Felted Creations

For the last few years we have attended a wool festival at a favorite local dairy farm. We buy lots of beautiful wool roving and yarns to supply us for the year. We are new to the art of felting and are having a lot of fun learning how to do it. My ladies seem to be naturals with the process.

Fauna.......

Mommy Under A Tree

Bunny Bumpkins

Fuzzy Wuzzy or No-Eyed Bunny

Araina......

Spring Doll

Mouseies

Chickpeas

Friendship Dolls

Araina came up with this creative and generous idea on her own....Friendship Dolls Araina Style...

We have cabinets FULL of things to get creative with. While Fauna was reading "A Little Princess" to me, Araina wanted to go off and create on her own. She found this.....

And this.......
And this.........

I caught her in the act of doing this......

And this............

Just look at the lovely little Friendship People she made to share with her friends. By the way, Fauna loved the idea and made a few too, but did not want her picture taken today!

I soooo love the unplanned creative moments in life!!!!!

Primrose Felty Brooch

These purple primrose beauties, given to me by my mom.......
Inspired me to make her this brooch............... I hope she likes it!!!

Herb Tea Junkies!!!!

We are quite the herb junkies over here! We love herbs and use them for medicine, health, crafts and of course tea. There is nothing better than a nice warm cup of tea on a cold winter day, especially when you're under the weather!

We plant an herb garden in the spring that gets bigger and bigger every year. I love to dry the herbs and use them for teas. As our garden becomes bigger we will make more and more of our own teas, but for now we must also buy some. My two favorite tea companies are Traditional Medicinals and Yogi Tea.

Traditional Medicinals has a great line of teas "Just for Kids." They are very tasty and they always calm the ailment they're made for.

They also only use organic and natural ingredients!

The little ladies and I thought it would be fun to take apart some tea bags and use our 5 senses to study them.

The little ladies already knew that tea was simply dried parts of different herbs. They drink it every day, but didn't realize all of the different combinations that can be made to make different tasting teas. So we started really basic. Fauna crumbled up the dried chamomile from the summer garden to make a one flavor tea.

Araina crumbled up the feverfew.....

Then we ripped into the tea bags, I made sure they labeled each tea bag they were investigating. Here's some of the beautiful gems we discovered......

Raspberry Zinger was the prettiest! We found hibiscus, rosehips, chicory, orange peel, blackberry and raspberry pieces in this pretty tea.

Traditional Medicinals Just for Kids throat tea was the tastiest. We found marshmallow root, sage, calendula, licorice, cinnamon and wild cherry bark in this tasty tea.

My favorite PMS tea is Dong Quai Tonic from Yogi Tea. This is the BEST tea and does wonders! This one had the strongest smell. We found cinnamon, orange peel, ginger, fennel, chamomile, dandelion, anise, stinging nettle, dong quai and black pepper in this very medicinal tea.

Great for the tummies, ginger Yogi Tea. This is beautiful under the microscope, you can see the crystals!

Yummy Trader Jo Organic Mint Melange Tea was another strong smeller! We found peppermint, lemon grass and spearmint in this tea.

The girls picked their favorites, sketched and wrote down the ingredients into their nature journals.

Then we each had to have a cup of tea. Ahhhhh.........Yummy!!!!

Felty Hedgehog Brooch

I made this little guy a few months back for my youngest hedgehog fan. He has a purple and pink sister that has been misplaced by her 7yo owner! Hmmmmm...........where could she be? Maybe the 7yo could find her if she cleaned her room properly (including under the bed)!

Pretty Primrose (Primula vulgaris)

I receive this beautiful gift every winter from my very sweet Mom. She was so excited to see them in the food market, she had to bring some early spring home!

Nothing signals the beginning of spring more than these beauties. I especially love the butter colored yellow ones......

Only long-tongued insects, such as bees and moths can ensure cross-fertilization of these little beauties.An infusion of the flowers has been used to treat restlessness and insomnia, an infusion of the root has been used to help headaches related to nervousness. A salve can be made from the leaves to apply to wounds.


Shakespeare found them inspiring and wrote about them in many of his works, here he refers to them as cowslips, which are in the primrose family.....

The cowslips tall her pensioners be:

In their gold coats spots you see;

Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their savours:

I must go seek some dewdrops here

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2. 1

The little ladies were inspired to dissect the flowers and draw them in their nature journals. Fauna studied the purple one......

Rainy studied the red one....

My baby sis picked up this incredible tool for the girls one Christmas. It is called The Eye Clops, it's a very easy to use microscope that projects images onto the tele. She picked it up on sale at Target. We use it for everything to see "up close and personal." As you can see, it has been used to look at dirt! We used it today to look at the little hairs on the primrose stem, the plant cell structures and the different colors of pigment of the flowers.

Next time you go to the food market, don't overlook these little late winter, early spring beauties. Bring one home and put it in a sunny window to admire and to remind you that spring is right around the corner.

I've been tagged!

Stephanie, at Ordinary Life Magic, tagged me to post my 6th photo from my 6th folder, so here it is......

This was the busiest and fastest little spider (about the size of a dime)....hard to get a focused shot because she was on the move! She was living on my Mother of Millions plant and we watched her for about an hour. She mesmorized us with how she could throw her string of webbing UP!

So now I guess I'm supposed to tag some people...so I tag:

*Peggy at skip the chips
*Karenjane at bare feet and a free spirit
*The Magic Onions
*Adrienne at Crafting Mom of 1
*skymring at earth and living
*Artistmama at Chocolate Eyes

I would tag more but the hubby is kicking me off the computer!

Three Awards!!!

Wow, I have been nominated for 3 awards in the past week. Thank you ladies so much for the honor!

The Lemonade Award from both Syrendell and The Magic Onions. You are both so very sweet and I am honored to receive this award from two fantastic mamas!



Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link this post to the person from whom you received your award.

I nominate these very deserving ladies:

Peggy at skip the chips- this crafty and creative jack of all trades has so many cool and inspirational ideas and tips on her blog. I can't wait to see the many more cool ideas she posts! I love your comments and am humbled by your support!

Artistmama at Chocolate Eyes-I love watching this pregnant mama's life unfold as she is expecting her second bundle of joy! Her blog radiates warmth!

Skymring at earth and living- this pagan crafty mama is an inspiration to me in so many ways.

Karenjane at bare feet and a free spirit -so young, but so wise! I love learning about her beautiful family and everyday happenings.

Ladybugs and Dandelions- this blogger works so hard posting great wisdom and information to all those homeschoolers out there!

Loopity Lou -another inspirational blog I love to follow!
******************************************************************

I have also received the Tree of Happiness Award from Amber at The nutrients of Life ! Thank you Amber, I am also humbled by you nominating me for this award!


I nominate these very deserving ladies:

The Magic Onions - back at cha lady! :) Your comments so make my day. I love the beautiful amazing felt people you make. Such an artist!

Jennifer at Syrendell - back at cha too! I love visiting the Tan Family's creative and informational blog. The music is beautiful as well!

Earthmama at Spiral Pathways -we live our lives in common ways, including the houseful of girls.

Leanne at Homemade Rainbows- such a beautiful and inspirational blog. Always has such a nice thing to say as well. Thank you too for your lovely comments and support.

Adrienne at Crafting Mom of 1 - her softies make me want to get out my sewing maching and learn how to really use it!

Tammy at laugh, live, learn, love -So sweet! Her wonderful blog is full of great ideas for us homeschooling mamas. Thank you so much for all your support and comments!

Melanie at creating nunde - has been through a lot lately with the Victoria fires, but still manages to put a smile on my face with each post.

Sybil at Life in the Brun Family-she is my dearest friend, who's like a sister to me and needs this award to know what a great mother and person she is!

icybooh - such inspirational, beautiful and tasty ideas at this lovely site!