mamaroots

pom pom critters- all natural

Have you seen those vintage pom pom critters out and about as we get closer to Valentines?  For some reason I also loved these little buggers when I was little.  I saw them at Target recently too as a kit for kids to make and picked it up and did my normal groan when I saw all the "foam, plastic, and nylon" materials inside.

I thought it really can be made all natural and even cuter!  So I rummaged through my supplies and put together a little fella.  It is pretty quick and would be a super cute little friend to Valentine friends!

Supplies:

natural material yarn- I used a varigated cotton yarn

wood heart

pom pom discs

glue

wool roving in white and black

1-Create a yarn pom pom, I used the largest disc set in the Clover pom pom making kit- but you could adjust this depending on the size of your hearts.

2- After you have your pom pom all trimmed up, glue to the heart so that the upper part of the heart creates the feet.

3- Take some white wool roving and wet felt in between your fingers to create to small wool balls.  Dry in a towel, the take a small bit of black wool roving and needle felt this on the white ball to create eyes.

4- Glue the eyes in place and your critter is all set to keep your Valentine company!

sparks

Hoping you have some creative sparks happening as you light your candles today- in which ever way you may celebrate today, Candlemas, Imbolc, or that furry little fella that sees his shadow, may you start feed that flame now that the seasonal shift is starting to happen.  Though in fairness we have hardly had a winter here in the midwest- oh yes the ticks and blood suckers will feast on us this summer- we will pay dearly!

Last year we were in the middle of an amazing blizzard, today the boys were playing soccer after school in t-shirts!  Go figure!  So a little photo montage for the day, no we did not have special bread and milky cheese for today.  We actually had homemade pizza and chocolate chip marble bars, but we told stories, lit candles, candles, and even more candles!  Welcome February!

Year of the Dragon-

Happy Chinese New Year!  I knew I had to do a little something special for my eldest who has and adores dragon energy!  I improvised the traditional Chinese Paper Dragons a little more yarn and felt style for some story table play!  I little bit of knowledge of a knitting tower is needed, but in case you don't have one and want to make this today the head of the dragon makes a nifty finger puppet too!

You can download this Once Upon a Table project below and print out the PDF- have fun today!  Don't forget that fortune cookies, dumplings, and hot tea make a great snack- that is what has been requested for an after school snack by my young dragon puppeteers! 

Download New Year Dragon

2012

Welcome 2012!  Nice to say today was a welcome:

*handmade donuts (apparently a Dutch New Year Tradition)

*new years gnomes and sparkling juice

*embracing new organizing for new craft mediums (with some help from my little strong helper)

*more gnomes bringing us a good luck mushroom

Thank you everyone for joining me her again for another year, I am so glad you came.  This year should continue to challenge me with the new regulations that are coming into play.  I will be posting this week how I will be embracing these new changes and how it will affect the shop.  

Cheers- maybe one more glass of bubbly before bed!

reviewing

Before I start moving into the New Year, I thought it would be fun to share some of the Christmas gifties we made and received.  Our family presents were a really fun combination from all of us.  It was some homemade gingerbreads, boy designed Yeti ornaments, homemade Elderberry jelly, and some delicious homemade bread in a handmade bread bag.

I took a que from Soulemama with making the bread bags, and I tracked down a vintage linen calendar towel from a significant year for each family.  Might have been an anniversary or birthday.  The hardest part was tracking down the towels, and when I say hard I actually mean super fun!  I then just put in a quick seam for the tie, stitched around the edges, added some quilt binding tape for the ribbon tie and that was that!

Now I have a purpose for some rescued tea towels in the future!

have a merry Yeti holiday!

leave out the porridge

Merry Christmas Eve- I will be taking the rest of the weekend off and be back to this space on Monday after the holiday, but before I do some book recommendations, a little give-away, and of course some crafty well wishes to you.

Many of you know the classic Tomten book by Astrid Lindgren.  It is based on this old poem by Viktor Rydberg.  We love this book and have had it on so many winter night reading.  Still probably my favorite. This year another Tomten book came onto the market, The Tomtes' Christmas Porridge by Sven Nordquist.

The boys definitely enjoyed the fun details in all of the drawings, and it is an elaboration of leaving out a bowl of porridge for the tomtens on Christmas Eve to thank them for all their hard work on the farm, I am still a purist to the Astrid Lindgren version.  I did really like all these Scandinavian/Swedish elements that are all over- I think you will have fun looking at them too.  Worth having in your library, but not a replacement for the classic for me!

My Christmas present is a little give-away.  I have enjoyed making different versions of Tomten so much over the past year that I thought I would give-away one of the original versions of Tomten and his bowl. Just leave me a comment between now and Wednesday at midnight and I will announce the winner Thursday.  

Bonus points:

*share the give-away on your blog, twitter, or facebook

*follow me on facebook

*follow me on twitter

Merry Christmas everyone, and be sure to remember to leave out that bowl of porridge for your own little tomten tonight!

the longest night

Probably one of my favorite solstice days in years!

*waking to Tangle (our resident fairy) presents that my little one has toted around most of the day.  This year is was a sweet bear and moose!

*rice pudding and pineapple for breakfast

*bike rides and nature walks on a chilly first day of winter

*late season family photos

*feasts by candlelight

*bonfires to release our solstice bundle of wishes

Many blessings to you on this longest night- 

weaving

The needle, thread, fabric, yarn, and dust, dust, dust are weaving and flying throughtout the house.  The week before the holidays is a big crunch time for finishing up the merry making.  This is mixed in with some ebbing and flowing with some family health issues have taken me to place of understanding and growing in the way in which the universe is woven and my place as a mother.  

But I figured there are other last minute merry makers out there so I made a Once Upon Table Project for you this week.  If you enjoyed the Spider Ornament that I did for Rhythm of the Home, I thought you might like maybe just one more- this time with a little walnut influence.  

May the holidays weave peace and magic around your family.  I highly recommend the book The Christmas Spider's Miracle to go with this tutorial.  The spiders are so cute on the tree let me know how you like it!

Download Christmas Spider

check it off

Almost ready to check it off the list, the Christmas cards!  I recently heard in a retail meeting that cards, you know the classic paper, lick the envelope and add a stamp kind of cards are up.  The e-cards are winding down.  Hmmm maybe we are still retaining some lovely slow human touches!

How about you- do you send cards?