Winter days

 I keep seeing these posts where folks are wishing winter away.  No.  Don't rush winter.  It's a lovely, lovely thing to slow down, read books, do art, slow cook, do some forgotten crafts (Audra's phase this week is making cheese), get those seeds in order and do some winter sports (we've been alternating between snowshoes, skis, ice skates and sleds).  I'm in no hurry for winter to be over.

My "Old Fashioned" Dress

 

I love to do 'old fashioned' things, but I've never personally been one to dress 'old fashioned' while doing them.  My girls have been wanting me to dress up with them for ages.  I finally made myself a dress to play old fashioned with them. They are thrilled. Audra made me a pocket and plans on making me a new apron. 

Art with Lines

 In December, I led a 6 part series...Dabble and Babble: Art with Lines.  Kids did an art challenge and then enjoyed games.

Aiming to record what I did so I don't forget! And if you want to do the series, go ahead! 

1) Lines and colored in rainbow order 2) Continuous line, filling in miniature designs in each pattern. 3) Designing wrapping paper/fabric with lines. 4) Draw a picture, put patterns in the picture. Color the pictures with oil pastels and then watercolor over. (The house and the truck ones) 5) Mandala (with a mirror in the middle) 6) Pieces of cardboard were dipped in paint to create the designs. 6) We glued cardboard on a wooden block to make a stamp 7) We carved a design into styrofoam, painted and stamped the inverted design.

Above are my examples, here are my kids' finished products.

A Good Book and a New Hobby

 We absolutely loved Lyddie by Katherine Paterson. The girls have been playing "Lyddie and Rachel" from the book.

Here they are coming home late from the long shift at the woolen mills.

Audra has been wrapping and dipping candles as her new hobby.  Plus she has more cans she plans on punching for lanterns.  I love when a book comes alive.

Birthday Baboon

 Happy Birthday to this dude!  We treated him to days of his fave foods, whoopie pies and gifts were lots and lots of chocolatey stuff. 

Storms

 Two storms down this week, one to go the day after tomorrow.  Storm one we lost internet for days. Storm two we lost power for a day and internet for a day and a half. The next storm is brewing. It's heavy, heavy snow with lots of trees snapping. Thankful we have a generator for our home, we are already used to gathering around the fire to cook on the wood.

We have plenty of books and things to do.

Adrian has been keeping us shoveled out (and one of his waving pals cleared the heavy stuff on the road). He gets up at 5 something every morning to go out and shovel and wave at the cars.

I also snuck a pic of an Adrian hug. 

The storms force us to slow down and find our groove, which I think there's something magical in that.  I hope everyone's power is restored and think of all the line workers. 

Oh yes, SNOW!

 

We're SO HAPPY for the snow. Not happy that our internet cable is on the ground, but the snow is making up for that woe. Adrian was shoveling at like 5am. 

He, of course, needed to do his regular waving routine. One of his waving pals plowed the heavy mess the town snowplow left at the end of the driveway, but he shoveled the rest.

This one shoveled a maze, made snow steps into the barn, worked on making a tunnel in a snowbank and rolled around with the dogs.

This one got new mama made mittens (all three kids wore their mama made mittens out).

Only she decided the effort to move in the snow wasn't worth it, so she mostly did this outside.

Now, if only the snow would take a bit longer to melt this time around....one can only hope.

Snow PLEASE!

 Winter in Southern Maine has been snow, melt, mud, snow, melt, mud on repeat.  We can easily walk in our backyard with our regular boots. 

There's definitely no ice skating at home (although we are thankful to have a local rink).  Kids would love more chance to ice skate at home.

Snow is in the forecast and our crew is ready for lots of snow! 

Mama Made: Matching American Girl Dolls

 She wanted me to make her a new dress and a matching dress for her American Girl doll. I decided to find fabric I already made something for her and use the fabric to make a coordinating American Girl dress.  She is quite happy!