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5 Orange Potatoes
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A blog inspired by our everyday life and love of all things nature and learning. I have children's activities, sewing, folklore and gardening on the blog.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'flowers'
natural dyes- walnuts and goldenrod
Making natural dyes from backyard plants (or frontyard) is an activity we enjoy to do in the Autumn, when we can heat up the kitchen and still have a window or two open. Yesterday we gathered goldenrod, walnuts and pokeberry to dye a thrifted wool bl...
yellow wood sorrel (ptoe-oxalic acid)
Yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta) is another backyard edible. The leaves, flowers and unripe fruits are edible, with a sour, tart, lemony flavor; it’s sometimes referred to as “sour grass” because of the sour taste. Wood sorrel can be added t...
Free Amazing Clipart
I must share this AMAZING free clipart site from Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse.....READ MORE of post....
Time to Breathe
I have had a few friends wanting to know our plans for the possible Georgia move so I thought an update was in order.....READ MORE....
Make a Fairy Doll
My mom made some cute and whimsical fairies for Fauna’s birthday. These fairies can be made with very little sewing skills.......READ MORE....
Acorn Jewlery
One of the most beautiful finds in nature, to me, is the acorn. Acorns are so whimsical with those cute little caps and the crafting possibilities are endless with them! Don’t they make the most perfect little pocket to hold more of nature’s lit...
Stripe Scavenger Hunt!
The hunt for stripes! Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus)Bumblebee (bombus genus)Potter WaspMonarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus)Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucas)Cicada (Tibicen linnei)- annual typeWe couldn't identify this mushroom.Eastern Bl...
Calendula officinalis (Pot Marigold or Poet's Marigold)
If you don't have this wonderful herb growing in your garden, I highly advise you plant some seeds in your garden next year. It tolerates poor soil and will come back every year because it reseeds like crazy. The petals and stems are edible; they mak...
Waxing Flowers for Preservation
In the 1840's, paraffin began to be produced in quantity as a by-product of the petroleum industry, and ladies soon discovered that they could preserve fresh flowers and leaves by coating them with this inexpensive substance (hmmm, the beginnings of ...
polka dots!
Make a Pretty Paperweight and How to Press Queen Anne's Lace
For today's post visit 5 Orange Potatoes at Wordpress. I'm anxious to know opinions...........
Fauna's Melting Flowers Wishing Game
Now I'm sure you've seen frozen flora before used as ice cubes or winter ornaments, but Fauna came up with this fun wishing game using them. It is the PERFECT game for a HOT summer day!You need: Flowers, Muffin tin, Yarn, Water, and a Tree to hang wi...
Our Nature, Creation and Inspiration Table
The Magic Onions, is hosting a weekly Friday's Nature Table, which celebrates nature and imagination. I thought I would share our "nature, creation and inspiration table." The Little Ladies and I have MANY nature tables throughout the house. The one ...
Lavender Chocolate Cake
A blogger friend, Such Lovely Freckles, mentioned a delicious lavender chocolate candybar on a post a while back. I thought the combination of lavender and chocolate sounded heavenly! I was talking to Rainy about her birthday cake; she always picks u...
Milkweed Transplant Guerillas
This year we are so excited to report that we have a lot of milkweed naturally growing in our field. We are hoping to find monarch caterpillars all over those beautiful plants this summer. Most of the milkweed is growing tall and some is even almost ...
Pipe Cleaner Fairies
If you have fairy loving children, I'm sure you already know how to do this. We have been making pipe cleaner fairies for years now; but just in case you haven't, I thought I'd show you a very easy method of pipe cleaner fairy making which uses only ...
Rose Petal Beads
Beads made out of rose petals have been around for centuries; they have been used in meditation, in rosaries, and in jewlery. I have always found them fascinating and am in love with the idea of a bead simply made out of roses.What you need:3-8 cups ...
Lavender Lemonade
When life hands you a bowl of lemons, what do you do? We like to make lemonade of course. Then comes the struggle of how to get all of that yumminess out of that golden rind.I used to use the good old fashioned glass reamer, until my Granny gave me t...
Weaving with Nature
While I was in my garden today pulling those "misplaced plants" that were growing where they shouldn't, I came across a grapevine using my iris as a trellis. Fauna picked up the vine and wound it around her head like a crown; with those pixie-like ey...
Make a Portable Flower Press for Your Herbarium
Here's the perfect little flower press to carry with you whenever you go for a hike or even a walk around your own backyard. We keep one in the car too because we always come across plants which we find pretty, want to remember a special event, or ca...
My Little Botonist
Every morning my little Araina spends her beginning of the day outside admiring the flowers. She goes from flower to flower like a busy little bumblebee. She brings me armfuls of flowers, then goes straight away to get them water and arranges them he...
Make Homemade Rosewater
I have always wanted to make my own rosewater, didn't think I'd be able to without owning a fancy still. But my hero, Rosemary Gladstar, explains two simple methods for making rosewater in her book, Herbs for Natural Beauty. Our roses are blooming li...
How to Make Violet Jelly (Periodic Table)
The violets and dandelions are starting to dwindle down in our yard. This makes me sad, but we will continue to gather them until the very last one blooms! I'm going to share our violet jelly making with you instead of the dandelion because we knew w...
Dandelion Seed Activity
We did a very simple art activity yesterday. We used oil pastels, watered down glue, dandelions and black construction paper.We drew dandelions on the black paper, put a big spot of glue on the top of the stem, got an "old man" dandelion and blew the...
Dandelion Syrup
We made dandelion syrup this week for a pick me up to a very rainy day. It is very easy to make, but a little time consuming. You need to put at least 12 hours aside to let the dandelion tops steep and then need 2 hours to simmer the syrup. Perfect a...
Virtues of Dandelions... Beautiful Pollinators
Please note that NO bees or people were harmed in this study! Yesterday we surveyed the different pollinators that visited our lovely dandelion yard. Dandelions are a great source of nectar to many different kinds of pollinators. The girls made big b...
Wild Violet Tea
Did you know that wild violets are a great source of Vitamins A, C and calcium? The leaves and flowers are edible and have a very delicate taste. We love our lawn violets around here and gather them to crystalize, for teas and salads. We gathered vio...
Save the Dandelions!
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A weed is just a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." This rings so true for so many of our favorite spring flowers, especially the dandelion. We love the dandelion and all its virtues it has to give. Here is ...
Candied Edible Flowers
Today was a very wet and chilly day. We really needed a pick-up and needed to do something springy. We went outside for a little fresh air and noticed our wild violets were in bloom. We picked some to candy.We also picked Johnny Jump Ups, pansies and...
Monarch Watch and Planting Milkweed
We pulled out our seed box yesterday. It's full of envelopes stuffed with seeds from our gardens. We had so much fun going through the box and seeing the gems we had saved in the fall. Milkweed is the favorite, so we decided to plant these seeds fir...
