A Place Like This......

A Felting Party

While we were on summer vacation this year we had the most glorious weather. The last day of our vacation brought some very much needed rain and the inspiration along with it to craft till our hearts desired. My little heart was desiring to learn how to felt and good friend Lotta made sure this happened.

Calling her friend Lille-bit, who is a sheep farmer and felter, we gathered all of us, friends and family, to felt some stones and later made a piece of felted cloth. Today I thought I would give you a little look into our afternoon of felting fun.

First we learned about different types of wool from different types of sheep.

Our goal was to make stones which looked like this.

All that was needed was to pick out a stone and choose our favorite roving.

I loved this stone because it was so flat and could fit in my suitcase without feeling like I was carrying a stone. ;)

Take a variety of roving and bundle up the rock.

Dip it in hot soapy water and...

rub, rub, rub.

Here are the two stones that I made.

Along with felting we had many crafting kitties. This one was my favorite. He reminded me of another black and white crafting cat.

These stones were very simple to make and a perfect craft to do with children. It is messy but if you plan correctly by putting down plastic clothes, and plenty of towels it really isn't that messy at all. This was so much fun. Thank you Lotta for organizing a crafternoon.

Wandering Wednesday

Here I sit with my feet dangling over the pool, the scent of flowers wafting through the air, the sound of bees humming around, bird song, a stack of books,my thought journal, a pen, and of course the cat.

 

  
  

The last three weeks have been crazy times with the children. Moving one child twice in one week, starting 6th grade with another, packing and moving yet another child to college.

I hereby declare today "Mommy Day". I will sit and linger awhile.

Where are you feet walking? Please join us over at Gardenmama's to see where and how a variety of friends are wandering. 

Learning is a Treasure

~ Learning is a treasure that will follow it's owner everywhere~ Chinese proverb

 

Everything was ready to welcome the class of 2014. "Welcome to Vande!" everyone yelled as our car approached the unloading area. Students in green shirts rushed to the car and immediately started unloading every box from the back of our car.

And where is all of this stuff going to? Why here.........

Mimi's new room-mate from Nanjing China. Her name is Tien-weh.

And with that the young Mimi went off to meet new friends, learn a bit, and be inspired. Good Luck Mimi. Love every moment. We promise to text incessantly, call, and write snail mail with drawings on the envelopes. ;)

   
 

Wandering Wednesday

Today I stand amid a lifetime packed into boxes. A journey beginning.....

We knew that after graduation that this moment would come,....... but it always comes too soon.  

So with your life in boxes, and a good amount of love and attention over the last 18 years, it's time to send you on your way.  We are heading to Nashville to see our sweet Mimi off to college.

But there's one thing we haven't discussed yet and that's the attachment I've formed over the last 8 years to this guy.......yep .....your cello we so lovingly refer to as "Grayson". If he misses me, just call and I'll be there to lug him around in a second.....just like the good ol'days. But for now, he's all yours. Good luck sweet Mimi. We will all miss you but look forward to all the great new things to come.

  
  (Please join all of the friends over at gardenmama's to see where we are wandering to.

Living in the Moment

I find so much of my time is spent either trying to manage the moment or looking to the calendar schedule for the moments to come. Along with this comes the internal dialog of "living in the moment", but feeling like a complete failure because I am constantly thinking about every moment except the present one I'm in.

If I lived in the moment what would that look and feel like? Would I really have no sense of the future? Would the past stay in the history section of my very current life?

This summer , I received the answers to all of these questions, coming in a most unexpected package, "living on a farm."

Though we were on vacation and not managing "the farm", we quickly started participating in farming activities. "O" has discovered that along with being an animator and inventor, he wants to have a farm when he grows up.

Everyday at 7 AM, I would hear the young boy's feet running down the steps towards the horse barn. Moments later, after shoes had been hurriedly put on, the barn door would be closed with a robust slam, you know, so he could keep the flies out. :)

And with this, daily life on the farm had begun. There were horses to greet, a dog to throw a stick for, and a cat to be cuddled. After that, there were horse riders and their children to give a howdie to. Next on the agenda of farm living was helping with a variety of projects from putting up an electric fence and learning how to manage it so you didn't get shocked, watching hay being cut, bailed and dried, getting honey from the bees and then extracting the  honey from the comb. All of this was interspersed with viking stick fighting, better known as clash of the tree limbs, fort building in the forest, and on the occasional rainy moment, building forts out of hay bales in the hay loft.

A peaceful din took over our lives for three short weeks. Nothing was more important than the moment and task at hand. There wasn't a "hurry up and get this done to move onto the next thing" attitude. With 22 hours of daylight, there was time for everything. A balanced, peaceful look at life. Now that I know what living in the moment looks and feels like, it is so much easier to place it into our life here in the neighborhood.

What moment are you living in?

Wandering Wednesday: Finally Forgiven

~Here I stand in 105 degree weather with Keene's on my feet. After leaving my little feline friend for three weeks, it has taken almost as long to forgive me. Each time he sees my feet he declares his unhappiness upon them. Now ,.....it is clear that I am finally forgiven.~

Please join us over at Gardenmama for a little Wednesday Wanderings.
  

With Much Gratitude

I have to stop a moment and thank two wonderful women for the attention they have given this little blog. Earlier in the summer Perches in the Soul awarded A Place Like This a beautiful blogger award and then Marcia from Child in Harmony graciously gave "The Versatile Blogger" award last week.

This is how it works: I need to tell 7 things you might not know about me.

1. I love to eat burnt hot dogs.
2. I can yodel.
3. I love to sing rounds with family and friends.
4. I sit and drink coffee with friends often.
5. I will knit anywhere.
6. I eat refridgerated choclate frosting. It's sort of like fudge. ;)
7. My favorite flower is the dahlia.
8. I love to take saunas.

Next in the awarding ceremony is to name 15 blogs that I want to pass the award on to. These are some of my favorite daily reads. This is the hardest part for me because I read so many wonderful and creative blogs.

So here we go:

• Shivaya Naturals
• Down in the Meadow
• Gardenmama
• Elemental
• So Cute it Hurts
• Block a Day
• Earth Mama
• The Yellow Door Paperie
• 5 Orange Potatoes
• Farmama
• Which Name?
• Lovely World
• A Journey to a Simple Happy Life
• So Wabi Sabi
• Which Name?
• Adirondack Mama
• Swedish House
• Natural Suburbia
• Gypsy Forest

Have I left anyone out? I absolutely have. In addition to these great blogs, I've written for the last three issues of Rhythm of the Home. Please make sure you head over there for some wonderful creative ideas and moments to share with your families.

Thank you so very much again for these truly lovely awards. I'm so honored and completely moved by your thoughtfulness. Be well and have a great day.

Stone or Sand

We absolutely took advantage of the fact that we were living on an island this summer. This means that we are always within minutes from the beach. On Gotland we have three beach choices: The first is a stone beach, the second is a sand beach and then there are those lovely combinations of stone and sand.

 

One of our favorite daily trips was to Kappellshamn on the North West coast of the island. After seeing the walls of Visby, little "O" was on a mission, and that was to build a great stone wall. So you see, we didn't really have a choice. We had to go to a beach with stone and sand.

The water was a comfortable 70 degrees which is a little cooler than we are use to but after the inital slow moving walk in, we adjusted wonderfully.

 

 

From my perspective there were some very productive moments going on. Here was "O" diving for stones and then over to the right were a gaggle of happy children trying to catch their lunch.

 

One of the big traditions of Swedish beach life is bringing the small net to the sea to catch the small little herrings which swim between ones feet.

At the end of the day we had one partial sand covered stone wall and happy but hungry fishing children.

{This Moment}

{This Moment} A friday tradition. A single moment you want to hold onto forever. A photo without words.

Sneakers Soup

While we were on vacation, our friend Nicce made a family favorite called sneakers soup. I knew the moment I saw this being put together that I had to share it with you. A combination of chocolate,dulce de leche, vanilla ice cream, peanuts, and grated nougat make for something which tastes absolutely heavenly.

The first step is the simple but long process of making dulce de leche. After this step is completed, the dessert comes together very quickly and you will become a famous chef in your own kitchen. The only disclaimer I have is that you will want this dessert often but like Nicce says, he makes it once a summer as a special treat.

Recipe for Sneakers Soup

Ingredients:

• One can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 to 3 large milk chocolate bars
• vanilla ice cream
• chopped peanuts
• nougat

1. Make your dulce de leche from one can of sweetened condensed milk. This can take up to 4 hours so plan ahead.
2. In a double boiler or in a pan, stirring constantly, melt your milk chocolate.

 

3.  After melting your chocolate place it in the bottom of your serving dishes.

 

4. Quickly stir and re-heat if necessary your dulce de leche. If it's too thick, thin it with a little  milk.

 

5.  Quickly swirl your dulce de leche over the chocolate in your serving dishes.

 

 

 

6.   Sprinkle some peanuts over the chocolate and dulce de leche.

7. Take a serving spoon and place one spoonful of vanilla ice cream on top of the chocolate,leche,and peanut combo.

   

  8.    To top it all off, grate nougat over everything.

Eagerly awaiting outside the kitchen door was the ever famous Diesel. He's a truffle hunting dog who has a very sweet and large personality. He has completely stolen my heart.

   
 

Why do we call it sneakers soup? In Swedish the way they pronounce snickers is sneakers. I just left it this way because it sounds so quirky and dramatic, but let me tell you, it is my new favorite dessert. Unfortunately I will only eat it once a year. I guess that means we have something to look forward to. Enjoy and happy end of summer.