picture summer- day 23 {life is but a dream}

Playing around with a blue plastic bucket, some sunshine, water and this sailboat Eva made.



Miniature wishing well.

picture color- day 10 {creating with color}

picture color- day 12 {polka dots}

This was a particularly fun day. Eva and I looked everywhere for evidence of polka dots. We found our polka dotted chalk. I got the idea to include the peas while we were eating peas for lunch.



Then, while I was thinking about the polka dotted pea shot, Eva decided to go ahead and just draw me some polka dots of her own! (With the polka dotted chalk.)

diecutdolls

We got a die cut machine recently and Eva has been having the best time making paper dolls.

Slice of Life Tuesday

It happens (that counts for an H word, don't you think? and i wasn't even trying for that one...) that I am going to take a photography-ish sort of online course starting in April that focuses on- is, in fact, called- the Slice of Life project. While the course doesn't start until April, the woman who teaches (Darrah Parker) the course has a Slice of Life Tuesday group on Flicker. This week the theme is Up Close and Personal. Here's the photo I uploaded to that group. {For fun.}



Eva (and I) working on a craft project together.

Eva really enjoyed her Valentine making class today at The Warehouse with Portland Art Adventures. Both kids have taken several classes with Becky and they have enjoyed the classes and really like her as a teacher/ facilitator. Eva has just signed up for a few more of the upcoming classes. One of the reasons I think both kids are enjoying the classes so much- and why Eva has signed up for more- is the format of most of the classes. Becky brings in a ton of different materials for the specific project and the kids can use them how they like. For the Valentine class, she had boxes, card stock, ribbons, fabric, feathers. So much to choose from in the name of pink and red and purple.

card making project {3}

Eva and I made 20 holiday cards together and here they are at last!











We aren't going to send out any of these this time around, so if you know me and would like a holiday card, pick out your favorite from those pictured here and imagine me sending it to you in the mail. Then imagine you pulling your chosen card out of your mailbox in about a week or so and how much fun that would be!

card making project {2}

Eva and I finally did our holiday card project. Tonight.



Here she is getting all set up for it.

I'll post a picture of the finished cards tomorrow after they have dried. There is an awful lot of glue and glitter and such that needs to sit still awhile before we photograph. And- while I swept up as much glitter as I could, I'm sure there will be quite a bit of glitter around the house for a while, such is the way of glitter. But that doesn't bother me. It's the tension of the actual project that bothers me.

I wish I could say that making the cards was fun. At least Eva said she had fun afterward. And during, I think. She said she loves doing projects like this with me. So that's something, at least. And I did calm down after a while. I relaxed. But I have to say this type of project triggers all that is stressful and tense in me and suddenly nothing that I can do looks quite right. Or turns out. I talked myself down, though, and managed to pull it together to play a bit with Eva and by the end I was mostly fine with the project and even managed to enjoy myself for some of it. Good grief. At least it seems like that now, in retrospect. And when I look at some of the cards, I definitely have a positive memory associated with them, so that's another something.

Still, I had to take so many deep breaths during and after and I feel like I am still recovering from the project a full 1/2 to an hour later, even after clean up. I'm not exactly sure what this is all about but I have a feeling that throwing myself into a few more projects like this- with Eva- just for the project's sake {and the connection time} could help quite a bit.

As it turns out, we may not even send out any of the cards. Eva hadn't wanted to send out any of the cards that only she worked on and I was fine with that. Now she wants to keep my cards as well, which I guess I shouldn't be surprised by. I don't know what I thought was going to happen. Did I think I would smuggle the cards out of the house without her noticing? Still, I think we can come up with a nice way to set them up so we can enjoy them over the next couple of weeks, whether we end up sending any of them or not.

And, as tense as the project was, I am glad I did the project. I'm glad I got the idea and shared it with Eva and made up the list. I'm glad we bought crafty goodness and put it all together, together. I'm glad Eva enjoyed herself and I'm glad I made the time for that type of connection with her. And I'm glad it's all over. Until next time, when I hope it's not quite as bad. Practice makes perfect, as they say. Or how about practice relaxes. Practice makes deep breathing second nature. Practice makes comfortable. And the like...

card making project

So I've decided to make holiday cards with Eva this year. I got the idea after being totally inspired by Martha Stewart and her pumpkin dessert recipes for Thanksgiving. And Eva had a lot of fun making Halloween decorations this year, some of which were inspired by ideas we also saw on Martha Steward online. After Thanksgiving- or during?- I started looking at Holiday decorations, particularly the card making section, and I was hooked. Today we went out and bought a few bits of craftiness for the cards. It's hard to go into Joanne's for long stretches because all of the smells- I'm thinking the glues and perfumes and other odd bits- tend to make Samuel feel sick. So I try to be as thoughtful as I can while rushing most of the time. It worked fairly well this time, although I may need to go back. Maybe I can go somewhere else.

Here's what we got-
card stock in various colors
smallish plain cards
glue
glitter
snowflakey decorations
small glittery snowflakey decorations in two sizes
red poinsettia decorations

I am still thinking about stamps. And buttons. I have a list across the room with other things written in it that I am also thinking about but I am going to leave it there for now as Agnes is currently sleeping in my lap and I don't want to disturb her. I'm sure there will be plenty of time for list reading later on, but I never know when Agnes is going to get up and move into the other room...

body art

Eva loves to do body art on herself in the form of tattoos and drawings that she does herself. Today she literally covered herself in body art. I got some pictures of my favorites. One of the owls is on my hand. She also did a lovely bird on my forearm that was too difficult to photograph.

birds *with* trees

This evening {starts so soon these days. I can't decide when to start calling it evening and when it is still afternoon...} Eva and I hung a few more of her drawings up. I wanted to get some of her fairies and well-dressed-ladies up on the wall. Afterward she was inspired to have me trace her on some of the rolled up paper we bought at the art supply store last month. The tracing turned out great and she is now working on decorating her paper-self. Photos to follow after she has finished. Turns out it is a pretty large project and the light in here is very dim.

Like I said, the lighting is rather dim. I can't help it. The blog must go on. And this {lighting issue} is what I'm dealing with {currently, in this life}.



This fancy fairy is one of my all time favorites and here is a lady in red. High heels for everyone.



These birds were done today and were a part of a larger photo story about how the birds are sad when we cut down all the trees. These birds are still happy and are shown in the larger drawing with trees. I know I feel better with trees too.

Eva's video on how to make a boat-

inspiration where it finds you

Eva surprised me yesterday with a picnic in the backyard. She brought out a table cloth and spread it on the grass under the apple tree so that we could look up into the pink and white blossoms above. The sky was blue, the sun was shining. She brought crackers, tortilla chips, Parmesan cheese and some of the boysenberry-peach crisp I had made for her earlier in the day.

Later on she spent some time with the cleared off patio cement and some sidewalk chalk drawing chalk robots Forinor, BeBe and Kenos, rabbits Cuddly and Carrots and some chalk people I helped her trace, Eva and Lucy.

We never did get around to making sugar crystals on the cleared off kitchen table. I guess the cleared off patio was the inspiration for the day this time...

spring, take 1

We had a gloriously sunshiney most-of-the-day-outside sort of day yesterday and Eva spent a good bit of it out with the flowers. She brought in a few armfuls to put in water on the table- daffodils and pansies and quite a few dead nettle and dandelions. Then she spent some time arranging the flowers in water and setting up a flower display. She also set some aside to dry in the flower dryer she got for Christmas. (Oh, and onion tops. She brought in quite a few onion tops as well.) I am looking forward to the forget-me-nots which are just starting to bloom. We found some tiny vases last year which are going to be just perfect for forget-me-nots and wood violet bouquets...

Beauty where it finds you-

Little Guys

Eva and I's Little Guys.

abundance

If you are feeling a lack of abundance in your life I highly suggest heading over to the u-pick and checking out the raspberries. Nature is not reserved with her wares and showers the world with whatever is on hand- raspberries, flower petals, rain drops...Today the raspberries were so abundant that when I put my hand under the leaves, the berries literally dripped off into my hands. Ten pints of lovely red raspberries lickety split, just like that.



The morning glories are blooming! Also Eva made another petal person- this one has a third eye for her intuition. She is sitting on a sock I am knitting.

We are going out of town this weekend with friends to check out a beach in southern Washington. I already have my camera packed! Thank goodness Eva reminded me!