mamaroots

on a wire

so many kind thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes and sweet words!  I wanted to give another clue also as I have gotten several very close guesses on the book- the capybara influenced a couple of this authors works, but the particular book does not have capy or capybara in the title. . . mmm hope that helps!  I love hearing from you and the memories with the book!

I had to also mention today this amazing movie that I saw this weekend that happens to have, you guessed it a children's book connection!

The movie I watched curled up with hubby on the couch Sunday night was amazing and mind blowing think about!  The movie was called Man on a Wire about frenchman Philippe Petit who was the wirewalker who walked between the Twin Towers in the 70's.  I could not imagine, but the movie was so intriguing and well done!  It played at out local film fest and was fabulous!  The children's book that was done a couple years ago is called The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.  It is lovely!

If you get a chance watch the movie with your hunny and read the book with your kiddos- amazing to see what someone was able to do by following their dreams!

Sometimes

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter yesterday!  I was surrounded with my family and had such a relaxing Easter!  I mentioned that April is a big birthday month in my family.  In my maternal line there is a strong tradition of women giving birth in the spring.  My grandma gave birth to my Auntie at the very end of March and my mama in early April.  My mama was working super hard on this day 37 years ago bringing me into the world, and I brought my second son into the world on the 18th.  So when Easter falls like it did this years we often get to celebrate both my mama and my own birthdays along with lots of jelly beans and chocolate! 

I put together my mama a mojito basket with a beautiful handmade muddler from Oregon and we broke it in yesterday!  How good is a Sunday afternoon with a Cuban cocktail and a lap full of toys that I was sanding!

The Easter bunny was super sneaky this year again, the boys are sure they caught a glimpse of his white tail this year before he took off in the woods!  The boys each fell asleep with their wood phones from Woodmouse last night- not sure who they were calling in their dreams!

I wanted to do a special giveaway for you.  I am sure if you read this often that by now you know that I adore children's books and toys- they joy that they bring me has never left me since I was a kid.  As a book buyer children's books are my favorite genre to order.  If you have had the wonderful chance to read Zen Shorts, you may know of the idea of giving presents to others on your birthday.  This year I wanted to start that tradition.  My birthday took on a whole new meaning 4 years ago when I was preparing for my homeVBAC with my second baby.  I think there is something special with sharing a birthday week with both your mama and son!

 

So here is the special mama-son set for the giveaway!  Leave a comment between now and April 21st for the giveaway.  It is a special wood mama and son and a felt grassy mat with mushrooms of course -one of my favorite foods!  I loved making this set!

Sometimes
I carry you on my back when your feet are tired
Sometimes
I hold you up tall to see the stars
Sometimes
I shelter you from April rains
Always
I remember
first knowing of you on a hot August afternoon
first wiggle and stretch
first rush of birth strength
first finger touch on your head
first embrace when you opened your eyes

I hope you enjoy it- Want to earn some extra points?  If you can tell me the children's book that inspired this set I will put your name in twice.  E-mail me if you know the book.  Here are some clues:

*The give-away will happen on Earth Day- how cool is it to have your birthday the same month as EarthDay
*These little guys are based on the Amazon animal Capybara.
*This book was written just a couple years before I was born!
*They love mushrooms also, but only white ones that grow underground- they prefer grass!

I am off for a few hours of gloreous antiquing solo before I pick up my boys and hang out waiting for daddy to come home with birthday cake! 

there really is an Easter Bunny!

 

I had high hopes in doing natural dyes this year with the eggs but my mama's vintage method called to us today and so we broke out the food coloring and vinegar!  We were quite pleased with the results and it was a fun experiment to try the same color combinations but in different order to see if the colors would be the same!

One poor little egg had thought he was Humpty in another life and took a nose dive off the counter so we had to eat him up right then and give the thumbs up approval on the eggs on the ol taste buds!

Jasper enjoyed an early egg hunt at friend's house- after some wonderful wine and chatting for mama we headed home and there before us at our house that ol rascally rabbit left us a sweet present!  Of course I am trying to figure which of our sweet friends has snuck in and left us such a nice treat and then I notice the boys running to the woods and shouting "Thank You Easter Bunny"- so I am putting on my Sherlock hat to try and figure out with my sluth like skills just who left us such a treat but if you are out there reading this right now Mr Rabbit- thanks for the treats and continuing the magic for us! 

This mama rabbit is off to hook up my own little bunnies their baskets and settle in for a cup of Ume Tea, a little sanding, and a movie- have a wonderful Easter tomorrow!

book smithing

shew, I just finished up a bit of a marathon couple of days at my day job as a book buyer.  April definitely is one of the busy months with an added event for me this year of hosting an author event with David Sedaris.  It was a fun and long night but one thing for sure, you have to love an author that appreciates book people and I think that was the first time that I was greeted as "hello Book Smiths"- it started the night off well!

So with next few days off at home and relaxing and also loving my new title of "book smith" I thought I would share an oldie but goodie with a new spin before the Easter weekend with you.  The Penguin publishing group put together the Naturally Better Peter Rabbit line this year.  These little Beatrix Potter books have long been a favorite of ours.  Our little books came mostly from yard and library sales, but if you have not had the pleasure of reading these sweet stories from the early 1900's then why not start off with Peter this weekend.  The Naturally Better line is done in part with Beatrix Potters vision of environmentalism.  The books are printed on recycled paper with soy based ink- it is the same small format with a green edge to it!

I love Potters use of language and it was one of the book series that amazed me that Jasper would sit through reading time and time again as a little bitty fella!  We just might try and find the Beatrix Potter movie to watch this weekend!

Hope you have a wonderful Friday and be on the watch of the next contest giveaway next Monday- it will be treat to you as readers because I have to warn you, it is birthday week for both me and Silas and I always get a little sentamental this time of year!!

Eggs on the bench

 
A little look at what's on the bench this week will show that we are all thinking about the eggy fun of Easter this week!  What I found today on the bench:

*last of the basket of nuts to be cracked
*magnifying glass of course!
*chicken feeder!  No chickens are not on the horizon but these make really fun candy dispensers for birthday party and a great excuse to take Silas to see the baby chicks and ducks from the farm store!
*Wood Easter egg painted by Jasper
*Ceramic egg cups for the boys to eat their morning eggs with - a new treasure
*Treasure box full of stones Jasper likes to give out after dinner!

 

All of this eggy goodness reminds me of wanting to share some ideas for some alternatives to some of the standard Easter fare.  Here are my sweet bunnies in a great photo taken by my friend Amy- love the ears!

If you have not seen the tutorial from Living Crafts, you can grow real grass for you baskets!  I think I missed out on the window of time for this one!  You can also use green roving wool for the liner and it can become a craft your child can do later.

Another tutorial that is great is on the Natural Kids team blog from Chimera- it is so sweet I am attempting this one on Sat!  It is for chicks!

One more tutorial just for fun- Soulemama shared a tutorial for super sweet portrait bookmarks you can embroider- it is from her upcoming book!

Here are some other ideas we have done:
*packs of seeds
*books
*wool chicks
*stamps
*journals
*wood animals

and of course some jelly beans and peeps!

This year the Easter Bunny also told me that he was sneaking in Woodmouse phones, decoders, and customized stamps into their baskets! 

What is going in your basket??

sunday snapshots

Simply Sunday in snapshots!

 

*My favorite breakfast- homemade biscuits and gravy!  Serious weakness especially with a bowl of fresh berries!
*Jasper's monsters we made for our friends birthday party- little happy forest monsters with season changing necklaces!
*carving stamps for Silas' birthday party!
*the butterfly life cycle cards contest winner- Silas did the honors and drew the name- congrats Kristine!

wool virgins and other fun beginnings to the weekend

 

 

last night was the monthly gathering of the Crafty Mamas and I was able to take in some of the ending late day light streaming into The Womb Room and catching some lovely peaceful moments.  Soon  the mamas came and we settled in for an evening of chocolate, olives, cheese and other yummy snacks while catching up and doing some wool felt Easter Eggs.  I had to laugh when it was described as being wool virgins for the first time mamas wet felting.  I can remember how frustrated I was the first time I tried it!  But some beauty eggs headed home along with hugs and full hearts.

Saturday arrived with some catch up time for orders the were on their way to the ye ol' post office today.  They have gotten to know me well there- we like the postal attendant that gives us suckers!  The boys gathered newly blooming wee flowers and are just enjoying soaking up the sunshine today.  I enjoyed some sunshine planning what to do with this yummy blue organic cotton yarn I got today.

I am taking a break from the shop for a few days to make a special little fella his birthday presents.  My baby is turning 4 in just a couple weeks!  We decided to write a story for him, make the characters out of wood, and make a story set for him.  We are leaning towards an adventurous story of the Hati brothers in their search for the perfect ball!  The Hati is the distant cousin of Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Russian Leshiy!  His horns are rainbow colored from eating a few too many skittles!  Jasper and Silas loved these when I made them for the shop and I have been waiting for just the right time to give him his!  I need to work on the story some more, maybe a few skittles will help!

Silas has also asked to go bowling for his birthday and he wants a mama made shark candle holder- so it sounds like a land shark bowling theme!  I can work with that!  Off to carve some bowling stamps for his invites and make some guacamole just because!  Hope your Saturday is lovely!

Don't forget today is the last day to enter the contest for the butterfly life cycle cards!  Drawing tomorrow!  Here is some other great contest happening also- of course I put my name in, but you should too!

siayla.blogspot.com
a fun kids CD- love kids music!

thestoryofkat.blogspot.com
awesome matroishka bag set!  love it!

woolies-woolies.blogspot.com
of course don't forget that Natural Kids Team!

saintsandspinners.blogspot.com
fantastically fun contest for the book lover in all of us

Absolute and Unreal

Does something ever happen to bring you to your knees?  Often it is the slight way that Silas looks out the window, or the love I feel in Jasper's hands, the amazing companionship in my hubby and sometimes, okay well often it is a chidren's book.  So many are absolutely so beautiful- creating unreal worlds that our imaginations can enter.

Today my hands got to hold and I got to read a book I have been waiting for since I first ordered it out of a catalog a few months ago.  You may remember be putting this gal on my top list of illustrators that I just can't get enough of.  Her name is Nicoletta Ceccoli and she lives in Italy.  There is just something so incredibly fantastical, soft and yet illuminating in her work.  The other amazing thing is how often her illustrations get paired up with incredible authors.

No fooling this is my favorite book so far this spring.  It is called How Robin Saved Spring by Debbie Ouellet.  Lady Winter does not want to got to sleep for months and devises a way for Sister Spring to stay asleep.  What happens when a bear, caterpillar, lady bug, tree, skunk, and robin determine to help spring come?  Just so lovely and fun new story for the seasonal change.  That Lady Winter is quite the knitter!

I recommend getting this one sink down on your knees in the grass with your kiddos, let the robin sing and enjoy this book for it's lovely story and let the pictures wash over you! 

On the bench

 

I love the different features I have seen on different blogs like the corners theme or other areas where you get to catch a glimpse of their home, their life.

A piece of furniture that my hubby and I bought a couple years ago that we fell in love with at the antique mall was an old cobbler's bench.  I had no idea what it was, but as soon as he saw it he knew.  You see his last name is Schomaker- ignore the weird spelling and it is pronounced shoemaker and he actually comes from a long line of German shoemakers.

His father did not go into the trade, but he did dabble in shoe repair apprenticeship when Silas was a baby until the shop closed.  As a culture most over our shoes we buy are unfortunately disposable.  Despite this fact I am fascinated with the part of my hubby and now my son's name.  This is a picture of my husbands great grandfather Matin with a shoe in hand- I can see that same gleam in my own son's eyes!

Now our cobblers bench sits in our dining room and has a tendancy to collect different objects.  When I was thinking about the ebb and flow of different found trinkets and treasures that make their way to the old bench I knew I found my "corner" to share with you.

So this week on the bench physically is:

*Beautiful card that Jasper got at the swap from my friend Amy's photography Papillion Sky Photography

*Silas' sprite from Syrendell with Bartlet pear blossums

*My first copy of Storytelling magazine begging to be read!

On the bench of my mind are making plans for my Silas birthday, writing his birthday story with Jasper, and planning for Earthday vending!  Where are the shoemaker elves when I need them!

Oh and I almost forgot, all this talk about shoes- there is a sweet book that just came out yesterday called "What Can You Do With an Old Red Shoe"- by Anna Alter- sweet illustrations and perfect for us crazy recycling DIYers!!  Check it out if you get a chance- she has a sweet blog also!

teamwork

Happy April everyone!  Yay I love April- big time busy month, but one of my favorite months!  I am on one the Etsy teams called The Natural Kids Team- a really fun dynamic group of crafters who make all natural items for the kiddos. 

We are working on some fun sets of giveaways in the upcoming weeks.  You can find the giveaways on fellow teammate Sara (aka Woolies) blog- check it out, it is a pretty sweet set!  The first contest is running for 2 weeks.

Starting in April we are also one of the monthly sponsors on Soulemama's blog- always inspiring spot- anyone else anxious for her new book coming in August?