As the kids grew, what we hauled to the cottage changed...it always has been and it will always be a lot of stuff…and this trip is no easy feat…we used to live only 2 hours to the marina, but since we moved to Ottawa, 7 years ago, it has become a 5½ hour trek…and that is just to the marina…then the car has to be off-loaded, the boat loaded and then the 6 mile ride to the island where everything has to be hauled back out of the boat and up to the cottage…no one is allowed to swim or crack a beer until the work is done! When the kids were little, they couldn’t haul much, but did their part…now it is easier with everyone grown…there were a few teen years that were trying, but those seem to have smoothed out. We take everything we need for our time at the cottage…it is very rare that I will leave the island to go into town during our stay…but there is usually someone who makes a couple trips in…for milk, worms, wine, bubblegum!
Each summer I would plan a craft of some sort that we would all do…on top of the usual paints, crayons, books, puzzles, music and such that would help to keep the kids happy on a rainy day…it is funny what things become ‘ritual’ – the cottage craft, certain foods…although there is now electricity on the island, there is a very strict no tv rule...but the kids in later years have bent this a bit by bringing laptops and movies that they watch hooked up to headphones into the night...
The crafts have had to match the abilities of the kids…so they have changed a lot over the years…from finger painting on paper and naked bodies when they were very young to constructing simple cardboard and popsicle stick picture frames to making braided and knotted leather thong key chains to paper mache to safety pin and bead anklets and bracelets to pottery and the making of pinch pots and tiles to gourd carving and painting…we have covered a lot of crafting in our summer sojourns. This summer we were thinking about doing floor cloths…but we are also going to do some painting of furniture, as well, LT and I will be doing some plein air painting…so we might do flags or wall hangings instead…that way we can use the not so expensive lighter weight canvas and won’t need to do all the finishing necessary if it was to be walked on…
Last year we did the gourd carving and painting…it was really fun…none of us had ever done it before…LT got the supplies from a neat place in Cookstown called Northern Dipper…for the last couple of years we have set up our crafts in the gazebo…it is funny how the family uses this building - all so differently…my brother used to eat most of his meals out there…my gang did have a big candle-lit sit down dinner for about 8 or 10 one year…it was lovely, but a lot of work getting everything over there from the main cabin and back again! My sister and her family use it mainly for exercising – they have a tread mill and some other exercise stuff there…my gang does crafts out there…that way we can set everything up and leave it…not having to put it all away when we want to sit down and eat…which we do in the main cabin! The view from the gazebo (actually from anywhere up there!) is wonderful…it is all screen on 3 sides, so a lovely breeze blows through…what a great summer studio!
The gourds are dried when you get them from the supplier…all dirty, so the first step is to wash them…
There is a big table out there that we use…room for all the craft stuff…and wine!
Here are some of the gourd projects in progress…
The year before the gourds, I brought 50lbs of clay up to the island (like there isn’t enough stuff to lug up!)…we had great fun mostly making tiles…that year we had 4 teenagers…my 2 daughters, a beau and the younger brother of the girl that my elder daughter had done a 3 month exchange to France with…so there were 7 of us that year and LT and I decided that a nice cottage present would be for everyone to make a tile depicting something about the cottage…it has taken since the summer of 2007 to get the tiles glazed and mounted…but I will be taking it up this year…finally! The 2 boys did their required tiles and then took off for more fun things…but LT, my 2 daughters and I made many tiles and pinch pots…
Here is Ghislain, from France, in the fore-ground, LT and her beau, J all working on their tiles…
Tiles drying on the banister outside the gazebo…
More tiles finished and drying…
More tiles…we did have fun!
And here is the finished mosaic for the cottage…well, almost...I still need to touch up the grout in a few spots and figure out how to hang the thing...
In 2006 we made safety pin and bead bracelets/anklets…I still wear mine from time to time…I think I took the longest to make mine…I had to work very hard to make a ‘random’ pattern!...
I don’t seem to have any more pictures of cottage crafts…it could be that I didn’t have my digital camera before that…
2 comments:
Oh my! what a wonderful retreat for you and your family. I'm loving the tiles!
What wonderful creations have been made over the years. Those tiles are indeed brilliant.
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