I bought The Creative Family on Amazon a few days ago and it was so incredibly inspiring! The author is Amanda Blake Soule, the mama behind the SouleMama blog. She has lovely photos and lovely ideas to inspire a more creative and simple lifestyle with children. She has a great writing style, easy to read and understand.

Along with concrete projects to get you started, her photos give even more idea for inspiring your household- in decoration and in finding time to nourish that creative spirit.

And yes! I did some changing in our house.... namely the art area. Before I even started reading the book, I flipped around in it, and landed on a picture of her giant art cupboard- so wonderful and just full of treasures for little people. You can see it here along with other corners of her home.

Now, I don't have a giant cupboard, but I did move the art shelf out of the laundry room out to the dining area, where we can all see what's there. It used to be full of plastic containers, which were fine for when no one could see it, but out here, I wanted baskets- or at least more natural containers. I found these around the house an commandeered them for this purpose, and I picked a few up at the Thrift store. Some, like the bubble box on the top shelf was already in use (it holds crayons).

Having it out here works really well anyway because, see the drawers to the left? The bottom two are full of paper and magazines for art projects. These are something I already had- they are utensil holders from IKEA- we have filled them up with markers, pencils, pens and gluesticks.

I love the ideas of mindfulness, intention and gratitude that Amanda talks about in her book and I can see many more of her ideas making their way into our house. She's given me new inspiration for working on handwork with the little one, as well as putting more thought into things for myself.

So, thank you SouleMama for the inspiration!! (Oh and don't forget to check out her blog for even more lovely pictures!

I've seen a lot of information about the grotesque amount of corn in our industrial food system recently- beginning with the High Fructose Corn Syrup and Mercury scare- which is what prompted me to start looking for more information in the first place. King Corn is the most recent film I've watched, and I have to say it really wasn't all that great. The film follows a couple of guys who had their hair tested and it seems that the majority of carbon in their body came from corn. They wanted to know why that was and for some inexplicable reason, decided the best way to learn was to grow an acre of corn on an industrial corn farm. As they grew their corn, aided by the farmer who owned the land, they learned more about what would happen to their corn after it was harvested.

That information really wasn't new to me, and I feel that there are other documentaries that give the same information in a more entertaining manner, and include more information about the whole processing experience. The film only briefly touched on the effects of corn processing on humans and cows and didn't tell any solutions or alternatives to industrial corn. I do think that if one stumbled onto this film and watched it without knowing anything about how much corn they really do eat, it is an education, but for someone who is already moderately aquainted with the subject, it was slow and didn't really have much in the way of new information. I did like that they got an interview with Earl Butz, who pioneered the farm bills that reward corn farmers for their largess, and also with some people within the corn industry who have very interesting views on how the cheap corn and cheap food effects our economic and physiological health.

All in all, if you don't have anything better to do, go for it, watch this film. If you have to choose a single film, I'd recommend Food, Inc.

Website: King Corn Website: The website does contain a little information about how to take action, which I think is a great addition.

After preschool today, Sabine and I spent the day making valentines for her class. We had a lot of fun! Originally I thought I would make cookies or cupcakes for her class, but I figured they would already get too much sugar... but it still had to be something the kids would love.

Of course... heart shaped pretzels! This recipe is really easy because you mix up the dough in the breadmaker. All that's left after that is rolling the pretzels and baking. Of course Sabine helped too. You can find the recipe here.

I had these boxes already that I got from a seller on Etsy. I wrapped the pretzels in wax paper and put them in the pillow boxes. Sabine made the valentines. I cut out heart shapes from cardstock, and she decorated with foam stickies and pieces of yarn, doily, valentines pictures and stickers.

This one is for her teacher. This is one that The Hubs especially likes: She signed her name to the back of each and every one.

I think I might have made a post with that title once before. Seems to suit.... you know, what with changes being made round these here parts all the time.

As always, I am trying to change the site to be able to include my ever expanding interests. One of my newer interests is in cooking sustainably and growing my own food- so I decided I should have a whole section devoted to cooking- in the Cooking section. In addition to reading about my adventures, you'll also find real tried and true recipes that you can use seasonally and with locally, sustainably grown foods!

I also gave the Auf Deutsch section its very own space- that will allow it to be expanded as I find more information for homeschooling your child in German.

The Living section will detail more about my goals of being more sustainable, along with homeschooling information and living frugally!

And the last new section is Sabine's Fun Page which are all sites that Sabine loves to check out. They're definitely kid friendly, and they might even be educational!

Of course, there's still the Crafty Section which was my first love, of course, and is the fullest area right now.

I still have a bunch of changes I want to make, so keep your eyes peeled for those- adding all the old posts as blog entries and making them easy to find.... I hope it will work out!

The best way to keep up with the newest stuff is to Follow me on Twitter or Become a fan on Facebook. I update these areas everytime I post, with a link to the newest post.

I think you'll really enjoy the new site- it has a lot of room for growth and for once, I didn't delete everything!

And just because every post should have a picture, I'll include this one of Sabine with her new (yet unnammed) kitten. That kitten gets a lot of love and will really learn how to put up with kids!

Ok, ok.... when I was growing up on my parents vegetable and turkey farm, no one would have ever called me a Farm Girl. I certainly didn't want anything to do with the whole farming thing, and I ran away to the city as soon as I could. Now, I'm spending a lot of time rediscovering the art of living simply- and I've found that in my new view, apparently that means living on a farm. But the joke's on me! Now I'm stuck- married to a die-hard city dweller in the middle of Oregon's second largest city. Well, while I'm working on getting him to agree to move out of the city, I'm working on making our life here richer and fuller.

So.... yeah... then there's the Hubs. Julian. He's my rock. He is so good at taking care of me I can almost forgive him anything. He makes the money so we can afford our extravagant green-living, crafty making, from scratch cooking lifestyle. Please note the mild sarcasm.... as we can't afford anything. But he tries! If I could choose right now, I'd have a small property with a couple cows and pigs, chickens and prune trees, apple and pear trees and a large vegetable and herb garden. For right now, I am sufficing with a few large pots of herbs- and I will try some veggies in pots this summer. I have faith that we'll get the space we need to have the life we want. And Julian would get his castle and pirate ship.

I have been surrounded by craftiness and art since I was born! Growing up, I watched my mom knit and sew, my aunts painted and made everything around them beautiful, my dad could create anything from a little wood and metal... it was only natural that I would be inspired to try to be artsy with everything I do as well. I have tried numerous numerous crafts and hobbies from paper crafting to bookmaking to fiber arts to beading!

Having four siblings and growing up on a farm, we sort of lived by the adage "make do or do without" so I am a big fan of recycling used things into something else, and using the supplies you have available.

In recent years, I have narrowed down my numerous hobbies to sewing, block cutting and general DIYing (Do It Yourself-ing). I also consider my interest in herbs, cooking and even homeschooling as hobbies! That seems like a lot, but it's signifigantly fewer than I have experimented with. On this site, I am providing links that I have found, having to do with most of the crafts I've experimented with though.

I am also a mama to a 4 year old smarty pants who I would like to grow up with an appreciation of art and crafts. Having her has inspired me to do even more with my own hands, starting with making her cloth diapers and clothes, and has even led to making a special balm when she was diagnosed with Eczema. I make most of my own homeschool supplies for teaching my daughter, whom I teach in German.