mamaroots

dragony harvest and another give-away

How was your harvest celebration yesterday?  Ours was a lovely meal of salmon, wild rice, asparagus, dragonbread, squash, and blackberries!  I have to admit I needed to cheat with the bread this year, I was working an author event at my day job until later in the day in what would have been the dough making time, so Pillsbury it was!  But heck, both Jasper and I met quite an amazing person with an obvious deep flame burning inside him- his name was Mark Zupan, an amazing athlete and awesome down to earth person.

It really is an amazing benefit to my day job plus all the fantastic books I get to share with my boys!

So even though we used commercial pre-made dough, we made the best of it and even added some red to the fire this year.  Silas thought it might have looked a little puppy like after it baked!

Inspired by Jackie Morris' book at dinner we round table talked about what our own dragons would look like:

Silas- it is a water dragon that is blue with blue stripes on his belly, he is as big as our whole house and when he shoots out flames they become the waves of the water in the ocean, oh and his name is Jiji

Jasper- mine is a black dragon the flies in the sky and when he blows flames it is the lightning and his name is Jaggletooth

Daddy- mine is invisible so it is hard to describe him, but I know when he is there because with his breath comes steam that blows out all the candles in the room.  He uses steam to make rice because his favorite food in the world is rice balls which he makes in his arm pits, oh and he rides a bike!

mama- my dragon is a rather small dragon, she loves to hang out in the pockets of my skirts.  She is also a bit of a color changer, when she is hanging out on the forest floor she is mossy green, but when she is with me she is the deepest red.  Her favorite food is wheat berries, and when I am making toys she hangs out on my shoulder and her breath powers my wood burner!

Now that is some serious dragon energy in one house!  Here are a few photos from our Dragonmas.

I wanted to also to announce the winner for Herbal Roots the October issue- Kristine from Herbal Roots has made another wonderful issue for us all to enjoy!  The winning number randomly choosen is 9- Boatbaby- congratulations Cindy and Zach- I will e-mail you the issue today.

And just because we love dragons and books so much I wanted to do one more give-away this week.  We happen to have an extra copy of a fantastic book.  Jasper was gifted this book by his auntie and uncle and we had a prior copy.  Well of course we are keeping the gifted book but it is such a good book that we thought someone else might like our extra.  So if you would like a chance at winning a copy of Kenny and the Dragon- leave a comment here between now and Saturday Oct 2- I will draw the winners name on Sunday- Extra entry for sharing out there in blogland!

Good luck!

dragoneve

It is the Eve of Dragonmas- what we call Michaelmas in our home.  The season changes and sometimes it is even harder to contain that wild dragon energy in the upcoming inside months, but it is a wonderful night to eat, celebrate and get ready.  We also like to talk about parts of our dragon energy we may not like as much.  I have grown to know my eldest son's dragon energy, good or bad it lights a fire in my soul.  I am not blind to the parts of his personality that may challenge us- I just try to learn from them.  We have been on a really good roll and I am really looking forward to our continued movement into the fall days.

So tonight we gathered up the dragons around and about the house to go on the cobblers bench, gathered up some reading, and rode some dragons in the yard.

I wanted to gather together a list for you if you love to read books with your kiddos as much as I do, then I was thinking you might like a list of some of our favorites.  Fitting in nicely, are 2 books off the list that are newer and wonderful.  The first is by Elsa Beskow- a new one worth checking out called The Land of Long Ago- I love this tree dragon in this one, all Beskow fans will like this one and the pesky little gnome in it!  

But what really caught my eye for Dragonmas was by much loved Jackie Morris, Tell Me a Dragon- it goes page by page with each character describing their dragon- exactly what Dragonmas is all about for us! Silas loved the pictures- I think he is thinking up his dragon!

So firey blessings to all of you for tomorrow and hoping that flame burns strong!  Below is the list complete with a sweet drawing Jasper made for me to use just for this purpose, I did the watercolors and fell in love with it-  guess I am a little partial!

Download Dragon Reads

snap, crackle, and pop

Snap- the weather changed like that on us this weekend.  After helping some friends move this weekend we had a surprise visitor come by as we were finishing up some fall yard clean up.  One of my hubbys college room mates brought with him hugs for the boys and the winds of cooler weather.  It carried us into Sunday and we woke up to continue to shut down the windows in the house.

We ended the weekend with a crackle and pop of a warm fire in the chiminea and oh yes a little fireside story time!  Being that Mr. October is just around the corner this story time had a little spooky edge to it- but no worries- all slept well in their snug warm beds last night!

I am working on harvesting some herbs from the herb garden this week before the real cold snap hits, the comfrey is begging to be harvested!  Hope your weekends were lovely and I leave you today with the Herbal Roots Monthly Give-Away!

Leave a comment here for a chance to win a copy of the October issue of Herbal Roots- Echinacea! The deadline for entry is Wed Sept 29- I will announce the winner and e-mail the zine on Thursday Sept 30.

Want and extra chance to win:

Post on your blog or other social network with link

Follow mamaroots on Facebook

Follow Herbal Roots Zine on Facebook

And if you are feelin a little foxy this month- be sure to pop on over to Herbal Roots Zine where Kristine is hosting a mamaroots wood fox give-away!  Good Luck!

whirly and twirly

 

I think I have always wanted to use those two words in a blog post!  Look what I found while searching for a fun poem for this fall Friday:

The Squirrel

Anonymous

Whisky, frisky,
Hippity hop;
Up he goes
To the tree top!

Whirly, twirly,
Round and round,
Down he scampers
To the ground.

Furly, curly
What a tail!
Tall as a feather
Broad as a sail!

Where's his supper?
In the shell,
Snappity, crackity,
Out it fell.

Hope you have a wonderful Friday as well, tonight is local Crafty Mamas- on the craft list is making felted acorns and dragon puppet too.  I probably looked pretty "nutty" gathering up acorn caps where ever I could find them this week while walking to get the boys from school!  So for all of you expert wool felt acorn makers out there, what is your preferred method, wet or needle?

In my squirrel searching this morning I also found this great huge list of different ideas for some squirrel learning on the homefront- enjoy!

 

falling

Hoping you don't mind a photo montage of our first day of fall.  A full Harvest Equinox Moon doesn't come along every day!

If I had 3 wishes:

Jasper:

1-All the money we needed

2-Lifetime supply of macaroni and cheese

3-Mansion

 

Silas:

1-Go to the ocean and pet a shark

2-I had a loose tooth

3-Wish it was always sunny!

 

daddy:

1-good health for all the people in my life

2-time and resources to travel all over

3-3 more wishes!

 

mama:

1-help with grinding wheat for Mabon Apple Bread

2-peaceful walk under Harvest Moon

3-red barn wood shop!

 

Here is to wishing you a bountiful Equinox Eve!  What would you wish for?

keeping it slow

Settling back into some more slow days before Autumn Equinox!  Remember that slow down theme that I am rolling with here at the end of September.  I decided for now I will be holding off on taking any more custom orders at the shop till after the holidays.  I will be completing the current orders that I have in and then trying to work through several new ideas that are in my journal!

Today after school while Jasper was doing some homework Silas and I settled into some number play with some lovely German flash cards and then enjoyed a hilarious book all dealing with school starting, trolls, and tolls!  Yep- we are still working on some troll work here on the homefront!  This book caught their funny bones and they tried to get daddy with some riddles from the story when he got home!

Speaking of Tolls- here are some pictures from our little ol jaunt cross a Toll Way to a bluegrass festival we have been going to for about 3 years now- and I found what I was looking for- some bones- just exactly what I have been wanting to learn to play.  I didn't drive hubby too crazy on the six hour drive home!

Oh yes and let me tell you the van changed everything- talk about smooth travel!  Here are some more pictures of our slow jam- friends, music, and oh yes much needed sleep!  Slow greeting to all of you!

 

Before I share wonderful pictures and stories from our September jaunt that we have done with friends the past few years I wanted to share that I packed up a 13 pound box full of handmade cloth moon pads that are destined for Haiti next week.  Just how many cloth pads is 13 pounds?  Well- 109 to be exact. The folks from Operation Haiti will be leaving on Sunday and taking our handmade pads with them.

I wanted to extend a huge thank you to all the mamas who helped tear, cut, and sew.  If you are still interested in helping I believe they are still looking for donations.  Be sure to check out all the details and watch for great details of their return and stories they bring!

I am so primed from making these for the women in Haiti that I am ready to make myself a whole new fresh set.  No matter what I have tried for natural moon products I still come back to cloth.  

Thanks again everyone!

back soon

 

stepping away from computerland for a couple days-  I will be back soon with some fun new pictures- have a great end of your week!

slowing it down

Been running pretty hard these first couple of weeks here in September and it is time to start slowing it down.  I think you will notice the theme here!

I decided to stream-line down a bit for the holidays and got some new business cards that I absolutely fell in love with.  It will save on me printing out on my little ol desk printer and the ink cartridges. Don't worry the twig pencils will still be included in the holiday orders too!

I really do love this time of the year and also it is a time where I start moving out of the summer seasonal toys and into the fall/winter toys.  This sweet little autumn girl just might be my last snail till next spring!  I do have just a couple more fall bugs coming to the shop but then they will go into hibernation till next year!  Loving this Slow Toy revolution.

Sat outside and just watched as my youngest fella was thrilled with the simplicity of silk streamer and felted wool ball- priceless!

Slow links for you this Tuesday- all at Etsy:

Snail Business Cards

Autumn Snail

Snail Silk Streamer

How are you slowing down for the fall?