earth-friendly – NaturalKids Team

Posted on July 30, 2013 August 9, 2017

Making Bird Feeders with Harvestmoonbyhand

My daughters and I recently made a variety of homemade feeders and seed mix for the birds. We have enjoyed watching a variety of birds eat at the feeders: nuthatches, blue jays, black-capped chickadees, downy woodpeckers, gray catbirds, house sparrows, and purple finches.

These recipes are easy and fun to make; and watching the birds provides entertainment, enjoyment, and educational value for people of all ages…especially children.

Peanut Butter Bird Seed Balls

Peanut Butter Bird Seed Balls

before they were placed in the freezer.

Ingredients:

2 cups bread crumbs
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour (use whole wheat if possible)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1 cup unsalted nuts
4-5 chopped apples
1 cup raisins
1 8 oz. jar chunky peanut butter
1 cup bird seed
1 c. suet

Directions:

Mix ingredients well. If necessary you can add additional suet or even bacon drippings if it is too crumbly. Shape into balls. Freeze.

These can be placed in a mesh bag and hung outside on a tree limb for the birds to enjoy. Otherwise, do as we did: place them on top of birdseed in an open feeder.

Popcorn Bird Treat

Popcorn Bird Treat before was placed in mesh bags.

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter
7 cups popcorn (no salt or butter)
Blanched peanuts, Craisens, raisins, and/or dried blueberries
Egg shells
Cracked corn
Black oil sunflower seed

Directions:

Mix all together and put in a mesh bag. Hang in the tree for the birds to enjoy.

Hanging the feeder filled with popcorn, fruit, and

other goodies for the birds.

Suet and Meal Worm Log Feeder

Log – about 2 feet long that is dry
Eye screw
Drill with various size drill bits
Suet
Dried meal worms
Twine or heavy yarn

Place eye screw in one end of the log. Using a drill and various size drill bits, place many holes in the log that are about 1/2 deep.

Drilling holes in the log.

Fill with suet and dried meal worms.

Placing suet in one of the holes.

Put twine or heavy yarn through the eye screw and hang onto a tree branch. Make sure the branch is thick enough to support the feeder.

Two birds at the feeders.

As a side note, within one minute of coming indoors from hanging the log feeder in the tree, a black-capped chickadee found it. From that point on, there were many bird visitors of different types (mostly chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers).

Ann Rinkenberger is the owner of Harvest Moon by Hand that offers natural, hand-embroidered and needle-felted toys; Waldorf-inspired window stars; and homeschool supplies.

To see other hands-on projects, tutorials, recipes, and homeschool ideas, please visit Harvest Moon by Hand’s blog. Harvest Moon by Hand also can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Window stars available through Harvest Moon by Hand.

Posted on May 30, 2013

Recycling & Upcycling the Kenyan Way

After Jess’ account earlier this week of thrifting the American way, here’s a brief update on the Kenyan way.

Living in Kenya provides a whole different perspective on the consumption society. Recycling and reinvention of items are the matter of the day especially since new goods are generally very expensive.

The solution for the average person here is to shop for used goods. From toys, to shoes, to furniture, clothing, etc., basically everything you can find in a thrift shop in the Western World. It is that world where most of the items here come from. Kenya is among the largest recipients of used goods, especially clothing and cars. I am sure that we all have seen containers placed in certain parts of large cities in Europe and the USA inviting us to throw in our unwanted clothes, shoes and even other items. Most of what we would throw into these containers finds its way to Africa – and most often to Kenya. The charities, who collect clothes in the containers sell the goods (=funds raised for the charity) to an intermediary, who then sorts and sells the goods to vendors here in East Africa. The goods are packed in large bundles, which then find their way to the Mitumba (which literally translates into Bundle) markets across Kenya. At a Mitumba market, the average person can pick up a nice outfit for a decent price. Depending on the quality of the item, you can get a shirt for 10 Kenyan Shillings (US$ 0,11), or spend as much as 1000 Kenyan Shillings (US$ 11). The latter items would be rather upmarket and brands of high recognition.

Impressions of Toi Market - A Mitumba Market in Nairobi — Impressions of Toi Market – A Mitumba Market in Nairobi

As a crafter the Mitumba market is ideal place for me to find nice fabrics and materials to upcycle and use in my creations. For those who know my Etsy shop, you can immediately find a combination of traditional East African materials with upcycled materials. The yoga mat carriers as well as the pencil rolls are a perfect example. My personal love for jeans as well as colourful kikoy is reflected in those items.

The ziezo Designs bunting baby dolls were born on the Mitumba Market by seeing a pile of wonderful wool jumpers, some felted, others not. The felted wool was the perfect material to make lovely soft baby dolls children across the world would enjoy.

On my most recent trip to the market I picked up some lovely flower fabrics in the form of a skirt, some pillow cases and a dress. I have plans to create a fabric bunting with these great fabrics, a different take on my traditional bandanna buntings like these:

Keep your eyes on the ziezo Etsy shop! Soon there will be more upcycled products made with the donations that started in the Western world, which were then commercially passed on to those shopping at the Mitumba markets. It might actually be made out of something that you donated!

Interested in learning a little more about living in Kenya? Visit my personal blog “ziezo – Crafting and Living in Kenya“

Posted on May 28, 2013 August 9, 2017

New Designs for Spring by broodbaby

With the Arrival of Spring, New Designs Break Ground

When I first met my husband we quickly made scavenging the local flea markets a favorite past time. He’d routinely select some item from a vendor’s cache and ask me what I saw. I’d respond shoe form, wrench, or whatever else the item happened to be. “No,” he’d say. “That’s what it is. I want to know what it could be.” Such a simple statement that became the cornerstone of my point of view in all my ensuing design challenges.

We live a pretty earth friendly life. My husband spends a good part of the year chopping the wood we use to heat our home through the New England winters. I manage the kitchen; cooking and baking our breads, snacks, meals with an emphatic keeping to organic and local ingredients. We know our farmers. We are fanatic recyclers. We drive a hybrid. So, it should come as no surprise that when I started my fiber and textile business my materials would continue in the vein in which we live our life. The fabrics and yarn I work with are all organic, natural, fair trade, recycled, and/or re-purposed. With a steady eye on quality of both my designs and my materials, my constant challenge is to eek out the best of possibilities from my cottons or woolens. What shape will my collected treasures take next in their recycled evolution?

Quite honestly, I can’t even recall how I first started working with sweaters, but somehow I started collecting beautiful wool, cashmere, fair isle, aran—exquisite sweaters that for some reason or another were being discarded. Sifting through thrift shops and rummage sales became a favorite activity. And my husband’s first questions that he posed during our courtship became a constant echo. What’s next? What’s next? And then one day designs started falling from mind’s eye to my pencil and paper to my cutting table. Cashmere bunnies, and fair isle elephants all started to take shape. Pigs and starfish and puppy dogs began to fill the studio. My little gallery now hosts a community of little friends to join the community of our littlest treasures: our kids.

This incredibly soft Cashmere Bunny satisfies her sweet tooth with Cupcakes, which are also made with bits and pieces of recycled sweaters.

A gentle elephant springs to life with cheery thanks to a wool fair isle sweater.

Everything starts with the washing and felting of the sweaters and very frequently some design detail in them–be it a placket or a seam–will inspire the Sweet Critter that it will become.

Jess Wrobel: A lifelong creative type, my studio is filled with an enormity of wonders from the fiber world from which I create my knitwear and pattern designs and textile art pieces. With my husband as my cohort, we reclaim, repurpose, and salvage old pieces into new functional home decor and furniture works. I teach, and write, and enjoy meeting everyone in person at artisan shows. Please visit www.Jwrobel.com <http://www.Jwrobel.com> or follow me on www.facebook.com/JwrobelStudio <http://www.facebook.com/JwrobelStudio> to learn more.

Posted on April 11, 2013 August 9, 2017

A Pony for Sara

We have a new pony! It’s a long story how I found him, but this pony needed a new home. I didn’t know how badly, until he got here. His hooves have possibly never been trimmed (our horses get their hooves trimmed every 2 months). Underweight, although not drastic. Still a stallion (never neutered). Shedding in weird patches.But the biggest thing wrong: Terrified. Scared to death. Literally shakes all over. Runs away. Cannot catch him. Abused.

This is Winslow, day one.

So, got his hooves trimmed. My blacksmith was so kind and patient. Spent a week working with him everyday, several times a day. Very hard to catch him. Usually takes two people – have to corner him. Left his lead line on him, so when you get close can either grab or stand on the lead line. Once caught, his terror is blatant.

Then he got gelded (neutered). This is major surgery. The vet was awesome. My friend Elaine, who came to lend moral support, fainted in the stall. 🙂

This is Winslow, no longer a stallion. Very wary of me. Now he must be exercised twice a day, to help his incision heal. At first I thought, how will this ever work? But, bit by bit, he got a tiny bit easier to catch. And lead. It was a great day, when he would trust me enough to put his head down and eat grass (instead of watching me constantly in fear). The bonding and trust between us has grown. I bring sweet feed with me to his stall, and he will usually come to me, although not always – sometimes it is as if his fear was never even slightly abated. I exercise him every day. We go on walks. I’m teaching him that it is ok for him to be brushed, and washed with a hose. I now have him in a stall next to my “big” horses, and Belle (my mustang mare) has fallen in love with Winslow.
He’s still scared, but not as bad., usually.

He is so adorable, and so sweet. Not an aggressive bone in his little body; just wants love. I try to imagine a day when his fear is gone.

My love of horses began for me at age 2. It gives me such pleasure to knit little horses. I call them Earth Ponies, and you can request them in practically any color of the rainbow.

Earth Ponies at Woolies on Etsy!

Thank you for reading about me and Winslow!

Woolies Shop
Buster N Boo Shop
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Posted on April 4, 2013

Natural Easter Egg Dying

Easter egg dying is a fun Easter tradition! The weeks leading up to Easter are pretty hectic around our home with getting Armadillo Dreams orders shipped in time for Easter delivery. We always make sure we still have time to enjoy some fun activities with our kids on Easter weekend. This past weekend we did some egg dying and had a great time!

We really wanted our egg dying to be a little more natural and safe this year. We were excited when we found Eco-Eggs egg dying kits! They are made using natural plant, fruit and vegetable extracts. The kit comes with three dyes that can be mixed to achieve 6 different colors, a color/time chart, a wire egg dipper and a piece of wax. The kit is also packaged in super cute and recyclable packaging.

Knowing that the eggs would be safe to eat even if any dye seeped in through the pores in the eggs was a great feeling. Did you know that a single egg shell is covered with as many as 17,000 microscopic pores? Egg shells are a “semipermeable membrane”, which means that air and moisture can pass through its pores.

First we hard boiled 2 dozen eggs. Then we put the dyes into three cups filled with just enough water to fully submerge an egg. Next we used the piece of wax that was included in the kit to write/draw some fun things on the eggs. Next we dyed all of the eggs six different colors. To get the different colors some eggs had to be in the cups for up to fifteen minutes, some for just a few seconds. A few of the colors required putting an egg in one cup and then a second cup to mix the colors. The eggs turned out really neat and looked a lot more earthy than a lot of the very brightly colored eggs I remembered as a kid. They looked a lot more appetizing since they weren’t all screaming in neon! The wax writing on the eggs really showed well.

Lucy and Lincoln had a lot of fun hunting for the Eggs…

We hope everyone had a great Easter! We had a wonderful Easter and we will be doing natural egg dying again next year for sure! Has anyone else ever used natural egg dyes before? We would love to hear about your experiences with them!

– The Cowell Family (Dustin, Amanda, Lucy and Lincoln)

You can also read more about our family on our blog, Wild Armadillos.

Posted on November 20, 2012

Dyeing Wool with Kids

In our family we love rainbows, and once in a while we wish for rainbow colored wool. While pure wool yarn is not difficult to obtain here in Kenya, the colored part is the challenge, unless you are into some DIY and crafting with kids. . .

A few years back I learned that it is rather easy to dye your own wool with food color of all things. Food color easily dies protein fibers (e.g. wool and silk), but not others like cotton and man-made fibers. This makes it a great craft project to undertake with your kids as most spills in clothes will easily wash out again.

What you need for this project:

Wool yarn
Food coloring
Vinegar
Plastic gloves (food dye can stain your hands for a day or two)
Cling wrap and/or old towel
A microwave (alternatively use a steaming pot or the sun)

First, in the event that your wool is in a ball, unwind it and create a skein. It’s easy to use the back of a chair to do this. Tie the skein loosely in a couple of places with some left over wool, or another string.

Soak the skein for an hour or longer in a solution of half vinegar and half water. This vinegar bath is the mordant for the dyeing process and it is important to ensure the bath is completed before starting this craft with your kids.

Select the colors in which you want to dye your wool and mix them with some water to the desired shade. The amount of ‘dye’ depends on the number of colors and amount of wool you want to dye. I used five colors and each color was less than half a glass of fluid.

Cover your work surface with cling wrap, or if you are eliminating the use of plastic an old towel will also work well. Take the skein out of the mordant and squeeze excess fluid gently out of the wool. Place the skein on the work surface and carefully spoon the dye onto the wool. Gently squeeze the dye into the wool, ensuring that it gets absorbed well. Work color for color and be aware that the colors might blend.

Then carefully transfer the wool to a microwave safe dish or plate and cover it loosely with cling wrap. Microwave the wool for 5 minutes, check on the progress and then microwave it on high for another 3 minutes. This cooking of the wool will help set the color.

If you do not have a microwave you can also steam the wool in steamer pot, or have the wool covered with the cling wrap steam in the sun. Do an internet search for the timing and instructions for these steaming methods.

Place the wool in an area where it can dry, but make sure it is not in the direct sunlight.

Once the wool has dried, you can wind it into a ball and it is ready to use.

A fun project to undertake with kids, and there is more fun to be had in deciding together on a new project in which to use the yarn!

Happy dyeing!

Andrea

Posted on November 15, 2012

Handmade Holidays: Tutorial for Sweater Pants

Pants made out of sweater sleeve is a classic in our house. They are comfortable, cheap and easy to make. I always get compliments on them when my little guy is wearing some. When I explained how easy it is, they all say : What a great idea!

This is a very easy and quick project that the even the I-barely-ever-touched-a-sewing-machine beginner can do.

You’ll need:

Sweaters
Thin or wide elastic for the waist.
The recipiant children’s pair of pants for a guide.

Cut out the sleeves of your sweater. The older the child, the bigger sweater you’d like to use.

Fold guide pants in half and place over sleeve. Cut.

Turn once sleeve inside out. Put the right side out sleeve into the inside out one.

Sew along.

For the waist, Method 1:

Serge the waist or double fold it. Sew along leaving a place to insert the elastic.

The elastic should be the circumference of the waist. Insert, sew both ends of the elastic and close the whole.

Method 2 : this one is less pretty, but it’s useful when you know there won’t be enough room for the butt if you fold at the waist. Some might want to use a coordonating color one. You can easily dye elastics. Ultimately it doesn’t show when there’s a shirt over it.

Take a wider elastic and sew ends together. Place wrong side facing elastic over right side facing pants and sew or serge around.

Now you know what to make of that pile of sweater people always give you ( I know I’m not alone! Someone even gave me only the sleeves…) I always make a pair of those for the Winter Solstice morning and they are always a hit.

Posted on May 2, 2012

sharing the work

the smallest things are not lost on our children. they have been watching our actions since the day they were born …how we talk, how we move, even the smallest blink of our eyes, they are taking note

with fresh eyes taking in all sorts of details to map out this new world of theirs

sometimes it strikes me as funny, that these little people play at what we call work…

if only we would grow and find the same fun, in sweeping the floor, dusting the shelves and hanging the laundry

alongside us they find their place to work and grow through the day and years….

now off to garden we two go to see what might have come up…

hello, I am Pamela of prettydreamer. I am mama to a lovely prettydreamer of my own. I am still in love with toys, storybooks and fairy tales of all kind. I love trees, rocks, maps and unknown places and stumbling upon ideas turned upside-down, folk hands and honest traditions that run deep and all the other friendly playful things that function or are simply made to bring joy

Posted on April 17, 2012

Thrift, Repurpose & Beautify

Earth Day is coming up. I love to think about how I can live more simply and enjoy what I have. I like finding ways to get the things I need for less and beautifying what I already have. In line with this I recently did a project I’d love to share.

I wanted a painting bin. When we do our watercolor paintings, in our Waldorf inspired home school, I am forever looking for our supplies and making multiple trips from our art closet to the table. A simple cardboard box would have been fine to keep all my materials together but I love beautifully crafted things. I wanted a paint box that inspired us to paint! With this thought I found my way to the thrift store and picked up a possibility. This sturdy wooden garden caddy was only a $4. I brought it home cleaned it up and set to work.

This project has so many possibilities and variations to think about. Art bins, garden bins, anything you need to organize can find a beautiful home. I did a similar project, though not quite as thrifty, making a beeswax crayon caddy out of an herb box. You can see that project on my blog, Chocolate Eyes. I can imagine finding an old wooden box to plant veggies in and beautifying it. Recently I found a wooden cd crate that is going to be a perfect home for a couple of herb pots. I’ll be wood-burning that as well. Warning: once you get the wood burning bug it’s hard to shake.

For this project Beatrix Potter kept coming to mind. We love Beatrix Potter books! So giving a nod to the garden aspect of my garden caddy and the painting aspect of Beatrix Potter’s beautiful watercolor illustrations, I chose an illustration from The Tale of Benjamin Bunny. In this Illustration Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny have found Peter’s clothes and are now stealing onions from Mr. McGregor’s garden. Those mischievous rabbits remind me of my two little ones.

Begin by finding your inspiration. Draw something or find something online that you would like to add to your wooden item. Google “coloring pages” of the theme you’re interested in and you’ll find all sorts of free print outs. Here’s one with fairies, dragons, elves & all things magical. And here’s another for Peter Rabbit coloring pages. This is where I found my line drawing print out. You can do something very simple like a flower or a few leaves, a sun, moon, rainbow or a henna-like design of dots, whatever sparks your imagination & is meaningful to you!

Also before beginning look at your wooden item. Is it unfinished wood? Does it already have a stain on it? Does it need sanding? If it has a patina than it’s probably been stained. If you want to paint it using watercolor you may need to lightly sand it for the watercolor to sink in the wood. Or you can use acrylic paint and not worry about sanding it. Your choice.

Gather your materials. You will need…
a freshly sharpened pencil, powdered graphite or graphite sticks or charcoal, scissors, tape, wood burner & watercolors or acrylics, if you want to paint it. Plus beeswax wood polish to seal the wood.

Cut your print out to the dimensions of your wooden box or bin. Then darken the back of your print out by using the side of a graphite pencil. Or you can use graphite or charcoal sticks or powdered graphite, whatever you have on hand. If all you have is a no 2 pencil that that will work just fine. I had some powdered graphite so I used that. Fill in the back of your print out with your chosen graphite or charcoal. Cover the entire back, leaving no white.

Then draw over all of the lines in your print out with a freshly sharpened pencil. This will leave a pencil line on your wooden item. Make sure to tape it down so it doesn’t move. When you feel you’ve gone over every line check for lines you may have missed by pulling up one end & peaking under. There are always a few lines missed.

Here is the penciled illustration. It looks dingy because of the graphite. (Sorry for the glare.)

Then go over your lines with your wood burner. I use the flat edge tip on my wood burner because I like the clean line it makes. If this is your first time using a wood burner practice on a scrap piece of wood first. Try burning long lines, short lines, wide and narrow curves. Twirl the burner on its tip to make dots. Go slow and have fun with it! ( If you don’t want to wood burn you could even use a permanent marker to draw your design.)

When finished with the wood burning clean the graphite or charcoal off with a damp rag and a mild cleaner. I like to use vinegar & water.

Then you can decide whether you want to paint it. I added a little color with Stockmar watercolors. I like how it makes the illustration pop. Once it dries, go over your painting & the entire item with beeswax wood polish. You can make your own, here’s a recipe from this blog. Or you can buy from an etsy seller like Natural Kids Team shop, Birch Leaf Designs.

Here’s my caddy mostly filled and ready to be used! It could even fit a small pad of paper inside.

I hope this gets you thinking about what you can thrift and beautify. Let’s care for and give new life to the material items already on this earth. Make the earth happy and have a happy Earth Day!

Becca Thornton is a creative stay at home Mama of two sweet, little boys & wife to her high school sweetheart. They are Northeast transplants living in the sunny Southwest. A typical day finds them soaking up the sun playing, gardening, baking, crafting & homeschooling. Find her at her blog, Chocolate Eyes. & visit her shop, Mama West Wind, where she upcycles wool & sells Waldorf inspired toys & decor.

Posted on July 1, 2011

Eat your Flowers!

Flowers can be used for a multitude of dishes from garnishes to salads. For a great summer treat try freezing petals in ice cube trays filled with water for a lovely addition to your favorite lemonade or iced tea! Although this seems to be a new trend eating flowers has been going on for centuries. The first mention of people consuming flowers was as far back as 140 BC. Also many veggies we eat are really flowers broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes and broccoflower are all flowers. The spice saffron is the stamen from the crocus flower, and capers are unopened flower buds to a bush native in the Mediterranean and Asian nations. So you most likely have been eating without even knowing it.

A list of common EDIBLE FLOWERS:

Angelica                 Anise Hyssop
Apple Blossom               Artichoke
Arugula                           Bachelor Buttons AKA Cornflower
Banana                           Basil
Bee Balm             Borage
Burnet                            Calendula
Carnation             Chamomile
Chicory                 Chives
Chrysanthemum             Cilantro / Coriander
Citrus                            Clover
Dandelion                      Day-lily
Dianthus                        Dill
Elderberry                     English Daisy
Fennel                           Freesia
Fuchsia                         Gardenia
Garlic                           Geraniums
Gladiolas                      Hibiscus
Honeysuckle                Hollyhock
Hyssop                  Iceland Poppy
Impatiens                     Jasmine
Johnny Jump Up      Lavender
Lemon Verbena           Lilac
Linden                       Mallow
Marigold                     Marjoram
Mint                            Mustard
Nasturtium                Oregano
Okra                          Onion
Orange Blossom         Pansy
Passionflower             Pea
Pineapple Sage           Primrose
Radish                        Red Clover
Redbud                      Rose
Rosemary                   Rose of Sharon
Runner Bean             Safflower
Sage                           Savory
Scented Geranium       Snapdragon
Society Garlic             Squash Blossom
Sunflower                   Sweet Marigold
Sweet William             Thyme
Tuberous Begonia        Tulip
Viola                           Violet
Winter Savory             Yucca

How To:

There are a few cautions one should remember before harvesting any flowers:
Do not harvest any flowers that could have been exposed to animal excrement, that have had insecticides or fertilizer sprayed on them, or are from the side of roads where they have been exposed to trash, carbon monoxide etc.

Harvest your flowers in the morning.

Next, bathe the flowers gently in a salt-water bath.
Immediately drop them in ice water for 1 minute. Gently pat flower dry on a towel.

For best results, use your flower petals immediately

Article by Beccijo, The Enchanted Cupboard

A few lovely flower theme items from our members to add to your Nature Table:


ThisCozyLife

Alkelda

Woodmouse

Please leave a comment and share with use how you eat your flowers!