Yarn Along

I'm still working on the same sweater as last week, and making little progress, I'm afraid. The all-consuming beast that is Elizabeth's play has devoured all of my time. (You should see my house right now. On second thought, maybe you shouldn't.)

I did find some time last weekend to start Free-Range Kids, a loan from a friend. I agree with nearly everything she says, but I do find some of her style to be a bit heavy-handed. I've never been a particularly hovering parent though. I'm more interested to glean from the bits of the book dealing with sharing more responsibility with children. I think most Americans, myself included, could do a better job allowing and expecting our children to shoulder their age-appropriate share of the homefront workload.

on the stage

This entire week I'll be helping the cast and crew of Elizabeth's play spend long days rehearsing in preparation for their 2 nights of performance later in the week. Here are a few shots of their rehearsals:

practicing with sets

rehearsing hair, makeup, and dress


a sea of cowpokes awaiting last-minute instruction


coordinating the dancers


ready for the first dress rehearsal!


nervously waiting backstage


fixing last minute hair emergencies


waiting for her cue...

theatrical makeup

Elizabeth is fortunate to be a part of a class (and a school!) that takes art, performance, singing and dancing as seriously as the core curriculum. Her class has been learning, casting, singing, performing and practicing for their class play (coming up in 2 days!) since almost the beginning of the school year. One of the things the class is focusing on is theatrical makeup, and the class was fortunate to have an expert in the field come to demonstrate specific makeup artistry, such as enlarging the eyes, applying a bruise, and aging a performer.

Martha Ruskai, who taught Elizabeth's class the workshop on theatrical makeup, developed the wig and makeup program at NC School of the Arts and has written a book on wig making, in addition to working on numerous plays, broadway shows and movie productions.


She allowed the students to hold several wig and facial pieces, such as this fake nose.


Then she began teaching the students how to apply theatrical makeup, starting with enlarging their eyes with eyeliner.



She also taught them how to apply a bruise, as there will be a fight scene in their production.



So many students were quickly adept at applying realistic bruises. (And you should have seen the students in pickup line that day...all bruised up!)


She then taught the students how to age their faces by emphasizing facial lines and shadows.


It's funny to see how silly the makeup looks up close but how it really emphasizes the aging process from far away.

What a delightful experience for the 5th graders to learn about theatrical makeup for their school play! A lucky group, indeed!

weekend art

:: collaborative painting::

::painting display::


::paper burning::


::3D paper vehicle construction::



::splatter painting::


::origami of Anakin transforming into Darth Vader::




::book illustration (Cloud Men from James and the Giant Peach)::

We hope your weekend has been equally full of color and creativity.

{this moment} - Darth Paper invades

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no (only a few) words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

found on the library wall, inspired by this book

Yarn Along

February is the month of knitting for myself, apparently. Almost as soon as I finished my February Lady, I cast on another sweater for myself, also with Malabrigo worsted merino. It truly is one of my favorite yarns to knit. So soft and squishy! I found some Cognac on sale a few months ago so I bought 4 skeins then searched ravelry for a pattern that would fit the amount of yarn I bought. And so I found the Ystävälle-neuletakki. The pattern was originally written in Finnish, so the measurements are metric which requires a bit more work, but I really like how the back is coming so far.

I've also started By The Shores of Silver Lake during our family reading time. The kids were a little saddened at first by Mary's blindness and Jack's passing, but the book is evening out now and exciting things are happening. I'm enjoying re-reading it myself, especially my mom's old copy that I remember seeing on our living room bookshelf as a child.

snow day and Starry Night

This winter we have seen the mildest weather that I can remember in this area. We did, between days of 60 degree weather, manage to eek out a snow day today. We received about 2 inches of the white stuff starting just before dark last evening, and Elizabeth and Finn headed out into it immediately, determined to make the most of our snow for the few hours it remained.

The dusting they played in last night nearly doubled by morning, and they suited up into winter gear immediately following breakfast for more outdoor fun.


Finn was less than impressed by the grass ruining his snow angel. "It's not very pretty with green poky things sticking out of it."


I find that snow days generally need an art project to provide distraction while little ones warm up, and clothes dry out, between frolics in the snow. Today, we decided to make our own version of Starry Night.


Finn painted a large sheet of watercolor paper in wet-on-wet style, while Elizabeth busily cut out buildings, landforms and stars.


Another hour or so of snow play while the painting and glue dried. Don't you love Finn's little snowman?


When they were sufficiently frozen and exhausted, they returned indoors to glue the paper cut outs to the painting.


A few swirls and landscaping of beeswax crayon were added, and Elizabeth and Finn pronounced their Starry Night to be complete. Elizabeth decided that she enjoyed replicating Van Gogh in this medium and wants to fill her room many of his other paintings reproduced in the same manner. Now that makes for a good snow day.

{this moment} - learning the art of makeup

{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. See Soulemama to play along.

learning the art of theater makeup from an industry-renowned expert

...more on that to come!

Yarn Along and a February Lady

This week's Yarn Along isn't overly exciting. I'm working on a hat from scrap yarn for an auction for our kids' camp. They just wanted something in tribe colors to auction, so I'm helping them out. I've also been reading the late winter-early spring months of Amanda's book since I sort of ignored them back in the summer when I first bought The Rhythm of Family.

More exciting, however, is that I finally finished my February Lady! I really am pleased with how it turned out, and I'm happy to say that I've worn it every day since it was completed. :)



The buttons didn't seem quite as purple in person as they did on etsy, but I think they are gorgeous and look quite nice on this sweater. They also exude the faintest aroma of cedar which is a happy bonus.


When I finished my February Lady, I had almost an entire skein of Malabrigo leftover, since I bought 5 skeins for the sweater and only used about 10 yards of the fifth skein for the sweater. I found a pattern on ravelry that I thought would complement the pattern of the February Lady sweater. And so now I have a Lotus hat to match my February Lady sweater. I'm quite the stylin' purple girl this month of amethysts and violets.