thirty-one

today. thanks to everyone who has made it a great 31 years thus far.

Three

3 years ago today we welcomed our son, Basil into the world.




Today, he is a sweet, adventurous, thoughtful, daring, all-around lovely little guy.
Happy Birthday Basil, we're so glad you've come!

Pumpkinfest

We went to the Wolfe Island Pumpkinfest yesterday, and both Azzurra and Sonika carved their own pumpkins for the contest. I'm proud to say that my youngest darling, Sonika, got first prize, with her big sister Azzurra taking second prize. Sonika did the "Princess" pumpkin, and Azzurra did the cat.
And yes, there are about a hundred kfc bags behind them, and yes, those were the prizes. Not much of a prize really, but the girls savoured their glory.

Happy Pumpkin season to all of you!!

To Make

After seeing so many lovely star lanterns around I searched and searched for an online tutorial. It seems the couple of free ones that used to be around have been taken down, so I ordered one as a PDF from Syrendell.
I can't wait to get started.

Photo courtesy of SimpleMama. I hope mine turn out this nice!

this moment

{this moment}- A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.
Inspired by the lovely SouleMama.

Kingston Yarn Bombing

I am a little late with this, but it tickles me so, and better late than never, right? A group called the Outlaw Wool Lovers has knit and crocheted a cozy for the McBurney (skeleton) Park cannon!
It wasn't there for long, but it got covered in the papers and make lots of people smile. Hope you enjoy.
The photo below is lifted from this blog post.

what fall looks like

 

Honeybees! We found this colony busy with their hive in an apple tree on our property. A local beekeeper helped us get them into the hive box, so next summer we will have our very own honey!

 

An acorn cake made with freshly collected Wolfe Island Red Oak Acorns.

 

Our very own sun dried tomatoes in olive oil.

 

Some great knit and crochet art seen at Nuit Blanche Toronto.

 

Experimental guitar love with Lee Ranaldo, also at Nuit Blanche.

 

Sonika showing off some fresh fall veggies.

 

Azzurra leaping at Big Sandy Bay.

{this moment}

{this moment}- A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. Inspired by the lovely SouleMama.

Hans In Luck

I love making items for the lovely School that my children attend, Mulberry Waldorf School , and was asked by Azzurra's second grade teacher to create a fairy tale mobile for the class reading nook. Hans in Luck is one of the stories the children will be hearing this year, so I decided to make the little mobile below based on the one in this book



I love making these types of delicate and lovely woolen mobiles, and see many more in the near future.

supersized starburst

Azzurra and I saw this project over at The Crafty Crow and decided to make our own extra-large version. Azzurra did all the weaving once it was set up to go, although I did give her some help when it was time to switch colours. It now occupies a place of honour near the wood stove in our family room.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. Inspired by the lovely SouleMama.

Wishing you a sunny weekend!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Camp!

I had the joy and honour to be an instructor at the Blue Skies in the Community Kids Day Camp this past week.
What a great week! I had three fibre arts groups, with kids ranging in age from 7 to 13, and had so much fun with them! Not to mention the great times after camp with friends new and, well, less new!
Thanks to all the great kids, families, friends, director, instructors and support staff!!!

Hope to see you all again next year!


Roan doing his arial hoop routine at the big last day show


Exotic Azzurra with pagri and gourd banjo.


Some felt-in-progress from one of my students


Goldenrod dye pot


clowning Neal


The post-camp glow

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

island living

Can you blame me for not posting more often?






I will have a crafty post for you tomorrow though, promise!
Also, take a listen to my current theme song.

The Big Day!

We are home from our busy wedding-full weekend in Toronto. T and K's wedding was an amazing, love filled day, and went off without a hitch!
If I do say so myself, the ties, bow ties and dresses were a big hit, and looked and photographed beautifully.
Below are the girls dresses, as worn. They were made using my own pattern. The bodice is roughly based on the 'Flower Girl Dress' from the Heather Ross must have, Weekend Sewing. The skirt is the simple, charming, tied tulle tutu that can be found all over the net.

Special shout out to Marinko for his amazing 11th hour help with the tutu. That was fun!!


That's me on the right, as maid-of-honour.
Check out my hair!!! I'll have to find a better head shot. It is an amazingly executed (and long lasting!!) faux finger wave, as styled by Michael of Aveda Toronto.

tie-ing the knot

Anyone who knows me personally knows that this weekend coming, one of my best friends is getting married, and that I am the maid-of-honour. Outside of all the regular duties that that entails, I am also putting my crafting skills to work. I have signed on to make ties for the groomsmen, bow ties for the ring-bearers, and flower girl dresses for my daughters. The bride is a woman of extremely high tastes, and luckily for me that has meant working with Duppioni silk for all of these projects.


The ties are the fist project up. They were made using this amazing tutorial from the Purl Bee. They are fairly easy to make, but with all that hand sewing, they are quite time consuming. The tutorial was put up for Father's Day last year, and seeing as that time is just around the corner, I would encourage any of you to make one of these for the special man in your life. I am making a couple of cotton print ones for Bryan, too.

Stay tuned for bow ties and flower girl dresses. Here is a sneak preview of the one of the dresses!

busy spring

Wow. I can't believe a month and a half have gone by since my last post.
Spring (and summer-like weather) has been here for a while. Many craft projects have been started, and several finished. The school year is almost over. The island around us has turned green and come to life. An extensive garden has been planted. Chickens are on their way. We have plunged into the lake. The fiddle has been played.

We have sure been keeping busy around here.



I will be returning to regular posting in the next couple of days with a glimpse into a couple of the sewing projects I have undertaken for my friend's wedding.

Sonika is 6!

My dear second child. Sweet and wily. Funny and thoughtful. Kind and patient with her younger and older siblings. Born 6 years ago today.


One of the handmade gifts she received from me was this angel mobile, which was inspired by a project in Living Crafts, I think it was the Winter 2009 issue.




It's her very own angel to watch over her each night.

5 Things...

...to be excited about right now (not including of course..the forsythias, crocuses, willows, grasses, mosses, geese..and all the other spring lovliness going on outside my door).

- making these spring bonnets, designed by Amy Karol, for my girls

- the little yellow bunny that arrived in my mailbox last week, just in time for easter. Thanks Claire!!!

- this great list of spring activities for kids courtesy of Rhythm of the Home

- this song slays me

- finally picking my 'lady of the lake' back up, after months of neglect. I am more than halfway, and think this project just might get finished soon!


Leave a comment...what are you excited about right now?

Kniterary

If you are in the Peterborough area, please come out to the Peterborough Public Library tomorrow night from 7pm to 9pm for the monthly Kniterary night, where I will be teaching the knitters of that fine city to make yarn on a drop spindle.

This moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

out of commission

Since my last post I have:

-taught a wonderful group of fledgling spinners
-celebrated an amazing hockey victory with dear old friends
-spent the week teaching handwork for a Waldorf grade 1+2 class
-started a knitting circle at my children's school
-had a complete muscle spasm/seizure in my neck
-been to the chiropractor and for xrays
-fought off a throat virus/infection?

Is it any wonder I haven't posted all week?

Below are some photos (taken by Becky and Tina off their flickr..hope you guys don't mind!) of last Sunday's Church of Craft spinning workshop. Thanks to all who came. I had fun!

Church of Craft

Those of you in the Toronto area, please come out to The Workroom tomorrow, where I will be giving a workshop on drop spindle spinning at 3pm. Before that, they have their regularly scheduled Quilt Sunday, which I am just tickled to be finally able to attend.

This workshop will mark the final Toronto Church of Craft under the guidance of the lovely Leah. Her other life as a musician calls her away to live among the arts appreciating Germans.

Hope to see you there!

WIP Wednesday

In which this:



becomes one more of these:



to warm the hands of this little girl:

A sign of things to come...

Here is a dandelion nature table doll that I made for the 5th birthday of a very special friend. I was especially pleased with how the dandelion itself turned out. Inspiration for this project came from the great book The Nature Corner, which has so many great doll patterns and ideas.

Making this little doll got me very excited about spring. Although we have been getting flurries here off and on, and trust me, after the mild winter we've had I am definitely not quite ready to say goodbye to Jack Frost, BUT, there sure is something great about the sunny face of a dandelion, isn't there? I can almost smell the sunshine!