Ice Lantern Tutorial

We made these ice lanterns for Candlemass. Another blog mamma was making Earth Candles.. But our yard is covered in 5 feet of snow so I got to thinking.. What CAN we do? (pun intended). If you add a little food coloring to the water you could make them red for Valentine's Day.. For that matter the white is pretty too.

First you will need two containers. One is cardboard and the other glass. Milk cartons would also work for the larger one. The only important detail is that the glass jar just needs to be smaller than the other container.. Oh, and it helps if you can cut the larger one later. ummm, I'll explain that later. We made a mistake.

Fill the large container with water while the little container is inside to take in account water displacement.
 
Fill the small container with something to weigh it down that you can easily take out later. We used corn.

Freeze the container and then pour out the weights (i.e. corn). Fill the empty weight container with warm (not hot) water. It will melt the ice slightly on the inside so you can pull the jar out.

 

Then try to melt the outside the same way to slip the ice out... We did not take into account that ice expands and cardboard has some give to it.. ah hem.. Blushing... But it still worked out, we just had to cut the cardboard away (yes it was recycled), and then we took it outside to enjoy our new lantern.

 Have a beautiful Weekend Everyone. Happy Valentines day!

Wet Felting With Cookie-Cutters

 Hello everyone. Bear is watching Panda so I can sneak in a little blogging. Here is the next video in my felting series. This is a fun project for ages 3 - 100. Grab some loved ones, wool roving, soapy water and let the fun begin!

I forgot to mention that it's probably best not to touch the felt while it is drying. You can get more advanced with your felting techniques with screens and the like, but this is just a simple project. 

When I was done with all of the hearts (and they were dry). I used a yarn needle and yarn to sew them all together to make a simple garland for Valentine's Day. 

 And here it is on my mantel! It's so simple and so pretty. I love how our mantelscape turned out this year.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you, have fun, and be well. 

20 Crunchy Mammas

Hi, I've been MIA for a few months so here is the scoop. Panda is developing a hatred for the computer room. I used to be able to blog while he napped but no more. Sigh.. I think he hates the hum of the computer but moving on. I have started a FaceBook group for 20 Crunchy Mammas (hey that's also the name of the group!). I can still use my phone to FaceBook while Panda is napping so I'm not completely off the map yet!  This is a place for mammas to make friends, share crunchy stuff, and be all granola-iey (is that a word?). I am opening this group up for 20 women and ONLY 20 women. I'm keeping it small so that we can all get a chance to get to know each other and keep the air of the group familiar and friendly. I think all to often in groups that reach in the thousands in memberships tend to get a pack mentality and I was looking for a way to avoid that. Yep, that's about it. We have 7 members right now but I am hoping that a few of you might like to join. SO here is your invite! Click on the picture to go to the FaceBook request/join page.. Hope to see you there!

Wool Ball Tutorial

Hello and Happy New Year everyone! I have a friend that has been requesting for quite some time that I do a few posts about wool and felting; so for the next few weeks I will be making  a few different felting posts. Today I am going to show you how to make a wool ball. These are great for toys or to use as dryer balls. This is one of my longer videos, but I hope you like it. Have fun and Be Well!

Update: OK, so I was asked what the benefits are of using wool dryer balls. Face Palm! I can't believe that I forgot to put that in here, soooo. they soften your fabrics without chemicals, and separate your clothes in the dryer allowing more hot air to flow between the fabrics which makes them dry faster. Faster drying time  cuts the energy output needed to dry laundry, is cheaper for you, and better for the environment. You can also put a few drops of your favorite essential oils onto them to lightly scent your laundry. Mmmm lavender lovey naptime blankets and cinnamon bedsheets and towels in our home. mmmmm cinnamon....

Felt Bird Give Away Winner!

Happy New Year! The winner is #2, Mrs. Bartos! Congratulations. Have a blessed New Year and thank you everyone who left comments. Be on the look out for more giveaways in 2014! Be well!

Advent Garden: Light of Love and People

I'm a little late in posting this, but last week was the week of love and people, completing our Advent garden. We added a small wooden nativity and lit the last candle. Panda made his first few donations to charity and the week was spent with beautiful family and friends. There was a lot of love and light to be shared with my wonderful in laws. It was a beautiful Christmas and I would love to post more, but Bear is currently holding a miserable little Panda in horrible teething pain crying out for his mum. So that being said, I wish you all a beautiful new year. Hopefully once these teeth pop through I will be able to get back and visit you all (that is why I have been MIA), but for now we are in full fledged teething mode. Wish us luck. Be well and have a blessed New Year.

Advent Garden: Light of Joy and Animals

 

 I'm a little late, but here is our Advent garden for this week. This is the week of Joy. " Behold I bring you glad tidings of great Joy which shall be to all people." This is also the week of animals. We added a hedgehog, a fox, a wolf, a trumpeter swan, a chickadee, a cardinal, and a blue jay to our advent garden.

 Then we set out to Swan Park. This park is the home to approximately 1500 trumpeter swans ever year between November and March. The sight and the noise can only be described as incredible!

 

Then it was off to the Feed Store from my youth to pick up some corn for the ducks. This feed store has oh  so many varieties of chickens (oh how I wish we could have chickens).

The ducks flock by the thousands to the Mississippi and Rum every winter because they rarely freeze over. It is an annual tradition of ours to go and feed them every winter, but this year we had to hunt for them because BOTH rivers FROZE OVER! We found them near the waterfall (dam) and were able to feed them down below from an observation deck. Not quite the same as having them mill around your feet, but as close as we could get.

 I think Panda has really been enjoying this week. All children are incredibly attuned to the animal kingdom. We've put out several treats for the rabbits, deer, squirrels, and birds, and a few trips to the dog park are in order, but this quiet slower way to celebrate seems to be just our speed. Have a blessed day wherever you are and whatever season you are in, be well. 

 P.S. Don't forget my giveaway. You Have till New Years Eve to enter for a chance to adopt these three birds. Click on the picture for more details. 

P.P.S. Here is a short clip of Swan Park. Enjoy!