And the winner is....!

The Random Number Generator says it was: 1 out of 40


So the winner is...

Julie who commented: " I would love to have a rainbow streamer for my girls!"

See it does pay to comment first!  I always wondered about the odds, but Julie proved me wrong.

 Julie, I will shoot you an email later today to get your address and final selection :) 

Thank you everyone who entered and hello to all our new followers! Hopefully I can keep "sharing the love" by hosting a giveaway monthly. 

If you're interested in sponsoring one, please email me at: nicoleandcraigkleemann@gmail.com 

Have a great day and check back later for a blog about our fun weekend trip to Wintergreen and Shrove Tuesday! 

Sharing the Love: Our First Giveaway to Sarah's Silks

Comments are closed and winner has been chosen by the all powerful Random Number Generator. Thank you to all who entered and all the new followers we have! 

I recently won an extremely generous and lovely giveaway from my favorite silk toy company: Sarah's Silks.  Since the beginning of our Waldorf journey, about a year and a half ago, Sarah's Silks has been a staple in educating us about the importance of free play with open-ended natural toys through their blog , as well as providing my family with fair-trade high quality silk toys. 

After dyeing some of our own play silks at home, we took the plunge and bought our first silk toy, a rainbow streamer from them. The amount of play this one toys has participated in during the past 18 months astonishes me. It has been a fairy magic wand, a tightrope for gnomes, a party banner, a doctor's boo-boo healer, a fishing pole, and pony rein... and the list goes on. 

Since then we've added on a few more streamers, magical pet wands, mini-playsilks, large playsilks, silks capes, and costumes from Sarah's. I continue to be amazed by their quality as well as my kids' love something that seems so simple, yet that is so beautiful and full of possibilities for them. 

So now on to the giveaway. I'd like to share the love a bit too, since as my friend Emily pointed out, I have been winning a lot of giveaways recently!!

Therefore, I am giving one Playsilk (color of your choice) or one Silk Streamer (color or your choice) to the winner. 

Shipping is included and I will ship internationally. 

How to Enter: 

1. Go to Sarah's shop and then leave a comment on my blog letting me know what kind of playsilk or streamer you will want to have if you win. 

For extra entries (you must comment each time you do one of these): 

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment letting me you have (if you already follow me, then just let me know as well in a new comment) .

2. Share this giveaway on Facebook

3. Share this giveaway on Twitter

4. Mention this giveaway somewhere on your own blog

I will pick a winner using the random number generator next Thursday morning here in this post! Make sure you check back so we can get in touch! 

Good luck and don't forget to share the love with those around you :) 

http://sarahssilks.com/

Real Snow and a little Valentines

A view of our school room, Seasonal tree, and the gifts the kid's received today.  

Finally it seems winter is here... or was at least! We had a lovely little dusting this past Saturday (the same day as my son's 2nd birthday party).  Altogether that makes for a great day. Especially since, two years ago, it snowed on the day he was born too. What sweet memories that snow brought back to me. Plus we got to play in the snow before it melted away on Sunday. It was bliss for my kids! 

I will post later on more about Jonas' actual party and why we choose to do parties. When each birthday and holiday pops up I find myself reflecting of our Waldorf journey a bit more than usual, mainly due to the gifts and materialism issue. This time around all of that went well and I'd eventually like to share about that. Thank you for your wishes also. Jonas felt quite loved in blogland! 

Today was also Valentines day here for us. I find it very funny that my daughter and my son (and this baby) are all/will be born quite close to big holiday (Christmas, Valentines, and possibly Easter respectively).- but I digress. Our little family tradition is giving some small presents right when the kids wake up. They always have been a book and little toy. This year both kids got a book and a silk toy. Then we go somewhere fun together and make a special dinner. Crafts are usually involved, but today we did not craft any since we will be having a nice big co-op Valentine's day party later this week. I also made gnomes for all the kids, so I held off on giving my kids their gnomes until then. I also plan of wet felting hearts with the kids that day- oh I am just so excited! I also am excited about exploring with them who Saint Valentine really was as well as a better idea of what this extremely commercial holiday is truly about. 

Today was overall a pretty good day. My son was pretty fussy, much more than usual, so just my daughter and I went out at lunch time to a frozen yogurt place. While Jonas and Daddy played outside and hunted for worms to put in our compost. 

DD and I had a sweet Mommy-Daughter time together. She, in her 4 year old wisdom, opened up to me about how her friend just got her ears pierced and she liked it. I was really happy with how the conversation went, I asked lots of questions and listened a lot. Then, by herself, Deirdre concluded that she doesn't need her ears pierced yet and that she wants to talk about it again when she is 10. I thought that was a great idea. 

So I hope you all had a sweet and relaxing Valentine's day with your little sweeties! I can't wait to see all the fun crafting we all will be up to this week! 

Always, Nicole 

Play Silks and Magic

Tonight was a special night of crafting and mothering. I just love to create for my children and especially to create with them. Throughout my day, my younger son demands more of my immediate attention than my older daughter Deirdre. While my daughter is not neglected by any means, it is hard to truly connect with her when Jonas is trying to kill himself by finding and attempting to eat a peach pit. Hello gray hairs! (BTW where the phantom peach pit came from BEATS ME!) 


So during the times when it is just Deirdre and I, everything else can wait- and does. I try to plan a fun craft before bed every night even if it is just painting with her. I can then devote myself fully to her and its just lovely. Tonight was one of the nights again.


I few weeks ago I got the crazy idea to make my own play silks for the kids. Play silks are the quintessential Waldorf play toy, next to the play stand. The silks are 100% silk- as sticking with all natural materials, and they're dyed various colors. What is so great about these silks is that they're an open ended toy. They can serve multiple purposes and can be played with in a hundred different ways. From princess dresses to a meadows and oceans- they seriously are fabulous toys, especially for how simple they are. 


You can buy playsilks online for about $14 each. I however cannot bring myself to pay that much for just one!  After searching online and in fabric stores for silk, I found a site that sells them almost wholesale to you, precut and hemmed! Plus they are a very eco-friendly company that has great corporate responsible when it comes to their workers and their carbon footprint. So I ordered 5 35x35 habotai silk scarves form them for $20 plus shipping. (If I had gotten premade plays silks I would have spent close to $70). 


And tonight Deirdre and I dyed them together as our special craft time. She LOVED this craft and was able to help me measure the vinegar and pour in the dye. She learned more about her colors and mixing them, not to mention we truly connected. 


Afterwards, she immediately began playing with them and had her gnomes cross her leg bridge over the raspberry river into the purple mountains. It was so worth it! 

Bonne Nuit! 

~ Nicole