A Place Like This......

Blogher Handmade and The Creative Connection

 

After four and half years of blogging, countless comments and emails, and a few hundred memories shared, it was time to finally meet a bevy of my blogging friends. There was no better place to do that than in St. Paul Minnesota during the Blogher Handmade and The Creative Connection conference.

700 of us shared our passion for creating beauty in all of it's genres, our love of business, and our willingness to share. Each morning they had several breakout sessions covering different aspects of blogging, business, and crafting. Our afternoons were filled with crafts, knitting and cooking classes and then night came. Every evening was spent eating dinner, listening and sharing stories, and of course entertaining ourselves to no end.

What became apparent very quickly is that though we are all in different places in our creative blogging and business lives, what unites us in our willingness to learn, share, and create. As the days and weeks roll on I will share some of the kindred spirited women I met and the moments we created together. For now though, I'll just give you a glimpse of our weekend. Here are some of my dear friends both old and new.

Birdsaving author Olivia Bouler

The Toymaker Marilyn Scott Waters

From Left to Right: Terry Walters, Nancy Soriano, Amy Powers, Amy Barickman, Janine Vangool

Sarah Jane Wright

Holly Becker from Decor8

 

Mary Jane Butters from Mary Jane Farms

Blogher The Creative Connection

 

Greetings everyone, 

I'm in St. Paul Minnesota for the rest of the week and weekend enjoying my time at The Creative Connection put on by Blogher.

I'm looking so forward to meeting so many of the bloggers I've come to know over the last four years. Along with our love of blogging we will be crafting, eating, and getting down to business with other creative entrepreneurs. I promise to have lots of photos and updates next week. If you should be there too, please drop me a quick email at valarie at audreypress.com I would love to meet you.

All photos today by blogher handmade.

The Hacket

I woke up Saturday to a changing season. The air was cool and smelled of the damp cool earth. The insect chatter is quickly twindling, and the encroaching feeling of needing to be surrounded by wool is descending upon me.

As I stared at my quilt laden boy sitting in his morning reverie, I didn't expect that there was a complete plan for our saturday resting in his head. 

"Mom, I need a hacket." ( pronounced hack-it)

Knowing that my boy was asking for a hatchet, I played along and let the moment unfold.

"Oh, why's that ?" I asked.

"There's tons of limbs down from  last weekends storm and stacked by the street. Could you please help me bring some limbs home so I can build a stick fort? I need a hacket to chisel notches and points into my sticks."

And with that our Saturday began. First I had to run to the outdoor store to buy a hacket and then I spent a good part of the morning carrying a forest of tree limbs to our yard.

The rest of the day was spent hacking, under the watchful eye of his mom of course.

sawing,

and whittling away the hours. He wore his fingers down to a nub, that's why he is wearing the bandges, to cover his blisters.

We've all taken to calling a hatchet a hacket. It seems more appropriate. Name something by what it does. Just another weird word moment in this family. I loved seeing my boy totally engrossed in his creation. It will take a few more days to finish but boy, his dad, katten and I have spent a wonderful weekend working with wood. I promise to show you the results as they unfold.

What did you do over the weekend?

 

A Crafted Summer

I just have to start by saying that all of my friends on the East coast have been greatly on my mind. Though I know many of you are save, the damage is extensive. I'll be checking in with all of you to see what we can do and how we can help.

So where have I been?

Thank you for your lovely emails, facebook messages, and comments. Everything is fine and we are well. This hasn't been my usual summer of travelling to Sweden and hanging with family and friends. In May, during the violent storms in the southern United States, we had damage done to our house and our daughters car was very badly damaged due to 8 inches of golf sized hail. I decided that it was best that I stayed home this summer to deal with putting a new roof on my house and to work with the insurance company on the car issue. It's still on going.

Being home this summer gave me lots of time to write and craft. What could be better when you can combine both together? This week I'll get to share with you the fruits of my labors as both Rhythm of the Home and the new Little Acorn Learning Enrichment Guide comes out.

Summer days were spent with felt sewing seahorses, starfish, and unicorns.

The Little Acorn Learning Enrichment Guides have a weekly theme and a weekly emotion. Eileen Straiton, owner of Little Acorn Learning, happily sends the themes and words and encourages all of the contributors to craft and create an idea for each week.

As I'd sit at my kitchen table, inspired by all of the ideas in my head, I always had help close at hand.

Along with felt there were a few days creating bugs, more specifically ladybugs.

You can find all of the Little Acorn Enrichment Guides right here.

 Eileen says:

"Our new Monthly Enrichment Guides are filled to the rim crafts, recipes, activities, stories and inner-work suggestions than our regular Childcare Lesson Plan Guides and they also 
follow a weekly theme to keep your home or school following a seasonal rhythm - they are structured a bit more loosely so you can use the ideas as time allows without having each day 
specifically planned out for you and the guides are not laid out as daily lesson plans."

And then let's not forget my other projects. We have a new book in the works over at Audrey Press. I can't divulge what it is yet, we're waiting for our final copyright clearances, but I promise you, it is going to have you jumping into a certain book like never before. Currently we are starting our final editing process which is filling my days and nights.

Over at Jump into a Book we gave away 19 Elsa Beskow books to Erin over at tiny twist creative and now we have a giveaway going on for 5 Kate di Camillo books.  Be sure to enter. Contest is open until September 11th 2011. 

We've posted a lot of book reviews and activities this summer on our favorite book site. One of the more exciting things to happen was that Kirby Larson author of Hattie Big Sky and The Friendship Doll , emailed me after I reviewed her book and made some little origami dolls. She will be taking this craft with her when she visits An American Girl club in Wisconsin. Really exciting. If you haven't read The Friendship Doll, please do it's wonderful.

So I think this pretty well sums up my summer, crafts, garden, books, and food. Kids have gone back to school and I am slowly coming back into my blogging self. I've missed you all and look forward to gnome week, which is still going to happen , and catching up with your summers.

Katten and I are back and ready to blog as usual.

Be well!

 

KAL and the 19 Book Elsa Beskow Giveaway

I haven't shown you my KAL that I'm doing over at Linda's for a couple of weeks because my cardi became attached and it started looking like a straight jacket. After frogging that mess back I ended up knitting in the wrong direction for a really long while. See what happens when you talk and knit? So back to frogging I went. Finally this week I'm back on track but I'm really thinking of making this a long cardi/vest so I can wear it while I take my long walks. 

At first I was doubting my yarn choice but now I think it will be so cozy and I can see the lovely pattern clearly now. I don't think this is a sweater for a giant any longer but a chunky version of the exsisting pattern. I'll just keep knitting happily along.

On a different note completely....

Today I've gotten to realize one of my dreams and that is to give away all of the existing Elsa Beskow books I could get my hands on. Over at my children's book blog Jump Into A Book, I'll be giving away 19 Elsa Beskow books to one person/family. I have many more giveaways planned throughout the summer  and fall. I think one of the best things in life is to play inside our books but the next best thing is to give them away. To find out all the details head on over to Jump Into A Book. Good Luck

 

 

Right Now I Am and KAL

Right now I am enjoying the thrill of power washing. I love watching the dirt roll away and the pristine beauty it leaves behind.

Everything has been washed from driveways, to the house, patio and pool deck. I just can't seem to quit. Would you like me to come over and power wash for you? I'm ready, will travel!

I even think it makes my flowers appear prettier and brighter.

Junk day has come and gone this month. This is always a very happy occasion in my family to acquire curbside treasures. This month's treasure was a thrown away giant mail box which has now been made into a bedside table.....or a bedside mailbox. Which ever one you like.

The dinosaur hanging from the ceiling was a past treasure hunt find. This is Zaina's art class project which is now a beloved piece of ceiling art in Mimi's room.

Right now I am loving the fact that in the room next door, a little davinci child is building a roller coaster on his ceiling.

 
Ok are you ready to launch? Right now I'm really loving the fact that not only do we have a rollercoaster from the ceiling but that it actually works.

Ok, here's a little peak at the KAL I'm doing with Linda from Natural Suburbia. I'm seeing the pattern now and I realize that this sweater will be for a giant. Do any of you know any giants?

 

A Day With Imene and KAL

My time in NYC last week was fantastic. I saw three Broadway shows, ate till my hearts content, walked in central park, was surrounded by more books than one could imagine,

and I got to meet a very special friend.

Imene and I have been blogging friends for a couple of years now. We share so much in common. We're both creative mompreneurs, we love being moms, we both speak French, we read a lot of books in a year, and we love to knit and take photos. 

Imene is the writer of A Journey to a Simple Happy Life.  There she discusses the trials and joys of raising three young children while running her photography studio among many other things. We decided that we just had to finally meet and my coming to NYC provided that occasion. 

We met at the famous Carnegie Deli where we ate the largest sandwiches I've ever seen in my life, in fact everything there was large, including this piece of pie. 

From the moment we met our blog conversations became live and it was as if we had been friends forever. This is the treasure of the blogging world. Imene and I have been checking in with each other for a few years now and we've shared in each other's joys and frustrations as well as celebrated the milestones of our children, all virtually mind you, but truly from the heart and that's where our connection will continue.

Thank you Imene for a wonderful afteroon and lunch.

Today is also Linda's Knit Along, over at Natural Suburbia. We're all knitting the Shalom sweater. Because I was out of town I didn't get very far but I did make progress. I'm on row 28 for anyone keeping tabs. I find this a really easy pattern to knit up and eventhough I chose the wrong type of yarn, I can't see the pattern, I love the feel of it . I think in the end I will love this sweater whether I see the pattern or not.

KAL with Natural Suburbia

Finally I've found 5 seconds to pick up the sticks and string again. Happily I'm participating in Linda's knit a long. This time it's the Shalom Cardi. I've wanted to knit this for years and now I've found the perfect occasion. 

Here's how far I've gotten. So far so good. No big hic-ups yet. My yarn is from "the stash". I have 20 balls of this yarn and am determined to make it work no matter what. The first thing I'm noticing is that it doesn't show the pattern very well, but this yarn is easy to handle and I think it will make a very cozy sweater. 

While you're reading this I'm in NYC at Book Expo America. I'll be back at the end of the week with fun news from New York City.

Until then please don't forget about the 5 book Percy Jackson Giveaway over at Jump Into A Book.  Ends May 28th !!!

Squish Painting Tutorial

 

 

It's not as messy as it sounds but it is fun. My Tivo/dvr is all programmed to catch those important shows I won't be watching this week like Deadliest Catch. It's TV turn off week and I have plans chocked full of fun projects and events to get me away from the TV and even more time with my family. 

You see it's not the kids who are the TV hounds, it's their mom. It's only in the evening between 8 and 10 pm but it's nice to mix it up a bit. Honestly, it's my winter habit of watching tv in the evening while I'm knitting or something. In the summer I get too busy with my garden and being outside. That confession admitted, ......it's still Turn off you TV Week.

A great activity to do with any age is Squish Painting. You'll need some acrylic paint you have around the house, printer paper or newsprint, a rolling pin and a small paint brush which is optional.

 
1. Fold the paper in half.

 

2. Place little splotches of paint on one half of the paper.

 

3. Fold the non-painted side of the paper onto the painted side of the paper. Use your rolling pin rolling back and forth from side to side, width wise. This is your squishing action. The squish sound effect works very well here and actually helps the painting action.

 

4. Open it up and see what you have.

 
We thought our painting looked like a butterfly. The fun part of squish painting is that you don't really know what you're going to get when you open up the paper. Here are some other examples of how we placed the paint and what we ended up with. We have a lot of fun guessing what each painting is. As they say, "Art is in the eye of the beholder". We can have five people in the room and everyone sees something different.

Be sure you lay your paintings flat to dry. Once dry we like to hang them up on a clothes line for a new sort of artistic banner. 

 
 

 
 

Here are a couple more links about Turn Off TV/ Screen-Free week April 18-24. I hope these links give you a bit of encouragement and information as to what this is all about and some ideas on what to do.

Screen-Free Week

101 TV-Free Alternatives

Unplugged Family Activities

Please join us for Screen-Free week. You can share your challenges and successes here in our comment section.

Giveaway from Little Acorn Learning

 A little over a year ago I virtually met Eileen Straiton from Little Acorn Learning. The moment I received her e-newsletter, I immediately felt nurtured by her daily creative caring. As the year has progressed I've had the honor and pleasure of collaborating with Eileen on her newsletter and working as a contributing author for the Little Acorn Enrichment Guides.

Her bright energy, kindness, good humor and creativity never cease to amaze me. I thought you might like to meet her too and so today she is visiting and at the end of this post a giveaway for your very own edition of the April Enrichment Guide.

 

Tell us a little bit about you and your family.

 

My husband and I have four daughters ages 17, 10, 6 and 4.  We live in a small town in Connecticut and strive to create a home filled with warmth, love and creativity.I run Little Acorn Playgarden out of the lower level of our home.  I also publish the Little Acorn Learning guides which support parents, homeschoolers and caregivers in their work with children. Our daughters attend our local school and enjoy coming home to our playgarden each day.  I work hard to enrich their lives with nature, crafting, baking, song, artistic activities and domestic tasks.  I like to call us ‘waldorf afterschoolers’ and the term inspired me to create a new monthly enrichment program for other parents and teachers working with school aged children. My husband, Brian, works full time and also enjoys woodworking and creates many fun project with our girls in his workshop. 

 

2. What led you to starting a day-care center in your home and how long have you had your nature based daycare?

Before my work with young children, I was a direct mail advertising executive working crazy hours.  I desperately wanted to find a way to be home with my daughters and was frustrated with the childcare offered at many of the centers I visited.  After a brief time of freelancing from home, I decided to open up my playgarden and created the childcare program that I had dreamt about for my own children.  Our little ‘school’ opened in 2005 and I have been so lucky to have such wonderful families that also support me in finding balance as I raise my daughters. 

 

3.       How did you first become introduced to Waldorf?

I rediscovered myself after becoming a mother and sought out anything I could find on how to provide my children with a healthy childhood.  I was naturally drawn to the beauty and truth behind the philosophy of Waldorf Education. It not only supports the healthy development of a child’s physical being but also that of the child’s soul.  I feel this is so very important, especially in the times we live in now; to develop the whole child – head, heart and hands.

 
 

 

4.    What inspired you to start your own publishing company?

Little Acorn Learning began as a monthly childcare program that I used in my own childcare center.  I decided to offer my monthly ‘guides’ to others who work with children each day and the response was amazing.  The guides offer crafts, recipes, songs, games, book recommendations and caregiver inner-work for the well-being of the adult. 

In addition to our original monthly guides we have added natural childcare menus, seasonal celebration ebooks, ecourses and our new monthly enrichment program which has taken a unique form of almost an ezine with contributions from amazing writers and bloggers based on weekly themes.

 

5.    I know everyone is going to want an answer to this next question, Where do you find time to get it all done?”

Finding balance is a real challenge for me.  I struggle just like all working parents to manage home, family, work and self-care.  I often have to shift things around to make it work.  I get overwhelmed sometimes – many times.  I remind myself often that my main responsibility is to be a good parent and wife.  That will always be my most important job in life… the rest is just a bonus. 

 I am very lucky to have a husband who cooks dinner many nights and helps with dishes, baths and bedtime stories when need be.  He is a wonderful father and I’m so grateful to have him.  I also have great kids who do their part around the house when asked and are very responsible. 

 One thing I am working on now is finding time to include more silence in my life.  As you can imagine, working with children and having a large family makes that very difficult.  I have begun by including walks alone, yoga classes and time outdoors into my schedule.  Nature heals me and brings me back to center when life gets too crazy. 

For a chance to win the April Edition please leave a comment below. The Giveaway ends on Friday at 8 pm EST.

 

This is a completely enchanting edition for the whole family to enjoy. Eileen says:"The Afterschool Enrichment books are different from our regular 3 day and 5 day lesson plan guides... the Enrichment books follow the
rhythm of a weekly theme with the flexibility that teachers, homeschoolers and afterschooling parents need to enrich their children's
Waldorf learning experience at home or school.  Our new Monthly Enrichment Guides are filled to the rim with crafts, recipes,
activities, stories and inner-work suggestions and they follow a weekly theme to keep your home or school following a seasonal rhythm.  
They are not structured like classroom lesson plans, as our Childcare Lesson Plan Guides are and keep older children in mind along with
the caregiver.  They are created so you can use the ideas as time allows without having each day specifically planned out for you

 For more information about April's Enrichment Guide have a look here.

 Comments are now closed. I want to thank everyone who participated. We'll have a winner announcement soon.