Musings of a Faerie Matriarch

Renewal L Moore (c) 2010
- yes she has a story, but that is for another day..

Faeries, Sunday sketches and Mother's Day! Time to question my choices. Was it such a good idea to give up my regular 9-5 so I could be home to raise my heirs? So i could (maybe - i mean really, admit it, is this stuff actually in our control at all? - who do i think i am? overachiever that's for sure) creatively raise my children myself - the way i wanted; with calm (LOL) and reverence, respect, creativity and hard work.

A Gift to the World detail by C Moore age 10 (c) 2010
C says "yes, she is pregnant!"

So i could really guide them in cultivating their academic, artistic, physical and spiritual gifts? So i could take the time and do it right, be part of the process, nurture, support; actually hear my children, listen, be at the breakfast table with them, surround them with a beautiful environment. So when the time comes, my husband and i have successors deserving of our amassed fortune! So the world will be a better place.

A Gift to the World by C Moore age 10 (c) 2010

Ok, it hasn't been that simple, or that calm but our children are happy, hard working, amazingly bright, creative, talented (probably yours are too) and actually, the credit is all theirs - i have learned more from them than they from me - and the fun is all mine!

Acorn Fairy by T Moore age 12 (c) 2010

Yup, the right choice - absolutely!

Oooooh and look what i found in the art room from 5 years ago today, painted by our then 5 year old - its titled Happy Mother's Day but if should be called Joy!

Happy Mother's Day by C Moore age 5 (c)2005!


Friends, mothers, artists of the world unite!

Happy Mother's Day my lovely friends!

Sunday Sketches - Frida

This week for Sunday Sketches we did a wee study of Frida Khalo.
I did two sketches, the children did one each..

Frida Kahlo represents so much about women, about people;
about suffering and anger, happiness and fear

Funny, I don't love her art, but I love her story; her rebellion,
her struggle, her strength; that crazy, spiraling sense of self

I love the flowers, and I always seem to draw
her happiness, despite her pain

La caja del tesoro C Moore age 10 (c)2010

T Moore age 12 (c)2010

El amor felix de Frida. El carazon del Frida. La caja del Tesoro.

Cascarones

Cascarones - As promised here are the simple instructions.

Next time you make scrambled eggs, use a tack to poke a hole in on end of your egg. Chip out a dime size hole. Rinse the egg shell.

Dry.

Decorate as you please. Dye, paint, glitter, stickers, drawings you've drawn etc.


Fill egg with a large pinch of confetti.

Cut about a foot of paper streamer and roll it into a flower. Twist the role together but leave large flower at the top.

Put white glue around the outside of the hole in the egg and secure the paper flower to cover the hole.


Ta da! Cascarone! Use for birthdays, Easter, any fiesta! Eggs are to broken above, not on (eggshells can be sharp, organic shells are quite hard) someones head and the contents sprinkled on them for good fortune!

April Project 1 complete and delivered to friends!

Easter Bread Καλό πάσχ!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! No way I am blogging on Easter, so in my very organized fashion, this is all set to go, sitting in draft awaiting the photos. And here they are!

Greek Easter Bread - Καλό πάσχ! - Happy Easter!

Χριστός ανέστη! Αληθώς ανέστη!

So The question is, Greek or Swiss? We traded a loaf of our traditional home baked Easter bread; Greek Tsoureki, for a loaf of our friends home braided Swiss Easter Bread. We are not Greek though my mom can double as Nana Mouskouri, we were raised on her music, my brother looks just like many fo the boys on Crete and I met my husband in Malia. Anyway I segway, we used the traditional onion skin dying method to dye the eggs red. Would the breads be the same? Different? They look the same, they taste different. Greek is sweet, Swiss is savory.. both delicious!

Swiss Easter Braid - Schöni Oschtere! - Happy Easter!

What's a Pysanka?

Ukrainian egg decorating. We are not Ukrainian as such, however our ancestors lived in the Ukraine after they left Germany, or was it Russia? They never considered themselves Ukrainian I know that - have to check the details!

Here is how we made Pysanka at home, however, as mentioned a fabulous source is www.babasbeeswax.com

Blow eggs and wash, leave to dry and plug holes with a wee bit of beeswax (either use a tiny whole at each end and carefully blow the egg out - i find it hurts my jaw these days so i bought an egg pump from the fore mentioned web site).

Outline your egg with a pencil on the egg itself (or not).


Use your kistka (egg writing tool - a tool that is used to apply the beeswax, again check out the website mentioned or others) to draw traditional or other designs on the egg.


Submerse egg in dye no 1. Colours should be used in order yellow, green (with a Q-tip or toothpick) orange, red, purple, blue, black. You don't need to use all colours, just in that order the ones you do use. We only use 1 dark colour, purple, blue or black to simplify. Not sure why the green is applied differently rather than egg submersion but it is so :-)

After dyeing, dry egg with paper towel.


Decorate another layer with beeswax using your kistka. The wax locks in the last colour you dies wherever you apply it. This is a resist. The wax, resists the dye.

Continue until you have used all the colours you want - this can be 1 or several. Dry egg with paper towel after each colour.

Use the heat of a blow dryer and a paper towel to remove wax. Be careful not to burn yourself with hot wax!

Ta da! Your first Pysanka!

April Project no 2!

April Goals and Rhythm

Easter! The children (and lucky parent volunteers) learned to paint Pysanka, Ukrainian Eggs. We had a fabulous workshop at school, run by Joan Brander of Baba's Beeswax, who managed to create success, step by step, for all ages gr K through 7!

If you have not followed this blog before these monthly planning pages lay out a general structure for the month, including a theme and seasonal table, a way to wake, a table candle blessing, a couple of projects and a verse for going to sleep. These are goals the follow up varies from great to imperfect but having the plan helps it to happen and helps bring rhythm to our days!

April Festival / Theme
Easter, Spring is in the air.

Seasonal Table
In our handy dandy spring storage case (see post September 29th, 2009) we have all the little Easter trinkets we have made, collected and been gifted over the years. Flower fairies, eggs, chicks, bunnies. Felted, paper, wooden, stitched. We keep palm crosses made for Palm Sunday each year - they dry nicely. We even have blown Easter Eggs made for the past decade; some are whole some are pieces. This year we add our Eggs!

Waking Song
"Little rabbit foo foo, hopping through the forest, picking up the field mice and bopping them on the head" (may not be politically correct but it sure is fun)!
Little Rabbit Foo Foo - from summer camp - an old favorite around here.. we just sing the first few lines then everyone joins in as they wake and goes where it goes.. :-)
Feel free to use comments to request words to look them up on Google.

Breakfast Verse
"Snowdrop snowdrop dressed in green and white, what do you do when teh cold winds blow?
Hide my little heard and say, Cold winds, cold winds, go away."
Seems appropriate as it is colder now in teh Northwest than its been all winter :-) we'll save the 2nd verse for next month and spring weather.

Bedtime Verse
"Star for you to wish on, sun so warm and bright
Moon for you to think on, pleasant dreams, a kiss goodnight."
Author unknown, a friend gave this to us - we draw the pictures, star, moon on the child's tummy as we tuck them in. Our children are getting older but tehy still love these familiar traditions!


April Project 1 - Cascarones
Easter cascarones - a new twist on an old Latin tradition. Little pinata eggs that can be broken for luck over a friends head and contents (confetti) sprinkled for fun - have a dust pan handy :-) For Easter we photocopy and shrink some of our art to glue onto the egg. Instructions will follow in a future post this month - watch for them!

April Project 2 - Ukrainian Eggs
The children did a Pysanka workshop at school and it was fabulous. Instructions will also follow on a future post!

April Project 3 - Easter Bread
We are ambitious this month (and all at the beginning as Easter is pretty quick); but Easter bread is a family tradition! Watch for it!

Who's Following Who? And How?

OK where are all my followers? Where are all my comments? Is there anybody out there? If these statistics indicate how well my blog is progressing - I am sadly lacking!! :-) Perhaps I am missing something (no surprise there). Any suggestions?

Have a great day!

March Goals and Rhythm

'spring garden' by C (c)2008

If you have not followed this blog before these monthly planning pages lay out a general structure for the month, including a theme and seasonal table, a way to wake, a table candle blessing, a couple of projects and a verse for going to sleep. These are goals the follow up varies from great to imperfect but having the plan helps it to happen and helps bring rhythm to our days!

March Festival / Theme: Spring
March, while we still try to ski and snowshoe and hang onto winter, it is Spring Break, in our family the beginning of preparation for the arts - our speaking, dance and piano competitions are all in the next few months!

Seasonal Table - Spring
Whatever the children choose from our spring box - mermaids, flower fairies, garden gnomes! No the kids want to continue the red Canadian theme for ParOlympics, plus some tulips for spring!

Breakfast Verse
Continuing with author June Cotner's book House Blessings as a resource.

"The kiss of the sun for pardon, The song of the birds for mirth - One is nearer God's heart in a garden. Than anywhere else on earth.."
by Dorothy Frances Gurney (1858-1932). From House Blessings by June Cotner

Waking Song
Kids are wanting to continue with he line from "Beautiful Day" by the Boo Radley's. They like to join in! Find it on itunes.

"Wake up its a beautiful morning, the sun is shining for your eyes.., Wake up its a beautiful morning.."

Bedtime Verse
The children have started this calling our thing in the manner of "the Waltons" though they have never seen or heard of that show. We call out "good night great mama", "good night great daddy""good night great T.." "good night great C.." Its fun, its their own, we're going to run with it!

March Project 1 Poetry
The children are all over poetry at the moment so they are writing away. We will aim to submit some once i find a collaborate call for poetry submissions - it is never to early to practice this as long as children can handle being turned down!

March Project 2 Gratitude Book
The Secret Gratitude Book, by Rhonda Byrne - I love this we are filling in a page a day in the morning! Next year C wants to make our own - great idea!

Not a lot of bread or soup happening at the moment! Disappeared since we went away! That happens, we'll get back to it :-) Great salmon bbq, tenderloin bbq and even pie, however! We had a fabulous Bakehouse pie and now that has triggered a renewed interest in pie making, well pie eating at least!

Living Artfully

Its the little things in life, you brush up close to them and they are so beautiful! The details.


Living artfully. Here are my secret valentines. So simple, a paper napkin stuffed with a handful of warm fleece and lavender, briefly stitched on your sewing machine.


A wee note of endearment and you have a lovely Valentine! xoxo

Heartfelt Valentines

So here are my daughter's Valentines this year! I still love letting the kids make cards them selves, however we have seen some lovely children's valentines this year (finally! the last few years stores been inundated with valentines that market movies etc, but where is the romance, the art, the beauty? Call me old fashioned. Call me traditional! Sometimes I think we seriously underestimate our children!)


At any rate we have seen some lovely glittery, sparkle artsy Valentines for children with fairies, cupcakes (rockets for the boys) and some lovely reprints of retro-tines by Golden (these at Shopper drug mart actually! There is hope for us yet!