Visit to a local artist

The other day we went to visit one of the local artists of this area. He paints with acrylics and his work is  very colorful. It was a wonderful place to take children to, as they encouraged touching everything, the sculptures, the paintings and everything in his studio was available to be experienced fully through all the senses, well almost. As a real bonus we got to watch him paint two paintings. Kaleena who is fond of painting as well, really enjoyed this process and sat spellbound watching as a landscape appeared out of seemingly random color applications. For me it was inspiring as well, I really enjoy acrylic painting, although I have not painted much since the birth of my children. I trust I will one day get back to it, and to experience this painters work space was exhilarating for me, and made me yearn for the free flowing creativity and peace that painting used to bring me.

Ahh, the creative process...

~happy monday to you~

Easy to make kite

Having had amazing kite flying conditions these past few days, we decided to make kites today. We have made these before and they are both easy to make and to fly, even if today the winds had decided to take a rest, and the flying was less than usual.

We used construction paper a regular rectangular shape, folded it in half, and to make sure the fold was properly creased, folded it back and forth a couple of times

then laying it in front of you like a book fold at an angle like shown. At the top it is aprox 0.5-1 inch and at the bottom about 2 inches or so, eyeballing is fine.

 then turn it over and open the wings

tape down the middle

 Then for support add a skewer or the like to the widest part at the top with some wide tape.

This time we used some chop sticks we had laying around, but honestly they did not work great. 

Skewers like the ones you might use for kebabs works great, and can easily be broken to size

we ripped some tissue paper strips and attached to the widest part of the bottom flap for a tail

 about one third down from the front of the bottom flap we added a little piece of tape for reenforcement and made a whole through. Through here we tied the string, the other end of the string we taped to a piece of card board and rolled it around to keep until use

Like I said the wind was taking a rest today, so the kite did not fly as high as other days:(

 but it did fly

 Zoe the baby cow was extremely curious about the kite, and ended up eating one of our tails

Kaleena really got it flying

and afterwards the children enjoyed the beautiful day and the peace of the country side, picking little flowers and making tiny wreaths, and exploring the newly cut meadows

~a good night to you~

This Moment

A friday ritual inspired by Soulmama

A single photo, no words

A moment I want to pause, treasure and remember

~A wonderful weekend to you~

Leaves and a lantern

Another lovely autumn day here in the mountains. the leaves had us enthralled today, they are everywhere and the trees are slowly becoming bare.

We went to the park to gather leaves to make a lantern inspired by a post I saw over on 

Twig and Toadstool the other day, and while we were there Keenan happily played in the heaps of leaves that were everywhere. The wind made them dance around and it was indeed a blissful time. We also decided that it was time to make a kite and really get out and enjoy the wind, so that will happen this weekend. Yeahh, love autumn!

 

We gathered a nice collection of yellow and red leaves to use for our lantern

 Then applie a nice thick layer of Mod Podge and added the leaves then another thick layer of Mod Podge. This would have been easier had we taken the time to press the leaves first, it worked like this too though

 And this evening just before story time it really came to life. It gives off such a warm glowing light, perfect while the winds dances outside.

~a lovely and warm evening to you~

Autumn beauty, persimmons and puppets

Today was yet another absolutely gorgeous day, fresh morning and warm afternoon. We headed for the country and enjoyed the crisp red and orange colors that seem to permeate everything these days.

The other day we read a story, cannot remember now which it was (might have been Tiptoes), but it mentioned how the persimmons tree was empty of leaves yet full of ripe fruit. Kaleena reminded me that perhaps the big persimmons tree at the farm would now be bearing the sweet persimmons fruit, and today we checked, and there was indeed loads of little orange sweet persimmons fruits ready for eating. Kaleena and Keenan spent the morning coaxing the fruit down from the tree as the branches were quite high. We gathered a nice little pile, besides what they ate on the spot.

We enjoyed the beauty of the country lanes before we headed for our weekly homeschooling class.

The little ones made puppets today.

We used socks and paper plates and bags and an assortment of random nature finds as well as buttons, yarns, glitter, feathers and wool, and the children then were asked to create a forrest creature from these parts.

Next week there will be a puppet show using these lovely little puppets.

here is a rainbow trout in the making

Keenan made a bear

 we had an owl

 a rabbit

 also a squirrel,  a couple of fairies and other wood creatures.

~may you have a lovely evening~