pestilence & random photos

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like many of you, i am knee deep in holiday madness. to make things more interesting, the entire belfry has been hit with a pestilence of moderate proportions. i am not even going to tell you how i had initially spelled proportions; thank you spell-check!

fortunately we have enough food to last a few days longer, & plenty of holiday crafts & movies to entertain us. 

now that i have bored you with talk of pestilence, i shall bore you further with random photos. think of it as my gift to you.

the above is a letter of the week card that i made for elfling. i cropped an image i found by googling free vintage christmas, then added the text.

this is elfling's transferring/sorting bowl for the week (see here for an explanation) of christmas. i have been buying different colors & sizes of pom poms when i find them. these were all purchased at the japanese $2 store.

elfling made his first winter solstice luminary!

to make sure you know you have come to the correct blog, i have included a poorly lit photo, of a non-ironed sewing project. see? you know for certain whose blog this is now. this is elfling's cape, which i made for xmas. i used two beloved receiving blankets (the other side is clouds), & a velcro closure. basically it is a giant bib that is to be worn backwards. i did photograph the process, so perhaps i shall post a tutorial. stop laughing.

& finally my mother's yule cake. for some reason everyone proclaimed this my best attempt yet. i have no idea what i did differently, but it was insanely delicious.

now that i have bored you completely, i shall be off.

have a happy christmas (happy tuesday, to those of you not of a christmasy persuasion), do!

~peace.

ps :: yes, i did notice that this was a mostly elfling-centered post. i do still have thehobbit, it is just that he's dreadfully dull these days ;)

in which i am slightly not brilliant

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i had the most brilliant idea that ever there was! i set elfling in his high chair, filled a small casserole with insta-snow, tossed in a few medicine cups, & alien guy, then sat back to watch my brilliance unfold.

it took less than five minutes for me to realize that this was, in fact, not one of my more brilliant ideas. eleventy billion minuscule bits of sodium polyacrylate, & a toddler who enjoys flinging? what was i thinking?

note of note :: if your wee one is not of the flinging sort, i highly recommend this activity. most especially if, like us, you live where it does not snow.

i could be mistaken, but it looks to me that alien guy is enjoying the faux snow a bit more than is seemly. 

~peace.

distraction dough

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thehobbit needed my help with a project, but a certain elfling thought my time would be better spent stopping him from repeatedly flinging books. i knew that none of the busy activities currently in rotation would tempt him away from his flinging, let alone distract him long enough, so i could focus on thehobbit's needs. that's when i remembered that i had made a batch of blue play-dough the week before, & stashed it in the fridge.

not just a distraction, but a themed one at that! 

i sat his flinging tush into the high chair, gave him the blue dough, the cutting tools, his wooden dreidel, & told him it was time to play hanukkah. he had no idea what i meant (nor did i), but he set right to playing hanukkah with a seriousness that would have made his jewish ancestors proud.

eventually he decided to fling bits of dough, but not before i had finished helping his older brother with his homeschool project. woo & hoo, baby.

~peace.

b is for...

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this week it is all about the letter b around thebelfry. elfling thinks it is by far the most fabulous of letters as his name begins with b. you did not really think i had named my children thehobbit & elfling, did you? that would have been fabulous, but alas, no.

in addition to displaying recent art & other bits of fabulousity (real word), we have taken to hanging our letter-of-the-week images on our art wall. i have been poking about pinterest, in search of images that do not make me cringe, & printing them. (i do not own these images, so please, if you do, or know who does, let me know. i want to give proper credit.)

in case you were wondering, b is for (in order): the burrow, broomsticks, barbers/baby/bubbles/bee, & booksellers.

oh! i missed one.

& bow ties. bow ties are cool. 

~peace.

of broken rules & red-clad wizards

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my rule has long been, no holiday goings-on until the first of december. yes, i am one of those people who constantly occasionally rants voices displeasure at the barrage of christmas items & decor appearing long before the season has even begun. but come on! ornaments on sale alongside hallowe'en costumes?

well, it would seem that all it takes to break me is a tiny elfling sweetly asking if we could go see santa today please. & so we did.

being a great old man of 14, thehobbit did not wish to be seen on film. i did attempt a few photographs, but he managed to ruin them all by scowling at me. except for the above. don't his shoes look happy? (yes, i did cut elfling's beautiful long hair off. i am still in mourning, so do not wish to discuss it.)

the grove is my favorite place to go each year. it is such a beautiful center, & they decorate it stunningly. if you are in los angeles, go earlier in the season, & never on a weekend, or it will be too crowded to enjoy.

faced with the man himself, elfling could not even brave going inside the cottage. instead, we stared at him through the front door, then later through the windows.

he did wonder how it was that santa was up in the sleigh at the same time he was in his cottage. manlyman replied with ooh look at the tree!

i could not get the entire tree in my shot. it. is. huge.

trolley was dressed fancy for the season. elfling refused to ride, even though he loves trolley.

this is how he prefers to visit trolley. with bars keeping them safely apart. toddlers are so odd.

the fountain is a favorite of the entire belfry clan. it dances to music, & there are koi in there!

on our way home we had to pop into a mall for something, & you'll never believe who we ran into. santa! how ever did he manage to get there so quickly? santa is clearly the greatest of wizards.

~peace.

world lessons

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do you recall that episode of friends when monica inherits a dollhouse, & doesn't want phoebe to play with her, because phoebe brings a dinosaur, & ghost, & other things that do not go with the house? well, as much as i hate to admit it - i am monica. in this respect, at any rate.

when i play with elfling, i want everything to match. are we playing cars? ok, well let's go with all wood, or all metal, or all large. to mix them up is madness. i should say here that i agree with this sort of madness - it just is not me.

when thehobbit was little, it was not an issue. he played the same way i did. elfling, not so much. actually, not at all - this boy is my phoebe.

when elfling asked me to set up a campfire for his guys, i set out a little log for each guy to sit upon. each wooden guy. when elfling saw that there were not enough logs for each & every guy, he was not pleased. he quickly set about making the circle big enough so that woody & alien guy could warm themselves as well.

i doubt i will ever completely shed my monica, but i am willing to embrace the phoebe world in which i am now surrounded. it is something my sweet child is trying to teach me, & i am trying desperately to learn.

the world needs more phoebes; don't you think?

~peace.

confessions of a tape addict

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hi, i'm kat, & i am addicted to painter's tape. we are using it near daily now. in addition helping pass the time on our road trip, we have: decorated pumpkins, decorated one another, taped things to other things all over thebelfry, created pictures on the table in the dentist's waiting room, & constructed roads.

this is the most recent highway, courtesy of thehobbit.

it was played with, off & on, the entire day. yes, even by my great old man of fourteen.

who, of course, declined to be photographed.

i most especially loved the wee hill.

in researching i have learned that painter's tape is basically blue low-tack masking tape. which is good, because a) regular masking tape is a fraction of the price of the blue stuff, & 2) we need more. a lot more.

notes of note :: if you are going to buy the low-tack masking tape, you need to make sure it is truly the lowest. anything too sticky will ruin surfaces when pulled away. 

~peace.

impromptu art day

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monday we packed a basket with sammiches, grabbed our cameras, put on comfortable shoes, & went on an unplanned outing to lacma. 

usually we avoid a good portion of their exhibits, as we aren't huge fans of modern, contemporary, expressionism, & the like. (fortunately, my dear pom does not often read this blog, or she would be yelling at me for that last.)

this time we did meander into some of them, & whilst we did not like most of what we saw, there were a few things that caught our collective eye. even in the surrealism exhibit!  my intent was to actively search for something in each exhibit that i did like. in some cases it was quite difficult, but i did manage, & am glad for it.

after that we enjoyed a leisurely lunch out of doors, soaking in the sunshine, & snapping photos. just out of the shot (above photo) was thehobbit, taking a photo for his woefully neglected tardis blog.

i could have spent many hours just sitting amongst the streetlamps, & would have, but a school group descended, which was my cue to get out of there, & fast.

next we went to the exhibits that we do love: european sculpture & painting, ancient art, impressionism, & so forth. inspired by all we saw, we decided to get our paint-groove on in the children's gallery. happily there were few people in there, so it was a lovely, quiet way to end our day.

it was interesting to see our different ways of expressing ourselves: i painted a realistic tree, manlyman sketched the chinese dragon that was painted on the wall, elfling clearly was inspired by the jackson pollocks he'd seen, & thehobbit played minecraft on his ipod.

heading back to the car we stopped to get our yayas out. in one of their courtyards is this giant thing. the yellow bits are long rubber strands, that stretch. people are encouraged to play within it. i am sure you can guess which of us had to be pulled away when it was time to go. really? you guessed thetoddler? nope. manlyman.

however, elfling did ignore the thing's request. i just cannot take my menfolk anywhere ;)

~peace.

p is for pumpkin

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elfling has officially entered the world of homeschooling. as he is only three, mostly this means that when thehobbit is working on a project that requires his wee brother not run about screaming like a banshee, elfling sits down with his own activity.

for this to last longer than 30 seconds the activity needs to be something elfling does not get to do at other times. & that brings me to today's babble: the letter of the week.

you know how it goes - each week a letter of the alphabet is chosen to be featured, & all week activities are done that focus on that letter. i did this with thehobbit when he was teensy, & he still recalls it fondly. of course, back then we were dirt poor, so this involved a great amount of me drawing pictures for him to color.

happily, whilst i am on a tight budget, i am no longer dirt poor. unhappily, elfling doesn't do much coloring, so i shall have to get vastly more creative.

what you see in these photos was the making of the letter feature frame. i got the idea from this pin. i had it in my head to use a fancy frame that was used in my biz, insert a sheet of metal, & buy a few sets of the cheapie alphabet magnets. my thought was that he would enjoy digging through a bin to search for a bunch of the same letter. i still do think that, but a certain manlyman has asked me to hold off on purchases right now, which meant that i had to use what i had on hand. spoil sport.

the first photo shows what i did, but in case you have had a bit much to drink today: i took apart a small frame, & used the glass to trace the shape onto watercolor paper. after cutting out 13 of the rectangles, i stuck a letter onto each (both sides). i waffled over whether to use the glass or not, but in the end decided to give it a try. my instinct tells me that elfling will not be able to resist peeling the letters once he realizes he has easy access to them. we shall see!

a mint tin was the perfect size in which to store the letters waiting for their turn at being featured.

first up? the letter p! because, p is for pumpkin, of course.

a very happy hallowe'en to you - blessed be.

~peace.

in which blue is the new orange & black

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when elfling learned what we meant when discussing carving our pumpkins, he freaked. apparently pumpkin, for that is its name as well as genus, is not to be treated in such a barbaric manner.

decorating pumpkin with stickers was suggested, as was: markers, paint, glitter, & the gluing of object upon it. all were deemed inappropriate, with various reasons given. it seemed that dear pumpkin was going to remain forever unclad, when elfling himself came up with an idea.

painter's tape!

now did you ever see such a halloweenish (real word) pumpkin, i ask you?

~peace.

montessori - spooooooky

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elfling has enjoyed most of the montessori activities we have tried. by far, his most favorite is the transferring activity. it is simple: using chopsticks or tongs, the toddler moves little objects from one container, to another. quietly! for a really long time!

i tried a few set-ups (tray, bin, basket) before stumbling on the one that worked best: the oblong bucket & felt baskets! all of them were found at target, in the little $1-$2 section near the front.

to keep elfling from growing bored, i have been rotating the items. currently we are going with a hallowe'en theme! the felt basket on the left holds everything for the transferring activity, leaving the one on the right free for whatever. as you can see whatever at the moment is stamping.

we have a bin filled with stamps & ink, but he is too easily overwhelmed, so we only offer a few stamps & one ink pad at a time. the silver ink shows up fabulously on black paper, by the way.

in the transferring basket are: two small bowls, child-sized chopsticks with a trainer clip, skull rings, & a spider top. he calls the latter a spider dreidel, which i find hilarious.

all of the items go into one of the little bowls, & his job is to move them to the empty bowl. you can make this more advanced by the amount of items, or by offering different ones or colors. the rings work well for beginners. these were left from a hallowe'en party we'd had many years back.

not content to be spun, the wee spider dreidel enjoys being transferred too.

i was thrilled to find this bucket the other day. it is just big enough for the two felt baskets, & the handles make it easy for elfling to carry. also, i love metal buckets, so may have possibly perhaps bought more than one.

if you are going to try this activity with your wee ones, now is the perfect time to begin your search for items. the hallowe'en stuff will be on clearance soon, & the christmas stuff is filling the shelves. party stores are good sources for multiples of tinies as well. anything that is small, & not too slippery would work. i just bought some felt buttons for future themes.

a lot of people use the large tweezers for this. i think i have mentioned elfling's love of poking things, which is why i opted for mini chopsticks. ours were purchased, when thehobbit was much younger, from the japanese store. ditto the trainer clips.

if money is tight right now, you can still do this activity. you need not have fancy a set-up, i only do so because my happy place is a house in which all clutter is stored in containers. as for items: cotton balls, a felted wool sweater cut into small shapes, leaves, spiral pasta (uncooked) - you get the idea.

spooooooky!

~peace.

blocks, blocks everywhere

thebelfrys love wooden blocks. by the time thehobbit outgrew playing with his, he had an insane amount of them. through gifts, thrift shopping, & hand-me-downs there was more than would fit in one large storage bin. we discovered this when it came time to pack them away. (hint :: stacking them into a giant cube of a jigsaw puzzle was the key.)

when elfling was big enough for blocks, we dug out the bag of tower blocks (pictured above) from storage. eventually a set of alphabet blocks, & one of miniature blocks joined the fray. not a lot of blocks by belfry standards, but just enough to make a toddler happy.

& then my dear friend pom phoned, asking if we wanted her girls' blocks. the sane voice inside my head said no thank you. he has a perfect amount already, & we have a giant bin filled with more, in storage. - which i promptly ignored, exclaiming oh yes!!!!!!!! instead.

some of our new blocks had been pom's very own childhood ones! that makes me happy. interestingly they weigh much less than the blocks of today do.

everyone has been having oodles of fun building all manner of things. of course, elfling only asks that we build fire stations for him, but i have figured out a way around that. i just build whatever i want, & proclaim it to be a fire station. sooner or later he'll catch on, & demand proper fire stations, but for now i am gold.

in addition to the regular blocks, pom gave us not one, but two sets of alphabet blocks. for a moment i thought i should give them away, as we already owned a set. then i realized that they were each different sizes, which clearly means we still own only one! besides, it is easier to build words if i have multiples of letters.

which he wanted to do the other day. over & over again. for eleventy billion hours. i love blocks, but even i have my breaking point.

i told him that this read fire station.

~peace.

ps :: for those wondering - i have no idea how i shall store the blocks once we bring in the bin from the garage.