kid swap

K entered a little swap for himself.  He was paired up with another 3 year old and they each made each other a Christmas ornament.  K made this wool felted dragon lantern.  He received a wool felted sushi and gingerbread man.  They were really sweet. :)

suckers

 I made my first suckers!  Boy was it easy.  We made a whole ton of batches in all different flavors.  The butterscotch was my favorite.  We also made enough to enter them in a local candy swap.  We got back homemade gumdrops, marshmallows, truffles, and more.  I have to say the homemade vegan marshmallows were my favorite.  I just bought the supplies to try and make my own. 

Another Herbal Swap

I hosted another herbal swap at my house.  Everything was so wonderful!  I made headache tea and calcium tea.  Some of the things we received were diaper spray (I've already used it all), lotion bar (smells so good!), cleansing grains (gave this one to my husband), elderberry syrup (kept my from catching the kids' colds), and bath tea (I'm saving this for when I have a bigger bath tub). 

swaps!

Here is our pack n play filled with swap stuff!  The bag has my rainbow swap stuff and pretty much everything else are packages that are arriving for the knights, dragons, and castles swap.  Very exciting!  

rainbow swap

Here is a not so great picture of the items I received from the rainbow swap.  At the top is a knitted knot ball, some colored peg people with matching pots, a rainbow apron, a rainbow wall hanging, and a sun pillow.  I'll be giving these items to the boys for Christmas most likely.

knights

Yet another swap.  This little army of knights is destined for the knights, dragons, and castles swap.  I'm actually hosting this one so I'll be back to post pictures of all the items that are currently arriving at my house.  Everything is so wonderful!  I can't wait to post and send stuff back so everyone can see everything.

Sweater balls

I entered a rainbow swap and decided to make these sweater balls.  Let me tell you how hard it is to find a  used orange sweater. :)  I ended up making a few extras so that I can give them to the boys and some friends for Christmas.  

Felted bats

Here is one of the many felted bats I made for a Halloween swap.  I felted old wool sweaters and sewed these together.  I hear the swap items were mailed back today and I'm really excited to see what I've gotten!

Busy Bag Swap

I participated in a busy bag swap recently with some friends in our area.  The swap went wonderfully!  We had 21 participates and each person made a bag for everyone.  We went home with 21 little preschool activities in a bag.  We have some number games, letter games, color games, beading games, fine motor activities, and more!  Here are some pictures of my activity.  I made a little clothes line with tiny clothes to hang up. 

Knitted nest

The nest upside down


Found this great pattern at: http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/search/label/Knitted%20Nest

Then I wet felted the eggs for all the nests. These nests are for an Easter swap.

Bendy Dolls

I have finally finished the bendy dolls I made for an Easter swap. They were actually a ton of fun to make. I had wanted to use our wood burner to make their faces but the darn thing has disappeared. I look forward to making more bendy people for K to play with as he kept running away with them as I was making them.

Tree swap

1st off I wanted to say that its been awhile. I went to go visit my grandma and my great aunt on the other side of the state. We had a nice time and were able to see lots of family.

So this month I hosted a tree swap on Bits of Goodness. Here are all the goodies that came in the mail.

wood burned tree necklace, tree bag, kitted bag with wooden acorns in it, wool felt finger puppet (mine), woven wool tree, carved tree necklace, crochet apple tree, crochet tree, tree bag with wooden coins.

Everything was beautiful and I had a great time hosting. :)

Water swap sneak peek

This is my 2nd felted ball. I tried things a little differently this time. I first wet felted the ball, then needle felted the detail, then wet felted it again. One of the problems is that the roving doesn't really wet felt well. I think with the next one I will do a little needle felting to get a good shape and then wet felt.

Anyway the theme of the swap is water. These balls will be nice and squishy and would be great for playing in the pool. I now have about 10 days to whip out 4 more.

Also I have signed up for my first art fair! I'm joining a bunch of friends and taking out a table at the Ferndale DIY fair. I'm really excited but need to get busy making gnomes. I'm thinking I might make some simpler gnomes to go with my more elaborate gnomes. We'll see what I can get done in the short amount of time that I have.

Travel Swap

We received this great yo-yo ball that K loves.
These are homemade motion sickness drops. I always get carsick so I'll probably be testing them out on our next road trip.
This awesome book came with a little wooden man that gets go on many adventures though out the book. This one was made by one of my friends!
Here are one of the pages of the book.
I could hardly get this felt play mat away from K to photograph it. It also came in a little pouch.

I received my items from the travel swap. I had made Gnome homes with changes of outfits. We received some great things. Not pictured are some homemade stickers that K ran off with. :) I'm taking a little swap break so I can make a few things for K's birthday. Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon of what I've been working on.

Herbal Swap

I hosted the Herbal Swap yesterday. It went really well and we had so many great creations! I received so many fun things including soap, milk bath, bath salts, hot/cold pad, hand sanatizer, and lots more. We made it potluck style and the kids ran in and out of the house while we traded our goods. :)

Herbal goodies

My mom came over and helped me make two fun goodies. We made bug spray and deodorant. I haven't tried either yet but am planning on trying the deodorant tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. Here are the recipes I used for both:

http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2008/07/homemade-deodor.html

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/newsletter/07/june/insect.php

I'm hosting an herbal swap tomorrow and plan on trading 5 of each of them. I'll post the goodies I receive and hopefully some pictures of the swap. I'm excited to host my first swap and hope everything goes well.

Rainbow Swap items

We received a boat, snack bag (which K has been carrying around the house), a bookmark, a crown (modeled above), and a window star.
While we were away we received our rainbow swap items. They are wonderful! K's favorite by far is the crown. I'm really surprized by this as he usually won't put anything on his head, but he keeps bringing it to me to put on him.

Gnome Homes

I joined a travel toys swap and decided to make these gnome homes. Each home has a little gnome in a bed and two changes of outfits. This project has been traveling all over with me so I could get it done in time. I'm happy to say it's finished and in the mail. I'm also making one for K that is a little more elaborate. I'll post when its done. This is probably my last post for awhile again. See you soon!

Playfood swap

I went to our local playfood swap this week. I traded the sushi I had made and here are the goodies we received. From the left we have blueberry pancakes with scrambled eggs and sausage, grapes, a carrot and potato and parsnip, a banana (that can be peeled!), and a bag of pasta (that can come out of the bag). What great stuff! I was so impressed by everyone's work.

Our next swap coming up is everything herbal. I'm the host this time and can't wait to see what everyone has made. I've also signed up for the next swap on bitofgoodness. The theme is "travel toys." Hopefully I'll have some pictures of my crafts up soon.

Sushi!

I've joined another local swap. The theme is play food. I can't wait to see what everyone has made. So far I have made 6 sets of sushi (one for K). They are all avocado sushi as that is K's favorite. :)I'm hoping to make another set of food so I have 10 things to trade. Perhaps beets? Anyway now you can see why I haven't been posting any crafts for a while. This has been taking up most of my time. Hopefully I'll be done with my knitted elephant soon and I can post that too. I'm also working on mother's day gifts for my mothers and grandmothers.