I made a candle out of an orange!!!

I came across this idea on Pinterest a while back. You turn an orange into a candle. I used a navel orange. I cut it in half and took out the meat (I ate it). I left the white fiber in the middle.. I filled the middle with walnut and coconut oil. It took a few tries to light the "wick". But there you have it, a candle made from an orange. I am going to let it burn down to see how long it lasts....

Crayon drawings of my big girls

Lyn came across these in the garage. When they went to summer camp one year at school there was a counselor who was a pretty good artist. He drew these with just crayons. Pretty cool....

I have missed the classroom

 

It has been a while since I made a giant caterpillar. I am not as rusty as I thought... I am enjoying being in the classroom working with the same children everyday part time in addition to working with Early Intervention.

Best jam ever...

Rosemary and apricot...
Fennel and cherry....
Blueberry and lavender.....
Awesome!!

Loosing a little weight

Black is slimming but I have lost a little weight from just getting up in the morning... Who knows what may happen when I TRY to loose weight!!!

OK, in this picture I tried a little smile....

Wild Mother Arts giveaway....

I am a huge fan of Wild Mother Arts. The owner of this store on Etsy sells wonderful jewelry and meditation pieces geared for the birthing and breastfeeding family. She is having a giveaway on Birth Without Fear's site. Please go visit to enter the giveaway and / or get the discount code to go ahead and order from Wild Mother Arts site right now....

Here is an example of one of the items available....

My beautiful doll

It came today!! This is the special order doll I ordered a while back. Joni did such a great job. Check out her Etsy store if you want one. There is so much meaning tied up into this doll that I just cried as I held her...

Beadapalooza

Beads, beads, and more beads.... I found some special beads to use in some new pieces I have in mind. Beadapalooza will still be going on tomorrow too...

And volleyball begins again....

And the season has begun.....

Special order....

I am working on a very special order for a little baby that is suffering from an angry diaper rash that is probably yeast. I offered to make my Green Goop diaper rash salve for him. He is doing so much better. It is nice to be in the right place at the right time....

 

I also made some spray wipe solution to help soothe the little one's bottom. To finish it off I made some homemade baby powder. It consists of baking soda, cornstarch, slippery elm powder, and chamomile powder.

Making a healing sachet or amulet

OK, so an amulet is a round piece of cloth or leather tied up with meaningful stuff in it and a sachet is square and sewn up on the sides filled with meaningful items like stones, herbs, or anything else with meaning. Well, I still call my round bags sachets because I like the way it sounds.....

This is a healing and supportive sachet I made today for a friend. It includes an agate bead, a basil leaf, powered chamomile, lavender flowers, a dried hawthorn berry, powdered ginger, fennel seeds, St. John's wort, salt, wormwood, and rosemary. It doesn't take much it is all in the intent. I then wrapped them all up and tied it closed with a piece of jute..

You can see the finished sachet in the corner of this picture.

Ben's hair....

When Elaina was born over two months ago I gave Granny permission to cut Ben some bangs because she just could not stand his hair in his eyes. Then Dad evened up the back. Well, Ben just didn't look like Ben, my baby two year old, anymore. When Eliot, Elaina and I went to Farmer's market today Dad buzzed Ben's hair. i said it was OK but when I came home and saw this....

I cried. My baby boy used to have long silky hair. Some people thought he was a girl but so what.... I miss his hair.

These were the most recent pictures I had of Ben with hair. He moves so fast we can hardly catch him still long enough for a good photo.

Well, I made it. My first smudge stick...

I used safe herbs that have meaning to me to make my smudge. I used pineapple sage, mint in flower, rosemary,lemon balm, fennel in flower, and since my lavender did not make it through the heat I added a few dried lavender flowers tucked into the smudge. I wrapped it with jute because that is what I had handy. I hung it to dry on my Mother shelf. We will see how it works once it is dry. It isn't pretty but it will remind me of this point in my life when I use it.

Pineapple sage....

I have this growing right outside my front door. I want to make some smudges with it but can't really find anyone else who has used it. White sage is the standby for smudges but I feel that if the plant is safe to burn and has meaning to you why not use it. The leaves smell just like pineapple when bruised and the flowers are used in potpourri. I just found that out. The leaves are real broad and would make great smudges. I think paired with lemon balm and rosemary it would be a spicy fruity blend. I do believe I have a new project to add to all of my other many that are piling up....

For protection

More salt and more red...

Annika and Eliot helped me out on this one. We took a video explaining what we are doing. I placed in on my YouTube channel. A link to it can be found on my sidebar.

Thrift store find....

Now, what will I put in them or use them for? Good luck charms?  Beads? Potions? Time capsules? Who knows....

Boobie update....

Everyone keeps asking for an update on my mastitis. It is a lot better and I am a few doses away from being finished with all of my antibiotics. I showed the video of the oozing milk from the lanced abscess to a friend who is a doula and has witnessed many births and is also a CLC and she nearly gagged. I really want to post it one day for educational purposes. Honestly it didn't hurt after it was lanced. Sort of weird though for milk to pour from an opening that is not a nipple. Sorry no pictures....

Annika's assignment

While I was at work this afternoon I wanted Annika to get out of the house a little bit. You cannot just tell her to "play outside" for a while like most 10 year olds. She needs more of a plan or guide. Today her assignment was to find 3 flowers with different colors. After I explained what to do I left her room. I then went in and told her she could not pick them from our yard. I got a drawn out "awww man". When I got home she showed me the flowers she had found. She put them in her vase that is on her personal shelf. She picked one red clover flower, a cluster of purple crepe myrtle, and a tiny white flower I could not identify. Way to go Annika!

I have been waiting for a book like this

I can integrate so many of the ideas in this book into my life with my children. It is put together so well. The pictures are beautiful and because it shows an actual year of activities with a real family (the authors) it hold real meaning to me more so than some how to book out on the market. It flows with the whole year. Each month has season appropriate activities from cooking to crafts to just plain fun...

So pretty...

Some new beauties from Wild Mother Arts

The yellow one just speaks to me!