February 2, 2011

to sum it up...

What? February already? Did we skip January this year? Because I don't remember having one. At least it didn't feel like January to me. It only really snowed here once. ONCE. Hello, this is Utah, where's our snow? For the first time in the last few years I feel like celebrating winter season, and the only sure sign of winter we've been steadily experiencing is inversion. Oh well, we still have February left. Although I think I know now where all our snow went. Sorry, NorthEast...

So we didn't really get to do much outside in January(inversion, remember?), but we've been having pretty good time inside, enjoying our new house, feeling closer to each other (4 kids in 2 bedroom house --> plenty of closeness) and finding ways to channel our energy into something creative or productive.

:: drawing more than ever. i think we'll need to move to a bigger house just to have more room for storing all the artwork ::


:: growing faster than ever ::







:: building cool stuff ::

:: playing with papa's mountain climber that he made back when he was 10 years old ::



:: and even taking almost extinct these days naps ::

:: reading, lots and lots of reading ::



:: gluten-free cooking, which we're still learning about ::



:: and of course knitting. it never ends ::

working on my first Shalom



10 comments:

Heidi said...

I love those drawings, and pics! :)

Katrina said...

love your photos. love that during january you became my real life friend. :-)

The Wizzle said...

I love that I know from personal experience hat you take a perfectly earthbound, average location and when you photograph it it becomes magical. You surely live in a normal human house, not a gnome or fairy nest in a hollow tree, and yet in these pictures it looks like there is magic dust floating all around!

Kate said...

4 kids in two bedrooms? wow, you are amazing, that is for sure. so the pasta... where did you find the recipe, I'd be interested. And the shalom sweater, good luck! That is next on my list. Hoping I can get enough yarn out of a sz large jcrew sweater i thrifted years ago... hoping to make it long sleeved so we'll see.

Wendy said...

Love those gray and blue longies. Your homemade pasta looks delicious--where did you get your recipe?

onegoldensun said...

YOu have such a beautiful and creative family! I love seeing what you are up to. Awesome hat, and gorgeous photos, as always.

Olya said...

Katrina, I'm glad we finally met, it was definitely worth the wait! One of these days we'll have to get together when it's still light outside :)

Rachel, for some reason this house does have some kind of magic dust flying around. Unfortunately it doesn't take care of the mess when we look away. But seriously, the light in this house is AMAZING. Especially at 4 p.m.

Pasta. I only made it once and unfortunately I didn't write it down, but I'm pretty sure the link to the recipe is saved somewhere. I'll have to make it once more (I remember changing it a bit) before I can say for sure which recipe I used, but that one batch was pretty fabulous. I'll be sharing a couple of other recipes this week though :)

Found & Made Designs said...

i love that hat! i really need to learn to knit. i'm a crocheter myself but i love the way the knitting stitches look. Can you recommend any good beginner knitting books?

i love, love, LOVE your dreadies! i'm 4 months into my own journey. i'm going the natural route. what do you wash your dreadlocks with? i'm trying to find a good shampoo that will clean but still encourage knots.

heather :)

Olya said...

Heather, mine are a year old now. The only shampoo I ever washed them with is Dr. Bronner's castile soap (you can find it at Whole Foods/Wild Oats/ Trader Joe's type stores). I love lavender and almond scents. It cleans my hair really well, and tightens dreadlocks nicely. I know a lot of people also like shampoos with tea tree oil in them (again, something from health foods type store, not 'regular' kind).

As for knitting, I'm not really that familiar with different books that teach you to knit, but when I decided to pick up knitting again (I never really got into it until 3 years ago), I went with Maran Illustrated Knitting and Crocheting. It's very basic, great photos, pretty much everything to get you started and get comfortable with knitting. Also, knittinghelp.com is fantastic for short knitting videos of different techniques. Knitting is so much fun (and addicting :), good luck!

S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen said...

That hat is GORGEOUS!
Too funny about your magic dust!!!