Worker Man

 

We have new big project going on around here and our newest worker is ready to join in.  River is thrilled to have a tool belt and box and ability to wear my ear protection.

 

We are fully under construction, in six weeks I should be able to share the finished product!

 

 

 

Hope you have as much fun going to work this week as River is.

Growing

Asher has been in charge of seeds this year.  We planted some tomato, pepper, kale, broccoli and a few others 8 days ago.  He was so intentional with each of his seeds, giving a bit of his energy for the start of their lives.

And what good energy it was!  The seedlings are doing great.  We look and measure them daily and A is very proud of what he has started and is looking forward to our spring plant sale.

Onions have taken off as well.  We are very busy planning the garden this year.  We get to have a full sun plot, just outside our own home!!  Every night at dinner, someone steers the consversation to what they want to grow.  River and I really would like strawberries, Asher is dreaming of his next cucumber tunnel and Ben wants small fruit.  Oh, how happy we are to be back to the growing season, after the dreaming days of the past months.

Making

We have been making time to make lately.  Nothing huge in project land, but little project that I can complete on top of the washing machine in between building roads, putting together puzzles and reading books.  I have been loving needle felting little signs and made a simple love banner for color in February. 

 While I had always planned on making an appliqued sewn bunting for birthday celebrations, why all that work, when needle felting again can be done a letter or two with minimal supplies on hand between playing.  I was thrilled to have found a yellow sweater just in time for a good assortment of colored wool.

And the rug.  A full post on my notes on this to come, but I love the t-shirt yarn and crocheting with it.

 

and then he was FIVE!

 It happened.  We have a five year old!  And he is a pretty amazing one at that.  Full of more energy than we can handle at times, passionate and stubborn, incredibly loving and fun, creative, inquisitive and growing at just the right pace.

 I look at this child and feel so lucky to be his mama and so happy to have him as part of our family.  He is challenging, of course, but he really is just so loving.  He just radiates it from his being.  He wants to love everyone, be part of all things and would be content to spend an entire day cuddling and reading books.

I really am looking forward to this next year, adventuring and learning side by side with this boy of mine.  The years they do pass too quickly and while I miss the babe that he was, I am excited to see what will be.

Winter Adventuring

 This winter has made it easy to get outside every day.  Most of our time is spent in our own yard, hanging out with the chickens, digging in the sand, swinging and climbing trees.  We are excited for more adventuring out beyond our yard and had a great time visiting Ferry Bluff again with family in town.  Per the usual, the adults were focused on the hiking up part while the boys could have searched for acorns for a long time at the trail head.  Being mutually respectful of everyone, we spent plenty of time doing both.  Finding tracks, woodpecker holes, lots of acorns for floating in the river and then making it all the way up, to build sand castles and see eagles.  Then to see how ignorant we are on the way up to see the sign asking us not to ascend during this time of year... our next trip won't be until after March 15th.

 My pictures at the top are spotty, I am having some camera issues and need a clean.  But a beautiful day.

 Finished with a walk by the river, throwing in sticks and acorns and finding fish scales.

 My brother in law returned (sign ignorer :)) at the end of a morning snow a few days later and I am sorry that I wasn't there to see this beauty.  Such a dynamic place the river and it's surrounding habitats.

Running Into the Woods:: 2.10

 Last Friday we had the great pleasure of returning to our old woods.  The place we learned to explore in together.  We were also joined by almost all the kids we ever hiked with in the woods, or at least a representative of their family.  A big gaggle of kids, lots of adults, it may not have been our most observant day, but it was perfect.

There was a lot of teamwork to break the ice.  I loved watching them work together.  It seems like the next level of friendship... helping one another.

We have been spending a lot of time outside this weeks, so I will be back soon with another adventure.  We had temperatures in the upper 40's this week.

Celebration Kickoff

 February marks a month of birthdays for our boys and this weekend, River turned three!  I can't believe it has officially been three years since I birthed a child.  We headed back to Urbana to celebrate with friends and we couldn't have asked for a more merrier celebration.  A warm home that welcomed us in, friends from all our years of living there, and the ability to step back in time as if we had never left.

Total Happiness.

T-Shirt Butchering

 To make Yarn.  I haven't been making yarn all that long, but I think I have figured out how to utilize the cutting techniques to get the most length per t-shirt and leave the least remains: which I am still debating if I can compost.
Steps 1-3:  Lay your shirt as flat as you can.  Fold it almost in half... you want to leave an inch that you will not be cutting and it is easiest to do if you fold with an inch to spare.  Using a rotary cutter cut off the hem.  Then cut one inch in width up to the fold line, be sure to cut the fold line, so you get through the folded hems side.

Cut across the rest of the shirt in one inch increments making sure to not go all the way to the other end, stop within one inch.  To finish this length of yarn put your arm cut in a diagonally across, please reference this awesome tutorial for more detailed photos.  Roll it into a ball.  I like to stretch the yarn out before balling it, makes it curl up on itself and also adds length :)

 Now move onto the top portion of the t-shirt.  Cut off the sleeves and then the chest and back from the collar and shoulder section.  

Next, look closely at the picture below, with the flat section of the chest and back will be cut back and forth, without cutting all the way through to the end.  It will have a bit of a bump in the yarn, but when you stretch it and crochet with it, it won't matter much.

 Connect the pieces of yarn together by cutting a small slit in both ends that you will be connecting.  Lay The one that you are adding on top of the end of your yarn ball.  Take the end and put it through the bottom and pull up through the two slits.  The end should go through the slit of the one it isn't connected to first and for more pictures and details this tutorial is a good reference and what I used when I connect strips of sheets.

Then Cut the hems off the two sleeves and cut them like you did the body tube of fabric.  Attach them to the ball of yarn with the slit technique as above.

Access the remains and decide what to do with them.  I have saved all the main body hems and have them hanging in my house as color inspiration and am trying to think of something to do with them.  The rest sadly I have thrown in the trash-- but so much less than any other butchering job out there.

Then go crochet something.

My Latest

Oh, I am in love.  With st. Vinnies dig and save.  I walked out with 40 T-shirts, 3 wool sweaters, a pair of wool pants and a full length wool winter coat for $16.  Half price Wednesday is my best friend as are the candy canes that I break off and make the kids suck on so I can dig in the bins.  

Craft number one is making yarn that will then be crocheted into a rug for our cozy wood stove room.  I anticipate the carpet will get ripped up in there soon and the rug will be necessary for the new tile floor.  My color inspiration is this quilt.  

I have been obsessed with the rug making before and we have many throughout the house.  I love looking at them and seeing the sheets that I ripped apart and tied together to make them.  I am excited to have a quick, cheap source for shirts and access to plenty of them and look forward to may many recycled t-shirt and sweater projects.

Welcoming February

In an attempt to come out of my blog drought, I offer a quick somewhat lacking post to break the seal.  I am here, we are surviving, we are having fun, we are living and regular posting will soon commence.  

I am so happy that February is here.  January was nothing to complain about, but February, oh sweet February, the celebration of my two birth stories the month of starting our first seeds, the month of anticipating spring (though in WI, that month may fall more to March).  We have starts of new growth swelling within the newly planted seeds, warming on the germinating mat in our kitchen on the plant shelves, promising to be full of green growth soon.

Welcome 2012

I am still figuring this new year out. I was planning heavily for lots of freezing weather and to my surprise we have spent the majority of this new year out of doors! Picnics on the back porch, decorating our play structure, running to the park, I even hooked the bike trailer to the bike today and went for a ride. We have plans for the new year. Plans to spend as much time as possible exploring this new place we have found ourselves. Camping trips, more than years past (not hard as we didn't go camping once last year and only twice the year before that), state parks to check off the list. Plans to simplify and focus on what really matters. Plans to garden, our biggest garden ever on our own.

Plans to celebrate. Not only the boys birthdays that are coming up, but the seasons and our days.

Plans to be thankful for the world we exist within.

Plans to watch the clouds, collect pine cones and build nests.

Plans to fish and walk in lots of water. Plans to play in the biggest sandbox we can find. Plans to run more.

Happy New Year.