"Home" or soon to be!

This tiny little town on Kootenay Lake (the largest natural lake in BC) is such an unbelievably stunning place. There is so much beauty in so small a place that it is hard to know where to start..but here is a taste of some of the lovely that i have found..

wall art..

All you need to make these ridiculously cute and simple wall hangings is fabric that you love and wooden embroidery hoops.. i added buttons to mine because, well. i LOVE buttons.

It is such a fun way to display special fabric and a really wonderful way to add something to a space without spending any money (the hoops are thrift shop finds.. and the fabric i already had around the house..)

These circles adorn our eating area in the kitchen.


These ones are in our living-room in a corner above a play area.. The pink one is made of a sweater that i found at the thrift shop. i loved the print but i rarely wear pink..or prints for that matter.. so up on the wall it went! Im making little pants with the sleeves..

Elwynn made this painting on earth day and i plan to reproduce it on a hoop using cloth and embroidery (something i have discovered i enjoy very much!) because it is just so incredibly beautiful, and i want something that will last forever. "i will take care of worms" *sigh*

And button tacks! i saw something like these on ETSY one day and thought..we have tacks and buttons. lets make some! here are the results.. i couldn't find very many different sized or coloured buttons(because i still have yet to sort out my mountains of craft supplies...)
but the little ones had a great time with this craft anyways!

First Harvest!

The little ones and i picked our first harvest of rhubarb today!

I am ever so happy. It seems like just last week it was only starting to show itself to the world, and now it is overflowing with delicious red stalks.
It grew very quickly with the recent spring rains and warm sunshiney days.





Now the yummy part! what to make with it.
The options are endless.
rhubarb Upside-Down cake....or Stewed rhubarb..
rhubarb Crisp....Sorbet?
Or i could cut it up and freeze it for another day......

A piece of Bright!

This wee daffodil flower was a lot of fun to make!

Its been a long while since i did much in the way of making beautiful things, unless you count the bread that ive been baking a few times a week. its beautiful in its own right, but not quite as sweet or bright as this.

The stem is a pipe cleaner wrapped with florist tape, then wound with green wool yarn. The rest is wool felt (brown, green and two shades of yellow) and a piece of wool batting for the inside.
SoOoO incredibly Simple! There is a flower girl who goes with the flower...i'm working on her..but i may make a few more flowers first!

The pattern can be found in the book Making Flower Children by Sylvie Adolphie

Spring!

With bated breath & some tiny bit of uncertainty, because you never can tell what mother nature will do next, i can say that i really truly think that spring has finally decided to grace us with her warm and green presence!

Clearwater is for the most part free of snow (with the exception of a few sunless patches here and there) and slowly but surely growing springier ever day! robins are out in force, green buds are popping up and even some leaves are slowly showing their tiny selves to the world. my rhubarb is budding out all ruby red and sweet! and Ive discovered a huge patch of raspberries which I'm itching to get to. they need to be pruned back and thinned a wee bit...but it looks like we will be drowning in raspberry jam & other yummy things come summer!

Easter came and went in a fury of cut-out-cookies and icing, dyed Easter eggs, chocolate and sunshine.. our Easter tree is still adorning out kitchen window and in leaf too! we chose a piece of red willow tree and sure enough its doing its springtime thing too, just in our kitchen.

Seedy Saturday was amazing..the ski-lodge where it happens every year was full to brimming with friendly, smiling faces.. seeds and plants and good things to eat and smell and touch were all around. it gave me more than a bit of nostalgia, thinking of leaving this town..and i may even be re-thinking it. it is hard to know why my feet get so itchy every spring, but i may try to talk myself out of leaving just now. not only that but it looks like Kaslo is a bumping place and there is nothing available in terms of homes for us there. it wouldn't be so bad staying here, planting a garden..maybe getting our chickens finally! i dint know for sure, but i think for the summer at least i can safely say that we will be staying put. i kind of dread spending another winter here, but on the other hand Kaslo has just as long and cold a winter as here. maybe we just need to find a house with a wood stove!
i bought a bunch of new varieties of tomatoes to try and and some wild Italian arugula! a few new house plants..a wandering Jew & an angel wing begonia. Ive always wanted one!
mm..and some vanilla goats milk soap. divine.
I'm so looking forward to the farmers market starting up again so that i can see all of my favorite folks again. winter gets lonely!

Yesterday we spend a beautiful day visiting a local sheep ranch with Elwynn's school. Aveley ranch has been in Vavenby for 103 years! and you can feel the wisdom and love for the land when you step foot there. I was completely and utterly (hehe!) taken with the place. something about hundreds of tiny lambs does that to a person.

Our day was full-to-brimming with information about sheep and lambs, and how wool is processed.. the kids got to try out hand and drum carders and spinning wheels and what-not. we watched a lamb being born out in one of the fields, right up close! it was a very new experience for some of the children! we had a hayride all around the land, which is vast and stunning..there were scones and tea in this neat old pioneers shack, a museum of sorts all about the history of the land and family and then they all make sweet wooden boats and raced them down a fast flowing little stream. it was such a great time! i think that the favorite of all was the snuggling and feeding of the newborn orphan lambs. i could have stayed there forever!
here are a few photos of our adventure..

Spring Cleaning & Thoughts On Moving..

Since we have been away from home (visiting family is far off places) i have been thinking a LOT about "home" i love my home. no other place feels just right for us..but what is home?.. its not the place,at least not for me..its what anhd who is in it..that is what makes it cozy and homey and yours. we move a lot and are thinking of moving again..well not thinking. we will move again. how soon and where is still up in the air. right now we are really strongly considering Kalso, BC. Not all that far from where we are now..i thought a few months ago that i was here to stay. that i had found my home sweet home..but a lot has changed, if only in my head, that makes me feel like this is not so. there is a lot to desire in a small town like clearwater, and honestly im getting restless and bored here. but the home part is something i can and will take with us everywhere we go. i visit family & friends and their homes are theirs.. and it makes me long for mine. I guess im not the dusty foot traveller that i once was. its hard being far from home with 3 little ones and all of the things that go with us. and now that my head is in moving mode im thinking of all of the things that need to be done before we pack up and fine a new place to make ours..things to fix, things to sell, things to give away. things to paint and mend and burn. its exciting and gives me butterflies in my stomach thinking about doing it all over again.
and we need to find that place too! im trying to manifest the perfect place..close to town, spacious with wood heat.. clean & bright with a garden for veggies..someday soon we will find our next home..and with all of these words on my mind is this..“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”

Im on ETSY!

I finally Opened shop a few weeks ago!
Im not having much luck selling yet, but i'm slowly working on new things to stock the shop with..
It is exciting though, none the less! I feel like even getting up the courage to do it, seeing as i'm mainly single parenting my 3 small children, is an accomplishment. I'm trying to be positive about it all, which isn't always easy.But who ever said the easy way is the best way?

There are so many wonderful sellers on ETSY. If you have not checked it out yet, you should!

Here is the link to my shop. Check it out. Heart me and feel free to buy something!
All proceeds go towards getting our Pup Finn neutered!

ApatchWorkHeart

Love & Revolution,
Fern

happy heart day

we don't do a huge "valentines day" thing since in not big on corporate holidays..
but i do like days that are special, that we can celebrate our little family and all of the love we have for each other. for me its not about buying stuff, so we do it our way.

to celebrate we had a pancake breakfast which we shared with my momma and her adopted son. i made egg free pancakes (allergies) shaped as hearts.. of course! lots of butter and organic maple syrup. they were too good to be true.

then we had a beautiful walk in the bright winter sunshine down to the river, and i forgot my camera, as always..it was so warm that we shed our jackets and gloves and hats and played on the few feet of beach beside the river that wasn't covered with snow..the little ones had such a nice time skipping rocks and setting ice flows free down the slowly running winter river. it was heaven on earth. truly.


elwynn was being especially lovey with his sister rue that day.

here are a few photos...

new&green

i am ever so happy!

i have my new & green laptop. its wonderful..better than wonderful even.. i have finally been able to get all of my hundreds of pictures off of my camera..ive spent an hour looking through them and sorting them out. editing (i love the red eye fixer!) so many images! so many memories. *sigh*

here are a few of my latest hand-made creations..

oh..and speaking of new..i am opening up an Etsy shop! i have yet to post anything for sale, but when i do, i will surely blog about it...

Happy Birthday..Happy Birthday..Happy Birthday!

We have celebrated 3 birthdays in the past few months!Ngaio had her 3rd Birthday in November Elwynn turned 6 in December! and Yesterday, January 24th, was Rue-bee's first birthday!

I remember in vivid detail each birth... each day before and after they were born.
how much i wanted to meet them and the tiniest inklings of fear that something might happen and i may never know them.. i feel very blessed and very thankful that these small people chose me to be their mother and that i have had every day for 6, 3 and 1 year to get to know just who they are.. inside and out. i look forward to growing along side these beautiful beings for ever and a day..

i try to live in awe and remember to see the world through their wide open eyes. if we could all see and experience the world the way children do, it would be a much happier existence for all.

thank you for choosing me! you are my universe.
~mamafern

a moment in time

i just have a second, but here are a few pictures of rue...her first birthday is nearing!

this involves knitting!

really..truly!



so today at the library(where i wrote my last rambling post) as i was checking out, i spied..not one, but TWO new knitting books! i have to say that I'm utterly in love with my librarian. she is a bit prickly to begin with. in fact the first year i lived in Clearwater i was sure she outright despised me (well more like my rowdy kids).. but i found the way to her heart.. yes. knitting! it took me a while to notice that all of the best books in the library were fibre related..but lo and behold i have a kindred spirit! she is the head librarian here, and so with her magical book powers she orders a Lot of beautiful knitting/fibre books, and magazines.. including spin off, and interweave and vogue knitting and more..and LIVING CRAFTS! she hadn't heard of it but when i brought the winter issue in to show her she was soOo excited and ordered a library subscription on the spot. *gush* she knits and felts and sells her wares at the local farmers market AND has agreed that we Must start a knitters and weavers guild in Clearwater come spring. so much fun.

okay.. but back to the books.. the first is called "i love to knit socks" let me just start with "holy mother" these socks are sexy and beautiful and nifty and just wow. Ive come to the realization that my weeks of insomnia root from the need to knit socks. for me! yes.. all for meeee. I'm not one to knit myself anything much, so this is a big step. anyways.. if you love tm o knit socks.. or even look at socks you MUST see this book.. it has legwarmers too! second book. "knit to be square" all of the patters are knit in squares.. domino knitting? its a technique Ive never before used, but the patterns in this book are so lovely. i will learn! there is a pattern called "two block hat" that is just absolutely to die for. its pixie to the tree tops and just so sweet! im searching for a picture to add to this post..

winter..winter..winter...

I'm so sad. my hopes and dreams of posting regularly on my blog have been dashed since my computer crashed and died in December.. i had high hopes that it would be fixable, but no such luck. i did get an old computer given to me, but alas its a heap of crap, and every time i try to a) install flash player b) download pictures from my camera.. it restarts and acts all glitchy. so until i get the guts up to shell out mad cash to buy a new computer.. a laptop I'm thinking.. ill be blogging rarely. i suppose that i could still write, but somehow it feels so much less fun when there aren't pictures to post along with the words, because face it. my words are less than eloquent these days.. but since its been..well nearly two months since my last post i thought i had better say something!

my last post pail-o-snails.. well, i did make one, but i never did make a pail full. one day! i really tried to craft this winter, but having a 9-10-11 month old baby, a 3 year old!! and a 6 year old! makes it fairly difficult..especially since rue-bee is a mama's girl through and through..and pretty clingy these days to boot.

news..
ngaio turned 3 on November 28th.. it snowed that day, the first real snow of the year.. which is amazing because she was born on the first snow of that year ('05) it felt magical and special. after a snail cake with bees wax candles! and a special birthday party where she wore our new felt birthday crown and her snaily outfit i bought her from etsy we bundled up and had an evening of tobogganing in the dark snowyness.

i love that feeling of the first real wintery day when it all feels so wonderful. by now after 4 feet of snow..-36 temps and now rain and slushyness.. well, winter feels like it will never end!

more news..
elwynn turned 6 on December 26th.. the day after Christmas is a hard day for a birthday, but he did amazingly well, all considering. we had a small family party and..honestly its kind of a blur. but he was happy. birthdays are so strange. its a happy time, but also kind of sad for me. i cant believe that i have a 6 year old son! i mean.. really. that's pretty wild. he is so sweet and smart and artistic and independent. he is a person of his own. and a pretty wicked one at that! and my niece haeven had her 6th birthday on December 5th. i didn't get to see her but i was thinking of her lots that day. i remember when she was born. i became an auntie that day!!

rue is going to be 1 in a few weeks. she isn't yet walking, but is close! she says lots of words.. mostly mama, dog, ball, dad, gentle, up, down, hi, bye..im sure there are others.
life is a lot of fun with her in our lives.. much more so than i could have envisioned a year and a bit ago when i found out she was growing in my belly. having 3 kids is very rewarding, challenging for sure, but if anything its renewed my faith in the world and i know that i will have at least a few more some day. crazy? no!

and in other news, timothy got a new job as a baker at our local grocery store. he found out on the first of january. a very good omen! he seems to be enjoying it despite having to be there at 4am.
he is living in a house just a block from us.. im really happy about our family dynamic now. we get on great, have our space and have fun when we are together, which is what we lacked when living together. this year is proving to be a great one already.

happy winter solstice..happy new year..
love, light & wisdom to all.

fern&folk