Sandpaper Letters

I am creating my own Montessori materials for my childcare and I think that sandpaper letters are very important to help with language development. I purchased all the materials at the Dollar Tree. In total it cost me $9.45 not including the glue I already had and I have some materials left over for other projects.

I looked all over Microsoft Word for the correct text to be used, but I didn't find anything I liked. I ended up googling and found this awesome blog that pointed to this site http://www.montessorimaterials.org/lang2.html and used Cursive - Lower Case.

I cutted them out from the pdf and then traced them on the yellow foam sheets. I glued them down using Turbo tacky glue by Aleene's. Vowels on blue and consonants on red.

I really liked how this project turned out and I can't wait to share it with my toddler.

Beading again!

I'm every excited to be beading again.  This weekend I made these three flowers.  I don't have a project in mind but ideas are starting to flow.  Excited!

Soil Health Video is Done!

I just finished the Soil Health video last week. Thought I'd share. Took a little bit longer then I would have liked. There were a lot of slides and was just a long video in general.

White Corn Project Farmers

So after the soil heath training we had our first meeting as project farmers.

Laura gave us the update of the project, our duties, and where we will be planting this year and next year. We each got a binder of the project and I also bought the CDs of seed songs that we will be playing in our gardens as we tend to them.

There was still a great crowd of white corn growers from our area after all the family gardeners left.

Princess Lea updated us on other sources for seeds and opportunities out east. 

Ola•ná made by Laura with their white corn from last season. 

White Corn and Soil Health Presentation

Our first gathering as Project Farmers. It was an awesome event and the food was good!

There was a huge group of people that showed up.  I was surprised. I thought maybe 12 or so people would be there but there had to be at least 30!

People arriving , signing in,  and visiting.

All three walls and tables were filled!

Valerire Dantoin, a Sustainable Food & Ag Instructor at NWTC, came and did the presentation on her own time. So thankful for her and sharing her knowledge with us. 

One of the biggest things I learned was fish emulsion and fish meal are some of the highest ways to get nitrogen in the soil while still staying organic. There are other cheaper ways, but not organic, but are they really cheaper if you think about it... 

Also that she spends mother's day putting compost on her fields. So good to remember and easy to remember that way!

I think also she explained GMOs better than any other way I ever heard it. I video recorded her presentation and will be uploading it on YouTube.  I'll share the link after it has been edited.

Update and Beaded cuffs...

Haven't posted in a while due to my cell phone screen had totally cracked. It still works but it is a pain to use and the camera does not work on it. Which is really sad due to that is why I got a fancy smart phone. Oh well. Not sure when I will be able to get an upgrade I'm with Sprint and they take forever to let you upgrade. In the mean time I order a cell phone from china hopefully it will work. I have to wait another week for it to get here. *insert sad face*

One of my latest projects is cuffs to make the yoke that I finished not too long ago. I need to make a pair of these for myself. Maybe that will be my next big project.

This photo is when the cuffs were still in the design stage I really wasn't sure what kind of design I was going to put on the cuffs.

In this photo I am set up at the farmer's market. I didn't have too many sales... okay maybe I didn't have any, but it was fun talking to people and teaching people about raised beadwork.

Finished cuffs! So happy and they fit her great and room to grow, mom was happy!

For the backing I purchased calico to match her ribbon dress.

Close up of the raised beadwork. A strawberry blossom. 

Total Project Hours: 14

Making Salve

Making first aid salve is a lot of work. It is a two day process! I gather the herbs the first day and process them over night. The next day is when the all the fun begins. It is a bit messy but also fun.

Plantain from the yard. We don't spray our yard because we know what most people call weeds we call medicines. 

Gathered leaves. Two bundles of 30!

I did half of Castor Oil & half of Olive Oil. I leave the plantain & calendula for 4 hours and then strain it and add the same amount to leave over night. 

The next day I strain the plantain and calendula.

I also Vit E oil and Lavender essential oil to the salve.

Next I added the beewax and wait for it to melt. Around 15-30 min.

From there we are pretty much all done! Just place in containers and put in the freezer to set.

All done and ready for selling and using! $15 for 30g and $2 for 5g. I will be setting up at the Oneida Farmer's Market or email me to order. starrmerrie@gmail.com

Strawberry Mocs!

I needed to make a pair of moccasins for a young girl for the Oneida Nation Pow Wow. I finish them in 6 days! Pretty proud of myself. I finished them just in time for the Pow Wow.

Cutting out the pattern for the mocs. I create the mocs that are called the pinch toe moccasin.

I sew up the backs first and then sew the toes.

All sewn up. Just need to do the beadwork on the vamps.

 One finished! I really like my strawberry design! Hoping the little girl will like them too!

All Finished! Love how they turned out. Project hours logged 22.5 hours! Sweet!

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Beading Again! Strawberry Blossoms Yoke

I got an order from a friend for a yoke for her 10 year old daughter. I haven't done one before so I think it turned out really awesome. I had to make my own pattern and it fit her perfect which is awesome. That was my biggest worry.

Her mom and herself came to my house and let me know what she wanted on it she brought a print out of strawberry flowers from a search engine. So I made own pattern for her flower and I'm really proud of that because that means no one else with have the same flower design as her.

 The way I did the flowers was to put the on fabric and then sew them onto the black velvet.

 Here is a close up of the flowers that I designed for her. She thought they were very pretty!

 I stitched them on to the black velvet and than beaded the vines/stems and then beaded the leaves.

 Sewing/beading on the ribbon. Some people sew the ribbon on and than add the beads, but I bead the ribbon right on. It saves time and thread.

 Finished project. Couldn't be happier with it. Kind of with I could keep it, but at least I took a lot of photos. Although photos never do raised beadwork justice. Total Project Hours: 18 hours logged

Hope you enjoyed this post. Have a nice day! If you would like to order any beadwork you can email me at starrmerrie@gmail.com and "Like" me on facebook! Facebook.com/SMCrafts