The week in pictures

Yesterday, I visited a local arts school because I saw that they had a shop that sold weaving supplies. Since it was significantly closer than the only other store I know about, it seemed worth a trek. Fine Line Creative Arts Center is very cool. I can't believe I'm only now checking it out. Along with my yarn, I also brought home the list of classes being offered this semester. One of them was a two-day intensive learning to weave class which takes you through the entire process of learning to weave on a floor loom. I briefly though to myself that it was be great to be able to take it, but after glancing at the dates, thought that I had missed the first class. When another child was flipping through it while sitting next to me, I realized that I hadn't missed the first class, that it started the next day. So I called to see if I could still sign up, which I could, so I did. It was great fun spending the entire day weaving and learning new things. I feel pretty confident that I can now warp the floor loom I bought last month. I'm looking forward to the next class.

All of this is to say, you get pictures tonight.

We now have a house cell phone so that we can leave the not so little younger people home alone and they still have a way to contact us. This also means there is now a house phone camera, the pictures from which are shared with us. Y. took this picture of Nefertiti being very squooshy.

Earlier this week, I took a walk through the forest preserve, deciding that if I was waiting for it to get warmer than 18 degrees to take a walk, I would probably be waiting until March. Once I was moving, it wasn't really that bad. I was particularly struck by the fungi (or lichens or what?) that I saw.

I love it when I see this happening for hours at a time. (This is L.)

Remember when I mentioned letting the globes dry on the table by the window yesterday? Well, that window gets a lot of sun, and it was a sunny day. As we learned in chemistry last year, heated gas expands. This means that when the air in the balloon inside the papier-mache is warmed by the sun, it expands also. Papier-mache, evidently, does not expand. There will need to be some repair work done on the globes before they are painted.

And a little peek at what I was working on today. I'm not entirely sure I'm in love with the colors (though they look very different from the photo in person), but I'm learning a lot. We'll see how it turns out.