This Moment- Her Favorite Toy

From SouleMama: {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Share your own moment in the comments or atSouleMama.com.

Yarn Along - Preparing for Spring

I'm joining with Ginny at Small Things again for the Yarn Along. This week my reading has largely been continuing to read Sanctuaries of Childhood, and as I look forward towards spring I've been consulting with Wynstoes Press's Spring book. We've started doing a story and a few circle verses each morning after breakfast again and I'd like to keep it up as we move into spring so I'm going through my resources.

I'm continuing working on the picky pants that I wrote about last week. I've finished the short rows in them so just a little bit more till I start the gussets and legs. My new project this week has been getting more of my attention. I started working on another Autumn Leaves sweater for Rosebud. This time I'm knitting it in white to go over her Easter Dress and Baptism gown. With Easter being so early this year I'm going to make this one with long sleeves since it's likely to be a bit chilly. I LOVE this pattern. It's absolutely one of my favorites and was even more enjoyable to knit the second time.

Simple Joys-Signs of Spring

What a great joy it was to walk out on my balcony this week and find little leaf buds on the stems of my rose bush!  Even on a cold day like today seeing this is a reminder that spring is in deed on its' way back to us and that soon there will be lots of things growing and springing forth with blossoms out there.  What hope and joy!

What is your simple joy this week?

Valentine's Day Baby Gym

Happy Valentine's Day (a day late) to you all.  Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday, but we've had a couple of crazy, busy days here Under The Old Oak Tree.  By the time we got home from school and then getting the stitches taken out of Toadstool's head, I was just too tired to take the last few pictures I needed or to write up this post.

I've been thinking for a while that Rosebud would probably really enjoy a baby gym.  Her favorite place in the world is at home on the floor on her sheepskin rug.  It's a warm cozy spot and big brother Toadstool likes to join her there (he got his own sheepskin for Valentine's Day so they can be near each other but not have him so in her space all the time).  

I looked into buying  her a wooden baby gym, but the price was way more than I could justify for a toy she'll probably only use for a few months.  I started looking online and came across these directions from Seedpod Craft.  I decided that I could do this!  I used heart plaques instead of ovals and Toadstool and I spent quite a while sanding all the rough edges off and rounding them to have a more Waldorf aesthetic.  We also rounded off the ends of the 4 support dowel rods.  We don't have a huge amount of space in our small apartment so I felt that it was important that we be able to take the whole thing apart and reassemble it easily.  I'm not sure how often we'll do this, but I'm sure there are times we'll need to, so instead of attaching the legs with wood screws, I drilled all the way through and used machine screws with wing nuts.  I decided it was safe enough if they were well tightened and we take it apart and put it away once she's pulling up on things.  To go on it I knit a pink and red heart and a pink and red ladybug  lovebug with heart spots which attach to the cross bar with i-cord.

 I did a bit of cooking for Valentine's Day this year too.  I made us heart shaped brownies.  My brownie recipe is an adaptation of Elana's Pantry's breakfast bread, but you'd never know it.  They really have  a good bit of protein and very little sugar in them and are so so rich and chocolatey!  I'll have to post my changes to her base recipe at some point.  

I made these heart shaped peanut butter cookies for Papa to take to work for the Sweets Day he was organizing for his co-workers.  They turned out really cute shaped as hearts.

For our breakfast I made my guys and I heart shaped eggs and bacon with a little chocolate cherry mouse.  These mice have been quite the hit with Toadstool.  He loves mice (so much that his teachers at school gave him a little needle-felted one for his birthday) and cherries so when I saw these over at The Magic Onions, I knew I had to make him some!  One on each plate was a perfect little sweet start to our Valentine's Day.

 Toadstool and Rosebud show off one of the Valentine hearts he made to give to family and friends this week.

Linking to Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia.