mamaroots

simple

I am traveling with my family for a few days to celebrate both Thanksgiving and also my older sis' birthday.  It amazes me the beauty of just stopping everyday life for a while and stepping away to be with my whole big family in a wonderfully fun city.  The idea was simple- instead of doing an over the hill birthday we wanted pizza- a certain city style of pizza pie and the plan was formed including train rides, big city and getting to spend a few days with both of my sisters, their families and my folks.  

So when I was planning out what to get my sis for her birthday I could not think of anything better than to make her something that reflected a memory from our childhood.  You may remember me sharing a story about how we use to sneak out to the pond behind our house in dresses just made by my mama and got in and catch tadpoles.  We would gather pears from the tree and squish our toes in the mud.  

 

 
 

After discovering the book Bog Baby I knew that is what I wanted to get for her- what else could I get my sis turning 40 but a children's book and wood toys!  It was fun seeing my sisters figure out which one was who!

I hope that each and everyone one of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I am so thankful for all of your support, comments, and friendship.  I am thankful for my family and a lovely hot sauna in the house we are renting after a walk around a new city looking at "BIG" buildings as the boys observed!

crunchy dias

Crunchy gravel under bike wheels to crunchy leaves under our feet, yesterday was a crunchy day.  The weather finally cooperated with us and gave us a lovely Halloween Day!  I was still reluctant to put my booty on the bike for the day but once we were out on the trail and I had my thermos of hot tea near by I was quite content to be riding.  The fuzzy tan and black pillars were all over so we had to work hard not to squash them- what is that farmers almanac saying about them??

Something about seeing people in Halloween costumes on bikes is just so much more funny than just in costumes!  We were able to have a nice ride for about 15 miles and then get back home in time to turn the front garden bed into the graveyard, blow the leaves from the drive way and quickly put paint on the boys faces before trick or treat time!  It really was just one of those fun days even if I did not make a Halloween dinner Martha Stewart style!  

By the end of the night my skeleton and dragon were worn out- mental note to do a bike ride before trick or treating again next year!  Hubby and I ended the night with pumpkin beer, newt sludge dip (black beans, salsa, and sour cream pureed- mmmm) and the movie Coraline!

Hope your Halloween was frightfully fun!  Today we enter our Day of the Dead celebrations with family stories after dinner and a chiminea fire tonight!  Here are more pictures from our Hallow's Day!

I did a random number generator for Little Red monster and . . .

#6- Shanda is the winning of Little Red- if you could send me your snail mail addy and Little Red will make his journey to you!  Thanks Shanda, I love red tomatoes from the garden also- okay but truthfully I adore all things red!  It is my favorite color!

Don't forget to sign up for the Nov Herbal Roots Zine!  I will draw the winner tomorrow!

Samhain

the light time is ending and the dark months are beginning- I hope everything you are harvesting in your life was bountiful!  Hubby carved this lovely Jack O'Lantern!  Our planned bonfire last night was not to be- the winds of change must have decided otherwise!  So we lit a fire in the fireplace and shared the Tailypo story with cousins who were gifted their own little wooden tailypo!

It was one of the windiest days all week so we moved inside for birthday celebrations, I roasted the chestnuts in the oven- I think I still need practice!  Thanks for the pointers- I am determined to roast some yet over that open fire and to watch out for Mr. Frost!  We are secretly trying to catch a glimpse of this frosty little elf!

We are headed out for a Halloween bike ride this morning with a host of friends to a sweet little river town, I am convincing myself that it is not too cold to do that!  I am such a whimp with chilly weather!  I better go find my wool strippy socks!

I hope all of your Halloween celebrations are mysterious and fun, I wanted to post this last night for you but it was one of those nights when sleep snuck in!  Here are some of our favorite Halloween reads!  Check your library or of course your local independent bookstore!

Download Hallows reads

Give-aways!  Today is the last day to enter for our monster Little Red and also leave a comment here and get entered for a chance to win a free copy of the November issue of Herbal Roots Zine- mmmmm rosemary!  I can't wait to start it myself!  I will draw a winner Monday morning and send a copy!  Be sure to leave me a way to get a hold of you if you are my winner! 

harvesting

The cold weather is snapping around here so we are busy gathering and harvesting some last bits from the herb garden for the winter season.  We concentrated on the patch of lemon balm for our herbal learning this month.  I had a very eager helper to harvest!

The beautiful bowl and scoop came from a woodworking couple from a small harvest festival that I went to last weekend, I could not resist chatting with them when I saw all the beautiful bowls and that she was making wood toy pigs!  This beauty came home with me.  We talked about toymaking and the love of wood.  What a fun heritage to be a part of!

There are some pictures of this sweet little town here, and also be sure to pop on over to the Herbal Roots Zine site for the next chance to win a mamaroots critter!

arches and fairy dust

we are back!  We had to navigate some rainy weather, but enjoyed our little getaway with the boys!  We decided to pop up to St. Louis and see a couple of the sites, jump on some hotel beds, and eat some yummy food for a few days.  I have a full camera of picture to download, some new critters to make and just general wind down, but I wanted to share just a couple pics this morning before Silas and I head down to the Wild Womyn's Retreat down at the Holyland with MorningStar Community.  I am looking forward to my retreat with myself, my community, my friends, and most importantly my baby who is really not my baby anymore, but my boy!  Next year he is "braves" age and will stay at home with daddy and brother.

One of our highlights from St. Louis was going to the zoo and getting hands on experience of touching and feeding the rays- the boys really thought it was fun.  I thought they were really interesting animals also- very social and beautiful.   Here is a link for some neat reading about the symbolism of sharks and rays.

I was also secretly on the look-out for some rays that Tangle Goblinwand (our resident solstice fairy that leaves presents for the boys on the solstices and equinox) could give them for summer solstice.  I have to say I am a bit shocked still how in all of these gift shops all of these toys are coming from China.  As many other heritage toymakers like myself are closely watching the CPSIA and waiting to see what will happen next spring, how can all of these imported plastic toys still be flooding the market?  Boggles my mind- so at 5:30 this morning I gave it my best quick effort whilst boys were still asleep to make a couple wood rays for me- err Tangle to leave for them in her tree- she loves stripes and added them to their tails!    I hesitate to make their Tangle presents in case they recognize my toys, but I had to take a chance this time.  Maybe the sawdust near my saw this morning will be the bit of fairy dust to continue the magic for them!

35, 60, 80

We did it!  In each of our own ways we did our family ride this weekend for daddy's birthday called The Peddler's Jamboree!  The weather was spectacular, the friends abundant and all around a really fun ride.  I knew that I was going to do just the first day of the ride, more than I normally ride so I was pretty proud to do 35 miles on Saturday.  My bum is a little sore, but really I feel pretty good.  -excellent tip from hubby was getting a pair of bike shorts and I think for me the key was finding my perfect bike.

I did a test ride on a bike I am buying from a gal that Jody knows and it was just perfect.  It is a sport dutch style Amsterdam Electra, aluminum frame, 9 speed, step through style, with wide upright handle bars- one of the most comfy bikes I have been on.  Now that I am definitely getting this bike it is time to dutchify it even more and I am ordering my skirt guards, rear racks, and front wicker basket this week.  I love this bike!  I had it worked out with a friend of mine who had to work on Saturday but wanted to ride that she drove down with her bike and camped and then she rode back and I drove her car, my bike and Silas back to Columbia.  Worked great!

Jasper amazed all of us including many folks on the ride.  I think he was one of the youngest kids to ride from Columbia all the way to Boonville.  On the second day I thought he would ride back with me, but he was ready to go again, and with his buddies he rode again.  All total this 7 year old who has been riding on his own for less than a month rode 60 miles in 2 days!  Definitely daddy's genes!

My man was awesome, he self contained gear for all of us and once on a slightly brutal hot part of the last leg of the ride on the first day even towed Jasper's bike and Jasper to give him a rest.  He was a sight to see!  He had a wonderful birthday and was in heaven.  He definitely made his work bike work this weekend.  Jody's grand total at the end of the second day was 80 miles.  All in weekend's ride he said! 

I drove down and picked up Jasper and met our other friends at a local river hang out spot called Cooper's Landing for some Thai food before heading back to scrub the boys and settle down for a long night's sleep!

Hope they decide to do this event again next year, good times, great tunes at all the stopes, ending with a band from Jody and my dating days called Big Smith.  We even got to see a snake on the trail to coincide with our snake learning this week.  At first I was pretty excited, I thought we spotted a Northern Scarlett which sighting are rare in Missouri, but I think he was actually a Red Milk Snake- he was a beauty!

Now for day of rest and relaxation before the last week of school.  Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Weekend- more pictures from our ride is here-

 Looking forward to some crafting time this week.  Watch for some fun give-aways coming next week to celebrate my one year Etsy anniversary!