Winter Roses...and the First Snowfall

Shockingly, snow was in the forecast for this weekend.  Snow in December is a rare event around here, so any mention of some flurries, while not guaranteed, is always exciting.  


But, my roses, and other flowers, are still blooming.  In December.  Did they bloom in August?  No.  No, they did not.  Apparently they are winter roses.

I decided that it was time to go rescue the roses and bring them inside, so that I could enjoy them while they lasted.  

And, I kid you not, just as I finished snipping all the roses and taking some last pictures, it started SNOWING!

A half an hour later:
 

And an hour later:

My attention span has just faltered, and even though I have a ton of assignments, I have decided to abandon this mess....

for this mess...

It is hard to resist the urge to decorate for Christmas when it actually snowing outside.  Needless to say, Christmas decorations are coming soon.

Suggested Reading...

Mama, Will it Snow Tonight? by Nancy White Carlstrom

Berries

My life is pretty hectic with teaching preschool, an internship at a public library, a full course load in graduate school, and some semblance of a real life.  Usually every minute of every day is scheduled, but last week I had Veteran's Day off, and it was a welcomed relief.  No school, no library, no classes, and, I decided, no homework.  Instead, I watched hours and hours of HBO on demand and made stuff. 

The first thing on my list was some more fall decorations.  Recently I noticed that my neighbors' tree was covered in these orange berries.  I'm not sure what they are, but I wanted them.  How great are orange berries in the fall?  I felt almost cheated that I have never noticed them before.

So, sneakily, under the cover of darkness (or in broad daylight, whatever), I cut some of those orange berries.  Technically, the tree leans on our side of the yard, so I think I can claim them as mine.

I cut a sheet of scrapbook paper so that it would just cover the label of some leftover cans and hotglued the paper in place.  Very easy.

I trimmed down the berry branches so they would fit in each container.  Not so easy.  Cutting the branches was slightly problematic because they are essentially elongated thorns with very sharp ends.  Probably to keep the birds from eating the berries.  Or to keep meddling neighbors from stealing the berries...you know.

I put one can on a little side table in the living room:

And the other two went in the kitchen.  At first I put them on the shelves:

But it looked too cluttered.  I like them better on the kitchen table with a yellow Fiesta platter and some pumpkins.

Suggested Reading...

A book about picking berries.

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

Maps

Someone tried to throw this old atlas away, but, luckily, I rescued it from it's untimely doom.  Despite the worn cover, the maps inside are in really good shape.

And, the maps are turquoise.  Turquoise and orange.  Who would even want to throw such a thing away?

The atlas has a full-page map of each state and country.  My almost-husband and I have lived in various states and I had this idea to remove the maps of those states and frame them.  I kept putting the project off, and putting it off, but after I bought the new pillows for the couch and moved the couch to a different spot in the living room, the motivation to frame them finally hit. 

The maps fit perfectly inside a mat with an 11 x 17 opening, which I bought along with some basic white frames for cheap at Michaels.

There are actually two states missing.  Those maps were back-to-back on the same page, so I'll need to make a color copy of one and then add those to the wall.  The wall still looks a little sparse, so I'm hoping the two extra pictures will help fill it up.

The colors of the old maps matched the new pillows so nicely.  After I was on the brink of wanting to trash the couch, I was amazed how easy it was to change the whole feeling of the room with just the pillows and framed maps.

 Suggested Reading...

The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller

Thanksgiving Virtual Field Trip

 

Plimoth Plantation Museum is teaming up with Scholastic to offer a virtual field trip for classrooms on November 16 at 1 p.m.  It sounds like an awesome opportunity!  All you have to do is sign up here.

Evolution of the Couch

This is the couch.  It's big.  It started to smell.  The cushions are almost destroyed.  See those large, square pillows on the sides?  They came with the couch.  They are pretty ugly, and also pretty lumpy. 

I started to loathe this couch.  

But, new couches are a lot of money, and not a practical purchase right now, so this summer I set out to fix this smelly, lumpy beast. 

First, I discovered that washing the cushion covers is super easy.  Completely ignoring the little tag on the inside that says, "Cushion casings SHOULD NOT be removed, laundered, or dry cleaned," I put the covers in the washing machine and then hung them up to dry.  No problem.  Smelly couch gone. 

Next, I threw those square, ugly pillows aside.  I found some pillows similar to this one at Target: 

They were blue instead of brown, but they had the same kind of embroidered design.  I ended up taking them back because they looked too small on the massive couch.

THEN, on a random trip to Home Goods, when I wasn't even looking for pillows, I found these:

Turquoise?  Check.  Brown, to match the couch?  Check.  Feathers, that cannot be squished to oblivion?  Check.  Giant?  Check.  They were perfect.  They came home to live with me on my big, not-stinky-anymore couch.

They look like they were made for this couch.  I like how the fringe on the edge matches the brown in the couch, and I really like how the yellow and the turquoise crewel work looks. 

Do you see those pictures hanging above the couch?  After re-doing the couch, I was inspired to frame some new pictures.  More on those later...

Suggested Reading...

He Came With the Couch by David Slonim

Zoo

A couple of years ago I went to the zoo during the heat of summer.  While it was fun, it was just too hot.  The heat was so bad that the animals were either hiding or in a sloth-like state, and I felt like doing the same.  I went again this weekend and the weather was great.  Late October is the perfect time to go to the zoo.  The animals were actually visible this time, all rambunctious and adorable.

I paid $2 to feed the giraffes.  The zoo has a tall deck that you stand on and hold branches out for the giraffes.  At first they gathered nearby, glaring out of the corners of their eyes, pretending that they could not see us standing there with delicious branches.

Finally, this little guy came over and took the bait.  

The elephants turn red from the clay dirt.

Lemur island.

Every time this otter and his otter buddy dove into the water, they made the tiniest little squeak.

These were the friendliest arctic foxes.  I'm not sure that friendliest is a characteristic you want in a fox, but they came right up to the fence to investigate all the new people who walked by.

Seals playing tug-of-war.

Suggested Reading

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Happy Halloween!

In honor of the holiday, I read this book to my pre-school class this week:

Froggy's Halloween by Jonathan London

When lovable, cute Froggy gets ready for Halloween, he practices the classic Halloween rhyme:

Trick or treat, smell my feet,

Give me something good to eat.

If you don't, I don't care

I'll pull down your underwear!

What did one sweet, quiet little girl learn from this story?  Well, for days, she went around shouting, "Give me a treat or I'll pull your underwear off!"  Good job teacher, good job.


Happy Halloween!  Make sure to hand out lots of candy...or some 3-year-old might try to get at your underwear.

Chalkboard Pumpkins

Why did no one ever tell me how amazing chalkboard paint is??  No, seriously.  It.  Is.  Awesome. 

I had two of these plain pumpkins that were begging to be spruced up.

I came up with this brilliant idea to paint them with chalkboard paint so that I could draw on the jack-o'-lantern face, which is way easier than trying to carve a face on a real pumpkin.

The paint went on really easy, but I needed to paint a couple of coats since the paper covering on the pumpkins just soaked it up. 

I'll be honest, when the paint dried, I expected it to have a crummy, cheap-chalkboard finish, but it ended up drying very smooth.  And you really, really can write on it with chalk!  It erases nicely, too.

I am a chalkboard paint enthusiast now.  I wonder what else I can find to chalboard-ify?  Hmmmm...

Suggested Reading...

Halloween Is... by Gail Gibbons