Fall Fun

Mary and I had some fun in the back yard the other day.  My most favorite picture of her with her beautiful smile would not load correctly.  I tried many times and it loaded side ways so I have to abandon my attempts.  These are the ones that I snapped of her as she had fun running around in her dress and holding the flowers we got at the Farmers Market here in town.

Homeschool

I have finished my 3rd week of homeschooling Mary and we are having so much fun. I got some wonderful ideas for teaching at the monthly meeting for all the Christian Homeschoolers in the area. The idea of unit study really caught my attention. The concept is that you pick a subject or book and pull all your writing, reading, vocabulary, math, art and social study lessons from it. It makes learning very fun and interesting!  Mary wanted to study the American Indians since she is part Cherokee Indian.  Rich's great grandma was Cherokee and raised on a reservation in Oklahoma.  He belongs to the Western Cherokee Nation of Arkasas and Missouri.  We have been studying were the Indians came from, some of their folk stories, tribal dances, clothing and houses.  We plan on making a trip to our local museum and learning all about the Indians in this area.  We also will be making trips to the library to get informational and story books about the Indians.  Here is a short video of what she has learned so far.

 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Here is the link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=118468144471ee774f58b26&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

We did art today.  She painted an Indian headdress.  Her inspiration came from the picture above and that daddy belongs to the Western Cherokee Nation.  She says he is the big cheif :)

She also colored a map today that showed where the Cherokee originally lived before they were sent to reservations and the two states that the tribe that daddy belongs is in.

Farmers Market

This weekend was our first time selling at our local grower's and crafter's market.  We just loved it.  Here is our table display.  We have a lot more plans to dress up our booth next week.  We got up bright and early to get loaded up and down there by 7:30 am.

Mary was our bright and happy morning bird.  She was jumping up and down and clapping her hands as Rich was setting up the canopy.  She kept saying, "Daddy is going to be selling his beautiful lamps!"  She is quite the people person and had so much fun saying hi to everyone and giving them our business card.  She adds so much brightness to everything she does :)

 

 

 

Rich is kicking back in the afternoon.  He is wearing our new t-shirt.  It got pretty warm in the afternoon.  I took Mary to ballet class and Rich's folks came down to help Rich while we were gone.

 

There was some really lovely produce at the market.  We enjoyed this wonderful tomato.  It is orange and fully ripe.  I made a BLT with it.

We also got some sunflower sprouts.  They were so delicious.  Mary loved just eating them plain.  They were a great addition to the sandwich.

 

The farmers market was so great.  The people were so friendly and they had yummy food.  We had chicken tamales with fresh sour cream and salsa.  There was great live music and a wonderful breeze blowing.  It was just a beautiful fall day.  The season for the market is almost over.  This one is just starting up and next year it will be a lot bigger in a new location.  So because we started here we will get to have first choice at the new market.  So we are excited about that.

 

 

Here are few new designs that Rich finished this week. He still needs to fire the tops and bottoms and wire them.  We hope to have them for sale soon.  A lot of people have commented on facebook that they like the blue bird.  Which one is your favorite?

 

 

Peach Delights

We have been enjoying some fresh peaches from my sister's back yard tree. They are wonderful peaches with a very rich flavor.  I got a great recipe for fresh peach pie with black berries added.  If you click here you can go to April's blog and get the recipe.  Her pie is much prettier than mine but the pie I made was a big hit at our house.  I think I have found a family favorite in this one.  It is very easy to make and so light and fresh for a summer dessert. 

 

This next one is really easy and it great for making something up quick and only enough for each person without leftovers.  For the recipe you can go here.  It is so yummy with ice cream!

Dancin'

Tonight I was sitting out in the back yard listening to a lovely folk music CD that my sister gave us a few years ago.  Mary loves it and she was asking what the different instruments were and I was telling her what I knew.  She then broke out into this dance and I grabbed the camera and started recording her.  She loves music and dancin'

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Here is the link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=117b3424a05591209857fa9&skin_id=1603&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Ballet Slippers

Mary had her first ballet class after the summer break.  I just love her little ballet shoes.  She is growing so fast and I want to capture the memories

and hold them tight in my heart. 

 

 She needed a new size, so after class I bought her a new pair. Her ballet studio is so great. They buy back her used ones. So I got a great discount on these.  I did save her very first pair. 

I just couldn't part with those.

 

I am linking up with Share Your Cup.  You can see other great posts here.

School Bells Are Ringing!

I started homeschooling Mary this Tuesday. She is starting Kindergarten and is so excited about her school room at the house and getting 2 hours of my undivided attention.  I have been quite busy with our ceramic business details and she has been very sweet about entertaining herself.  It all worked out for the best because she is having so much fun doing school.  She looks so small here with her new workbook but she is getting to be such a big girl!

While we have been hitting the books, daddy has been pumping out some new lamp designs and a new design for a funeral urn.  Here it is before it was given the bisque firing.

 

He loaded up the kiln ...

 

 

... with 11 lamp bases and 1 funeral urn.

 

 

This is the urn after the firing.  The colors really popped.  I know I am prejustice but I think my husband's work is so lovely!  When he gets the diamond glaze on it, the colors will look even richer.  Also there is space on the urn design to engrave the person's name and dates or a special quote or short poem or scripture.  He also has designed a lid that is so elegant.  He is in the process of making a mold for it.

 

Happy Birthday to my Sweetheart!

I am participating in Share Your Cup Thursday.  One of the things that makes me happy and fills my cup is my husband and daughter and creating things .  So in honor of my husband's birthday, I share this post:

Today was my husband's birthday.  His mama labored for him on this day many years ago (but not too many) lol.  This was taken a few years ago  when he made this fake cake for a Bah Mitzvah.  It just seemed like a great picture to post of him.  He has so much fun creating things.

 

 

He loves being with our daughter out in the shop and showing her how we make the ceramics.

 

He was puttering out in the shop this morning tweaking the design he is working on for a funeral urn even though it was his birthday.  It is his job but he loves it so.

Mary and I made him chocolate cherry whoopie pies.  We got the recipe from this wonderful blog and you can get the recipe if you click on this link here.

 

This picture is a blurry but I love it any way.  Mary loved tasting each stage of the cookie making.  She asked me why shortening was called that and I was busy and didn't answer her right away.  She then said, "Is it called shortening because it will make me smaller?"  I said laughing, well sweetheart I am sure a lot of people would be thrilled if desserts with shortening made you smaller!

 

These are the whoopie pies and they were delicious.  My husband wanted these instead of cake.  So we put candles in them and Mary had so much fun helping daddy blow them out!

The sun rose so beautifully this morning to greet us.  Mr. Owl is basking in the light on our back porch.

I made this jewel up for breakfast.  It is the pinterest sweet roll ring recipe with some cherry pie filling in the bottom of the pan.  I had some left over from the woopie pie recipe.  It turned out so good and Rich loved it because he loves cherries!

 

We had such a wonderful morning and day celebrating my sweet husband.  I love you Baby!

Pumpkin Magic

Mary's pumpkin has turned orange.  It did not get as big as we thought it was going to get because at first it was growing about a inch every day.  It got to this size in just 3 weeks, then it slowed down and started turning orange.  It still is a very nice pumpkin and we are pleased and you can tell by Mary's smile up in the right hand corner of this picture that she is thrilled.

 

 

A big smile minus one tooth and another one loose :)

 

Mr. Owl is watching over her new one that we just noticed.

 

 

It was under some giant leaves and is gaining size quickly. So hopefully Mary will have 2 pumpkins for the front porch this year!