Recently Jen over at ScissorsPaperGlue saw fit to share the wealth of some old photos. Note the one on the bottom left. What she sent me was based on my comments and I find them lovely. I wonder though, how did she know we did a “photo shoot” of Eleanor a couple weeks ago sitting in her great grandmother’s rocking chair:

Not much finishing going on here, but I’m starting a few ventures that I’m excited about. So I thought I would share. Maybe you’ll be interested in playing along with some of them:

1. I’ve signed up for Scent of Water’s July photo swap. The theme is “In Motion”. I have to come up with at least one good photo depicting motion to send to my swap partner. Smoothpebble and I have been having fun coming up with potential photo ops for the theme. The last day to sign up for the swap is July 7th so there’s still time if you’re interested.
2. I’ve also joined Necessary Chocolate’s summer reading program. I mean really, kid’s shouldn’t have all the fun. It takes barely any commitment but I’m hoping it’s that little extra kick I need to read something other than blogs this summer (no offense). Go check out the great little chart she made. There are even stickers! Download and print to play along. If you want to be official leave a comment on her post as well, but not required. The chart is full of little reading suggestions, my favorite being “quit reading a book that you don’t like”. Silly, I know. But it’s like she’s just given me permission to stop reading this awful book that I’ve been half way through forever. See! It’s already working.
3. I’ve also started giving some serious though to my unofficial participation in My Cosmopolitan Diary’s Summer Sac Swap. You see, I joined up with overmilkwood after the official close to be swap partners. She’ll be in England and Ireland this summer and thinks the American midwest sounds “exotic”. Really a perfect match as I think anywhere in GB is romantic. They have castles over there for crying out loud! My current pondering has been on what kind of bag to make. So many possibilities: fused plastic, crocheted nylon or cotton, knitted plastic, sewn fabric…. The possibilities are endless. I could always felt another bag, but I’ve never been good with repeat projects no matter how much I like them. I usually have to try something new. Besides, it doesn’t seem very summery. Since I’ve been feeling a huge need for more bags around here I just may need to make some up as samples.
4. I’m also gearing up for a certain 4th birthday party, but more on that later.

I just have to say I have one of the greatest friends EVER. Approximately 6 times a year this amazing woman not only has a party but a pARTy. Not only does she take the time to clean her house and pick up some nibbles to entertain us but she also organizes an art project for us to work on. I know this takes a tremendous amount of effort as I’ve thought through hosting one myself. She’s got to come up with a project, make samples, purchase and often prepare the materials and then patiently wait for us to catch on to whatever it is she’s showing us. This month it was painting with acrylics on a digital photo. We each supplied our own digital photos that she laser printed out for us. Then following her lead we created amazing pieces. Here are the two piece I did. On the left is the photo I used, the right is what I did with it, description beneath each piece.

This lovely penstemon sits in my native prairie garden like it’s been there forever when in fact I planted it last spring. Image mounted on wood block. Negative space painted out with green, flower petals left untouched. Strip of aspen added to side as an accent piece.

Image of an out building at my CSA farm. Image also mounted to a wood block. This time I painted over the teal and coral colors to make them pop. I liked how using the same color for the flowers, window boxes and door tied it all together.

I was a little nervous about working with acrylics as it was yet another new experience for me. But it was easier than I expected. See Jen’s fab tutorial to do one of your own or to check out what the others in the group did.

Normally when I think heirloom baby clothing I would think of things like bonnets, christening gowns and hand knit sweaters. However, times are a changin’. While we do have adorable bonnets that were handed down, I’m so happy my mother saved this little dragon t-shirt from my childhood. Does it tell you anything about how I was raised?

That’s right, a green batik dragon. Probably circa 1971 purchased at the Ewing Art Festival in Illinois. It’s actually got me rethinking my big push over the last several months to get rid of all the baby clothes the kids have already grown out of. I hope it’s not too late and I still have a few good pieces I can keep.

Are you keeping anything? Was anything kept for you or if you’ve got them, your children? What was special to you?

Following Jen’s fern printing tutorial and taking a cue from Spring Thinking I pounded out this shirt a couple weeks back. I had a bouquet that was past it’s prime just screaming for me try. Once I had exhausted the viable flowers from the bouquet I was hungry for more. So I raided the herb garden for some chives. I placed a paper towel covered board between the two layers of fabric and more paper towel on top of the flowers and bashed away to my hears content. Boy did my eyes water when I was pounding those chives! I had a lot of fun and even let Seth take a whack. I still want to try ferns but I think other plants in the garden warrant a try as well. Next time I’ll remember to place a towel under the whole thing a lot sooner. Luckily there were no holes but there was a bit of discoloration on the side facing the patio blocks. Oops!

Once all was said and done I actually liked the back of the shirt the best. Also, after washing, the chives held up the best. The flower portion has faded somewhat but not the blades. The Gerbia’s from the bouquet did fade a bit but still are recognizable. I wonder if the result would have been different had I used flowers that were fresher.

I used the good old random number generator to come up with a winner for my 100th post giveaway. Drumroll please……………….

Congratulations Shelly!

Shelly has a cute little blog she recently started up. Check it out if you get a chance. I can’t wait to see how it develops. She’s already inspired me to start watering my past-their-prime root vegetables as I love the look of her sweet potato vine.

Thank you to everyone who commented. I appreciated each and every one. It was nice to hear from you and for those of you that also have blogs I really enjoyed taking the time to check out your sites. What a creative group.

I have to admit it was a little nerve racking putting one of my own pieces out there. It’s one thing to put crafty kids stuff out there but it’s another to put one of my own creations up for viewing. Especially one that involves painting. Knitting, no problem - paintings involve teeth chattering. Silly, I know but there it is. So thanks again!

I forgot to mention in my last post that today is the very last day to sign up for my little giveaway. Come on - give me some comment love. You have no idea how much I like comments and I promise not to use your email address for evil. The most I’ll do with it is reply to your comment. Just leave a comment of any nature on my 100th post to enter the giveaway. It won’t hurt, I promise.

Now that Father’s Day has come and gone I can post this with out ruining any surprises. I’ve been on a kick to de-emphasize the value we put on material things in our household. This is especially true when it comes to the kids. I think all of their toys scatter about the house pushed me over the edge. In the case of Father’s Day this meant no big store bought gifts for Papa. Something homemade by the kids sounded good and art even better. However, I wanted something more permanent than your average kids painting stuck up with a magnet on the fridge. I finally settle on painting canvases inspired by Jean at The Artful Parent. I bought a two pack of cheap 16×20 stretched canvases for 1/2 off at a discount craft store and set the kids up. However, after watching Eleanor’s reaction to painting with water I thought it best to allow the neighbor girl to paint the 2nd canvas instead of Eleanor. I let them each have a dollop of three different color paints at a time on a paper plate. I’ve finally smartened up about not letting Seth have access to all the paint colors he wants. The paper plate served as a pallet for them to mix colors. This was a suggestion from Seth’s teacher and it worked marvelously.

Then we needed a card to go along with the gift. Seeing a post by Kristen at Pepper Paints for a Weekly Unplugged Project I pulled out some supplies to make glitter cards.

Here’s the how to for our version:

Supplies:

• Cardstock - one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet per card
• Self laminating sheets - one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet per card (or you could easily use contact paper)
• Glue - any old kind will work
• Crayons
• Glitter - For the less coordinated I really liked these little squeeze bottles. I found a packet of 6 colors for $1.99 at a party supply store

Steps, best done out of doors:

1. Let the kids color on one side of the paper. This will be the inside of the card.
2. Cut a self laminating sheet in half and peel the backing off of one.
3. Let the kids sprinkle the sheet with glitter. The beauty is you don’t have to worry about glue and these little squeeze bottles really controlled the amount of glitter poured out. They also took a lot more time for the kids to apply, which in my book is good.
4. Meanwhile fold the card stock in half with the drawing on the inside.
5. Once the kids are satisfied with the glitter distribution, affix the other half of the laminate sheet on top.
6. Then trim down the glitter sheet and glue them to the outside of the card.

The kids, ages 22 months to 5 1/2 yrs in this case, really enjoyed doing this project and it was much more successful then my previous projects with glitter. Interestingly, the 22 month old was the hardest to get to stop. He would have gone for another 15 minutes minimum if he hadn’t been pulled away due to his bedtime. The best part? We were able to pull this off in relative secrecy. Rather unusual for us.

I’m often impatient waiting for my kids to reach an appropriate stage to do x, y or z. It’s not that I want them to grow up faster, logically I know better. It’s just that I can’t wait to share more of my life with them and to expose them to all the possibilities the world has to offer. So I often go through daily internal struggles over the silliest of things. I feel this way with art, especially painting. I know Eleanor’s not ready to paint, but I am. So here’s my plan: break it down and expose her to one tiny element at a time. So far we’ve played with a variety of papers, touching them, crinkling them, tearing them. I’ve also let her play with dry paint brushes to her hearts content. I make available a variety of sizes to feel, carry and rearrange. At 13 months I now felt she was ready for the next step. Perfect for a warm day, we broke out the paint brushes, “no spill” paint cups and ……. WATER.

The paint brush immediately went into her mouth and then she painted her legs and the sidewalk until the water was nearly gone and the 21 month old neighbor boy decide he needed a turn. I remember Seth “painting” everything in sight when he was about 2. He loved to mimic Paddington in one of his books and paint the chairs with water. Even older kids enjoy painting pictures on the sidewalk, knowing it will soon dry and disappear.

Before the end of the summer I plan on stripping her down and letting her have a go at finger painting. But for now, I’m satisfied.

Yeah! My first CSA delivery of the season! Lettuce, swiss chard, dill and a whole lot of spinach.

Can you guess what I had for supper? No peaking at my flickr.