autumnal giveaway!

over the past couple of months, i have once again been the recipient of quite a few wonderful giveaways. i continue to be amazed at the generosity and kindred sense of sharing within this community. i don't often think to blog about my wins but i am extraordinarily grateful for each of these gifts. i don't enter giveaways unless it is an item my children or myself would really enjoy, meaning we have ended up with some very special treasures!
it is time for me to give back. i have not had a giveaway since right after i started my blog. more than a year has passed now, i just topped one hundred posts, and have nearly one hundred followers! never would have thought it. me, a blogger. (i'm still not joining facebook though!) ;)
you don't have to follow my blog to enter. please do that if you really want to, but not just for this giveaway. ;) you do not even have to have a blog. just make sure that i can get in touch with you through e-mail. i admired and gained inspiration from several blogs for some time before i ever commented. i didn't have a blog and thought myself somehow not a part of the conversation. everyone is always welcome to comment here...just so you know!
this acorn fairy was crafted using felted sweaters. she has mohair on her head and is made with natural materials, including the cotton pipe cleaner in her arms but excluding the polyester invisible string she hangs by. she is 5" long. she would love to come and live with you (or you could gift her to a friend)!

to enter the giveaway, just leave a comment. you can tell me what your costume is. you can tell me how (if) you celebrate this time of the year (halloween/samhain/all sts day/dia de los muertos, etc). you can just say hi.

giveaway will end thursday night, nov 4, at 10p est. you may enter once a day, if you wish (because i love when others of you do this!).

a week ago

we are in the midst of another busy weekend here but there are some pics from last weekend that i haven't shared yet. on saturday i attended a WECAN conference (waldorf early childhood assoc) in chapel hill. i made the three and a half drive by myself!! 24 hours without my children. that has happened only one other time that i can remember.

the conference itself was engaging and rewarding. so lovely to be in a room with 40 colleagues. the setting was the emerson waldorf school, a beautiful campus nestled in the woods. i love soaking up the early childhood classrooms. here are a few pics of the nursery class.
veil painting done by the teacher, ms kathleen.

i returned home after the conference and when we all woke up the next morning, sienna and i set out for our now annual date at the fiber fair!
she got to try her hand at some spinning. this wheel is huge and hand crafted by a local artisan. she worked the wheel while momma attempted feeding the wool onto the spool (not sure of the correct lingo here).
she loved it so much that when we were leaving she insisted we go back and do that once again. so we did.

this is sara beth and she is a master rug hooker. i wish some pictures of her larger works had turned out. she somehow makes each and every little loop exactly the same. amazing! she learned when she was a young girl from her grandmother who used strips of old clothing to make rugs and bed throws to keep the family warm.
she took such an interest in sienna as sienna loved watching her work. she let sienna give it a try with some wool roving. they made a little flower together. she made a point to remember sienna's name and told her to come back and visit next year and then the year after that she would be ready to start on her own. sienna is already excited!
these fun felted toys were made by disabled children in a local school. i don't know the full story there, but i do know that the proceeds go back to them.and of course, lovely animals to ooh and ahh over. i know the bunny pic is fuzzy, but so was the bunny! ;)this sweet mama and baby had had enough of the crowds, methinks. they kept their backs to us, but sienna could have still watched them for hours.
off for some halloween fun now! i'll have pics of their costumes soon as well as a giveaway.

found art

little pieces of beauty found in random places. both made by my ever creative daughter.
while taking pictures of my jack-o-lantern on the back porch yesterday, i spotted these crayon drawings on the floor. love the way they resisted the rain. the rest of the wood is wet, hence the darker color.
this beauty was found in the playroom (pretty darn close to actual color here) . we have these large cedar blocks (some of them stump size) that the children use for all sorts of big building. the surface of this one is at least 9" x 12". this gorgeous work was discovered behind the easel which had been set up with chalk recently. we use these (we have sidewalk chalk for outside). pricey but amazing. we have had the same set of chalk for at least 3 years. sure, they are in pieces now, but they still work beautifully. i keep them put away unless they are in use. they took to the wood so amazingly. we are definitely going to revisit that idea!

sweater jack-o-lantern

while working on another autumnal project recently, i pulled out this orange sleeve (consequently, the same sweater i used for this project). felted sweaters are one of my most favorite materials to work with!
i proceeded to cut off the cuff and use the rest of the material for my project. meanwhile this cuff was calling out to me to become a jack-o-lantern. what, don't your sweaters talk to you? ;)
i started by turning the cuff inside out and pulling it over the recycled jar i planned to use. for this lantern, i chose a squat, wide jar that had previously housed almond butter. i drew a face right on the cuff. then, using sharp scissors, i cut the face out.
here he is trying on his new face. this is where i lack in photos, sorry. i decided i wanted a more finished look for the cut-outs and added a blanket stitch around the eyes and mouth using black floss.then i painted the jar yellow. i didn't do this step at first, but i wanted to have a feeling of *glow* and depth even when the candle is not lit.
we put one of those little led fake tea lights in him and he glowed almost the entire day. at dinner, we swapped the led for a real tea light and he warmed our table beautifully.

don't have an orange sweater? how about a frankenstein or a friendly ghost?

i'll keep trying to get a better picture of him lit....just one of the many challenges of owning a crappy camera. ;)

autumn leaf

i have found it difficult to get this post out there. one day the pictures got edited. one day they made it to the blog. then to find the time to write. i still don't really have it, so here is the edited version.

yes, the tents are that close together and their are hundreds!

i have attended this festival off and on since i was in middle school. it has changed a bit, and so have i, but it is still an experience that is close to my heart. festival life is so far from our everyday routine and it is such a joy to share this with my children.

this season we camped the whole weekend. considering that i went into it with a bit of a cold, i overdid it considerably but it was worth it completely.

we camped together with three other families. dear friends that we share connections with through our children. we awoke each morning to a warming campfire, thanks to daddy! the children were adorable all cozied up in their pajamas and blankets circled around the fire.

we are one of the green tents to the right of the teepee on the hill.

letting go of our schedule, the computer, meetings, school, and everything that comes with all of that was so necessary for us right now. i do wish we could have savored that freedom for a bit longer!

a huge highlight for the children is getting to stay up later one night for the fire show. unifire puts on an amazing show that captivates the children and adults alike.
one of the amazing things about this festival is their community outreach efforts. leaf in schools and streets puts musicians from all over the world in local schools working with children of all socio-economic backgrounds. it is inspirational for us to see these children on stage.this is dende of dende & hahahaes. we missed his performance with his band but we did get to see him lead a group of children drumming on five gallon buckets following his native brazilan rhythms. he is so warm and encouraging with the children. both of my kids loved him. afterward, jasper connected with him for a little one-on-one drumming.
there were several bands from haiti there this time. it was so touching to experience the love and incredible energy of these people and to hear their story firsthand.

this is the lead singer of boukman eksperyans. their music was unlike anything i have heard before. they had a very vibrant and energetic stage performance, which truthfully did not remain entirely g-rated. given that we were right up front, i did feel a bit uneasy at one point. however, the music was greatly enjoyed and sienna named them as her favorite musical act.
we also saw the wood brothers (chris wood of medeski, martin, and wood). about as far on the other end of the spectrum as you can get from boukman! incredible vocals and a very enjoyable show. a low key and lovely way to spend a sunday morning.
these fairies on stilts wander through the festival. the children are completely captivated by them. i enjoy watching the children even more than watching the fairies. their little faces awash with awe and wonder.
i even got in a little girl time! one of our gals isn't pictured here. so nice to boogie with the ladies. that has not happened in a very, very long time!

it is almost mandatory when at a festival dubbed *leaf*, in the autumn no less, that one adorn themselves with leaves. relaxing together during the pack up.

we also saw the original wailers, , a great puppet show medley with several area puppet companies presenting, an incredible salsa band, and one of the most unique and entertaining bands of the weekend, slavic soul party. their *balkan soul gypsy funk* was incredibly lively and infectious. with six horns, an accordion, and two dancing drummers, they put on a show that i won't forget soon! many thanks to matt for remaining at the campsite on child duty so that the rest of us could take in this late night show. so fun!!

you can see some pics of spring leaf here. off for more adventures now! see you soon!

corn husk candle holder

corn husks are one of my most favorite autumnal crafting supplies. though i have used them fresh before, i generally buy them from the hispanic/latin market in a big bag for $4.99. last week i found the same bags at our discount grocery for 99 cents!! i bought them all. sorry asheville i can be greedy sometimes. ;)
when i saw these corn husk candle holders, i couldn't wait to make them. literally they moved up my ever growing crafting list that i have little time to allot to already.

it was a fun and gratifying little project. i used a wide mouthed salsa jar from the recycling bin. i attached the husks as in the tutorial above, gluing the tips to the base, gathering them around the jar and securing them with wire. i then tied colored raffia around snugly and removed the wire that had been holding the husks in place. i tucked one of our beeswax coated leaved in the front.
viola! i love it every bit as much as i knew i would!

re-acclimating

i am re-acclimating to this busy life of mine. we spent a glorious weekend camping at leaf, a much loved world wide music festival held in these mountains twice a year. i came down with a cold the day before we were due to be there so honestly camping with small children with extreme temperature drops each day was overdoing it a bit, but it was so worth it! we all needed the unplugged downtime.

i have loads of pictures. i will share some in this space soon when i have made the time to sort and edit them.

hope you all enjoyed a glorious fall (or spring) weekend, too!

leaf pounding

today we pounded leaves. i have been wanting to do this for some time. we often pound flowers and ferns in the spring and i wanted to see if we could make it work with the gorgeous fall foliage around us this time of year. the results were not as gratifying as i would have liked, especially for the kids, but we did enjoy moderate success with some of our selections.i cut muslin into triangles and rectangles on a fold so that they were double-sided. i used pinking shears to do so. we also needed our rubber mallets. they are our preferred foliage pounding tool though we have used regular hammers, too.
the leaves were selected and arranged between the folds of fabric. the top layer was then folded over onto the leaves sandwiching them in.
then the pounding begins! most of our leaves took some serious effort to transfer the color. you will know the color is transferring when you see the juices coming through the fabric. the juicest, freshest leaves make the nicest prints. here, the little red ones (no idea what these are but they came from a bright, bright bush) performed the best. japanese maples are excellent specimens for this project but we could not find any of those today.
opening up the fabric, we peeled away the crushed leaves to reveal the prints.
the inside of the panel, where the leaves where touching the fabric directly during pounding, becomes the outside of the piece. we then chose sticks from our yard to drape the fabric over. hemp cord was used to tie a hanger to the stick.
the children enjoyed this project, despite the effort needed for real results. i wish to make a banner with the triangle pieces i cut (in the first picture). only one of those turned out to my liking so far. i will gather more materials for experimenting and get back to pounding. i'll post pics when i am finished.