cars and bunnies and peeps, oh my (aka WIP Wed)

Beware, I have a lot to show you. :) Remember the adorable car fabric from last week? Finn now has a new crayon/pencil/pad holder. Well, he doesn't actually have it yet since I'm saving it for our trip, but I know he's going to love it since he saw the fabric on my blog the other day and got very excited about that "car and bus and van cloth".

{the outside}

{the inside}

Here's the holder fully stocked with colored pencils, crayons and a pad of paper. He even has an extra pocket for tape or scissors, or a box of soy crayons right now.

I even managed to include one of his beloved car buttons and a knitted i-cord loop closure so it doesn't flop open unexpectedly. I'm really excited by how it turned out and how many kinds of car fabric I was able to include.

Now...on to the knitting! I've been working furiously on Easter basket goodies, which are likely to not even see the inside of the Easter baskets since we're spending the week leading up to Easter in London. Either way, I wanted the kids to have some sweet, spring-y treats. First up, these adorably soft bunnies, found in the latest issue of Rhythm of the Home. I started out just using the soft blue yarn, but then decided to make Elizabeth's in a heathered pink. I think it was a good choice; I love how sweet they look together.

{look at that tail!}

I'm also three-quarters of the way done with a set of Easter peeps, also for the kids to take on our trip. I first saw this pattern last year when a friend made some. I so desperately wanted to be able to knit them, but I was still on washcloths and scarves at that point. I wasn't about to miss out on knitting some peeps this year now that I have a bit more experience! The yarn is pima cotton Crayon Boucle by Knit Picks. An inexpensive craft at $2 for 4 peeps! I also stuffed the peeps and bunnies with bamboo so they are washable.

{the spring knitted toy collection}

*kiss*kiss*

outside

The kids could barely tear themselves away from their outdoor play this evening for dinner, and I have to admit, it was rather nice to just *be* outdoors. We poked around in the flower beds looking at the daffodil shoots which are getting longer now.

Finn just wants to pick the remaining winter pansies.

I also spied a wee bit of green coming out from the hydrangea.

Elizabeth gathered more rocks, this time for a treasure chest.

Then she toted her treasures around the yard on their too-small, ages-old tricycle looking for more to add to the box...ahem, treasure chest.

Finn received a ride down the road in a neighbor's wagon.

And we were treated to a warm, glowing sunset to end our lovely time outside.

first weekend of March

The sunshine of the last few days brought some much appreciated warmer temperatures for the weekend. In true March fashion, the breeze blew enough to remind you it's not quite spring yet, but we enjoyed the sunshine and relative warmth of this first March weekend.

Finn still hasn't quite let go of the fun of the snow, but pulling his friend around in the sled did make for a very cute photo op.

I was on call for work the whole weekend, and the pager was busier than usual. We weren't able to get into many crafts, but Finn and I decided to make koolaid play dough this weekend. Not exactly natural with all that artificial color and flavor, but it was fun to sniff while we played.

Finn chose some spring-y colors and had such a wonderful time making everything from pretzels to snails to cars. I'm often glad during times like this that he has my attention to himself every other weekend to work on these crafts that are more age appropriate for him.

When Elizabeth came home, she and Finn spent most of the afternoon outside in the sunshine. They painted on the sidewalk with pansy petals.

And we went for a lovely walk through the neighborhood.

Until Elizabeth discovered the kids' favorite climbing rock...which gave her an idea.

And we started an observation jar with 2 different kinds of moss and a few of the rocks Elizabeth collected.

What simple, yet delightful, ways to experience a few snippets of spring on this lovely first weekend of March!

the sun

See that golden hue
Burning in the west
My dreams are with that color
My dreams are the sun

~ Dawn Michelle

And I found this little treat from Paul upon returning from book club this evening. I love that man! I always have more ideas on my "to knit" list than I'll probably ever get to, but I can't wait to try out some of the techniques in these books!

I hope you're finding some sun wherever you might be right now.

I love...

{this caring big sister and her adoring little brother}

WIP Wednesday & March

The baby sweater I've been working on is mostly finished at this point. I'm waiting on the arrival of some vintage flower buttons I ordered on etsy to complete the sweater, but all the knitting is done. I think it turned out absolutely darling. I hope my cousin's new little baby will look adorable in it!

I think a matching knit cap is in order, don't you?

I'm doing a little spring craft with this yarn right now. Hopefully I can share it with you next week. Funny how it seemed so spring-y when I bought it, but in the snow, it seems awfully winter-y. It's Cascade's superwash merino, so squishy, soft and cuddly.

I'm also planning a project for Finn with this quartet of fabrics from the new Wheels line by Riley Blake. I'm thinking of a little traveling tote for our upcoming trip. Hopefully I'll be sharing this one soon too, if it works out well.

I had every intention of updating our nature table for spring yesterday. Something about the ringing in of March just wants to spread spring-y-ness everywhere. Unfortunately, it's hard to remove winter from your nature table when you're in the throws of a snowstorm.

So, I decided to embrace the winter for one last hurrah and make the kids these snowman (pumpkin-almond butter-spelt) pancakes for dinner.

They didn't mind the delay of spring. They're thankful for another chance to play in the snow and eat their snowman pancakes!

candles, cookies and ziplines

Our area of NC does not have a Waldorf school, nor do we have a Waldorf community. In fact, we have a hard time finding very many families like ourselves who choose to live in a deliberate way, exposing our kids to more of the natural, creative world and less of the commercial, plastic world. We have been fortunate to find a few select friends who are also choosing to raise their families in a similar manner.

On Sunday, we were very fortunate that another mom in our area who homeschools using a Waldorf curriculum invited a few friends, who also invited a few friends; and a small circle of mamas and children gathered for a few hours to become acquainted and make a few candles to light our way into spring.

Of course, once we arrived at the house of the hosting family, my kids discovered her backyard, complete with creek, climbing trees, a swinging rope and a zipline. I'm pretty sure they would have been happy to skip the candle-making to spend all their time in the backyard. :)

Eventually, we pried the kids off the zipline and the candle-dipping commenced.

We so enjoyed this lovely experience of walking around the table dipping our candles, one after another while singing:

Quiet, quiet do not make a sound.

Holding now the string so tight,

we all make some winter light.

Quiet, quiet, do not make a sound.

Dipping, dipping candles smooth and round.

(you can listen here)

What an adorable sight...so many candles dipped by hands, large and small, together as a community.

After some cute little snacks (this bee snack was made by another mom using the Vegan Lunchbox cookbook),

they headed back out to the zipline.

I hope this becomes the beginning of a wonderful new trend for us!

lovely weekend

We had a low-key but lovely weekend full of crafts and food and friends. That kind of weekend defines lovely for me lately. If you care to take a gander, I've assembled a pictorial trip through our Saturday.

Philip and Finn spent much time wandering the castle rooms of Philip's tie-back, pop-up castle book.

We also tried our hand at pretzel-making, then took a poll of who prefers dipping in mustard and who prefers dipping in marinara sauce. The marinara sauce won...plus it was extremely cute hearing Finn ask for more "mawinawa" sauce.

We used all whole spelt flour and the pretzels were unanimously lauded by family and friends alike.

The kids spent a few minutes drawing their own interpretations of some art we plan to visit at the National Gallery. Elizabeth chose a Monet, Paulie chose a Seurat and Philip drew one of Rembrandt's self-portraits. The kids always enjoy making their own interpretation of various works of art and this was a great way to connect them to some of the art they'll be seeing in London.

I spent a bit of time in the early afternoon working on this little project I spied on Childhood Magic. Our breakfast eggs were fished out of these small holes in the top of the eggs so that I could use the shells to make beeswax candles.

I'll show you more of these candles later, but I think we might use these egg candles for our Lenten Lights this year. They are incredibly adorable!

While I was making egg-y candles, the olders were making oodles of friendship bracelets, which takes me back to my own childhood and raiding my mom's stash of cross-stitch thread. I love how timeless little crafts like that are.

The late afternoon and evening were spent with dear friends, the way all good Saturdays should end.

I hope your weekend was just as lovely!