branch homestead

more npr love...

great story about children in haiti and los angeles on npr this morning...

npr also reported on the the knitting graffiti

{week of green} thanks enchantedmama

{week of green}

enchantedmama was looking for us to "think green" this week to celebrate the coming of spring. this was more challenging than you would think. we have had a beautiful winter here in western new york mostly because it has been relatively cold and the snow has remained on the ground so even on the overcast days there has been more reflected light then usual because of the snow. i am not typically a fan of winter, i have trouble without the light, this year i have felt much happier, i have just been embracing it and hoping that it continues. we still have snow even though it has been warmer here. we went ice skating today it was in the 40s  and my little sweet pea has a pink little face, i feel so bad that i did not sunscreen today, so out of practice (she says it does not hurt but this was really unexpected in our area not so common as out west).

so here we go with many photos from the week. i never found a bud and i looked hard and long for the entire week. i did have some fun though, thanks kellen.

 split peas and sunshine

on the day you were born by debra frasier

thoughts on being green

the creative family by amanda blake soule 

made from scratch by jenna woginrich

animal, vegetable, miracle by barbara kingsolver

the backyard homestead by carleen madigan

the handmade home by amanda blake soule

sewing green by betz white

how to design your own clothes and make your own patters by claudia ein

living on earth by alicia bay laurel

the art of sewing-restyling your wardrobe by time-life books

ric rac  love

green love

potential in green

my mama made this sweet cookie jar for my grandmother in 1971, my grandma loved roosters.

my grandmother gave this to my sweet girl when she gave up her house. so sweet.

she loved my girl and my girl loved her. missing her so much. so luck that she had the chance to know grandma.

green comes in all shapes...mostly man made these days.

looking for buds...

to the left too...

 

green on a tree...not what i was looking for!

 

feeling the joy...

nurture and wonder...

sunshine and happiness!

sometimes you just need to take a break

so this is not working how i had planned...looks like i will need to start over. tomorrow is another day. keep reminding myself this is how we learn sometimes, not exactly my favorite method.

looking forward to the morning.

books to inspire creativity

we spend so much time at the library and on-line looking for new books. as i have mentioned before we love to read. lately we have been looking at books to help us find new things to create and some of our favorite books from the past. here are a few.

joseph had a little overcoat by simms tabak

our dear friends gave this book to helen for her 2nd or 3rd birthday. it has beautiful, colorful illustrations that make you want to find all the colored pencils and print intensive magazines and collage all day. the story also reminds to continue to reuse...one of my favorite lessons to share.

the quiltmaker's gift by jeff brumbeau and gail de marcken

also a christmas gift when she was very small. this book has beautiful illustrations a great story of a woman who makes the most beautiful quilts for those in need and how a king in his desire for the one possession that he cannot acquire learns where true happiness comes from.

the paper princess by elisa kleven

we found this book at the library it was our first introduction to elisa kleven. we have given this book for countless gifts. we love the illustrations and collage. the story is very sweet to. a girl creates a doll out of paper and it flies away and the paper princess tries through her adventures to return to the girl who created her.

the apple doll also by elisa kleven

story about a little girl who makes a doll out of an apple to come with her on her first day of school. the kids at school make fun of her, but in the end they all learn how to make the doll. very sweet story. directions to make the doll included.

the wheat doll by alison l. randall ; illustrated by bill farnsworth

we found this book at the library. sweet story about a pioneer girl that loses her best friend, a doll made from wheat in a storm. the mud near where she lost the doll begins to sprout wheat, she cares for the wheat and makes another doll.  we read this over the summer and plan to use some of the cedar chip stash that we have from the addition to make a doll. we have also been wanting to make some sachets for valentine's day (given that the moth's think my sweaters are the tastiest in the house) the cedar just smells so yummy and looks so pretty most of it was from the plainer so it is shaved post to follow soon.

plaidypus lost by janet stevens and susan stevens crummel

this is one of those books that we read endlessly when helen was very small and i did not mind. the cadence still continues in my head whenever i hear platypus. this story was one of the reasons that i really wanted to take the create a character class from marisa haedike creator of creative thursday last year at the squam art workshop. we have wanted to create a sweet "plaidpus" from a few of the many plaid shirts that belonged to my father-in-law who helen sadly never had the chance to meet, but shares a birthday with.

mirabelle by astrid lindgren and pija lindenbaum

i feel so redundant but here is another great book about doll, this one grows from a seed (scary that the seed came to the little girl from a stranger when her parents were not home, i have always altered this while reading the book).

quick crochet huge hooks by sally harding - i have been taking this book out of the library every few months for over a year; i really want to make the rag rug out of fulled (the word used for repurposed wool sweaters that have been "felted" per my class at squam last year with the amazing betz white). i have been putting off the rug because i wanted to make it round and i was having trouble finding a book with good instructions on how to crochet in the round...i think that i finally found a few...details in another post. i decided to try to just crochet a rectangle or square rug for the first try.

a few cooking books too.

sweet pea loves her historic american girl dolls...i try not to do things that are typically so commercially driven, but i have found these dolls have much to offer in peaking greater interest in handmade and history. we now have molly from 1944 and kirsten from 1854, she is also fond of felicity from 1774. we have been getting many books from the library and the bookstore on these three characters. the most fun i think are the cookbooks, they offer recipes and history of how these girls would have cooked, what they would have cooked and how the family would share in the meal together.

last week we made a recipe from felicity's cookbook: a peek at dining in the past with meals you can cook today (american girls pastimes) we made almond tarts. it was fun to make, we both think that the recipe would be better with almond paste instead of the chopped almonds. also overload on the butter and i am typically with julia child when it comes to butter.

for christmas helen received molly's cooking studio. i think that we are going to try the applesauce cupcakes, the victory garden soup and the nut and raisin bread which seems similar to a recipe that my mother made at christmas time when i was a kid. she backed them in coffee cans then wrapped them in colored cellophane. i just always remembered how tasty they were and how pretty they looked.

she also received salad people by mollie katzen for her birthday and we did not have a kitchen at the time and now we do so we need to start some recipes from there. we have tried the recipe for chewy energy circles a few years ago when she took a food science course. they are quite yummy.

sun bread another book by elisa kleven i think that santa brought this book a year ago, but we did not have an oven, there were many gray days last winter when i thought a little sunshine bread would brighten up our day...we will be trying this on the next gray day. recipe for bread included.

one last book for today is everything on a waffle by polly horvath.

this is about a girl named primrose whose parents are lost at sea and everyone thinks that they have perished but primrose is certain they are trying to return to her. she befriends a women who owns the local restaurant called the girl in the swing (is that the greatest name for a restaurant) and she serves all of her meals on a waffle. very fun story with recipes interspersed in the story.

soulemama had a great post a few days ago about books her family loves to read in the winter, i am going to be spending some time looking them up tonight and i am sure having some that i cannot find at my library transferred over.

time management

every day i think this is the day to catch up.

what does that mean?

is this the unattainable goal?

i am trying to set my goals more realistically so that i can meet them. i keep thinking after i pass this event that i will be able to catch up. it never seems to happen.

my latest thought (not the first time i have had it) is that if you have less; there is less to be responsible for. i have the habit of saving things because i may need it some time in the future.

i have 3 new goals

#1    to only make things with what i have for a while and if it requires something new i will need to modify the design.

#2    to start selling some things and/or giving them away.

#3    my plan is to produce at least one thing a day to either use in the house now, sell it or give it away.

yarn babies

my sweet was in the craft room with me when i was sewing on granny's purse strap and found some yarn the next thing i knew the big balls of yarn, well the mama ball anyhow, started to have some babies... this has been going on for 3 days now. the old yarn stash has come out and they have made several trips over to the neighbors in the sewing machine carrying cases aka the yarn family home.

 

love how they can find joy in the basics. love the imagination. makes me sit here and smile to think of it.

sewing granny's birthday gift

here is the sweet bag that helen made for granny for her birthday. this is the front.

 

this button was made by my grandfather who was a button molder. it has a horse head on it. sweet pea and her granny are huge horse fans so she wanted to make sure that granny had one of these buttons. there are only 6 left now.

here is the detail on the back. helen did all of the sewing and design.

i sewed the ribbons and button for her.

learning to sew

sweet pea has been wanting to learn to use the sewing machine. we decided to try and learn to sew with a project for granny's birthday gift.

granny has been doing all the sewing since she was born and my mother-in law is also the one who is teaching me to sew.

sweet pea chose a few fabric pieces of fabric from the fabric sample books that i received from a woman that works at an interior design library and posted on freecycle that she was getting rid of older fabric sample books that they no longer needed. i wasn't sure what i was going to use them for at the time but i knew that we would find something to do with them. i am hoping to use some to try to make my first quilt soon.

sweet pea chose some fabric to make a little bag for granny. i will post pictures when we finish. she cut off the bottom of the fabric samples with the paper on the back and used them to practice different stiches. then she realized that they would make very good bookmarks. can't wait until she makes me one.

successful raspberry essence stand for breast cancer

sweet pea came up with a recipe for "raspberry essence" a few weeks ago and we decided to use it for our making strides for breast cancer "lemonade stand" this year at the park avenue festival. it was a really big hit. we used local homegrown raspberries and juiced and strained them with some filtered water and a touch of sugar. delicious, fresh and refreshing. so different too.

we also brought the bracelets to sell. we only sold a few of those but no worries we are having our making strides kickoff breakfast for the local walk on thursday morning when all the team leaders get together to be inspired to raised lots for research to FIND THE CURE. the event is mc'd by one of our very dynamic local newscasters and a personal friend of helen's (she is so proud of this), ginny ryan. we are so inspired every year.

my sunshine spoke at this event 2 years ago to over 500 people when she was 5. originally she did not want to speak, she was going to let me do the talking, not really my dream but anything for the cause. once we were up there, she was drunk with the power to hold the attention of so many and to bring them all to adoring response. it was a challenge to remove her from the microphone.

last year she did not speak but ginny let everyone know that she was selling her bracelets and asked her to stand on her chair so that everyone could see that for the past 3 years helen had raised over $2500. per year and they could do it too. i was so proud. helen was so thrilled just to be able to stand on the chair and to have everyone give her an unbelievable round of applause was almost more than she could stand!

i am hoping to get the bracelets out on etsy soon. i will include a link as soon as they are posted.

making beads and bracelets for breast cancer fundraiser

we are really busy making beads for the fundraiser on sunday. the kids are really enjoying it and working so hard. i am really proud of them. our neighbor is helping too. so wonderful. i think that these are going to be our best bracelets yet.