Urban Organica

pilipino star lanterns

I so want to give you all a nice tutorial with easily-found materials, but time is quite full right now...but this is a "real-deal," as Free likes to say, "just how we do it at Lola's house" kinda tutorial.  We use bamboo kits, that I promise I'll make available, just not yet...You can make these with thin dowels from the hard ware store, or long strips of balsa if you keep the lanterns small.  Regular old branches make the sweetest ones of all.  Okee...  For each one you need 20 sticks, 5 short sticks of equal length, bitty rubberbands, a glue gun, twisty ties,white glue + something to cover it, like tissue, cellophane, plastic or fabric. 

Using the rubberbands, wrap the long sticks in pairs on one side, leaving 4 single.

 

Lay out 2 pairs like this.

Angle them to make a "v-heart," weaving the sticks like this.

 

Add a single stick across, also weaving it & secureends with rubberbands.  "See!"

Secure crossings ("railroad crossings, as Free says...notice his Raiders shirt.  I never thought I'd have a Raiders fan...but there he is, sweet as can be) with twisty ties.  We used silver, to reflect the light.

 

Put two stars together & adjust them so everything lines up.  Attach the points of both stars with rubberbands.

Use a glue gun to put in cross bars at the crossings.  Make sure to make a mess.

 

Look at that beautiful photo of my mom's hand.  Something for my wall, I think...

Now go elementary-school-style with the white glue & brushes.  We just let them do whatever they want here...

I put a little "bridge" of popsicle sticks in so I could lay an LED tea light, & left the back open. 

 

They cover long branches with wired garlands & hand them with monofilament.  In the Philippines, people use all manner of things to light these up, from string lights to projectors.  We tend to just make them really shimmery...  And finish it all up with a night parade in the city...

Here they are.  The boys love nothing more than to swing these things around to see if I can possibly - impossibly - catch a picture.  But here they are.  Love made visible.

advent making with toddlers

 

Aloha Crafty-Crows!  It's always nice to have you drop in. :)  My sweet D & our big guy took a wee business + football trip to Denver for a few days.  How nice to leave the internet off, the magazines closed & to get to know my little guys without their all-important role models around.  I realized I have no idea what they like - some of it was a huge revelation to me.  There was lots of direction-giving with ideas to fill the tree for Daddy.  Hot apple juice with cinnamon sticks.  Chocolate mate tea with candy cane stirs...      

 

Pimping out our sycamore pods & pine cones with glitter, mounting our sea-shell collection, adding a few ribbon-wreaths here & there...

Help with the fire..."sticks for the fire, sticks for the fire, we're gonna get some sticks for the fire..."

Putting up a few things we're too big for...(sniff**) 

Keeping the maple syrup, cinnamon & tea out all 100 hours & eating our meals on the kid's counter & kitchen floor with fancy napkins...
 
 

And who knew that these stuffies from the neighbor that I 'd wanted to recycle were actually Rudolph & Winter Pooh? 

And that my boyish-of-boys, who promptly removed all play-silks, waldorf dolls & kitchens from their playspace in favor of football game-passes & wristbands, are really all about dressing up their animals?(Thrifted red sweater + an old sock...)  They knew exactly what they needed & they care for them with the most tender little papa gestures.

 
 And eachother...so sweet to see my littlest with eachother.  Like this...

Monday morning in their jammies, they wandered into my closet.  Real (1 1/2), with a very concerned expression, "Let's go get Daddy NOW."  Free (4) "YOu miss Daddy & Brother? Yeah?  Let's hug about it!"  Real throws himself into his brother with the giantest of hugs.  Free goes, "Ahh...hahhh."  While patting his brother on the back.  

Making tiny clothes, eating sweets, covering my home in red glitter while watching spontaneous bursts of love & affection.   Bliss.

kid-made advent calendar

 

The kids had been asking & asking when we'd get an Advent calendar for weeks, but that little flu from Thanksgiving really knocked me out.  Even this morning they had to force me out of bed at 11.  But it's been off-and-on, & yesterday we had a nice round of Christmas crafting. I love singing carols with the kids from The Christmas Star, a Waldorf song-book & cd by Mary Thienes-Schuneman.  Especially "It's Advent TIme," to gently remind them that we have a whole month to celebrate & prepare (it doesn't all get done at once!) & "Children Go Where I Send Thee," a traditional African-American song.  It requires thinking ahead to count backwards & remember each verse, so it's a rhythmical challenge we all enjoy & look forward to each year.  For the first time I read the introduction essays at the beginning of this book & was struck by a few things - this is the first time in history that we don't sing as we work.  And this is also the first time that so much work is out of hand, literally.  In my own home I'm present to how difficult it is to get things done without music, & the difference it makes to celebrate as we go along.  Holiday or not.

So it's good, I think, that they pushed this little project through.  It was time to begin counting down, to mark the moments, to call in all of our fairy-angels with the beginnings of a gratitude-festival they won't be able to resist.  

They picked the fabrics from my stash, 5 fat-quarters & a bit of green batting made from recycled soda bottles.  We pick it up in the summer from Keepsake.  I think it's very affordable for projects that don't require the pure stuff.  We laid out the background fabric & folded four lengths of the remaining fabric to see what size strips they'd like for the pockets.  Then we cut those strips + an inch all around.  My big guy then proceeded to use my favorite safety pins - masking tape - to fold down the upper edge of each strip.  Then he surprised me with running them all through the machine on his own.  I hadn't realized he was paying such attention - he even rewound the bobbin at one point!  Shame on me for assuming their interest was a boy + cause & effect love of the pedal.  The kids actually love to sew.

I just love that curved edge on the bottom.  Yes, that's floss.  Cute + fruit-flavoured, they love it.

I couldn't be more in love with this thing.

Just the kind of magic kids love - the back seams accidently matched up perfectly.

fall fairy skirt + scarf tutorials

 

sometimes it's thanksgiving & a few days before, we hold a sewing workshop. maybe a mama comes over, having been at the e.r. the night before, & gets my whole family totally sick.  sometimes.  and so, sometimes everyone gets better, 'cept me & the wee, & we send them all off for a holiday at grandma's.  and we spend a blissful/brutal 2 1/2 days clearing out rooms, puddling around, & making stuff, in between episodes of sick stuff.  sometimes.  and we all live happily ever after.  

this post is dedicated to my sweetheart, who i am so very grateful for.

These projects can be done by any 10 year-old who knows their way around a sewing machine, in under an hour, for FREE.  Yup.  Free.  You just have to have some elastic thread on hand, & be willing to cut up your clothes.  If not, you can pick up sweaters, tweed pants & pretty dresses at any thrift store for under $5 each.  The fairy skirt doesn't require a machine. 

Autumn Fairy Skirt Tutorial

Gather:

1 dress or shirt in Fall colors, fabric shears, elastic thread, embroidery needle, safety pin

Do:

1.) Cut off the bottom 12"-15" of a dress or shirt.  Linen, cotton, jersey, double gauze.  It all works here.

2.) Take that tube & flip it's hem upside-down, so that it's on top.  Notice that you'll use the hem as a "casing" for elastic thread.

3.) Cut out a bunch of free-form oak leaves in different sizes, making sure to leave at least 1" of hem-casing at the top of each leaf.

4.) Double thread the elastic through an embroidery needle.  Knot the ends around a safety pin to prevent the elastic from slipping through.  Thread together your oak leaves, squishing them together as you go.  For a larger child or more interesting skirt, use different fabrics.  The one above uses a woven-cotton dress, it's lining, & 2 leaves from a thin corduroy dress.  

5.) Fit to child by wrapping the strung leaves around waist.  Make sure there's both enough leaves to get that ruched top & enough "give" to pull off & on.  Remove safety pin & knot elastic ends closed.  Trim of extra elastic & pull knot through casing to hide.  Don't wash! 

 

 

Tweeds + Stripes Scarf

Gather:

1 wool or cotton sweater (felting not required), 1 pair tweed pants, fabric shears, sewing machine

Do:

1.) Cut out a 7"-wide tube from the body of sweater.  Set aside bottom ribbing & rest of sweater for another project.  Cut across the width of tube on one side, so that it becomes a long strip.

2.) Cut out a 7"-wide, leg-long strip from the pants.  

3.) Lay out tweed strip, right-side up.  Lay sweater strip over it, right-side down.  Trim both to match lengths.  

4.) Starting at one end, sew together around outside, using a straight-stitch & 1/4" seam allowance.  Sweater may stretch a bit, so just sew other end where the two fabrics meet & trim afterwards.   Leave starting end open.  Turn right-side-out.

5.) Tuck in end.  Stitch around edge of entire scarf.  It will look cleaner if you sew with the tweed-side up.  There you go...Cozy!

my lil' friend enzo flossing his winter gear 

measuring the last harvest

Children & Gardens :: A Curriculum in:

Joy.  Miracles. Weather.  Life Cycles.  Seasons.  Anatomony.  Botanical Illustration.  Beneficial Relationships.  Pests.  Earth Magic.  Stewardship.  Measuring.  Counting.  Multiplying.  Dividing.  Cooking. Joy.  Subtraction.  Probability.  Physical Education.  Basic Needs Generation.  Color Theory.  Applied Labor.  Inquiry.  Scientific Hypothesis.  Beauty.  Goodness.  Truth.  Right Livelihood.  Sustainability.  Crisis.  Neglect.  New Beginnings.  Patience.  Power.  Humility.

 

 

 
 
 
 Did I say Joy?  

I only wish for a green thumb.  My Winter greens grow all year long, regardless of my input.  Thank goodness for Lolas & second homes.  A place where they can plant from seed & seedling, a place to visit & observe, care & remember, & finally, to harvest & measure.  

 It may not be my garden, but I have a few favorite gardening books...

Autumn Nature Activities for Children (And Winter, Spring & Fall)

Hollyhocks & Honeybees

Roots Shoot Buckets & Boots

Sun Flower Houses

You Grow Girl   

home tour :: the a store

 

our room - clean, clean, clean

On our recent trip to Albuquerque, our wonderful hosts surprised D & I by putting us up in the guest cottage of their dear friend (& now ours), Hans.  As it turned out, he was a long-time buyer for Macy's in San Francisco, & now owns the best design stop in town, The A Store.  While we were there, he went above & beyond letting us just crash to really giving us choice bites of the "Land of Enchantment."  (What a prince you are, Hans!!)  He knew exactly where to send us for organic eats, took us on an architectural tour of the town, allowed me to gather up some ideas from his own home, then sent us home with a small stack of his famous "A" logo t-shirts.  I did have to get a couple of things at his place - Lucinda Scala Quinn's book, MAD HUNGRY - Feeding Men & Boys, & a few yards of oil cloth.  A peek, here...

color, everywhere

hang chilies, pots, knives...wooden doors, glass + reed cloth

hans-made mexican galvanized metal cabinets

low wall + painting, grass mural + large plants

copper mesh, copper tubing for flowered light fixtures

corrugated metal on the horizontal, bird mobile...that cute guy right there


closet doors on tracks + branch butler

there he is...

Thank you Hans!  XOXOXO!

artists' wedding

 

"In the Field, Under the Tree"

So went the invitation, slipped into an odd envelope along with a strip of silly pictures from a photobooth.  The effect was playful, casual, & optimistically romantic.  For my fellow Fishies, I thought you'd enjoy this peek at this incredible wedding.  Rare is the place so overwhelmingly beautiful that I put down my camera altogether.  These are the images I took the first half-hour, after which I was swept away in a sensory bath of Watermelon-colored mountains, corn, cheese & chili-based appetizers, hand-tinned kitchen cabinets, nook-after-nook of hidden gardens, insanely cozy rooms with foot-thick window ledges, & most impressively a community of decades-close New Mexican artists dancing to Diana Ross & our beloved Michael.  

At night's end D & I parked on a wooden swing & wondered at the silence of Corrales, a high-altitude valley outside of Albuquerque.  We sat & discussed the property, 2-acres of love & hand-made vignettes.  We watched these dance-floor friends as they held hands, twirled, laughed, marched & jived, trading children, spouses & wine glasses.  We couldn't help but cry at the happiness they all felt, their joy at a grown child's wedding, & the intimacy that had come from years & years of knowing each other.  Their children were all there, clearly still so close with their parents.  We both noted the possibility for ourselves - staying connected to those we love, living & creating alongside a common tribe.  And at the reality of living one's life as an artist - not like it's a part of you, but as someone who's fully integrated that part of themselves with every other piece of themselves.  Creating, constantly & totally so that every gesture is a self-expression.

I'm not sure what I'm more inspired by - the life, the homes, the scenery, the friendships or the food.  

7 bloggers + 7 slr's + lotsa kids

me. amy. sarah. molly. tricia.  tara.      susan.

photo by finn, from tara.mama.wendy

the revolutionaries will be homeschooled

Wednesday, midday.  Moms, jumping off a laddered platform & careening into sand piles. (Zipline) Homemade apple-cinnamon angel cake +  gluten-free pumpkin chocolate cookies.  Mostly unsupervised hammers.  Nails, 2-by-4's. Jars of paint.  (Red legs, paint in baby hair)  Beeswax candles in walnut shells.  Squirrel-bonking. (don't ask) Treasure pouches.  Handmade clothes.  A pet camera residing 'round every neck.  Kids that all know how to use said cameras.  Our kind of fun.  Our kind of friends.

Conversations that looked like this:

7 year-old on left swing: So have you never even seen a movie?

7 year-old on right swing: I have seen parts of movie.

7 years-olds swing into each other: "Ouch!!" Laughing

I love how homeschoolers tend to listen to learn, not listen to agree or disagree.  They get the information & they just be with it.  Now they know.

Oh, & the blogs: 

amy :: diary of a domestic animal

sarah :: urban. prairie. forest.

molly :: a foothill home companion

 tricia :: wonderfarm

tara :: tara.mama.wendy

susan :: in the kitchen

Thank you for a wonderful afternoon, sweet families.

refashion :: boy's shorts

It's still 90' around here, & the little guys keep growing, so we've taken to shorts-making this week.  They're going to grow out of these things by Winter, so there's just no reason to waste Earth's resources for new play pants.  In a triple-win-win-win, our oldest boy has been donating his pants to his brothers, who are SOOO excited to have "new" shorts to wear that used to belong to their Kuya.  (Older brother)  

The fastest route from pants to 2 pairs of shorts?  For us, that means cutting off the bottoms & doing a decorative stitch.  I'm not fussy, my parents were hippies (can't you tell?  my brothers & i are named maya, elrik & franz)...10 minutes.

For the littlest guy we've taken the bottom 10 inches off the legs & traced his shorts over them to make little shorts & put in elastic at the top.  This takes all of 20 minutes.  Getting him to stand still enough for a change of pants?  1 hour, 12 minutes, with some distractions in the middle.

kayaks! #1 + (maine)

We took a drive up to rain, I mean, Maine, on my birthday, because I've always wanted to see the islands, the lighthouses & the beaches.  We missed all that, as it was pouring down by the buckets, & the very thing I love about NH - that the freeways & towns are hidden from each other by large tracks of forest - is the same thing that had Maine looking like one long highway.  We went for it, though, & drove a full 6 hours up to see our girl Rhea at Alewives.  What a sweetheart she is.  

We're laughing because she's featuring her new engagement ring in the picture.  I suppose that's not quite fair though, so...

But seriously, do you know Alewives?  Or their blog?  I'm getting ready to use thier free vinyl shopper pattern, on the homepage.  They have amazing, modern fabrics & great crafting books.  They sell online & I think their selection is unique, worth the 6-hour drive in the rain.  We're making it an annual party.

We also stopped in Portland at Maples for organic gelato.  Having just read Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, we also stopped in at their production facility for a little tour action.  We called & called, but there was no answer, so we stopped by.  A distraught 20 year-old with headphones on answered the door, saying we weren't supposed to be there.  She let us peek in & I thought she was pretty nice, considering she was at exactly the point in one's life where there's not much compassion for an ecstatic, wet homeschooling family of 5 from California who just drove forever to peek in.    Really I could say she was a party-pooper, but we weren't supposed to be there.  You gotta take chances, though!  Maple's retail shop is very nice & their business model is impressive.  It would do really well out here.  Portland feels like Berkeley to me, D says it's more like an East Coast Seattle.  He's right.

Halfway there D saw a bunch of whitewater kayakers & we pulled off the road to get as drenched as possible & have a looksee.  In crazy  rapids, a group of 12 year-olds were zipping up & down the river & we were hooked. 

This was to be the year of the kayak.

There's nothing like laughing & pointing with your freezing cold children in a soaking wet sweatshirt at the edge of a river in the pouring rain & looking up at your husband's awed face.  It seemed totally ridiculous & completely right to have all that sensory input at once & to feel so alive, but As a Family.  All Together.  I think this was a Friday, if I remember correctly.  This is why we chase freedom, are life learners & home-based entrepreneurs.  So we can find ourselves in a surprise moment, in a surprising place, breathing clean air & seeing something new to us.  So we can have enough time to notice when something "Clicks."

"look, mom! a rootbeer river!"

rocks, live water, pine needles, moss: if i could just stand in this spot for the rest of my life i'd be happy