belle epoque

At our most recent Waldorf cooking class, HMB wore her new fall outfit

and we made some apple muffins and a very simple fall mobile out of twigs, roving and embroidery floss. It may be that I’ve just drunk the Waldorf kool-aid, but I find the mobile really charming– such simple materials, sort of thrown together (HMB doesn’t always have a lot of patience with me crafting, even in a room full of toys and other toddlers), and without any conscious intention on my part, it turned out reminding me of fall fairies or elementals

I realise, however, that with the kool-aid factor, I could be imagining that and it just looks like bits of fluff tied to a stick. What I know for sure is that the muffins were delicious, and since not everyone has a Waldorf cooking class at their disposal, I’ll share the recipe they taught us. They are also quite healthy, as muffins go, and if you like you can put the batter in a baking dish and make it more like a nice moist bread.

SF Waldorf School Apple Muffins
Wet ingredients (mix in bowl together)
4 eggs
1 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
Dry ingredients (mix in bowl together)
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups oats
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Fruit- fold in at end
4 cups peeled, chopped apples(you could also use pears or whatever you like)

Pre-heat oven to 400. Add wet ingredients to dry, mixing gently until they are just combined. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into greased mini muffin cups (or pour into a greased baking pan) and bake for 25 minutes. They will still be moist when fully baked, but the tops should be a nice golden brown and firm.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get it done properly, but I’m working on a tutorial for the Playground Purse– it will not be for the faint-hearted seamstress, as it involves 2 different zipper setting techniques and a little bit of manipulation to get the strap sewed on, but hopefully I’ll be able to make it make sense with lots of pictures. Anyhow, in the meantime, hopefully you’ll enjoy some nice fall muffins!

I’ve been trying to make HMB one or two new outfits a season. I’m guessing spring might get a miss, seeing as a tiny wee someone will be sleeping in what is currently, but not for long, the craft room. But for the moment, I’m halfway through the two outfits I have planned for fall/winter, but I figured I’d just show them to you one at a time.

It is a larger size of my favorite wide-leg pants pattern (self-drafted) and a onesie appliqued using Heat’n'Bond light and then blanket stitched by hand.

I also stitched some pretty ribbon (bought pre-baby at the wondrous Alameda Flea Market, where I hope to go again one day) close to the pants hem

Easy to make and very practical for a busy little girl who is always on the go (skirts are a no-go, and dresses are ok if they’re made of jersey and worn with leggings), and who is calling to let me know that naptime is over! Hope you are all having a happy, crafty week!

One of the highlights of our fall season is another set of mama/baby classes at the San Francisco Waldorf School. HMB and I are taking a seasonal cooking class, and a craft class. She eats at least two portions of everything we make in the cooking class (apple crisp! porridge!), and is surprisingly willing to be patient while I knit with the other mamas in the craft class(perhaps the lovely handmade dolls to play with, and the promise of yet another yummy snack at the end of class helps with that?). Anyway, I finished my first project for the knitting class just this week– a very easy and adorable tam for the little miss

It’s of a golden Debbie Bliss alpaca/silk blend, and she was also surprisingly willing to model it for me, from the front

from the back

and in motion

And then she whipped it off her head with a quick “Bye bye!” and used it as a bag to carry around her tiny plastic Elmo. It is large enough to have quite a bit of wear in it, so hopefully it will still fit when she’s a bit more willing to wear hats for real.

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, trying out new recipes, cutting things into toddler-sized bites, and then attempting to clean it all up again before I go to sleep (with help from Moondoggie, of course!). Given that I spend much of my “creative time” in there, I mean to do a bit more to make the kitchen more cozy and functional.

Step one was to *finally* make a plastic bag bag– despite the fact that San Francisco basically outlawed plastic shopping bags (for big chains, anyway), and I use two industrial-size canvas bags for weekly grocery trips, plus reusable bags in the stroller and every purse for impromptu shopping, we still accumulate a fair number of the plastic ones, and have need of them. Up until now they’ve been stuffed in and spilling out of yet another big plastic bag. Enough!

I got a big bunch of this red stripy canvas at a thrift store years ago, and I love it. It is perfectly sturdy and cheerful. This was such an easy project, I’m embarrassed I didn’t make one sooner. It is basically a tube with a drawstring on one end for putting the bags in

and an elastic opening on the other, for pulling the bags out

I think I was inspired to do this, oh, two years ago, by the amazing Linda, whose book I plan to get my hands on lickety split!

In addition to having a baby myself, I’m surrounded by lovely friends having babies too! Which of course is always a good excuse for some tiny, fun crafting. One of my dearest friends had her baby shower this weekend, prompting a few projects. I made a bunch of shrink plastic necklaces with clip art from children’s book illustrations to use for a game


And the ever-popular appliqued onesie– I copied the elephant she used on her invitation to make the applique, then used heat’n'bond lite and hand stitched the edges using a blanket stitch. I would have used my Bernina’s machine blanket, but I was working during naptime and didn’t want to risk waking HMB with the hum.

I have more things in mind for this particular baby, but my pre-shower craft time was limited. I will have to work fast, though, as this little guy is due a month before my wee girl!

Phew, here I am again and it has thankfully been less than a month since my last post. Thank you guys so much for coming back to read, and leaving such sweet comments.

As it is approaching my bedtime, I’ll get right to the craftiness! When we were visiting family in New England last month, I took the opportunity to gather up some acorn caps. It may be I just don’t go to the right places in California, but I’ve never found regular, dear, bulby acorns here, and I had some roving that wanted to be made into felt acorns


I can’t tell you how much I love looking at them and running my fingers across them in their wooden bowl. Unfortunately HMB is far too interested in pulling them to fuzzy bits, or else they would be a fun part of autumnal play– maybe next year? I do not, sadly, have a tiny drill, so have no way to hang them unless I was to run a needle and floss through the roving under the cap. For the moment, though, I’m just going to enjoy them as they are!

The deliciously colored roving is from the wonderful Mary Jane’s Attic. If you happen to be in the Bay Area, you can get Jamie’s roving samplers at her lovely store, Urban Fauna Studio. They also have gorgeous yarns, 100% wool felt and a variety of highly tempting craft supplies. She is awesome and I wish I had a smaller stash and more crafting time so I could do even more to support her crafty business venture!

I made some other wee crafts from New England flotsam that I’ll show you when I’m back next– hopefully very soon!

Wow! Guess I took an extended summer vacation, huh? The main, rather exciting reason I didn’t get around to blogging is that HMB will be getting a new little sister for Christmas (well, a week or so beforehand, depending on how accurate the due date is)! For the first few months, I found being pregnant and running around after a super-busy toddler so tiring that I spent what was formerly craft/blogging time napping. But now that I’m heading into trimester 3, I’m realising I’d better get in my crafting and blogging before there’s another newborn around here!

Anyway, I have been working on a few projects lately, mostly small and handworky. I am going to try to blog more frequently, and since I have a backlog of things to show you I’ll probably be back again this week.

More often than not I make things for HMB, but before our 3-week trip back East to visit family in August, I made a little something for myself. I find that I don’t really need to carry around a diaper bag full of gear for a toddler for walks or trips to the park (I never liked carrying one anyway–they are always so huge and unwieldy!), but I can’t leave my valuables in the stroller to dash after little miss busy when she’s on the loose. The solution? A slim shoulder bag for just the essentials– wallet, phone, keys, sunscreen stick, lip gloss and tiny organic hand sanitizer.

I had a lot of fun making it- I used some Echino fabric I had been hoarding, and two super-fun zippers in purple and bright orange.

The outer zipper pocket is for the stuff HMB would love to get into, like my lip gloss. The webbing strap is long enough that I can sling the bag across my chest and forget about it until I need it.

I miss sewing for myself! I’m looking forward to being my normal size again someday (2012?) so I can sew something other than pajamas and accessories! In the meantime, HMB is getting lots of little pants and appliqued tops, which I’ll show you in another post… to come soon, I promise, lovely blog friends!