Starry Sky Ranch

Grandma Moses lesson plan

So it's no secret I don't follow directions well. ; ) All it takes is for me to say, "I am following such and so's lesson plan" and whammo, something really falls together in other areas and begs to be followed. And so it went here.

We started Little House in the Big Woods because, hey, we are getting more and more of their life and I figured the kids could really relate now. Well the Dover children's sampler (not sure if that will pull up for you or not) came in my box today and one of the samples was from an art coloring bk. The sample was Grandma Moses. Never mind that our curriculum has us scheduled for a different artist. (I didn't like the pics that were scheduled to be honest).  I printed the Grandma Moses pic "just in case".  Then for grins surfed for Grandma Moses stuff. Turns out she was a civil war era figure.....just like the Ingall's Family.  Hmmm. THAT seems like a providential coincidence. ; )  She also gave birth to ten children. (*I* could relate to that part, though sadly only 5 of hers survived)  Well one thing led to another and suddenly there are links.  So I am sharing them in case any of you are as easily led by serendipity as I.

Bio  (the next link follows this)

Worksheet on Grandma Moses life

eduplace activity

Good book to read  and another and one more for good measure

another bio with links and art project - Grandma Moses liked to paint pictures of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Now would be an excellent time to try your hand at a similar project.

Google image search with tons of paintings

Got Maps?

If you scrapbook you want some I promise! While reloading bookmarks I stumbled upon Becky Fleck sketches at Two Peas. How did I miss these??? I like some of these even better than the Becky Higgins sketches. And bless her, she has archived years worth of sketches at her website Page Maps. Scoot! Go now! Check them out!  You will thank me! It really is worth all those exclamation points. ; D 

Thrift Shopping

The Vintage Homemaker list posted this link today that so much fun I am passing it along to you.  Mrs Catherine's blog and other simple living sites have posted challenges related to not purchasing anything new for a month. When I read through the *rules* of the challenge it actually meant nothing new outside of food/medical etc. Well shoot, that's no challenge lol!  Being a dedicated thrift shopper I had come to consider anything I purchased at these establishments to be *new*.  They were new to us anyway!

We do love thrift shopping. For one thing, the prices are awesome and you can find very high end labels for next to nothing. Move over ebay! Someone suggested I try there for Hanna Andersson clothing yesterday so I checked. Yes, in fact you can buy up to 3000 pieces of that designer at the moment. BUT, not for a buck by any stretch. Where else but the thrift store can you get a dryer for less than $50? Or the lovely Blue Willow tea cups we found stashed on a shelf for a dollar a piece? Three ring binders for 75 cents or less? A bread machine for $7?

Our routine has us visit one of a few stores each errand day. Normally if I need something for the home we start there and give it a couple weeks. On the off chance we can't locate it by then we will hit a chain store. Doesn't happen that often. If you want to give it a whirl but don't know where to start check out The Thrift Shopper online magazine. Lots of fun articles and a search vehicle for your area.

I saw the pic on this site as well. Repurposed containers are on my mind lately since I have been slowly reorganizing the pantry. I LOVED the ideas Stacy Julian had on the first round of Clique TV but no way could afford to re-do all my storage with lined baskets. The thrift shop highlighted in the web mag has these coffee tins for storing small items. They used bottle caps to tie on the prices. I thought they would look nice with a scrapbook tag and label printed in a nice font for dry goods.

Can't picture how thrifting would translate in your life? Check out these sites:

Manic Thrift Store Shopper

Thrift Store Art Revamp challenge  This is cool!  All sorts of art made by repurposing thrift finds. I so want that bag.....

Thrift Store Project

How to Thrift

Decorating with Thrift Store Finds  more to follow on this thought.....

Stitched Tees

  Thought we would upload pics of some relatively quick gifts we made up last week. Once you learn the basic embroidery stitches used in the redwork projects you can transfer them to other media. We needed some baby gifts in a pinch so we took some onesies, printed off names and images from a dingbat font we downloaded from Two Peas, and placed them under the top layer of the tee. We traced the letters and images with a water soluable transfer pen. (it disappears when wetted) then used a simple outline stitch over the tracing. That's it! 

Stitching on the knit fabric is a bit tricky but not overly hard. If I do these again I will buy some fusible web to adhere to the back side of the stitching to protect it during laundering.

When uploading new bookmarks I found that Primrose Design Blog has been uploading stitching lessons complete with not just diagrams but PHOTOS of the stitches as they are worked. They are all listed under Stitch School so scroll down for them all.

The Best Kids Booksite

The Best Kids Book Site is a favorite 'place' of mine which I just recovered. Figured since I hadn't written about it previously I would do that now since there is just so much there. At the main book link you can search for books by genre and by age group. (or by author, awards, series, or any number of other specifications)  The Holidays tab will bring up pages (and pages and pages...) of craft ideas and links for most holidays.  Here is Christmas to get you started.  The Storytimes tab pulls up what amounts to a little theme unit on several topics complete with fingerplays, stories, coloring pages, crafts, songs etc.

There are several blogs that have daily doses of cool things.  The Cast of Characters has a story read daily on the web. The one I listened to was a decent length. About five minutes of listening time. There is a coloring page blog with a different free page to print each day. The Daily Craft blog will keep you in good graces with the pre-K crowd. No creativity needed. Just load it on bloglines and you will have a steady supply of seasonal projects. Finally there is a monthly calendar that pulls the whole shootin' match together. Here is Nov just for perusal since it is nearly over.

Wait a minute, Mr Postman!

I haven't sung the "We just got a letter" song all week. Apparently, I can blather on and on for quite some time before it hits me that noone is blathering back. Once it hit me I got a bit paranoid and told Allen, who suggested that perhaps noone was GETTING my mail.  Could it be?  Yes indeed. Although we have incoming mail set up there was a glitch with outgoing.  This means alllllll those notes sent this week went into cyberspace and not into your boxes dear friends! And since I can't send out I couldn't tell you I couldn't send out.

We have a call in to tech support so hopefully the problem will be solved right quick. Meantime please excuse the silence on this end of the inbox. : /   

Thank Heaven For Little Girls

....without them what would pregnant moms do??  Alannah really pulled off Thanksgiving for us this year. She is becoming a proficient cook and did the pumpkin pies herself - complete with the homemade crust.  Then set the table and generally provided an extra set of hands. For this I was exceedingly thankful!

Good Moira Hunting

Moira and Allen went on the second season hunt last week.  We just got the pics uploaded and she was too funny to pass up blogging about. Here she is in the Colorado wilderness first thing in the morning...

And here she is a bit later in the day...

  She outlasted the adults though and hiked like a trooper with no complaints. Her Daddy was very proud of her! There were no elk in sight this time but, as expected, she had a very good time just being outside in mountains.

Hang in there!

There was an interesting study about the effects of divorce on children spotlighted in our local paper today.  I found the author's link here. The study contradicts commonly held contemporary assumptions about "good" divorces.  It also challenges people in "low conflict" relationships to work harder at maintaining and improving them vs moving on with the idea that children will not be impacted negatively.

Bits and Pieces

There is an excellent post at   Three Plus Two about traditions - Thanksgiving and in general.  I have been thinking similar thoughts for weeks now. I was blessed to have extended family very involved in my life growing up. However my mother and grandmother both worked outside the home and while there was lots of love, there was rarely an abundance of time.

My grandmother was truly a expert seamstress, knitter, and cook. She could knit intricate photographic images into sweaters, lovely cables, and mittens that fit perfectly. She sewed my prom dress and our family christening gown. She made meals that kept our table full of guests - though she eagerly employed all those new mixes and boxes.  She was also a child of the depression - the era and the disease. Her father died when she was very young and her own mother was less than stable. She grew up with an appreciation for "new" "modern" and "convenience".  She saw no need for passing on the valuable skills she possessed. They were unnecessary in the new dept. store world she embraced. So I watched. I deeply desired her skills. But, in the end, I left home with just fleeting bits and pieces of information and have spent the past two decades attempting to assemble them into a functional whole.

Like Angel, I am so grateful that our children are with us all day every day. Though my skills come nowhere close to Gram's I do try to be sure that what I know, they know. Hopefully they will leave home a little further down this road and will continue to travel until we recover the skills lost to more than a generation now.

What can you do?  Do you bake, sew, crochet, cut hair, grow gardens, paint, stitch quilts, write books, make music, take pictures? As the host of an HGTV show said earlier this week, "Everyone is an artist!"  That means you too. and someone would dearly love to know how you do it.