Dear Valentine

Dear Deer,

Thank you for leaving me such a sweet valentine in the snow last night.

Happy Valentine's Day

A snowy February 14th for us this year; here's a snowflake cystallized specially for the day.

Waxing on about crayons

The smell of Crayola Crayons is intoxicating to me. They are childhood, plain and simple. The new boxes received on special occasions filled me with hope and ambitions; all those perfectly colored points lined up in tiered rows, just waiting to be extracted. When the boxes got worn, I had a tin where all the crayon remnants would go for easy access.

Lucy had a similar basket container of crayons when she was younger. Now, I have that crayon basket in the studio. I occasionally breathe in the scent of it's contents to remind me of my personal origins of creativity.

Here's a quick non-illustrative Valentine's craft (sacrificing only a few crayons!) that's easy and satisifying.

1) Make some shavings from red-hued crayons (oranges and pinks, too).
2) Collect them on a piece of wax paper (maybe as big as a cookie sheet)- fold the wax paper in half to make a "sandwich" of the crayon shavings, spreading them out evenly.
3) Take two pieces of brown kraft paper and your wax paper/shavings and heat up the iron.
4) Place one piece of kraft paper on the ironing board (to protect your board), then place your wax paper/shaving on top of it. Then place another piece of kraft paper over the wax paper (to protect your iron!)
5) Iron until the crayons shavings have melted. Don't have it too hot, just enough to make the wax near liquid.
6) Take the wax paper and let dry and harden a bit.
7) After the wax paper has hardened, cut out heart shapes. Each heart will be different, and kind of stained glass like.
8) Attach light weight string and hang from a window.

Best viewed with a snowy day backdrop!

Darwin's Day

Oh, if I could have one stroll with you around the sand walk, some early Victorian spring day when the horse chestnuts are in full blossom.

Birthday on the Prairie

Today is the birthday of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of some of the first chapter books I read as a child. I read them out of sequence for some reason, and choose for my first Ingalls Wilder book "The Long Winter" (one of the latter books in the series) because of its exciting cover! (...aways a sucker for jacket art; I love Garth Williams).

Never in a million years, as I read about pioneer Grasslander life from my Pacfic NW bedroom, did I think I would be a Prairie Girl one day, too.

So, in the decidedly un-long winter of 2012, I salute an icon, one of the original Tallgrass Children's Book Writers.

Ground Hog's Day 2012

(can't resist an opportunity to draw a cute rodent)

Don't put your mittens and scarves away...
"Six more weeks, North America" says Phil!