It was hard for her to take care of it by herself. Sometimes we fought about it. She asked for a haircut and I said yes.
She is more aware of herself now at 10 years old, and how she fits in with her peers. It is my job to help her find her way. I secretly like that the haircut make her look younger.
We are in the grip of hard falling snow. Again. Maybe two more feet before it is over.
This excessive amount of snow, and a case of crazy cabin fever, has led my family to jump off the roof. Our house is of modern design, with a flat roof. (In New England? What was the architect thinking?) We have to shovel the snow off the roof, and this has made great piles of snow around the perimeter of the house. It is into these piles that the jumping occurs.
Of course, I was not home for the first episode of jumping. I'm sure I would have given my husband the evil eye and put the over-protective mother kibosh on the whole affair. I've relaxed about it now, though.
I think taking (controlled) risks can be good children. Gaining a sense of mastery, and overcoming anxieties, can mature a child in a healthy way. There are so many unhealthy risks for children to engage in. Perhaps building safe risk-taking into my children's lives will make the unhealthy risks unnecessary and less attractive.
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Do you know about wingsuits? Humans flying? Watch this:
The dark days are here, but I have found some color this week.
I received this beautiful bouquet of tissue paper flowers from my son's second grade class. It is a thank you gift. I recently helped organize the whole second grade (3 classes, 50 or so children) in making sewn fleece hats to donate to a local charity. The children were excited to be a part of this project. I appreciated that the teachers planned a project that focused the children on donating time and energy to giving to others.
The girl with the yellow blouse and paper heart is for a project I will post very soon.
It snowed last night. I am happy for that.
Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating!
I found some old origami paper hidden in a drawer last week. It inspired these holiday cards that my 7-year-old son made for his teachers and the little paper box that I folded. I like the enthusiasm evident in my son's ink stamping of the greeting.
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I just received the new issue of the lovely Spoonful (thank you Thea). This is a little gem. Simple, small, but bursting with warmth and inspiration. A very nice craft by Melissa in this one!
Today I picked my 10-year-old daughter up from her two weeks away at camp in Vermont. This is the first summer she has been away to camp. The first time she has ever been away from home for more than a night or two. She had a fantastic time. It was just the two of us for the entire ride home, and I got to hear about everything. I'm so happy for her. I told her that this is just the beginning of her venturing away from home and family. We will always be here, with our love and support. This is her home. But, she will find many adventures and friends apart from us. I never thought I'd be at this place when she was born a decade ago, but it feels just fine.
I have a bag of little discarded cardboard boxes, paper tubes, empty thread spools, and the like. I took it out the other day when everyone was a little restless and unfocused. Oh boy. Nothing like raw materials to get the tribe to settle down. Here is just a sampling of what was constructed. I especially like that the village has a river running through it.
My six-year-old son has been drawing obsessively lately. I am very interested in his drawings. He tends to use simple lines, and fill up the paper. Alas, many of the drawings tend to be war scenes, influenced by his interest in the Star Wars stories. But, some pirate ships, submarines, and a most lovely rain forest scene have popped up lately as well.
He draws on 6 or 8 sheets of 8.5' x 11" paper that he first tapes together. He got this idea for large drawings at school. Over the winter his teacher provided a group of the boys with long pieces of paper to make drawings that they could revisit whenever they had free time or inside recess. They spent weeks drawing scenes, adding bits and pieces when they could. I thought it was a fantastic idea and was happy to see Adam doing the same at home.
I have a strange urge to see the two detailed black and white drawings at the top done in embroidery. Inspiration is found in unexpected places, isn't it?
I just finished up this royal pair of giraffes. I really enjoyed making them. It is interesting how a sewn animal or doll takes on its own personality and look, no matter what your intentions on the outset. I was thinking along a circus theme as I began these. Then, the idea of making the little crowns came to me, and it was irresistible. As I was stitching on the first crown, my daughter waltzed into the room. "He needs a cape," she said, and waltzed away. I always trust Miriam, so a cape it was. They are made from wool, dupioni silk, linen, lace, and have braided yarn tails. The capes are fully lined, and the pink one is hand embroidered.
I came up with names for them this morning while helping my son get ready for school. Today is Adam's half birthday. Because he has a summer birthday, we decided that he could celebrate his birthday with his class today instead. (Bringing cupcakes to school and being the center of attention during snack time holds wide appeal when you are 6 and a half years old). As I was helping Adam with his shoes, we started talking about how a child's half birthday is his or her imaginary friend's REAL birthday (I made this up, but the kids thought it was great). Adam has two significant imaginary friends, Arlo and BeBe. Arlo was the name we had picked out to give to my daughter had she been born a boy. Adam came up with BeBe on his own.
So, I present to you King Arlo and Queen BeBe. They are kind and generous to all in their Kingdom. I'm curious to meet others who live in their Kingdom. I'd better get back to my sewing room and see if I can find them!
Have a nice weekend everyone. XO MARIBETH
Valentine's Day is creeping up. I so very much wanted to avoid the last minute card making that has gone on here the last few years. When we wait until the last minute, no one has fun and sometimes we end up with a child in tears. Adam's handwriting has become so much better over the course of first grade, but he often tells me that writing is SO much work and that it tires him out. Therefore, my plan is to make the cards one day, and then spend the next few writing the names on them. Miriam has a different problem when it comes to waiting until the last minute. She fiddles around trying to figure out what she wants the card to look like, and then comes up with some complicated crafting that just can't be accomplished in the time left.
So, yesterday afternoon we made the cards. I convinced them both that making prints would be fun, and also allow them to easily make as many cards as they wanted. They both drew a design after a little chat about positive and negative space (of course Miriam drew oodles of ideas before she settled on one, fretting all the while whether it was the best one). I love that Adam's design is in positive space, Miriam's in negative. Then, I transferred the design onto a Speedball brand "Speedy Cut" rubber block. We then cut out the designs with a linoleum carving set. The rubber blocks are so easy to cut that Miriam did some of the carving without any problems. I had several colors of block printing ink on hand, so we all had fun choosing paper and ink combinations.
What you see in the photos are just a few of the dozens of cards we ended up printing. And we still have three days left to write out the names!
We made some holiday elves at a family party over the weekend. I must say, having a craft project to entertain everyone at a party is a whole lot of fun. Most of the elves were made with red and green clothes, in celebration of Christmas. But, because our family does not celebrate Christmas, my daughter Miriam decided to make a gnome, based on the classic book "Gnomes" by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet. Did you have this book as a child? I did, and I remember spending hours reading through it and almost believing that these little folks lived lives parallel to our own.