Tiny Peasant

Month: December 2013

  • Dressember :: Day 4

    Dressember :: Day 4

    It’s a pinkish day today, which happens much less often for me than for my junior partner. We put her photo here in the body of the post so you’d get to see the whole outfit – including her thrifted knit wool dress and cardigan with a sweet crinoline flower.  Today, a little bit of info about Dressember for those who are considering a donation…

    dressember 4 b

    It started out as a fun, more fashion focused, project in 2009 and morphed into something more meaningful this year. From the site:

    After more than two years of scheming, Dressember took on new meaning, aligning with International Justice Mission to put a stop to global human trafficking. Now, thousands of people around the world will put the celebration of beauty and feminity into action by raising money to help stop sexual slavery.

    Today, over 27 million men, women, and children are trapped in slavery. That’s more people than the entire course of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The mission of Dressember is to put a stop to one of the greatest social injustices of our time. Dressember participants wear dresses every day during the month of December to celebrate the freedom of beauty and femininity that they’re allowed, and to raise awareness and funds on behalf of those who aren’t free to live vibrant, autonomous lives. One hundred percent of the funds raised during Dressember will go directly to International Justice Mission, a human rights organization that has worked tirelessly for over 15 years to bring rescue to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and violent oppression. Together, we can make a lasting global impact.

     

    You can make a donation to the Dressember campaign by heading to my campaign page or the general Dressember Canada campaign.

     

  • Advent Week 1 Activity :: Growing Crystals

    Advent Week 1 Activity :: Growing Crystals

    A fun activity to learn about crystals as part of Advent Week 1 :: The Light of Stones and the whole Tiny Advent series. I love how this activity mirrors the anticipation of Advent. How the children carefully prepare, and then wait, and watch for transformation and beauty.

    Materials

    • wide mouth canning jar
    • string
    • pipe cleaners (we used white this time, but later this week, we’ll try other colours)
    • pencil
    • borax, salt, or sugar
    • boiling water
    • food colouring, if desired

    growing crystals supplies2

    Directions

    1. Make a shape out of the pipe cleaner – this could be a snowflake shape, a star, a cross, or whatever your child would like.
    crystals - cuttingcrystals -make a shapecrystals - cut pipe cleaners

    2. Tie the shape onto one end of the string, and tie the other end of the string around the pencilcrystals - snowflake

    3. Pour 1 – 1.5 cups of boiling water into the jar, and stir in food colouring, if using (we tried to make ours yellow, but we only had a few drops of colour left).

    4. Add 1 tablespoon of borax (or salt or sugar) at a time and stir to dissolve, until you have added 3-4 tablespoons. Update: Though our experiment worked okay with this amount, others have mentioned that it wasn’t as good for them. I have done a bit more research and have read up to 2/3 cup of salt or borax per cup of water. Experiment away, friends!

    crystals - borax

    5. Lower the pipe cleaner shape into the jar of solution, taking care to ensure it isn’t touching the sides or bottom of the jar.

    crystals - lower in snowflakescrystals - now we wait

    6. Set the jar aside and set a timer to check on it now and then so you can watch the process of the crystals forming.crystals - now we wait 2crystals - and we watch

    7. Once your crystals are big enough, remove the string and shape from the jar, dry, and hang in a window to catch the light. I couldn’t get a decent photo in the window, but they are hanging there now as per Milo’s specific instructions regarding which window, and how high they should hang!

    branch crystals

     

    This post was shared as a part of Simple Lives Thursday, Simply Natural Saturdays, and Montessori Mondays.

  • Dressember :: Day 3

    Dressember :: Day 3

    Today another lady in our house decided to join in the campaign! She is going to do a photo a day as well, and help spread the word about this project with her grandparents and friends.

    A little bit about my dress today… it was made by the lovely and very talented Melanie Wesley. We did a logo and other design work for her and did a partial barter, which included the yellow dress. We went to the fabric store together, and I selected the bright yellow linen that she then transformed into the sweetest dress. I wear it a lot. Melanie was the one who pointed me to the Uniform Project and I was so inspired to have a piece to wear often and love much. If you’re in Manitoba, look her up, or anyone can find her on Etsy where she often has gorgeous hand-crafted stuffed bunnies and dolls. When it comes to artisans, she is the real McCoy.

    dressember 3

    melanie wesley logo

     

     

     

     

  • Dressember :: Day 2

    Dressember :: Day 2

    Today I officially joined Dressember and have my own campaign page that you can donate to directly if you choose to. I love this campaign for the spirit of fun and togetherness – and the challenge for those who have a limited wardrobe to wear a dress each day for a month!

    A favourite project that might help out those who are participating is The Uniform Project. Sheena designed and wore one black dress (well, actually a few copies of it for practical purposes, but it’s still amazing) for 365 days to raise money for The Akanksha Foundation, a non-profit working for education for children in India.

    Check out this video where you’ll find 365 ideas for wearing just ONE dress in different ways. Now we truly can’t say that we can’t do Dressember because we don’t have enough dresses for a whole month!

    Don’t forget to share a link to your dress for today in the comments, or just tell us what you chose…

     

  • Dressember :: Day 1

    Dressember :: Day 1

    Thanks to a friend from Winnipeg who is participating in this fundraiser, it came across my path in time for me to start right on December 1st. Dressember is a campaign that raises funds to help children and women who are exploited as victims of  slavery, sex trafficking and other forms of violence.

    Consider joining in on this campaign, or making a donation! Each day I will post a photo of my dress, and if you’d like to join in (whether you’re officially participating or not), please link to a photo in the comments!

    There is a giveaway (or two) in the works for those in Manitoba who are participating in the campaign… stay tuned for details!

    Peace to you and yours,

    Kris