Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Don't put those Waldorf toys in storage yet!


I took this photo of my son and a friend playing in the gazebo with the wooden kitchen set. They had fun for about a half hour with this game - trying to see how many fruits and veggies they could balance on the scale. My son is 11 and will be 12 in January. This picture makes me so happy because I paid so much for these toys so to still be getting use out of them in their 11th year just THRILLS ME! And Sofi and her friends (9 and 10) have really been using the gazebo and kitchen set - every day they are out there creating dishes and playing some imaginary game. So if you were wondering if it is worth it to invest in these toys? Yes.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Children, Nature and Us Conference in Boulder, CO

It's that time of year again...time to sign up for the annual Waldorf conference in Boulder, CO. The topic this year is "Children, Nature and Us" and browsing the flyer it looks like 90% of the topics would really appeal to anyone who is interested in that topic and not just Waldorf parents so please pass this information on to any environmental groups you are part of and your homeschooling lists. As usually I am "blown away" by the speakers that are gathering to speak. WOW!

I always get so excited looking at the brochure and browsing all the topics. There are always too many to choose from. But I have to admit (shhhh) that most of all I really look forward to all those homemade snacks the Waldorf teens sell outside the conference hall with warm tea and coffee ....hmmm...just the thing to have while I am browsing the dreamy Waldorf-toy vendors and my kids are happily knitting or making warm bread in one of the school-rooms. This will be the 6th time I have attended this conference. The first one I attended was 10 years ago when they were still being held in Ann Arbor, MI !

The lovely brochure is here. It has a list of all the speakers and Registration info.

http://www.informedfamilylife.org/pdf/Children_Nature-08-col-lg.pdf

You can also regiser below. Register early because the awesome Waldorf childcare fills up fast and that is one of the best things about the conference. I learned that the "hard way" the second year I attended. Now I make sure to sign up for childcare ASAP.

REGISTER

Blessings & Health,
Kristie

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Free Burr Oak Acorns




My lovely Oak has asked me to find good families for all of her babies. The only problem is she has about a million babies! The squirrels are over-worked because we have about 50 of these trees in our neighborhood so if you would like any lovely acorn caps just write to me and I'll send them out for free ... you just need to pay for the padded envelope and the postage. I'm estimating that to be about $2.50 altogether. It might be a little less for some, a little more for others...it will all even out in the end. USA requests only. Enjoy :) I just adore acorns!




You can send $2.50 by Paypal to: herbnhome@yahoo.com along with your address.




Blessings & Health,


Kristie






The Natural Living Channel




I would like to invite you to the grand opening of ...



Steve and I have been working on this project for more than a year now so we are very happy to finally be announcing its debut!


For those of you that are familiar with www.TheWaldorfChannel.com - this new channel is done in the same style, however, it covers all areas of natural living and is hosted by Steven Zay Granberg as well as I. Of course we will have videos from other people - just like on The Waldorf Channel - however, we will both be hosting these videos. I hope you enjoy it! We will be updating it every two weeks.

Be sure to join the Herb'n Home mailing list to receive any further announcements about the channel and our free newsletter.

Blessings & Health,
Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND
Steven Zay Granberg, MS Counseling Education

Friday, September 5, 2008

Fairy Girl Photo - Just for Fun Blog Post


I wanted to share a photo I had some fun with this week. I used a regular digital camera. Nothing fancy. A Canon A560 - 7.1 megapixels and a small zoom. I took a picture of my daughter and then after I uploaded it I adjusted all the color settings so it was black and white and I printed it out on acrylic paint paper (I wanted to use watercolor paper but we were all out for the day). Then I colored it in with my Lyra colored pencils. If you are into fun photos for scrapbooking or whatever I have some more samples of modified portraits in my Facebook album:
I would love to see your photos too. I like to take fun photos of the kids and have always been inspired by other people's scrapbooks and photos. My friend Brooke is a great inspiration to me when it comes to keeping memories!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Nature Table: Nest in Tree with Bird Craft at The Waldorf Channel

A new FREE public show is on The Waldorf Channel at:



The Nature Table



This video shows you how to make a beautiful nest in a tree for your nature table with a beeswax bird. In the video we use homemade molding beeswax made using the member video "How to Make Your Own Waldorf Supplies: Molding Beeswax" found in the Tutorial section of the channel.



Enjoy :)

Blessings & Health,

Kristie

Monday, September 1, 2008

The Saga of the Playsilks

The Saga of the Play Silks

There once was a young lady who had a little baby. She wanted some Waldorf playsilks but she didn't like to sew and she lived far far away from anyone who sold them. So she did what any clever young lady would do - she asked her mama to sew some for her.

A few weeks later an airmail package came from America to Saudi Arabia and a pile of pretty, soft and silky play silks fell out of the package. They were so dreamy! The young lady was happy and the baby was happy.

The baby chewed on the play silks and laughed when her mama played peek-abo with them. She put them over her head and played peek-abo too.

When the baby was 3 years old she used the silks as wings and skirts and capes and dressed up as a fairy, a pirate and a princess. When she grew up to be 5-years-old she tucked her baby dolls into bed with a scarf as a blanket and kissed them goodnight.

When her baby sister was born that year she covered her baby sister in playsilks and watched her giggle.

The play-silks continued to entertain all her friends, her sister and even her sister's friends. Sometimes they were draped over the nature table and sometimes they were worn as cloaks or hoods. Sometimes they were picnic blankets and sometimes walls of a fort or a house. They were table cloths, blankets and everything you can imagine.

But they were very sad because they always stayed at home. They wanted to have adventures. Once, one of them got to go to the Mayfair and often they got to play outdoors but they wanted to go on a real adventure.

So one day...13-years after their birth, the sister of the little baby (who was now 13-years-old) was going to be a fairy at the Renaissance Festival and she needed a skirt.






Her mama, who was an older woman now, said "I still don't like to sew. I like to knit so I can pay someone else to sew for me." And she laughed a little rascally laugh. Then the little sister, who was now 9-years-old said, "But mama, I want you to MAKE my fairy outfit. You HAVE to make something for me (in less than 20 minutes of course)." And she looked at her mama with beautiful wide brown eyes.



So the mama took an old belt with a lot of holes in it, she folded & draped some of the playsilks over the belt and used thread to secure them every few centimeters through the holes in the belt. Then she sprinkled some fairy dust on the scarves and attached some felt butterflies and dragonflies and some silk flowers. She clipped butterflies in the little girl's hair and the little girl spied a pussy willow branch on the nature table and said "THAT is the perfect wand!"




And because the mother loved to knit she bobby pinned a little knitted unicorn to the top of her outfit and sprinkled some fairy dust on the baby unicorn too. She saw her beading box on top of the craft table and quickly strung a clasp onto some clear thread, attached a crystal and made a necklace for the fairy too.




Now the little fairy was very happy and the scarves were happy too. And now they are both having many adventures today being fairies at the Renaissance Festival all day!