hello to lucky 13

our new years eve was quiet. we had some dear friends over for a fantastic spread of greek afelia, winter squash risotto, and black eyed pea salad, all recipes from cookbooks by tessa kiros. our meal was followed by some bubbly, some gifts, and dessert, and then our friends moved on to their next stop. 

 

we brought the midnight hour in lazily, by the fire, watching new years eve tv, munching on biscotti, lined up on the couch with our laptops. my brother danny is visiting from new york city, thus making enough people for a rollicking game of quao.

the next day we slowly woke up and prepared for another celebration with families from our playgroup, and a few other friends with small children. our house was buzzing with the play of children aged almost-four to four weeks! and the food! there was vegetable lasagne, gratin made from home grown potatoes, black eyed pea sausage stew, chili, homemade bread with goat cheese chutney, smoked salmon, guacamole, cake and cookies and stout beer and spiced cider. it was a hearty welcome to 2013.

wishing you all a fabulous 2013 full of positive things. keep smiling!

p.s. today is my daughter's 15th birthday. 

FIFTEEN! 

i can hardly believe it myself. tashi is the bright beacon that paved the way for us as a family. 

she amazes us with her brilliance, her creativity, her groundedness, and her humor. 

we love her beyond language! happy birthday tashi!

more on our celebrations next entry!

the days, mostly

sewing, playing, moving inward, finding the new balance, cuddling up, seeking books,

indulging in movies, treasure hunting, piecing together patch by patch 

friday with friends: star prints

as a counter balance to all the complex music and big people gatherings, there was our friday playgroup. it was a beautiful day in greenwood, virginia. and the kids made star prints! cut an apple in half horizontally around it's mid section (not from stem to base). if the kids are hungry (as ours were), you can cut off any excess apple & chop up for snack. leave a cross section with the star, dip it in paint, and press it to paper. 

oh my stars! 

or flowers. or bugs. or just lots of paint on paper. . .

 

 

sew inclined: b is for baby, blue, and blanket

the first three blankets i made this season will probably go to girls, as they all contain a lot of pink, and we all know the traditional view of pink and blue. so i thought that i should make the next three gender neutral at least. 

this is a favorite fabric of mine. i've made several blankets from this retro-ish atomic snowflake print.

what is it about owls anyway? they are almost always irresistible. this is a soft flannel with chenille backing.

and this fabric i found at a funky little fabric store in charlottesville, mr. hank's. i didn't intend for it to seem halloween-ish. but 'tis the season, eh? though some little being must love wizards, owls, frogs, stars, and moons, regardless the time of year, right?

speaking of pink, my boy is fond of it. and he inherited his sister's dress up basket. how did the gender classification of color ever begin, anyway?

wee craft: acorn spool dolls

please meet our new friends!

aside from weekends, thursday is the only day of the week that tristan and i don't have a prescheduled activity. it is our long lull at home and seems the perfect day to take on a craft project. in my continuing effort to make the most of acorns, we made acorn spool dolls. 

i picked out some wooden spools from a small vintage collection that i have, and selected some of the big acorns i found at the base of the oak tree by the public library. we liked the caps that appeared to have pom poms on them!

tristan painted two out of three of the spools, and i guided his hand to paint the faces. once the acrylic paint dried, i used the glue gun to stick the acorns to the spools.

tristan decided to use up the remaining paint by making some hand prints.

we thought the acorn folk might want to visit the faerie.

 behind the faerie door we found a large wolf spider. she was not pleased to meet us.

at some point tristan hung these markers on his shirt. what a silly guy!

in my continuing saga of how to be more "regular" with the blog, i've decided that day specific themes might not work out that well for me. i may sometimes have thrift thursday or friend friday, but otherwise some general themes might pop up on any given day: weekend roundup, sew inclined, where we are, celebrating the seasons, wee craft, and what ever else i might think of!