i adapted a lesson dealing with conflict (getting picked on, teasing, handling a bully... that kind of thing) to integrate portrait drawing techniques (for a patch). somehow i pulled it off and we had a successful meeting. i love this observational drawing idea (found here) so the girls did some of that after our bully lecture then dove into the portraits. they really came out neat and i am thinking of using the portrait idea for our school auction quilt. more on that later.
practice at home
a quick note, finally a victory for us! no home depot!
working to get our wetlands restored! it may be a long road ahead, but lets keep going!
our new obsession: SLEESTAKS
elizabeth was drawing these creatures one after the other, big eyes with a squiggle mouth. i asked her who they were expecting it to be mom, dad, sister, brother... but she said, "sleestaks!" seems we have been you-tubing the old land of the lost episodes again. not sure if she likes them or is afraid of them? this was a favorite show of mine growing up and they scared me witless...
liz writes her name and draws pages of sleestaks
a sleestak pillow
a bucket of sleestaks in a land of the lost bucket from pixiegenne.... too much sleestak for one post?
how about an "i heart marshmallows" pillow?
maybe an owl? (yes i helped liz with the outline, just a bit...) these pillows are fun and easy to make as you can see, i have gotten quite carried away with it. time to get back to work! running late as usual!
:)
i finally found someone to do a portrait of the girls (after my fiasco with a portrait class a few years back, i decided to let a pro do it) all i can say is what an experience this was. i cant recommend the artist i found, emily balivet, enough. she was so sweet and helpful, she sent me works in progress and i saw the painting go from a black and white sketch to the very end. fun fun fun!
the photo picking process was soooo hard. either one girl was fussy or the light wasnt right or just something didnt work. in the end, i decided on this one because it truly represents the girls right now. one looking off giggling and one focused with a smile (missing teeth and all)
here is the finished piece, ready for framing. what a wonderful experience!
i got this idea from a martha stewart craft show on diy, i saw it briefly on the website but couldnt find it recently. (of course i called these shadow boxes as a kid and made them for book reports, diorama is probably more correct)
emily age 3 at disneyland, seeing this photo i remember her being fussy over some popcorn. when i struggle with liz, i try to remember that emily was just the same at her age and will grow out of it someday! (if you click on this photo you will catch my smirking face)
my posting has been seriously lacking lately, part of that new years resolution to let myself go flakey as needed. i know everyone has been sick, but these last few months have just been ridiculous. we dont even have cold weather to blame around here, so come on! anyways, this is our last week of candy sales so i thought i would share a bit about how it went.
last year we found that walking the neighborhood was a fun way to meet our neighbors, so we did it again. we filled the bottom of our stroller with avocados to "offset" the cost of the candy and spread good cheer. we sold half of our total this way in record time.
we signed up for about 5 or 6 store front sales (this is annelise smiling away) at our local super markets. this year my moms were hooking up for pre-sale coffee and organized after-sale pizza parties, another unplanned benefit for starting this group. looking back on those first few moms who were willing to try this "camp fire thing" out with me and seeing the strong, cohesive, fun group of parents who have emerged is the most rewarding thing i have ever done. it's like this: we started this group with a huge list of goals and ideas for THEM and have found some great extras for us too. i am sure anyone who has dropped off their kid at daycare, preschool, kindergarten or ballet, gymnastics, soccer.... has felt that awkward feeling between parents and kids you barely know. when i had emily, i didnt have a close friend to share all of the nuts and bolts with. i remember at her daycare, one mom who i bonded with but we were busy working. preschool and then kindergarten was better, more moms and dads to talk with... it got better and better. i pulled from all these parents to put my group together and finally i can say, i have that group of friends to lean on that i didnt know i needed so much.
so it wont be much of a surprise then that i will be starting elizabeth's group up sometime... not too soon, but i have already organized lesson plans from ones that worked well in the past. i cant wait to get another group of little kids together and bring their parents in for some crafting and friendship.
yesterday, we used the excuse of selling candy to get close to this movie crew filming down the street. you cant help but be curious when you seen all the trucks and cameras around. this was a commercial but last year an episode of csi miami was filmed around the block, what a production! exciting!
time to finish up those valentines!
jen and i finally got a free weekend to hang at the cabin together to do some crafting. the weather report said snow to come sunday afternoon... well it arrived this morning instead and lets just say we had to rush home or be stranded (not that we would have minded at first, until the power went out and we felt how truly cold it was up there).
we had to find the chains for the tires (somewhere in the garage), hope they fit the car (luckily they did), find someone to help us get them on or actually do it ourselves...(luckily we found a helpful neighbor who helped out, it was blizzard conditions at this point). we drove out in the snow covered roads ok, but had a heck of a time getting the chains off midway down the mountain (oh and jen, guess what? we lost the rubber cords... remember how we frantically threw them to the side when that one chain was tangled in the wheel and cars were spraying us with sheets of icy water? well we forgot to pick them up again, oops!!! and we left the plastic case in front of the cabin too, yikes!!!) oh well, at least we managed to get down safe and sound in a reasonable amount of time. too bad our "crafting weekend" didnt get much crafting done! but an adventure we DID have!
we arrived saturday to sunny skies and piles of snow
the only door we could get through
taking pictures
sunset on the lake
one heck of a huge pile of snow
well, we got more than enough snow this winter, will be nice to see the lake full again.
thanks for being such a great sport jen!
