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)

Leek soup with dill oil

Today's we made this delicious leek and potato soup with dill oil, inspired by Heidi Swanson's recipe.
(Here is the recipe!)

It is so tasty and super easy to make. It was devoured by all here.

It just called for 7 ingredients and but we left out the butter... It doesn't really need it. I also just dumped all the ingredients in a pot and used a handheld blender to puree at the end, keeping it a bit chunky as she suggested. ( I was pressed for time).

If you haven't visited her blog.... please do so! ( Here)
Besides the fact that her vegetarian recipes are amazing... her photos are gorgeous!

(all in the pot...)

(The dill oil)

mmmmm!

(Everything tastes better if it is in the shape of a heart. So the dill oil was sampled by my little picky eater here and deemed delicious! ;)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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.



















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Valentine's day ideas

Oh, goodness... (sniffle sniffle)...

We have been hit with the flu here...  

Its been sooo long since we have actually been hit like this! :(

(Hope you are keeping healthy and warm!)

So as we sit here trying to get better...

we dream about a healthy and sweet February with birthdays and valentines.  xoxoxo

Here are some of our old blog posts of things we made last year, Valentines day inspired ...

click on the link if you would like the tutorial or recipe! xoxoxoxox

Goat Butter HOney caramels... (HERE)

VAlentine mini HEart raspberry pies ... (HERE)

Heart meringues.... (HERE)

Valentine Bling ... (HERE)

Heart making 101... (here)

Sweet embroidery gift making... (HERE)

Acrylic painted Love bugs (rocks)... 

Ebelskivers filled with nutella and raspberries make a lovely breakfast... (HERE)

Valentine lacing cards and oatmeal cookies ... (HERE)

Lovely little "birdycakes"...  (HERE)

Love cupcakes and tuille LoV e message cookies... (HERE)

Valentine fortune teller  ... (here)

Borax crystal snowflakes

All the snow that has been falling lately around here inspired us this week to create our own snowflakes.
There are a lot of recipes out there for forming crystals and we chose to do ours with borax, which you can find in any supermarket's laundry soap area. (Remember that you must use regular pure borax not the "detergent" soap.)

To do this project (2 crystal snowflakes) you need:

*Borax
*2 pencils or chopsticks to hold the snowflakes suspended.
*2 wide mouth jars
*hot water
*5 pipe cleaners ( to make 2 snowflakes)





Leave 2 pipe cleaners long and
CUT 3 in half. (You will have 6 little pieces and 2 long pieces.)





Take 3 little pipe cleaner halves and twist them 3 times.









Fan them out to form a snowflake





Add a long pipe cleaner piece by twisting it's end to the middle of the snowflake. This you will use to hang the snowflake from the pencil or chopstick into the jar.





Measure - so that once you insert the snowflake into the jar, it doesn't touch the sides of the jar. (trim if you need to)
*** VERY IMPORTANT!!
Otherwise when the snowflake forms, it's crystals it will stick to your jar.





Trim if you need to...





Add 3 tablespoons of borax to one cup of boiling hot water into your jar. See how many cups of water your jar takes ... The snowflake must stay submerged under the water.
Don't forget to stir to dissolve!!!





Secure your snowflake to your pencil or stick.
Make sure it doesn't touch the sides OR the bottom of the jar.





(my jar took 7 cups of water with 21 TBS of borax.)





This is what it looked like after 8 hours...





And this is what it looked like the next day!










You can try it with silver pipe cleaners or white ones.
Here is a blog that includes all the science standards used when making this science project.
(HERE)

And Martha's instructions (HERE).

Have fun!!