waldorf mama

may flowers...

i dig, dig, dig

and i plant some seeds.

i rake, rake, rake

and i pull some weeds.

i wait and watch,

and soon i know...

my garden spouts

and starts to grow.

doll bonnet...

there seems to always be an abundance of doll clothing and accessory designing and making going on around here (some handmade by me, some handmade by etsy friends). i suppose it's the instant - or near instant - satisfaction and joy that comes from creating something so quickly and easily. in fact, i would venture to say that the dolls around our house have a much more extensive wardrobe than most of the other dwellers in our household. and, of course, it's always fun to share the handmade goodness with others.

here is a little knitted doll bonnet i recently made for my friend, nicole, while i was knitting up a silk pilot cap for her daughter (see her blog post about it here)...

i plan to have some available in my waldorfmama shop soon!

yours on this creative monday,

shelley

rainbow girl...

we recently enjoyed a lovely spring afternoon outside in our backyard. and what do you think my girl was doing almost the whole time? that's right. drawing rainbows. one right after the other. like our budding little artist always has (remember this post from january 08?).

for lack of a better word, she's been 'obsessed' with rainbows for as long as i can remember. we think it must have started when she was a baby and she would stare totally fixated on the rainbow that the prism in our bedroom window displayed on the ceiling. and over the years, we have had rainbow hats and rainbow sweaters and rainbow dolls and everything else you can imagine (notice the rainbow finger-knitted bracelet she has on). now she wants a rainbow umbrella. and to find a rainbow tree. and rainbow hair when she grows up. and don't even ask what happens when she stumbles upon something that is NOT in correct rainbow color order. oh my.

yes indeed, she is our rainbow girl. and we wouldn't have it any other way...

happy rainbows to you!

shelley

her space...

in conjunction with my previous post, i feel it is of utmost importance to also respect maya's space and the importance of her play area. these precious moments of her childhood are to be nurtured and protected. in the waldorf philosophy, it is believed that one of the experiences that is essential for the healthy development of young children is an environment that 'nourishes the senses' (lazured soft-colored walls, handmade dolls, beeswax crayons, wooden figures, silk and other natural materials)...provided to them in an atmosphere of gratitude, reverence and wonder. early learning is profoundly connected to a child's own physical body and sensory experience. everything they see, hear, and touch has an effect. therefore a clean, orderly, beautiful, quiet setting is essential...

yours in reverence,

shelley

taking notice...

i've been taking more notice of the spaces around our home and working to make them peaceful and meaningful. to create beauty here...where we spend so much of our time. to de-clutter and move toward more simplicity. and i've discovered that in doing so, it creates those same attributes in my feelings and actions. my thoughts are clearer and the rhythm of our days flow more easily.

yours in simplifying things,

shelley

yarn winding day...

today was a yarn winding day. one of my favorite kind of days. i regularly let any new yarns that i purchase here and there stack up in a corner or basket somewhere. and i often take a peek over at them or pick some up as i pass by and contemplate exactly what they will become. once the pile is too large to manage, i declare it a yarn winding day. and this is met with great excitement and anticipation. maya gathers up all of the yarn in need of winding and takes it into the kitchen. my job is to get out the swift and ball winder and set them up on the kitchen counter. and then...the process begins. we wind, and we wind, and we wind. we enjoy seeing how different the yarns look wound, as opposed to how they looked in skeins. we talk about what we plan to make with each one.  should the rainbow yarn be a sweater for maya? i'd like the yellow and pink yarn to be a scarf for me. i'd like to make papi another hat. and each of us a beautiful pair of socks. and, oh yes, there are lots of new hats to be made for the shop. and new dolls. etc. etc. etc.

i wind. maya sits on the kitchen floor alternately finger-knitting and gathering up all of the bits and pieces that are discarded during the process. once finished, we relish organizing all of the newly wound yarns in our ever-growing yarn stash. now you tell me, what could be more fun?

yours from yarn heaven,

shelley

spring green...

celebrating the joy of green today,

shelley