Snow happy!

The robins are pecking at the ground in our garden, as the weather seems to be bringing some warmer days.  As the last of our snow melted away, we soaked up all we could before this loooooong cold end of winter.

We read these 2 very cute books we thought we'd share, "snow happy" by Patricia Hubbell and "Snow" by Cynthis Rylant and both inspired snow happy fun.  

We even went a bit "Jackson Pollock"  on that perfect infinite white snowy canvas with some snow painting fun!

(By the way... for those of you who do not know Cynthia Rylant... please fo to the library and check out some of her books!!! They are beautiful!  Most are very poetic like the one we read  here but some like the "Henry and Mudge" series, are just plain cute and funny.  Very adored here.)

So true no?

(We painted on the snow with watered down tempera paints on a squeeze bottle)

snow happy!

The marzipan pig, by Russell Hoban

Today we read a beautiful story called "The marzipan pig" by Russell Hoban and illustrated by Quentin Blake. Many of you might remember Quentin Blake's illustrations from all the Roald Dahl's books (The witches, Matilda, Charlie and the chocolate factory...) and Russell Hoban from the "Frances" books, (A bargain for Frances).
This story is about a little lonely marzipan pig that falls behind a couch and whose feelings off love reach out to a little mouse, a hibiscus flower , an owl and a bee in a series of events that occur after he was eaten.  ( Loooooveeeee!  They all say).  A symbolic story of love, its fleeting moments of happiness and sweetness.   If you do not know what marzipan is... it is a sweet made of almond paste and sugar and marzipan pigs are a symbol of good luck in Germany, often given as gifts during holidays.

We made our own Marzipan Pig too!

And just because I was curious...
Mr Quentin Blake is still alive and has a wonderful website to visit.  (here) 
and though Roald Dahl died in 1990... his legacy lives on in his super cute and funny website.  If you like bouncing farting chickens.. you must visit!!!  (here)
and "the marzipan pig" was made into a movie by HBO.  (here)

Art day

When honeypie found in the closet old watercolor sets that belonged to mama long ago, she adopted those as her own, just like a perfect art lover would, gathering and collecting tools and inspiration for creating. (She had plans!)
I totally understand. I,myself, am an art supply hoarder.... there, I've said it. I don't think I am ashamed. There isn't an olive or jam jar I don't collect for future use. Egg cartons and toilet paper rolls will not be spared from my collection.
(So if you need some... You know where to go.)
Paper is my lover. Rice or origami, textured or colored, those seductions beckon my hands and I can't even begin to talk about brand new colored pencil sets or the smell of inks without sighing... Mmmmmm.
Today she found Daddy's pastel set and mine from when we were in art school together and added that to her collection. She then asked me to show her how to use the pastel chalks.
So that's what we did today .
Who to better introduce pastels than the master himself... Degas.
I love this series of children's art books by Laurence Anholt.
The one we read today is called "Degas and the little dancer".
It tells the story of how Degas came to meet "Marie", the little ballerina who posed for him as he created his "little dancer" sculpture.
It also tells the reason why Degas began to sculpt and to use pastels as his art medium. (He began to loose his eyesight.)














Today we just worked on a still life using apples. With the pastels, honeypie tried to capture the lights and darks she saw while working on dimension.
We used textured colored paper which works best with pastels, (better than white paper) brings their colors out. Chalk pastels are easy to use and great to blend with your fingers!
Chalk pastels are different than cray-pas... which are oil based pastels. Those are a whole other medium all together and I'll talk about them another day.



















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Molasses snow candy

I don't know if you are... but we are HUGE little house on the prairie fans!! One of our favorite books is "Little house on the big woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The chapter about winter days and the one about christmas always has us wishing we lived in that time with Laura and Mary, watching pa whittling wood, ma baking delicious cookies, churning butter and being there to help make molasses candy with fresh snow.
We have been wanting to make molasses candy for the last 2 years but every time we remember, the snow has already melted BUT we totally remembered this year!














If you'd like to try to make some, all you need is fresh clean snow...






1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of molasses
And a candy thermometer .
Boil both ingredients until it reaches 250* degrees (hard ball stage)







Careful ... It is VERY HOT!!!
I poured some in a little jar for easy pouring over the snow.







Wait for it to cool and enjoy!







Molasses candy tastes like molasses... So it will be a bit dark and bitter in taste ... Not like your usual candy. A bit of an acquired taste.







We even got a chance to make pulled molasses candy like in "Farmer boy".













This process was a bit tedious ... Don't think I will do this again. Especially since daddy was the only one who enjoyed it.... As I realized I'm not a huge molasses fan.
But if you would like to try...
You need:

4 tbs of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of molasses
And extra butter for your hands and for the pan.

You must butter the pan you pour the molasses syrup into (after it reaches 250* hard ball stage) so the molasses does not stick to the pan.








Pour liquid into pan.







When it is cool enough to handle, (about 10 minutes) butter your hands very well to handle the molasses and start the pulling and folding process . It takes a loooooong time!!!






































Fun project of today!

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A nest for Celeste by Henry Cole

We just finished reading a gorgeous new book called "A nest for Celeste" by Henry Cole, (a story about art, inspiration and the meaning of home).The book is a true story, a period in time in which John James Audubon visits the Oakley plantation in the south to document and paint birds of the area, but the story is told through the point of view of a little mouse named Celeste.
The book is filled with beautiful illustrations and the story is so sweet, while at the same time teaching us about Audubon, his artistic process and birds. Also, the point of view of the story, through the eyes of Celeste, gives you an idea of the trials a little mouse may encounter to survive through the seasons.











Here Audubon is painting a picture of an Osprey.







Honeypie painted a picture one of her favorite characters in the story, the little thrush named Cornelius.







And she wrote a journal entry about the parts she liked and did not like from the book.










A great read-aloud book and beautiful addition for a naturalist's library.

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