mamaroots

b is for bliss

Thanks so much for all your kind comments about Jasper's room- he was so excited and you know what he has made his bed everyday!  Today is a  quick little bliss snippet as I am getting all caught up on custom orders for the shop and my swirling brain of ideas can start to be made.  My custom slots for July are all full at the Etsy shop so that I can dedicate the rest of the month to new ideas, finishing a project for Living Crafts,  have some wonderful gatherings with friends, and finishing writing the second children's book- a sneak peek- the main character is an Elf named Elias!

This weekend the next installment of the Once Upon A Table project will be coming- think rainbows!  I will also be working on the calendar of events for The Womb Room also- it is shaping up to be a wonderful couple of months with fun gatherings including Crafty Mama's, Root Children (Jasper requested Mrs Muffly's Monster!)  Silver Birch Gathering, and a Blue Moon Retreat at MorningStar Community- I am hammering out all the details in the next couple of days.

For the local mama's there will also be a workshop at my house coming in August before the fall/holiday rush for wood toymaking.  More info coming soon, but what better of an excuse to come hangout on my deck under the walnut trees than to make some toys for our kids!  I loved this article from the Etsy blog about teaching and know that it would be such a great joy to have my gal pals over to gather and make some dust! 

So for this Friday are some blissful b- themed items from my yard right now!

Beautiful blooms and balls!

beets!

 

 bowls of bright bounty!

 

home is where . . .

your boys come home in a flurry of stories about T-Rex's eating rotten pickles, love for their fixed-up rooms, and a presents of holey rocks!

If you have read my blog for a while you will remember that my hubby and I have always been finders, collectors, and sharers of holey rocks.  They are often called friendship rocks also as the tradition is that you can give them away to friends.  When Jody and I met we discover on our first date that we both loved holey rocks.  He gave me the holey rock that I wear still today way back in the day when we went on our first camping trip together.  I wore it when both of my sons were born and it never leaves my neck.  My boys each have holey rock that we gave them as weaning gifts when they were toddlers.

Most of our holey rocks come from this beautiful southern part of my state that we go camping at each year that the boys went to last weekend.  Since mama was not there they searched and found mama some holey rocks to add to the collection!

They discovered sweet presents when they got home.  They got super cutie pie shorts that a gal- sweet mama Katja had made them.  She had asked to do a barter and they are just so cute and well made.  They have had the pleasure of growing up with some wonderfully cute shorts handmade from talented friends.  Yes they do love those slicky shorts just like their cousins, but I adore them in the jam style shorties!

They slipped right into them as soon as they opened them up.  If you want to read a great article, Katja wrote a wonderful article in the summer Living Crafts magazine about the Rainbow Blanket knitting reunion.  Such a neat story!  Check it out if you get a chance!

In loving friendship, I will pass one of these magical holey rocks onto one of you.  Just leave a comment here between now and Friday July 10 and I will draw a name, put kisses on the rock and send your way!  Tell me your favorite rock story!

Day 2 & 3- Jasper's Room

This has felt like the longest weekend- but exactly what I needed to get all that I wanted done!  I miss my fellas like crazy but it was so much fun being able to do all this and await the look on his face! 

Saturday I awoke to rain and settled into a cup of tea until the rain ended so I could dash to market before I started painting.  I picked up some gorgeous blueberries, tomatoes, cucumber and beeswax.  I could not resist stopping by a little garage sale on the way home and had another pottery rescue moment.  I got these 3 sweet green handmade bowls for .50- yee gads it is painful to see what pottery sells for at garage sales- all the love and soul gone into those pieces- I am a pottery rescuer!

The bulk of yesterday was spent painting.  It was my first shot at doing 2-tone walls in one room- I was really happy with it and am painting Silas' room next weekend in a reverse scheme.  Before I knew it, I had a dinner party to go to with my family and took fabric along to make curtains at my mama's sewing machine!

Today was spent mostly putting everything back together.  Just something about re-arranging and Murphy's Oil soap to love your home!  I finished up the new little wood knobs for the thrifted desk for Jasper and made one also for his night stand.  These are little arch scraps left over from when I make the marble towers.  I just toss them in a bin and they always seem to find a purpose!  The monster/imaginary friends art phase Jasper did when he was just starting to draw have always been some of my favorites!  I am not sure why but I just love them!  So I sanded them up and made them into the knobs- they crack me up!

 

So I did not take a before picture out of embarrasement of how it looked- but here it is waiting for Jasper to hang art on the walls, I think I might have to make a wall pocket treasure keeper that Soulemama talks about as a project in her new book. 

I can't wait for my boys to come home and see!  I could not resist and snuck a new little wood present in each of their rooms- I got these from a great Etsian with the intention of saving them for x-mas but they are so cute, I could not resist giving them early- it is the cutest darn alien I have ever seen!  I split the set and put Jasper's astronaut and rocket on his desk, and the alien and ship on Silas' desk- so cute! 

Thanks for sharing in my photo journey of my solo work weekend- how you had a wonderful freedom weekend also!

Day 1- Project: Jasper's Room

Hubby and the boys went a camping this weekend and mama gets to play.  Well I don't know if everyone would call it play.  I have been promising my eldest a room redo since our big remodel we did in Dec/Jan and the opportunity finally came so Jody took both boys so mama could go to work.  They actually left Thursday night and I started it off in companionship of friends for a couple hours.  Then I woke up early yesterday morning and:

*cleaned the house left from finding camping equipment
*package up some orders
*stop by post office on the way to get paint and fabric, get waylaid by garage sale and a business closing sale, decide that I am procrastinating and try to get to fabric store!
*After getting fabric, stop by used furniture store and find adorable antique desk and chair set for Silas- still procrastinating and carry forth.
*Get paint, supplies, and some more wood to finish some orders this weekend
*2:00 pm, the cleaning, sorting, detoxing begins!
*6:00 pm- dusty, and with paint on my elbows I have 2 bags of goodwill, 2 bags of recycling and 1 bag of trash and the old carpet pulled out and things off the walls, and a thrifted desk re-painted
*7:00- I order a pizza and start re-setting the bookshelf downstairs and watch the Michael Jackson tribute special- can't help remember the growing up memories of his music. 
*9:30- too tired to make the curtains, I go ahead and roll out the new rug just to see how it is going to look and lay down on his floor . . .ahh day one is done, and lots of progress made!

tooo tired to make the curtains last night, so I am off to put the first coat of paint on the walls this morning and then make some wood characters for drawer pulls!

 

Here are a couple pictures- the new curtain fabric for both of the boys rooms and then my serious addiction to children's book- goodness I think I need to opening a neighborhood library!  It took me 6 trips downstairs to get all the books there!  Is there a support group out there for bookaholics!

flutterby

remember this guy that was hanging out in our dill patch?  He quickly made his crystalis and then beautifully he emerged in our indoor butterfly garden.  It was great watching him dry his wings and then he was ready to go!

Be watching at the Herbal Roots site as this wooden swallowtail is flying to her for her to share with her blog readers.  Today I could not help but noticing one part of summer I always love gardens with those sweet little cabbage white butterflies- I might just have to make a couple of these!

Have a sweet night!

just to share

I had this forwarded to me from a midwifery list and it is really just so lovely to watch that I had to share it here.  There is nothing like a birth video or slideshow to continually bring me to my knees of the power of women!

Of course the photos are just stunningly beautiful- I am so happy I had our birth photographed- if you are local and need a great photographer, here are a couple of my very talented friends:

Papillion Sky Photography

Anastasia Pottinger Photography

enjoy this beautiful video tonight!

http://www.lifeinmotionphotography.com/slideshows/amerlyn/

winners!

Jasper is always happy to oblige me on drawing the names for the giveaways!  He had just picked some flowers for his friend Sophia and agreed to do the honors for the monthly giveaway!

The winner of the July edition of Herbal Roots is Mona!  I will e-mail it to you today- Kristine did a marvelous job and the herb is Yarrow!  I have not done too much with yarrow so I am excited to explore this with the boys!  Be sure to checkout Kristine's site to get your July issue- there will be another chance to win the August issue at the end of the month!  Also be sure to watch the Herbal Roots site for the next critter giveaway!

The winner of the Wild Tree monster is sweet Mikayla- I will be making your Willow Tree Monster- I hope if will provide love and fun in your home! 

Don't forget those sign-ups at the Seasons Round Exchange- I am so to do a swap and add new things to the nature table!

get wild . . .

don't forget today is the last day of the contest for your Favorite Tree- send me a picture of you and your favorite tree- I will post it to the Flickr group and the winner with get their favorite tree made just for them via the Wild Tree Monsters!  e-mail me willow@mamaroots.com

Have fun!

inches

Can you tell that Silas was inspired by some fun summertime reading?  I took my cue from my boy and had to make a little storyset in the middle of some custom orders for the shop. 

Sing with me, inch by inch row by row, or

inchworm, inchworm measuring the marigolds!

A sure hit- give your kiddo a ruler, notepad, and pencil- enjoy watching to see what they measure!

weekend snapshots

a photo journey of the weekend started off with a trade all the way from New Zealand- a new addition to our gnome corner- the framed gnome holding a crystal- a lovely barter and such a sweet piece!

daddy making Grilled Pizza before I headed to Crafty Mama's on Friday night with my gal pals, and the boys went to Jasper's baseball game . . . mmmmm

A lovely Saturday with daddy experimenting with making homemade tamales (oh my!) and having friends over for dinner.  Tandum sit and spin action with Silas and his bud Lily!

Sunday full of cinnamon potion tea, swimming, and the boys working together to make a new toy while mama got in some late afternoon crafting!  Now onto some catch up work with the shop and some loving e-mails also!  Hope your weekend was soul-filling also!