical mass

I've spent most of my crafting time this month working on a big order for a Waldorf school in Massachusetts. Today was shipping day, followed by an ice cream outing to celebrate our hard work. The Etsy shop and all the crafting opportunities that have arisen because of it would not be possible without the tremendous amount of support and encouragement I get from my family and friends, especially Josh. He is so good about picking up extra slack around the house, and taking Ivo out for hours-on-end outings whenever I have a deadline to meet.  And they come home from their walks in the woods with pocketfuls of acorns almost every time. Ivo empties his pockets onto my work table and says, "Look what we found for your dolls. Hats!"  I'm so lucky to have my helpers. Josh even helped me think of some new ideas for the shop, which should be freshly stocked in the next few weeks or so. For now we are focusing on getting ready for our annual roadtrip to Petoskey to celebrate the Fourth of July the way Norman Rockwell intended. Cheers :) 

a book for papa

For Father's Day, Ivo and I made Josh a book about our recent fishing trip up north. Ivo dictated all of the text to me, and then I picked out the pictures and put the pages together. When I asked him what he wanted the title to be, he said "Moby Dick" because that's a grown-up book about fishing. So here are some excerpts from Moby Dick:

To create the text, I put a slide show of our fishing trip pictures on the computer and as we watched it together I asked Ivo to tell the story of our trip. Then I wrote down his words. This was a really fun project and very easy to make.  Ivo loves hearing his story, and Josh said it was his favorite present ever.  Here's the whole story of Moby Dick:

We are going fishing.

We bring my life jacket, the rowers, and a tackle box.

We bounce the oars. 

In the canoe the fish swim under my seat.

We are rowing.

Papa casts his line.

We see a turtle, a line, and a loon.

All the fishes that we caught is model.

Then we row back to the dock.

We feel happy. 

 

We tried to make the cover look like an old-timey leather bound edition (it looks better in person than in this picture). The binding is a pamphlet stitch, which is very easy and only requires a nail and some string. Here are some good directions for making a book with a pamphlet stitch in case you want to make your own story.

 

milkweed pod babies

I went back and fixed the links, so they should work now. Thanks for letting me know.

These milkweed pod babies were inspired by this amazing post from The Little Travelers.  I lovewhat she says about fostering connection, not collection. And that not only makes a lot of sense, but also rhymes. How completely perfect.

These babes were so simple to make. I just put a wooden bead on an inch or two of pipe cleaner and felted wool roving into a little bundle around the pipe cleaner. Then I added the acorn cap and a little more wool to make the milkweed pod cradle nice and soft. They look so sweet I almost wish they were real.

inspired by old glory

New in the shop, just in time for the Fourth of July . . .

These red, white, and blue fairy bell rings were my mom's idea.  At last year's Fourth of July parade Ivo and his cousin Quinn both had little American flags which they brandished with such exuberance, I think we all got poked a few times. Those little flag sticks are pointy!  These will be just as much fun and require a lot less supervision. Good idea, Nana!

birthday goodies

We put together this little bundle of felty goodness to help celebrate our friend Abebech's second birthday. Her party was on Sunday and of all the rotten days to get sick . . . poor Ivo was so disappointed to miss out on the fun. I'd been telling him for a few days that after lunch on Sunday we would walk over to Abby's party, so when he saw Josh and I warming up soup and making sandwiches, he started trying to convince us that he was well. "Hey, mama, *sneeze* Hey mama I'm not sick any-*sneeze* anymore."  And my favorite, with his hand on his forehead, "Hey Papa, my brain is cold, I can go to the party." We ended up walking over with Ivo in the jogging stroller to deliver the birthday girl's present, and wouldn't you know it, the party was in full swing and she was sound asleep with a cold and sniffles. Her mom was so sweet. She had a birthday bag for Ivo with a party favor, and the craft project (a clothespin doll), and even a hat and noisemaker AND a piece of cake. Ivo called it his "take home party." 

Here is a picture of our homemade gift bag. This is just two pieces of scrapbook paper wrapped around a box, like a present, but with only three sides taped closed.  Then slide the box out through the open end, and voila! A gift bag. Ribbon handles add a pretty touch if you have some ribbon lying around. The pretty paper and ribbon can be used by the recipient for arts and crafts, or the bag can be reused, or recycled.