Strawberry Time Under The Old Oak Tree

May is strawberry time here Under The Old Oak Tree.  This week W  and I went to our favorite berry patch and picked two of these great big buckets of wonderful strawberries.

W had such fun picking the berries and sampling of course.

He also loved playing in the sprinkler system while I paid for our berries and transfered them into containers to take home.

The next two days were all about STRAWBERRIES!  We ate lots of whole fresh berries, made jam, and shortcake, ate sliced berries on our yogurt, and made roasted strawberries to eat now and froze some.  I think the roasted strawberries which are surprisingly sweet yet savory would be especially wonderful on a sandwich in place of mayonnaise.

Even W's doll Sammy, got to have a strawberry for breakfast.

All of these strawberries inspired me to make an Under The Old Oak Tree creation.    She will was created for my etsy shop.

Apple Picking for My Birthday

I celebrated my birthday last week and had a wonderful time! I took a break from preparing for the Fest of Fall and W and I went apple picking with some of our neighbors at Carter Mountain. It was a beautiful day.

We picked lots of Jonagold apples and then had apple doughnuts and what I think must be the best apple cider I've had in a long time.  It was so much fun watching the kids picking the apples.

Of course we all had to sample some as well.  They were delicious!  One of our neighbor girls declared them "the best apples ever" and she might have been right.  Eating them while sitting between rows of trees in  the orchard, you really couldn't get any better than that!

 W ate one that was almost as big as he is and he loved every bite of it.  We've been eating our wonderful apples all week and have been so grateful to have them and happy that we know exactly where they came from.  It was a wonderful morning!

We finished off the day having a dinner out with Daddy at one of our favorite Italian places and then topped it off with gelato from DeLuca's.  I had pumpkin and amaretto gelato.......yummmm!  DeLuca's is one of my favorite places.  We rarely go there but when we do it is such a wonderful treat!

The day after, W and I went to the Richmond Folk Festival.  It was wonderful! Our family always says how lucky we are to live in a place that has such wonderful festivals and I think this one is the best of them all!

 W and  I listened to lots of bluegrass and oldtime music (which luckily he enjoys as much as I do at this point), and both particularly enjoyed the female Cajun group BonSoir, Catin.  W gave me the cd for my birthday and we've been listening to it all week.  W claps for many of the songs each time he hears them and we've been dancing and singing along when I manage to figure out the French words.  We topped the folk festival off by listening to the Sand Mountain Sacred Harp Singers.  I love shape note singing and it was a real treat to see  a live performance of it!  If you've not heard it before, there's a sample on the Richmond Folk Festival's Performer's page. This music gives me goose bumps!

I had a wonderful couple of days celebration and then it was back to work.  The Fest of Fall at our local Waldorf School is tomorrow, and surprisingly, I'm ready and really looking forward to it! Of course, best of all is that unlike last year, I'll actually get to sleep the night before the sale.  I won't say I haven't pulled a couple of all nighters this week, but at least these last couple days before the sale I'm able to catch up on my sleep and I should be able to go and be present and really enjoy it!  I'll be back afterwards with pictures!

We've Been Under The Weather...and The Pressure's On!

I haven't posted since Michaelmas because W and I have both been a bit under the weather.  I've been hit with a not so fun cold and W seems to have a combination of teething (those 2 year molars) and possible allergies.  He never seemed to get a cold like I did, but he has had a runny nose and is drooling like nothing I have ever seen.  When he was an infant I soaked up all that drool with the constant use of bibs but now he's such a big boy he won't wear one and his front is constantly drenched.  I am tempted to  knit up some sort of wool drool soaker to go around his neck but under his clothes.  With the weather changing I'm so afraid he will end up really getting chilled going outside sopping wet from the drool.  Of course, I have next to no time to work on this right now.

Time is short and the pressure is on.  Our rhythm is all over the place and I have suspended all Christmas present making (as well as most house keeping) till after October 16th!  "Why?" you might ask.  Because earlier this week I agreed to share a table with my friend L at our local Waldorf school's Fest of Fall selling my wool creations.  Last year we shared a table for the Holiday Bizarre at the school and had such a wonderful time and I am really looking forward to this year's event!

Here are some pictures L took of our table from last year.  Her beautiful items are on the left and my things are on the right.  W is a big fan of her gnome hats and her little gnomes!  He  wears the hat and plays with his little gnome almost daily.

I am deep into production mode here at the moment and have been keeping my hands busy during the day knitting and working intensely on needle felting items during nap times and late into the night. I need to take some pictures or the items I have finished (if I ever can get  a hold of the camera during daylight hours to take these pictures) and post them here to give you all a taste of what I will be selling.  Okay, back to work!  I'll be back to blogging after we get through the festival.

My New Creative Obsession

My new creative obsession is making toys for DS. I started the other day by knitting a crown for him out of cotton yarn that turned out way too big. I then decided to play around with the pattern I had developed and make one from wool and then felt it. While researching felting I also decided to make some felt balls out of some wool roving I had left from the time I had brief fantasies about spinning my own yarn. The whole process is so rewarding and so much fun and I think making beautiful textile toys may just be my calling in life (other than being a mommy). I am wondering if it would be worth my while to start making some of these items to sell. In the meantime DS seems very happy to test out the toys and help with market research.

I am now working on a knitted gnome for DS loosely based on this pattern . I am debating if I should attempt to felt this gnome too. Can you tell I love felting. I also need to get some more wool roving for stuffing the gnome and for making more felted balls and more yarn for making crowns.

I also have plans to make DS a play kitchen and some felt food so that he can play alongside me in the kitchen.