Warm Feet

Our house is over a hundred years old.  We have beautiful old hardwood floors that can get a little draughty.  This being the case, my feet are almost always cold. Oh, do I hate that. It’s like I can feel the wind blowing right up my pant leg. Shiver. Not fun. Especially during our long Ontario winters. All this being said, I need slippers. I have a couple different pairs and love the coziness they offer from the cold. Oh dear slippers…

Well, I recently finished knitting a new pair for myself. This was fun because it involved felting – something I hadn’t done before.  I have felted with wool roving…but not with knitted wool.  Oh they were so easy and quick. Just a couple hours per slipper.  A quick little seam and a few rounds in the washing machine and voila.

Cozy Slippers

Aren’t these great? They are so sweet. They remind me of little ballet flats. It would be easy to sew a little leather sole onto the bottom to prevent slipping, but I couldn’t be bothered. They are perfect just as they are. My feet are warm, my heart is happy. Who could ask for anything more?

Inviting

Handmade with Love

I have another felted knitting project to share with you in the next day or so, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I hope your feet are toasty warm.

Namaste,

Debbie

5 for 5 for FUN!

I love all things creative but don’t feel that I, myself, am that creative. I  tend to take on what I know I  can do…and nothing more. I’m not comfortable outside my comfort zone. (Well  that makes sense, doesn’t it?.) But I’m really wanting to challenge myself this year. Break out of what feels “easy” and do what scares the hell out of me. Well this definitely scares me a little. But I really want to force myself to grow into my creative skin. SO….I decided to join Debbie for her handmade give-away.  It’s such an awesome idea and if this doesn’t force me to figure it all out…nothing will. Here’s the deal…

The first five people to leave a comment on this post will get something from me. But in return, you have to do the same thing on your blog and make something for five other people. The details are as follows, and if you want to play, copy the following onto your blog and leave me a post: (as written by Sarah)

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.

2. What I create will be just for you, with love.

3. It’ll be done this year (2010).

4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. Heck, I might bake something for you and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!

5. I reserve the right to do something strange.

6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post.

7. Send your mailing address – after I contact you.

WANNA PLAY????

Inspiration

Paper Star

Just a little inspiration today. Things that make my heart sing. Enjoy!

Everything here….But this was deeply moving. Amazing!

Authenticity oozes from here.

Isaac loves playing here.

Gardening and living like this.

I need to make one of these.

And order some stuff from here.

Some beauty for my walls.

I love this and this.

Sweet, sweet, sweet music.

Beautiful words.

Sometime, these are the only things I need to get me through my day. I hope you are enjoying yours.

Namaste,

Debbie

One small Change – February

A new month is here…and with it comes a new challenge.  If you visiting for the first time, you can find out more about the One Small Change challengehere.

Before we dive into February…let’s tie up loose ends on the month just past. January. Our challenge for January was to eliminate the plastic our city’s recycling program does not take. We succeeded. It didn’t end up being as difficult as I had initially thought. We had to get resourceful a couple of times. We had to think a little outside the box. But at the end of the day, (month) I’d say we did great. So when it came round to deciding what our next challenge was going to be…I wanted to up the ante.

I knew from early on that I wanted to attempt to have as little garbage leaving our house as possible. (That is the point…right?) It’s tricky isn’t it? Everything generates garbage to some extent. Or so it seems. But with a little creativity…and a bit of extra work…I think I’ve found our next challenge.

For February we are going to be eliminating the purchasing of store bought granola bars. Our family loves them. This is our favourite…and we like these too.  We usually buy a box of each when we do our shopping. They are our on the go snack. Something I always have in my bag. Just in case.

However, with two boxes of g. bars (as we affectionately call them) comes a fair amount of waste. In order to keep our garbage to a minimum we’ve decided that this is something we can eliminate the purchasing of.  Unfortunately we cannot eliminate the consumption of our beloved g. bars and so this brings me to what I’m going to do about it.

Make my own.

This isn’t a new feat. I have made them in the past. But that was for fun…not for sustenance. This time it’s a test. How many do I make? How long will one batch last? How time consuming is this going to be? Can I get my ingredients in bulk without contributing just as much to the landfill? And so many more questions.

I love this sort of a challenge. Not only do we keep more garbage out of our landfills, but in the process we all learn to respect our beautiful planet just a little more. It’s an opportunity for each of us to connect to her in a way that maybe we hadn’t before. For me, I’m looking forward to educating my beautiful boy on the reasons we are no longer choosing to buy g. bars from the store.  And to have him help me make our own…with whole ingredients, in our kitchen, with love. One small Change becomes beauty in the making.

Namaste,

Debbie

Green Popsicles

Freshness

Recently we’ve been doing a lot of raw food in our house. I’m more inclined to eat like this anyway, as is Isaac. But for my husband, who is first generation Canadian of Hungarian immigrants, it’s more difficult. He likes his meat. But he’s always willing to give anything a chance.

I’ve been making smoothies everyday, a litre at a time…and they are fantastic. I feel great. I’m eating so much less because I’m so full of whole foods. (Instead of  bread- which I adore.) Our fridge is full of fruits and veggies and we are all gravitating towards them.

Spinach

What in the world does this have to do with green popsicles…and, what in the world are green popsicles? I’m getting there, I promise.

Making healthy choices as an adult is easy (says who?) but for a child…eating this way may sometimes be met with great resistance. I feel very fortunate that Isaac is a vegetable lover. (If they are raw.) He doesn’t love fruit so much but that’s okay. I give it to him anyway…in the form of popsicles.

Frozen Berries

We’ve never bothered with store bought popsicles. I’ve always found it incredibly easy to make them ourselves…and then I know exactly what is going into them. I stock up on berries, peaches, grapes when they are fresh and local and freeze them. I then make up a batch of popsicles whenever I need to.

Bananas

Since we’ve been doing the raw(er) thing, I’m been trying to get more fruits into Isaac. Unfortunately, winter in Canada isn’t the ideal time for popsicles. But he loves them all the same and so I made up a batch today…using greens. What a great way to get kids to eat their greens.

Just Before Blending

Here is what I did:

2 cups of greens (we used spinach today)

2 cups of frozen fruit (we used berries today)

2 bananas

1 cup of water

-Add to blender and blend until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze. Enjoy!

Popsicles!

I have a couple of mangoes waiting to ripen and some pineapple that I’m going to try next. Unfortunately these don’t disguise the green colour so much. But they will taste so good and I’ll know my sweet boy is getting a dose of fabulous nutrition.

Popsicle Smiles