Bark Boats

With the delicious weather we have been having, the girls and I were inspired to make these little bark boats.

Quick to make and fun to play with!

To create you will need

Bark

Corks (with a long cold winter behind me, it seems I had plenty of these around ; )

Glue Gun

Fishing line

Eye hook

 Thumb tack

Twig

Fabric for your sail

 ~ To begin ~

Gather your bark from a no longer living tree.

Glue your corks together and add your eye hook.

Cut and glue your sail to your twig.

Glue your bark to the corks.

Poke a hole in your bark and glue in your sail.

Cut a long piece of fishing line and tie it on to your eye hook.

 Tie the other end to a thumbtack and attach to a single cork.

Wrap the line around your cork to keep it from getting all tangled.

Head to the water...

.

and set sail!!

Here's to spring & sunshine!

Be Well

~ Shanti ~

Flower Spirits for Springtime!!

In celebration of Springtime, I decided to make a trio of flower spirits to watch over our nature table!

First I did a google search for "flower templates"...there are 100s of templates out there...find the one that you like the best and cut the pattern out onto 2 pieces of felt.

Embellish to your hearts delight...sew the sides together, leaving a hole at the top for the head,

(and you know I'm a sucker for the blanket stitch...just makes your end project look super neat),

At this point if you want to stuff your flowers a bit, go for it...I used a bit of wool roving as stuffing...just to make them a bit heartier!

Take a pipe cleaner and fold it in half...glue a wooden bead to the top...add some roving hair...

(I find using a glue gun works best for this...holds well and dries super fast)

Add a grassy crown...leafy crown...again...be creative...

some string to hang and here you go!!!

A sweet little flower spirit to welcome Spring!!

Hang them in your windows...over your nature table, or in the trees!!

Off to the garden!!

xo maureen

ps...Next Monday we're going to be starting a special feature on our blog...it's going to be called

"All Spunk...No Junk"

We'll be featuring special guest bloggers and having a weekly link up party on our blog...hope you

can join in!!!

Solar Dyed Silks

I was recently given some lovely white playsilks and it got me thinking... natural dyes... hmmm... what colors we could create? 

 I researched the possibilities and choose the simplest ways I could find. 

Here is what we came up with...

 ~ Sunshine yellow ~

 and lilac purple ~ perfect spring colors!

Here’s what you’ll need

For Yellow....

3/4 cup of turmeric powder

Large pot 

Water

White Playsilk

Jar

Sun

In the process of my research I found that Turmeric is a natural direct dye  and does not need any fixative at all.  Good stuff!  I also learned that apparently this is one of the ways the monks in Tibet dye their  beautiful yellow  robes.

First fill your dye pot half full of water and bring this to a boil.

Add the turmeric powder and continue boiling for an hour.

Pour your tumeric concoction into a jar and add your silk scarf. 

Place in the sun.

Let the solar rays do their work (for about one hot day)

Rinse the scarf until the water runs clear.

Dry and enjoy!

For Purple...

1/2 a purple cabbage 

1/2 cup White Vinegar (your fixative for your purple dye)

Water

Large pot 

White playsilk

Knife

Cutting board

Sun

Chop the cabbage.

Add the vinegar to the cabbage and add enough water to cover the cabbage.

Bring the pot to a boil, and then turn down the heat to simmer it until the cabbage starts losing its color. 

When the cabbage has lost most of its color strain it.... keeping the water.

Place your cabbage water and silk scarf into a jar and place  in the sun.

Wait patiently as magic happens.

Rinse, dry and...

put into the hands of little people ready to play!

In the spirit of sunshine and Lilacs
~ Shanti ~




PS.  Don't forget to enter our giveaway...it's running all week long...the prize is a beautiful hand felted Toadstool purse.  Enter HERE and leave us a comment with a way of contacting you in case you're the winner! 

Wooden Spoon Garden Stakes

With the fabulous season of gardening upon us we decided to create some sweet garden stakes!

This is a very quick, inexpensive way to mark the tender beauties growing for you.

To create you will need 

Wooden spoons

Pencil

Watercolor pencil crayons

A wood burner

Outdoor modpodge or a sealant of any kind

Begin by drawing your plant pictures and words on your spoons.

Next, take your wood burning tool and trace over your picture and words. 

(With close supervision it seems to be easy and safe for little people (sevenish and up)

Color them in with your watercolors... 

Put a sealant over your spoons

and there you go!

Unique garden stakes that will always remind you of your kiddies.

Thinking these would make a great gift for grandparents!

After admiring their colorful handiwork we decided to give them a home.

First up was planting our sweet peas...

 giving them a good drink...

and marking our new babies!

Now they smile up at us, reminding us of the beautiful bounty soon to fill our table and bellies.

Celebrating the goodness of gardens

~ Shanti ~

PS.  Don't forget to enter our giveaway...it's running all week long...the prize is a beautiful hand felted Toadstool purse.  Enter HERE and leave us a comment with a way of contacting you in case you're the winner! 

Pretty Patchwork Vase....

Wanna make one???  Here you go...

Now a good friend of mine just gave me some great advice...she said, "don't go waitin' around for some man to buy you flowers...BUY YOUR OWN DAMN FLOWERS!!!"

Go on...you derserve it!

(and now that you have a pretty vase...you can totally justify it!!)

xoxoxox maureen

PS.  Don't forget to enter our giveaway...it's running all week long...the prize is a beautiful hand felted Toadstool purse.  Enter HERE and leave us a comment with a way of contacting you in case you're the winner!