black and white wednesday

having fun playing with this photo. i had to let her eyes shine through. ;)

see more black and white wednesday photos by visiting linda at natural suburbia.

wood day

yesterday was *wood day* at the folk art center up on the blue ridge parkway. this event is annual and free and there are many demonstrations of all sorts of woodworking going on. being the wood lovers that we are, we had to go check it out!
the first demonstration we saw was joe ruminski turning this natural edge bowl. sienna and jasper both enjoyed watching him at work with the lathe, but sienna was absolutely spellbound. she watched him finish one bowl and then stayed to watch the entire process again!
he gifted her the bowl he made for her incredible patience and focused interest. such a sweet gesture! his instructions were to let it sit overnight and then to sand, sand, sand and finish it. we have worked on that a bit today. i will post pics when it is finished.
we saw only one woman (and i failed to take her picture!). she is a carver. she was working on a gorgeous nativity scene. we engaged in a lovely conversation about the beauty of wooden toys, the imaginative play of children, and the barrage of plastic toys her grandchildren are surrounded by. i want to adopt her!

my children have played with wooden toys as long as they can remember so it was really incredible for them to see the different steps these figures progress through before they come to life.
this was my favorite sign! the best part was that the sign itself was the first thing that jasper picked up. this is the work of jim mc phail. his display was intriguing because he uses lots of exotic woods and had squares of them all and showed what they looked like before and after they were finished. he also stacks these woods to make these layered bowls and he had clever little displays to show this process....and you could touch it all. ;)
his lathe was much smaller as he works on a rather tiny scale. once again, sienna waited patiently for him to begin, stayed for the entire process, and asked poignant questions. and once again....he gifted her the bowl!! as you can see here, these tiny bowls are quite pricey! we won't talk about how that price tag is likely because some of the woods he uses are from endangered trees. no, i'll just let her enjoy her little bowl. it has gone off to live in that extravagant dollhouse. a shaving horse at work. this guy was cute and didn't quite know what to do with the kids. he gave them some curly-q shavings. ;)
and yes, it gets even better!! she got to turn her own pen! the carolina mountain woodturners were on hand to help folks make their own keepsakes. technically, children were to be 7, but they let her slide under the radar.
she started with a block of wood and worked with this fellow to carve the pen shape and make lines in it for her design. she wore this face shield and they held the carving tools together.
then she moved outside to work with this fellow and began sanding her piece. at this point, she was able to do most of the work by herself. here she began adding color. it was a fascinating process. using a sharpie marker, she held it at the bottom edge of the pen and the color went on quickly as the lathe continued to spin. after the color was on, she waxed it with a block of beeswax and polished it with a cloth.
here is her final work! she could not have been more proud.
her treasures from the day. they even gave her a certificate for completing an introductory woodturning lesson.
as we picnicked together afterward, this bowl became an impromptu nature display.this little guy was a real trooper. there was not much for the three year old crowd to do but look. once (a long time before we were finished actually) he said *me want to get out of this place*, but other than that he hung in there for three hours while his sister indulged herself! this is his pouty face afterward when he lamented *me no make anything*. i love his toddler lingo.

sienna lay with me last night, clutching her pen tightly, going on and on about all the things she wants to make on a lathe. she was particularly impressed that she got to do the same project as the grown ups that were there. she slept with her pen in her bed last night. ;)

today....i have strep throat. :( i'm going back to bed now. hope you all enjoyed a wonderful weekend!

elements of self: the eyes

the next in the series of self portrait challenges from the ever inspiring shakti mama is the eyes. i was surprised at how much i struggled with this one. true, i never really loved my eyes as a child. i thought brown too common a color to be beautiful. as with most things in life (in my teen years at least), i wanted something more unique, something that stood out and got attention.
i have since accepted my brown eyes for what they are. i am actually fond of the color of my eyes which i honestly didn't capture here very well. no, now it is the age all around my eyes that i struggled with during this photo shoot. my eyes have always been the first to show signs of distress in my physical and emotional health. lack of sleep, a night of crying, not eating well, and so much more shows up in the space around my eyes like a glaring neon light.
like my mother, i have these great luggage compartments under my eyes that i am still trying to come to terms with. i believe that they could improve as my health improves, but have yet to see those rewards. also like my mother, i have severe allergies which have reeked havoc on my eyes and those great bags below. i have been working to try and master those issues so that they stop controlling my life (yes, they are that bad).

here is a funny angle taken in the car. you can see the scar on my face.

what i love about the eyes is being able to truly see one's soul. getting a deeper glimpse into who they are and how they might be feeling in that moment. words can complicate things and get in the way of true meaning. the eyes speak clearly and simply. i appreciate and honor when someone takes the time to connect with me in conversation by looking me in the eye. i know that they are interested in me and my thoughts, not just spitting out their dialogue to anyone who might be listening.

my children were fascinated by mommy taking pictures of her eyes and wanted to play along, too. ;) the space around their eyes always gives away how they are feeling, too.
to see my previous elements of the self portraits, click here and here. all seem to have highlighted my eyes thus far.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

black and white wednesday

another flashback. this is sienna age 3. another one of my most favorite pics ever.

giveaways from friends....

here are a few for you:

* my dear friend renee, of heirloom seasons, is having a giveaway for a sweet book and some of her vintage feedsack handmade treasures.

* another sweet and talented friend, linda, of natural suburbia, is giving away two of her knitted animals (they are so delightful!!) and a skein of hand dyed merino yarn.

* yet another gal i call friend, jennifer, of syrendell is having a three part giveaway with three different winners!

* and from a blog i am new to and growing to love, the sewn natural studio is giving away an adorable organic children's tee.

so go enter!! i have won a couple of sweet giveaways recently (one from sewn natural!) and i would love for you to, too! ;)

today at the farm

jasper was spared the farm today. he doesn't do well in the heat so he doesn't enjoy his time there as much as sienna and i. ms joy wanted her daughter, anna mae, to get a taste of farm life so we traded kids for the day. i wish i had snapped a picture of the fancy sandals she sported, but nonetheless, she dug right in and worked her fair share!
we were assigned the blueberry patch. poor souls, i know! the gals easily picked a gallon each. these bushes are dripping with blueberry goodness. we didn't even make a dent in the ripe berries in the two hours we spent there.
when they tired of picking, they played blueberry princesses under the shade of the arching limbs. how divine to merely reach an arm's length from your throne and have a feast of ripe delicious blueberries!
we then retreated to the shade of the barn. anna mae and sienna assembled and lined up the 37 csa boxes on their own. i weighed and bagged pontiac potatoes, they added in garlic bulbs and put a bag in each of the boxes. then we washed the chard, both red and rainbow. we all enjoyed shaking the water off onto one another for a nice cool down! they then placed the bunches one in each box.
sienna has been wanting to go out there on a tuesday so that our efforts would be going into our very own box. we pick up our csa box on wednesdays at the tailgate market so today's boxes will be delivered there tomorrow. the potatoes, garlic, chard, and blueberries we will find inside they helped to harvest, clean, or pack up! there will be more surprises added to the boxes throughout the day as the interns continue their labor in this hot, hot august sun.

i bought the girls a pint of blueberries each. after all, you can't pick blueberries all morning and come home empty handed! tonight we will read one of our most favorite books, peter in blueberry land. i adore elsa beskow. we have the mini edition of this one and usually take it with us when we venture out blueberry picking to enjoy whilst resting in the shade between basket fillings.

if you love this book as much as we do, you must see my dear friend chris' (mamaroots) rendition of the blueberry king!

some more csa love:

eat real good is a meal planner based on your csa box. this website allows you to enter in the contents of your box (or your cupboard) and then gives you recipes that you can make with those items. it is a database that is open for the public to add recipes to as well. this was made by a local mom and i have enjoyed exploring it. i like that you can customize it to your dietary needs, ie. gluten-free, etc.

this list at fake plastic fish was compiled by the berkeley farmer's market. it has loads of ways to keep your produce fresh without resorting to plastic. love that!

have you been to a farm lately?