Winner Spotlight :: Fairy Garden Contest 2012

Today's Winner Spotlight features a Fairy Garden from Our Broken Road that is truly amazing. Kitty, Teddy and I have poured over all the delightful details in this enchanted garden for hours... and we still keep finding things we didn't see before. Thank you to all the little fairies who made this garden and shared it in the Fairy Garden Contest... and congrats on being a winner :-)

We LOVED this gnome-sized totem pole...

Do you see the green crocodile lurking in this bubbling brook? We hope Fairy Mother holds onto her baby tightly as they canoe down to the Organic Fairy Market.

Isn't this little fairy sweet as she sits coyly outside her toadstool home. We LOVE her ladder too. And of course her leaf fairy friend waiting down below!

Anyone need something from the Farmer's Market?

Teddy agrees... no Fairy Garden is totally complete with out the resident red dragon!

Thank you for sharing your magical garden with us. I'm so excited for you to receive your prize :: a TWO YEAR subscription to my favorite magazine... Living Crafts!

Here's a link to see the Fairy Garden from last week's Winner Spotlight.
Here is a link to see the other winners of the 2012 Fairy Garden Contest.
And here is a link to the Fairy Garden Page where you can find lots of Fairy Garden inspiration. 

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Discovering Waldorf :: Modeling In Waldorf Educatioin

With the kids home for the Summer and being around them all day (or rather, them being around me all day) it has amazed me (once again) how they imitate what I do. Modeling what they see is such a huge part of how they learn. With certain things, I can tell them what to do until I am blue in the face... but it is when I quietly do these things with them, that doing them becomes part of who they are. It reminds me that modeling good behavior, modeling a calm and peaceful day is by far the easiest way to ensure good behavior and a calm and peaceful day!

To read more about 'Modeling in Waldorf Education' please visit this super Discovering Waldorf article written by Kristy Burns.

(Please feel free to add the above Discovering Waldorf button to your blog. You can do this by saving the above image to your desktop and then adding it to your blog as a Picture Gadget that links to this code:

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/search/label/Discovering%20Waldorf )

Discovering Waldorf is a weekly series of articles written by 'everyday' Waldorf families. The contributors to this series share their 'real-life' insights and inspirations on all kinds of Waldorf topics. This series is not meant to be Waldorf philosophy in its purest form, but rather a snapshot of how we can all incorporate Waldorf ideas into our lives to help nurture and encourage the magic that is in our children. If you have a topic you wish to learn more about (or want to share) on Discovering Waldorf, send me an email at vined(at)ymail(dot)com.

 Please visit the Discovering Waldorf Page for more info on Waldorf Education.
 

Blessings and magic, 

Donni

Stick and Acorn Men

A few years ago, we made these sweet little acorn guys on one of our summer camping trips and I thought I'd share them again now...

We have decided that it is a necessity to take 'magic eyes' on a camping trip. We call these 'magic eyes' as just about anything can be turned into an enchanting creature with these sweet little things. The are particularly nice as they come with adhesive on the back and so can be stuck onto anything without using messy glue. They can be found at most craft stores.

Look at how these googly eyes can turn a simple stick in to a little stick man.

Here is 'Mr Grumpy' and 'Mr Oh-My-Gosh'.

Here's 'Mr Happy'.

Here's Miss Smiley and her acorn friend.

Here is my little Teddy and his stick friend.

Here's 'Mrs Pine Needle'.

And here is the entire army!

Amazing that a little packet of sticky-eyes can create such an assortment of creatures. Don't forget to take some with you on your next summer camping adventure.

Blessings and magic
Donni

Magic Sponsor Giveaway :: Armadillo Dreams

I'm super excited to share one of my Magic Sponsors with you today...


The truth be told, I have poured over this gorgeous shop for hours. Their handmade wooden toys are simply beautiful. Simply BEAUTIFUL! Have a look for yourself...

These are gorgeous heirloom toys, aren't they! And, I'm even more excited to tell you that Armadillo Dreams is offering one lucky reader of this article a $50 spending spree in their shop... $50 to spend on whatever your little ones desire! Yay! Giveaway details are at the end of this post.

To learn a little more about the family behind this amazing toy shop, I've asked the dad, Dustin, to tell us a little about themselves...

:::

About Us:

Hi Magic Onion readers! My name is Dustin. I own/run Armadillo Dreams with my wife Amanda. I have lived in Central Oregon most of my life. I met Amanda during sophomore year in high school. After graduation we moved to Portland, Oregon for about 3 years and then moved back. We got married in 2004, had our daughter Lucy in 2007 and had our son Lincoln in 2010.

 

We love Central Oregon for the warm and sunny summers and because we get to experience each season here. We enjoy being outdoors as much as possible. Central Oregon is known for having an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities. You can do just about any outdoor sport/activity imaginable within about an hour drive from home. We have mountains, forest, desert, lakes and rivers all very close by. And the beach is only a 3-4 hour drive away! Central Oregon is an awesome place to raise a family.

About Armadillo Dreams:

Armadillo Dreams makes high quality handmade wooden toys. We make animals, figures, baby toys, pull toys, fantasy themed toys and other fun things! Some toys are painted, while others remain natural. Everything we sell is made from natural materials, is friendly for little hands and is handmade with love! We believe it's important for children to have high quality, natural, simple toys that they can dream, imagine and play with.

 

Our story:

Armadillo Dreams started in late 2010. We started the shop after I discovered a passion for woodworking. I completed a backyard chicken coop/run (we have 18 chickens currently) in the summer and was looking for new woodworking projects. We always wanted more wooden toys for our children, but didn’t have a lot of money. Amanda had already been selling on Etsy for about 5 years with her shop (Wild Plums: http://wildplums.etsy.com). We combined Amanda’s artistic skills and knowledge of Etsy with my passion for woodworking and Armadillo Dreams was born.

The shop started small selling only toys that were already made. I think we had 30-40 natural wooden toys in the shop maximum at any given time for about the first 6 months. We didn’t start making painted toys for about 4 or 5 months because we wanted to perfect our painting skills/methods. We wanted the paint to still show the wood grain underneath so that people could still appreciate the wood. We also wanted to create a painting process that would make it extremely difficult for the paint to wear off under play from children of all ages. Once we had painting down and started releasing painted toys, things really started taking off. It was also around that same time that we switched to having everything in the shop “made to order” (orders are usually made & shipped within 5-7 days), versus trying to keep a large inventory around. This allowed us to really concentrate efforts on expanding our catalog. Currently we are up to about 175 toys/sets.

No matter how big Armadillo Dreams gets we plan to keep operations small and home based. My woodshop is in our backyard (a large converted shed). We also have a two car garage that was remodeled into a family room that serves as an indoor work area. A lot of work also takes place on our dining room table. We like it that way.

Our future plans:

We are currently in the process of setting up http://armadillodreams.com with our own full shop and blog, plus some other fun things we are going to do on the website. We will be spending most of the summer and fall promoting it before the holiday season hits. We are also going to be working on getting our catalog up to about 225-250 items by the holidays. Our primary goal for 2012 is to make Armadillo Dreams capable of supporting our family financially on its own.

Giveaway:

We are giving away a $50 shopping spree in our shop to one lucky reader.

Links:

Website / Blog (coming soon): http://armadillodreams.com

Shop: http://armadillodreams.etsy.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/armadillodreams

Twitter: http://twitter.com/armadillodreams

Amanda’s other shops:

http://wildplums.etsy.com

http://littlevintageviolet.etsy.com

http://violetplays.etsy.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for daily specials, news, coupons and giveaways!

:::

Thank you, Dustin... it's so nice getting to know the people behind the scenes of our favorite online places and I'm honored to be able to share your creativity with my Magic Friends :-) I have made a personal commitment to support small businesses whenever I can and I know there are so many who join me in congratulating you and your family on your beautiful shop.

 :::

Now for the Giveaway... as Dustin said above, one lucky reader will win a $50 spending spree in Armadillo Dreams!!

This Giveaway has been won by the Mama over at 'Growing Like Weeds'. Congrats!!

To enter, simply let us know what you love about Armadillo Dreams toys in the comment section of this post. 

You can earn 5 extra entries by...

1. 'like' Armadillo Dreams on Facebook -  http://facebook.com/armadillodreams

2. 'Favorite' Armadillo Dreams on Etsy - http://armadillodreams.etsy.com

3. Blog about this Giveaway so that others can learn about it too.

4. Tweet about this Giveaway

5. Pin this Giveaway.

Be sure to come back and leave a comment for each additional entry.

This Giveaway is open to everyone, everywhere - except me :(

The Magic Winner will be announced on Sunday, May 20.

Good luck, my Friends, and remember to support Armadillo Dreams when you can. 

Blessings and magic, 

Donni

Discovering Waldorf : 100 Years of Eurythmy

A few days ago, the First and Second Grade classes of our magical Waldorf school invited their parents to watch them in their Eurythmy lesson. Oh my... what an enchanting experience it was. I have long wondered what Eurythmy actually,  really, was and seeing it for the first time has been wonderful. It's not just one thing, I realized... it's many! Dance, movement, story, performance, music, spiritual concentration... are but a few of the words I can find to describe what I watched my 8 year old daughter do. I loved it and, to be honest, wished I could do it too :-)

Here is an article I found that documents Eurythmy's last 100 years...  Eurythmy Celebrates 100 Years by Mary Elizabeth Lenahan on Bella Sparks.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Yarn Wrapped Branches for Spring

I saw some wonderfully colorful, yarn wrapped, branches on Pinterest the other day and knew that Kitty and I would have to give them a go. What a perfect way to bring a splash of rustic Spring color into our home.

So, on a cold and rainy day, Kitty and I set to work. The trick is to choose nice sturdy sticks that have great random angles and twiggy nodes. We used our rainbow yarn that changes color every so often. It's important to always use quality yarn and well worth the extra few dollars for the beautiful results good yarn ensures. It's important to me that Kitty and I work with yarn made of natural materials... wool, alpaca, cotton. There's something magical about working with natural materials... it's a warming and authentic experience and if you are going to spend the time making something, you might as well respect it enough to make the whole experience as meaningful as possible.

As we worked together, wrapping tightly our sticks, Kitty and I talked about what colors we liked best and why. We thought about what each color means to us and what it makes us think of. Our time together is so precious and I value these bonding times with all my heart. Getting to know her as she blossoms in to a beautiful person is a true gift of motherhood.

And, to make something beautiful together is a gift too... aren't they lovely!

How do you bond with your children?

Blessings and magic,
Donni

The Role of Media in Our Home.

Some of you have asked questions about the role media plays in our home. Do we watch television, do we watch movies, do we play video games?

I feel this is a very touchy subject and am hoping I can share how our family handles media in our home in a non-judgemental and truthful way.

Our family subscribes to many Waldorf philosophies and limiting media exposure is one we buy into without reservation. There are many reasons why we feel that TV is against the best interests of our children. Not only have we have read many articles and studies that regale the negative effects that too much TV has on young, developing, brains. But we have also realized that when we have randomly watched TV with our children, we have come away from the experience knowing in our hearts that the time we have just spent has been, if not a negative and harmful experience, then at least a total waste of our family time. So, yes, we do actively limit media exposure in our home.

Not completely though. About three and a bit years ago, when Kitty was 4, we decided to end our cable subscription and therefore do not have any television channels in our house at all. We do have a portable DVD machine and a number of DVD's that Matthew and I have carefully selected. Our children watch a few of the Disney fairytale movies that we think are lovely (albeit far too long) and we have a number of Nature DVD's like 'Earth' and David Attenborough. These, our children are allowed to watch if they feel like it. Father Christmas brought them a delightful set of DVD's called Storybook International which I think is a marvelous series for anyone who want's to make sure their children are watching quality stories. There are 10 discs and each disc has about 5, beautifully narrated fairytales on it. The stories are tales and legends that have been collected from around the world. They tell of places like Africa, Russia and India. And they are acted by wonderful actors with beautiful scenery. I love that each story is only about 20 minutes long so my children are not 'locked in' to an hour and a half like they are with other movies. And I love that they are learning about other cultures and countries. Here is a YouTube clip of one of the fairytales... The Stubborn Princess.

By not having TV channels in our home, there is never an opportunity to ever randomly watch TV. Any movie time they do have is a conscious decision. And what they watch is a conscious decision too. It's totally amazing to me that, having been out of the TV scene for so long, I find what my friends call 'educational' TV utterly jarring and inappropriate. They say... 'But, how can Dora be harmful?' I don't want to say that it is harmful, but to me who has become sensitized to TV (as opposed to desensitized) Dora is loud and brash and mesmerizing in a Kaa (the snake from the Jungle Book) kind of way. I am somewhat appalled at the TV shows that are directed at the 8 to 10 year old audience. They are, in my opinion, often sassy, far too grown up and, again, inappropriate for children who should still be innocent in mind and spirit. Whenever I happen to catch a moment or two of them, I feel immensely relieved that my 8 year old is not subjected to them on a daily basis. I find the advertising during these shows alarming too.

We are not dogmatic about no TV. If we are at someones house and the kids are watching the television, we will make sure that they are watching a kids' channel and let it fly. There have been times when I have felt totally uncomfortable with what has been on the TV when at a friends house and I have had to make an issue of it. On one occasion, the adults were watching 'Bounty Hunter' when the children joined us. Our friends thought nothing of it and I had to be brave enough to ask them to turn it off. Another time, the adults were watching the news and the kids joined us when a news story about mothers who murder their babies came on. On both occasions, I was utterly amazed that our friends thought nothing of letting their children watch such sensitive material. Both of these experiences were highly uncomfortable for me but they strengthened my resolve to protect my children from media I feel they are too young for.

I have had people say to me, 'It's an ugly world out there... you shouldn't shield them from the truth they might, one day, have to face.' My response is 'Why?'... 'Why should a young spirit know that there is ugliness out there?' I want it to be a beautiful world for as long as possible... with any luck it might just be beautiful for them forever.

A Good Man and I don't miss the television at all. We get our news from reading newspapers, the internet and NPR. And, I have to admit to having had a horrible addiction to reality TV and was guilty of spending  wasting hour upon hour watching utter junk. We have a Netflix subscription and watch an hour of TV a night on my laptop after the kids have gone to bed. Mindless TV watching is not an option.

Our children do not play video games. They do not use the computer. At 8 and 4, and at a Waldorf school, there's no need for them to have computer screen time. I have an ipad that has a few free games on it and they play on it when were are waiting somewhere and there is nothing else for them to do.

We have quite a few books on tape and Kitty sometimes loves to listen to her favorite stories like Little House on the Prairie. And I am really thinking of joining Sparkle Stories for her when finances ease up a little for us. I know she'll love having a regular subscription of beautiful stories to listen to.

What do our children do instead of watching TV? They play together, they play alone, they play inside, they play outside, they read books, they knit, they practice shooting arrows, they paint, they draw, they build forts, they build blocks, they make up stories, they make gnomes, play ball...

In a nutshell, we do not miss having a television in our house. Our children do have media time. And we get a little free time while they are watching their stories but no more than when they are playing or reading or crafting. We like that it is quality media that we have carefully preselected. Childhood is just too precious to spend in front of a TV.

I hope this has been helpful in some way.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Make a Bark Boat

Oh the simple joys of making our own boats. We have been on a boat-making spree lately and what masterpieces we have made. You can see our other creations here and here.

Today, we made our best boat of all... a bark boat. I can't tell you the joy I feel when I watch my little boy's confidence in his own creativity grow. I love to see him realize that he is a 'maker'. I encourage and suggest, of course, and I help when I am asked, but I am also mindful to allow his own ideas to develop. Being a 'maker' myself, it's not always easy to sit back and let someone else's creative spirit control the creation, but I am happy to say that, with lots of practice, I am becoming a pro :-)

I suggested we find a nice piece of bark for our next boat and off into the neighborhood we went in search of the prefect piece.

With our gorgeous thick pine bark in hand, we found a stick for a mast and cut it to the right length.

Teddy decided where the mast should go.

And then drilled a hole for it in his bark.

He stuck the mast in some wood glue.

And glued it into the hole he had made.

I helped him choose a fabric for the sail and he cut out a large triangle which we stuck to the mast.

When it had dried we had our prettiest boat yet. But wait... it needed a motor and Teddy stuck the perfect pine cone in place.

We took it to the river to see if it would float.

Of course we needed a long stick to push it around.

And 'drive' it wherever we wanted it to go.

And the tiniest dragonfly landed on Teddy's leg let to see what we were up to.

Another day of fun with our own handmade toys. Another opportunity to play in the fresh air, with sticks and water and mud. Another beautiful day with my children.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

The Joy in a Simple Toy.

Yesterday, I wrote about how we are trying to live simply in our big city and about how it's not always the easiest thing to do. When you not only have a Target on every corner but also a Toys R Us, a TJ Maxx and a Ross, it's really hard not to buy the remote controlled speed boat for your little boy, especially since it's only $10.

But, if you have consciously chosen to simplify your child's life, NOT buying this racy toy is much more of a gift to him. 'WHY?' you might ask. For me, the answer lies in the possibility that by giving him this high tech toy to play with, you might be taking from him the joy he could be having in the more simple things around him.

We planned a trip to our local Nature Center which has a softly meandering river that snakes it's way around the trails. We often prepare for our walk by making a boat from nature bits we collect around the yard. Today, we made a simple raft from sticks and yarn.

Teddy cut the sticks to the right length.

And I helped him tie them together to make a simple raft.

We set off on our boating adventure and launched our raft.

We were delighted when we discovered that it floated. 

We found a long stick and spent a good while pushing it this way and that in the water.

We played for a long time in the fresh air and the water with our handmade boat.

THIS is the experience I'd rather Teddy have. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with playing with a remote controlled boat. What I am saying is that I'd rather my 4 year old find the joy in a more simple experience with a stick and a raft he has made with his own two hands. And I'm also not saying I'll never allow him to play with a remote controlled boat... but I will always actively encourage him in the more natural, authentic, experiences whenever I can.

Blessings and magic,
Donni