Frühlingskabine GIVEAWAY

We are hosting a giveaway on our farm blog! If you haven't seen our blog about our micro-farm, please check it out. Plus we just came home after a 15-hour trip to pick up French angora rabbits... so that should be a good post coming up.

Here's what we have for you at the Frühlingskabine Micro-Farm. Drum roll please!

A set of twelve (12) hand stamped cards that feature my own carvings of assorted birds, a honey bee, and a rabbit. They are stamped using archival inks on nice, thick, cream-colored watercolor paper and paired with matching envelopes (not pictured).




This giveaway ends on Friday, December 16th so be sure to stop by Frühlingskabine Micro-Farm for your chance to win!
- Sarah

Holiday Salt Dough Ornaments

Last week we decided (read: me not wanting to spend money on ornaments) to try our hand at making salt dough ornaments. I have never them as an adult and it seemed almost too easy, but it all worked out well. Here is the recipe we used:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
Combine the flour, salt and water; mix well and knead for 10 minutes. Roll out on a lightly floured surface.
Cut into desired shapes and make holes for hanging. Bake for 60 minutes, allow to cool.
Decorate with poster paints or tube paints. Allow to dry and spray with clear polyurethane on both sides to preserve. Use ribbon or yarn pieces to hang.

Honestly, I should have used a recipe with a longer baking time at a lower temperature, but we made these for a painting project later that day so we needed it to be quick. They turned out just fine. Just not as hard or dense as I was expecting.



Then we took them to school to paint. Camsters isn't quite two yet, but I volunteer teach ceramics at an elementary school so I used this project to pass the time for her.


I just gave her agreeable colors (read: colors that don't muddy up and turn everything an ugly brown) like yellow, orange, white, and metallic gold.


This kid loves painting. LOVES painting!


Then I sprinkled glitter on all the ornaments. Everything is better with glitter. Trust me.

Traditions

We don't have many holiday traditions in our family, but we do have two really important ones that really makes or breaks a holiday.

1. Gather as many loud, outspoken, dark-humored aunts as possible around one table and then fill them with cider and booze.
2. Lefse. Lefse is like a Norwegian tortilla made from potatoes... that's how I think of it anyway.



If you want our family recipe (I'm pretty sure it's not a family secret), check out this post of mine from last year.

I was just about to type up the exact same thing I did last Thanksgiving... until I back tracked a bit and realized I've already gone down that road. Phew! Close one. Check out my lefse post anyway because lefse is what we look forward to every year. Make it once and you'll feel the same way.



- Sarah

Halloween :: 2011

I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween! It's just too bad it landed on a Monday this year. What's up with that? It messed up my internal calendar... I've felt like it's supposed to be Friday or Saturday all day long!

Well, a good time was had by all here on the ol' farm. We didn't dress up or go anywhere but the neighbors. We are such exciting people... I know. But our little one dressed as an "80's aerobics instructor" if not only to stave off princess costumes for one more year.

We were even able to teach her some aerobics "moves". Good times had by all. Here are the highlights. But keep in mind it's harder to get a decent photo of a toddler than it is chicken on run!



Yes, I bribed my daughter with candy....


Sorry if I posted this video twice, but it cracks me up.

- Sarah

80's Boom Box Bag :: tutorial

Let's hop to it! Yep... just like that.

Find a piece of felt twice the size you like and fold it in half. Keep in mind we will be leaving about 3/4" on each side for the bottom floor of the bag. That way it won't be flat and you will actually be able to put stuff in it.

Wow. That felt looks cat-hairy... but we don't have any cats... maybe it's thread? Anyway, moving on. Sew along the folded edge.



Now turn inside out so that the seam is on the inside. See?



Now sew straight seams 3/4" from the first (center) seam making three in total. You now have the front, bottom, and back finished.



Now go through your ungodly large felt scrap bag and pull out some 80's appropriate colors. Turquoise and fuchsia anyone? I also found some weird checker fabric that could work as speakers. Score!



Before sewing the sides on, I like to lay mine flat so it's easier to sew on my embellishments. I used my zig zag on a super tight stitch in order to make it look "embroidered". Using lime green thread really sold the theme. Go around everything. My boom box includes a cassette player (totally boss), speakers, various buttons, and an AM/FM tuner.



Measure the width of the bottom and length of your new sides. Cut out two rectangles from black felt and sew them on either side to your front, bottom, and back.

Now put some handles on that puppy and get jammin'! I just braided together some scrap t-shirt material to make my handles. Good luck

A quick aerobic interlude...

and then felt boom box tutorial tomorrow.
Work them glutes!

- Sarah

Has it been a month?

Has it been a month? I'm sorry... We've been busy getting outdoors before mother nature decides to dump snow on us. We may live in sunny California, but it's different up here in the mountains. Last year we had a good snow here at the end of October... so really, nothing would surprise me at this point.

Let me share what exactly we've been up to:



Learning to spin thread/yarn on my new spinning wheel. It's really trial and error. Lots of error. I understand the steps, but it's going to take a lot more practice to turn out some non-ugly yarn.



Lots of cooking with homegrown veggies.



Spying on the deer who are spying on the chickens who could care less.



Painting. Gobs and gobs of painting. So much painting that "paint" is Camster's new favorite sign.



Punkin pickin'.



And chicken kissin'... even though chickens don't have lips.

Well, I'll do my very best to keep up with my little blog here. I'm almost done with a certain someone's Halloween costume so I'll have that to share. Plus! The holidays are just around the corner. You know it will be a handmade holiday in this house! Don't give up on me yet...