Just because it's cooking in a pot on the stove doesn't mean it's edible

Does making medicine count as crafting?

I'm supposed to be on a self imposed hiatus from crafting till after the new year. (I received a couple of really good books for Christmas and am enjoying reading a little fantasy in the time I would normally spend crafting.)
But... I was running low on my oak tea and since the Live Oak hanging over the fence in the back yard needed some trimming, I figured it was time.
My oak tea is created by boiling small oak branches and leaves till the tea is nice and dark. This time I used 2.5 acidic water from my Kangen water machine http://checkoutkangen.com/index.html that has antibacterial properties. I strained the tea with one of my coffee filters then added witch hazel for added astringency as well help it have a longer shelf life.

What's it for, you ask? I've mostly used it on poison oak (Oak as the cure for poison oak... kind of poetic don't cha think?) but it will work on topical conditions that are blistery and need to be dried up, like severe eczema. This treatment needs to be followed by a salve of some kind after the weepyness is gone. I've used pure lavender, or a blend of willow, mullein, oak, mules ears and st. johns wort with good results.

The Last Few Gifts

I finally finished up the last few gifts! Here is Phelan's gnome doll. He is made mostly from recycled wool sweaters. I plan on making him a vest later, but for now, he is done. This is my first Waldorf styled doll and he was a bit of a challenge, but I am mostly happy with how he turned out. I picked pink for Phelan as he doesn't have much pink stuff of his own. If it is pink, it is usually Cleo's. I hope this doesn't become confusing for them.

So... one day when I was working on Flower with Phelan on the couch next to me, he asked for some wool, then some yarn, then asked me to 'sew' it together for him. He ended up with a little felted ball on a string and that little bit of nothing entertained him then Cleo for the rest of the day. It literally fell apart by the end of the day.
And that was the inspiration for these little do-dads. A felted ball at the end of a string. These are made much more sturdy than the original so hopefully they will last a little longer. It amazes me when the simplest of things can create such happy busy-ness.
And then there was the gift exchange I forgot about till that morning!! A felted star ornament went over splendidly. I want to start making more of these for our own tree next year as well as hoping to make some to sell. (Let me know if you are interested and we can work out a deal! ;)

Whew!! That is it!! All the gifts are completed and wrapped, the house has been returned to it's normal somewhat-tidy shape, food is in the fridge waiting to be cooked, and we are all set for a bountiful Christmas in the morning!

Here is hoping your Holiday is filled with Warmth and Love!

Two Stockings, a Dragon named Tree and a tree

I finally got the kids stockings done (for now). These are made of recycled wool sweaters picked up at local thrift stores. They are a little more 'rustic' than I anticipated.... (my embroidery skills are a wee bit rusty) but I am liking the childlike charm of them. I have visions of adding to them over the coming years.... a few crystal beads on Cleo's.... walnut shells or acorn caps to Phelan's.... Till they become truly unique and very much represent who my children are. (Am I making too much of Christmas stockings?? Or have they become art in progress?)

The dragon known as 'Tree'.
He started out a very handsome and respectable green and yellow, but when he started showing a little too much 'love' and was starting to loose pieces... off to the buy some wool to fix him up! Now, I immediately spotted a lovely green pretty close to Tree's original color and thought it would do the trick nicely. My son, however, had other plans.
He grabbed a bright purple in one hand a dark brick red in the other and proclaimed these two colors were the ones for Tree and no other will will do.

Who am I to argue?


So here is technicolor Tree in all his glory. A much loved little dragon.








We also got our tree this last week and I decided to go the kid friendly route.
Nothing breakable on the tree. And after I put the lights up, I let Phelan do all the rest! He had such a great time decorating it, he continued to redecorate it for several days afterwards.

Two Squirrels and a Dragon

Two more of the kid gifts are done! :)

They each get a squirrel.... pink for Cleo green for Phelan. These are quite small and both fit nicely in the palm of my hand together.

Then Cleo's dragon, known as 'Flower' is finally done! I've been working on her quite a while. Taking the things I learned from making Phelan's dragon and making this one better.
Phelan's dragon (who he named, 'Tree') looked lovely once it was done, but after a week of loving and sleeping with, he was starting to fall apart.
Lesson learned.
Flower is made much more sturdy. I did not use any pipe cleaner in her as Tree's are starting to poke out in places. She is much denser and her parts are all attached much firmer. I'm sure she will still get loved to death, but hopefully I can prolong the process.

I gave her wings bones that actually ghost through on the back side, purple spirals appeal to me and give her an almost tribal look. Hot pink nails... ahem... I mean claws, a flower on her foot and pink ruff ending in a ball give her some seriously girly attitude.

Oh, and don't forget the purple eyelashes and pink beauty mark to finish off her look!

One of the most wonderful things about making Flower has been sharing the proccess with Phelan. He got to see her change everytime I worked on her and he is so very excited about giving her to Cleo for Christmas. I hope I can instill in my children a love of things handmade, and I think watching a creature such as this come to life is a start in the right direction.

A Gift

How blessed are we to recieve such a gift as this right out our front window. The kids got to see thier first rainbow, and what a rainbow! It's even a double and lasted for quiet a while. After a dark and rainy day this was a wonerful sunset treat.

The Goddess is Alive

Magick is afoot!

Holiday Gifts

One of my great joys is creating yummy bath treats!

So... this year a friend and I got together and created a few special treats for our sweet friends. I have a large supplies of all things bathy-crafty so this was another low-cost gift solution. Dawn picked up some salt and jars, the rest I already had on hand.

What we made:

Bath salts. I have dubbed them 'Salty Seaweed Solstice Soak'. A little frankinscence and myhrr, birch, cypress and orange gave this scent a very holliday feel. We added dolce seaweed for added minerals in the bath.

As I was low on jars, I used mini zip locks then wrapped them in parchment paper and use a fancy golden sun seal to make them seem all the more decadent.
Next was a salt scrub... great for winter dry skin!

Salt, almond oil, olive oil then a refreshing blend of rosemary, lavender, pepermint and grapefruit essential oils. I call this one 'Morning Dawn Salt Scrub'.

Next I plan on making some lavender salve and maybe someother salves as well. These are a little time-intensive, but are some of my favorite things to make.

But first I have to finish the kids Christmas gifts!! Don't worry I will post those as well. ;)

Gratuitous pics of Cute Kids

We had some family portraits done in July for Cleo's first birthday, so here is the birthday girl and her big brother, Phelan who is three.

Apron

I often wear clothes that dont' have any pockets
and after years of frustration I finally came up with a solution. An apron! So here it is made from scrap fabric from my long skirts. (Hm... maybe I should put a pic of one of those on here...) I decided to make it reversable as I wanted to line it for sturdiness and this way it was like two aprons in one. Simple pockets, including one for a pen, to keep my cell phone, paper, boogy towels, and whatever else I need, organized. I did a decorative stitch of swans or tulips on the pockets just for kicks. My son loved that part and now every time I sew something he wants to use the swans.

This is a cute apron great for around the house and shopping, but I'm thinking it would have been nicer had I made it to cover my chest as well, so when cooking or wahsing dishes my
clothes get less splatters on them.

On a nother note, Cleo was facinated with the apron and so I tried it on her and it was so adorable! Came all the way to her feet! So, I'm thinking matchign aprons for the three of us might be in order some day and this pattern might make cute skirt for her as well.

Dolly Diapers

Yesterday Phelan and I finished making diapers for Cleo's "baby's".

I used some old quilted flannel that someone had given me for a changing pad and added a bit of velcro. For a pattern I sort of traced a premie sized disposable diaper that the kids have been using for the dolls and then altered it so it would fit the smaller dolls as well.

Cleo is a very good Mama. Every day she wants to get her babys 'ni-ni' (naked) and then asked to get them dressed again. She usually does this by bring the doll and clothes to a grown-up and grunting while placing the clothing on the dolly's head. She also loves to carry them around, often one in each arm (then if she spots another, you can see her trying to figure out how she is going to carry that one too).

Baskets of Homemade Goodness

These are two baskets I made. One for a fundraiser and one as a wedding gift. Both baskets are recycled with bags and coffee filters made from scrap fabrics filled with home canned items such as blackberry jam, pickles, tomato sauce and apple butter.

Thanksgiving

Somewhere within the boogy stained shirts and dirty hair is a craftswoman. Creative & artistic I have sometimes thought myself to be. Dedicated to my children and wanting to stay home with them while they are still small I am trying to get back to crafting again in hopes of selling my wares. So, I have decided to start posting my creations here as a ways of documenting them. Starting with my Thanksgiving table.
This year my sister has just moved North to Oregon and my parents decided to have Thanksgiving there with her in her new lovely place. 160 acres of pasture and woods. So, here at Gormley Keep it was just going to be Hubby, myself, Phelan, Cleo and my two brothers. Mark and Michael.
And thank goodness for that!! Have I mentioned that this household has pretty much beeen sick for the previous two weeks?? So, a very low key holiday was planned.

I had no intention of decorating the table, but when I looked out the window that morning I saw a few lovely roses blooming and took the kids ourside to collect them for our table, then we added rosemary, which was also blooming, and mint... then we saw all these lovely fallen leaves and collected those up as well as some pink peppers. Tossed on the table with the little felted witch my hubby won at a fundraiser and here it is! I am regretting not folding the napkins a little nicer, but all in all it really set the tone for a lovely meal.

What I am grateful for this year..... My amazingly beautiful children, my hardworking husband, my mother and father, my friends who inspire me, love me, support me, and challenge me. The bounty of nature.

Stream of Words

Cleo is yammering in her crib.... wanted her to take a little nap, but it's a wee bit late. Phelan is climbing on my desk 'plugging in' who knows what.

I want to get better at organizing my thoughts into words. I am a visual creature and can't compose a letter with out silence and hours to ponder. So here I am with all my daily distractions seeing if anything can come out with some sort of relative sence.

"Mommy, where is my Blackberry?" (the electronic device, not the fruit) How often does your three year old say that? Mine does daily.

Cleo is silent and Phelan is playing quietly across the room... .hm... now I'm at a loss of words.

So, I've been feeling the need to get out of my domestic rut lately. The housework is never done, so why put off all the cool stuff I want to do till after I get 'my stuff' done. Sometimes I feel like the stero-typical 'housewife', who feels trapped in her house and years to get out and discover who she is, except I pretty much know who I am. I've just had to put parts myself in hibernation in order to become the mommy-housewife I am. I see it not as a permanent sacrifice, but a temporary one. As my kids get older, I have visions of of them tagging along behind me in the woods with packs of thier own upon thier backs.

"Just when the catipillar thought the world was over, she bacame a beautiful butterfly"

A night without kids

Tomorrow I leave for an overnight trip without my kids.
Last time I left Phelan overnight was a year ago for the Spring Equinox and other than one night when he was 3 mos old, that was the first time I had spent the night away from him, Considering I was pregnant at the time, I don't consider it a true kid free night.
I've never left Cleo overnight before.

I'm a little anxious.

Not so much about the kids, I know now that they will be fine. Phelan loves to hang out with his Papa and 'fix things'. Cleo is an easy baby and my mother is coming to take care of her, and Mom (aka, Lala.) is amazing with children, especially babies.
I'm worring about my mom. She holds a lot in and sometimes my father treats her like a servant, and she seems to have accepted that role for herself. I want this visit to be as easy for her as possible and for her to have fun with her only grandkids. I'm worried that if my dad stays as well, she will be in a position where she will be worrying about what he needs or cooking and tidying up. I was hoping to get a bunch of food cooked in advanced for her, but that didn't pan out.
Everything seems to take so much longer when there is a baby involved.

Ok.... (talking to myself, again.) They will be fine. Rick will be here, Mom can take care of herself. They will be fine. Don't forget to leave the kids medical cards.

Phelan quote

The other day Phelan was trying to climb onto my desk to get to my sewing light and he said he was trying to get to the light because, "The light will help my brain get big, so I can get on the computer and TV."

Now, mind you, he has pretty limited TV time. Only a movie here and there when I leave him with his papa (sometimes) or once or twice when we were both sick. But, he knows that his papa watches TV at night, and Jilli and Sissy have TV's in their rooms. And, well, only grownups have computers too.

Oh, my.....

...my, my, my.....
My cousin, by way of my lil' sister has dragged me into Facebook. So far a great big timesink.
Ah, the wee-ist is awake.

Yesterday was a good day

...despite being woken up at 3:15am by the rain. Then, of course, Phelan was up at 4am, Cleo was up at 5am. I got Cleo back to sleep and made Phelan lay down and try to sleep. (I think he may have dozed a bit... I dozed a bit.)

Made coffee in one of my new coffee filters. My hubby asked me where I got the idea for them. I said, "Well, I was making a grocery list and we were out of coffee filters."


I used some 30 year old fabic that I have been carting around with me over all these years, and now I don't ever have to pay $2.00 for coffee filters again!


So, on top of finishing a total of 5 coffee filters, I mended all four couch pillows, a bed pillow, and made three pillowcases while Cleo was taking a nap. That's it for the quick stuff. Next I'm going to work on some wool pants for Phelan and a sleep sack for Cleo using some old wool sweaters picked up at goodwill. But first I need to do some shopping! Pinking shears, a zigzag foot, zipper foot and a zipper.

Yesterday I also did my first massage in four years! I've been lookng at ways to work from home to earn some money and getting back into massage on the weekends seems like the perfect job. Rick stayed home with both kids and did very well. It felt good to earn a little money on my own. Probably just enough for my pinking shears! ;)

Giddy

Absolutely Freakin' GIDDY!!

I got my sewing machine all set up and Phelan and I made a quick coffee filter and I can't believe how freakin' GIDDY I am! I have missed my machine for the last few years. All the things I can now make..... buhwahahaha!!! >:)

First Tooth!

Yesterday my little angel baby got her first tooth!!

I have a rule, "No teeth. No Food." So now Little Miss Cleo can have all the food she wants. We had been 'tasting' things before.... banana, rice, peas, apples.... but last night was her first 'real dinner'. Cleo dined on a delightful selection of organic brocolli and brown rice freshly made by her dear mama.

Rick and I took Phelan and Cleo to Kidspot in Sebastopol yesterday. http://www.kidspotimaginationcenter.com/ It was a little over stimulating, but Phelan had a great time running around and playing on all the stuff. Cleo got to meet other babies like her.... very much like her. There was a baby one month older than Cleo and one younger than her. When they all were together, it looked like a little pink bald tea party. (They all had pink jammies on!) It was great fun till one baby thought Cleo nose was just to interesting and grabbed it and the babies finger nail caught Cleo and gave her a little owie. :(

I'm getting some things done around the house. I finished painting my belly mold and got it hung up yesterday. (Tired baby=long nap!) And that was the final step to getting my desk cleared off so I can set up my sewing machine! I'm very excited to finally get back to sewing. I think the first thing I'm going to make are some coffee filters. Then a shawl for a friend and then I have a ton of kid projects!

Getting back to sewing is part of my 'getting back to basics' that is my theme for this year. The kids need clothes, I can sew them. And even more enviromentally concervative, I can sew them out of old clothes. And it even more cost effective, saving my hard working hubby lots of money.

And some mornings suck

2:30 am the baby wakes, nurses goes back to sleep.

4:00 am Phelan wakes, pees in the potty (yay!) and doesn't go back to sleep. I take him back to his room and sit on the futon in there (and doze as much as I can) and try to get him back to sleep. He plays, cries, fusses, says "I want to go downstairs." a hundred times. I am firm and do not relent till 6:30 when I hear my husband getting up for work and Cleo waking again.

So, I'm grumpy already.

Then Rick tells me that Jill (our 46 year old roommate) has taken my car (with the carseats in it!!!) to work (she works nights at a hotel) because her's wouldn't start.

I don't like her driving my car. We only have liability on it as most of the week it sits in the driveway and only does local trips. Plus, the CARSEATS! She should have been home by 8am but didn't get home till 10:30.

Her cats attacked my peacock feather smudge fan that I made about 6 years ago because they didn't have food again. I told her the next time they attack my fan because they don't have food I'm putting them all outside. They are indoor cats even though they want to be outside.

Yesterday it hailed, and I mean it hailed really hard!! Here is a pic of Phelan playing in it a bit. He thought it was really fun, but did not like how cold his hands got. Then I gave him the idea to use a shovel. ;)

Ahhh.... Coffee...........

Some mornings are lovely.
Cleo goes right back to sleep and Phelan plays by himself and I get to sit and twiddle away some time on the computer sipping my much loved morning cup of coffee. Some days I slurp half of it down while getting breakfast ready, then run upstairs to take care of the baby then don't get to finish it till it's cold.
Ah, he's 'found' me. Jibber, jibber jibber. He never stops talking. :) Sweet and endearing and yet annoying at times. (Heh, he's building a long pole by sticking together all the highlighters in my desk drawer.)
And the lil' one wakes...... it was a lovely 15 mins while it lasted. ;)

And the colds continue

Day 4 of the three of us being sick. At least it's a mild cold.
I don't know if I was brilliant or psychotic on Wednesday when the three of us woke up sick. I wasn't feeling too bad and was afraid of the house mess getting out of hand while I was sick with two sick kids, so I cleaned house and washed diapers and prepped meals. Even got the coffee all ready to go for the morning.
And so far the misery hasn't hit.
And my house is all tidy! :)
It's been kind of a twilight zone experience for me.

My husband has been really trying this last week or so to be more "engaged" with the kids and it has been really really nice. He had Phelan help him fix the dryer this morning and Cleo and I got to go to the grocery store all on our own. And I think, missing one kid, my brain wasn't functioning right (I'm so used to having them both all the time!) and I went over my budget by $10 and had to run out to my car to get my debit card. Of course it's the only time I actually left my card in the car.

Phelan's Post

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Trying to keep up....

... with this journaling thing. I actually got around to doing some journaling in both kids books recently. And even added an entry to my personal journal. Somehow I feel like I'm still not capturing the essesnce of my existance. I guess that is what I am tryign to do.....

Phelan and I both woke up with the start of a cold and little Cleo has been teething these last couple fo days. Phelan has also been getting up at 3 or 4 am to pee. Great news-he is getting up to pee and not peeing in a diaper. Bad news-he has a very difficult time getting back to sleep. So I have been up at 3 or 4 am the last few days. :( But, no diapers!! :):)

Off-Shoots. There is some politics/drama going on with Phelan's play group, and I'm a little at a loss about it. I'm usually with the kids at group and miss out on a lot of the grown up conversations, but I guess there has been a little dissention for a while now. It looks like our group is going to change and, unfortunately, I think one mom will not be coming back.

I had a great brithday weekend. Candlemaking with OSG. Left Phelan with Rick for almost a whole day and they had a great time. Rick and Phelan sometimes have issues together and Phelan is such a mamma's-boy that I was a little concerned about it. But Rick mentioned going to the hardware store and I told Phelan I might not be home when he got back and he said, "I don't care." :) They ended up going to TWO hardware stores, a little shopping, and the park. The BIG park with the train. They had a blast. Sunday, we were going to go out to breakfast, but the kids were a little spun and I was TIRED so I had my hubby pick some up. Later that day mom and dad came over and brought the latest bags of loot from Goodwill. Mom is a Goodwill Diva. :)