mamaroots

it is thyme for another give-away

"Thyme" for the monthly give-away featuring Herbal Roots Zine- hope you enjoyed catnip in May!  I have to use dried catnip most of the time and Ms Escher Louise- resident loved feline will eat it all everytime I plant it!  

Here is your chance to win a copy of Herbal Roots for June featuring thyme- if you have enjoyed Herbal Roots Zine in the past you know all the great work and detail that Kristine puts into this each month.  A good resource to have for now and I often find myself referring to past issues.

If you would like a chance to win a copy, leave a comment between now and Thurs at midnight.  I will draw a winner and e-mail you a copy of the zine of Friday.  

Bonus entry points for following:

mamaroots on twitter

mamaroots on facebook

herbalroots zine of facebook

Good luck and for a chance to win on my wood critters- hope on over to Herbal Roots Zine for a chance to win a wood cat!

coming outside party

Not too much text to accompany what pictures say the best for the official "coming outside" party for the girls this weekend.  What can I say, we were pretty proud of them.  Cookies were eaten by us, clover and watermelon by them.  I am just loving looking out from the deck and looking down to see them.  Who knew that Urban Chicken farming could be so fun.  Any excuse for a little party really!  Now to track down the movie Chicken Run to watch!  

wow- is mom upside down

I am sure many of you who have grown your babies, birthed your babies, raised and or raised your babies are very much aware that WOW in MOM upside down.  So at the end of a pretty relaxing day and honestly pretty normal day complete with my monthly platelet donation in the morning, strawberry shortcake for breakfast (thank you boys), afternoon playdates for the boys and planting in the woods for mama, I was reminded and did my part to remind the boys that Wow- this is a pretty amazing trip we are on!

Sometimes I am wowed by the power of their temper fits, sometimes I am wowed by their intense energy, but always I am wowed by the chance to be their mom and learn from them as much as I hope they are learning from me.  Hoping yours was full of "wow" too!

redo shroom

I have been losing myself in the making of my own little spot of enchanted forest and glen.  I threw myself head strong into my woods that I have been working on for a couple years a few feet at a time.  This year I put on the boxing gloves on and with the help of friends with trailers and my devoted hubby and sons the remaining honeysuckle went down.  And don't you worry my honeysuckle friends waiting to show your ugly heads, I have an arsenal of my long handled loopers, my short feisty snippers, and sorry but yes also a single bottle of round up reserved just for you.  They are super handy in my outhouse garden shed- consider yourself warned!

So I have been enjoying creating beautiful little planting spaces and just starting to relax in the comfort of this little magical spot- heck it is not often you get this right in the central urban part of my town.  I realized I am pretty darn thankful for that.

I had seen several great options to make cutie pie outside furniture that looks mushrooms.  I was set on trying to find the right stool or other upcycled piece to use as a small table.  I could not find anything that would be right.  Then I realized it was right there all along.  An old rusted outside small table my husband had picked up a couple years ago and put in storage in case we need a project someday.  He often hates to see things go to the trash.

Bingo- perfect for a little shroom redo!  A bit of sand paper, rust stop spray paint, and there it is, the perfect addition to the woods- all for under $6!  I am pretty thrilled- I will have to look and see what else is hiding out underneath our deck that I might be able to redo!  

getting ready

The warmer days are coming and as we find our selves outside more on these midwest days I am starting to think about getting ready for the upcoming summer.  A couple of things that I glad to add to the mix this year is a soap I spied at the market the other day.  It is called Summer Soap by a a local Missouri soap company called Prairie Soap Company.  What caught my eye is that is has some essential oils that is undesirable to the local birds we call mosquitoes.  This year is already proving to be a blood loss year!  So I am excited to give this soap a try!  A good summer soap to have on hand too if you can find it is Jewel Weed soap- Jewel weed works great to fight off the affects of poison ivy- it just so happens to grow next to it usually in the wild!

I am working on my knitting still and am hoping to have a set of washclothes ready for my mama for mother's day shhhh!  I think she would like some of this soap too!

The other fun (I don't care how I look) item I found was an old vintage sun bonnet.  I have a hard time with hats because I wear my hair up in a bun often and they do not fit into hats easily- go ahead call me Laura Ingalls Wilder- at least my face and neck will be less red this year!

Now I am ready to tackle setting the foundation for my outhouse/garden shed, plant some more elderberry, and woodland spiderwort.  I am torn on what to plant in a little area next to the outhouse- tempted to do strawberries and rhubarb!  

Speaking of planting- the winner for the Herbal Roots Zine for May is lucky #4- Carol.  I will e-mail you the May issue tonight- enjoy.  You can still stop by Herbal Roots and buy a copy of this month's issue from Kristine- May is all about catnip.  I had bought some catnip to plant and did not get to it fast enough before my cat Escher found it first- nothing but dirt left!  

May Day

sweet little treats from a lovely May Day Fairy provided just a lovely opportunity to sit on the deck and have a fantastic treat of delicious muffins and smoothies!  Big thanks to the sweet mama behind the kindness and welcome May!

fevers

I have been seeing them around and about for a while and am starting to catch the vintage sheet fever. One of the fun parts of watching this emerge as a trend in the DIY craft world is recognizing some of the sheets from both my childhood home in the 70's and also from my grandma's house.  

I have a small stash that I got that are already washed and cut into fat quarters that I will be creating into mismatched party napkins.  But since I have been on the lookout for these in the thrift stores, I realized the pillowcases have a plethor of uses.  

My first "case" in point is from a little party I hosted yesterday for some work folks.  One of the gals is getting married and the vintage pillow case made an awesome gift bag!  I loved it and now she can either use it for gift bag themselves, store sweaters, or heck even a retro guest bedding!

Pretty sure Martha would be proud of this vintage upcycling moment.  Thus a new Pinterest board begged to be created!  

goodbye April giveaways

Silas said just the other day he is sad the April is saying goodbye!  Me too buddy!  But May is a pretty sweet month too!  Before we say goodbye to April it is time for a give-away.  It is time for herbal love from Kristine at Herbal Roots Zine.  Kristine generously offers one reader here a chance to get the next issue of this great zine for kids.  

Leave me a comment here between now and Thursday and you will entered for a chance to get the May issue delivered right to your e-mail.

Bonus entry points for following:

mamaroots facebook

mamaroots twitter

herbal roots zine facebook

Be sure to be watching for the little bluebird to be given away at the Herbal Roots Zine this week- good luck!

enough

So I have this addicting thing I like to watch . . .Hoarders.  I don't have cable but the magical world of the internet and mobile computers allows me the pleasures of such things as blogging from my bed right now, or sometimes watching this show via the Hoarders website.  It is a bit of a guilty pleasure I give myself on music lesson nights while the boys are bettering themselves with learning a bluegrass tune, I like to kill a few braincells and zone out.

I am not quite sure why I keep going back to it.  I think it is so interesting and to be honest I sometimes look around my own house and am like ughh- the piles and clutter etc . . . and then I watch an episode and then resolve to clean out a little something the next day!

So if there were a new picture book to go along with Hoarders, this would be it!  More by I. C. Springman caught my eye because of (can you guess) the marble!  It is a good book for kiddos to open up the conversation about how much is enough and excess.  Besides the brillant illustrations by Brian Lies, two things that I like about the book:  one is the friendship role of the mice to the magpie, second how there is a sparseness of text in contrast to the excess in objects.

It is a fun book that can be used for ISpy like exploration and inspiration to go outside and try and find some magpies to watch and observe.  Here is some more magpie info to explore if you want to read up on them.

Back to those marbles, I love that it is one of the first and last objects the magpie holds onto- smart birdie! You may notice the outhouse in the picture.  I could not resist showing you the first glimpse of my outhouse garden shed that my folks got me- I need to lay the foundation this weekend, but I am pretty excited!  Did you know that many highly collectable marbles have been found on old "privy" sites?  You know falling out of pockets and such.  I am thinking of adding a little secret stash of marbles in the outhouse for when little friends step inside because it is fun!  

Marbles are always treasures and worth holding onto!  And yes in case you noticed, that is a stained glass moon on the door- seriously could that be any cuter?  

simply April

It is usually the calm after the whirl of April birthdays that hit this week right before the whirl of an annual inventory at my day job at a local bookstore.  The word that I can describe Silas' birthday this week was "simple"

We started this little tradition a couple years ago on the day of their birthday we set up a little wood leaf/branch candle holder with a single candle.  I made a little "7" gnome, added some fresh from the oven breakfast muffins, and made a trail of 7 gold dollars out to the candle.  When he woke up he counted his way along the trail and then we sang happy birthday and he blew out the candle.  

My big ol 7 year old went onto school to share a snack of his choice with friends, while mama worked in the woods and did a little shopping and last minute making!  

I set up a little afterschool snack on the deck and then he played with brother while mama and daddy made his requested dinner: hamburgers, mac and cheese, sparkling lemonade, and ice cream cake!

 Of course presents were opened, and I do believe I had a mama genius moment of just using my stash of vintage linens and colorful yarn for wrapping.  Eco-friendly, lovely, and easy!  Hubby said he was sure Martha would be proud!

Pokemon fever hit our fella this year and it emerged just a bit this birthday with his custom mama made Pikachu candle holder, and a one of kind painting by brother and mama!  

Sigh . . .seems just like yesterday when I was slinging my baby and now he is slinging his "babies" he bought with his birthday money!  Cheers to all you Aries folks out there.  I will be back in full swing both on the blog and in the shop starting next week.

Congrats to Rain- you were my lucky winner #13 for the Root Children book.  I will be in contact to get your addy to mail it out to you!