Poor Sophie did something to her toe on Monday. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but it ended up with Emma nearby and Sophie on the floor, both complaining (Sophie rather loudly) that they were hurt. Whatever it was, Sophie was much more injured than Emma, who was fine within moments. The quick swelling told me she wasn’t just being… Read More »Tiny Tim Visits
I’ve had a doll living in my head for a long time – a year? two years? Longer? I’m not even sure. I tried once before to create a pattern so I could make the doll, to get it out of my head and into my hands, but my attempts failed miserably and I put it aside. The other day… Read More »Failed Attempts – Fairy Doll
(Sorry for the picture heavy post.) After getting a lot of outside work done on Saturday, we treated the kids to ice cream sundaes and then got to work dyeing eggs. Over the last few years I’ve seen more and more amazing pictures of naturally dyed eggs, some made with resists created by using found plant and flower materials, and… Read More »Easter Weekend
“Mama, are you using this?” “Mama, can I borrow that?” “Mama, do you like this color?” “Can I have that when you’re done, Mama?” That was Emma, at my elbow, hopping in front of the sewing machine each time I got up, using the iron in between my own ironing, taking the pin cushion for her own creations. She sewed… Read More »Emma’s Sewing
Or perhaps I should say Parts Un and Deux. (And while I do remember just a little bit more french than that, that’s all I’ll attempt today). Why the French numbers? And why One and Two? Well, it was just a couple of weeks ago that my oldest daughters and I were browsing one of my favorite fabric shops. I… Read More »Citronille Thadée – Parts One and Two
We’ve had two whole days of Hello Spring! It felt more like summer than spring and we set to work boiling off the last gallons of maple sap, though we still have the final boil to do inside and then canning the liquid gold (pure maple syrup). I had an errand to run with Sophie and while we were out… Read More »Of Book Sales, Garden Cleanup and Adventures in the Woods
I was getting ready to sew the lining into my current project (which I can’t wait to show you when it’s finished!) and I had a dilemma. My lining fabric had less “give” than the outer fabric, so even though they were cut to the same size, my outer fabric had a little more width. I really wanted all my… Read More »Sewing Tip – which fabric on top
This weekend we finally hit temperatures that made it feel like spring outside and the backyard cleanup has begun! And after that, there’s front yard cleanup, side yard cleanup, goat shed and chicken coop cleanup and garden cleanup. But we won’t think about any of those today. We’ll just think about how quickly our snow is (finally!) melting. We’ll think… Read More »Finally Spring!
“Mama, I want to sew.” “Mama, I want to cook something.” “Mama, can you show me how to ‘broider again?” “Mama, we’re bored!” Oh, those are words I really don’t like to hear! In this world with so much to learn and so many good things to do, boredom should never happen. They know that at the merest utter of… Read More »Learning to Weave
There are days when we do every scheduled subject, read every scheduled book, work on every scheduled project. Those days are really good days. They don’t happen as often as I’d like, but they do happen. Most days aren’t like that. Some days, especially days after a very busy time, whether it’s extra appointments, extra errands, recovering from an illness… Read More »Sweet Schooling