Apron Thrift Girl

Little Shop goes to the Circus

Little Shop goes to the Circus

My daughter Cerys attends an afternoon Circus Class at a Waldorf School during the year. She also attends a camp for 2 weeks every summer. She does everything from juggling to trapeze to working with the tissue (which is pictured above). This year the Circus at the school is celebrating their 20th anniversary. They even purchased an actual Circus tent that came from Germany. It's just gorgeous.

Little Shop is going to have a stall in the carnival area of the celebration. I'll be selling wooden toys, vintage wares, circus items, craft items and children's books. Please stop on by and say hello. Also in attendance will be our cotton candy machine and popcorn machine (acquired from the Prop Sale in Los Angeles - ironically from Disney Studios).

I've decided to use the name Little Shop for my Flea Market & Faire stall. I'm hoping to start attending some vintage markets this summer. If you have any to suggest in the Bay Area please let me know.

I'm also going to begin offering Little Shop Trunk Shows. This will entail me bring vintage wonders and sweetness to your homes. The host will invite their friends, whip up some food from a suggested "vintage" inspired menu, dress up in their Mad Men attire and receive a percentage of the sales. I cannot wait to get the details finalized. If you are local and are interested in booking a trunk show, you can contact me through the Contact button.

Lots to plan & scheme & dream and visualize. I hope to see you on the 24th at Circus Waldissima.

another school year begins

A year ago yesterday we walked onto the grounds of our new school. All three of us were terribly nervous and in a way we wanted to turn around and go back home to Washington to our old school of six years. We didn't though and continued on our walk to the children's new classrooms and teachers. Gradually we all became comfortable at our new Waldorf school. The children began to make friends and the parent community welcomed Dave and I with many invitations to coffee, gatherings and events. While we did miss our old community we began to feel at home here in California.

A year later we walked onto the same grounds feeling completely a part of our school. Cerys gave a shriek of excitement when she saw her friend Jessica. Keiran practically jumped in the air when he spotted his group of friends as we neared the 2nd grade classroom. Waldorf teachers typically follow the class from 1st grade to 8th grade so the children received hugs from their teachers with the familiarity of a close family member. I met with parents from 5th grade for coffee at the Flying Goat after drop off. It all felt good.

The most emotional part of the day was actually leaving Cerys in her 5th grade classroom. At the school the children's classrooms are in a crescent shape with an open space in the middle in order to go to the playgrounds and play fields. Grade 1-4 is on one side. Cerys moved to the other side this year and will be a part of the grade 5th-8th group of classrooms. It was almost as if she really became a "big kid." It's such a conundrum to want our children to grow up and yet we want them to stay young and small at the same time.

Luckily for my sake, Keiran is very immature, small and young still. Don't tell him I said that though. He was very excited to move up from 1st grade into 2nd.

Nature table in the background. All the chalkboards are the old fashion blackboard type.

They arrived home yesterday barely being able to contain themselves. They are both so delighted to be back at school. And I must admit, a part of me is excited to.

knitting chickens

 
Keiran brought these home a couple weeks ago. I can hardly believe that my son knows how to knit. When I asked him jokingly this morning if he knows how to knit he merely laughed at me and pointed at his sweet knitted chickens with pride in his eyes. He's worked on them all year.

 

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am that he can knit. I don't know whether it's because it's so outside of the box by way of educating our children in school or the fact that he has a skill that I didn't learn until I was 16. Or just that it's so cool that my boy can knit.

When I googled "why 1st graders knit in Waldorf Schools", I came across an article written by Dr. Christine Gruhn on the Davis Waldorf School website. I found this fascinating:

"Children in the first grade will learn to knit and to play the recorder. Steiner believed that children who learn to knit will read better, and that learning music will help a child develop skills in mathematics. By 2002, we have learned that the same areas of the brain are active in reading and in knitting, likewise is true for mathematics and music."

Dave and I had a disagreement about the math & music concept. He didn't believe me when I told him that the two were connected. He thought I was making it up. As I do tend to make some things up I could kind of see his point. Luckily I had my trusty iphone during this conversation and quickly found article after article stating that math & music can go hand in hand.

I'm lousy at math & music so maybe there is something to be said for that.

Have you taught your child/children to knit? What age did you start?

felted toadstools

The auction is over, the wine was enjoyed, people mingled and lots of money was spent. Well not so much by Dave and I but we spent a little bit.

At our first class meeting of the year the topic of the auction comes up and we start talking about what to make for our auction class project. Each individual family is encouraged to donate two items for the silent auction. Each class and their parents also make a large item that they auction off in the live auction. This year we threw out some ideas. One parent suggested a wooden play fort. Thanks to a blogger who had a link to this a year ago, I suggested some felted toadstools. The idea was approved and on Saturday night these went up for auction.

The tops were hand felted and stitched by parents in the class. The bases were cut by a talented dad in the class and sanded by the children.

I so wanted one. My frugality though in the live auction isn't too successful. At down home, funky auctions I usually start bidding when the price gets down to a dollar and that includes 3 boxes of junk. Saturday, I did bid once on an item when it was at $50 but I was quickly outbid. These sweet toadstools climbed higher and higher in price with the ending bid for $1000. But that was for one toadstool with the choice to pick out the best or to take all three. When the winner said she'll take all three we nearly fell off our chairs. These darlings brought in $3,000 for the set. Not only that but the winner is donating them to the children's section of a library at Seward Park in Seattle. The parents in the class were ecstatic that these sold for such a great price. Okay so honestly I had hoped to get one for you know, $75 or so but it wasn't meant to be. My friend Rhonda has a fallen cedar that she suggested we could use to make our own toadstool.

Lots of lovely knitted baby items.

Felt animals, a colored pencil role and Cerys's felted fruit in the back right corner. It was pure eye candy to see so many delightful crafts in one setting.

Here is Keiran's class project, a felted play mat with animals, rocks, trees and houses. Oh and maybe some gnomes and fairies too. This sold for nearly $1,000 and the woman who bought it is generously donating it back to the school to have in one of the classes.

 

During the auction, before the paddle call they gave us a very touching slide show of the children, the school and the last ten years. This school began as an idea, turned into a homeschool group and now is a thriving, growing school 10 years late. I feel so honored to be a part of it. And while the mood was very festive and giving on Saturday a little part of me was sad that I am leaving this community too soon. The auction raised around $80,000. It's amazing what you can do as a community with a vision.

donating

I finally completed the finishing touches to the school auction donations. Of course they were due two weeks ago but at least they were finished before the auction. This Saturday we get the chance to look at over 60 thousand dollars in donations for the benefit our our school. A majority of the money goes to a scholarship fund which makes Waldorf education available to anyone.   Many of the donations are of the craft realm. Here are the two donations that I am giving.

Here is my first felt project. It's kind of crooked and a bit layered not to mentioned a little copied from Jacki's LRRH felt wall hanging. But overall I'm pleased with it.

A matryoshka doll handbag. I found the fabric at my new favorite online fabric store Pink Chalk Fabrics. If you live locally she'll even meet you in town and you can save on shipping. I had the delight of meeting Kathy over coffee and being able to talk blog shop which is rare for me. We spoke the same language which was just plain cool.

I felted the doll to sew onto the bag. I'm enjoying felting more than I ever thought possible. She was harder than the wall hanging though and took a bit more time. She is felted using the woving I found at our local thrift store. The inner lining is some vintage wool that I tried to felt which failed. It still worked as great lining though and is warm and woolly.

The last items to share with you are actually from Apryl.

I thought her toadstool paintings would be brilliant in our Waldorf auction so we did a barter. She sent me these sweet paintings and my job was to frame them. I picked up these lovely frames from Ikea on Tuesday. I think they are so beautiful and again I'm tempted just to keep them. How awful is that? Maybe I'll bid on them instead and hope that I win.

I'm looking forward to a social evening with the parents in the school, being out with Dave sans children and spending a wee bit of money on beautiful art and crafts for the benefit of our school and community.

saying goodbye to summer

Many of the blogs that I frequent have been saying goodbye to summer. It's a time of the year that I find hardest. When I was a young girl and living in Northern California September and October were still considered summer to us. It was very warm and olive season was just beginning. We owned a 10 acre olive orchard which spanned out behind our log cabin. I would climb off the school bus after school, run into the house for a glass of berry blue Kool-aid over ice and while still running with Kool-aid in hand, head out the back door to find my olive bucket. My favorite part of olive picking was actually climbing up inside the branches of the tree to pick the olives. Being very small, it was quite easy to climb high, perch myself on a branch and pick away while trying to avoid these creatures. Coming down was a little more challenging if my bucket was very full. At the base of the olive tree we had a smallish wooden box that we could dump our collected olives into. When these boxes were full we would (aka my dad) stack these four high and wait until the very large olive box was brought around by our tractor. I can still hear the sound of the olives pouring out of the small boxes into the large box. I loved sticking my arms down into the olives as far as they could go. It was a wonderful sensation. Funny enough I don't remember what happened to the large box at this point. Somehow it went to the olive plant and became processed into edible olives. After my attention span for picking olives dissipated I would  walk back to the house, making sure along the way to pick the largest pomegranate I could find and eventually settle down in front of the tv in our kitchen to watch my favorite shows.

The olive season, albeit at the end of summer, was really summer to me. Now my summer is something else. My favorite part is actually when we head back down to California. Maybe it's the correct temperature my body feels that says "oh yeah, this is summer". This morning I feel chilly from the cooler weather yet excited about next Tuesday when the children go back to school. They are so ready for the rhythm of the school year to begin and to see their friends. I'm ready to get back to work, enjoy my morning coffee without the potential interruption from screaming children and to tackle this house in preparation for our possible move. 

During the last few weeks I tried to help a couple third parents work on Cerys's classroom. She moved classrooms this year and there was a lot of work to get it ready. Because of our LA trip and working in the afternoons, I could only steal away a few mornings. The two moms did a fantastic job on the room.

The reading and relaxing corner.

The soon to be nature table. The walls of most Waldorf classrooms are painted by a technique called Lazure. I remember when I walked into my first ever Waldorf school in the UK at how incredibly stunning the walls were. I had never heard of lazure before but I felt so calmed by the colors and the softness of the paint. When we lived in Virginia I copied this look to the best of my ability and in every home after.

One thing that has always drawn me to a Waldorf school is the gentle light and softness of the rooms. I can't think of a better learning environment than this.

Cerys's bedroom currently has a lazure-ish style to the walls. I tried to capture it last night although it was somewhat dark.

Her wall was painted purple before we bought the house. I went over this with both an off white paint and a pink paint. This left a soft blend of all three which is somewhat similar to the lazure style. 

We are off on Cerys's class camping trip on the Olympic Peninsula for the weekend. Our last celebration of summer before school begins. Soon like Sunday I will be going into the attic to pull out their rain pants, rain jackets and rain boots. Packed lunches in baskets will become the norm of our morning routine. And so another school year begins.

And so it begins

How can she be in first grade already? Just last week she was born and yesterday she started 3-day preschool.

Here she is a month after we moved here from Herndon, Virginia. She was so brave starting in a new class with new friends. Many of those same children are in her first grade class now.

Her class has 11 students in it and today at school there was a touching ceremony where their Kindergarten teacher from last year took their hands and walked them over a small wooden bridge with flowers on it and lead them to their new teacher. It was pretty tearful to watch them all go into the class together and wave goodbye to their weeping but happy parents. She had a wonderful day and was very excited to tell me that they have two recesses.

I'm not sure where Keiran got this new smile. Maybe it is a hint for me to take less photos on first day of school. He is standing outside of the Kindergarten gate. He had an open house today and I went with him for an hour an a half. I embroidered a symbol for his pillow with the other mothers and some dads in the class. In Waldorf the children are not taught to read until they enter grade school so they use symbols instead. Keiran is a ladybug so to his asking I made a space ship with a ladybug peeking out the space ship window. The kindergarten is full of play, handiwork, baking, singing, imaginative play, climbing, singing songs in Spanish and hearing stories while the teacher does the action with felt wool figures. Keiran and I also sewed a folder together for his artwork. He was reunited with a couple friends from last year and quickly jumped into pirate play happy to be back at school.

The tears have been shed and now I'm ready to get back to work. Tomorrow is my first four-hour break in ages. I plan to work, not get hooked into email, not get hooked into blogs, not get hooked into a magazine and try to be productive. Something tells me that I'll grab my coffee, sit in front of the computer to work and just sigh at the silence. Maybe I'll get to work on Monday.