art | summerplayshouse

It’s been very difficult finding time to blog. I definitely do not want to stop writing in this space. I love the documentation it provides, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with all the crafting and day-to-day chores and mothering of a young, active child (who sometimes refuses to nap). So here’s a little catch up post. What we’ve been up to these days, through quick blurbs and photos.

lots of painting going on these days. I dream about painting, I see hills and flowers when we are out and about and want to run home to paint them. It has become my daily happy work, to paint one thing (if not more) every day.

I have had a few custom peg doll orders. A set of seasonal pegs, a bride and groom, angels and more.

I’ve also been working on a project with peg dolls and nature and stories. I’m not so sure I even know where it’s all going, but when I do have time to work on it, I enjoy every minute.

We’ve been receiving lots of swap goodies in the mail lately. I had a few weeks where I joined several Waldorf FB group swaps and went a little crazy with the crafting. Well, we are now receiving all of our wonderful items in return. Ellie has been enjoying setting up new scenarios and playing with all of these wonderfully made, beautiful toys.

We’ve been slowly working on getting our garden back in order. Ellie and I planted seeds a couple of weeks ago, cleared out the raised beds and are making our way back into the garden on a daily basis.

I did a stocking of my Etsy store with little Easter/Spring time softies. Most of these have gone to new homes, but there are still a few more left and I think I may do one more batch before Easter.

I’ve been in the kitchen more these days. I’m sure you all know Jeff is the cook around these parts, but I’m trying some new things out too. I finally made cheese for the first time! Something that’s been on my to do list for years.

It turned out delicious and we even used it in a pasta dish! We’ve also started making pretzels on a weekly basis. It’s been a fun activity to do with Ellie. I’m going to have to do a whole other blog post about them though, they are just too good not to share our process with you!

so there you have it…. a little update. There’s lots more I’d love to share with you, but that will have to do for now. I have more painting and cleaning to do and only a wee bit of time to do it in, before this darling child wakes from her nap.

Ever since those regular beach days we had a few weeks ago and chasing sea gulls over the sand, Ellie has been noticing birds a lot more. While she was sick we you-tubed some Elizabeth Mitchell music videos and one of them was this one. She loved it so much we downloaded the album (I, myself am a big Mitchell fan so downloading the whole album was no big deal) and Little Bird, Little Bird has been on repeat ever since. I have also been wanting to replace the hot air balloon residing in our master bedroom (we have three from Ellie’s birthday, placed all over the house) with something a bit more natural looking. I loved Dawn’s Alphabet Glue migration birds and I thought it might be something my 18 month old and I could work on together. I cut out some card stock birds using the pattern from Alphabet Glue and let Ellie paint away (this child surprises me every time with her painting skills. She knew to stay right on the birds and did a marvelous job).

And during an afternoon nap one day this past week, I was able to sneak away long enough to paint two of my own little birds. I used our Western Bird Field Guide as inspiration and decided to try for a sea gull look inspired by Ellie and my favorite beach visits.

My pictures do not showcase the light, airy colors Ellie and I both chose. It’s hard photographing a mobile.

But, I’m enjoying it hanging in the bedroom next to the nightstand. It gives the room a natural feel with the beachy stick we found on our weekend seal walk and it makes me happy to think that Ellie and I both worked on it. Ellie smiles and signs “bird” every time she sees it.