Creating, Together

Forest wants to be just like his big sister. The other morning, I caught him climbing up a chair to sit next to her at the little table. She was making a hundreds chart. He wanted to color like he sees her doing so often. I snapped a few photos of them working together.

Both of our wee ones are growing so fast!

Spring Art

Today, we made these Little Robin Redbreasts using my little ones' feet and some tempura paint. I painted the breast, beak and legs on Forest's painting and Sienna painted her own. It was a simple and sweet Spring project, especially since we've been seeing lots of Robins and Blue Jays around, which is a sure sign that Spring is here!

"Little Robin Redbreast

Sat upon a rail, 

Niddle noddle went his head,

And waggle went his tail."

P.S. I've had a few people ask me about birthday gifts and I promise I will make a wish list very soon. I think I'm just going to do it on my blog, instead of Amazon. (so I can add a few things from Etsy, too!) 

A New Pastime

Remember, awhile back when I found a knitting basket at the flea market for $3.50. Well, I finally decided to try and knit something. There weren't too many yarn choices in my basket that would be suitable for a first project. So, I chose a magenta ball of yarn. I had no idea how much of the skein was left, as it looked rather smallish. I wanted to try making something simple to practice a stitch. I chose to make a simple scarf with a garter stitch. It isn't perfect, but it was a beginning. My, beginning. And, who did I make it for? Why, my girl, of course.

I found knitting it to be rather fun and meditative. It is something for me to do when Forest falls asleep after nursing. 

Last week, the little ones and I headed over to JoAnn's Fabrics to meet Nana to choose some fabric and a pattern to sew Sienna's Easter dress. (More on that later.) I happened to have some cash on hand from some recent craigslist sales, so I purchased a few skeins of yarn in more desirable colors (to me) and a pair of knitting needles that would make a chunkier scarf for myself. It's the same stitch as before. I want to practice it a bit before I venture on with my knitting.

One of the things I like about knitting is that if it isn't right you can rip out the row and start again.

I also chose more of a Sienna pink to make her a little knitted something.

I'm sure I'll have more knitted goods to share very soon. 

Chinese Lanterns

This Sunday, February 10th is the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. It celebrates the Earth coming back to life. In China, windows and doors are decorated with red paper cut outs with the theme of happiness and good fortune. Today, we decided to decorate our dining room window with red paper lanterns. We started out by folding red construction paper in half and then cut lines toward the fold.

I found a website with pictures of our Chinese zodiac animals for Sienna to color. Then, we stapled the animal to our unfolded paper lantern.

 

Next, we stapled the top of the lantern and the bottom.

Lastly, we added a handle for the lantern.

Our lanterns. 

Mama = monkey, Sienna = rat, Forest = dragon, David = rooster

Sienna also wanted to make one for Nana. Nana and Forest are both dragons!

 Gung Hay Fat Choy!

On this late Winter day...

This morning, Sienna and I set up our late winter nature table on our new to us heart bookshelf. We will be using this little bookshelf for homeschool, too. The first shelf and the top will be for our nature table and the bottom three shelves for homeschool/crafting supplies.

On our seasonal display, we included the Winter book by Gerda Muller. We love these books! They are filled with beautiful illustrations depicting the seasons without words. Inside we put up a Winter postcard and a few rocks from her collection.

Today, we also decided to start on some of our Valentine's Day crafts. We needed a new wreath for the door, since we put away the green Christmas one. So, I cut out a wreath from cardboard and a bunch of hearts in different sizes. Sienna designed and glued the wreath the way she wanted. It was just a simple paper project to get us started on some of the upcoming ones we have planned for next month. 

Happy late Winter! 

It will be fun to see how our nature table evolves over the seasons.

Love Notes

Sienna loves to create and she is quite the little artist! I love to find her work around our apartment. This one was left for me on the kitchen wall.

Here it is close up. Our little family is a fairy family. Each fairy is wearing their favorite color. Daddy = green, Mama = purple, Sienna = pink, Forest = blue

Sienna guesses Forest's favorite color will be blue.  

Her artwork is always so detailed. I will share some of my favorites on another day. I just love her little notes she makes for me! I am one lucky Mama.

'Tis the Season

Why, for baking and creating, of course! 

Here are some photos of today's adventures ::

Homemade cupcakes with chocolate frosting. 

 Sienna's paper craft wreath.

Forest and Sienna (behind) crafting and creating at our dining table.

A Handmade Christmas

One of the traditions that our little family started last year is creating some handmade presents for Sienna. Today, I thought I would share some of her new wooden toys handmade by Daddy.

A wooden train set.

Trees for around the Fairy Forest Lodge.

One of the things that I love about wooden toys is how simple and natural they feel. It's also wonderful to observe Sienna's creative play with her wooden toys. She's already having her fairy family ride around on top of the train.

There is a plan to paint/stain the wooden trees, so that they will look similar to the Ostheimer trees, which are beautiful. But, they are quite expensive and it's also more fun to present a gift made by hand.

Since, I've mentioned the Fairy Forest Lodge, I also thought I'd share a few close up pictures. It has three stories in all. Father Christmas brought Sienna the lodge and quite a bit of the furniture for the lodge, too. It's a fun present, because it can be added on to at future holidays. Nana bought Sienna the Fairy Family, which are beautiful handmade dolls from Germany. They fit the dollhouse perfectly and Sienna loves playing with them.

Third story - Bathroom

Second story - Bedroom

First story - The Everything Else Room

Brother Fairy sleeping in his hammock outside.

The outside of the dollhouse. The doors really work!

I hope that you enjoyed seeing the wooden toys handmade by Daddy and an up close look at Sienna's toys.

We are looking forward to creating many more handmade gifts for our family in the future!

30 Things ...

Hiking Kendall's Catwalk while returning from a backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. 2006

Lately, I've see quite a few blogs with a list of things the writer would like to do before their next birthday. So, over the weeks leading up to my 30th birthday I began making a list of my own. I tried to think of things I would really like to either improve on in my daily life or things that would help me grow.

Here's my little list of the 30 things I would like to accomplish before I turn 31 ::

1. Start training to run races again.
2. Read more. Pick 12 books and finish a book a month.
3. Start a Book Journal to keep track of the books I've read.
4. Take more pictures! Take a few each day.
5. Try new trails. Go hiking two times a month.
6. See more of Washington.
7. Run a half marathon for each season.
8. Get outdoors more often. Take a Nature Walk each day.
9. Celebrate the seasons.
10. Try making bread more often. Make a loaf a week.
11. Bring back the Friday night pizza tradition in the little house.
12. Stop eating sugar!
13. Teach Sienna her ABC's.
14. Make time to read before bedtime.
15. Start my scrapbook for Sienna.
16. Plan a read aloud to center our days around.
17. Start up Butterfly Wednesdays again, in honor of butterflies, of course.
18. Kiss my husband more.
19. Join a professional group to stay up to date with teaching.
20. Learn to sew. Make things on my list.
21. Meditate each day.
22. Establish better rhythms and stick to them.
23. Help plan next year's garden.
24. Learn to budget better.
25. Simplify.
26. Remember to bring the reusable bags into stores with me.
27. Take on more creative endeavors.
28. Go on family road trips every Sunday.
29. Put my worrying to rest.
30. Learn to knit!

Maybe you'll get a chance to see some of these things in action on the blog over the next year.

Whoo ... Is there an owl in the little house ??

On Wednesday, Sienna and I ventured to JoAnn Fabrics with an idea in mind!
Awhile back, Auntie Jennifer bought Sienna this lil' owl at the Farmer's Market in Chico.

The inspiration for the Owl Crafty project.

Well, Sienna and I decided that this would be the perfect crafty project for Mama this Autumn and Winter, as we spend more time "cozying up" to the wood stove! I intend this to be a Christmas gift for all of our friends with little ones. Sienna loves owls! She is constantly making owl sounds around the little house.

The fabric we chose for our owls. We love the calico fabrics and felt!

A closer view of the owl colors ...

I also plan to "re-purpose" these two shirts into owls, which were bought postpartum from Target.

They just never fit quite right, but I always liked the fabric.

My first "almost" completed owl. This one was for practice and was promised to Sienna.
All of the owls will be completely hand-sewn by Mama with love.
So, if you're a friend and are reading this ... sorry for spoiling what your little one will be getting from us. Just don't spill the beans!!

Meet the first member of Sienna's "Owl Family."
This little guy's name is Morris.

Hope you have a fun weekend!
We have a trip planned to the Pumpkin Patch ...