Busy Busy Bee

I've been very busy getting ready for our Summer Solstice Party this Saturday and learning to knit, sorry for the lapse in posts but here are some pictures of what I have been up to.

Water colored suns in the dining room windows.

Little summer garland, and I knitted those sheep and painted the trees (a little early for fall trees but wishful thinking on my part)

A felted bumble bee mobile to hang above the dinner table I am making a beehive out of bread for our celebration Saturday served with some local honey and Amish butter.

Our Summer Nature Table

A Summer Ball

A little pig 

And some Hens to join us for breakfast in our kitchen

and 6 fire stackers that will be gifts for all the wee guests on Saturday.

All of the knitting patterns have come from "A First Book of Knitting" by Bonnie Gosse and Jill Allerton.  I took a knitting class with my daughter a few years ago, but never really learned anything more than how to cast on and off and knit and purl stitch, this is a great book for anyone looking to learn how to knit on their own.  

Look What I Won!!!

Wee Waldorf  hosted this awesome giveaway from Stemellina Supplies and I won 10 of these adorable needle felted toadstools:

and these great little felt beads:

I think I know what I am going to make with the toadstools but I am torn on the beads, I was thinking of adding them to mobiles or using them for a necklace they are just too cute its hard to decide.

More crafts for our Summer Solstice Celebration

Here's a picture of a little wreath  of bees I created last night. The wreath will hang over a bee hive made from bread served with local honey butter.

On the Wings of Spring

With glee, with glee, we goblin gnomes
Are leaving moss and mountain homes.
With little hammers bright
We work with all our might
To free the Flower Queen.

From deepest earth to light and air
We make way for the lady fair.
With little hammers bright
We work with all our might
To free the Flower Queen.

Our hammers work ding dong, ding dong,
We dig and dig with axes strong.
The hard earth breaks away
And happily this day
We greet the Flower Queen.

(From "Spring: Poems, Songs and Stories" by Wynstones Press)

The Flower Queen has been freed by gnome.
She greets you on this Spring Day with the gift of a magical baby bird.
Won't you welcome him to your home?
Love is sure to fill the space where he is flown.

Thanks to a fun filled day, sharing a picnic with friends, a worn out baby,

Enabled me to complete these:

For a Spring Craft Exchange hosted byWe Bloom Here the theme was birds.  This is my very first craft exchange, I had a lot of fun crafting these spring maidens and weaving a story to include the birds, I hope my swap partners enjoy them as well.

Many Thanks!

I recently entered a giveaway for a spot in a felting ecourse on the While Tangerine Dreams blog and won!
This course is offered by Lebenkuenstler in Australia and looks amazing.  Check out the plant dyed wool her Mother makes in her Etsy shop too!  I cannot wait to receive mine.  I am really excited about taking this course because I love working with felt but have not had much instruction, I learned to wet felt a pumpkin at a parent handwork night at Maddie's school and then learned to needle felt little gnomes at one of the Waldorf instructor's homes for their Annual Holiday Bizarre.  I have taken the little bit I learned and played with it a bit to create some fun things for Eoghan and our nature table but really want to learn more, Lebenkuenstler's blog is so inspiring!   I am so thankful to both Kathy of While Tangerine Dreams and Nichole of Lebenkuenstler for this wonderful opportunity.  Thank you ladies!

Thor's Day (really orange day)

Okay so today is really orange day, Yesterday was yellow day which is really funny because shortly after I took his "Orange Day" picture he threw up and leaked onto his orange outfit and spent the rest of the day in yellow (which was really the color of the day) It's kinda funny that when we mess up our rhythm the universe helps set it right.

Here's the progress on Eoghan's felt fruit and veggies.  I like the way they are turning out so far, and figure they are toys that will grow with him, and first they are fun teether, textile toys, then a good way to teach colors and foods and eventually will make fun play foods for a play kitchen.

Wednesday's Work in Progress and Orange Day

This is going to be a very long work in progress (about 3 years), but I have started felting Eoghan some fruit and veggies.  When he gets older I want to buy him a play kitchen and I figured it's never too early to start a love for veggies.  The very first one I made was an eggplant (aubergine) because the night he was born I had eaten eggplant, desperate to deliver this baby, I had tried every wive's tale and home remedy to induce labor,  and I'm not sure if the eggplant actually helped or if it was just Eoghan's time to come, but the eggplant will always be a special reminder of that beautiful evening/morning that Eoghan joined our family.

And here he is wearing his Orange for Orange day, this ourfit only lasted about 5 minutes after this picture was taken, apparently he was not feeling orange day so he peed and spit up all over his orange clothes.

Toadstools are Taking Over

What to do why the baby naps?  Felt a few more toadstools of course!   My fifteen year-old daughter (who attended a Waldorf School but now that she is in high school is too cool for school)  calls me a Wal-dork.   Well Wal-dork or not, I thought these little guys were cute and they felted up super quick, perfect craft to complete while the baby naps.

Wednesday's Work in Progress

I have seen other bloggers post pictures of projects they are working on, I am currently crafting a needle felted mama Phoenix, a nest and a hatchling to accompany a story I wrote for Eoghan.  Here's a photo of Mama Phoenix so far.

Here's a couple of photos of my little man sporting his Phoenix colors:

I am very drawn to orange and red right now.  It must be the early stirrings of summer.

I am also working on crafting 3 birds for my first craft swap I am participating in, I just received the names of the crafters I am to exchange birds with today.  I will post pictures of my projects once the recipients receive their little birdies.

Eoghan's First Easter

I felted Eoghan a little basket, filled with a wet/needle felted ball, a little gnome doll, a wooden teether and a red play silk.

I couldn't resist buying him this ridiculously cute hat and as it was unusually warm for Easter his special Easter outfit turned out just being a Bum Genius cloth diaper. 

Here's a close up of his basket,

and its contents,

And the flip side of the felted items.  I am really proud of the way the basket turned out. I did not have a pattern or anything to base the design on, in fact it was a complete brainstormed idea in the craft store when I decided I didn't really care for any of the baskets they had available.  I hope he can use if for the next few years.