Sometimes we all just need to kick up our heels and dance, and that is exactly what we did this last Thursday and Friday. Deadwood Revival, a four-piece, progressive old-time jamgrass ensemble from my hometown came travelling through last week, playing one night at a local watering hole and one night at the civic center in a nearby town. Since moving out into the country, evening cultural ...
Art
Handmade Valentines
One of my absolute favorite grade school memories is the yearly Valentine's Day party. I don't recall any specific one, but I just remember having a ball making little paper crafts with hearts and doilies for all my classmates, exchanging them to fill these giant envelopes we made out of construction paper, and then having an all-out sugar extravaganza with candy and cupcakes galore. Even the kids ...
Quilt Heritage
Nothing makes a long winter night as snug as a handmade quilt to snuggle up beneath. In spite of my crafty tendencies, quilting is not one of my pursuits. The measuring, ironing, pinning and straight lines turned me away from the get go. I made a quilt once for my best friend, and some small one's for my kids bunk beds. That was it. I was done. Fortunately, we have a quilter in the family, my ...
Window Stars
Paper window stars are one of my favorite winter projects. They look beautiful and bright with the light shining through them, and they make great holiday gifts! The last couple of years, I called on my origami skills, and the kids and I just winged it by folding up squares of wax coated kite paper from our Waldorf school store into different shapes with points on the end and glued the center ...
Holiday Market
(Image from the Holiday Market website) We are very fortunate to have an amazing holiday market in our community. Every weekend from late November until Christmas, artisans, crafters, musicians, farmers and darn good cooks gather in the exhibit hall of the Lane County Fairgrounds to create a whole little village dedicated to local arts. Our family goes every year to do a little shopping for the ...
Mountain Hearth Handcrafts
With the holidays fast approaching, I have been busily stitching, felting, gluing and beading in my craft room. Colorful wool is piled around in baskets, little scraps of this and that are becoming beautiful creations, and the midnight oil is certainly being burned. When we bought this old farmhouse, one of the selling points for me was an extra downstairs room with lots of ...
Busy in the Craft Room
I've been so caught up in the busy goings-on of summer on the homestead, that I realized I haven't posted anything on here in a while. Life has definitely involved more gardening and watering and less crafting as of late. In preparation for the upcoming Women's Festival at Stillpoint Farm, at which I'll be vending with my booth, I'm busy at work again in the craft room with my wool and ...
Vending at the Stillpoint Farms Women’s Festival
http://www.stillpointfarmsfestival.com/ I'll be there with my Mountain Hearth Handcrafts booth! See you at the farm! ...
Going to the Country Faire
For many of us, the term, "country fair" likely evokes images of livestock shows, prize pumpkins, canned goods, pies and barn dances. While these are all wonderful things, here in Oregon, we have a whole different kind of country fair. Started in 1969, the Oregon Country Fair was created by a group of artists, musicians and visionaries, and is still going strong today right here in our ...
My Own Secret World
Recently, I did a trade with my friends, Jeff and Taryn at Mystic Orb Sacred Earth Talismans. Taryn fell in love with my felted wall hanging of chickens by a red wheelbarrow, and said I could make a custom request in return. Jeff carves some of the most amazing jewelry I've ever seen out of all different kinds of gorgeous wood, antler, bone, stone, you name it. Recently, he even did ...