Lately - Dernièrement

Our new puppy!!! 

Notre nouveau chiot!

Loane recently finished her block on north american natives

Loane vient de terminer son bloc d'étude sur les amérindiens

doll made by Pippa

une poupée fabriquée par Pippa

neck  warmers made by the girls using yarn that they dyed themselves

des cols en laine fabriqués par les filles avec de laine qu'elles ont teinte elles-mêmes

our Pippa elf turned 11!

notre elfe Pippa a fêté ses 11 ans!

little horse sewn by Loane

petit cheval cousu et brodé par Loane

Advent has begun and we are currently reading Jakob Streit's beautiful book on the birth and childhood of Jesus Christ with the big girls 

cette année pour l'Avent, nous lisons le très beau livre de Jakob Streit La naissance et l'enfance de Jésus avec les grandes filles  

Handwork

Lucie's first shawl

working away at my own projects while the girls work on theirs

I think Lucie now shares my shawl addiction! Though she doesn't enjoy knitting very much, she loves to crochet. She made her first shawl with some leftover mohair I had. She is very pleased with it and already on to making another one using different scraps of my leftover yarn. I love to see her working so enthusiastically and seeing every bit of yarn in our house getting used up (made into something beautiful!) and not wasted. 

Dyeing Silks - Teinture de soies

This week, we spent a beautiful afternoon outdoors dyeing silks with our homeschooling friends.

Un magnifique après-midi ensoleillé passé à l'extérieur, à teindre des soies avec nos amies qui font aussi l'école à la maison.

Bringing Spirit Into Matter (and homeschooling)

I'm back from Bringing Spirit Into Matter summer workshops at the Rudolf Steiner Centre in Toronto and feeling very inspired and energized to start a new homeschooling year (hoping to start lessons again once our summer camps have ended mid-August). My friend Jan and I attended a workshop designed especially for homeschoolers. Our teacher (Marg Beard) was wonderful! She helped us to better understand Waldorf pedagogy, child and human development, identify our needs and our children's needs (and find ways to meet them), work on our homeschool rhythm and goals and she shared many ideas and tools to help us better organize our home environment and teach our children. We even learned some great new songs and games to try out with our kids! Wow! I'm amazed at how much I've learned and how much useful help I've received in one week! I also attended a Eurythmy class and silk and yarn dyeing workshop, both equally inspiring. I came home with a suitcase full of colourful silks and rainbow yarn and feel confident to keep working and experimenting with plant dyes at home, on my own or with the children. As a homeschooler, I felt very welcome at the Steiner Centre. I met many amazing Waldorf teachers and early childhood educators as well as other homeschoolers from all over the world. Everyone was happy to share their experience, exchange ideas and teaching material with others. It was interesting to be in the classrooms of the beautiful Toronto Waldorf School for our workshops and Jan and I were lucky to be able to stay on site at Hesperus (watch the video, it's interesting!).

beautifully lazured walls everywhere...

and stained glass...

the farm, hard to believe we are in Toronto!

plant dyeing workshop, so nice to do outside!

I also brought home some interesting books...

Some Handwork - Quelques travaux manuels

cross stitch pin cushion by Lucie / coussin pour épingles au point de croix fait par Lucie

peg loom pot holders/ tissage

knitting cords (figer knitting, knitting tower and lucet) for play with homeschooling friends / fabrication de cordes pour jouer (tricot à doigts, tricotin et lucet) avec nos amis qui font aussi l'école à la maison

Pippa's knitted horse / cheval tricoté par Pippa

This Week - Cette semaine

snowshoeing in the field/ de la raquette dans le champ

our friends beautiful hens have come to stay with us while they are away travelling/ nous accueillons les belles poules de nos amis pendant qu'ils sont en voyage  

loving Nicole's homemade all-purpose cleaner recipe/ j'adore cette recette de nettoyant tout-usage de Nicole 

making apple pies/ j'ai cuisiné des tartes aux pommes

sourdough bread/ pain au levain

sourdough chapati/ chapati au levain

Lucie sewed a duck with scraps of linen and wool using a pattern from an old issue of Living Crafts/ Lucie a cousu un canard avec des retailles de lin et de laine en utilisant un modèle dans un vieux numéro de Living Crafts

beautiful music being played in our house/ notre maison est remplie de belle musique