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That's what happens when you have a sunny day, a talented cousin and plenty of room on the driveway!
{All artwork created by my cousin, Miss Audrey Mack using assorted oil paint media}
I even got treated to a quick peek inside her studio. I loved how her paints looked on the palette. I love how she uses color and form, just beautiful. And inspiring.
Trying to look at the bright side this rainy, dreary, cool July Friday morning.
With the good weather m.i.a. for a couple of days, I've made some good progress cleaning our basement. It's a lot easier to be subterranean when the sun isn't out begging you to head to the beach.
Of course I'll be quite happy to return to outdoor projects and recreation when the sun comes out tomorrow!
In the meantime, a few happy finds...
Found via Colorful Creations blog. This sailboat is the current featured kids art bar project at Colorful Creations shop in downtown Hyannis. I have 3 boxes just waiting for me to finish cleaning my studio area so I can build a fleet of these! Perhaps I'll share with the kids too. We'll see ;-)
That's it for this week, now that it's nearly noon I must go upstairs and see if my boys are ever getting out of bed. Little night owls they are!
Wishing you a warm, sunny & wonderful weekend!
We don't have another family birthday to celebrate for a while.
As in 2 1/2 weeks until my husband's birthday.
In the meantime, here's a peek at the custom Happy Birthday banner I made that started my birthday banner making frenzy. This banner made it's debut at a little boy's birthday party on Sunday and (hopefully) will be making another appearance at his brother's birthday in September. The only request I had was 'bright colors'.
No problem:-)
Thanks Dawn!
We have a 3 day stretch in July each year that's quite exhausting.
It's BirthdayFest.
The boys and Ebby were born 2 days apart which means lots of celebrating. Especially when you throw in a family gathering on the in-between day :-)
A few highlights...
I made birthday banners. A friend ordered a custom Happy Birthday banner for her son a couple of weeks ago. It was actually the first birthday banner I'd made. When I sent it away on Wednesday I started feeling quite guilty that I didn't have a birthday banner for my own kids. What kind of crafty mom am I?? So I made one. And then I thought it would look good with flowers all over it, for Ebby. So I made another one, for the boys. Everyone loved them and I can re-use them for years!
I also convinced Will, Cuyler and Ebby to let me do mini photo shoots with them on their birthdays. Take a 100 shots to get 3 that you love.
In the 3 days of celebrating we had 2 beach trips, a visit to the arcade, a family party, and a LeAnn Rimes concert.
Oh, and water balloons :-)
Time now to recover and regroup. Only 362 days until it starts all over again!
My boys turn 9 years old today!
We've already kicked off the celebration with giant cookies for breakfast and early morning video games. Also on tap: the arcade, the beach, a birthday photo shoot and a water balloon fight.
Apparently it takes a lot of energy to be a 9 year old boy ;-)
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Gathered up the children and headed to one of our town beaches for a few hours yesterday afternoon. The water felt warmer than it did on Monday at the drive on beach. Go figure. I'm pretty sure water temperature is irrelevant to my children anyway. They just love the waves.
After some intense body surfing, some of us set about to create in the sand.
Behold, our works... This is my fish. I can't believe how long it took to find enough orange-y rocks to fill in the tail area. The shells were easier to come by. The metallic gold hair elastic found by Cuyler added just the right touch of sparkle, don't you think?
Next up, Ebby's 'Chromatic Flower'. She was also quite dedicated in finding just the right colors to create the petals of her lovely flower. And I just love the touch of pizazz in the center :-)
Will built a fortress of sorts for the Mama T-Rex pencil topper he found in the sand. That didn't cause any problems between him and Cuyler, now did it (*cough* of course it did *cough*)
Cuyler chose not to create any beach art today. He did however collect a bunch of green speckled rocks with which he plans to create a gecko.
All I have to do is find a child-safe glue strong enough to hold together fist-sized rocks....
How I love beach days!
One of the things I love about summer is summer visitors.
Before they arrive, summer visitors serve as motivation to complete projects and clean your house.
When they're here, summer visitors allow you to take a few days off from your regular schedule and enjoy their company.
Once they've departed, the laundry begins.
I am at the 4 loads of laundry, read emails, pay bills, post photos and general catch up phase today ;-)
We sure did have a nice visit with some of our friends from our old neighborhood in North Carolina. It's fun to play tourist for a few days in your hometown (and beyond).
I have lots to share and hopefully will be able to do just that this week.
Of course Friday is Cuyler and Will's birthday and Sunday is Ebby's birthday.
The excitement is seemingly nonstop around here...
Today I'm sharing photos of collages sent and received in Artsy Mama's Year of Color Summer Delight Collage swap.
First, here's the collage I made, 'S is for Summer'.
I used lots of materials including old book pages and text, paint, alcohol inks, scrapbook paper & canvas paper. I even got daring and sealed the entire piece in beeswax. I really love how it turned out and hope it's enjoying it's new home in Arizona with Katie, my swap partner : )
The collage I received from Katie is entitled 'Endless Summer'. I love all the textures, dimension and materials. The colors and mermaid motif make it a great fit on the wall of our newly repainted downstairs bathroom.
Thanks again Katie!
I am spending this week as the Arts & Crafts mom at our local Y
camp. They have a work exchange program that I'm participating in.
For one week of Arts & Crafts "momming" you receive 3 weeks of camp
free of charge. It just so happens that I have 3 children. So, we are
all going to camp this week. Right now I'm in the midst of prepping
projects for tomorrow. Sure, the organized people prep their projects weeks or at least days ahead. Then there's the last minute Lindas like myself...
Anyway, to start the week today we made: Pirate Medallions.
Here's Will, showing off his:
Most of the kids seemed to enjoy making them and I spotted many campers still wearing their medallions at the end of the day during pick up : - )
To make your own medallion, here are a few steps/pointers:
These medallions would be easily adaptable to almost any theme and would make an easy & fun party activity. Enjoy!
