Little Elephants

Farm days

Veronique Christensen — Sun, 29 May 2011 14:49:06 +0000

It’s almost sad how excited I was yesterday when the Early Girl Farm up the road officially opened up for the season. We’d been getting our eggs there all winter long, but there’s an extra buzz there when you see everything in bud and growing.

At the end of last summer Bjørn headed over on his own and asked is he could volunteer there & Patty, the farmer, said yes — he was soooo pleased. The picture above is of Bjørn in the greenhouse transplanting hundreds of tomato plants a couple months ago — he comes home with the biggest smiles whenever he goes there — makes this Mama so happy.

Coming out of hibernation

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:16:42 +0000

This past winter Tomas, the kids, and I were lucky to visit some dear friends in Vermont. While we were there, we heard that there was a hibernating bear (!!) not too far away from the house. We did not go visiting (last thing i wanted to do was wake a sleeping bear!), but there was something rather exciting to know that he was jus a few hundred yards away from us while we romped in the smow and sledded.

It’s been forever since my last post here, and I feel a bit as if I’d been hibernating, too. It’s been a rocky road, to be honest. I’d been looking for work forever & then landed a job, only to lose it a few months later. Pretty hard to keep your chin up when you’ve been rejected as many times as I have.

The good news is that while I continue to look for work (and try to figure out what it is I want to be when I finally grow up), I’ve been able to spend quality time with the kids again. Typically in the role of chauffeur for Maggie and Bjørn who are 12 and 10 now, but more meaningfully with Tor (5) who had a bumpy introduction to kindergarten — reading is HARD! It’s exciting to see his progress (leaps and bounds of it!) and to know that I helped facilitate that.

I’m also excited to start planning our summer, and will share our adventures with you here — I’ve got plenty in mind!I’m so glad to be back online & to chat with you all again.

What do you have planned this summer?

Working on writer’s block

Veronique Christensen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:53:02 +0000

{excuse the lack of photos … I forgot my camera at home!}

Figure a good place to start when you haven’t been able to write in a while is with a blog post.

I’m on a plane (LOVE airplane wifi, not so in love with this airline — my plane smells like pee) — headed to what promises to be a grand couple of days of meeting & greetiing, and re-kindling friendships, and learning about what’s new with some of my favorite web destinations like Flickr & Shine. I’ll be at the Yahoo! Mother Board Summit & it promises to be a busy/informative/great event.

Every time I take a flight I find myself with an awful case of the jitters and insomnia, last night was no exception. I think I slept all of 45 minutes, and didn’t pack my bag until around three in the morning (upon blurry reflection, I’m pretty sure I have a day’s less clothing than I need, sigh…). I also left the house in a total disaster (which always happens, and which always leaves me knotted with feelings of guilt and inadequacy).

I haven’t even gotten where I’m going yet, and already I’m missing my family something terrible.

See? I think I’ve just demonstrated the why of my writer’s block. It’s much funner to post happy fun times. Creative, vibrant, alive times. Must focus on those more. Right now I’m feeling the weight of my responsibilities a bit too heavily & need to re-focus, re-group. Maybe stepping away for a couple days will be good.

I wish I’d brought a camera.

Maggie is the swan piper

Veronique Christensen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:26:37 +0000

Last night after dinner Maggie was practicing her clarinet and Tomas espied a swan (!!!) outside our kitchen door. Apparently, it really liked her sound. It hung around as long as Maggie played, and waddled off when she stopped.

It was pretty nerve wracking, waiting for him (her?) to cross our busy street. Eventually, a neighborhood birder came by & asked if we’d seen the swan, so we pointed her to where it was by the side of the street. She explained to me & the kids that our bay has just one swan couple now, so it was extra important that we save this one. She also informed us that swans could only take off and land from water (who knew?), so I directed her to the nearest inlet (and pools), and watched her shoo the bird in that direction.

I can’t tell you how thrilled the kids were, and how they all chattered excitedly about how their friends and teachers would never believe this without pictures:

Spring has sprung and it’s muddy

Veronique Christensen — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:33:13 +0000

Yesterday was the perfect early spring day. The kids spent the entire day out of doors, on their bikes, playing hide-and-seek, and naturally… making huge mud puddles. Today we all have sun kissed cheeks and cheerful dispositions to go with them.

So odd to think that just a week ago we were digging out of a big snow storm.

February 28th:

March 7th:

Winter village

Veronique Christensen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:15:39 +0000

My Mom gave me the cutest little village that she’s had forever, and I always thought was meant to decorate a mantle or something. I was so excited when I inspected them recently & discovered that they all have holes in the back big enough to poke a tree light through.

If you look closely at this pic you’ll see that all of the houses have “stained glass” windows (I’m thinking plastic or cellophane), that glow beautifully when lit from behind.

I’m thinking I’ll put a bit of effort into mending these and will put the kids to work with cardboard, colored cellophane, glue, and paints to make our own little set for next year.

Every month is bird-feeding month

Veronique Christensen — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:44:11 +0000

My friend Candace has a great post up on Naturally Educational about National Bird-feeding Month which is under way right now where she shares a great bunch of activities to do with your kiddos.

In our house, we feed the birds year-round and have a special bird-watching corner in our kitchen that I do my best to keep clear of junk (a never ending effort). It’s one of my favorite spots in our home, especially early in the morning when the rest of the family is still asleep and I have a few minutes with my coffee or tea.

Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I catch the birds watching me

Experimenting with embroidery

Veronique Christensen — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:31:39 +0000

I love how independent Maggie now. The other day she was bored and instead of asking me what to do for the zillionth time, she found herself a Klutz book called Simple Embroidery, browsed a bit, and then helped herself to everything she needed to get going. The only bit I provided was a crisp white hotel napkin to work on.

This awesome bird has been joined by a ladybug and several happy flowers.

Maggie exploring on her own = a happy mommy.

Spring’s on its way!

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:44:13 +0000

I just got my most awesome new camera strap from Erin over at House on Hill Road, and was inspired to head out to my snow laden garden to snap a few shots of melting snowmen. How happy do you think I was to discover these lovely bulbs popping up? Very! I’m assuming it’ll be crocuses (croci?), but the fun will be in heading out to see how they progress every morning.

I’ve been thumbing through my gardening books and catalogs, making my little plans for our vegetable & flower gardens this spring and summer. I can not wait to start planting! How about you?

Pip’s blog tour: Embroidered Bug Keepers

Veronique Christensen — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:57:20 +0000

So exciting! Today, we have a visit from Pip of Meet Me At Mike’s. Pip is on a blog tour and I was lucky enough to be picked for her first stop. For those of you who are new here, I hope you’ll stay a while & poke around a bit. I’ve plenty of fun activities for kids & grown-ups alike.

{for those of you paying attention to dates: I’m posting this on the 7th because Pip is in Australia, and her 8th starts earlier than mine!}

Here’s Pip:

…..

I thought a back to nature crafty tutorial would be just the thing for my visit over here at Little Elephants! Go look under rocks with the kid in your life!

…..

I am totally devouring the tales of writer Gerald Durrell’s childhood, so descriptively spun in books like ‘My Family and Other Animals‘. The young Gerald was forever catching bugs and other creepy crawlies, which he would then research thoroughly and (usually) return to their natural habitat. In honour of Mr Durrell, I thought you might like to craft up some bug-keeping matchboxes. They are the perfect accessory for the junior naturalist in your life. They are quick to make and you can also use them to keep little non-crawly treasures in!, if bugs are not your cup of tea. I borrowed my bug designs from the Charley Harper Coloring Book. These would make great party favours, too!

Embroidered Bug Keepers a la Gerald Durrell

Matchboxes
Calico or Muslin to embroider onto
Embroidery Hoop
Transfer Pencil
Bug Image resized to fit onto face of matchbox
Embroidery Floss
Needle
Scissors
Stapler
Iron and Ironing Board

First trace over your design using the Transfer Pencil

Next flip your tracing over and pin it face down onto your fabric. Make sure it is centred nicely.

Iron with firm presses to transfer design onto fabric. Don’t move the iron backwards and forwards or your design might move too!

Take a peek – without shifting your paper – to see if it’s transferred. If not keep pressing. Once it HAS transferred to the fabric, remove pins and paper and draw in any bits that didn’t transfer properly with a grey lead pencil or embroidery marker if you have one.

Pop the design over an embroidery hoop and stitch over your lines with small stitches. I used two strands of the embroidery floss to keep the details nice and fine.

Once done, trim all your loose threads neatly so they don’t show through your fabric later.

Next make the strip to go around your matchbox. Trim your fabric so that it’s 5″ long and 4″ high. Your embroidered design should be centred in the middle of this piece.

Go slowly so you don’t make any blunders. Head to your ironing board. Now, with right (embroidered) side down, fold each raw LONG fabric edge in to the centre so that the raw edges meet nicely and create neat folded edges at the top and bottom of your strip. Press.

Now fold just one of the short edges of your strip in 1/2″ and press.

Then wrap this whole folded and pressed ensemble around your matchbox outer.

Tuck the raw short edge under the folded short edge.

All your edges will be neat and folded now, with the embroidery centred nicely on the front of the matchbox. Yay!

Staple into place at the back, being sure it’s pulled nice and snug around your matchbox as you staple.

Go look for some critters to study : just be sure to return them to where you found them after you’ve done our investigating!