apples for poppy anne

thirty three

annette::erin
 

Annette:  Dear friends invited my husband and I over for Sunday dinner, to chat, see their garden, and meet their Ukrainian Uncle who, upon hearing of my fondness for rhodiola rosea, gifted me with some fresh dried herb to take home and make tea! Rhodiola is one of my favorite herbs. It's a great mood elevator, energy tonic, adaptogen, and antioxidant among other things! There were beautiful cats afoot, hummus, chutneys, curry, and apple pie for dessert! We had a great Sunday evening among friends- good to ground us all after the intensity of the holidays.

Erin:  A day spent crafting and eating leftovers with my loves.  Resting in the quiet hollow between the holidays.  Needle felting nests and needle felting in my nest of pillows blankets and a freshly bathed babe.  Feeling inspired to keep some overdue promises to myself.  Celebrating everything this year has been and brought while preparing for the challenges and triumphs the new year will bring.

Merry Christmas

May your days be

trimmed in ribbon, wrapped in warmth

filled to the brim with cider

and as cozy as your favourite sweater.

 

All of my blogging powers have been baked into pies, brownies and cookies; woven into pixie caps;  sanded into oblivion; and now sits wrapped in craft paper and tied with twine beneath our most beautiful and bejeweled Christmas Tree.

I promise to return after the holidays with renewed steam and new projects and heading into another year of bravery and boldness!

I hope you will join me!

e.

thirty two

annette::erin

Annette:  About a foot of snow that looks like tiny diamonds. Or bubblebath! Snowed in weekend, didn't go far. But, there was eggnog!

Erin:  Last minute shopping for odds and ends reassuring us that we made the right decision with a handmade and minimal Christmas.  Feeling comfortable in my own skin for the first time in a long time.  A good denim shirt and linen pants.  Big decisions made.  Topped off with Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and late night game of yahtzee.

the jerk of the felt berry world

 

{Note:  Please read here before judging our nickname or questioning our animal love.}

Since learning the simple technique of making little felt berries on Saturday, I have done little else with my spare time.  Thoughts of hot soapy water and felt berries have been dancing around my head and I sit down with gramma's huge bag of raw wool every chance I get. 

I am quickly learning which wools work for this process and which ones do not.  I have some lovely dyed kid mohair that doesn't work, but I am hoping to add it to some needle-felted objects.  I would like to learn the technique of needle felting as well.  Can anyone recommend good, books, tools, or resources for such endeavors?  I would also love any ideas or uses you may have for my mohair!

While I sat creating more this afternoon, I remembered the wool lady at the local farmer's market telling me I could make yarn out of my dog's hair (who is some kind of long wire haired terrier also known as "the jerk") that swirls around my feet and gathers into drifts in the corners and chair legs.  So I grabbed some from the mound that I had swept up earlier in the day; adding a little alpaca fiber for good measure, and rolled up this little felt berry with attitude.  Anyone who has ever met Tinsel can tell you it is near exact likeness and sums up so much of his personality what with the jerk-like hairs sticking out stubbornly and the fact that since this picture was taken it has turned into more of a felt peanut.

Please share any felting wisdom you may have!

e.

thirty one

 annette::erin
 

Annette:  I woke up to rain and cold this Sunday and wasn't sure I was inclined to leave the cozy apartment. I am truly grateful I that I bundled up, put Muse on the iPod and jumped on the train. We are blessed to have a local Healing Arts center in the area who generously threw a Holiday party of sorts, with free treatments, raw organic chocolate, belly-dancing, singing, and free cups of tea. My dearest friends trickled in, and we connected, chatted, received reiki, massage, and acupuncture among us. I was gifted a smudge stick made of homegrown lavender from friends' garden. This Sunday I am positively aglow with the blessings of kindred community, and the amazing souls I have in my circle of healing and growth! P.S. Erin, I wish you were here!

Erin:  A busy weekend spent mostly in the lovely home and Blackbird Studio of a most lovely and peaceful Rae.  Marinating in good vibes and warm cider.  Making money and gathering some much needed steam to keep moving forward with my bravery and learning.  Feeling in my element...finally.  An overdue family gathering on Sunday with thoughts of felt berries dancing in my head.  Five dozen buried cherry cookies for the cookie exchange.  Good raw wool being put to beauty.  Christmas movies and hot soapy water.  Life is so damned sweet.

A Perfectly Blustery Day

It is a perfectly blustery day on this, the first snow storm of the winter.  I perfect day for Mike to work from home and create a simple informational website for my dad and step-mom's organic farm.  While he puttered at that, I finished Poppy's stocking made from an old wool blanket and fabric remnants for  a total cost of about 50 cents!  I then started knitting her pixie hat made from a most wonderful chocolate brown bamboo yarn.

The cats are blissed out upon the couches and chairs while the fire warms us all to the toes.  I can't help but wish we could keep our lovely tree all season long with her regal branches draped in oranges and cinnamon and a subtle pine scent dancing out in every direction.

 
Thoughts and visions of a sustainable life and intentional farm community have been swirling within these walls of late and it is enlivening.  I am most inspired to see that this couple is living comfortably about 2 1/2 hours away in an Earthship they were able to build for $43,000.

More photos and details to come with regards to everything I have mentioned above, but for now I am drinking in the fading evening light and attempting to grasp just how amazing and perfect our life is right now...and the amazing plans to make it even more perfectly authentic.

e.

Mike and I were so excited to make these little wooden blocks for Poppy this Christmas.  They are so much fun to construct.  I purchased the blocks pre-cut, but we plan to have the next lot cut at the hardware store from untreated lumber.

We mod podged various designs of scrapbook paper, stickers and letters then sanded the corners for a soft antiqued feel.  We just need to find some beautiful vintage inspired animal stickers and then we can finish them with a final coat of mod podge.

I hope to make personalized block sets to sell in my Etsy shop soon!

e.

thirty

annette::erin
 

Annette: This picture is of my feet, at home, under the tree, after a busy Sunday of the unfamiliar but beautiful ritual of being Godparents to our little nephew. We are not Catholic, but were honored to be a part of the loved little baby's life in this way. I was going to go to Manhattan to see a Bach concert with friends later in the day, but decided to eat ziti and cake with the in-laws, hold the sweet little boy while he slept, and then be home, with feet under the tree. Life moves in cycles and it's wise to rest and be inside when instinct dictates. Says I, humbly.

 

Erin:  Bringing a cold tree into the warmth of our home.  Feeling a little sad for taking her life only to have Mike remind me that it is likely a tree's highest ambition to be someone's beloved Christmas tree.  Watching Poppy reach out to touch her prickly branches and pull away with a giggle only to to it over and over again.  A rather perfect day spent puttering with the tree and decorations, three batches of melt-in-your-mouth buns, a simmering pot of indian spiced squash soup, sanding and finishing the sweetest baby blocks I have ever seen, creating over-sized origami balloons that now rest in the branches of our simply elegant tree.  An evening spent scheming and dreaming about our perfect home and village.  The house is warm and my spirit light with gratitude.  The yin Sunday to last week's yang.

sweet finds & link love

{above items available in my shop} 

I have decided to compile a list of lovelies that I have found in my internet creeping and roaming.  There is just too much good stuff not to share with my corner of the world.  I can't promise to stick to any sort of schedule, but when the spirit moves me.  So here goes!

 

 

A new friend's etsy shop called Ingrid Moss.  Especially the beautifully felted gum boots and I wish I could decorate my whole tree with these!

 

This colourful garland from Made Mary's Shop.

 

 

 

So many of the fabrics and fabric tapes found in apples & eggs' shop

 

 

 

beautiful.

 

 

 

 

All things acorn

 

 

Fair trade Bolgatanga baskets.  I bought mine on ebay {but I don't get to open it until Christmas}.  Does anyone know of another reputable place to get these online?  I would love to know!

 

 

Beautiful yarn bowl by Jamie of Soaring Studios.

 

 

I have become obsessed with old phones.  I even dreamed about them last night.

Though I think Mike would kill me if I made us go back to rotary in the land of touch tone.

*sigh*

 

 

I can't stop thinking about this spendy smock by conscious clothing.

 

 

If you haven't made the switch, I encourage you to do so with this Canadian girl's well made designs.

Seriously, it is better for you and the earth.

 

 

A last, but certainly not least:

My sweet friend Rae of Blackbird Studio will be hosting this lovely event.

If you are in the area, I encourage you to get in the handmade Christmas spirit here.

She offers many workshops to help get those creative juices flowing.

For more info, check out her new website here.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this installment of Sweet Finds & Link Love

 

e.

 

 

twenty nine

 

annette::erin 

Annette:  I was up this morning before 7am, and could not help but want to drink in the fresh amber and pink morning light as it played across my livingroom! These antique perfume bottles seemed the perfect playmates for the brio of Sunday morning sunrise, and I took copious amounts of photos! The one I chose is not the best as far as composition, but it's how the morning felt to me and so I'd like to share it. It was all definitely the harbinger of a blissful Sunday for me, of spiritual enrichment, leftover Indian food, dance, Chopin and friends!

Erin: a rather unremarkable Sunday of grocery shopping and thrifting for Poppy's texture basket.  A massive diaper blowout with an overflowing cart of groceries left us racing through the store with a nearly naked baby to buy an emergency outfit we had failed to pack on this one fateful trip.  A baby girl enjoying her first practical joke with her new teeth {need I say more?}.  One of those Sundays that sum up all that is tedious about the realities of marriage and babies while at the same time reminding me just how lucky I am to have a partner to laugh with and sigh with and cry with.  So yes, an unremarkable and less than perfect Sunday, but it still counts {even though the photo is from Saturday}.