Peach Coglo

Weekending~May 20, 2012

Joining sweet Amanda for weekending . . . .

This weekend beautiful and fun and eye-opening.  That is a lot for one weekend.

My dancing girl danced in her fifth recital.  I cannot believe she has been dancing for five years.   She really loves it.  I hear parents say this a lot.  I have heard kids say they love something.  It's hard for me to remember being 7 and loving something so much.  It looks like I have two seven year-olds who have their passions. 

Our weekend was full of clay, wood and dance.

Elijah made his first clay figure that I think is pretty awesome (I am his mama so I know I am super biased).  He took it to school before I could snap a shot for this post.  Elijah has been obsessing over clay for months now.  He loves making stuff with his hands and has asked for a Leatherman for his birthday.  This weekend he chisled a canoe.  I need a shot of that too; Elijah tends to make off with his creations, so I'll grab him when he returns from school today.

Helena danced her ballet this weekend and declared she wants to be a professional dancer-"definitely ballet, but if not ballet then other kinds of dance.  I just want to dance all of the time."  She had a wonderful time at her recital and her brothers rallied around her (Eden was asleep which was probably for the best).

Somebody enjoys posing.  I call this her Lena Horne pose.

As per tradition we hit Dairy Queen afterwards.  That is always yummy and fun.  Then we came home and Helena danced some more, leaping everywhere, practicing her form.  I think she has discovered what incredible things her body can do.  It's a wonderful reminder for me.

Last night almost ended in a few tears as Helena was already missing her ballet teacher and not looking forward to a summer without dancing.  So here we go looking up ballet and art workshops and  stockpiling more clay . . . .

How was your weekend?  I hope your weekend was grand and that your Monday is treating you well.

 

 

 

 

Weekending~May 13, 2012

Joining amanda for weekending . . . .

A glorious and too short weekend just rushed by me.

We watched Chicken Run on Friday.  I love that there is always one character who knits in all of the Aardman films.

Saturday was Helena's last day of regular ballet class, on to dress rehearsal and recital.  I can't believe another year of dance is over.

I spent some time wrestling with the calendar and wrapping my mind around it.

I spent some time missing my grandma.  I look at her embroidery runner and try to imagine what she was thinking when she made it.

I painted a study for a commission and I liked the results so much I was able to start the actual painting.  I love it when I can think and paint clearly.

I came home to a beautiful banner the kiddos created for me.

Greg made a quick batch of oatmeal cookies using a recipe from this book.

I also experimented making some rice balls per Elijah's request.  He has decided he wants them for lunch at school now.  They are pretty tasty.

I read some more of this and finished this.

Sunday was coffee and a trip back to my studio.  What an awesome Mother's Day gift.  I made good progress on my painting and had time to read some more.

The rest of the afternoon was spent outside with the family-kids off doing various things in various parts of the yard.  Our radishes and tomatoes are showing their first leaves.  There were popsicles.  Greg taught the kiddos how to saw and whittle.  Looks like I need to order some kid-sized saws and a manual drill.

Bliss-to just sit with a sweet breeze blowing, listening to birds chatter while they hopped around in the newly-tilled garden picking around for a meal, watching the kiddos jet, lope and meander around the yard from project to activity to project.

Dinner was some delicious take-out pizza capped off with our first bonfire of the season.  It was extremely difficult to turn off the light on this particular weekend.

I hope your weekend was grand and that your week is off to a wonderful start.

Weekending~April 29, 2012

Joining Amanda for weekending . . . .

What is with the funky movies?  I seem to be picking some interesting ones lately.  We saw Frogs and Toads.  It is a movie from the Netherlands.  It is very interesting seeing other countries' kid movies.  The kids look like actual kids.

Saturday was a marathon day at church.  The kids were at First Communion prep (a retreat) from 9am to 5pm.  We left early.  I must admit I had to do some attitude adjusting because the schedule just felt overwhelming even though it was planned with love and good intentions and everything worked out.  The kiddos are pretty excited and I think they understand a lot about the sacrament.  They participated whole-heartedly in the mass.  Something I never would have done, and probably wouldn't do now being the introvert that I am.

The kids made bread during the retreat, practiced looking reverential while processing, and talked about the banners they made for First Communion.  We go to a very welcoming and open church so it's nice to see the kiddos actually enjoy and understand the process.

Sunday was all ours. We cleaned, had some donuts.  The adults drank coffee because we were pretty tired.

Doran helped mow the lawn while I tended seedlings that are reticent to sprout.  Luckily our garlic is coming up and it was fascinating.  I've never seen garlic sprout before now.

Part of the day Greg spent baking-making pizza for our pizza-crazy Doran, pull-apart cinnamon bread, and a couple of loaves of regular bread, one of which we bestowed on our neighbor.

Then Greg and Eden folded basket after basket of clothes.

I went to the hobby store in search of some fun figurines for my terrariums.

Elijah's First Communion outfit is mostly complete.  He decided he wanted to wear a tie; orange was one of the colors he thought he would like, so orange it is.

Our lovely neighbor borrowed our rototiller and came back with 4 half-gallons of ice cream.  Then later he came with homemade fried rice, Chinese sausage and fried wonton.  Hmm we need to have him borrow more garden implements.  Thanks to our neighbor we had a very tasty dinner.

And that was our weekend.  How was yours?

Birthday Mud

Joining Amanda for Weekending

It's gonna be short and sweet today as I am writing this on the computer in my jacked up basement.

Our weekend is continuing because it's spring break for us.

Friday I broke down and let the kiddos watch Ghostbusters despite the scary parts.  It was funny for me and Greg, and okay for the kids.  Elijah proclaimed that the movie was a bit confusing.  Hmmm.

That means Greg is home more-yay!

Saturday I spent time in my studio-double yay!  Afterwards I went out with some dear friends to celebrate our birthdays-two Aprils and a belated October-triple yay!  They gave me some wonderful knitting gifts.  It's great having friends that have the same yarn addiction.

Sunday was spent outside-doing some garden planning and rototilling.  There was also lots of mud.  I won't go into the part where a certain someone forgot that he was supposed to rinse off all of the mud before boot-scooting through my house.

The day ended with my birthday cake made by Greg, a sweet homemade gift from Elijah, hugs from the kids and dinner prepared by our local Chinese restaurant.  The evening ended with me practicing painting trees in the old sketchbook and figuring out some issues with the painting I am making, and some gratitude that I am starting to get it.

How was your weekend?

 

Weekending~March 25, 2012

Joining Amanda for weekending . . . .

 

It was a wonderful one.

My mother gave us the birthday treat of live theater!

While my parents watched the kiddos (thank you!), Greg and I went to see Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in Boston.  After wandering around the Prudential Center lost for a second, we made it out into the night air and down the street to the theater.

The performances were spectacular.  We saw an actress, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, that we saw last year in another one of August Wilson's plays, Gem of the Ocean.  Wilson's work is incredibly powerful and can be difficult watch at times because he relates pain in such a skillful and poignant manner.  He also portrays life's joys and silliness too.  It was amazing.

Oh and talk about range, Yvette Freeman was tremendous.  You may remember her from the show ER.  I never really realize how limiting these hit shows can be for actors, until I see them in live theater.  Wow.  Not to harsh on ER or anything, but I can see why, as an artist, she left to do other things.

We celebrated Greg's birthday (the first go-round as his birthday is tomorrow) with a wonderful  dinner made by my mom and a fruit tart.

I finished knitting my last felted ball.

I made a decision to push through the exhaustion and paint something everyday, no matter how small.  I am almost done with my color exploration charts as a result, and I am feeling calmer about getting my hands on my brushes.

And to top it off, I saw an inspiring documentary about a man and his topiaries-no joke.  If you get a chance, watch it.  It is unbelievable the art this man created.  He was 70 when the documentary was made.  I promise you will be inspired.

How was your weekend?

Sweet Relief

Joining Amanda for weekending . . . .

Ah, a long (well sort of ) weekend.

Last week was long and we were all looking forward to the weekend.

My mom and dad came down for a quick visit.

We watched How to Frame a Figg-quite a hoot with Don Knotts.  We didn't even make brownies because the grandparents left plenty of treats, not to mention Girl Scout cookies had arrived the day before.

There was more color chart work and color discoveries-Winsor Yellow works wonders when combined with French Ultramarine.  Brown madder is also a nice new discovery.

Saturday evening I broke out the old tablecloths and placed them on the floor so the kiddos could have a "pic-pic", as Eden calls it.  Thankfully Greg made a tasty pizza for dinner because mama was tired.

Then off to a wine and cheese gathering at a friend's house-so good to hang out.  We "partied" pretty hard until 12:30am, or rather 1:30am, due to that dastardly daylight savings time shift.  It was such a relaxing evening after a full day.

Sunday we were tennis and obligation-free so there was space and time for going to the park together, watching Canada geese battle it out, sniffing flowers at the greenhouse and playing ball.

The heaps and heaps of laundry got folded by everyone working together - a first.  The kiddos learned that folding clothes wouldn't cause them bodily harm.

Dinner was a Bittman special: spinach spaghetti with mushroom sauce and a side of squash (so out of season, but Doran begged and I complied).

While the kiddos rode their bikes, I read a bit of Taproot.  It is a reassuring and lovely "community-zine".  That's the most accurate way I can describe it.  Shannon Hayes provided some of the most interesting quotes from the magazine: we "... must embrace what it means to fully be human.  This means spending a few hours resting, a few hours playing, a few hours creating, a few hours teaching, a few hours learning, a few hours nourishing our bodies . . . a few hours tending the soil and connecting with ourselves . . . and our planet."

How was your weekend?

Slowing Down Even More

Joining Amanda at the habit of being for her weekending series. . . .

Weekends come and go so quickly.  I don't know why-maybe it's having so much movement and activity in the house.

Friday we watched Gentle Giant.  I think it was filmed in the 60's or 70's.  Okay, straight up, this movie was crazy.  Once I got over an animal and a person dying in the first ten minutes (really wasn't expecting all of that), it was a nice, slow, old-fashioned movie.  Compared to most of today's kids' movies, this one moved at a glacial pace.  I thought that was awesome and the kids really enjoyed it.  There was time to just be in the movie and not get jerked from scene to scene.

Saturday was filled with more color charts.  I am loving all of the different ways to control color and mix up new colors-fabulous.  I'll share more on that in another post.

Doran was singing a lot.  This is one of his favorites.  He is an 80's boy.  Who knew he liked Freestyle?  Somebody help me.  He also took the words to this song's chorus and changed them to: "I just want some chicken."  He actually followed the tune pretty well.  Now everyone in the house is singing it.

Elijah and I took our first trip to the comic book store.  He has a sudden and keen interest in Stan Lee.  Unfortunately comic books ain't what they used to be.  I could find nothing fitting for a seven year old, until I found a compendium of old Fantastic Four comics and then a similar one on Slamazon featuring The Incredible Hulk.  Whatever happened to those old comics?  Whatever happened to Hot Stuff: The Little Devil?  I remember he looks a little bad but he didn't do much.  Besides he walked around in a cloth diaper which never seemed to burn even though most everything else he touched did.  Oh well.

Let's see; there were snickerdoodles and books this weekend.  We read more of The Four-Story Mistake and finished Heart and Soul.  Eden got a lot of enjoyment out of The Tomten.  Man is she growing up quickly.  Oh and she is also a fan of The Robot.  Between Doran's singing and her dancing, it's pretty entertaining over here.

Helena and I spent some nice quiet time together while everyone was at Elijah's tennis lesson.  This will be the last for a while as Elijah decided he wanted to take a break and start up again in the Fall.

I spent some time thinking about Pinterest.  There is a lot of talk on the web about copyright issues and user responsibility.  It's more than I want to deal with right now.  I do wish I recalled more of copyright law that I learned in law school.  Like a lot of quagmire issues, the analysis is all over the place.  It seems to me that this issue of the web use and intellectual property affects Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr in one way or another, not just Pinterest.  I do know that I don't want to get caught up in any illegalities and I want to respect the artists' wishes.  It seems that Pinterest can take an artist's product that I pin and use it for its own means-not cool.

Ugh, but on to more fun stuff.  The kiddies and I went thrifting.  That was pretty cool.  We talked about saving money, recycling and still getting useful and pretty things.  The kids loved looking around so it looks like I have four little thrifters now.  I can't wait until the flea market open up again.

I worked on my portfolio and now that's all ready.   It's interesting to see your work kind of gathered together.

Sunday evening was spent knitting my felted balls and watching Moneyball with a friend.  I think spending time with a friend, a good movie, and knitting was a nice capstone for the weekend?

What were you up to this weekend?

Weekending~February 26, 2012

Joining Amanda for weekending . . . .

Ah another weekend flying by-wow!

On Friday we watched Toy Story 3.  The kids were very entertained and I think even Greg stayed up for about 35 minutes of it.

Saturday there was some time for my studio and exploring color mixing with color charts-so happy with that time.

I spent some time trying to convince Elijah that these shelves would really help him keep the stuff in his room more organized.  He remains unconvinced.  Perhaps when a few more of his things get broken by his siblings, he'll see the light or maybe we'll just have to have a parental intervention.

Greg made this cinnamon-sugar delight.  The kids inhaled it within hours.  Incredible.

Sunday was slow and somewhat clean.   I have been filling bags with excess stuff so that they can be given to those who need it more.  I love the feeling of more room and less mess to move from spot to spot.

I managed (with a little help from the kiddos) to clear out our craft shelves.  I didn't delve too much into individual boxes.  That is for another day.  I realized we have more room than I thought-awesome sauce!  I found ric rac, my clear thread, some brayers, kiddie watercolor paper and various other odds and ends I thought were gone forever.  Helena even used some oil pastels that were hiding out.  That was a bonus.

Later in the day Helena and I hung out alone-a rare thing.  I painted her nails and we read An Egg is Quiet.  The book is truly beautiful.  I always enjoy Sylvia Long's art and the book is a cool way to learn egg facts and to see all sorts of eggs.

We spent some time during our family meeting planning this year's garden.  Hopefully spring and summer won't be as off and as challenging as this "winter" was.  Are you making garden plans?

The day ended with us all watching vintage television:  The Incredible Hulk. I had forgotten how jacked up that green wig was and how annoying Mr. McGee was.  The kids were asking all sorts of questions like:  "Isn't he a scientist?!  Why would he radiate himself?"  "Why can't the Hulk call the fire department?"  This made for some entertaining televising.  I do enjoy some 70's television.

I watched part of the Oscars with a friend and now have a list of movies and documentaries I need to see.

How was your weekend?

And the Girl Fell Out of Her Chair

Joining Amanda for her weekending series in a picture-laden post . . . .

The coolest color wheel I have ever seen . . . .

We started the weekend with "trail mix" on Friday-the kiddos made a special request.  So popcorn went into the hand-cranked popper.  I do love that sound; it's fireworks in a pot.

Saturday we followed our new family routine of cleaning together.  Then there was laundry, ballet, red bean soaking and lots of hanging around.

Sunday was super cool and definitely the highlight of the weekend. We trekked up to Amherst to the Eric Carle museum to see Kadir Nelson and his art exhibit of the huge oil paintings that made the illustrations for his book, We Are the Ship.  He makes the most exquisite paintings-exquisite.  In the painting,   Some of his books are Moses, Henry's Freedom Box and Testing the Ice to name a few.  

 

Looking jar in the museum's art studio

We loved hearing him talk about his work and process.  It takes him about a month to complete paintings like Safe at Home and [Rube and the Giants] (not sure that's the right title).  In Safe at Home, you can feel and see the heat.  I almost felt like I was breathing in all of that red dust-amazing; about a month-insane talent.  Helena got to ask him a few questions that he answered quite sweetly, even though she and Elijah were practically speechless.  The kiddos got some of Mr. Nelson's books signed; that was pretty fun. 

Later in the afternoon, we were in the art studio section of the museum creating and relaxing.  Mr. Nelson strolled by and Helena fell out of her chair-quite gracefully though.  She was so cute; her face turned bright red and she chuckled along with the rest of us. 

I remember my mother taking me to see different artists -Rubie Dee and Ossie Davis, Maya Angelou, and Ms. Butterfly McQueen to name a few.  I didn't know exactly who I was seeing, but I knew it was important and a privilege.  Those trips left an indelible mark on me, so whenever I get a chance I take my kiddos out to see art and artists.  If you get a chance to catch the exhibit , do it.  The Eric Carle museum is incredible and this exhibit is simply amazing.

Luckily our weekend isn't over yet.  We're off to see a movie, make some more art and attempt a Nawlin's inspired dinner.  Gumbo anyone? 

How was your weekend?

Weekending~February 12, 2012

Joining Amanda at the habit of being for weekending . . .

 

For the love of a calmer weekend-yay!

We were in much slower mode this weekend.

There was time for board games-love this even with all of the sibling bickering.

There was Annie for our Friday movie.  I remember going to the theater to see this movie.  I forgot Tim Curry was in this and how delightful he, Carol Burnett, and Bernadette Peters were in this film.  Seeing bits of Geoffrey Holder's dancing has inspired me to find more of his 'dancing' movies to show to the kiddos.  The man moves like water.

I had a treat-going out for a seafood dinner with my parents.

On Saturday the valentine constructing began.  I see just how much Doran loves to paint.  I started and restarted my knitted hearts several time over.  Let's see if I can work it out today.  Luckily the pattern is a short one.

Sunday brought cleaning and teamwork.  I am trying to help the kiddos understand that we work as a team, and when we do upkeep is  so much easier.   My homemade wood cleaner concoction went AWOL as a result of their enthusiasm working all over the house, but it was found again.

We know now that Doran is not to be trifled with when it comes to vacuuming.  The boy is relentless so you'd better get your stuff off of the floor.

I gladly chose for Elijah to skip tennis so he could have an impromptu play date with a sweet friend.  I was told there were much giggling and laughter.  Joy.

I gladly got out the modge podge, fingerpaints and fabric for Valentine making.

And we all gladly went out for an ice cream parlor treat after dinner despite the 23 degrees registering on the thermometer.

Now off to start the week . . . .

How was your weekend?