White Christmas

We had a wonderful white Christmas with Grandma and Papa...

Filled with all the  goodness of the holiday, along with a beautiful sunny day for sledding and hiking fun.

I will have a few handmade things to share soon...

But for now I am wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year!

Be back in 2012...

Art to the rescue...

Yesterday morning was a bit rough. Even though we are keeping things mellow around here the excitement of the holidays sometimes gets a couple little people I know a wee bit riled up. 

So what was a mom to do? Art of course!

I cancelled afternoon plans and trekked out to the shed to pull out the stamps and Sizzix, a wonderful gift from Grandma. We punched out some tags, trees, snowmen and lots more, using recycled file dividers, and set into creating...

All this punching, drawing and stamping led to even more art and a wonderful quite afternoon... just what we needed!
And now we have some tags for those gift bags!

~

I don't think I will be back in this space until after the holidays. With the not-so-kind help of the gusting wind I smash my finger in the car door today. Lucky we were meeting Wes for lunch and he was there to doctor me up and sit with us until my faint feeling passed. I have a pretty bad gash but I don't think it is broken. As I was changing bandages tonight Dylan took a peek and said, "That's gnarly!" Yes indeed.

Needless to say the timing is awful, but I do feel lucky it was not my right hand so I can still finish up some stitching I want to get done for these kiddos.
Typing is not easy so I might just pop in with some pictures over the next week or so...

Happy Holidays to you all!
~ Dawn

Weekend Goodness

Bits of weekend goodness...

 Acorn Mushrooms ready for gifting...

 Gifts bags sewn up, with this adorable fabric my mom sent, and ready to give...
These are so super easy and a great alternative to gift wrap. Over at Eartheasy you can find intructions for fabric gift bags and more ideas for wrapping gifts with less impact on the environment.

 Scraps... Am I the only one who things scraps are just too neat?

Birds. This yucky plastic planter has made the most wonderful feeder. This morning the doves provided some fun morning bird watching.

Saturday Wes had to work so after a day of crafting I took the kids to the beach before dinner...

 We do love the beach...

And it was great to be there at sunset, but once the sun dipped down the cold set in quick!

I am also lovin' these little bits from around the web...

~ Annie's winter edition of Alphabet Glue. It is full of fun winter activities and her wonderful book lists. I am looking forward to making the double-sided center-stitch book for Dylan and Salt Sparkle Snowflakes are on the list for sure. She has also given readers the option to purchase all four editions from this year at one time. It would make such a wonderful gift to a Mama friend.

~ Krista sent this link for saving snowflakes my way and I am looking forward to a good snowstorm to give it a try.

~ I can't wait to make a Felt Painting Board found over at the Living Crafts blog. So fun!

~ Kristy's flickr faves for the season. So pretty and festive.

What have you been lovin' lately?

Acorn Mushrooms

 I had to share this adorable idea from Lisa over at Lil Fish Studios. These little acorn mushroom are so cute and easy I made few the other night. She has a wonderful tutorial over at her blog.
We have already gifted a few to friends and the others are taking up residence in the terrarium we put together the other day.

So sweet!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Dawn

Shark

When you have fossil shark teeth on your wish list it is pretty exciting to get up close to Jaws.

The Museum of Natural History was given the head of a great white shark that was caught in a fishing weir in the Bay of Fundy. I had no idea what a fishing weir was until today. I found a very informative post about fishing weirs and how they are used in the Bay of Fundy, if you are interested click here.

While I feel bad that the shark was caught and died, I am happy that in the end it was used in an educational setting.

We were able to see it at the museum during the cleaning process and had a wonderful conversation about how they prepare the specimen and clean it for display. Fionna was very happy to see it today and loved the way it was displayed.

We learned that they are the only sharks to have serrated teeth on both top and bottom. It was amazing to see the rows of teeth down inside the jaw just waiting their turn in the line up.

After all our usual stops around the museum Fionna was able to spend some time with her favorite Naturalist, while she cleaned out the turtle tank, or at least tried to while answering all of Fionna's questions.  We are so lucky to have this museum so close to home. And so fortunate that Fionna has found someone at the museum to talk with and look up to... Thanks Mary!

Counting Rings

 Yesterday in the forest we did lots of measuring, which I will share about soon, and some counting.  We talked about how trees grow bigger as they get older and Dylan wanted to count the rings of the "Great-Grandma" oak to figure out just how old she was. She had died and was cut by our neighbor this summer so with a little patience we could count her rings.

I am no expert ring counter but I did the best I could and came up with 130...130 years!

It was neat to see areas where the rings grew very close together, lean years when she did not grow much, and other rings that were quite large, showing years of abundance.

It is amazing to think about the things that occurred during the lifetime of this wonderful tree. She is not too far off the trail, where she was witness to trains rumbling by, then the taking up of the track for trails. She grew beside a very old rock wall that is crumbling around her now, but was once newly laid by the hands of those who worked the land here.  Dylan talks about all the other oaks around being her kids, grand kids, great-grand kids. So true.

This boy is all about the trees...

I will share about our measuring soon...

Winter Day in the Woods

Running and jumping....
Searching and finding...
Measuring and counting...
All in a days learning in the woods...

Have you been in the woods lately?
We would love to hear about what you have been spying.

Geminid Meteor Shower

Photo of the book The Kids Book of the Night Sky

We are hoping to see some meteors this week during the Geminid Meteor Shower. I wrote about it over at The Magnifying Glass. 


In writing up that post I remembered a poem made up by Fionna, with just a little help from me, when we were trying to remember how to tell the difference between a meteor and a meteorite. Love it.

Is it a Meteor or a Meteorite?

 Meteors fly across the sky

And make it shine so bright.

The one that makes it to the

Earth is called a meteorite.

                                                                                 ~ by Fionna

Are you going to be watching the show? 

Wire Slate

Dylan's plane inspired some wire work last night...

When we went to Blue Beach we not only saw fossils but we also found some really neat bits of slate. This rectangular piece was my favorite so I brought it home, not really knowing what I would do with it. A few twists and bends later it became a hanging chalk board. Now I just need to find a stud in the right location to hang this very heavy object. For now it is resting on the mantel sending a message of peace...

I remembered that I still had the metalworking toolbox my dad put together for me my first year of college. It still has my maiden name stenciled on the side... just the way my dad labels everything. Love that.
 I dug it out of the shed today and showed the kids. It even had a bit of metal from an old project.

We will see what happens...

Wishing you all a peaceful weekend filled with fun and creativity!

Wire Flyer

It all started with a book Fionna found at the library about building your own dinosaurs (hopefully I will be sharing that project & book soon). Dylan realized that the same techniques could be used to build all manner of things. He had his sights set on a plane and started sketching some designs... I should have known then and there that I was in trouble.

We stopped by the local hardware store on the way home the other day to acquire some wire. Our choices were slim at our little hometown hardware so I ended up with 20 gauge galvanized steel. Once we got home I realized I had no way of even cutting this wire. We asked Wes when he got home and he came to the rescue with some serious "pliers" from his toolbox... and much doubt that we could make anything from this beefy wire.

Today I did my best to help Dylan make his drawing come to life. He was not super happy that I could not work miracles with this insanely thick wire... oh, this kid is all about the little details sometimes. It did not turn out much like his drawing, but I did my best to finish it up, after he abandoned the project for more drawing, and hung it up in the living room. I thought it looked pretty cool and knew that once he got over the fact that it was not the plane he drew, but still a neat plane, he would come back to it.  

It was not long before I spotted him trying to get it down. I helped out and covered the sharp wire ends with duct tape.  He played with it all afternoon and was delighted to find that Lego guys had just the rights hands to hold on to this stupendous wire.

While I was starting dinner he came in with a shy thank you. Perfect.

Now on to Fionna's dino with muscles and skin and all... Yes, the wire is just the skeleton.

I have a few other projects in mind too... 

Do you have any ideas for this mass of massive wire?

Geodes Giveaway

We are having a geode giveaway over at The Magnifying Glass. Click on over and leave a comment for a chance to win!