Berlin's Whimsy

A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I stand on the edge of change. Though I don't know it for fact, I feel it in my heart and I'm moving that direction... I ponder employment possibilities and an upcoming move into our own house. Stepping out into the world anew, it's what I dream about this midsummer.  

At this moment, midsummer, I'm full of these contemplations and dreams. Dreams of varying possibilities tied to circumstances. Sometimes it all seems so convoluted, like the Shakespearean play that shares this post's title. Very much unlike the play, however, my complications are devoid of romantic interests, by the way. 

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream, a magical flower plays a pivotal role in developing a character's love. At this point in my life, the flowers I receive come from my kids and I'm fairly certain that any magical qualities stem from the sweetness of intent for which they are given.

I receive my flowers and I place them in jars and marvel at my children's love. I also sit amongst the colors in the beds from whence the flowers come and I dream lazily in this midsummer heat-----dreams of possibilities and wondering what lies ahead for me.

**We're heading for our familiar coast for this week but I'll share some midsummer photos & thoughts all week long...

Tadpoles.

I grew up catching tadpoles in nearby ditches and ponds and setting them aside to miraculously transform into frogs.

We would dip our hands in the dirty ditch water and come up with a slimy little tadpole which we plunked into a waiting and clean pickle jar. The murky jar would sit on our counter and life would evolve within its glass walls----for all the world to witness. We were fascinated by them.

And I still am.

My kids have caught tadpoles up in the local high mountain lakes but never "raised" them like I did. They were so surprised to find that just down the driveway they could catch some of these wriggly little creatures for themselves.

Again I marvel at how much I forget from my childhood. I cannot remember what we fed our tadpoles in those big pickle jars. Nowadays we have the internet to answer such queries and found that they love plain old lettuce.

In fact, they munch little holes in the lettuce leaves and we can actually listen to them munching at the top of the water's surface.

They're only just sprouting their tiny legs now.

Ah, thank goodness for kids who let us old, forgetful adults into their worlds to remember bits of our own childhood...

Grind-it-up Mystery Mash

My daughter took to the fields today in search of mystery mash ingredients. With her own little mortar-and-pestle in hand, she plucked flower petals.

The flowers were ground up and mixed with water to create her own purple dye. I was amazed at the iridescence of her dye-----almost like butterfly wings. Is that from the flower petals? 

She used her dye to dye a piece of white linen. It turned out a very subtle shade of lavender. We'll use the cloth later on to make a tiny little fairy dress...

This was one of our kids' activities listed here. We look forward to new combinations of flowers to produce varying colors of dye.

I like.

The simplicity of a feather brought closer.

The late evening light casting shadows.

   

My own covered rock and the beauty of flax.

Wearing Nature.

I didn't win Margie's giveaway for one of her wonderful crocheted acorn necklaces, so I decided to make one of my own using her helpful tutorial!

I used this hemp yarn from Elann that I had in my stash and a size 2.75MM crochet hook. The hemp is an excellent yarn for crocheting!

What's even better about this necklace? It makes a perfect pouch for flowers! The stem fits through the little hole in the bottom. My daughter had a difficult time choosing between her flower, one of our wooden acorns, or a real acorn. In the end, we decided the necklace is a "nature necklace," to be filled with trinkets of the seasons...

The pouch is just single crochet but the necklace's string is made with a Solomon's Knot, or Lover's Knot----here is a tutorial on youtube.

I am very enamored with this crochet technique and I hope to take on a larger project using this knot. I thought the Solomon's Knot chain looked very nice in conjunction with the nature necklace and it also worked up very quickly. Now I'm off to make one of my own!! Have a wonderful weekend!

All White.

As if the heat wasn't enough, we must now suffer the white/grey smoke (yes, picture me saying this in a whining voice). Of course, it goes hand in hand here, the hot temps and then the smoke----hot temperatures often create one of two things: human lapses in judgement or mother nature wielding a lightning bolt. Both of them spark fires. Whichever is the cause, we now have the fire's smoke blanketing the land...

I retreated to my sewing machine today and produced a white linen shirt for my daughter. Ah, linen... It's so refreshing in summer. Though for me, linen is a favorite all year long----it's a convergence of both refinery and simplicity woven together.

I planned on embroidering her blouse and my daughter requested a mushroom. I'll admit I'm a little "over" my mushroom phase but "ask and you shall receive" was in order today.

She likes her new linen blouse. Especially after observing (Or coveting--- Are we to that phase yet?) my absolute favorite linen shirt that I've been wearing day after day recently. My shirt is not handmade-----it's from the clearance rack at J. Jill. I would LOVE to reproduce this blouse's cut and design-----a little femininity mixed with a little utility----one day I just might do it when I'm feeling a bit more adventurous...

But not today. Today, I used my old stand-bye pattern Simplicity #4589 . In fact, if any of you have used this pattern, please post your finished photos to my Flickr group: Simplicity 4589... I would love it if you shared!

The smoke won't be leaving anytime soon---perhaps more sewing is in my future!

A Sailor's Life for Me.

It was a beautiful weekend, even without much crafting and some scorching hot temperatures.

 

We escaped to the nearby mountains for some cool breezes...

...to fill those crisp sails, so striking against the natural splendor of the area. Thanks to the generosity of a friend, we enjoyed a whole day out on her wonderful sailboat. 

My experience on boats is limited and I have never went sailing before. I didn't realize how much I'd love it. But I do.

There is something so magical about the wind filling those sails----the anticipation after a wisp of wind, the excitement of a gust, the eventual movement and tipping against the wind... There's also a feeling of connection to a distant past...

It's not a surprise that my kids loved it, too. My daughter swam around and around the boat in the icy cold water. My son was entranced by the boat itself, even having an opportunity to "drive" it.

 

One of my brothers was in town long enough to enjoy the day with us... Yes, this is part of sailing, too----dropping anchor and relaxing...

Kids' Activity: For the Birds!

Your suggestions and ideas for kids' activities were so helpful! Thank you!! I've combined the ideas and created a Kids' Activity List. You'll find the link under Resources on the sidebar and it opens a whole new page with all of the activities there. The list will continue to grow as I add more ideas throughout the summer... 

And if you have any additional ideas to share, please leave them in the comments section of the list. Also, I'd love to hear from you if your family tries any of these activities! How did it go?  

 

We're anxious to start trying out our activities! Today, we decided to play like a bird and give nest building a try. We could only use materials that birds would use. For my kids, that meant mud, of course!

After our muddy nest turned out to look more like a mud volcano, we realized how uniquely talented those birds are! (And that there is a reason nests take so long to build)...

We're going to try the activity again but next time we will be more precise and weave the materials together rather than slather them with mud (though the mud part sure was fun)!

Staycation Kids Summer Ideas & Activities...

Note: I used this list and your wonderful comments to compile a list of kids' activities. They can be found HERE, as well as by clicking on the link under Resources in my sidebar.

While sewing, I listen to the radio----usually not music but rather NPR, news, podcasts of some of my favorite programs, etc. Yesterday, after a very long stint of sewing and listening, I found myself contemplating flinging, or possibly flailing myself from the nearest high cliff. The news was full of escalating gas prices, increasing food costs, higher unemployment, personal strife, hunger, and generally bad news. This, on top of my own mounting economic problems led me to a very downward spiral... After a bit, I just couldn't take it anymore.

I thought about the upcoming summer for my smaller family of three. 

One of the topics thrown around in the news was the gas price's effects on traveling. You've probably heard the newest vacation term: staycation.

All of the talk about gas prices led me to this: how to make staying at home fun for my kids & I. Basically, I don't want to hear "I'm BORED" all summer long. And though I plan on fully utilizing Crafty Crow as a resource for craft projects, I don't have the resources to purchase lots of craft supplies for the entire summer. I want to supplement my craft projects with activities such as back-yard games, make-believe, camping out, picnics, all without draining my limited resources.   

And this is what I came up with...

OUR STAYCATION SUMMER of FUN!

1. Picnic Around the World. Oh yeah, having picnics in the backyard could quickly become routine but what if you aren't just picnicing in your own yard? What if you are a family of world travelers (give your family a world traveler name) that just happened to find yourself in another location for the day? For example, your world traveling family is currently visiting the Pyramids in Egypt... What are you eating for lunch? And while sitting out on your picnic blanket, what do you see? What do you smell? What kind of language are those around you speaking? What else do you hear? Write it all down and afterwards have your children go look your location up on the computer. Ask them to compare their assumptions to what they learn.  
2. Spoil your pets. There they are, your pets, craving your attention. My kids love our pets but sometimes they don't always pay enough attention to them. No more! We'll spend a whole day lavishing ONE of our pets with attention: What do they do all day? Where do they go? What do they eat? It will be each pet's DAY complete with homemade treats. 
3. Thoreau's thorough Study. My kids don't have the patience to spend a whole day watching a square grid on the ground like Henry David Thoreau, but we will spend 15 minutes per day for a week, noticing a piece of square earth. We'll measure it, we'll come home and sketch it from memory, we'll make notes at the location. Some of our questions will be: who walked across our square? Have the plants changed? Is the ground temperature different? Are the shadows changing as the days pass?
4. Do You Hear What I Hear? My kids & I spend time each summer laying on our backs and watching the clouds----that's always fun---- but what if we closed our eyes. What would we hear? In a typical day, we so seldom take the time to actually listen...
5. Digging for worms. Need I say more? And no, I won't be touching any worms, but my kids will. ;-)
6. Way Out Back in the Outback: No cheating. Camping in the backyard. But be prepared, once you're out camping in the Outback you can no longer return to the house! 
7. Stars' Stories. We have yet to fully experience the stars-----to understand the constellations, etc. This summer we will. We will each adopt a constellation and study both the astronomical information about the constellation as well as any mythological information about it.
8. Spelling Etymology. "What?" I can hear my kids already. No, not just spelling but etymology: the study of words and their explanations. We'll choose some unusual words each week and ask these questions: How did these words come to be? Where do they fall in our current language as compared to their origins? After we learn about some old/weird words, we'll attempt to use them in a story. That should be interesting!
9. Turn Over the Rock. We'll spend a day turning over rocks and documenting what we find. What are those strange creatures that make their homes under our rocks? I'm sure we'll find a good amount of scorpions, as well as a few Jerusalem Crickets.
10. Hide the Flaming Red Rock. I'm going to paint a rock (the size of a softball) a bright red and hide it somewhere within a certain radius of our house. When the rock is found, that person chooses a baked treat of their choice (we'll make the treats for each other). That person also hides the rock for the next person.
11. In the life of... What do you want to be when you grow up? My kids have their answers and they've only changed a bit since we first began asking them. My son started out with Paleontologist but has slowly evolved into Paleontologist and Writer. My daughter is still holding firm to Vet. But what do people do in these careers? We'll pretend for a day that we are working in that field...
12. The Currency Converter Game. Imagine that our country has implemented a new currency. Our new currency is worth 3-cents in our old currency. One player gathers and makes items to sell in the old currency and the second (and subsequent) players must convert the price to the new currency (which is the only currency they can use).
13. Shade Hopscotch. Sure, my brother & I did this as children out of necessity but what if it's a game? We'll see who can travel the farthest by only jumping from shade to shade.
14. Grind it Up Mystery Mash. My kids love to grind up natural things in an old mortar & pestle. You can often find old mortar & pestles in the thriftstores. Though my kids love to do it all on their own, if you want to make it a game, you can write up "recipes" beforehand and then send them out on a "treasure hunt" for the ingredients (ie, 3 parts berries, 2 parts grass, 1 part yellow flower petals...etc). Safety Warning: Be sure to tell your kids that their mash is not safe to eat!! This might not be a good one for younger kids)...

What about you? Do you have any games & activities for your kids to do at home? I'd love to compile a LOOONG list of ideas to refer back to. I will add the list to the Resources on my sidebar----I'll probably think of more ideas myself and I'll add them to that list as I do... Be sure to check back and if you think of any ideas later on, please email me! It's a LOOOONG summer!   

I'm leaving this blog post up for a couple days so as to gather ideas (hint, hint)! I hope to add my list of summer activities to the sidebar this weekend...

Picnics & making.

We enjoyed a little picnic last weekend. My daughter is always the impetus for a picnic----I cannot count the number of times she asked to go on one last winter when we were experiencing frigid winds and frost on each blade of grass. She settled on enjoying a picnic in the livingroom instead. 

On this outing, however, we brought along our favorite frisbees, a few sandwiches, and our craft supplies. I promised my kids I would teach them to crochet.

My daughter fell in love immediately----the single hook seemed so much more manageable for her hands than knitting needles. Before long, she had crocheted this little dish scrubbie. My son still prefers his needles to the hook and went on to make some dish scrubbie puppets and other shapes after learning to increase and decrease.

The day was wonderfully bright and sunny and I had to sit back and soak up not only the beauty all around me but the beauty before me in my kids. They're growing up so fast and it's wonderful to witness.

We didn't bring along gourmet food on this trip. We had our peanut butter and pickle sandwiches and watermelon. Unfortunately, I didn't make this pasta salad that day but it's a wonderful addition to a picnic. I also enjoy it on a bed of greens.

I hope you find the occassion for a picnic this weekend, too----to slow down a bit and soak up life.

Smoked Salmon Orzo

Ingredients:

• A little wedge of smoked salmon, flaked
• 1 C. frozen petite peas, thawed
• 1/4 C. chopped fresh dill (needs to be the fresh stuff)
• 3 scallions---the green part only, thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 1 C. mayonnaise
• 1 package Orzo pasta
• Fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Method: Cook the Orzo in salted boiling water according to package. Drain and rinse under cold water. Add to pasta bowl. Add remaining ingredients to pasta and stir until thoroughly mixed. Check seasoning and adjust. Chill and serve cold.