*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."  Soule Mama

fall walk

raising revolutionaries

That's what I say, every time I'm asked 'why?' or 'what difference does it make?' (natural, organic, cloth)  It's the right choice to make, but more than that I am raising revolutionaries, they will change the world.  My job is to teach them right from wrong and it will be their job to make the changes.  Hopefully in my lifetime.

To me the problems seem so big, unmanageable, intangible.  My hope is that my children (and yours) will see the answers clearly and know what to do.

Tonight I watched the first part of Half the Sky.  http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/half-the-sky/  I was inspired to say the least!  Amazing people out there changing the world, this documentary shares the stories of people all over the world who dedicate their lives to giving women a better chance, and inspiring stories of women who are striving despite difficulties.  Don't miss the second half, it's on tomorrow night.

On another note... we have been doing a lot of bug spying lately.

The boys were really excited about this one.

If I had to pick a favorite bug it would be the Praying Mantis, this one was inspecting us as much as we were spying on him. 

organic and my boys!

 A new bag!  Earth Robots... the bags will now be made with organic cotton canvas.  YAY!  I've wanted to make the switch for quite a while but I kept putting it on the back burner.  I'm hoping to have the store stocked by next weekend so I can focus on my boys... 

focus on these sweet sweet boys... (and the ones I make of course)

Soren is content to just sit in the yard and let me take his picture, atypical moment of peace for a walking toddler.  The boys could play outside all day.

Baby fingers and baby toes.  

My dandelion.  I never captured the full dandelion effect of his hair on the trampoline, but I think this one shows off his silliness.  In his skivvies of course... I just don't even notice that he isn't clothed until it is too late, rest assured I dressed him at least three time today but the later it gets in the evening the more likely it is that his clothes will be gone.  Soon he will be embarrassed to be just in his undies.

Surprising to me, late summer, last chance to squeeze out blooms.

and a little peek into our tree... 

I will leave you with this.  

love, compassion and acceptance

 First, let me introduce you...

Aven the peacock is an all natural handmade doll, he is just about 8 inches tall from his toes to the top of his head.   He is made of a wool interlock body with organic cotton interlock for his face.  His hair is merino wool and his cheeks are made rosy with beeswax.  Aven is stuffed with eco wool and is button jointed at the arms using handmade buttons from TessaAnn.

Aven's favorite color is green and he loves to play soccer, his tail comes in quite handy as a goalie.  

He can be shy, buy once you get to know him he will tell you all about his best friends.  

Aven can stand on his own with the assistance of his tail.  He is ready to fly to his new home!  Did you know peacocks can fly?

  Aven really loves finding rainbows after a storm.  He puts his rain boots on and jumps through all the puddles while he is searching for the rainbow.





Now that you know all about Aven I will tell you why I was inspired to make him.

I am Auctioning Aven to benefit the Human Rights Campaign.  The total amount from the auction will be donated to HRC and I will cover shipping of Aven to you!

I was inspired to do this after learning that the CEO of Chick-fil-a gives millions in support of hate groups.  I could just ban Chick-fil-a, but that really wouldn't do much as giving it up was on my to-do list anyway  (I really need to loose the last 10 lbs of baby weight.)  Giving to HRC and making a public auction to bring awareness to the cause seemed like a great way to combat the hatred spoken in the guise of free speech and Christianity.  I was raised Southern Baptist and the most important value I was taught in church was to love everyone.  In my humble opinion supporting hate groups is not very Christ like at all.  I don't know if I will change anyones mind by doing this, but my hope is that we are all teaching our children love, compassion and acceptance.

New home

My family recently moved from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Stevensville, MD.  I will start out by saying we are truly home.  My husband and I have both moved many times in our lives, personally I have moved at least 30 times.  So to say we are "truly home" in itself is a dream come true.  But once I introduce you to my small town I think you may also fall in love.

First stop, the yarn shop.  Really, what could be more important than that?  I was thrilled to find a large cone of natural handspun wool, spun from a sheep that lives a few blocks from me!  Well the sheep didn't spin it, a "nice old lady" did according to the yarn shop owners.  She lives here, from what I was told... but the Antique Shop hasn't been open.  I asked around and was told to knock, I guess I just have to hope someone is home one of the times I am knocking.  

I don't know about you, but yarn from my neighbor sheep makes me pretty darn happy!

a little doll sweater I knit with this lovely yarn!

doll glasses~ a tutorial

I have been having so much fun making little tiny glasses for dolls!  I have been given so much knowledge by other doll makers and crafters through blogs I thought it was time to try and give a little back.

I've created a tutorial to follow with a printable pattern. 

I recently had a giveaway for a pair of custom doll glasses, the winner choose PURPLE!  Purple is such a fun color, how could she not pick it.  The best part about the giveaway is that the winner happens to work in an optometrist office.  I was really happy to hear that not only will her daughter's doll have a nice pair of glasses so she can see better, but she can also play "mommy at work"  which is something my son plays at least once a day.  He will pick up a few scraps of fabric and pretend to sew them together.  Sometimes he actually stitches a little something together with my help.  (which reminds me, I should share the little monkey he made sometime!)

Anyway... here are the glasses.  Pretty simple shape, I think squarish happens to be the thing right now.

First step is to trace the pattern onto the felt, this will be your cutting line.  I use a wool felt, but I won't be mad if you use the eco felt.  An ink pen works for me, but i've heard about a fancy disappearing ink that sometimes disappears and sometimes is just really expensive and does't disappear.  

DO NOT CUT THE FELT YET!!!!

SEW FIRST~

  Fold the piece of felt so you have two layers and start sewing just on the inside of the line.  I am a little O.C.D.  (only a little, my house is not O.C.D. clean unfortunately)  so my O.C.D. kicks in here and I count the stitches around the curves and down the short sides of the glasses.  2 stitches on each corner seems to make a nice turn and if you count the stitches on the short sides the glasses will be even.

I use the zipper foot, because I can see my line better.

(I just realized that I didn't take photos of about 5 steps, eh... anyway)  After you sew around the glasses and around the eyes holes then cut out along the line that you drew in ink.

Next, fold the arm of the glasses over, and sew about 1/4" in.

 see what i mean?  It makes a little baby hinge on the teeny tiny glasses, it adds just a little more shape.

I used a snap awl to poke a hole in the end of each arm.

 I then pull a piece of thin elastic cord through the hole and double knot it, and trim it close.  After I have one knot I measure the glasses on the doll and make the second knot.

tada!  here they are!

Well, I couldn't send off glasses without a case now could I?

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial, feel free to make as many glasses as you want for whoever you want!    ~Nikki

Link to the printable pattern. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9LNASbgliWwTFIyTFdUaTFkNEk/edit?usp=sharing