Ever since our February trip to the Northwoods, and my visit to this fabulous antique mall, I have had some lovely vintage fabric sitting on my shelf, just begging to be fashioned into some type of lovely.
Inspired by the “Felt Pencil Roll” in The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule, I made some adjustments to the pattern and created a lovely crayon/colored pencil roll for a brand new “Big Sister” friend of ours.
We just wrapped up Spring Break, and what an adventure it was. We first traveled to Madison, Wisconsin where we visited with family, celebrated and gave thanks over yummy food, and even squeezed in a bit of pool time. We then ventured back to the Northwoods for some quiet time with my husband’s grandparents. Nature in all her glory surrounded us up there. We were lucky enough to see a bald eagle and many, many, many deer. Oh my.
We returned home to lawns completely cleared of snow, a garden in desperate need of some TLC, and four whole days of break remaining! So, we strapped on our new garden boots and set to work. I had forgotten how much I missed being outside…just “in” it…you know. It was just fabulous.
I hope this Monday has been wonderful for all of you so far, and may you all have a lovely week!
Kairos—“a right, opportune, or supreme moment in which something special and unique happens”
If you are so inclined, share a link to your “Kairos Moment” in the comment section. I hope you all have a blessed weekend!
We had so much fun dyeing Easter eggs over the weekend, I decided to hop on the natural dye agent train and go for a real ride. I had one skein of wool left after I finished making the woolens in this post, and a few left over beets from dyeing eggs. I decided I would try to dye the wool yarn. Here’s what I did…
Put the following ingredients in a large stainless steel pot:
4 large beets, peeled and chopped
16 cups water
4 cups white vinegar
Bring the ingredients to a boil. Let it slow boil for about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the yarn. (I tied off the skein a bit more too. I didn’t want it to get tangled while it “cooked.”)
Then remove the pot from the heat, cover and let it rest overnight. (Yes, just leave those beets in there…It’s fine.) Rinse the yarn 2-3 times in luke warm water.
Allow to dry completely on a drying rack.
Yes, it is March 27th. Yes, it is Spring. Yes, we are completely snow-covered and freezing. I’ve decided I need to move to the positive of this situation instead of dwelling on the negative. So, woolens it is. Why not sit under a quilt, with a mug of steaming hot coffee and crochet with a bit of lovely wool. And that’s just what I did.
The yarn is from this farm in Wisconsin. They can be found at the weekly farmers’ market in Madison, and they normally have their yarn for sale at their booth. (If you have never visited the Dane County Farmers’ Market, you must go! It is absolutely amazing…no matter the season…it’s year round and awesome!)
This is me embracing the frigid March temps. I’m just going with it.
Another of my favorite days is right around the corner. Sure, it is snowing outside as I write this, and the temperature last night dipped well below freezing, but no matter. Easter is just a few short days away.
Our house is always abustle with baking and crafts at this time of year, but our most favorite of all activities we find ourselves immersed in is dyeing those lovely little Easter eggs. For the second year now, we have opted to use natural dyeing agents to dye our eggs, and let me tell you…If you have never dyed eggs this way, you must try it! The entire process leads to a day full of fun, and this year we were even glad to find ourselves in our toasty kitchen from all that steam the pots were kicking off. I mean it was twenty-five degrees outside. Oh my.
There are many resources out there with a bunch of great ideas for natural dyeing agents. The book we used this year was Keeping Chickens: All You Need to Know to Care for a Happy, Healthy Flock by Ashley English.
One recommendation I would give is to try to find organic white eggs to use with these natural dyeing agents. These are sometimes difficult to find, as it took me driving to three different stores before I could find some, but it is well worth it. Last year we dyed organic brown eggs and the colors did not pop as much as they did this year.
Just to give you a frame of reference, starting with the yellow egg and moving clockwise…yellow (turmeric), violet (cranberries), brown (coffee grounds), pink (beets), bluish violet (blueberries and blackberries).
At this moment I am…
~admiring our naturally-dyed Easter eggs we made yesterday. More on this in tomorrow’s post 🙂
~cleaning up the disaster that is my kitchen. A weekend full of projects and crafts has left it looking a bit unfortunate.
~enjoying a quiet morning chat with my oldest, who decided to get up before 6 o’clock this morning. I cherish these early-morning times with her so.
~perusing The Pioneer Woman website for some recipe ideas for tonight’s dinner.
~flipping through this book for some natural project ideas for the girls.
~waiting for the ground to thaw so I can get out into the garden. As of now, the garden is still completely snow covered. Oh my.
~filled with anticipation because I have a lot of fun posts to share with all of you this week!
~wishing you a wonderful week!
Kairos—“a right, opportune, or supreme moment in which something special and unique happens”
“Let us be protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.”
~Pope Francis I
Butter. Who doesn’t love its creamy sweetness, with the hint of salt, as it melts over a hot roll or freshly baked muffin?
During my substitute teaching stitch, my oldest daughter and I had to leave the house quite early, and our normal routine of homemade granola or pancakes for breakfast was not really a feasible option. We needed something fast, easy and delish.
So on Sunday afternoon, I whipped up a batch of muffins (I used this recipe). Then I froze the muffins so that I could pull out two the night before, allow them to defrost overnight, and then we had yummy muffins to eat in the car on our way to school. But what is a good muffin without butter?
This is quite possibly the easiest way to make homemade butter. Think elementary school when we all took turns shaking a baby food jar filled with cream until the butter formed. Same idea.
Simply pour some whipping cream in a glass bowl, and then mix it on high with an elective mixer.
You need to beat it past the point of whipped cream phase. You will start to notice a separation in the mixture.
Once there is a clear separation between the butter solids and watery substance, place the butter in a fine mesh strainer or in butter muslin until all of the moisture has been drained.
I like to then mix in a bit of salt. And you are set to go!
Be sure to keep your homemade butter in a sealed glass container in your fridge. It will stay good for about 5 days.
As I poured my cup of coffee this morning and opened my shades to look out on the garden, these were the Spring greetings set before my eyes…
While these may not be the most “Springy” of sights, as I looked a bit closer to the goings on here in the Fagan abode, I noticed a bit of Spring showing her face. There is more sunlight spilling in our windows…
…and sunflowers reaching toward the sun’s rays.
Spring is here, we may just need to look a little closer and dig a little deeper to find it’s beauty this year. Happy Spring all!
Making of a Home 