{this moment}

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{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see

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They grow so fast...

Baby chicks that is. We're left with 11, the 8 I had planned on and the three freebies from Murray McMurray. No idea if they gave us roosters.... no signs of any boy-ness yet. 

They stank up my sewing studio, which is seeing a little more use these days, and needed fresh water every 10 minutes because they were so crammed and bored. Time to devise a new home for them! 

Only 5 left mid-move.... imagine 11 in there!

The handy husband put together a square corral of sorts, blessed be his hoarding tendencies because he had the material just lying around. Old window screens have always served us well as a breathable top cover. A scrounged piece of 1/4in plywood made the bottom. My oldest was very concerned with the chicks getting cold feet. She is right. Chickens detest to walk on cold ground. 

A little woodworking lesson for the younger two produced a baby roost, and we upgraded the feeder and waterer. Voila! Everyone is happier now. I started the 3-week-old chicks on a bit of parakeet grit so that we can start introducing them to dirt and bugs soon, too. 

Roses on ice

The roses I got for Valentine's day have been looking sadder and sadder but I didn't want to toss them just yet. Naturmama Caro to the rescue - in her wonderful book, she describes how to make ice sculptures with embedded treasures from nature. Oh, and here is a link to her blog for it, if you want to see. I sprayed a Bundt pan with oil and showed the kids the picture, that was all the action needed on my part - didn't it come out nice?

Now we can see the ice sculpture through the window when we sit at our dining table, for as long as it stays cold. Happily ever after :-)

Bread Box! Finally!

I'm really in a good groove now with baking most of our bread, and I do so almost daily. I made 3 small baguettes at a time, and found a tupper bin that just about houses them. But it takes up so much room on my very limited counter!

Then inspiration struck - I need the top to be a cutting board. And instantly, I gain back my counterspace! The husband was uncharacteristically excited and swift in the execution - turns out he had a salvaged piece of mahogany sitting around that he was itching to use up. He planed it down to remove all previous stains, polish and dents, then oiled it with food-safe walnut oil. Isn't it pretty? He fit it perfectly into the little lip on the outside of the tupper lid, so that it stays in place, but comes out for cleaning really easily at the same time.

This bread box is now one of the little things that make me happy when I use it every day.

On the mend!

Today I feel rather clever and pleased with myself. I'd procrastinated fixing a leak in a kid's down jacket, because frankly, I didn't really know how to best do it. After they came home insanely muddy from preschool yesterday, the jacket was washed and screaming to be mended, but how?

I ended up ironing on a tiny patch of pale blue fabric using a bit of steam-a-seam, using just the tip of my iron. Functional, in that it will keep the small rip from getting bigger, and it will keep the down from spilling out, but I was disappointed because the patch was a little obvious. But then I remembered a packet of fabric markers and just gave it a shot to match the pattern of the jacket on the patch:

Zoom out for a sense of scale:

 

zoom out a bit more - not too obnoxious, now!

I know, it's just a little thing, but I'm pleased to have one more trick up my sleeve to make those kids' clothes last a little longer ...

A little light

We had a little rainbow themed birthday party here this weekend, and it being November, I wanted an indoor activity for the kids to do. I'm thinking what kid doesn't like to play with sticky glue and light stuff on fire? Plus it's the season of St. Martin, and as Germans, we have a tradition of crafting lanterns right around now. Traditionally, children carry them around the neighborhood while singing songs, and we've done that in the past, too. I dug up some pictures from a couple of years ago to show you: 

      

  

But back to the craft at hand: We upcycled jars from tomato sauce and the likes, covered them in diluted Elmer's School Glue and then stuck one layer of tissue paper on it. Smoothing the paper down with more glue will make the parents' OCD happy, but it's optional and the more 'textured' look works fine, too. We dried them upside down, which didn't take long.

It's one of those craft project where different age kids can all produce nice results because even a totally holey pattern of random colors will look nice once the candle inside is lit. We filled the jars about halfway with water, and used unscented floating candles inside.

A little light is just what we needed in this increasingly dark and dreary season... as I'm looking outside right now, I see the first flurries of snow!

 

A homemade rug

Last spring, we redid the baby's room. Sniff - it was time to let go of the nursery and come to terms with the reality that we now have 3 'big girls'. "I told you I is a big girl!" is what the babee has to say on the matter...

Anyway, the room is microscopical. Smaller than some people's walk-in closet. Speaking of which, we removed the claustrophobically small closet from the room, to create a bit more open space. 

Anyway, back to the subject of this post: The rug. I'm particular about wanting natural materials, and in combination with the particular size I wanted and the styles I had in mind, the pickings were slim. So I decided on a completely untested DIY project based on the assumption that if that Stewart woman can paint a rug on canvas, I can sew one on the same material.

At home depot, I lucked into a natural color heavy duty cotton drop cloth on clearance. Seriously serendipidous. And no, I didn't iron it before commencing work. Stop acting surprised, now.

The birds were made of 100% wool felt which so far (9 months of very occasional, gentle vacuuming) has held up nicely. I enlarged the red bird from a graphic I found on the web, the woodpeckers and the tufted titmouse were enlarged from actual bird photographs.

I worked on the layout after cutting one layer of canvas to size (5'x6' I believe) and stitching the wings/tails onto the birds (using a plain zigzag stitch, and some straight stitch for the detail on the woodpeckers). The blue painters tape was used to create the outlines that I later made by stitching thick brown/gray wool yarn from the Drumlin Farm sheep down using a black heavy duty thread and again, a plain zigzag stitch.

I stitched the wool yarn down, and applique'ed the birds and leaves, onto a single layer of canvas. It turned out to be extremely important to strategically work from the center outward, or else the arm on my sewing machine wouldn't have fit the rolled up rest of the rug (same problem as with machine quilting). After that was all done, except the birds' feet, I cut a second layer of canvas, to extend 2in outside the original layer. I pinned it under the first layer, and then stitched down the birds' feet using red or gray/brown wool yarn. That kept the layers together just enough. For the binding, I used 4in wide grosgrain ribbon. First I folded the overhanging bottom layer upwards on top of the original layer, hiding its edge. Then I put the ribbon on top to hide the edge of the bottom layer. I tried rather messily for a mitered corner, but stitched down the point where the ribbons meet. I was more concerned with durability here, than with esthetics.

 The result is looking neat enough from top and bottom, save for the corners where I mis-cut the bottom layer and had to stitch it back on afterwards (that small black line at the corner...). Oops. I have yet to do a project where I don't mess up at some point or other. It's part of my (often hurried) process. Though I might take a cue from the fact that I literally was cutting corners, there :-)

Some more detailed pictures.  ...

The rug's been a big hit among the kids and visitors. I get a lot of satisfaction out of having made a rug for the kid that has yet to receive a baby quilt from me. Here you see it in the context of the rest of the room, and the bed that the husband made for her.

 

Scrounge & Splurge

I'm so pleased to show you my latest additions to my mudroom. This room doubles as my sewing studio, chick brooder, seedling nursery, and storage for all my stashes - from chicken food to seedlings, to fabrics. I needed more shelving! 

In a typical-for-us combination of thrift and spendthrift we (and by that, I mean the talented woodworker husband, TWH) made a 6 1/2ft long, 13in wide board from two reclaimed bedrails. The TWH found the bedframe at the swap shed at our town dump. It was labeled 'solid walnut' but we think it's beech wood. He joined the two narrower long pieces sideways to make one wide board and planed it to remove the previous stain and finish. 

Then we re-stained it and he finished it with some who-knows-how-old linseed oil that was in the basement of the house when we bought it. Mounted to the wall with my three definitely-not-thrifted, fancy brackets, it was just what I wanted. The spacing of the brackets isn't perfect but we had to work with the studs we had and the length of the board/available space in the room, so it is what it is. Add a random assortment of wicker baskets (from the dump, why do you ask?), and voila:

I'm thinking of adding hooks to the underside of the board to be able to hang garlic and onions to cure (if I ever manage to grow onions worth curing, that is). Or flowers and herbs to dry. 

That lavender oatmeal soap is still on my mind. On a rare solo outing into the world of brick and mortar, mainstream shops and stores, I saw some for sale at a staggering $7.98 per small bar at a fancy kitchen store today. Where they also sold plastic grapefruit saver containers, plastic onion saver containers, plastic lemon/lime saving containers, plastic garlic saving containers, plastic bell pepper saving containers and, believe it or not, plastic tomato savers (Who doesn't finish a tomato?). The display took up more than the combined counterspace in my entire kitchen. Seriously? But now I'm on a tangent. Back to business. 

 

My mini mudroom do-over is rounded out by this yard sale find. The front board slides up and out, not sure why, but it seems so nifty. I'm a sucker for naive country art (not the gift store kind, though). My kids see that stuff and tell me that one day, I'll have my own farm. They're sure of it.

 

The Art of Gardening & Homesteading

My oldest daughter has the good fortune to attend summer camp at the DeCordova museum and sculpture park this week. I am barely able to conceal my jealousy as I drop her off to make leaf prints from homecooked ink (in a solar cooker!), and other amazing endeavors. On the upside, we parents were treated to a tour of the current exhibit WORK OUTside. It is so incredibly awesome! It's all about the things I love, except of course done in a more artistic, inspiring (even instigating! Seed bombing! Guerrilla Gardening!) way.

There are several interactive pieces to it, you can leave DIY instructions of your favorite projects for others, make your own workbook from a few projects to do at home, or plant the exhibit program that is printed on seed paper (carrots!). Here are some pictures (phone quality, sorry!), but do go and see for yourselves!

Blast a hole in a parking lot and plant a garden? Yes, please! What a statement!

My favorite installation was this room full of everything I love and want to play with all day: 

The description from the DeCordova website:

"Fritz Haeg’s Domestic Integrities explores the ways in which local resources are harvested and brought into the domestic interior landscape of the home. As part of the project, a circular, 19-foot wide wild garden will be created in the Museum parking lot. Plants and vegetables grown in the parking lot garden will be presented inside the adjacent gallery, The Square, on a hand-crocheted rug made of used and discarded textiles."

The spinning wheel was studied in detail by Babee and me, and we were much inspired by the incredibly thick and luscious braided rug. It would be so simple to make one, using up all our old T-shirts.... inspiration everywhere.

In the far corner is a kitchen-like workshop with food containers, canning stuff, etc.

I'm blown away and can't wait to visit many more times!