Have you seen this?

Once in a while, I check out Amazon.co.uk to check out the bestselling British knitting and crafting books. Almost exclusively, they are completely different than the popular books in the USA. Knitters we all are on both sides of the pond. But our tastes in books really do differ.

I just saw that the #1 book in the Knitting category in the UK is called Wild Tea Cosies. I think it's going to be a very long time until a book on tea cosies hits the top 25 in the States. But maybe I'm wrong? At any rate, check out the author's blog called The Grand Purl Baa which is quite fun.

Are you ready to knit a tea cosy? I love them myself. Have knit many in my day. Would love to hear your thoughts. Have a nice weekend. Sorry no pictures today.

Merry Christmas To All!

Something Out of Nothing

I love when I can dream up an idea that doesn't cost much money but is fun to make. For the past few years, I've been making Christmas decorations out of nothing. Well not exactly nothing - I usually stock up on glitter and Elmer's glue and find everything else around the house or outside in the woods. Every year when we bring the handmade decorations out, it reminds me of the time spent making it, the incredible mess on the kitchen table that stays for days, and the glitter that remains forever! Last year's Holiday Birch House project was lots of fun. My friends and I got together the other day during the snowstorm to make some more.

This year, I made these sheep for our holiday display. I used toilet paper rolls, newspaper, an egg carton, paper mache paste (made out of 1 part flour to 2 parts water), cardboard, lichen I found in the woods, pine cones, branches, Elmer's glue, and crystal glitter. Maybe next year I'll do a tutorial on them if the cats don't destroy them first. (FYI - cats and kittens love destroying anything with lichen on it!)

The Very Merriest Christmas 2008 to you and yours.

Winter White and a Winner

We're in the midst of a blizzard here - or so they say. It sure is coming down hard and looks beautiful. It's a good afternoon to stay inside and make some Christmas cookies. Maybe have some hot chocolate or a cup of tea.

After a quick trip to the grocery store for provisions, I stopped by the sunflower field to see what it looked like. The field was full of birds looking for the remnants of last summer's flowers. Brave and hardy little birdies.

The sheep are ready for the storm. They've got nice warm coats on. Most of them will just lie down in one little spot until the storm stops. They'll be covered with snow for sure. Then they will stand up, shake it off, never the worse for wear.


I have been meaning to mention that it has been over a week since we lost any animals to the coyotes. Keep your fingers crossed. Some of the ewes are starting to look a bit pregnant so it shouldn't be long before our first new lamb is born. You know what that means - I'll be plenty busy with my camera!

Thanks to all who entered the embroidery giveaway. The winner this week is Nessa. Please contact me as soon as possible with your mailing address and I will get the box of embroidery goodies out to you.

I loved reading all the comments about when and how you learned embroidery. It seems there are lots of stitchers out there who are eager to refresh their skills or just plain ready to learn anew. It's a great thing to learn around the holidays when you may have some time off from work.

Enjoy the pre-holiday festivities and snow if you are having it where you live!

Ice Storm Microcosm

Last spring, I showed you the blueberry field across town up on East Hill. Our friends and fellow farmers were burning the field so that this coming summer, there will be lots of berries. Here's what it looked like at sunrise the other day.


I tramped around looking at all the little bits of nature swathed in ice. Stunning - I was bowled over. I bent down and set the camera on super-macro. Here's what it was seeing.


I use this plant which I call Princess Pine for my winter wreaths when I can find it. A bit too covered up to take it that day.


I love this one - the icy globs around the little buds with the blue sky bleeding through the ice are a world unto their own. The sparkling, diamond-like background of all the other little ice sculptures gives a lavender haze.

My friend Yola Shashaty is a painter who lives in NYC. Everywhere I looked, the natural ice sculptures reminded me of her organic paintings. I must burn her a CD and send it for a Christmas gift. I wonder what she would paint if she were there stomping around with me.

Another Great Pre-Holiday Giveaway!

I'm suspecting most of you that read this blog came here because you knit. I guess I could be wrong - but I'll never know, will I?

When I was a kid, my mother taught me how to embroider. My sisters and I spent hours stitching up kits she would buy for us at the local needlework store. I became so enamoured with embroidery - especially crewelwork - that it became one of my favorite hobbies.


A while back, my mother found this quilt in her attic that I made back then. Those were the days of the hey day of Holly Hobbie and the Bicentennial. Mom brought it the last time she came to visit. Wow - the memories came rushing back. All those hours watching the NY Mets ball games stitching! I had a lot of good friends who also liked to sew, embroider, and quilt and we spent so many happy hours gossiping and sewing. We certainly weren't the most popular girls in the school but that didn't matter to us. We had our own kind of fun.

It was those fond memories that prompted me to write Kids' Embroidery. It was published in 2004 by STC Craft and became part of their children's craft series (the other kids craft books are about crochet and weaving). I wanted to write a book that would pass on the craft of embroidery to children living in the 21st century. I loved writing it so much - figuring out the projects that kids would like to make. During the summer of 2002, I taught a bunch of boys and girls in my town how to stitch at the local library. We did both needlepoint and embroidery. It was wonderful to see how each child learned, what projects they liked, and how much age really had nothing to do with each kids' skills. Some kids caught on fast, others slow, and some just didn't catch on at all. Later, some of those kids posed for photos in the book.

I had such fun with Kids' Embroidery that I decided to write a second stitching book called Colorful Stitchery. I conceptualized this book as stitching book for modern do-it-yourselfers who perhaps hadn't learned how to stitch when they were kids. It features 65 creative and colorful projects for the home. I had such a blast coming up with ideas and stitching them. The photography for Colorful Stitchery was done here in my home. My hand-painted walls were a perfect backdrop for all the handstitched pillows, blankets, and kitchen goods.

This week's Giveaway is a goodie. We'll see how many of you knitters sign up to win this one!

I'm giving away a copy of both Kids' Embroidery and Colorful Stitchery to one lucky person. I'll also enclose some cotton embroidery floss and crewel wool. There will also be a selection of dish towels, felt, and fabric to stitch on, some needles, and plastic needlepoint canvas. It's enough to get you and your son or daughter, grandkids, or little friends going on learning how to stitch. What a nice thing to do over the Christmas/New Year's vacation.

I'm also including a set of my floral still life and sunflower postcards to serve as inspiration for the lucky winner's embroidery designs.


Good luck! The winner again will be drawn on Friday at noon. To enter, leave a note in the comments section. If you have a moment, let me know if you already know how to embroider or if you are a newbie eager to learn.

Let us pray for peace in the New Year!

More Beauty from the Ice Storm

On Saturday night, my mind was going crazy from all the beauty I saw. I couldn’t sleep. The moon was full and bright. Visions of what I might see were before me. I decided to get up before dawn and stomp around the hills. I wanted to see what the beautiful icy vistas would like at sunrise. I left in the dark. I drove up our hill and then down and around our road. Around the big bend, here is the scene at dawn. The blueness of the light was amazing.

Across the road, there is a stately apple tree that our sheep have spent many an afternoon under hiding from the sun.

Up the road on East Hill, the sun was beginning to come up from behind the horizon.

It was 15 degrees and every little stalk of grass was covered with a thick coating of ice.

I was the only one around - I still can't believe my fortune to have been there to see all this beauty.

On that side of town, everyone was hunkered down, trying to keep warm in their cold houses. People here are used to this kind of thing. Almost everyone has a wood stove so keeping warm isn't a problem. Cooking - just stick it in a cast iron pot on top of the stove. Let it simmer and supper will be done in about three hours. Country people have had to be resourceful before and they know how to survive without power for days - even if it isn't pleasant.

The sun started to rise higher in the sky and the light began to change.

These photos look so peaceful. Once I got used to the terrain and ice and taking care not to slip and hurt myself, I started to listen. I heard the ice falling as the wind rustled the trees - it was a a lovely tinkling sound. I had a brief moment when I wished I was a sound person with a tape recorder. As the folks started to wake up, I started to hear other noises - they weren't as pretty as tinkling ice. They were the roar of generators and chain saws. No more peace, but still alot of beauty.


By the time I left at 9:00 a.m., the sun was high in the sky. The road looked like this. I was pretty frozen but satisfied with myself for getting up so early on a Sunday. Thank goodness for wool socks, coat, hat, scarf, and mittens.

The Ice Storm Cometh

Last week, there was a big storm. Lots of rain, slush, sleet and ice. So much water that there is no place for it all to go. We’re okay. We didn’t lose power for long although most of our neighbors still don’t have it. They say it will be several days until power will be restored to many people.

Our farmhouse is lower than where the ice was and still is. The Farmer was able to get to the sheep to feed them although he had to go the long way around the mountain to get to them. When he did get to the sheep, they were really wet but there was no ice at all. They were happy to get some new hay. Thank goodness for those wooly coats.

Julia and I stayed off the road for two days. Can’t remember a time I last did that. When I did venture out on Saturday, I couldn’t believe the Winter Wonderland at the top of our hill. Our farmhouse is rather tucked away down in a hollow a little ways down the hill. The ice storm around here was elevation oriented this storm was. Just up the road it looks like this.

On Saturday afternoon, Julia and I drove further up the hills. The ice and the light were so incredibly beautiful. The trees were covered with thick layers of ice - sparkling like diamonds.

The sun started to get lower in the sky but we kept climbing higher. At a field across town I found these beautiful ice sculptures. I was beside myself. How could a storm that did so much damage to so many trees also create such beautiful sculpture? Wow.

After the sun went down, I stayed out a little longer. I wondered what it all would look like at night. Still pretty in the the headlights of my car. I couldn't help but think of all the wild animals out there, trying to find shelter during the storm. Where do they go to stay safe?

As we all know, nature is bigger than all of us.

And the Sock Yarn Winner is.....

We've had a huge ice storm here for the past two days. There are many families without power and many roads are blocked with fallen trees. The Farmer was able to get to the sheep to feed them this morning but it was rather round about. It looks like a Winter Wonderland. All the kids have had two days off of school which is making for a nice four day weekend for them!

The sun just came out and the ice looks so beautiful sparkling in the sun. Luckily, no trees lost limbs near our house. We're going to sit tight here until things get back to normal.

Julia picked the lucky winner for my Giveaway. Congratulations to Belle! Please get back to me with your shipping address and I'll send the sock yarn and cards out when I can get down the hill to the post office.

Thanks so much to all of you who entered. Boy you sock knitters are amazing! You out numbered the baby knitting folks from the contest last week by gobs. Check back in next Tuesday for a new Holiday Giveaway! I'm wondering what that will be too?

Now I'm Humbled.....

Sometimes I write my blog posts a day or two ahead, then schedule them for appearing on my blog. Depending on what is going on in my life, it makes this blog easier and usually what I write isn’t relevant if it is posted a day or two after.

So, here I am looking the slight fool… I’m thanking you all a day late for all the kind comments about my experience with Julia, her teachers, and her clothing. It was heartening to hear that many of you had had similar experiences when you too were raising your children. I really appreciate all the varying points of view. As The Farmer and I were reading them, we couldn’t help but marvel at how this blog has traveled to so many different parts of the world and so many people. (Just so you know, I have to print out all those comments for The Farmer to read because he won't sit down in front of the computer - if it's not on paper, it doesn't really exist in his world.) Thank you all.

We had an icy, sleety dangerous driving day yesterday and so no school for Julia. There went my plans for lots of pattern writing and tweaking. I do always love a snow day – as much now as I did when I was a kid. For me, I get to spend the whole day with Julia doing what we can agree upon together or separately. I worked on a knitting project that I hope to let you in on next week. Julia worked on her movie - her script, letters of permission for her co-stars, medical waiver forms, casting and manager letters for her co-stars and call sheets. She might have some developmental and learning problems that the we and her school worry about but somewhere down there inside of her, stuff is starting to click. She typed on my laptop for a seriously long time.


In case you haven’t heard, the American public is going to be seeing lots of yellow real soon. Me, I love yellow – it speaks sunflowers all over the place. In my last house, I had a beautifully sunny bright yellow kitchen. For those of you who are color-shy, never fear. You don't need to use a lot of yellow - just a little goes a long way. It is happy and fresh and vibrant. By February, we're all going to be craving some yellow! Guess those color forecasting trends are just catching up to us here on our little farm. And it just so happens, I've added a fabulous sunflower yellow color to the Julia Yarn Line for next fall.

Noon today, I’ll be drawing the winner of the sock yarn giveaway. Check back in then.

I'm Overwhelmed.....

I want to thank everyone for entering the Sock Yarn Giveaway. There's still time if you haven't -- until noon Friday. I also want to thank some bloggers for recent links and welcome some new readers. Thanks to Tip-Nut, Domestik Goddess, CraftStylish, and the lovely Susan B. Anderson (who continually sends readers here!). I'm not a big blog reader (dial-up) so I wasn't even aware of the first three blogs. Wow - what wonderful resources.

I write this blog by myself - I never know if what I am writing is resonating with anyone. Comments are few and far between - it's like I am writing in a vacuum or something. That's okay with me - I'm making it my own bit of entertainment. Blogging is cheap and as long as it doesn't cut too much into my work, it's a good thing. "Getting Stitched on the Farm" has been fun for my family to see our farm life documented. Looking back, year after year, season after season - seeing the colors in the photos change - and sharing what we do is valuable to us. But let me say, after reading all of your comments yesterday and today, I feel certain that it is also valuable to others.

My family and I thank you all for all the well wishes about Cora. She was killed a few weeks ago and so I have made my peace with it. I waited to tell Julia about Cora to be absolutely sure it was her that was the pile of black fleece I found on the ground. I so wanted it to be a different, nameless black sheep - not quirky Cora.


Living on a farm makes me so aware of nature. I really relish it. I look forward to the changing seasons - from the ice and snow and cold sub-zero temperatures of winter... to the brown overtones of everything during mud season in March and April.... to the fresh chartreuses of spring leaves budding on the trees in May... to the planting of the sunflower seeds and garden vegetables in early summer.... all the way through the harvest of our fruits and vegetables and the incredible autumn oranges, golds, reds, and browns.

Farming is full of successes and failures -- most have nothing to do with our human doings. We can coax nature along by tilling the earth, by planting different varieties of plants and flowers, by weeding and composting, by buying a certain ram and keeping the ewes healthy and well fed - not too fat, not too thin - so that they can be bred and produce our lamb crop. We can read all the farming books we want, do everything just so.... but nature always intervenes.

That is just one of the lessons I have learned living here on this farm. Nature is bigger than anyone or thing. Those darn coyotes are just a part of the natural ecosystem that is this place. They are one of the nuisances that we have to put up with and deal with. They are just one part of farm life that continues to be a challenge. Every year, The Farmer and I learn so many new things. We've had our sheep for almost thirty years now. You would think that we have seen it all. But we haven't. There's always a new disease to try to figure out. Like the lamb that went blind this summer - we had never seen that before. But we learned that it was a mineral deficiency she had - only too late to treat her. There's always a new farming idea to try. And always, the coyotes are there - they don't go away. You just have to try to live with them even if it isn't easy nor pleasant.

This has been a good week here on the farm. Julia learned a little more about life and death although it wasn't an easy lesson for her. On Tuesday she reminded her dad, The Farmer, that in deed it was Tuesday. She wanted to make sure he knew it was Tuesday -- because Tuesday is auction day. "Daddy, you should go and buy me a new lamb." I thought this was quite bright of her. Who knew she has actually been paying attention to Tuesday being auction day?

We didn't go and buy her a new lamb. We told her that she would have to wait until January when we were sure we would have a new bottle lamb for her to care for.

If you have time or the interest, you might want to scroll down through the comments section of the Sock Yarn Giveaway post. The notes are lovely. Especially sweet and super clever is the comment by Rane and her four kids and husband (1:00 a.m.). They sent us a hilarious and clever list of ideas for coyote protection. Read it if you can.

Thank you all. Sock yarn winner tomorrow afternoon, I promise.

The Suburbs are Coming...

....Oh no - wait a minute - they're here.

I had my monthly meeting with Julia’s IEP team last week. (An IEP is an Individual Education Plan for children with disabilities). In case you aren’t aware, Julia has a medical condition called hydrocephalus often commonly known as “water on the brain.” She functions quite normally but has many learning complications that our public school system is trying to help her with. Everyone is very happy with how she is progressing, most of all her Mom and Dad.

But last week, her team suggested that Julia’s wardrobe were more like the rest of the kids...... That she wears jeans instead of the comfy, warm knit pants that she likes and can easily get up and down independently in the bathroom...... That she wears cotton sweatshirts instead of the handknit and wool sweaters she wears for warmth and because she likes them...... That she have her hair in pigtails instead of down straight. I’m still trying to digest all of this advice. I know that the teachers only want her to fit in – to be just like everyone else.

Frankly, I am quite astounded that they find Julia’s clothes to be a problem. She's ten for goodness sake. She is in fourth grade - she's not in middle school. For me, this was a sad statement about how “same same” America seems to be – even here in the supposed countryside where you would think people would be more willing to accept different kinds of people. I went to school for textiles and clothing and took several classes about the psychological and social implications of what one wears. I've heard it all and I guess I'm just not willing to cave in to what most people think you be doing. When Julia is ready to want to try to fit in, she'll figure it out for herself.

Julia is a quirky little, fun kid. Yes, she's a bit odd and maybe her disability sets her apart. But as Mum (my mom) says, Julia would be odd and quirky even if she didn't have hydrocephalus. She just is. And then there's her mom (that would be me writing this) and dad (The Farmer) -- they aren't exactly "fit into the mold" types either - never have been, never will be. We're odd too. And we found each other and we like our quirky ways. We're not a family like everyone else - nor do we want to be. Every family has their kinks and quirks - some just a little different than others. That's what makes life interesting - differences.

I’m finding that the longer I live here in what most people consider the country, the more it is the same as everywhere else in America. We are one of a handful of families in town who raise livestock. There is one surviving dairy farm and our sheep farm that are what I consider real livestock operations (both The Farmer and I do other things to make money besides our farm). There is a handful of old-time farmers still going strong - practicing the old country ways - but many of them have gotten rid of their livestock. The other people who live here all commute to other towns to work. Most of them have all moved here from somewhere else and have brought their American suburban expectations with them.

I find this frightening. I was at the school the other day and another mother asked me if our sheep had ever been attacked by a coyote. She didn’t think it was possible. I just looked at her in disbelief that anyone could be so ignorant. Was she living in the same town as me? How could anyone live in the middle of woods and farmland not know about the all the stuff that happens within the natural ecosystem? How could she not know that those howling animals out there in her backyard need to eat? What do these people think they eat? Canned dog food. Oh my goodness. I left shaking my head in disbelief.....

There’s a national magazine called Real Simple. It is full of pretty pictures – just the pictures that I should like - me being the visual person I am. I subscribed to it the first year it came out. I found it the silliest, most irrelevant publication for my life. Honestly – a whole article devoted to keychains and which is the best one to buy. Tell me, how is that simple? What’s the matter with a free key ring.

Our life here is not simple. Everything is complicated. Walking out the door going to the car, it’s a challenge to get there without being spattered with mud. Just the daily chores and expense of the farm animals is enough to make my head spin. But we choose to live this way. I cook from scratch, mostly. I haven’t made a cake mix since I was a kid. I have never bought a pre-cut butternut squash or cabbage in my life. And thank goodness, I found a magazine I really had no need for, given my magazine fetish.

I like my life this way. Don’t ask me to change. Don’t ask me to put my kids hair in pigtails. Don’t ask me to move the pile of mulch because you don’t like where it got dumped. Honestly, just leave us alone to do our own thing. That’s why we live here, practicing our country ways, whether they like it or not.

Pre-Holiday Sock Yarn Giveaway

Last month, I did a presentation on Opening Day at Stitches East - the giant knitting convention run by the wonderful folks at XRX, publishers of Knitters Magazine. I was asked, along with four other designers, to present new ideas for sock yarn - as long as the finished project was not a sock. The editorial team at Knitters chose one of my three ideas. I worked up the project and presented it to the group. The finished project will be featured in the Spring issue of Knitters Magazine.

To get my design process going, I was sent a box of yarn - full of lovely colors of sock yarn. It was a generous sampling of different fibers and textures. I used what I needed to get my swatching and project complete. And so now, I would love to pass on the lovely yarns that I didn't use to a sock knitter out there in the knitting blogosphere. The collection includes yarn from Mountain Colors, Cherry Tree Hill Farm, Wisdom Yarns, SWTC, Austermann, Schoeller-Stahl, and Regia. All of these companies are sponsors of Knitters' Magazine's Think Outside the Sox Contest.

Along with the sock yarns, the lucky winner will get a set of twelve of my Sock Postcards to enjoy. The deadline is, like last week, noon on Friday. Please, only U.S. and Canadian addresses only. To enter, just sign in in the comment section of this post. I will contact the winner on Friday afternoon and you'll have until Monday to respond. I'll also announce the winner on the blog this Friday afternoon. If you don't have a blogger account, check back in with me.


Spread the word - the more the merrier. What could be better - sock yarn for post-holiday knitting and sock cards for post-holiday thank you notes. As for me? I'm wondering if there will be more sock knitters entering than last week's Baby Knitting Giveaway. Enjoy your day.

Tumultuous Times with Winter Arriving

Two degrees - that's what the thermometer said this morning. Winter really has arrived with a cold blast. So far just a dusting of snow here but some nice snow promised later this week. The sheep are now getting used to eating hay instead of nice green grass. The first few days, they aren't too keen on it but then their appetite gets the better of them and they all look forward to feeding time. The photo below shows The Farmer's Brother's hay, lined up neatly along his view at the top of his world - just waiting to be fed to his dairy cows.


We’ve had a few tumultuous weeks here on the farm. Last week, it felt like the world was falling in on me and my little family. I don’t want to share all the dirty details of it all – let’s just say the low-lights have been eight sheep being eaten by the coyotes, six sheep attacked and almost killed (let’s hope they get better). Everyday, we wake up and wonder what will happen next – how many animals will be injured, or worse yet dead. You don’t know how bad The Farmer and his wife (that would be me) feel upon checking your animals in the morning and find bloody animals or worse yet, a freshly killed 200 lb pregnant ewe with their stomach ripped out.

In the winter, our sheep live around the mountain from our farmhouse. We have a large greenhouse barn that has worked out really great for almost 20 years. But our house isn’t there and that means that noone is available to go out in the middle of the night to check on the sheep and the predator situation.

Eeyore the Donkey seemed to be doing his job for the first few days he was living at our winter sheep barn with the entire flock of sheep. (Jeremy our guard llama doesn’t seem to scare anything away anymore – the coyotes must be on to him.) Regular readers of this blog may remember a few weeks ago I spoke of seeing a pack of five coyotes about a mile up the road from the sheep. I was speaking with a wild life biologist yesterday and he said those five romping coyotes were probably a mom and her now full grown pups. I knew we would be hearing from those coyotes after I saw them. My heart sank when I saw how healthy and lively they were even though I also thought it was quite cool to see wild animals like that in broad daylight.

Everyday The Farmer put a new plan into effect to protect the sheep from the coyotes but as one sheep farmer friend said to him once – “No matter what you do, the coyotes will get in. They will find a way.” You would think five strands of high tensile fence with a charge that has knocked me on my butt backed up by hot electronet fence would deter them but I guess not. He just keeps trying.

For all of you who might want to suggest a guard dog or two -- yes, we have thought about them for years. Since we don’t live where the sheep are, The Farmer is too fearful of what those dogs would do to passersby. He feels it is too risky. We’re hoping to have the situation more under control by lambing season which starts in about 3 weeks. But as everyone knows, there really is no controlling “Mother Nature.” We just have to co-exist.

Worst of all, we had to tell Julia that the coyotes had killed her pet lamb Cora. Cora was Julia’s bottle lamb from a couple of years ago. She was a soulful, kind ewe. She let Julia rest on her fluffy wool backside, even after she was full grown and had raised her lamb. It was so hard to listen to Julia cry in disbelief. The only thing we could tell her was that we were sure there would be another bottle lamb next year. But honestly, I know, the next bottle lamb won’t be Cora. There will never be another Cora.


In the midst of all this, The Farmer has got to get this load of wood ash spread. (If you look real hard, you can see him standing in front of his tractor.) Instead of commercial fertilizer and lime, this year he found an alternative source of soil amendments for his hayfields. It’s an experiment that he hopes will increase the yields. That’s one big pile, isn’t it? The big pile of brown stuff next to it is wood chips for composting. The electric company has been trimming the trees along the lines. They were looking for places to get rid of the wood chips so we told them to dump them on our land for composting. It should turn into some nice soil amendments in a couple of years. And it was delivered for free – such a deal.

Never a dull minute around here.

This Week's Winner is......

And this week's winner is knittingvee. Please contact me with your postal address! Thanks to all of you who entered!

Check back in with me next Tuesday and there will be another chance to win a Kristin Pre-Holiday Giveaway.

My friend Melanie is running a giveaway over at her blog. Hers may be a bit more work than mine was to enter but the prize is nice. Check it out.

Happy Holiday Crafting Weekend to you all from Tommie the kitten!

Winter Holiday Birch House Tutorial

Last year, the month before Christmas, I went slightly craft crazy and made a little birch village full of houses, barns and glittered animals. It was really fun to do – even if there was glitter for months to come all over the house. The best thing was it was an incredibly inexpensive project. I only had to buy crystal clear glitter and had everything else hanging around the house. The people I gave them to loved them with a capital "L."

My family and I have a Thanksgiving tradition. After we eat the turkey at our farmhouse on Thursday, we spend the Friday after Thanksgiving at my sister Nancy’s house in New Hampshire. Quite a while back, we started doing a craft or two on that day, besides eating the leftover turkey in sandwiches. This tradition has become really fun for all of us. Noone stresses over the meals – it’s all leftovers. My mom, sisters and I and all the cousins sit around Nancy’s dining room table and make something. It is probably one of the favorite days of the year for all of us.

This year I suggested my little birch houses. Everyone said it sounded good and so we all collected the supplies we needed and brought it to Nancy’s. The project was such a success – especially with the teenage girls – that I thought it would be a great tutorial to share with all of you.

So here you go – get busy and make up your own little winter wonderland holiday village.

Here’s what you will need:
1. Recycled cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes. Scour your closets and pantry for all different kinds – toothpaste, pasta, Kleenex, candy – anything goes but remember that the size of your box determines the finished size of your project. If you don’t have much storage space, I suggest a very small box like a toothpaste box.
2. Some recycled cardboard in flat sheets for the roof – soda and beer case boxes are good, as are back pages of notepads.
3. Birch bark – check the sides of the roads for fallen rotting birch logs. Peel the bark off and let it dry. If you don’t live where birch trees grow, you can order birch bark on the internet. (Does anyone have experience ordering with a specific company?)
FYI - this is a great winter activity for everyone - Julia and I had a great time driving around looking in the woods for birch logs. She did a great job peeling the bark off the rotting trees.
4. Hot temp glue gun
5. Elmer’s glue and a paintbrush for application
6. Pine cones – big and little
7. Sturdy clippers for cutting the pine cones apart
8. Little bits of greenery such as white pine, princess pine. Try to find sturdy greenery – for instance, hemlock drops too quick so avoid that. Fake greenery would work too although I'm not a fan of it.
9. Scissors that you don’t mind messing up.
10. Crystal Clear Glitter

Step 1:
Fold the boxes flat and cut to the desire size you want your house to be. For instance, I cut this butter box in half. I will make 2 houses out of it. After you cut the box, glue the bottom back together so it stands up sturdy again.

Remember that a big house will take longer and use up more supplies. The older cousins made some huge houses and sat there for hours gluing them all together. If you want to make a bunch of these for gifts, go for smallish boxes and houses.


2. Cut 2 triangular pieces of cardboard for the trusses that will hold up the roof. Hot glue them to opposite sides of the box.


3. Cut out your roof out of another piece of cardboard. For mine, I used the natural folds in the cracker box for the peak. I laid it on my house and eyeballed. You can trim it down in size later. Do not glue it to the box.



4. Gather your birch bark. It is very interesting material. The different layers of the bark split to reveal papery sublayers. The outside is the classic grey birch color. The inside layers are a lovely tannish shade with stripes. The innermost layers on rotted trees is a very dark brown. All these colors give you lots of possibilities.


5. Using hot glue, cover your box with birch bark. Trim to the box shape as it dries. I used the tan color for my houses.

Then cover the roof with the grey outer layers of bark. Here is it fun to use the natural rotted edges for texture and layer different pieces on top of each other.


6. Using hot glue, attach the roof to the bottom of the house by applying hot glue to the trusses. Hold it until it is dry.

7. Cut some of the inner bark which is dark brown into doors and windows. Hot glue them on the house.

8. Clean your workspace of all the brown, shaggy bits. It is time to glitter.

Use craft glue and a paintbrush. Paint the roof with the glue. Then paint the windows. Apply the glitter to the roof, windows, and doors. Shake off the excess. The fallen glitter will now be a bit dirty. Keep it in a separate container and you can use it again for more of the same project.


8. Using hot glue, attach the pine cones and bits of greenery to the sides of the house.

Using craft glue apply some glitter to the pinecones too to make them look loaded with snow.

9. Decorate the peak of the roof. Using strong clippers, cut apart a large pine cone. Use the single pine cone pieces for the peak. Hot glue them, overlapping as you go.


Here's what the roof will look like.

Glitter the roof trim.

You can use your imagination for other roof trims. Last year I used lichen, moss, and silvery pipecleaners to decorate the peak. It's up to you and what you find in the woods.

That's it - you are done. You can glue a piece of paper over the bottom of the box and write a message on it. Don't forget to sign and date the box so when you take it out in 20 years, you'll remember way back when.


What cute little homemade decorations, don't you think? Build your own little village. I'm adding to mine this year with some more little buildings. Wouldnt it be fun to make an exact replica of your own house?

A little FYI. Kids under 11 or so really need help with the project. The hot glue and all the trimming is tricky. My nieces Camille (almost 13), Celia (15) and Olivia (16) really went to town with this project. I called the day after and they were still building houses. What fun!