our week

We woke to snow the other day. Ari sat at the window in his PJ's exclaiming excitedly about this new scene, but when presented with snow suit and boots he was a little less excited.

Luckily he likes the mitts. He likes them an awful lot. He wore them most of the morning, and was rather upset that I wouldn't let him eat his scrambles eggs with them. He even calls them by their name- "mitt- eeens."

And today we had our first wet-on-wet watercolour experience. Both Ari and our little homeschool friend thought it was pretty neat, though I have to figure out how to keep the paper from bunching up. I do think finger paint might be more Ari's speed right now though, there was a lot of that sort of action going on anyway.

The snow is mostly gone thankfully. I am really not ready for winter and neither is our house. This trend towards milder, snowier winters has its advantages, but I just can't get excited about winter in October. Once Ari gets used to the bundling, he'll probably enjoy the snow, but if not, we'll have another long winter cozied by the woodstove. With very warm hands.

pen and ink

This is Ari's first pen and ink series. His artistic brilliance shines through with his fine sense of line and freedom of form. His interpretive abstract gestures of the world around him exibit such movement and spontaneity and his joie de vivre is clear in every piece.
Sheer genius, no?


And here the artist readies himself in his studio for another masterpiece. What can we expect next from this brilliant up-and-comer?

(had to get my artist husband to help with the art speak, pretty good huh?)

a good fall day

After a hard day's work of gumboot dancing, leaf-pile spreading and gleeful sprints down the driveway, it's time to come home and get warm by the fire while taking part in some serious creative projects.
Happy weekend all!

gnome houses

I finished a little gnomey hat for Ari yesterday. He was in need of a warm wintry hat, and it feels so good to complete something while surrounded in endless unfinished projects that are outside of my control. I got the wool from the new wool shop opening up in town- such a beautiful new shop filled with delicious goodies, a treat after the mostly cheap acrylic options that have been available till now. The pattern (that I love!) knitted in this yarn makes me think of the ocean- merfolk or little ocean gnomes- the kind that eat sea foam icing on their berry desserts and row around on tide pools in cedar bark canoes.
My little gnome is such fun these days, picking up words faster than I can keep track. Today he said under ("unie",) butter, pineapple ("p-apple") and sticky ("tickietickietickie") to list a few. Hearing his little voice trying out words is so sweet, and I feel a funny mix of celebration and sadness as my little babe becomes a little boy.
And the house is coming along, but there is still such a long way to go. I can't seem to keep up with the photos, there is currently a second story and a roof here, and the front door is on. Next is electrical, then us putting in insulation and vapour barrier. After that the drywallers come, we paint, the floor installer fellow puts down the floor, we sand and finish it, and t h e n we can think about moving back in. This weekend I will be sanding and finishing the stairs so all the workers don't mess up the lovely beetle-wood pine we have down. It is exciting though, to stand in the upstairs (we've never had an upstairs before!) and see the views and know that this is going to be our home. For a good long time if we have our way.

home sweet home

This, right here, is our living room. That big yellow machine had just finished her day's labour digging out our floor, and she is parked right atop our rose bush. It is incredible how fast a crew can work- a room, several walls and the entire front of the house was taken down, the floor ripped up, foundation jacked up and secured, and the crawlspace dug all in one day. Since these photos were taken they have put in a floor for the old living room and the new addition and started on our new (enormous) woodshed. And I can hear them hammering away at the new walls as I write this. It is both exciting and unnerving, especially on that first day, watching (okay, peeking through the upstairs window, I was too scared to go outside,) as they wandered in and out of our home wielding chainsaws and other large implements of destruction and loading all the remnants into this enormous pile.
That, my friends, used to be a part of our house. Now we are trying to figure out what the heck to do with it all. But soon, soon, soon, we will have a home to move into that has enough room to move in, and that is not sinking in to the ground. For that, I am truly glad.