Greenness all around

Spring nature table.

The small flower children.

I received these beautiful wooden Sprites from Syrendell on Etsy. They are wonderful! It is Jasmin's job to run out in the mornings and fill their hands with fresh flowers.

Felted bees.

a few glimpses into what we have been up to lately:

My WIP project now is cloth bags to hang by their beds, to find their clothes for the days, no questions and less mess. Jasmin made hers together with me, making the twisted rope and stitches along one side. She realy looks forward to finding out what she is to wear, now I just have to make sure I don't forget...

We did a lot of watercolor painting a while back, everyday, and did a whole wall feature, all of us painting our own side.

We celebrated whitsun (or pinse in Norwegian) with the kids Sunday morning a week ago, with paper white doves and washing, making everything clean and fresh.

The dandelions have sprung into seed, covering the hills in fairy-dust. Our garden is coming along, the days have been hot and dry, which requires a little more watering then I had expected, I was of course hoping mother-nature would take care of the watering situation. Pictures to come. Am slightly immobile as of yeasterday, on a hike up the mountain here with the family, I seriously sprained my ankle, have to use crutches, and am off to get an x-ray tomorrow.

our garden flag. handmade flagpole, just a little crooked...

Our greenhouse on the porch is an ingenious food-cart from and old ship Anders came home with one day. Not the most beautiful/ aesthetic piece of furniture, but very effective.

The tomatoes seem to like it at any rate, and the baby-salad is thriving.

To sum it up, Noa's tractor love. I made up a blue tractor lullaby special for him (I sing them all their own good-night song). A couple weeks ago we were at a great local small cultural happening, and they had put out this gorgeous little old blue tractor which WAS HIS tractor! He was amazed! Stunned.

::Work In Progress Wednesday::

I am felting all the kids little easter eggs, for Easter Sunday next week. I had been wanting to for a long time, something organic and natural, and I found a great tutorial on Rhythm of the Home. Will post some more pictures next Wednesday. Have finished one so far. As I was working on that, Jasmin wanted to felt too, she does best at flat, dry felting.

Yellow hearts everywhere.

I am also making a dolls blanket for Cecilia, Jasmin's doll.

Funny pictures of Noa in girls clothes show up everywhere. Not so easy to understand for him WHY he is not allowed to wear a dress, so I say he can. Hoping that will not damage his masculinity...

House plans.

Spring is upon us! Thank goodness. The winter had been famously long, stabile and cold. Spring will be absolutely divine. The house plans are moving forward. Beautiful, functional.

:::WIP Wednesday:::

The work in progress this week is crocheting a rug for jasmin's small toes when she wakes in the morning, and preparing for easter.

This one is super easy. Long ripped strands of old pieces of bedsheets and curtains at the used store, "Plant et tre" (Plant a tree) here where we live. I have a great hook made out of holly, got it at Nøstebarn a year ago. Size 10 I think.

Green grass in baskets. Ready to bloom.

WIP Wednesday

Work in Progress. Ahem, does accounting count? No? Well, in a desperate attempt to create for the children I have begun on COSTUMES. After reading "THe Creative Family" by Soule.

First off, blue silk cape. Hand-sewn because sewing machine, which I have just borrowed since mine toasted, is so much noisier then sitting in the sofa with them walking around.
Second, learning to knit, for real, it takes time, and I will show something on a post as soon as it is worthy.

Happy Working.

Crafty Weekend

First off, I cannot believe I now have two 2-year olds!!! We had an amazing day, singing and playing. I finished the crowns on time, and we made apples of wool for the Christmas tree as well. A great day! "Bestemor"- Grandma and Uncle Johannes were down for the weekend and there was much rejoicing. I became second best after approximately 4 seconds. Makes me so sad that we live so far apart. Anders took the opportunity with extra help in the house to work on insurance papers and we arranged a birthday party involving organic wholesome carrot cake WITH cream cheese frosting, whole wheat pizza, and 10 little ones running around ( and almost twice as many adults- that's a lot of espresso to make!) Short and sweet festivities. We concluded with going out in the dark at 5pm, and sending off (simultaneously) 6 chinese lanterns. No pictures from that yet, but hope to get some from a friend. It was magical and amazing.

All in all, the weekend flew by, I have recovered from my sleep deprivation thanks to "Bestemor" getting up at the crack of dawn and we are back on track for Advent preparations.

The orange one with the Autumn applications was initially for Lea, but when they received them, Lea ONLY wanted "Good Night Moon" and Noa couldn't care less. So I had to do a complete mental turn around. I guess one makes the map according to the terrain, not opposite.
Especially happy with the elastic back, no sewing machine required!

Birthday Preparations

This is actually a WIP Wednesday post, today. A Work In Progress. Which I have been really wanting to get started with, but have been preoccupied. Now, the twins birthday this weekend, and two crowns must be made.

I am using the wonderful crown tutorial from the wonderful blog Frontier Dreams. She has a super simple idea to make these wonderful felt crowns. Am working on the applications now, which is lovely work. I have never been much of a crafter, and it is SO relaxing to do this sort of handcraft. Almost meditative. The woolen felt my mom sent down, and am using regular cotton embroidery thread.

Noa's colors and inspirational book. He loves cows, moons and stars.

Lea is alive and active, I had to go for a happy color, and her inspiration is squirrels, nuts and leaves. I know that November is over us, the sky is grey, and I can see about 4 leaves on the oak tree, but Lea's heart has been in this season for so long. She'll be happy I hope.

More to come. Back to work. Picture quality could be better. These semi automatic are difficult I find. We have decided to wait to next summer till we replace our CanonD40, possibly with the D50. But this one is great for kids, the Olympus Tough. Shock Proof 2m and WaterProof 10m!!!