Our new house has a few trees that we have not seen bloom yet. We pruned them late winter and brought in some of the branches a few weeks ago to see what we have to look forward to. The first to bloom was the Magnolia. We weren’t sure that was what we had until we finally saw the blooms. Now we can’t wait to see the whole tree light up with these fragrant flowers.

But nothing is blooming yet. Here is why:

We woke up to another beautiful snowy scene. It is very festive in December, but is getting a little old about now! We live far enough north that we can usually expect a few random snow storms in late March and April, but I am not used to this much snow this often. We also brought in branches from a flowering crab apple tree that we have. It’s gearing up to bloom and looks like they might be red, but we will have to wait a few more days before we know for sure.

Besides the fact that it needs vacuuming! This is the latest furniture arrangement. I am a chronic furniture re-arranger. Especially, after moving into a new house. It always seems to be an exercise in problem solving. Trying to combine the best traffic flow, with the most functional use, with the best view out the windows, and of course it all has to be pleasing to the eye (at least to my eye!) So this is the latest. I thought some of my family that has not seen us in this house yet might be interested.

No pictures on the walls yet, and I am waiting until we get a string of warm days to paint so that I can leave the windows open. I put up the red curtains so there would actually be more color. I have such a hard time living with white. I love it in design magazines and in other peoples houses, but having too much white in my house doesn’t feel like home to me. I used some $5 clearance shower curtains (thanks Christy for the tip on that clearance sale!) and tied them up on a bamboo rod with a bunch of different ribbon that someone gave me years ago. They are a bit short for a normal floor length curtains, but work perfect for leaving our heat register exposed so we aren’t just heating behind the curtain.

I have actually never been a big fan of bows, so I don’t know how long this will last. But for now, I feel pretty good about getting some color up and being able to use what I already have.

One desperately needed! The Girl is making dinner. The Man is supervising. Jerusalem Artichoke Soup from the Jerusalem Artichokes harvested from the edge of the corn field by the girl at a moment of independence. Those moments are coming more and more frequently these days. She is only 2 months from becoming a teenager (TWO MONTHS… ONLY!) She pulled them out of the ground a few days ago. She failed to consider that dinner plans were already made and in the works! Man, I remember being that age… I’m sorry mom! But we have four cooks in the family. That’s four out of four! That is awesome. The boy can make some mean scrambled eggs… you know, a few shells that bite you back when you take a bite! No, actually, he is pretty excited about his new skills and being able to cook over a flame instead of in the microwave.

But it’s been a day. A pretty normal one actually, filled with eye rolling, sibling rivalry, frustration that “mom’s making us do school”, and “how come the third grader gets to do easy math?” from the seventh grader. “Um, well, do you want to go back to third grade? It could be arranged!!!” Anyway, I am thinking about the years to come and how excited I am that they are both getting more independent. And also that they are young and think it is such a treat to cook dinner for the family. It is so nice to spread out the work load!

So, since we moved to this house and are turning it slowly into a homestead, I am realizing that my posting is going to have to include more of my other projects besides sewing. Last fall I took time out to can tomatoes and make pickles and debated about posting that stuff, but it just didn’t seem as interesting to me as the other projects I wanted to work on and post. But it’s sugaring season here and the maple in front of the house has 3 taps in it. There is another bucket around the back.

Tuesday, the sap was overflowing and we got a few jars. Today I got four and a half more. These are shots shamelessly stolen from The Man who said, “Hey, I thought you had a craft blog!”

So far we have bottled 3 quarts of maple syrup. I still feel shocked when I think about the fact that you can get that much sweetness out of an old tree in the front yard. It’s amazing!

At the age of four my son always wanted to make “crap”… his way of pronouncing the word “craft”. It was too cute and funny to correct, although of course it didn’t take long for him to figure out his mistake. We had some good laughs in the meantime. But when the kids started making these little tissue people, I thought it fit the description. Although, I think it’s pretty creative kid crap! Check out the angel:

And the little disco man. Is he prowling for a date?

Oh, look. He met someone!

And if you can supplement your kleenex, rubber bands, and marker with a few scraps of fabric, a stick, and some yarn you can make yourself a little finger puppet.

Their creativity amazes me. Not because the final product is so amazing, but because they can take what they can find and have fun with it without my direction or prompting. My input into this project… hmmm… I took away the TV years ago. Does that count?