Category Archives: celebrations and festivals
aglow
Oh, Mr. Bear, shouldn’t you be slumbering?? Not lumbering through my garden, clawing at the snow?
clementine candles; star lanterns; borax snowflakes; gingerbread cookies with cinnamon icing
We’ve had so much snow already this year! Our Solstice celebration was magical. The music! There was music everywhere; banjos, mandolins, an accordion, penny whistle, voices singing out into the candle lit night with powdered sugar snow sifting through the clouds.
There have been so many magic moments this holiday season. Hardships too of course, but so much beauty to compensate. Last week everyone was invited to watch Galen and Mairi’s ballet class. Unbeknownst to us, their teacher had invited a violinist to play Christmas carols for them to dance to. It was marvelous. Such a simple little thing, but so moving.
Will I ever get over the heart-aching joy of watching Iain perform, just as poignant each and every time? Somehow I don’t think so.
And now I must be off! There is still much baking, sewing, wrapping and merry making to be done!
a two headed princess…
I used to own a wool babywearing poncho. It wasn’t perfect and it made me look like a mix between a weeble and a garden gnome, but it more or less did the trick. We dug it out at the beginning of the season only to discover the moths had been at it, blast their powdery little hides! I swear those destructive tiny devils are going to be the death of me!
With several outdoor events this holiday season, mostly in the woods and always in the snow, I needed a way to safely carry her while keeping us both warm or we were in for a very long winter of being stranded at home alone. I had less then a week between the discovery of my Swiss cheese covering and the first such event. I ran out of time. I also threw the timing off on my machine sewing through those thick layers. But I did manage something warm and wearable, if not quite presentable. Now it is entirely complete, with all the bells and whistles.
I very heavily modified this “Princess Coat” pattern by Burda. I feel like the sleeves were much too long and bulky. I chopped off several inches and tapered them a bit more. Even so they are still big and puffy on me. Otherwise I think it’s a very nice pattern. We’re keeping busy and keeping warm!
50/52
long weekend
Last weekend. Thanksgiving. I’m completely incapable of posting things in a timely manner at the moment. We had our first big snow of the season. I think the final reading on Galen’s snow gauge was 17″. The day before the storm we brought in all the leeks from the garden and made a snack of the last of the baby carrots. I’m still not ready to let the garden go for the year. And actually the snow has melted enough now and some of the plants are tall enough that I’ve managed to chip away enough ice to wrench the garden gate open to gather frozen leaves of kale and collards.
I’ve just finished reading Wigwam in the City to see if and how it would fit into our studies. The woodcut illustrations by Gil Miret partially inspired some of our recent wood block carving and printing experiments. We made gratitude prayer flags in preparation for Thanksgiving, featuring apple prints, potato prints and yes, some woodcuts as well. These were some early attempts. After a good bit of playing the boys are starting to get more satisfying results.
I’m now reading Inkheart at Iain’s request. We like to share the books we love with one another whenever possible. Both Iain and Elijah are big Cornelia Funke fans, so I’ve read several of her books already.
Knitting wise, top secret knitting project #1 is in need of buttons. Top secret knitting project #2 is completely done. Top secret knitting project #3 is just absurd. Casting on to size 3 needles, with lace weight yarn, at the end of November absurd. Let’s put it this way, it might be wise of my sister to call and remind me how very much I love her. I’m not even going to specify which sister. After-all, I figure I should be getting something out of this.
Baby girl had her first solid food at Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve been putting her off because we have so many issues with food allergies and sensitivities that I wanted to wait until gut permeability was less of an issue. She turned 8 month old the day before and Galen had his heart set on sharing our feast with her. To celebrate she had her first taste of our home-grown butternut squash. The yell pictured above was one of excitement, not distress. This girl makes me laugh. She has since tried some of the spice free applesauce that Galen lovingly made especially for her and some of the aforementioned garden greens pureed with yet more squash.
We found what we believe to be wolf tracks crossing our driveway Thanksgiving morning! There have been rumors of there possibly being some in the area, but up until now we hadn’t seen any convincing evidence that they were so very close to our home. So very close. We measured print and gait. Much too big for coyotes and fresh too, they appeared within a couple hours of our driveway being plowed.
I can’t believe we’re almost a week into Advent already!
costumes for the girls
Life with Miss Mairi Rose is often an adventure. For months and months she told everyone who would listen that she was going to be a mermaid for Halloween. After a while I, seasoned parent though I may be, even believed her. This went on for at least 6 months and I started making plans in the back of my head. A month before Halloween she woke up one day and announced she was going to be….
a coyote.
So she could play a joke on the neighbors and scare them (in a playful way).
Okay. I’m flexible.
That lasted for a week or so until she heard of a different, better joke. One that she could play on a lot of people. She decided that she was going to tie a rope around her waist with the ends kind of picked apart a bit. When people guessed what she was she would say, “I’m afraid not!” (a- frayed-knot). She greatly enjoyed using that line for about a week.
“Guess what I’m going to be for Halloween!”
“Abraham Lincoln?”
“I’m afraid not!” she would glibly reply with great enthusiasm and much emphasis.
Elijah was aghast. A chance for a homemade costume and that was what she was going with?!? Several of her siblings tried to talk her out of it, but she stood her ground. She was being a frayed knot.
One afternoon shortly before Halloween, when no one else was around, she quietly cuddled up to me and in a very little voice said, “Mommy, is it too late to change my costume?”
And so we came full circle, back to a mermaid…
A modest mermaid costume is a tricky thing to pull off. I made the dress from some cotton velour I had about. You know how I love my double duty Halloween costumes (Galen got a new pair of winter pants this year) and she is in need of cool weather clothing.
I strung a seashell necklace, she strung a seashell bracelet. The starfish was needle felted with the beads sewn on after it was formed. The tulle skirt is supposed to be the ocean. I’m not sure if that’s clear, especially in pictures since you can’t really see the layered colors and wavy texture too well.
The tail snaps on and off so that the skirt can be used separately. She’s forever looking for new costumes for the little shows she puts on and I thought it might be useful.
Our littlest love, as you well know, was a lamb. I knitted roving to form the bonnet, needle felting the ears. The tights (see this tutorial) turned out so adorable and fit so well that I think I’ll have to make several more pairs. The shape of the body was based on the Sis Boom Carly Baby Bubble, greatly modified to suit our needs. I made it out of batting.
She was born right in the midst of lambing season here. Two of the lambs up the road share her birthday, with the others mostly being a day or two to either side. For the first few days after she was born she didn’t cry, but made these tiny little bleating noises that made her sound rather like a baby lamb herself. It seemed fitting.
costumes for the boys
We made wee pumpkins to package up treats in. I traced a cake pan to get circles of orange tissue paper and twisted it all up with some green floral tape. We made a couple of sizes to hold various things. These are the tiny ones.
Legolas Greenleaf
He bought the wig and pin and sewed, gathered or constructed the rest. We went to the fabric store and he picked out what he wanted, down to elastic (which he ended up not using) and thread without so much as consulting me. Back at home and he started cutting and stitching. I worried a bit about the many things that he might not take into consideration as a novice sewer, but bit my tongue and stayed out of the way and as you can see he clearly had it all well in hand. The only thing he asked my advice on was the making of the gauntlets. I talked him through drafting a simple pattern based on his measurements and he executed it perfectly. I had absolutely no concerns about his ability to make his own accessories (a.k.a. weapons), which he carved and burned designs into.
The Jockey
Holy-moly. This one almost put me in an early grave. This boy and his ideas I tell ya! Whenever I mentioned his costume plans to people, they always commented on how easy it would be, because surely he must have most of the gear already? Nope. You see, jockeys do not wear black britches, they wear white. A plain riding helmet? Completely unacceptable. I was handed a sketch, which I then had to transform into a workable, wearable pattern…and then redesign when he opted for an entirely different fabric. He did all of the sewing himself, down to the hand embroidered horse (amazing right?), with me talking him through each step. It really was quite the undertaking. But through it all I kept thinking, how often will I be able to help one of my boys with a dream sewing project? I mean really now.
And our dear little Robin Hood.
Goodness he’s adorable! But, eek, don’t tell him I said so! I would be in an awful lot of trouble you know. While making his costume, I took the opportunity to start teaching him a bit about using my machine. While I did the majority of it, he did sew a couple of the straight seams himself. He was mightily pleased with himself and is pushing for a new project that he can do all on his own.
Iain made the bow, quiver and arrows for him. Actually he sold them to him for a very reasonable price. There was a catalog and order form and everything, even a three cent shipping charge for carrying them downstairs.
extreme pumpkin carving
He says it’s tradition. I maintain that we are intelligent enough and creative enough to come up with better traditions…
I wanted a print of Seraphina’s hand for her baby book. And I thought if it went well we’d do a print on her pumpkin as well. Conventional wisdom is to try to get a baby’s hand print while they are sleeping. I set everything up, down to putting her to sleep on a towel and rolling her sleeve up before she drifted off. And of course she woke as soon as we attempted it. squish, squish…green paint ooooozing. She laughed when we rubbed it off and laughed when we painted more on. Instead of hand prints, we got grab prints, and one smeared little foot mark.
Last year we grew our own Jack ‘O Lanterns. This year I prioritized using that space for edibles. Apparently my children have very expensive taste in pumpkins. I’m planning on finding room for big pumpkins again next year! (we did grow lots of pie pumpkins this year and they are amazingly delicious) We saved seeds from these as we carved, some to roast and some to plant. I think we’ll try growing them around the edges of Sunflower Field. That’s what we call our wiffle ball field, with the wall of sunflowers marking the edge.
There was so much flesh leftover from these big beasts that I made a batch of pumpkin butter. We had a few warm nights where we huddled together under sleeping bags on the porch and read bedtime stories by flashlight and the glow of jack o’ lanterns.
Sukkot
With a third grader in the house, we find ourselves yet again celebrating many of the Jewish holidays as we work our way through the festivals of this particular school year. I’ve really been enjoying eating out there. Most days anyway! Some days it’s quite cold and it’s always inconveniently far from the house. BUT, it also drags us out into what may be some of the last days before serious cold hits. Days that we might otherwise over look in our haste and let pass us by. It pulls us out of the house, out of usual habits, out of ourselves and there is often something wonderful about that. Tomorrow night we have some friends joining us. Such a treat!
yarn along, etc.
I’m currently reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes. A dear friend gave us some very special books from her own collection and this was among them. They were ostensibly a gift for the children, who are greatly enjoying most of the volumes, but I pulled this one aside, as I realized I had never read it (no, I don’t count enjoying the show Sherlock, though enjoy it I do). There is this great kind of undercurrent of humor in the writing. I was considering having the older boys read it. We recently did a block on the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Whenever we work with a certain time period I like to expose them to music, art and literature of the time. As I’m reading it, it’s brought up all of these questions in my mind about whether I’m ok with endorsing murder stories as a form of entertainment (do as I say, not as I do!). I admittedly watch some shows and read some books that are essentially murder mysteries and yet the idea of my children doing the same thing makes me uneasy. Also some of it is gruesome, too much so for a sensitive 12 year old, at least. Thirdly, it is extremely, wildly offensive to basically all non-Caucasian peoples. And while I as an adult recognize it as a product of the time period, I try to keep the bigotry the kids are exposed to at a minimum. It’s just one of my little quirks. I think I’m going to hold on to this one a little longer, until I know that they can read it with full understanding of what’s going on.
I did read an excerpt aloud to them last week. We were working on a creative writing project with emphasis on using descriptive words to really paint a picture for the reader and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is pretty much unparallelled on that front.
The knitting- I’m back to working on Iain’s birthday sweater. And by that I mean that I’m hoping that posting about it will motivate me to pick it back up again. This pullover has a serious case of Second-Sleeveitis. I’m looking forward to knitting the yoke, but I just can’t seem to convince myself to cast on for that second sleeve that needs to be knitted beforehand. Will you judge me if I confess that the only reason I’m even considering going back to it now is that I really want the needles it’s on for an entirely different project?
Remember this little set? She outgrew the longies ages ago, but this wee sweater has seen a lot of wear. She wore it at less then a week old and she’s still wearing it now. I think this will be one of the last times though. I’m considering a new vest or short sleeved sweater for layering in wintertime.
And some pictures of this year’s dragon bread….
All of the photos were taken prior to baking. Everyone made their own loaf this year.
