Fiber Art Beginnings

Start 'em early I say :) Here's my Mushie Face "carding" some raw wool for me. I have about 5lbs of clean, raw wool sitting here in the apartment. I've been using it to stuff toys (that's what the knit veggies are stuffed with), I plan on taking up needle-felting, and I use the wool for our bendy dolls. Since it is raw wool, it's uncarded and has some gnarly spots that need combing. I'm usually the one to take care of this, but lately, Mush has taken an interest in crafting with Mama and has become quite skilled at fluffing the wool. Ahhh.... my Fiber Artist-in-training...

Speaking of fiber, I hit Joann's Fabrics this weekend and picked up some delicious corduroy. Including the weight I gained with Mushie Face during my pregnancy, I've lost about 45lbs in the last 14 months. Needless to say, I have NO clothes that fit me. While browsing around the internet, I stumbled upon some lovely clothes that *spoke* to me and I knew that my next projects would be some clothes for **ME**!! These cords, in plum, coal, a yummy brown, and a pewter sort of color, will become pants for me and the scraps will be panels for a gored skirt for the Mushie face. Here is some of my inspiration:
The Back Porch Boutique
Phreaky Boutique
Peace Boutique
Ocean Tribes.com
FlutterbyButterfly

Potty Learning Woes

We've been working on potty learning with the Little Man for a few months now (we started early summer) and to be honest, I HATE IT!!!

Let me preface by saying, M and I are pretty laid back when it comes to potty learning. We've let our little boy move at his own pace, we don't make him "use" the potty if he says he doesn't have to, we clean up accidents and don't make a big deal of them, the boy spends most of his days half-naked in our apartment to make peeing on the potty easier... I think M and I are doing really well. But I think we have begun having a problem.....

Little Man has recently decided that he doesn't want to use the potty all the time. Instead, he wants to pee on the floor, the couch, the dining room chairs, his SISTER!!! Yes, that's right, I have found my son peeing half way across the room onto his sister. This is where I must draw the line!!! My poor Mushie Face :(

We remind Little Man often where the potty is, that the potty is where pee goes, we ask him periodically if he needs to use the potty and we encourage him to try, but we don't push the situation. We've taken the laid back approach because we don't want potty training to be a struggle for control. I want learning to use the potty to be as stress free as I can make it, for everyone involved. But we're not moving in that direction. I am feeling stressed. I want the kid to be in underwear already and to fairly consistently use the potty.

So, any suggestions??? What's worked for you?? I'm going to do some reading to see if I can come up with anymore ideas because quite frankly, I'm all tapped out.

Recent knitting

For Christmas, my sweet mother-in-law and step-father-in-law bought the kids a wooden kitchen. It is AMAZING!!! Hand crafted in Maine, it is absolutely beautiful. I love it and am looking forward to many children enjoying this kitchen :) To round out their new setup, my parents bought some wooden "condiments" (as seen in the cabinets of the kitchen) and I knit them some fruits and veggies with a string bag. They really do enjoy cooking at it and making us many meals that are *dewicious* as Little Man loves to say.

I knitted my sister a felted Whimsy Tote from Little Turtle knits. It's not available for sale, it's a free pattern that Frequent Buyer's Club members can access. It was a quite an easy knit actually, double stranded Peace Fleece in Galooboy Blue. The problem came when it was time to felt.... a dozen cycles later and there were still areas not felting as well as others. It took some hand felting, and some trips through the dryer, but I got it fairly close to the measurements it was supposed to be. The tote is lined in a lime green flannel with bright flip-flops and sand dollars all over. The pocket on one side is a deep magenta color (my sis is a sucker for bright color combos). She LOVED it and has been using it every day since I gave it to her.

New Year, New Beginnings...

It's been so long since I last posted... We are struggling here with finding our daily rhythm. The television is on way too much, there's not enough creating being done by my children, and the apartment just seems to be a mish-mosh of 4 people living together. It all needs to change. What better time than the new year??

I've been doing some research into the Waldorf and Montessori philosophies of education and have decided to start implementing some of their ideas. With Little Man being so *spirited*, we need some basic structure to our day. A "routine" of some sorts so that we know what to expect next. Not to mention, this keeps me accountable to M and to the kids. I have a daily purpose to fulfill, instead of just haphazardly doing things.

Next week, we will be beginning our Seasons of Joy~ Winter curriculum. I will be establishing our daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms and using the curriculum as a guide and praying quite a bit that the Lord reveals to me how He wants me to educate my children. I'm really excited about this new endeavor and I look forward to the kids growing in their new environment. Since our ultimate plan is to homeschool our children, this will be our jumping off point. We are still in the discussion phase of *how* we will homeschool the kids when we get to that point, but for this preschool time, we will be Waldorf inspired (with some Montessori and traditional academics of ABCs, colors, etc thrown in).

With these new changes in our daily lives, I'm hoping that this blog will reflect what our family is striving for. I will continue to post my creations (I will update in a later post with some of the Christmas projects I worked on), topics that weigh on my mind, and now reflections on our beginning adventures in homeschooling. Hold on tight, I'm sure it's bound to be a bumpy ride :D