The Enchanted Tree

Valentine Fairies.

2012-01-26T16:15:00.000-05:00

i just wanted to show off a few of my newest bendy dolls! i've already started on the Valentine's fairies!!

These are so sweet and fun to make. The wings are heart shaped. :)

These ladies are available on my FB page. (the blond is reserved).

i'm working on putting together a few play sets as well! i will be making a pink, red and white fairy to match the Pegasus. Watch for more Valentine inspired bendy dolls and crafts this week!

Tropical Traditions Shredded Coconut winner announced!!

2012-01-26T15:27:00.004-05:00

The Tropical Traditions Shredded Coconut winner is....

Clanori said... 16: Subscribed to them.
clanori@yahoo.com; January 12, 2012 9:33 AM

Congratulations!! i will email later today. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen! Thank you all who entered!!

My Eco Girls T-shirt Giveaway!

2012-01-24T08:12:00.003-05:00

i recently stumbled across this fabulous website called My Eco Girls. MyEcoGirls.com is a mom-owned shop that sells 100% cotton and organic t-shirts that carry great messages and let your little ones make a statement! They also carry t-shirts for mom, recycled jewelry, organic lip balms and more.

The Eco-mountain shirts are made with non-toxic organic reactive dyes, water based chemical free inks. They are 100% cotton grown in the U.S.A. with one of the highest Oeko-Tex Certifications!

The Eco girl Statement tees are 100% organic cotton. They have great messages like 'Give a hoot, don't pollute' and 'Eco girls rock!'

The My Eco Girls mission is to help educate young girls on the importance of their true inner beauty & strength. Sending out this positive message helps them make eco-smart choices beautifying themselves as well as our planet. With the realization of true beauty & strength they can accomplish anything & everything!

With each purchase you are in turn helping many different charities which are supported by My Eco Girls eco-friendly suppliers!

My Eco Girls is also having a contest to find a 2012 Inspirational Eco Girl!!

Is your little one an eco-inspiration? Does she love to garden, or recycle or pick up trash?? Enter her picture on the My Eco Girls facebook page for a chance to win $100 in store merchandise! Be sure and check out the official rules and contest details here.

Want a t-shirt now? Stop by MyEcoGirls.com to see everything they have to offer! You can also like them on Facebook and twitter to keep up with the latest news and deals.

Win it!
My Eco Girls has generously offered one reader their choice of t-shirt.

Entry is easy!! 1. To enter, Visit MyEcogirls.com , then come back and leave me a comment letting me know which t-shirt is your favorite.
Be sure and include your email so i can contact you if you win!!

Extra Entries!!

2. "like" Myecogirls on facebook. Leave me a comment with your FB name!
3 Follow @MyEcoGirls on twitter. Leave me a comment with your twitter name!
4. Sign up to recieve the MyEcoGirls newsletter. (bottom of main page) Leave a message letting me know you did!
5. follow my blog via GFC! Leave a comment letting me know you do!
6. be a fan of my page on Facebook. Leave a comment letting me know you are and your FB name!!
7. Share the giveaway post on FB or twitter. Leave a link in your comment! (can be done daily)
8. Enter the MyEcoGirls 2012 Inspirational Eco Girl contest on facebook. 5 entries. Leave 5 comments letting me know you entered, with your FB name.

**Rules**

Giveaway ends Feb.5, 2012 at 11:59pm EST
Winner will be contact by email, and posted on the blog.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
This giveaway is open to Everyone

Happy Birthday to my beautiful boy!

2012-01-22T13:05:00.007-05:00

Hard to believe it has been 10 years since my beautiful boy made his appearance into this world.

On Friday he took cupcakes to school for his class. We printed up these awesome Harry Potter house flags (from Bakingdom.com) to put on the top of each cupcake. He randomly picked a cupcake for each class mate, and yelled out the house name as he handed them out. Tee hee.

My boy requested a Hogwarts Castle cake for his birthday. i am good a lot of things. Decorating cakes is NOT one of them. ha ha. Honestly, it came out a lot better than i thought it would. It was lumpy and lopsided. i made fondant for the first (and last) time. As soon as i put it on the cake, it began to dry, crack and wrinkle. It was the most unappetizing thing ever, it looked like a pile of elephant skin. :) However once i added the windows, and used the edge of a knife to make bricks it started to look slightly better. i added the green vines to cover an area where the cake corner had begun to fall apart. For the details i just used a ziplock bag that had a corner snipped, i really need to get myself some decorators tips. i really think that if i'd had some i could have improved the look of the cake a ton.

As much as i want to be that mom that throws awesome parties, i am not. i do not like parties, especially in the winter, inside my tiny little house. So as an alternative to a birthday party we allowed him to invite a couple of his friends bowling. My husband took them (hee hee) , and then they all came back for cake afterwards. The kids thought it was the coolest cake ever, and didn't seem to notice that it was lumpy or lopsided.

It has all gone by so fast, like the blink of an eye. What an amazing journey it has been so far.
Happy Birthday my beautiful boy!

Broody hen.

2012-01-18T17:04:00.006-05:00

A around 2 weeks ago Speckles the hen went missing. She is our only Speckled Sussex hen and lays beautiful large brown eggs. She is one of the domestic hens we purchased as a chick from the local farmer's Supply store last spring. Although she a domestic hen, she has always had an independent wild streak. She has never hung out in the pen with the other domestic ladies, or even connected with my free ranging flock of English game birds. She has always found a way to escape out of the pen, and spends her days scratching around the edge of the woods alone. She is notorious for hiding her eggs, so we are always keeping an eye on her to figure out where she is laying so we can still collect eggs.

i've honestly been very surprised that we didn't lose her yet. There so many predators here that our free-ranging birds typically get picked off during the fall. This year we lost 3 roosters in two days. :( Our remaining rooster hasn't really stepped up to 'head' rooster yet, and he often hangs out in the coop and leaves my free-ranging ladies on their own. My speckled hen would be easy prey to any predators that are hiding in the woods. her only defense, her feather patterning gives her some camouflage.

So when i first noticed she was missing i wasn't that surprised. It had occurred to me that she might possibly have a nest hidden somewhere, but because of the time of year it was much more likely that she'd been taken by a fox or hawk. i looked around for her in the places she typically hid her eggs, but didn't find her. It always sucks losing a hen.

It was a few days after this that my husband was moving the hay in the shed, and found her!!! :) She had made a nest of the backside of our hay roll.

She has a nice clutch of eggs, and has been incubating them for around 10 days now. :) We are really hoping to be hatching out chicks around the beginning of Feb. even though it's really the wrong time of year for new babies. It has been pretty cold out, and i'm not exactly sure my rooster has even been doing his job...so there is a chance her eggs are not fertilized. If she is able to hatch some out, she'll be a first time mother. The chicks will be a cross between Speckled Sussex/English Game.
We didn't have much luck hatching out peeps that last year, and so i'm really hoping for some new peeps!

Tissue Paper Hearts

2012-01-15T16:53:00.003-05:00

i finally got around to taking down our Tissue paper Butterflies and Dragonflies that we made last year. They had finally faded enough that they were no longer looking pretty. As i was taking them down, i was looking at one of the faded butterfly wings and realized how easy it would be to use the same paper fold pattern to make hearts.

These hearts are basically just two of the 'wings' overlapped. The look so lovely in the window with the sun shining through them.

These folded paper crafts can be made using kite paper, or tissue paper. i usually use tissue paper, but for the tutorial i'm using construction paper because it's easier to see the creases.
Start with a square of tissue paper, it can be any size. i used 2 1/2" squares.

First thing you do, is fold over diagnally, so that the opposite corners meet. Repeat this with the other corners so you have an X on the paper.

Now bring on the corners in to the center line, and crease. Do the same thing with the opposite corner. i use a bit of glue (washable glue stick) in the center to hold them in place. It should look like the picture above.

Now you are going to fold over the bottom edge so that it lines up with the center. i marked it as a black line so you can see what i'm talking about. You are going to bring that solid black edge, over to the dotted center line and crease.

Click on the picture to see it better. The first image is what i described above. i would put a dot of glue down to hold it in place, and then you are going to do the same thing on the other side. It should now look like the center picture. Then you fold down the point at the very top, just a little. So it has a more rounded look.

Repeat the process so that you have two identical pieces.

Now overlap them just a little and glue in place.
That's it! Easy peasy, but very cute!!

Pin It

Chocolate Protein balls and a Giveaway!

2012-01-11T08:43:00.003-05:00

i really enjoying trying out new products from Tropical Traditions, and then getting to offer them to my readers. Last month, they sent me a tub of their organic Shredded coconut to try out!

Tropical Traditions 100% natural Shredded Coconut is made from organic dried coconuts in the Philippines that are grown with no fertilizers or pesticides. This premium dried coconut contains no additives or preservatives, and is not sweetened. Unlike most dried coconut on the market, our dried coconut products are not treated with sulfates to keep them white. They are a great addition to recipes and baking. The Shredded Coconut is a cut very small, it isn't like the shredded coconut you see in most stores. It is great for baking, breading, turning to coconut milk and no-bake snack recipes. We made some tasty coconut crusted tofu, coconut cookies and tried out several no-bake cookie recipes.

i recently came across this recipe on the Natural mommies blog and wanted to try them. i really like that these are quick and easy, packed full of protein and taste great. You can really play with the ingredients in these. My kids loved them and thought they were 'junky' treats. They had no idea they were actually pretty good for them.

Chocolate Protein Balls

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup Coconut Peanut butter (or regular)
- 1 cup Whole oats
-1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-1/2 shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/2- 3/4 cup almonds, pecans, other nuts or seeds. (ground or chopped small)
-1/3 cup raw honey
coconut oil

Mix ingredients together really well in a large bowl. i coated my hands in coconut oil, and kneaded/mixed them by hand. Then let them chill for about 30 min in the fridge. Now, coat your hands again in coconut oil and roll them into little balls (large gumball size). Store them in the fridge in an airtight container.

Tropical Traditions website has an entire recipe section for their coconut products, including some really yummy looking recipes using the Shredded coconut. They had several similar versions to the protein balls listed above.

Can't wait to try it?? You can purchase Tropical Traditions Shredded coconut here .

Win it!

Tropical Traditions has offered one reader a gallon tub of their Organic shredded coconut.

MANDATORY ENTRY
You only have to complete one to be entered, but may do all three for extra entries!

Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Newsletter. They have awesome sales!
Follow them on Twitter @troptraditions

This is mandatory and must be completed before any extra entries are allowed!

Leave a comment letting me know you completed a mandatory entry, and leave your email address, facebook name and/or twitter ID so i can confirm!! Please leave a separate comment for each extra you complete.

Please include your e-mail address or make sure it is visible in your blogger profile so i have a way to contact you if you win. Otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

Additional EXTRA ENTRIES (make sure you did at least one of the mandatory above!!)
please leave a new comment for each extra entry. If you qualify for 5 entries, leave 5 separate comments.

2. Visit the recipe section at Tropical Traditions and leave me a link to one that you would like to try.
3. 'like' Tropcial Traditions on Facebook. 1 entry
4. Follow my blog The Enchanted Tree 1 entry
5. Be a fan of The Enchanted Tree on Facebook 1 entry

6. Tweet about the contest include @Troptraditions and leave a link to your tweet. 1 entry (can tweet daily)
7. Add my button (top left column) or add me to your sidebar on your blog 3 entries (leave 3 comments)
8. Blog about the giveaway link to this post & the Tropical Traditions website. 3 entries, leave 3 comments.

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product. i was under no obligation to review it, write a positive review or host a giveaway in exchange for the free product. All opinions are 100% mine.

**Rules**

Giveaway ends Jan.25, 2012 at 11:59pm EST
Winner will be contact by email, and posted on the blog.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
This giveaway is open to USA and Canada shipping addresses only

Building Fairy houses

2012-01-08T10:55:00.001-05:00

We have had a pretty mild winter so far. We've had a few unbearably cold days, and one snow that stuck...but most of our days have been in the 40-50.

The kids have been making fairy houses again. They started this one on Dec. 22. This time, instead of of making our usual simple houses the kids decided to make a Fairy Grand Hotel.

Although the picture may look like nothing more than a pile a wood to the untrained eye (or those without imagination), the kids had a detailed story to go with the creation. The watering can was part of the 'fairy shower' in the bath house. It also had a toilet, hot tub (made from a turtle shell) and steam room. They had a amphitheater with seats made from hickory shells. They even created an all-you-can-eat buffet that had acorns, berries, hickory nuts, various seeds, and a few green leaves.

My girl created this and said it was a Japanese temple. She arranged the peach pits as seats.

On Jan. 1st we hiked through the woods, and Sage gathered moss to bring home to the fairy houses.

This weekend we've had gorgeous weather!! Almost 60 in January?!? We spent the days outside swinging, exploring and working on fairy houses. My girl added lots of moss to the fairy hotel.

She brought out some of her fairy bendy dolls, put them to bed in the soft moss. The kids created the fairy grand hotel without any help at all. i was totally blown away by it, and all the little details they added. It was difficult to capture it in the photos, but it was really a very impressive fairy house!

"Know you what it is to be a child?...It is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear, it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its soul." -Francis Thompson

New for 2012 :)

2012-01-07T11:22:00.004-05:00

i've been working on some new designs for 2012. :)

These were inspired by a My Little Pony seahorse i had a kid. Does anyone else remember those? i quickly decided these are super fun to make, and so darn cute i had to make a few more.
i also thought it would be fun to offer them in sets with matching mermaids. :)

i'll be selling these for $25 a set and will be making many other colors. i just love them!!
You can expect to see more new items this year. Now that the holidays are out of the way, i'm feeling super creative and motivated to create some new designs and finally get my Waldorf dolls finished and for sale. Yes, really!! :)

i'm also working on simplifying my dragon pattern so that i can offer a few for sale. The last dragons i made were fun, but they took an insane amount of time to complete. i'm also looking for ideas on some more critters and creatures i can make to go with my bendy dolls. Would love to hear your ideas!

If your interested in a mermaid sets i'll be posting them on my FB page for sale. i'll also have more available next week. :)

First Lesson of 2012

2012-01-05T07:32:00.002-05:00

My first lesson of 2012, is that this shrub next to my house is called a Pieris Japonica. It is sometimes called Japanese andromeda, or Lily of the Valley shrub. It is also the only plant on the list of Plants poisonous to goats that is classified as Extremely toxic, rather than just...ya, know...toxic.

i learned all of this on the afternoon of Dec.31st. i had put Delilah out on a rope to graze in the yard. i do this often, since the pasture isn't fenced yet and their actual pen doesn't have a lot of browse. i keep break-away collars on them, so that they don't accidentally hang them selves if they get tangled or startled. Both goats learned pretty quickly how to break-a-way if they saw something just out reach that they wanted to eat. So it's not that unusual to walk outside and have a missing goat. Typically when Delilah gets off her line, she goes into the shed looking for hay and grain, or wanders back down to her pen. They never really go too far from their food source, so i've never really worried about it too much.
However, on Sat. evening she got off her line, and came right to the front door. So i walked out and tried to walk her back to her pen. She immediately took a couple bites of this shrub that was off the side of the deck, and let me chase her around it a couple times. i realized i was going to need a bit of help to get her down to the pen, so i ran inside and grabbed some corn chips to lure her down. It worked.
When i came back inside i glanced at the scrub i had seen her nibble on, and decided i'd better look it up to make sure it wasn't poisonous. It was. It was not just a mildly toxic... it was listed as extremely toxic. Most of this info i read said that she only needed to eat .1% of her body weight to be poisoned. Ugh.

So i started researching what i could do to treat her at home, it was of course a holiday weekend. i'm pretty sure it's a written rule that my goats only get sick on holidays. Our last goat emergency was over Labor day. So, i calculated about how much she would have to eat in order to get sick. .1% of her body weight was about 16 grams of the plant. i used my kitchen scale to see how many leaves that would be...and i was fairly certain she had not eaten any where near that much. However, i didn't know if she'd eaten some before i found her at the door, or while i was inside to get the corn chips. i watched her for a few hours, and she seemed to be fine. So i went to bed, knowing there really wasn't much i could do but wait.

In the morning, i woke early and went out to check on her. It was immediately obvious that she was not 'fine'. She had green slime/foam/vomit all around her mouth. Her eyes were dull, and her coat was all fluffed up. She kept squatting like she was trying to urinate, but nothing came out. When i walked into the goat shed, i saw dried vomit all over the walls, bench and floor. My poor girl had had a really rough night.

Searching online, i really couldn't find a lot of clear information. Most pages said to administer Toxi-ban and take the animal to the vet immediately. Since it was New Year's day and a Sunday not only were all the vets closed, our local farm store was closed as well. So i began looking online for other options.

On the Goatworld site, i came across a list of goat tips which included Judy Muska's recipe for Poisoned goats.

If you do not have toxi-ban on hand-
1 pint water, 1 tsp
Ginger. ½ tsp
baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. molasses
1 tblsp. Epsom salts
give entire mixture to an adult goat, for a young or small goat, give as much as you can comfortably get down, give slowly, don’t get into lungs.

i had all the ingredients to this at home, so i made it up and began to administer it with a needless syringe. i do not yet know how to drench a goat, and although the process was tedious giving her just about a tbsp at a time, i was still able to get most of it down her.

i began searching again online for suggestions, and really didn't come up with much. Toxi-ban is basically just activated charcoal, and i knew we could get that at CVS. One of the problems with vomiting/diarrhea is dehydration. Many site said to give the goat an electrolyte/ pro-biotic solution once the vomiting stops. i had used up my last pack of pro-lyte plus when she was sick in Sept. and forgot to replace. So i had Kenan pick up some some Gatorade.

i couldn't really find much info on the correct dosage of activated charcoal to give. Most website online said to use the dosage info from the toxi-ban...which i didn't have. The charcoal came in caspules, so i opened them up and added about a tbsp or two of water (i later read that mineral oil works well too). i gave her two capsules which was the recommended dosage for people. Again i administered it with a needle-less syringe. Just squirting a little inside her cheek, and letting her swallow before giving her more. i was really nervous about getting it in the lungs. i also gave her a few ounces of the Gatorade the same way. Then left her alone, as to not cause her any more stress and kept an eye on her.

i was still pretty confident that she hadn't eaten very much, and was having a very mild reaction. When i google goat poisoning online, most sites have a huge list of symptoms and many people describe their goat as lying on the ground screaming in pain, vomiting and having convulsions. So i knew we were really lucky. Although she had been vomiting, she never 'went down' she continued to stand up, and be alert.

A few hours after giving her the charcoal/gaterade. i noticed she was out nosing her hay. She wasn't eating...but looked like she really wanted to. She was pushing it around with her nose, nibbling a little with her lips. i also noticed that she was still squatting like she had to pee, but this time i saw a little urine drip out. That seemed like a good sign, and told me that she is still dehydrated. So i gave her a few more ounces of Gatorade.

i went out to the garden and picked a bunch of the leafy greens that i thought might get her eating again. i pulled the old broccoli plants which still have leaves, several of the kale, some leaf lettuce, wild onions tops, comfrey and swiss chard. Green leaves are supposed to be easy to digest and healing for sick goats. i have also read that goats will eat comfrey for tummy aches. Again she began to nose it all, nibbled and swallowed a tiny bit of the comfrey and Swiss chard.

i was starting to feel like she would be okay. i left her to rest and went about my day...which was pretty much playing outside with the kids on the new swing set. :)

After a few hours i checked on her and was thrilled to see that she was eating again. i filled her water bucket up with steamy hot water, and added a couple TBSP of molasses, and she must have drank half the bucket as soon as i gave it to her. By that evening, i knew she was going to be okay. Four days later, and she is completely back to herself....trying to break into to the chicken coop and yelling at me every time i walk out the door.

So that was my very first day of 2012. It was not the best start to a new year, but it could have been much worse! Starting the year with a dead goat would have probably given me a negative attitude for the rest of the year. Instead, i'm starting this with a lot of gratitude. i feel incredibly lucky and blessed that Delilah did not eat more of the plant. i feel more confident about my ability to treat her at home, although if she had been poisoned worse it may not have made any difference. Then again, maybe it would have. So i'm really trying to look at it as a positive thing...a lesson and learning experience.

i posted this quote last New Years, but i love it so much i had to post it again.

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”
― Neil Gaimen

Treasure Hunt and a Big Surprise.

2012-01-03T08:40:00.002-05:00

This year we enjoyed a simple and quiet Yule at home. The last few years we have planned a trip to Florida to spend the holidays with my parents, sister and grandparents, but something always comes up and we are never able to make it down. This year, my parents had talked about coming up to spend the holidays with us. So, i had been planning on that, and really looking forward to it. i really like the idea of spending the winter holidays surrounded by friends and family.
However, last month both of my grandparents ended up hospitalized for various illnesses, and my father broke his foot. So my parents were unable to make the trip up from Florida, and we once again spent the holidays alone. Both of the kids were very disappointed, as they always love time with Nana and Pap and we just don't get to see them very often.

i completely spaced it and never got a picture of our tree with all the gifts under it. It really looked very lovely. After all the gifts has been handed out, there was one large box that didn't contain anyone's name on the tag and instead said "open last".

So the kids ripped open the box, and inside was a very tiny box, that was also wrapped. :) Inside the wrapping was a tiny slip of paper that said " Treasure hunts are so much fun! So, let's start with clue #1. Go look where children like to swing and have fun!" So they grabbed their coats and ran outside to our old pathetic swing set.

It only took them a minute to figure out the next clue, which sent them to the old oak tree.

We had a total of 12 clues. Kenan wrote out all the rhythms and riddles that led them closer to their treasure.

"If you like swings and you like to slide,then you would be wise to look between the paths where the wood stacks lie to solve clue number #5. "

"You have done so well to find clue #12 The mystery is almost at it's end.
Look in the clearing near the fairy garden to see how your fun will begin!!"

Since there was no way we would be able to build and hide a huge wooden swing set the night before xmas, we gave the kids some of the most obvious part...the swings, tire swing and the slide and printed up a picture of their new swing set. It only took them a second to realize what it all meant and they were so excited!!! Sage was begging Daddy to build it right now so she could swing. :)

It took Kenan a few days to get it put together, not because the construction was complicated....but because he had to level the ground first. We decided not to put it right next to the house where the old swing set was, but instead move it off to the side of the yard where we've been working to establish an outdoor play place. This area was quite rocky and a bit sloped so it took a bit of work to get the area ready. Once that was finished, the swingset went together quickly! We're going to put a border around the area and then put down a bunch of mulch. So it should really look nice this spring!

i hadn't realized it before, but the new swing set matches our house perfectly!!! Our house is wood-sided with an identical red cedar stain, and it has a green metal roof...that matches the canopy, slide, swings etc perfectly! It's truly a beautiful product and looks like it was custom built to match our house. :)

The quality of this swing set is incredible. My husband (who is not easily impressed) was very impressed with it. :) While building it he commented several times on how heavy duty the hardware was and how 'solid' the whole thing seemed. These sets are built to be played on!!

My only complaint about our new swing set...is that my daughter now breaks down into tears every time i tell her she has to come inside. :) Yesterday we played outside until it was almost dark. when i told her we had to come inside she said between sobs, " i just can't stop thinking about the swing set. It's just too much fun!!! "
Our beautiful wooden swing set is made by Kid's Creations LCC.
You can check out their website here and connect with them on facebook here.

We really could not be more pleased with our new swing set. The craftsmanship and quality of their swing sets is outstanding. i also really love Kid's Creations commitment to safety and the environment, that they are USA made, and the story of how they got started. Truly an awesome company!!

Again, i just need to shout out one more huge THANK YOU to Jeff Snell and everyone at the Kid's Creation company. You have truly made my kids year!!!

Giveaway Winners Announced!!

2011-12-31T07:53:00.010-05:00

Winter Fairy Giveaway winner is .....
marithecrone said...27

: I love this little blue fairy angel. She will look wonderful fluttering around the top of my tree; there is a space waiting for her arrival. :)

PS I'm a buddy of Val, if you think that would sway your mind.; December 17, 2011 4:08 PM

Congratulations Marithecrone!!! i do not have contact info for you, please contact me!

Knotty Val giveaway winners are...

The winner of the bracelet is...

harpersmama said...83: I liked Knotty Val on FB!!
Kimberly W.

terrapinmoon at gmail dot com; December 18, 2011 10:25 PM

Congratulations Kimberly W.!!

The winner of the peace sign earrings is...

Carole said...30: and I'm already a follower of your wonderful blog.; December 11, 2011 3:40 PM

Congratulations Carole!!

The Patchwork Pinecones reusable produce bag giveaway winner is:

treebee said...44

following one green tomato! treevt80 at yahoo

December 19, 2011 8:52 AM

Congratulations treebee!

The Tiemeyer Glass pendant giveaway winner is:

Julie said... 208: follow you on twitter
and tweeted
@hbgarden
https://twitter.com/#!/hbgarden/status/152903969956569089
hebb dot julie at gmail dot com; December 30, 2011 7:09 PM

Congratulations Julie!!!

Congratulations to all the winners! i will send out emails later today. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen! Thank you all who entered!!

A little bit of Luck, and a whole lot of Gratitude.

2011-12-30T10:01:00.006-05:00

Back in October i came across contest on facebook from Kid's Creations LLC for the Ugliest Swing set contest. i had already been dreaming and drooling over their beautiful redwood swing sets for quite a while. Their swing sets are made with the high quality redwood which is naturally resistant to decay and insects, and has not been treated chemically. All of the redwood they use has been harvested in a sustainable way. Kid's Creations wooden playset structures are also hand-crafted in the U.S.A.

They first posted about the contest sometime in October, and i just thought 'Wow! Wouldn't that be amazing to win?!?! i should really enter.' but...i didn't. i actually forgot about the contest. Around the middle of November i happened to catch a reminder post, and this time i decided to enter. All you had to do was post a picture of your 'ugly swing set' and they would chose a winner on Dec. 1st to receive a Two ring Adventure swing set.

So i went outside and took a picture of our rusted, broken, 'piece of crap' swingset. However, when i brought up the picture on my computer it just didn't really look like much. So i went back outside and took pictures from all angles, took a close up of the broken/rusted support bar, the swing seats that literally deteriorated in about 2 years..the bent metal. If i was going to enter this contest, i wanted the judges to see just how 'ugly' my swing set really was.

Horrible, isn't it? The worst part is that this swing set was purchased new (by my folks), and is only about 5 years old. My boy never really played on it so it just sat in the yard and deteriorated. It's never been abused, or even played on much at all, it just literally fell apart. By the time my girl was really old enough to play on it, it was already a hazardous mess. This should be a pretty good warning to stay away from Chinese made crap, because that is exactly what you will get...total crap.

So i entered my picture with fingers crossed, and put it out of my mind for a little while.

The rules to the contest were rather vague. It didn't really say whether the winner would be chosen by picture alone, or if 'likes' would be a contributing factor. In the last few days of the contest, i noticed that several of the other contestants were getting 'likes' on their photos. So i shared my entry on my wall, asking friends and family to 'like' my photo to show support. About 10 of them did. :) Then, sometime later Kid's Creation posted that they 'may be swayed by public opinion'. So i took that to heart, and really encourage my friends/family to vote. i had no idea if it would really make a difference, but i figured it couldn't hurt.

i was completely blown away by the response! i've entered other contests on FB before, and asked my friends to vote...and i usually get about a dozen people that do. lol. However this time, when i posted that it was the last day of the contest and asked folks to vote, my FB feed completely blew up with my friends/family sharing the post and asking their friends to vote. i even had several 'friends of friends' people i didn't even know share the post!! i'm still overwhelmed by the unbelievable response, and can not even begin to express my gratitude in just seeing so many folks rooting for us, and posting such positive comments and kind words.

The night before the winner was chosen, my stomach was in knots. My friends & family had done an amazing job of rallying together and making sure my picture had the most votes, however i really didn't know if that would matter. The final vote was up to the judges, and all of the swing sets entered were just as 'ugly' as mine. i was really, really hoping the judges would take the 'likes' into consideration, but really didn't know if they would.

On Dec. 1st Kid's creation posted that "the judges will confer today, and will announce our winner tomorrow morning at 9am!" It's amazing i slept at all that night. In the morning i was glued to computer, while trying to get ready to leave to volunteer at the school. Then it occurred to me, that they are in a different time zone and i won't even be home when the winner is chosen!! Ack!

and just as i was about to walk out the door, Kid's Creation posted the winner...

Wohoo!!! i seriously can not even begin to tell you how overwhelmed/excited/shocked/grateful i felt. What an absolutely amazing surprise i will have for the kids this year!!!!

i have to shout out a huge THANK YOU to Kid's Creation and a huge THANK YOU to all my friends and family that helped make this happen. My heart is overflowing with gratitude.

Our swing set arrived on Dec. 23 (unassembled) and so we managed to keep it hidden from the kids, so that it was a total surprise!

That will be my next post. :)

Handmade and Local Gifts.

2011-12-29T09:16:00.017-05:00

The holidaze always seem to be a time of overwhelming commercialism. Although we are not entirely immune to it, we still like to try and support handmade and local businesses as much as possible.

Many of the gifts we gave and received this year were made here in Floyd county. i put together a gift basket similar to this for my folks, i found the basket at the Goodwill. Some of the items given and received this year were coffee from Red Rooster, local honey, local apple butter, homemade blackberry jam, homemade laundry powder, hand crocheted dish clothes, local handmade soap, locally made wooden utensils (including the honey dippers, apple butter spreaders etc). We also gave lots of homemade cookies, chocolate covered pretzels and glass icicle ornaments. :)

The honey is so good! It's just called Papa and Tara's and is raw honey from Check, which is at the other end of Floyd County. We can purchase it at both the Dugpur and Willis mini-marts (our closest gas stations). The honey dippers, apple butter spreaders and other utensils were hand made by local woodworkers and can also be purchased at Willis mini-mart. :)

The crocheted wash clothes were made by me. The soap is locally made and was purchased at the Floyd County Store.

Although my kids do get there share of store bought gifts, both my husband and i always hand make them something special for our Yule celebration. This year my husband made each of us our own glass loopity loop straw. i've seen the ones from Dharma Glass, and had asked him a while ago if he'd make us a set. My girls straw has an etched dichro butterfly marble embellishing it.

My boy ended up with yoda. :)

i got the mother of all loopity loop straws!! :) It has a beautiful etched dichro goddess marble.

i've been so busy this month with custom orders, i didn't know if i'd get anything made for my kids. However, one afternoon i got inspired to make my girl a Ruby Gloom doll. Ruby gloom is a cute show we recently started watching on netflix. She's just so cute, i had to make one! She came together so quickly that i made a Doom kitty to go with her. My daughter was thrilled with them. They are made using eco-fi felt and clean carded wool. i just used the basic blanket stick to sew them together. Doom kitty has a pipe cleaner in his tail so that it is posable.

After making the Ruby Gloom doll for my girl, i needed something for my boy. i thought a Harry Potter Lego mini-figure would be fun and slightly challenging. :) Here are the pieces before it was all stitched together. i wasn't happy with a couple of things after i stitched it together and stuffed it, and will be changing it a bit before posting pictures of the completed doll. My boy was still thrilled with it. Both kids have slept with their handmade dolls every night since they received them. :)

We were really, really blessed this year, and were able to give the kids a pretty amazing surprise (which i'll post about soon). It's still these simple handmade items that really make me feel the love and spirit of the season.

Reminder, the Tiemeyer Glass Pendant giveaway is ending on the 30th! i'll pick and post winners to all 4 of the giveaways on the 31st!!

Our new Yule Tree and Dried Fruit Ornaments.

2011-12-28T12:15:00.007-05:00

Now that the Holiday season is wrapping up (only one more to go!!) i finally have a minute to put together some posts.

For the past 11 years we have always had a live potted tree to celebrate Yule. After the holidays are over we replant the tree outside, and the next year we dig it up and bring it back inside again until the tree becomes too large to bring inside. The tree becomes a part of our family for a few weeks each year, and we always look forward to bringing it back inside the next year. It's like a familiar friend to spent the holidays with. Two years ago, we lost our current Yule tree when a large truck backed over it. :( We replaced it with the only 'living christmas tree' we could find, which was a Norfolk Island Pine. It was not a hardy tree, and didn't survive the year. So this year we went out looking for a new Yule tree.

We found a tree lot that hd a really nice selection of potted trees, and came home with this lovely little Frasier fir. The Frasier fir is native to the Appalachian mountains of Virginia. Infact it's restricted to a small area of the southeastern Appalachian Mountains in south western Virginia, North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Making it the perfect choice to replant on our proprty.

i like that the needles are soft, so that the kids can decorate it without constantly getting poked. It also smells wonderful. :) The kids decorated with our usual ornaments. Hand blown glass icicles, pinecones, ribbons, bells, gingerbread and dried fruits.

After decorating our new Yule tree, we went outside to decorate our past trees. Some years we add lights, or ribbons and some years we make the pinecone peanut butter bird feeders. This year covered them in dried citrus fruits. i wanted to string cranberries as well, but never got around to it. They still looked beautiful.

Drying citrus to hang on your tree is very easy. It looks fabulous on a tree and smells wonderful.

To make dried fruit slices, you just slice your fruit round 1/8 inch thick, place on rack and bake at your lowest oven setting for about 2- 3 hours. You could also use a food dehydrator, or air dry them for a couple days. i did both the air dry method and the oven method. Some of the oven dried fruit turned a little brown, while the air dried fruit kept it's color better. It took bout two days to dry, and i had them setting near our wood stove.

We used oranges, tangerines, lemons and limes. Pink grapefruit would look gorgeous as well. You can also use apple slices, but soak them in a little lemon/juice water or they will get very brown.

We left our fruit natural, but you could preserve these with a little varnish. i've seen some folks sprinkle them with glitter first, and then coat them a varnish, clear glue or mod podge. Then you just attach a ribbon and hang, you can also glue them together or onto a grapevine wreath to make a beautiful dried fruit wreath. i think that my be our next project!

Tiemeyer Glass Opal Pendant Giveaway!

2011-12-18T12:34:00.010-05:00

Yay! Another giveaway!! :) i promise i'll go back to my regular posting soon. i just can't resist giving things away. :)

The beautiful Light Mandala pendant was made by husband, Kenan of Tiemeyer Glass. He's been self employed as a glass artist for 11 years now, supporting us with his beautiful work. His main concentration is marbles and paperweights, but he also makes beads, pendants and occasionally bracelets and rings. You can visit his website www.Tiemeyerglass.com to see more of his work.

So, in the spirit of giving, he has offered up this beautiful pendant. It has a gold and silver fumed light vibration pattern, a large pear shaped Gilson opal, purple "burst" pattern dichro. Gold and silver fumed feathering and pin wheels on the back.
The pendant is: 1-1/2' tall, 15/16" wide, 7/8" thick, 1/4" loop hole

Entry is easy!! 1. To enter, Visit the Tiemeyer Glass Gallery on FB, then come back and leave me a comment letting me know what your favorite piece is!
Be sure and include your email so i can contact you if you win!!

Extra Entries!!

1. "like" Tiemeyer Glass page on facebook. Leave me a comment letting me know your FB name and that you did!
2. Leave a comment on any image in one of the photo albums of Tiemeyer Glass FB page. Leave me a comment letting me know you did and where i can find it!
3. 'heart' Tiemeyer Glass on Etsy. Leave me a comment with your Etsy name.
4 follow my blog via GFC! Leave a comment letting me know you do!
5. be a fan of my page on Facebook. Leave a comment letting me know you are and your FB name!!
6. Share the giveaway post on FB or twitter. Leave a link in your comment! (can be done daily)
7. Enter my other giveaways! Leave a comment letting me know what you entered!
8. Join the Tiemeyer Glass mailing send an email to: kenan@tiemeyerglass.com with the subject line "join mailing list" and the email address you would like subscribed. Leave a comment letting me know you joined!

Good Luck!

This giveaway ends Dec. 30th at 11:59pm it is open to US and Canada only.

Patchwork and Pinecones feature and giveaway!

2011-12-17T15:33:00.009-05:00

A few months ago you may remember that i featured Danielle from Pixypatch as my featured artist. ! Danielle has since started transitioning into a new business name called Patchwork and Pine cones.

"I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and change my business’s name. This could end up being a colossal mistake, especially since I’ve had a strong, ten-year, on-line presence as Pixy Patch. But, you live, you learn, and you evolve. I’ve been resisting this change for several years, but I have now reached a point where I feel a new name may better encompass the person I’ve become. "

Danielle's reason for this name change are to incorporate two of her main passions, patchwork and nature. Most of her most treasured garments are made of patchwork, she loves to make it as well as wear it. She picked pinecones to not only show her love for trees and nature, but also because of their symbolize and deeper meaning.

Her current passion is to design and create clothing with an emphasis on hemp and other eco friendly fabrics. Her focus for the past few years has been striving towards a self sustaining future with a minimal impact on our environment.

Take a stand against single-use plastic and look good doing it with reusable produce bags!

Her reusable, eco friendly, produce bags are made from a light-weight, durable, cotton mesh that has been paired up with a printed cotton. They also have a hand crocheted drawstring closure.

Now for the GIVEAWAY!
Danielle has offered one lucky reader a reusable produce bag of choice from her etsy shop!

**Mandatory Entry**

TO ENTER: visit the Patchwork and Pinecones Etsy Shop and have a look around then leave a comment here telling me what item you love the most! *You MUST do the mandatory entry! Bonus entries will not count, if mandatory entry it's not done first!*

Please be sure to leave your email address, or make sure it's visible on your profile.

**Bonus Entries**
Bonus entries are not required. However, you may do one or all to increase your chance of winning!
{Please leave separate comments for each entry or it will not count}

1.Follow Patchwork and Pinecones's blog (bottom right) {1 entry, leave 1 comment}
2. Add Patchwork and Pinecones to your favorites on Etsy. {1 entry} (leave your etsy user name in comment)
3. Be a fan of Patchwork and pinecones on Facebook {1 entry } leave facebook name in comment

4. Be a fan of Pixypatch on Facebook {1 entry } leave facebook name in comment
5.Add Pixypatch to your favorites on Etsy. {1 entry} (leave your etsy user name in comment)
6.Follow the Pixypatch blog Twisted Threads

7.Follow Danielle's food blog One Green Tomato 1 entry, leave one comment}
8. like One Green Tomato on facebook 1 entry, leave one comment}

9. Follow The Enchanted Tree blog publicly on google friend connect {1 entry}
10. Be a fan of The Enchanted Tree on Facebook {1 entry} leave facebook name in comment

**Rules**

Giveaway ends Dec, 27th, 2011 at 11:59pm EST
Winner will be chosen via Random.Org., and contacted by email, and posted on the blog.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
Giveaway open to USA shipping addresses only

Winter Fairy Giveway!!! CLOSED

2011-12-17T14:24:00.005-05:00

i was really hoping to put together 12 days of giveaways, but my computer has been having some serious issues this past week and i haven't been able to get on here much at all.

That being said..i do have a few giveaways to share. i do LOVE to give stuff away!!

i just finished up this lovely little winter fairy and thought she'd be fun to giveaway!
CLOSED
Entry is easy!! 1. To enter, leave me a comment letting me know who this little fairy will be given to! If you want to keep her for yourself, that's fine too..just leave a comment letting me know!
Be sure and include your email so i can contact you if you win!!

Extra Entries!!
2 follow my blog via GFC! Leave a comment letting me know you do!
3. be a fan of my page on Facebook. Leave a comment letting me know you are!
4. Share the giveaway post on FB or twitter. Leave a link in your comment!
5. Enter my other giveaways! Leave a comment letting me know what you entered!

Giveaway will end Dec. 22nd at 11:59 pm. Winner will be notified via email, and also posted here on the blog and on my FB page. ]

Good luck!

Knotty Val Giveaway!! 2 winners!!! CLOSED

2011-12-10T08:05:00.006-05:00

i'm super thrilled to host another Knotty Val giveaway! Val is a dear friend of mine, and an extremely talented artist!! She does some of the the most detailed and extraordinary knotwork i have ever seen. She is also a very talented beader and painter (see the shed mural below!)!

A bit about Val. "I have always been drawn to color and pattern. Straight lines and monotones bore me. I love trying new crafts and "up-cycling" old stuff. If I can paint it I will. A picture framer for more than 20 years I have had the good fortune to see amazing art from all over the world and from all types of artists in all walks of life....just going to work everyday. Art impacts our lives every minute of everyday, something I am sure I already knew but it was driven home working with people, helping them to display and conserve their personal treasures."

Check out the mural she painted on the back of her neighbors shed! Unbelievably cool!

"When my daughter was born in 2004, I wasn't really expecting her, I was getting ready to have a teenager and my very own craft space in our new house but that became a nursery and crafty plans went on hold for me. When I first got online and discovered the community of crafty people there I was inspired to start weaving again, it being something I could do that my young daughter couldn't do much damage with."

"I have been so inspired to keep creating by the women and men I have met in this online community. My daughter loves art and I am really looking forward to sharing all my crafty cravings with her. I have always been happiest when creating and working with color."

"I taught myself to flat weave after a friend bought a Guatemalan "friendship" bracelet while on tour following the Grateful Dead. I love to do beadwork too, and look forward to the day when I have a dedicated space for beading.

Val has offered a special discount to my readers. Use the coupon code "123buyknotty" to receive 20% off anything in the shop, does not include shipping.

Now for the Giveaway!!!
Val has generously offered this beautiful hand woven bracelet and this pair of peace sign earrings to two of my lucky readers!! That's right two winners!!

CLOSED

MANDATORY ENTRY

1. Head over to Knotty Val on Etsy then come back and let me know your favorite item! Also, let me know if you would most like to win the bracelet, the earrings or both if you are chosen as one of the lucky winners!!

Please include your e-mail address or make sure it is visible in your blogger profile so i have a way to contact you if you win. Otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

EXTRA ENTRIES
please leave a new comment for each extra entry. If you qualify for 5 entries, leave 5 separate comments.
(make sure you did the mandatory first!!)

2. Add Knotty Val's Etsy Shop to your favorites (heart) leave a comment letting me know you did, and your etsy name! 1 entry
3. 'Heart' your favorite item in her etsy shop. leave a comment letting me know you did, and your etsy name! 1 entry
4. Like Knotty Val on facebook leave a comment letting me know you did, and your FB name! 1 entry

5. Follow my The Enchanted Tree blog via google friend connect. leave a comment letting me know you did. 1 entry
6. Be a fan of The Enchanted Tree on Facebook. leave a comment letting me know you did, and your FB name! 1 entry.

7. Share this giveaway with your facebook friends, Tweet the giveaway or Blog about it! leave a comment with a link to where it is shared. 1 entry each.

**Rules**

Giveaway ends Dec. 28th 2011 11:59pm EST
Winner will be chosen via Random.Org. i will then contact them by email, and post the winners name on my blog.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
This giveaway is open to everyone.

Eat More Kale Winner Announced!

2011-12-04T07:50:00.003-05:00

The winner of the Eat More Kale T-shirt is.....

Not So Average Mama said... 72: I am your fan on fb; November 23, 2011 11:01 AM

Congratulations Not S0 Average Mama!! i will send you an email later today. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen! Thank you all who entered!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-12-02T11:35:00.003-05:00

Playing catch up on back posts again. :)

Our Thanksgiving was quiet and simple. The majority of our feast came right from our garden. While, i spent the morning cooking, Kenan took the kids out hiking. It was a beautiful day, and i love being able to walk outside and pick our meal.

The potatoes, squash and sweet potatoes were harvested about a month ago and stored. The greens are a combination of curly leaf kale, rainbow Lacinato kale, Swiss chard, red and green leaf lettuce and spinach. My cold crops are all still doing great and producing well.

We also enjoyed a salad straight from the garden. The salad contained red and green leaf lettuce, spinach, red onion, carrots, a purple pepper and the one strawberry i found a few days ago. :) The tomatoes were picked green, and ripened in a window sill. i still have just a few left.

i made a cherry pie from scratch. The cherries were picked at our neighbors house earlier this spring. We still have a ton of these cherries in the freezer, they are so wonderful for baking!

In the past our Thanksgiving have been a bit nontraditional. We usually have a Feast of Favorite. i make everyone's favorite dish, and we have everything from bean dip to nori rolls. This year i was in the mood for something a bit more Traditional. As a vegetarian family, we don't eat turkey...so instead i made a stuffed seitan/tofu log. This is made very similar to basic seitan recipe. It just has a few extra ingredients, and a few extra steps. i may try writing it out one of these days. Besides our home made 'Tofurky" we had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, roasted root veggies and garlicy greens. We also had garden green beans (from our freezer) apple sauce that i had canned, and homemade blackerry/raspberry jam on our rolls.

We were hoping to spend our Thanksgiving in Michigan this year with family, but things don't always work out how we plan. So we enjoyed a simple day with just the 4 of us and gave our thanks for another amazing year.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." ~Melody Beattie

Wordless Wednesday- Strawberry

2011-11-23T18:12:00.002-05:00

i went out to pick some spinach today, and spied this bright red strawberry in the raised bed next to my spinach. i don't think i've ever had strawberries bloom and fruit in November before. :)

Petition to help small business

2011-11-21T07:56:00.011-05:00

This petition is against corporate bullying.
Vermont's own EATMOREKALE.com, a small, quirky family business, is attempting to secure a federal trademark for the business name they've been using for at least ten years "EATMOREKALE.COM". Corporate Goliath fast food chain CHICK-FIL-A is blocking their attempt alleging EATMOREKALE.COM confuses CHICK-FIL-A customers. They claim that Bo's one man t-shirt printing business EatMoreKale.com is infringing on their business and profits. Um...yeah...okay.

This isn't the first time they have tried to shut down Bo's busniess. 5 yrs ago they attempted to shut his website down and they wanted him to send his entire inventory to them to be destroyed. Bo fought back and they backed off. NOW they are blocking his attempt to secure a fed. trademark.

Please sign the petition and take a stand against big business bullies!!
You can also help out by tweeting this message use the tweet link above!

Earn two extra entries on my Eat More Kale giveaway, by signing the petition! Just leave two comments on the giveaway post saying you signed, and your name.

Earn another for tweeting the above link! Just leave a comment on the giveaway post with a link to your tweet. Can be done daily!

Let's send a message that corporate bullying like this is abusive and won't be tolerated!

Holiday Gift Guide...round 1!

2011-11-18T10:26:00.006-05:00

This is my first attempt at a handmade/local gift guide! i'd really like to put together one or two more before the holidays hit. This is the one where i get to plug my friends and family :), and introduce you all to some great handmade and local products! Here are a few of my favorites!

1. Raw Honey. Bee Kind Family Farms is a small family farm/homestead located in North Carolina that focuses on : sustainability & Love for mother earth. Jaime is a WAHM, and a huge inspiration!! Check out the Bee Kind Family Farm etsy shop for raw honey, homemade apple butter, beeswax and candles. Price ranges from $3.50-$8. You can find them on facebook and also on etsy.

2. Organic Fair Trade Coffee. Red Rooster Coffee Roaster is a fabulous small batch artisan coffee roaster here in Floyd, VA. i'm completely obsessed with their Funky Chicken coffee. All of their coffees are organic and fair trade certified. Red Rooster Coffee Roaster was started by four friends raised in Floyd, VA who share a passion for specialty coffee and it is their mission to give you the best tasting coffee while promoting sustainable living and providing for the farmers who grow it. They also donate the nitrogen rich green coffee skins to area farmers to be composted. Very cool folks, incredibly delicious coffee....would make an excellent gift for any coffee lover on your list! Price Range $12-$14. You can find them on Facebook and shop their online store.

3. Felt Play food and Masks. If you have little ones that are into pretend play, you've got to check out Seven Feathers Tribe's felt playfoods and masks. Cre is an amazing wahm mama who lives a humble life nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She puts tons of detail into each quality hand crafted piece. The items are made with Eco-fi felt. Most items range from $10-$20. You can Find them on Facebook and shop online through etsy.

4. Owl Pillows. These sweet little owl pillows would be perfect for anyone. Abby, from Simple Bright moon is a fabric artist who resides in Blue Ridge mountains. Her fabric and materials are locally bought or hand dyed hemp by a fellow artist. She takes her time with each and every piece, creating handcrafted goodness with personal style. Custom owls sell for $25. Find her work on Facebook and etsy.

5. Reusable produce bags. Take a stand against single-use plastic and look good doing it with reusable produce bags! These reusable, eco friendly, produce bags are made from a light-weight, durable, cotton mesh that has been paired up with a printed cotton. These are made by Danielle at Patchwork Pinecones/Pixy Patch. These sell for $8. Find them in her new Etsy store, and also check out her Pixy Patch store for other great gift ideas like lip balms and body butters!

6. Crocheted Hats. These adorable hats are made by a local Wahm, here in Floyd county. Angie from Tangled up in Yarn makes some of the cutest hats i have ever seen! i LOVE the owls and Sock monkey hats the best, but any of them would make a fantastic gift! She also crochets scarves, and fingerless gloves. Average prince range $15-$30. You can find her work on Facebook

7. Handmade Soap gift sets. i absolutely LOVE these gift sets by Kris at Old Gates Farm. The set includes a rustic farm fresh soap with two knitted cotton washcloths in a vintage glass-top canning jar. She also has individual hand made soaps, knitted goods, doll slings and notecards for sale in her etsy shop. Average price range $3.50-$20. These would make an excellent gift for anyone on your gift list.

8. Personalized Decorative Wall Signs. My sister-in-law Shauna is a Life Expressions consultant. She orders the vinyl, but then does everything else herself. She buy the wood, cut it to size, sands it, paints it and then lays the vinyl. These are really nice, and can be personalized with names and dates etc. i really like the personalized family signs, with the family name and date the family was established. Would make a great gift! Average price $15-$20. Check them out on facebook !

9. Handmade Glass Icicle Ornaments. These glass icicle ornaments are made by my husband Kenan, at Tiemeyer Glass. He doesn't have them listed for sale anywhere, but it offering them for $10 each, 2 for $18 or 3 for $25. You can send inquiries through his Facebook page and Etsy

10. Bendy Dolls. My bendy dolls make great stocking stuffers! i have many available on my facebook page, along with other great gift ideas. Crocheted hats, playfoods, dolls and more. Will be adding lost of wintered themed bendy dolls soon. Average price range $10-25. Find me on Facebook !

11. Crocheted Slippers. KaytsKraftyKorner is my Sister-in-law Kaytlyn's etsy shop. She is a Wahm who makes adorable crocheted slippers, play foods and other crocheted toys. Her prices are incredibly reasonable and she does great work! Price range $10-$15. You can check out her work on Etsy.

12. Looms and Knitting supplies. If you have a fiber lover on your gift list you'll want to check out these hand crafted weaver/spinner supplies. My inlaws are also a family of hand crafters. My Father-in-law and a Brother-in-law both work with wood, while my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-laws are weavers, spinners and knitters. You can check out their Etsy shop to find beautifully made affordable tools for weavers and spinners. These tools are made using reclaimed lumber. Average price range $10-$40.

*Wahm is a work at home mom.

If you are a WAHM or hand crafter and would like to be featured in my next Gift Guide, just send me an email!

Eat More Kale Giveaway!

2011-11-16T09:44:00.006-05:00

Yay!!! i'm very excited to host another Eat More Kale giveaway here on my blog!! i love to help support and promote independent artists and small business, and hope that you will take the time to check out Bo's website and facebook page. These are awesome t-shirts!! You know you want one. :)

Bo is the man behind these fabulous shirts. He prints every shirt individually by hand using hand cut stencils, black ink and a squeegee. He heat-sets the prints with an iron and pre-washes them, creating a super soft t-shirt with a nicely faded look .

Bo get his blank shirts from Comfort Colors a local company up in Vermont, where Bo resides. They are an environmentally-minded shop with that small business feel and quality products.

For four years, Bo sold his t-shirts from a small booth at the Montpelier, Vermont weekly farmer's market. You can now also find his shirts online, and you may even see him selling shirts and handing out his 'business card' stickers at a few food and music festivals each summer.

The T-shirts are available in several popular styles, like Compost, Localvore, Cheese, Organic and of course Eat More Kale. His shirts come in several color choices, and he also offers an organic natural.

Bo runs a contest almost every week on his facebook page, where you have a chance to win a free shirt. The contests are always amusing and a lot of fun to enter. Make sure and fan his page, so if you don't win this time...you can enter his weekly contests for more chances to win!

Need a shirt right now? You can purchase one of Bo's hand printed t-shirts online at the Eat More Kale store .

Now for the Giveaway!

Bo has offered one reader the choice of any one short-sleeved shirt from his site.

MANDATORY ENTRY

1. Visit the Eat More Kale and let me know which shirt style/color you would choose and why.

Please include your e-mail address in the format of Yourname(at)email dot com or make sure it is visible in your blogger profile so i have a way to contact you if you win. Otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

EXTRA ENTRIES (make sure you did the mandatory first!!)
please leave a new comment for each extra entry. You can do as many or as little extra entries as you like! If you qualify for 5 entries, leave 5 separate comments.

2. Be a fan of Eat More Kale on Facebook.
3. Leave a comment telling me if you like kale, and what is your favorite way to prepare it? (i'm always looking for new recipes!!)
4. Be a fan of The Enchanted Tree on Facebook 1 entry

5. Follow my blog The Enchanted Tree on Google friend connect 1 entry
6. Add my button (top left column) to your blog or add me to your blog roll. leave a link. 3 entries (leave 3 comments)
7. Blog about the giveaway link to this post and the Eat More Kale FB page. 3 entries, leave 3 comments.
8. Tweet about the contest leave a link to your tweet. 1 entry (can tweet daily)

EXTRA ENTRIES for signing the PETITION

**Rules**

Giveaway ends Dec 3, 2011 at 11:59pm EST EXTENDED
Winner will be chosen via Random.Org. notified by email, and posted on the blog.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
This giveaway is open to EVERYONE.

Pumpkin Pasties

2011-11-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, i'm semi-obsessed with Harry Potter and make HP themed snacks and treats any chance i can get. Last month, we brought home two small pie pumpkins from Sage's field trip to Sinkland Farms Pumpkin Patch. She asked me to make a pumpkin pie, but honestly have never been a fan of pumpkin pie...and thought Pumpkin Pasties (pronounced Past-E) sounded more my style.

i used this recipe as an example, but changed it up a bit. Rather than using canned pumpkin, i used fresh cooked. i roasted my pumpkin whole, and then scooped out the flesh and used it in the recipe above. i failed to take pictures of the process though, so check out the post at The Cultural Dish if you need help putting these together.

For the filling i used
-1 cup cooked pumpkin

-1/4 cup granulated sugar

-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

-1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

i mixed this all together and set it aside while i made the crust.

For the pie crust i used
1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour.
1 stick cold butter.
1/2 tsp salt.
1/2 t...sp sugar.
3-4TBSP ice cold water.

Combine flour, salt, sugar and cut in butter (or use a pastry blender)...until the mix is crumbly and the butter pieces are pea sized. Then add ice water 1 tbsp at a time, mixing with a fork until dough holds together. The key to a flaky crust is COLD butter and water...so keep it cold.

When your dough is ready. Roll out into 4" circles and place a rounded TBSP of the pumpkin filling in the center of your circle. i wet one edge of the dough for a good seal. Then fold the dough over the filling and use the end of a fork to crimp and seal the edges. Cut a couple slits on the tops to make vents. i didn't do an egg wash on these, but you could if you like.

Bake in the oven on an ungreased cookie sheet for 30 minutes or until browned.

These turned out great. The pumpkin filling, was good...but not overwhelming. These were delightful little bite sized treats. We enjoyed them so much we made them twice. Any left over pumpkin filling can be frozen for use at a later date.

Enjoy!

Fall Garden.

2011-11-12T16:43:00.000-05:00

My fall garden has been enjoying the cooler temperatures! i actually took this picture about a month ago, and everything has doubled in size since.

i have 3 rows of dwarf grey peas. They are just now starting to bloom, so i'm not sure i'll get any peas out of them. We've been enjoying the pea shoots in salads and stir fries. They are pretty cold tolerant, and have thriving in these 30 degree temps. We had a really hard frost a few days ago that left a little bit of wilt on the tips of some of the plants, so i'm not sure they are going to make it to maturity. i also have about 18 broccoli plants, that are doing okay. The flower heads are about 2" across so far. i've been harvesting lots of kale, Swiss chard, spinach and a variety of leaf lettuces.

We had a pretty sad crop of tators this year. Lots of ugly little tators, due to early blight, colorado potato beetles and common scab. i planted using last years seed potatoes, and learned a huge lesson. This spring i'll be purchasing organic certified disease-free seed potatoes. We still managed to dig around 50 lbs. i have to cut a lot of spots out of them though, and they won't keep as long as i'd like.

Sweet potatoes did wonderful. We dug over 70 lbs.

i'm still not a hundred percent sure how to correctly cure sweet potatoes. Everything i've found online says they must be cured for about 10 days at 80-85°F and high relative humidity (85-90 percent). i'm just not sure how to maintain that temperature when it's dipping down into the 30's at night, and i have no idea how to maintain high humidity in a house with a wood stove. We run a humidifier, but it's still horribly dry.
After reading a few other blogs online i found a few suggestions, just leaving them sit out in the hot sun and bring them in at night, curing them in the back hatch of a car...etc. i decided to try the sun method. So far it seems to be working, the sweetpotatoes are maintaining their firmness..and haven't started rotting or wilting. So i hope that'll last a while. We have already eaten a few and they are delicious! i absolutely love sweet potatoes!

i grew peanuts for the first time this year! i had no idea what to expect with them, so i'm thrill that we actually got peanuts! i only had around 15 plants, so i didn't harvest a ton. They were dug a few weeks ago, and have been hanging in the shed to dry since. . :) i'm excited to plant more next year, they don't take up a ton of space and grew really well here. The only problem i had was some root aphids on some of the plants.

i'm loving all the green of the cooler season. We eat kale several times a week. In my colandiar i have blue curly kale, Lacinato Rainbow kale, Swiss Chard, a variety of leaf lettuces, and spinach. i picked this for dinner a few nights ago. The spinach and lettuces when into a salad with a few homegrown carrots, peppers and tomatoes (yes, i still have a few ripe tomatoes on my window sill!). i brought a purple pepper plant inside, and although it is a little wilty looking it's loaded in peppers and i think it'll only take a little while for it to adjust to life inside. Peppers are actually perennial and can grow all winter inside.

Still getting lots of carrots from the kids garden, and a raised bed. i had actually forgetten about these guys. They were hiding in my asparagus bed under some dill and fennel. While iw as cleaning out the bed a few days ago, i found them. i was thrilled to see that many of them were thing an and tender. With our clay soil, my carrots never do very well...they tend to be thick and stubby. This seems to be a good bed to grow them in.

i'm going to try to put up a couple of basic hoop houses over my leafy greens this week. So far they are thriving in the cold, but they won't be happy if they end up buried in a layer of snow.

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

2011-11-11T07:36:00.001-05:00

We absolutely love Melissa & Doug toys here!! We have a quite a collection of their wooden play foods, along with a doll house, farmers market, unit blocks and puzzles. My daughter has several more of their wonderful products (pink princess castle and play kitchen) on her holiday wish list!! Melissa and Doug products are known for their quality, educational toys that encourage open ended play and imagination.

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" You'll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

We voted for the Play Kitchen! Which toy is your favorite??
**Votes will be tallied on 11/20/11. During the week of 11/20/11 an email will be sent to each voter announcing the winning toy from all votes that came from this blog along with your 25% off coupon that can be used at MelissaAndDoug.com . Kind of fun. :)

Disclosure: i received a coupon in exchange for this post, but it didn't influence my opinion about this wonderful company. We love Melissa and Doug toys! :)

Happy Halloween :)

2011-11-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Some years, i go all out and make themed foods all days, handcmake costumes, decorate and all that. Some years i don't do as much, this was one of those years. Halloween fell on Monday, and with it being a school night i had a hard time totally getting into it.

We did our pumpkin carving on the weekend, roasted seeds and i made a harvest stew served inside a pumpkin. i failed to get a picture of it, but it was delicious. i used veggies from the garden, red potatoes, sweet potato, onion, carrots, turnip, garlic and a yellow beet. Chopped them up and saute'd them in EVOO and then added some organic veggie broth. Let it simmer a while. i diced up a red and a yellow tomato, and add a couple handfuls of kale shredded. Then i added a can of garbonzo beans..and let it cook until everything was tender.
i roasted the pumpkin separately, and used it to serve the soup in. YUm!

We had cheese quesadillas for lunch. These were super easy, i used a pumpkin cookie cutter and cut the jack-o-lantern face with a sharp knife.

For dinner we had 'candy corn' mini pizzas. These were made by placing mozzarella cheese in the center, and chedder cheese all around it. Then i spooned a little ring of pizza sauce over some of the cheddar and baked it.

This was my daughter's costume this year. Tinkerbell on a toadstool. :) Several years ago, i made my son a gnome on a toadstool after seeing it in the Family fun magazine. It was such a fun costume, i thought it'd be a good way to spice up the Tinkerbell costume Sage wanted to wear. The toadstool was made using materials i already had here at home, and the costume was a garage sale/goodwill find that my mom had picked up. Hee hee. i think it turned out pretty cute.

We took the kids trick or treating in Hillsville at the 'Safe Halloween'. My boy dressed up as a dementor. It was a quick, throw together costume that required a lot of pins to keep it together. :) i really love that HIllsville does the 'Safe Halloween'. All the area businesses pass out candy, and treats. Almost all the candy has a tag/business card letting you know where it is coming from. Many times the businesses include a coupon or discount for the parents.

The county gave out candied apples to everyone. How generous!! There were also several churches and groups that were giving out free donuts and hot chocolate. Besides candy, the kids received coupons for free frosty's (Wendy's), water bottles from the Town of Hillsville, local apples and bags of pretzels. The kids get the fun experience of Halloween, but they really didn't get an overwhelming amount of candy.

This year they had live music, which was new. They always have a haunted house, a hay ride and two bounce houses set up for the kids.

They also have free carnival games. The prizes are silly junk, but the kids have a blast.
i know i've said it before, but i really love that the community puts this together every year. We usually attend the Dugspur carnival as well, but totally missed it this year.

Hope your Halloween was just as wonderful!

Indian Valley Fall Festival.

2011-10-31T09:47:00.001-04:00

i really don't know when life got so busy. The last month has flown by and the idea that the holidays are coming up...has me terrified! i am not ready for all that!!
Since i haven't posted much on here this month, i thought i'd share with you what we have been up to lately. You can expect a few catch up posts over the next week or two.

Last weekend the kids elementary school had a fall festival. They were looking for craft vendors, and we signed up to have a table. It was very small and we didn't really expect to sell anything. We signed up more just to support the school and show some of the locals what we do. i spent about two weeks cramming trying to get all of my unfinished projects finished up.

Kenan also made up a few extra things for the festival, holiday ornaments, glass pens and a few beads and pendants.

i was suprised how much stuff i actually have!! My side of the table was looking a bit cluttered, i had so much stuff packed on there. i made up over 24 bendy dolls, had 3 waldorf dolls, and 4 rag dolls, and a handful of other misc dolls, crocheted goods and jewelry. :)

just showing off a few of the things i have. These items are all still available. They can be purchase from here, or on my facebook page and i may eventually put them on etsy if they sit around long enough. i have 2 unicorns and two pegasus. i'm selling them for $18 each. Thay are also available paired in a set with any of my $12 bendy dolls for $25.

Kenan made up a bunch of these beautiful hand blown glass icicle ornaments. He has quite a few left and is selling them for $10 each, 2 for $18 or 3 for $25. $2.50 shipping on all orders.

i had these dolls on display. i keep adding things to them, and haven't officially posted them for sale yet. hee hee. Feel free to inquire though. i need to sell them eventually to pay for the 10lbs of wool i just bought. :)

i'm working on posting all of my available bendy dolls to my facebook page. i think i have around 20 available for immediate purchase. i have mermaids, fairies, princesses, witches, pirates, wizards and more!

i see these on etsy all the time, and have wanted a set for Sage. So i made her one, and then made a few more. i'm asking $10 for the set of 6. They'll come in a little drawstring bag to keep them in. These are the small size, 3/4" tall.

The festival was from 2-8pm. It was incredibly small, which we expected. We did okay though, and felt great supporting the school. The school put on the festival as an alternative to the traditional fundraisers and raised over $1000, i believe! The kids really had a blast though. They had some games for them with prizes, face painting, hair tinseling and more.

That's it for now, i have tons of pictures to take so i can get some of these goodies list.

Oh..and Happy Halloween!!!

Shot Tower and Foster falls.

2011-10-18T08:04:00.012-04:00

This past weekend our weather was beautiful. Kenan took Saturday off and went for a drive to admire the changing leaves. We were planning to go hiking at Beaver creek, but instead decided to continue on to the New River trail.

Nice view of Buffalo mountain on our way to the New River Trail. Buffalo mountain is only a few miles from house, and we enjoy hiking up it a couple times each.

We started our hike at the Shot Tower. This shot tower was built more than 150 years ago. It was used to make ammunition for the firearms of the early settlers. Lead was melted in a kettle atop the 75-foot tower and poured through a sieve, falling through the tower and down an additional 75-foot shaft beneath the tower into a kettle of water. The long fall was thought necessary to mold and shape the round shots and the kettle of water at the bottom helped to cushion their fall. We've never been inside the shot tower, but i think they occasionally open it for tours.

Then we headed across the old trestle bridge and wandered along the New river trail towards Foster Falls. We hiked this a few years ago, and really enjoyed it.

The village of Foster Falls was named for an early settler and farmer at the location. It was a product of the iron industry that flourished in the New River Valley of southwestern Virginia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are many original buildings from the village still standing. Although, i failed to take any pictures of them this time.

They also now have a livery that rents bikes, canoes, kayaks and tubes. There is a campground right on the river, and a horse stable with horse back rides.

The iron furnace at Foster Falls was constructed in 1881. The furnace ceased operations in 1914.

The trail is beautiful and the hike from the shot tower to Foster falls is less than 3 miles round trip, i believe. It follows the New river, and offers up some beautiful scenery. Despite its name, the New River is considered to be one of the oldest rivers in the world, between 250 million and 360 million years old. It is second in age only to the Nile River, making it the oldest river in N. America.

As usual, all attempts at a nice family picture looks like this. :) i hope your weekend was filled with lots of smiles and laughter.

Rainbow leaf crown

2011-10-17T14:18:00.001-04:00

This past weekend we went hiking along the New River Trail. The colors were absolutely gorgeous! i collected leaves during our walk with the intentions of making a few leaf crafts with them.

We don't have any pretty maple trees at our house. The majority of our trees are oak, yellow poplars, hickory and Sassafras. ALthough they get pretty, we do not get the deep reds, purples and oranges that the maples produce.

i collected maple leaves in all the colors of the rainbow, and then i found this beautiful bradford pear leaf that looked like it had been tie-dyed.

When you have leaves in rainbow colors it's really hard not to play with them a bit.

They were so pretty, i couldn't stop taking picture of them. :)

i've never had much luck keeping leaves pretty. i also like the impermanence of them. So i wasn't looking for a way to keep them, just something fun to last the day. Then they can be returned to the compost. i decided to make a simple leaf crown with them. We make leaf crowns every year. They are very easy. I take a piece of construction paper, and cut it into 1 1/2" strips. Then glue two together to make a long strip that fits around your child's head. Then i use hot glue to glue the leaves/flowers/acorns and what ever else in place.

For this one, i just arranged the leaves to make a rainbow. i wanted to use the Bradford pear leaf in the center, but it already lost it's color and turned brown. Once your leaves are glued on, you can glue or tape the ends of the paper together to make a crown.

My girl dressed up in her rainbow fairy dress by Sarah's silks and spent the afternoon dancing...

and spinning.

The rainbow leaf crown was perfect on an absolutely perfect fall day.

Growing Mushrooms from a kit.

2011-10-17T08:44:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, we tried out a Back to the Roots Mushroom growing kit. These kits allow anyone to grow their own gourmet Oyster mushrooms at home from recycled coffee grounds. The kits contain everything you need to get started.

Inside the box you'll find a bag containing re-cycled coffee grounds with the mushroom spores/roots. The bag is a bit funky looking, as you can see in the picture above. i was kind of expecting something that looked more like coffee grounds...but it didn't. Don't worry, it's supposed to look like that! The kit also comes with a mister, and detailed instructions. The instructions are very simple. You cut a + in the front of the bag and then soak it in a bucket of water for about 24 hours. Then you place the bag back into the cardboard box, punch out the front of the box and place away from direct sunlight. Mist with water twice a day and in a few days you'll see your mushrooms begin to sprout. We started out kit around Sept. 26th.

This photo was taken Oct 2. If you click on it, you'll see a few white patches where they are just beginning to sprout.

Oct. 3rd. It looks a little gross, but you can really see some of the little mushrooms now.

Oct. 4th. They are really starting to pop now!

The kids were totally fascinated with these! They were responsible for misting them each day.
Oct. 5th. Wow! They doubled in size overnight!! They are almost ready to pick. Once the tops turn white and the largest ones measure about 2-3 inches across, you'll want to harvest them.

Oct. 6. Our mushrooms are ready to harvest! These can be stored in the fridge in a plastic bag, for up to 2 weeks. We sliced ours and saute'd them in a bit of butter. We enjoyed some of them on homemade pizza, and then cooked up the rest for an omelet the next morning. They were delicious!!

Once you've harvested your first batch of mushrooms, you can flip your bag over and repeat the process. The Back to the Roots Mushroom kit can grow up to 1 1/2lbs of pearl oyster mushrooms, and will grow multiple crops. Each bag will grow at least two crops, but some have grown 3-4! So you can keep repeating the process until you no longer get mushrooms.

We really enjoyed watching the mushrooms grow. We've started our second batch and they kids are just as excited the second time as they were with the first.

You can purchase your own mushroom kit at Back to the Roots.
They are also now offering replacement kits. So you can grow more mushrooms once your bag is done.
You can also keep up with them and all their latest news here on facebook.

Also, right now...if you post a picture of your mushroom kit on their facebook wall, they will donate a kit to your child's classroom! Very cool!!

Tropical Traditions Winner Announced!!

2011-09-30T07:26:00.003-04:00

The winner of the Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Peanut butter is....

kim said... 59: i'm a fan of Enchanted Tree on FB; September 20, 2011 5:12 PM

Congratulations Kim!! i will send you an email later today. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen! Thank you all who entered!!

Everybody loves Kale :)

2011-09-29T11:59:00.012-04:00

Okay, maybe not everybody....but my family loves kale! We eat it several times a week, it is my favorite leafy green. When my fall crop first started coming in the chickens completely shredded it. They too love kale. i had to finally fence off this area of the garden. As soon the chickens no longer had access to it, it began to come in beautifully.

Chickens are not the only ones who love kale. i believe this guy is a type of bollworm. Destructive little bugger. These are the same worms i found in my corn (corn earworms) and on my tomatoes (tomato fruit worms). i'm pretty sure i found one eating a potato too.

This snail was really pigging out. This leaf was almost skeletized (Is that really not a word?). i figured there was enough to share, and left him alone.

Aphids love kale as much as humans do! A mild soap spray should take care of a few aphids, but if the infestation is really bad you would probably be better off just pulling the plants. These guys were really bad on several of my plants, but hadn't spread to them all yet...so i ripped out the ones that were heavily infested. It makes a good treat for the chickens.

These cabbage worms can be hard to spot, because they blend in with the green of the leaves. It's those little poop drops that give them away. i typically pick these guys off by hand, and toss them in the chicken coop. This picture is a good reminder of why you should always wash your veggies well...even when it's organic.

i ended up pulling quite a bit of my kale due to the aphids and cabbage worms. When i tossed it down in the goat pens, the chickens and goats totally devoured it. i have another row of Lacinato kale coming up, and i think i'm going to plant another couple rows just for the chickens and goats. It tolerates pretty cold temperatures and will continue to grow for most of the winter. It makes a great supplement to my animals who don't get a lot of fresh green foods during the winter.

i'm still in the process of planting more fall vegetables, and cover crops. i'm looking into floating row covers to prevent some of these kale pests. Floating row covers are a lightweight, partially opaque fabric that prevents moths and other flying insects from accessing your veggies. It's thin enough that your plants can still breath and get enough sunlight to grow. i'm hoping to use it on my broccoli plants as well. No one likes to find little green worms in your broccoli!

The problem with collecting acorns....

2011-09-22T10:32:00.003-04:00

My daughter has inherited my acorn collecting addiction. Every day, she goes outside and collects all the acorns off the back hill. She has been filling her kitchen pots and pans with them pretending to make acorn pies and soups and casseroles.

i collect acorns every year to decorate my nature table, for art projects and just sitting around in baskets or bowls. i LOVE acorns. i usually leave them outside a couple of days to dry out. Miss Sage however, didn't....she brought them all right inside. i didn't really think about it....until...

They started hatching!! Almost all of our acorns were infected with acorn maggots. Yuck!! This isn't the first time i've come across acorn maggots. i've occasionally had one or two hatch out, which is why i always leave them outside a few days before bringing them in. i've never seen so many freaking maggots!! i think ALL of the acorns were infected, we had hundreds of them. Yuck!

So how does the maggot get in there?? This really cool video from national geographic shows the whole process! As gross as the maggots were, the kids were fascinated to learn all about the Acorn weevil maggots and how they got in there. :)

Our first Monarch release.

2011-09-21T09:41:00.011-04:00

Remember those monarch eggs we found at the end of August? The eggs hatched, and the little caterpillars munched and munched.

We continued to give them fresh milkweed leaves, and they continued to grow.

They munched and crunched until they were ready to transform, and then they formed their chrysalis among the milkweed leaves.

i moved our chrysalis onto a stick, because i was afraid the remaining caterpillars would eat the leaves that it was on. i remove them by gently pulling on the silk that holds them to the milkweed. Then i add a dot of hot glue to the stick and attached the silk/stem with tweezers. Someday i'll take a picture of the process. It's really not difficult to do. Then i put the chrysalis tree on our nature table. i hot glued a few acorns on it as well, just as decorations.

When the butterfly is ready to emerge the chrysalis turns transparent and the orange and black of the wings can be seen. Sometimes the chrysalis will turn very dark before the butterfly emerges, so don't automatically assume it is black death if the chrysalis turns black.

Usually we get to watch the butterfly emerge, and i am right there taking pictures. This time however, i totally missed it. Came in the house and saw the butterfly already hanging upside down drying her wings.

We brought her outside to stretch her wings.

She opened and closed her wings a couple of times before she finally fluttered away. :)

i don't know why, but this year there were very few butterflies. The ones we did have came much later than usual. We only found a few monach eggs/caterpillars and when we went back to look for more all the milkweed had already died back. i'm hoping next year the butterflies will return!

Peanut butter-banana Wrap recipe and a Giveaway! CLOSED

2011-09-15T07:46:00.005-04:00

i'm thrilled to get to work with Tropical Traditions again! They sent me a jar of their organic coconut peanut butter to try out!

Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Peanut Butter is made from organic peanuts and organic coconut. Only two ingredients: nothing else! There are no fillers, no binders, no sweeteners, and no preservatives. The peanuts are 100% organic Valencia peanuts grown organically by family farmers in New Mexico and Texas. The dried coconut is certified organic coconut meat from the Philippines. This premium dried coconut contains no additives or preservatives, and is not sweetened. Unlike most dried coconut on the market, their dried coconut products are not treated with sulfites to keep them white. Together, these premium organic roasted peanuts and the premium organic dried coconut are ground together to make a delicious and nutritious spread!

When i first received the coconut peanut butter it was very separated, which can happen when it's hot out. If you're familiar with natural peanut butters, the natural separation is very similar. i stirred it up really well, but it was really thin and runny. It remind me more of tahini, than peanut butter. So i put it in the fridge for just a few hours to let it firm up. Then i stirred it up again, and it was the perfect consistency! It should be stored in a cool dark place, for best results. The flavor of the peanut butter is so good! It has a wonderful coconut and roasted peanut flavor. Absolutely delicious! Besides enjoying it in sandwiches and on toast, i've been making wraps with it. The one below is my favorite!

Peanut Butter Banana Wrap
Ingredients:
Whole wheat tortilla
Coconut Peanut butter
Banana
honey
coconut oil

Spread your coconut peanut butter evenly on a whole wheat tortilla. Place a banana in the center, you can cut off the ends as necessary so that you have room to fold it up. Drizzle with about 1 tbsp honey.

To fold: Bring the sides in, pressing into the peanut butter to stick in place. Now bring the bottom of the tortilla up, sort of tuck it under the banana as you gently roll it up. Place a little peanut butter on the inside of remaining edge so it seals the seam. You want to roll it somewhat tight, so that all your ingredients don't leak out.

Heat about 1/2 tsp of coconut oil in a frying pan, and place your wrap seam side down. Cook just a few minutes until golden brown, and then flip over and brown the other side. As the peanut butter heats it will melt and leak out a little bit. This can be drizzled over the wrap after you remove it from the heat.

The peanut butter will be hot and melty, so you'll want to let it cool a bit before you bite into it. This is so unbelievably delicious!! It tastes like a dessert!

Tropical Traditions gave me the opportunity to try out their Coconut peanut butter. My kids loved it. Tropical Traditions website has an entire recipe section for their coconut products, including some really yummy looking recipes using the coconut peanut butter.

Can't wait to try it?? You can purchase Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter here . Right now it is on sale for $9.99.

Win it!

Tropical Traditions has offered one reader a 16oz glass jar of their Organic Coconut Peanut Butter.

MANDATORY ENTRY CLOSED

Congrats #59!! kim said... 59 i'm a fan of Enchanted Tree on FB

You only have to complete one to be entered, but may do all three for extra entries!

Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Newsletter. They have awesome sales!
Follow them on Twitter @troptraditions
'like' their Facebook page.

This is mandatory and must be completed before any extra entries are allowed!

Please include your e-mail address or make sure it is visible in your blogger profile so i have a way to contact you if you win. Otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

Additional EXTRA ENTRIES (make sure you did at least one of the mandatory above!!)
please leave a new comment for each extra entry. If you qualify for 5 entries, leave 5 separate comments.

1. Visit the recipe section at Tropical Traditions and leave me a link to one that you would like to try.
2. Be a fan of The Enchanted Tree on Facebook 1 entry

3. Follow my blog The Enchanted Tree 1 entry
4. Tweet about the contest include @Troptraditions and leave a link to your tweet. 1 entry (can tweet daily)
5. Add my button (top left column) or add me to your sidebar on your blog 3 entries (leave 3 comments)
6. Blog about the giveaway link to this post & the Tropical Traditions website. 3 entries, leave 3 comments.
7. Get an extra entry if you entered my Autumn Bendy doll giveaway! Leave a comment letting me know you entered!

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product. i was under no obligation to review it, write a positive review or host a giveaway in exchange for the free product. All opinions are 100% mine.

**Rules**

Giveaway ends Sept.29, 2011 at 11:59pm EST
Winner will be contact by email, and posted on the blog.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
This giveaway is open to USA and Canada shipping addresses only

New for Today!

2011-09-09T08:23:00.005-04:00

Lil' Pumpkin girl. She measures 2 3/4" without her hat. $12 shipped first class (US) other shipping options available, just ask. She can be made with custom hair/eye colors as well. Not intended for the under 3 crowd. :)

New wild haired mermaid. 3 1/4" tall. i wasn't sure how i felt about this fun yarn as hair, but my 5 year old daughter absolutely loves it! She tried to claim it for her own, and then begged me to make her one for Yule. :) This lovely mermaid is $12 shipped first class (US) other shipping options available, just ask.

Fairy and Pegasus set. $28 shipped first class (US). Other shipping options available.

Pieces are available separately $12 for the fairy, and $18 for Pegasus. Fairy measures 3 1/4" tall without hat. Pegasus measures 4" from tip of ear to front hoof, and 4" from tip of nose to tail.

Don't forget to enter for a chance to win this gorgeous Autumn Oak leaf fairy!

i'll be listing all the items on etsy, if they don't sell over the weekend. i like to list them here and facebook first, i have to raise the price a bit to cover etsy fees when i list them there. So if you want one, you'll want to snag it before i get it listed! i have lots of new things in the works and can't wait to share them!! Have a great weekend!

Fundraiser for Evening Song Farm! Today Only!

2011-09-07T08:36:00.013-04:00

'm sure by now everyone has seen pictures of the devastation that the flooding has caused in many of the New England states and along the coast. Many small farms were affected by the flooding. i was very touched by the pictures i had seen of Evening Song farms. These young new farmers, had started a successful CSA program that was only around a year old, i believe. The original info on the website has been changed, since the farm is now gone.

This is a picture of Evening Song Farms taken sometime over the past year. This is before the flood took the farm. On August 28th, rain from hurricane Irene caused the Mill River in Vermont to flood and change it's course, completely washing away the vegetable fields at Evening Song Farm. The fields are completely gone, the river now runs where they used to be, and it's unlikely that they will be able to be planted here again.

This is what used to be vegetables fields, full of beautiful organic produce, completely gone.
You can see more devastating pictures of the flooding at Evening Song here also peek around some of the other folders to get an idea of what they lost.
You can also show them support by 'liking' their facebook page and maybe leaving some words of love and encouragement on their wall. They are also accepting donations on their website.

FUNDRAISER ALERT!

The very generous Fat Toad Farm is hosting a fundraiser TODAY ONLY! They are donating all profits from their online store to help Evening Song Farm start over and recoup some of their losses. Did i mention they sell goat's milk caramel???

It comes in flavors like vanilla bean, cinnamon, coffee bean and regular....YUM! The caramel is available in giftsets, individual 8 oz jars are $8.95 and you can get a sampler size 2oz jar for $3.95.

Also, Kris from Old Gate's Farm is donating all proceeds from her Veggie Photo Notecards to the Farmer Emergency Fund. These beautiful cards were taken around her farm in Vermont, and are simple and unedited. She prints them, using both recycled paper and envelopes and package them up in a clear sleeve--perfect for gift giving.

Feel free to share this info. The Fat Toad Farm fundraiser is today only, so spread the word!

Autumn Oak Leaf Bendy Doll Giveaway!! CLOSED

2011-09-07T08:04:00.012-04:00

With summer coming to a close, i'm in the mood to give something away!

This beautiful bendy doll is an Autumn Oak Leaf fairy. She is ready to celebrate the Autumn Equinox. She flies around and helps to transform the world into a beautiful landscape of color. She would beautiful on your Autumn nature table, or as a gift for your littles.

The Autumn Oak leaf Fairy is 3" tall.
She has fabric oak leaf wings and an acorn cap. Her cap is not removable. She contains small parts and is not suitable for littles under 3 years.

Now for the GIVEAWAY!! CLOSED

Congrats!! #75 Crib Couture liked your fb page, jessie taylor goodwin!!

MANDATORY ENTRY

Head over to my FB For Sale page or browse my sold bendy dolls and let me know your favorite!

Please include your e-mail address or make sure it is visible in your blogger profile so i have a way to contact you if you win. Otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

EXTRA ENTRIES (make sure you did the mandatory first!!)
please leave a new comment for each extra entry. If you qualify for 5 entries, leave 5 separate comments.

1. Follow my The Enchanted Tree blog via google friend connect. 1 entry
2. Be a fan of The Enchanted Tree on Facebook. (leave your facebook name) 1 entry

3. Share this giveaway with your facebook friends! 1 entry

4. Tweet about the contest leave a link to your tweet. 1 entry (can tweet daily, for 1 extra entry daily)

5. Add my button (top left column) to your blog 3 entries (leave 3 comments)
6. Blog about the giveaway link to this post, leave a comment letting me know where to find it. 3 entries (leave 3 comments.)

**Rules**

Giveaway ends Sept. 23th, 2011 at 11:59pm EST
Winner will be chosen via Random.Org. i will then contact them by email, and post the winners name on my blog.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
This giveaway is open to everyone!

Garden Frittata

2011-09-06T09:26:00.007-04:00

We've been getting a lot of eggs from our new hens lately, and i've been using them to make frittatas. A Frittata is an egg-based dish similar to an open faced omelet or quiche enriched with additional ingredients. Typically it is started on top of the stove and completed in the oven. Frittatas are easy to make, and delicious. It's a great way to use up extra eggs and garden produce. i used items i had on hand, you can easily change the recipe to incorporate what ever veggies you have or want.

Garden Frittata
Ingredients

6 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1 small/medium onion sliced thin

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1 handful of fresh spinach leaves shredded
1 small tomato or 2-3 cherry tomatoes sliced thin

2-3 tablespoons of fresh goat cheese

2-3 tablespoons fresh basil shredded

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1.Scramble the eggs and milk in a bowl with a whisk or fork until well-beaten, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Warm 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in an oven-safe skillet ( i used cast iron). Add the onions. Saute on medium-low heat until the onions begin to caramelize (turn golden brown), about 10 minutes. Add garlic and shredded spinach, stirring constantly until spinach wilts.

3. Remove onion mix from pan, and set aside in small bowl. Warm remaining olive oil on medium-low heat and make sure pan is well coated. When oil is warm, add beaten eggs to the skillet. Allow the bottom to set, but the top should still be wet. Turn off the heat.

5. Arrange the caramelized onions, garlic, spinach evenly on top of eggs. Then add the tomato slices, sprinkle with fresh basil and goat cheese.

6. Place skillet under broiler. Broil, checking often, until the top of the frittata is golden and sizzling. 2-3 minutes. Remove from oven, loosen with a spatula, slide on to serving plate. Cut into 8 equal wedges and serve immediately.

Back to bendy dolls

2011-09-02T07:35:00.008-04:00

This week i decided to make a few new bendy dolls. i have several others in the works and am going to try to post a few new ones for sale on here and on my FB page each week. i tend to post them on my FB page first, so if you want first dibs you're going to want to make sure your following on facebook!

Earlier this week i posted this sweet little witchy. She sold quickly, so she's no longer available...but i do plant to be making more seasonally themed dolls. If your interested in your own little witch, i can take a couple custom orders.

i also made this purple haired mermaid this week, and she too sold immediately. Mermaids are a favorite, and you can be sure to see more in the coming weeks.

i've been trying to clean out my FB folders and re-list the bendy dolls i have available for sale. i thought i'd list them here to make it easy.

This blond haired mermaid is available for immediate purchase.
She is $12 shipped first class (US).

This Holiday Elf is available for immediate purchase.
She is $12 shipped first class (US).

Sugar Plum Girl is available for immediate purchase.
She is $12 shipped first class (US).

Pink Princess is available for immediate purchase.
She is $12 shipped first class (US).

Purple Princess is available for immediate purchase (if i can find her crown, which is temporarily misplaced. :) ).
She is $12 shipped first class (US).

Valentine Fairy is available for immediate purchase.
She is $12 shipped first class (US).

Toadstool girl is available for immediate purchase.
She is $12 shipped first class (US).

Easter bunny girls are both available for immediate purchase.
They are $12 each shipped first class (US).

i love, love , love making these! No that it is cooling off a bit, and canning season is slowing down a bit...i will posting lots of new bendy dolls, and play sets for sale! i will take a few custom orders depending on the materials i have available. i am also open to suggestions... let me know what you'd like to see!!

Lastly, i'm working on finishing up an Autumn Fairy bendy doll and will be giving her away her on the blog! So look for that this weekend! Happy September!

Wordless Wednesday- Garden rainbows

2011-08-31T15:58:00.004-04:00

Have you eaten a rainbow today?

Monarch hunting.

2011-08-27T10:20:00.013-04:00

A few days ago i spotted a monarch butterfly fluttering around the yard. She spent the whole day gliding from flower to flower and dancing and spinning in the garden. This is only the second monarch we've seen this year, so i suspected she was probably out laying her eggs. We went for a walk down the road to check all the milkweed plants for signs of eggs and caterpillars.

Both of the kids have become expert monarch hunters. Observing each leaf carefully for signs of munching, frass or tiny little eggs.

We found some Milkweed Tussock moth caterpillars! These guys are commonly found on milkweed along with milkweed bugs.

Sage was the first to spot an egg! They are super tiny!

Monarch eggs have a conical shape, with vertical ridges. They are usually pale yellow or creamy white.

When the eggs begin to darken, it means the caterpillar is about the hatch!!

The newly hatched caterpillar is only a little more than a millimeter in length. After they hatch from the egg, they eat the egg and then they begin eating the milkweed.

We returned home with 4 monarch eggs, one has hatched and the other three have darkened and will be hatching any time. Our little caterpillar will munch on milkweed for about 9-14 days, and then it will form it's chrysalis. As always, we will be sure to document it all!!

Current Reading list

2011-08-27T07:42:00.000-04:00

My current reading list includes

The Ball Blue Book guide to preserving. This is a great book to get you started in canning and preserving. Lots of great information and recipes.

Big Little Felt Universe by Jeanette Lim. If you've ever had an interest in making your own felt toys, you need to check out this book!! The patterns and directions are clear and easy to follow, with set by set pictures for most of the projects. There are lots of patterns for playfoods, both basic and advanced. There are also patterns for a camping set, a doctor medical bag, a computer, a purse full of all the essentials and more! My daughter has already made a wishlist for Yule that i'm just starting to get to working on. This book of so many creative and inspiring ideas! If you've been wanting to make felt toys for your child, this book is a great place to start!

Keeping Chickens, Home Dairy and Keeping Bees by Ashley English. i recently was lucky enough to win this hardcover set of homesteading books from Ellen over at Confessions of an overworked mom. Ashley English lives in NC, and is the author of the "Homemade Living" book series from Lark Books. Her books showcases topics related to small-scale homesteading and some of the diverse ways people are reconnecting with their food and food communities and taking up sustainable food practices. Ashley has a great blog called Small Measures that you can check out. The books are well written, with lots of fun pictures and great information. Although i've been raising chickens for over 5 year, i still found a lot of new and useful information in her Keeping Chickens book. Her books also contain recipes, and helpful tips. Really a great series to get you started on any of these homesteading topics.

Ice Pop Joy by Anni Daulter i recieved this book a few weeks ago, and am putting together a review that i'll be posting soon. We've been trying out many of the different recipes, and so far have loved them all. i've been dying to try the Heavenly bar, which is a mix of white chocolate, coconut milk and nuts....Wow. This book has gorgeous colorful pictures, and fabulous recipes to get your kids to eat healthy. i'll be posting a full review soon.

Kids Garden (Barefoot books) by Whitney Cohen and Roberta Arenson This one isn't actually book, but a set of instructional cards that contains forty activities and games. It also comes with an eight-page booklet that contains information on gardening tools, year-round plant care and garden safety. The double-sided cards contain step-by-step instructions and colorful collage artwork. They create a fun and easy way for budding green-thumbs to plant, investigate, learn and experiment. Both of my kids love these! They have gone through the cards numerous times and have both made lists of all the projects they want to do. Many of them will have to wait until next spring, as it is too late to plant, but we have still been able to complete a few projects and crafts. This is really a cool way to get your child outside and interested in gardening.

Goat Song: A seasonal Life, A short History and the Art of Making Cheese. by Brad Kessler
i have just started this one, so i can't say much about it except that i am very much enjoying it. It's the story of a writer and his artist wife that moves to Vermont, decide to keep goats, and learn how to make cheese. The book isn't meant as a guide to raising goats, but is the personal journey of the author. His writing is moving and poetic, with a hint of spirituality. The book has been described as a love story between human and animal, past and present, earth and food. The reviews on this one have been incredible. i'm very excited to finally sit down and read it.

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas This is what i'm reading to the kids right now. It is about a pick-pocket street boy, that ends up as a Wizard's apprentice. Like most recent boy wizard books we have have read, there is a definite hint of Harry Potter in the story. Honestly, the story started a bit slow for me, but is starting to pick up. My boy is enjoying it, and i'm interested to see where the story goes. We read lots of books over the summer, and most were just okay. The book Walls within Walls was absolutely fantastic though, and i highly recommend that one. It was incredibly well written and interesting. It combined facts with fiction, and intrigued us enough that we did our own online research of architect Rafael Guastavino after finishing the book.

That's it for my current reading list. With the kids in school now, i am finally able to pick up all these books and magazines i've been wanting to read. Would love to hear your recommendations as well.

Wordless Wednesday- Around the Homestead

2011-08-24T16:23:00.011-04:00

or not so wordless....

Canning season is officially here!

i have two broody hens, so hoping for new peeps in about two weeks. So far we've had zero luck hatching peeps this summer, my rooster may be getting a bit to old to get the job done.

Our new hens have started to lay so we are finally seeing a bit of variety in our eggs.

My girl loves to help shell October beans,

Still picking and freezing lots of beans. Hoping to can some, but am still a bit afraid of my pressure canner.:)

Casper and Delilah just doing what they do. :)

Still have lots of sunflowers blooming.

Peach season starts now...

Caterpillar Transformation and a Surprise!

2011-08-21T10:52:00.003-04:00

At the end of July my boy found a tiny little caterpillar, that we quickly identified as a Black Swallowtail. We left it to munch in our carrots and when it was full grown we brought it inside so that we could watch it transform.

We put him in an aquarium, and gave him some carrot greens. Black swallowtails also eat fennel, parsley, dill and queen anne's lace.

i placed a few sticks inside our aquarium, so that he could find a perfect place to form his chrysalis. When he found a good spot, he got very still and stayed like that for a quite a while. Then we watched him turn around on the stick, and spin a bit of silk.

He stuck his back feet in the silk, and spun a thin silk sling to support his body. Then he got into position. He stayed like this for maybe 24 hours or so. We started to notice he seemed to be puffing up a bit, and his skin began to look very stretched.

The more he puffed the thinner his skin became and it changed to a dull color. He let go of the stick, and his skin began to split. He slowly wiggled the skin down his body.

Underneath, you can start to make out the familiar chrysalis shape. His skin is about half way down now, and he is still working on pushing the skin off.

One the skin is completely off, he rests. His new chrysalis is green and soft.

After a few hours, his new skin has darkened and hardened into it's chrysalis. It's camouflaged to resemble a dead leaf on the twig, or a part of the branch. After pupating for around 2-3 weeks the Black swallowtail butterfly should emerge from its chrysalis. Caterpillars that are found in the fall, will often overwinter in their chrysalis emerging instead in the spring. Our Caterpillar formed it's chrysalis on August 1st, so we have been patiently waiting for him to make his apprentice.

Instead we got quite the surprise!

Instead of a butterfly, this Ichneuman parasitic wasp emerged from the chrysalis!

When our little caterpillar was outside munching carrots, a female wasp had found it and laid her egg inside the caterpillar. As the caterpillar continued to feed and grow the wasp egg hatched and a tiny wasp maggot began to feed on caterpillar. While our caterpillar was pupating, the wasp larva was feasting.

When the wasp is fully grown, it exits the chrysalis through a large hole in the side. Although it just part of nature, it was rather disappointing being that it was our only Black Swallowtail cat this year. My daughter was completely fascinated by the whole thing, but my boy was a little more bummed. We've witnessed other parasite infections with the monarch caterpillars we've raised.

No matter how many times we raise caterpillars, it is always a learning experience. The process is always amazing, no matter what happens to hatch out.

Tropical Traditions Winner Announced!

2011-08-20T15:36:00.003-04:00

The new winner of the Tropical Traditions Organic Virgin Coconut oil is....

Off-Grid Homestead said... 95

: Liked them on Facebook!; August 18, 2011 8:56 PM

Congratulations! i will send you an email later today. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen! Thank you all who entered!!

A peek at our nature table.

2011-08-19T12:49:00.002-04:00

During the summer months, we often put away our nature table decorations and our nature table becomes more of a living table. Earlier this year, we had an aquarium set up and watched tadpoles and salamander larvae hatch from eggs and develop into frogs and salamanders. We released them back into the creek this spring.
Then a few weeks ago we set up the aquarium again, but this time as a caterpillar nursery.

While gardening i found a tomato hornworm munching away in my tomatoes. i was just about to feed it the chickens, when my daughter became upset and asked if we could raise it inside. i've never raised a hornworm, but after a bit research decided we could. Hornworms pupate underground. So we put a couple inches of soil in a container, and in the morning our hornworm had buried himself around July 26th.

Early this morning, i noticed movement in the aquarium. Our hornworm had emerged into a 5 spotted hawkmoth.

i took this first picture before the sun came up, so it's a bit dark. We are going to release him this evening at dusk...far away from garden. lol.

We also found a black swallow tail caterpillar not long after, and brought it inside too. We watched it transform into it's chrysalis (that will be it's own post once it emerges).

Around this time of year we hike up and down our road looking for monarch eggs and caterpillars on the milkweed that grows everywhere. We've gone a few times since the beginning of August, but haven't found any yet. Last week when we went looking we found a mystery egg on the backside of a milkweed leaf.

If you click the picture, you can see the tiny orange/pink egg a little more than half way down. This is not a monarch egg. Monarch eggs are yellow and conical in shape. There are only a few insects known to eat milkweed so i have no idea what this egg might be.

i am fairly certain that it's a butterfly egg.

This is how it looked on 8-12.

On 8-16 the egg is now translucent and you can clearly see something inside there.

What can it be??

Took this one today, 8-19. You can click the picture to see it better. There is definitely something in there! We are super excited to see what hatches out, and hope that we can identify it quickly so we can provide the proper food for it. i've been placing a variety of different common host foods in the aquarium with it, in case i miss it's hatching. The kids have been fascinated by the pictures, and trying to guess what it may be. Any ideas??

We are still waiting for the monarchs to arrive, as with everything this year they seem to be running a bit behind. We've only spotted one monarch butterfly so far this year. Last year we began finding the caterpillar at the end of July/beginging of August.

Our swallowtail butterfly should be emerging any day now. We've been checking our dill,fennel and carrots daily for new caterpillars, but haven't found any yet. The kids ask daily to look for monach eggs, so hopefully we will find some and our nature table will become a temporary home to some munchin' crunchin' caterpillars. :)

Ending tonight!!!

2011-08-19T09:59:00.007-04:00

Reminder my giveaway for a 32oz jar of Organic Virgin Coconut oil ends tonight at midnight!! Get your entries in before you miss out!

This stuff is wonderful! i've been using it regularly in cooking, as a skin moisturizer and massage oil. Not only is your skin left feeling soft and smooth, you smell like coconuts. :)

If your interested in the benefits of adding coconut oil to your diet, you can read more about them here and there's also a good article by Dr. Mercola here.

If you don't win the giveaway for Coconut oil, you still have time to get in on these fabulous sales!!

Special Price! - 2 pints - Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil 16 oz. - Buy 1 get 1 FREE! Click the link, and scan down the page to see the sales.

You can get 2 pints (16 fl. oz. ea.) - glass jars on sale for $19.95!!
The 32oz jar is on sale for $29.50 or 2 for $55.50!

Hurry!! Sale ends Sunday August 21st and giveaway ends tonight!! Go enter! :)

End of summer.

2011-08-18T09:57:00.014-04:00

This is a bit of a catch up post. We've had a very busy end of summer, and i've been a bit overwhelmed with harvest and preservation of our garden produce. We've also been trying to get in as much summer fun as possible, which means we have been spending our days outside.

A couple weeks ago, Kenan had an opportunity for free barn wood. So he spend the weekend, tearing down the old barn and collecting all the usable wood. The wood will come in very handy for various building projects, and it has a wonderful rustic look. The house where the barn was located is right on the Little River and so one afternoon i came out with the kids so they could play in the river while Kenan worked on the barn. It was a beautiful spot, and the river is shallow and clear all the way across.

Both kids had a blast swimming and collecting rocks and water snails. The woman who owned the property was extremely nice, and has invited us back several times to picnic and play.

Almost every summer we spend a day at Fairy Stone State Park. It's usually one of the last things we do before back to school. This year, i started looking around for some thing different to do. We love state parks, museums or just something fun and new. i came across info for Lake Ridge Resort. This used to be called RJ Ranch. It is surprisingly close by, only about 15 miles from our house.

Lake Ridge Resort, is a campground/RV park with cabin rentals and sites for tent or RV camping. They also offer day passes for those who wish to come and play, but not stay all night. They have two huge pools. The kid's pool is 3' at it's deepest, and the other pool is 5' at it's deepest. The park also has two 400' water slides, miniature golf, paddle boat rides, arcade, playground and catch and release fishing. The day pass rates are $12 per person for an All Day Pass which allows you to participate in all the activities they offer. They also have a swimming pass for $5 per person, which gives you access to the pools for an entire day.

My boy was thrilled with the miniature golf because he's never played before, but my girl got bored after the second hole. She helped me through the rest of the game by picking up my ball and putting it in the hole for me. ha ha. It was a very simple, and old putt putt course. Nothing too spectacular, but the kids still had fun.

We also went out on the paddle boats. The pond is small, and it was really hot so we didn't spend a lot of time on them. It was still kind of fun. There were tons of dragonflies and we watched them skim across the water.

The highlight of Lake Ridge resort is definitely the water slides. When we were there only one slide was working, but we went down it probably 50 times. It was so much fun. The park was not busy at all. For a while we were the only ones on the slide, so we could go down it over and over as much as we wanted. Even when there were a few other people on it, the lined moved extremely quickly, and we never waited more than a minute or two to ride.

My girl was afraid of the water slide at first, and i rode down it with her several times before she was brave enough to try it on her own. i actually enjoyed the water slide much more than i expected too. It was really fun!!! The walk back up was quite a workout on the legs too. :)
The pools and the water slide definitely made our visit worth while. The other attractions were okay, but nothing special. The arcade would have been nice for older kids, but most of the games were too old my two. They also had pool tables, ping pong, and one skee ball machine. There was a nice little restaurant/snack bar and gift shop, and the staff was all very friendly and helpful. It was really a neat little place.
The cost of the 'all access' pass was a little high for us to visit often, but it made for a very nice special day out before school. We'll definitely come back next summer.

Wordless Wednesday- Silly Hen.

2011-08-17T08:12:00.007-04:00

It's not unusual for our birds to lay their eggs in places other than the nesting boxes...

...but this is definitely a first. :) Silly hen.

Return of the Butterflies!!

2011-08-12T14:52:00.001-04:00

i was going to use this as my Wordless Wednesday post, but never got around to actually posting it. Another busy week, and my blog is feeling a bit neglected so i may be posting a few back to back the next couple days.

We are usually visited by a variety of butterflies all summer. In fact we often get so many that we joke about having a butterfly infestation. i can usually walk outside on any given day and count at least 10-20 butterflies. We raise and collect monarch caterpillars every year and this past spring we even planted extra carrots, dill, fennel and parsley to attract the black swallowtails. Yet we've only found one caterpillar and there has been very few butterflies this summer compared to the last few years.

...and then they began to come. In just the past few days, the swallowtails have been appearing and feeding on our butterfly bushes. They seem a few weeks late from last year.

Eastern Tiger swallowtail on tall phlox.

A battered looking Spicebush swallowtail, i believe. i still have a tough time telling the black ones apart.

A common buckeye and a Great Spangled Fritillary.

More Spicebush, i believe.

A female Eastern Tiger swallowtail. The males are always yellow, but females have a yellow and a black form.

We are so glad to see the butterflies returning! Our black swallowtail caterpillar should be emerging soon and we are getting ready to go look for monarch eggs. i love this time of year, when the butterflies are everywhere.

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.
Author Unknown

Cherokee Purple Tomato

2011-08-07T08:49:00.001-04:00

Every year we plant a variety of tomatoes. In the past i have not paid that much attention to what we planted. i bought the most common varieties, Big boy, Beefsteak and Romas. This year i made a point of planting only Heirloom varieties and actually writing down what i planted so that i would remember when i began harvesting.

The first to ripen this year have been the Cherokee Purples. This is my first time growing them, and they have quickly become my favorite slicing tomato! Besides the unusual deep dusky red/deep purple hue of it's fruit, Cherokee Purples are extremely sweet and have an unbeatable tomato flavor.

Cherokee Purple tomatoes are beefsteak in style, with green "shoulders" across the top. They are known for having a dense, juicy texture, with small seed pockets irregularly scattered throughout the flesh. The darker interior color is enhanced by the seeds which are surrounded by green gel. A truly beautiful tomato!!
The fruits average 10-12oz, and the plants produce dense foliage. They are easy to grow and relatively disease resistant. A great choice for those new to growing heirlooms.

The Cherokee Purple is reported to have been grown by the Cherokee Indians, and is dated back as far as the late 1800s. It really has an interesting history and only became available in seed catalogs in the early 1990's. You can read more about it's history on Wikipedia.

You can find seeds for the Cherokee Purples at Southern Seed Exchange.

The Cherokee purples make the best tomato sandwiches ever. i really can not say enough about the wonderful flavor of these tomatoes. i've looked around for info on canning these, and although many people do...i don't think they are ideal for canning. Cherokee purples are best eaten fresh. We've been enjoying them on salads, sandwiches, topping bruchetta, tossed with pasta and eaten alone.
Last year Brandywines were my favorites. This year i planted black, yellow and red Brandywines so i'm eager for them to ripen to i can compare the flavors. Right now though, i am very much enjoying my Cherokee Purples. i will most definitely be growing these again next year!

Tropical Traditions Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Giveaway! CLOSED

2011-08-05T07:55:00.014-04:00

As a health conscious family, we really try to limit the amount of oils and unhealthy fat in our diet. We primarily use extra virgin olive oil for cooking, but still occasionally use vegetable or canola oil for baking. A few months ago, a friend told me about coconut oil and the benefits to using it in place of other oils.
Coconut oil is also nature's richest source of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), also called medium-chain triglycerides or MCTs. High Lauric Acid. Tropical Traditions Gold label Virgin Coconut oil contains no hydrogenation or trans fats and contains the highest levels of anti-oxidants. They use only USDA Certified Organic, non GMO coconuts.

There are many ways to use coconut oil and incorporate it into one’s diet. Since it is a stable cooking oil, one can simply replace unhealthy oils in their diet with coconut oil. Since it is a solid most of the time at room temperature or when refrigerated, it can be a butter or margarine substitute for spreads or for baking. Any recipe calling for butter, margarine, or any other oil can be substituted for coconut oil.
Coconut oil can also be used in homemade lip balms, soaps and lotions. It can be massaged directly onto your skin and hair for use as a moisturizer.

Unlike most coconut oils on the market, Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is still produced by hand. They use a wet-milling process of extracting the oil from fresh coconuts and benefit families in the rural areas of the Philippines where the coconuts grow. Tropical Traditions does NOT mass produce this oil. It is made by families who are coconut farmers using old-fashioned traditional methods that have been used in the Philippines for hundreds of years. Their coconut trees and family producers are certified organic according to strict USDA standards.

Tropical Traditions gave me the opportunity to try out their Gold Label Virgin Coconut oil. i was excited to try it out, and found that it adds a light coconut flavor to meals. i've used it to make pancakes, and to fry tofu and am very pleased with the flavor. It's absolutely delicious! My entire family loved the subtle flavor it added. Tropical Traditions website has an entire recipe section for their coconut products.

Buy it! You can purchase Gold Label Virgin Coconut oil here.

Win it!

Tropical Traditions has offered one reader a quart jar of their Gold Label Organic Virgin Coconut oil.

MANDATORY ENTRY CLOSED
You only have to complete one to be entered, but may do all three for extra entries!

Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Newsletter. They have awesome sales!
Follow them on Twitter @troptraditions
'like' their Facebook page.

This is mandatory and must be completed before any extra entries are allowed!

Please include your e-mail address or make sure it is visible in your blogger profile so i have a way to contact you if you win. Otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

Additional EXTRA ENTRIES (make sure you did at least one of the mandatory above!!)
please leave a new comment for each extra entry. If you qualify for 5 entries, leave 5 separate comments.

1. Visit the recipe section at Tropical Traditions and leave me a link to one that you would like to try.
2. Be a fan of The Enchanted Tree on Facebook 1 entry

3. Follow my blog The Enchanted Tree 1 entry
4. Tweet about the contest include @Troptraditions and leave a link to your tweet. 1 entry (can tweet daily)
5. Add my button (top left column) or add me to your sidebar on your blog 3 entries (leave 3 comments)
6. Blog about the giveaway link to this post & the Tropical Traditions website. 3 entries, leave 3 comments.

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product. i was under no obligation to review it, write a positive review or host a giveaway in exchange for the free product. All opinions are 100% mine.

**Rules**

Giveaway ends August 19, 2011 at 11:59pm EST
Winner will be contact by email, and posted on the blog.
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
This giveaway is open to USA and Canada shipping addresses only

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-03T08:15:00.003-04:00

Kid's Garden.

2011-08-01T09:29:00.000-04:00

For the past few years, my kids have been in charge of their own garden. It is a small space, around 5' x 5', and they are responsible for planting and maintaining it. They are allowed to plant whatever they want, the only rule being that they must eat/try anything that they plant.

This spring Sage was very excited about picking out and buying the seeds for the garden. However, when it actually came to planting the garden her brother did most of the work.

i wasn't very good about getting pictures of the process this year. This photo gives you an idea of the space. Seeds are just starting to sprout in this photo, this was taken in early June.

This is the garden now. It is really filling in and doing great. You can really pack a good amount of veggies in a small space. Just make sure you are amending the soil with lots of compost and natural fertilizers so your plants get the nutrients they need.

On the trellis the kids planted scarlet runners and Purple pole beans. There are also a couple cucumbers climbing up as well. Both kids loves to eat them raw and my girl loves pickles! She'll be helping me to make refrigerator pickles out of them when they are ready. She is very excited about that!

This is a Moon and Stars watermelon. It is an heiloom variety that has a very dark green rind, liberally spotted with bright yellow stars and boasting the occasional larger, moon-shaped blotch of the same color. The foliage also contains these unusual markings. i can't wait to see the design fill in more and the watermelon grows.

Sage wanted a tomato plant. Although neither of my kids will eat fresh tomatoes, Sage loves them fried green. So she had to have her very own tomato plant just for fried green tomatoes.

The kids wanted to plant some Indian Corn. So they planted 8 seeds on the edge of the garden. i'm hoping it is enough to pollinate. They planted Anasazi Flour corn. It's a beautiful Traditional/rare Indian Corn that contains lots of color.

My boy planted zucchini and yellow squash. Both kids love to eat these raw and breaded/fried.

They also planted carrots, potatoes, marigolds and sunflowers. Potatoes are fun to grow, because it is like digging up a treasure at the end of the season. The carrots became home to the blackswallowtail caterpillar and a hornworm was spotted munching on the tomato.

Gardening with your kids encourages their interest in nature and enthusiasm early on in life, and will give them invaluable basic skills and an understanding of how the whole of the eco-system works. Kids learn about nurturing a life and what it takes to keep something alive. They learn about pollination from the bees and butterflies that visit the garden. When kids grow their own food, it helps to encourage healthy eating and teaches them where their food comes from. The garden may only last one season, but the memories will last a lifetime.

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there. ~Thomas Fuller

DaGeDar Party!

2011-07-30T08:31:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, we threw an end of the summer party for my boy and some of his friends. His birthday is in January, and because of the unpredictable weather we have not had much luck throwing winter parties.

So when i was presented with the opportunity to host a DaGeDar party over the summer, i jumped at the chance! i really like to throw themed parties, and the kind folks from Momselect provided us with all the goodies needed to throw a really fun party! i also love the idea that unlike a birthday party, where the guests bring presents...we get to give our guests presents!

So what are DaGeDar? They are supercharged ball bearings, like racing marbles. Each DaGeDar has a steel core center and a cool character graphic. You can collect them, race them, trade them and register them online. Each one comes with a special code, that you can type in online to unlock your DaGeDar's spirit within!

Each character has a distinct personality trait; different motivations drive their races. They might use elemental powers of strength, cunning or their trader’s wit in their drive for victory. DaGeDar is reminiscent of marble racing, and collecting hot wheels cars...but is completely different. It's play pattern fosters imagination and creativity for hours of collaborative or solitary play!

i had a good time putting together goodie bags for our guests. Each child received a bag that contained a set of DaGeDar racing marbles, a box of crayons, gummy snacks, a crazy straw, punching balloon and a bag of M&M's. i was trying to avoid handing out too much candy junk, especially since we also had a pinata...:)

Our kit came with a racing track, a spinner, a launcher and a set of balls for each of our guests. The kids had a great time setting up the race track and opening up their ball sets. They each took turns entering their codes into the website to unlock info about their DaGeDar.

We created a game for the launcher by cutting holes in a large piece of cardboard. We gave each hole a point value, and then let the kids try to launch their balls into the holes. It was a big hit! They lined up the balls, and then used the spinner to send the balls flying.

Remember how i said i loved themed parties?? This is our DaGeDar watermelon. i made a really tasty fruit salad with watermelon, cantaloupe, mandarin oranges, grapes and blackberries. This was my first time carving a watermelon, but i think it came out pretty good. :) The kids loved it!

These didn't fit the theme, but they are such an wonderfully refreshing treat when it is super hot out. i found the recipe here . i didn't cut mine into flowers, because of lack of time...but the kids didn't notice at all and really seemed to enjoy them.

The kids spent the first hour and half playing with the DaGeDar. They were creating their own racing games, and trading balls. We don't have air conditioning though, and it was super humid out. So we all headed outside for a water fight! We had water balloons and water blasters and everyone got completely soaked!

What's a party without a pinata?? We had so much fun creating our DaGeDar pinata. We made it using basic paper mache' over a balloon. Then painted it to resemble Chee Zier. (He looked the easiest!)

Of course the boy had a great time 'battling' the pinata.

DaGeDar is a new twist on the old classic of marble racing. Racing DaGeDar balls requires skill, practice, agility and finesse. The kids must learn to control the speed and velocity of DaGeDar balls in order to propel them through thrilling loops and turns without forcing the balls off the tracks. The cool graphics and stories behind these balls makes them collectible, and i love that they don't require batteries!

DaGeDar toys and accessories will be available online and in stores this summer!

Mom Select provided me with the toys for this review. i was not compensated for writing about the DaGeDar. All opinions are my own.

Refrigerator dill pickles

2011-07-29T09:58:00.002-04:00

Now that the garden produce is really beginning to flow in, canning season is here. To be completely honest though, with the heat and humidity as bad as it has been this year...i have zero desire to spend my day in a hot kitchen canning. We do not have air conditioning, and my kitchen gets extremely hot while cooking/ canning as you can probably imagine.

After the rain this past weekend, my fridge became completely overrun with cucumbers. Every time i step outside i find 3-4 more hiding under leaves. We've been eating fresh cucumbers with every meal, but still can't keep up with them. So i knew it was time to make pickles.

Last year, i tried my friend Danielle's recipe for refrigera tor pickles and my family absolutely loved them! This is a no cook, no process recipe that is perfect to make when it's too hot to pull out the canner. It's easy to follow and is great for those first time pickle makers. These pickles are kept in the refrigerator, and they stay crisp and fresh tasting. The longer you let them sit the stronger the flavor gets. YUm.

The recipe makes 1 gallon of pickles. i split mine into 4 quart jars, so that i could keep a couple jars in the fridge and give a couple a way.

i'll be making cooked pickles again this year as soon as it cools down just a bit. i'm still searching for that perfect pickle recipe. Last year i tried several, and they all came out too mushy or they didn't have the greatest flavor. If you have a favorite pickle recipe i would love to hear it!

Wordless Wednesday: Garden Goodies

2011-07-27T10:27:00.006-04:00

Summer garden goodies are beginging to roll in! i've just started harvesting Cherokee purple, Morgage lifters, and Box Car Willie tomatoes. This afternoon i'll be making some refridgerator pickles using Danielle's (One Green Tomato) recipe.

Ecomom Winner Announced!

2011-07-27T09:00:00.003-04:00

The winner of the Ecomom GC giveaway is.....

Tracy said... 18: I follow the enchanted tree.

anaturalprocess at gmail dot com; July 14, 2011 4:05 PM

Congratulations Tracy! i will send you an email later today. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen! Thank you all who entered!!

Raising caterpillars.

2011-07-26T07:37:00.013-04:00

Earlier this week, my boy was out tending his garden and he came running in to show me the tiny caterpillar he had found.

This interesting little guy was only about 1/4" long. i'm quite amazed that my boy was able to spot it. He said it was just hanging out in the grass, near some Queen Anne's lace. We checked all around the Queen Anne's Lace but found no other caterpillars.

The caterpillar is a Black Swallowtail. This is the first instar. The instars are the stages between shedding skin. It will shed it's skin several times as it grows larger. Host plants for the Black swallowtail caterpillars are Queen Anne's lace, carrot, parsley, fennel and dill. We planted all of these this year, in hopes of attracting the Black swallowtails.

We moved our caterpillar to the carrots growing in the kids garden, where he would be a bit more protected. We were gone over the weekend, and missed getting pictures of the second instar. Here it is in the third instar, it is about 1" long. We will leave him to feed on the carrots until he is full grown and then we'll bring it inside so that we can watch it pupate and transform into a chrysalis.

While weeding the tomatoes, i noticed some rather large piles of bug poo on the leaves and around the base of one of my plants. i looked all over the plant and found the culprit.

This is a huge tomato hornworm. They are considered garden pests, because one caterpillar can do some serious damage to tomato plants. They eat non-stop and will consume not only the foliage but the green tomatoes as well. They are very easy to control. You just pick them off and move them away from your garden. In the past i have just thrown them to the chickens, who tend to follow me around when ever i am in the garden.

This time however, Sage freaked out and wanted to keep it as a pet. :)

It really is rather cool looking. i love the eye spots all along it's body. This guy is huge, he is around 4" long. Which means he is almost ready to pupate.

Unlike monarchs and swallowtails, the tomato horn worms pupate underground. So when we set up a habitat for him, we placed about 2 inches of soil in the bottom of our container. i planted a small tomato plant in the soil so it had something to munch on. We had lots of tomatoes coming up in our compost, so we won't miss this one. If you don't have any extra plants, you can just give him a few leaves or branches from your tomato plant. Replacing them as necessary.

Our hornworm spent the day munching on this tomato plant. We snapped the lid on the container overnight so he didn't wander away, but is the morning there was no sign of him. So we are assuming it has buried itself in the soil and pupated. In two weeks time, it should emerge as a 5 spotted Hawk Moth. If the caterpillar pupates at the end of summer, early fall it will overwinter in the ground.

We've been checking the milkweed near us, looking for monarch eggs but haven't found any yet. We just spotted our first monarch butterfly last week. So we should be seeing them soon. The county mowers have already come by and cut down about 75% of the milkweed that was growing near the road. It always makes me sad to see this. Milkweed is the only plant that monarch caterpillars will eat, so without it there will be no Monarch butterflies.

You can find a lot of good info on raising different butterflies and moths at this website.
When raising caterpillars it is very important to know what type of caterpillar you have, and what types of host plants the caterpillar will eat. Most caterpillars will only eat very specific host plants, and will die if not provided the correct foods.

Raising caterpillars is always fascinating and educational. It's something we enjoy every summer.

For those wondering, i'll be picking the winner of the ecomom giveaway later today!!! :)

Knotty Val Winner Announced!!

2011-07-22T07:24:00.005-04:00

The winner of the Knotty Val giveaway is....

the fam said... 19: Shared on FB ~ wendy ritchey
artstitched (at) aol (dot) com; July 7, 2011 7:06 PM

Congratulations Wendy! i will send you an email later today. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will be chosen! Thank you all who entered!!

Our week so far...

2011-07-21T11:03:00.000-04:00

We spent an afternoon in Blacksburg and took the kids to the Hand n' hand playground at Caboose park. It's a pretty cool park with three different playground area. The kids love the wooden castle playground the best. They pretended we were at Hogwarts. This is just one part of the wooden castle, i couldn't fit it all in the picture. It's huge!

We are really enjoying the creek this year. Even with all the recent bear sightings on and around our property. Last year, we had a young bear come right up into the yard. We haven't seen any bears since, but our neighbors keep spotting a very large one on our land.

i've still been taking the kids hiking in the woods and swimming down at creek. i'm not too worried about bears (okay, maybe a little) but we always bring a dog with us, just in case.

A dip in the creek is always a welcome break in the afternoon.

We found this little guy hanging out in our fairy garden. No, not the gnome....

The sweet little newt.

We made lots of giant bubbles. Usually my boy makes the bubbles and i take pictures. This time i gave him the camera, so i could make a few. They are so much fun!

We hiked to the top of the hill to pick blackberries, and a few wildflowers along the way. The lavender came from my garden.

Last night Kenan noticed a spider building a huge web outside. It attached from the corner of the roof and stretched all the way across to the peach tree.

It was pretty amazing to watch. It was too dark to get a really good picture, but this is just a common orb weaver/barn spider. We went to bed before she had the web finished, but in the morning it was completely gone. No sign that it had ever been there.

With ourweek wrapping up, we are preparing for a DeGaDar party for my boy and an impending trip up north for a family reunion. Kenan has been really productive in the new shop, and is already beginning to line up some classes and take students. We are still try to adjust to it all here at home.

Back to school is coming up quickly. i'm excited to finally be able to pick up my crafting again, but am sad that our summer has gone by so quickly. i'm going to miss our late dinners eaten outside, chasing fireflies and hola hooping after dinner. It's amazing to me how quickly it all goes by.

Wordless Wednesday: Sunflower Madness

2011-07-20T07:46:00.000-04:00

i didn't actually plant any of these. They are all volunteers from last years sunflowers, or planted by the birds. i have them coming up in all of my gardens. We love sunflowers. Next summer, i'm going to plant a wall of them around the back side of the kids area, separating it from the open field.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do. - Helen Keller,

Gillyweed/ Kale Chips

2011-07-19T08:32:00.002-04:00

Yes, another Kale recipe! We love our kale and eat it almost daily. Kale is incredibly easy to grow and super nutritious! This is a really simple recipe. My kids ask for these often, and they will completely devour these and ask for more! We made these a while ago for a Harry Potter Party and called it Gillyweed, so my kids still refer to it by that name.

First thing you'll want to do is pick/wash your kale. We used small bite sized leaves. If you use larger leaves, you'll want to remove stems and tear them into bite sized pieces. Use a salad spinner or pat them dry.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.

Place your kale leaves in a bowl and toss with 1-2 TBSP of olive oil, until well coated. Lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle with a bit sea salt.

Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 15- 20 minutes. You'll want to watch these as they bake, as they tend to burn rather quickly depending on the thickness of the kale leaves. Once you notice the edges start to brown, you'll want to pay close attention so they don't burn.

Kale chips are light and crunchy. They are similar to potato chips with an added health bonus. Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, and reasonably rich in calcium and iron.

You can also spice these up with Parmesan or Asiago cheese, red pepper flakes, balsamic vinegar, garlic salt... many different options to create some unique and tasty flavors.

Recycled Can Windchimes

2011-07-15T10:12:00.014-04:00

i know i've posted about this before, but ever since visiting Loblolly park at the Museum of Life and Science in NC, i've wanted to create a musical garden. When my husband was building the kids play fort i was envisioning one of the walls to be decorated with pots and pans, wind chimes, bells and metal hubcaps. Anything that the kids can bang, shake and jingle to make a bit of music.

So although i knew this is something i wanted to do, the wall has remained empty. i don't really have an old pots and pans that i'm not using. i've checked the goodwill for old wind chimes, and pots...but just haven't found anything that i thought would work. Then while surfing the web, i came across an idea for Recycled can wind chimes on the Learn2grow site.

These were super easy, and the kids enjoyed helping to make them. We used non-washable acrylic paints, so the rain doesn't wash away the pretty designs. i removed the labels and washed out cans and let the kids decorate them.

To string them, i used a nail and hammer to tap a small hole in the top. You can use twine or fishing line to hang them. i attached metal washers, nuts, and bells...what ever i had on hand to use as the clapper inside the can. Then i tied a knot inside the can to hold it in place and prevent it from sliding all the way down the string.

i really like the color that they add, and noise is pleasant..not too wild. i found a metal moon that came from an old wind chime and added it to the wall as well. i know i have more of these somewhere and will be adding them as soon as i find them.

i'll also be adding more bells and wind chimes etc as i find things, but for now we are enjoying these. We plan to add more cans too, but don't eat canned food too often. So it's taken us a while to gather enough up. This is a great project for almost all ages.

Big News

2011-07-14T08:41:00.024-04:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while then you probably know that my husband is a full time glass blower. For the past 10 years he has been working out of what was formally our garden shed. The space was very small, maybe 8'x 10 feet before you added the benches, storage and kiln. You couldn't fit more than 2 people in it comfortably and even that was a little cramped.

Last month, as i was coming home from Floyd i noticed a 'for rent' sign on the window of a little building across from the Willis Mini-mart gas station. Willis is a tiny community in Floyd county, and the downtown pretty much consists of the Mini-mart/gas-station, several churches, a Hispanic store and a car wash. It's located about half way between Hillsville and the town of Floyd.

After seeing the shop was for rent, i mentioned to Kenan that he should call on it. He kind of blew off the idea, but i was pretty persistent. It just felt like maybe it was time for him to get out of the garden shed. :) i eventually persuaded him to just inquire about the property.

So he called.

The man who owns the building is the father of one of the midwife assistants that was present at my sons birth. He knew of us, through his daughter and was really excited at the prospect of turning the building into an artist studio/gallery. He was very willing to work with Kenan on the rent price to create something that was workable for us.

This is now the new Tiemeyer Glass Studio.

The building is 1400 sq ft, it's huge! It is actually bigger than our entire house. :)

Kenan officially got the keys to the new shop on July 1st. The work getting the new shop set up was a bit more work than anticipated. He had to drill some holes through the blockwork to get his tanks set up, and ventilation in. He is still trying to re-work the ventilation to improve it. Good ventilation is extremely important. This in the very beginning stages, so it doesn't look like much yet. This will be his new work space.

This area will be an office, and serve as a storage area for some of his glass supplies. He's planning to put some shelves in and a small desk.

This will be a second workspace, available for students, visiting lamp workers...or me once the kids start school. :)

There is a large open area that we hope to turn into other 2 other artist spaces, that can eventually be rented out. The building has two large picture windows in the very front of the building and will make a very nice retail shop eventually, if we choose to go that route. It really opens up a lot of opportunities that we didn't have with Kenan here at home. He doesn't have the distraction of kids knocking on the door constantly, and now has a defined separation of work time and home time. Where before, because he worked at home he never really stopped working.

It's been quite an adjustment for the kids, not having him here. Sage has been having the hardest time, wanting to pack him a lunch and visit everyday. The new shop is only about 8 miles from our house, so we will be able to stop by now and again.

This really opens up a lot of new opportunities for us, and helps us to feel more connected with the community. i would love to see the building turned into an artist studio, with 3-4 rented spaces and a small retail store in the front. i also can see a small farm market stand out front, where i can sell fresh organic produce and flowers.

The shop isn't far from the Blue Ridge parkway, and we hope to help bring some traffic from the parkway, through Willis as people travel on to Floyd which is a tourist hot spot. On Friday Nights, Floyd hosts the Friday Night Jamboree, folks traveling up 221 can stop in the glass shop on their way into Floyd to watch live glass blowing demonstrations. We are also hoping to participate in the Floyd Artisan Trail next year.

We are pretty excited about this new venture, although things are going to be extremely tight over the next few months. The kids start school in less than a month however, and i will be putting my focus on dolls and jewelry again. So i hope to finally get my dolls up for sale and lots of new ones made!

It feels like things are coming together, and although i'm not always open to change...i'm excited to see where this all goes.