How To Make A Corn Cob Doll

Granny helped Teddy make Kitty a Corn Cob Doll. The boy is now a Little House On The Prairie convert... and Granny too!

We started with some old corn cobs that we had cleaned and set out in the warm Fall sun to dry.

Teddy then used a little saw to cut the cobs to the right size...

Then, he trimmed the edges so that they were nice and rounded.

These are the segments he cut for Kitty's doll... a small section for the head, a large one for her torso, two segments each for two legs.

I used a permanent marker to mark where he was to drill holes into each segment so that we could connect them with wire.

He LOVED this part of the project.

He drilled holes through each corn cob segment.

Then he threaded wire through the holes.

Don't you just love his dirty little boy hands?

He twisted the wire pieces together to connect the head to the torso and the legs to the torso.

We cut lengths of rope into threes fro the dolls arms, tied them together with a simple knot.

And braided the rope to make arms.

We measured some pretty fabric for her dress against our corn cob doll and folded it into 4.

Rounded the bottom edges.

And cut a small hole in the top corner for her neck.

With the dress on her, we cut small holes for her arms.

Some hot glue from my gun fastened her corn silk hair.

And a pretty little fabric bow...

Voila!! The prettiest little corn cob doll you ever did see...

Kitty was DELIGHTED! And Teddy was even more so to realize that we can make our own toys. Ha! Thanks Granny... Your sweet doll still sits in pride of place on Kitty's 'SPECIALS' shelf... she say's she will keep her forever. We miss you more than you can know.

Happy November Friends!
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Heirloom Wooden Toys

I am so excited to introduce you to another new sponsor... Fins and Flowers Handmade Toys. I have drooled over their beautiful wooden toys for ages and I'm sure you will too. Fins and Flowers Handmade Toys is a delightful family-run business so you know that the toys they make are not only made beautifully but also made with family love. I've asked Melody to tell us a little about her shop. Welcome, Melody.

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Finns & Flowers Handmade Toys is a small business run by me, Melody, and my husband T.J. We live on a small homestead in rural Maine with our three sweet blessings and inspirations, Lily Mae 6, Finn 3 and Sorrel 16 months. All born peacefully at home.


We really feel blessed to live in an area where it is so easy and natural for us to do what we do.
There are so many like-minded people around. Organic farming and gardening are the norm and most of the people that we know have had their little ones at home.


We raise pigs and chickens for food and we have some sweet laying hens that the kids adore, two dogs and a cat. We hope to add a few sheep to the menagerie sometime in the near future. We love to garden organically and can, freeze and dry as much food as possible for our long, cold Maine winters.


We really do strive to live simply and naturally and after Lily was born, we knew that we needed those principles to stand strong in all of the decisions we made regarding our new little joy, including what kind of toys we let her play with. So after looking through toy catalogs and a few conversations that had me saying "You could make that for Lily couldn't you?" and T.J. saying "I think I could make that or my own version of that anyway, maybe...I can try at least!" he set to work and when Lily was two she had an adorable wooden barn to play with closely followed by a wooden play kitchen (which we hope to add to the shop sometime soon). Both of these are still going strong after many, many hours of (mostly) blissful play!

One customer wrote to us to tell us how much she and her son loved their new toy and she said that our toys "seem to have a soul of their own." That was such an amazing compliment and it is our hope that everyone who plays with our toys can feel the love and care that we put into them.


We strive to make our toys with three guiding principles: they have to be safe, they need to be durable as well as beautiful and they need to engage the child's heart, hands & head. We determine the first one and our kids help us out with the other two.

Working from home, as many of you know, certainly isn't all sunshine and daisies. There are many a day where things don't go as planned and a lot that we still need to figure out and we are working on accepting that, but there are a few things that we do know that keep us going. We really do love making the toys we make, we love our customers and all of the children that find joy in those toys and we love working at home, surrounded by the ones that we love most.

Spring will soon be bringing some fresh, new items to our shop and we would love for you to come on over and check it out!
Thank you!

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I'm having 'garden envy' right now! Melody, your organic veggie garden is so cool to see. You guys must have delicious veggies for supper. And, as usual, your beautiful toys are making me so excited... that tractor and wagon!!! I know a little boy who would seriously LOVE it! (and, his birthday is coming up :-)

Please, dear friends, pop on over to Fins and Flowers Handmade Toys and bookmark them as a favorite so that you can find them easily when you are looking for that perfect gift for your special darlings.

Thanks for sharing your lives with us Melody.
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Discovering Waldorf - 'The Kintted Toy'.

Please welcome Linda, from Natural Suburbia, as our Guest Blogger on Discovering Waldorf today. Linda is a superb knitter and spends many hours a day knitting delightful toys for her children and her Etsy shop. She has four sweet kids, all of whom are homeschooled. Linda's homeschooling is Waldorf inspired and you have just to visit her blog to see what gorgeous little people she is raising. Please enjoy Linda's post on 'The Knitted Waldorf Toy'.

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The Knitted Waldorf Toy

The knitted toy plays a large role in a child's play experience within Waldorf philosophy. There are so many knitted toys out there that are wonderfully made, but I think the ones that Waldorf families gravitate towards have certain subtle elements that encourage people to have these particular knitted toys in favour of others.

The knitted Waldorf toy is beautiful in its simplicity. It is this simplicity that draws this type of toy into the consciousness of the child's play. When we look at other toys that are available for children to play with, most are plastic and bright and have loud sounds emanating from them. Waldorf inspired thinking sees these types of toys as being over-stimulating. They might hold the attention of a child for a while but the child soon becomes over-stimulated and, thus, bored. As it usually has only one play purpose, when this has been fulfilled, it is no longer attractive to the child as all play possibilities have been exhausted.

A knitted Waldorf toy is not shiny or noisy. It has no sharp edges and has an almost organic sense to it. It is soft and natural and usually has a very simplified shape and appearance. I believe it is this gentleness that resonates with the heart of a child causing the child to want to experience this toy over and over again and hold it close. The knitted toy is open ended, meaning that it's simple nature lends itself to so many play possibilities. It requires imagination and this is what makes it so attractive to children in so many different play scenarios.

The majority of toys have just one facial expression, usually a happy, smiling face, with large eyes and a smiling mouth. Knitted toys that are considered Waldorf, may have a very slight expression on their faces, two eyes and a mouth that is neither smiling nor sad and others that have no facial features at all. This allows the toy to exhibit whichever emotion the child may wish the toy to portray at that particular moment. The child's imagination is free to change the toys emotions as the moment takes him. However, with a fixed expression of a smiling face, how could the toy ever be anything else...

The way a knitted toy is made is magic in itself too. The materials that are used to create knitted toys are a gift from the sheep. The transformation of fibre to yarn, yarn to delightfully knitted toy, is a wonderful journey that is lovely to watch. The wool from the sheep is sheared and cleaned, it is usually very soiled and greasy when the wool is sheered. The grease is a substance called Lanolin, which has many uses. After the wool has been cleaned it can either be hand carded to make it easier to work with, removing all the knots or it can be sent to a mill to convert all this lovely wool into roving that can easily be spun into yarn on a spinning wheel. If one would like to add a dye to the wool, it can either be dyed as a roving or as yarn after the yarn has been spun. The yarn is still in a skein at this point and is then wound into a ball that is ready to be knitted into a beautiful treasure for a child to play with.

A wonderful story that you could read to your child is 'Pelle's New Suit' by Elsa Beskow... it follows the story of wool from the sheep to a completed item of clothing.

Here are some wonderful knitting books for knitted Waldorf toys:

A First Book of Knitting by Bonnie Gosse and Jill Allerton
Knitting for Childern A Second Book by Bonnie Gosse and Jill Allerton.

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Thank you Linda.

I know from watching my own children that it is the shiny, loud toys that are quickly discarded while the gentle, handmade toys are loved forever. I have often wondered if it is worth the extra expense to buy my children the more expensive handmade Waldorf toys. My conclusion is that I actually spend less if I buy heirloom toys as they will be played with far more often, last longer and even be handed down from child to child. Fewer, better made, heirloom toys are the way we have chosen to go.

Thank you to Linda for explaining the simple beauty of knitted toys. More of Linda's adorable creations can be found in her Etsy shop, Mamma4Earth. Linda's blog, Natural Suburbia, is inspirational. I so enjoy following the daily adventures of this sweet family. Pop in for a visit... you'll be glad you did!

For other Waldorf inspired toys, have a look at the shops in the Natural Kids Store.

For other posts in the Discovering Waldorf Series, look here.

Thank you Linda and blessings and magic to all.