snow day crafts

In an effort to keep the kids occupied for a portion of the days they've been out of school for this disappointing, yet icy-road-causing, snowstorm, we've been doing a little bit of crafting. Elizabeth received a gift with a few recycling projects to try so she and Paulie tried out the recycled paper craft.

It's actually fairly similar to the paper stars Finn and I made at Christmas, but they had a great time searching for used papers in various colors to use for their "recycled paper".

The recycled paper turned out really cute if fragile. I'm not sure what you'd use it for, but they had a great time making it.

On Twig and Toadstool's blog several weeks ago, I noticed this adorable ice lantern that I knew would make a fun snow day craft. Yesterday morning, we found a few plastic containers to nest (all of our aluminum cans had a lip that made this impossible to do in cans). We put rocks in the center container to weigh it down in the water.

Then we layered greenery, berries and tiny pinecones inside the water to beautify our ice lantern.

As the snow began to fall, we placed our containers outside on the deck to freeze.

The frozen lanterns were so beautiful! I loved the frosty cap from our snow and the way each of the branches and berries looked timelessly frozen in their icy cocoon.

This evening as the sun set, we lit a tealight inside our ice lantern.

What a beautiful glow coming through our fancy ice lantern!

Night is not a night If you see how it is bright

Winter’s quick look light

~ Peter S. Quinn

Finn, looking at the light.

And not to be forgotten, my yarn along for this week. I started working on a sweater for me, as it's the month of knitting for myself! This is actually the first sweater that I've knit for myself and it's worked top down and in the round. All new things for me in sweater knitting, but I'm very excited about how it's working up. The yarn is City Tweed by Knit Picks, and it's really much softer than it looks. I really love the brown and black flecks in the yarn too. I'm mostly staring at my Fitted Knits book this week trying to get this pattern down. This sweater is the Cozy V-Neck Pullover. I can't wait to show you when it's finished!