The Olive Sparrow

Just a Medley of 2009

In order to get some review of 2009, for posterities sake, I will post some images of this year that is fast and furiously coming to a close.

Okay, it's a bit mixed up, but here is a picture that I just found of Huxley and I at Halloween 2009. We had to get some shopping done on the 31st in the afternoon and decided to dress up... unlike other years, besides a toddler in her stroller, and the girls in the toy store, we didn't see anybody else dressed up. Yet the day before, at Huxley's school, most of the other children where dressed up (yet Huxley wasn't)... it is rather hard to be in tune with the rest of the world...

 

 

He wanted to be a knight again, but with a light saber, and a scabbard for it and his sword. I on the other hand just combined items from the sewing room, the closet and the living room. He's the knight, I'm his handmaiden. 

How to Walk the Dog

Here are visuals on how to get dressed to walk the dog.    

June 2009 Huxley with Maggie
 
 
 

To walk a year in my shoes

Studio shoes that is...

 
 

Walk a year in my shoes...

you will create paintings

you will cry tears about missed times 

    where you will not create

    because you do NOT hold the time in your hands

    you do not have the time

    your hands do not work when you have

    the 

time

    they are painful

    so no matter you feel 

creative

    you can not hold a brush in

those precious, rough, sandpaper like 

hands

Walk a year in my shoes...

you will hold your family dear

    cry with love for them

you will get paints on your hands

    and can't get it off before you leave

so people will think it is blood

    the blood of creation

Walk a year in my shoes 

you will just have spent a year 

grateful

disappointed

challenged

you will have gotten married

learned to sew french seams

    in cream silk

felt low about the little time your day has

    for you to spend at the studio

yet you will also have come to realize

that 

important is

    that the fast fleeting years you have with 

    your son so young 

    will be gone

    too soon

so now is the time to worry less

    steal time when you can 

    and treasure and be 

grateful

because, oh, so handsome he is

 
 

This is why I've been hiding...

My Olive Sparrow Booth at the Toronto Waldorf School Candlelight Vendor's Fair.

Selling my blankets, hand-dyed felt crowns, festive banners, playsilks and dolls. 

A detail of the Olive Sparrow Children:

 

There are eight children, of which six have found a home, the other two will be in put into my Etsy shop within a weeks time. 

Here is your chance to meet them one-by-one.

Bella will be Ayla's new mom. Ayla is about 44 cm tall. Bella's mom adopted Ayla before the TWS show, but Ayla came with us anyway, as she didn't want to miss out meeting all the people at the fair and having fun with her friends.

Her tunic is sewn with french seams from a recycled linen-mix mens' shirt, a bias neck closure and an alpaca-silk drawstring, from the same yarn as her knit hat. Her capri pants are made from a vintage pillow cover. 

Ayla is a beautiful layed-back girl, full of spunk, yet a very gentle soul.

Kayla has also been adopted. She is about 35 cm tall.

Kayla's hair is hand-dyed merino yarn from Switzerland, extremely soft and beautiful to style. It is a crochet-cap and hand-knotted wig, which allows for many different styles to be created.

Her over-dress is fully reversible, and suitable for both winter and summer wear. She currently wears it over a handkerchief linen shift and lilac bloomers (but, please don't share that information with anybody else...giggle). She wears booties made our of up-cycled felted wool.

Below you can see her with loose open hair and the darker side of the outfit. The dress is based on a pinafore pattern that crosses over in the back, so a child does not have to worry about buttons or other closures. 

Kiran's Grandmother adopted Lars and he will stay with her until Christmas, when he will move in with Kiran. Lars is 33 cm tall. His hair is crochet with the loop technique that Joy's Waldorfdolls describes in her wig-making instruction booklet.

Lars' hoodie is sewn from a T-shirt Huxley wore a couple of summers ago, he also wears linen-cotton pants and leather shoes. He was the first of the children to be adopted at the fair.

Here he is sitting with Reka (who is still available for adoption). Reka is the smallest of the children, measuring a mere 21 cm in height. Her price is $125 CDN. 

She wears a silk hat with a daisy button, and an embroidered, tailored light green linen dress. Her hair is hand-dyed merino wool in an open style. Under her dress you can see a little bit of her floral, cotton capri pants. Her crochet shoes are the same silk as her hat and close with a daisy button.

Reka would be a great doll for a slightly older child, as she is a bit harder to dress.

Lina is 43 cm tall and has a body that is on the plump side (my own pattern). She gives the best hugs. Lina has been adopted together with Mia (you will learn about her next). 

Lina wears a tunic, a cotton batiste and sequin skirt over linen capri pants, as well as a hand-knit hat. Her hair is crochet with the lovely technique that a few of my admired german doll-makers have shared with me (links to their dolls to follow in one of my next posts, in which I would like to share my learning curve about the dolls). Lina's shoes are also made from up-cyled felted woolen sweaters.

Lina with Mia and Silas

Sweet Mia, she is 26 cm tall and has been adopted to the same home as Lina, and I will also make another boy (a brother to Silas, that will look very similar to him).

Mia wears a tunic made from the same fabric as my favourite linen shirt is made out of, as well as white handkerchief linen pants and a reversible pinafore (a pattern I drafted, based on a pinafore I wear for spinning). Her hair is also a crochet mohair type wig.

Here you can clearly see the little bit of embroidery I added to the pinafore. Mia is wearing it with the lilac side out to show you how it matches her kerchief.

Silas, my big boy is 44 cm tall and such a wonderful big brother. He has been adopted as well. 

Silas is dressed up in his finest linen shirt, striped linen pants (made from an up-cycled men's shirt), and his warm wollen felted west. His kerchief adds a little bit of extra spunk to him, don't you agree? His shoes are suede and look very dapper. His hat has earflaps not to keep him warm, but to make him look cool, because, well, as we all know, big brothers have a reputation to protect. He has been adopted for a little girl that is quite a tomboy, so I'm sure he is set for a wonderful life of adventures. 

Last, but by now means least, here we have Pia, the other girl that is still available for adoption to a new home. Pia measures about 43 cm in height and costs $195 CDN.

For her hair I combined the brushed mohair technique with the loop-crochet technique, which gives her a beautifully unruly head of hair that she likes to tame with barrets and little pig tails. Pia is quite a girly-girl and wears a dress over her capri pants. To make sure she stays nice and clean when playing with the other children she wears the lilac side of her pinafore out, yet when she gets ready for an outing, she likes to wear it's white linen side. 

Pia's shoes are made from an up-cycled purple wool sweater and keep her feet cozy even in cold weather. 

Here you can see a detail of her dress showing the french seam.

Pia, Kayla and Ayla pretending that the craddle is a boat on hight seas.

This concludes the introduction of my first collection of Olive Sparrow Children. I was overwhelmed by all the beautiful encouraging compliments I received at the fair and feel blessed to being able to make three custom dolls for some very lucky children this Christmas. I currently still have room for one more custom order to be completed by December 20th as well. 

I hope you have a beautiful week ahead, leading up to our festive season.

Season's Exchange

After being extremely excited to have found the Season's Round Exchange and signing up, I was completely and utterly railroaded by life and only managed to send off my package to the lovely, patient and understanding Christine this past Tuesday, I wanted to at least post the baggies I sent to her filled with our treasures.

 

Christine had already sent her package to us on time and we're very much enjoying our newly resurected nature table. I had quite a nice set-up for last winter, but then it just sat there, until I eventually put a silk over the whole scene to hid the disgrace. The Season's Exchange package gave me the incentive I needed to clean it up. Mother Earth even got a new shawl knitted that she will be wearing in a couple of weeks when it is getting much colder. 

 

Packaged so lovely

 The little "prezzies" as they are known in our home

The mushroom girl, felted acorns, little pinecones in a locally hand-made bown, antique german "fliegenpilze" (Christine, how did you know I've been dreaming of these?), some beautiful piece of bark with moss and "tree-algea", and the sweetest little needle felted fliegenpilz.

Thank you again Christine! 

 

The set up of our nature table.

Do you keep a nature table at your home? Do you let your children play with it?

Catch-up post number 1 - Waldorf-inspired Knight

It is now or never!... (isn't that a song from the 80's?)... but I will spend the next few posts with things that I've been meaning to show you since the beginning of the year.

Today I would like to share a very special present that I made for Huxley at the beginning of the year. For Christmas 08, I had made him a knitted horse with a knights armor in wool and felt. It was on his wish list and came together late one night last year. 

Early February 09 I went on a train to travel to Kingston to do jurying for the Organization of Kingston Women Artists and while on the trip there I finally finished the knight to go with it. 

Here he is riding the dragon-lamp in my room at the hotel in Kingston (how perfect is that and how lucky for our little knight)

Back at home I fashioned him a quiver, a dogwood bow and arrows.

He has blue eyes just like Huxley.

Sir Knight is constructed from a pre-made doll armature from Switzerland. I then fashioned a bound head in the waldorf doll tradition and sewed arm-skins and a body for him. The legs are wrapped in some wool and then he wears his velvet pants overtop. The tunic, undershirt and hat is made from wool felt and stitched with silk thread. 

The horse is knitted from a pattern in Toymaking with Children by Freya Jaffke an essential book to rasing my little one. I wish I had had it years ago, before I let any other toy into our home. For the horses armour cloth, I made a paper pattern and then cut and sculpted more after it was placed on the horse. It then got embroidered and embellished.

For christmas this year I plan on making Huxley a King and a Queen and maybe a couple more knights. A wooden play castle would be fabulous too, but I think we would need to purchase a scroll saw, and we just don't have the space for a wood shop in our home.  

It is a constant challenge living in a large city like Toronto and trying to only let natural toys into the house. One of my husband's clients is a major Canadian retailer and we receive the large Christmas catalogue already in summer. Huxley found it this year and has taken to pouring over it with glee and a constant "Mommy, how old do I have to be for this? Mommy, I want a toy that looks real like this and is made from plastic!" (that one just about broke my heart). It is so challenging to know exactly what to say, because to be frank, it isn't a child's concern why certain toys are better for him/her than others. I'm at loss sometime of what to say, and scientific answers have slipped out more than I would like to admit. Of course, his wanting something does not mean that I will buy it, yet I can't fully disregard his desires either.

When I see blogs of waldorf families that live in rural areas, and I envy the seeming ease in keeping their little ones innocent. But we are not living there, and considering our life, we are living a fusion-waldorf lifestyle. A challenge, but this is who we are. 

What is your approach to a child's wish for "real looking, plastic toys?" 

Gasping

for air, as I'm drowning in the second batch of arugula planted in the garden. But drowning in love and with a heaviness around my heart as the light is the light of fall, not summer. Do many plans that where made for summer didn't happen, due to many things, weather, money, energy, availability of hubby, needs of a certain little someone, whose summer of being 5 will never come again. 

today, now, this minute, sneaking a post in, just to tell myself that it is still live, the blog hasn't died and that it is my space to be in when I'm ready. Much to show, much to tell, yet is there anybody out there listening?

A very worthwhile project

In my world wide web travels I came across a wonderful project that Kristin Laflamme started.

It is called Bundles of Love. 

Kristin's husband is currently stationed in Iraq. They had the idea that if we send him sewing supplies, he can distribute them to families in need. Since I am a good contender in the contest of "She who dies with the most fabric wins", I think I have goodies to share. 

I know for us Canadian's it might cost a little bit more to ship (I will make my first box this weekend and see how much it will cost), however, as we all know it is always the women and children that are suffering the most in any conflict. 

Help join me in making this a success. If you can't send your own parcel, maybe you could simply spread the word.

Here comes the Bride...

July 4th, 2009, Brighton, Ontario

On Abby

20 meters of silk satin and chiffon, constructed and adjusted from a Vogue 1030 pattern. Adjusted in a way so that I could very comfortably and prettily sit astride Abby.

us, circa July 4, 2009

Other goodies to follow, such as a catch up on things done during Spring 2009.

A Record of Times Past

So I fell out of habit of posting, got lazy, lost the routine and now I hope to jump back on. The reasons are many, most of them certainly justified the lack of posts from me. Should I rattle them off? Probably not, however, let's just say that having your DH replace his computer system and needing to have yours is not conducive to posting. I can't blog without Photoshop, something I just got back now. 

So look at some images to recap these past weeks:

My booth at the Art Expo in March (with one of my booth neighbours)

About the average number of people passing by during the show (except the opening night which was packed with a large crowd. It was wonderful to see so many people that I know.

Detail with the flowers I bought for this year. I was delighted to find them (I have no idea what they are called, and neither did the florist). But the way they picked up the colours of my paintings was just wonderful).

My booth neighbour and fellow-Swiss compatriot Fung Sou

My favourite visitor (besides Huxley of course) my friend Tina with her son Henry. 

Since the show this year was a lot quieter and less busy, I was still full of pent up energy and "Tatendrang" (germ. the need to do something). My depressing kitchen had to go. These pictures don't do it full justice, but it was dark and impractical. When we moved into the house 4 years ago, we said we would redo it in a few years. Well a few have passed and we are still working on many other projects. I thought we'd just give it a new paint job. At least make it all white. Easy right.... Well....

The kitchen before (this is the last week of May)

A couple of days later... Richard had removed the bulkhead (I've always felt that a small kitchen can use any space for storage available). This of course meant that we would have to do some serious patching on the walls and ceiling. We found an old squirrel nest up there as well and a hole that lead outside. Not a new one though, but there where a bunch of nuts and even marbles (poor critters must have thought they where magic nuts).

After the paint job... oh, so much brighter....

More pictures to come... we are now painting the new baseboards, after we removed the el cheapo tiles, which meant that we also had to remove the sub-flooring right down to the original mausoleum(sadly not restorable), then install new sub-flooring and lay new stick-down tiles. At least as of last night I cooked for the first time back on my stove (vs. a set of hot plates brought home from the studio for that reason).

So a girl has to get over the disarray in her beloved kitchen by buying a new pair of shoes. These were designed for me. Or so it feels.... From El Natura Lista, these must be my most comfortable and coolest shoes ever... bought at trove  right here in town. A fabulous store with a different selection. 

Then of course we celebrated Easter, with a selection of natural dyed eggs. I used mainly purple carrot peels, onion skins and for special effect some food colouring.  The white marks where created by tying think rubber bands around the eggs before boiling them in the colour. 

I also met with my friend Mary of Mmmh! Catering to plan the food for our wedding...

And here... a look at my friend Rima's husband Roger (another fellow Swiss connection here in town) performing at the annual play put on by the Swiss club Toronto. A very fun production. I went with Rima to serve as her translator. 

So this takes us up to April 18th, I'll get the other images done in the next couple of days and get us all up to speed. Have a wonderful day!

Gulp...

I'm still here, just recuperating from the show (pictures and report to follow in a later post), cleaning up the studio (I was back there for the first time since the show), redoing the kitchen (just couldn't stand it anymore!!)  and getting Huxley back to school after a double bout of stomach flu (poor little one).

So here's a little something for laughs (circa 1985)

Please not that if attempting to achieve this New Wave hairstyle you will need at least two bottles of hairspray per week. 

And then I realized something....

After fretting at the studio over the show that I will participate in, and for which set-up is on Thursday am, I realized that somewhere deep within me there is even after all these years and experience, still the little me that is frightened. So this little me is going to give herself a break from pressure and will officially state that yes, there is stage fright! 

Also, a lot of work still needs to be done and I need to focus on this work until after the show. Without a promising away my first-born son, I will promise to try and blog on Friday am to let you all know how opening night went. However, should life get the better of me, I will by the latest write you all be next week, after the show is done, Huxley is back at school and I have had a day of rest. 

Have I mentioned that Huxley has two weeks of March break, and that he is deemed too young by his school to attend a March-break camp, and hence I've had to have him tag along to most of my errands with me? Blessings counted where blessings are due... DH works from home, so I've had some time without involving Huxley.

Here a piece of work that will be on display at the show:

"Blessing the Sacred Vessel" 48" x 36"

Will I see you at the show?

It's a madhouse

Why is it, that I thought that I could pull off a show with no stress? 

Yes, the paintings are ready, but that does not seem to mean anything right now... Huxley has one extra week of March-break of course the week before the show. So I'm trying to do all the boring stuff, such as computer work, running around looking for lights, carpets, etc. all the while feeling guilty because here he has a brake from school, yet not much fun is happening. Motherguilt should be an official word in the dictionary. 

We are also awaiting to hear if Huxley got into our favourite choice of alternative school for this fall. The telephone call will come tomorrow if it is a go, if not, we are back to square one and have to start looking again. 

So, in summary, this weeks' key words are: fretting, stressing, erranding (another new word), administrating, searching, driving, hoping.

New Endeavor

of the creative type is in the works. Here is a preview:

with some mystery...

Cycle

Although March in Toronto could bring us another large amount of snow, yesterday we did the sensible thing. We walked through our neighbourhood to see if there are any earth children getting ready to peek outside yet.

In our front-yard, under the sour cherry tree. It has begun.

The dog-park, a long swath of land without houses. Right near our house, in what can be considered the middle-eastern part of the city.

Water flooded ice.

Looks like mother earth is making some nature art pieces inspired by Andy Goldsworthy

Our mission of the moment: collecting sticks for building (I will post a picture of our porch soon (grin)

Beautiful decay

Maybe this is how the sport got started? 

On our local little rink in the park just to the south-west of our house.