Just Pure Lovely

Apple Picking

Oh, we had such a fun time apple picking in North Carolina last week!  Surrounded by hundreds of apple trees, cool weather, and scenery the likes of which this Coastal girl never sees  at home (there are no hills!), we were content for hours picking - and eating - apples. 

We put all ages to work.  My two-year-old neice, above, might have run away from manual labor, and the seven and eight-year-old cousins played quite a bit before filling their shared bucket...

but we certainly know how to work five year olds...

Oh, come on now, you know I'm kidding.  They didn't have to push too hard.  Everyone pitched in to help. Yes, of course.  Even me.  I kept busy photographing.  A day like this one needs to be documented, so we won't forget even the smallest of details.

Sigh.  I do believe I need to buy an apple orchard. 

While I'm lost in that unreality dream, do you have any apple recipes to share? 

I brought back two huge cardboard boxes full of apples and need to do something with the abundance!

Aw, Shucks

Thanks, Typepad, for the Featured Blog of the Day thingie you bestowed on my humble little webbie spot recently. 

That's pretty cool of you!

A (Bloggy) Vacation

I'm at a family reunion this week, so I'll be taking a bloggy vacation.  I just know that between 11 children and lots (and lots) of food, I won't take a minute to blog.

But I'll see you on October 27th with lots of photos and hopefully a few stories to share!

~ Lori Seaborg

How to Make a Spinning Top

 

If you have a mini lathe hanging around on a workbench...oh, you don't?  well, neither do I, but it doesn't hurt to learn something new anyway, so..

if you have a mini lathe hanging around, or not, you might want to use it (or wish you had one to use it) to make a spinning top, like this...

Step One:  The woodworker keeps a box of circles with dowels in them.  I think you could create these circles with a door handle tool (I'm sure it has a more technical name than that!) and use a drill to inser the dowel pieces into the circle. 

Step Two:  He put the dowel-in-a-circle-of-wood on his mini lathe.

 

Steps Three and Four :  He's carving the wood to shape, using lathe tools.

 

Steps Five andSix are really the same step.  While the lathe is still on, he sands the top down.

 

Steps Seven, Eight, and Nine :  He draws with a Sharpie marker (no kidding!) while the lathe is still on.  This part gets "ooo"s from the crowd as the color moves across the wood.

 

Step Ten: Giving the top a dousing of spray varnish.

 

Step Eleven:  Cutting the spinning top off the lathe.  I think the lathe is still on.

Step Twelve (not pictured):  A little hand-sanding just on the tips where the top was cut from the extra dowel on the lathe.

Step Thirteen:  Give it a twirl and see if it spins!

In case you're wondering, those aren't my hands in the photo. I really hope you weren't wondering that.  They're not.  They belong to a very nice woodturner at the local heritage festival we attended Saturday. 

He sold these tops for just $3.  Less than a gallon of gas.  Who needs gas anyway?  With that inherited logic, and to support the arts (& crafts), all four of our children wanted one, custom made, in different colors.  Such an accomodating gentleman he was!   They were, I mean: my man who handed out the cash and the patient woodworker who handed out four tops.  I purchased a hairstick for me, which is yet another reason to put "mini lathe" on my Christmas list this year. 

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Training Up Geeks

I confess. We're not always outdoors and creative.  I just don't normally blog about the geeky side of us because, well, what's pretty about  piece of plastic and metal with flashing lights on it?

Well, okay, anything is pretty on a pile of quilts. 

Computers are definitely our family's favorite gadgets.  We use them for schoolwork, research, and a little (okay, a little more than a little) for playing.

 

We use the computers as an opportunity to teach self-discipline and independence.  As the children grow older and more mature, they are allowed more freedom (accompanied by gentle nudging) to prioritize their days.   Meals, chores, education, time outdoors, and time spent in creative pursuit are top priority.  Then time may be spent in self-entertainment, like television or computer games. 

 

 

Our goal is to teach these geeks (including ourselves) to enjoy life with computers alongside it.  

 

 

More Fuzzy Things

I forgot, when I posted about the Alpaca Farm Day, to show you these cuties that are made from alpaca fiber (fur?)...

 

The finger puppets are our children's favorite purchase from the alpaca farm ( I prefer the yarn, of course).  When we got home the kids gathered past purchases of finger puppets (we have nine when they can all be found) and performed a little puppet show out of a shoebox.

These cuties, below, also made from alpaca fiber-fur-stuff, would have probably liked the puppet show, too...

 

Remember those two?  They are the gossipy gals from my post a few days ago.  The alpaca owner says their names are Roxsanne (white) and Lovely Lorraine (grey).  Somehow, those names are so fitting for them! 

(I'm wondering, does anyone else ever sing "Roxanne" in a growly voice whenever they see that name, thanks to Moulin Rouge?)

I am particularly fond of this sweetie, below, who has the face of an angel.

 

 

There are more photos of our local Alpaca Farm Day at the Alpaca Farmgirl blog.  You can even buy an alpaca from her, if you can't resist that pretty face a minute longer, or if you'd like to have your own source of spinning fiber walking around the yard. 

 

Maybe She's Born With It.

For no reason at all, or perhaps because I like to pretend sometimes that I'm a professional photographer, I said, "Work it," after taking the above shot.   You know, like the pro says to the model he's photographing. Or I think he says that.  I don't know.  It's not like I've ever been the pro or the model. 

Anyway, as soon as I said, "Work it,"

she did!

WHAT?!  How does she know how to do that? 

I'm suspecting an 11-year-old sister might have a bit of influence on this, and we definitely should blame the media (so easy to blame!), but, still, all finger-pointing aside, I think she'd still toss her hair like that.  It's like she's born with it...the ribbons, the bows, the dress-up, the I-want-to-wear-makeup arguments, and, sigh, now the modeling poses.  

I think all girls - oh, yes, definitely we big girls, too -  need to feel pretty, to feel wanted, to feel loved, to feel adored.  This little gal is all of the above:  pretty, wanted, loved and adored.  But it's as if her cup, and mine, and yours,  is never filled or maybe it's just that it's very leaky.  For whatever reason, we have to feel it - feel pretty, wanted, loved, adored - again.  And again.  And again.  

You. Are. Beautiful.