Snow Day

As happy as I am February is eking by, the occasional snow day is still a welcome sight. In fact, I have never had a problem with snow, just the absence of light! But the snow in Iowa, well, it's just so-so snow. With no lake effect and a lack of hills, you're left with powder to cross country ski but scant places to sled. Luckily, today's was super powdery for me to shovel since my hubby's back was sore from old man back problems (he's 37!). Little P thought she'd help and as we went, I realized how big the flakes were. You could even notice the shapes usually only visible by microscope. So after shoveling, we sat outside with a piece of felt to collect snowflakes as they fell and to shoot a few pictures to share.

 We used this site to help us at least recognize the basic shapes we were finding. Some are beautiful while others lean toward utilitarian. Interesting.

This one looks just like the symbol for Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul where I had one of my all time favorite jobs!

If you would like to do this with your kids the next time it snows, I recommend black, blue or hot pink, Little P's fave! I'd also stick the felt in a fridge, so the flakes don't melt as quickly!

Wearing our favorite hats!

Our snow day was not over once we finished with the camera. After bounding about in the backyard, we found some sites to make snowflakes like this one and this one.

Here are our results.

Will your Valentine's be lovely? We shell see!

Greetings all! Excuse the inexcusable absence. There were no more excuses for not writing a post, so here I am. Today I have time, so today I will post what I have been up to craft-wise. Besides trying to finish a knit hat pattern, I had this easy yet adorable idea for Valentines day while we were in FL this January vacationing. It's cute, cheap and a great way to share shells that have gathered up in your craft closet.

First, we used card stock and patterned paper. Then we printed out some cute sayings like "You're so spe-shell" and "We shell always be friends".  I'm sure you can think up others somehow if ours don't appeal to you.

For the paper, I just used paste to put things in place since there was less mess, less wrinkles and less ink bleeding.


Now for the shells! When the inspiration hit, I had plenty of shells at my beck and call, so I tried to find ones about an inch wide which were also light since I wasn't sure how well the glue could handle heavy material. For glue, I just used mod podge  mainly because it dries clear and worked well enough with my light shells. The googly eyes were fun but I got the smallest pair, a bit tough for little P's fingers. I did see these at the store but I wanted to go with a classic craft look!