Birthday Woes

I really dislike throwing parties.  It's not for me.  I'm not a social butterly and find it extremely awkward to entertain people.  I'm getting past that though, and am trying to focus on making it special for the girls.  Maddie was born on Dec 22nd, and Lellie was born on Dec 27th, two years before.  Having birthdays 5 days apart makes it easy for me to lump a party together.  Maddie's actual birthday is on the Solstice so we'll be doing something special to celebrate both things.  Their party is on Lellie's birthday.  Confusing much?

Right now I'm waiting for payday so that I can get some more yarn to finish up the Happy Birthday Banner I'm knitting.  And that birthday crown for Maddie's doll?  Still not even in the works.  And her birthday is in 15 days.  Oy vey.

Here are the ornaments they got for St. Nicholas day.  I realize that the heart is a bit wonky but she loved it nonetheless :)

Rhythm In Our Home: St. Nicholas Day

It is 1:00am on December 6th, so I suppose, St. Nicholas Day.  The girls left carrots in their shoes for St. Nicholas's donkey, and excitedly went to bed in anticipation of tomorrow morning.

Both girls are getting a few honey sticks in their shoe.  In addition to that, each is going to get a Christmas ornament.  I feel that it's fitting, given the time of year.  Each year we *try* to get them their own special ornament (a childhood tradition of mine, though my mother always bought them from Hallmark).  This year, and hopefully from now on, they'll be getting handmade ornaments.

Lellie is getting a knit rainbow heart ornament, and Maddie is getting a needle felted toadstool ornament.  Photos to come later- I'm not quite sure where the camera is at the moment!

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful time of year!

And a photo, because I *really* don't like leaving a wall of text as a blog post!  It's the girls' play kitchen in our kitchen, back in October (hence the squash!).

One person's trash is another person's treasure!

‎"But I believe in dying to self. I believe in living for others. I believe in community, not individualism. I believe that I have a connection to this earth and to the materials provided for us here. I believe that I have the ability and the strength to create. I believe in the exhilaration of working with my hands. I believe in the beauty of small imperfections. I believe we are all responsible. I believe in shaping, molding, kneading, threading, whisking, scraping, hanging, grinding, mending and crafting. And I believe that out of all that can come art, bread, clothes, food, tools and toys. I believe in the home as a unit of production, not a unit of consumption." -Elisa, from http://www.bubandlala.wordpress.com/


Photo courtesy of http://www.vdoil.com/

I often find that the above quote reigns true for me. I love love love thrift store shopping. Today was black Friday, and our local thrift store had everything 50% off. What does that mean? It means that I got a ton of awesome stuff for $21!! Here's what we got:

-A metal jack in the box with a COW in it (cow in the box?) for Moo's birthday
-Five pairs of wool socks- one for hubby Jaime, the rest for me.
-A pair of thick felted wool mittens for me, for snowman building ;)
-A thick wool hat for me
-A Patagonia jacket for me.. for $0.95!!!
-An Eddie Bauer wool sweater for Jaime
-A crochet potholder
-A tall Mason jar
-A stool for Maddie for the bathroom
-Some wooden toys (train, peg people, blocks)
-Two "junk toys". Dirt devil vacuums. The kids wanted some of their own! One actually works as a vacuum too.
-Some Christmas presents for Jaime- ssh! Can't say right now, haha.

One thing that we totally didn't anticipate getting was a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car. You know, the big red and yellow ones. I looked away for a second and Lellie was drawing on it with a marker she found- a worker saw her, made us buy it (only $2) and kicked us out. AND one of the wheels is broken. Maybe it'll live in grandma's backyard...



This morning, I woke up to Lellie telling me about how the cats got into my knitting basket. MMhmm... in a latched cabinet. She tore out my most recent project... time to start over. She also discovered some of he knitted farmyard, though it' not put together yet, so just knitted scraps in her eyes. I told her that Santa wanted me to knit her something for Christmas because his knitting elf has been very busy and needs help. That really excited her. Still... time to hide the knitting basket!

Projects

It's that time of year again!  With a variety of festivals, the girls' birthdays, and Christmas drawing near, I've been ridiculously busy with projects.



The girls are getting a farm set for Christmas... carved animals from jupiterschild, Engelberger figures, and some scenery.  I've been knitting up a farm/field playmat for the animals, and oh man is it tedious work.  I'm a novice knitter, so I suppose it's giving me a good amount of practice!



Lellie's (yeah, we've recently started calling N Lellie) uncle bought her a Specialized Bicycle from our local bike shop for her birthday.  She has some motor planning issues and her Skuut bike was way too much of a challenge for her (we're passing it down to little Maddie).  She really wants to learn to bike, but still doesn't quite grasp the concept of pedaling.  I'm hoping to make her a new little pouch for the front of her bike for her nature finds- the cats destroyed the old one.

Also on my crafting list... a papoose carrier for Lellie's baby doll, Lucy.  Lucy had worn out rather quickly, and the kind woman who made her, Jan Beane, replaced her.  We're currently awaiting Lucy's return :) I'm also hoping to make some doll clothes, wool balls.. a few things.

I need to figure out an Advent wreath, and something for Santa Lucia's day.  I've got a lot on my plate!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy creating!

Oh, and we've already put up our Christmas Tree ;)

Are Stockmar crayons REALLY all that great?

If you're new to Waldorf, you've probably heard about the wonderful art supplies.  Some choose to take the plunge, and some choose to make a beeline back to Crayola after looking at the price tag.  For a long while, I was reluctant.  N is our resident artist, and she has gone through thousands of Crayola crayons in the past 3 or so years.  I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on Stockmar only to have them all broken and gone within a month!



Our current crayon setup!  Twig pencils are from when we went apple picking in September

Last Christmas, I took the plunge and bought N a set of 8 Stockmar block crayons.  We still have about half of them, and they are still in their block shape and not very worn out, despite being colored with for about a year!  The 4 that were lost were due to us not helping her show reverence for her things- we've changed that now. 

This year, the girls' gift from the Halloween Fairy was a box of 16 Stockmar stick crayons.  They are holding up extremely well!  They are very sturdy and not easily broken, unlike their Crayola counterparts.  The quality of the mark left by these crayons is simply awesome.  It is thick and richly colored.  Beeswax is a perfect medium for crayons, and I don't think we'll ever go back to Crayola.

We have had the opportunity to try Stockmar's watercolor paint as well, for wet on wet painting.  I find that it works very (better than the store brand tubes) well when using the wet-on-wet technique, but for dry watercolor painting, it works as well as cheap watercolor tubes.  The pigment is a lot nicer than the cheapie stuff, though. 

It is also important to use the proper paper and brushes.  Cheapie paper will pill and tear when using the wet-on-wet technique, and cheap brushes will shed all over your painting!

Happy creating!