Handmade Chirstmas Gifts :: Painted Peg People

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Kitty and Teddy are each getting a set of themselves for Christmas this year. It's sweet (and funny) how they often play 'brother and sister' and now they can play 'brother and sister' with their new peg gnomes.

I made them using the little peg people forms you can get at any craft store... mine came from Michaels.

I used a wood burning tool I've been dying to use to draw the outlines onto the little wooden peg people and write the children's names on the bottom of each but a black fine tipped permanent marker will work just as well. I colored in the details with colored permanent markers and then sealed them with a coat of hodgepodge.

I tried to make them look like themselves... Teddy with his golden hair and blue eyes and Kitty with her new short hair and long eyelashes.

And then I put each set in a little box, wrapped them sweetly and put them under the tree. Under the tree is getting fuller and fuller and brother and sister are having an exciting time trying to guess what's inside each gift. This one is about the size of a Rubik's Cube and Teddy thinks it might contain a pair of rain boots for him. I love how Kitty, who of course knows that rain boots would never fit into a package that small, smiles with him and agrees that rain boots would be nice.

Happy Christmas crafting,
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Living the Millionaire Life

The Enchanted Cupboard was one of my very first sponsors and I am very happy that Beccijo has been with me for almost two years. It was love at first sight when I first saw her magical wooden toys. I have so enjoyed watching her shop grow and her creativity explode... oh my... her shop is so aptly named... it is An Enchanted Cupboard for sure!!

Today, Beccijo has written a guest post for us. It's a story of how we can do anything!

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Living the Millionaire Life

I am sure this post’s title sparked your interest! This is more about living a dream, than it is about a fat bank account, though, more about finding joy. Years before my etsy shop, when my house was full of little boys, I had a dream to live my best life. I wanted to be thriving, not just surviving. Most days it was hard to find joy as all 3 of my boys were under 5 and my house and life showed it. While I spent many hours watching my boys grow and learn, I needed something to do for myself. So I started a dream journal, “What I would do if I won the Lottery.”

Being an at-home homeschooling mom with a husband who worked long hours gave me a lot of time to think. I was starting to feel like I was losing myself in a world of plastic toys and boy stuff. My journal was fun and gave my brain something to do. Now something you must know about me, if I am going to do something, I do it well!  Even my daydreams - I did them well. I planned and made a list, well several hundred lists (but who’s counting)? I planned crazy extended family vacations and made green living camping villages. Over time, my list came down to what I would truly do, how I would live with no obstacle.

I found the real me while doing this fun game, and one day, I thought, ‘the only thing keeping me from this dream life is not the lottery but ME’. Before, I had decided that to have this BEST life I needed money, but I didn’t, I just needed a plan! My journal had now become a dream board.  I collaged what I saw my life being, and everyday I prayed and meditated about it. I found pictures on the internet that gave the feel of what I truly wanted and I tacked them on my board. Slowly my dream was mapped out before me, and I placed it on the wall and I looked at it everyday! I envisioned myself there, and soon, I realized I could have what I wanted as long as I was open to how it came to me.

Being open was probably the hardest part... accepting that things could just come to me because I wanted them. Like I wanted a great pair of jeans that fit just right, but maybe, I had to be open that they might be hand–me-down and not a great bargain at the mall.  As I was given each gift from my board, the picture it represented was taken down. Soon, I could see spaces opening, and as they did I reworked and added new things.

My husband and I had given up hope of having a little girl or at least that is what we/I said. I had a tiny picture of a baby tied up in a pink ribbon on my board, and the day we got our ultrasounds showing her, I kissed it, took it down and put it in my journal. She is perfectly what I wanted!! She was very girly and sweet! She also brought me my desire to make things. I wanted to fill her world with pretty things, things I made for her. Out of that came my shop full of lovely girly things to treasure and adore. This brought a new chapter to my life and ETSY into my world.

Slowly each picture came down: a house in the country, in Pennsylvania, to be exact, with room for the boys to run; a new job for the hubby, with a short commute and more time for the family, to name a few. We got like-minded friends for me and the kids, and a great homeschooling community. My business is booming and I opened a brick and mortar store in town. All things that we have been blessed with have been taken down, one by one.

We keep dreaming; it is the best part of being human. We have now made a new board focusing on our family and the mini farm we will have one day. The greatest lesson I learned is that our hearts’ desires are just waiting like tiny seeds, just under the ground, to be able to grow and bring us joy.

What would you put on your dream board?

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Oh, yes we can!!

Thanks for sharing your inspiring story, Beccijo. 

Please have a look at all of the truly enchanting wooden goodies in The Enchanted Cupboard...

Wooden Play Set From The Enchanted Cupboard

 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

How to restore a grotty wooden bowl.

I have a penchant for old wooden bowls. I search for them everywhere; estate sales, junk yards, garage sales... I even found one in the trash a few months ago! Why, you might ask... look how horrid they look, all dirty and moldy and grimy. Yuck, you would say if you were my husband.
Just wait, I would reply... let me work my magic and you'll see!

Here is my cleanup and restoration method... Look at this old wooden bowl I found at a garage sale over the weekend. It is filthy and stained. It has moldy patches on it. It is discolored.


See the grime and the water stains...


First, I am going to show you how I clean it up and then I'll show you how to make a polish to restore it's splendor and make it shine. I use my bowls for displaying my collections of acorns and stones and such. I don't use them for food. If I did, I'd use an olive oil/beeswax polish instead.

For cleaning, you'll need boiling water and bicarb of soda (the stuff you put in your fridge to keep it smelling nice)

What you'll need for the polish is odorless turpentine, beeswax and your favorite essential oil... mine is lavender.



To clean the bowl, I soak it in warm water for a few minutes. Then I scrub it with dish detergent and a scrubbing brush (here's a use for that no-longer-needed bottle brush)
I scrub it hard. Then I rinse it and fill it with boiling water, letting it stand for a few minutes.


I pour out the boiling water and put a handful of bicarbonate of soda into the bowl. I add a few drops of water until it forms a paste and then I scrub it again, using my hands. You will be so surprised at what comes off... it is all the old grime and residue. The bicarb scours wonderfully gently. The paste turns brown. I feel soooooo satisfied.

When I feel that it has been scoured clean, I rinse off the bicarb paste thoroughly and scrub it again quickly with dish detergent. Then I put it out in the sun to dry.

Look at the beautiful whiteness it dries to. Ohhhhh it is so clean and lovely. I adore this vintage look and often leave it just like this.


But sometimes, it needs to have a little more TLC. This is how I make my polish..

I couldn't find my measuring cup anywhere (Kids! *big dramatic sigh*) so I improvised with an old yogurt container (4 oz).

1 cup of odorless Turpentine (2 yogurt containers)
1/2 cups of melted beeswax (1 yogurt container)
a few drops of essential oil (optional)


Make a bain-marie on your stove to melt the beeswax (if you want instruction on how to safely melt beeswax, take a look at the other posts I've done on working with beeswax)
While it is melting, sit your turpentine in a bowl of warm water... you want it to be warm when you add your hot melted beeswax. When wax is melted, add it to the warm turpentine and stir thoroughly. When it has cooled a little, add your essential oil and stir again.


As the mixture cools, it emulsifies into a wonderfully thick polish.


Use a lint free rag to rub the polish into the bowl evenly. I apply a few coats and Voila! A beautifully stained and polished wooden bowl. I love knowing that it has had a myraid of lives before this on, that it has been loved, tossed aside, forgotten, discarded, found, restored and then loved again. Phew... how romantic!


Look at the beautiful grain marking that appeared.


Isn't it amazing how you can turn a grotty old thing into a beauty.

Blessings and magic,
Donni