SouleMama

and a kissing goat

The warm weather last week helped with the melting out there (and then it snowed again). It's all a lot more walkable, the woods and the trails right now, instead of the icy paths that it's been for a while now. It's made for some good walkabouts on our days home, and I'm so grateful for that. All of us feeling a little edgy, I decided we needed a little something - an impromptu outside fire, with a side of ice cream (plus the kissing goat). It was just the thing to lift spirits and restore some lightness. 

The days are so full right now, and so good too. I took a quick trip to a place in Vermont that I love for a photo shoot that will soon be in the pages of Taproot. I'm nearly done with a sweater I'm knitting. Adelaide has taken to the sewing machine (love). My biggest guy is home after a successful week away in Northern Maine for nordic States. Ezra's in the middle of a stint doing the sound for a theater production. Harper has discovered the phone (landline!) and spends each night on the phone talking to his best friend about all manner of sweet and funny nine year old boy things. And Annabel continues to run the show. What a joy it is to see everyone finding their things, whether that be for just today or in some cases, what I think might be theirs forever. 

Wishing you a wonderful start to your week, friends! I hope to gather with you here again soon! 

 

Aurora Shoe Company {a soulemama sponsor}

Greetings from Aurora Shoe Company!    

The Aurora Shoe Company was founded on the idea that a good pair of shoes should be made well and fit comfortably. We use American made materials and create all of our shoes in house and by hand. Assembled organically, using simple cuts of leather and minimal stitching, our shoes mold to their owners’ feet the way that only natural materials and careful design can.

We enjoy using our blog to feature the travels and adventures our shoes have been on. Close to home, or around the world, we love them all. We invite you to share a photo on Instagram #aurorashoes.  


This weekend, Aurora Shoe Company is generously offering the following gift to ONE lucky SouleMama reader: 

One pair of shoes, any style, any color.

In addition, Aurora Shoe Company would like to offer SouleMama readers free shipping on all domestic orders received through 3/25/18. To receive the offer, please enter "Soule Mama" at checkout.

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To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9 am EST on Monday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winner is...

What a lovely and generous offer!
Posted by: Brett Ann Stanciu

Whole Family Rhythms {a soulemama sponsor}

Greetings from The Whole Family Rhythms!    

Whole Family Rhythms are Seasonal Guides for Mamas (or carers) who have young children at home and who are yearning to slow down, create and connect with the rhythm of their days together.

The Guides are designed to help you plan, create and animate a peaceful, balanced and holistic rhythm in your home, flowing between structured, adult-led activities and child-led, imaginative free play. 

Each Guide contains a seasonally inspired early childhood curriculum (or rhythm) complete with ingredients and supplies master lists; early childhood stories and fingerplays and detailed directions for daily themes such as whole foods baking & cooking, watercolour painting, beeswax & salt dough modelling, drawing, crafting and hiking. 

The Guides also contain weekly mindfulness meditations for mothers or carers, simple monthly handwork patterns, as well as seasonal nursery rhyme and picture book recommendations.

Whole Family Rhythms is on Facebook and Instagram.

SouleMama: Since the last time you were featured on SouleMama, in what ways has your business grown or changed? Is there anything new you'd like to tell us about? 

My vision is to connect and inspire mothers, carers and communities with each other so that they feel empowered to raise children who are wholly connected with themselves (head, heart and hands) and to the planet. I believe from the bottom of my heart that peace begins in the home. Please join our online community at instagram.com/wholefamilyrhythms - this where we chat, exchange ideas and I share a lot of inspiration. 

Since my last visit to SouleMama, the books have finally become available in PRINT!! So many Mamas have asked over the years whether they can buy the books in print so they can really see, feel and reference them in the moment. After almost a year of searching, I have partnered with a wonderful printing company so that you can now order the Guides and have them delivered to your door! 

There is also a mini eGuide available just in time for Spring called Whole Family Herbs. I co-authored this resource with herbalist Courtney Irwin of The Secret Life of Herbs. Within the 40+ pages Courtney and I share how to sow, grow and harvest over fifteen herbs that especially support and nourish children and include child-friendly recipes that feature each herb.

 
This weekend, The Whole Family Rhythms is generously offering TWO lucky SouleMama readers a chance to win one of either:

The Whole Family Rhythms Entire Season in Print*

Whole Family Herbs**

*Open only to American and Canadian Residents. International Residents will receive digital downloads.
** Open Worldwide.

In addition, all readers can head to the website and use the coupon code soulefamily to receive 10% off of anything in the Shop thru 3/3.

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To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9 am EST on Sunday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winners are...

A wonderful resource! Thanks for the chance!
Posted by: VT Patty

I have been eyeing these! Thank you for the coupon and the chance to win!
Posted by: Sarah

the wizard & the skipper

There was sewing this weekend! Oh gosh, I'm still not quite sure how this happened, but it did. Harper celebrated the birthday of a very dear friend this weekend, a friend who, bless him, has parents just like us, and is therefore on a slow trickle of Harry Potter as he ages. Which means that he and Harper have been celebrating the reading (and then watching) of another book or movie at the passing of each birthday. It's a big deal, and all my sweet Harper wanted to give his friend this year was a Harry Potter cloak that we made together. Sure! No problem! Of course! I told him. And then life got in the way, and somehow I found myself at the fabric shop at 8pm the night before the birthday party begging the help of the dear and lovely young woman who is very much into cosplay costume making, who set me up in a jiffy with a pattern and fabric. And that's how I found myself late into the evening sewing this thing. Thankfully, it was the day the new Brandi Carlile album finally came out, so I had that for company, as well as Harper's very generous help and assistance. And in the morning, because I still wasn't done, we wrapped it up just barely in time to actually wrap it up and head off to the birthday party. All I have is that one photo up above, to make sure that my hem was right. The Gryffindor patch arrived in the mailbox just barely in time, but it arrived. By the skin of my teeth, that one.

But while my studio was trashed, and I had that project wrapped up and out the door, when Sunday found me at home with not a whole lot of pressing things to do (no work that I wanted to do, to be honest), I dove into a sewing project. I made The Skipper by Merchant and Mills for Annabel with some glorious Anna Maria Horner Fabric. It was a bit of a finicky pattern, I must confess. Or not really the whole thing, just that tie and collar at the bodice wasn't quite making sense. But I made it, and presented her with a new dress this morning that I thought surely appropriate for spring when it arrives in a little while. Five children in, I should know better. She thought it perfectly appropriate for today's February day. And really now, who am I to question that? Do - and wear - what you love, you know? 

 

Cobble Hill Farm Apothecary {a soulemama sponsor}

Greetings from Cobble Hill Farm Apothecary!  

Our venture into natural bath & body care began with a dream of living in an old farmhouse, growing & raising much of what we ate, and making things from scratch. Learning to make things from scratch, preserve our homegrown harvest, and chase after a flock of chickens with attitudes was what we longed for. Homemade bread, warm winter fires, a garden full of goodies, goats, chickens, bees.....all in the dream. 

By 2013, what had started as a personal venture had grown into a thriving small business, as family and friends responded enthusiastically to the natural bath & skincare products we were making. Motivated by the consistently positive feedback, we began selling our products online as well as at local craft shows and farmers markets. The passionate customer response confirmed that there was a market for our natural yet effective products and in 2014 we took the leap to go after our big dream on a new path - making a living doing what we love the most.

 

We are a small-batch, farm-fresh soap & skincare company handcrafting our artisanal products at the foothills of the Adirondacks in Upstate NY. Our farm is the headquarters for the entire Cobble Hill Farm Apothecary operation. Owning the research, development, and production process from start to finish ensures high quality at every step of the way. Our products are never {Ever!} tested on animals and are made up of many natural ingredients including locally sourced honey, beeswax and raw goat milk in addition to herbs and botanicals grown right here on our small farm.  

 

Although our Company continues to expand rapidly, our original values remain at the forefront: high-quality natural products full of farm-fresh ingredients, created by our very own hands, and safe for the whole family to use.  

 

Visit us on Facebook, Instagram, and our blog!

SouleMama: Since the last time you were featured on SouleMama, in what ways has your business grown or changed? Is there anything new you'd like to tell us about? 

Staci: So much goodness is happening on the farm! We began offering a monthly limited edition soap in January as a way to test out new scents as well as give customers even more variety. This will continue throughout 2018. These soap feature our regular super moisturizing and high-lather formula of oils and butters as well as incorporate additional nourishment with items such as local farm-fresh buttermilk, seaweed, charcoal and more! Due to customer demand, we will also begin to offer our body milk in a larger size in the next couple of weeks, and we will begin offering essential oils soon!!  

This weekend, Cobble Hill Farm Apothecary is generously offering the following gift to TWO lucky SouleMama readers:

A $50.00 spending spree!

In addition, Cobble Hill Farm Apothecary would like to offer SouleMama readers a 10% discount on all orders received through 2/22/18. To receive the offer, please enter "SouleMama10" at checkout

 

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To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9 am EST on Sunday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winners are...

Love these soaps, and that shave kit!!
Posted by: Michelle

Wow! What a great gift!
Posted by: Kari

Visitors & a shawl

I've had some fun visitors to the shop lately. Loretta, my sister's new Yorkshire Terrier pup, for one. Though that's done nothing to quell my children's incessant requests for another dog. (No, just no, I say. Mean mom, I know.) And the kiddos have been with me quite a bit here lately too, which is mostly very fun. Especially when they can lend a hand opening boxes, or entertain each other by playing 'shop' (oh gosh, I would have LOVED that as a child). I think I need an old fashioned cash register though, because swiping pieces of paper through the Ipad's Square reader is just not as satisfying. Maybe I'll get that set up for next week, school vacation week around here, where surely I'll be seeing lots of little ones (we have some classes that are filling up next week!). 

I finished this shawl recently! It was such a quick knit, much faster than I was anticipating. I loved the way it grew, steadily and quickly on my needles. It's the Hearthstone Wrap featured in the most recent issue of Taproot, by Amanda Hester Smith. The yarn is from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, which I'd never knit with before, but wow. I love, love, love it. Thankfully, the two skeins I bought to make this shawl left me with plenty of yarn, I think enough to make another but definitely enough for some fun hat play.(We're selling the yarn as a kit in the Taproot shop.) 

It's the weekend nearly. How did that happen? Whatever your plans are, I hope you have a lovely one! Perhaps with a little dose of knitting too.

 

in Boston, with two

Oh it's just delightful to get out of town this time of year and have a change of scenery! Even if it's only a few hours away, only for 48 hours. I just had such a wonderful visit to Boston. I was there for the Boston Farm and Fiber Festival, the first ever, held at the (amazing!) Boston Public Market. Well! Give some knitters and fiber enthusiasts a reason to come out on a February day and they certainly show up! The day was a flurry of goodness and people and so much yarn! The most wonderfully curated selection of vendors was present, and great activities and fun as well (and sheep, yes sheep!). Thanks to everyone to came to knit a spell, or say hello in the Taproot Lounge. We had a blast, and can't wait for next year. 

As I got closer to this event last week, I realized that the three oldest kids had plans of their own this weekend, and with Bruce still with us, someone to feed the animals and watch the farm. An opportunity! At the last minute, we made it a little impromptu getaway for Steve and I and the two youngest. A family of four! What a treat to have time together like that, and such fun to explore just a little bit of the city with them. They wandered at the Science Museum while Mama worked, and rode every escalator possible, I'm told. I'm so very glad we made it happen...

And with that weekend adventure behind us, we start the week a little bit sleepy but certainly full from inspiration and our time together. Love. 

Oak Meadow {a soulemama sponsor}

Greetings from Oak Meadow! 

Oak Meadow offers an affordable independent school experience for children in kindergarten to grade 12. Families can use our progressive, experiential homeschooling curriculum independently, or by enrolling in our accredited, teacher-supported, distance learning school.

Our curriculum is built on strong academic standards that can be adapted to meet the needs and interests of the developing individual, and the flexible format means you can create your own rhythms for learning and integrate your child’s education into your family’s lifestyle. The curriculum is print-based by design to reinforce solid reading comprehension and study skills, and technology is thoughtfully integrated through the grade levels.

Visit our website to learn more and to view curriculum samples. Call 802-251-7250 to speak with one of our educational counselors or send your questions to [email protected]. Check out our online bookstore to see all our curriculum offerings, or apply to our accredited distance school for one-to-one teacher support. You can start anytime!

• Use independently and follow our 36-week print curriculum for a comprehensive experience, or customize to meet student needs and interests.
• Enroll full time and earn an Oak Meadow diploma, or take individual courses for enrichment, credit recovery, and transferable credit.

Visit us on Facebook, Instagram and our blog.

Since the last time you were featured on SouleMama, in what ways has your business grown or changed? Is there anything new you'd like to tell us about? 

It’s time for Oak Meadow’s annual Valentine’s Day special! From February 14 to 28, take 20% off all items in our bookstore!

This weekend, Oak Meadow is generously offering the following gift to ONE lucky SouleMama reader:

​$150 gift coupon to use in the Oak Meadow Bookstore 

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To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9am EST on Sunday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winner is...

Happy to be introduced to Oak Meadow!
Posted by: April

Home & HEARTH

Just when I was beginning to say that I didn't want to blather on too much here about Taproot, here I am again today, but it's an exciting day because Taproot's HEARTH is out! Issue 25, the first of our seventh year (holy moly), and the beginning of the year when when we grow to six issues (again, a holy moly!). I'm so in love with this issue, really really in love with the new cover design, and of course, with our new cover art by our 2018 cover artist Abigail Halpin. 

There's lots of goodness inside too, of course...articles and photography, recipes and crafts, poetry and art. So much talent in the world - what a joy to gather just a little bit of it between the pages of this magazine. 

I have such a busy weekend coming up! At the Cove Street Market in Portland, we have our monthly Second Saturday market happening, with plenty of Valentine's gifts to share, a kraut making demo, open knit morning, and flowers for sale from Broadturn Farm. After that, I'll be headed to Boston for the first ever New England Farm to Fiber Festival at the Boston Public Market. Come visit on either day if you're local! 

Have a wonderful weekend, friends! 

Beginning February

February was once such a challenging time of year for me. It feels as though winter will linger for many more months (because it does), and I could use a heavier dose of Vitamin D than my little daily drops from a bottle provide. All the layers of clothing can start to feel a bit heavy on my body this time of year and I long for sunshine and sandals. It sometimes felt like the longest shortest month! 

Those feelings haven't entirely faded, but they've certainly shifted as time has passed and as my days have changed from those long ones at home with little ones. A combination of growing children (and their growing schedules and different, more outward needs) and growing my work are keeping these days so full that I'm sure I'm going to look up next and it'll be April before I know it happened. So cliche, and so very true at the same time. We're looking at colleges now with Calvin. How and when did that happen? I can remember a thousand tiny moments of our days together that I felt so present for....and yet I feel as though I somehow have been cheated out of time and we skipped a decade or so and we really can't be at this place now, can we? But we are, and it feels as natural and timely as it does unnatural and premature, if that makes any sense at all. Ah. 

I am mindful of not blathering on all so very much here about Taproot as I know you don't come here for just that, but the work and our new space has been what's filling my moments when I'm not on the college search/fiddle lessons/homeschooling/dance classes/theater rehearsals/farming duties. We're settling so happily into our Portland space in East Bayside, open Wednesday to Saturday and enjoying all the visitors that are stopping by. We've hosted a few classes, and have a few more coming up (see here for the schedule and registration details), and it feels like things are coming together. It's a beautiful feeling to gather people. I'm so grateful.

And I'm knitting! How it is that I'm knitting so much, I really don't know, but I am right now and loving it. I have a few more finished things to show you. I really have been selfish in my knitting of late! And after all this talk of busy days, I know that we have snow coming tomorrow and I'm excited about a quiet day at home - with my older kiddos and Steve likely home from school/work and all of us together for a hunkered down snow day. Yes, yes, yes.

Wishing you all a lovely day! 

Welcome, February!

Hello February!

I'm so pleased to welcome the following Sponsor!

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No-Poo 101

No-Poo 101 is the simple, step-by-step online course that will get you from: 

What's no-poo? Will my hair get clean? What do I need? How do I start?...to beautifully shampoo-free hair in 12 weeks—without having to figure it out alone. Things you have in your kitchen work better than shampoo if you know which things and what to do with them. Led by Taproot contributor and tasteofsimple.com's Missy Campbell—a 4-year (and thriving) no-poo devotee, mama to four no-pooers, wife to the one who tests the myriad of chemical-free (and edible!) alternatives out there on himself—No-Poo 101 (a community-focused, live course) starts in April. Dive in with us to get clean with no-poo. Jumping on the waitlist now snags you a founding triber's seat before No-Poo 101 goes live this spring. Join the tribe and be the first to know when we're set to get no-pooing live.

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I'm so pleased to have them joining us this month as a Sponsor, along with our ongoing Sponsors in the sidebar. The support of these fellow small businesses helps me to carve out the time I love to dedicate to this space, and I'm honored they choose to spend their resources here. All of the sponsors I feature are carefully-selected businesses that I am proud to support, and in most cases, am a customer of myself! I encourage you to check out their offerings in the coming weeks and months, visit their websites to learn about the inspirational businesses they all are. And if you think Sponsorship is something you might be interested in for your own ventures, please be in touch! We currently have openings in some categories.