mandalas at carol's

 every once in awhile my friend carol puts together a field trip or a craft project (costume shop, wedding dress designer, artist trading cards) that i truly cherish. today she gathered us into her home for a day of mandala making. above, handsome haji welcomes us all as we enter his castle.

 an owl from the 2011 nychea craft fair!

 before we began, it was a time to catch up with our young people who have been at school or traveling. sofe has been in annapolis . .

 i'm not sure where ella has been studying!

 a snowman card from another nychea craft fair! it makes me happy to see our homeschooling crafts displayed. i'm unsure of what year this is from, but it's after 2011.

 carol talked for a little bit about mandalas and the supplies that were laid out, and then let us get to work.

 we all contributed with scrap yarns, papers, glue . . 

 scissors, protractors, compasses . . 

 pens . . 

 rulers and watercolor paint and brushes . . 

 plain, sturdy paper for the mandala frame . . 

 i usually feel very confused at these events, and always at a loss of how to begin. i also always suspect that i'm the only one that must feel that way, though, realistically, a few others must feel the same.

 my mandala. when carol came by she smiled and said she bought the flowered material i used purposely for the small flowers that could be cut out, "i thought they would be so perfect to snip out."

 chanda's . . 

 morgana's . .

 ella's . . 

 deborah's . . 

 katie's . .

 nancy's . . 

 marisa's . . 

 carol's . . 

 morgana's . . 

as you can see, everyone's mandala was brilliant and inspiring!

tenth day and eleventh night

 a strong winter storm roared through today. we began the morning listening to the wind howling and admiring the snow piling up in the courtyard. all public schools were closed.

 chanda is eating the last of her christmas chocolate (and trying to sneak a piece of her sister's) while morgana read from tennis shoes.

hermione playing with her christmas catnip toy . . 

 morgana and chanda went out to have tea at a local coffee shop and to see the movie casablanca with their friend deychen. i think they were the only ones in the theatre for the afternoon screening!

 

 korrina's living room window . . (both she and brian had the day off).

 her kitchen window . . she sat and knitted with her cat curled next to her . . and also did some baking with her new kitchen aid mixer that she received as a birthday/christmas gift from brian.

my sister's snowfall measurement. i think it might have gone up to thirteen inches.

we always get a good wind off the river . .

we ended the evening with a cup of eggnog, homemade by morgana, from a child's seasonal treasury, by betty jones.

eighth day and ninth night

we had a quiet morning knitting and reading together,

and then a lovely dinner at our friend olga's house. she always has us over at holiday time and i always enjoy it. her husband made the lasagna this evening, and it was so good!

it's nice having the children get together.

they grow so fast!

new year's day

 it was another cold day, but, thankfully, with some sunshine.

 hermione stayed warm on the chair,

 while greg worked on his chess in the back room.

 we had a morning game of bananagrams with morgana, which greg won.

 chanda was home from upstate in time to have new year's day dinner with us:

 traditional black eyed peas with leftover christmas meatloaf.

 a number of years ago santa gave us scrabble as a family game. however, the girls don't enjoy playing it as much as santa thought they would, so we rarely play,

 unless i manage to twist everyone's arms . . 

 and this evening i won!