I made this little family of sunflower faeries for my friend's birthday. Taryn and Jeff, are expecting a baby in the coming weeks, and I wanted to make her something honoring the beautiful little family they are creating. Sunflowers are very special to these folks. They had them in their wedding, they have beautiful photographs of them in their house, and they pop up from time to ...
Wave Rider
I just finished this needle felted wool wall hanging as a custom order. The parents from a Kindergarten class at our Waldorf school wanted to give their teacher a gift that honored her other big passion in life, surfing. Although I have never surfed myself, as I was working on this, I thought to myself that it looked like a lot of fun! Standing there on the shore with the waves spread ...
Apple Pickin’ Ladies
Today, I dropped the kids off at school, and went out to Farmer John's to pick apples with my friends Taryn and Jeana. The morning was warm, the apples were ripe, and we filled our baskets for applesauce-making and storing in the pantry. I cannot describe to you how wonderful an apple picked fresh off the tree tastes. It makes me never, ever want to eat a store-bought apple in the middle of winter ...
Homemade Lard, It’s not Your Mama’s Crisco Shortening
When you are a mother of of two kids with dairy sensitivities, and you love to bake, the options start looking slim. I tried Earth Balance margarine for a long time, but I didn't feel good about all those processed vegetable oils. I tried organic shortening, same story. I finally threw up my hands and started using butter again, because I wanted them to have some real, un-processed fats. They ...
Homestead Mornings
It's that wonderful time of year again. When I go out in the morning to feed the chickens, the air is cool and crisp, the roosters are crowing, and it feels like fall is here. This is my favorite time of day, full of the possibilities of the golden autumn day to come. Soon the smell of wood smoke will fill the air from our neighbors chimneys and our own. Squirrels are busy ...
This Land is Your Land, This Song is Your Song
“I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.” ...
Canning Local Food With Relish!
If you're going to can, you may as well do it with relish! I kicked off my weekend with a trip on Friday out to Riverbend Farm to get peaches and corn. Every year I go and get their distressed, or "seconds" peaches for half price. Then I can feel better about getting a couple of big boxes full. The corn was for making corn relish, a favorite canned treat in my house, and since we didn't grow wild ...
Oh, the Possibilities of a Freshly Plowed Field…
Lavender, a pumpking patch, more room for corn..... ...
Back to School We Go!
This week is a big week for a lot of kids in Oregon (and I hear last week was a big week for kids in Washington.) It's back to school time. It's not as though it was my children's first day of school ever, but it was a pretty important day for us with both kids going to the Waldorf school that we have wanted them to go to for such a long time. With their willow lunch baskets packed, a bouquet of ...
Fields Where Scarlet Poppies Run
"The silver rain, the golden sun. The fields where scarlet poppies run. And all the ripples of the wheat are in the food that we do eat. So when we sit for every meal we say grace we always feel that we are eating rain and sun and fields where scarlet poppies run." ~Traditional Meal Blessing ...