Bliss Beyond Naptime

This Moment - Tea Toddlers

{this moment} - A Friday 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. ~Amanda Soule

Had a Knight's Time

Happy Saint Michaelmas! We had a fun time at the Nature park with our DORKs mamas (Dominion of Righteous Kinda Steiner-based homeschoolers - guess who came up with that acronym). As you can see the knights kind of out number the damsels in distress a bit. Where is she anyway?

There we go. Look how distressed she is. The dragon is a paper machied beaut courtesy of everyone's favourite Moon Monster, TT! She's Edie's favourite playmate ever, remember? I believe we've even featured one of her fabulous pinatas on the blog before.

Here's how he looked before we let loose a gatallioned of armed five year olds on him. His last meal was some sweet yet organic treats, beeswax and felted up balls - why? Because I felt like it! That and I was inspired the day prior by this blog post by Amber the Wooden Mouse Mama.

Edie wasn't feeling particularly whacky but Kale was all over the quest. After a quick tuturial with his whacky mama...

... he fought with valiant effort. Brave little man, but in the end, he couldn't get his stick off the ground. Better luck next year, son. All in all it was the most magnificent time with slabs of meat roasting on sticks over the fire, a scavenger hunt and, check out this sadness;

a potluck with my contribution being this Dragon Bread. That them there are goji berries by the way. We had to do a last minute goji berry transplant because I learned that they blacken after 40 minutes in the oven. Kind of looks a bit like a Muppet Show reject, no? Awfully darn tasty though - kind of like sweet bread. Hope you have a wonderful time subduing your inner dragon today!

I'll DIFY in a Jiffy

I've recently came across DIY Couture. Rosie Martin is the brains and braun behind this venture which walks even the most beginner sewer through easy to fallow steps via photos and illustrations along a collection of twelve fun and fabulous wardrobe essentials. Check it out here. I went ahead and purchased the only three booklets currently available and am awaiting with abated breath (just joking, I don't inhale anymore) for the rest to come up. I'm especially stoked about the shrug and jumpsuit instructions!

And for the DIFY part of the post; Rosie has kindly given me permission to sell the creations I whip up from her series so if you're not into DIY, I'll DIFY (do it for you) over at the Jupiter shop.

Using  the hooded cape instructions, I am offering both the full length hooded cape pictured above and a mini verision as well. Both can be whipped up in plaid wool and are lined in natural raw silk. I'm plum out of the houndstooth up there but I'm going to see if I can source some more out because it's demand!

I actually got to sport this one on my trip to town this weekend. I love it (and not just because they make my knockers look huge. Okay, fine. It's a little jump that's giving that optical illusion. We have to thank Tyra Banks for that Top Modelling tip again.), got lots of compliments and then, of course, Indian summer busted out around lunchtime and I was forced to take it off. It's tricky sometimes to look fabulous and sweaty simultaneously.

My plan is to go through the whole DIY Couture collection and share with you here reviews of the booklet and the variations I came up with and also feature them in my shop to sell with the offer of fabric choice, because, my stash is getting that big and I'm having fun with DIY Couture! I think you should too. But, don't forget, if you're iffy I'll DIFY.

This Moment - Smock, Schmock

{this moment} - A Friday 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. ~Amanda Soule

Autumn Knit-quinox

It's that time of year again when I like to get seriously hunkered down with my knitting project wish list; as in I wish I was a faster knitter so I can make a decent dent on this list this year! Why, oh why did I not take up the continental way to knit before I crusted up into this rigid shell of yarn throwing? It's been a long haul this project I'm pouring much love to. I'm spinning this lucious soft lavender merino then knitting up a Plain and Simple Weekend Pullover for a special lady in exchange for Edie's bedroom Lazure-ing. Yes, I know. I'm a slow, slow knitter. Edie suggested that a naughty fairy sneaks in at night and de-knits what I've knitted.

When I first started knitting I was so obsessed and had waaaay less things on my plate to contend to I vowed to make everyone in the family a winter sweater each fall. Oh, how things change. With a somewhat better grasp on reality in respect to time constrants at least I'm surrendering to the knowledge that I'll be lucky to get through, hmmm, three or four. So which one of these from my Ravelry queue will be the lucky winners?

Mama needs a cardigan (easy boob access. Not a post around here without that word you know.) and I'm eyeing Tea Leaves. Do you see this in my future?

Or how about the Shalom cardigan? Soulemama knitted this with her toes a while back with cute alterations that include long sleeves. Looks super cute and I might even use the same organic yarn she did. Sometimes it's easiest to just do what Soulemama does because then you can just turned your brain off and just focus on colour picking.

And my Thursday night knit group was suppose to tackle this together (each one of us make our own, not one giant one). It's the Twinkle Skating Sweater by Wenlan Chia. Too bad knitting group is kinda tricky to attend with Little Bubba still needing Mama at bedtime.

 

Wait. I just found this. This is it! Yes, another Soulemama seed planted. It's called the Oatmeal Pullover. I'll stop here now. Looking at this I'm reminded of this cute new-to-me blog. Have you ever heard of the Selfish Seamstress blog (because she only wants to sew stuff for her. Ha, ha!)?

And darn. Looking up the link to her I see she's going to knit this. Darn it! This is going to complicate things. As you can see none of these really come in two year old, six year old or man size. Hee, hee all for me. Maybe I should rename my blog Selfish Knitter? Would be way easier to spell out my url to friends and strangers. "What, Wild Tangerine Dreams? White Tangerine, wha?"

Beans, beans, good for your heart...

We're so silly. We can't serve these without busting out into that song. It's harvest time. I'm blanching and freezing. So I ain't got time for chuckin' and jive'n. I have no idea what that means but I've had that stuck in my head the last two weeks.

That apple-y time of year again. We have loads of wild apple trees along our driveway. They all have names; Pink Tree, Sweet Tree, Sour Tree, Tea Tree, Pea Tree... (kidding about the last two - whoa, I'm in a weird mood today)

And I'm a canning maniac these days. One more tomato canning afternoon to go and we should be hooked up for spaghetti fixins' for the whole winter! Next up, elderberries and apple processing and then homeschooling starts tomorrow too. Wheeeee!!

This Moment - Time for a Change

Two Cloves for Comfort

This is going to be a super quicky! Craig is waiting for me on the couch and is eagerly anticipating me joining him because we're on this Dexter kick. I can tell he's starting to get exciting because he keeps clapping his feet together and waving me over with his toes. It's a weird courtship thing that happens after eight years of marriage I guess. But I wanted to quickly share the phenemona I call Garlic Yarn I spun up for the Garlic Festival I had a booth at this weekend. I made a blue and a pink one named Vampire and Vampira respectively. Vampire's gone so Vampira's up for sale. Twenty five smackers. Quickly! Get her before she's gone. Because I think it might literally be gone soon due to some potential shrinkage with the garlic dehydrating and all. Kind of experimental at this point.

It was pretty fun being away selling my wares all day - kidless. But gosh darn I missed them. This has been the longest I've been away from Kale yet. My boobs were sure talking by the time I got home. They (the kids, not my boobs) were pretty stoked with the presents I came back with for them. There they are up there modelling them. I got Edie a little flower hairpin I bought from my friend Jen who I'm hoping will start a blog/etsy shop any day now for her creations are so sweet and Kale scored an ensemble from Ellie which he refuses to leave the house without. Seriously, he loves it that much. He puts on the wool pants and button up shirt and then pats his pants until someone says "nice pants" then proceeds to gently rub his shirt until he hears "nice shirt". The cuteness is too much sometimes!

This Moment - Smokey Sundays

{this moment} - A Friday 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. ~Amanda Soule

Today's Specials

While the days are still quite temparate (*please note: It's actually still quite balmy here these days. I just have a tendancy to overdress the kids.) the outdoor kitchen stays outside on the deck. It's pretty cute. The resturant opens, after they finish up their 'staff meal' together of course and then come over and take orders from me while I'm busy over on the other side of the deck spinning and such.

And Edie wore her new bonnet to work this day. I got the Japanese/translated to English book Carefree Clothes for Girl  (I sure hope they do this with more of these gems. I love Japanese craft books!) and excitedly showed it to Edie right away and told her Momma will make her anything from the book, anything,  she wanted. Turned out she wanted nothing. Oh, the agony of deflation.

So I was ready to lend out the book to a friend and insisted I make her at least the Melton hat before it goes away for a while and she conceded. I had some houndstooth wool from the hooded cape I just put up on the shop and, also lining it in raw silk life the cape, whipped this up in no time flat. She got to pick out the button, pink of course, and, now, as predicted, she won't take it off. She even wears it as a hair net when working her shift at the cafe.

Meanwhile, buddy over here is shooting back the shots and then pointing at his mouth which is the universal sign for "more shots please'. And just before his shift too. Tsk, tsk.  And over yonder on the other side of the deck...

Mama's spinning up a storm. I'm gearing up for a big festival out here that I'm selling my yarn at. I'm sharing a table with my friend Ellie. Next Sunday! Quickly, short little wasted waiter, keep the coffee coming!