I swear this is my last post on root children

I just finished them today and they are being sent out for the swap tomorrow. I just love the way they all look lined up on the nature table. I made a couple of extras and am debating bet keeping them for myself and selling them on Etsy. I guess I'll just have to make more. Right? Ok this is the last time I will bother you with root children pictures. :)

Easter Swap items

I am so excited about the wonderful swap items I receieved for the Easter swap. The first is a "make your own bunny kit." I haven't opened it yet to get started, but hopefully I will soon. At the top is the best smelling home made soap. Next to that are beeswax crayons made from herbs! I really want to try and make some of these. Then a little blue knitted bag (K is going to love this!) And finally a little felt spring scene. All the parts store in that little pouch to the side. I can't wait to see K play with this.

The root children.

I have finished two of the root children. I have a few more in various stages of finished. Each of them has a removable coat so they can turn from a root child to a flower. They have been pretty fun to make and this is my first time working with all natural wool felt. I'm not sure that I can ever go back. :)

Spring table

Its kind of a mess right now and needs some organization. We still have dried flowers and such from winter hanging out. I've added my crocheted mushroom. I've also added some fun wooden beehives from Casey's Wood (an online wood sight). The flowers are actually one of my swap items that I recieved. See the little nest in the flowers?

Oh little tiny items near the front are Kalan's wet felted art and a piece of bark with moss that he collected with his grammy.

Ok hopefully I'll have the rest of the swap items up tomorrow. I left them in the room that K is currently sleeping in. So I can't photograph them quite yet.

The Root Children are on their way.

This is my spring gnome and my root child prototype on our nature table. I'm making root children for an upcoming swap and I swear I've made 20 prototypes. Each one has a removable coat and is wearing a plain brown outfit underneath. I'm not thrilled about the way the stitching turned out and Casey thinks he looks like a man instead of a child. So... I think I've finally figure it out. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have my first finished root child. Oh and I've received my easter basket swap stuff. I'll post that tomorrow.

Easter Eggs

I made these eggs from a pattern in a book. I finished 7 of them thinking I would send them in a swap. However, when I went to sew the top and bottom together the eggs ended up coming out strangely shaped. I had to do some funky things to the backs to get them to look ok. So I decided I'd keep them for K and use them to hide Easter goodies in and I am sending my homemade crayons for the Easter swap instead. Hopefully I"ll have some great swap pictures up soon.

I'm currently working on a root child gnome that I'm hoping will turn out as great as it looks in my head.

Spring!

K and I traveled to Chicago to celebrate the first day of spring with a friend of mine. We had a full weekend of festivities which included two art projects. When we woke up Sat morning Mother Nature had played a little joke on us and it was 30 degrees and snowing! We bundled up anyway and went out to wake up the flowers and plants. The night before we had sewn bells onto strips of fabric so we could dance in the grass and by the flowers to wake them up. K wasn't much into tying the bells around his feet so he just shook his.

During the day we also painted flower pots. The first pot is K's, then my friend's, then mine. While K napped my friend and I crocheted mushrooms. For dinner we made a big salad with pears and yogurt dressing.

How did you all celebrate your first day of spring?

Needle Felted Bird

Ok I'm getting a little better at this. K loved the outcome of this bird. I made her just in time to sit on our wet felted eggs on the nature table. K keeps walking over to the nature table and going, "tweet tweet tweet." Its funny how much joy he gets out of that table for only being 1.5.

I think I'm going to try some farm animals next as I just found a wonderful wooden barn at a mom to mom sale. K has been having fun with it but it really needs a pig, cow, horse, and sheep.

I also have a crazy idea that some day in the future I want to make him a farm playscape to go with the barn. Something that combines knitting, crocheting, sewing, and felting. I'll get to it eventually. :)

Crayons

My mother brought over a huge bucket of crayons from my childhood. K and I sorted and peeled all the crayons to make new crayons. I found a great animal mold and used two ice cube trays for the hearts and stars. I love how they turned out, although I had no idea how much work they were and how hard the clean up was. We had crayon everywhere. :) I think I'm going to give the ducks away in my upcoming easter swap.

Indoor Sprouting

On sunday we went out to buy seeds to start sprouting indoors. This is our first year trying this so I'm sure we will make tons of mistakes. At least we are lucky that my mom has done it for years and is giving us lots of tips. Unfortunatlly I didn't think ahead to save my egg cartons and we had to buy a plastic tray. Its something to think about for next year. We also need to get some longer chains for the grow light (as you can see from the picture) so its much closer to the seeds.

K had a good time helping. How could a toddler not enjoy dirt and water?

Play Kitchen Swap Received

Our play Kitchen swap items arrived in the mail and we couldn't be more pleased. If you look to earlier posts you can see that I sent out crocheted cherries and child sized aprons. Here is what we received:

1st photo: apron, napkins, carved spoon, crocheted nesting bowls.

2nd photo: felted fudge bar, crocheted strawberry, teabags.

3rd photo: oven mitt, apron, hand dyed crocheted potholder.

K has not seen any of it yet as he is going to receive these for his birthday with a handmade kitchen (as long as I convince his dad that he is making one).

The Mail has arrived!

K's postcards arrived in the mail and he is loving them. He was running around the house yelling, "mail mail mail!" Each week K will receive 4-5 postcards in the mail from all different kids and he will send 4-5 out to other kids. The kids in the swap range from 15months - 8years old. I think I'm going to set up a little mailbox in the house where he can keep them and play with them.

1st needle felting attempt

Ok not so great. I used a book as a guide (which I've forgotten what it is as I returned it to the library) and wasn't very pleased with the result. The book combined sewing and needle felting to put the animal together. Since I've made this I've already produced better results. More to follow. Anyway K won't know the difference and I can pop this in his spring basket.

Postcard exchange

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K joined a postcard exchange with a bunch of kids in the area. Each week K will make 4 or 5 postcards to send out to a group of children and then he will receive the same amount in the mail a few days later. All the kids are making their own cards. There are so many kids signed up that it will be 6 weeks before we send cards to everyone!
So here are K's first batch of cards. He colored with marker, put stickers on them, glued sequins, and puffy painted. His favorite part though was dropping them in the mail. :)

Pinecone birdfeeder

Just a quick post to show off K's pinecone birdfeeder that he made in his parent/child Waldorf class. When he came home from class he kept saying, "pinecone" "tweet tweet". :)

Maple Sugar

I took K to see how maple sugar is made last weekend. He had a really good time trying out the drill (he is obsessed with tools) and trying to lift the buckets. He also got to try sap right out of the tree (tastes like water with a touch of sugar). The weather was perfect. The whole experience has made me want to travel around to all the maple sugar spots in the area.

Egg Candles

For my birthday my husband bought me beeswax so we could start making candles. We made our first candles in egg shells. I got the idea from http://childhoodmagic.blogspot.com/. It was an easy process, although we need to tweak a few things the next time we try it. We've been using the candles at dinner and I plan to put some on the nature table come spring (only 10 days away!)
I'm hoping to try dipping candles next time, although I need to find a nice tall tin to melt the wax in.

Sweater Pants

K has been growing out of all his sweatpants so I decided to buy a used sweater and see if I couldn't make him some pants. I couldn't believe how easy it was! All you have to do is cut off the sleeves and use some of your kid's other pants to cut them to size. Then you just sew them together. K loves his new pants as you can see. :)

Birthday

I wanted to share a couple of homemade gifts my friends made for me They are so sweet! The first is a crown my friend made for me to wear on my birthday. It is elastic in the back so K will be able to wear it too. The 2nd is a sandwich wrap. I was able to use it for the first time today to hold my hummus and tomato pita. mmmm. Thank you ladies for such wonderful gifts. : )

I have a few more projects completed, I just need to get some pictures taken. One of them is in the wash so I'll have to be back tomorrow with new crafts.

A gift for little friends

Two of K's little friends are having birthday's next week. They are sisters (although not twins) so I made them matching gnomes with matching bags to put them in. I have no idea how I ended up making them Christmas colors. Hopefully they won't notice. :)