Christmas art memories

Paper plate angels

Cone-ifer trees

Nutcracker drawings

Ballerina snowflakes

Baking goodies for a night with friends

Making gingerbread houses with friends

The Nutcracker ballet with friends

Christmas fun

Seussical the Musical

A little art

Finally, art time! Splatter painted owl

I find with every passing week it becomes harder to find time for the non-essentials like art projects. This is definitely not my intention, as these little projects are great fun for us and great conversation time, too. I am certain that December and the other winter months will give us much more time for these fun times. Until then, treasuring each one!

Art hallway=happy place

This is our new hall art gallery.  I am in love!  I treasure the kids' artwork, especially the art made together from our homeschooling days.  This hallway is one of my happy places in our house now!  I know it looks home-made and it's full of imperfections, but it's like family history and good memories displayed in front of my eyes every day.  Happy!

ArT day with my nieces

The girls came over and joined us for an art day!  This time together was part of our Christmas present to them.  While they were waiting for me to set up, they designed Barbie dresses

and performed a ballet/cheerleader play for me!

First costume: the rock star

Second costume: the ballerina

Third costume: the cheerleader

And last: A song about Mommy...in her robe

And then we made burlap initial signs for their doors.  I end of the day, Lydie and I agreed that we should do this more often!

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."  Pablo Picasso

Winter fun

Our Friday art project: snow globes

Directions: Hot glue plastic figurines to the inside of the jar lid. (We chose penguins from a "zoob" tube at Hobby Lobby.) Pour distilled water, a couple of drops of glycerin, and glitter inside the jar. Close the jar and shake! (For more fun, use acryllic paint to paint the lids of the jars, if you choose! We liked the metallic lids. But black lids with white polka dots would have been adorable.) Source: Martha Stewart's website

Bearing His Image through Art

When Jackson was born (11 years ago!), and even two years after that when Josh came along, I was completely entrenched in being a Mom. I wore no other hats. Jack had some health problems that required daily therapy at home for an hour or two, maybe longer, along with regular visits to specialists. To enhance what we were working on with him, we took gym classes, music classes, joined a playgroup, went to story time at the library, and no telling what else. Basically, all I did 24/7 was plan, pray, or attend things for Jack. Or at least it felt that way. I have no regrets. God graciously has allowed our son to be healthy and happy, leaving behind the days of therapy and medical issues. But it was all-consuming those first years of parenting, that's for sure.In the mean time, my husband was building his career as an environmental consultant. He was part owner/VP in his company, and those responsibilities coupled with his undying ambition and 1 hour commute each way to work left most, well...all, of the parental responsibilities for me. That's how life was for about four years. Did I mention we were renovating our house on the weekends?It took me a while to realize that God had called me to do more with the next couple of decades of my life than be just Mom and wife. All throughout adulthood I had many friends. But since Jack was born I hadn't many hobbies, service, or even a whole lot of thinking outside of what involved my husband and children. I don't regret or feel guilty about it. Some doctors attribute Jack's recovery to those hundreds of hours I spent researching, planning, and working with him. I feel honored that God chose to use me as a help in Jack's life during those years.How could I regret that? But by the time things slowed down I realized that I had no idea how to spend a day alone with myself. If I had a penny to throw in a fountain I would have no idea what to wish for. I had two healthy boys, what now? It had been a long time since I had the luxury of time and solitude. The year the boys were 4 and 2 was 2004. It was the easiest year I have ever had as a parent. We lived in a new house that was easy to maintain. Andy didn't have to commute to work any more, and he wasn't doing house projects over the weekends. We had many friends at church and in our neighborhood. And everything was convenient to our house. That year was the only year in the past eleven years that I had regular time alone. The boys both went to preschool three mornings a week. After lunch they went down for a nap together and slept for three hours. Without fail. Did I mention that Joshua was THE EASIEST child on earth? Give him cars and trains and you could clean the entire house without a peep from him. And the boys played very, very well together. They remind me of Phineas and Ferb, if you've seen the cartoon. One was the talker/leader/mastermind of ideas and the other could build/engineer. They were both even-tempered and gentle. Our house was relatively quiet and predictable. That was an easy year.That year I began to remember all of the things I loved to do as an individual. I even discovered things I never knew about myself. I experimented with painting, photography, decorating, and other craft projects. I dusted off the sewing machine, began to write, and hosted people in our home on a weekly basis. I began to keep a journal. I began to volunteer with Women's ministry and host studies and prayer groups of women in our home. I discovered I enjoy reading about history and taking road trips. It was a life-changing year for me.
I haven't been the same since that year. There is always a yearning to create, find an adventure away from home, and capture things with words, paint, a camera. All of these pursuits allow me to see God more clearly. It's such a privilege to interact with his world in an intellectual, artistic way. It leads to worship and joy. I am a better Mom and wife when I have these opportunities for artistic expression and solitude. I know some seasons allow more of this type of learning than others. And I am okay with that. I just do not want these experiences to die altogether again. This time is such an enriching part of walking with Christ as an image-bearer. And, I hope it always remains a top priority for me to encourage this type of expression in my children as well. "The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life."~Frank Lloyd Wright

*Pictured above: Signs of fall around the house. What an inspiring season! These pictures are tiny because I sent them from my Ipad which is still a complete mystery to me!!

New gig

I am so excited. I MIGHT, this is not official, be teaching art at the boys' school next year. Squeeeeal! The curriculum coordinator for the school goes to our church. I mentioned last Sunday that I miss teaching art to my boys, particularly our art history studies. She told me they had recently lost their art teacher and were leaving art education up to the individual teachers. And we continued to talk and the next thing I know the headmaster approached me, and he was excited about what he had heard. So I am going to take in some of the projects I have done with the boys and discuss my ideas with him. I tried to make it clear that art is a hobby, an interest, but I am no artist. Of course Jackson overheard me and retorted, "Oh yes sir, she is an artist. And she's an interior decorator, too." Sweet, naive, boy. But wouldn't it be fun to use this little adventure as an excuse to finally take some art classes?? Normally these fun opportunities come my way and I need to say no because I am homeschooling, or have a toddler or preschooler, and I just can not balance even a part time commitment with being a Mom and wife. It has been a joy to focus the majority of my energy and time at home. But next year Lydie will be in pre-k every morning and the boys will be in school until 2:45. I think I could schedule the art classes in such a way that I would just be there one full day a week. Oh my goodness, I actually think it might be something I could manage without compromising things at home! Fun! So I am praying about it and we'll see what shakes out. I am definitely "dizzy in the noodle" tonight!

Thanksgiving projects with the kids

The kids and I have had a blast in the kitchen today. We made a few things to take to Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws. First, we made Thanksgiving ornaments from salt dough. I found this project here and decided to tackle it, even if it required sweeping, mopping, and extra laundry (flour-soaked clothing, dish towels, and dish rags). The kids really enjoyed making the turkeys. We have one for each family that will be at Thanksgiving dinner with us, plus one to keep at home. I am sure painting them tomorrow will be another fun time (with less mess, double plus!).

Then, we decided to make turkey cupcakes to take as well. My kids have not been completely convinced that pecan and pumpkin pie are "yummy", with the exception of my oldest son who will eat anything and love it. So we are taking our own little festive, kid-friendly, dessert. Lydie and I made these cupcakes. I saw the idea in a Family Fun magazine, I think. I couldn't find the recipe, but just went by memory. These were fun, but took a good bit of time, too. Back to squash casserole and apple pies tomorrow!

Happy thanksgiving! Hope your holiday is full of gratitude and celebration!

Happy crafting!

Last year I tried something new for the holidays. I hand-made most of the female adult gifts, along with baby gifts, that we gave for Christmas presents. It was a little stressful, as time is of the essence during the busy holiday season. But I really enjoyed it and it was a penny-pincher, as well. For some really fun, creative ideas for home-made gifts look over at Edie's blog. She has invited 12 guest bloggers to share their ideas during the first 12 days of November. I already plan to use the applique tutorial for some baby onesies. I have ALWAYS wanted to know how to do that! (And I have an almost one year old sewing machine that has never been used!)While your there, check out some of her house projects. She has a fun style. I was particularly partial to her turquoise kitchen. LOVED it!

Summer art #5

We decided to find some library books on Georgia O'Keeffe at the library. Then the kids used a pencil to draw a flower that would touch all four sides of their paper (this was their goal, any way). I traced it with a Sharpie. Then they used water colors to paint them. I got the idea from this blog.

The results were beautiful and the project was fun! I had these 99 cent frames from IKEA that have been collecting dust for years. We decided to frame the pictures and put them in the small hallway between the kids' rooms. Perfect!

Summer art #3 and #4

Fourth of July pinwheels (directions here)

"God's eye" weaving project (directions here)

*This project requires some hefty fine motor skills. I would say it would be well-suited for 2nd grade and up!

Summer art #2

My friend Abby asked me to be a little bit more detailed about art projects with the kids. So hopefully this post will be helpful for her!

Today's art project required a sharpie, an ink pad (or paint), and paper. (If you don't mind the investment and want to go all out, you can invest in various colored stamp pads. We just used what we had (black) And, scrapbook paper works better than regular copy paper.

First, we checked out this book from the library:

Then the we copied some of the ideas and made Father's day cards. It was fun and the kids came up with some cute slogans to go with the artwork. They decided to make 5 cards a piece, one for each uncle, one for each Granddad, and one for their Daddy. This activity got a thumbs up!

**Warning**

If your table is not Magic Eraser-friendly, you might want to cover it in plastic before getting out the sharpie and the ink pad! And the same goes for clothing!

Fine arts Friday (on Wednesday)

This summer I hope to do some arts/crafts projects with the kids. I had the idea of "Fine Art Fridays", but now I think it will just be for a morning when the kids are antsy. This morning was the perfect time to start! There is only one rule: the materials must be CHEAP (if not free).

We took some frames leftover from a birthday party, our sea shells from the beach, my glue gun, paint, and ribbon for our first project. All we need is our beach pictures to fill the frames, and they will be complete! Here's Lydie's frame:

*Can't wait to get our beach pictures developed for our new frames!

Then we decided to make thank you gifts for Mimi and Papa for hosting us on vacation. Along with a hand-written note, the kids each made a crayon resist with blue watercolor paint. I loved the finished products. Here's J's:

3 "peanut butter spoons" + 3 glasses of milk + 2 art projects=

2 hours of quiet fun for FREE!