Busy Busy Busy

Been a busy busy bee lately. Haven't gotten up to much though???


We have been filling our days spring cleaning, and getting out in the sunshine as much as possible, so no new crafts!

I will have to write a post soon though....just have to come up with something.

Maybe some reviews of a few children's products I have been enjoying oh so much. And perhaps it is time for a trip to the tea store....I would love to make a few posts about sampling new teas.

Hmmmm...

Cardboard train

I had this awesome box sitting in my kitchen, and HAD to do something with it. It is super sturdy, and was meant to be created into a toy, so I thought "what does Ares love more then ANYthing in the world?....TRAINS! Duh". So a train it became!

We started off by cutting out a smoke stack (HAD to be a steam locomotive!)

Then cut out some crappy circles and squares to make wheels and to cover up the company name on the side lol

 Then a square for the smoke stack, and a puff of steam made from left over cardboard and construction paper :)

And voila, you have a crappy, yet useful steam locomotive to  cart your toddler around in! My box already had two perfect sized holes in the front to put a ribbon through so I could pull him about.

He had fun making it, and enjoyed carting his animals around in it! Plus when Persephone woke up, he pulled her around in it for a bit.

So there you have it. A crappy cardboard box turned into a crappy cardboard train that cost NO money at all, and was/is hours of fun! Great rainy day project to do with your toddler.

Sorry for the crappy pictures this week...didnt have time to edit them! :)

Love~!!

Fairy Garden

I was inspired to build a fairy garden by a friend on a forum soooooo here  is ours!!

Find a planter not in use, and a cute baby to sit next to you

Fill it up with soil

Grab random items from your place and decorate!

We used some fake leaves for shade, rocks we picked up on random walks for paths and places to sit, candles to add ambiance, two Christmas ornaments for sparkle (all fairies love sparkle you know), three glass tea light holders for fairies to bathe in, some raffia for a cozy spot to sleep, and am old candle that is all used up for a nice smell to attract fairies!!!

Easy peasy! And best of all? FREE!

Some blogs who inspired me:

http://www.goexplorenature.com/2011/04/fun-friday-create-fairy-garden.html

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/my-great-outdoors-kristins-fai-88389

http://themagiconions.blogspot.ca/2009/09/how-to-make-fairy-garden.html

May add some toadstools soon, and maybe go buy some moss to make it extra cozy

:)

Love~!!

*Update*

Fairies left a little surprise for boy this morning :)

More rocks to add to the garden since they were so happy with it :) Maybe they will bring more presents tomorrow!

Now I am going to enter our little post in a contest!! At (as previously mentioned) http://networkedblogs.com/wLRXi

Woot woot :) Wish me luck!

Easter eggs!

Made some Easter eggs today with my loves :)

Just did a simple food coloring/water/vinegar mixture for the solid color eggs.

The middle one however came from this batch :

Did those with my mom earlier this week!! We tied the raw eggs up in 100% silk ties, and boiled them (like you would as if you were hard boiling them) in water with a tblsp or two of vinegar! And voila, super awesome Easter eggs!

I can't wait for sunday!

Will update with pictures of how it all goes.

Love~!!

DIY cardboard playthings!

Recently I have made my children two, absolutely free (if you have the materials already, which I totally did) new "playthings" as I like to call them.

We have a bunch of animalz (which if you haven't seen, are possibly THE coolest toy animals out there. So cute and unique. Plus made out of simple materials. What is there not to love?! Check out the link and drool), however no place for them to call "home". I was thinking of buying a barn for them, but was humming and hawing over the price of one. Even second hand, the nice ones are still flipping expensive! 

Then I saw it. Two shallow cardboard boxes before me, shaping into a cute little barn that I could make for FREE. I set to it immediately. Free, easy, AND if my son (who loves to smash, crash and throw just about everything) destroys it, I could care less.

All I needed was a hot glue gun, scissors and some construction paper to embellish the outside. How EASY is that?! It turned out pretty cute too. I'm no artist, or master craftsman, but my son sure loves it, so who the hell cares what it looks like!

Not too shabby eh??

Now...onto my next "plaything". Once again I was looking at a box and realized it would make a really cool "plaything" for my babies. This time I imagined it as a fridge. 

So once again I set to work (this time with the help of my son).

(that is is CHEEEESE pirate face BTW....he does it for practically every photo)

Some hot glue, a few snips here and there, add a "latch" - which consisted of sticky velcro and construction paper lol - annnddd....

VOILA! Fridge!

My little guy was pretty proud of all his work. I was proud of it too :)

So next time you are drooling over the beautiful wooden barns and kitchen items...remember you can reuse materials at home, create a great craft time activity, and have something your little one is proud to play with because they helped create it! 

Oh...and save a crap ton of money in the process!!

Love~!!

Busy weekend

Ouf! What a buuusy weekend! Good, but busy busy busy!

Started off on Friday since my husband had the day off (woot!). Headed to the states to pick up my Oak Meadows homeschool books!!! Haven't really had the time to read them, but they look awesome. Can't wait to apply what I learn. Anyways, we then went for an absolutely BEAUtiful walk in the sunshine, up to a little forest where we hunted for gnomes. Then up to a school for some playground action. My son had a blast :) Babby slept, so it was a pretty awesome afternoon!

Saturday morning we headed to the movies with a friend since it was cheap old movie morning. Saw Stuart Little for $2.50/adult! Afterwords, more playgrounds, walks, and tea (mmm how I love tea).

Sunday we decided to hit up a local mountain for some snow play.

 Kids had a blast. So did we. It was soooo warm and sunny, you didn't even need a jacket! Unfortunately, we didn't stay as long as I had hoped, but we promised ourselves that next time we would go and stay for a few nights...sooo I hope that will be soon!

Needless to say, I haven't done my toadstools yet.......they have been sitting on my kitchen counter, ready to be painted for almost a week....I really should start...

Blog about them soon, I swear!

Love~!!!

Sunshine, lattes and colouring!

So this morning, I woke up pretty grumpy. Usually I just have a lightly caffeinated or decaf tea, but definitely felt I needed more of a kick to jumpstart my morning! So off to the espresso machine I go!

 Mmmmmmmm hot espresso! I am sooo thankful I have this thing for days like today!

Next I add my hot raw milk (normally we don't buy raw milk, only once in a while so today was a treat for suuure!!!) and a little bit of Dagoba cocoa *drool*. Totally love this stuff!

Stir it all together, and voila! Homemade mocha :) Definitely helped my morning.

Since it was a gorgeous day, I couldn't stay grumpy! Need to be alive to play outside later. We are going to head to the beach since it is such an amazing day today!

So now that I am all caffeinated,  I'm not so grumpy anymore. Put baby to sleep and got to play with my son for a bit. He is super interested in shapes and letters, so we did some colouring and with my stockmar crayons that I have had since grade 4! Yup, that's right, GRADE 4! Those crayons are freaking awesome. They last forever, and never get stale or gross. Still amazing to color with, and easy to hold.

That was my morning so far. Now I have to get ready for the beach this afternoon. Must cut up some veggies and fruit for snacks :)

Love ~!

P.S I tweeted a few nights ago that I was going to get going on my toadstool doorknobs, but haven't gotten around to it! Maybe tonight will finally be the night.

Mommy Necklace

I received a new Mommy Necklace today from a dear friend! I already have one, and my kids love love looove it. It was super sweet of her though.

If you have never heard of them, check out the link ^. They are nursing bling! To keep your baby distracted while you nurse. Boy do they ever work! My nursling is easily distracted, but when I have one of my mommy necklaces on, she is happy as a clam nursing without unlatching too much.

They are MUST HAVE for nursing mamas. Highly recommended. They look amazing, come in so many different styles and colors, there is an option for every type of mama! They have been beaded nice and tightly, so if your little one pulls, it wont brake causing beads to spill everywhere. The clasp at the back prevents that as well by unclasping if pulled on too hard. I love the different shapes of the beads too, they help keep your nursling distracted. So many different textures!

Love love lovee them :)

Why "The Branch Playstand?"

I was just thinking people (you know...when I actually get this going and have "people" lol) might want to know what's up with the name? Why did I create this space and name it that?

Wellll....

I had been oogaling and drooling over playstands for my son ever since he was conceived. One day I sent my husband a bunch of links to some cute handmade playstands, stating that I NEEDED one. Right then and there (lol I am very demanding at times). Expecting his response to be something along the lines of "that's nice" or "looks expensive....we don't have space for that....what on earth is it anyways???!!" I received the best response ever...


"I can make that for you....and make it a lot cooler then those"

I just about exploded!

"YOU CAN?! SERIOUSLY? You aren't just saying that?!"

I totally didn't believe him! But he drew up some plans later that week, and then a month (ish) later, BAM I had my very own custom playstand

It is a lot bigger then regular playstands, so we just have the one half up at the moment. I love it, my kids love it, everyone who comes to play loves it. He did such a wonderful job, I decided to blog about it!!!!

So there you have it. My custom playstand brought me deeper into the world of waldorf and creativity. I love to decorate it, play hide and seek with it, build forts on a rainy day, dress it up for the seasons, just let my imagination run wild. It is like I am a kid again!

As it changes with the seasons, I will post pictures for sure. After all it is the name of the blog!


Love~!

Morning tea

Sleeeepy mama today!

Started the day off tired and cranky, with cranky babies surrounding me. Decided I need a cup of tea to soothe this small, annoying cold I have been fighting.

MMMM a delicious rooibos tea~!!

Unfortunately, it was knocked over by my 2 year old....so I had to make another. Then Baby peed all over the floor (has a diaper rash, so she was airing out) so I had to clean that up as well. Followed by cranky screaming tired baby who was not excited to lie down and nurse, even though she was EXHAUSTED. Finally she passed out, and has been sleeping for a while (thank goodness).

All in all it was a tiresome morning!

Hopefully this cold passes quickly, and we are all back up to speed soon.

Now time to make more tea :) Perhaps a green tea to help keep me alive for the rest of the day.

Love~!!

First post and felt chicks!

I have been wanting to start blogging again, sooooooo here I go!!

I've been really feeling like crafting and baking lately...it has been a while since I have done a lot of creating, but I have been going stir crazy as of late, so I thought it is better to start now then just dream about my creations!!

I made some pretty cute little felt chicks this past week

I have never wet felted before so they were my first ever wet felted balls! I was pretty proud of myself. I bought a kit from my favorite store BeneathTheRowanTree and was thrilled with the results. They aren't spectacular, but my little guy loved them, so nothing else matters!! I want to pick up some more roving wool and create some other little critters. My son wants a cat apparently, SOOO....

Also on my felting-to-do list are:
-felted eggshells, for my little ones easter eggs
-mini felted eggs, also for easter
-felted cat...to go in easter basket

All to be done obviously by Easter!!

I will update as I make my little creations :)

Love!