hallowe'en

"Mommy, why do they call it a tutu?...
                    Why don't they just call it a four?"

(And she hasn't even learned multiplication yet.)

Happy Hallowe'en!

our old beloved house

For over ten years I have loved this old house.  We've made many changes over time, replacing most of the windows, adding skylights and a new roof, an entire bathroom (including claw foot tub) and the grand front porch.  We've stripped the beautiful moulding, re-finished wooden floors, re-tiled the fireplace and re-painted every white wall that was here the day we moved in.  In return, she's been quite good to us, considering she's over a hundred years old. 

We had talked about selling her for years.  She's too big for us really.  We're a family of three with one renter in the basement.  We'd like less house and more yard; more room for Naiya to play and RUN.  We'd like to be in a more neighborhood-y neighborhood.  A quiet street maybe or, in our wilder dreams, on a tiny farm.  So, we decided to take the plunge.  We put her up for sale.  

She was snatched up in three days.

At the moment, we're not sure where we'll end up.  And so the adventure begins...

Farewell, old house.  We're going to miss you...

Our basement apartment has helped us to afford our mortgage over the past decade and held close some dear friends.

Our back yard went through a number of incarnations over the years.  It began as a rectangle of cement, weeds and chain link fence.  Bits at a time we added raised beds, a play house, espaliar apple and pear trees, blueberry bushes, a pond (that came and went) and for three years hosted a small flock of hens.  In the end, it was a delightful lush getaway with a crazy volunteer squash taking over a big chunk of lawn and all of a small raised bed...

 Bye, bye garden.  So long dear house.  May you last one hundred more...

harvest festival

Yet another year of our lovely Harvest Festival.  A story in pictures...

The Harvest Feast (brought indoors for fear of rain).

Come said the wind to the leaves one day

Come o'er the meadows and we will play

Put on your dresses of scarlet and gold

For summer is gone and the days grow cold

Blessings on your pumpkins dear friends.  May Autumn find you all well.

treasure yarn

My favorite of all the gifts Naiya received for her birthday was this beautiful wool treasure yarn.
As it is unwound, tiny, magical gifts are revealed...

This one came from her dear friends and held shells, beads and little clay and glass figures.  The tiniest beads were held inside on mini safety pins.  

I imagine that finding the little treasures is supposed to inspire the child to knit or crochet in order to bring forth more of the goodies, but Naiya said she would get to that later and just wanted to unwind the whole ball at once.
Being pretty excited myself, I let her unravel the entire thing.

At the heart of the ball was a sweet little heart.

The perfect, simple, useful gift to inspire hours of focused handwork, play and creativity.