Q-Tip Pointillism

My kids love doing art and craft projects.  I've found that if I have a few projects ready to go, next time they say "let's paint" I can say "OK!" rather than "in a few minutes".  In fact, I found a nice little list here and now have it taped to the inside of my kitchen cabinet.  The list is also a great place for me to write down lots of other "quickie" projects.  I hope to post some of those eventually...

Anyway, here's the results of Q-tip pointillism.  I LOVE pointillism and always think of my high school art teacher saying "George Seurat invented the dot" and have now taught my kids this little tidbit of art history.    (I do know the proper French pronunciation, but saying "Sir-Ott" rhymes so much better with "dot".)

C got the idea with the flower and had fun doing some of her own techniques as well.

S didn't quite grasp the concept of pointillism (hey, they are kids!), but he LOVED making lines and completed several paintings, proudly saying "ee" (his pronunciation of "See") then asking for it to be hung on the art wire.

Quiet Book

I've contemplated making a "quiet"or "busy" book for the kids for ages, but it seemed like so much work.  Well, less than one week before our big road trip to Ohio, I decided to make one anyway.  Nothing like a deadline to get me motivated!  No matter that there is no fabric shop around here, I was determined to use what I had to make it work.  Oh, did I mention that I was also completing my niece's birthday outfit at the same time?

I only managed to eek out seven pages for the trip, and I'll share a few here.  Most of my inspiration was from the blog How to Make a Quiet Book.  Genius!  Homemade by Jill also had a really inspiring book, from which I used her barn and puppet templates and very cute mailbox.  There are lots more blog posts out there and it can consume a person looking at all of them.  To make myself stay focused, I looked at what I had on hand and made a list of the pages I knew I could complete before the trip.  I made another list of pages for my "second round" (probably two nights before our next road trip!) and a third list for "someday" pages.

This page was S's favorite (and the easiest to make).  He loved mixing up the colors and saying "no, no, yes" and practicing "red means stop, green means go".

This was another favorite, for both kids.  C obviously has it mastered, but she loved joking around and mixing up the numbers.  I eventually will add another page for 5-10 and yet another page to practice math problems.  

These pages were fun for me, but the kids weren't too interested in dressing her up.  I thought S would like to practice the zipper, but I guess that was old news to him.  I'm glad I didn't bother making a "boy" figure to dress as well.

You can see that I ran out of grommets so just make marker points of where to add them eventually.  I used a binder ring to hold all the pages together then easily take apart to give the kids separate pages to work on.

This kind of project would be great to do with friends, dividing up the work of each page then swapping finished pieces.  It was also a nice project that I could kind of tote around, cutting out little pieces of felt as I had time.

On another note, I took these pages outside to photograph, and it was so humid my camera lens kept fogging up.  Crazy!!!

Doodling

C loves drawing and coloring, something I also loved as a child.  I recently introduced her to the concept of "doodling".  Here's an example of a doodle around some names.

Recently, Daddy bought C a new book, Drawing, Doodling and Colouring and we've been having lots of fun with it.  Seriously, I want my own copy!  The Usborne website has free printable pages as well, here.  I also read that Costco will be selling some doodling books, too.  I like these books because it helps provide a little spark to her imagination, such as drawing monsters.

Or adding facial features (you can see I like to get in on the fun, too!).

One of my favorites:

Incidentally, I remember reading an article that sited some research that the most innovative scientists, whom people generally consider to be very analytical, are actually quite creative.  Their creativity helps them solve problems in ways never considered.  The article went on to describe ways to encourage this creative problem solving in children, and doodling was one such suggestion.  Personally, I just like sitting next to C and sharing markers while we complete pages from her book. :)

Happy 1st Birthday!

My sweet niece turned one last friday and C and I were happy to help her celebrate. What a blow-out 1st birthday party she had!  My sister and her hubby are excellent party-throwers, and the cuteness of the birthday girl was the icing on the cake! (Ha ha, some birthday humor.)

Just look at this face!

I made her crown my usual way with velcro for the "1"so that we can make her a special "2" for next year.

I must say she totally rocked the ruffled skirt and birthday shirt I made for her...

Check out this super-cute handmade tutu!  This thing was ADORABLE!!!

My sister also made some really cute flower vases and Happy Birthday bunting.  I regret not taking photos--such fun decorations!

OK, I think I've used the word "cute" enough already!  Happy Birthday, W!  We love you and are so happy to be only 5 hours away!!!

Beach Bag

As the weather grew hotter in April and May, we spent a lot of time at the beach. Seriously, I feel like I'm living a childhood dream. Will my kids take it for granted?  I hope not.

I love the beach for lots of reasons--the water, sunshine and sandcastles to start. It's also a great place to tire out the kids an ensure an afternoon nap.  Rarely do I also get to partake in that nap, because all the sand requires major post-beach cleanup.  One solution--a beach bag that lets the sand sift out.  I used screening leftover from hubby enclosing the deck and ribbon that I bought for a previous project.  Here's the mesh bag tutorial from Martha Stewart.

Photography courtesy of four-year old C, who also insisted on a photo of her "ballet shoes".

C's not taking ballet, these are just some sparkly shoes I bought on Target clearance.  That's her swimsuit peaking out.  She's become quite a fish already and I think we've found a perfect outlet for her energy.  We all knew she had the stamina, but I am seriously surprised by how quickly she's caught on considering she hadn't previously spent any significant amount of time in the pool.  I also owe a lot of credit to her amazing swim coach--another mom on the island who has graciously been teaching a few of the kids to swim.

P.S. Do you recognize my skirt?  I never fixed all that wonky sewing.  I figure who is really going to inspect the stitches that closely?  As long as the skirt stays on, I'm wearing it.  I did get a new sewing machine, though, and am loving it!

No Knead Bread

My sister-in-law has inspired me to start making homemade bread.  Here's my first attempt.

It was yummy.  Nice crunchy crust and a soft center, although mine could have used five more minutes in the oven.  I found the recipe here on the Steamy Kitchen blog.  I figured if a four-year-old can do it, I should certainly try.

Variations to the recipe can be found here.  I'm looking forward to trying the olive parmesan.

Happy Birthday!

Our little man has turned TWO!  He had a wonderful birthday.  We went to the beach, ate spaghetti and meatballs, and Grandma was here to help celebrate.  S looooved being sang to and blowing out the candles on his Elmo cake.  He kept saying "More, more!" so of course we gave in and did it again and again.  No actual pictures of him blowing out candles (you know I like to keep the kids' faces private), but here's Elmo!

I made a number "2" for the birthday boy's crown.

It's not my idea, but I can't find the original source to credit...the crown has a velcro patch so each year I can just make a new number.  This year I actually sewed it by hand, which I've found is a really nice activity during road trips.  Even C did some hand sewing and I made an extra to send on to a friend (Happy Birthday, J!).

My favorite project for S is the "2" shirt and Madras plaid shorts.  Is this fabric really popular everywhere, or is it an island thing???  Of course, I used my favorite pattern, Big Butt Baby Pants.  I've got this pattern down to a science and can whip out some shorts in under an hour.  C got a matching skirt, too, which she loves because it is very similar to Daddy's shorts.

 Happy Birthday, Little Man!  We love you!