roaring, cawing, bellowing, and hissing

It’s a zoo here! Literally, as we are preparing for our big day at the zoo tomorrow - in preparation, we’ve each chosen an animal to ‘be’ for the day. Not only does that mean coloring pictures of our chosen animal brother or sister, but also learning lots of facts about the animal and even (to a degree!) eating what that animal eats. Because you know, animals have food pyramids, too! Not to mention digestive tracts …. LOL!

A heads-up on some really gorgeous free patterns that have been adapted from vintage DMC booklets (so hard to find these of decent-quality and still affordable) over at Handmade Adelaide. There’s also a group for enthusiasts of DMC vintage designs, for those who are interested. Lots of cute so-called baby patterns in there for any special babies in your life. And speaking of special babies, look who didn’t need a tea-bath for his eye today.

I’ve had a few questions about my tea-dyeing process - and I have to laugh right out loud at calling what I do a process. Talk about flying by the seat of one’s pants…. This week, I’ve simply stuck the crumpled-up bit of linen in a plastic bowl with the brewed (overly-strong) tea. I’ve used a bowl that’s a tad on the small side, and enough water to just barely cover the linen. I’ve also kept the teabag(s) in there, and made sure the bag(s) is in contact with the linen for some darker splotches. Then I take it out later, when the kids have reached a point that I can duck away for a few minutes without a Major Incident occurring. I usually iron the linen immediately with a pre-heated iron on the highest setting. I’ll warn you, this is awful for the surface of your iron and you’ll have to spend some time scouring the tea stains off before you use that iron on real clothes! Also be careful not to let the hot iron rest in one place, or you’ll wind up with a weird pattern on your linen (if not a scorch mark). I keep mine slowly and gently travelling in the same direction. And in this way, I dry the linen and set the tea coloration in one step. You can diffuse dark dye spots by using the steam setting or spray setting on your iron after the fabric has dried out a bit. In fact, you can do a lot to further personalize the dye job at this stage - iron in wrinkles, for example, which will set with a dark crease, or get a gently mottled look by using your spray setting, or iron on something that has some sort of a texture as that texture will come through in the way the tea sets and dries. Play around. I guess you could say it’s more of an art than a craft, LOL.

Between being totally tied up with the kids from 8 am till nearly 9 pm (Max stays up later now) and trying to balance the other things that need to be done, I have not done very much stitching. I’m working on a sampler of my own design, but progress has been slow. I tend to stitch straight from the fuzzy idea in my head, using graph paper only when counting in my head becomes a problem. Coincidentally, Max is also working on a design of his own and I could not resist taking a picture of our design pages side-by-side. It’s so embarassing to be upstaged by one’s ten-year old child!

Thank you so much for continuing to visit with me even though this is much more a kids-and-family blog at the moment! I love reading your comments! In quick answer to a couple of questions about the homemade peanut butter - yes, commercially-prepared peanut butter is readily available here (that’s what we usually eat) but I thought the kids would get a huge kick out of making our own (they did). It’s really easy to make - just chuck a pound or so of shelled peanuts in a kitchen-aide-type mixer (with metal blades) and slowly dribble in peanut (or sesame, in our case) oil till the peanut butter begins to resemble the consistency you like. I like mine kind of thick and still crunchy. Couldn’t be easier! I’d love to hear your results if you give a whirl.

Thank you!

Thank you so  much Staci and Jenna for nominating me for the Kreativ Blogger award! It makes my day to know that someone enjoys what I try to do here. I’m terribly sorry to (again!) break the rules, but I simply can’t choose just a few blogs to nominate. I enjoy everyone’s so much!

poo hunters

Today we started off with an exploration of our digestive tracts. Very interesting stuff, and when we came to the … final product (LOL!) the kids were totally  hooked on the day’s lesson. To try to keep it clear for Nicky and Rowen in particular, after we watched the online animated video, we all acted out the digestive system, using a clear baggie filled with crackers. Nicky, as the teeth, crunched the bag up. Rowen, as the saliva, liberally sprinkled it with water. Max, as the small intestine, hid the bag and squeezed it up some more and then passed it to Nicky, who as the circulatory system, ran around with the bag to deliver the food’s nutrients all around. Then Rowen, as the large intestine, collected all the water that was left (with a sponge) and finally Max got the fun job of being the rectum and could deposit the mangled remains of the baggie and crumbs in the trash bin. We did some more hands-on stuff, too, but I think this one was the most fun. Because the weather stayed dry, we were able to walk to the petting zoo and keep a sharp eye out for anything that applied to our food pyramids or our digestive tracts. About halfway there, Nicky happily called out, “We’re poo hunters!” Totally cracked me up!

I also snuck in some more tea-dyeing of fabric (Bay Rum jobelan this time) and did a double-dye job. First it got a bath in Earl Grey (Arden’s eye was still a bit gooey in the morning) and then it spent some time with some cinnamon tea. It smells great, and I love the subtle color-on-color depth of the dye jobs.

Today hasn’t been as ‘instructive’ as yesterday because the boys really, really, really wanted to continue with their hut-building activities. At lunch time, I cleared out the living room so they could use the couches and table as they wanted in order to build huts. They all brought down their blankets and pillows and had a picnic in their own little forts. But after lunch, they didn’t want to stop. Instead of taking them away from their fun, I decided to let them call the shots. We can find out why people fart and more interesting bits about the digestive system later.

The mailman has surprised me twice today, first with the delivery of my had-to-have-it copy of The Sampler Girl’s newest design (omg, I can’t wait to start this!) and a wonderful surprise packet from Sandra (no blog)that included this handmade beeswax butterfly. Talk about something that smells great! Then he came back later with a bookmark from Dianne for Max, to celebrate Max’s new found love of reading. Thank you so much, Dianne and Sandra! I’m afraid I didn’t get a picture of Max’s bookmark, as he whisked it up to his room the moment I finished reading Dianne’s note to him!

fun with food

Today is the first official day of the kids’ summer holiday from school - and my first day as a very informal home-schooler. We started off with nutrition - amazingly, this hasn’t been touched on yet at school. We made food pyramids and spent time talking about what was in each food group (I admirably overcame my reliance on the old four food groups and old pyramid structure). Then we talked in more general terms about health - exercise, the heart, etc. - and watched a short online video about the heart & circulatory system. The kids were totally riveted - I could hardly believe it. Then we did some exercises (remember the hokey pokey? LOL!) and showed off how we could do different kinds of rolls. With the mats out, we put Arden on the floor for his crawling practice and I got this great picture of all four of them.

We did some great cooking - Greek kofte, homemade pretzels, meringues, milkshakes, and even homemade peanut butter (it takes a long time to shell that many peanuts!). And when we went shopping, we discussed everything we bought and where it fit into our food pyramids. I was really surprised at what a good grasp the kids had. We attracted a lot of strange looks in the store, but I tried to ignore that. When we got home, each of the kids chose one or two colors in the food pyramid as their own, and then had to rummage through the pile of groceries and pick out what belonged in their part of the pyramid. Very fun.

Because Arden had a bit of a cold in one eye, I made up a tea bath for him (excellent stuff for minor eye irritations) and was left with the extra tea and tea bags, so I popped some linen in and came out with this. Not bad, I think!

It was a great day and the kids gave it all thumbs-up. The dinner we made together impressed Niek to no end when he arrived home, and everything else tasted great, too. There were no real discipline issues and it seems that the secret is to have a slow but steady stream of interesting activities. Wish me luck tomorrow!!

The give-away winner for the CEC chart is …. Marlies!! Congratulations, Marlies!!!

sleepy sunday

My day started off very pleasantly with a dog walk in the sun!

Not much on the books today other than a long overdue visit to our friends and their new baby daughter. I won’t post pictures of that here, though. We had a great time at the restaurant last night celebrating Max’s report card. He brought his best friend and they were just so fun to watch. The restaurant is one of those wok-style ones, where you pick out what you want from a long series of buffet/salad bars and then the cooks wok-fry it over these huge fire pits with a sauce (black pepper, garlic, soy, etc.) of your choice. The food is incredibly fresh and the selection is dizzying. The kids get a huge kick out of the cooks sticking their bare arms into the flames to shake the wok. When we brought Max’s buddy home, we went inside to take a look at his new puppy and now Nicky and Rowen are clamoring for a puppy. LOL!

Wishing you a day filled with blue skies and happy thoughts! Thank you so much for stopping by. Oh, don’t forget to sign up for the give-away mentioned in my previous post. And I’d love it if you’d stop by my etsy shop and scoop up some sale bargains!

wet and wild weekend

I’ve read about some commentors’ requests for rain with more than a little bit of envy. Believe me, if I could send a little your way, I gladly would! Here’s what it looked like when I walked Rigby this morning, and right now it’s raining so hard that it looks like a cartoon or something. From what I’ve heard from friends and family the world over, the weather patterns everywhere seem to be out-of-order, whacky, messed-up. My FIL doesn’t believe in global climate change; how about you?

Luckily there are hobbies for OCD people like myself who cannot control the weather. After finishing Max’s teacher’s gift, I happily whipped up a little outfit for the (almost) newborn daughter of some of our friends. We’ll be visiting her tomorrow for the first time. Max was pretty strict with me that the flower on the pink pants had to be yellow. Once again, the designs are my own. I’ve noticed I seem to have a bit of a thing with birds …. LOL.

The kids and I had lunch at McDonalds yesterday - together with nearly every other parent/child combination for at least a radius of 50 square miles! We literally scooped up the last table in the place, and I think I stood in line for 15 minutes before I could even place my order. It was total bedlam. We chose to drive to a Golden Arches outside of town, where they have an indoor play area as well as an outdoor playground and that turned out to be a wise move, as the skies opened shorty after we were seated. That didn’t stop some kids from going outside to play, but this mean mommy drew the line at sopping wet children. ;0 They had a great time, and although I wished I had earplugs, I had fun, too. McDonalds really does bring the kid out in a person.

For this weekend’s blog give-away, I have a great leaflet from The Cricket Collection that I just know I won’t get around to stitching before the turn of the next century. It’s in perfect condition, other than a price sticker in the upper corner. This is Thoreau’s Friends, leaflet 127. The verse reads: Friends. They are kind to each other’s hopes and cherish each other’s dreams. I’ll do a random drawing on Monday. Please say specifically in your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. (Sorry for the poor lighting - my camera batteries need re-charging … and the sun needs to come out!)

 

and an important notice (IMHO)

I’ve cut all the prices on the items currently in stock in my etsy shop. I figure if I am faced with an empty shop, I’ll be more focused than ever on creating loads of great projects to fill it back up! Help me out!! Spread the word!

endings, beginnings … and through it all, the rain

The kids’ summer vacation begins today, and looking at their weary little faces, I’d say it’s not a moment too soon.

I’m a little tired, today, too, I must admit. I put off the “last few stitches” on Country Cat till after the kids were in bed. Basically, those last few stitches were half of the cat, and I am a slow stitcher, so I was up till nearly 2 am. But it came out so great! Sorry for the less-than perfect photo (I took it before I went to bed, so I wouldn’t forget to do it this morning).  This chart is also for sale in my etsy shop.

Of course, it could just be the weather that’s making us all feel tired. What a lot of rain. And more rain. It’s not like a Noah-style deluge, but just rain every single day. I’m mildewing, I swear. The waterfowl, however, are glad they came to the Netherlands for summer holidays. LOL! Our apple tree has been a very popular gathering spot (watch where you step - swans may look pretty, but what they leave behind is not!) and last night I went out in the drizzle to get a few pictures of this big guest. There was also a tiny cat hiding in our bushes while I took these photos that had the most astonished, round eyes I’ve ever seen. No idea if he was more scared of me or of the swan, but he wasn’t budging from his hidey-hole!

The weather hasn’t gotten one of us down, though. Here’s my jolly pal having a good laugh in his playpen.

Rightio, off with the kids to celebrate the end of school and the beginning of summer. I think a spree at McDonalds is called for! Wishing you all a wonderful Friday!!

(Oh, I will be doing another giveaway during the weekend, so watch this space! )

explorations

First off, a very warm thank you to Annie for this award.

With the acceptance of this award, are some rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blog

(Miriam, I see, also awarded me with this, and I thank her!)

As always, I find it tremendously difficult to pick just a few blogs from the nearly 200 that I read, so I am (once again) going to break the rules. To all of you whose blogs I read - and you know who you are, because I almost always leave a comment - thank you for bringing something new to my world and for sharing.

In addition to the crafty explorations I’ve been enjoying recently, I’ve also been looking into some professional changes. I’ve been a technical writer for over ten years in the IT industry. The work is challenging, particularly to a techno cave woman like myself, and it pleases me to no end to earn my bread & butter by using words well … but it has never been what I thought of as my stopping-place. Some things have recently begun to click and I’ve been exploring other avenues of writing. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

I’ve also been exploring - or indulging in! - Tanya’s unrelenting creativity. If you haven’t already seen her newest design, you must go and look at it right now. I defy you not to order it on the spot. I know I did. LOL! I also ordered some other charts and fibers from her website and from Mary Kathryn (a little while ago), which have just arrived. Yummy! I cannot wait to get going on these gorgeous designs! But I hope Tanya will follow my request to please make her next design something ugly so I will not be tempted to hit the Pay Now button the next time I fill up my imaginary shopping basket.

And now … back to the needle! I wish you well, and thank you for sharing this part of your day with me!

beauteous bounty

Lots of things to be thankful for … Sunshine is not necessarily one of them, but the weather remains out of my control.

Seriously, life seems to be in one of those phases where I just look around myself in amazement that this is really it. The nagging pessimist who lives behind locked doors is suspiciously wondering when someone will take it all away, but we ignore her most of the time. The kids are in great health, both Niek and I have good paying jobs despite massive reorganizations by our employer, our house is still standing despite the fact that it has not had a good cleaning in an embarrassingly long time, my family and friends are (mostly) doing well and in good health …. the list just goes on and on. Beauteous bounty, indeed!

Yesterday’s post brought me a fat package that really made some noise when the postman flopped it through the letter slot. Angela went all-out when selecting gifts for me. I won a giveaway at Flossmoms during the biscornu exchange (and I didn’t even know there was anything involved other than getting a cool biscornu!). As great as everything is (and that’s a huge cut of linen in the background that was included), I’m most excited about the JCS magazine because it has a memorial sampler by Deborah that I really, really wanted. Thank you, Angela!!!

Ideas for upcoming Etsy shop projects are just bubbling madly through my brain. In one of my recent dreams - I have repeating dreams, does anyone else? and this is one of my favorites, where I’m in a HUGE library looking stuff up and everything is actually where it should be, and I can always find exactly what I’m looking for - I actually dreamed I was looking up some stuff for my Etsy shop. Anyway, I’ll be restocking August 1st, and as you guessed, there will be some bunnies joining the birds. I also want to add things for the wee beasties among us, and got started with that last night. I must admit, I’m rather pleased with the result! (The design is my own.) I’ve also been in close contact with two Dutch wool artists, but the fruits of those contacts probably will not manifest themselves before the September 1st re-stock.

The wool stuff segues into the kids’ upcoming summer vacation from school. I’ve got a sort of homeschooling thing planned, based loosely on the Vrije school ideas, and of course this will include lots of crafting. I would like to do some felting with the kids, from wet felting right through to finished objects of their choice. I’ve done some online research and I think it would go over brilliantly with my Chaos Crew, but I would really like to hear any of your experiences with wool felting.

Speaking of kids, I was contacted today regarding surrogate parenting by a board I belong to. Turns out I live too far from the parents-to-be, but I’d also be interested in hearing if any one has had any experience with that. I thought I’d be too old, but apparently age is only critical for egg donation (for which I am too old).

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 … i caught a hare alive

It’s still pretty early over here, but instead of waiting till later to blog, I just had to show you what I just this moment finished. It came out so cute that I want to keep it!

I knew last night that I wouldn’t have time to complete the stitching on Country Cat, and I was feeling panicky about getting the gift made for Max’s other teacher, so I decided to start right in on that. I worked on it till I finished the stitching last night, then this morning I started piecing and hand sewing the body as soon as I could get the kids out of the house. LOL.

I started off decorating the bunny’s body with fruits and flowers because I’d thought to stitch something like ‘the fruits of knowlege’ or such … when I realized I didn’t have any idea if this would make sense to Max’s non-English speaking teacher. So instead I used the year to fill the inner ear area and stitched Max’s name at the bottom (Max is a very common name here, so I also added his last initial).

The backdrop is the same material used for the bunny’s backside. The linen is the same distressed/coffee-stained one that I used for Cadbury the Quaker bird. The flosses are an unmarked Needle Necessities and WDW Iris. The bunny is stuffed with a mixture of polyfill and lavender blossoms and smells absolutely heavenly!

There, now I can go off and do my grocery shopping with a happy heart!

chesire cat

Can you tell if this cat is appearing, or disappearing? It puts me in mind of the Cheshire Cat in Alice’s adventures. This is a quick daytime photo to show the colors a little better (or so I hope). I’m stitching away like mad on it to have it done tonight so I can begin with Max’s other teacher’s gift. Someone remind me next year not to wait till the last week to make gifts, please!

The mailman came by and made me very happy with Jan’s (no known blog) gift of a chart from my wishlist. Jan, thank you so much! Before long, I’ll be able to start my CHS Virtues sampler, in which I’ll stitch all these charts together in a long, narrow sampler for a section of wall in our hallway between two doors.

Arden finds it all very humorous - this rushing about that his mummy does - and his chubby smiles make me smile in return.

And because of all the speedy stitching going on here, I was much later collecting names for the Her Sampler giveaway. Everyone who expressed a desire to be included made it into the drawing through and including Hazel’s comment. Rather a long list!

And the winner is … Patti!
Congratulations!! Patti, you’ll need to refresh my memory on your postal address. I’m pretty sure I had it at one time, but …