I feel the air becoming colder each day, the leaves turning slightly more colorful each week, and the evenings grow shorter and darker sooner. As we turn to wood to heat our home, daily baking for our souls, and crafts for the season I am reminded of what I missed when living in Hawaii. I love the changes from Summer to Autumn. Autumn is truly my favorite season of the year.
My daughter started in the 3-6 age group at waldorf kindergarten this year and it was wonderful to spend a week with the group to help her adjust. When I joined her a few weeks ago, I was given a task and quickly found my role along side the teachers. My daughter instantly felt comfortable. She either joined me in my autumn wreath making or the other children during their preparation of breakfast or play – knowing I am on the other side of the room making a wreath.
As we adjusted to the new waldorf school year I took it easy on work but instead focused on our family. I am sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of creative ideas I have but instead focused on crafts with the children, my son’s birthday celebration, our gnome village, and a gentle and rhythmic adjustment for everyone.
Inspired by the autumn wreath I made in class with my daughter we picked flowers and dried them in our winter garden. Two weeks later, all warm sunny days had passed, the mornings grew colder, the days shorter – we were in disbelief by the changes in the flowers. They are now preserved by wind, sun and air ready to be made into a wreath. We took all supplies and simply wrapped the flowers with green wire around a straw wreath.
With the changes in weather came changes in my work. While I want to continue creating new bonnets I have been inspired by buying less fabric and using more of what I have on hand. Thus I have started a new collection for the autumn/winter season 2016/2017. I am excited to add “Kb Accessories” and a “Kb conscious lifestyle collection” to my offers. Starting October 15th, 2016 I will take pre-orders for the items to be shipped before November 30th, 2016. I enjoy making seasonal designs as a means to keep our families rhythm and my own scheduling stress free. This way I have the opportunity to show you what is available well before Christmas and enough time to sew and attend to our young children.
Autumn/Winter 2016 Kinderbonnets will have a lot of wool and warm fabrics in mainly the reversible and pilot cap style bonnets. I am also adding Gnome hats which I started making six years ago for my then two year old son.
The “Kb Accessories” collection include adult and child leg warmers, adult wrist warmers, as well as loop scarfs and warm triangle scarfs.
“Kb conscious collection” are wool felted mason cup sleeves with custom appliqués. These items are especially close to my heart since they are what our family stands for. We often drink our tea out of large mason jars in autumn and winter. When we go on vacation or simply leave the home for a few hours we always try to take a jar for everyone. I look forward to use more of my wool scraps to make these sleeves and creating almost zero waste as I am trying to use up as much of the wool as possible. Furthermore, I have many wool sweaters gathered to upcycle into sleeves and accessories. All designs are truly timeless, gentle on our environment (all natural materials encouraging to use re-usable jars), and vital for a modern environmentally friendly family.
I look forward to the changes and hope you do too. If you are a mama, designer, or crafter do you feel the urge to make more environmentally sensitive and conscious changes this fall? If so why?
Follow me on Facebook for more details. Only limited quantities available.
Until then visit my shop for currently available products.
xoxo,
Sabine.
About the Author: Sabine Bryant is the designer and creator of Kinderbonnets. She currently resides in Germany with her family of soon to be 5. Aloha Werkstatt Blog shares her inspiration for Kinderbonnets, environmentally friendly life choices, and creative craft projects inspired by the simplicity of nature, and love for gathering amongst women and families of young children – to inspire a sense of self-sufficiency, creativity, and less materialism.
