All Dressed in Blue

Come on Over

2009-01-24T10:32:00.004-06:00

I made the switch to TypePad!

I have been wanting to do it for some time and I think now is the perfect time to make it.

I will be able to post the Sketchbook Stickers directly on the blog and you can download them easily.

I'll miss All Dressed in Blue on Blogger but will have lots of links to older projects and posts on the new blog.

You can now reach me at

http://www.alldressedinblue.com/

Come on over!

Sketchbook Stickers

2009-01-22T11:30:00.014-06:00

My idea....

Sketchbooks have been on the brain lately. I have kept many sketchbooks over the years. I tend to use lots and chose the one right for the occasion. Small ones that fit in my pocket for quick outings or larger ones for a museum trip but the problem is I don’t keep one cohesive sketchbook that I really pour myself into. Some ideas never develop because I will put that sketchbook down and may not pick it up again for several weeks. My goal for the year is to keep a sketchbook/journal with me at all times so ideas have pages and time to develop. Sketchbook/Journals have also been on the brain because my 10 year old is becoming a wonderful writer full of ideas and creativity. I can see how important it is for me to encourage her to keep a book with her to record experiences and thoughts. And I think if I start with my younger one now it will become a natural part of life.

So I have been trying to come up with ideas that encourage sketchbook use for me and my daughters. My idea is to create

sketchbook stickers.

Stickers full of art reference information, organization tools and ways to inspire. You can stick them into you sketchbook and have information and tools handy at all times.

My initial idea was to create sticker packs and sell on Etsy but during the process I decided I just want to share them with you all here and create a place on the blog where we share sketchbook activities and ideas to help all of us become better artist.

I have lots of stickers already planned and some more ideas in the pipeline. I am going to post stickers periodically on the blog. You can pick up a pack of label sticker sheets, save the stickers from the blog, and print them off. Then you will be all set. You could just print them out on paper and tape them into the books, but I really like stickers. Don’t you?

I have two stickers to share with you today.

A ruler sticker for measuring emergencies (you know, like when a gnome needs to know how tall he is)

and an inspiration sticker to help keep ideas organized and easier to spot (cause some of my ideas get lost in the page never to be seen again). It has 3 spots to fill in one for the idea, materials needed and notes.

Because I want to offer high quality images for you and I cannot post PDF files on the blog I will be sharing them through another website.

You can download the stickers here.

okay so I realized that sometimes when you click the above link the stickers are there and sometimes thery are not. I'm working on a solution. Sorry~

My only request is that you use the stickers for personal uses only. Make some for yourself or send them to you awesome niece who you don’t get to see nearly enough (love you KK).

Oh and I would love for you to share your thoughts with me. I want to learn about lots of subjects with these stickers and hope you join me in the exploration.

Daruma Love

2009-01-05T23:35:00.011-06:00

We recentley discovered a wonderful museum The Crow Collection of Asian Art. On a recent visit the awesome docent pointed my oldest girl towards a family scavenger hunt booklet. He told her if she was diligent and found all the art work they had a treasure for her. My girl takes treasures very seriously and got to business. She returned with her goal achieved and the gentleman opened a little white box and pulled out a Daruma Doll.

He told her a the story of Daruma a famous Indian monk who establised Zen Buddhism. The Daruma has two blank eyes. He told her when she sets an important goal to color in one of the Daruma dolls eyes, when she achieves that goal she colors the other eye in.

The little Daruma doll sits on her shelf in her room. She's waiting for the perfect goal to color in his first eye.

I think it is awesome to have a visual reminder of achieveing an important goal.

I made a little daruma sticker design for my sketchbook. Just in case you have an important goal or a small goal and would like a daruma sticker you can download it here on the bottom of the page will be the words download file.

Print the image out on sticker paper then you are all ready go.

In my Daruma search I found this unazukin doll fashioned after the Daruma. The unazukin doll shakes her head yes or no when you ask her a question. I wounder if my shelf has room for a daruma and unazukin dolls. Of course!!

2009-01-04T09:05:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year!

I had so much more I wanted to share with you all last year. I got seriously wrapped up with Christmas gift making.

I have been working on a new idea for the last few months and now that the new year has rolled around I am almost ready to share. I am busy setting up a new etsy shop and will have lots to share on the blog.

Hint:

Corn Husk Doll

2008-11-19T09:50:00.007-06:00

My little girl had a surprise in her backpack yesterday. Her preschool class had made native american corn husk dolls.

She told me this morning that little boys and girls made these dolls a long time ago.

I think it was a pretty cool experience for her.

If you would like to make a corn husk doll you can find the instructions here. This link has great suggestions for decorating your doll including soaking her in watercolors, food color, coffee or tea to give them color.

You can watch a video tutorial here.

I want a whole family to decorate with this Thanksgiving.

you can find the legend of the corn husk doll here.

Moss Terrariums

2008-11-18T10:20:00.012-06:00

I have been spotting moss terrariums everywhere lately and I am a bit smitten. I decided some time back to make them for the girls' teachers. I thought I would share some tips in case you decided to make one of these terrariums.

I found awesome resources online.

I especially used these

http://makesomething.ca/2008/10/01/making-a-terrarium/

http://www.helloyarn.com/wp/?p=412

Since you can find loads of step by step instructions I thought I would share some of my personal experiences making these pretty little terrariums.

1. The activated charcoal was the hardest to find. I finally found it at a small speciality nursery. It came in large chunks that I just hammered into smaller pieces.

2. I had trouble deciding on the type of soil to use and finally decided to go with cactus soil because I think it will help by not holding excess water.

3. I looked online for moss but I thought it was pretty expensive. I decided to do a little exploring and find my own. I overlooked a great little creek by my house for over two weeks. It was full of great moss.

It was fun finding it by myself . I did have a crazy experience where I was poking around by our local lake and ran into a snake.

4. I had hoped to find my thrift shop full of great jars but had no luck. I found the blue top jars at Ross for a couple of bucks each. I found the tiny jars at World Market for 99cents.

5. I purchased the decorations on etsy.

6. I am going to find some travel size spray bottle to give with each terrarium to make for easier misting of the moss.

7. I made these early so they will have time to cure hopefully insuring I give a healthy terrarium as a gift.

the smaller jars are my favorite.

but don't forget about the awesome peanut butter jars.

the peanut butter jar made the perfect container for my little girl.

Let me know if you have any questions. I would be happy to share what I learned.

Werewolves and Fries

2008-10-14T08:10:00.007-05:00

You never know where inspiration will hit you. I found some inspiration while ordering lunch a couple of weeks ago at Sonic. They are selling these toys in the kid’s packs and after seeing the promotional sign I was in love with the little werewolf. We ended up getting the skeleton and Frankenstein toys but that werewolf stayed with me. I finally decided to make my own

werewolf so I made a sweet embroidered one.

Here is the embroidery pattern in case you need a werewolf in your life. I just piled on the french knots for his furry face.

You can use it to make a brooch for Halloween.

Spoilers

2008-10-07T09:03:00.008-05:00

This is a Christmas Spoiler.

So if I am having Christmas at your house or will be sharing good times with you this season

you may not want to read on.....

or you may be a little naughty like me and want to read on and then email me requesting a specific color. I love you either way.

I just love this pattern too much not to share. I have been knitting on and off for a year now. I have many limitations. I knit best on large needles with big fun chunky yarn and if I make a mistake I'm up a creek because I have no ability to fix it. I found a great easy project that suits me perfectly the knitted cowl pattern by Copycat is awesome. It is super easy to knit and turns out fabulous. In fact it was my first time using circular needles and it still turned out beautifully. I am finishing my third and hope to make one a week till December giving them to my friends, family, and teachers. I am working on adding my own touch and will share some brooch ideas soon.

When I was taking a pic to share I slipped the cowl on my little girl and it was darling. It looks like a poncho/capelet, she may need one in a fun color

Sometime you need to draw a Giraffe

2008-09-22T23:59:00.009-05:00

My youngest girl has a serious thing for giraffes. I want to make her some giraffe themed items for Christmas so I needed to brush up on my skills. I googled “how to draw a giraffe” and found this diagram.

The diagram helped me gain confidence in my giraffe drawing. I typically draw what I see and it’s hard for me to draw from memory or imagination. It turned my horse with a really long neck into a giraffe. Diagrams can be a great tool for artists because they help fill in information really quickly.

There is a link on the giraffe page that leads you to a list of other animal diagrams. I printed each one out and slipped them into those plastic page protectors and bound them. Now I have a whole book of animal diagrams and should the need arise to draw a bison or a kangaroo, I’m set. My daughter and husband used the binder this afternoon and it got the ball rolling for them.

I wanted my younger girl to get in on the action so I created a binder just for her. I printed out some realistic coloring pages from http://www.letmecolor.com/ and slipped them in the page protectors then gave her an expo marker so she could have her own fun. After her fun we can wipe the marker right off.

Bunny and Carrot are Friends

2008-09-06T23:17:00.007-05:00

I made me some shadow puppets.

Crazy Fun to make and the whole family got into using them. I made them in no time with the help of my new fiskars knife. I have loads of black construction paper so I used it to make the puppets but laminated them at my local office supply store to keep them sturdy for the younger girl. I used skewers for the sticks and handi tak to hold them in place. For the screen I pinned up a white sheet in the doorway to my bathroom. Turn the bathroom light on and the outside light off and you have an instant puppet theater. I used the website owly shadow puppet as a resource.

Staying up late

2008-08-25T14:13:00.004-05:00

The Olympics are over and I will finally get in bed before 2am. I enjoyed every minute.

I have been wanting to creating some shadow puppets when quite by accident I stumbled upon the awesome etsy shop owlyshadowpuppets. Check out the puppet screens here. These super cool puppets are created by Chicago artist Andrea Everman who offers instruction for making your own puppets on her website. I hope to create my own this week.

The Perfect Repurposed Jar- Peanut Butter Jar

2008-08-07T10:55:00.014-05:00

My family has a serious love of peanut butter. My husband considers himself a master at creating the perfect jelly to peanut butter ratio. Therefore I have a steady flow of peanut butter jars. I use them all the time. I love my jelly jars too but these plastic jars are just awesome for holding a wide variety of items.

They are useful water containers for water coloring because you can take it anywhere and you can use the lid to create a wash. If you add a rubber band to slip in your paintbrushes, pencils and other tools you have a nifty watercolor kit.

Perfect Snack containers for holding my vanilla macaroon granola.

Yarn Cup Revisited

2008-07-29T09:50:00.019-05:00

I received a question about the yarn cup weaving project I posted about some time ago. The instructions are a bit unclear so I thought I would give a more detailed tutorial on the project. I enlisted the help of my older girl, she looks jazzed!

Supplies:

Variety of yarn pieces

Plastic Cup

Scissors

Sharpie

Template

You can create a template by tracing the top of your plastic cup. You need an odd number of strips to weave the yarn through. My template was for a 16 oz cup. You can use a variety of cup sizes just create a template where there are an odd number of equally spaced strips. The more strips you have the tighter the weave, but if you have a younger child then you may want fewer strips.

mark on the cup with a sharpie where each line should be cut.

Cut straight lines down the side of cup to the bottom. This is how you create the strips you will use to weave.

Once all the strips are cut you can choose your yarn. I like to begin with smooth yarns because they are easier to work with. Save the bumpy, frizzy, speciality yarns for when you have the hang of it. Always start with the yarn tail on the inside of the cup.

Now that you have your start you can weave the yarn in and out of the strips of plastic.

the first length of yarn can be frustrating. The first couple of rows may look like the one above. Take a break after every row or two to tighten the rows by pushing the yarn down.

When you run out of the first yarn piece end with the tail tucked inside the cup. Start the new piece of yarn where the last piece should have come out.

Keep on weaving. Now that you have some experience add the fun yarn if you like. You may think it works up really fast but really you will need to tighten it up often. Keep pushing the yarn down in order to have a nice tight weave.
My girl finished her cup in under 2 hours.

when you are done simply clean up the inside of the cup by trimming all the tails with scissors. With the wide variety of speciality yarns the options are endless.

Tips:

the plastic may splinter causing these little thorns that will catch on the yarn. Pull or cut them off.

The beginning can be frustrating. It just takes a bit to get accustomed. I did this project with our Girl Scout Troop and all 11 girls finished a cup and then another. Just a bit hairy to begin with.

I got the cup started and then remembered my daughter is left handed and started it out weaving right. If you have a lefty just weave in the left direction.

Washer Dial

2008-07-24T12:45:00.011-05:00

You know when you buy a shirt and it's the perfect length and fit then after laundry day it's 2 inches shorter and all snug? Maddening!

So I end up line drying a majority of my shirts which brings me to my real problem, I constantly forget to line dry things! I miss something, or I swear it wasn't in the washer to begin with, or I left them in the washer so long I really can't remember what's all in there. All of which leads me to tears in the laundry room because I had found the perfect black tee only to shrink it up!

Well, I made a little tool to help and want to share in case there are others out there like me. Poor souls tormented by the shrinking tee.

You can download the templates from my flickr page here.

Use a brad as a pointer. Then you can keep up with how many items are in the washer that need to line dry. I used some handitak to stick it to the washer.

I want to laminate it but haven't gotten that far yet.

Sculpey Fun

2008-07-21T08:49:00.008-05:00

I was looking through the Dick Blick site again and I noticed this project. I liked the idea of pressing crayons into the sculpey and then melting it but wanted something my toddler could do.

I took balls of sculpey and let my 3 year old just pick up crayon shavings with it. I took several pictures of the process that you can see here you can click on the photo for a description if you like. Once the pieces are ready I baked them at 325 degrees for around 10-15 min.

It was fun for Allison and super easy to do. They can make a lovely pendant or stones to place in flower pots. I especially like the metallic green crayon one.

Glue Fun

2008-07-15T13:05:00.013-05:00

My oldest daughter is going into the 4th grade. As she gets older it's fun to share things from my elementary school experience. When she emptied out her old school supplies she had scraped off all the pencil paint down the the natural wood and it reminded me of how I use to do the same. I shared with her how I would paint glue all over my hand and then peel it off like skin. Good times. It also reminded me of how we use to change the color of our glue. Doing this took me way back.

First you need regular school glue and a marker

Then pry off the end of the marker using your scissors

Pull out the marker fiber inside. I sniped the plastic wrapping a few times to help the process along.

Insert maker tube into glue container

Wait a little while and then shake, shake, shake.

Voila purple glue.

***My daughter tried making some more this morning and they didn't turn out as vibrant, We realized for the purple (above) we used crayola non washable markers. I think it made a difference. For the washable marker kind we ended up adding two marker innards. We really sniped the marker tube up to let the fiber hang out (it's where all the juice is).

Quite a Bit

2008-07-08T13:20:00.007-05:00

Sometimes you fail to blog for a bit and then it turns into quite a bit.

It's been an eventful several weeks. I turned 30, my little one broke her elbow, we took a lovely vacation to California.

I was unable to hold my summer art classes but want to share the projects I had planned. My niece is in for a visit so we will have a guest artist to work with.

2008-05-17T08:35:00.002-05:00

I saw this amazing video for the first time yesterday and haven't stopped thinking about it.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

New Art and Camping

2008-05-12T08:05:00.007-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there. On Mothers Day we visited our property we plan to build on next year and did a little camping. The town is small but there are two art studios in town. Victoria Miller is an artist who runs a studio from town . There is a metal smith who has wonderful metalwork in the window, I haven't had a chance to visit there yet but I will soon. My husband ran me by Victoria's studio and let me have my choice of artwork for mothers day. I decided on this piece...

The Victoria Miler Creation's website is down right now but I will share it when it is up and running. Camping was fun , especially for the puppy who saw our cows for the first time.

After that she was busy which made her very hard to catch!

Jaw Dropping Good

2008-05-07T07:16:00.004-05:00

I logged on to etsy the other day and spotted these...

they are from the collection at nectarjewelry. I adore them.

Birthday Celebrations

2008-04-28T10:23:00.011-05:00

My youngest daughter turned 3 on earth day last week. I really enjoy birthdays. I mean any reason to have friends over and have a Cinderella cake is awesome. I made a fun little garland by stringing craft pom poms on embroidery thread. I used whatever needle was handy and it broke so if you make one I would suggest using a strong needle. It turned out pretty cute and I think I will use it in her room now that the party is over. Mid way through the project I thought it was a bit of a pain. I worried about it getting all tangled up. I ended up stringing them all on one after another. I then stretched out the thread having a helper hold the ends then I spaced out pom pom however I wanted. To ensure it wouldn't get tangled I wrapped it around a cardboard box just like I would Christmas lights. My advice would be don't do this around your soon to be 3 year old. It turned it to a limbo game.

A tangled frustrating limbo game.

I wish I had a picture of the turkey wraps I made for the party but I didn't snap one. They were super delicious so I thought I would share anyway. They looked very much like these.

I used the mission brand tortillas in tomato basil and Spinach and Herb

I smeared some garden vegetable cream cheese over the tortillas.

I then topped the tortilla with provolone cheese, shaved turkey meat ( I really piled the turkey on) , lettuce, and a few tomatoes.

the picture I used included bacon which would have been great too.

Roll that baby up and give it a diagonal cut.

My 3 year old had her very first art show this weekend. I love to see preschool programs embracing the arts. It was such fun to see all the kids excited about their art. My favorite artist was this little girl.

The cutest, right?

Finger Knitting Fun

2008-04-16T08:01:00.011-05:00

I am working on some projects for summer camps I am planning on offering this summer. I am super excited to be planning a Fiber Art class full of cool activities. I was running some ideas by my older girl and she wanted to give the finger knitting idea a try. We used a very helpful YouTube tutorial here. She learned after school around 3:30......

and 3 hours later she was on her third project...

It was so easy to learn. We just watched the video several times and then grabbed the yarn and watched again pressing pause after each step. The next day two friends came over and she taught them how and within minutes they were all doing it. She added some beads and turned her yarn chains into a necklace for her sister and then made a extra long scarf for me.

Fresco Revisited

2008-04-13T16:38:00.010-05:00

I have blogged about the lesson on fresco painting before but wanted to post about it again. I had the pleasure of doing the activity with my group of girl scouts this last week and they turned out great.

We only meet for 1 1/2 hours so to save a little time I pre-cut out the burlap and stapled them to the paper plates and it worked out really well.

I read a little history about fresco painting from the into to the lesson plan. I also showed them some pictures of ancient frescoes from my art history books you can find some images here. I poured out the plaster and while we waited for it to dry up a bit they worked on their designs. I let them use a mixture of soft and oil pastels. They turned out great and I know they all had fun working on them.

After we finished the other co-leaders and I discussed how this has so many possibilities. They look so cool when finished especially when you antique it by creating cracks.

Photoshop Express

2008-04-01T23:45:00.004-05:00

I have not been able to play around with Photoshop Express but after reading Carrot Revolution it appears Photoshop is offering a very limited web version for free. I do love my Photoshop and Illustrator Software but it is an expensive investment and if you just want to have fun with photos and such this might just be the place to do so. You can Google photshop express demos and find a variety of videos.

Foreground /Background with Mona

2008-04-01T08:25:00.008-05:00

I have a fun activity for young kids learning about foreground and background. You can download the worksheet and my notes here. Download and then print out the picture of Mona Lisa. Explain to your little artist that Mona is in the foreground. The artist wants the viewer to see things in the foreground first. Everything around Mona Lisa is the background. You can then color the Mona Lisa and cut out her figure carefully. Create another background for Mona Lisa anything you want and put her in it. Mona can be anywhere you want. She can be in your room, the grocery store or the moon. I had fun with a room full of kindergartners and this project they love saying her name Mona Lissssssssa.

Background above provided by a sweet little almost 3 year old who just told me, "I want pancakes in my tummy!"

Super new blog

2008-03-25T06:51:00.005-05:00

Super new blog from Bella Dia The Crafty Crow. I can't wait to make the softie with my girlies.

Keith Haring Fun

2008-03-17T09:51:00.010-05:00

It's spring break here and it is full of promise. We will stay up late, wake up late and find fun things to do all week. We will make some art including this activity based on the artwork of Keith Haring. Crayola.com has a great activity and you can find it here. I also downloaded worksheets I have here and here.

Keith Haring is an artist that kids just get. His art work was all about bringing art to everyone. Work that was easy to interpret and fun to see. You can find out more information at his website http://www.haring.com/ there you can find his bio and a kid's section safe for little eyes with games and activities.

Anniversary Download

2008-03-11T17:43:00.017-05:00

This week will be my one year blogging anniversary. I thought I would offer you a little project. I was playing around with photoshop and added color to one of the free embroidery patterns I found here. I thought she turned out pretty cute and wanted to share it with you. You can download the images I painted here. As a project idea I printed the image onto transfer paper and had a sweet little girl to add to a variety of fabric items. I used Avery transfer sheets.

I applied the transfer to a onesie and was not happy with the quality. That rib causes a problem. I checked it today and when I pulled on the fabric the transfer would split over the rib. Below is an example of the transfer on the onesie as compare to cotton fabric. I think the fabric turned out much better more crisp and after pulling on it it stays in place. I plan on making either a little bag or a purse with the fabric.

In case you have not worked with transfer paper before (like me) I have some tips. When I selected the transfer paper option in printer set up it automatically flipped the image for me. I trimmed the transfer paper as close as possible to the image, I started using an exacto knife. Don't forget the little area between the hair braid and the shoulder. After you iron the transfer onto you fabric of choice let it cool off completely before you try to peel it off ( no matter how badly you want to sneak a peek at her darling mary janes). Hope you like them.

2008-03-04T08:35:00.007-06:00

It's primary day in the big state of Texas. I ran out first thing this morning and voted. I just rolled out of bed so I didn't quiet look like this.....

But I must say I felt as good as she looks.

Eat up

2008-03-03T07:58:00.007-06:00

My Dad would have told me I am "eat up" with embroidery. I think I am.

I have more projects to share but It's rainy and the puppy will jump all over me with her muddy little paws if I venture outside to the art shed.

2008-02-27T15:31:00.008-06:00

You know when you see something and your heart kinda speeds up? That happened today when I spied this from the blog wee wonderfuls.

You can find the patterns here and here and I am sure many more places.

And if you have a moment and you haven' t before checked out Flickr for embroidery it's inspiring. Oh my!

I found this great source on flickr where you can find a variety of free patterns.

2008-02-22T07:23:00.007-06:00

I am ready to shout from the roof tops, I am in love with

EMBROIDERY!

If you have ever wanted to give it a try I would recommend the patterns from Sublime Stitching. They are modern little patterns that take the guess work out of stitching and the site has everything you need to know to start. I am all about trying new things and I have wanted to give this a whirl. Loads of fun.

I picked up these suitcases at the thrift store this morning. My daughter will love them.

2008-02-12T08:56:00.000-06:00

My girl made her Valentine Cards for school yesterday.

The owl stamp was already made then

she ran some decorated paper through the xyron machine and cut strips for the top and bottom of the card.

2008-02-07T21:56:00.000-06:00

I was browsing Jo Ann’s the other day when I was reintroduced to the plastic canvas. I was in need of an easy Girl Scout troop project and wanted to do something different than plain paper valentines. In the past I have dismissed the pre packaged plastic canvas kits as lacking creativity but seeing the variety of blank canvases intrigued me. The supplies for all the girls cost less than $10.00. The girls really loved the activity. Well, after the initial 10 minutes because that was a little frustrating. I heard them talking about different patterns and colors options not to mention the basic technique of hand sewing. All you need is the plastic canvas that comes in a variety of sizes and shapes, smooth craft yarn and either a plastic needle or one of those dull metal needles (Sorry, I'm sure they have a official name).

I have to admit that I am having fun with this activity it’s an easy fun little project. It's easy to take in the car and for sitiing in the doctors office. My soon to be three year old even got into the fun she made her own wild pattern. I found most of the online patterns a little boring but I did find a program that allows you to insert any picture and it creates a pattern. You can download a limited version from the website here for free . I found these plastic canvas portraits that would be fun to try.

2008-02-06T09:15:00.000-06:00

I found Ed Emberly's wonderful website last night and bookmarked it. This morning I spent some time looking through it and couldn't wait to share it. It has great drawing tutorials that really encourage kids learning to draw. What I was especially interested in was the Picture Pie Parts patterns and activities. There is a printout full of circles broken down into pie parts and loads of pictures designs that you can make with thes pieces. Here are some examples...

I think this is such a great activity to try. It's a great chance to talk about how easy it is to break objects down to basic shapes. You can find the activities here the above examples are from the February section but I saw some more picture pie activites in other months. I plan on printing out the pie pieces page on card stock and having them lamanated that way my young darling can't bend them all up.

**Okay I went back to the site to explore some more and he has several books out about picture pie drawing I may need to run out and pick one up today. It seems I'm a little behind the times. And he has a book about thumbprint art! What? Where are my keys?

2008-01-26T13:03:00.000-06:00

I have been planning on sharing another easy project with you all but I have been distracted.

Would you like to meet my distraction?

Her name is Sadie and she was a Christmas gift for the family. She is super sweet and crazy fast. I hope to find time to post again soon and until then I'll be chasing this little pup around.

Thumbprint Alphabet

2008-01-09T09:03:00.001-06:00

A friendly blogger recently left a comment on how great it would be to have an art project ready when the kids get home from school. I actually struggle with this. The mom in me says, "that will be so messy to get all out and then clean up". The art teacher that is living inside is saying, "What? Get messy! Create! Have a ball!"

I thought I would feature some art activities that you could have get out and put away without too much fuss. Yesterday the kids and I created some thumbprint art inspired by something I saw at the small object. The thumbprint alphabet is fun and easy to clean up. (unless you do what I did and mix up some permanent ink pads with your washable ink pads)

Dick Blick Art Lessons

2008-01-04T07:44:00.001-06:00

The Dick Blick website has come out with a new list of art lesson plans for 2008. You can take a look here. The picture above is from the Drawing with Yarn lesson. The Paper Sampler below is a fun way to introduce kids to original needlepoint samplers.

The last image is from the Masterpiece Magnetic Puzzle lesson plan and is a great way to use your favorite artwork.

**During my student teaching I was discussing the above artwork, Grant Wood's American Gothic, I asked my 1st graders what their first impression was and one little girl said,

"Well, that guy and that girl look like their about to join an angry mob!"

2007-12-26T21:17:00.000-06:00

My older girl and I received this fun journal in our stockings. It has great prompts like flinging your coffee at a page, collecting fruit stickers on another, taking the journal in the shower with you, finding a way to wear it, and tongue painting. Tongue painting is when you eat colored candy and lick the page. My daughter really loved that one. You can check out the wreck this journal site here. I look foward to wrecking my journal.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T10:07:00.001-06:00

For a up close look at some famous nativity scenes you can go here.

Merry Christmas

I Am Thankful

2007-12-19T09:51:00.000-06:00

I stumbled upon this project this morning and wanted to share it with you. I am Thankful! is a worldwide gratitude project. It is a project created by artist Damaris Pierce and you can find the website here.

"The project, entitled I Am Thankful, encourages individuals of all ages and organizations such as craft guilds, public schools and counseling centers to create original postcard artwork expressing gratitude. Postcards submitted can honor people, places, things or circumstances and artwork can be simple or elaborate as long as it remains two-dimensional. Once completed, postcards can be mailed to Pierce’s attention at her studio located at 69 Wamboldt Avenue Asheville, North Carolina 28806. All postcards will be considered for public display. In January 2008 Pierce will feature the submitted gratitude postcards on her newly redesigned web site http://www.IAmThankful.com. "

This is a great project to do during the Holidays. You could get all the materials together and have an open station where guest could create their own postcards. You could send them into the project or save them as a memento.

New Focus

2007-12-16T11:32:00.000-06:00

I’m changing up my blog. My initial intent when starting this blog was to create a resource for parents who want to explore art with their children. I want to make that a focus now. I am so enjoying the creativity that flows from my favorite blogs and I hope to share some of my own with you guys.

There is also another reason for this shift. I hope to open the All Dressed in Blue Art Studio when we move in the next year or so! I am now working on my art curriculum and hope to have lots of ideas and lessons to share with you.

2007-12-08T09:03:00.000-06:00

I'm of to the Arts and Craft Fair on this beautiful sunny day. I hope you are all having fun today too! Hopefully I'll have goodies and ideas to share when I return. Oh and I am doing a little research for a venture I want to start, I'll be sharing more of that soon too!

2007-11-24T10:55:00.000-06:00

With only two comments, I didn't even need to hold a drawing. Taryn and Jessica are going to get a custom stamp. I will contact you soon with the details. Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had a lovely time with family and I am as stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey!

2007-11-19T10:54:00.000-06:00

I mentioned a bit back that the thing I was in to for the moment was stamp carving. It has been great fun getting back to carving again. Printmaking is very close to being my most favorite of all art making. It is only second due to my complete and utter love of figure drawing. I have been playing around with some stamp designs. I will start teaching art lessons again soon and want some stamps to use for brochures and things. The process is easy and fun. All you need is a few tools and you can create fun unique stamps. I found a great tutorial on stamp carving here. There is also a link that has a great idea for using a pencil as a carving tool for kids. You can find that here.

It's so much fun carving stamps that I want to share it with you guys. Leave a post here and I'll hold a drawing November 24th. The two names I draw will receive a custom stamp personalized for them carved by me. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Can you guess what I learned to do this weekend?

2007-11-04T14:43:00.000-06:00

Did you guess?

I learned how to make a zippy pouch. My first experience with zippers and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined. Of course, I had the help of these fabulous tutorials from twelve 22 and Queenofdiy on crafster. I ♥ tutorials!

2007-11-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

Have you Carved your pumpkin yet?

2007-10-29T08:06:00.000-05:00

We got in the Halloween spirit and carved up some pumpkins this weekend. I have to admit I have not yet decorated for Halloween aside from this dancing go-go witch and some monster origami figures. Now we have some pumpkins to add to the mix. I found the template for the pumpkin designs here.

Origami Holidays

2007-10-22T10:05:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon this great origami site this morning and had to share. You can visit it here. It has lots of Christmas origami patterns and the cool part is that each design has a regular diagram and animated diagram. An extra bonus is the printable pattern paper you can print out. I think my older would love to decorate her tree with these. The homepage for the site is http://www.origami-club.com/. There are lots of different origami patterns on the site. I haven't figured out how to install the language package but you can still use the diagrams. Look at these great Halloween designs.

2007-10-16T22:41:00.000-05:00

I have been tagged by Euphoria. It's my first time so here we go...

Favorite Disney Movie: Monsters, Inc. (my little one remind me of Boo)

Greatest Dessert: I've never met a dessert I didn't like :)

Best Craft: depends on the day, today it's all about carving stamps. I'll share some soon.

Occupation: Art Teacher

Dream job: Museum Educator

Greatest Hero: My Momma ♥ ♥

Pet Peeve: People who own one really big dog and then a really small dog. I can't help but feel bad for the really small dog, you know it has to cause a napoleon complex for the wee one.

Randomness About You: My blog name comes from a song my Daddy would sing to me. It's the tune of Miss Mary Mack but Dad would sing "Oh, Laura Sue, Sue, Sue All dressed in blue, blue, blue"

That was fun. Thanks Jessica!

2007-10-14T20:42:00.000-05:00

On the Christmas front.

I saw this last night on the Martha Stewart site while looking for some inspiration for Christmas cards. I love the idea, my youngest one can't have chocolate so I can personalize the gifts for her, she has a real thing for bouncy balls.

A question.

I grew up in East Texas a small town named Henderson. I have heard my fair share of Country lyrics. I love George Strait, and George Jones, Keith Whitley, Willie Nelson and Alan Jackson. I boycotted country music radio several years ago when I felt their express purpose was to make my cry in my car. I had had enough. I still listen to my Cds and I love my husbands music of choice, Classic Rock. Today, I have an Alan Jackson song in my head. All of which has me thinking about you guys.

Do you have a favorite style of music?

When I am in the art shed I listen to a little of everything. Do you have a great craft song? I like to listen to Elvis when starting a new project. My favorite is A little less conversation, how can you not work faster with that song playing?

2007-10-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

I was waking my daughter for school this morning and she rolled over and said to me, "Sleep, you don't want to do it at night but can't stop wanting it in the morning."

I thought that was quiet an observation.

I should purchase this for her from tilesmile.etsy.com (I just found this shop today and I love, love it plus she's from my neck of the woods). I think it sums up her morning pretty well.

2007-10-02T20:32:00.000-05:00

I have been having one of those sesonal allergy attacks that make you feel all icky and the medication to make you feel better makes you feel sleepy and icky. I'm feeling much better now. I posted way back about Christmas gift ideas and I thought I would share some with you today.

I think that these coasters will make great gifts for the teachers and front desk staff. Allyson Hill was kind enough to offer a tutorial for these on her blog. I have been making them and it's some of the most fun I have had sewing yet. They are super easy and look so lovely when done. Thanks so much Allyson.

Here is an idea for the coasters. The charm packs work perfectly, I bought several packs and can whip these sweeties up fast. I purchased these from fat quarter shop and I am addicted to charm packs now.

I also have in mind to make some fabric scarfs for loved ones. I whipped up one for my youngest last week. I used a charm pack for this too. My little one was kind enough to model for me during the 90 degree fall day here. The warm weather is making me sad. I am ready for the brisk fall breeze!

I also will make some more of those headbands I posted about before. Heather Bailey offers a tutorial on her blog. I think they are super fun to make and wear.

Oh, and I cut off several inches of my hair. (my friend Sandi asked for a look)

I am working on several more projects that are listed in the tutorials I can't wait to try section to the right. I hope to show those soon.

Green Acres? Well kind of.

2007-09-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

My camera's batteries are still not holding a charge so whenever I go to take pics of the projects I'm working on it goes all wonkey. I have some other pictures I have been wanting to share.

Several months ago my husband and I were looking for available land to purchase for the later years. While we were out looking we found some property that we feel completely in love with and decided to purchase within the first 5 minutes of seeing. As soon as we closed on the venture my husband expressed interest in moving there, right now! He is ready to decide on a house plan and just do it. It's only 28 miles away from where we live now. I live just north of Dallas and the property is just north of us.

I was stunned. I love where I live, they have just opened a mall not 4 miles from my home that has every store I could ever desire to shop in. I have always planned on teaching in this school district. I'd be moving from a town of 80, 000 to a town of 5,000. My oldest would be leaving all her friends and their families who I've know for years now. Needless to say I had mixed feelings about it. With prayer I am coming around. I know this is the place for us, of course it won't be too hard I mean just look at it.

looking out the front of the property

these two are the back of the property

Neighbors on either side and back have horses. Sometimes there are 30-40 behind us.

and the girls love it (Joe also told them he would get them a dog if we move. Bribery!)

2007-09-21T10:58:00.001-05:00

Hey, there is a squirrel stuck to my screen . Funny, huh?

I thought it was really stuck and then Joe came home and gave it a nudge and off it went. It was the most fun we had yesterday. You can see some other pics here.

2007-09-19T22:28:00.000-05:00

I've been working on some Christmas gift ideas that I want to share, problem is I keep forgetting to charge my camera batteries. I did get them in the charger today and will be posting them soon.

I thought I might share a great recipe website I love to browse. Joy of Baking is full of scrumptious goodies. I do enjoy baking, it's the cleaning up after that stinks, when I get in the mood I love muffins, cookies and breads. These carrot muffins are delightful and my kiddos gobble them up.

There is even a link for English tea party recipes here. If I were having a tea party I think my menu would consist of....

Yummy

2007-09-16T21:33:00.000-05:00

Wow! I splurged today. I purchased one of these nifty Trek Lime bikes. I am in love with it. I had my heart set on a old school cruiser bike but was introduced to this and became easily swayed. It automatically shifts gears and is super comfortable to ride. My older daughter and I will enjoy some nice long bike rides now. That is if I can keep my husband off it.

Yarn Cup

2007-09-12T20:08:00.001-05:00

I have been organizing my art shed and found this little yarn cup that I use for instruction. It's upside down in the photo so you can see the bottom of the cup. It is a great idea for that yarn stash you may have around. I think it would be a great gift idea that kids can make grandparents or family. It makes a fun pencil holder and you can never have enough of those. Right? You can use any yarn but the fun crazy yarn makes it fun. I do think it's best to start with the smooth yarn at first. You can find the lesson here. The picture below is a cup made with all fuzzy fun yarn. I think it looks like a monster. I have considedred putting some wild eyes and a mouth on it.

I've also been busy stealing sugar from the girls.

2007-09-11T08:46:00.000-05:00

I was reading the blog Finishing Well this morning and Mike was discussing a fascinating photography project. A photographer named Michael Wolf captured photographs of residents in their flats in Hong Kong's oldest public housing estate, 100 rooms, each 100 square feet in size. You can see all the photos here.

There is a pull down menu in the top right corner of the page. Under the Projects link are several other projects to see. Architecture of Density is another fascinating project. You can see it here.

2007-09-06T08:35:00.001-05:00

My Niece started a blog to update family and friends about baby Bentley's conditions. You can check it out here.

There were some positive signs that came from the medical test the doctors ran last week. It seems that when they ran the Upper GI the barium made it's way through his little system.

Please continue to keep him in you thoughts and prayers.

What I did while I should have been cleaning my house...

2007-09-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

I started making some fabric yo yos. I'm becoming obsessed! I even made an etsy treasury all about the yo yo! You can check it out here.

I sketched on these onesies with some fabric markers. Baby Bentley can have some attitude

I made this great headband with the pattern from Heather Bailey's blog.

I also made headbands for my girls and my little one quickly found another use for it!

I've also been playing around with photoshop. There is just way to much to learn with this program!

2007-08-29T16:29:00.001-05:00

I posted a link (back on June 26) from the dick blick art supply site that had loads of great art lessons available. I used the family tree lesson during some art classes I gave over the summer. I thought I would share my daughters. The kids enjoyed the lessons and it was great for introducing facial proportions. I did make some changes. I purchased the cheaper green Styrofoam cones and they fell apart super easy, instead of using clay to cover the cone I used plaster and had the kids paint it to look like tree bark. They all turned out great and the kids were busy talking about themselves and their family the whole time.

I also made little Bentley a small blanket to hold. They ran some test on Monday and the news is promising. I will update when I know the details.

Summer is almost over

2007-08-20T13:59:00.001-05:00

What?

But it's still 100 degrees outside.

Yes, but my 3rd grader is about to embark on school once again. This is her last week of vacation. Now we are busy finishing up the last of our summer activities and planning for the year to come. I will miss summer but this is an exciting time of year. I am a compulsive list maker, I love to make plans and organize. I need to clean out the fridge and pantry, we need to organize the closet to make mornings go more smoothly. All things that make me happy.

As the days wind down daughter is working on a painting. She loves to draw and is becoming more talented everyday. I realized I only have 9 more summers with her.

All this planning has me thinking about fall and Christmas. Uh huh, I want to make more gifts this year, last year I started a little too late. I'm in the planning stage and I will be sharing my ideas over the next few weeks. I will definitely be trying this idea for packages. It's from Heather Bailey's blog and I think they are lovely. She offers a tutorial on making these fabric yo-yo's here. My mind is busy thinking of all the things I need to do but thank goodness it's fun stuff. Hope all of you are busy doing fun stuff too.

2007-08-18T10:42:00.001-05:00

We crashed and burned with potty training. Big Surprise, huh? It became clear that she needed some extra time and I needed my carpet cleaned.

I have a new picture of Bentley. Look at that smile!

No one be alarmed...

2007-08-16T10:26:00.000-05:00

I am choosing not to take my own advice. I know, I know I should wait until the child shows interest in the potty before tackling potty training. Yes, I know that trying to push a child into it may cause her psychological damage. I just don't care anymore. Summer is slipping away.

My plan, act like I ran out of diapers. Simple. Possibly genius!

On a side note after her attempt at going potty this morning she received an m&m and I threw a couple in my hot coffee....yummy.

XYRON 500

2007-08-08T17:27:00.000-05:00

I was lurking around the etsy forums the other night and read something about the XYRON sticker maker, I happened to have a 50% off coupon so I thought I'd try it. Okay, so I really love it. Something I didn't realize until I opened it up was that it will also make fabric into a sticker. So you can run your fabric through and then stick in anywhere. I have the permanent sticker paper that it came with but I noticed that removable sticker paper was available, I'll be getting some for the girls. I made some bookplates last night and it worked great.

****Baby Bentley is doing well, we are waiting to see if he will be able to take some milk in the next few weeks. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts.

2007-08-04T11:35:00.000-05:00

Little Bentley's condition is much more serious than we feared. This sweet baby was born with short bowel syndrome, which means he is missing a good part of his small intestines. I know that God is with him and though the future is unclear to us it is not to Him. Please keep him and his parents in your thoughts and prayers.

2007-08-03T08:49:00.000-05:00

Bentley Michael

4lbs 2oz

Yes, I am a Great Aunt. My lovely niece Danielle gave birth to Bentley on July 31. (she looks way to good for just having had a baby!) He is very sweet and doing well. He will undergo a surgery to remove a intestinal blockage and we are praying he heals quickly and will be going home soon. I am itching to steal some little kisses from this hansom fella!

2007-07-30T10:55:00.000-05:00

Thank Heaven for microwave pancakes! If I was adventurous I would dress up my pancake like this one here.

It worked

2007-07-25T14:48:00.000-05:00

Yeah, the placemats came out great! I learned to go slowly always make a pattern and use lots of pin. All things I should have been doing but thought I could do without. That'll teach me!

And if you've every wondered what might happen if you turn your back on a 2 year old with paint, here you go.........

I'm just going to put this out there

2007-07-23T19:34:00.000-05:00

Well... I have been trying to learn how to sew. I have yet to classify any project a success! I am hoping that will change today. I received the above fabric from the etsy shop of BeeBee Mod. I am also using an idea from the BeeBee Mod blog to make some placemats. I am hoping by putting this out there it will give me the confidence to make a great placemat. Let's hope I don't fail miserably!

Tons of Games

2007-07-19T01:57:00.000-05:00

I just finished up an etsy order for a customer and I thought I would go ahead and post. It's 2:00am and I know I should be in bed , I think I had a bit to much caffeine this evening. I was looking for something fun to post and found this website Orisinal they offer many beautiful games to play. They have really lovely animation and I thought I would share. I am not familiar with this company but they have some super sweet totes. Enjoy the games, I only had a chance to play a couple, there was a cute crab one I didn't get to yet. My older daughter can play these tomorrow while I take a nap!

Poll

2007-07-17T10:24:00.001-05:00

Please take part in my new poll that is going on to the right of the page. I am trying to decide what I want that sweet little ring from www.KathrynRiechert.etsy.com to say. I don't always wear my wedding rings because I am working with pretty messy materials, so this would be an alternative. I want it to be something fun, I've been married for 10 years now and want it to reflect that. If you have any other ideas I'd love to hear them.

More Bookplates

2007-07-16T10:21:00.000-05:00

Here are some more super fun bookplates from my home library. You can find lots to choose from here. I have sooooo many children books, and I think I will outfit the favorites with these great bookplates!

Art Dictionary

2007-07-14T09:16:00.000-05:00

Lets say you have a question about the Da Da movement, want to use trompe l'oeil in your next art piece or or wonder what a deltiologist is, then art lex is the place for you. It's a really useful website with art definition and terms, pretty much anything about visual culture. You can find examples of artwork and other related links to reference as well. The only bummer is that I can't seems to link to each definition. I can cut and paste so here we go ...

Da Da movement- An early twentieth century art movement which ridiculed contemporary culture and traditional art forms. The movement was formed to prove the bankruptcy of existing style of artistic expression rather than to promote a particular style itself. It was born as a consequence of the collapse during World War I of social and moral values which had developed to that time. Dada artists produced works which were nihilistic or reflected a cynical attitude toward social values, and, at the same time, irrational — absurd and playful, emotive and intuitive, and often cryptic.

Trompe l'oeil A French term literally meaning "trick the eye." Sometimes called illusionism, it's a style of painting which gives the appearance of three-dimensional, or photographic realism. It flourished from the Renaissance onward.

Deltiology is the collecting of picture postcards. A deltiologist is a collector of them. Short of framing them, a preferred means of storing and displaying postcards is in polypropylene sheet protectors.

Who knew there was a term for someone who collects postcards! I wonder if there is a name for those of you who love your fabric! I'll look into that.

Bookplates, Bookmarks and more

2007-07-11T09:17:00.000-05:00

I am working on a new project and in doing research found these downladable bookplates. There are several styles to choose from Northwest Native American and Celtic. I want to make my own soon but I thought these would be fun for the kiddos. More ideas for the book lover are found at the HP website.

Excerpt

2007-07-10T09:43:00.000-05:00

Here is an excerpt from the creative box set I discussed yesterday, Wide Open by Randi Feuerhelm-Watt......

Stretching Your Vision

Today is my Birthday. My Usual Routine used to involve riding my bike along the coast, watching the surfers maneuver around the seals in the early-morning hours. Now, my once permanent, flip-flop tan line has faded into my gray existence in the Midwest. I haven't seen a pedicure in over a year and can't think of one thing to be happy about.
In staying true to the whole using-what-you-have theme, I tried to come up with something that would heal my lonesome, birthday heart.
I decided to do a "compare and contrast" page in my journal. Using photographs from both my old and new worlds, I would seek comparisons-alikes and not-alikes. It has stretched the way I look at a cornfield or the eternal line across the horizon.
In the thick of winter , what can you draw from barren? What can you draw from wide-open spaces drenched in gray, as opposed to blue skies and ocean sprays?
By stretching my vision, I could suddenly see common lines in the wide-open ocean glass and the never ending richness of the soil.
The noise of a telephone pole vs. the piercing simplicity of an icicle. Diversity vs. simplicity.
Go out on your bicycle and play this game. Look for common form, lines, similar colors and textures that contrast. Force yourself to change the way you look at a regular horizontal line or the height of a telephone pole. It's all very black and white.

Journal Help

2007-07-09T08:17:00.000-05:00

I have been eager to make an altered book for some time, now that I have a place to work I hope to do so very soon. In anticipation I purchased a creative card set, Wide Open by Randi Feuerhelm-Watts. It contains a small notebook and 50 cards with prompts and observations that help start the journaling process. I have a hard time keeping one journal, I am more of a napkin, back of envelope, scrap piece of paper kind of girl. The idea of taking a existing book and changing it's original meaning through art is a fun one and I think these cards will help me do just that. You can visit the authors website at http://www.randifeuerhelm.com/. Oh, and if you have a minute check out How About Orange blog for a super cool idea.

Tools that help

2007-07-06T20:24:00.000-05:00

I can remember my first attempt at painting a portrait in my first college painting course. I was struggling to get the proportion right using my photograph as a reference. I walked out of class when I saw another student walking out of a small room to the side of the class. Inside this guy was using a projector to transfer his photograph onto the canvas . What? I've been killing myself trying to get this face "right" and all along I could have projected it. How come NO one told me. It was so simple I walked to the supply room gave the girl my student i.d. and *boom *easy peasy. There are so many great tools and tricks to help with art making but people make you work to find them . Using a projector is one really helpful tool. Using a grid to help draw from photograph is another great tool. I love any tool that gets people to further their own art. Photographs are wonderful resources for art making the cool thing about drawing or painting the subject is that new and wonderful things come from your new choice of media.

One artist who uses the grid to paint from photographs is Chuck Close. There is great gallery on his website where you can zoom into his painting and prints to see how he uses the grid. Here is one I really find interesting.

Flashback

2007-07-02T08:43:00.000-05:00

When I was little my parents had this cube photoframe with a carved wooden top and it was filled with family photos. I loved playing with it. I saw a this photo cube on Paper Forest and had a serious flashback. You can find the template at tabblo. You could really play with this and create some fun photos. Maybe a diffrent expression on each side, I think I may make one with my daughters art work on the sides. The options are endless. I may play with it and show examples later.

Still lifes are fun!

2007-06-29T15:15:00.000-05:00

Still lifes have received a bad wrap. After my drawing classes in school, I was pretty happy not to draw a cow skull again for the rest of my life. I moved into figure drawing and after one class realized what drawing was all about. People usually find it unusual to stare at a nude man for two hours but it was a great experience. It is where I learned to see, it's not what you think you see it's what you actually see in front of you. Making the connection between your eye and hand is enlightening. I can now appreciate the hours and hours of the cow skull because it prepared me for the next step. I recently set up a still life for my younger students and they did wonderfully. If you have younger kids who get frustrated when they try to draw something and it doesn't look "right" then there is a fun book to help loosen them up. The book is ish by Peter H Reynolds. Set up a still life and let the kids have at it.

Fresco

2007-06-26T09:10:00.000-05:00

I discovered a great resource for art lessons on the dick blick website. I tried one yesterday with my students, it is a lesson for creating frescoes. You can find the lesson here.

I thought it was a fun lesson both for art production and art history. The kids loved learning about Pompeii and the ancient fresco paintings discovered there. The kids had a great time and wanted to make more and more. On several of the frescoes I used a yellow water color wash to help antique the plaster. I also preferred using colored pencils instead of the pastel with the younger kids. It was hard for them to keep from smearing the pastel with their hands. I loved the idea of breaking the pieces to antique them even more but most couldn't bear to crack their beloved fresco drawings.

Birthday

2007-06-21T17:36:00.001-05:00

I celebrated a birthday last week. Yep, I've been here 29 years. And I have been reflecting on the last decade. Wow! I mean look at those two beautiful girls. Can it get any better? I hope so!

What's Visual DNA?

2007-06-13T16:58:00.000-05:00

I received this link in my email the other day from my sister in law and thought it was fun. Choose the picture that best suites you and it will give your visual DNA. If you have a minute try it.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Studio

2007-06-05T13:12:00.000-05:00

My little studio is complete. It is so great to finally have one place for all my supplies. It was very kind of my fella to give me what was supposed to be his work shed. I hope to give it some personal touches next week when I start teaching art lessons. It's missing students work!

King Tut

2007-06-04T13:33:00.000-05:00

Philadelphia was great. The King Tut exhibit was very interesting. They had over 130 pieces from the time of Tutankhamun along with some things found in his burial chamber. They did not have any of the actual burial masks or the coffins but a very cool computer generated image of the burial chamber. My older girl had a great time. I hope it is something she will remember. My parents took me as a child to see the Ramses exhibit and I have great memories of that trip. I remember getting those headphones and feeling so grown up. I remember the feeling of being near items made thousands of years ago. I still like to walk up to pieces close my eyes and imagine the items being made by artisans, the scene plays in my mind. Makes it fun.

I love the picture with younger daughter who would not sit by us. I think she was afraid we would take a drink.

Raggedy Ann Portraits

2007-05-31T08:58:00.000-05:00

I thought it might be fun to share some art lessons. When flipping though the old filing cabinet I ran across this little portrait lesson for kindergarten. When I started my student teaching I thought kinder would be super easy. I couldn't have been more wrong. The little darlings are great but they can finish a project so quickly it's amazing. You start something new and then before you know it you hear little voices saying, "I'm finished! Now what?" This lesson was great because we all worked together. We took it step by step. Usually I think this kind of instruction is limiting but it works well for this lesson. It's a great introduction to Portraits. I began the lesson by showing students art reproductions of different portraits and discussing the purpose and uses of portraits. I used a Raggedy Ann doll for observation and off we went. Step by step. The kids loved it. Try it with your little kindergartner.

We are off to Philadelphia to see the King Tut exhibit it will be there until September. My older daughter loves all thing Egyptian so it will be a great experience.

2007-05-28T09:48:00.000-05:00

Kathe Kollwitz Outbreak

My heart aches for the Men and Women who have died fighting for our country. Today I remember them and pray for their families.

I would dress in this everyday.

2007-05-16T16:49:00.000-05:00

I have found the perfect summer dress. It's from the etsy shop Pretty Me. I ordered one a couple of weeks ago for my youngest. I realized that I must order another and Angie was kind enough to create a custom shirt to match for my older girl. I think they are adorable!

Sweet shoes, wish they were my shoes.

2007-05-10T09:12:00.000-05:00

You know when you see something and it makes you think,"Man, I wish I had thought of that!" ? (I actually have that moment quiet often) I had that moment this morning when I saw these shoes! They are from two straight lines and it's a blog going on my crafty link list!

Cool Paper

2007-05-09T17:40:00.000-05:00

I was checking out the Paper Forest and saw a great envelope template that you can download and use with all kinds of paper. The template can be downloaded from How about Orange. What a neat idea! I am developing a real love of pretty paper and this may give me an excuse to buy more.

Percy the Parakeet

2007-04-30T16:14:00.000-05:00

This is the newest member of our family. He's Percy the Parakeet. He is shy because we just brought him home, hopefully I'll have some new pics to share when he is coming out of his cage. I think he is lovely.

Happy Birthday!

2007-04-22T17:18:00.000-05:00

Allison's 2!

Allison 1 year ago.

Allison 2 years ago.

Happy Birthday Baby! We love you!

Caterpillar Greeting

2007-04-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

My little one had her first experience with a caterpillar today. We found one while we where walking and I was so excited because I use to play with this type of caterpillar when I was little. I loved them, they are fuzzy and would tickle as they climbed up my arm. I looked up what type of caterpillar we have here, turns out it's a tent caterpillar and they are a bit of a nuisance.

2007-04-08T17:05:00.000-05:00

Look where that landed!

2007-04-06T10:07:00.000-05:00

Dropped Cone, 2001Stainless and galvanized steels, fiber-reinforced plastic, balsawood; painted with polyester gelcoat39 ft. 10 in. (12.1 m) high x 19 ft. (5.8 m) diameterheight above building: 32 ft. 10 in. (10 m)Neumarkt Galerie, Cologne, Germany

I've been going through some old art school stuff and stumbled upon some pics of my favorite works. I am going to be creating a link list to see the works of my favorite artist. One such artist is Claus Oldenburg. He is a pop artist who creates sculpture that will change that way you will look at everyday items.

I am drawn to art that kids like. And kids like Oldenburg. They enjoy his vinyl toilet sculpture or his giant animal print fur Popsicles. But what really gets them going are his large scale sculptures. If you have a minute check out this link. It will make the kid inside you smile. I would love to know which one you like!

http://www.oldenburgvanbruggen.com/lsp.htm

Monkey Bread

2007-04-04T00:05:00.000-05:00

I had a friend over this morning and I made monkey bread. It's super easy to make and turns out great. It reminds me of the Ladies Auxiliary meetings at church when I was a youngin. Thought I would share. You will need...

3 cans refrigerator biscuits
1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 cup white sugar
1 stick margarine
1 cup brown sugar

Mix the Cinnamon and white sugar in bowl. Roll the biscuits in the sugar mixture then quarter the biscuits. ( I use kitchen scissors, makes it very easy) Throw all the sugary biscuits in a greased bunt pan and then melt the margarine. Mix the margarine with the brown sugar and pour the mixture over the biscuits. I usually roll the pan around a bit to get the mixture in all the nooks and crannies. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Take out of the oven and let it set for about 5 minutes, then turn on to a plate. This is a great recipe for kids learning to cook.

Sometimes I will sprinkle some pecans in the pan before I put the quartered biscuits in.

This stuff is super addicting! And I know it's not the healthiest morning option, but when you are having a friend over for coffee or you need something to take to a meeting it easy and fast

Chicks Man Chicks

2007-04-02T18:21:00.000-05:00

My daughter is fostering little chicks for a girl scouts project. We will have them three weeks. They are very cute. I am treating them as pets, which may make my next chicken dinner a bit hard to swallow.

Hungry

2007-03-26T11:48:00.000-05:00

So my new thing is felt. It's super easy to work with and even someone like me who is a wannabe sewing machine user can do it. I made my little one a banana, apple, toast and jelly and spaghetti. It was simple to do. Just some imagination, scissors, needle and thread. I will be making more soon. I've been thinking cupcakes!

Yummy Turkey Chili

2007-03-24T00:21:00.000-05:00

I have a dear friend Sandi who I always call and tell when I make a new recipe but I never get around to sending it to her. So I thought I would share this with Sandi and everyone else. It's for turkey chili. I have never used ground turkey meat but in an attempt to live a healthier life I tried it and I loved it. I have made it the last three weeks in a row. It freezes easily and make a great lunch. I reduced the water to half of what is in the recipe after reading the reviews. It was perfect. Hope you enjoy. I was going to post a pic but I ate it before I had a chance to take it!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-Turkey-Chili/Detail.aspx