new for 2013! party sets!!!

SO so proud & excited about these new products for the shop for 2013.

Steph and I have been longing to expand the party festivities that are available in our etsy shop and we finally decided just how we'd like to do that!

The above party hats, pinwheels and poms were made for a custom party for a dear friend of Steph's.

Looking forward to seeing the look on the little girl's face when she sees her birthday set up!

cookie mania, almost over...

just love this boy & his brother, 2 of little bits favorite friends of all time!
and mama's too!

then there is this guys, keeping it real in his gifted reindeer snow suit!

the fun continues as our sweet friends arrive with decorating sugars in hand

The playschool children making a batch of sugar cookies as presents

Sometimes i take a step back and i have to laugh! My social life really revolves around the children in my life! I know I am their teacher, but often they just feel like my friends! Those little/big eyes watching how things are done, and taking it all in.

Kids have always been my favorite people. I'll be telling my  husband at the end of a long day: "You won't believe what so and so said to so and so" and actually he chuckles a bit but he understands because he is a teacher of small children too.

They have such pure magic!

I have credited my little sister, 10 years my younger, here before with sparking my absolute love of children and I will so mention it here again. Thanks girl!

I relished in this last Spring during egg dyeing season and here it is again creeping up on me during cookie making season, they JOY, the CHEER! The willingness of little ones to do and create things they love over and over with such WONDER! We had about 4 good days of cookie making between playschool, dear friends, aunties, Nana's and Papa's (late night cookie monster he is!)

Above are some of the results!

I hope that your season was full of as much sweetness as ours was, edible or otherwise,

and may the WONDER of childhood never leave us~ !

What are some of your favorite childhood traditions or memories, what are the current ones you love to do or make with the littles in your house?

SEAM meeting at fiddlehead, Spring re-capbeautiful

beautiful wool felt waiting to be turned into flowers!
 

these flowers are so sweet and can be made into a brooch or a hair bow!

In the Spring I taught this wool felt flower at the SEAM meeting at the lovely Fiddlehead Artisan Supply in Belfast. (Love their shop, it has everything a crafty girl could need!)

The pattern came from Colletterie, also a really lovely site chick full of how-tos and diy projects.

So here is what you need to get started:

Wool Felt

Scissors

Sewing Needle and thread

Pin Back or Barrette

Cut 2 lengths of felt in 2 different colors, sized about 2 by 5 and 2.5 by 5

Fold them in half and cut snip them all the way across leaving about 1/4 inch at the bottom of each piece- that is where you will be putting your running stitch

Do a running stitch along the bottom of each piece off felt an pull at the end to gather the felt.

Once you begin to gather it you will see the flower shape coming to life.

Once you have your flower use how you would like stitch a few stitches to hold it into place.

You will repeat this with the smaller piece of felt and then lay on on top of the other and sew them together to make the 2 tier flower.

Once your flower is all sewn up you can attach it to a Pin Back or a Barrette.

To see the tutorial in full that we followed and to see more sweet felt flower tutorials click here!

on the hoop: eric carle

birthday bunting!

this week in the shop steph created this beautiful birthday bunting. sewn up in our lovely and sturdy wool felt, of course, and trimmed out with polka dot grosgrain ribbon, i love the festiveness of a polk dot at birthday time, one of my favorite ways to jazz up a party!
these are available in the shop in this theme or any other of the current mosey themes and we are always taking custom orders too! check out our new section of birthday banners here!

{on the hoop} : this week vintage loves

Elmo & Cookie

Love the way Big Birds feathers came out, kuddos to Steph!

Love this vintage inspired circus themed  custom crown!

Off they go to market!

These sweet beeswax crayon pouches are off to Bella Luna Toys for the back to school rush!
We are so thrilled to be working with such an amazing toy shop and all around wonderful Waldorf Business. If you live in the Mid- Coast Maine area, be sure to look out for their new brick and mortar store opening very soon! I saw photos of the lazured walls and they are gorgeous!
In the meantime be sure to check out Bella Luna's website for all kind of back-to-school goodies for you and yours!

Tasty Thursday: Waldorf Apple Birthday Cake!

I think the origianl recipe comes from the Three Rivers Waldorf School.

It's a wonderful recipe and easy enough that even the young children can do all the mixing themselves. although i handled the 1 CUP of pure maple syrup...you heard that right...ONE CUP...can you see how good this recipe is already!

you can bake in just about any size or shape of pan, although i prefer the bundt version...there is something a bit more festive about it's sweet shape to me.

the recipe is as follows (and it's eggless to for those with allergies)

{apple birthday cake ring}1 cup oil

1 cup maple syrup

1 2/3 cups apple sauce

4 tsp cinnamon

Mix above ingredients together

3 cups flour or redmill gluten free flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

mix above ingredients well and add to first mixture

bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes in a circle pan. we love to serve our birthday cake with homemade whipped cream and fruit...this time we had blueberries the family had picked in the summer and frozen for an year round treat...yum!

kite making with children

on of my favorite memories from being a kid was flying kites with my dad. he wasn't a master kite maker (although he is generally the kind of guy who can pick up and DO anything) but he did love to fly. we mostly flew those crazy eyed bat kits, dad said they were just the same when he was a kid. his dad would give him 10 cents and he'd walk to the drugstore and buy a crazy eyeball bat kite and go fly it. so that's just what we did.
there was always a hill by some water with a good wind, and dad would know where to find it.
we moved around a lot as kids, and lived in a vw bus while we built our house in maine, but always there was a corner store with a bat kite. wings shiny, bat eyes red and crazy!
when i was in college i built some pretty neat kites and my husband to be (at the time) his grandfather was a real paper kite maker. his art inspired me to make a love letter kite for my husband, and i swear that's how i won him over!
working with children now, i've done some pretty cool kite projects. tyvek is an easy to find, light weigh kite material that holds up for kids a little better. especially if the children want to paint or color the kite.
here is what you need to get started:
about a yard of tyvek per kite
markers or crayons
a good stick
and kite string
wooden dowels 1/8 inch thick
box cutter or good sharp knife ( to be used and wielded by the adult of course~)
fabric scraps

i wouldn't substitute *kite string* for anything else, and it can generally be found at any art supply or hardware store

i like the good old fashioned kite shape, but you could adapt yours anyway you'd like.
make a "t" cross and cut your dowels to fit.
cut your tyvek leaving 2 inches "seam allowance"
when working with kids, we actually use clear tape to fold over the tyvek and secure it to the kite frame
i always fly my kites with a tale, honestly it makes a BIG difference! we make ours by taking a  strip of scrap cotton and then tying some bows along the tail
you can attach kite tale with tape too

wrap about 15 feet of kite string around your branch
then tie your kite string where the cross of the dowels meets and you are ready to go!

in the name of three

crowns for some very special triplets this week who are celebrating their 1st birthdays!

{on the hoop} this week: boys vs. girls

this week we bring you:
blue owl
circus pinwheel
original bird *e*
original bird *elinor*

{on the hoop} this week: olympia!

for a very special little girl turning 3 years old this month!

a party full of pinks, oranges and browns...

our original bird crown gets a colorful twist!

{on the hoop this week} the girls

what a busy week for girl birthday crowns, we love seeing all the pinks and pistachio greens, purples and teal blues all heaped together and ready for send off!

happy birthday little ones!

{on the hoop} this week: the boys

some festive boys birthdays! full of polka dots and love!

summer camp, continued

today we cleaned all the new eggs (8 total) and even brought out some eggs from the weekend to clean since the children so loved washing them. we filled up a galvanized metal tub with water and our fave dr. bronners (lavender, of course) the children loved how the dr. bronners seemed to turn the water purple when they washed the eggs. considering we've been studying fairies this week it added to the magic in the air!
here are some of the cutest bonnets in town washing about 3 dozen eggs and drying them in the sun!
love summer in maine.