wee craft: acorn spool dolls

please meet our new friends!

aside from weekends, thursday is the only day of the week that tristan and i don't have a prescheduled activity. it is our long lull at home and seems the perfect day to take on a craft project. in my continuing effort to make the most of acorns, we made acorn spool dolls. 

i picked out some wooden spools from a small vintage collection that i have, and selected some of the big acorns i found at the base of the oak tree by the public library. we liked the caps that appeared to have pom poms on them!

tristan painted two out of three of the spools, and i guided his hand to paint the faces. once the acrylic paint dried, i used the glue gun to stick the acorns to the spools.

tristan decided to use up the remaining paint by making some hand prints.

we thought the acorn folk might want to visit the faerie.

 behind the faerie door we found a large wolf spider. she was not pleased to meet us.

at some point tristan hung these markers on his shirt. what a silly guy!

in my continuing saga of how to be more "regular" with the blog, i've decided that day specific themes might not work out that well for me. i may sometimes have thrift thursday or friend friday, but otherwise some general themes might pop up on any given day: weekend roundup, sew inclined, where we are, celebrating the seasons, wee craft, and what ever else i might think of!

where we are: the balance between work and play

this is often the normal state of our living room. small toys scattered across the floor. parades of cars or fairies or playmobil folk. blocks and bits of paper and acorns. 

i knew i had some sewing to do today and also knew that my mind wouldn't settle into it unless i reigned in the chaos.

this is the way i prefer the living room!

 
i did the tidying and sweeping while tristan ate his snack on the deck, just outside the living room door.



i tried to mentally prepare tristan for the fact that i was going to spend some time sewing, that he could play beside me, or help me pull the pins out, or rest on his bed for an hour with a book. he claimed that he was cool with it.

for a while when i was measuring and tracing he kept hiding things on me: the yardstick, my disappearing ink pen, scissors, anything he could get his hands on. and then i gave him some fabric to cut up. from there he wanted to cut up cardboard. i gave him some paper plates, which he chose instead to draw on. he was quite industrious with his stack of plates, and explained all the scenes to me.



i am definitely in need of some activity ideas to keep the young boy engaged and satisfied while i sew. i've got to get busy! i am going to be selling wares at the holiday market this year, and am way behind on production.

what do you do at home when you need to work and you are the primary caretaker of a young one? i have some tried and true ideas, but am looking for more!

this is the blanket i was working on, completed after the kids went to bed. i didn't have enough of the fabulous flower burst fabric, so added in the toile (at least i think it's toile! it's from a fancy sheet i found at a yard sale a long time ago). the back is a soft buttery chenille.







after meeting my goal for the day, we went for a romp outside.

we have a fairy hut we've been working on in the side yard. it's an enchanting place to be, and there is a beautiful mat of bright moss growing on the floor of the hut. we enjoyed our warm afternoon puttering around the fairy hut with loki the cat close by. i looked up in wonder at the tall trees that fill our yard and sent up a heartfelt thank you. we are in good company!

celebrating the seasons: at home on autumn equinox

we had a pretty low key autumn equinox weekend. there was a soccer game, a musical jam, playground time, a date for dan and i, tree climbing, and a downtown stroll. 

at home we we enjoyed some family time at the table, had a tea party on the deck per tristan's request, and each drew an animal card for the coming season per tashi's request. suffice it to say i have two dragon children!

i made a small rista with our tiny, potent thai peppers, while thinking good thoughts for the months to come. we have it hanging by our nature shelf.

the recent photo book i put together (for free! thank you, shutterfly) arrived on equinox morning, a great time to review our summer months.

there were also some large critters that visited us. 'tis the era of the super bugs!

there will certainly be much autumnal appreciation to come. how did you spend your weekend? 

friday with friends

playgroup has been such a highlight for tristan and i, an opportunity for us both to play with others, share food, crafts, and conversation. every friday we meet in the warm home of our friend, and the hours unfold. we have open play. circle time. snack. a craft or activity. and lunch. 

in celebration of autumn eve, we made thumbprint trees today. the crafty crow leads the way again!

the food, oh the food! when you get a bunch of health conscious mamas together 

you can bet the food will be good. 

i contributed this tasty very green avocado tahini dip, a recipe i found on my friend britt's 

have fun do good blog.

the cat even came out of hiding today. i think she's getting used to our raucous playgroup crowd.

tristan took a nice nap when we got home, and i spent a good chunk of time searching for recipes that used poblanos and ground beef, since i had both on hand. i found this recipe video for making poblano beef ricotta lasagna. i had ricotta left over from the skillet lasagna i made the other day, so went right to work on this one. tristan woke up mid way, but was happy to stir the bechamel sauce and munch on some spare lasagna noodles. it was delicious, if i must say so!

tristan wasn't a big fan of the mildly hot poblanos though.

once i separated them out from his serving he remained skeptical, but in better spirits.

wishing you a happy friday and a very joyful weekend welcoming autumn.

thing thursday

it's a two post day. tristan is taking a bath and told me he wanted some privacy. he said, mama, will you go in the bedroom and do your work folding some sheets or something? and so here i am, "folding sheets." he is right next door, babbling to himself, and asking me a question every other sentence.

with regard to themes, on the thursdays i don't actually have something thrifty to share, i think it will simply by "thing thursday," where i talk about things in our world: crafty things, food things, household things, and so on.

so let me begin with the little acorn craft we did this morning:

sweet, no? i found a link to a picture on the crafty crow. no instructions really, but fairly self explanatory. the glue was a little messy, but tristan had fun pressing the acorn caps to the paper.

i'd also like to mention that we are enjoying stromboli lately. i used to make this fairly often when tashi was younger, and somehow fell off of it. but it's back. soooo good. tristan didn't even complain.

and a few pics of tristan sporting yia yia's latest sweater for him. very handsome, yes?

well that was just enough time to fold up a few fine "sheets." the little mister is calling me now.

until next time!