mamaroots

dust off your rabbit ears

Wow- no fooling, April is here tomorrow and you might be like me and be scratching your rabbit ears and thinking about what you are going put in your Easter Baskets this year?  Well don't worry you still have lots of time and don't have to settle for the plastic fillers and sugary stuff, here is a little compiled list to help give you some ideas sprinkled with some links and also expand on some DIY ideas.

Now mind you I do like a good smattering of dark chocolate and jelly beans on Easter from our local candy store, but I don't think we need to go overboard on gifts, just a few fun treats is a joy.  

Ideas:

Jump ropes, tops, seeds or seed bombs, wood animals, soaps, felt wool animals, snack mats, art supplies, art or postcard holders, felting wool and tools, yarn, crochet hooks and knitting needles, knitting towers,  journals, rubber stamps, buttons, glass straws, books and I like to include a couple gold dollars in the eggs as well.

To expand on some ideas, you can take a little wood animal or small treasure and wrap yarn around it and it can become a surprise yarn ball or egg that they unwind to get too.  They can learn to finger knit or use the yarn to make bracelets etc . . .

I also discovered a love of stamping vintage hankies this spring also- find some stamps you like for the season and stamp a little love message on the hankie and tuck into an egg- no more blow and toss disposables, bring back and re-use hankies.  I use Versacraft ink for stamping on wood and fabric.

If you want an alternative to the plastic eggs, start a new trend of making or getting hollow wool eggs that you can stuff.  I started my collection this year with my newly found cousin via marriage discovery- Katie from Wool Food Mama- I am so glad we discovered we were related and her eggs are fantastic and so much more sustainable than plastic.

Sweet little peg gnomes are sweet for inside the eggs and you can whip up a little wood hat in no time flat!

Little wood dice and tokens are another nice alternative to candy for egg fillers also.

Wood turned eggs are pretty abundant this time of year, you can follow my tutorial for making story eggs, or you can use some chalkboard paint and have a fun surface to write on each year!

So what am I missing- want to add to the list to share?  Well I have one big goose size chalkboard paint egg that I would love to share with one of you in thanks for reading and also giving me such great support this spring in my humble little toy shop- it is so appreciated!

Leave me a comment and share one of your ideas to grow the list and you will be entered into the give-away for the big purple chalkboard paint egg-  deadline is midnight Sunday and I will announce the winner on Monday.  Comments are closed- thanks!

Always a bonus entry also for following me on my facebook page too-  Happy almost April everyone- hope you have a wonderfully natural, DIY, fun time dusting off your rabbit ears and preparing for Easter!

**Winner of the Chalkboard egg via my friend the Random Number Generator is #2- Tabitha D!  Congrats Tabitha-if you could e-mail me your snail mail addy I will send you your egg-

Herbal Roots winner

Lucky numero 4 is the winner for Herbal Roots Wild Cherry- Miss Mikayla- congrats Mikayla I will e-mail you the like today!  

And with April just around the bend here is some Wild Cherry Blossom Fairy love for you from Cicely Mark Barker- if you like the Flower Fairies series there is now a Complete Volume- slipcased, pink, and oh so lovely!

In April when the woodland ways
Are all made glad and sweet
With primroses and violets
New-opened at your feet,
Look up and see
A fairy tree,
With blossoms white
In clusters light,
All set on stalks so slender,
With pinky leaves so tender.
O Cherry tree, wild Cherry tree!
You lovely, lovely thing to see!
-Cicely Mary Barker

need I say more?

Our long growing collection that started when we were given a copy of The Tale of Samuel Whiskers that was being discarded from a library- can you imagine?  My mama in law gave it to a little fella named Jasper when he was around 2.

Now we only obtain our copies via library sales, used sales just because I like to think about all those other families adoring these books!  Silas' mention of know what tobacco was- as in rabbit tobacco, i.e. lavendar that prompted us to break these out again this week.

I just tucked in my little one after reading The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies tonight- made us quite "soporific"!  Bunnies, new words, and fantastic books from the early 1900's- really do I need to say more?

peep

Thank you so much to everyone for you kind words about our bunny experience last week.  The boys were really mature and loving about the whole process.  They were upset with our cat, but then also understood that she would rock in the wild and be able to provide for her family if needed- the natural cycle of life home lesson in the flesh indeed!  Jasper touched me the most when we came home to find the little bunny we had tucked up in the rabbit fur had died that he wanted to take care of burying it.  He picked it right up, noticed how different it felt than when living and then went and buried a little grave for it in Tanglewood with a sweet little marker. 

We also went on to talk about how prolific and fertile rabbits are and how they have become a symbol of the spring and Easter.  All around a sad experience, I prefer not to have bunnies so close to our house though I love them so!

Other sure signs of spring- the daffodils and the spring peepers!  A sign of the last of the month here at mamaroots too are the fun give-aways!  It is that excellent time of the month where you have a chance to win a copy of the April Herbal Roots Zine from Kristine at Herbal Roots- she has put together a fun issue for April- Wild Cherry.  I am sure my in-laws won't mind a visit so we can explore their wild cherry trees!

Leave a comment here between now and midnight on March 30 and I will draw a winners name and e-mail a copy on Thursday March 31- just in time to start out one of my favorite months!  Big thanks to Kristine for sponsoring the give-away each month!

Extra entry points for following both myself (mamaroots) and Kristine (Herbal Roots) at our facebook pages.  Tell Kristine mamaroots sent you!

mamaroots facebook

herbal roots facebook

And be sure to hop on over to Herbal Roots zine for a chance to win a little spring peeper from inspired from the Burdock issue from March- good luck!

open letter to all mama rabbits

Dear mother rabbits,

Please do not build your rabbit nests within 2,000 feet of our home.  For if you do I fear I cannot stop my dear old cat from systematically detecting, finding, destroying, and then eating one by one your dear little baby rabbits.  We do not hold her at fault, she has amazing hunting instincts. Though we understand it is the natural cycle between predator and prey, it breaks our hearts.  

We tried to comfort this most recent victim of our cat's hunting prowess last night.  We are comforted to know that this little one did not die from the gruesome killing from our cat, but in the gentle peaceful comfort of a warm nest of our creation while we kept our cat in the house.

Know that your little one was loved by us and respectfully given back to the earth.  Please share our letter with as many in your rabbit community in this part of our village.

sincerely and with regret-

family in yellow brick home near Tanglewood

let's talk bucha!

Some of you have mentioned wanting more info on my journey with Kombucha so I thought I would share a little more of my journey this fine fine spring day, especially since I bottled up my offical 4th batch late last night!

Mind you I am still early in the stages of navigating and learning, but I tell you what it is super tasty so far.

I grew my mother or SCOBY (symbiotic colony of baterica and yeast) from scratch with the help of a friend from the last little dregs of a store bought bottle of bucha.  We started with green tea, filtered water, sugar and then poured in the dregs- it took a couple weeks but a thin little SCOBY grew! 

So here is my basic schedule, tools, and variations:

tools- I basically use glass gallon jar, black tea, sugar, funnel, large brew pot and my jar cover and chalk label, journal

I start off with taking 3 quarts of filtered water and bring to boil, add roughly 1 cup sugar ( I cut it back just a bit this week) and let that boil for another 5 minutes.  I add 5 black tea bags and let that brew for  15 minutes.  Toss the bags in the compost and then let that cool way down- you don't want to burn your mother so I leave that sit for 2-4 hours sometimes.

After I have bottled the previous fermented tea (more on that in a second) I wash very well my gallon glass jar and add the cooled tea, my mother SCOBY as well as the cup to cup and half of the prior batch of fermented tea to the jug.  I like to check out my SCOBY, so with very clean hands I pick her up, make sure there is no mold and lay her down inside with the fresh brewed tea.  Add the cover and add the fresh date to my chalkboard label and note it in my journal.  I generally let this sit on my counter- not in direct sunlight for 10-12 days.  I take a sample with a straw to see if I like it, usually checking the sweetness.  Just dip the straw in, cap the top hole with your finger, lift out and taste away.

For bottling, I decide ahead of time 1-2 days what flavor I want to add.  In my clean recycled Grolsch beer bottles I add about 2 tablespoons of pure juice.  My first batch was just Green Tea- not much to my liking.  Since then I have done:

elderberry, pomegranite/cranberry combo, and last night I made ginger juice and used that in all 4 bottles. 

I made the ginger juice by taking fresh ginger roots cut into pieces covered with some water and blended, then strained so I just had juice.  I fill up the bottles with the fermented tea on top of the juice until almost the top, seal the flip caps and then stick in dark warm cabinet in the kitchen.  In about 3-6 days it is carbonated and wonderful- move to the fridge and as a family we pop a bottle and share.

The 3 quarts works perfect for my 4 bottles and the cup to cup and half to go in the next batch.  That so far has seemed to be my cycle.  My mother is growing nice and thick and I will start peeling off the babies and finding homes for them probably in the next couple of batches.

So far it is working pretty well- I might get another round of Grolsch (flip-top) bottles so I have some back-ups, and one more cover so I can launder and swap out with no interruption in the cycle. 

The bottles were a bit hard to come by in my neck of the woods- I found larger amber bottles but they were too big and the bucha was flat before we drank it all.  Before you order flip-top bottles you might just check out your beer store and get a 4-pack of Grolsch, about the same price with a tasty barley beverage inside that will need to be taken care of in a yummy way.

Also- glass gallon jars are a bit tricky to come by also with all of the plastic in our culture, you might check for bulk pickles and have a pickle party and recycle the jar!  I got mine from my hubbies work, but there is also this source for bottles.

The cover is just genius and it looks wonderful too- very clever design from this artist- highly recommend.  So that is pretty much how we brew so far.  Now, I found you can get a SCOBY on-line, a couple Etsy shops have them for free, you just pay the shipping, but chances are if you have a friend brewing, they will peel one off for you.  

Any other flavor recommendations out there?

spring!

just a little treasure

Just a little treasure for my treasures- my grandfather loved Rolos- and they just so happen to make the cutest piles of gold.  Just a simple little treasure hunt around our own yard showed me that my boys know their directions pretty darn well!

Since we learned the leprechauns are the shoemakers of the fairy world it was pretty fitting for my little "shoemaker" boys to start off their treasure hunt at our old Cobbler's bench.  

With just a few simple clues on a fun old leprechaun image and with the help of one of my felting extraordinaire friends who made us a sweet wool leprechaun, we had fun a simple little afternoon- we even "lucked" out and got a warm almost springy day- still hunting for a 4-leaf in the new clovers popping up in the yard!  Hope you had fun with your treasures today too.

peace plum project

  Have you been feeling this in between place since the quake in Japan?  In one minute functioning like normal: making oatmeal, washing dishes, heading to work, picking up boys from school and then in another minute it is hardly imaginable what has happened in Japan.  We have talked about it many times, heard from our friend in Tokyo, and I have spent many nights in tears and then sneak into my boys rooms before going to sleep and gently tuck them back in and kiss them and just take in the whole damn situation.

So I thought about it for a couple days and then thought about what I like to do so much and brainstormed on something we could make that we could help to raise money for Japan.  Maybe because it is almost spring, maybe because we love ume, not sure but it led us to making Peace Plums.  They are a symbol of spring, symbol of re-birth, and in Japan known as the flower of peace.

We will be making these plums for the next couple of weeks with 100% of the profits being donated to the relief efforts.  At the end of the month we will be making one big donation to the Red Cross.  

We had another moment of silence tonight for the loss that has happened over a pot of the last of our ume tea.  I would love for you to join us in a moment of silence and our effort to help with what we create.

I will keep you posted on our progress- in peace.

 

***3/18 update- I will be posting more listings this weekend as soon as I am caught up on making the first batch of plums- thanks so much to everyone- your response is so wonderful!

lucky upcycling!

A fun little project for this week on the bench that I wanted to share with you.  We have been having fun creating these little spots for some of the holidays where we can write little messages to each other, wishes, etc . . . for upcoming holidays. 

For St. Patty's I did some wet on wet green painting with my crafty mama's last Friday that I made into some shamrocks.  We will be writing wishes all week long in hopes that some little leprechaun's do some granting! 

I added a sweet little basket for them to go into and then when I was at an antique mall this weekend getting a little fix I spotted this wonderful green apron.  I decided to upcycle it, cutting away the straps, adding a basic cotton backing and using the pocket to tuck in the blank shamrocks- a lucky find and fun upcycle- beats buying new fabric and making the pocket and I like to think that there is some wonderful energy in that old apron!

A fun easy tip is to use a cookie cutter for your stencil if you are cutting out your basic shapes.

Now we enter a fun week where our home learning will be all about the folklore of St. Patty's, cooking some irish food, and I am planning a little treasure hunt for the boys on Thursday!