Author: Carrie Spritzer

The Felt Box

Another post in our Arts and Crafts Organization project. To read all of the posts in this series, please click here.

I had a sneaking suspicion that we had a tremendous quantity of felt in the house.

We buy it secondhand (usually in unused condition complete with their original price stickers) from our local craft resale shop for $2/lb. Whenever we spy a great color, we snatch it up. It costs us pennies. Literally.

We’ve been storing these overflowing bags of felt in inconvenient places, such as down in the kitchen (why o why?!) and tucked away in a corner of my daughter’s bedroom.

I didn’t realize quite how much we actually had though until we gathered it up to one place, sorted it by color, and stored it away in this giant plastic storage bin.


Above, felt sheets on the left and scraps on the right.

Yes, we have a lot of felt. A tremendous amount.

Nevertheless, we’ve found we need a few more shades of orange (for sewing carrots!) and light green (to sew more mixed salad greens!). We better keep a lookout for those shades at the craft store.

Because heaven forbid we don’t have the exact right shade of felt and have to drive into town. (Ah, life with a three year old. Everything becomes terribly dramatic.)

Meanwhile, time to get crafting!

The Nest in our Wind Chimes

A few weeks ago we noticed a bird dart off our wind chimes every time we opened our front door.

We began to suspect that she was trying to build a nest on them. Hence, the odd twig sticking out:

Eggs in the nest in our wind chimes

Last week we decided to take a peak inside the sugar bowl.

Boy, were we wrong!

Eggs in the nest in our wind chimes

The bird was so small that she built a nest in our wind chimes. A fluffy, thickly woven, yet petite nest inside the sugar bowl of our re-purposed wind chimes (a lovely wedding present from my friend Amanda that has traveled with us from Colorado to each of our houses in California).

Bird eggs in the nest in our wind chimes

We found five beautiful, speckled, tiny eggs.

Such a perfect Earth Day surprise.

Bird eggs in the nest in our wind chimes

I can’t wait to hear little birds chirping every time I go through our front door. Ah, spring, we love you.

Every Day is Earth Day

I believe that we must honor, care for, and respect the earth every day of the year.

We must encourage our children in their development of a sense of responsibility for our planet.

To build that, we garden, hike, explore, learn about and come to treasure the world around us.

Every day is Earth Day. Let’s try to get outside today to enjoy and celebrate our beautiful world!

Pride and Prejudice with Pictures!

Did you know that Marvel has published a graphic novel version of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice? (Thank you to Jenny for the info!)

As someone who devours all things Jane Austen, I was thrilled to hear about this. I’m all about bringing nineteenth century literature to the masses.

My copy arrived this morning. I can’t wait to dive right in. Doesn’t Caroline Bingley (above) look deliciously awful?! I abhor Mr. Collins already too:

I’ll provide one last shot, because I know you’re dying to see their interpretation of Pemberley…

I can’t wait to get reading… After this, I’m tackling the Marvel Illustrated Sense & Sensibility.