mamaroots

melting

As most of the real snowman that are all over town start to melt I thought I would share with you a favorite snowman of the past holiday season.  He is a sweet lovie that joined our home in conjunction with swap that my friend Cindy helped to put together.  This fella is so sweetly knit by Joy at An Artful Family and he brought the snow with him!  Now I think I will start rubbing his belly for some more snow vibes- though not quite like on the East Coast, my younger sis said it is thigh high!  How about another fresh couple of inches! 

rainbows in the snow

All I really wanted was snow for Christmas, and it came just like magic on Christmas Eve!  There we were waking up on Christmas Eve to inches of lovely beautiful snow!  We played, we snuggled, and we enjoyed the holidays with lots of friends and family and virtually little travel- ahhh the amazing comfort of community!

So we are swinging into the last week of the year with a quiet anticipation of 2011!  I am excited to add a few new things to the shop this week including 1 waldorf calendar that is almost done and some other fun goodies! 

I look forward to sharing snippits of our holiday over the next week also but to start the week off here are a couple give-aways!  Kristine from Herbal Roots Zine and I are gearing up for another great year of co-collaboration on our sites.  I love having the opportunity to share a chance to win the zine each month with you.  I check out several different e-learning options for my boys and this by far has been our favorite and a loving staple in our home learning time. 

Leave a comment between now and Thursday at midnight for a chance to win the January issue of Herbal Roots Zine- it is chopped full of Turmeric Love and check out that sweet red panda on the cover!  Bonus entry points for following myself and Kristine on facebook too!

mamaroots facebook page

herbal roots zine facebook page

 

And be on the watch for the second give-away, a chance to win Cinnamon Monkey at herbal roots zine He is a bit chilly this December day, but he has a wonderful recipe for cinnamon hot cocoa to keep him warm!  I will be making another for the shop this week too, but scoot on over the Herbal Roots to sign up for a chance to win one too! 

Happy Monday everyone and happy last week of the year!

wishes

Signing out for a few days to play in the snow and enjoy time with friends and family- much handmade love to all of you!

simply solstice

We welcomed Lady Winter this week with a simplicity!  It was too cloudy in our neck of the wood to see the Lunar Eclipse but we tried and went to bed knowing we were sleeping under a red moon.  This new lovely lady has been added to our winter story table, she is from a favorite Etsy shop.  Here are a few pictures to share with you.

Simply traditional with our visit from our Fairy Tangle with sweet little presents

Simply recycled by using this fun idea from here to make little Yule log tubes with wee little presents from TP rolls- is there anything you can't do with TP rolls!

Simply "g" as in glogg and gnome stories

Simply grounded as we read under the Christmas Tree

Hoping your Solstice was simple and joyous- did you get to see the moon?

Christmas Corners

Busy as bees we are this week just like the rest of you but I will be popping in to share with you some of our Christmas Corners, the non-messy ones of course!  Those crafting corners all over the house are getting a little out of hand- such a supportive fella I married that knew I have an inate need to make!

Corner #1- the milk man!  Loving making ornaments this year and made this little cow ornament to leave out with the empties for our milkman today who joyfully brings us our yummy milk each week- yep the boys go through a gallon and half a week! 

Corner #2- my giant crochet snowflake from my seasons round swap partner last year.  I think it is destined to bring us good snow juju this week- calling from big storm on Friday- yeah!

Corner #3- the boys christmas critters from last year- Silas' Santa and Jasper's Goblin proudly guard our stockings on the mantle!  Wonder what critter we will make this year?

Corner #4- Tomtens on the window- these little fellas end up all over the house, but they have been digging hanging out on the window sill this year!  Don't forget the pattern to these is linked on the Once Upon a Table page, trust me they are super easy!

Maybe I will show some messy corners tomorrow!  Have a wonderful Solstice Eve!

date night

Yes the house is a bit of a mess, yes there are still lots of toys to make before the open house on Sunday, presents to make for family, yes I really would like to paint that one wall, but set it aside for a little date night!  Jasper and daddy had a boys night out with my dad and my nephew at the local b-ball game so Silas and I took the opportunity for a stroll downtown- lovingly named The District.  

Jasper had the chance to "shop" for his family at school with mock money and he was so excited to place his presents under the tree that I could see in Silas' eye that he wanted to get something for his brother.  So we stopped in a local shop and found a plethora of fair trade little critters that he hunted down the perfect one for his brother.

Then we strolled on down and got hot chocolate with sprinkles at the coffee shop as we kicked our feet up and snuggled on the couch before we came home to wrap up his present, take a bath and snuggle a bit more- of yes those little hands in mine walking down the street- it is date night!

just a little something

I am heading out a little work gathering at a local hot wings place with the boys.  Each year I like to give a little something to my co-workers.  This year I found these awesome old fashioned sweet sticks from Traders.  They are made with with real cane sugar and and other fun flavors like purple carrot juice, apple juice and currant juice!  I stamped up a quickie pie little tag with the sweet little humbug stamp and attaching with some yarn.  Then they can eat the sweet, and re-use the tag on another present or just chuck it in the woods to break down too!  

I am bummed I did not get 2 cans of the sticks, they would be great for the boys classes next week.  Now off for those hot wings!

first

First their was the making of the Lucia Buns dough late Saturday night as the wind howled.  Then there was mama, the first up yesterday morning to bake the buns.  The bread dough rising in the fridg was for the birds- next time just make the dough in the morning.  Then there was the pouncing on the boys to see the First Snow!  Then there was the delivery of the Lucia Buns to daddy (who was told not to get up until the boys delivered the buns) 

We had already planned on celebrating St Lucia day yesterday, much easier for us to do on a weekend, and the snow was a bonus!  The boys played in the snow, I finished some holiday decorating and made some toys.  It was a good day- did I mention the hot chocolate??

I wanted to share another decorating idea with you today too, we had some stocking, but I really wanted something different than the acrylic felt stockings of mine and hubbys and the hodge podge stocking for the boys and pets.  So  I went to my local fair trade store and got some awesome wool socks- real ones.  I then added our initials with just a bit of white wool and needle felted it- make sure you insert foam inside the sock, added a crochet yarn loop and there they are.  Here is the clever part- if I get a wild notion again to change the stockings we can undo the felted letter and wear them!  Though I think these are keepers!  The two small ones are actually kids sock and I had to get those off Etsy- they are for our dog and cat!

We ended our First Snow, St Lucia Day with a drive-by to our local attraction, Magic Tree.  We will be getting our picture done there before the holiday, but we could not resist a drive-by last night!  Hope you have a wonderful St Lucia Day- if you got some of the weekend snow enoy it, and it you want to pop on over to Zach Aboard- a  blog by my sweet friend Cindy she has an interview with me and a give-away too! 

when the boys decorate

Well, not much to say when you see the picture, hubby wanted to get in on the holiday decorating this year- enter a vintage kids bike that Jasper first biked on that we picked up at an antique store- add several strands of lights picked up from the curb, and shebam- a biketacular holiday decoration!  

star children

I wanted to share the winner of the wee little star child, the winner is #16- Ronnie!  Ronnie if you could e-mail me your snail mail addy, willow@mamaroots.com- congrats!  Here is the link if you want to look at the Star Talers Grimm story on-line, though I highly recommend the new book Star Child that is referenced in the project- it is so beautiful! 

Thank you everyone so much for your sweet kind words about the project at Rhythm of the Home- I am myself enjoying many of the projects!  There is also a section dedicated to St Lucia Day coming up- another way for your children to become Star Children. 

I have boys so they get to be star boys and help deliver St Lucia buns and coffee to daddy in bed with some help from mama!  I think they have outgrown their hats from last year so mama might have to help them make some new ones!  There are some fun and simple hats out there, I like the look of these.

Many  blessings to all of you as you prepare for giving  this season- may it bring beautiful stars into your homes!  I think we decided we are giving to Heifer this season- the idea of helping sustainable farming is very appealing to us, I think we are going to donate to help give a flock of chickens and some bees to some farmers this year- what is on your giving list?