Mini Monday - Alkelda

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade Alkelda.etsy.com

Meet Farida of Alkelda:
My name is Farida Dowler, and I am a musical storyteller for young children in the Seattle, Washington area: http://faridadowler.com

I am also the mother of a daughter in a Waldorf school. I create dolls for stories and nature tables. In the Waldorf tradition, a nature table is a spot in the house dedicated to representing the changing seasons.

The name Alkelda is Old English for "healing spring." St. Alkelda's feast day is my birthday. Once upon a time, Alkelda was my moniker on Saints and Spinners, my song and storytelling blog: http://saintsandspinners.blogspot.com

My chief inspirations for doll-making have come from a number of different stories. The picturebook Goldie the Dollmaker, by M.B. Goffstein, and the Russian fairy-tale of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa are two stories in particular that have resonated with me. I am also a fan of The Story of the Root Children, by Sybille von Olfers and The Flowers' Festival, by Elsa Beskow.

Friday Feature with Birchleaf Designs

Tell us little about yourself!

We are Mojo, Wendy, Kiah, Milo, and Zora the wonder dog...Benji's lesser known twin sister. I bet you didn't know Benji even had a twin sister! Yah, we live 2 miles back dere in da woods, eh? Up dere in da Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We live off the grid and use solar power for all our operations. We homeschool, live, love, work and learn nestled amongst the hemlocks. This may sound a bit weird, but we love to meet new folks and encourage visitors! If you ever need to 'get away' from the crazy hubbub, be sure to give us a jingle.

What do you make and how long have you been creating?

We like to make piles of wood in the woods...all kinds of wood; fire wood, slab wood, sauna wood, hot tub fire wood, bonfire wood, cookstove wood, heating stove wood, rotton wood, and oh and we make lots of sawdust in the workshop. We make a lot of ski tracks in the wintertime and a lot of syrup and snowshoe tracks in the springtime and we do lots of festivals and art shows in the summertime. But when we are not working with our firewood or bees or maple syrup, we are making buttloads of swords and shields and steamers and other natural playthings for children and adults. It was all Kiah's idea to "set up a booth at blissfest (http://www.bilissfest.org) and sell stuff". After much discussion it was decided that we make children's toys. At the time, Kiah was 5 1/2, she's now 9.

What inspires you?

The thing that inspires us most is the burning fire that comes from inside our very souls! Also, Laughter. Love. Nature. Teachers. Elders. and Kiah really wanted to add "being funny".

What got you started working with --------?

Well, we don't work with --------, but we do work with wood, silk, wool, the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve (http://www.yellowdogwatershed.org/), some leather, our bees, we work with the tractor every know and then, and we work with a chainsaw a lot (see answer #2). It was all Kiah's fault to work with the children's toys (see answer #2)!

How long have you been on Etsy and how has it been for you so far?

Our love affair with Etsy began back in December 2007. Etsy's just great, I tell you, just great! It brings in a much needed income that allows us to be right were we want to be...home.

What advice would you have for other Etsians?

Like, list what you got and, like, don't list things you are out of. Because, then, like, you get an order for, like. something you don't have and, like, you have to make it like, right then and there and still, like, ship it out the like, next day. OMG!

What do you hope to learn/gain/contribute from being part of the NaturalKids Team?

When I joined NaturalKids, I thought I was supposed to get a pair of *in your best infomercial voice*..."fabulous indestructable, kitchen shears! So strong, so sharp!"

You know, the ones where you can cut through a pop can or a quarter, and still be able to cut through grandmas finest linen with ease. No, really, a fierce sense of camaraderie! Being a part of Etsy's NaturalKids group is amazing! I feel like we have created a tight bond, as tight as a dread lock, between our natty sisters and brothers! We can bounce ideas off each other and support each other in ways that not only support our businesses, but our new-found friendships as well.

What thoughts do you have for parents on the importance of natural toys for creative play?

You can't get any more natural than nature. Being outside is the most important natural toy you can give your children! Even over our products! Yep. We admit it. But if you really want to replace that stick with a cool sword, we got one.

Your items can be found where:

You can find us on Etsy http://www.birchleafdesigns.etsy.com/

But more of us can be found at festivals throughout Michigan and locally at our home or farmer's marquette. It is at these places (or by phone) that you can find the stuff we don't have listed online.

We have to tell you that this interview was so fun to answer! It was an entire family affair...all uf us gathered around the computer, our faces a-glow, trying to come up with the most goofiest answers. Much giggling and laughter was had by all! Thanks for the fun! But if you want to read our more standard, serious BirchLeaf Designs side, please go here: http://birchleafdesigns.blogspot.com/ Thanks for reading!

Interview by Beccijo of The Enchanted Cupboard

Team Blog Challenge Winners

To the NaturalKids Team Member's blog that brings in the most view to our website, NaturalKidsStore.com, will receive a item from there shop feature on the Team Member Page!

Drum Roll........

And the winners are:

1st place:

http://www.plainandjoyfulliving.blogspot.com/ 25

2nd place:

thefairiesnest.blogspot.com / referral 20

3rd place:

polarbearcreations.blogspot.com / referral 14

Great job Everyone!

Mini Monday - Little Elfs Toyshop

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade LittleElfsToyshop.etsy.com

Meet Kelly of Little Elfs Toyshop:

My name is Kelley and I make waldorf style dolls and toys and needle felted figurines. I do my best to use natural materials whenever possible, though some of my items do have materials that are synthetic. I love kids and making kids happy and have wanted to be a toy maker ever since I was a little girl. All of my toys are double sewn for best quality and are made with lots of love and care. I want these toys to last a long time so they can be loved for many, many moons.

I want to thank everyone for looking and for all your interest and support. If I can bring a smile to your face than I feel I'm doing my job well.

Tutorial Thursday - Sweet Little White Ghosts.

Hi, I'm Donni of Fairyfolk. My blog is The Magic Onions. Today I'm going to show you how we made sweet little ghosts for Halloween.

Both my children love to play with my wool roving. I think they enjoy the feel of it... it's smoothness, it's lightness in their fingers. Wool is so wonderfully tactile and I find it soothes them. So, today, when the tensions from being stuck inside from the rain started to fray our nerves, I decided it was a good time for us to make Little White Ghosts...

It's a wonderfully simple activity, needing only white wool roving, a needle felting needle for me and some google eyes for fun.

To make our ghosts, I gave each child a small tuft of wool about the size of a golf ball. They rolled the wool softly in their hands until a rough ball was formed. Then I used my needle felting needle to 'catch' the wool, securing it in place so that it kept it's round shape.

Then I gave each child a tuft of wool about 3 times as long as the ball. They stroked this tuft flat, gently smoothing all the fibers in one direction (you don't really need to do this as the fibers are generally in the right direction, but it is a wonderfully soothing and calming action and children like this step immensely.)

Then the children held the long tuft in one hand and placed their ball in the center. They gently closed their hand, folding the longer tuft of wool over the ball.

With my needle felting needle, I once again secured the shape by poking it gently just a few times, smoothing around the 'head' of the ghost and leaving the 'tufty' bottom of the ghost free.

The children gave their ghosts eyes (the google eyes we have are self-adhesive but you would use a little glue if yours aren't)

I used a needle and thread to hang the ghosts and we found just the right spot for them on our porch. (You might notice that K didn't want hers to be scary like the others, yea right!, so I needle felted a smile onto his face).

They are just wonderful little ghosts... they spin around happily in the breeze. We were all enchanted by them when we arrived home from a trip to the post office this afternoon. They were clearly excited to see us... twirling as if to say 'welcome, welcome... yay, you are home!'

Blessings and magic.

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How to get crafty at snack time

A TUTORIAL ON HOW TO REALLY PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD !

It is Thursday and time for a tutorial, and I am Joshua the Dad of Dad's Wooden Toys. I could talk about woodworking and tools that you are unlikely to have in your home. But instead I would like to teach you something simple that has brought me a lot of joy since I was a little boy. This craft has now become a favorite activity of my own kids. With this craft you stand a good chance of having everything you need already in your kitchen.

Some of the fondest memories can be surprisingly easy to make. I still remember how excited I would get over 20 years ago when my mom would announce that we were going to have ants on a log. Perhaps many of you are familiar with the traditional recipe which is just celery, peanut butter, and raisins. My mom who always had more than her fair share of creativity didn't just make "ants on a log" we had "ants on a car" ,or "ants on a dragster". Now that I am a dad I have added "ants on a plane".

Here is what we will need:

• Celery
• Raisins (for passengers)
• Peanut butter (to hold the passengers in place and for protein)
• Carrots (preferably full size)
• wooden tooth picks. (or uncooked spaghetti)
• knife
• Scissors

For the simplest of vehicles all we need is to add 4 wheels to the celery "frame". Wheels of course are made by cutting cross sections of your carrot. Take a tooth pick and run it through the first carrot then through the celery and out the other side where the second wheel is put on. Then using the scissors cut off any part of the toothpick that sticks out beyond the wheel. repeat this for the back wheels. I like to put an extra small wheel on the top as a steering wheel. Viola, you have an edible car! It recently occurred to me that if you wanted the creation to be total edible you could use raw spaghetti instead of the tooth picks however since the spaghetti is more fragile you may still want a tooth pick around to make the initial hole in the hard carrot and celery, you could then hopefully get the spaghetti into the carrot without it breaking.

Now that we all know we could make an easy car that is sure to be a hit with the kids, we can begin to add some pizzaz. Give your creativity a chance to really shine. With a few extra raisins your car turns into a bus. Cut a carrot length wise into a board and and with a toothpick in each corner to suspend it you now have a roof for your car. There are so many possibilities. The plane is made much the same way. We start with the celery stick and cut a couple of carrots into slices length wise. Find two that can be trimmed to the same size and then round the ends . These are our wings. We will need a few more flat carrot boards for the tail wings, and some skinny long slices for the propeller. Remember that the wing slices must be thick enough to receive the toothpick. You will be sticking the tooth pick into the flat end of the carrot wing deep enough to stay put, then trim the toothpick short enough that it won't stick out the far side of the celery which is the body of the plane, and stick it in, repeat for the other wing. I put my propellers onto another carrot coin and one toothpick stabbed through them all sticks the propellers to the front of the plane. The wheels for the plane are not difficult but they are probably the most challenging part of this simple creation. After sticking a wheel on each end of an appropriately sized toothpick to create what looks like a dumbbell, stick two more toothpicks into the wheels each pointing up and inward almost completing a triangle. Those two upper points then push into the bottom of the plane and you have attached the wheels . There you have it an edible aircraft. Add peanut butter and raisins to suit.I guarantee the kids will enjoy it. I do suggest that you take a picture or two of your creation especially if you decide to get elaborate since in the end all the evidence will be eaten!! If your kids are older than mine, perhaps they would enjoy it if you just cut the materials for them and then let them build their own custom machines. I should give fair warning to those of you who enjoy crafts not be surprised if you get a little carried away. There is so much that can be done with other veggies and fruit like radishes, and apples to increase your possibilities. Radishes make great wheels or a small slice of the side of a round radish makes a neat red hubcap for a carrot wheel. Go have fun playing with your food! If you get inspired and do this with your kids or on your own, we would love to see a link to the happy kids and creative vehicles in the comments section.