Welcome February

Before we say so~long to you, January, I'd like to show you a project O and I have been working on.
We discovered Blue Yonder's Book of Days. Below is an short explanation taken from her blog:

"The Book of Days is a monthly journal of mindful experiences, natural pursuits, yummy recipes, and science experiments. It is meant to be a simple way to make family time fun."

It's in our plans to home-school and since I've got a very curious and experimental child on my hands we have taken things to the next level.

Through finding Blue Yonder's Book of Days we have started journaling, experimenting, drawing and creating.

Not that we weren't doing all these things before, for us, it's a new level of schooling and bit more focused, with a little more of a curriculum, if you will.

So, without further ado......here is our Book of Days for January.......

I wanted to be able to keep these books for many years to come.
And to make it more special and add our own touch we put the printed pages in a folder, adding a blank page in between BY's pages for O to add his own words or drawings.
The folder also having pockets made it easy for O to add any goodies he might want to add.

On small sheets of thick drawing paper, O made paintings of snow, mountains, and animals, for each page of the book. Really owning his book of Winter in January.

Here is our egg experiment on it's first day. We put an egg in a jar and covered it with white vinegar.....O watched and watched it. We have recorded our findings in the pages of our
January journal.

You can see here the bubbles on the egg as it started eating away at the outer layer of the egg. When we shook up the jar a little, you could see that the egg had begun to get softer, there wasn't the sound of an egg on the glass.
And the egg below you can really start to see the egg shell dissolving.

I think this is the 4th day of the egg experiment. The outer shell has dissolved and and when held against the light you can see the yolk inside. How cool! We plan to go outside and pour out the egg to see how soft it really is, but dang....it's too cold out there! Soon though, for sure.

Each page of the book is decorated with lovely art from Blue Yonder.

She really adds so many beautiful details to the little people, animals, trees and nature scenes.

Above, O drew garland going straight into the little birds mouth. Inspired by her little birds, we set outside to string some popcorn, raisins and cranberries garland for the birds.

O's red cardinal above. Also for the month of January we have decided to work with only one color. O picked ReD this month, so you might can tell that everything he painted, drew or write is in red.

Our January Book of Days has inspired us to slow down and realize the living around us, it has encouraged us to try new things and has embedded a spark of creativity for future months.

I hope to reflect imagination within our space with each month.....so here's to February!

ps Thank you Stefani for your inspiration.....you can find out more about how to obtain your own monthly book here.

Soap

I'm teaching a soap making class at the Botanical Gardens tonight. If you are local and interested in participating in a class keep your eye on their website under the educational programs evening class. They offer a wide variety of classes and require you to pre-register.

Friends, have a lovely hump day!
a

Self Portrait Tuesday ~Mamas~

This is me and my mom on the beach in Florida. It was taken at night in the sand after some bum sparklers, or was it the wind? We are, like in the photo, very close, where she and I can read each other pretty well, probably more her than me, but she's a mom right? Mama's can do that with their children. She has been my hero through my life and I hope to be the kind of mom that she is to me~
I love you mom!

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and to your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

unknown

until tomorrow friends
a

Happy

Just a few simple things that make me happy:

Bundling up and playing outside: my recipe for sanity

A lost bird in our garage, who soon found his way out

O's photography skills with momma's camera

Hanging popcorn, cranberry and raisin garland out for the birds (on the clothesline!)

Drinking some yummy sake brought home from hubby's sister in Japan! Thanks KT!

The yellow flowers brought home from O to his daddy, "because I love him"

And finally my trophy from my love, "because I love you"

O: "Now, make me a trophy because you love me."

a
What makes you happy today?

Funny!

How this woman writes about motherhood seriously cracks me up, only because it's so true!
Check her out and have a wonderful day!
a

Obama Mama and other ramblings

The plan today was to make goat cheese. I'd never tried to make any kind of cheese before but have always wanted to. I'm following the recipe from Martha and I can't seem to find the ingredient, mesophillic anywhere..... well, local anyway. I could order it but if I only need 1/16 of an ounce, no it's 1/16 of a teaspoon! I mean I don;t even have anything to measure that.
Errrr.....frustration!
Excuse the attitude, I'm pretty exhausted from a pretty full day with a 3.5 year old.
We journeyed into town this afternoon to watch the inauguration with real people and one thing led to another and before I knew it, I had one hungry tired toddler on my hands.
We got home to paint for the 4th time today and O begins to touch his paint, and like every other kid, wipes his hands on the tablecloth then his pants. Acrylic paint.
I head to the back to our bookshelves to do some much needed decluttering and he begins to pour mod podge onto a book that has been torn. And it, of course, pours out of the sides onto the already stained white table cloth. What can you do really? I have been known to either head straight for the hidden stash of chocolate or curl up on the couch with my favorite quilt and watch I Love Lucy reruns.
But really I couldn't be without, my life would be completely boring without him! It makes for a memorable day.

I wanted to post this picture to remind myself that you can still find beauty even on the grayest of days.
And I am an "Obama Mama!" What O has been calling me all day

There will be a return of positive daily reflections and what we have been working on for the month of January.....homeschooling at it's finest!

There is Hope!
a

Self Portriot Tuesday

ha! this was just a fun one from the holidays.
story~
my mom asked to get a family shot in front of the tree, suddenly everyone disappeared and I was left in front of the tree with my camera. my youngest brother came into the room and I asked him to take some pictures.
so, as he shot, I 'posed'. so this is just one of many!
(after me, I for-sure got several photos of him 'posing'!
if he'll let me, I'll post one of him......

Hope your days are full of fun as well!
a

Our Long Weekend

And a mighty fine one it was! We enjoyed a day with good friends that have two boys a few years older than O. (which he just loves!) They took to each other really like life long cousins.

O has never been the one to dig in the dirt for bugs. But was soon 'taught' how to catch worms from his new friends. Now there is no fear in digging in the earth finding grubs! It's really a beautiful thing to watch your child learn something new about themselves.

The boys ran up and down hills after one another with such pure innocence and happiness.

Us mamas sat in the field outside in the cool but sunny winter day and just life be.

We had our first fire of the year outside this afternoon and enjoyed eating smores and toasted marshmallows. There is nothing better than a cleansing fire in the middle of the day!

I hope your long weekend was just as fun and magical!

until tomorrow friends
a

Greetings!

Friends,

I hope you are having a blessed weekend!

a

Family Art Wall

Since painting the walls in more than half of our house, all of our art and paintings have come down off the wall. They are set in a pile in our office just waiting for their perfect spot, to be framed or for another wall to be painted so they can be hung.
I had been wanting to get some of O's paintings framed so after doing so they found their place on our living space wall.

This begins our family art wall. I love it and am excited about the future for our family art wall!

Have a beautiful weekend
a

Beading....and lots of it!

Excuse the absence yesterday. Hubby has gone back to school so our days and nights are in transition. Hopefully we will begin to get a routine that satisfies everyone in the family.

Right now our days are filled with a new love. O has found my stash of beads so for the last 4 days he has woken up to making bracelets and necklaces. This last until bedtime, literally.
He is about to get his own container with beads, with my favorite beads disappearing fast!

I started a new project that was too soon ripped out and restarted, after 60 rounds. I was given a genourous gift from a friend of 3 balls of handspun. I made my mom this lace capelet from a woman on Ravelry and I'm using this beautiful purple hand-dyed yarn to make my grandmother one. It needs to be finished by August, so I figure why not get a head start on it. I'm sure it'll need to be put down at some point for a breather.

(photo courtesory of O)

The more beading that gets done the more knitting mama gets to do.

Self Portrait Tuesday

Over the Holidays, I made an unspoken promise to myself not to get overworked and feel like I have to make something for everyone. This 'feeling' or promise has carried over to the new year.
I feel completely at peace with things in my life.

So, this picture is a reminder for me to slow things down, remain thankful and to take notice at the growing world around me everyday.
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On another note, I have updated my shop on etsy and you can find my soaps and candles here.
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Have a grand day friends (or night)!
a

Our Newest Housemate

We didn't need yet another animal to feed and take care of....but, we got one.
O and I actually got him before Christmas, an unplanned trip to the mall of all places. I didn't think to 'prep' him, "we are not getting anything here, just swapping out pj's" kind of deal. So, I guess I got what I asked for.....a hermit crab.
He's not really a terribly needy housemate. He doesn't ask for much, just fresh water and some fresh fruit.
He also looks adorable in his soccer ball house.....what O loved about him in the first place.
So, we let him out to run around a couple times a day, he's happy, we're happy.
His name is easy enough, it's Hermie.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend....mine, hope it gets better.

Birthday

Yesterday O and I ventured out to our favorite spot, the mountains.
It was a gorgeous day with clouds of black and grey and storms all around.
I love days like these but especially up in the mountains!

We visited our friends, family and a very special birthday boy, my grandfather.
He turns 87 today and is sharp as a tack, telling us stories of war, finances and family.....going from one story to another.

Happy Birthday Grandad!

Sightings and Self Portroit Tuesday

First off, did anyone see the planets last week?
I took (or shall I say, tried) a few shots on the way to dinner taking while riding in the car.
So, this is what I got of the moon and Venus. It was actually quite a sight to see. Venus was right close to the moon and below that a ways was Mercury and Jupiter.
I took a few shots of these planets but I had to magnify by about 500% to see the 2 small
dots in the sky. So tiny.

Today, (which I know is late), is the day I started self portriat Tuesday. I want to really work on my photography, a new years resolution, and what a better way then to have 'homework' each week, fun homework.

Here is a photo from the holidays taken at my parents house.

Below is one similar I took when pregnant with O.
I dig these types of portraits.

until tomorrow
a

Late Gifts

Since I know that my brother (older, Chris) and sister-in-law don't read this I show you a few itmes that have been made for Christmas. I was running pretty behind this year and since we don't see them around the holidays anywaythere wasn't too much stress over the late giving. And who doesn't love late gifts anyway?!
Oscar got to work filling a box of things he didn't want anymore for his super hero cousin, Sage who is 10 and is O's super hero cousin who can do no wrong!


Bro, Ryan and SIL just had a new baby girl so I thought new washcloths were in order. They are organic cotton and oh so soft!

The below picture is O's creation of embroidery. He choose different colored yarn for each of the family members, so thoughtful, especially to include the mother of Sage, not my sil.

This one he did for our family. There are 4 strands of yarn in here, I wonder which of the pets he included as part of the family?!

Made in 08

Here's to 2008 and all that was made in it!
(click on photo to see details)

Visit here or click on the photo for more creations that others have created.
There is so much talent and so many crafts, it's mind blowing to know that there are people out in this world who are creating art just as you are!

I look forward to much more crafting as little O gets bigger. I have some ideas for 2009 that I hope to accomplish....we'll see.

Starting Tuesday, I'll be embarking on a small but new project that I'm excited about sharing.
I hope it'll test my camera skills and be a learning experience.

So, until then my friends.
a

Another Goal

......has been forgotten again tonight. I set a goal to start going to be earlier, 10:30-11:00pm.
And tonight just about 20 minutes ago I have started a new knit project!
I guess there is always tomorrow night, right?!