Our Crayons..................

Yesterday as part of celebrating Earth Day, Max and I recycled some broken up crayons. I had seen this done on other people's blogs and after I found some silicone ice cube trays at the charity shop it was a must-do project!

After melting down the crayons we drizzled the wax into the tray, put the tray into the freezer (to help the wax harden) and VOILA!

New heart shaped crayons!

We are really pleased with how they turned out and can't wait to make more once we track down some more broken crayons. I thought that these would make a great gift or some fun items for a goodie bag. The brown heart shaped crayons look like chocolate!

Happy Earth Day

Hooray for Mother Earth! Max and I celebrated Earth Day by planting some flowers, turning off/unplugging all of our appliances (except for the major ones that had to stay on!), keeping the lights off, walking to the market and recycling some broken crayons into new heart shaped ones!

In gratitude for the earth and all that she gives us,

Spring Break........

What a wonderful Spring Break we had. Typically we stay local during school holidays but this year my husband mentioned that his friend had a house in Tahoe that goes almost unused! Aha, our Spring Break vacation was found! Here are a few pics of Max's fun.

We found this awesome sledding hill just a few miles from the house.

Although most of the snow at lake level had melted there were still a few patches dotted around. We found this one right outside the back door.

I am so grateful that our friend was generous enough to lend us his home, this trip made our break very special. Lucky for us we have an open invitation to use the house whenever we'd like so it goes without saying that we'll be back to Tahoe very soon :)

On Sunday we did this........

Amazing right!?! We spent Sunday at Stinson Beach playing in the waves and collecting sand dollars.

From sledding on Saturday to sitting on the beach in nearly 90 degree heat on Sunday. Only in California can you do that!

I did do some crafts this past week, mostly making wool felt balls for friends and our school crafts faire booth. My next project will be another Waldorf Doll and some figures for our nature table.

Easter Surprises!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Max was up bright and early excited to hunt down his Easter basket. I love that Max still has that child innocence where he still believes in Santa and the Easter Bunny. We have decided that if we leave an empty basket and some eggs for the bunny to fill, he will stop by our house. The bunny was nice enough to leave Max some little toys, a book and a few chocolates. Mommies can add to the basket too, and Max saw that I also included a handmade bunny. I found the pattern here at Revoluzza.

Our Easter started with a group trip to our local Farmer's Market where we made up our menu on the fly. It was nice to just go with the flow instead of stress out about the menu and feel like you have to have everything perfect. At the market we also picked up some long bean starts which we will be planting today!

We celebrated Easter Dinner with family and family friends. We have clebrated several holidays with The Howards - it's been fun especially for Max because he associated Holiays with "The Howards". They have all sorts of fun big kid toys and a Nintendo Wii - Max has only ever played video games at their house so he's always very excited when we have holidays chez Howard.

I also finished my very first limbed Waldorf Doll this weekend - her name is Millie. . This was the first full head of hair that I have constructed. I found the tutorial for her hair here at Starry Sheep and I love the way that it turned out. I definitely need to work on constructing clothes, this is not my forte. From a distance they are fine but up close the work is a little messy :) See the wet felted eggs in the pic? Max and I eeked those out on Easter eve, we found the tutorial here.

We are now on Easter break - a friend has a house in Tahoe so Max, myself, a school buddy and his mom will be heading up later this week to hopefully squeeze in some end of season sledding!

Hello!

I have been super overwhelmed by life lately - mostly struggling with Max's school. Our Waldorf school is such a huge part of our lives that when you start to question it, your foundation feels very unstable. Trying to center myself and come to terms with the realities of what is and is not possible in our school has been hard for me but I think that I am getting there. In meetings I tend to be the one person who is the "hard ass" asking the hard questions, making parents think about what is really going on - I know now that I can only be that way. It is not in my personality to just sit by and watch things happen. As of yesterday I felt more empowered than I have for the past week so HOORAY!

Onto the fun!

We've got lots on or plate today:

Natural egg dyeing
Wet felting easter eggs
Attempt to make some fabric eggs
Pre-Easter food prep
Easter basket assembly!

Maybe even a quick trip to the craft store........

All fun stuff but also time consuming so I'll post more tomorrow about what I've been up to :)

Lovely Things

Bread is a lovely thing to eat -
God bless the barley and the wheat!

A lovely thing to breathe is air -
God bless the sunshine everywhere!

The earth’s a lovely place to know -
God bless the folks that come and go!

Alive’s a lovely thing to be -
Giver of life - we say - bless Thee!

H.M.Sarson

In Abundance and Gratitude

A

Inspiration.....................

My brother sent this video link my way. It's amazing and I really wanted to share it. This video really resonates with me right now, and the direction I feel like we (the world) should be going. This is exactly what I needed to lift my spirit.

This video was made as part of a documentry film "Playing For Change". Playing For Change is a movement to connect the world through music. Take a look, you can find out a lot more here.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.......

Let's start with the good....

I have been very crafty lately mostly cranking out lavender gnomes. I think that so far I have made 14 and may have the energy left for a few more. The great thing is that I have had a LOT of practice making doll heads - at this point I'm pretty confident that I can tackle a larger sized head.

Aren't they great? A few will live with me, some will be gifts and others I will give to the school for our craft booth.

I have also been working on some Felt Wee Folk. I borrowed the book from fellow Waldorf parent. I really enjoy making these although wrapping the body w. the embroidery thread does get tedious very quickly!

I just love the way that they have turned out, I have made several Wee Folk but these pics came out the best.

PS. Thank you Tammy for the amazing acorn caps, they are just what I needed!

Now for the bad......

After a very trying meeting at my son's school I am feeling very disheartened about our Programs commitment to staying true to the Waldorf pedagogy and its future. I know that I am committed and will continue to attend meetings!

And the ugly......

I hosted our third Waldorf Craft Circle and one parent showed up. Yes ONE. I am bummed but will continue to hold the circles hoping that "if I host it, they will come". This is hard for me because I feel as if I have a gift that I want to share with our parents and they are not embracing it. Despite it all, I will continue because I feel as if this is very important to me, my son, our Waldorf Program and community.

Ending on a happy note, I did receive a beautiful fat quarter as part of a swap and have two Easter swap packages ready to go in the mail tomorrow. I am also working on creating a felt mushroom tutorial - coming soon. :)