Nurturing Creativity Daybook ... the week at a glance 05/24-29/2010

Here's this week's creativity in the heart of our home:

• on my needles: I have just started another project for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program; the "Season-spanning Cardi" and the "Felted Fair-Isle Yarn Basket" should be up on the Knit Picks's site soon. I just finished "Memories of Eire" ... a vest in a gorgeous dark heathery green that was wonderful to knit.  I just have to finish drafting the pattern, and that will go out this week.  I'm putting the finishing touches on  "Fisherman's Jacket for the Boys" and will hopefully send that out at the end of the week.  I have a few other projects backed up .... and some submission out for approval. 
• more knitting:  I've opened a Ravelry store and started posting some of my designs -- some freebies and some for sale.  Check 'em out and see what you think....
• on the craft table: SEWING projects have still not gotten started but they WILL get done this week; String Bean and I need the fun skirts, dresses and capris we'll be sewing. 
• on the kitchen counter: we're trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables ... so this past weekend we made Celeste's famous beet salad (finally got the recipe from the dear woman!) and onion soup.  I'm going to take the greens from the beets and saute them in bacon grease (after I've fried-up crisp bacon) along with some grape-tomatoes and serve it all over whole-wheat thin spaghetti.  Doesn't that sound great?  With Kotch home for a while this summer .... we'll be having fun experimenting with food-stuffs for dinner this week ... 
• Greek festival is our end-of-the-week destination! Talk about nurturing creativity -- music, food, crafts, lots of great non-typical stuff to enliven our family conversations
• in the garden: we've had lots of rain 'round these parts and the garden is bursting -- all the transplants are going well and the seeds are popping up with lots of greenery and hints of later color. 
• more in the yard:  we're designing a modular tree house that we'll add to bit-by-bit to make a "castle for the kids". We've had to put the construction on hold with all the rain ... but we do have the railed-platform up and dh will be building the ladder on the screened-in porch to best the rain
• in the school-room: we'll continue thru the summer on a lower-gear with readin'-ritin'-rithmetic to ensure a smooth transition next Fall.  We'll enroll in the summer reading program at our library and be doing special projects throughout the summer (including taking a class or two down at a nearby farm).  Also, a group of homeschooled kids are getting together a version of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses".  All three little ones are in it ... and we'll be practicing all summer long.  String Bean will also, God willing, start piano this summer while the boys have started fencing.
• miscellaneous creative pursuits: our friend's dog finally went into heat and we're hoping to spend much of the summer visiting our future family pet!  Mini-schnauzers are beautiful and full of life (these will be raised in a house full of kids so will be very used to the active-ness of little ones) ... while being small enough so that even dh is fine about it!

So what are you doing to nurture creativity in your home?  

Nurturing Creativity Daybook: May 3-8, 2010

As I mentioned in a post last week ... I can't keep up with "daybooks", but week-at-a-glance seems doable!  Here's this weeks creativity in the heart of our home:
Week-at-a-glance:

• on my needles: I have just started another project for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program;
  the Season-spanning Cardi and the Felted Fair-Isle Yarn Basket are knitted, drafted, packed and off to the post office this morning.  The one that I've just started is titled "Memories of Eire" ... a vest in a gorgeous dark heathery green that is wonderful to knit! 
• on the craft table: SEWING projects WILL get done this week; String Bean and I need the fun skirts, dresses and capris we'll be sewing.  Today, since it's rainy out, will be a fabulous day to start!
• on the kitchen counter: ground turkey thawing for the kids' favorite dinner -- spaghetti with meat sauce!  Dinners are gonna be quick'n'easy this week as I'm stage manager for Rumors and we're in "tech week" ... 6:00pm call time for rehearsal and performances this weekend.
• in the garden: I have seedlings coming up, HUGE transplanted azalea that has taken, and all the other transplants this past month seem to have taken.  Rick and I worked on the front garden, tilling and mixing and augmenting the amazingly dense clay soil so that I could get flower seeds in and we could transplant Japanese maples into the center of the two gardens.  The gentle rain yesterday and today will help TONS in getting these things established.  Looks like I'll be weeding this weekend!  Kids have planting (including watermelon seeds) to get in the ground this week. We're designing a modular tree house that we'll add to bit-by-bit to make a "castle for the kids".  Stage 1, the swing, is shown here and we'll work on finishing the 4x8 platform atop this week. 
• in the school-room: winding down the heavy schoolwork (altho we'll continue thru the summer, just on a lower-gear); got May Crowning on Friday; end of the year projects to work on.  I'm going to pull out some various craft supplies a couple of times this week and let them make what they will.  Charlotte Mason-ites call this "masterly inactivity", I call it "free explore", the kids call it just fun!  We're also field-tripping this week since this is the week of the anniversary of the battles of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863) and Wilderness (May 5-6, 1864) .. since they're in our "backyard" ... this is a great excuse for heading out and exploring (and maybe re-enacting a few of the bloodier scenes!) 

So what are you doing to nurture creativity in your home?

Nurturing Creativity Daybook ... the week at a glance

Last week over at Kind Conversations, I started a new daybook called "Nurturing Creativity" where I describe my day(s) and ways of nurturing creativity in my own home.

Now, let's be honest here ... there is no way I'm going to be able to keep up with a day-by-day listing of all the creative things we're doing around here.  If I did that, I wouldn't have time for all that nurturing I want to do ...

So, welcome to the week-at-a-glance version of NCD ....

• on my needles: I have just started another project for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program;  the Season-spanning Cardi I was working on last week is ready to be pattern-drafted and sent off to KP!
• on the craft table: I have some sewing to do; we spent the weekend helping a dear friend make her aprons for her Dominican postulancy and that got String Bean and I plotting sewing projects -- skirts, tops and jumpers for summertim.
• on the kitchen counter: I have chicken thawing for making the only kind of chicken LegoManiac will eat:  MaryM's Clinkerdagger recipe.  I'm planning what we'll make to celebrate St. Louis Marie deMontfort on Wednesday, St. Catherine of Siena on Thursday and St. Joseph's Day on Saturday ... LOVE being Catholic!
• in the garden: I have seedlings coming up, transplanted azalea that needs to be nursed along, more tilling to get the front garden ready for flowers.  At least with the rain we had today, the ground is a bit easier to work
• in the school-room: String Bean and I are working on her Co-op History project on Martha Washington's contributions to the American Revolution -- we have till Wednesday to make her mob-cap, a petticoat for her skirt, baked goods to tantalize the audience, and a script to write and memorize.  We're all working on creative projects to surprise Dad on feast of St. Catherine of Siena -- she's Rick's patron saint this year and we've got some great ideas up our sleeves having to do with food, crafts and a bit of fun!

So what are you doing to nurture creativity in your home? 

BTW, my goal ... that is "my target" ... that is "my hope" ... is that every Monday I'll be posting a NCD-week at a glance to keep myself honest and ensure we're always nurturing creativity around here ....

The Farm: Mad dogs, Englishmen and my dh

We've been living here at Hilltop Farm now for six weeks and the theme for the last week or so has been ....

At twelve noon the natives swoon, and no further work is done -
But Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

(song by Noel Coward, 1932)

But, Mr. Coward forgot my dh in that description.

You see, my dh is a school teacher and August is rapidly coming to a close and so, even though "it's one of those rules that the biggest fools obey, because the sun is much too sultry and one must avoid its ultry-violet ray" there is my dh in the front yard fighting the battle between the vinca and the liriope ... taming the much overgrown azaleas ... mulching the magnolia ... separating the pebbles from the topsoil so we can minimize the pebble areas and reap the harvest of the now-aerated dirt ... puttering in and amidst the natural beauty of this place.

Yes, dh is out in the 90+ (with humidity, more like 100) degree weather fixing the "farm" so that he can finish before the school year starts (or at least be at a reasonable stopping point).

Well, dh may be like the Englishmen and the mad dogs, but what am I?

I am out there too ... screeing gravel, spreading mulch, planning the garden produce and (most importantly) thoroughly enjoying the time with dh while the kiddoes are in the a/c playing! Only String Bean joins us occasionally. But that's ok ... because if it was good enough for Coward to sing about, it's good enough for us to do!

[I promise pictures soon of the work we will have done by the time dh goes back to teaching. we are whipping this long-neglected spot into shape!]