Serendipity

Thanks to the generosity of a friend, and the newest treasure to be added to my insanity of crafting tools, I have been doing a lot of research on how to get started in the new-to-me art form of weaving. Along the way, I've found some amazing blogs, chat groups and other resources, not to mention some wonderfully patient people in some of my other crafting groups that have been great about answering questions and pointing me in the right directions for more information about my particular loom. I am still terribly overwhelmed but feel like I am at least moving in the right direction now! :) It's amazing how many weavers there are out there and like knitting, is not the dying art that I thought it was! It seems to me, you just have to know where to look! :)

While getting started in my search, I threw out the question to one of the Waldorf groups that I belong to and I asked if there were any weavers in the group. That thread led to a conversation with a gal (who I consider to be a lost long friend now, although we've never met yet!)  about how I got into spinning and how this loom came to be mine. She made a simple comment about wishing she'd be gifted a spinning wheel someday with an "lol" and the conversation went on its way about more fiber related topics. As soon as I saw her comment it was like there was a large floating light bulb hovering above my head and the electricity just made it's connection. If I had been a cartoon I imagine it would have been a comical moment! :) 

You see, I had bought some vintage books from this gal, and she had purchased some wood toys from me... and we had conversed about Waldorf groups in PA after she noticed my picture of downtown Pittsburgh thinking that I lived there too (I had taken it on a recent trip)... so I knew that she was from PA also so I took a stab in the dark and asked what part! The stars aligned and she was about 1 1/2 hours from my mom! Perfect! Again, a cartoon moment would have been a view inside my brain to see the gears turning and another light bulb moment! 

You see, a few years ago, when I decided I wanted to take the leap and get a spinning wheel, my mom was gifted one on my behalf from a friend of hers that had rescued a wheel from a dumpster! Gasp!!! I know, who could possibly do such a thing!!?! Right? Right about the same time, I happened on to mine and while I would have loved to have had the one from my mom, we live on opposite sides of the country! The shipping to get it here would have been more than I paid for mine here!

To make a long story short... I got my mom and my long lost friend in touch with each other via chats on Facebook, they were able to meet up half way and that poor neglected spinning wheel has finally found its way to its forever home!! This gal kept sending me emails of thanks and how excited she was but really I think I was just as excited as she was!! I have felt terrible that the wheel has been sitting in my mom's basement just taking up space but couldn't bring myself to have her get rid of it considering she didn't know anyone that would give it the love that it so truly deserved. So instead... it just sat... The thought that I could pay it forward the kindness and generosity that had been paid to me in the form of a weaving loom absolutely made my day!! 

A week or two later, while checking the mail, we received a mailer that I wasn't expecting... but I recognized the return address label to be from PA... now here's the freaky part...

Inside that mailer was the sweetest heartfelt thank you card and these two vintage books. She already knew of my love of vintage books but she had NO IDEA about my collection of Little Golden books or my youngest's obsession with Eloise Wilken (the artist in the book)... and there is no way of her knowing that we also collect the books in "The True Book" series! As I pulled the books out of the envelope, my two girls were clammering to get over the seats yelling "Let me smell them! Yes, I have done my job when they rate there books on whether or not they smell old!  lol When I told her about it she said that it was Seredipity (one of my favorite words!!) and that we were are kindred spirits... Funny how two people can connect and form a friendship with an entire country between us. 

As I read her reply about us being kindred spirits, it made me think of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables  

"Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world"

Life Lessons from Anne of Green Gables

It all started when... take 2!

I have felt so inspired to write as of late, but am having a hard time putting my thoughts and emotions into words. There just doesn't seem to be enough ways to convey what we have been experiencing lately and the joy and peace that seems to be coming with it. We have been so ingrained to believe that bigger is always better and if you find something great then buy three of them! lol Isn't that pretty much what the world would have you believe? Since moving to this little old house, we have found that bigger isn't always better. I can literally FEEL the difference this place has made in me. Not only have we lost weight (about 20 lbs each! Kids not included), but we have felt a slow down in our outlooks, and a re-purposed view on how we do things.

 If you have been following me for very long, you know that I come from a long line of "makers".I am a firm believer that there is a turning point for us all at some time when the stars align and we actually start listening to the little signs and pathways that God puts before us... one of those "it all started when" moments... Well, I am not sure where this path is going to lead me but I am definitely feeling one of those redirecting "it all started when" moments happening to me right now and I am excited to see where it will go! :) It has been a few years now since I got my spinning wheel in a thrift store and unfortunately I haven't been able to devote as much time to it as I would have liked. You know with the kids, and animals and homeschooling... not to mention the puppet making, gardening and moving... there's not always enough time to go around! But, recently, I've been taking the time for myself (although I will admit it feels selfish) and getting back to the knitting and spinning that I enjoy so much.



A few months ago, we started going to a new church closer to our new house. We have met some of the most amazing people since going there and one of them I am finding has quite a bit in common with me and my crafting obsessions! :0) Well, to make a long story short, she had this loom that she was looking to get rid of and asked if I would like to have it. It took everything in my being not to just jump at the opportunity to get yet another creative tool but I did take my time before saying yes. I began researching it and talked it over with hubby and was still on the fence about it. I am no where near ready to be some master weaver, and I know that this loom will probably sit here for quite awhile before I give it the attention that it surely deserves but how do you turn down a once in a lifetime chance to have a loom like this!?

Considering the lifestyle we are trying to attain and the farming things we are learning and experiencing, I thought it was time for us to read the next book in the Little House series "Farmer Boy". I think it was within a day or so of getting the new/old loom that we started reading it and I was just giddy over the descriptions we were reading about how his Ma would spin the wool and then weave it into fabric to make their clothes. I know I read these books years ago but I am loving the details that it goes into about dying the wool and how soft and warm his clothes were. There was an appreciation for what his mother did for him... something you can't get off a $.99 rack at Walmart. It was such a delight to turn the page and find this drawing...

That will be me someday... :)

Knocking at my door

My arms were full of firewood and I came back to the open door to find these curious feathered friends! :)

Ah the life of free range chickens and turkey! :)

A new way of looking at life...

I didn't mean to let so much time go by... I didn't intend on leaving this space so abruptly...but you see, when you find the secret of life you have to just go with it and not worry about blogging, or facebooking or even take the time to keep up on laundry! When God gives you a place to be and grow and learn you just have to jump in with both feet!

It's been almost 9 months to the day that we got the call that we were moving, and then just a week or so later we were up over our heads in the moving and packing process. Life was such a whirl wind that we didn't have time to really think, rest or even take a deep breath really....it was just putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to trip along the way! It's pretty much been that way ever since! It's been nine months of hard work, hauling dirt, hauling wood chips, hauling rocks (do you see a pattern here?lol). Months of mending chicken coops, building new ones, caring for the animals we moved and the animals we have since adopted and rescued. It's been months of playing catch up with what we had hoped to accomplish in a garden. Planting, and watering and experimenting with new things. Now in the winter months, it means putting plastic covers over garden beds and researching new ways of feeding our outside animals. Months of feeling tired... in a good way... because of the goodness we are accomplishing and because of the constant blessings we are feeling. When we take the time to sit down and compare notes, hubby and I are both just feeling so blessed and renewed in this place that we are dwelling.

How can one not feel blessed to wake up to this view?

We are feeling like there has been a turn in our lives that can only be described as finding the secret of life...

For some time now, we have been inching towards a more sustainable lifestyle... It's no secret that I hate what our food industry has become and want to be no part of it (or at least to the best of our ability!) To feel the way I do about how our food is produced (how the animals are treated and cared for) and the un-needed things that are being done to the plants (GMOs) means making a change. Not a little change but a huge life altering change on a daily basis. It means watching labels and researching our food more closely but it also means that we must start producing more of it on our own. My generation was not brought up to think about where our food comes from, if anything we have been taught that it's out of sight out of mind. And for some that is ok. I truly wish that I could be that way sometimes but once I learn something it's stuck in my head and I can't go back!

It has been over the last few months that we as a family have been really taking a look at our lifestyle, and focusing on where we want to eventually be. We are finding that hard work is actually fun and that we don't need a lot of what we as a society have been taught to think we do. We are learning what it feels like to accomplish something we didn't think we could do ( like stacking a whole cord of wood- just me and my two littles). It is with this life change that we are going back in time if you will. Listening closer to the stories of family/church members who grew up on farms, and reading everything on the subject that I can get my hands on. It has even come down to changing the way we look at our entertainment options. The two favorites in our household right now are Alaska:The Last Frontier and of all things, The Waltons. Hubby and I have a running joke. When we are out working or trying to figure out a new project we just ask the other WWWD? What Would the Waltons Do? lol When he first said it, it made me laugh but now I find myself having that question in the back of my mind more and more... so I think that's what I'll title my posts that are homestead related. It really is a compliment to that show and not so much of a joke. When you actually watch the show, there are a lot of life lessons that could be learned by watching it, and for us it is just a really good reminded of what life is like in a simpler time and what it could be again if only there could be a massive shift in society and a change in the way we all view success...