Review ~ Bundspecht wood figures via The Puppenstube

Guess where I'm going today????!!!!!!!!! Run over to We're Not That Stupid to find out!

On to the toy review.
When I was a little girl, I just LOVED playing with little animals. My first collection consisted of these weird clear plastic animals like this one(remember these?!?!)

that I collected from the Ben Franklin's near my Grandma in Connecticut. From there I graduated to a collection of adorable Hagen-Renaker Hand Painted Miniature figures at a gift shop by my other Grandma. Those things saw the love, man. I played the bejesus out of them-each one wound up with chips and missing appendages but we continued to play together for years. I think I still have 2 or 3 at my Mom's house... A few years ago I saw them in an Anchorage shop and decided to start a collection for Dea. We didn't get too far! Those things disappeared so many times in the bowels of her room! We still have 3 of them. A mama kitty and her kittens-the ones that were my favorites when I was a kid. Here they are, all chipped up!

I had thought of starting a collection for Lo, and still might, ... But these figurines would have to wait a couple 3 years until Lo's a bit older or else she'll have them pulverised in no time. Very loved but destroyed!

I shifted my focus to wood. Lo enjoys playing with the wood animals that I make her, and I love making them, but I wanted her to have something of a more collectible quality. Something that could hold up to rigorous play and still look good. We have some Ostheimer woodland animals that I've always thought were great, but I had also been seeing both Buntspecht and Georgian wood toys online and at Lo's school. The Puppenstube, an online store featuring handmade dolls and Buntspecht toys, keeps popping up on various blogs I read like A Small Tribe. I went over to the Puppenstube take a look and was very impressed with what Christine has to offer! A nice variety of animals, people, trees and buildings(not to mention her dolls and knits!). I also perused the official Buntspecht site.

I decided to order any array from both The Puppenstub and Georgian Wood toys. The figures you see below are the Buntspecht and I'll post about the Georgians another time. These were birthday gifts for Lo between Huz and myself and my mother. Christine was great about notifying me when certain animals had arrived in her store and her processing and shipping was fast! Definitely check out her site!

What impresses me about these toys is the minimal details and coloring. They are so smooth, rounded and organic. They just feel so "right" and natural in your hands. They are painted with just a wash of colors-everything else is left up to the imagination...

Lo is ADORING these new additions to our toy store</, <> livingroom!

badger

I just love the mother and daughter bathed in colors like a typical Waldorf water color painting!

Wolf pup. Can't wait for the Mama to come available!

Review ~ CROWNS by Susanna Wallis Design Shop

We had so much fun with Lo's Birthday gifts this year! In keeping with our tradition of giving gifts handmade by US, I wanted to take it a step further and patronize some talented artisans and shopkeepers that I have stumbled across over the last couple months. These next few posts will showcase some wonderful handcrafted or non-box store treasures!
The first is Lo's amazing birthday crown made by artist and author, Susanna Wallis of London. Susanna has been selling her crowns and wands since 2004. Her other talented work includes felt wall hangings, cards, collages, mosaics, restyled vintage treasures and more. Susanna has also authored the wonderful book , Beginners Guide to Needle Felting .

I first saw this crown on Waldorf Mama's site. It looked as though it was made of a fabric in a rainbow gradient and was I planning on attempting to make one like it for Lo's birthday. I think the birthday crown is a lovely tradition and Lo really enjoyed wearing one in her Waldorf class last year. When I followed the link to Susanna's Esty shop, I was delighted to find that her crowns are hand felted- with silk and merino fibers! This one was just so pretty that I went ahead and bought it! RunninL8 as usual, I ordered it alarmingly close to Lo's party and I was quite relieved when it arrived so promptly! And it was wrapped beautifully with a tiny flower and lavender sachet! As you can see in this detail photo,

Susanna has blended gleaming and enchantingly curly silk fibers in with the wool adding to the lovely texture. The crown holds it's shape very well when worn and is so light and warm to the touch.

I could have taken the pan to my head when I realized after the party as I was cleaning up that I had FORGOTTEN to give Lo the crown! Bang, Bang, Bang! I gasped and brought the little package out of the hiding spot in our bedroom and handed it to Lo. She unwrapped it and I explained that it was her special Birthday Girl crown. I apologized for forgetting about it and told her she could wear it for the rest of the day! Then I could have taken the pan to HER head! Let's just chalk it up to the after party let down and energy loss...she was thankful, but just not that into it! I couldn't believe it! She sighed and said it was a "kings" crown. My eyes rolled. You have to understand that we are going through quite the girly pink foo-foo phase HARDCORE right now! Went through this with Dea and we all survived.... Her indifference to the crown is in NO WAY a reflection on the craftwomanship of this gorgeous piece!!! It's just that my kid is stark ravin' mad.

I'll wear the fabulous thing!!!! I am, after all, QUEEN. But I think I may have to pick up Susanna's book and learn how to make a pretty flower to add on the crown to make it fairy princess worthy. ~Rolling my eyes again.

She's coming around! ;)

Got recommendations?!?

OK! Long flights in small seats! I'm looking for a kick-ass book or two to read! I'm not into formula Daniel Steel type stuff and prefer fiction right now, but non-fiction is ok, if it's engrossing. I'm looking for something that will grab me and suck me right in. I'm dying to devour a book again the way I did Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. It had everything. Astounding character build-up, erudition, humor, time paradox, politics, socio-cultural anthropology, archaeology and biological anthropology, religion, and sci-fi excitement.

Anyone have some great recommendations?!?!? If you haven't left a comment yet HERE, I'll add your name to the NYC schmunsky prize giveaway if you give a recommendation!

So here are the results of Sunday's labors:

Dollhouse #2!

My own design. I love the organicy-ness of it and there's plenty of room for many little hands. I made this for the Aurora Waldorf School's auction this weekend. The rest of Lo's class worked on birch bark furniture for it! We won't be there on Saturday and I can't wait to see pictures! Huz was a HUGE help handling the mathematic calculations, assembly, and such! He came up with the idea for a natural branch post.

Pumpkins!

Dea did an amazing job on her witch and Lo picked this interesting cat inside a ghost pattern. Yesterday I bought a Funkin and I have big plans for that thing.

And...Punkin seeds. They're just about gone now.

ooooooh! BAD KITTIES!!!

Bad, BAD kitties!
These two beautiful sweet kitties

are about to have their heads handed to them. Look at them! They know what they did...

I was cleaning up LO’s room and discovered that someone had decided to turn her basket of play silkies into a litter box. Nasty little poos and sprinklin’s of pee all over LO’s beloved silkies. So I throw them into a basin and drown them-No, NOT the cats, the silks-in anti cat pee juice and of course the colors start to bleed immediately even though I’ve washed them a million times. I quickly separate them out from each other. Not before they stained the washing machine though!!!

What’s IN those silks?!?!?! LO and I finished washing each separate one in the basin outside- OH YEAH!!!! IT’S 52 degrees and SUNNY out TODAY!!!!! SPRING DONE SPRUNG!!!!- and hung them on the line to dry. Some are fine and some are now friggin’ tie-dyed.
*sigh*
Well it’s my own damn fault. My least favorite chore? CAT CRAPPER. I thought, ”Oh, they’ll be fine until I can get a new box of litter in the morning.” Uh-duh. Poor innocent silkies. Besides sticks and rocks, play silks are the BEST child’s toy. Versatile, portable, totally open ended, comforting... play silks. Which leads to my reparation for my cat box irresponsibility. I shall share the love and pass on a great web site that sells raw white silkies on the SUPER CHEAP! DHARMA TRADING. I think you can get a silk for like $3 bucks. Just like Sarah’s silks. And it’s so fun to dye them with the kiddos. We’ve used natural dyes as well as kool-aide, to get those more “un-natural” colors.

May I also recommend NATURE’S MIRACLE ORANGE-OXY POWER JUST FOR CAT’S STAIN & STANK REMOVER. ;)

Cuz now our silks are fresh as a day in May....