There are a couple of trees in our yard just crying out for this Fairy Door. You can buy the accessories
-- the little windows with the flower boxes and the lantern, which LIGHTS UP AT DUSK AND TURNS OFF AT DAWN -- but I'm wondering if they're overkill. I should've ordered this for Easter but I didn't and now May Day is tomorrow. Perhaps for the summer solstice? (Also, don't you think "Fairy Door" would be the perfect name for a gay bar?)
Custom silhouette charms of the kids. One of my minor obsessions is collecting charms. I've seen the generic silhouette charms around but never really coveted one because, well, they are generic heads. But this artist will make actual silhouettes of your children's heads using photos you submit. Genius. I'm putting in my order right now. Are you reading this, D?
The Ivy on her memories of playing with Lego and the new Lego stuff targeted at girls. What she said.
Nicholas Roerich, Kiss to the Earth.
On Sunday we went looking for mayflowers. They're called mayflowers but they come out in April here in Nova Scotia, at the tail end of winter. Their tiny pink and white blossoms, so delicate in comparison to the thick hairy brown stems and broad rusty leaves that protect them, smell heavenly -- sweet, wild and, beyond that, indescribable. Finding them -- and you can only find them in the wild -- means that it is definitely spring.
Luke, unconvinced that mayflowering would be very exciting, brought his Lego Ninjago sword, which he used to fight off a number of invisible monster skeletons he happened upon. He also explained to me, as I peered into the underbrush looking in vain for tiny pink and white buds, that just the sight of his sword would be sure to terrify any bears we might stumble across, as surely at least a few of their ancestors must have been killed by swords. I nodded and kept looking for mayflowers, wondering how the bears might've communicated this ancestral fear of swords to their children. Sylvie, pushed along in her stroller by her father, bounced over tree roots and babbled about owls.
After some fruitless searching, we came out onto the hiking trail that has been made out of a defunct railway line. Luke and Vivi, who by now had tumbled out of her stroller, started to lag behind and to complain. Grampa's sharp eyes managed to discover three tiny unopened mayflower buds on the side of the trail. "Maybe it's still too early," I said and suggested that we make a quick detour to the nearby town graveyard, to see the children's grandmother's grave, before going on to the playground.
Luke's grandfather's name and birthdate are inscribed to the left of his grandmother's but of course, as Grampa is still with us, there is only a smooth empty space where the date of his death would go. "Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?" said Luke cheerfully, as he pointed one by one at the blanks where the month, day, and year will be.
Vivi caught sight of a small gravestone carved in the shape of a teddy bear. She ran off toward it. I went after her, to make sure she didn't take any of the flowers away. It was the grave of an 8-month-old baby. "We love you, silly bird" was inscribed along the bottom. Sylvie giggled and stumbled away in her bumble bee boots. I followed her, looking down at my feet, my eyes suddenly filled with sunlight and tears. And there, in the dead brown grass all around the children's grandmother's grave, were dozens of mayflowers.
Thank you, Gramma Linda.
Ernie and Bert, done in Lego by Jung Von Matt. Via BB-blog. (This reminds me. Luke has a Great-Aunt named Barbara and a Great-Uncle named Earnie. The other day he confused me by asking, "When are we going to see Ernie and Bert again?")
While looking for birthday party invitation ideas for Luke's upcoming birthday, we found this gorgeous hand-lettered assemblage made out of sprinkles on frosting. I also love Rose's "theme." Luke had already decided that his was going to be "Roblox, Ninjas, and Angry Birds." Don't know if we have the time and the patience to make an invitation like this one, though.
This little cabin hanging off the side of a building in SF is an art installation. I wish it were actually, you know, a little cabin with someone curled up beside a tiny woodstove inside it. Via The Hairpin.
Here's yet another paper town -- a cardboard one, actually. They come as templates like these:
There are three different sets that cost 20 PLN each -- they are made in Poland and are based on Polish suburban life. That's about $6.33 Canadian. Not bad -- it'd cost a total of $14.26 to purchase one and have it shipped. Via handmade charlotte.
You can purchase these boobie beanie baby hats -- or the pattern to make one yourself -- on etsy. You know, so you can protect the delicate sensibilities of those who are offended by public breastfeeding. God forbid anyone should happen to glimpse a bit of breast as it nourishes an infant.
Hoping to make a version of these lego interlocking heart pendants for the kids for Valentine's Day. I wasn't able to find the curved end plates in the Pick-a-Brick section on the Lego site and they won't send these cute Valentine boxes to Canada but I think I found a seller
