Felted Playmat and Duck

My friend's son just turned two. Ana helped me to make his gift. We wet-felted in a large ziplock bag, like we did for her teacher's gift. But, this time, Ana created a farm scene. Her farm ended up having a pond, so we felt that a duck should be available to swim in it. I needle-felted a simple one, using white and orange roving. I also needle-felted some flowers (vegetables?) to be grown on the farm.

This is the gift we created:

**Fair warning: Dogs like wool. Well, they specifically like to destroy anything lovely you've made with it. So, be sure to keep any wool toys put away and out of your dog's reach! I had two students lose wool gifts to their dogs mouths this year. It's sad, so beware!

Teacher Gift--Story Apron Tutorial

School ended last week. I am still decompressing a bit, with a few reports left to write, but I did manage to pull off some pretty sweet gifts for A's teacher and teacher's assistant. We all worked together to make the gift for her teacher, which I think made it extra-special. We began the gift of a home made story apron by wet-felting wool. This was a great outdoor project, as it tends to get water everywhere, particularly when a five-year-old is heavily involved.

We started with a piece of wool batting that would fit into a large ziplock bag (this can certainly be done on a small scale as well, in a smaller bag), and covered it with whisps of colored roving (the thinner, the better, I have found). Then, we carefully put it into the plastic bag, added some hot water (as hot as little hands can stand) and a squirt of dishsoap, and sealed the bag, letting as much air escape as possible. Then, squish the bag as much as you can stand! It takes quite a bit of work to get the wool to felt.

 After the wool has felted (open the bag to check and see that the wool is all "stuck" together before you pull it out), take it out of the bag and place it in a tub of cold water. It is important that it is cold, as this will "shock" the wool and further felt the fibers together.

 This step also gets the suds out...

After your piece is thoroughly rinsed, you may wish to wring out excess water. I use this bamboo placemat that I found in the "as is" area of Ikea.

There were a few wool stragglers that I felted into the piece with a needle after it was dry.

We used the felted piece for the bib part of the story apron. I bought some lovely green silk to use as the dress of the apron, as I had the idea of the bib being the sky and the skirt being the grass when her teacher was sitting to tell stories. I had leftover blue satin from another project that I used for the neck strap. Stitched them all together, and...

A story apron gift is complete.

It's the little things... Giveaway! (CLOSED)

And, the lucky random.org winner is.... Hayley! Look for an email from me, Hayley, and "thank you" to every one else who entered. I have a few more giveaways in mind, so stay tuned!

Welcome, welcome! This is the third Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day I have participated in. It is always so exciting. Though the end of the school year is really trying to push my stress buttons, squeezing in the crafting for this day of giving was actually a good idea. It was nice to find good reason to knit and felt. Please don't hold your breath, as my work week is about to begin, but I am hoping to add one more "little thing" to my giveaway. I might be able to get it done in time... stranger things have happened, I'm sure.

As it stands now, these little things would make great accents to your nature table, if you have one. If you don't have one, winning this would give you good reason to make space for one! It's always nice to be near nature, and so special when you can bring a little indoors without any harm to Mother (Nature).

For your summer table, a little felted strawberry:

To make this, I simply wrapped wool around a tiny pine cone and needle felted it in place.

For your autumn table, a little knitted acorn:

The pattern for the acorn can be found in this book:















How can you win these lovely little things? Simply leave a lovely little comment. That's all. If you are one of the folks who has been following me for a while (or wishes to start now), please leave a second little comment so I can give you a second entry as a token of my appreciation.

The giveaway will be open until Friday evening, because I will surely not get around to randomly choosing a winner until the work week is over! I will ship internationally ("hello" to my cyber friends across the pond and over the border!) by Monday, the 30th.

Wool Eggs... Hatched!

Oh, my! The egg started cracking about a week ago. And, then...

Cheep! Cheep! This chicky was joyfully discovered after he hatched and has been out of his egg and traveling in pockets, so his face is a little smooshed right now, but still so cute. He lives on our nature table.

Wool Eggs

We are making these in my classroom right now, and I wanted Anastasia to have the opportunity to make one as well. This is a nice, warm activity--good for the senses with its use of natural fibers.

Don't know how to wet-felt? Just ask, and I will do my best to explain here. The supplies and procedure are quite simple.

They are cute just like this, but you can modify them a bit... Check back in a week or so to see what this one has morphed into!

Finding My Rhythm

It's been a while since I posted about my new school (okay, since I've posted about anything). It is keeping me busy in a wonderful way. I am able to use a lot of creativity at work and in preparing for work at home. How refreshing! I don't feel such a need for a creative outlet these days, because I am living it in my work life. Wow. I should share with you some of the things I am creating for work, and I will try to do that another day when I have more time (I need to finish my tea and get to sleep now). But, in the meantime...

Another waldorf thing, is rhythm. You might refer to it as "routine", and you probably know how much it helps to have one. This is especially true for children (those of you who have some or work with some know exactly what I'm talking about), and I'm finding that I am a happier camper these days now that I am knee deep in developing my own new rhythm. I'm feeling pretty fantastic, actually. It's nice.

In the kindergarten, we try to balance the day with "in" breaths and "out" breaths. An in breath is an activity that is more inward, thinking and reflection, calm, focused, requires a bit of concentration. An out breath is a more physical activity, releasing, outward. The in-out rhythm has a nice feel to it. In my classroom, it generally goes like this: circle, activity (nature walk, painting, beeswax modeling, craft, coloring, bread-making), inside play, snack, rest, outside play, story.

I am experimenting with rhythm in my personal life and remembering that I am quite a creature of habit. So, having a rhythm is very helpful to me! Not to say that the rhythm and I can't be flexible when we need to be, but that it provides me with a clear path of where I'm going and what is ahead of me each day, which sets my mind at ease. In trying to simplify, I am able to better follow my own rhythm and not get so distracted by the chaos that I see/feel around me, because the chaos (read: clutter) is slowly (but surely!) disappearing altogether or finding a home that is not in plain view of my procrastinating eyes.

So, I am trying to borrow some of my work rhythms and morph them into rhythms that will work for home life, too. In kindergarten, we have a snack schedule. Kids refer to the day of the week by what snack is being served--i.e. Monday is "rice day". Some of my colleagues have already utilized this technique at home for dinner preparation by instituting "taco Tuesday" or "Mexican Monday" or "soup Saturday"... that's not to say that is all they can eat on that day of the week, but I imagine it sure helps when Tuesday rolls around and you begin to ask yourself at 4:00 in the afternoon oh, shoot, what am I going to make for dinner?... You always have something in mind to quickly help you make the decision oh, yeah, tacos! I was thinking of instituting a similar rhythm for cleaning, but haven't been successful with a plan that I will stick to... yet.

I am curious, how do you use rhythm in your life? What rhythms have you found work really well for you?...your kids?...your family? I would love to hear from you, and then honor your success at maintaining a rhythm by borrowing your idea and trying it out for myself! ;-)

My First Blackboard Drawing

This weekend, I am knee-deep in my Philisophical Foundations of Waldorf Education class, which means I will probably not be posting for a few days (sorry Blogtoberfest, but I will be in class all day tomorrow, too, and it is pretty tiring). It also means, I had the opportunity to do my first blackboard drawing today! I have always wanted to learn how to do that. I will not have the opportunity to practice the craft in my kindergarten classroom (no blackboards), but perhaps I will teach grades one day and draw upon my skills then. It sure was a lot of fun.

Becoming Waldorf: Our Nature Table

You may have noticed to the left over there that I am now teaching Kindergarten. Quite a jump from the fifth grade that I am used to, especially since this Kindergarten is in a Waldorf-inspired school. This is just one bonus of my new job, as Waldorf education has always resonated with me. Other bonuses include the school being a short five-minute drive away, Little Miss will be attending school there next year, the school's foundation is helping me to obtain my Masters in Waldorf Education.... the list keeps going on. THIS is the silver lining of the lay-off cloud! Something better was waiting around the corner. I am so grateful.

One of the features of the Waldorf Kindergarten is a nature table. This is a place to bring nature indoors and reflect what is happening outdoors. I like this idea so much that I have created a nature table in my home as well. Here is a picture of my first attempt a few weeks ago:

Not too bad. Uncluttered. Lavender wand (Want to learn how to make one? I bet I could tutorial that... Let me know). Beeswax candle (YUM). Seasonal flowers. A dry felted bee (Yes, that black blob is a bee. We have big, black bees swarming our passion vine all summer.). Some sycamore bark that I found on the ground. I am excited to keep this evolving as the seasons slowly change. I hope to one day get (make?) a postcard holder, as there are some beautiful postcards with seasonal images at the local Waldorf college bookstore.

So, in preparing for this job, I have been (and will continue to be) reading a lot of books written by Waldorf educators, talking to a lot of Waldorf teachers, and I have found some really neat "waldorfian" blogs. The first addition I have found to add to the nature table next summer is a strawberry, inspired by The Wonder Years. Bonus: Little Miss will be able to make some of her own to play with. Keeping our eyes open for small pinecones...