Bliss Beyond Naptime

Handsome Man and Handsome Plans

Still not believing I'm the world's slowest knitter? I'm scared to look but if you're brave enough to check out my ravelry page to see when exactly I started this toddler sized sweater - go for it. The pattern's called Handsome Man and, as you can plainly see, the name's fitting.

He loves his new sweater. If I'm on the phone with somebody, anybody, he does this little whisper - he usually never interrupts me when I'm the phone, just as a side: "mama, tell them I'm wearing my new sweater". So sweet.

I have knitting queue this long but I have to say half the things on my list lately come from this really super sweet Etsy shop. I basically want to make everything she offers but in particular the mama bear in me really really wants to make this bear sweater. Can you imagine how long it would take for me to make that happen? Would it be weird to be a grandma and sport that with a tutu?

 

And Edie really wants me to whip these bunny slippers up for her before I do anything else;

And I couldn't resist. I love this hat. So age innaprropriate but the paparazzi don't make there way out here too much and I'll be sure to wear a bright orange vest when frolicking in the woods with it on;

But, I had to make a deal with myself. My own etsy shop cupboards are bare so my usual knitting time, the evenings, will have to shift to some serious spinning time. I'm not usually a number person but I had to make some sort of deal with myself. I'm not going to start a new knitting project until I have me ten new yarns to release out to the world again. Not that I don't love spinning but it's easier to knit on the couch than spin on the couch and the couch is usually where I end up landing my tush after I turn out the kids' lights. But once I start spinning I get into it and it's actually kind of hard to stop (and I can still watch a movie while I do so so that's cool).

For an extra bit of motivation and accountability I decided on another tactic. A while back I put a call out for yarn names. Let's do that again! If you haven't done so, leave a comment below of what your blog name would be (or your favourite nickname) if it were an artyarn. I plan on using all the name contributions and will be announcing their birth stories as they unfold in my newsletter (so please subscribe if you'd like to be in the loop for that).

And, exciting news, my ebook will be made available shortly here and I'll take a draw from the entries below on Monday morning for a winner of a copy of my ebook; The Bliss Filled Mama: Self-Care for Soulful Mothering. And if you're not a mama I can forward your copy to a favourite mama of your choosing. And if you're interested in getting a deal on the book make sure you're also subscribed to the newsletter because that's what my peeps are going to get on those first few days it's up for sale. Can't wait to read about your inner yarn! Let it rip!

We have a winner - number 42! Kathyrn said:

Darn tootin' handsome boy you have there! how about kalemail like a play on chainmail? Is that even how you spell it? idk. Purrtle(a purring turtle), love riot!, pajarita....i call myself stick kitty, mamakat, and catbird. I have an Salvadorean friend who calls me Catocha. I remember your post on your Spanish nick name and Im hoping Catocha is something joyful! Love your blog especially the videos. My little loves call you "the silly lady". XOXO Thank you!

Funny! Catocha will be the first yarn spun and I will be emailing you, Catocha, a copy of my ebook and its accompanying audio :)

Elderberry and Hair Follicles

After visiting an old dear friend of mine one spring morning we were chatting by her front door saying goodbye and I smelled the smell I detest most in the world. It smelled like cat marking going on. I asked her if she got a cat and she said it was her elderberry tree that was situated right next to her front door. I never heard of such a thing. So just in case, do not plant an elderberry tree by your front door. These trees grow in abundance in our area, all along the roadsides even, and we have about five of them growing wild on our property. But I never noticed them smelling like anything less than heavenly; especially when the pretty miniature flower blossom clusters open in the summer. Perhaps there’s an angry cat in my friend's midst she’s not aware of.

 So in the summer we carefully collect these blossoms that smell like the tops of the heads of newborns and cook up a syrup to use as a concentrate in ice filled glass of water. This is Craig's favourite. I think it talks to the Kool-Aid kid in him.  And then at this time of year we pick off whack loads of the berries to make jelly, syrup and tincture. The jelly is probably one of my favourites of the jam and jelly persuassion of treats but the bonus is it is full of antioxidants and immune enhancing properties that even my naturopath suggests the whole family taking a hit of everyday to keep illness at bay.

For the jelly I followed this basic recipe and it was made in time for when Edie caught that double whammy of nasty soul fever/stomach bug. A little bit of the jelly on fresh baked bread brought comfort to both ailments.  On that same link there are directions to make syrup you can administer to whomever in the family needs a sweet boost either administered straight up or drizzled on yogurt or pancakes.

And the tincture is a cinch; pick enough of the well washed berries off of their stemmy  clusters and fill a quart sized mason jar to the brim with them.  Fill up the jar with enough vodka to cover and then seal tight. Keep the jar on a sunny window sill while remembering to give them a gentle shake every day. In about three weeks, strain out the berries, place the purple vodka into a sleek flask you can tuck into your coat pocket rockstar style (wipe that Smirnoff your face – I was just joking. Any kind of glass bottle will suffice) and give yourself and your adult partner a teaspoon a day and your kids half that dose.  Other health care providers suggested I dilute the kids’ dosage into a glass of boiling water first to evaporate the alcohol content but nothing gets the kids aligned with early bedtimes then mommy’s special ‘movie time with daddy’ medicine. (Again, kidding.)

And totally not related to elderberry fixings but just about the cutest thing I’ve seen all weekend (other than Daisy and Meatballs joyfully jumping through a massive pile of leaves Craig built for them in the middle of their pasture yesterday. Over and over again. I  almost died from the cuteness of it all)! Miss Fab from Fig and Me  shared with me yet another creation of hers that she utilized one of my art yarns, Moe,  in one of the most delightful ways; as hair for her amazing Waldorf-style dolls.

That Fabs is one talented lady. See the before? I never in my wildest dreams thought that this would end up as hair. But it works! Just like the elderberry tincture. See how I smoothly linked these two topics together?

Thanks Be Given

We're celebrating Thanksgiving today with sweet friends coming over for a turkey feast. We'll be gathering around our new dining table; a generous Christmas gift from Grandpa. It was recently completed by our incredibly talented friend Dan just in time to gather ten souls around and celebrate our abundance of gratitude.

Some things to give thanks for; a semi-surprise visit from said Grandpa last week. Semi because there was a miscommunication between Craig and me. Whoops! Still it was pretty funny to see him poke his nose through the front door unexpectedly and  have him around to play in the last days of Indian Summer with.

And, thankfully, when the grandparents are in town Mama has licence to vamoose and play too! Grandpa watched the kids while I went on a eurythmy adventure with my fellow Waldorf homeschooling mama friend Erin. Eurythmy is a component of the Waldorf curriculum in schools so I have always been super curious about it. Here's an excerpt from wikki to explain some of it and it's relationship to learning:

The gestures in the eurythmist's movement repertoire relate to the sounds and rhythms of speech, to the tones and rhythms of music and to soul experiences, such as joy and sorrow. Once these fundamental repertoire elements are learned, they can be composed into free artistic expressions. The eurythmist also cultivates a feeling for the qualities of straight lines and curves, the directions of movement in space (forward, backward, up, down, left, right), contraction and expansion, and color.

It was an amazing experience. And half the fun was getting there. Almost an hour and a half combined in the car gabbing away about homeschooling and cow having.

And of course, today I celebrate how much we scored with sweet Daisy. She's been the perfect starter cow. It's been about a year since we welcomed her to our homestead. And Baby Meatballs seems to have inherited his mama's sweetness and gentle nature. He especially loves kids. If kids come to the fence he giddy ups to come over and give them kisses. We are truly blessed that our paths have crossed. And I want to share the feeling of abundance I have whenever I walk back to the house with a pail full of white nectar or see Craig screen their poop into our garden beds. So I'm so thrilled to announce I have recently discovered Heifer International and plan on donating a portion of my Simplicity Parenting work to them. I'll keep you posted on that plan. Meanwhile, you should check out their gift catalogue. What fun would it be to send someone a goat for Christmas? Think of the pun possibilities!

And speaking of cowboys, I'm thankful for this funky little invention affectionately known in this household as 'Run Bike' for all the snippets of cuteness it provides throughout the day and beyond.

What was your favourite part of the day, Kale? "Riding my run bike". What was your trickiest part of the day? "Wiping out on my run bike".

Every time. And the funny thing is he rarely wipes out but he always says that. Lucky he always wears his hand knit helmet.

Which brings us to knitting! I was thankful to finally have found the time to stock up my yarn shop with a few new handspuns, and even naming them after some of you (I'm talking to you Tangerine Meg, Wild Violets and Lil Muse Lily) but then a couple of someones, not pointing fingers, scooped up almost my entire shop's inventory whilst I slept! Not complaining but there's only one left. Poor lonely little Molly.

 So much more to be thankful for but a beep tells me I have two pumpkin pies to pull out of the oven, a turkey to throw in and a quick vacuum of the place is called for before our friends arrive. Our collaborated efforts are going to bring the following to the new Tudors-sized dining table; turkey, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, made from scratch cranberry sauce, saucy broccoli, harvest buns, gravy, pumpkin pie... Ooof. My stomach hurts from just looking at that last sentence! Happy Thanksgiving sweet friends.

Vloggin' ~ Birth of an Art Yarn Part III

Here we have the final installment of my spinning a yarn series. Also, I managed to squeeze in a little nod to my Sustainable Wednesday challenge. I forgot to mention I didn't make the shoes. I just felt the need to put my life and ankles at stake by wearing super high metallic red and gold strap on platforms while running around the house screaming "Mommy needs her niddy noddy! Where's Mommy's niddy noddy? Kale, where did you put Mommy's niddy noddy!". Ai, those things made my calf muscles almost permanently cramp up into little balls.

Oooo... speaking of calves and balls, Meatballs got introduced to the lawn sprinkler today! I think that might have been the cutest thing I ever been exposed to. He was totally playing with it! I would have run into the house to grab the camera but I didn't want to miss a second of the cuteness overload and I would have surely broke my neck running across the yard in these silly things and what good would I be to you then?

Remember to leave a link in the comments if you're sporting all sustainable on your blog today or any other Wednesday :) And here's the link to the name list I mention!

 

Vloggin' ~ Birth of an Art Yarn Part II

Here I contine forth with my three step breakdown of spinning up some yarn while I blow virtual kisses to my friend Jill of Ellie Moon. Jill's planning on getting all Sustainable Styley on Wednesdays and was inquiring about what's happening with that use to be weekly feature. I might not be SS-y every Wednesday but we'll see what I can do. Anyone else want to play along with sporting mostly what you either a) made b) someone made for you c) scored second hand d) was gifted or e) found hanging from a tree branch at your local swimming hole? You can leave a link to your post if you're inspired to SS it up

Okay, let us continue spinning our tale about art yarn creating. Grab some snacks; the technical difficulties are, at some points, borderline painful to watch! Painful in a fun way of course ~ kind of like childbirth :)

 

 

 

 

Birth of an Art Yarn Part One - Labour Intensive

My yarn shop's shelves are getting pretty bare as of late, I can smell the whiff of knitting season in the air these mornings and I just plain miss spinning on the deck with my morning latte. I thought it would be fun to show you the three major parts of what it takes to bring a brand new baby yarn into the world. Edie has graciously taken on the role as yarn doula. Enjoy!

 

Baby Wipe That Smile Off Your Face

 

One of my best friends is having her blessingway this week. I wanted to make her something special so I sat and meditated on what was my favourite part of babies. Then it came to me: the butt! So I made her a whack of reusable baby butt wipes and wash. My second favourite baby part might be the head because once that makes an appearance the rest is easy squeezy so I knit her a hat too; the Pointy Elf hat from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I dyed and then spun some merino I had on hand into a super soft soft spun. It has greens, blues and just a splash of pink for good measure.

And this butt wash is the cat's baby butt. I received the recipe from a naturapath that was taking the same Birthing From Within course Craig and I took when I was pregnant with Edie. The recipe makes a big whack of wash that lasts for almost six months. The recipe is super clean and the smell reminds me of newborn. And toddler. And almost school-age kids (yes, boys seem to take longer to potty train; in this household anyway).

I had a few meters of terry cloth on hand to make Edie and Kale matchy match beach cover ups so I used a yard of that, cut it up into eight inch squares, sergered around all four corners, et voila, a basketful of reusable wipes. To use, we warm up a towel in hot, hot water and then cool it off with a spray of the butt wash, then throw soiled wipe into a bucket and just dump those in the wash when the bucket's full. The recipe is above (hope you can read it okay!) but sometimes I like to add a drop of German Chamomile in there because it leaves cool little blue drops in the wash and apparently is the best essential oil to chill out fussy babes. Now I'm all nostalgic. Think I'm going to wipe Kale's butt now!

Boo Germs

Back in May I put the call out for yarn name ideas and I got such a plethora of poetic suggestions inspired by either your blog or what your blog would be called if you had such a silly thing. The winner of that contest was MellissaB. Here's her beautiful, groovy entry:

if I were a ball of yarn I would be part wild mountain goat fleece because I'm partial to wild and high elevation, also to remind me of those walls that seem impossible to climb and, oh yeah, don't forget: goat= instant happiness. Then, maybe a bit of black sheep, since we can all feel like that once in awhile (or more frequently, for some;)) Add to that a majority of dark brown and green with maybe bits of golden yellow, like the soil one would find under a deciduous tree after centuries of fallen leaves have been left undisturbed to rot- I'm kinda into that aspect of the beauty of deterioration which, of course, has all that richness for new growth. Specifically, the leaf litter compost stuff also reminds me of gooey brownies.

oh, I have no blog, but when my first babe was born I was going to start a bakery named boo germ, since I called the babe boo sometimes, and his hands were always into the things I'd bake.

The first Boo Germ will be sent out to MB just as soon as the Postal strike is over (any day now I hear). And the second yarn you see up above is the sister skien to Boo Germ that is now in the yarn shoppe along with a few other contest entries including an Apseed, a Journey and, of course, a Peaceful Peacock. All perfect names for perfectly squishy yarns that were super fun to spin up on the deck, in the sunshine, listening to my new favourite podcast (I guess I'm a history buff. Who would have thunk it?).

Though summer deck spinning is blissful and all, there is so much more on my plate and it all looks so delicious. In other words, I might be putting away the spinning wheel for a while, folks. Big changes coming around the corner. Change is good. I promise :)

SS Wednesday - On a Drum Roll

Remember that game on Price is Right where the little german fella yodels up a mountain and everyone's crossing fingers that he stops at the correct price before he teeters off the mountain? I just thought I saw him on my lap top screen but no, it's me this Sustainable Styled Wednesday and I'm okay with that because I like to yodel while I drumcard. Reeeeecola!! 

Alas, this is the morning we have to drive Mumsy to the airport. Everyone is still sleeping but if that changes in the next little bit maybe we can get a part two of our Tea Time with Kathy and Her Mum eposide and I'll try to eek out more juicy and wise tidbits from her. If that won't happen today I'll be sure to do it on our next trip out to visit her.

So now I will just drown my "I miss my Mommy" sorrows in these boxes and boxes of fibre I have stored, ironically enough, in the guest room. This stage of yarn making is one of my favourites; grabbing bits of colour from this bin and there and then dipping into the 'treasure box' I keep in my studio that houses leftover stray bits and pieces from all my crafting endevours. As I spin ghosts of projects past, be it sewing, knitting or felting pop up and say "Hey! Remember that time we were hanging out while watching season five of Dexter? Yeah, that was cool - bummer about the girl, hey?"

There in that last shot you can see remenants of my Pretty Hippy Bags, my yellow Oatmeal sweater and tufts from Daisy's tail (kidding!). Now I just need to beautify the deck a bit more, hang some flower baskets, throw out a rug and call over my ladies for some coffee and fibre fun time.

And this here was an extra special drum carding session for I have plans for these poofy squishables; I'm going to name the yarns after your blogs! I'm going to borrow from these amazing entries here because, really, there are some pretty crafty blog names out there! I'll keep you posted on what I come up with, but maybe, if you haven't already, sign up for the newsletter where I'll be sure to announce.

So, back to you Bob (a bit of a Price is Right reference for the youngsters out there):

SS Wednesday sportage:

Hat: I got this handmade hat at a school fundraising spring market here last weekend. The beautiful and uber talented singer/songwriter Gemma Luna made this - love!

Top: I lovely vintage piece I got from Curious Bird  way back in the day. The colour makes me so happy! Like cherry tomato.

Bloomers: the demo pair I made last week at Sew Camp! They're a hemp/cotton denim blend.

Socks: some knee highs I picked up at Phat Angel last week. Kind of broke my SS pledge but man, can you imagine how long it would have took me, the world's slowest knitter, to whip these up? Mama needed some socks already!

Shoes: Mamasita brought these back from Peru this trip. She says they're all the rage in Cusco!

 

Want to Play The Name Game?

Ouch! Something just bit me! It's that darn spinning bug again. Something about the first blast of balmy and spring fever lures me away from the sewing room onto the deck watch the swallows deek around while I spin like the wind. That and I need to seriously stock up my yarn shop plus get ready for some local markets I might try to hawk my wares at this summer.

So here's my idea for my next giveaway. The last time I went on a spinning binge I decided to name all the yarns after some dear friends' blogs. For example; the yarn above I named Zonapelucida after my real sweet friend Dana's blog. You must check it out. She's ha-lair-ee-ous! I laugh out loud reading each post. It's sick! In a healthy way!

So I found this system proved to be a total good luck charm. I sold all these 'junior' yarns within days of listing. The one above is named after my friend Heather's blog; Many Skies Mama.

And here my friend Catherine from Catherine et les Fées was the namesake for this pretty girly number (she's a mama to three girly numbers!). That was such a thrilling moment getting to meet her in real life last summer!

 

And of course, you've heard of my buddy, Shannon from  The Spun Monkey, right? So to keep this good luck charm charming away I thought I would continue this naming trend combine it with a giveaway.

Leave a comment below if you want to enter a draw to win a skein of one my yarns that I will name after your blog. What I'll do is make two skeins out of the same batt and put one in my shop and the other in a parcel addressed to you. They'll both have a name tag attached to them with either the name of your blog, or if you don't have a blog, the name of your blog if you would ever have a blog. So, if you would like to enter leave a comment describing what you would be if you were a skein of art yarn. For example: if I was a skein of art yarn I would be part alpaca (a nod to my Peruvian heritage), bit of hemp (because of my hippy-like tendencies), some angelina and sequins (because I'm drawn to shiney objects), and lots of brown (because that reminds me of lattes).

Does that sound fun? I'll make the draw on Friday. First some gardening, then some spinning because - spring is officially here!

We have a winner! Congratulaions, melissab (your two comments where lumped into the main one considering the second one was only one word!)! I will unveil the beautiful Boo Germ yarn in a future post. Please email me your address. I have to say the entries were such a fantistic read. Try this; read them all out loud while having the whole family snapping their fingers in time. It's like totally beatnik cool cat!

I'm so incredibly inspired. I'm going to dip into this plethora of stories to name many a future skein. Sign up for my newsletter for there I will share what these blog names spin themselves into :)