one last catch up post

I am finally ready to bid the holidays and all their joys and crafty projects goodbye. Such fun was had, but it is time to move on! So here is a wave farewell to the holidays.

Above is a picture from the sleigh ride we went on- our solstice one was cancelled due to the extreme cold, so we gathered up a bunch of friends after Christmas and had ourselves a fun little trip. It was idyllic- old fashioned sleigh, huge draft horses, a cabin in the woods with a fire awaiting us, treats passed around (and maybe a flask or two!) and little kids heaped onto laps singing toddler versions of jingle bells. I had to post this because it is tradition now. (Notice he is still wearing that snowsuit?)
This is Ari working with great focus on one of our holiday crafting projects. We made lavender bath salts for friends and family, and he was able to do nearly all of this himself- spooning the salts into the bowl, mixing them with the essential oil that mama dropped in, and then filling the jars. He was pretty proud of all the jars and kept wanting to line them up in various locations around the house before we gave them away.

And here are Ari's Solstice gifts to Perry and Dorian. Melody at Little Home Blessings gave me this great idea for toddler gifts- gluing pre-cut felt shapes onto bookmarks. He loved this project (glue is fun!) and I got to use up a bunch of those tiny wool felt scraps I've been saving up, sure they would be useful sometime. The little pillow/soft toy is for Dorian, though I plan to secure the shapes on a bit better before I let him at it. Not that he could do much with it just yet, but I have no doubts that the putting-everything-into-mouth phase is not far away. Here are the ones Melody's little guy made. Thanks for the fun idea Melody!

And Ari's gift to me. Made in Papa's art studio with a paint roller and hand prints and lots of different paint colours. He was able to keep this mostly a secret from me, only saying he got to paint in Papa's studio, but that I couldn't know about it.

There is no picture of the gift I made for Perry because I didn't like how it turned out at all. It was a knitted hat from my wool stash, but just not what I wanted it to be. I have plans to try again, but I am taking a break from it (aka knitting a hat for myself.) Maybe I'll have him pick out the wool next time, to ensure success.

There. Goodbye holidays, hello new year!