ROOT BEER

" Okay, he either said, move to the back of the throat, or he wants a root beer float"

~Dory interpreting for the whale in finding Nemo

Every summer our dear friend gathers the children in our community together for the making of root beer. This year was our first year to join in this 30 year long tradition. This delicious elixir is shared by all at our summer solstice gathering.

There was a whole lot of mixing,

filling,

capping,

and packing of bottles.

Then all we had to do was wait a few days for the root beer to do its thing.

It is timed so it will be ready to consume during the solstice celebration...

It is really quite easy. I am not sure of his official recipe. I normally do not like root beer, but there is something about his recipe that I find quite delicious.

I scouted the internet and found a recipe here. I also found that you can purchase the root beer extract on the Zatarains website.

The children have so much fun doing this, and it gives them so much gratification watching the people of the community sipping on the ice cold root beer.

***Please note the obvious... it is root beer in bottles in the pictures. Recycled Corona bottles are really easy to cap so that is what he uses!!! *****

The festivities continue, after the root beer is crafted, down at the swimming hole on his land. The perfect way to end the day!!

We had so much fun and I am so grateful to our friend for including us and the community in this great tradition!! Happy Summer everybody!!

SUMMER iNSPiRATiON

"Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be."

~Karen Ravn

Well hello there friends!! I did not expect to be away this long. I know I keep saying that..but I really didn't.

School is out!!! I feel so good about this school year with Violet. Our home school cooperative is really working great, and our home study days were productive as well. This year was a success!!

One of my goals this summer is to resume my blogging hobby. I have really missed it. So much so, that when I went to write something, my mind was completely vacant with what to say. A lot has happened over these last months.

This case of writers block sent me onward to the blog-o-sphere to catch up on some of my favorite artsy mama's. I was then flooded with ideas and projects that would be fun to work on over the summer. This was it!!! My next blog post could be a list of all of these wonderful projects. Then my blog friends could join in on the fun if they so chose, or in turn be inspired themselves. So here are some of the things that inspired me:

Rhythm of the Home :: a great e magazine filled with fun ideas for summer.

Sew a Straight Line :: some fun patterns for skirts. I would like to try my hand at the A line skirt perhaps in a darker color. This buttercup bag is cute too.

JCasa*handmade :: I have been experimenting with cheese and yogurt making a lot lately. This recipe looks like a good one to try.

Lion Brand Yarn :: this is a cute potholder pattern. They have lots of other cute and free knitting patterns to choose from

Sew Serendipity :: While here in Fort Worth I purchased a monique dress pattern from the Cabbage Rose. It is so cute. I love that you can use different fabrics from your fabric stash. This might be a good one to wear to my sister's pre-wedding festivities.

As long as I am making lists...I will include some things that are definitely LONG term goals. Someday I want to go to Mary Jane Butters Pay Dirt Farm School. This dream is coming evermore a reality as I just recently found out my cousin Katie is going to be attending school, oh about 6 miles from her farm. Wahoo!!! I also would love to attend the Squam Art Workshops in New Hampshire. Yes, both of these are very far away. This is why they are on my very long term list, but this does not mean that I can not manifest these dreams. Right?

My short term summer goal/dream would be sitting by my freshly weeded and abundant garden, wearing my monique dress after bathing in my outdoor tub (i don't actually have one of these yet but this is a dream right...you should totally check out the link to this photo), nibbling on a yummy batch of broccoli-slaw, sipping a ruby june.

Sounds pretty good huh? Would you like to join me? I hope your summer is filled with plenty of relaxation and inspiration.

Oh yeah. All of the underlined words are links. If one of them looks interesting, all you have to do is click on them and it will take you right to the link.

TRACKiNG

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.
~ Lewis Grizzard

Well spring is here and things are busy in this neck of the woods as usual. HAPPY SPRING EVERYBODY!!! We have been staying busy here trying to juggle home schooling, gardening, house building, and ballet.

Our home school cooperative has been going very well. Violet really enjoys the two days a week that we meet and have group lessons. This week was my week to teach. Our theme for this week was local animals and their tracks. All of our learning for this week centered around this theme.

On Wednesday we headed down to the buffalo river to make some casts and identify animal tracks that we found. The conditions were just right and we found loads of deer, possum, raccoon, turkey, and fox tracks. Kalin who is a great tracker helped the kids find and make the casts of prints. The kids had a lot of fun and they turned out great.

We ate our lunches on the beach down by the river. Then followed up the day by making birds nests from a project that I found on No Time For Flashcards. This is a great home schooling resource.

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE TRACK PRINTS OF YOUR OWN:

1. Make a mold out of cardboard that is large enough to encircle the print you want to preserve.

2. Carefully dust any debris away from the site in order to make a good cast.

3. Spray the area with pan spray.

4. Mix plaster according to directions but make it slightly wetter. We mixed ours in an old coffee can.

5. Pour plaster into mold.

6. Let the plaster set up for about 15-20 minutes depending on the instructions on the plaster box.

7. Carefully lift the cast off of the print and tear off the cardboard. This will be a 3 dimensional mold. If you want to make an imprint mold of this the directions are listed on this site. It also has list of prints you can identify. This site also has a great tutorial for making prints.

HAVE FUN!!!

S N O W

Throughout the afternoon I watched them there,

Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,

Whirling fantastic in the misty air,

~Claude McKay
I

ice hockey on the pond with Gaffer

S n o w. I love the stillness and quiet that a snow brings. The lovely pace. Forcing you to slow down. We woke up this morning with a thick blanket of snow covering the ground, and it has been snowing continuously all day. This is the second storm that we have gotten in the last two weeks. It has its inconveniences. but I am thankful to have plenty of provisions, heat, electricity, and even a good stock of movies. This comes after two years in a row of week long power outages due to extreme weather. It is nice to be able to sit back and just enjoy.

BAKiNG

"Life is unsure, always eat your dessert first."
–Anon

We are in Texas visiting family. Mimi commissioned Violet and I to make a One Bowl Apple Cake. When we were here back in the fall I made it and it was a hit. It is the perfect way to use up those apples that are on the way out. The recipe came from Maya*Made, one of my favorite all inspiring blogs.

Violet can really hold her own in the kitchen these days...being the almost six-year old that she is. Mimi and Grand Daddy gave her some awesome kitchen gadgets for Christmas and she has really loved using them. My favorite are the knives. They actually cut really well, but are made so that little helpers can't cut themselves. Mimi found them on the Batter Up Kids website. It is definitely worth checking out.

PEACE, JOY, AND FAMiLY

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

Greetings! Happy New Year! It will be a year filled with new opportunities and growth. I love the cleansing effect that the turning of a year brings.

I have made a few resolutions to live by for 2010:

I will continue my quest for organization.

I will remember to take deep breaths, slow down, and enjoy the simple moments.

I will keep the motto I developed over the holiday season "Peace, Joy, and Family."

This motto came to me in a poignant article. I really wish I could remember who the author was or which magazine it was in. It really brought some things into perspective for me. The author of this wonderful article, wrote that her family adopts goals each Christmas season. She takes the goals that her family sets and posts them on the family message board. This year the family decided on Peace, Joy, and Family. The family keeps these goals in mind through the season. If that means going to one less party or agreeing to do one less deed than so be it. I think this is such a wonderful idea. I realize that it is difficult to do all of the time. Life can be so demanding sometimes. I just want to keep these in mind through out the daily routine.


I shared this with my sweet mama who made me this:


so that I can be gently reminded. I love that the Christmas tree is a pin that used to be my Grandmother's. It is going to be hard to put it away for next year.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and send you the best wishes for 2010!!

DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: WREATHS

"May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!"

~Author Unknown

December 13,, Santa Lucia Day, is a big holiday around these parts. If you are interested in the history check out this site. We all woke before dawn, dressed in white with red ribbons, and awakened Violet's Grandparents with hot muffins and carols. This is always fun.

We decided our project for the day would be wreath making. After a little winters nap we embarked on a walk around our woods to gather evergreen, grapevine, berries and other items offered to us from nature.



It was a lovely time. We brought our finds inside and each constructed wreaths, all beautiful, but all so different.


Also, while we were out hunting for wreath accoutrement's Kalin, Noah, and Steven were setting beams into place on the house. Progress is good!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas! Happy crafting!