The potato bag said "store in a cool dry place." That was exactly what I intended to do with them...I just never got around to it. By the time I opened the potato bag (I was making Martha Stewart's pierogies, which are very good, though somewhat time consuming, in case you were wondering) about half had started growing, a lot.

Now it seemed a shame to just toss them, so they sat around and grew a bit more while I mulled over my dilemma. Then at long last it came to me--potato stamps! A little bit of slicing and cutting, and pretty soon we had some squares, circles, triangles, stars and crosses.

It was a good project for both of the girls. Besides being a lot of fun and a good creative outlet, Fig also learned the colors red, yellow and blue, while Pookie learned the names of shapes.

And it was a lot of fun for me too. Fun enough that I'm looking at the last two leftover potatoes and wondering if I should make some stamps for myself...I have to do something with them don't I?

The snow has melted, the puddles are gone, and it's just warm enough to go outside...
and bring the paints. Spills, drips, dropped paint brushes--no problem! No floor to clean up out here, the girls can paint and have paint accidents without any clean up involved for me. I love it, so do they.
And as the girls are busy making art, I thought I'd try doing some of my own (a sketch of the tree branch we found the other day).
It's been too long! I actually spent quite a lot of time staring at all that white paper, trying to figure out where and how to begin! Guess I need to take up my drawing a bit more often...

A branch from a tree that feels about the same way I do...

...isn't it time for spring yet?

Some baby chicks (in various stages of completion) that I've been working on for the girls' Easter baskets.

I used this extremely helpful pom pom tutorial from Bella Dia and then trimmed the pom pom into chick like shapes. A little bit of yellow felt, some black beads, and ta da!. Nothing fancy, just a fun little something to suprise the girls with Easter morning.

First there were just lines. Then a little while later circles developed. Then the lines and circles were put together and there were lots and lots of pictures of jellyfish around the house. And then there were faces.

My husband's

Mine (I'm the one on the right with the crazy hair...)

Pookie's and her sister's.

And now there are faces everywhere...even where there shouldn't be any faces--walls, floors, furniture. Of course I act very upset about this and explain over and over again the drawings are only to be done on paper, but secretly...well I like them. It's always such a suprise when I find one and they bring such a smile to my face...I can't bring myself to wash them away.

I may have to do something about this before the house is covered in murals though!

Two projects completed!

Mimi's dress is done. It wasn't quite done for Valentine's day, but Pookie was patient and only gently reminded me daily that Mimi's dress needed to be finished. Her persistence paid off and it was finished much sooner that it otherwise would have been.

Fig's crib quilt is done. I had planned on hand quilting it, but once Fig learned it was hers she lay on top of it and refused to get off. I settled for tufting it...around Fig. I'm thrilled she likes it so much!

I wish I'd finished more than two projects, or that I had more in the works, but it's taking a bit to settle in here. The girls and I are still working out a comfortable routine for us and I'm still figuring out how to squeeze in "me" time (i.e. crafting time) in between all the laundry, cooking, and other household chores that need to be done. Hopefully we'll have it all worked out sometime soon...

(By the way, if you're thinking that Mimi's feet look very dirty, well they are. It's chocolate, I just have to idea how it got there. Pookie's been complaining about Mimi's "dirty toes" so, if I can remember, the girls will get to bathe their dolls tonight!)

I'm very much done with winter, but unfortunatley winter isn't done with us yet. Friday it snowed...heavily and by Saturday morning we had at least eight inches of snow on the ground. This left me with a strong desire to sit all day on the couch and pout, but everyone else wanted to go outside and play in the snow, so out we went.

We went down the hill a couple times on the sled and Daddy built the girls a "Cinderella snow castle"......we drank hot chocolate, ate sugar cookies with raspberry buttercream frosting, and watched the sun "going to sleep" beyond the woods.

And by the end of the day the snow didn't seem that bad. Of course I'm still anxious for spring to arrive, but I think I can deal with a little more snow...for now.

I'm working on a new bird pattern which is both fun and frustrating--fun to be doing something new (and craft related too!) and frustrating in that nothing is turning out quite right. This little guy is heading in the right direction though.

His eyes are all wrong (the only animal eyes I had were a size or two too large) but I'm relatively happy with his shape.

A bit more tweaking of this and that...and I just might have something I like.

A four day weekend in February was just what we needed. Leisurely mornings with breakfasts we wouldn't normally have time for (some french toast made from homemade Challah bread and crepes with berries and whipped cream!) followed by fun adventures.
A train ride to the aquarium...


where the jellyfish suceeded in winning the girls hearts. (I think Fig would have taken one home as a pet if she could have!)
A chilly trip to a frozen pond, to walk on the ice, chip at the ice, lick at the ice, and enjoy some sun.

And lots of playing with the grandparents and aunts, browsing through bookstores, puzzle solving, singing songs, moving watching, and all around silliness. A weekend that left us all thoroughy happy and thorghouly tired.
But now it's time for Tuesday and for life to return to normal. I'm not sure I'm ready yet...

We've had lots of bad weather and way too much indoors time. Thank goodness we have these to play with!

A while back I began trying to introduce elements of both Montessori and Waldorf education into our day to day lives. Collecting these shells for the girls to play with was one of the first things I did.

The girls love them. They pour them from one container into another, count them, sort them, and size them. It's not unusual for them to play with their shells for nearly an hour at a time. It's incredible how something so simple and commonplace can bring about so much amusement and learning.

We're looking forward to spring and warm weather so we can go to the beach and collect more shells. I'm also saving our empty glass jars for anything else we might find to collect. I can't wait to see what we find!

Meet Flossie, Fig's Waldorf doll.
My mother made her for Fig's first birthday. There was a bit of a time crunch, so Flossie was finished by Fig's birthday, but there weren't any clothes for her. For the last several months she has been clothed in merely a cloth diaper and nothing more. Come Valentine's Day that will all change.
While I'm planning on making the girls some cookies and other goodies for Valentine's Day, I thought some doll dresses might also be a nice little gift. So there is Flossie modeling dress #1 for you. The dress being a suprsie, Fig has obviously not seen it yet, but Pookie has and immediatley expressed her approval...she also immediatley ran off and brought me her favorite fabric for a dress for Mimi (Pookie's Waldorf doll).

So now it is more pattern drafting (Mimi being an altogether different size than Flossie) and lots more sewing tiny seams and struggling with tiny armholes, tiny buttons and what not. Three more dresses before Valentine's Day?? We'll see!

I've been thinking about these cinnamon rolls ever since I saw them on her blog. Now, six months later, I finally got around to making them...with a little help of course.
And that help meant that, when we were done, the table looked something like this (lots and lots of sugar/cinnamon everywhere) ...and the floor looked something like that as well. But it was well worth it!

"The girls are learning," I kept reminding myself every time I found my feet covered in sticky sugar and as I scrubbed dough off the table, chairs, floor, door frames, refrigerator, etc., etc. And with that in mind I kept working at smilingly accepting the "learning mess."

Oh and the cinnamon rolls, yes they turned out delicious! I was going to take a lovely picture of my tasty cinnamon roll beside my steaming hot mug of coffee, but by the time I got around to grabbing my camera...

this was all that was left. Sorry. But you can take my word for it that they are both lovely to look at, tasty to eat, and well worth the effort (I had to mix it all by hand!) I will definitely, definitely be making these again.

And maybe next time...I'll get a picture.

I'm back and this time permanently (at least I hope so.) Yes, our sojourn in the south is over and we are now happily home in snowy white New England. And oh does it feel good to be back!

We're slowly getting settled into our home. There are still a few too many boxes to be unpacked (and a few that need to be packed back up), some furniture that still needs to be purchased, and a whole lot of decorating to do, but we're getting there.

I could spend all day unpacking and cleaning, but thankfully I have two little people here who keep reminding me that little girls need lots of fresh air and room to run if they're going to grow up happy and healthy. So I stop unpacking/put down the broom/leave the dirty dishes in the sink, step outside, and suddenly remember how much fun winter can be...

How fun it is to stomp, slide, and jump in the snow...

What eating snow for the first time is like...

And how nice it is to just sit still and take in the quiet, white, beauty of it all.

Ahh, yes it's good to be back!

I must spend more time behind the camera than I realize...

because somebody has started doing a pretty good imitation of me!

Some Thanksgiving sugar cookies made for the children..

...but enjoyed by all!

Hoping yours was a beautiful (and tasty) Thanksgiving!

The problem with being away from one's blog for a long time is figuring out where to begin when one comes back. At least that's what my problem is. Where to begin, how to explain, how to condense this last month into a reasonably sized post. Phew! Hard work, but if I don't begin now...well it will only get harder I suppose.

So we moved. We have a lovely little home that upon entering I immediately fell in love with. It was built sometime in the 1950's and so is full of charms and quirks. The stairs creek, the floors (all hard wood) are scuffed and scratched, there are funny little shaped closets, and the doors bang (as only old well used doors can) comfortingly behind you when you leave the house. So for just about a week I unpacked all those many, many boxes and then...repacked a few suitcases because it was time to leave again.

We took a four day drive into the deep south where we were to stay nine weeks while my husband attended a class. We're now just over halfway through our time here and am I ever looking forward to getting home! Of course it's all been very new, different, and interesting here (I've been stung by fire ants, been awakened in the middle of the night by tornado sirens, and buried my feet in some Gulf Coast beach sand), but I'm homesick. I hear I've already missed the first snow sighting of the year!

And I miss my craft supplies! I had time only to grab a needle and some fabric scraps before leaving the house and...I'm still figuring out what to do with them. Christmas is around the corner (and I won't be getting home until just a week beforehand) and while I've resigned myself to the fact that most of the girls' Christmas gifts will have to be store bought this year...well I still have dreams of a handmade item or two under the tree. So we'll see. I'm busy searching the internet for craft and fabric stores around here and hopefully, hopefully something will work out...

...and then maybe I'll have something new, exciting, and fun to share with you!

Moving! Be back soon!

And blue and purple make five...

...five lovely little Christmas ornaments. Five more to finish and...I need to hurry--my creative free time is running out what with the move and all. Oh to be done of packing boxes!

Pookie is two. Old enough to remember what things were like last month and old enough to notice that things are different this month. What she notices the most right now? Leaves.

Pookie and I like to play color games. Kind of like "I spy" but easier for a toddler, I point and ask what color something is and she tells me or I ask her to show me something of a particular color and she points it out. Up until this point leaves have been green and something green is leaves. Not now...

Pookie brought me this leaf today. "Mama, Mama...color?? red???" She's just a tad bit confused as to why these leaves aren't green.

So we sit and talk about the seasons, but it's kind of a hard concept for a two year old. She has a book that shows a tree throughout the seasons and she's constantly bringing it to me asking me to explain it to her over and over again. The changing seasons, so very ordinary to me, are fascinating to her.

I love rediscovering the world through my children's eyes...

Fig's quilt pieced together perfectly. I was feeling quite happy with the whole project and was gleefully thinking to myself that I'd have it done in no time...but then it came time to add a border to it. The red polka-dot fabric I had been planning on using was the wrong shade red (too orange) and so I had to go out shopping for a different fabric to use.
On shopping expedition one I came up with nothing--everything was too modern, too new looking, too busy, or...just the wrong shade.
A week later there was shopping expedition two. I found the cutest flannel for the girls' winter pajamas...but nothing for Fig's quilt.
Shopping expedition three was planned for several days later and while I waited to shop I stared discontentedly at Fig's quilt. This is kind of how most projects go for me. I get just so far and then that perfect last element...can't find it. So the project sits and sits and sits while I think things over and keep searching.
But I was determined not to let that happen this time--I mean really, we're having cold nights now so perfect or not Fig needs that quilt! So on shopping expedition three I gave up on my "dream fabric" and settled for something. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't what I had envisioned, but it was going to work. And upon getting the fabric home...well I think it's going to be almost perfect after all! So soon, very soon, Fig will actually have a finished quilt!
And hopefully another almost perfect quilt will be in the works soon. Pookie will be moving into a big girl bed (still searching for the...umm...perfect bed) and will need a new twin sized quilt. She has already informed me multiple times that hers should be green. Yes, green--it's her new favorite color. For now though--well I think she can just share Fig's. Afterall...

...apparently nap time is just that much better when you can nap together.

And the weekend went just as planned. One box filled, taped, and labeled...

...and then apple picking and...

a little bit of pumpkin picking too. And a final stop on the way home at the country store for some cider and my all time favorite maple sugar candies!Drinking hot cider and eating maple sugar candies...Mmmm! This is why I love fall so much!

(Thanks for the pictures Dad!)

Finished this little bird...

...and I'm really immensly fond of this color combination. Something about it feels so very fall to me and I love that.

Fall is my favorite season--I love the cool days, the cozy sweaters, the fall folliage, pumpkins, hot apple cider, raking and jumping in leaf piles! There's so much I want to do with the girls now that it's fall and yet there is all the packing, the moving, and the planning going on.

I'm trying to find a balance between the fun and the work. Trying to enjoy our time now, while getting ready for our future. My plan? Use this weekend to pack a couple boxes...and then go apple picking and carve some pumpkins with the girls!

Another bird finished. And another in the works...

More trips to the beach.

The water is almost too cold for wading in now.

Almost.

There was lots of packing this weekend, but there was no packing today. Today the girls and I made chocolate chip cookies to send to daddy, who is at boot camp...
...because I'm almost certain they don't serve chocolate chip cookies at boot camp...

and cookies just make everything better, wouldn't you agree?