Pondered In My Heart

Art for Our Lady: Marian ATC Swap 2012

Friends, it's that time once again when we honor Our Lady during her month of May by hosting an Artist Trading Card swap of Marian artwork. This will be our third Marian ATC swap!

(Our Lady of Mount Carmel by Anna)

Artist trading cards are miniature pieces of artwork created for the purpose of trading with others. An ATC is  precisely 2.5" x 3.5" (6.35 x 8.89 cm) in size - you can buy readymade cards at a craft or art supply store or cut your own from larger pieces of paper. Something like card stock or heavy watercolor paper is good. We usually cut ours from watercolor paper - a 9x12" sheet will give you ten cards.

Artist Trading Cards can be made using any art medium such as colored pencils, graphite, watercolor, acrylic, marker, pen and ink - whatever your preference is for artistic pursuits.

The swap is open to artists of all ages and abilities - we are always delighted to have artists from the littlest youngsters all the way through to one of my favorite swappers who is a great grandmother. This is a great project for the whole family to work on together, and busy moms are especially encouraged to sit down and take some time for creativity.

  

(Mary Spinning Thread by Mary Rose, Mother and Child by Lydia, and Mary with Roses by Kateri - love the little angel in flight!)

The small size of an ATC makes it fun and non-intimidating, but the diminutive results can be so very lovely.

(Our Lady of Sorrows, oil by Josiah)

Some possibilities for inspiration: titles of Our Lady (see the Litany of Loreto), mysteries of the rosary, devotions and apparitions, hymns, prayers, antiphons, symbols, traditional images or paintings.You can see some of the cards from our precious Marian ATC Swaps here: Our Marian ATC's.

The swap will work the same as the previous ones. Here are the details:

• Each participant will create five ATC's to mail out and will receive five different cards in return.
• Everyone will send their cards to me. We will sort them out roughly by age group/ability of the creator and then mail the cards back out to their new recipients. When you mail your cards to me, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope that I can use to send your new cards to you.
• International swappers are most welcome! It's always extra fun to receive cards from a faraway place. 
• The swap is open to all ages.
• Each card should be labeled on the back with the creator's name and however much info you'd like to share - age (for the kids), date, title of the piece, media used, and location if you like. Some participants look to connect with others for possible pen pals and the like, so you are welcome to include more personal info if you wish, but it is not required.
• If you are interested in participating please leave a comment or send me an email at kimberlee (at) beadsofmercy (dot) com, and put ATC swap in the subject, and I will send you further information. Anyone can join in and definitely the more the merrier.
• Please mail your cards to me postmarked by Wednesday, May 30th.
• If you have a blog, please feel free to spread the word. Here's an image you can use if you like:

(thank you, Anna Ruth!)

Enjoy creating lovely artwork to honor Our Blessed Mother!

On Creativity: A Sample

I so often get asked about 'creativity' in my home. What curriculum do you use? Do your children take art classes? How do you get your kids to be so creative? Do you schedule in art time? I thought I would try to show you a bit with just one little sample...

We recently watched Wagner's Siegfried  (Part III of The Ring Cycle). Three evenings, three acts, all nine of us, four and a half hours of opera. The rich, lavish Metropolitan production of Wagner's epic music was magnificent.  And every one of us loved it. (Okay, Act III was a bit, er, sensual for our taste - but there you have it, that's Act III for you.) When you experience something so profound and beautiful and epic and otherworldly, it is only natural to want to continue the experience...

Kateri peruses the liner notes

to remember and live it and have it move you still.

Side Note: One nice advantage of watching opera on DVD is the subtitles! So easy for even Kateri to follow the gist of the plot. A funny: as we were discussing the Gollum-esque scene where Siegfried is able to know Mime's thoughts, Michael couldn't figure out how he knew that this power came through the tasting of the dragon's blood. How did I know that? It's not in the text. he asked. From Rush! was the obvious reply, for we had indeed once again read one of our favorite chapters from The Saturdays before watching Seeg-freed. (How could we not?)

Lively discussions about the music, the singing, the conductor, the scenery, the cast, the costumes, the makeup, the interpretations - so many aspects of the performance were talked over as we remembered bits and pieces and our favorite parts and the things we didn't like. The fabulous forging of the sword (how does he sing while swinging that hammer against the anvil?), the dreaded symmetrical boils on Mime's head, the eerie glow of the writhing Erde, the 'artistic license' of the interpretation of Fafner - so very much to talk about!  There is jolly joking as Dad waves a sword around singing Notung! Notung! at the top of his lungs and perhaps there is a mother singing dramatically as she bemoans being awakened from her eternal slumber by her Wotan husband. Parts of the score are looked at by musicians, the orchestral music is blared through the house, little girls play dress up and swathe themselves in scarves being alternatively Erde and Brünnhilde. We have people young and old singing to each other in operatic fashion, making up lyrics on the spot to sing an epic song or to ask to pass the butter.

So when Kateri woke up the next morning and declared she wanted to make a Siegfried scene, I knew I just had to stand back and watch her work her magic...

Do you mean out of paper?

Yes, that would be good.

Would you like a folder to hold your set?

That would work nicely. Thanks, Mom. I like that. Then it can stand up.

Here's the colored paper for you.

The bottom should be green grass and I'm going to make a pond with fish in it. I'll get the scissors and the glue.

Would you like this tree I made for  you?

Oh, yes! That's nice! Thank you!

I have to get to work now. Just call me if you need anything else.

There has to be a sun and a moon and I could put on some star stickers...

I made the Wanderer and Siegfried and Alberich and Mime the ugly dwarf. I gave the Wanderer lots of bling because he had sparkly stuff on him in the movie. See his eye patch? And his big floppy hat. I gave Siegfried his sword Notung and he has his horn and he has boots. I made the singing bird a bluebird. He can sit on the tree branch. Alberich was sort of greenish. How do you like Mime's hair?

Kateri, I love Mime's hair. It's perfect. And I love his tattered clothes.

Would you like a little twig for Wotan's staff?

Thanks, Mom. That's great. He can stand up against this rock.

I made the dragon really, really huge because he is a big fierce dragon.

He has to have fire coming out of his mouth so I'm making lots of red fire.

Can you help me glue on the little bits of orange fire? It's really tricky.

I would be happy to. Just show me where you want them.

Kateri, would you like to use this gray packing paper? We can scrunch it up to be Fafner's cave.

Oh, yeah, Mom. That's really great. I like that. Now he needs lots and lots of gold for his treasure.

I'll find you some gold bits. And here's a gold envelope flap I saved - you can cut it up for more treasure.

Thanks, Mom. Look, I made a big gold ring!

Look, Mom! Siegfried is getting ready to slay the dragon!

When we feed our children on beautiful, rich fare it naturally produces fruit. We don't need to prod or cajole or press or probe. We simply nurture a little bit.  Just like when we read 'living books', our children can't help but want to live the books. It's a natural, intuitive, organic process that occurs when we encounter the stuff of life that moves us. We want to live it and breathe it and touch it and taste it; we want to hear it over and over again. The books we read and the music we hear and the natural world around us we explore and everyone and everything we experience becomes a part of our very selves. And from the wealth of all we encounter pours forth the outflow of creativity. We just have to watch and wait and water and let it grow. We make a path for it to flow. We delight and wonder at the outpouring.

And that's a little sample of how we do 'creativity' in our house.

For All the Saints Artist Trading Card Swap 2011

On this All Hallows' Eve I am pleased to announce we will once again be hosting an Artist Trading Card swap with the theme: For All the Saints! 

One of our greatest joys as parents is teaching our children about the saints who came before us - from the earliest history to modern times, rich and poor, young and old, from all walks of life, who fought the good fight and finished the course and are enjoying their eternity with God in heaven. We share their lives and their stories and we teach our children to make friends with the saints and call upon their intercession to assist us on our own journey towards salvation.

Everyone is invited to make ATC's of their favorite saints as we celebrate the Church Triumphant.

Artist Trading Cards are tiny pieces of original artwork created for the purpose of trading with others. This will be the fourth trading card swap we are hosting here on the blog (we also swap cards of Marian artwork in May).  We have had hundreds of families participate, with artists young and old.

St. Joseph and the Child Jesus by Lydia (at age 15), pen

An ATC is precisely 2.5" x 3.5" (6.35 x 8.89 cm) in size - you can buy ready made cards at a craft or art supply store or cut your own from larger pieces of paper. Card stock, heavy watercolor paper or any sturdy paper is good. We usually cut ours from watercolor paper or bristol - a 9x12" sheet will give you ten cards. Their small size makes them fun and non-intimidating to work with.

St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes by Anna Ruth (at age 13), pen and watercolor

Artwork can be of any media or combination thereof -watercolors, acrylics, pen and ink, colored pencil, calligraphy - whatever you like.

St. Peter and St. Paul by Mary Rose (at age 10), pen and watercolor

Once again, we welcome participants of all ages in the swap, from the littlest budding artists - 

St. Therese by Kateri (at age four), pen and watercolor (oh, that spelling!)

all the way through to adults.  One of the greatest pleasures for me was seeing so many other busy moms taking time for their own creative endeavors and to see their individuality reflected in their artwork. Some participants expressed their artistic talent drawing or painting while others demonstrated their creativity through various scrapboook and papercrafting techniques. Last swap I was particularly delighted to receive lovely cards from a great grandmother learning to paint later in life.

 Parents, children, adults, teens - everyone is invited to participate. We look forward to having the repeat swappers who have traded in all of our previous swaps as well as new folks joining for the first time!

 

 watercolor by Lydia (at age 15)

The swap will work the same way as we did it previous times. Here are the details:

• Each participant will create five ATC's to mail out and will receive five different cards from five different artists in return.
• Everyone will send their cards to me. I will sort them out roughly by age group of the creator, and then mail the cards back out to their new recipients. When you mail your cards to me, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope that I can use to send your new cards to you.
• International swappers are most welcome! It's always extra fun to receive cards from a far away place. 
• The swap is open to all ages. This is the perfect opportunity to sit down and create some lovely artwork alongside your children.
• Each card should be labeled on the back with the creator's name and however much info you'd like to share - age (for the kids), date, title of the piece, media used, location, email etc. Last time some participants were looking to connect with others for possible pen pals and the like, so you are welcome to include more info if you like.
• If you are interested in participating please send me an email at kimberlee (at) beadsofmercy (dot) com, and put ATC swap in the subject, and I will send you further information. Anyone can join in and definitely the more the merrier.
• Please mail your cards to me postmarked by Friday, November 18th.

If you have a blog, please feel free to spread the word and you can grab this button if you like:

  

You can see some of last year's saint cards here: Saint Swap 2010

Please note: Trading ATC''s makes a wonderful project for a class or group, but may I suggest large classes swap amongst the members rather than sending the cards to me. I aim to have each artist receive cards from five different people. I learned in a previous swap that if I have large classes participating it can be impossible to do the trading so that people get cards back from five people who are not in their own class, so I recommend you just swap within the class rather than going through the trouble of mailing them. Thank you for your understanding.

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Happy drawing and painting For All the Saints!

Art for Our Lady: Marian Artist Trading Card Swap 2011

 

To honor Our Lady during her month of May we will once again be hosting an Artist Trading Card swap of Marian artwork.

Artist Trading Cards are tiny pieces of original artwork created for the purpose of trading with others.

This will be the second Marian ATC swap - last May 575 Marian cards were traded. We also hosted an All Saints Swap in the fall which had even more participants. You can see some of the 1,460 saint cards traded here. You can also see some of last May's Marian cards here.

 

An ATC is  precisely 2.5" x 3.5" (6.35 x 8.89 cm) in size - you can buy ready made cards at a craft or art supply store or cut your own from larger pieces of paper. Something like card stock or heavy watercolor paper is good. We usually cut ours from watercolor paper - a 9x12" sheet will give you ten cards.

Their small size makes them fun and non-intimidating to work with.
 

Artwork can be of any media or combination thereof -watercolors, acrylics, pen and ink, colored pencil, calligraphy, whatever.

 

The purpose of the swap is to share and encourage love of Our Lady, so all of the cards should reflect a Marian theme. Some suggestions to consider for inspiration: titles of Our Lady, mysteries of the rosary, apparitions, hymns, prayers, antiphons, symbols, traditional images or paintings. The possibilities are as limitless as Our Lady herself. 
 

watercolor by Mary Rose, age 9

Once again, we welcome participants of all ages in the swap, but each should be encouraged to do his or her best for  Blessed Mother. In the previous swaps we've had the littlest budding artists all the way through to teens and adults. We've had many mothers participate and I am always happy to see other busy moms taking time for their own creative endeavors and to see their individuality reflected in their artwork. Some ladies expressed their artistic talent drawing or painting while others demonstrated their creativity through various scrapboook and papercrafting techniques. Anyone who would like to honor Our Lady through artwork is invited to join!

Blessed Mother by Kateri, age 4

The swap will work the same as the previous ones. Here are the details:

• Each participant will create five ATC's to mail out and will receive five different cards in return.
• Everyone will send their cards to me. We will sort them out roughly by age group of the creator and then mail the cards back out to their new recipients. When you mail your cards to me, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope that I can use to send your new cards to you.
• International swappers are most welcome! It's always extra fun to receive cards from a far away place. 
• The swap is open to all ages.
• Each card should be labeled on the back with the creator's name and however much info you'd like to share - age (for the kids), date, title of the piece, media used and location if you like. Last time some participants were looking to connect with others for possible pen pals and the like, so you are welcome to include more personal info if you want, but it is not required.
• If you are interested in participating please leave a comment or send me an email at kimberlee (at) beadsofmercy (dot) com, and put ATC swap in the subject, and I will send you further details. Anyone can join in and definitely the more the merrier.
• Please mail your cards to me postmarked by Saturday, May 28th.
• If you have a blog, please feel free to spread the word. Here is a button you can post (thanks Lydia):    
   

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you! Have fun and Ave Maria!

Edited to add: Trading ATC''s makes a wonderful project for a class or group, but may I suggest classes swap amongst the members rather than sending the cards to me. I aim to have each artist receive cards from five different people. I learned in the last swap that if I have classes participating it can be impossible to do the trading so that people get cards back from five people who are not in their own class, so I recommend you just swap within the class rather than going through the trouble of mailing them. Thank you for your understanding.

Advent Banner

 

Just a quick post to show you my Advent banner that I promised someone I would post. I was inspired by some lovely banners I've seen on etsy such as this one and this one. I do have the purple wooden 'WAIT' letters on the mantel in the living room but I wanted something for the kitchen/sunroom as they are our main living areas for most of the day. The stars and lights are leftover decorations from the birthday party my children staged for me last month - we left them up as my dear husband declared them so very cheery to come home to on these dark and dreary gray days.

The squares are cut from stiff cardboard. I discovered scrapbookers call this stuff 'chipboard' but I just used some I had saved from the backs of sketch pads and such. I covered the squares with patterned cardstock - it is a subtle vintage floral that I printed from a free digital scrapbook paper site. Then I inked the edges with a brown stamp pad for added interest.

The flourishes are stamped with gold paint using a stamper we cut out of foam. I did purchase a set of large alphabet stamps from Joann's as I thought they were a good investment with lots of potential uses -I can see a lovely blue Ave Maria banner for May, and I am almost (but not quite) tempted to picture a Christus Natus Hodie in red and green. It is just lower case letters but I made do for the capital E . (Can you tell I'm from New England? We save and reuse and make do.) I stamped the letters with acrylic paint, which gives an interesting effect when the paint dries. Mary Rose asked how I got the cool viney pattern in the purple paint letters - that's just how the paint dries when you stamp with paint. You could always cut the letters from purple cardstock if you didn't have the alphabet stamps.

Joann's also had inexpensive packages of purple cardstock from which I cut the scalloped squares. I punched holes to string a purple ribbon through, and I did use gold eyelets in the holes - not necessary but a nice touch. I also added bows of sheer gold ribbon between the words using up bits of ribbon saved from something or other.

 

I think it turned out rather nice and I really like having such a big and bold declaration on display.

For All the Saints ATC Swap - Fait Accompli!

Hear ye! Hear ye! All of the All Saints artist trading cards were mailed out to their new recipients on Monday!

We spent our Thanksgiving break sorting and swapping and packaging up all the cards. We finally finished on Saturday at 5 o'clock, and as I prepared to dash out the door with them all, my dear husband informed me the post office closed at 4. So Monday was the big day!

Are you ready for the number? We had a grand total of 1, 460 cards! That's a lot of artwork! That's a lot of saints! That's lots and lots of artist who love our dear friends in heaven, the Church Triumphant, the Saints!

So while it was an arduous task sorting them all out, we were all so very blessed and encouraged and privileged to see all of the cards made by so very many creative hands!

We had cards from the littlest two year old artists-

to the four year olds - I think this little artist is definitely a kindred spirit of Kateri-(that's our beloved St. Elizabeth of Hungary in case you can't read four-year-old-ese)

to the dear little boys who love to draw ever so many St. Sebastians and St. Georges and St. Martins. Any every single sword, arrow and dragon laden card so precious and unique from all the others.

To the beautiful cards lovingly drawn by young girls, such as this artist who chose to draw five different Saints Theresa.
 

To the more than forty adult artists who did such beautiful, inspiring work - you could just see the love and devotion and Faith portrayed in the artwork. It was so edifying to contemplate all of the artists and their relationships to their dear favorite saints.

As I already explained, we received many pieces of mail placed under the guidance of good St. Anthony -

We actually had quite a few envelopes arrive ripped or damaged in some way, including one that sadly had all of its contents lost. When reluctantly I wrote to tell the mother that her family's cards were lost she replied that 'perhaps the cards were meant to go to a mail carrier or some other person'. Isn't that a most beautiful thought?! Those precious saint cards drawn by young hands bearing witness somewhere -exactly where God wanted them to be. (and don't worry - we sent the family some new cards anyways)

So we thought we should entrust all of our outgoing mail to the care and guidance of dear St. Anthony,

and we stamped every one of the 174 envelopes before they went on their way.
 

 Josiah was tickled to get some 'fan mail' -
 
 
 
and I was delighted to read all of the many kind notes sent along from the mothers. We had cards from all across the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany and Norway. As one mother put it, she said it made her feel like she was part of a cross country homeschool group.

Here are the cards we made - Josiah's:

Eliza's St. Agnes, St. Therese, St. Peter, St.Helen and St. George:

Kateri's:

 

Anna's:

Mary Rose's:
 
 
and Lydia's: 
 
 Here are the cards we received:

Josiah got St.Francis de Sales with St. Jane de Chantal, St. Edmond Campion, St. Pierre Julian Eymard, St. Barbara  and St. Maximillian Kolbe, his patron.

Lydia received Sy. Maximillian as well, St. Lucy, St. Maria Goretti, St. Agnes, and our beloved St. Anthony.

Anna received St. Katherine Drexel, St. Lucy, Our Lady of the Brown Scapular, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, and St. Francis of Assisi.

Mary Rose  got St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. St. Cecilia, another St. Anthony, St. Gregory the Great, and Our Lady, Queen of all Saints.

Eliza received Our Lady of the Rosary, St. Brigid, St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. Therese and St. Rose of Lima.

Kateri got St.Elizabeth of Hungary, Holy Mary, St. Gianna, St. Nicholas, and St Brendan.
 

I ended up with just two cards but I love them so - St. Rose of Lima and a quote from St. Francis de Sales.
 
And here is a Mr. Linky so you can post links to your own cards if you post about them. Thank you so much once again to everyone who made this swap such a grand success, and also to my family for all their help in sorting and swapping and my children who made a couple dozen extra cards to help out in celebrating All Saints!

 

Saint ATC Swap Update

Just a little update on the For All the Saints artist trading card swap. I've extended the deadline a bit as some folks just found out about the swap and would like to participate. So if you've been thinking about joining you still have a little time - just shoot me an email if you are interested. My children don't like me to show the cards they plan on trading, but here's one Anna made for her dad, just to whet your appetite- 

Piles of cards have been landing in our mailbox everyday - it's very exciting! My girls love to run out to fetch the day's arrivals, although we won't open any of them until we get them all.

But yesterday we received this envelope that apparently got stuck in the postal machine and ripped. I was quite concerned about it as the envelope was rather shredded and almost torn in half - little ATC's could easily slip out through the large gap.  I thought of our friend Anthony, who told my girls they should always write 'S.A.G.' on their mail, short for St. Anthony Guide, so that through his intercession their mail would always arrive safely and not get lost. But alas, this envelope had no 'S.A.G.' on the back, and I feared the worst.

 

However, I was delightfully surprised as I pulled out the cards from the remains of the envelope to find all twenty five were there! I thought this was amazing, as I also found a letter inside the envelope from the mom, and that too was torn almost entirely in half:

So you can imagine how big the grin was on my face when I opened the letter and found this: 
 

Thank you, St. Anthony!

Fall Artist Trading Card Swap - For All the Saints!

 

 November is fast approaching and I will once again be hosting an Artist Trading Card swap with the theme: For All the Saints! 

One of our greatest joys as parents is teaching our children about the saints who came before us - from the earliest history to modern times, rich and poor, young and old, from all walks of life, who fought the good fight and finished the course and are enjoying their eternity with God in heaven. We share their lives and their stories and we teach our children to make friends with the saints and call upon their intercession to assist us on our own journey towards salvation.

Everyone is invited to make ATC's of their favorite saints as we prepare to celebrate the Church Triumphant.

Artist Trading Cards are tiny pieces of original artwork created for the purpose of trading with others. In May I hosted a similar swap here on the blog and we received 575 pieces of Marian artwork made by artists of all ages. We had so much fun making and trading the cards, and I know lots of you greatly enjoyed it as well.

St. Joseph and the Child Jesus by Lydia, pen

An ATC is precisely 2.5" x 3.5" (6.35 x 8.89 cm) in size - you can buy ready made cards at a craft or art supply store or cut your own from larger pieces of paper. Card stock, heavy watercolor paper or any sturdy paper is good. We usually cut ours from watercolor paper - a 9x12" sheet will give you ten cards. Their small size makes them fun and non-intimidating to work with.

St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes by Anna Ruth, pen and watercolor

Artwork can be of any media or combination thereof -watercolors, acrylics, pen and ink, colored pencil, calligraphy - whatever you like.

St. Peter and St. Paul by Mary Rose, pen and watercolor

Once again, we welcome participants of all ages in the swap, from the littlest budding artists - 

St. Therese by Kateri (age four), pen and watercolor (oh, that spelling!)

all the way through to adults. We had many mothers participate in the last swap - one of the greatest pleasures for me was seeing so many other busy moms taking time for their own creative endeavors and to see their individuality reflected in their artwork. Some mothers expressed their artistic talent drawing or painting while others demonstrated their creativity through various scrapboook and papercrafting techniques.

 watercolor by Lydia

The swap will work the same way as we did it last time. Here are the details:

• Each participant will create five ATC's to mail out and will receive five different cards in return.
• Everyone will send their cards to me. I will sort them out roughly by age group of the creator, and then mail the cards back out to their new recipients. When you mail your cards to me, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope that I can use to send your new cards to you.
• International swappers are most welcome! It's always extra fun to receive cards from a far away place. 
• The swap is open to all ages. This is the perfect opportunity to sit down and create some lovely artwork alongside your children, so I would like to encourage moms (or dads) to participate as well!
• Each card should be labeled on the back with the creator's name and however much info you'd like to share - age (for the kids), date, title of the piece, media used, location, email etc. Last time some participants were looking to connect with others for possible pen pals and the like, so you are welcome to include more info if you like.
• If you are interested in participating please send me an email at kimberlee (at) beadsofmercy (dot) com, and put ATC swap in the subject. Anyone can join in and definitely the more the merrier.
• Please mail your cards to me postmarked by Friday, November 5th.

11/3 Edited to add the following update: We have had a great response to the swap! Many more adults are participating this time as well, which is fantastic! As some folks are just finding out about it, and also people have been very busy with All Saints Day activities,  I am happy to extend  the deadline a bit. If you can't get your cards mailed until next week that  is fine. And I definitely hope to make this an annual swap, as well as the Marian swap in May. Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word!

If you have a blog, please feel free to spread the word and you can grab this button if you like:

 

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Happy drawing and painting For All the Saints!

Wordless Wednesday: in which I get out my very old easel and set it up for Lydia

 

 

Summer Art Table and a Shakespeare Swap

 

Here we have the latest favorite spot to be in my house- the kitchen art table. It's always amazes me how such little things have such a big impact on our family life.
 

When Michael went to look at that table I found on craigslist, he called me to tell me it had a formica top. I said it obviously wouldn't work for a chess board, but he replied that it was a pretty nice table with two chairs for twenty dollars and we could probably find a use for it. I couldn't think of what we'd do with it but it was one of those times when saying, "Whatever you want to do, Dear," turns out to be a wonderful blessing.

So Michael brought home the table and that same evening as I was emailing back and forth with a dear friend she mentioned she was setting up an 'art table'. Just those two little words and I knew just what to do with the new table.

I put it right by the windows so we can paint by lovely sunlight. I added a 99 cent thrifted lamp for night time use, and Mary Rose said that's like painting by moonlight.

I've kept the supplies simple and uncluttered, just a cup with sharpies, pencils and brushes, watercolors, and a constant fresh supply of pre-cut ATC's ready to use. (artist trading cards are all the rage here right now, but that's a whole 'nother post) We have lots of other art supplies that live elsewhere and occasionally people bring other items to the table, but the basics are always there and ready to use. It's a pleasant, convenient spot to sit a spell and create some artwork, and having such a lovely spot and supplies always available is very inviting. The weather has been very hot here so we've been spending most of our time indoors and our little art table gets used numerous times a day by artists young and old. Thanks for the inspiration, Heather!

In other news, Josiah  is hosting a Shakespeare themed ATC swap. We have been hooked on ATC's ever since the Marian swap in May, (and hooked on Shakespeare for a whole year now) and we've been having great fun making and trading cards. You can peek at our cards from our family Shakespeare swap, and leave Josiah a comment or drop him an email to join his swap. (While you're over there check out his post on categories of literary characters - he collaborated with Lydia, Anna and Mary Rose on the post and illustrations and it cracks me up every time I read it.)

 

Portia and the Prince of Morocco by Mary Rose

Over the Misty Moor Came a Chessboard

 
 
I promised my brother, (who loves wood as much as I do - our father was a carpenter), that I would blog our new chess board. Chess is presently quite popular in my house, but having broken the glass set after it was used as a  prop in filming, the children were using an ancient set of plastic and cardboard (gasp). Anna Ruth had a birthday coming up, so I suggested a nice chess set would be a most welcome gift. Behold her cake (the handy galloping white knights have been dubbed 'Mr. Pye' in our house):

I was inspired by this post about a DIY chess table, as it used stained squares rather than piecing the wood. I even found a  little table and chair set on craigslist, but alas when Michael went to get the set he realized the top was formica and thus not suitable. Running out of time to find a table, the guys set out to make a wooden board.

Michael purchased an inexpensive 1 x 4' pine stair tread from the hardware store, cut it precisely in half, and carefully glued the two pieces together with wood glue to make a 2' square. Jonathan used a metal carpenter's square to draw the squares and then burn them with his wood burning tool. Michael applied the stain to the squares - Minwax golden oak and mahogany- using a small paint brush. This was tricky business, but the burned lines help keep the stain from running into the adjacent squares as it tends to seep along the grain lines. Michael recommends using a small brush with little stain (not dripping wet), starting at the center of each square, and practicing on a scrap piece first.

After Michael completed the nerve wracking squares, Jonathan went to town with the wood burner doing the decorating. He chose Beowulf as the theme.

He took his inspiration from the illustrations in Ian Serraillier's version of Beowulf. We have Grendel with his captive, Beowulf's horn, the swan boat, the stolen cup, the whale, pine trees, the harp (he hated the sound of the harp), the huge hall (with gleaming roof) of Hrothgar King of the Danes, the lake monster, the proud-antlered deer(not drinking from the lake), a vague head of noble Aeschere, the dragon and his cave, the watchman and his hut, and the tower (where Beowulf's father sits).

After he finished all of the illustrations with the wood burner, he added the stain to the outer edges of the board using the same two colors, dark for the land and sea and the light for the 'sky'.  Michael then topped it all off with several coats of wipe on poly.

We also followed the cue from the DIY post and ordered the pieces from wholesalechess.com. We were delighted when they arrived to find they matched the board fairly well, and we got the perfect size  - 3 3/4" kings for our 2 1/4" squares.

We think it came out awesome. And needless to say our enjoyment of the game is greatly enhanced by this most unique piece of craftsmanship.

Here they enjoyed feasts and high fellowship, Story and song and the pride of armed peace. But away in the treacherous fens, beyond the moor, a hideous monster lurked, fiend from hell...

Wordless Wednesday: Art Lesson

   

The Joy of Watercolors

 

Sharp shinned hawk by Mary Rose, age 9, October, 2009

The children have always dabbled in various media, Josiah being rather fond of acrylics, Lydia pastels, and everyone very comfortable with colored pencils. But this was the year we truly discovered the joy of painting with watercolors in a big way. Back in the fall I purchased the Watercolor Journaling DVD*, and though we only watched it once its lessons have stayed with us all year. The two artists in the video demonstrate various techniques that they use combining watercolor painting and decorative text to create beautiful journals.

Vulture, chipping sparrows, and palm warbler by Lydia, age 14, October, 2009

While nothing is really earth shattering about the actual techniques they teach - things like how to do a blind contour drawing, washes, shading, basic composition and so forth, their presentation and demonstrations are wonderfully inspiring. It is very helpful to actually watch these things rather than just reading about it, particularly if one doesn't have the opportunity to take actual art classes. One great idea from the video is the concept of painting on a small scale using small pieces of paper. This is so very freeing - you have no worries about messing up such a small piece, you can create many pieces, and if you end up with something you really don't like you just grab another piece of paper and start again. 

But one of the most valuable lessons taught in the video (for us anyways) is the notion that creating artwork should be pleasant and not stressful, and the experience is important as well as the ending result. The artists emphasize painting for the joy of it, and the beauty of capturing memories and observations through words and art. One of their catch phrases is 'striving for imperfection', and as you watch them enjoy themselves even as they make mistakes -one of them even spells 'elk' (!) wrong - you can't help but pick up on their attitude that painting should be fun (cue Harry Chapin guitar strumming here...).

It was so enjoyable sitting down and painting with my children that I don't mind showing you my very first pictures, in all their colorful imperfections - smudged letters, messy blind contour drawing, and hello, I didn't remember it was already October when I put in the date so one of them says 9-32! Oh well. J

Journal pages by Lydia, October, 2009

No worries of taking ourselves or our artwork too seriously here. It's okay for practice paintings to look like practice paintings, and not everything we paint has to be worthy of framing and hanging on the wall.
 

painting together on the Feast of the Holy Rosary, October 7, 2009

Lydia paints a flicker (for Flikr), February, 2010

Another truly fabulous thing we learned from the video is the joy of water brushes. These nifty brushes have a receptacle for water so you don't need a separate cup to paint with. This means you can pick up your paints and waterbrush at any time without needing to commit to a lot of setting up. (Pardon me if I sound like I'm gushing but I am - these things are awesome and have transformed the way we do watercolors!)

Anna painting in the field while out on a nature hike

You can watercolor in the field, doodle in the family sketch book, and even paint on a mountaintop without needing an impractical cup of murky black water that's always getting spilled.

Birds sighted while waiting at the dentist by Lydia, January, 2010

You can even paint in the car, sitting in a parking lot!

watercolors make lovely cards for all occasions

The artists in the video also use pan watercolors, and they demonstrate how to mix colors right in the box. We like the Yarka brand paints from Russia; Prang is another inexpensive readily available option.

Occasionally someone will sit down and get out the tube colors and a mixing pan and all that, but watercoloring happens everyday here, most often at teatime, thanks to the convenience of the waterbrushes and pan paints. For practice we use Miller's inexpensive student watercolor paper.

Lydia made this lovely painting bag for Anna for Christmas, so all of her supplies are in one place and always ready to take along on an adventure.

It holds paints, fine Sharpies for contour drawing, her water brush, pencil, blank cards and a small sketchbook.

As the girls have progressed with their watercolor skills they have moved beyond the journaling format portrayed in the video. After reading Edith Holden's Country Diary and Nature Notes my big girls decided to start new nature journals in that lovely style, combining their love for fancy writing, watercoloring and of course all things observed in the natural world.

Anna works on flower identification

The results are truly beautiful.

    

journal page by Lydia, May, 2010 
 
   
  journal page by Anna, May, 2010
 Of course, watercolors are not just for journaling. Josiah enjoys his own style of watercoloring -
 
 And the girls still have to paint horses on a regular basis -

 

Evil princess and her haughty courtiers, pen and watercolor by Anna, age 12
 
We have had such enjoyable times watercoloring this past year and have really grown to love the medium. A frequent question in my inbox is, What art curriculum do you use? I've attempted to show you that around here 'art' is not a curriculum; it's a natural, beautiful part of our everyday lives.

  *One caveat with the video, if modesty in dress is important to your family please note one of the presenters is a bit lacking, particularly for the intro.

They're on their way!

Just popping in to say the 575 Marian ATC's went to the post office on Friday and are all on their way to their new recipients!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated! We had so much fun making our cards and hosting the swap. It was truly wonderful to have my kitchen table entirely covered with 575 little pieces of artwork to honor Our Lady. I was especially delighted to see all the cards made by so many mamas who joined in - ladies who are busy for sure yet still make time for beautifully expressing their creativity. Very cheery indeed.

We sorted all the cards into groups, approximately by the artist's age, and then we created groups of six and swapped cards within each group. Finally we played a grand game of find the right envelope to put each of the 115 participant's cards in. My girls thought everyone should receive five cards, so they made extras to make up for anyone who didn't send in five (that explains why you might get more cards than you sent me).
 
Some folks have already asked if we will do this again, and that would be a definite Yes! I thought it would be fun to do a swap in the fall for All Saints, with everyone creating artwork of their favorite saints.

Thanks again to all who joined and I hope you enjoy your new cards!

Updated: I added a Mr. Linky so you can share your new cards if you like:

ATC Update

 

Edited to Add: Please don't worry if you didn't get your cards mailed by the 31st! Several folks are sending them out on Tuesday, June 1st due to the holiday weekend and that is fine! This is supposed to be fun, not stressful, and we are most certainly flexible! Thank you all for joining in!

Cards for the Marian ATC swap are starting to arrive in our mailbox! It's very exciting! And so much fun!

You can peek around at some blogs to see what other artists young and old have been up to.  It's not too late to join in - the more the Mary-er! (see my original post for details) Check out these beautiful cards Lacy's four year old daughter made (scroll down to see the ATC's). They are so sweet - I want to trade with her! J I especially enjoy seeing busy mothers taking some time to create artwork for Our Lady. Relaxing a bit and engaging in creativity and beauty is always a good thing. Just shoot me an email to join the swap.

And here's an ATC Lydia made to remind us all to pray often for sweet little Lily who has been through so much. And she's still smiling! Can you say a few prayers for her and her mama too? They still have a long way to go. I'm sure Miss Lily would be so grateful.

  

 

Wordless Wednesday: Teatime

  

 

  

 

Needlefelted Pillow

Lydia made this wonderful needle felted pillow for her Nana, a fellow bird lover. The art of needle felting involves using special barbed needles to bind the wool fiber together; as the needles are repeatedly inserted through the layers of wool the fibers become permanently meshed together. This was Lydia's first decorative needle felting project, and I think it turned out beautifully. Lydia is very good at drawing birds and painting birds, and those talents served her well in translating her beloved avian friends into wool.

She started with a felted wool sweater (my method for felting sweaters is here), and then centered the pillow form inside the sweater, pinning it in place. You can purchase a new pillow form or repurpose an old pillow.

Next she stitched around the pillow's edges with embroidery floss.

Then the fun started and she began placing her birds. She used her field guide as reference, and just jumped in putting on the birds. As you can see she didn't sketch anything out first, but designed it as she went. After a few birds were in place she began adding branches. As the roving is repeatedly punched with the felting needles it becomes enmeshed with the backing wool, and the two become one fabric.

She's working with the Clover Felting Needle Tool and I'm very glad I chose this particular tool. I had been tempted by the charming looking wooden needle holders, but the advantage of this plastic tool is the shield that covers the needles. The clear plastic shield retracts with every punch, and then pops back into place to safely cover the very sharp needles. When you are finished working you can lock the shield in place, so your needles are covered and protected and you can't get hurt by them. This is a great feature as it allows you to set the tool down whenever you take a break without having to worry about breaking the needles, stabbing yourself, or having curious little people come along and get hurt.

The birds are indigo buntings, and it's the males that are bright blue; as is typical in the avian world, females are simply a dull brown. Lydia continued working with the wool, adding details here and there, more color, more texture, until she was thoroughly pleased with the design.

The final step was simply to trim the edges with pinking shears, leaving a bit of sweater past the stitching for a border.

 
  Lovely, Lydia!

Personal Mini-Calendars

Do you have your copy of Alice Cantrell's lovely calendar yet? Alice was so kind and generous to share this little gem -  a whole year's worth of her delightful watercolor illustrations in a handy calendar. I've printed one out for myself, and it's fun to see them popping up on other people's desk's as well.  I enjoy the cheery pictures so much I thought of another use for them. You know how we girls like to keep track of certain things from month to month, but not necessarily on the wall calendar? ;-) Behold the mini-calendar-

I printed out Alice's calendar in miniature - I adjusted the page scaling to 'multiple pages per sheet' and set it to print four pages per sheet like so-

 
Then I cut them with the paper cutter and prepared to connect the pieces in a year-long line. I needed to trim a bit from the top and bottom of each section to get them to line up properly - check them out before you actually tape them to make sure everything matches. You can leave them with three months on a page, or fold them tiny into a twelve way accordion style:

 If you want to fold them down to one month on a side you need to also trim the side edges of your sheets before you tape them - hold your pieces up to a window and make sure all the months are aligned properly.

Once I was sure everything was trimmed up evenly, I taped them together on the back with packing tape, leaving a tiny gap so they fold easily.

 I gave them a final trimming after they were taped to square things up.

Then I folded the little one up. A scoring blade in the paper cutter or folding tool is handy, and voila - a sweet little mini-calendar for you or your girls. Thanks again, Alice!

 
 

Roses, Roses, Roses

Hello! We've had a super busy weekend here but I didn't forget about the drawing and the roses. Thank you to everyone who entered and for all of the kind comments (if I were a hip and trendy craft blogger I would say 'thank you for all the crocheted rose love'). We put all of the entries in a basket and stirred them up good,

  

and Eliza picked one out,

 

and the winner is-

 

Renee! Congratulations, and I hope your grandchildren enjoy them! Please send an email with your mailing address.

There were about 45 entrants for the giveaway and that's a lot of little people left without roses, so I've been trying to think of other ways to obtain roses. Lydia did once make a set for one of my rosary customers who wanted to purchase some, but we are really too busy with school to make a whole lot of roses. One option of course would be to find someone local who crochets. There are many people who love to crochet and are very fast and prolific in their creations and are often looking for new things to make and a purpose to make them. Perhaps you could locate some avid 'crochet ladies' at your local church or in your neighborhood and commission some roses. You might even be able to barter for them, perhaps with a cake or home cooked meal, or some leaf raking or the like. Look for ladies wearing crocheted hats or scarves and approach them with a proposition. :-) If you find them in church I would think they'd be delighted to crochet roses for Our Lady. 

Another option would be to look on Etsy where many people offer handmade goods for sale. Search under 'crochet rose embellishments' and you will find many, many crocheted flower offerings. There is a wide variety of styles and sizes and colors available. The prices also vary greatly as well, but some are quite reasonable and you might even get a bargain by ordering a set of eleven. Many Etsy sellers welcome custom orders as well so you can get what you like.

And finally, I wanted to try to make a different kind of rose that doesn't involve crochet and I came up with this simple felt rose. I used a piece of felted wool cut from a thrifted wool sweater. (You can read about how I felt wool here in this post.) I just cut a circle about six inches in diameter, and then cut it in a free form spiral pattern. You can cut as wavy or as smooth as you like. (That pointy nose part where I started cutting is not intentional - I just snipped off that part.)

 

Then I rolled up the spiral beginning with the center part, and stitched along on the bottom as I went around to hold the layers together like so -

 

I just kept rolling and stitching round and round up to the end of the spiral. 

  

I also cut two leaves out of green wool. I applied tacky glue to the bottom of the rose for added durability and then stitched the leaves on, covering up the glue and stitching. My finished felt rose is about three inches diameter, while my crocheted ones are about three and a half inches.

I think it turned out rather pretty.

 

Thank you again to all my rosy readers!

First Friday in June, Month of the Sacred Heart

June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart. In the year 1672 Our Lord Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and asked her to promote a special devotion to His Sacred Heart as a symbol of His love and mercy for us. (You can read more about this devotion here and here. ) We had our First Friday gathering here today and so our theme was the Sacred Heart.

As it is Pentecost Friday (surely you've seen this story about Paul VI and the Octave of Pentecost) and also during Embertide, we made these flame cookies:

Lydia and Anna made sugar cookies, and then iced them with a mix of yellow and red to resemble flames. I took an extra holly leaf cookie cutter that I had (a fifteen cent Christmas clearance item) and bent it a bit to make the flame shape like so:

For the younger children I printed out some nice coloring pages found here. They look very nice glued onto red construction paper like so:

The older children's Sacred Heart craft is seen above. Now, I must tell you that I just came up with this idea last night. All week my children were asking me what our craft was going to be and I would say, "Something for the Sacred Heart".  As we dashed off to the craft store last night half an hour before it closed my girls kept asking, "But what are we going to buy?" And I repeatedly insisted, "I have no idea." I told them we'd figure it out when we got there, and I reminded them of Mrs. Gunther who says she walks through the aisles of the craft store praying to the Holy Spirit for inspiration. Mary Rose remarked it was like the book she just read, in which the family was having twins but didn't have a van large enough for the family, but the Dad said if God gives the twins He will also provide for all their needs. She concluded if God is giving us the party with our friends, He would also provide the inspiration.  "Yes, that's it exactly," I told her.

So I sang Veni Sancte Spiritus under my breath as we walked into Michaels and the first thing we saw was a large display of wooden frames. I told the girls to grab a stack and we were on our way to our craft (I think my girls were quite relieved that I didn't need to sing the next line). The frames come in ovals and rectangles and have a little peg stand included and are only a dollar apiece. We found small heart plaques and a few other items and we were soon dashing home to make the prototype. Here is Lydia's sample project:

Start by using a wood burning tool to create the crown of thorns. I had Josiah do the crowns on some extra hearts so the younger children wouldn't have to do it themselves. Start with the wavy lines and then add the thorns.

Next we painted the heart with red acrylic paint watered down to a transparent 'wash' consistency. A paper towel is adequate for blotting on the wash, and you can add a second layer of paint around the edge of the heart to add more depth to the look. By using the watered down paint the crown is still clearly visible.

The frames were painted with plain acrylic paint and left to dry. The flames were cut from some neat crinkly orange scrapbook paper I found, and the crosses from gold paper. I purchased one of those gold metallic paint pens for the writing and it worked very nicely. The hearts are simply glued onto the frames with craft glue, and then the flame and cross are glued on as well.

I always enjoy seeing the variety of the children's finished projects as they add their own unique creativity and special touches.

 

They make a very nice addition to our June altar.

 

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Tis the Month of Our Mother

Tis the month of Our Mother

The blessed and beautiful days,

When our lips and our spirits,

Are glowing with love and with praise.

May Altar-

We just found this beautiful wooden book holder at a thrift sale on Saturday, and one of my children keeps a missal there opened to the propers of the day.

May Crowning-

All the excitement and anticipation! The May Crowning was also the occasion for a 'baby shower' and a celebration of the lives of the babies the children have spiritually adopted. For the procession the girls all carried up baby gifts which will be donated to various local crisis pregnancy centers. My dear daughters donated ten baby hats and a dozen hat and bootie sets that they crocheted.

Hail holy Queen enthroned above, O Maria

Hail Mother of mercy and of love, O Maria

Triumph all ye cherubim, Sing with us ye seraphim

Heaven and earth resound the hymn:

Salve, salve, salve, Regina!

First Friday in May-

Our group made Marian May Baskets as popularized by dear Alice some years ago.

 

Simple supplies such as stickers, catalogs of religious goods, construction paper and bits of ribbon and glue are all that's needed for the children to create an endless array of bookmarks and holy cards to put in the baskets.

 I also provided plain sugar cookies for them to decorate with colored frostings and such to add, and a few candy treats. My girls later made additional baskets for various friends and godparents, including some homemade fudge. (Cute little templates for homemade boxes can be found here: Mirkwood Designs.)

 

 May Music-

Actually it's August music- the Introit from the Feast of the Assumption. Jonathan wrote this music for his composition class, and it was performed by four of his fellow students the other night. I think they did a lovely job, and I trust Our Lady was pleased.

Signum magnum aparuit in coelo: mulier amicta sole, et luna sub pedibus ejus, et in capite ejus corona stellarum duodecim. Cantate Domino canticum novum: quia mirabilia fecit. Gloria Patri, et Fillio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

A great sign appeared in the heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because He hath done wonderful things. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Blessed May to all of you, and may Our Lady rain down her love and care to all who seek to honor her during this most special month.

Stations of the Cross Grottos

 

As I mentioned previously, the theme for our First Friday gathering this month was Stations of the Cross.  While the little people were busy with their activities the older children made these Stations of the Cross grottos. Lent is naturally the time we think about the Stations, but many people include them in their weekly Friday devotions year round, and some even daily, particularly during the three o'clock hour. I thought having a set of stations at home, whether on the family altar just for Lent or hung throughout the house, would facilitate and encourage this devotion of meditating on Our Lord's passion.

 

Making fourteen of anything may seem like a lot to do, but by having the children work together each family was able to complete a whole set. There was even one girl there without the rest of her family as they were ill, and everyone helped her to make a set to bring home to her family.

 

  Everyone seemed to enjoy the craft and certainly felt a great sense of accomplishment when they were finished!

For each set of stations you need a set of Stations pictures. I used the cards generously shared by The Bookworm on her Liturgical Boxes page: Stations of the Cross Cards . I printed them out on cardstock.

Also needed are:

•  wooden craft (popsicle) sticks - approximately 364 per set. I bought the economical boxes of 1000, though they have a few 'duds' that are bent or warped and unsuitable to use.
• jumbo wooden craft sticks (tongue blades), 28 per set. Cut these to four inch lengths. I used a pair of kitchen shears and they cut quite easily - just go slowly.
• small decorative pebbles from the craft shop. I got these tiny ones at Michael's.
• Tacky glue. I bought the good stuff as it sets up much quicker than regular glue making it much easier to work with. Also, I thought it would be better for holding the stones.
• 14 small wooden crosses as seen here: Lara's 1 1/2" laser cut wooden crosses. I found these at Michael's as well, and at eight for about a dollar they seemed very reasonable.

Step-by-step directions and pictures follow. I also have the instructions as a pdf file for download, as I had several copies of them printed out for our group:  Download Stations of the Cross Grottos

1.   Lay out 12 popsicle sticks together in a row. Apply glue to four sticks and place them perpendicularly to hold them together. Let dry a bit:

 

2.     Add another stick horizontally to the top, going across the four. This will make a hanger so you can hang them on the wall if you wish:

 

3.     Glue roof pieces (tongue blades cut to four inches) together at an angle, squaring up the edges. Let dry a bit:

 

4.     Flip over your flat board you made in step one. Cut out the pictures, removing the label and leaving a white margin. Center picture left to right; vertically, the picture should be placed so the bottom of the colored picture is about one popsicle stick width from the bottom. You do not need to put glue on the picture as you don’t want it to ripple – the sticks will hold it in place.

5.     Add a horizontal stick at the bottom and three at the top. All the white of the paper should be covered. Glue the three sticks in place:

 

6.     Arrange two sticks vertically on either side of picture, covering all the white of the paper. Glue in place:

 

7.     Glue one more horizontal stick in place at the top:

 

8.     Take the pointed piece that you made out of the tongue blades and position it at the top. You want the open triangle to be small enough to be mostly covered with the title piece. When you are sure it is in the right spot, glue it in place using a generous amount of glue. Press down on it until it is set.

 

9.     Glue on label.

10.     Glue cross at the top.

11.     Working on a paper plate, add glue and decorate with pebbles. Apply the glue very generously, making sure you have all areas covered as it is very difficult to try to add more glue and pebbles if you’ve missed spots (but try not to get glue on the picture). Press the pebbles into the glue firmly, and then shake off excess onto the paper plate, just like sprinkling cookies.

12.     Place on a paper plate to dry so that the rim of the plate is supporting the cross. Keep pressing on the bottom of the ‘roof’ pieces occasionally so it dries flat.

 

We put ours in a basket to take them to church to have Father bless them. Michael had the foresight to tilt them forward in the basket so the holy water wouldn't get on the pictures and make the ink run. :-)

It was also Michael's idea to place them throughout the house so we could walk through the rooms meditating on the Via Crucis. 

Felted Sweater Chair Pads

These are my new chair pads that I've been making out of felted wool sweaters, or Sit-upons if you want to sound quaint.

 

Meant for warmth (not cushioning), they do a great job, and I think they're pretty cute.

 

These came about in an interesting fashion. Every year when we make Christmas gifts there always seems to be a 'theme'  - a new craft that is prevalent among the gifts because of its novelty. We have had the year of crochet and the year of wood burning and the year of one stroke painting; this year was unquestionably the Year of the Felted Sweaters. In fact every time I put in another load of sweaters in the wash to felt I would say things like, 'Oh, I feel like Betz White,' or 'My laundry room must smell just like Betz White's (baaa baaa).' She is the one who wrote the book: Warm Fuzzies: 30 Sweet Felted Projects about felted sweater crafts. I haven't read it yet but I just got it out of the library and I'm looking forward to perusing it's sweet pages.

 

So we had all these extra sweaters sitting around and we discovered that wool sweaters are nice and warm to sit upon. We've been keeping our thermostat set rather low (as in 'Freeze Yer' everything) and consequently our wooden kitchen chairs can be downright chilly.  I realized I could make chair pads out of felted wool sweaters. At about two dollars a sweater the price sure is right, and I really like how they look. They are all different colors, but by using the same leaf motif they all look nice together, and they fit in fine in my casual kitchen. So I think they are as pretty as they are practical for keeping your seat nice and warm.

 

We get our wool sweaters at the thrift store, and we try to go on half price day. We always get sweaters that are 100% wool, and those that felt best are the ones that say dry clean only. Sweaters that are marked machine washable have been treated so they will not felt no matter how many times you wash them. It's also inevitable that we find 'accidentally' felted sweaters- all wool sweaters that people have inadvertently run through the wash. You can often find them in the children's section as they are so small, but you can tell by their misshapen appearance and strange proportions that they were once meant for adults. Stripes and all-over patterns are fine, but sweaters with just a section of a pattern will end up with uneven thicknesses. Fair isle patterns will end up quite bulky due to the extra yarns. A few small moth holes are okay if they are not in the main area of the sweater. To felt the sweaters, I just run them through the washing machine on a hot water cycle with a small amount of detergent, about half a dozen sweaters at a time, keeping lights and darks separate.  Most people then machine dry them, but we don't have a dryer so sometimes I need to wash them twice. The sweaters will shrink considerably and the fibers will merge together creating felt.

Each pad is made from one sweater, using both the front and back. I've found it's easiest if you sew the two layers together before you cut out the circle. I mark out a large circle on the sweater with chalk - I've been using a very large cookie tin lid for a template.

Then I machine sew along the chalk line with a decorative stitch, sewing the two layers together.

Then I cut out the circle about half an inch beyond the stitching. I originally had delusional ideas of blanket stitching them all by hand and possibly hand appliqueing them, but I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen anytime soon for eight pads, so I did it all by machine. It looks fine and I think it's sturdier that way, as these are for kitchen chairs in constant use.

Then I cut out the leaves and stems from felted sweater scraps in contrasting colors, and arrange them in a pleasing fashion.

 

 I use a zig zag stitch to applique all the pieces on. I sew all of the stems on first, using just a zig zag run down the length of each one. Then I add the leaves, zig zagging around the edges. I arrange the leaves to cover up the starting point of the circular top stitching, and also any tiny moth holes that might be present.

 

A bit of non slip mesh can be used under the pads to keep them in place, helpful if you have climbing sorts around. Voila! (Or should I say, Bob's your uncle!)

Valentines

Yesterday we had our First Friday homeschool group meeting at our house.

Valentine wreath with Christmas tree - photo by Josiah (I think this shot is so pretty!)

With St. Valentine's Day just around the corner, our theme was all things Valentine.

Heart garland - made just like the Christmas garland seen here.

We enjoyed heart shaped cookies along with scones, buns and other teatime treats, and then it was time for crafting.

Cookie hearts and shadow hearts - photo by Josiah

We had four families altogether with a total of twenty-seven children. I just love seeing my kitchen full of delightful children working happily together!

 

First they made Valentines to send. I told them St. Valentine's Day is a wonderful opportunity to send greetings to our family and friends to let them know how much we love them, but we can also give our missives eternal value by including a spiritual bouquet for the recipient's intentions.

 

I had lots of cards pre-cut and scored, and just provided the usual array of stickers, markers, colored card stock, old garden catalogs, glue sticks, fancy scissors and the like. I printed out the spiritual bouquet blanks so they were ready to glue inside the children's cards:

I've included the forms here for download to save time if you are crafting with a crowd or just for your own family's regiment of grandparents, godparents and all. Download A Spiritual Bouquet for You

I also printed out hearts with 'Happy St. Valentine's Day' for the littlest crafters who can't yet write to use. You can download those as well - simple stuff but if I can save a few moms some minutes of computer time I'm happy to share! Download Valentine Hearts

For our other craft we made these hearts:

We used the following supplies: five inch wooden heart cutouts, an assortment of scrapbooking papers, small wood punch out shapes, ribbon, glue, and paint. I put out a few colors of acrylic paints that coordinated with the papers, and since the wood punchouts are small we just used paper plate palettes and Q-tip brushes for easy (disposable!) cleanup. I prepared print outs of St. Augustine's famous quote, 'You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you,' seen here: Download Augustine Hearts

We talked about how these words tell us that we can only find peace in life resting in the Lord and His will, as we were created to know, love and serve Him. Most people celebrate Valentine's Day as a secular holiday, but all of those red hearts that we see all over the stores and decorations everywhere can serve to make us think of St. Augustine and the peace he knew when he finally came to belief in Christ.

Simply trace the heart onto decorative paper and cut it out.

Cover the wooden heart with a thin layer of glue and add a ribbon loop for hanging before pressing the paper heart on top.

Then just decorate the front as desired, with more paper, ribbon and the painted wooden shapes as desired.

You can see some of the variety here, and how most of the boys naturally skipped the fancy paper part. :-)

  

I think the hearts turned out very pretty, and they make a cheery and meaningful decoration to have around the house. Mary Rose has made several more of them with the extra supplies, intending to share them as gifts.  

Wool Horse Blankets

Josiah made several horse blankets for his sisters as stocking stuffers.

Destrier models his new blanket.

He came up with a simple design using wool felt scraps and bits of leather. They are easy to make and can be embellished for decoration and variety. The girls were very pleased with them.

 

  He just posted a tutorial on his blog so you or your resident equine-loving crafter can make some too.

Sew, Man, Sew! (the other guy)

I have come to realize that my  Sew, Man, Sew! post spotlights only Josiah's sewing projects and I have been remiss in mentioning my other guy. Jonathan has also been sewing lots since I got my new sewing machine a little over a year ago. Right after I made those semaphore flags Jonathan got it in his head that he wanted to make a complete set of nautical signal flags, including all letters, numbers and the repeaters. I bought him the twill fabric for his birthday in October last year, and he set out to finish the set by Christmas. He started simply enough with Q and K and so forth, eventually working his way up over a few months to the likes of N and Y. This was quite an accomplishment, as each flag is pieced so as to be double sided and has rope and handmade toggles so they can be strung together and hung:

For a while he flew them in the foyer or up Josiah's makeshift flagpole, but eventually he hung them all up in his room according to his original plan. He cut and stained and installed his own 'crown molding' all around the room and hung the flags in all of their nautical splendor:

Having mastered the art of flag making, Jonathan naturally went on to make several flags for Christmas gifts. His first banner was the White Tree for a friend. It turned out really cool and he was off. He made a flag and a pennant banner for Josiah with his coat of arms:

   

He made Lydia this beautiful Narnian flag. He used a regular zig zag stitch to form the intricate border stitch pattern:

He made Michael a small Gondorian pennant, and two pennants for Anna Ruth, again doing the writing with just a zig zag stitch:

  

And Mary Rose got this beautiful Narnian banner, a replica of the numerous flags at the coronation scene in the movie. The pole is the trunk of a fallen sapling, debarked and stained and the chain is of course made of spare maille rings:

 

I like it so much I keep it in my kitchen where it never fails to cheer me (and also occasionally incites me to yell For Narnia, and for Aslan! with great fervor)

After Christmas gifts were taken care of he went on to making various cloaks,

and most everyone in the family has received a unique cloak from Jonathan for a gift. We enjoy wearing them all together, and I'm sure it gives us a certain look of, oh,  je ne sais quoi, when we all go dashing around the block on scooters with our cloaks flying behind us. 

So it can be hard sometimes to get a hold of my own sewing machine, but nevertheless this mama is happy to say, Sew man, sew man, sew!

Yesterday...

...was my birthday!

In between errands and appointments we managed to have a busy but very nice day. I was treated to lovely presents from my children. Lydia made this pretty card and did this beautiful stitching for me:

 

Anna made me these charming handwarmers from recycled felted sweaters (Josiah's not the only one who likes to thrift shop)

And Josiah made me these fingerless gloves since I liked his so much:

 

I am tempted to embroider vines on them and Jonathan said that would make them look elvish, but I kind of want to keep them looking Josiahish, so maybe I won't.

I did get to sit a spell and get some crocheting done,

 

finishing up a scarf for myself:

Can't help sticking a flower on everything - I'm just that kind of girl. And Lydia can't help putting birds on everything, 'cause she's that sort of girl:

 

As a final treat Michael got out his clarinet - something he only does when the mood strikes him - like every five or ten years or so. Jonathan accompanied him and we enjoyed their fine impromptu playing. Eliza was delighted to have a new instrument to dance to. As I look around now I see the music and stand and clarinet have all been whisked away back into the closet. 

 

It's a good thing I have pictures so I know it wasn't all just a dream!

Thank you, wonderful family, for a wonderful birthday! I sure do love you!

 

Sew, Man, Sew!

 Me: Josiah, you can't just go and sew a coat! You need to get a proper pattern!

Him:

 

That's his mock up of Aragorn's duster - he plans to make another one out of leather.

So you see, it's not just mamas who sew.

 

Josiah just started sewing last spring. He really wanted a surcoat to wear over his maille, and so he set out to learn to use the machine so he could make one:

 

He later embellished it with a pattern of stitching around the neck opening:

 

Next he wanted some cloaks, as cloaks are all the rage in my house:

 

And then he moved on to a fancy surcoat emblazoned with the Lion:

 

After that he started to really get creative with pattern design and he fashioned this pointed dwarf style hood:

 

The hood was a very clever one piece design that still amazes me. But not as much as the gloves he made with some freecycled leather he has:

 I have been sewing for decades, but I would never attempt such a thing as two color leather gloves, and most definitely not without a pattern - but Josiah just made up his own!  He wanted some Boromir gloves and the only way he could reckon getting any was to make them.  He now takes great pride in those gloves, and rightly so - they were quite a challenge. He even embellished them with detail etching in the leather.

As I have previously noted, guys are a bit different from gals when it comes to sewing. Another tendency I've noticed with the guys - they seem to be more focused on the finished product, rather than the process. For example, I think we ended up with at least fourteen of these kitties and eight or so horses, just because the girls find them so fun and cute to make. I don't think we actually needed fourteen kitties...;-)

Some of Josiah's other sewing projects are this pouch and quiver:

 

The quiver is a very good project for a beginner. Made of a heavy canvas material, it is basically just a long narrow pouch. An old belt has been added for a carrying strap, attached with little nuts and bolts.

 

Another simple project is a belt pouch, this one made out of leather scraps:

 

It could also be made out of any sturdy fabric, and would make a great first project to introduce boys to the sewing machine. Guys like things that are useful and practical, and a little belt pouch is very handy.

 

With a little practice, a larger pack could be made with more features, such as this haversack with buckle closures:

   

With the myriad of sewing and craft sites out there filled with all things cute and calico, warm and fuzzy and altogether lovely, one might overlook the possibilities for guys to enjoy the pleasures and practicality of sewing. I hope these projects of Josiah's serve to jump start the creative engines for some of your guys. You can find more photos and instructions for most of these projects over on Josiah's blog, Random Interesting Stuff.

Sew, man, sew!

You Know You're Homeschoolers When...

... your daughter presents you with three wee dollies she just made and informs you that their names are Mary Pride, Cathy Duffy, and Diane Welch. (She found their names on the back of a book.)

Nautical Cardboard

Methinks Josiah would get along grandly with Felix. Amazing!

Swallows and Amazons Forever!

This is what is meant by 'summer reading' around here.

 

It had gotten to be midsummer, and no one had read any Gulps and Amazons as they are sometimes affectionately called in our house. I thought it was a bit odd to not have everyone off on sailing adventures as is their summer tradition.

But then Josiah got them out, flying through the stack of twelve familiar stories in about a week's time, and of course everyone else followed him aboard ship.

First published in the 1930's, this beloved series of books tells the adventures of  four siblings and the acquaintances they make while spending their summer holidays camping and sailing together. From the very first moment we encounter seven-year-old Roger, tacking up the lawn to greet his dear mother, we are drawn into the story and born away on a breeze to a quiet lake in the English countryside. For Mother truly does have a telegram from Father in her hand bearing the charming message:

BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WONT DROWN

Which of course means, yes, the adventure is on and permission is granted for all to embark on the holiday of their lives. Alone. On an island. Hurrah for daddy! indeed. Mother, the darling, most well-loved native of all, assists with preparations - Ship's Articles, provisions, maps and gear are purveyed. She's even finished making the tents! "You'll want a kettle first and foremost," said Mrs. Jackson, the farmer's wife, who was lending the things. (I like that woman.) Soon all is ready and John, Susan, Titty and Roger are transformed into the Swallows: Captain, Mate, Able-seaman and Ship's Boy - finest crew of the finest fourteen foot dinghy in all of children's literature. The ensuing tales are full of adventure of the most delightful sort. Swimming before breakfast, sighting  cormorants, rowing over to the farm for milk, and plenty of use of that dear kettle - what a life! But it's not all buttered eggs and tea of course - there are pirates and battles and mysteries and Amazons to meet, oh my!

These books are beloved treasures in our family, telling stories of the kind of life that is quite out of reach for most of today's young readers. But that's what books are for, of course, to take you to far away places in the delicious pages and leave you neither a duffer nor drowned. In our family living books are the books that get lived, and it's been a delight to watch my children live these dear books over and over throughout the years.

Having no English lake at hand Jonathan set his sails on a more commonplace vessel - the scooter. You can see the fruit of his creative labors in this vintage picture from 2004:

He couldn't see where he was going and could only sail downhill, but the effect was priceless.

When I got my sewing machine last year I had two very gallant boys who carried it upstairs and unpacked it and set it all up for me - just so I could make them semaphore flags!

But that was only the beginning. Jonathan set out to make an entire set of signal flags, which now grace his room in all of their nautical glory:

 

Lacking a mast, the ever resourceful Josiah rigged up a pulley system so they could fly the flags from the corner of the house.

 

They also sent up a signal light to use at night, with a can to cover it and thereby use Morse code.

One year Josiah made a terrific little highly detailed craft out of popsicle sticks. It had a proper sail and was quite sea (creek) worthy. 

And on it goes. If you've never sailed aboard The Swallow I highly recommend you take a journey soon. Don't worry that summer's ending, after all there's Winter Holiday! At the moment I have two girls on board sofa ships, wearing apron life jackets and punt poling with their vacuum cleaner tubes for dear life, giggling and shouting about the dangers sighted starboard. My Mary Rose is taking her maiden voyage with these books this year and it's been delightful watching her encounter these family classics for the first time. She has taken to answering my every word with Aye aye, Sir! I love it.

Here are a bunch of links to augment your reading adventures:

The Boats of Swallows and Amazons

Nautical and Semaphore Signal Flags and a Translator function for both

Semaphore Alphabet

Free Paper Boat Models - These are really cool yachts, but there is also a little dinghy at the bottom of the page. I made the dinghy one year to stick on Jonathan's birthday cake along with mini nautical flags spelling his name.

Sailing Terms

Pirate Vocabulary

Swallows and Amazons Trivia Quiz

Label the Parts of a Ship  Answers Here and Here

See Pictures of Coniston, the lake area where Arthur Ransome spent his holidays as a child and the inspiration for the books.

All aboard and three cheers for the stay-at-homes! (Singing Spanish Ladies is optional.)

A Book for Father's Day

Father's Day is just a week away so I thought I would share a book my children made for their Dad some years ago. We made it the week before Father's Day.

 Each day I had each child write and illustrate one thing they like about their Dad. 

I just took all of the pictures and popped them into page protectors, and then put them together in a binder.

They drew their pictures on card stock for durability.

The older children each wrote a poem about their Dad as well.

Each child signed the dedication page with a personal note. We decorated the cover with stickers and the title "We Love Our Dad".

This is a simple project that makes a tremendous gift for Dad, blessing him with gratitude for all of the 'little things' a Dad does with his children. The whole of this project is far greater than the sum of its parts - just some paper and markers - just as a beautiful childhood and beautiful fatherhood are greater than, yet made up of, moment after moment of these simple little bits that are a child's life.

The older children love to look at this book and remember the simple pleasures from their younger years. It truly is one of our most cherished 'books'.

Birthday Cake Play Set

Lydia and I made this birthday cake play set for Kateri for her birthday. We actually started it before Christmas, but decided to save it for a birthday gift as we were too busy with other crafts.

 During the winter we eat boxes and boxes of clementines and end up with lots of the little crates that are too cute and useful to discard. Eliza discovered the fun game of turning one of the boxes upside down and putting crochet hooks in all of the holes. This was very entertaining for her and good for fine motor skills - and it gave me the idea for this cake! We knew it would be the perfect gift for Kateri as she loves candles and all things Birthday (thanks to this video).

Lydia painted the bottom of the box white. Then we made a fabric covering for the edges of the box. I cut a piece of fabric long enough to go around the perimeter of the box, plus a little extra for a neat overlap. The fabric was about twice as wide as the height of the box edge. I took the strip of fabric, added a length of batting to give a little padding, and then folded in the sides to made neat edges. We stitched together this fabric 'sandwich' tube, adding three rows of white eyelet 'icing'. We then stitched the ends of it together to make a snug fitting cover for the box. We fastened it onto the box using hot glue.

The candles are just lengths of dowel painted pink. We took a crate with us to the store to make sure we got the right size dowel to fit properly. Josiah cut a notch in the top of each 'candle'; Lydia painted them pink and glued in a foamtastic 'flame'.

You can't have a birthday party without silly birthday hats to make you smile and so we made those too. I used an old party hat as a pattern and traced the wedge shape onto cardboard from a cereal box. I cut out fabric coverings using the cardboard as a pattern but making the fabric about half and inch bigger all around to allow for overlap.

I rolled up the cones, stapled them shut, and then covered the seam with tape for added reinforcement. I figured the glue would stick better to the plain cardboard so I made the cones with the slick printed side on the inside. (Kateri likes to peak inside her hat and say "crunchies in there!" when she sees the cereal picture in there - too cute.)  I glued on the fabric covering, folding over the excess and gluing it inside the rim for a tidy edge. I just threaded a length of elastic through holes poked in the sides for a chin strap. I couldn't resist adding an eyelet ruffle and of course a pom pom on top.

Everything fits neatly in the upside down 'cake' for storage.

This was a fun craft to make and the only thing I had to purchase was the dowel - everything else we had on hand. The little girls love to play with this set and they are just so cute together. They put on their hats and sit down and take turns singing Happy Birthday to each other.  They enjoy the game of putting all the candles in place and taking them out again. There you have it - a recycled, cheap, cute, fun, skill building, homemade toy!

Doodle on Your Dress

I got these 'blank' white dresses for the girls to decorate. Lydia made one for Kateri and Anna Ruth did one for Eliza. Mary Rose also made herself one but she wasn't wearing it today.

 

The dresses are from Dharma and the fabric markers are from the local craft store. I used the iron to heat set the drawings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big girls loved making them, the little girls love wearing them, and I love looking at their cheery cuteness all day. It's like an I Spy game you can wear - find the blue butterfly, count the pink flowers....what fun!

Crafting for Your Valentine

Perhaps you have been making Valentines with the children and have been planning pink everything for Thursday but you haven't quite figured out what to give your honey. With Valentine's Day nearly here, I thought I would share a Valentine card I made for my husband a few years back. You can get out your pretty scrapbook supplies, or your plain white cardstock if that's your style, and make a unique card that shows you care to give him the very best.

I started with a picture of the two of us on the front. I added hearts that say "Marry the one you love" and "Love the one you marry". If you need a little refresher on what that looks like day to day pop over to re-read Elizabeth's beautiful post on the Beatitudes for Wives. It will get you in the mood for loving your Valentine. :-)

On the inside I added more hearts with scripture verses. You could choose selections from Corinthians 13 (the Love chapter), or Song of Solomon ;-) (the Love book) or whatever strikes you as appropriate. Pick verses that inspire you and remind you well of the holy and sacred nature of this beautiful thing called married love. In the center I quoted How do I love you? Let me count the ways... I then wrote out a hundred things I love about my husband. The biggies, the little bitty things, the old, original reasons and the new ones more recently discovered -I wrote down a hundred of them. Give it a try. As you sit and contemplate and come up with your hundred, you can't help but thank God for every one of them. Thank God for the man he made just for you. Think about all those reasons why you fell in love with that man and all the wonderful new reasons you've discovered together through the years as you've lived out your married vocation together. Think about how much you love him and why and write it all down. Think of life without him. Think about how to love him better. Have fun counting to a hundred.

You will be giving your husband the gift of your love as well as the gift of a wife with a thankful and appreciative spirit. Thanks always leads to joy.

Give it a try - even if you just jot down your hundred on a plain piece of paper.

It will surely bless you both.

To Cheer You

Splashes of happy color fresh off of Eliza's paint brush -

Girl in a Purple Dress

Puppy Dog

Kitty Cat

They sure make me smile on this dripping, grey day we're having.

Christmas with Charlotte and Martha

I've hinted quite a bit here (and here and here and here) about how much my girls love the series of books about Charlotte and Martha, Laura Ingalls' ancestors, written by Melissa Wiley. Mary Rose is especially enamored with them and reads them over and over (and over and over). It leads to quite interesting conversation at times as she daily asks if my clothing is made of wool or cotton or flax and things like that. Just yesterday she was explaining to me how we could cook up some of the roots of the hyacinths we planted to use as a poultice to cure our boils. Not that we have any boils at present, but you know, just in case. The most startling conversation was when she solemnly inquired if I had my funeral garments already prepared because, after all, that is a wife's first duty.

Mary Rose so loves to be Martha that she was hoping to get a spinning wheel for Christmas, and that would satisfy her until she could also get a loom when she is a bit older. In an effort to make it clear that she wasn't getting a spinning wheel I got her a drop spindle as a little gift in November.

As you can see, she was thrilled! I knew to have the camera ready ahead of time for when she opened it. (It was also fun to have Dad ask, 'Um, what's a drop spindle?' Mary Rose was happy to enlighten him.) I purchased a handmade drop spindle that came with instructions and some wool roving for getting started. Ours is a bottom whorl spindle, and you can easily find them on Etsy or eBay. It is also very simple to make your own spindle; find directions here at The Joy of Handspinning site. They also have a video demonstration you can watch for learning to spin.

In November we also visited friends who are skilled in fiber arts. They even raise their own sheep:

It was fun to visit the sheep in person as we so enjoy A New Coat for Anna and A Symphony for the Sheep. Mary Rose was delighted to examine their collection of spinning wheels.

And our friend kindly gave Mary Rose some instruction in using the drop spindle.

She also had the opportunity to try her hand at carding the wool.

Mary Rose was just thrilled to experience all of this firsthand after reading all about it so often in her beloved books. For Christmas, Lydia thoughtfully made some gifts for Mary Rose to go along with her love of all things Martha (Morse, not Stewart!) and Charlotte. Lydia is very creative and clever at thinking up gifts that she knows will delight the recipient. Here we have Charlotte Tucker's Copybook, a quill and pretend jar of ink, the Blue Back Speller and an ABC book.

The Blue Back is filled with spelling words on every page, and the alphabet book is beautifully illustrated all the way from apple and bull...

...to young lamb and zany.

We don't have to worry about any 'blockheads' here!

The children like to do all of their Christmas crafting independently and we have a regular 'house full of secrets' like Laura did. But Jonathan and Josiah were thinking along the same lines as Lydia. Jonathan carved some wood to make some reproductions of classic historical toys - the cinch knot puzzle and a catch-the-ball-in-the-cup gadget seen below. Josiah made a drop spindle for Anna Ruth and one for Lydia, and Jonathan made one for me!  Josiah painted cute tiny sheep around the edges of his.

Jonathan decorated mine with pretty woodburned leaves and vines.

Now the girls can all spin together!

Lissa has kindly compiled all of her Little House blog posts on one page where you can find more activities and sites to visit as you enjoy her wonderful books. I also have to mention one more 'resource' recommended by Lissa - our new favorite CD:

This collection of Scottish folk songs is so lively and engaging we all just love it. The little girls dance and the boys play along on their folk instruments and the parents carry on with quite a bounce and skip in their step whenever this CD is on, which is often as 'elbow room' is one of Eliza's top requests. You can preview the songs on the Amazon site to see if this music is your cup of tea. Enjoy!

Mary Rose has informed me that we simply must have bannocks again tomorrow. Just this afternoon she was teaching Eliza and Kateri how to make a peat fire...

Way Cool

Can you guess what this is? I sure couldn't. Hint: it's a Christmas gift made by Jonathan for his friend.

Give up?

Taa Dah!

I made his friend open it up because I wanted to see what Jonathan had made. This is one result of my sewing machine being kidnapped and held hostage in Jonathan's room. I had no idea what he was making. He even made the hanging chain out of leftover maille rings.

Pretty cool.

Christmas Garland

We have a long row of windows in our kitchen and sunroom. I don't have any curtains up as we enjoy the sunlight as well as the view, but I wanted a little something to brighten things up for the holidays. I thought Alice Cantrell's birthday garland would look pretty done up in a variety of Christmas fabrics. Alice has instructions here for how to construct the garland.

Basically, you take an assortment of quilting fabric squares, fold them in half into triangles, and then sew them onto a length of ribbon to make a garland. The ribbon just gets sandwiched in the middle and there's no need to finish the edges of the squares. Easy peasy -my kind of sewing project just now. The hardest part was kidnapping my sewing machine and cutting tools from where they were being held hostage in Jonathan's room, but we snuck in while the guard was away...

I just bought some yardage of fabric and cut my own squares. My rotary cutter and cutting mat made short work of the job. I made six inch squares, just a bit larger than Alice's five inch charms.

We had a bit of an assembly line: I did the cutting, Anna finger pressed the triangles, and Lydia sewed them onto the ribbon. We needed to work fast before the babies woke up!

You can't really see the pretty fabrics in the photo due to the backlight from the windows, but you get the idea. It turned out to be a very festive, cheery sight.

Here we go - Michael took a better picture for me!

This would also be a fun and easy way to brighten up a child's bedroom, or any casual room using themed or floral fabric prints. I do plan to make some birthday garlands someday.

Thanks, Alice!

Crocheted Fun

I hear hammering coming from the cellar all day. When I walk upstairs I have to remind myself that it's Jonathan's woodburner I smell and that the house isn't burning down. We are a family that likes to work with our hands. When Christmas is in sight everyone starts brainstorming what they can make for gifts for each other. Hammers pound, smoke rises, crochet hooks fly, paint brushes flash, and this year my new sewing machine whirs.

The main gift crafting I am able to squeeze in is crocheting, as it's the one thing I can still do while nursing or riding in the car. I so enjoy crochet because it is so very versatile. My dear Aunt Irene taught me how to crochet when I was a little girl so it is like second nature for me. I have been making some pretend food for the little ones for gifts. No made-in-China-paint-worries with these! I just love the luscious colors I've been working with. These are readily available and inexpensive cotton yarns - Sugar 'N Cream is made in Canada and Peaches 'N Cream is actually made in the USA!

I don't use any patterns as I like to just make things up as I go along.

Don't they look yummy?

I have made all of these things amigurumi style, crocheting tightly with all single crochet stitch, working in the round without joining rounds (spiral fashion), and using an H hook.

I just increase or decrease to shape the fruits as I go. For the pear and apple I crocheted a stem and then left a tail of yarn. I threaded this tail through the fruit with a needle, tied a knot and trimmed it for the blossom end.

Here's a little carrot. Vegetables are tasty too!

Cookies are fun as the sky's the limit for flavors and shapes, just like real cookies. I have been making numerous cookies the same way, so I can share a little pattern for those. They are a simple project to start with as they are small and quick to finish.

Crochet Cookies

I used an H hook and cotton worsted weight yarn. Crochet in rounds without joining. You can use a stitch marker to mark the end of the round or simply count the stitches.

1. Chain 2. 6 single crochet in second chain from hook. (6 stitches)
2. 2 single crochet in each stitch around (12 stitches)
3. [single crochet in next stitch, 2 in next stitch] around (18 stitches)
4. [single crochet in each of next two stitches, 2 single crochet in next stitch] around (24 stitches)
5. [single crochet in each of next three stitches, 2 single crochet in next stitch] around (30 stitches)
6. slip stitch into next stitch and fasten off.
7. Make two of these rounds, but do not cut the yarn on the second one. Embellish the right side of one of them however you like. You can make French knots for chocolate chips, or embroider little raisins. You can make a free-form shape of icing to sew on. For the pink swirl icing I just attached pink yarn in the center and started to chain, working in a spiral and attaching it to the cookie with a slip stitch every 3 stitches or so.
8. Sandwich your two cookie halves together, right sides facing out. Using the yarn still attached to your cookie half, join the halves by single crocheting them together. Be careful to keep your stitches lined up.
9. For the 'filled' cookie, I made a separate piece of 'chocolate cream'. Chain 30 with your filling color. (Single crochet, chain one) in each chain stitch to make a little 'ruffle'. I used brown in the cookie shown, or you can make a brown cookie with white filling for an Oreo. You can also use pink or even red or green for Christmas cookies. Sandwich the filling in between the two cookie rounds and stitch together through all three layers as shown.

These make such nice simple and inexpensive gifts, and gifts that children can make for each other. Or you can get a little more elaborate in your presentation for a more substantial gift. You can pair a set of different flavored cupcakes with a homemade apron or a muffin tin. You can make a variety of cookies and present them in a basket with a few cloth napkins and a wooden spoon. The possibilities are endless, and you don't have to worry a bit about burnt cookies or broken piecrusts.

If you prefer using a pattern you can find lots of free patterns for crochet food items here, including various cupcakes, donuts, cakes, fruits and all. I think I might try ice cream cones next, just because we love to hear Kateri say 'ice eem tone'. Have fun!

New Beads

New items have just been added at the Beads of Mercy site!

I got quite a bit of beading done in the car on the drive to Chincoteague, and I'm almost caught up on my special orders, so I am finally able to post some new pieces. And Tech Support was available this evening to upload the new items for me. I just had to provide tea and a bit of crumb coffee cake. Thank you Dear Husband!

WIP Update

I found it downright hilarious when Danielle Bean referred us to her supposedly messy desk. Apparently she has never seen Josiah's creative workspace. (See how he loves his new nose - he's always wearing it.)

Here are the latest additions to his WIP. The Bait Shop is now open and ready for business. Note the diminutive duck decoys on the porch.

Here we have the General Store with its false front:

A new small craft:

And here is the Inn of the Blue Gull:

I just love the signpost. Wait till you see the Bike Shop with its rentals and the Coffee House with its rather unique sign. But I don't have photos for you yet. When Josiah has completed ten buildings he plans to take a respite and start working on the landscaping. Stay tuned...

   

Josiah's Latest WIP

The WETA Workshop in Josiah's room

is now closed and Walter Wick is here instead!

You just never know what is going to strike Josiah's creative fancy next. Take him to a real life sand and water cove and let him climb a real lighthouse and this is what you get - the beginnings of his interpretation of Smuggler's Cove from Treasure Hunt.

Except for the chimneys made of wood carved with a brick pattern, these houses are all made of cardstock, his favorite medium. My first clue that he was up to something was when he came downstairs for another serving of cardstock the other day while wielding a handful of strips.  He informed me they were precisely one centimeter wide. They were used for the clapboard siding on the white house. 

On Saturday morning we popped into the craft store after Mass because he 'needed some more paint', as many of the colors in the big box in his room are running out. He selected ten new bottles of acrylics and I grabbed an assortment of 25 brushes to keep them company.

The lighthouse really works!

   

The Simple Joy of a Homemade Toy

As I mentioned in my previous post, Alice Cantrell is hosting a Home Made Toy Fair! Gather your felt and scissors and glue, your hooks and needles and yarn, your most luscious fabric bits and laciest bobbles and trims. Or if you prefer, make that your carving knives and wood blocks, your paper maiche and metal works, your pvc pipe and branches and sticks and rolls and rolls of duct tape. Don't forget the paint and clay and beads and your cup of tea (or coffee if you must) and head on over with your arts and crafts things to A Number of Things for inspiration!

All of the toys pictured here are of the toys created by children category. My children are the sorts that are always making things. Like Alice, I simply provide lots of materials that are always available and a few crafts books and blogs are occasionally strewn for inspiration. Tom Kitten, Monkey and Dear Old Dash the Dog pictured above are from Sock and Glove, but more often than not they work from their own imaginations.

They don't like patterns unless they have written them themselves.

Sometimes toys imitate real life, as seen in this almost embarrassing assortment of baby doll toys. I mean these babies have lots of toys!  They have beaded teethers and ring stackers and little puzzles made of foamtastic with little handles on the little pieces so their chubby baby hands can play with them. These babies have stuffed toys for playing in-and-out and a nice pink Busy Box. They have alphabet cards and number cards and animal cards. They also have oodles of handmade miniature books that their loving mothers read to them!

Here are two clay dolls Josiah made for his sisters, and he made them a dugout house for them to live in outside. Hopefully the roof won't cave in like it did on Ma and Laura. Toys like these are often made for gifts for siblings. Why bother trying to shop at a store when you can just make something that you know will delight your brother or sister? Jonathan crocheted mittens for all of his sisters' Bitty Babies one Christmas, and he also made them tiny felt scapulars. Homemade gifts like these are treasured so much because the recipient knows they were made with love and care just for them.

When you make your own toys, you always have exactly what you want to play with. There is no waiting to receive that perfect toy - you just go and make it. And if one day you are enamored with Narnian warriors

and the next you are smitten with aircraft, that's okay. Your paper and clay and wire and paint can turn into whatever you want it to be. 

And if you want your own armor, you just collect lots of cans and go make some.

Of course, many of these toy creations are inspired by the books the children read. In  homeschooling  parlance we call them living books. You can tell that it's summer time, time to read Swallows and Amazons, because Josiah has just made this craft. We live the books.

Here is Josiah with a paper plane complete with little motors and a battery. He confiscated the motors from I don't know where, but I did see parts of an electric toothbrush scattered all over his floor!?

There's no need for a craft kit when you have paper, glue and

paint. Aircraft is Josiah's first love. He makes many things but often returns to his first love - scale models of WWII aircraft such as this aircraft carrier made entirely of cardboard.

So there is a whirlwind tour of some of our homemade toys. Children love to play. Children enjoy toys. Given the opportunity, they will create. Provide lots of supplies. Expect a bit of mess. The materials don't have to be sophisticated or expensive. I have a son who hoards cereal boxes and a daughter who once had twelve butter boxes under her bed. Don't get overly excited when your son has tree branches and wood shavings strewn all over his bedroom floor because he just might be making you a present. Buy a lot of tape. Children are often more successful than adults at things like learning a language or drawing a picture because they have no fear of failure. They see themselves as invincible-

and when it comes to crafts and creativity, that's a good thing.

This 'N That

I don't know if this happens to other bloggers but being a chronic night owl I wake up every morning to a chorus of voices high and low, squeaking and resonating, whispering and booming : Did you blog anything? I have been giving a disappointing No! for a very long time now. I didn't really plan on taking a blogging break but life is like that and break it was and here I am back again.

First I will show you Josiah who had his braces off on Friday in honor of his half birthday. He is now 14.5 and has beautiful teeth. I've spent the weekend telling him how handsome he looks while his brother repeatedly says he looks like he has someone else's teeth (!). Observe:

Corn on the cob and homemade poppycock coming soon.

We have had numerous workers in and out the past couple of weeks finally closing up the hole in the outside of my house, repairing my shower, and fixing the living room ceiling so that it no longer looks like this: (This picture is for Bridget.) It is so marvelous to have everything finally put back together again.

We had some unseasonably cool weather here recently - like wear long sleeves and eat hot soup and break out the crochet hooks even though its still August kind of weather. Last Saturday I ran into the craft shop to get a planter for my foyer. I had every good intention of just purchasing one item, but it was such a convenient container so I came home with all this:

This past week has been unbearably hot and humid, keeping the children indoors most of the time so we have

wee little critters fresh off the hook, just in time for Alice C's Homemade Toy Fair, coming on Tuesday to A Number of Things. We can't wait! This little guy dropped in looking for a puddle-

and all of that crocheting makes one hungry for a little smackerel of something sweet.

Does this count for Fine Arts Friday? Kateri thought I really needed purple hands.

Eliza concentrating:

And I will leave you with the colorful still life Pink Leaves, Flower, Worm and Sun by Eliza.

  Cheery, no?

Thanks for popping by and I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

   

   

Mary Rocks

Well now, that post title probably got your attention! ;-)

My apologies, but a better title escapes me at the moment, and this is just a quickie post.

I saw these painted rocks on the blog wise craft , and thought they looked like a super simple and fun activity. Just the ticket to squeeze in a little crafting on a lazy summer afternoon. Then the idea popped into my head to make colorful rocks to decorate Our Lady's little garden spot. Basically, you heat rocks in the oven and then draw on them with crayons. The crayons melt on the hot rocks so the color just glides on, smooth and vivid. I had the oven on to bake shortbread this afternoon, so out with the cookies and in with the clean rocks! Heat your rocks at 350 for about 15 minutes, then put them on a heat-proof surface and have a go with peeled crayons. Nice way to use up some of the endless supply of blunt and broken crayons. Use your judgment as to what aged children can do this safely without burning themselves. I reminded them to hold the crayons perpendicular to the rock to avoid the natural inclination to rest their wrists on the hot rocks.

Here we have Mary, Star of the Sea, Mother of Mercy, and Ave Maria.

And here's a little rock painted with acrylics by Josiah.

He said he wanted to paint a rock too, but he just doesn't do crayons anymore. ;-) No problem.

He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out." Luke 19:40

Knitting But Not Pearling

I was so impressed when I saw the lovely knitting being created by the talented inhabitants of the Onion Dome. It is so wonderful to see the work of children's hands as they express their creativity. I don't know how to knit, so my children have not been able to pick up this particular skill very easily. However, Josiah has been working on an entirely different sort of knitting over here. He just finished his maille mitons!

These are very impressive as he developed the pattern himself, based on what he learned while making the rest of his maille. He sewed on leather palms so he can still wield his sword with care.

Excellent job, Sir Josiah!

Sword Tutorial

If your children grow up reading the likes of Lewis and Tolkein, sword play is par for the course.  Everyone knows  that. (That last link includes a nice list of sword fighting 'rules' - check it out.) We are often asked how we make our swords, so we are posting directions here. Dads love to duel with these as much as children of all ages do. See some pictures of swords in action at the end here.

And now, heeerre's Jonathan:

We have been making foam swords since we first read Narnia many years ago.  We now have a standard battle-worthy design that is very sturdy and easy to repair.  I would guess it costs no more than three dollars for materials.  With these swords you can have real sword fights and still keep all your arms and legs.

To make four of these swords, we go to the hardware store and get a 10’ length of ¾”  lightweight PVC pipe, two 6’ lengths of the foam tubes they make for insulating ¾”pipes, four ¾” PVC end caps, and a ¾”x1 ½” board. (I assume you already have plenty of duct tape around, but if not, get another roll.)  You will also need a tape measure, a saw, a pair of scissors, and a drill with a 15/16” bit. 

Cut the PVC into 30-inch lengths.

Cut four 28” lengths of the foam. The foam will extend beyond the length of the PVC so that the end of the sword is just foam rendering it safe for play. Trim one end of each piece so that it has a point.  Then put three or four pieces of duct tape lengthwise on the foam to cover it entirely.  It is easier to apply the tape if you have the foam on the PVC to help keep it straight. Wrap one end of each strip of tape around the point of the sword and tuck the other end into the end of the foam tube.

.

To make the hilts, cut four 9” lengths of ¾”x1 ½” board.  Drill a 15/16” hole through the center of each piece.

Put a hilt and an end cap on each piece of PVC and add the tape-covered foam.  Attach the blade to the hilt and the PVC with a couple of strips of tape going diagonally around the base of the blade, the hilt and the PVC.  This finishes the basic sword.

If you want to make junior size swords, make the PVC 24”, the foam 24” also, and cut the hilts 7” instead of nine.  Last year, we had our two little cousins over and we made them the shorter swords. However the three-year-old went around fighting us boys with one of our full size swords even though his older sister preferred the shorter sword – it is a matter of preference.

These swords can be made fancier if you want.  Josiah has the hilt and grips of his swords covered with black tape and he even made a wooden plug to go on the end instead of a PVC cap so that it has his coat-of-arms.  If you want, you can paint the hilt and write runes or elf letters on the blade with a permanent pen to make it look like one of those famous swords like Anduril. 

If you use these swords a lot, they start to get ripped up, and the tips sometimes fly off in the middle of a fierce fight.  Just repair them with more tape the way some kids tape their hockey sticks. 

These swords are safe to hit people with if you don’t mind getting hit back.  When we duel, hitting people’s heads or necks is illegal as are blows from above (and of course no hitting anyone who isn’t on his guard and ready to defend himself). 

When we duel, we usually do not use shields (since only Josiah has one), so a big part of the fight is parrying and jumping out of the way.  And as they say in Prince Caspian “The great thing is to slash at your enemy’s legs and feet.”  We have enough swords that sometimes we use two swords like Orius the centaur in the Narnia movie.  When I duel, I usually wear winter gloves to protect my hands, but this does not seem to be a problem with anyone else. 

This is what happens when you bring your swords to a homeschool picnic.

Enjoy your swords!

Final note from Mom: Be sure children understand the rules for safe sword play so that everyone has fun and no one gets hurt (other than possibly his or her pride).

Out of the Wardrobe

Someone recently asked me if I'd be willing to give a conference talk about bringing creativity into the lives of my children. Quite frankly, my children's creativity leaves me speechless (sorry, couldn't resist the pun). Just this afternoon I sat here at the computer and I looked out the window and saw a Centaur.

This Centaur was trotting by at a rather brisk pace.

I shouldn't have been too surprised, because last night there was a Centaur in my cellar. Only that one was stationary.

Perhaps this Centaur is hanging around my house because of the Cyclops that has also been sighted.

There have also been some curious looking Dwarves spotted.

   

It is really very interesting around here. Last week, while I was in the kitchen cooking, I got that eerie feeling that I was no longer alone. I turned around rather suddenly to be startled by a Satyr.

He seemed rather harmless. At least for the moment.

Maybe King Edmund will come back to help get things sorted out. I haven't seen him recently, but he was here a while ago.

Did I mention that we are Narnia fans?   

Maybe that explains things.  Living Books indeed.

May Day!

'Tis the month of our Mother
The blessed and beautiful days,
When our lips and our spirits,
are glowing with love and with praise.   

All Hail! to thee, dear Mary,
the guardian of our way;
To the fairest of Queens,
Be the fairest of seasons, sweet May.

Here are some of my girls holding some of the May Baskets they made. We delivered them this morning to the priests at Mass, leaving some on the doors for the sisters, and stopping by the homes of godparents. Filled with treats and truffles, holy cards and homemade bookmarks, they are a lovely way to bless others and celebrate the arrival of Our Lady's special month. We made these baskets with items we already had around the house. Scrapbook paper was made into cones, tissue paper used for lining, ribbons fashioned into handles, and flowers and pictures glued on for decoration.

The bookmarks came out lovely and are very simple to make with items already on hand in any house with children. Cardstock decorated with stickers, covered with packing tape for instant 'lamination' and adorned with a bit of ribbon. In lieu of stickers, pictures cut from religious and gardening catalogs work just as well.

Thanks once again to dearest Alice for the idea, whose love for our Blessed Mother is always overflowing and pouring out through her creative and generous hands. It is so lovely to think of so many families carrying out Alice's craft idea, spreading good cheer and devotion to Our Lady in so many different places. If  you missed making these for May Day, you still have thirty more days left to celebrate Our Lady!

Ave Maria!

Blessed May Day to you and yours!