Bird Nest

The Autumn Winds Blow Open The Gate

The autumn winds have been blowing and blustering about as I find myself super charged to organize and redesign our living space, declutter and purge.  Our upstairs that goes empty most of the days has been restructured as the new craft and homeschool space.  It's still not a space that is infused with life, but I think it's a bit more inviting and certainly more pleasing to one obsessed with organizing craft and sewing supplies and yarn, too much yarn.

 

(The pictures above are of the unfinished school/play space, just outside on stair landing is a craft cabinet and tall chest of drawers filled with supplies.  We lazured the walls with stockmar paint and glazing material.  It's beautiful in the sunlight...)

This week we are finishing up by purging through the worn and torn summer clothes and bringing out our cold weather gear and all the woolens.  You would not believe how excited the boys are to pull out the woolens.

We celebrate the beginning of autumn with Michaelmas in our house.  Many songs and stories, and this year we sanded and beeswaxed the knight swords, dyed silk capes with calendula petals (and secretly a bit of stockmar paint to deepen the color!) and we honored the day by baking a harvest bread which included a story about St. Michael and the dragon and harvest.  This might be my favorite season, welcoming fall, preparing for the season.  Turning inwards, stashing away bits of sunlight and warmth and searching for the light within as the world around us grows darker.

 

 

Weaving at Home

Last week I left my little birds in a waldorf kindergarten room and gathered with the other mamas upstairs for the Shining Star Waldorf Homeschooling Conference.  It was a full week of presentations and discussions, with many hands on activities to support homeschooling, specifically inspired by waldorf education.  We worked in main lesson books, took notes on temperaments, block planning, festivals, storytelling and more.  We sang, played games, used bean bags and balance beams, clapping games and circles.  We worked directly on weaving, wet on wet watercolor, form drawing and coloring, playing the pentatonic flute.  We connected on parenting issues, homeschooling journeys, tasks and rhythms.  So much was packed into the daylight hours.  It was a delightfully full week and the warmth generated between the mothers and teachers has left much inspiration in my heart. 

My children of course were both excited and overstimulated by the full days down in the kindergarten room, with so many children and so much noise.  There was the silliest bit of conflict with the children held together in such a large group away from home, while we soaked in as much as we could, as quick as we could upstairs, before gathering up our baskets to head home.  Home.  And it looks as if home is where we will be staying.

I've always planned to homeschool at some point I was just never sure when.  I'm fairly passionate about homeschooling in many forms (including unschooling.)  And yet, I really love love loved the waldorf farmschool that Jbird attended last year.  We were considering going back for kindergarten, but for now all arrows are pointing towards staying home.   After realizing how much sweeter our days were without being framed by the drop off and pick up at school, it feels like the right decision to keep Jbird at home.  Waldorf Kindergarten doesn't require any specific curriculum or planning, but there are structures and rhythms I'm hoping to build into place to support the future grades.  For now, it feels like the right direction and I feel lucky that I have so many options nearby if we change steps.

As I expected, things have come together.  Rooster is back at work full time and all the pieces are falling into place.  The weather is already feeling a bit "fall-ish" and I can sense a season of strength and courage coming towards us.

Spring Sun Rays

 

A little wizard hat for the dress up basket. Jbird also wants an owl hood type thing but I don't know how to even start that project. 

 

And there are now some photos in flickr of the garden at request.  Nothing too amazing, but I'm very appreciative of the work our previous owner did in establishing these garden beds.  And every day I watch with anticipation to see what will bloom next, what will fill into the spaces.  Beyond our new vegetable boxes we just built, I'm thinking about using one of the 4 boxes for more landscape gardening.  I'm madly pouring through the native plant options as well as taking inspiration from what I see in our neighborhood.  I'd like to add a few more blueberry bushes.  These were such a hit last summer and are so sweet in flower gardens.  Who can resist a blueberry from your own back front yard?

As you may have noticed, most of our garden and vegetable work is right in our front yard.  We do have a back yard.  Indeed, a multi-tiered landscape that is partially tamed and also partially shaded.  However, for us, the main gardening happens in front.  Right out on the street.  I find it refreshing to walk past it every day, coming and going.  And often, we are right out in our front, playing on the sidewalk, talking to neighbors watching the world go by on our sweet dead end street.  We can have privacy in our back, or even on the side patio, but usually, it just feels right to be right out in front.   And it looks like we'll be out there all summer tending our new plants and vegetables.

Stamps and Pants

After way too long, these knit longies for Sparrow are complete.  The good news is I finally learned a lesson, and that is to knit for "next year" as this seems the only way to be sure that big baby Sparrow will still fit in the item by the time I finish.  OK, I'm not that slow of a knitter, but seriously, it does seem to take some pressure off.  So, the plan is to have sparrow wearing these longies next fall.  In the meantime, Jbird might just be adding them to his dress up pile.


Speaking of finding alternative uses for items, Jbird decided that these corks were "stamps" and frankly, they are perfect stamps. Before they were "stamps" they were "mushrooms".  My favorite discoveries are the open-ended "toys".

A House For Little Brother

This morning, the first words out of Jbird's mouth were about this painting that he made for Sparrow the other day.  He said; "I should have made that painting for him before he was born."  This coming from a boy who often refers to his little brother as "that guy" with just a touch of disdain, certainly disinterest.  But it's not always that way.

The painting is "a house" and it was painted specifically for Sparrow.  My heart melted of course.

 

And here are the natural dyed eggs that we will be hiding tomorrow morning.  There were so many awesome egg dyeing creations out there, it was just the inspiration I needed to try it out.  We didn't put that much effort into the details, but it was fun and we'll definitely do this again next year.  And we ended up with a huge pot of onion soup, a bonus!

New Sweater - He's busting out of it already...

new sweater for sparrow, originally uploaded by bird nest photos.

Finally finished the first sweater for Sparrow.  Of course, he's already busting out of it.    But we'll get a bit more wear out of this over these next few weeks.  Even when it's a crop top over his sweet belly.
Oh, and I've basically blown out one of my knees from lifting this one all day.  What a chunk of love.  Thankfully he's paying me back with new smiles and coos.

The sweater is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and I left off the buttons (which I don't think would button around his multiple chins in either case.)    I used organic Blue Sky cotton yarn.  And it's deliciously soft.  I'd like to make one of these for jbird - but using wool next time.

Deck the Halls

Jbird did the beads, buttons, and interior embroidery all by himself..., originally uploaded by bird nest photos.

Jbird and I made these ornaments a few days back.  I cut the felt, threaded needle and sewed up the edges - but he did all the decorative stitches and beads and buttons.  They are so sweet and make me smile when I catch them in the tree.

Maybe a Baby Today?

our knitted hats - and does it look like I'm in labor?, originally uploaded by bird nest photos.

woke up in labor this morning...

Nesting Continues In Our House

Rooster Learns To Knit, originally uploaded by bird nest photos.

We have stepped up from traditional nesting like cooking and cleaning and turned to insane crafting.  This time I seem to be dragging Rooster into the nesting experience.   What an totally awesome husband I have.

First off, after being completely inspired by Soulemama - I ran out to gather supplies to create these "little guys" (as jbird calls them).  The other night Rooster and I stayed up and made a few of them.  Can you guess which ones Rooster made?  And then the following morning, after surprising jbird with these little people, I helped jbird make a few himself.  I have to admit, I had to do most of the actual work - but all done to his order/design.

Today, after waldorf playgroup, (and yet another day of constant contractions but no true labor) jbird and I headed off to our most amazing local knitting store to pick up more yarn.  I've been on a bit of a hat kick, using the Last Minute Knitted Gifts hat pattern.  And I keep thinking I may have time to finish just one more.

Jbird has been constantly talking about this "pink" (actually purple) yarn.  He talks about how when he learns to knit (knitting is one of many handwork crafts taught in waldorf education) that he will get this "pink" yarn.  Turns out, there really was a yarn that he was obsessing over.  In the huge wall of Manos Del Uruguay yarn he kept focusing on this pink/purple skein.  I'm not against boys wearing pinks by any means - but I did try over and over to draw his attention to all of the other really amazing colors.  But no, he was adamant.  So, in the basket it went.  And one day soon there may be a pink/purple hat.

Tonight, Rooster got the hankering to learn to knit.  Kick me for marrying such an awesome guy.  We'll see if his stitches get better with another beer.  I'm assuming one of us will go into labor sometime very, very soon.

Beeswax, Warm and Golden and Sweet

Most know that we are a doing the waldorf thing, and therefore, our house is full of wooden and natural toys.  Wood everywhere.  We try very hard to avoid buying any plastic or mainstream-commercial toys - and shift most of our attention to special, heirloom quality wood items, or homemade things, or soft toys from natural materials like wool and silk.  Yes, I guess in a way it's pretentious.  But mostly, it's just lovely and makes us so happy.  And after all the fun toy recalls, we certainly feel safe - not untouchable, but safer.

This week we have been sanding down a new-to-us set of blocks, donated from a retired kindy teacher down the block.  We never met them (like ships passing in the night) but are so thankful for this stack of beautiful maple blocks.  Most are very well worn - you can tell that many children have played with them, endlessly creating new play sets.  We invested in a sander from Home Depot after seeing how much fun it was to sand away layers of wood, uncovering fresh surface below.  We still have many more blocks to sand out in our shed.

And then the last few days jbird and I have been polishing the newly sanded blocks.  I heated up beeswax, jojoba oil, and essential oils (mmm, lavender and rosewood...) and then we heavily polished up each one.  All of a sudden these light ho-hum blocks were warm, sweet smelling, and just glowing from within.  It's magical.  Snicker all you want, but it is magical.

There are so many reasons to avoid the plastic and cheap toys, surely I don't need to mention any of those issues here.  But beyond this, there is a sense of warmth that comes from touching these natural toys.  They have weight.  They have warmth.  They have scent.  They have an essence of life to them that surely colors the creative environment.

And on to crafting.  It's sweet to make toys for your own children.  Sure, they often fall apart, but are often most loved.  And unlike pre-fabricated toys, homemade ones are easier to fix and mend when broken.  A little glue here, a little stitch here - and voila, the toy is new again.  Plus, it's helpful for jbird to see toys being created and mended with your my own hands - taken care of, and cared for. 

And finally, the angel that I finished the other night.  Again, rushing to complete some things before baby lands in my arms.  This came from a new craft magazine that I am very excited about called Living Crafts.  It's brand new and not as flashy or finished yet as a Martha mag - but it's sweet and full of goodness nonetheless.