Bliss Beyond Naptime

Easter Egg 2012

For the last four Easter Good Fridays we make our way over to our neighbours' Easter Egg decorating potluck making it feel to me these days like the true hallmark of spring officially in the air.

 Our neighbours are close enough we walk over safely and happily as a tribe but far enough that it still feels like a bit of a risky adventure. Especially when night begins to enclose in on us as we embark on our journey home after dinner.

Ukrainian Easter egg decorating happens at this get together and for the weeks leading up to Good Friday our whole family's got their egg-shaped thinking caps on commiserating what will adorn our eggs this year.

I felt compelled this year to commemorate the newest addition to our family, our mini dachsund puppy Angel, similarly to how Craig did a baby foot print on his egg the year Kale was born. The eggs are decorated with yolk intact and soon I'll be blowing them empty and hanging them on the Easter tree. Next year.

As a side note the Easter Tree did not happen yet as planed due to life excitement in so many other areas. Namely, the turbo torso number you see wrapping around my creation up there.

To make up for the lack of said tree I let the kids to go ahead and eat a whole, entire chocolate bunny to themselves for the first time in their lives for last night's dessert.

Mind you said bunnies were only about two inches tall. But still, Kale had yet to experience such a caffeine indulgence before (other than when in utero. And during his after latte nursings for his first three years) and was up singing Hot Cross Buns in bed until 3 in the morning.

And the point of the story my little egg is trying to tell. .. this here is the true source of all these magical Easter eggs delivered worldwide to children everywhere.

The muses made me do it.

I asked a fellow pot lucker if she thought that last touch was maybe a little too much. Perhaps even a little weird. She replied that it wasn't like me to be doing something weird.

I think I dected a tinch of Easter sarcasm in her voice.

Happy Easter!

love,

Kathy

 

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Seven Year Old Wonder

 I totally remember being seven. Six is still a bit hazey, my entire twenties are a complete blur, but seven – crystal clear. And here’s my little crystal child, with freshly lost front teeth, stretching out into a  graceful , shape shifting faced, thoughtful, smart, hilarious little girl entering into this year of many never to forget golden moments.

 

 This has also been the first time Edie has been pretty particular about birthday party details. Many pictures drawn of how she was hoping things would be; all the  friends she wanted to invite, the birthday crown in specific colours and even a to scale replication of her pink birthday cake; including interior shots. Done! With help from my infamous baker friend Peggy I concocted a super clean pink icing.In the food processor I blended:

1 can of coconut milk

1 tbls coconut powder

¼ cup honey

2 tbls beet root powder

Then I slowly drizzled in one cup of melted coconut oil and 2 tbsp of lemon juice. I stored it in an airtight container overnight and iced the cake right before the guests arrived. It was amazing; like pink, unrefined sugar heaven! Only one sweet little girl didn’t care for it much; she whispers her unfinished piece of cake apologetically to me “I don’t care much for coconut”. Cute! But if you care for such things as coconuts you'll love this recipe!

 

For the party favours we got caught up in a bit of a crafty roll. First I made Edie her birthday crown to spec and then thought it would be fun as an icebreaker to have her guests go on a treasure hunt leading them to monogramed crowns. Then, in their loot bag, a teeny weeny bunting was waiting to be hung on their bedroom wall so that Edie will be the last thing they think of before they fall asleep and the first thing they think of as they wake (I call this subliminal friend marketing).

Edie was so thrilled to help me make these. She picked out the fabric from my scrap collection and cut them out into little triangles which I then stitched right sides together, leaving one side open, turned right side out, top stitched and attached in to prefolded bias tape in no time at all.

And then came the request. I usually do a puppet show for Edie’s birthday of how she came over the rainbow bridge (complete with a puppet of Craig with the cargo pants and goatee he was sporting when Edie was sliding down said bridge) but this year she was hinting for a bit more of an elaborate production. I had to call in a professional.

This lovely lady runs a Waldorf homeschool enrichment program in town. She is magic and I notice lately I’m smitten by women with accents; Goddess Leonie, Dottie Angel, my Simplicity Parenting Training coach, Patsy from Ab Fab. Isn't that odd (imagine me saying that in the British accent I’ve been working)?

So there you have Edie’s birthday in a rainbow silk wrapped nutshell. And this is just the beginning of the birthday celebration season for us. This Sunday’s it’s Kale’s (Valentine Day kids!), then Craig’s two weeks after, then Sweet Baby Jesus’s and then finally mine in January. Then I can kick back and resume my sitting on the couch consuming bon bons position once again!

When the Craig's Away...

... the Kwow will play. With her inner water colour artist that is. I have been on a quest to cover up the eye sore of the exposed electrical board since the day we moved in. I finally got around to hanging up a half painted acrylic painting couple of years ago but there it sat, half done, making me whince everytime I walked by it. Like, hundreds of times a day. Not psychically healthy! So with kids in bed, and a giant piece of water colour paper I busted this out in like half and hour.

I was feeling shy about doing this with Craig around and sure enough when he came home his first comment was that it looks like a three year painted it. Surely he's just jealous. So I suggested we have a paint off and the winner gets to hang his or her painting over the gaping feng shui nightmare of an orfice.

My painting guru suggested a different approach. Why not paint one painting together? Wouldn't that be romantic? Once in a while I'll dab some red on his nose and call him my little clown, and he'll giggle like a school girl. With one hand we'll paint, the other we'll feed each other organic bbq chips. And then, in the morning we'll hang up our masterpiece together while the kids clap their hands and we'll kiss.

And just as I was ready to post this  I came across this tutorial on Beautiful Mess sharing five tips to photograph your home. I particularly like the point of taking the photo shoots one room at a time. The side bonus of it forcing you to tidy things up, declutter and then get to 'style' it to your heart's content. Totally works! The last shot of the hallway forced me to throw a load of laundry piled in the middle of the floor straight into the wash. Decluttering the pajamas off the kids came shortly thereafter.

And then, since I've been meaning to do some full on decluttering for a while now, it was also timely to find this excellent article that speaks to the common roadblocks to decluttering  and their underlying core emotional issues. These include:

• I might need this later. That would suck.
• Someone gave this to me. Their feelings might get hurt (sad trombone sounds here).
• I paid good coin for this and it might up in value someday.
• I've had this a really long time. Like, long time.

Though it's techinically a spring cleaning article it's quite timely due to the cooler weather, in these parts anyway, that will call for more time spent indoors and everyone thrives in less clutter spaces. Think of the need to space your carrots to let them grow to their full potential. 

Not to mention a less cluttered house is a more photogenic house and this winter you will probably tire after so many outdoor shots of my kids ridiculously bundeled up to the point of immobility in three feet of snow! Heads up for lots of jammy shots in a hopefully freshly decluttered, cozy abode.

Plan It K-Wow

When the Craig is away, K-Wow (the new name I'm trying on for fun) gets to play! I came back from my yoga retreat super duper blissed out so I suggested to Craig that he scram for a few days to recharge his Daddy batteries. And so he booked to the hills on an epic climbing/backcountry camping expedition leaving me alone to dive deep into a juicy project because, you know, without his cuteness distracting me Mama K-Wow can get pretty productive!

 

I'm excited to start my training this week to become a Simplicity Parenting Leader  to get certified to offer workshops and coaching in the New Year. To really delve into the possibilities opening up to both me and the world I decided to pull together a business plan. I know, the word business plan makes me sleepy too so I picked up a copy of the Right Brain Business Plan by Jennifer Lee and started this incredibly fun process this weekend.

The process begins with a guided meditation and is followed by journalling and loads of collage making. I forgot how much fun collage making is! I have to say I was pretty blissed out sitting at my new-to-me cutting table complete with cutting mat, rotary cutter and stack of magazines. Flipping, dreaming, gluing and seeing my vision on how I want to make an impact on the world come to visual form was a really empowering experience.

And here it hangs in my Loft Nest Head Quarters where I just have to swivel my nogging to the left like so to keep the big picture in sight. So inspiring! Now I can't stop collaging. Luckily, the next step was to make several mini collages onto index cards to layout the values we hold closest to our hearts.

And from there I had enough time to tip toe through the nest step; pulling together my passion and purpose statement for my Simplicity Parenting coaching endevour:

I'm passionate about slow living and honoring childhood. My purpose is to inspire others to make simple changes to help foster health and well-being in their home environment and beyond.

Hey? Hey!? So now that I've bitten bad by the collage bug can I ask if you can recommend a few magazines you read you think I might like and be able to hack into inspirational pieces afterwards? I'm so out of the magazine getting loop and there's only so much I can do with the mountain shots I cut out of Craig's climbing mags. Alright, we have massive amount of hay coming our way this morning so I better get some green smoothie in me. Hope you get to play with some of your passions and purpose this gorgeous Indian Summer day!

Doll House

Way back, like, six months ago, I made Kale a doll for Christmas. Whenever we asked him what his new doll's name was all he can say was "Baby". Now baby has a new name ~ thanks to a vastly extended vocabulary and a tiny wee bit of a man-crush. A couple of weeks ago our neighbour was over doing some work on our property with his bobcat. Our neighbour's name is Mickey and, well, a little man/boy crush later, Baby changed his name just like everyone else seems to do when they've been living in this little valley after a while.

Mickey likes to be carried around in the backpack just like Kale did not so long ago when he was a little man of little vocabulary. Luckily, we have the world's foremost leading expert on baby wearing living in the house. Edie's been studying the thirty paged Didymos sling instruction booklet and has been challenging herself to carry her baby, Clara, in every conceivable way possible as demonstrated by the step by step coloured photos. It's been her favourite pastimes for months now.

So cute, she stands there with the booklet on the ground following the photo steps until Clara's safe and sound in the carrier. Kale just throws Mickey in the backback. Then they take their babies for a walk, or just clean up around the house while I lounge on the couch eating my backwoods bonbons.

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On the subject of bonbons and favourite pastimes; I came across and spent hours drooling on this last night: Grosgrain just wrapped up a month of free patterns. Not only are the projects super inspiring like the a-frame tent up there but the incredible sewing blogs these projects led me to were time suckers! Must find some time to get to the sewing machines and read more frome these wonderful ladies I found. It's too sketchy to garden at peak sun hours, right?

Concrete Example

I was upstairs sewing when Edie poked her nose in from outside and yelled "Mama! Come quick! Bring the camera!" I just about fell off of my swivel chair (which I happen to do about once a day anyway because the seat's not screwed in to the rest of the chair) and went running out. Running these days takes an enormous amount of coordination because of Kale's teething that's been full on causing him to be quite clingy. Imagine me wearing just one massive legwarmer on one leg all day long. You can see by my mutant sihloutte above what I'm dealing with these days.

"It's me!" she says as I hobble up the gravel path leading up to the house. The kids were exposed to sidewalk chalk for the first time in their lives when we went into town yesterday. They were happily playing with the stuff just outside my favourite store ever while I did some last minute Easter supplies shopping. Apparently, everytime someone walked by the shop, Kale would look up from his work and shout out "Maplerose!" like the world's cutest sandwich board.

They didn't want to leave the chalk behind and I promise them that one day, oh, yes, little ones, one day we'll have some kind of piece of concrete for them to draw on with chalk. In my head I started envisioning a patio area in front of the sliding door since Craig told me a wood deck is totally out of the question (high maintenance he says).  But a concrete patio might serve several functions; hopscotch, tether ball, tennis court... Can you chalk draw/rollerderby on flagstone?

 A little stick drawing, drawn with a stick, in the sticks. Stick! The sticks girl's chalk!

 

Moss-ive Attack

We've been spending greater parts of the day traverssing the backwoods much since all the snow has dissipated. And here we have that little window between chest high snow and head high ferns that makes it possible for a two and a half year old to frolic through the forest relatively easy and without his mama lugging him around like a sack of potatoes for most of the time.

 

I'm really in love with cush and green  carpeting much of the forest lately, and since I love staring at the terrariums over on Etsy , I decided that whipping up a couple of our own would be fun with the kids. Plus, it would be pretty cool to have some fairies as roomates, don't you think?

Off we go seeking the fattest, greenest globs of fairy lawn to house our fairy friends. Check out Barney, the Barnyard Cat. Guarenteed that kitty is by our side on any venture in the woods. I swear that cat is part dog!

I found these little jars at the thrift store for less than a dollar each and the moss is like dirt cheap (ha, ha) so this project was very much to my accountant's (aka Craig) lichen. Then with some roving from my stash I quickly needle-felted some mushroom houses to reside on this pristine mosstopia. There are front doors and Edie insisted that the button cap cabin have a teeny weeny chimmeny on top.

So now we have them planted side by side on our budding spring nature table. We overheard one little fairy living in one of the houses saying to a friend how he thinks the neighbour is actually quite a fungi. Success! Now we just have to mist it with water every few days to keep it fresh and not crunching up into a super organic scouring pad. Something tells me the kids are going to like taking on that chore!

PS: Today's the last day to sign up for the Backwoods Mama Spring Sew Camp. Tell your oh sew happy friends, please! And if you seamstressed about not signing up yet, it's not too late. If you could join us too that would be sew awesome! Sign up and more info can be found here.

 

Pinspiration Board

I've been inspired to get an inspiration board happening in my studio for quite a while now. I finally to around to making this simple one based on one I found in a book I've had kicking around forever called Crafting Vintage Style. Super fast and easy. All you need is a slab of wood, clothes pins and wood glue.

Lord knows we have lots of wood boards laying around the property since we have milled some trees on site to build Craig's office a couple of years back. Just had to dig under some tarps to find this perfect piece. Edie was my assistant and 'little dab will do you' glue girl.

After the glue has dried the board was placed in between two rafters up in my studio so it looks like all my inspirations are suspended in mid-air, waiting for the day to land here on earth. I'm just so happy to finally have a place to keep fabric swatches, magazine clippings, early love notes and my growing collection of naked Craig pictures.

Until I got my Naked Craig Board I've been using Pinterest as the place to play with the images I find online that exude my style or just simply talk to me. You can see my boards over here. I have to warn you this place is highly, highly addictive! To join you need an invite. You can ask for one over on the site, didn't seem to take me long to hear a response,  but if you want to giddy up the process just shoot me an email and I'll send you one; kathy at whiletangerine dreams dot com.

And finally, hanging out to dry on the inspiration line outside, the first pair of socks I sewed. Way faster than knitting! Why haven't I thought of this before? I found a Jalie pattern but made them thigh high because that's how deep the snow is still in these parts! Love how they look like they're dancing on the line. Very inspiring!

 

Kale's Two. Cute!

How could it have been two years since he ploped into our bathroom and crawled up all by himself to the breast? That was pretty cool. Some girlfriends and I got together yesterday to talk birth with an expecting friend and I recommended she give that a go. Apparently it gives the baby a first taste of taking initiative. But I digress. Kale is just the sweetest little gift our family has been so fortunate to embrace. At two he still doesn't talk much more than; Didi, Dada, Mama, Mimi (means Kale but also was the name of my doll growing up. Weird.), blue, moo moo, no and sssssssssssss no (means snow). But he is incredibly expressive with sound effects and gestures so we always get his meaning. Kind of like having our own squishy R2D2 in the house. He is the little brother that adores and follows his big sister's cues so good naturedly all day long (I guess Edie's like his C3PO?). It's just a long succession of one cute  moment after a moment. I don't know how my nerves can take it all sometimes!

Edie was so excited about his birthday celebration she drew a picture in the morning of the events to come. She was particularly stoked about hanging his birthday bunting that she helped put together. The birthday season is very marked in this house. First we start of with Edie's mid-November, then a week later it's Kale's, two weeks later Craig's, then Sweet Baby Jesus's and a few weeks later it's mine. So last week we hung up Edie's pink themed bunting before she woke up and Kale woke up to his own. Blue of course.

Next week we'll add on Craig's green themed garland, Sweet Baby's maybe in red and mine in orange so we'll have a string of rainbow to pull us through the coldest months. Super fun and easy project! I got the instructions and inspiration from Soulemama's first book.

 

And I couldn't resist sharing this video. I know it's an awful dark but check out his super deep inhale for his second candle blow out. He's two cute!!! Happy Birthday my big love.

Heart Breaker Breaker

 

Since the day we moved into our house I've been meaning to cover this humongous eye sore  by our front entrance. I had big plans to make a wet felted wall hanging and to change it up seasonally but each attempt turned to a frustrating wet and woolly failure. So I decided to just paint something which would be much quicker and fun for a change of medium.

Even the feng shui lady who came over to help clear out some of the marriage split up tendencies the house seemed to carry (there have been five breakups here since the house was built. Like, every couple in here.) agreed that that was a good idea. She also advised me to put aluminum foil on the back of the painting and now I can't remember if that was for Smokey the Bear type safety (the circuit panel sparking the painting on fire?) or ju ju protection.

Here's the close up. I decided just to pick out some hot summer colours and swirl them all together in a choleric frenzy. Craig said "good" when I presented it to him so that got me all excited seeing him get as giddy as he could possibly get. He says it reminds him our view outside. I was going to add in some trees and flowers but decided to keep series as formless as possible for the benefit of the kids but maybe each year I'll add on if I feel inspired. Until then it's nice not to have to stare at all those marriage breaking breakers as we come down the hallway!

On a side note, check out the little copy kitten. I was taking pictures of the painting outside so he whipped out his binoculars to use as his camera. Take note of the hat. He just started wearing it and loves it. It's his new power toque. Remember when I made it for Edie? Here's a picture of her wearing it from the same angle way back in the day:

Like deja vu sometimes looking at these two. Thank you, Craigy for your beautiful, heavy-handed genes!