Natural dyeing

I’ve had an idea brewing, a need to create, a need to share my creations, a need to redefine my role in my household. This post comes because of this need and dreams ive been having of making this product happen. I’m impressed and filled with joy at the results, I have to share. I’m making and selling canvas bags that are hand dyed with vegetables. The colour range is beautiful, so soft, with promises of spring. I started simply with a purple cabbage I had in the fridge. In one large pasta pot I boiled 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water, added my fabric, and boiled for an hour.

While this boiled I started the dyes. I chopped up the cabbage, added to another large pot with double the water. This boiled for an hour before I strained.

Here comes the fun part! By changing the PH of the cabbage water we are able to change the colour produced. My daughter loved helping with this part. We divided the dye into 3 parts. This first we left neutral which meant purple. In the next we added baking soda (about a tablespoon), this turned the solution bluey/green.

In the third dish we added vinegar and got pink

More soaking pics. I did a bunch of dying and left them in for different amounts of time from 10 minutes to overnight in order to get different colours.

We also made one using a handful of past due blueberries we had

Still wrinkly but dry and I am in love!

Looking around the house now I see so many opportunities to keep things from turning into food waste. I made french onion soup for dinner and used the onion skins to make orange dye.

Then I emptied my daughters lunch bag and saw she left her grapes, well into a pot they went. I missed this picture but it made a a beautiful dark purple that immediately clung to the canvas fabric I’m working with.

This project has been a labour of the heart. Working with my daughter, watching her learn the science of PH, and the magic of colour coming from plants. Creating with natural dyes is just one thing that has us looking for other things we can do to cut down our consumption. We’ve been talking a lot about fast fashion and what it’s doing to the earth. Trying to show my kids, and myself really, that little things can make a difference. If every family made some little changes, they would lead to big changes and hopefully begin to heal the Earth.

1,2 yellow onions 3 purple grapes 4-9 red cabbage 10 blueberries

I’ve been really feeling the moon energy and wanted to bring those designs over into the bags, as well as the beautiful message of the bee. These bags may be available to purchase soon or I’ll be making more shortly, if you would like to check out what I have please come find me Facebook at The Spotted Owl eco choices for eco families.

Ostara is approaching and this is a great way to dye eggs, we’ve done it before with success and the different ombre of shades you get is beautiful. I’ll update this when we do it again this year as I cant seem to find our pictures.

Happy crafting! I would love to see what you do with your vegetable dye.

Changes, gratitude, and being a magic maker

I’m a lucky woman. I am surrounded in love with a family that supports me. I treasure them but I am also at a time where I need to redefine me. This year I have a child going to highschool after 6 years of homeschooling. 6 years of having him at home and doing massive research projects, learning and growing together every day. Since I had my son over 13 years ago and my daughter 9 I havent had two in school ever. I know there will be some tough times as everyone adjust but I also know that in the end both children will do just fine. They are smart, kind, and resilient. Am i though? Will i get through all these changes? At 36 years old will I be able to reinvent myself beyond being a stay at home mom and a teacher to my kids? Ive taught my children to set goals to work towards, to give themselves positive reinforcements and to set themselves up for success. Can I do the same for myself? The answer, in short and obviously is yes, but the question really is “How can I be the best me? How can I encourage the things I’ve taught to bloom within myself?” All those old self conscience questions come up, the ones most of us hear at some point. This is my point. What will I do with it?

Photo by João Jesus on Pexels.com

The answer is hope is that I will soar. With the changes in life here now Ive begun to make sure I will be okay, I will be successful, I can do this. I have ideas of what this transition period will look like but I know that at any time my own self could destroy my positivity. Do you ever feel this way? Like your own worse enemy? I hope not, but I know those are out there that feel like this, like me, I am not alone and neither are you. I found out a short time ago that an old friend ended her life. I went through so many emotions but in the end its not “why?” that im left with but “im sorry”. Im sorry you felt like you couldnt do this anymore, after everything that you battled against, im sorry that you felt like you had no other choice. Im sorry I wasent there for you. For those reading this, I dont care if you are a stranger, please reach out. To me, to a friend, to a helpline, please keep fighting.

So, how will I soar? How am I setting myself up for success? I am turning to the things I know I love. I am crafting, I am reading, I am drinking as much tea as I want. I am turning to self care to get through this little bit so that I am strong and ready for the future. I ordered this beautiful gratitude journal that I started yesterday. Amazon under $10 Canadian https://www.amazon.ca/Good-Days-Start-Gratitude-Cultivate/dp/1976436184/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OR8AG8F4NE1C&keywords=gratitude+journal&qid=1567617001&s=gateway&sprefix=gratitude+%2Caps%2C221&sr=8-1

Morning gratitude work I hope will help the slump, will help to see the light if there is dark. There is so much light in the world, you just have to look. “Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness. It’s the spark that lights a fire of joy in your soul.” – Amy Collette

Gratitude in words will influence action, will light the path. This is my hope and I am excited to see where this goes. “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie

Being a magic maker is something I have always been. From feelings as a child that nature was speaking to me and I could hear it, I tried to tell all the children around me. Now an adult who just knows that it’s in me to bring out the magic. From little things I’ve been doing for my kids for years, little traditions that they will always remember. Making fairy houses, setting up for santa coming, tooth fairy promises, all ways we show the magic that’s out there. The Bento lunches, the big birthdays, the fresh flowers we pick and put around the house. The way we stop and admire the moon or the brightness of the colour of the moss we see. Magic is everywhere and can be shared. My son kids see and spread magic in ways that make me proud. Spread your magic, spread your light, if you can make someone feel special in little ways that also bring you joy, I say go for it.

Here’s to changes and making the most of the moments given to us.

Rambling

So much going on lately and yet so little. I always feel in transition and lately in feeling old. It’s weird and some days I’m super ok with it. Not today so much. I suffer from the same feeling that many women do, time is passing so quickly and I’m falling behind. Being a stay at home mom and homeschool mom has been my identity for years. A place I never considered when I was younger and now as I grow older and my kids are both in schools I’m a little lost. I look in the mirror and I’m not that fresh young woman I once was. I’m a strong woman, a good person, I know these things but today I feel less than. I feel old and not in a wise way but in a “how am I not more” kinda way. Where did the time go? How are my babies not babies anymore. Where did all this fat come from? Loving my body has been a hard thing since having my first child 14 years ago. It’s time to just say goodbye to that young woman who was thin as a rail and could eat anything. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to take care of my body. My knees ache, my skin sags, my eyes feel papery. Weird. Instead of hating on my weight I know all change comes from within me but getting started on that change is hard. I’m the kinda person that needs immediate results and weight loss is too slow for me and I give up. I can’t do much about aging and I’ve always been ok with that aspect but I can do something about making my body feel more comfortable as it ages. I can control if I live the next part of my life feeling sore and old or if I go into it with vigor and grace.Alright pity party over. Let’s talk plant based diet. My family has started eating more plant based meals, we aren’t making a full transition but even my 13 year old is seeing the difference in how he feels after eating plant based vs having meat and dairy. Right now we are living lentil curries. I had always done chick pea curries so lentils are a nice switch and really change the flavour and texture of the curry. I like rice but the rest of the family doesn’t so it’s been homemade naan bread or just straight curry. Mmmm. We’ve also been getting produce boxes every couple weeks and it’s made groceries easier.Thanks for stopping by. No promises I’ll keep blogging but I have all the ideas and sometimes sitting and getting them out feels good.

Bleach shirt DIY

So not your basic witch!

I’ve noticed an old trend coming back in style and knew I had to get in on it right away. Bleach shirts! After being given a design I loaded it into design space, cleaned it up, then cut it on vinyl using my Cricut Maker. You could certainly trace it and cut it out by hand. I used vinyl for my design but I’ve also heard of doing it with freezer paper (the stuff with wax on one side), doing it this way you then iron the wax side down onto your shirt. I used vinyl as I wanted to make sure there would be no runs. To weed the picture I left the pieces that I wanted to stay black. For this I used my new lightpad and it made weeding a ton easier! This lightpad was around $20 on Amazon.

Here it is before any weeding

Here it is after weeding

After weeding I put transfer tape over the design then stuck it down on a black t shirt. It took a bit of pressure to stick all the vinyl to the shirt and pull the transfer tape off but I just had to go slow and be patient.

Ready to bleach!

When was ready to start bleaching i put an old dollar store placemat between the shirt layers to prevent the bleach from going through, you could also use cardboard. For the bleach I added full bleach to a sprayer. Standing outside in a little sun I sprayed the image while close up then took a few steps back and sprayed again, to finish I took the sprayer off and flicked it towards the shirt. This created different sized splatter dots. It was fun to watch the shirt colour change before my eyes.

After spraying I left it in the sun for awhile to help bleach it out. I think half an hour would be a good idea. Then bring it in and rinse the bleach off in warm water. Remove the vinyl and …

Wala!

I love how this turned out and will be making a lot more in all kinds of different designs. If you try this I would love to see what you create.

Apple chips and other apple goodness

My apple tree is poppin’ right now so I have apple chips, baked apples, and applesauce on the go. Mmm. The house smells delicious while they cook, and its beautiful how the family slowly start coming towards the kitchen and gathering in anticipation as the sweet smell makes its way through the house. The ingredients are all simple stand bys and they are easy peasy to make.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lay parchment paper on cookie sheet, I made them once without the parchment paper and they stuck and were hard to get off. I used my mandolin to slice the apples very thinly, I have a small handheld one so I couldn’t get full chips. Lay them out in a single layer and sprinkle them with cinnamon. Adding a little sprinkle of brown sugar makes them taste like apple pie!

Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until they begin to curl. I prefer mine before they completely dry out and get crispy but you can experiment with your oven and tastes. I have no final pictures for you because after smelling these cook no one in your house can leave them alone the second they come out of the oven. They are delicious.

This summer I’ve started making the kids crepes, my pancakes always fail but my crepes are pretty awesome! I use a basic recipe found anywhere but then I’ve been adding deliciousness to them. The favourite right now is cubed apples on the stove on medium with a sprinkle of cinnamon. I cook them about 8 minutes or until the are soft then add 1/4 cup of real maple syrup to about 4 apples. Let it all warm up then put them inside and on top of the crepes for a delicious treat. I also add a tiny sprinkle of powdered sugar. They don’t look perfect, I’m not winning cooking awards, but I’m using up apples and my family is happy and fed.

For a bedtime snack I’ve been doing the same thing with less apples and only the cinnamon to keep the sugar down. The are warm and soft and a perfect little nighttime snack.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my apple post, I would love to hear how you use your harvest of apples!

Welcome back

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Hello out there!

It’s been too long but I’m back. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about writing again, about sharing the things out there that make my soul happy. My life is filled with crafting, parenting, and exploring the beautiful island where I live. So, here I am. Again. Ive got my positivity pants on and im ready to go. I’m an average crafter, wife, mother, and woman who sometimes feels overwhelmed by all the perfection out there that I cant quite live up to. But I try. Welcome. Thanks for stopping by.

It all started with a mozza stick….

A mozza stick and an idea. A knowledge that there are people out there just like me. Good people who love mozza sticks and extra cream in their tea. We know they are bad but they taste so good! So while munching a mozza stick and thinking about my upcoming body transformation, due to start in under a week, I decided it was time to blog again. Not solely about my kids or crafts but about being a regular girl who wants to be her best self. Sometimes we have this picture of who we are and then that gets rattled a little and we find that that person has been lost or perhaps never fully existed. It’s up to us to bring that person back to life, To become the “me” we want to be. So this is it, it’s time. Come join me on a journey of self rediscovery, highs and lows while I fight to become the best me I can while working to overcome all the insecurities an overweight, almost middle aged, homeschooling mom who never quite grew up has. 

A friend of mine who blogs at http://thepulseonline.blogspot.ca/?m=1 has been a wonderful guiding force in helping me create change. We started running last year, and it was not easy. We went slow and worked our way up until I was doing 5km without a break. This was huge for me! I would never have considered myself a runner but to watch my progress and how it made me feel was inspiring me to keep going. We had a goal of 3 5km races and we did them all. First the colour run, then the goddess run, finishing up with a foam run and obstacles. Amazing. I felt like a rockstar then it crashed down. I managed to injure myself with a stress fracture and plantar fasciitis and after months of pain and limping I gave up hard. All progress has been lost and I’ve gained weight and lost muscle. This experience has taught me so much, mostly the importance of new and supportive footwear, but also that I can do this. I really can. I can set a goal and reach it. It also proved to me the importance of exercise and how it changes ones mindset. 

I’m ready again. Let’s do this. Join me and tell me how you are making positive changes in your life to be the best you. 

In less than a week I start a 14 week transformation with a personal trainer. She’s given me a gym workout, cardio workout, and a meal plan. I’ve never done anything this hardcore before and I’m scared as hell but I know that if I work my butt off then I will literally work my butt off and I’m so ready. The trainer will support me and my friend Mariah from Pulse, and who pushed me to do this, is also doing it. We will be supporting each other and kicking ass together. What started with a mozza stick will either end that way or be the beginning of a more complete me. Thanks for joining my journey, let’s keep each other going. 

Burlap Picture frame earring hanger

Awhile ago I made an earring hanger using a frame from the thrift store and some net, I recently updated it with a fun printed burlap. You dont have to use a printed burlap, any old sack would do and I really like the way it looks and of course it functions well. Try a local feed store if you want to pick up some burlap for free or cheap. Here is my previous hanger:

go here to see

And the new one:

Im going to make a pillow for my bed with one side this burlap print as soon as I figure out how to sew with burlap.

Homeschooling week 2: The Moon

Homeschooling week two went incredibly well. It was very tiring with all the activities starting and just keeping on schedule. We did the moon. Wow, I learned a lot of things. I know that the large flat spots are called Maria- or seas. I learned the names of all the phases of the moon, I learned it would take 130 days to get to the moon by car, I learned more this past week about the moon then I have ever known. I also learned a little more about my Sun and how he and we work. Lets just say he is incredible. I can say that, I’m his mom. Really, he had the phases, orbit, and everything else down right away, on the last day I was still referring to my flip book. I feel so lucky to be doing this, and to be his mom.

Every morning, and a few times a day, we listened to this song to get us in the mood, or to help change things up. Moving from one activity or subject to the next. For a brain break, if you will. http://youtu.be/HkvlrWpsnuQ . I keep finding my self whistling it.

We kept a loose schedule as new activities such as soccer, hip hop and swimming started this week, as well as classes for Little Star. The mornings included help with breakfast (moon themed with “eclipse eggs” and “crater ‘cakes”), journal time, swimming, nature walks and class time.

Here is a rough rundown of what we did. I am going to try to record everyday atleast some of what we do so I have it to look back on. Our days include so much more with all the little talks we have about everything, the talks we tie into the subjects we are working on, daily interactions. This gives you and I little idea of what we get done, there is actually a little missing as we touched on orbit a lot and did some charts and tables and a few online math games.

Sun created this moon chart for recording the moon everynight for a week. He started on monday, ended sunday, but has still been watching it every night since. Last night was the Harvest Full moon and international Observe the Moon Day. Fun.

Here is our crater experiment, flour on a pizza pan and marbles. Before we did it we talked about what we thought would happen and after we talked about how the different speeds and sizes of the marbles made a difference in what the crater looked like. We watched a video of an asteroid hitting the moon earlier this year, so fascinating.

Big craters make cones in the middle and spread moon dust. I was happy that Little Star was out with daddy for this experiment, we could really take our time and discuss the results.

We talked about orbit and did a sun, moon, earth eclipse experiment outside using our bodies and the sun. I drew a cresent moon and asked Sun to write adjectives about the moon inside the moon. This is after talking about verbs, adjectives, and nouns. Sun did different space related worksheets I found mostly on Enchanted Learning, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
We played with base ten blocks to do time it would take different vehicles to get to the moon, read moon books (Papa Please get the moon for me by Eric Carle is our favourite moon book) and just went moon crazy! The main writing project for the week was “If I lived on the moon” A short paragraph and a picture. Sun started on monday with a rough copy and worked on it a little everyday with a good copy done on Friday and instead of a picture he used Lego to build his space car.

The Phases of the moon book and my moon book I found on this site http://adayinbcasfirstgrade.blogspot.ca/2013/01/blast-off-to-moon.html
My Sun loved cutting the books out himself and using the stapler to put them together. The simple things. My star loved colouring them. They are free printouts and I recommend them for at least up to grade 2, maybe 3.

We used black construction paper, folded lengthwise, then the top piece cut into 8 “doors” to make a flip book. With white crayon we drew the phases in then wrote the name inside.

A family friend has offered to take Sun every week for a gardening (when applicable), and woodwork. This week they designed and built a hat hanger. We are very lucky to have these people helping round out our Suns education and give him different experiences.

Our week ended with a visit from a friend we havent seen in awhile who is also homeschooling. They played and socialized 😉 then got down to business… Oreo cookie phases of the moon! Taking the tops off of 8 cookies each the kids snacked and cut.

I think this was the kids’ second time having Oreos so this was a huge treat and a great learning tool. The kids used butter knives to cut the shapes out. Sun did his without having to ask what the shapes looked like. I am confident he learned as much, if not more then me, this week about the moon. More importantly we learned about each other, and ourselves. Thanks for taking the time to join our journey, please check back again and come follow on pinterest where you can get a sneak peak at some of the activities we will be doing as I start pinning things like crazy!

A thoughtful spot bean house update

Gardening, something I aspire to be better at and try for every year. Most years my flowers shrivel and our veggies die after producing small, inedible crops. This year things are going to be different. This year we are going to eat our veggies and my flowers are large and strong. Im paying attention. Im fertilizing and watering. We have veggie beds grown from seeds, blueberries, raspberries and a wonderful bean house.

After seeing pictures of other peoples bean tubes and tee pees I knew I wanted a living playhouse for my Sun and Star. My brother in law has done some landscaping and was staying with us so I brought him in on the project. I showed him a few pictures and told him about the size I wanted. I suggested we pick up some sort of pole to support veggies but he had the brilliant idea of using branches from a tree in our yard. I dont know what kind of tree it is but it has fuzzy branches that were over grown and soft to cut. I dug a 3′ circle in our over grown “garden”. The soil in that area was worked at one time and wasent to hard to work in. My brother in law Jordan, placed the branches around my circle and added some more branches for support. The tee pee poles are approximately 4′. We used a twine to wind around the branches for both support and for the beans to climb up. Inside he used stones from our garden to create a bench, a terrific spot to sit and read a book.

My Star played music for us and sang every song in her repertoire.

My Sun practiced his climbing

He did some digging too.

Beginning to come together!

Climbing and Posing

My Sun and Star. My Loves.

Our Bean house waiting to be planted. We selected organic beans that can be eaten straight off the plant. Sounds like it takes 60-70 days to be full grown which will take us to around the beginning of august. We planted the seeds about 5cmm apart to get very full, thick walls for the house. I will make sure to keep you all posted on the progression of growth. This is something I hope we cant plant around every year and maybe extend it a little, it would be very neat to have a tunnel coming out the back! Let me know what you think and share pictures of your own bean houses, I would love to see them! Remember….If I can plant, craft, cook and sew… so can you!

UPDATE

our house has been growing over the summer, first slowly and now it’s filled in with green. Here it is one month ago

Now it looks like this

Little spots are magical

The kids squealed in delight over the size of the gigantic beans hanging down all over the house and we brought in large haul for dinner. This project will be copied next year and believe we will add a tunnel. Thanks for joining, I would love to see pictures of your bean house or pole bean ideas