Library Books and Flour Dough

Weasel very proudly received her own library card this fall, and as usual, we've been pouring over library books. One of her favorite things to do is recreate scenes and stories that she reads in books. Last week, we made flour dough and made some of our favorite things from our favorite books. We painted them with acrylic craft paint after we baked them, but the paint has not held up very well. I think dying the dough with food dye before making things would certainly hold the color better, and would save me from cleaning up paint. Here are some of our little toys.

Jewelweed, from Fancy Nancy Poison Ivy Expert

An octopus from An Octopus is Amazing

The three ball brothers from Three Magic Balls

Flying Bunny and Bunny Tree from Runaway Bunny 

The frog, from Angel, What do You Hear?

Presence and Dishes and Joy

"Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by."  - Carl Sandburg

To build the house we wanted, a beautiful house of our own design, we had to make some sacrifices to make it affordable. So we sacrificed a few luxuries. Our house is small, with only one bathroom, small closets, and small bedrooms. I've been a fan of the tiny house movement for a long time, so small (not quite tiny) was easy for me to embrace.  Not all of the sacrifices have been easy, though.

Like the dishwasher.

We were given a beautiful cast iron sink from one of John's colleagues. It has big drainboards on either side, and I love it so so much.  Like, if our life were a tv show, the sink would be a main character. But the kitchen is small. So we gave up the dishwasher to make room for the sink. We could squeeze one in if we had to, but giving it up seemed like the right choice.

But here's the thing I'm learning about luxuries - luxuries like dishwashers, dryers, internet, television, and cell phones: We forget what luxuries they are, and we become dependent on them. We make them necessities. Then they start to require things from us: money, maintenance, and most of all, our attention. Something that started out making our lives more convenient, over time begins to put demands on us.

It's not easy to give up some of these things. It's downright counter-cultural at times. But, being independent of these things offers more value than luxury or convenience. It offers presence. Giving up distraction and obligation to appliances, you get to be present in the current moment and involved in the stuff of life, and the people you share it with.

I'm still learning this, of course, reminding myself of it when I'm grumpy about washing the dishes. Most of the time I enjoy it though. I've been printing poems and sheet music, and learning and singing while I wash the dishes. I also just listen to the kids playing around me as a I wash, and watch the birds in the dogwood outside my window. It has become a little joyful time each day that I really look forward to.

I know you know know this, too. I'm sure we seek presence in different ways, and allow different indulgences. What do you give up? How do you stay present?

And because words aren't my strong suit, here are some other insightful, and perhaps more poetic, thoughts on washing the dishes by hand:
On doing dishes
Washing dishes together
Pretty over the kitchen sink
Joy of Washing the Dishes by Hand

Fall Fantastic

Isn't fall wonderful? Our life has been quite idyllic the last few weeks. The trees turned a million shades of beautiful, the weather turned perfect, and we've spent all of our evenings around a campfire for at least a week. John rigged up a grill over the fire so we could cook corn on the cob. Oh dear, it was heaven.

The girls are loving being outside with the chickens and the fire and the leaves. We don't have quite the array of colors in the photo anymore, but we had such fun making our leaf rainbow and identifying the trees they came from.

We're still settling in, but maybe we always will be. This past weekend we put in our brick sidewalk and introduced the chickens to life outside the pen.

I hope your fall is magical, too!

Connections and Updates

Our quiet, little home in the woods is finally connected to the digital world. I have to say, I've loved and hated being without internet. In some ways, the internet feels like a phantom limb - I keep reaching out to google words I don't know, look up that recipe, or check out imdb to figure out who that guy is. It's amazing to have so much information literally at your fingertips. 

new grass growing

But I have been really grateful for the disconnect as well. There are other kinds of information - relationships, presence - that have always been right here at our fingertips. Its all too easy to be distracted from them, and its good to reconnect with those things, with life. I know you know what I mean. I hope to keep a little of that digital disconnect.

So a few quick updates. This has become a year of diversifying for me as I find myself doing a little work in several different arenas. I think this will be a year of growing an stretching in lots of ways, and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

First, my book of soft toy patterns has moved into editing, so most of my work is done. I can't wait to share all of that work and fun with you, but it's still another year away. If you'd like to be notified when the book comes out, you could just subscribe to my blog, or send me an email and I'll add you to my email announcement.

Second, I'm very excited to be training this year to be a FertililtyCare Practitioner. I don't think I will write much about that work here - but it will probably keep me away from sewing as much this year. But, we'll see. I'd really like to sew some clothes for myself - which is uncharted territory for me. So hopefully, I'll still be able to work that in.

And finally, this fall I'm super excited to be participating in our local CSA with Rose Creek Village Farms again. Especially because I will be guest blogging about eating local and sharing recipes on their blog A CSA Culinary Experience. So, you won't see as many food posts here this fall - but if you're missing them, check out the blog. And if you're in the Jackson, TN area - check out Rose Creek Farms!

Warm House

I hope you've guessed by my silence here that things are busy at the Wilson house. We're all moved into the new place, the door is painted yellow and chickens are adjusting. We're without internet (among other things) and have a busy month ahead. I hope to see you all here with ideas and projects in the near future, but we'll just have to see how it goes. In the meantime, keep in touch with me!

Floating, Cheaters, and Tea Towels

I posted last year about the tea towels I was printing at Spoonflower. I only thought to snap a picture of them today, after a year of use. I also gave away some, so I only have two of the colors. But here they are, stains and wrinkles and all. I'm not usually a navy person, but I love how this blue has aged with much much use. I'm thinking of printing some new ones in gray...

I've been jamming our boxes in my studio so that our house doesn't get too crazy before the move. So I can't paint or sew now, which has lead me to fiddling around with Illustrator, imagining muted color schemes for my new house that I can only now see on Spoonflower.

I meant to make a cheater quilt for the girls using a flower garden pattern. I love flower garden quilts, but I would never have the patience to make one (much less two). So I put this cheater print together and my mom graciously offered to sew the girls' blankets. Unfortunately, I realized the fabric width won't work for a twin size blanket, and so my lovely cheater design is just floating around in digital land.

That is very much how I feel these days.

Floating.

My book is in the editing phase (!) - which is wonderful. My house is so close to being done, also wonderful. All of my sewing projects are on hold, as is our homeschooling, until we get settled in the move. We are suspended, waiting for our feet to hit the ground again.

In the meantime, I'm keeping myself entertained with A Google A Day (come play with me!), and google image searches to try to figure out what this flower is. My flower books are packed away, and I can't find a match for this pretty yellow flower growing in our driveway. Any ideas?

The Volcano Saved the Valley from the Sharp Teeth

L crawled into our bed one morning and said, "Daddy, today I want to do something exciting that we've never done before." And shouldn't we all?

John quickly came up with the idea to build a volcano. Ideas like this come quickly to daddies who don't mind messes.

We built our volcano around a glass with baking soda in it. I also put in food dye; and yes, my children were wearing Sunday dresses (although not for long); and no, I wouldn't do the food dye again, but thanks for asking. Also it made the lava pink.

Then we piled up big rocks, little rocks, dirt, beans, more beans, split peas, more dirt. until we finally made a mound that reached the top of the glass. It was a small glass, and I was genuinely surprised how much stuff it took to build this little volcano. Keep in mind the dirt is about to be mud, so don't use any beans you hope to eat later.



 


Then the girls arranged their dinosaurs and played for awhile. This was funny, and I made a darling video of them: arranging the dinosaurs; explaining how the sharp teeth were coming into the valley; then Mommy made it rain in the volcano (vinegar), and it erupted! and the sharp teeth ran away from the great valley; hooray! Do it again!

Only the video didn't take. Boo. So you'll just have to imagine little girls delighted by pink lava, and sharp teeth running for their lives.

I put quite a lot of baking soda in our glass, so each time it fizzled out I would just throw in a bit more vinegar and it would go again. I think it erupted about 7 times. Afterward, the girls played in the muddy pink mess for a long time before moving to the bath. It was really sort of awesome and dazzling in a-hey, let's build a volcano-kind of way.

Pesto, Pasta, and Kids

I've been making pesto with the fresh basil from our CSA this week. I used this recipe, which uses walnuts instead of pine nuts. I love pine nuts, but we're always out. I used sunflower seeds in pesto once, but the flavor was a little weird. The walnuts worked very well, and you get to feel good about all those Omega-3's.

But, also - have I mentioned my little 4-cup food processor? When John and I got married, he had a fancy food processor and I had a little blender. The blender had fewer parts, so it was fast and easy to use, but it only worked with a lot of liquid. A food processor is great of course - I grew up using my mom's - but it was so big and had so many parts, I found myself avoiding using it. Am I'm the only one who doesn't like appliances with too many parts?

Enter the 4-cup food processor. It works well for small portions, for blending soups, pureeing pesto (hummus, guacamole, baba ghanoush...). It does everything my blender did, and most things my big food processor did. It's small of course, but so far I haven't had a single recipe it was too small for. It only has four pieces, and the handy lid keeps the motor part from getting dirty. Plus you can just pull the blade out, put the lid on and put your pesto in the fridge. Anyway, this gadget has simplified my life and kitchen and I thought I'd pass it on. I found mine at my local Target.

What do you use?

Back to Pesto: It's oh so yummy. But my kids won't eat anything with specks and stuff. I don't want to make them their own separate meal, but I also get that they're picky and that's just normal at this age. 

Pasta is an easy compromise. After cooking the pasta, I put some in a separate pot for them. I add pesto and vegetables and nuts or whatever to ours. They get butter and parmesan. But, when I serve it they get nuts and raw veggies on their plate. Usually this means I don't have to do any extra prep work, and we're all eating mostly the same ingredients. 

Nature Table

I've been arranging furniture for our new house in my head. I've decided to use our old tv cabinet by the front door as a catch-all for bags and shoes that usually get left by the door. And the top will be a little nature table. In my excitement I told L about the nature table, and somehow in her excitement my side table turned in to a nature table right now.

baby pine trees, rocks with moss, honeysuckle, sticks, cork, dried worms, and oh so much more.

Half the fun was organizing everything into little pots and jars. We discussed how to group things together logically, but also which things were more valuable for keeping. L and I might disagree a bit on the curating.

organized

Cicada Shells

John and the girls pulled a bunch of cicada shells (skins?) off the trees last week and they've been shuffled around quite a bit before finding their home in our nature display. J calls them "monsters." I'm proud of them for not being squeamish of bugs, but that doesn't cure me of my squeamishness.

Our phone line was struck by lightning last week, and we've been picking up bits of the insulator for several days. L also found a spark plug, a moss covered rock, and some bumpy rocks that she's pretty sure are meteorites.

We also have a decent collection of sticks, bark, moth wings, and pine tree seedlings. We even have a dish just for toys found outside, and its interesting to see how being left outdoors has changed them. I haven't figured out what these burr like plants are yet, but I think they're my favorite.

Initially, I was afraid our nature table would be made of gravel from the driveway and smooshed pine cones. But now I see I underestimated my little archaeologists. We're still on the hunt for fossils. No telling what will turn up next!

And we haven't even set up our table yet!

Almost Moving

As our summer is coming to an end, I'm living among boxes and eagerly preparing to move. We're still a few weeks away, but my mind is already there, rearranging furniture and picking out paint colors. I've been wandering the aisles of antique shops and home stores for fixtures and antique furniture that will fit my budget and my space.

Mostly, I'm just ready to be in my own space. To walk on my own land, and to plant things in my own dirt. 

My studio is mostly packed up and overrun with tools and paints. I've been refinishing some furniture, and John is building a new chicken coop. All the sewing and drawing projects I was planning have sort of dissolved now. Although I'm expecting a frenzy of sewing after the move. Here are some plans:

from pinterest

• bed curtains for the girl's bunk bed (and curtains for the whole house)
• big flannel board and pieces for our school room
• a quilt for our bed  
• outdoor cushions for our porch furniture

I also have some building, painting, and decorating plans. Pinterest is making my head spin, so it seems like it may be time to retreat. Hang with me guys, there'll be plenty of fun, sewing, and learning this fall.