Hurricane Lamp Snowman and a Dreaming Knight Box

Well...I am back but probably with only once a week posting for awhile. I am totally cleaning and reorganizing my basement and until I have finished with this cleaning project, I need to avoid spending to much time in blogville.

Snowman 21

I apologize for not straightening all the tassels but this poor box will get crammed into a shipping box and arrive with the tassels all askew anyhow so....I feel lazy.

Short Break

I didn't post on Friday because I went to a homeschool convention. I think I am going to continue my media fast and not post anything this week.

See you all soon!!

The First Tulips of Spring and Snowman 20

I am afraid it is really  hard to see but these tulips are glued onto some marbleized paper that the kids made. The tulips themselves are a symmetry project. 

Snowman twenty is a vanity light bulb and a glass light shade spray painted white. Her scarf is tulle and her hat is silver poinsettias that I burned the edges of (it wasn't part of the plan but I do like the way it looks). I think I might make another one like her. I really like the way she turned out. Maybe red poinsettias on the one I make for myself.

I will be sharing at:

A Long Walk (in more ways than one)

Saturday, while C was out with her friend. K and I went for a walk. It took a long time and by the end it felt very long.

We walked the half a mile to our favorite bridge. K dragged these long branches with her to throw over the bridge.

Overboard!! Then we ran to the rapids a short way down to watch the sticks go over them.

Then K gets in trouble.

Then we throw sticks into a pond and then fish them out when the pond's property owner tells us that they just cleaned the pond out.

K slipped into the pond so had to walk the rest of the way home with a very wet muddy shoe.

But...I am still glad that I went on the walk.

I will be sharing at:

Gorgeous Pinata, Snowman Finger Puppets, Thoughtful Gift, and A Beautiful Journal that I was Gifted

My oldest daughter's best friend had a birthday party on Saturday. It was just C and her friend Grace hanging out at Mall of America with Grace's dad. When I talked to C about buying something for Grace she said she wanted to draw Grace a picture. So we bought a frame and C drew this picture. She wrote a quote at the bottom about friendship it says "A friend is someone who comes to you and asks 'Can I help you?'"

Snowman finger puppets. These are made from film canisters and squeeze bottle lids. I made all these but the girls modeled them for me.

I think it was in the fall that Cecily from Craftopotamus made this absolutely gorgeous journal. When I told her how much I loved it she decided to give it to me. I got it in the mail about a week and a half ago. Isn't it gorgeous? Aren't I the luckiest?

How about this pinata I made? It is for the birthday party of a couple of the girl's in our school group. I think it is the prettiest pinata ever. It is your basic balloon pinata spray painted green and then covered over with Dollar Tree silk flowers.

I will be sharing this at:

Meandering Thoughts that Include Snowmen, Easter Baskets, Canada Geese, Symbols, Reasonings, and My Girls

The girls and I made these little Easter Baskets using applesauce cups, cotton balls, and pipe cleaners. C made the bunny, K the chick, and I made the odd looking lamb.

Soon I will be rubber-necking whenever I pass the Canada Geese because they will have those adorable balls of fluff following them around.

We went to the park with my dear friend and her youngest son. The girls get along with M so very, very well. Don't you love this shot? They were pretending to be Indians (Native Americans).

Today I am introducing snowmen 17-19 they are all spool snowmen but I am assigning them each their own spot. I didn't do that with the previous clothesline snowman family. Why? Because they were essentially the same thing over and over. In my opinion, these snowmen are three different takes on the same material. What do you think?

When the girls were small, I was amazed at how the girls could be shown an item that they hadn't seen before and that wasn't necessarily 'realistic' and recognize what it was. For instance, I was always amazed how a living frog, and a stuffed plush frog, and a cartoon drawing of a frog, and a realistic drawing of a frog could all be seen and deciphered as frog. Don't tell me you don't find that absolutely amazing. Sometimes the cartoon frog consists of three lines and a couple of circles and dots. The plush frog is a round ball with a suggestion of legs and bulging eyes...etc.


It is a marvel of the human mind that we are able to put together symbols or patterns and recognize them to mean something in very different contexts. The symbols for a snowman are white, 2-3 circles, black 'coal eyes, carrot or button nose, a mouth (sometimes coal bits), sometimes a top hat, sometimes a stocking hat, a scarf, stick arms, or sculpted arms.

Stack three graduated circles on top of each other and people will recognize a snowman. Paint black eyes, a carrot nose, and a mouth on something white and people assume that it is a representation of a snowman...

It makes my task easy. :)

I am gifted with language patterns when it comes to seeing metaphors and symbols. I also have a knack for seeing patterns in nature. I've noticed that I see things in nature that escape everyone else around me. What symbols or patterns are you particularly good at decoding?

I will be sharing this at: