As promised! I'll begin with my personal chart-topper, salt dough ornaments.

Use the play doh recipe and leave out the food coloring. Form a small ball (about 1" diameter) by rolling the dough in your hands. On wax paper, flatten the ball with the palm of your hand and use a small rolling pin to roll out the ornament until it is no less than 1/2 cm thick. With a small wooden dowel (or a pencil with the eraser cut off) make a hole in the top of the ornament. Using acrylic paints (or even washable tempera, which I used due to availability) paint the ornament while it is still soft. Let it air dry on the wax paper overnight, then flip it over and air dry it some more. Two days later, it should be dry enough to finish with a glossy mod podge seal. Attach the ribbon, and ta da! You now have a keepsake ornament for the family collection. (Before the ornament is dry, you might consider "engraving" the date on the back with a toothpick.)

Winter scene collage
Gather all of the white miscellany you can get your hands on - cotton balls, white buttons, styrofoam packing peanuts, soap flakes, white yarn, egg shells, etc. Glue away on a dark card stock background.

Winter scene 3-D collage
Using a scrap of cardboard as the base, go outside and collect sticks and stones, and perhaps a little moss if you're lucky. Using that handy-dandy play doh once again, make a sturdy base in which to place the sticks to make the "trees" stand upright. Go for it with the play doh, glue, and other white items such as the ones suggested above. You might consider providing a bit of glitter to evoke a moon-kissed snowy eve.

This looks awesome, too - though I haven't tried it yet.

Soap Snow
Here's an idea from one of my favorite children's craft books: Global Art.

Measure 1 cup of cold water into a bowl. Little by little, using a hand mixer, add 4 cups of soap flakes (such as Ivory) to the water. Beat the soap and water until just stiff. Put some of the soap mixture into a pastry bag or a sandwich bag with a small hole cut out of the corner to allow the soap to escape. Squeeze soap designs onto cardboard and dry until hard.
*Don't put the mixture down the drain as it will cause a whopper of a clog!*

In my Montessori training, we were warned against putting the children's art up for display. Children's art, it was said, should be spared the ooohs and aaahs adults are so prone to spill all over it. Like any work, it should be received in a kind and encouraging manner, but shouldn't be put on a pedestal, as the goal is for the child to learn to love the process of creating for itself, and not to "create" just because of the accolades their creations tend to elicit from grown-ups.

Okay, so that's the Montessori view of artwork. I'm on the fence - while I certainly don't want my students and future children to create simply because I like it and think its so incredibly cute, I also believe that displaying children's art in the home and classroom is an important act of home making and community building.

First, I would never want to diminish the act of giving a handmade gift that is, by its nature, infused with love, time, and much effort. As a child, I remember giving countless homemade gifts to people I loved. The child's generosity is unencumbered by holiday pressures and financial worries, and his penniless, spontaneous state allows creations of love to be gifted at any time of the year, if only he has within his reach a set of paints, fabric scraps, and other mundane treasures.

Next, if my creations are sprinkled about my home, why shouldn't my children's be, as well? For me, an integral part of "home making" is just that - a home must be made, not bought. How does one make a home? Here are a few thoughts:

Baking and cooking from scratch
Gardening and eating from your seasonal harvest
Making household items, such as towels, pillowcases, quilts, etc., by hand
Thoughtfully decorating with thrifted or handmade items
Cleaning - again and again and again and again ...

A home must be lovingly "acted upon" in order to make it a home. A home can't function on its own - we grown-ups are well aware of this. Children need to be brought into this realm of understanding, too. Remember that post on Practical Life exercises a while back? If you haven't read it yet, go ahead and read it now. As soon as the child is developmentally capable, he should be encouraged to help to "make" the house into a home. Like his parents, he should be involved in meal preparation, cleaning, and decorating; in essence, the child shouldn't be overlooked in the whole, ever-occurring process of making a house into a home.

If you are a crafter, this means that, like you, your children will want to make useful and decorative items for display, as they will see it as a tangible way to contribute to the family community. If you don't consider yourself an artist - consider trying it out, for the sake of your children. Why should their art be the only of its kind on display on the fridge? Consider making items for the home together, and finding more pleasing and permanent ways to display children's artwork other than the fridge. If you're at a loss for where to begin, Amanda's upcoming book promises to have some innovative ideas for displaying children's handiwork and many more lovely ideas for encouraging creativity in the family.

As for the classroom? Well, it wasn't for quaintness that Maria Montessori decided to call the 3-6 year-old classroom the Children's House. It is meant to mimic the family home, from the cozy decor to the familiar household (practical life) activities. I would say, then, that the students in the Montessori classroom should be part of the entire "home making" process, from caring for the plants to decorating for the holidays. No die-cut bulletin boards for our "House." Instead, you will find handmade paper garlands, hand-cut snowflakes, salt-dough ornaments, and more. The children make the decoration and then decide how, where, and if it will be displayed.

More on specific holiday crafts tomorrow!

Fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. Every morning, afternoon, and evening. That pretty much sums up our weekend getaway to Urique. To tell you the truth, we didn't do much else other than pick, squeeze, and drink grapefruit juice - but that was the whole point! No internet, no crafting, no thinking about anything other than the present moment. We brought our yoga mats, enjoyed our books, and stayed up late talking about a hodge-podge of subjects. Nice.

If you happen to be presented with an opportunity to visit Urique, we highly recommend staying at Entre Amigos. Be warned - you will never want to leave, and will begin making arrangements to retire somewhere nearby.

Thanks to those of you who took advantage of the sale over at my Etsy shop. I am leaving the sale open until Wednesday night, as my sweet Grandma has offered to ship off any extra orders.

Hasta muy pronto,
Meg

My lovely parents (who are in charge of packaging and sending out my patterns) are going on vacation, and won't be back until the second week of December. This means that if you are considering making reading pillows or baby carriers for holiday gifts you should order now so that the patterns arrive with enough sewing-time to spare! I have listed 40 of each pattern at 35 percent off - first come, first serve. My parents will ship your pattern(s) by Tuesday or Wednesday of Thanksgiving week. Then they will go lounge about with nothing to do on a beautiful beach in Hawaii. Poor parents. Let's inundate them with pattern packaging before they leave! ;)

Patrick and I will also be guilty of a totally indulgent, relaxing mini-holiday this weekend. We are headed off to Urique, a tiny town at the bottom of the Copper Canyon. While we live in an alpine climate up here in Creel, Urique is tropical. That means mangoes, cherries, and avocados dripping off the trees. That means shorts. That means ice cream cones, old men playing cards on their front stoops, women fanning themselves as they watch their children play ball in the street. Yes. We'll be back Monday night, completely refreshed. Oh. And ready to prepare shipping labels for 80 patterns!

Thanks for all your support - every pattern purchase is so appreciated, and it brings us one step closer to our goal of being able to have me stay home with our (future) children when they are young. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

xo,
Meg

wool + embroidery floss + cotton ball + paper clips

I really am holiday obsessed. Here's a halter apron that emerged from the sewing machine today. The fabric is from Reprodepot, but I bought it way back in July, when I stocked up on creative supplies on a visit home to the states.

Speaking of which ... my fabric supply is dwindling. Time to start ordering enough to get me through the next six months. My dear, sweet mummy will be hauling a duffel-full of fabric, books, and patterns when we meet up this Christmas in Roatan, Honduras. Ever been? While I'm partial to snowy holidays, I can't complain. Plus, the whole lot of us will be there - Patrick's parent's and three siblings (one of whom is a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras,) and my mom and dad. Nothing like killing two families with one stone. Hmm ... perhaps that idiom doesn't quite fit the bill? We are loving children. Really. :)

Posts will be short and sweet this coming week due to my parent-teacher conferences, but you will most certainly be hearing from me by Wednesday with your swap partner info! Swap entries close at midnight tonight.

xo,
Meg