As much as I loved my break, I missed this little space. I am happy to be rested, refreshed and 'back home'. I wanted to thank all of you for your amazing insight and wisdom. Your words really got to me and helped me through my little funk.
The irony to all of this is that as soon as I felt ready to come back, our computer crashed. By pure luck, we have it running right now but I am not sure for how long. fingers crossed it keeps working!
I didn't take a lot of pictures during my break but I thought I would share a few I took when K wanted to pretend it was Christmas for a day. We listened to Christmas music, drank hot cocoa (hey, it's still cold here!), sang carols and told stories. It was a fun day!
We went out a gathered some pine needles for crafts
K braided some as decorations
I made a pine needle heart that I still need to finish with a bow (instructions here, one of the ornaments from the Living Crafts article I was a part of)
K chose her own ribbon and made one with me. We decided we are going to make a whole garland of them to hang over our fireplace this winter.
The other pine needles, as well as pine cones and other finds were used by both of the girls to make a Christmas display at their table.
K made a wee little fairy broom with some of the pine needles that were too small for ornaments. One of our fairies is doing some spring cleaning on the nature table with it now.
Speaking of spring cleaning, I hope to clean up this space a bit over the weekend, it's becoming a bit cluttered to me and in need of some sprucing up!
I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. Thank you again for your kindness and understanding.
XO
25 comments:
ah ni..you know you are loved and we all understand when it's time to take a step back. it's important! glad you feel a bit more recharged. :) i love the ornaments and am making a set of them as a wedding gift for jason's cousin. they will arrive after the wedding, which is in 2 weeks, but since we can't go to the wedding and have til christmas before their first tree together, i'm not worried..:)
great job mama...love the christmas in june!! welcome back!
xoxox
I'm glad you enjoyed your break!!
So glad you're back and refreshed. We all just need a breather from time to time. And I love the summer Christmas. festive for no reason at all, I love it!
Yay!!!! You are back. I have truly missed your blog entries, but like I said it only makes seeing a new entry even better!
I hope your break was sweet.
I love the nature table.
It is wonderful to see you blogging again Nicole. There is nothing like a break to give you renewed perspective and more time for things you enjoy:)
Have a wonderful weekend, from freezing South Africa.
Warmly
Linda
Lovely to have you back!!!
Those pine needle ornaments are fantastic...I'm bookmarking them for Christmas!!! (and we have NO shortage of pine needles where I live)!!!!
xo maureen
Love the little pine needle ornaments! Glad you had some time to rest and reflect. Even when I don't blog, I still take photos like crazy. I have a shutter-finger-addiction. That's probably why I started a blog, to have somewhere to put all the darn photos. My little one doesn't really know the blog since I only work on it when he is sleeping. But he does know that mama is CONSTANTLY taking photos. "You'll thank me when you're 40." I say :)
Welcome back.. I do understand how it would be nice to have a break from the computer.
I envy your long pine needles out there in the west. Our needles are all pretty short.
What beautiful creations!
welcome back sweet mama! ;) glad you enjoyed your break. the christmas celebration your girls inspired is so sweet.
Glad you are back and feeling refreshed. SO important. I like the new banner, the photo of the bowl of fruit on the table is in my flickr favorites ;o)
Do you have a source for that bowl by the way?
Great to see you back! I'm glad your break was all you needed it to be. :) Your pine cone day looks like lots of fun, I bet my kids would love a Christmas in July type of day too. :) Looking forward to seeing those projects!
Glad you enjoyed your break, but it's so nice to see you back here! That's so cute that your daughter wanted to celebrate Christmas for a day. It really does not feel like summer yet where I am either.
what a great idea for pine needles!!
Little breaks are nice. I think that's a totally normal creative ebb and flow. I have been inspired by your pine needle craft and intend to copy!
What sweet little decorations! Most of our pines are shorter needled so I'm not sure if we'd be able to do these, but it would be fun to try! I'm glad you enjoyed your break. Finn has said the same thing about taking a picture to put on the blog (as have the olders, come to think about it). It just sounds odd coming from the mouth of a preschooler. Welcome back, Nicole! We missed you!
breaks are always good. glad you're back, i missed your beautiful posts. Happy Father's Day!
Oh hooray, I'm glad you're back, but also glad that you stayed away for so long, good for you to take the time.
Your Christmas day makes me laugh, I remember when I was little sneaking with my sister into all the Christmas decorations in the middle of summer.
Did you see why we built the fence? It's a long story, so I skipped it for now, but there is a little peek on my last post...
Hope you are enjoying your days. You don't celebrate father's day until next weekend, right? (I tried to put a winking smiley face there but they always look kinda sinister to me...)
Oh yeah, and happy Summer Solstice!
XOXO
Oh how I wish white pine needles were long enough to do this with. I love that you celebrated Christmas for one day this time of year. How fun!
I know what you mean about a break from blogging, I've been feeling the same way lately. It's been feeling like a chore, and quite frankly I don't see the point in blogging if it's feeling this way.
Enjoy your summer with your beautiful family!
lisa
Welcome back Nicole - I took a similar break and it felt good even though I was full of worry about my Ella. She is on the rebound now and I have a lot keeping me busy.
Ella asks me the same - take a picture of this Mom - put on your blog. She also thinks I should share her jokes with everyone. I pretend I do.
Much love, Nicole
love the nature toys.
I was just reading this week about some teas made with some pine needles!
lovely fragrant craft.
Thank you everyone! Oh what a good feeling to be back. I have more to share about my break but all in due time ;) You are all amazing! XO
I am not sure where you are but here in Alaska it's still gets cool too. We love hot chocolate all year long. I'm hoping to have a craft making day in July to get a head start on Christmas. :) Beautiful ornament.
that beautiful heart reminds me of my native Denmark where we used make these...
Lovely photos!
Do you have a tutorial on how to make the fairy that is using the pine needle broom?
I'm sorry, I don't. I bet if you Google flower fairy, one would come up though. HTH!
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