Tao Of Craft

Celebrating Michaelmas 2010

Michaelmas is one of my favorite times of the year! 

                                                                          Art by WaldorfMama

 

Michaelmas is the Autumn equinox, when days and nights are of equal length. It marks this turning of the seasons.

In Waldorf tradition, Michaelmas is brought as a celebration of strength of resolve, goodness, courage, and inner light. The image of St. Michael with his golden sword piercing the darkness is meant to give us the courage to face the darkening earth. With autumn, the earth draws into herself, and we also begin to draw into ourselves. Winter is the season of inner contemplation. When we look within ourselves, who knows what dragons we will find? 

The struggle of St. George and the dragon is also a powerful image. There is not only courage needed to deal with the outer cold and darkness but also within ourselves courage is called for to shine light on those personal challenges we face as spiritually, socially and morally maturing human beings. When the deeper, inner meaning of festivals is contemplated, a nourishing and sustaining quality enables us to participate and enrich our own lives and the lives of our families and our community as well.

At our school we celebrate with a reenactment of St George taming the dragon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My son has been all around the house reciting the 

Autumn Blessing:

 Brave and true will I be,

Each good deed sets me free,

Each kind word makes me strong.

I will fight for the right! 

I will conquer the wrong!

 

Sword of Michael brightly gleaming,

Down to earth its light is streaming,

May we see its shining rays

In the Winter's darkest days.

We have been crafting for Michaelmas all week. 

We made these Michaelmas Dragons for our nature table. I found the pattern HERE

We made Dragon Harvest Bread from the book All Year Round. 

Page 1   Page 2

I told the kids the story of The Most Beautiful Dragon in The Whole World 

by Reg Down.

I told my oldest daughter a twist to the Michaelmas story. The story of Li Chi. 

In this version the girl has the sword and is the hero.

 St. Michael's Harvest Song

In autumn comes Saint Michael with sword and with shield  

Passes over meadow and orchard and field.

He's on the path to battle 'gainst darkness and strife -

He is the heavenly warrior protector of life.

- Anonymous

Motorcycle Freezer Paper Stencil

Here is another installment for Kids Clothes Week 2010! 

Milo loves all things motorcycle so of course I had to make him this freezer paper stencil motorcycle t shirt.

 

 

Kids Clothes Week Pants Day 1 and Day 2

I am a bit behind in posting my creations for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge .    I have been busy making but not posting.. Let the catching up begin!

 Here is what I made the first 2 days... Ruffle Pants!

 I am slightly obsessed with this pattern from Sandi Henderson. It is sooo easy and they are just ridiculously cute! I made a bunch of these for my daughter last year and she has since grown out of them so of course it was the first thing that I wanted to make for the KCWC!

 

 
 

 

Kids Clothes Week Challenge 2010

 

I am participating in Kids Clothes Week Challenge! 

Work on making clothes for kids one hour each day for a week..

I love a reason to be focused with crafting. Sometimes I have too many projects going at once and nothing gets finished! But not this week! I am spending my crafting energy on sewing some clothes for kids! If you would like to join in head over to Elsie Marley 

 

 

How To Can Peaches....

My friend Tessa came over yesterday and taught me how to can peaches! I have been wanting to do this for a few years  but I always seem to miss the season! This year was a big success! Thanks Tessa!

  

 

  

 

How to Can Peaches

Supplies:

2 big pots 
Mason Jars
Lids and rings
Strainer
Jar Lifter
Kitchen towels
Peaches 

* The amount of jars that you will get depends on the size of the peaches. We canned 3 cases of peaches and got 29 Quart jars

1. Prepare Jars and Lids

Boil the jars in a big pot of water for about 15 minutes. Take jars out and line them on a kitchen counter lined with a towel. 

2. Prepare Peaches

Put a strainer into a pot of boiling water on the stove. Add some of the peaches (make sure that the peaches are covered with water) let peaches sit in the water for 1 minute. Submerge the peaches into a sink full of cold water.... The skins will now slip off of the peaches. Take the skins off of all of the peaches, remove the pits and cut the peaches in halves or quarters.

3. Pack Jars

Add the peaches to the jars. Fill the jars to the top leaving about 1/2 inch for the water.

4. Add Water 

Slowly add boiling water to the jars to cover the peaches. Use a chopstick or  table knife to press the peaches to one side of the jar to create a space for the water to trickle down and to move out any pockets of air that may be in the jars. The water should reach the base of the jar neck, about ½ inch from the top. Next, with a damp kitchen towel, wipe the lips of the jars to remove any stickiness. Put lids on the jars and screw on the rings.

5. Process Peaches

Process the jars in a hot water bath. Tessa suggests keeping the peaches in the water for about 15-20 minutes for quart jars and 10-15 for pint jars.  Also, after it comes to a good boil, she lowers the heat so the boiling is less furious.

6. Cool, Label and Store

Remove the canned jarfuls to a kitchen counter lined with a towel. Don’t touch the lids while the jars are cooling.

The next day, remove the rings, wash the jars with soapy water, and label them. If any jars don’t seal (I canned 15  jars and only 1 did not seal), store them in the fridge and use the fruit within a couple weeks.

 

September 11th 2010

 

Photo Credit: tumblr
 

Ten On Ten September

Take a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours on the tenth of each month. Document a day of your life and find beauty among the ordinary moments. Then share your beauty with us!

tenontenphotojournal.blogspot.com

Here is our day for September 10, 2010

Morning from my kitchen window...

 

Still so sleepy....

 

Snacks..

 

A visit to the Waldorf Kinderhaus...

 

Our drive home from school

 

Milo found a "new friend"

 

A little fun...

 

A little Handwork Homework

No Knead Bread... Recipe HERE 

Then.. a few left over 4th of July sparklers  to end the day!

 

Recycled T Shirt Ruffle Hat Tutorial

Remember this hat? Here is the tutorial

 

Materials:

1 Old T~ shirt or 2 if you want your ruffles a different color

Coordinating Thread

Pattern:

Cap size 12-18 Month

Cap Size 2T

You also can use a cap that fits your child already and use that for the pattern.

STEP 1. Cut out the cap using your pattern.

Step 2. Cut out the strips for the ruffles. This measurement will vary depending on how gathered you want your ruffles to be. The blue hat seen above had less gathering than the pink one shown below.  I like to double the length of where on the cap you want to place your ruffle. For example the bottom brim of the 12-18 month cap measures  approx 9" I would cut out my strip 18" for very gathered or 15" for less so.

Cut the strips to your length but they should be about 1 1/2 inches wide

 

Step 3. Ruffle your strips.

Using a BASTING STITCH (the longest stitch on your machine) sew along the center of the strip. Be sure to back stitch at the end in the strip as to secure the stitches. Pull the top thread and gather up the strip into a ruffle. EASY!

      

Step 4. Pin the ruffles onto the cap and sew!

 

Step 5.
 Take a photo of how cute your child looks ion their new Recycled Ruffle Hat!
 
 
 

TipNut

Have you found  Tipnut.com yet? 

 

It is crazy crafty! Super comprehensive... Crafts,recipes, tips of all kinds that help make your life crafty and fun! It like the Google of craftiness! They have published more than 1,500 articles featuring household tips, craft patterns & projects, recipes, kitchen & cooking tips, handy reference material They have linked my modern Baby Bootie tutorial on their site! Head on over and learn something new!

So You Think You're Crafty... The Final Post!

 

Well friends... it is like Heidi Klume always says on Project Runway... 

"In fashion (or crafting..)  One day your IN and the the next day your OUT!" 

I am cleaning up my craft room and going home! 

I have ended my run with So You Think You're Crafty. 

I came in 3rd... Not to bad for an underdog craft blogger:) 

I won a 4 out of 8 rounds plus I had a blast!  

Thank you all for voting for me and playing along. I really do appreciate it!

I only lost this round by 3 votes! ~ Wow!

Now back to reality.... or my reality anyway... 

I have a bunch of new tutorials and craft ideas coming soon. 

So stay tuned...