Catch the sun in a mason jar!

At first when I came across this product, I thought it was charming idea, (though the reviews on Amazon.com were pretty disappointing). It's basically a genuine mason jar with an inner solar light. It holds a soft, sunny-colored glow at night (and charges in the sun during the day).

These would be great for outdoor summer evenings, so why not try and make them ourselves?

It's pretty easy--just purchase a mason jar with attached lid (ex: Ikea), some glass frosting spray, cheap solar garden light, and some Blue Tak. Click here for the tutorial.

Felt Owl

This was supposed to be an owlet, but it turned out looking a bit like a scrawny chick. No matter-- it's still a baby owl to Izzy, who loves that it's pink and purple. I purchased a rainbow of wool felt yesterday, and hand-stitched this little chicken owl by book-light last night while the kids fell asleep next to me. It took longer than I expected, but it was fun... ironically a lot less stressful than pulling out my sewing machine.

First Family Garden

This spring the Fox Den will attempt to grow our first garden--complete with fruits, veggies, herbs and... (drum roll, please) a tent. We've got the bamboo stakes, the climbing vines, seed packets, and organic soil. We are planting our seeds in biodegradable egg cartons we've been hoarding over the last few months. Next up: digging up a corner of our lawn (renting a roto-tiller sure sounds tempting) to replace it with compost, manure and whatever else the local nursery advises. I'm also nudging Chief Fox to get a compost container set up (his reluctance on this is due to his fear of attracting roaches... should that be a concern?).

photo credit: Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots, copyright 1999 by Sharon Lovejoy

Paper Doll Nostalgia

Paper doll art by Mary Englebreit, published in the Home Companion Magazine

I love going to my grandmother's house for a lot of reasons, but one of them is pretty simple: her magazines. She always has the current issue of at least 7 or 8 home and garden magazines on her living room end tables, which is where I get my fix. One of my favorite magazines to flip through is The Home Companion, the source of the above paper doll inserts.

My grandmother saves each and every paper doll insert and sets it aside for when Izzy gets older (Izzy's my 2 year old daughter). Isn't that sweet?

The simple fun of paper dolls is enticing... definitely an activity I look forward to introducing to the kids (once they are dexterous enough to "cut along the dotted line," and can be trusted not to tear or eat the paper).

The above 6 dolls were drawn by Rae Owings, and were published February 1965 in Jack and Jill magazine (which I think is still in print today).

Tidepooling!

Below: Shanna, Ava, & Maz (lft to rt)

Below: Izzy, Maz, & Rigel (lft to rt)

The tides were low during mid-day hours for the first time in over 3 months, so we headed out to Point Loma with some friends. Lucky for us, Dan was able to join us as well. Armed with buckets, we happened upon sea anemones, hermit crabs, lots of different kinds of sea weed, sea snails, and clusters of goose-necked barnacles. Rigel declared it was time to go home on account of there not being any sea stars, but we stuck it out and picnic'ed on the rocks.

(For info on the tides, go to http://www.tidelinesonline.com/)

Holiday Bulbs

Rigel and Izzy enjoy peering into this bulb jar, and teaching Daddy how "the green part will grow taller and taller, and then there will be flowers...the bobes need water and sunshine...there's their wrooots!" I love this jar--this will be the 3rd year it has been taken out of the garage for display. It has a raised plastic "frog" plate on the bottom, so the growth of a bulb can be observed from the roots to the tips of the flowers...I'm pretty sure these are still available at Costco (fully loaded with flowering blooms).

P.S. It's not too late to get around to planting all spring-flowering bulbs... and amaryllis bulbs can bloom for the holidays if they get in the ground today (or tomorrow or the next day).

...More Butterflies!

Another butterfly "hatched" this morning, and Izzy got a chance to let it rest on her fingers (Rigel got to hold our first butterfly). This fluttery fellow wasn't ready to fly yet, and seemed like he was stretching out his wings and getting rested up for his release. We set him outside on our little butterfly feeder (from Insect Lore) and watched him from the window. This was the first time we noticed how the underside of the wing has an opalescent sheen in the sunlight (the camera doesn't quite do justice). We've got about 5 or 6 more Gulf Fritillary caterpillars left, and it has been fun watching them grow from hairy squirmers to winged wonders.

Cereal Box Office Hit!

Rigel and Izzy had fun with this a while ago: a cereal box puppet theatre. They had just as much fun being behind the scenes as they did being the audience. I have since begun setting aside all our empty cereal boxes rather than tossing them in the recycling bin, and have now accumulated--whoa!-- 10 empty boxes! I think it is time to convince the neighborhood playgroup mamas to have a cereal box puppet theatre workshop, and I'll supply the materials. It's great "recycled art."

Cereal Box Puppet Theatre:

empty cereal box
Popsicle sticks
pictures (magazine cutouts of animals, family photos from your printer, etc.)
glue or paste
construction paper
scissors

Cut back of box and sides off so all that is left is the front and the bottom. Glue a popsicle stick on the bottom flap if needed for added support. Cut a window out of front of box. Set aside all the cardboard scraps. Cut curtains out of construction paper, then glue around the window. Cut out the pictures, then glue onto cardboard scraps (trim off edges). Glue popscicle stick onto each picture for a handle. Ta-dah!

P.S. If you don't have the patience to wait for the glue / paste to dry, use a hot glue gun for the popscicle sticks and to attach the pictures to the cardboard. Just don't let the kiddos help with that part, of course!

Happy H-owl-loween!

Izzy's Owl

Rigel's Owl

We made owls together the day before yesterday. I cut out the bodies and parts ahead of time, supplied the paste, feathers, eyes and beak in a pile to the kids, and then let them create. Notice Izzy's upside down owl... pretty cute! These cut-and-paste projects are fun and simple, and there are a lot of options... jack-o-lantern faces, frankenstein faces, etc. Come Christmas time, I want to be sure to remember to sit down with the kids and make cut-and-paste snowmen, christmas trees, wreaths... We'll have fun.

Our First Butterfly!

(The last two images are the same butterfly, just after we released it. The underside of its wings are completely different from the orange color you see when it is perched on Rigel!)

Our first chrysalis (cocoon) has "hatched!" Izzy was sleeping, but Rigel got to hold the Gulf Fritillary butterfly before releasing it to flutter amongst our perennial hedges. We've got about 4 more cocoons and lots more caterpillars left, so Izzy will definitely get her turn, too (as Izzy would say, "Izzy turn! Izzy turn!").

Window Tree Feels Like Autumn

"Just before the death of flowers,

And before they are buried in snow,

There comes a festival season

When nature is all aglow."

- Author Unknown

“But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees”- C. S. Lewis

Even though autumn is here, it is difficult to describe what it means to Rigel and Izzy without any visual aides. For this reason alone, I miss the mountains. I love San Diego and its year-round mild weather, but I miss how in Mariposa County only one glance outside the window described the season... Dry, brown fields and brush in the summer, bare trees and chimney smoke in the winter, green meadows and wildflowers everywhere in the spring, and autumn leaves in the fall.

In San Diego this time of year, any large old maple, ash or oak tree is eye-catching, just as I bet we were a sight the other day when we pulled over to collect fallen red maple leaves while visiting the Navy submarine base. The kids helped search for the prettiest red leaves, then we took them home and made "stained glass" paper. After they had fallen asleep, I trimmed their stained glass paper into pieces for a "window tree" to decorate our front room. Now it feels like autumn!

Rigel loves collecting sticks whenever he is outside, though I'm not sure what has triggered his fascination with fallen twigs. I took his stick collection and made it into a simple wall hanging (complete with a store-bought owl). Now, whenever he has a handful of sticks, he says, "We have a bunch of sticks--let's make them into something pretty!"



Stained Glass Paper:
wax paper
crayons
leaves (flat, stems trimmed off)
iron
cheese grater

Use the grater to make crayon shavings. Place the leaves on waxed side of the wax paper, then sprinkle with crayon shavings. Place another sheet of wax paper (waxed side down) on top of the leaves and shavings, and then iron. The kids can help with grating the crayons and decorating the wax paper, but of course leave the ironing to the grown-ups. The crayon wax wipes off the grater easily with a scrub brush and hot water.

Owl Obsession

Rigel and Izzy have a somewhat strange obsession with owls. I think it all started before Izzy was born. Rigel and I would do a lot of reading together, and one of his favorite books was P.D. Eastman's Sam and the Firefly (among a few others). Then, when Izzy was about a year old, he had his first owl encounter in Grandma's garden (via a plastic hardware store owl that functions as an animal deterrent). Grandma gave the owl to Rigel and Izzy, and it is permanantly perched in our Ficus tree. Now, when he streaks half naked through the house and I inquire as to where his pants and underwear went, he replies, "an owl flew in the window and stole 'em. He took 'em and built a nest with 'em." When we are in line at Costco, Izzy will solemnly stare at the rafters pointing, "Wook, Mama, Izzy see a ow-all." If a spooky Halloween-themed Thomas-the-Train episode comes on, Izzy gets truly terrified of any and all images of owls, and Rigel scoots out of the room and watches from a distance. If we are in a store, they go nuts over anything relative to owls, and when we are traveling in the car, they enthusiastically point out the animal deterrent owls perched on gas station overhangs. Rigel has informed me that, "once, when I was big like you, I had an owl" ... I could go on and on.

So, what is this combined fascination and fear of owls about, anyway? According to a gift tag on a Pier 1 Imports owl statue, the ancient Chinese considered the owl to be a symbol of yang masculinity as well as the guardian of the afterlife. Lei-gong, the god of thunder, had the beak, wings and claws of an owl, and owl-shaped roof finials were believed to offer protection from thunder and fire. Um, that's interesting. Not quite the explanation I'm looking for, though. Maybe I should further my research... Or, maybe it's all in good fun. Hooo knows?

More on the owl iron-on transfers / appliques

Caterpillars from our Yard

We have found some caterpillars in our yard, and have decided to attempt raising them in our house as they complete their growth cycle. I haven't tried to identify them yet, but it is more likely they are moths than butterflies. Last year, we tried to raise monarch butterflies by collecting eggs from milkweed (their food), but weren't successful...we got as far as a couple cocoons (chrysalis) and then they... well, you know.