Show 'Em the Love

I whipped these up in about half an hour, using fabric and paper scraps. Thanks to this blogging mama for the idea!

Love Tree

I was born two days before Valentine's Day. My memories of this day are entwined with the taste of cinnamon hearts on a white birthday cake, my sisters waving red and pink balloons at me as I got off the school bus, and all those construction paper heart crafts we used to make at school. I also loved those little punch-out "seals" our teachers used to stick on our papers with lace and violets and hearts. And paper doilies? Love 'em.

I love Valentine's Day. It bugs me when people rant about commercialism and consumerism because in my mind, no one is forcing anyone to go out and buy a dozen roses or a box of chocolates or Hallmark cards. In my mind, there is nothing bad about a day where we focus our hearts on love. We should and do express our love every day, but in this house, we'll take any and every excuse for a party: decorations, homemade cards, love letters, and heart-shaped cupcakes with pink icing. I say YES to all of the above.

Still, I don't have time to create heart-shaped quilted pot-holders or knit a pile of heart pillows. Holiday decor in this house must be a)quick, b)simple, and c) thrifty.

I had my kids help me generate a list of people and animals we love. It went something like this: 

Me: Margot, who is someone you love?

Margot: Nanny.

Me: Violet, who do you love? 

Violet: Sarah and Jamie.

Me: Margot, who else do you love?

Margot: Nanny.

(Margot and my mom have a real thing going on...it's DEEP love).

After lots of prompting and thinking, we came up with this list:

I used my tag-punch, but you could just cut rectangles of paper. I used a silver pen to write every person/animal on our list on the tags. Then, I hole-punched them, threaded a ribbon through them, and let the girls hang them on a branch we found outside.

Voila! Simple, and thrifty, and so eloquent.

I hope your Love Tree is positively bedecked with tags bearing the names of loved ones!

Chicken Coop Surprise

 We've been fortunate in our chicken farming experiences, in that our hens continue laying faithfully throughout the dark days of winter. I hear of farms where there are few eggs to be had when the daylight hours are scarce. We collect every day at about ten o'clock, wash any really dirty eggs (which are few and far between), and plan the week's egg meals. 


Sometimes this daily rhythm is shaken up by a surprise, like this tiny egg we found the other day. The girls were delighted, and Jude was convinced that there was a wee little chicken inside it. Then they decided we should fry it up. Jude ate it with ketchup and claimed it tasted just right. 

Portraits on a Snowy Day

Our farm is small by Ottawa Valley standards, where 100 acres seems to be a minimum requirement for using the title, farm. We have just under four acres; for us, it is just enough. We have fenced pastures, a few good barns, a pond, and a rough cedar bush that is just the right size for our small children's explorations and adventures. The smallest one doesn't last long out there (seeing as how the snow is up to her chest), so I trade places with Daddy when he brings her in for her nap.

 I find a few snowy wood-folk out amongst the old cedars; these children are made of sturdier stuff, and would play all day in the snow if hot chocolate didn't call their names from time to time.

 This one smiles shyly for the camera, and my heart is captured once again, as deeply as it was on the day I met her for the very first time.

 And of course, the barn cat follows us on all outdoor adventures, hoping for a rub around the ears. He always gets lots of loving when we're outside with him.

I am flooded by memories of my own childhood:  endless wanders out to "the bush" behind our house, following trails we created with our travels to landmarks we'd named: Dead Man's Tree, Rabbit Hill, Mayflower Field, The Great Pine. I remember our dad taking us on winter hikes to the old mining property in Quebec where he spent his childhood; he'd make a fire, and we'd cook hotdogs and warm up hot chocolate. I remember steering myself, on skates, around poplar trees and grassy mounds on the edges of a frozen lake.


I've always been more of a stay-inside-and-knit kinda gal, while others go on outdoor adventures. This winter, though, something has shifted in me. I'm craving the joy of skating on an outdoor rink at night. I want to make a fire in the snow and cook lunch for my children. I want the roses to be on my cheeks and the snow in my hair, too.

::this moment::yogurt for breakfast

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

Visit Soulemama's blog to see more moments, and to share a link to your own!

Have a restful weekend.

Grab Your Camera

You will go downstairs to find your whole living room floor spattered with green paint. In times like these, the best thing you can do for yourself and for your children is to just get the camera. 

You can also teach your children about the artist Jackson Pollock, and add a new verb to your family lexicon: pollocked, as in "The bathroom mirror has been pollocked with toothpaste".

 The next day, I create an environment where my children can play with this new verb, showing them how to "sprinkle" paint with an old toothbrush, then cutting them loose to make a mess of their own design.

 Each painting has its own signature, and reveals the age and personality of each creator.

My son's face has been pollocked by nature, but Margot's has a bit more colour after her artistic explorations. Violet's use of a cotton swab dipped in paint mysteriously results in her bellybutton being full of paint. The messy fun ends with a warm bath, and a reminder that in order to preserve our art, we should splatter paint on paper rather than the floor (towel, sink, etc.). 

Words to take away from this post? Grab your camera. It's saved me from missing out on the fun and spontaneity of childhood many times (when I might have yelled and reprimanded) by encouraging me to document my children's doings and thinking about the clean-up later. These are the moments that will make me smile when they are all grown up and flown from the nest.

Yarn Along

Joining in with Ginny over at Small Things for this week's Yarn Along.

As usual, I have several things on the needles, and several books on the go: one fiction, one non-fiction.

On the needles are some nifty legwarmers, a gift for my friend over at Wabi Sabi Wanderings. They're made with Tahki's "Donegal Tweed". You may recognize the yarn; I bought 11 skeins of it to make a sweater for myself, and instead use it for all kinds of small things (like baby sweaters, hats, and legwarmers). The other ball of yarn is Fame Trend's "Party", which will hopefully enjoy its new incarnation as rainbow socks before winter is out (I finished my Noro Kureyon socks and have worn them daily ever since. They are officially my favourite socks ever). If you're a knitter intimidated by the idea of making socks, please find someone who can help you with the tricky bits. There is really nothing like them! If you are a local friend and want to learn, you know who to call...

My sweet friend Rachel sent me Haruki Murakami's The Wind Up Bird Chronicle in the mail. Isn't it delightful to receive a book in the mail from a friend who knows your tastes in such things? This is unlike anything I've read and has me thinking about all kinds of philosophical concepts that I haven't thought about before. This is fun for my brain!

Non-fiction is a bit harder to get through. Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride describes a natural, diet-based treatment for all kinds of conditions (autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, ADD, Dyspraxia, depression, etc.) It's fascinating to explore the idea that by changing your diet, you can actually heal from many conditions that experts consider incurable. It's controversial because it flies in the face of research that suggest the MMR vaccine has nothing to do with autism, and draws a very clear connection between digestive and mental health. I'm considering following the GAPS diet in order to heal Jude's digestive system, but need to read the whole book first. It is a costly book; if you want more information before buying it, do send me an email and I can give you more background.

(Thanks to my sister Julie for getting this one for me!)

What are you reading/knitting these days?