A-Frame Tent, A-Plus Day

Funny, funny universe.

On a weekend laden with best-laid plans, Big B came down with a nasty tummy bug that knocked him out all day Saturday. This morning he woke, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to make up for lost time. I knew we were going to stay close to home to allow him a day of recovery, and me a day to finish several organizational projects started during his sickness--but he and little b needed some adventure.

During my morning coffee blogroll, I saw Cakie's A-Frame Tent featured in Grosgrain's Free Pattern Month, and fell in love. I made a quick list for the hardware store and sent the boys on a quest so that I could finish up some chores.

When they returned, we got to work drilling, fitting, hemming and attaching. In less than one hour they had their adventure.

Simple though it might be, there was something special about it being made just for them. It was also a powerful lesson for me: they may not enter it properly or treat it gently--but I did, after all, make it just for them. It is theirs to invent, collapse, rebuild, enter, and love as they wish.

I am sensing a major shift in the tides. Perhaps it is the excitement of summer on the horizon. Perhaps it is this new clarity with which I choose my activities and things. But I am seeing a beautiful light ahead.

Simple Gifts

I have taken a longer break from this space than I had intended. A lack of camera and plate-too-full have made excuses easy, and I have seen the repercussions. This space is much more to me than an exhibitionist outlet or a pretty chronicle: it keeps me accountable to my own laws of nature. In my time away from it, I have seen its true value. And it is good to be back.

Recently, Mama Bird recommended a small, neatly packaged, seemingly innocent book. As I read (read: devour) its pages, nothing independently groundbreaking leaps up from them. But somehow, the path therein seems brilliantly and easily illuminated.

Organized Simplicity is more than a book to me now, it seems to be my mantra. Through the simple, grounding task of revisiting our family's purpose, I have been given a monumental gift. I now have a clear and ever-present filter for my words, actions, deeds, time obligations, and things. If any of the above do not fulfill the highest good of my family's purpose, they are OUT. And it is maybe the most refreshing feeling I've ever had.

I've even been able to use the filter for the book itself. Where the author is able to implement the system in 10 days, I am granting myself a generous six months, thereby removing all pressure and really making it enjoyable. The same principles and priorities are being applied to my body, my health, my parenting, my marriage--and for the first time in a long time, I feel there just might be time enough in my day to thoroughly savor all of these rich blessings on my plate.

It feels nice to be back here. All of these images were taken in my very own front yard. All around me, things feel clean, fresh, and washed brand new.

Inviting Fall: Paper Tree

I was immediately inspired when I saw this post on my favorite children's craft collective, The Crafty Crow. It was a nice, slow process. The boys helped me cut branches from paper grocery bags. The tree stayed leafless for a couple of days, then we took out the watercolors and painted a handful of coffee filters I had stashed in the craft cabinet.

The next day, when the coffee filters were dry, we folded the filters in half, then in half again, then cut a leaf shape out of them, leaving a very cool star in the center of each.

I love our new door art! The leaves don't really change much where we live, so creating a bit of color brings the season that much closer. Looking forward to more cinnamon and pumpkins and apples and hay and all things autumn!

Inviting Fall: Pinecone Wreath

Wednesday's Autumnal Equinox came and went without my planned seasonal fanfare, as our four schedules left us all passing ships in the night, with barely enough time for nutrition, homework and hygiene, let alone crafty ritual. But this morning was just right for it. A cool breeze, a slow pace, and nothing on the agenda but enjoying each other's company.

On our annual Labor Day trip to south Georgia, we went on a pinecone hunt, and gathered a bagful to bring home for fall decorating.

We pulled it out this morning, along with a styrofoam wreath form I've had lying around for way too long, and Big B and little b had fun sorting the pinecones into just the right arrangement. The real fun began when I told them I'd let them use the hot glue gun. The reverence of that tool held their rapt attention for the entire project.

I wrapped the wreath form with autumnal fabric, then let the boys take turns with the hot glue gun, gluing their pinecone of choice to the fabric, bottom side inward.

I glued small rust colored ornaments and cinnamon sticks between their pinecones as we worked. With the leftovers, we made a welcoming basket for the front hall table.

We all felt so proud to hang our welcoming wreath on the front door, inviting more cool breezes, cinnamon smells and warm, rusty colors. I immediately went into the kitchen and made butternut squash bisque! We wholeheartedly welcome you, autumn, and all your gracious gifts!

Car Painting, Take Two

The walls of our house are in need of refreshment. Recently inspired by the very cool, very comfortable, very efficient interior design in the small home of our friends, we have been rearranging furniture and artwork. At a quick stop at our local art and frame store, I saw large stretched canvases marked down beyond belief. I scooped two up and resurrected a project we enjoyed last year with shiny new paints and refurbished gusto.

Big B's finished Car Painting:

little b's finished Car Painting:

New Front Entry Table Art:

Spring Forward!

Spring has officially sprung. We set the clocks forward last night, the pileated woodpeckers are back on our telephone pole, and the blue jays are trying to make nests with the streamers on our tricycles. We've resurrected the bubble machine and have been outside all weekend. Yesterday Mimi came in town for a visit, and we went out exploring, seeking the jewels of the season.

After finding a flea market and admiring its treasures,
...we headed to our favorite nursery, where spring's real treasures are beginning to shine.We bought two varieties each of peppers and tomatoes for our Earth Box, and several kinds of herbs and flowers to create a mini-garden in an old Radio Flyer wagon that's been rusting in our backyard.
These little signs of spring are refreshing and invigorating, and each glimpse of growth will be a reminder to nurture the beauty within each living thing.

"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden.

On the first day of spring,
I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth.
I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar."

--Helen Hayes

New Year Wishes, New Year Gratitude

Happy New Year everyone! Our family could not have started the year off on a better foot, throwing our annual New Year's Day party and surrounding ourselves with family, friends, food and football. What could be better?

The backdrop to the overwhelming abundance of food was an altar of prosperity. The collection included fertile and promising pomegranates, rich, sweet tangerines, and a candle to bring happiness to our home. Guests were given blank strips of paper upon which to write their wishes for the coming year. Some of the wishes from guests of all ages:

--to be happy
--prosperity, joy, wellness, love
--joy, abundance, health, deep peace
--a more positive perspective
--good job, good grades, good love
--to discover my passion
--to be a knight
--that everyone is safe and sound and happy
--to find beauty in every moment

Now our cozy home has fallen back into the daily routine, with two beautiful exceptions. The first is this gorgeous book, given to me as a gift of gratitude. I decided to use each page to express the gratitude of our family, for things great and small, each time we site down together for a meal in 2010. We may not write every day, but we will get into the habit of noticing the little things...and celebrating our togetherness in one more special way.
The second difference in our home happens each day around 4:00 pm. Because of the awesome rainbow maker given to us by Big L and little l, when the sun comes through our dining room window, rainbows dance all around our house for about twenty minutes. It has had an amazing effect on our afternoons!
May your wishes come true in 2010, and may each rainbow you chase be yours!

Camp B, Day Eight: Color Day

This morning was Big B and little b's morning out with Nee-nee. Little b was still under the weather when I retrieved him, so we shelved our plans once again and nestled in for the afternoon. Nee-nee noticed that Big B was wearing a yellow shirt, had seen a yellow butterfly, and was about to make banana bread with yellow bananas. Voila, Camp B, Day Eight: Color Day was born.

To celebrate Big B's transition into Kindergarten, we bought him a box of 64 Crayola crayons a week or two ago. He has taken very good care of them, and loves to hear the names of the colors as he's drawing. Color Day inspired a closer look, and Big B carefully pulled out every single crayon today.
I asked him, "If you were a Crayola crayon, which one would you be?" After much deliberation, his choice was solid: sepia. We looked at each other and almost simultaneously said: "Color Walk!" And so we did.After we returned from our walk, we grabbed the food coloring we had just bought for our ocean-in-a-bottle project, and created a little color mixing station. We filled three glass containers with water, and I asked Big B to start by putting a few drops of each primary color into each glass. After explaining that primary colors could mix to make any other colors in the rainbow, Big B was set free to play color scientist, and he kept busy for a very long time, mixing and even matching his creations.

To end our evening, we played in the boys' room while I finished organizing the books by color. I wanted to create a system that Big B would enjoy, as he sets out to explore the limitless world of independent reading, sometime in the very near future.

“The purest and most thoughtful minds

are those which love color the most.”
--John Ruskin

Camp B, Day Seven: House and Home Day

Camp B was thrown a curveball this morning by two leaky nostrils and a fever-y little b. Not to let this put a damper on the day, we decided to lay low and celebrate our home life with Camp B, Day Seven: House and Home Day.

While I was tending to little b this morning, I found a website for Big B that showcases houses around the world. We explored that for a little while, then I stumbled upon images from the 1937 edition of Shelter. WOW. A bit over Big B's head, but I'll be sure to remember this in a few years.

Little b would not cooperate with naptime, so we loaded up in the car in our pajamas and took a tour of our community's funkiest houses. I asked Big B who he thought built our house, and he answered, '"God?" which just cracked me up. We talked about how houses are built, and marveled at some of the unique details of these domiciles.For a quiet afternoon activity, I laid out simple building blocks and toy houses and left the rest to the imaginations of my boys.This evening, after little b was tucked in, Big B and I tried our hands at building a house of cards. We didn't get very far, but I was very proud of our patience and teamwork!
I have been cleaning and purging the boys' room in preparation for kindergarten, and serendipitously came across this book this morning. Building a House by Byron Barton is a simple, easy to understand, sweetly illustrated tutorial on how most American houses are built. Big B found it very interesting, and it was a great story to include in our bedtime trio.

“A house is a home when it
shelters the body and comforts the soul.”
--Phillip Moffitt