Handmade Fridays & a craft

Available now from a neighborhood near mine, this lovely faux stick beeswax candles by Lacey of gremlina. Lacey and her husband keep bees and sustainably harvest the honey and beeswax from their buzzing friends to bring you these lovely treasures. You might have seen them on my Thanksgiving table.

Lacey offers a variety of sizes and thicknesses of these stick candles, and all are such a treat to behold.

And now for a craft!

With the leftover wire from our Martinmas lanterns, I spent a few days turning over in my mind a way to make cinnamon stick stars. I tried wrapping the corners of the cinnamon sticks, which did not work so well, then I threaded the wire, stiff but malleable, through 10 3-inch cinnamon sticks leaving about 1 inch of wire sticking out on either end. I folded each end of the wire over the other to secure the sticks in a circle, and simply started bending the wire into a star shape between the cinnamon sticks.

These heavenly scented ornaments could certainly be hung on a tree, but I rather like mine sitting in the window sill warming in the first morning rays.

Handmade Fridays - Joyful Gifts

My friend, Jenni, of Joyful Gifts, came to town for Thanksgiving this weekend and hand delivered a custom made blanket and some wine bags from her lovely shop. Finn will be starting Montessori school in January and needed a naptime blanket for school, and this adorable Alexander Henry fire engine print blanket with it's soft minky underside will be well-loved as a naptime blanket, I'm certain.

Joyful Gifts also sells these beautiful, lined wine bags in both fun and sophisticated prints.

I also just had to add, especially since I missed WIP Wednesday, that I was finally able to give out the group of hats I worked on for several weeks.

Handmade Fridays - Nature Baby Knits

One of the things I miss most about the diapering stage is all the cute cloth diapers and woolie bottoms Finn used to wear. By far my favorite woolie bottoms of his were made a friend and WAHM, Heather, who used wool that I purchased on our trip to Ireland. The wool I brought her wasn't the softest, but oh, she made them look so lovely, and I wool-washed and lanolized them to death until Finn could wear them comfortably.

Finn, 22 months

Heather, also a doula and midwife-in-training, sells through Universal Mama collective on hyenacart and at a local monthly indie market. She also sells these adorable monsters, designed by her oldest daughter, that make fantastic stocking stuffers.

Handmade Fridays - Anne Moze All Wood Toys

A new day...and a little bit of blue skies peeking out at our house for which I am exceedingly grateful today.

One of our very favorite winter books to read as a family is The Tomten; we even illustrated part of it last year as a project. When I found these adorable wooden tomtens at Anne Moze's hyenacart shop, I was thrilled! I'm sure he'll be well-loved on our nature table this winter.

Can you keep a secret?

There's rumor of a possible war at our house next month.

It's going to be a knightly kind of Christmas for Philip.

Or maybe they'll join forces and battle the dragon instead.

November Nature Table and Handmade Fridays

Lost: one evening rhythm

The blogging has been sparce this week. A funk has descended on the house. The time change occurred. People always assume it's the sleep schedule that gets messed up for little ones, but in our house that was not a problem. Our evening rhythm was disturbed. For months and months now, we've been spending the 45 minutes or so between dinner and bathtime outside, except for a few rainy days. Alas, the time change made that impossible for now, and we're all sort of floundering during that time. I've got some tricks up my sleeve for the coming week so we'll see if it makes a difference. And this evening? It was all about the turkeys.

Our nature table has some new inhabitants. Finn's beloved turkeys have arrived!

And this sweet November postcard commemorating St. Martinmas day which we will hopefully celebrate for the first time this year.

These turkeys from ZooLooNaturals on etsy first made an appearance last year. Finn was thrilled and loved them dearly.

He especially enjoyed, and still does, dancing them on his Albuquerque Turkey book while we read/sing the story. (A nice vegetarian Thanksgiving book, if you're interested.)

This year, the turkeys are moving on up. They have their own play structure and tent.

And we all found it particularly hilarious to perch them high on the tree blocks (also available at ZooLooNaturals) while singing an adapted version of Five Fat Turkeys Are We.

Three Fat Turkeys Are We (formerly titled Five Fat Turkeys Are We)

Three fat turkeys are we,

we spent all night in the tree (blocks).

When the cook came around,

we couldn't be found.

So that's why we're here you see!

Three fat turkeys are we,

we know you'll all agree,

that on Thanksgiving Day

it certainly pays

to sleep in the highest tree (blocks)!

Handmade Fridays - mamma4earth

This Friday, I'd like to spotlight a mama who not only makes the the most beautiful knitted toys, but also sells lovely South African wool, homeschools her 4 children, and keeps a lovely blog too. I have raved about Linda's lovely wool yarn many, many, many times, but she really has some of the cutest knitted animals around.

Finn's long favorite bedtime story has been Owl Babies. Every night, for months on end, we read owl babies, and Finn would lament "poor Bill." So for Easter, Bill appeared in Finn's Easter basket. Of course, Bill had a very hard time finding his mommy at our house, although Finn did a very good job of loving and cuddling him. When I went away for a week this summer to take a class, I thought Finn and Bill might both need an extra mommy around, and mamma4earth's knitted owl made a perfect mommy owl. As you can see below, Finn was thrilled.

Even now that Owl Babies isn't read for every bedtime story, and Finn enjoys a wider variety of books, this lovely owl still holds a special place in our family.

PS. You should also check out Linda's lovely unicorns. I adore them!

Handmade Fridays - mamaroots

I know that many of my friends in the blogiverse have already discovered mamaroots on etsy, but I couldn't let her go unrecognized on Handmade Fridays. Her handmade wooden toys are simple and lovely. We especially love the storybook sets she makes. Mamaroots has also been hosting giveaways on Monster Mondays on her blog. Below are two of our favorite sets from mamaroots:

My husband, Paul, has long been fascinated by all aspects of cryptozoology (we won't mention his retirement dreams of buying a house on Lake Champlain and a pair of binoculars) so when I saw this adorable Nessie on mamaroots, I knew she needed to be part of our family. She was intended for Finn, but was purchased when he was quite young, so she's been hiding in our closet for some time (not surprising for a Nessie, is it?) We're now thinking she might make a Halloween fairy debut (in exchange for Finn's yucky Halloween candy, a la Frontier Dream's idea).

Our very favorite handmade set from mamaroots are animals and a mitten from the book Any room for me? These adorable animals generously make room for one another in this beautifully illustrated version of the Ukrainian folktale. Mamaroots wooden animals and repurposed-wool mitten make this book come alive in our home as we place each animal snuggly in the mitten during the reading.

What handmades are you loving right now?

Handmade Fridays

With the holidays rapidly approaching, and with my pledge to buy as many handmade gifts as possible, I've decided to start Handmade Fridays, which will feature a handmade product or company that I support. If you'd like to join me, leave me a comment, and I'll put a link to your Handmade Friday post at the bottom of mine.

First up for Handmade Fridays, McCoy Toys. Although McCoy Toys is also located on etsy, we first discovered them last year at our local farmer's market's craft fair. They have quickly become a favorite. (Who doesn't love local and handmade?!) The photos below don't even include all the McCoy Toys we own, as they are so well-loved they have disappeared into the nooks and crannies of the kids' bedrooms. One in particular even lives in our car to dispel the boredom there.

Finn is particularly fond of their vehicles, of course, and he actually looks for them every time we're at the farmer's market now.

As you can see below, these cars can take a beating and still keep rolling! This one has travelled through the creeks and gravel and is still as loved as ever.

This climbing bear attracts kids like bears to honey. I haven't yet seen a kid walk into our living room and leave without making the bear climb over the stick.

A few of the Christmas gifts we've purchased from McCoy Toys include an anti-frustration pull toy for toddlers (because who likes a frustrated toddler?), some natural wood block lacing beads, and a sewing block/maze stocking stuffer.

Now, it's your turn to share some Handmade Fridays with me!