Art Fest rocks!

got back from art fest several hours ago...

so now I need to try to wrap my head around the idea

of returning to the "real" world...

and how to incorporate ideas from all 3 classes and use them in my art.

Misty and Lynne were great and Jesse stretched me almost to the breaking point

with a new way of creating

(above picture is of my hand covered in paint 

as we only painted and mixed using said hand 

with white, black, red, yellow and blue).

This was the easy part,

 but it was a tad difficult painting over parts of my painting

that I happened to like... hmmm.... really hard for me....

instead of building up layers like I love to do.

It was the exact opposite of how I work and I went into it

kicking and screaming - must ponder why...

I did decide that I will teach my kids next trimester
with all 3 techniques I learned -

what fun!

I will post photos and details about what I learned later this week,
but for now here are a few snippets to tide you over -

from Misty's class - gotta work on the santos still...

from Lynne's "baroque" class using toner copies
of people from the past...

and my pieces I refused to paint over
just cause I liked them as they are!
 Hey I am old enough to know what I like
and it is my art!!!
As I told Jesse, I will try again later...

Have a great week!!

A Sunday Blessing

I have been waiting a whole year to post this one...

First of all, you need to know that today we celebrate Palm Sunday.

"The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast 

heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.  

They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

'Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'

...and you need to know that in the Pacific Northwest 

the kids at church often use fern fronds instead of palm branches

when they walk through our church in a procession

to commemorate this event...

so imagine our surprise when we got home from church,

let Zoe out,

and found that she returned with her own fern frond

tucked neatly into her collar.

We had a good laugh, but as you can tell she did not quite get the humor of the situation.

I kid you not - this really happened!

Yippe yahoo art fest is near

Art Fest here I come...

with 75 trades ready to exchange -

This year I created pads of note paper to tuck in your purse - 

seems like I can always use that and figured others could too.

First I painted old manilla folders that would have been tossed otherwise.

then I stitched the backs to notebook paper 

from the kids' younger school days...

  and I think I broke my poor old sewing machine :( 

and took them to school to cut straight lines with 

the commercial size paper cutter...

and tied beads to the threads...

and stamped "once upon a time" on the front (as this is the theme)...

and my own stamp on the back...

and now I am ready to see what wonderful, creative goodies others made to exchange.

I will show you what I get when I return.

Oh ya I will be taking a class
Thursday from Misty Mawn,

Friday from Lynne Perella, 

and Saturday from Jesse Reno.

In all three classes I will be working quite large which will be good for me,
but a little scary too - 

I am so excited!

a Sunday Blessing

Antique Show scavenging on Friday yielded a bounty of goodies...

Just look at these gorgeous frames.

They don't make them like this anymore

(well they do, but are very pricey).

So now these frames are awaiting some paintings from me - 

maybe a pot full of spring flowers,

or a tea cup,

or a santos...

"For the Lord your God will bless your harvest

and in all the work of your hands,

and your joy will be complete."

Deut. 16:15

Found these beauties at a booth with all things French,

including the owner.

They are French communion cards.

I think they will go on bookmarks maybe...

mais oui!

We had Visitors

It appears that we did have some wee folk visit last night...

when the kids looked closely they discovered that

the leprechauns left gold coins amidst the traps.

The general consensus was that the leprechauns

were probably scared when they saw the traps

and some of their coins fell out of their pockets 

as they tried to escape...

or maybe they thought the traps 

were excellently constructed

and they left prize money because they were so impressed.

Oh what fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

You gotta love First graders.

Today the assignment was to build a leprechaun trap. 

So our whole classroom is now booby trapped 

and awaiting the leprechauns' visit tonight.

There are notes with instructions and yarn traps and trails and...

bags ready to collapse when their victims enter...

and googly eyes ready to mesmerize the poor wee leprechaun.

And with the lure of homemade gold coins and candy,

what more could a leprechaun want?

hmmm...wonder what we will catch!

I will report back tomorrow.

the perfect art studio

OK, my daughter-in-law is driving me crazy...

she took me seriously

when I talked about wanting an art studio.

I am old enough.

I have paid my dues.

The kids are gone - somewhat...

and it is my time,

time to get back to being creative -

just because...

Well since she is an architect,

she decided it would be fun 

(fun for whom I ask you?)

to design me a studio.

That is when the trouble began...

Just look at this photo

she posted on her blog today.

This is the inspiration for her design.

Well drat I could move in like tomorrow please!!!

So a couple days ago she started sketching

how the room would sit above our garage

and that started to get my heart 

going pitter patter a little faster.

And now this photo -

how could she be so cruel I say?

So I am thinking that maybe this week

I just need to follow a leprechaun to a pot of gold...

ya that will do it!

all kidding aside -
you are the best, Kim -
just let those creative and engineering brain cells mix
and let's see what you come up with!

a Sunday Blessing

"This is the day that the Lord has made.

I will rejoice and be glad in it."

a day of rest...

this I need.

So today I will try to tune out 

all the chatter and noise in my head and just 'be'.

This linoleum print of Zoe and Nick was created 

by Nick when he was in high school.

Don't they look comfy?

a city on a hill

Our road and hill turned into this...

and now our "city on a hill"

is complete with lots of 

happy city people and 

animals and birds

and cars and just plain fun!

So hopefully it will find a happy home 

at our school's auction!

once upon a time there were dragons...

Once upon a time

there were castles, and princesses,

and knights and 

fire breathing dragons...

This was a great project and the kids loved it.

First we cut and glued fun foam to cardboard 

in shapes of bricks, 

stones for castle walls, 

clouds and dragon scales.

Then we printed with acrylic paints because that is what I had - 

worked great.

The following week we each took our stash of building materials

and cut and pasted and built a castle.

And of course castles need princesses and dragons too...

This dragon was captured and thrown into the tower.

They were so proud

and I was so happy that they really engaged with this project.

Each piece reflects their personalities.