Inspiration

Photograph by Dovie Moon on Etsy

No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.



                                                    Helen Keller

Blessings and magic,
Donni

New in the Shop.

 I have made some new Christmas Ornaments for Fairyfolk...

Rainbow Christmas Gifts

Needle Felted Peas in a Pod

Woodland Owls

Pastel Toadstools

Visit Fairyfolk to see more Needle Felted Christmas Ornaments.

Blessings and magic, 

Donni

Friday's Nature Table

You are most welcome to share this great resource on your own blogs... (save the above Friday's Nature Table button to your desktop and then add it to your blog as a picture gadget linking to this code...

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/search?q=Friday%27s+Nature+Table)

Welcome, Friends. I want to thank you all for the wonderfully inspiring links you share here on Friday's Nature Table. Kitty and I go through them each week and are often amazed at the super cool things you all do. You all rock!

Friday's Nature table is where we share our inspiration with each other. I can't tell you how many wonderfully fantastic ideas we have found from your links... your blogs, your creativity, your families, your loving... has touched my heart and enriched my life.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Discovering Waldorf :: Schools That Don't Compute

Have you read this super article first published this week in the The New York Times Technology section...

A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute

Hmmm... Makes you think, doesn't it!

Thank you to Waldorf Today for giving us a more simple page to read it from :-)

Visit the 'Discovering Waldorf' Page (just below the header of my blog) to read other great Waldorf articles.

Blessings and magic, 

Donni

Fall Pomegranate Salad

Speaking of pomegranates, Ingrid from Spain is here to tell us about her pomegranate adventures...

 : : : 

 

One of our favorite fruits of autumn are the pomegranate. We cut them in half and get out the sweet red balls. 

This weekend we decided to prepare a nuts and pomegranate salad with lettuce varied to give a touch of color. My assistant was caught red-handed, eating up part of the salad we were preparing together ;P

You dare to make one like this? is very tasty! :)

: : : 

I do dare, Ingrid! And I bet the kids will love to help prepare this dinner AND even eat some, if any of the ingredients actually get into the salad, that is!

Ingrid writes a beautiful blog called Idniama and has an utterly gorgeous shop on Etsy by the same name, Idniama. Please pop over for a visit... you'll fall in LOVE with her utterly unique crocheted jewelry. 

Blessings and magic and happy pomegranate eating, 

Donni

Pomegranates for Dinner!

I'm sure we aren't the only ones enjoying lovely RED juicy pomegranates...

Yum!!!!

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Inspiration

 

 

Photo by DovieMoon on Etsy

 "Growth demands a temporary surrender of security" (Gail Sheehy)

Blessings and magic, 

Donni

New in the Shop

This might sound totally crazy... like when you walk into Target and see snowflakes and Christmas trees all over the place and think, 'Come on... it's not even November yet!', but, I have to tell you all that Fairyfolk is getting very busy and I can see that the Holiday/Christmas Season will be FRANTIC busy for me. So, if you are at all thinking of getting your little loved ones any felted goodies from Fairyfolk, please do your Christmas shopping sooner rather than later. I have tried to build up stock but can never quite get enough to see my through the Christmas Season. Just a heads up from a last minute person, not to leave it until the last minute :-)

Fairyfolk

So, if you have a little boy who needs a little sheep to love...

Or a dragon and his playscape to play with...

Or you have a little girl who needs a sweet little mouse...

Or a needs a magical toadstool terrarium necklace full magic...

Or you have a Grandma who would love some cute colorful acorns to get her through the cold winter months...

Or you want to make your Christmas tree magical this year...

Or ALL red!

 Or, you have a man who needs a little textured coolness in his office study...

Don't leave your Fairyfolk shopping until the last minute... just saying ;-)

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Friday's Nature Table

You are most welcome to share this great resource on your own blogs... (save the above Friday's Nature Table button to your desktop and then add it to your blog as a picture gadget linking to this code...

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/search?q=Friday%27s+Nature+Table)

Welcome, Friends. I want to thank you all for the wonderfully inspiring links you share here on Friday's Nature Table. Kitty and I go through them each week and are often amazed at the super cool things you all do. You all rock!

Friday's Nature table is where we share our inspiration with each other. I can't tell you how many wonderfully fantastic ideas we have found from your links... your blogs, your creativity, your families, your loving... has touched my heart and enriched my life.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Discovering Waldorf : : : Waldorf Reading List

So many of you who read this Discovering Waldorf Series have asked for an extended Waldorf reading list. Here is a super list I have found from the New Amsterdam Early Childhood Center.

Waldorf Reading List.

I would like to add my very favorite Waldorf book of all... Seven Times The Sun by Shea Darian.

Click on this link to read the other Discovering Waldorf Articles.

Happy Reading,
Blessings and magic,
Donni

How To Make Beautiful Butterfly Rocks

With the pretty transferables that were left over from making our school lunch containers yesterday, we decided to make, as Kitty calls them, 'Beautiful Butterfly Rocks'

We chose some wonderfully smooth pebbles and made sure they were clean and dry.

Then we rubbed the butterfly transferables onto the rocks.

Voila!! 'Beautiful Butterfly Rocks!

Kitty chose her favorite wooden bowl and now has her 'Beautiful Butterfly Rocks' on her bedside table. They do look so very pretty!

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Pretty Waldorf Lunch Containers

Finding pretty school lunch containers and drinking bottles for a Waldorf school is always such a struggle. Most Waldorf schools ask that the kids not bring any items that have 'characters' on them... no disney, no Dora, no Star Wars.  To narrow our choices even further, I am one who has bought into the 'plastic-is-dangerous' brigade in a big way too. Our containers have to be wood, glass or stainless steel. Try finding a kids size lunch container that complies! Almost impossible. And, finding a pretty or cool one IS impossible!

But don't fear, those of you who are thinking that we have made our lives far too complicated. We have come up with our own, fun, solution... we adorn the basic containers we can find with pretty transferables. We found these transferables at Michaels and I know that you can find other lovely ones online too.

Here is a before shot of a few glass jars and Teddy's Thermos. See how plain and boring they are?

 

We decided which transferables to put where and Teddy rubbed them onto his container with an ice cream stick.

Kitty's glass jars get pretty involved as she beautifies them with ladybirds, butterflies and bees.

Now Teddy's school lunch container is pretty cool!

 And Kitty' glass jars are just beautiful!

I do not put these containers in the dishwasher, however, if I was going to put them in, I would paint over the transferrables with a layer of food safe varnish.

Now, Kitty and Teddy really do think that they have the most beautiful lunch containers around.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Spring Nest Tutorial

Fairyfolk Needle Felting Kit :: Spring Nest

www.fairyfolk.etsy.com 

I am so excited to share this Spring robin's nest needle felting tutorial with you. Even if you've never needle felted before, you'll be amazed at how quickly and easily you can make this little treasure.

  
Needle felting equipment - Needle felting requires three tools; wool roving, a felting needle and a protective foam board.

Wool roving looks like cotton candy. When the sheep is sheered, the fleece is washed and dried and then it is 'carded' - brushed so that all the knots and clumps are brushed out and the fibers of the wool all run the same way. It is then dyed... any wonderful color under the sun :-) This roving can then be spun into yarn (for knitting) or it can be felted.

The protective foam board is not absolutely necessary but it is definitely recommended when you are learning to needle felt. The needle is very sharp and if you don't have a board upon which to steady your work, you will find yourself painfully stabbed more than once.

The felting needle is about 3 inches long. As I said before, it is very sharp. The tip of the needle has a number of small barbs and it is these barbs that felt the wool. It works because the outer surface of each fiber of wool has tiny, microscopic scales on it. When the fiber is agitated, the scales hook into one another, forming a tighter and tighter mass. The needle works because the barbs of the needle 'grab' the fibers as you stab it into the wool, depositing the fibers deeper into the wool. The little scales on the fibers lock together, ensuring that the fibers stay in their new place. By stabbing the wool hundreds of times with your needle, you have control over the form of your wool and can shape it as you wish. You can see the barbs if you look closely at the tip of your needle. 

This tutorial will show how to make a sweet robins nest... a simple and fast project for beginner needle felting.

Start by breaking the blue wool into three strips of roughly the same size... as you can see from the photo, the lengths should be about double the width of your hand.

Roll each strip between your hands as you would if you were rolling a ball of playdough into a snake.

With your forefinger and thumb, roll the wool 'snake' into a tight spiral. The tighter you can get it, the easier it will be to felt.

Tip: I find that rolling is key in many of my felting projects... if I can roll the wool tightly to begin with, I can greatly reduce the time my form takes to felt.

 When the  blue wool has been rolled into a tight spiral, I set it down on the felting board and stab it with the needle many times around the outside of the spiral. Be slow and deliberate with your stabbing in the beginning, and concentrate, please... it hurts when you stab yourself... it's definitely not the end of the world, but it is better avoided :-)

You will soon see that this stabbing holds the wool in place and the spiral will not unravel if you let it go.

To round the ends so that your creation starts to look like an egg, gently loosen the the outside layer of wool  around the spiral by pulling it with your thumb and forefinger. Fold this pulled layer over the spiral edge and needle felt it gently. Needle felt the edges until your shape becomes a smooth round ball.

 Roll your ball in your hands as if you were rolling a marble in your hands... this will help shape your ball. Then needle felt it again into the egg shape you want.  Continue with the other strips of blue wool, following the same technique for each egg.

 Now that your eggs are ready, they need a mossy nest to nestle comfortably in. First, we need to tie our twine onto the edge of the nest so that it will hang nicely. Thread the twine through a strand of vine and fasten it with a knot. Do the same for the other side, making sure that your nest hangs straight before making the second knot.



Now we need to line the nest with moss. Take about a handful of mossy green wool and gently pull it so that it makes a rough circle. Gently flatten it between your hands.

Place this green wool over the nest and push it into the hollow of the nest.

 Needle felt the wool gently into the nest. Remember to keep your nest on the protective foam board as your needle will sometimes go all the way through the nest and you don't want the nest to be sitting on your lap when the needle pokes through the bottom! Ouch!

 You will see that as you gently needle felt the wool into the strands of the nest, the nest indent will become more and more pronounced, making a lovely hollow for the sweet little eggs to nestle in.

In go the three little robins eggs and Voila! What a sweet Spring nest you have made. Just perfect for hanging from your chandelier, twig tree on your nature table or anywhere else in your home that is ready to welcome in the Spring.
 

I have other needle felting kits available in my shop too if you wish to try something else... felted pebbles for lovely home decor, felted pumpkins, felted hearts, felted wreaths, felted balls as well as kits of lovely colored wool for you to make whatever your heart desires. Please visit my shop Fairyfolk to see them all and look under the 'Needle Felting Kits' section.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any felting questions.

Happy Spring crafting, 

Blessings and magic, 

Donni

Please visit my other spaces...

Blog: www.themagiconions.blogspot.com

Fairyfolk Shop: www.fairyfolk.etsy.com

Photography Gallery: www.doviemoon.etsy.com

Fairyfolk Weddings: www.fairyfolkweddings.etsy.com