I feel so fortunate to have stumbled upon this new seasonal Local Handmade Market, it was not your run of the mill pre-christmas craft fair...it was so much more. There are so many super talented super crafty local mama's that have followed there dreams and started up there very own craft businesses right here in my neck of the woods...It is yearly and sponsored by the LLL. A few of my mama friend we're there selling there crafts and services...here's my favorites!!

Kathy Dano, of Lovely Baby, Pre- and Postnatal Education. My sweet and talented mama friend:)

Pauline Meert, of For Little Ones . We purchased one of her absolutely beautiful handmade Montessori inspired dolls, Tyken had to take home Leo the elf:) She is a Montessori teacher in Colorado Springs and her etsy is filled with lovely dolls and teaching aids too.

Lalania Simone of, XOXI Craft. She crochets funky hats and sews really cool owls (pictured above with the elf doll) and butterflies too...

Meg Brothers, create beautiful hand sewn wallets, wrist lets and purses. I was so happy to find a new knitting notions purse to replace the old raggedy ziploc in my knitting sack;) check out her etsy here.

Jesi Josten of, Hip Violet. She creates one of a kind super hip baby bibs and tee/pant sets. I was seriously contemplating another little one for that few minutes of looking over her beautiful baby swag...

Last but definitely not least...

Shimmer and Fizz, stunning and simple handmade jewels by Danielle. I have my eye on quite a few of her items for myself and gifts for this x-mas.

A lovely afternoon of talking craft and motherhood with some really cool mama's. I hope this has inspired you as it did me and please consider buying handmade this year instead of ordinary mainstream stuff from the mall.

happy indie shopping everyone!!

The perfect winter hat pattern was elusive until I stumbled across the Fae Folk pattern on Ravelry the other day....It looks like everything I wanted in a kids hat. Great coverage to keep all parts of the head warn, ears, neck and forehead check! Absolutely love the side and back shaping, and the cute functional loop on top too.

I've had the yarn set aside for some time.....Tyken wanted gnomes on it, so that's what he got. We have plans to add to the pair and create a "family" in the near future. Until then, here it is.....hot of the needles, I may block it get maximum size.

Equals one warm happy boy!!

Ishbel. My very first intricate lace knitting endeavour. It was difficult and so much fun rolled into one project. But once I turned my thought pattern from just reading the pattern and knitting to visualizing the pattern as I knit I stopped making mistakes and it flowed much smoother. It is the perfect intro. lace pattern in my opinion.

I used Elisabeth Lavoid silky merino yarn in pumpkin. It took about 1.5 skeins and was a dream to knit with, it blocked well too. Addi turbo lace needles really helped make this lace pattern enjoyable to knit, I didn't have to fight with the stitches at all. I highly recommended them for lace and intricate knitting, well worth the $$.

I wear it like a kerchief not a shawl. It has a long narrow wing span so it's perfect for wrapping around your neck.

Squishy, soft, fall knitting!!

I've been meaning to make up a batch of eco playdough for some time now. Since we all have the sniffles and it's crazy hot out today we dove right in. I follow the recipe above to a tee. I took it off the heat to early the first time and had to stir till I could barely move the dough in the pan.It was quick and easy....and the smell of cooking play dough brought back many good childhood memories!!

The dough cooling and waiting to be colored.

I didn't want to use the conventional dye so this is what I came up with:

Raspberries for pink.

Turmeric for gold.

Chlorella for green.

After lots of kneading, this is what we got!!!

Cool right!!!

They loved it! And I got an hour of house cleaning done while they molded and created lots of interesting things:)

While sitting around on one of the many rainy days we had in June here in CO...I remembered a post on the Crafty Crow about re purposing egg cartons into little quirky creatures.

this is our remix...

How do you build community?

Our sweet little gnomes have a sweet little cob house now:)

I've talked about being on a fairy gnome forest kick lately, well I made this funky little cob gnome home up from Hedgehog Lane awhile back. Her patterns and photo directions are beautifuly written, and give you a wide range of ideas to incorporate too.

materials used:

I used patons classic merino for the house body and roof.

random 100 % wool scraps for the roof embelishments pre felting, then lots of floss embroidery post felting.

Wool felt for the door and windows.

shell door handle, I find most of my creations end up having ocean influence, it tell yah it's in my blood.

I followed the pattern to a tee when making up the gnomes too.

Enough said, now go and check her beautiful on-line shop out and whip up a gnome home for your little ones!

Wow, I love it when I stumble across some seriously talented crafty mama's.... today was a good day!!!

Trixi, is form Australia and creates these amazing match box play things, please check her out and get inspired.

next up,

Jennifer, puts together killer clothes pin doll kits, we definitely need a kit like this on our crafty shelf!

last but not least...

lmnop blog has served up some lovely gelato playdough, tomorrow's crafty to do for sure:)

hope these mama's bring you lots of inspiration as they always do for me,

cheers, sd

This fabulous use of our favorite summer juicy melon will be filling our juice pitcher very soon!!!

Watermelon Lemonade

I blame it on our next door neighbour Kevin. Tyken eat sleeps and drinks skateboarding. He's way into it, so we dove in too. I totally believe in supporting anything my children do wholeheartedly. We took him to the local skate shop and he picked out his new board, he slapped a bunch of bones stickers on it and off he went, wanting try get the hang of it right away.