{ This Moment }

Joining Amanda Soule from Soulemama for a weekly ritual. A single photograph from the week, a moment I wish to pause, savor, and remember.

so sweet even when she is sick

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny of Small Things for the weekly Wednesday Yarn Along

picture of last weeks knitting

 I wanted to post at least one of the pictures of something I did last week. I have since knitted 3 more of the green gnome hats, for a total of 8 hats! They were so much fun to knit and so easy to knit while doing all sorts of other things.

winter set of wooly goodness for my man

 I started AND finished a set of wooly goodness for my main man. I knitted up a fun gnome hat for him, a pair of the mittens from the 3rd issue of Taproot magazine (which I some how did a reverse stockinette stitch for the thumbs, oh well, they still look great!), and then I sort of "made up" scarf with all the left over yarn. I cast on 25 stitches, K1 P1 for row 1, row 2 was all knit, repeated the two rows until I ran out of yarn.

cowl pattern I am working on

Way, way back when I  had ordered yarn from knit picks I had picked out two skeins of this pink tweed. I really liked it but had no idea what to do with it. Well, I am making a cowl with it. I have been using two strands of yarn (it says it is worsted, but it seems lighter then that), I cast on 30 stitches on size 10 needles, and then I am doing the same thing as the scarf. On row 4: knit 8 stitches cast off three, knit for a bit and cast off another three leaving 8 stitches to knit at the end, THEN on row 5 I did the pattern (K1, P1) and at the holes I cast on three stitches each... I MADE BUTTON HOLES!! I am planning on using two of the lovely Wooly Moss Roots wooden buttons. My plan is to make it about 24 inches long, and sort of over lap it a bit, maybe make it sort of button on the side. I hope to be done with it today.

some inspiration i am needing

On the reading front I have picked up "Understand Our Mind" by Nhat Hanh. He is such a brilliant man. His writings always put me in a good head space.

Recipe Tuesday

Since we have made the move to a Paleo diet I have been on a search for a good paleo-fied chocolate chip cookie. I think I found one. I have modified this recipe.  I have added one egg, I didn't have coconut flour so I used two tablespoons of pecan meal, I also added 2/3 cup of  Bob's Red Mill unsweetened flaked coconut, and I used maple syrup as the sweetener. Instead of the chocolate chips that were suggested I used Sunspire Fair Trade Organic 65% cacao chocolate chips ( I felt like these chips had fewer ingredients and I liked that they are fair trade and organic).
These are just so darn tasty, totally help with a sweet tooth, cookie craving.

Our holiday weekend

my SIL's niece's wee babe

my new nephew

logan up a tree

rowan in my parent's back yard

sagan

getting ready to play shoeball

daddy and fiona napping

fiona walking on the foot bridge at tempe town lake

rowan inspecting the decorations

daddy getting the garland ready

our yule bunting we made last year

cae adding santa's to the santa collection

decorating the garland

decorating the gingerbread house

eating the gingerbread house decorations

more decorating

the stockings 

our "old man winter" i won last year in a give away

the completed gingerbread house

the christmas wish list

What a great 4 days off. It was so wonderful to have all the kids home again and everyone hanging out. That is one of the many blessing of a big family, so much going on, so many people, so much love.
We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house where we got a baby fix. My sister in law and her niece both had babies last month, so much baby love going on.
Friday Mike and I took the younger set for a sunset walk at Tempe Town Lake, which was so nice. Fiona walked most of it herself, and can I say she is just so dang cute.
Saturday was clean the house day AND decorate! Since we will be out of town at Christmas, we didn't get a tree, but we did set out all the Santa ornaments (because I do love Santa). We hung up the lighted garland and hung some of the ornaments my parents have given us over the years and we hung up the bunting we made last year. And of course the stockings went up. That is probably my favorite part, seeing all of those stockings hanging up, just a lovely reminder of all the children we have. Sagan made the chalkboard "Christmas Wishes" and I LOVE it. We have been adding to it each day as something tickles our fancy. Lots and lots of hopes for snow and sled rides. It is suppose to be snowy in Show Low that time of year AND it did snow on St. Martin's day there... so who knows.

Many blessings

The family and I are taking a break, time to refocus and count our many blessings. So, I will be off line for the long holiday weekend.
May you (my American followers) have a beautiful, full, loving Thanksgiving. And to everyone else... have a wonderful, weekend full of much beauty and gratitude.

Yarn Along and Give away winners!

Sadly I can not post a single picture! I am having an "issue" with my blogger account, it is saying I have used all of my photo space, and yet when I got to look at it, it says I am only using 23%. Confusing!

Anyway, I have been busy knitting gnome hats (some of these and then some from here) I just have three more hats to knit... for a total of 8! And I started a pair of mittens from the Taproot issue 3, and I am still working on two sweater vests. I am toying with making my dear husband a scarf to go with his hat and mittens, that is if I have enough yarn AND enough time. (Maybe if I stopped reading blogs and checking Facebook I would have more time to knit. haha)
I am reading "World War Z", my oldest son suggested it, and so we made a deal, he reads "Omnivores Dilemma" and I will read "World War Z". It is actually pretty good, and I guess they are going to make a movie out of it. Should be interesting to see how they make it into a movie, as it is written as if the author was interviewing people 10 years since the war ended.

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Now for the fun part!!

The winner of the goat soap and lotion is: Rachel Garner said...

I LOVE goat's milk soap and lotion. I scent my body oil with nag champa too! I love the blue yarn your making the sweater vest out of.

And the winner of the wooden toys is: Noémie said...

I love your two knits, wools are beautiful! Model pixie hat is very nice, I knitted too a few gnome hats for my children lately, they are so cute in there !

Thank you so much to everyone who entered!

* Gratitude Sunday*

Joining Taryn from Wooly Moss Roots for a weekly Sunday ritual. A heart felt tradition. A time to slowdown, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes...

and this is just a partial list, more things have been added since i took the picture.

lately, the thing i am most grateful for

 ~ this week has been an emotional roller coaster, so many ups and down. i am grateful for my friends who i can vent to
~ this lovely weather that keeps on coming. it helps when life seems to be overwhelming to have some sunny days and cool evening
~ continuing to have time to knit, it is such a huge blessing in my life. i never thought of myself as creative, but it is so fun to be able to take some wool and a couple of sticks and make clothing!
~ the company that Mike works for. i will be forever grateful to them for rehiring Mike after our return from almost 2 years in Maine.
~ the fishhugger, our local salmon guy. he is so wonderful, funny, off beat and just a real great guy.
~ i am ever so thankful to sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas, and all those wooly animals that make up a majority of the yarn i use.
~ the egg. my breakfast most days... so amazing, so yummy, and so good for you
~ honey bees, for making such a yummy treat as honey, and wax, and for pollinating most of the plants we eat
~ Terri my LLL leader, i love you
~ gladiolas
~ my little boys, for giving me many opportunities to grow and be a better person. thank you so much for your shenanigans
~ to my dearest husband. thank you for cleaning up the... what?  maybe 100 gallons of water, that came flooding out of the washer
~ to all the lovely women whose blogs i read, giving me inspiration, insight, and lovely photos to look at almost every single day
~ my mother in law, for the continued use of that lovely sewing machine, and for bringing music into our house with the purchase of our now beloved piano
~ to Heather Cushman-Dowdee for all your comics, all of your essays on motherhood, unschooling and living a beautiful cowgoddess life
~ to my parents for giving me life and loving me
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Just a reminder: the giveaway ends at 11:59 PM on Tuesday November 20th, 2012. Just follow this link and leave a comment. :)

{ This Moment }

Joining Amanda Soule, from Soulemama for a weekly ritual. A single photo from the week, a moment I wish to pause, savor, and remember.

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And a wee quick reminder... I have a give away happening here. If  you wish to enter just leave a comment in the comment section of that post. :) Drawing will be November 20th!

Winter Salve

It has been such a long time since I have made this stuff, not sure why, it is seriously so easy and takes maybe an hour and a half to put together (most of that time you don't need to do anything!)

melting oils

1.) Melt a half cup coconut oil and a half cup olive oil in a double boiler ( I used a bowl over a pot of boiling water). Add a couple ounces of Vitamin E oil if you have it, but not needed.

adding herbs

2.) Once oils are melted add in 1/2 cup herb blend (in this batch I have equal parts, ST John's wort, calendula, and comfrey to equal 1/2 cup) and let it sit in double boiler (keep water boiling underneath) for 1 hour.

grated beeswax

3.) grate up 3 ounces of beeswax. (You can use beeswax pellets or just a 3 ounce chunk of beeswax not grated, I just found the grated wax melts faster.)

straining oil

4.) Strain the herbs from the oils. Use a cheese cloth, it helps keep the bits of herbs out of the finished salve.

melting wax in herb oil

5.) Put the oil/herb mixture back into a cleaned double boiler, add beeswax. Allow the wax to melt completely.

essential oils

6.) Add your Essential Oils. I used 30 drops of Tea tree and 40 drops of Lavender.
Mix well with wooden spoon.

salve before it gets solid

7.) Pour into either one large tin, or glass jar, or (as I have done) into 2 ounce tins. This makes about 12 ounces of salve.

salve after it gets solid

This stuff works great on dry chapped hands and cracked heels, it is also good on diaper rashes, scrapes, etc... so pretty much anything! And it smells wonderful.

I got the tins here, and the essential oils here. You can pick up herbs either on line or at a local health food store. The beeswax I have a hard time finding locally, although I am looking!

Yarn Along and GIVE AWAY!

Joining Ginny from Small Things, for the weekly Yarn Along!

The yarn I bought to make all the Gnome hats for the kids FINALLY got here, so I started working on them again... only to discover I am a wee bit short on yarn. These hats take a heck of a lot more yarn then I thought they would. My plan is to do Fiona and Audrey's hats the same and then do all the boys hats the same. I thought it would be cute. Just have to get enough yarn! This yarn is just so nice to work with, I love organic cotton!

I have made some good progress with Sagan's sweater vest. It isn't a hard pattern, but it is in a DK weight tweed and it is just ALOT of small stitches. Still I am really excited to see it all finished, hopefully by the end of the week (ok, maybe into the weekend)... unless I run short on yarn. (This seems to be a problem for me, I have made some serious calculation errors with my yarn buying.)

I am still reading the Waldorf math book, and just sort of reading magazines mostly... I can't seem to find a book that makes me want to read it completely though. I am open for some ideas. :)

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GIVE AWAY! 

With the holidays upon us, I thought I would offer some great holiday gifts (stocking stuffers maybe) as a give away this month.

These products are near and dear to my heart as the crafters are actually family members. 

First up is this three piece set of fabulous wooden desert dwelling animals (a coyote, a javelina, and the mythical jack-a-lope), loving made by my dad! He has been working on these little critters for months now selling them at local farmer's markets. They are very sturdy, made with poplar, details burned on, and finished in mineral oil. My children love them. 

What can I say about this stuff?? My sister-in-law makes soap and lotion from goats milk (goats she raises), this stuff is HEAVENLY, seriously. It is a lovely skin care system, the wonderful soap and silky smooth lotion will leave you smelling amazing and super smooth. And the goats... well they are not just milked, they are loved... members of the family, so you know they are happy goats. I am offering one bottle of gotion and one bar of goap in "Nag Champa" scent (which is wonderous!)

Just leave a comment and you will be entered. I will be picking two lucky winners next Tuesday night! Good luck.

* Gratitude Sunday *

Joining Taryn from Wooly Moss Roots  for a Sunday heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.

~ the temperature FINALLY dropping into the 60's
~ crafting with the kids
~ afternoons at the park
~ the mountain of laundry getting folded
~ planning celebration dinners
~ the awesomeness that is my oldest daughter
~ the family spending the day at Nanny's house
~ having money in the checking AND savings accounts
~ the relief one feels when you realize that you will not only not be shopping on "Black Friday" but that you have no real desire to do so.
~ watching Fiona play by herself
~ spying on Cae and Rowan as they set up elaborate scenes for their games with the little guys they like to play with
~ baskets full of fall books
~ getting the last of the holiday crafts together
~ the joy of planning a handmade Christmas
~ knitting by the fire
~ getting to witness the closeness of my older boys
~ the Goodwill... and my super sexy Christmas party dress
~ Pancakes made by the boys
~ Mike's decision to go for his PhD (finally!!)
~ Sagan's last oral surgery completed this week

Martinmas lanterns

I have been toying with celebrating some of the smaller holidays recently. I like the idea of celebrating stories of virtues and good deeds, things to inspire the children. Since I really had no idea what to do on Martinmas I went trolling around the internet and found a few fun ideas to do with the kids. We made lanterns from small mason jars, using this idea. The boys had a great time making lanterns, we talked about the story of Saint Martin and what the meaning is behind the lanterns. We have been planning a fun meal for Sunday (with this great sounding cake as a dessert) and we also talked about gathering some of our things we no longer need/want and donating them to needier families. The boys and I also talked about gathering food for the food bank over the next few weeks and making a donation all together.
Although we have done things like this in the past, I think I like the idea of a celebration that centers on charity, and finding your inner light; your inner divine self and going out into the world to do good with that light.

{ This Moment }

Joining Amanda Soule from Soulemama for a weekly ritual. A single photograph from the week, a moment I wish to pause, savor, and remember. 

Crafting with the kids

wooly goodness

fiona got into it for about a minute

rowan wrapping

cae wrapping

rolling candles

working hard, see the tongue

working

doll making

more doll making

The boys and I had such a great time crafting on Tuesday. They rolled bees wax candles, wrapped pine cones in lovely wooly goodness, and started on embroidery projects. Then in the evening Sagan and Caelan both decided to start crafting wool felt dolls. So fun watching them get their craft on.