Snow & The Kingly Court

Snow, oh beautiful snow:

 

One nights' worth of snow resting on garlic chive seed heads.

This one is just for Robert!

 

Huxley came with me to the studio on Thursday. He's been having a bit of a challenging time falling back into the rhythm of things after his teacher was off sick for three days, so to give both of them a break, we took the day off. When I do that, I'm always reminded of bringing him there as a teeny-tiny two week old baby (that's how fast I was back in creating. I didn't have a choice, as I had a large show 6 weeks after he was born). I didn't do any toxic work when he was with me, and we used to only go for a few hours every day. There was a play area set-up with a nice rug, a sheep skin and toys, in a very large free-form play-pen. Somewhere, there must be some photos of that. Once he hit 8 months though, it was no longer possible, he just cried and cried and simply wanted to be on me, not just in the same room with me. So much for the fantasy, that he could grow up in the studio with me. This lead us to have him go to daycare for 3 days per week until September 2007 when he started at the Waldorf school for 2 days (8:30 - 3:30) and 2 days (8 am - 6pm) at the daycare. Now, this year he is at school every morning form 8:30 until 12:30. Details I'm providing, because there might be one or the other artist mom out there who is wondering how I did it. 

The main thing I wished to have known/had, way back when is a Beco Baby Carrier I only got one of those when he was about 3, and mainly for hiking, but I have said many times, that a proper back-carrier would have meant that I could have kept Huxley with me at the studio for longer. 

So back to now.... Here is what we did on Thursday.

While I had my hands busy, Huxley played with my little drill, put tape onto an old chair to make it more comfy, (It's fun at mami's studio, as not many things are creatively off limits), and built a pretend castle set-up with his animals. Note, that the "elephant" was a dragon-horse that the knight was riding. I love the fantasy play going on right now. The Waldorf school really encourages this kind of play, as do we at home. I've seen other children, that have had the early academic "training" and they already at 4 and 5 don't play like this. 

 

I dyed felt crowns. Many of them will be for our Waldorfschools' Winterfair, the other ones will be available through The Olive Sparrow, e.g. right here. I will post images of the finished pieces when they are ready. Last year the school was selling them for $30 each, and sold all 10 pieces I gave them. 

 

Huxley modeled one for me:

 

Quite a kingly presence, isn't he.

Then Huxley wanted to direct some photos and told me exactly how to pose with the crown:

 

This weekend, I'm finishing the crowns for the school and on Sunday we're planning to go back to the farm to go riding again. BTW, in the background of the picture above, there are some unfinished paintings, some specially dyed fabric that I will do a separate post on and also a huge 4' x 6' abstract that is in the works, and yes, I'm sitting on a spare bench from our last mini-van, my studio couch and napping place. Oh studio naps, how I covet thee.