Sun Days

This was yesterday morning, just about to walk downtown for storytime at the public library.

Like so many of my outfits, I have Milla to thank for this one. She thrifted the vintage cotton jersey dress with her mom back in Finland, and if I recall correctly, I actually have her mom to thank for suggesting she get this one for me. It's a polo shirt-style dress though between my hair covering the button up little white collar and my cardi covering the white trimmed sleeves you wouldn’t know it from the picture.

I love its stripes and carefree preppy vibe and the fact that it's super soft like a worn tee. I've gotta say, I’m also really lovin’ this no tights business.

The little black quilted mary janes I found last week at Goodwill for $4 and the tote, which I carry all the time and must get a good picture of one of these times, was a gift from Milla as well.

Behind me is one of two redbud trees in our front yard which burst into bloom over the weekend, such pretty trees they are, and to my right was this…

Of course I rushed to grab my camera off the tripod and get a shot of the little nasturtium fairy just before she tromped away. Those fairies are quick you know!



Speaking of grabbing my camera, earlier in the morning I noticed how pretty the light was coming in through our east facing windows. It lit up our little windowsill collection of dusty old bottles and solar pendulums and made the coolest shadows on the wall above Clover's new-to-us (and free!) vintage Holly Hobbie kitchen set.

What’s a solar pendulum, you say? Well, you wouldn’t be the first to ask!
I made a little video to show them in action:

Lucas came across them years ago while looking at solar panels on eBay. Someone was selling a lot of 20 and he was the only bidder and got them all for something like 5 bucks I think. They each have a coil and magnets and a little tiny solar panel that powers them.

As soon as the sun hits, they start swinging and keep on goin’ till the sun goes down. They are the coolest little gadgets and I love the tick-tock sound they make like old-fashioned clocks. People who come into our home are always completely fascinated by them.

We have no idea what their original purpose was, that is if there was one, other than just being super awesome little sun-loving creatures of course. We haven’t yet met anyone else who knows either. Any ideas?

They really are like little creatures though. If they get close enough to one other (the swinging does cause them to move around a bit) the magnets of their swingy parts can stick together in a way that sort of resembles mating insects.

We even had one that kept trying to commit suicide back when we lived at our old house. They were lined up along the windowsill above our sink, which got really intense sun in the afternoons, and this one would get going so fast that it would gradually “walk” itself to the edge of the windowsill and “jump” into the sink. Poor thing, it did eventually bust a wire and stop swinging. Perhaps it caught its true love mating with another one of the pendulums… who knows?

On Sunday, we went to an early Easter egg hunt put on by our friend Laura Jane. It involved about 20 dozen actual eggs which had been opened by just removing the top (I don’t know how she does this) then the hollowed out eggs were dyed, filled with confetti and a piece of candy or money or a prize ticket and then the hole on top was sealed over with rice paper and glue.

The kids went inside while the adults hid all the eggs. Then they were let loose to collect eggs and smash them open in an explosion of confetti often over someone’s head or wherever was fun or convenient to see what was inside. The whole yard was covered in confetti and eggshells by the end of it all.

It was a blast and Clover, who got lucky and found one of only two eggs with a five dollar bill in it, had a really great time. Thanks Laura Jane! Also, I was having a lazy picture taking day so thanks to our friend Nour who took a couple pictures of us on her phone and emailed them to me :)