I want to move to new york , forever

Okay , so I've been doing teacher training through Novalis institute here in Minneapolis , and I really love handwork and painting and drawing. After some observation of classrooms I realised I don't want that "8 year monkey on my back" and I want to teacher handwork and possibly early childhood. So I heard about Fiber craft studio in Chestnut Ridge , New York. And they had a weekend workshop on handwork and the incarnating child , I thought that it would be a good time to go check it out. Also this was my first solo trip without kids or my husband , really excited and scared. I got a partial scholarship , BUT that said.. I had to pay for housing , flight and food. All said and done were still struggling to regain our footing! Okay enough about the woes of privileged versus the poor. They have a dye garden people , a huge beautiful dye garden. I saw my first live eurthmy performance and it was amazing and Technicolor lighting. Before it started I looked at my new friend and we both smiled and sort of giggled. Like we were sharing this super funny secret (aka WOW this is wild!) Afterwards the five of us , some seasoned teachers , some still in training walked to the local bar called "the barn". we sat under an umbrella in the drizzle and exchanged verses , projects. So fun , walking home with flashlights! Singing in the morning , mostly about sheep. Hand workers loves love sheep , it was so funny to talk to someone and say "did you see the dye garden?!" And for them to respond "OH yeah it was soooo cool!" In non-handwork land its "oh that was nice." Its actually on the Sunbridge college campus so the bio dynamic farm is there as well. That is a bad picture of me holding a big basket of plant dye rovering in Fiber Craft studio.

52 weeks

A month or so ago I took a class with Laura Summer based on her book 52 weeks , painting and drawing through the course of the year. Every drawing or painting corresponds to verses in the book by Rudolph Steiner Calendar of the soul. These are a few of mine.

a bit out of order this is May 5-11
to the left and May 19-25 to the above.

this is the mirror image of the "important" branches of the tree I drew below. this verse says "myself finds myself " this has been one of my favorite ones. the tree and this are may 12-18

april 28-may 4th I don't like this one , I tried to do it twice and and each time it looked tropical unlike the one in the book.

april 21-27

vandalism

That is in fact the guilty parties shadow cast on the board next to the woman.

As I re-enter the room Zora shouts out “Otis drew a gina (vagina) on the park!!” Otis starts trying not to smile and giggling. At this point I ask did you? Or course followed by more laughing and “mama I just like to smile!” talk. This is the child who built an x-ray machine out of an empty box and a tennis ball tube. Then drew several pictures of vaginas that looked like a circle with the diameter marked from the center. Can you see it? Put the pieces of paper inside the box and would call people over to say, “Look the x-ray machine is printing something out!!” As you reached for the “copy” he’d laugh and laugh “it’s a vagina AGAIN!!!” Vagina’s are so funny for Otis right now , the more I try to tell him that he shouldn’t be drawing vagina’s the more he is drawn to do it. This brings me to the private embarrassing story Danny told me about his little brother. When his younger brother was around eight to ten he drew a picture of a person with boobs and a penis, he wrote “MR.NeeNee.” This got passed around to all the siblings, Danny and his older brother would be at the dinner table and say “hey why don’t you tell mom about Mr.NeeNee.” They teased him to no end until finally mom found it and laughed at it anyway. Danny still laughs to tears when talking about Mr.NeeNee, he’s a grown man. So I’m a bit concerned that all this silliness is going to go on for far too many years for my mental health. God bless America finding my six year old watching my daughter sleep with large eyes saying “I just have to look at her vagina so I know how to draw it!!” So much giggling I find myself fighting back giggling. So today we were at a park with a lot of other kids, I sat and chatted, sewed, and talked to other parents. During this time Oatie found some pens and pencils and began drawing on park equipment. That’s right folks, vandalizing park stuff. So Otis didn’t just draw a vagina, he drew a whole woman with huge boobs and nipples. I took him back to the park to wash it off; of course it didn’t even fade at the hands of Mrs. Meyers and a rag. I chuckled to myself; he drew it on the kiddie equipment in a gentrified upper crust st.paul neighborhood. The shock on their keened feet and khaki shorts will be priceless. The big smile the woman is wearing is classic it just screams “I’m so friendly and naked!” We came home and had a talk about how that was vandalism and that’s not okay, it would be like tearing up a library book. Super serious important stuff was really considered and he seemed to get it. There is a graffiti artist here that’s moniker is “boob poop” I’m assuming this person is old enough to get large amounts of spray paint and stay out late. So over fifteen right, that the age you can sort of roam free? If I don’t nip this in the bud now its spray paint and Wutang clan at loud volumes. So we get home and I show Danny the pictures alone in the kitchen and we chuckle, sharing in our own silliness about it. Then Danny looks at me all serious and says “it looks like you lying on your back!” and starts laughing to tears. I’m surrounded by children.

wish soup

I use a lot of different circulumn stuff for home schooling but the earthschooling.com one is really cool. She has recipes with stories. So today we told a Persian fairy tale then made wish soup and made wishes over our soup before we ate. I'm so thankful to live across the street from the co-op , we just throw on shoes and get the missing apricots!

new table runner and center piece

My pictures tell me I need a new camera! I made the embroidered table runner and let me tell you over the years with several sergers my 910 viking RULES! It changed to rolled hem in minutes to make a nice edge on the runner. I also wanted to make note the center piece , I found this glass bowl with two candle holders on the side of the road. Usually I add seasonal things to it , for winter a needle felted snowman on top of a scrap of blue satin. So for home school group we planted grass in egg shells and I thought what the heck! Added dirt to my center piece and grass seed and it grew! Amazing and long ,the kids are cutting it and watching it grow back. Blessings on the blossom!

st.patricks day

I just wanted to add a note about this day , every year we built traps for those silly little leprechauns and every year they out smart us! Oats and Hammy took two empty oatmeal containers and made some fancy traps even. While struggling to get out one leprechaun lost a shoe , he had to leave it behind and some wonderful golden chocolate coins. What a good sport they were this year.

We went to the big parade downtown and to landmark center for the Irish dancing , story telling , crafting and people watching.

Home for our corned beef and cabbage!

As the years go by with homeschooling it gets easier because I remember where to go and what to do. The two st.patrick's before this were a rush to find the right crafts to do the stories to tell and this year I went to bed early and let Danny organize everything!

Danny sewed that little shoe out of scraps of leather I had , pretty good for not sewing too much! He carved a walking stick too but I can't find it now!

advent presents!

We have been making most of their presents this year for advent.. so far so good , we "cheated" two days and gave a small flash light and chocolate coins from the co-op. Here are a few of the things we have made!

I have been really inspired by resurrection fern http://www.resurrectionfern.typepad.com/ for ideas

One day we gave them a wool basket full of pom pom's. It was too big for the pocket on the advent knome calendar so I made a small map and hid it out in the yard. They are turning them into flying fairies , necklaces etc.

Danny took a thicker stick and made these super cute little knomes!

Gingko leaves for the second of advent! This is completely a one of a kind poppa project. Then as good homeschoolers we read about gingko leaves!