SouleMama

30 days :: 23

 

30 days :: 22

Dinner and dessert for two - hours after the dinner for five. Just because.

30 days :: 21

at the library.

{and for those of you long-time readers with good memories, I'm pleased to tell you that our current library balance is $0.00}

30 days :: 20

Inspiring:
Six One Way Flickr group

30 days :: 19

Inspiring:
Simply Breakfast

A happy Sunday to you!

30 days :: 18

(setting out on the frozen lake)
I just added the last of the photos - from the mid-lake birthday festivities - into the DownEast set on Flickr.

Inspiring:
Did you catch all of the amazing photography this week with Shari's Winter Whites? So much beauty in white.

30 days :: 17

We're home, thawing out (thanks for all the warm wishes!), and already re-telling with wonder the tales of our little two-night winter adventure. I'll let the pictures tell some of the story - there are some on Flickr here, and I'll add a few more in the next day. 

30 days :: 16

Packing...and mentally and physically preparing to be wicked cold for a couple of days. We're heading up North to the woods for a little winter camp adventure - the wish of my seven year old (!!) birthday boy. I'll resume my 30 days - and hopefully be thawed out - by Friday.

Enjoy your week!

30 days :: 15

(at Gram's house)

Inspiring:
Mom's World - One of my favorite Flickr photosets. Some of the more 'everyday' shots are especially wonderful.

30 days :: 14

30 days :: 13

30 days :: 12

30 days :: 11

(the result of his fabric search here.)

also: Have you been following along in Jen's fabulous guest blog posts at Modish? Today, she asked me about some of my favorite spots in town for those rare and precious moments when I'm on the town without my three little loves. You can read the post here - but check out the whole week's worth of posts for lots of Portland-love!

30 days :: 10

(14 inches more!)

Inspiring:

Six One Way
&
Noticing Project

30 days :: 9

(A daily favorite - Nut & Seed Granola from Feeding the Whole Family)

Another year of everyday beauty, art and inspiration begins today with 3191, a year of evenings!

30 days :: 8

So much of being a life artist is about attitude. About how how you feel about yourself and what you create. It's choosing to be open to all the wonderful possibilities in creating art that celebrate the life we are living.

- Ali Edwards, Life Artist

30 days :: 7

30 days :: 6

Huge thanks to Jennifer for her review of The Creative Family on the CraftSanity blog this week  - it's certainly the loveliest 'first review' this mama could dream of.

30 days :: 5

Inspiring:
Molly's Everyday Set

30 days :: 4

30 days :: 3

Every day art (groups) on Flickr:
my everyday life
365 days

30 days :: 2

I look, too, for domestic patterns and arrangements, practiced daily routines that make us feel at home or that confirm - or conform to - our ideas of what home should be.
-- Kaylynn Devene, photographer of The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings. (A beautiful book about the Everyday. Thanks to Shari for leading me to this gem!)

30 Days of the Everyday

Today starts a 30 day photography project for me here. A project that will let me explore my camera a bit, take some shots I might not otherwise try, focus the 'writing' part of my brain on my manuscript, and mix things up a bit here on the blog (coming up on three years soon! gotta shake things up sometimes).
But my overwhelming wish and motivation for this project is that it will be a part of really seeing. Because what's happening right now - right this very moment in my family life as these three little ones grow, learn, and explore so very much each and every day - it feels really special...and fleeting. And I really want to see it, in the slow tiny, simple, and very ordinary moments that make up each day.

There's been a great deal of inspiration leading me up to this little project - amazing photographers, authors, and artists who document the 'everyday' in simply beautiful ways. So in addition to the photographs, I hope to share a bit of that with you as well. And I'm very happy to say that I'll have some excellent company on this journey, as my dear friend Jessie Fields will be playing along too. I cannot wait to see what she sees.

So cheers to the little moments, and thank you for coming along!

Wintry Weather Favorites

{Aw, thanks. You are very sweet. I really appreciate your kind words about our little calendar. We had such fun putting it together...and after a little break from my scanner (or perhaps a scanning lesson for Calvin), I can't wait to see what project we begin next!}   

So...we've had some serious snow around these parts.The word is that this is the most snow we've had this early in the season in something like 40 years. The kids are beside themselves with glee at the outdoor play land we've got going on: cross country skiing, skating, sledding, snowshoeing, and generally rolling around in the powder...and Steve and Calvin are downright giddy about hitting the mountains for some downhill action this year too.For now, and for the most part - I'm rather enjoying all the snow. It's beautiful out there!  And inside is the pleasure of January nesting - we're getting in some serious couch time; drinking lots of cocoa and tea; playing more Animal Yahtzee than I ever thought possible; making lots of everything; and doing lots of reading. The couch and quilts and a pile of books are where it's at right now. In that light, I thought I'd put together a reading list of our favorite books from our Winter basket, and perhaps share a new list as each season begins this year.

Our Favorite Wintry Reads!

(A few that made their way onto the holiday list I did in November that really apply here too: Owl Moon - Jane Yolen; Snow - Uri Shulevitz; The Big Snow - Berta and Elmer Hader; The Story of the Snow Children - Sibylle Von Olfers; Winter - Gerda Muller )

And the rest...

Snowflake Bentley - Jacqueline Briggs Martin
I love this story - I love finding children's books that tell the true story of people following their passions. This story tells the tale of Wilson Bentley, the snowflake guy! This book usually inspired a great flood of snowflake making in this house, which I feel coming on pretty soon. Gotta stock up on my coffee filters. I keep adding Snow Crystals - one of Bentley's books - to my wish list, but it hasn't made it's way in yet. Maybe this winter.

Flannel Kisses - Linda Crotta Brennan
This was a recommend from our last book list, and I'm so glad for it. It's a short, sweet, and simple story featuring so many things we love about winter - snow, quilts, soup, family, and coziness.

The Tomten, and The Tomten and The Fox - Astrid Lindgren
Adelaide has a big Tomten thing going on right now - I can't even imagine how many times I've read these books. I adore everything Astrid Lindgren did, but these are really special, sweet stories. And just the right length for my two year old.

Flower Fairies of the Winter - Cicely Mary Barker
I found this book (along with the others in the collection) on a recent clean-out of the basement. I think I had them before the children were born, and I'm so glad I found them at a time when they can be so enjoyed. The poetry is simple and lovely, and of course, her drawings of the fairies and flowers are stunningly beautiful.

Grandmother Winter - Phyllis Root
I bought this book as a holiday gift after being reminded of it on the last book list. I'm so grateful for that reminder - it's such a sweet tale of the origin of winter, and we've been enjoying it's cozy tone.

The Snowy Day - Ezra Jack Keats
One of the few books I remember so fondly from my childhood. And my little ones love it too - of course, being by "Ezra" and all makes it a whole bunch more fascinating around here to my little guy. I love the simplicity of this story - and the 'blanket' of snow that arrives. Sweet, sweet.

Mr. Snow - Roger Hargreaves
I recently rediscovered these Mr. Men and Little Miss books when Edith & Edna started carrying them. Do you remember them? I remember reading them as a child, and my kids are as in love with them as I remember being. Reading them as a parent, there's a fine line between them irritating me and enjoying the simple stories. But these books have insipired a great deal of my kids' book making of their own characters, so for that I do love them.

Winter Waits - Lynn Plourd
I love this series by Lynn Plourd with of nature's 'family' personified through characters in each season. In this book, "Winter" is a playful young boy who sparkles in the snowy winter. This seems to be out on Amazon, but the Author (a fellow Mainer!) has links to purchase on her own website here.

Brambley Hedge Winter Story - Jill Barklem
Oh, the sweet mice of Brambly Hedge...this one tells the tale of them preparing for a magical snow ball. It appears to not be available on Amazon, or anywhere else I can find, though perhaps I'm just confused by the different editions. Maybe the library is the best place to find this tale - I do think it's worth it, espeically for those who are in between the picture book and chapter book stage.

Winter Tree Finder and Winter Weed Finder - Okay, these I don't have yet, but I just ordered them from my bookstore, and I'm really excited to see them. We have a lot of nature field guides, but I don't have any that are geared towards the landscape of winter. So I'm eagerly anticipating their arrival here for some exploring to begin.

Do you have a Wintry Weather favorite I haven't listed? I'd love to hear in the comments!  It's kind of fun to settle into a long book inside, that reflects what's going on outside, isn't it? We think so. And on that note (and in the interest of exercising your scrolling muscles) - this is what it does look like outside here now - taken over the course of a day.

Have a cozy weekend!

a year of birds

There are a handful of these still needing to be gifted, but I think they're all non-blog readers so I'm safe in sharing this now. This was our little gift for the holidays - a calendar of birds!

This project began in the spring, with the arrival of our first robins of the year. The pile of bird drawings starting growing...and the boys started dreaming up what they wanted to make with all of their bird love. Publish a book, make a movie - oh, the list went on and on. And they set to work - creating bird drawings, learning about birds, writing the names, and mostly - thinking, dreaming and watching the birds. Oh yeah, and there was a lot of screaming for me and my camera whenever a new one came by that we didn't yet have a photograph of.

By September, I had gently talked them into chanelling the book ideas (for now ...I'm fully anticipating the "bird book" idea being resurrected in the spring by these ambitious little ones) into a calendar, which thankfully, they loved the idea of as well. Each month's page features a photograph by Steve or I, drawings of the birds, lettering of the birds, and little commentary by the babes.

The piles of stuff floating around here for this were plentiful - hundreds of drawings, folders everywhere. At one point, Calvin was using an Excel spreadsheet to keep it all organized. Love that.

I created the images for each month in Photoshop, and then uploaded it all to Lulu.com for publishing. That end of the process was smooth and easy. I am so thrilled with the quality of the calendars - it was even better than I expected. We printed these on the over-sized (13 X 19") premium calendars - the size is perfect for this kind of project.

I seriously don't think any project has caused me so much frustration (okay...boredom is really the word - I scanned no less than 58 images), nor nail biting (as we waited for UPS to deliver it ... on the 21st!). But I can also say that few projects have been such a joy to be a part of. The kids worked SO hard on dreaming this up, putting it all together, and sharing it with those they love - watching them see it through to fruition was pretty awesome. It felt like a wonderful way to share something 'handmade' with those we love, as well as serve as a little record of how very much of our year was spent with the birds.

year no. 3

Of course, she got her dress. You knew she'd get the dress, right?  After her not-so-subtle plea, she never let up (such is the plight of the youngest child), asking each and every time she popped into my studio, "You makin' my Christmas dress, Mama?" followed by an incredulous "Why?!" whenever the answer was 'not yet'. When it was finally complete and I tried it on her, her immediate response was, 'My no like it. Take it off." Oh, yes, that's just what she did. Thankfully though, with the allure of new tights on Christmas morning (it's official that all my kids think tights are the most fabulous clothing article of all. And if I had tights with snowflakes on them I would have to agree), she happily wore the dress long enough for Christmas brunch, and even for one more party after that. Yay!

The fabric is by Maywood Studio. The pattern is a vintage one. I eliminated the lace, and added a little bit of baby rickrack instead. Because red baby rickrack belongs with the holidays as much as eggnog does, as far as I'm concerned. I can't resist these things.

And to continue our matchy holiday outfit tradition for the third year in a row, I made myself this apron. The pattern is the Apron Overlay from the Amy Butler Barcelona Skirt pattern. It's a great pattern - easy to follow and quick to whip up, and I was quite happy to wear it Christmas morning, but I'm not such a fan of how it fit - perhaps my sizing was off. Or perhaps my waist has moved. Surely it was the pattern. Ahem.

I know I swore a zillion times over before having children, that I would never do this matching clothes thing to my kids. But whatever, I'll happily eat those words now and continue sewing for just a few moments of fun, silly, and sweet with my baby girl. We like it.