Christmas cheer and things I made!

I know I have not been updating this blog nearly enough, but after Thanksgiving all my energy went to preparing for the holidays.

Between bouts of cookie baking, attending Christmas parties and being a secret Santa for our neighbor I also spent some time making my daughter's Christmas gifts. And I can finally show those to you!

I had a full shoe box for Victoria to open that were almost completely all hand made items. In it there was the jumpers I knit her, a plush deer that I made, 2 mushrooms rattles, six shooting stars bean bags, and 10 number bean bags... these were all hand made, in the box I had also put six baby silks for her. This is definitely a very Waldorf inspired play box and she is loving it. We spent a good hour last night playing on the bed with that box and she was ever delighted by it. That made a mama feel really good!

She was of course also very spoiled with all her other gifts from friends and family and is a busy bee trying to play with everything at once! I'm about to set up a toy rotation what with all the wonderful things she got this past month so that she can truly appreciate and play with each toy rather than enjoy simply the chaos of a lot of colors and shapes thrown around the room, although that is important as well.

Anyways, let me show you some of the items I made, and hopefully I can take more pictures in the days to come.

Detail of one of the mushroom rattles before completion

The mushroom rattles... originally took inspiration from someone who was making mushroom pin cushions.

The gift box! You can see the shooting stars bean bags, some of the number bean bags and glimpses of the mushrooms and overalls.

This Moment

{this moment}- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words -capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember.
If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' for all to find and see.

Bright Times

The holiday season has always been a favorite of mine. Christmas has always been filled with giving, kindness, joy and laughter, and I plan on creating the same environment for my daughter.
This year, being that we are ourselves dealing with hardship it is difficult to see how I can contribute to other people's Christmas. I am making most of Victoria's toys on the very very cheap and while this is perfectly fine by me, (after all those toys are more likely to become heirlooms later on), it leaves me with a slightly empty feeling.
I pass toy bins and food banks, places where I usually drop things off all throughout December and realize that I cannot contribute this year.
So, I am trying to find ways where I can contribute, by offering free childcare to friends, by recycling my daughter's too small clothes to others in need and by making double of each toy I am making Victoria so that I can gift one needy family with handmade toys. It's not exactly what I'm used to doing, but it still feels good and it allows me to concentrate again on the spirit of Christmas. Which, to me, is to give as much of yourself as you can. It shouldn't be about the price of gifts or the amount you give, but rather about what you can give to others to show that you care. In our case, this year, our time, love and best wishes.
Here is to a healthy, loving, holiday season!

Being productive

I swear I'm actually making things lately... but the problem with creativity and being productive is that other areas in my life take a back seat. In this case, the blogging is being put to the side, as well as taking pictures of everything. I hope to fix that really soon though.
I'm working assembly line on my brand new product and will have pictures soon of the finished items!

I'm also almost done with Victoria's first Christmas gift too so I will post pictures of that as well. I just finished knitting her a very cute pair of overalls but have to finish the crochet edging which will be my first time trying my hand out at crochet! Wish me luck.

Let me leave you with a happy picture and thank you for being patient with me and my lack of updates.