Artistic Developments

Echo has been making some pretty cool 3 dimensional "installation" art lately and I wanted to share a few quick pictures of her work. The top one she made at her preschool coop, she picked up all these separate pieces and put them together to make a whole flower complete with a stick stem and leaves.

A few days later she put this fun face together with found objects on our couch. The rolls of tape are the eyes, the pencil and ribbon the mouth, the boots are the ears and the scarf and ball are the hair. Her creativity amazes me and is so lovely to see. 

On an another art related note, we recently got these awesome art frames from Walmart. They open up on a hinge so that you can easily display swap out your child's artwork, Having the art in a frame with a matte really elevates it and the kids get so excited about having their work displayed in such a professional looking manner. I love how easy it is to change the artwork out too since my kids are constantly creating new work. I highly recommend these for anyone with kids who love making art.

Homemade Playdough

I can't believe that it has taken me this long after having kids to make my own play dough! I think it's like a requirement for crafty stay at home moms ;-)

The cold winter months are perfect for this kind of activity and now that Echo is old enough to help cook things on the stove it seemed like the right time.

I got our recipe from the Artful Parent (awesome book that we use almost daily and a great blog as well). Here is the recipe (copied from the Artful Parent blog and pasted here for your convenience).

MATERIALS

5 cups water

2 1/2 cups salt

2 Tablespoons cream of tartar

8 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Food coloring or liquid watercolors

5 cups flour

Glitter and/or essential oils (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix the water, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in a large pot.

2. Cook the mixture on medium-low heat, stirring regularly until it is hot.

3. Add the oil and mix.

4. Stir in the flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing between each addition with a wooden or other strong spoon.

5. Continue to mix until the playdough pulls away from the pan and is no longer sticky. Pinch it between your fingers to test it (but be careful because it’s hot!).

6. Place the dough on the counter, let it cool a bit, and then knead.

Note :: This is the time to add glitter or essential oils, if desired. Simply place the additions in a well in the center of the playdough, then knead the dough thoroughly to mix.

7. Store the dough in an airtight bag or other container at room temperature. It will keep for months.

I added glitter, blue liquid watercolors and peppermint essential oils just to make it really fancy. The kids really loved making and using the play dough and it made a huge batch! I especially enjoy how good it smells with the essential oils, it's very relaxing to mush in your hands :-)

I have been storing it in a large ziplock bad in a drawer with our other play dough it so far it's holding up really well. We are going on three weeks now and it's good as new.

Art Spaces

Just a quick update on the kids artwork and working spaces. Clover is really starting to come in to her own artistically. Above you can see some of her current work. She has been experimenting a lot with stickers, watercolors, pastels and markers.

Meanwhile Echo is starting to get more representational. Above is a picture she did of Clover. This was the first time she clearly drew a face and as anyone who has studied childhood development knows this is a huge milestone! I was very proud of this work. She has since done a lot more face drawings and also loves drawing and painting apple trees.

Echo has had her current art setup for a while now and her desk is working really well for her, it's great that she has a place to go when she wants to make something that is all her own.

Clover has her own desk now too which is a recent development! It's been wonderful to see her gaining independence through having her own work space. She often gets her own paper out of the paper drawer, takes it to her desk and starts working on a drawing.

I also try to leave a blank sheet of paper out on Clover's desk at all times so that she can feel inspired to go create :-) It's so fun to see what the girls work on when they are left to their own devices.

Print Exchange

This fall I took part in a print exchange put on by the Sketchbook Project and I recently received my prints from the exchange in the mail! I was wanting to challenge myself with something creative and this was a great exercise to wake up my artistic side. The sketchbook organizes some really interesting art projects so if you've never heard of them check them out. For this particular project I had to produce an edition of 11 prints with the theme "greetings from a distant land. I then sent the prints in to the nice folks at the sketchbook project and about a month later I received 10 prints from different artists all over the world! The sketchbook project kept one of my prints for their collection and sent the rest out to other artists. It was so exciting to get a collection of art in the mail, you can see the print I made at the top of this post and the prints I received are bellow.

Doing this project around Echo prompted her to do an art exchange with other kids around the country which was also really cool to see. I love the prints I received and I want to look in to getting them framed and hung somewhere in the house. What a cool way to score some original artwork!

Home Made Model Magic

Oh goodness I have gotten behind on the blog! We've been on vacation and it takes us some time to recover plus We have lots of exciting new things starting up this Fall including a preschool(ish) program for Echo, connection with a fabulous homeschool group, me starting yoga, and a lot of doctors visits for me and Eric, so it's been a whirlwind.

I'll get back in the swing of things by sharing this short project (I'm dying to share my vacation photos but that will have to wait a little longer).

I recently tried a recipe from Pinterest (where else?) for home made Model Magic clay, which is a Crayola product. I have used Model Magic in the past while teaching art and loved it! The texture reminds me of marshmallow fondant, so fun to play with! It's super expensive though so I thought I'd give the home made stuff a try. All you have to do is mix 2 cups baking soda, one cup corn starch and one and a half cups cold water. Bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly and continue to stir until it thickens to the consistency of mashed potatoes. Remove the pot from heat and allow the clay to cool (cover with a dish towel to keep it from drying out too much). If it is too wet and sticky like mine was you can kneed a little corn starch in to it. I also scented mine with a little lemon essential oil because it smells a little weird on it's own.

It was really fun to play with and Echo and I loved making things with it. It wasn't quite the same as Model Magic but it still had a great texture and was fun to use. Our sculptures all cracked and fell apart when we left them out to dry so I'm not sure what we did wrong there but if you just want to use it like play dough it works great.

An Artistic Saturday Morning

Echo's sunflower

We had a great day yesterday and lots of time for art! After our weekly excursion to the farmer's market we came home and had some creative time as a family (sometimes my life is so delicious, I love our weekends!). We bought Echo a new sketchbook and I got one to match so we did some sketching together. Echo decided to draw a picture of a sunflower Eric had bought for her. It very exciting because this was her first time drawing from observation. She did an amazing job! Her artistic talent is really starting to blossom. 

Echo posing with her flower and her drawing. 

 I also spent some time encouraging Clover to draw with a variety of materials. She ended up producing her very first work on paper! Such a big day for both Echo and Clover artistically! Clover will still start to chew the art supplies eventually but she will draw for a little while first. In any case She is getting a good introduction to using art materials.

Clover's first work on paper.

 Echo and I have also been doing a lot of collaborative work. I often draw a fish and she will draw the background.

It's so exciting to see these girls develop their artistic talents and so much fun for me to get to make art with them!

My Little Artist

I'm so excited to say that Clover is starting to make her first scribbles! This is actually a  lot younger than Echo started making art, Clover is almost 9 months and Echo was just over 11 months when she started "coloring". I always assume that Clover will just put any art material I give her directly in her mouth but while at my parents house she drew with sidewalk chalk for a good long time before she tried tasting it. The above drawing is her first, the arching lines not the dinosaur ;-)

Maybe it's watching Echo constantly create things or maybe it's just that different kids start things at different ages but I'm really excited that we will all be doing art projects together soon! I know somebody that will be getting some art supplies for her 1st Birthday :-)

Echo's Recent Artwork

Echo continues to enjoy painting on a regular basis and I love seeing her skills with a brush improve! She recently started making dots with her paintbrush instead of just kind of scribbling with it and has noticed that the color green she uses is the same as the leaves on our houseplants. She loves comparing things right now so she will point to the green paint and then at the leaves and back and forth. We have also done some experimenting with stamping using home made shape stamps and she has been doing some collage and getting practice glueing. Here are some examples of her recent artwork that i am loving!

Experimenting with stamps

The above left picture was a collaborative effort, she really likes painting and drawing with me and I feel like it encourages her to stay interested in painting and drawing longer if we work on something together. She also loves to show people her paintings and can't wait to show her daddy what she has been making when he gets home from work. It's been really exciting to watch her as she continues to learn about different art techniques. She still hates finger painting but loves using a brush and is getting better all the time.

Showing me one of her paintings

My little artist with a cute paint smudge on her cheek!

I love that this is something we can enjoy together and it always makes for a great rainy day activity. I can't wait to see what she will paint next :-)

Home Made Christmas Gifts

Now that Christmas is over I can reveal my home made presents from this past year. I didn't get as many done as I would like but here is what I ended up giving.

For my Dad and Eric I made these handy fire wood totes. I can't find the tutorial I used anywhere now but they were really easy and fun to make. It's always so hard to think of good hand made gifts for guys and these were the perfect thing.

For Echo's baby friends I sewed some little bath time buddies out of terry cloth. They are basically just wash clothes but so cute! I packaged them with little travel sized baby shampoos.

For my mom I made my first attempt at making an encaustic collage. It was definitely harder than I thought but fun to play with. I think I'd like to get a book and learn more about this process in the future.

My grown up friends got home made bees wax candles and a locally made food item (not made by me but bought at a cool store in Marietta which sells locally produced items).

That's it for this year but if I end up having time and fortune smiles on me I am going to try to work on some home made goodies for Valentines day.

Changing and Rearranging

We have been making big changes in our main living area of the house and now I am finally getting around to sharing some photos of our updates. I think it's really interesting to see how our needs have changed and how the space has developed over time. The first thing I wanted to show off are the awesome built in stairs that Eric made for under our staircase!

This is a project we have been wanting to do since we moved in. The previous space under the stairs was inaccessible and basically unusable and a waste of space.  We had some bookshelves stuck back there but we really couldn't get to them and they didn't give us as much storage as we wanted.  The new built in shelves are very wide and very deep and allow for plenty of storage for our games and extra kitchen goods.

The top section of the shelves will one day be a reading nook for Echo but for now it's a place to hide the cat food so Echo can't eat it (babies love to eat cat food, don't ask me why). 

In order to be able to access the shelves we had to do a little furniture rearrangement and this is the new setup. It is a much cozier arrangement and allows for better conversation and a better spot to sit by the fire since the furniture is closer together now. We even found a nice little nook for Echo's easel and her little rocking chair.

The area by the front window has changed too since we swapped out the round table that was in this corner with the rectangular table that used to be in the dining room. Eric is now using this corner as his work desk for when he works from home. It's great because he has a lovely view out in to the front yard and plenty of light. He also sold his IMac and works exclusively on his new Chrome Book and his Ipad so he doesn't need much room. We almost never use the loft now because we have pretty much stopped watching tv altogether and Echo hates being confined in the small space up there, preferring to have free reign of the whole house. The consequence of this is that we are using our "formal" living room a lot more now and not really spending much time in the the loft. Plans for how to revise the loft space to make it more usable are in the works though.

We got a cool new firewood holder so we can have dry wood inside and it fits nicely with the new furniture arrangement (it needs to be filled up more though!). The house is starting to feel like a greenhouse because I had to move so many plants inside to save them from the freezing weather but it makes everything feel a little fresher and greener so that's nice.

Here is a picture of the new dining room arrangement. I actually think the round table fits better in this space. Unfortunately this area wasn't very clean for this photo, oh well.

I also felt the need to change out the art on the dining room wall so I got a huge poster sized print of one of my photographs and framed it for this wall. I'm loving the updated look. The glass in the frame is a little too reflective though and messes with the photograph, I'm working on a solution to this. I'm moving the art that used to be on this wall up in to the loft where I'm making a gallery wall.

Here is an aerial view of the new downstairs space. Sometimes I think it really helps perk up your spirits to rearrange and redecorate a space. I think this is just what we needed and we are appreciating our house in a whole new way now.

Echo's First Painting

Oh my goodness I am so behind on my blog! October has been a really busy month for us and we have had company this week plus we are about to go out of town on a family road trip so I may not have a chance to post much until we get back. In the mean time here is a picture of Echo painting for the first time.

I love introducing her to new art materials! She had a great time with her washable paints and was very careful about dipping the brush in the paint pot. She made a huge mess but that is why she's outside and not wearing clothes :-) For clean up I gave her a small bowl of water to dip her hands in (my dad's genius idea!). This works so much better for us than trying to wipe off her hands for her, which she hates. If we just give her a bowl of water she will dip her hands in it and get herself relatively clean. She also loves her nightly baths so anything that didn't get cleaned up with her small bowl came off later in the bath.

I'm beyond excited that she is starting to enjoy making art. I can't wait to do many more art projects together in the future, I have so many plans and ideas!

Living Walls 2013

Living Walls is a really awesome public art event hosted in Atlanta every year. I usually try to go to it but missed last year due to being very tired and pregnant :-) This year I was back with baby in tow! 

Living Walls consists primarily of a great many murals painted around the Atlanta area, generally clustered in a certain are each year. This series of events and art displays also includes lectures, gallery shows and block parties each year to celebrate and raise awareness of public art and urban renewal.  This is a very picture heavy post but there is so much amazing art to be seen at these events! Here is just a small sampling of the work featured in Living Walls this year. 

These first photos are of us going to the main event party which included gallery shows by the featured artists and lectures on urban renewal, Echo was a trooper to tag along!

The main event party was hosted at the Goat Farm again this year (I'm told it was held elsewhere last year). The Goat Farm is such an amazing space, I'm always in awe of it! I particularly love the the way the design events, especially the lighting. Everything took on a really magical feel thanks to the way this was handled. 

Above you can see the stage where the lectures took place and bellow is a painting by one of the featured artists.

The main event party really left us wanting more and we couldn't wait to see the murals around town. Today was my mom's Birthday so we decided to take the morning to do a tour of Living Walls murals and then grab some lunch, here is some of what we saw.

Most of this years murals were in the Grant Park and East Atlanta area (some of the ones I have pictured are from previous years as well though. For more info on Living Walls or for a map of the murals check out their website http://livingwallsatl.com/.

After all that sightseeing we worked up quite an appetite and headed over to East Atlanta's Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand. This place is fantastic but that should come as no surprise as it was opened by restauranteurs of The Porter in Little 5 Points and The Flying Biscuit, both Atlanta staples.

I enjoyed a chicken chorizo taco plate and an ice cold Coke and Echo enjoyed playing with the salt and pepper shakers :-) My mom and dad got a chili cheese sausage called the Hot Mess and a Philly cheese sausage respectively and everyone loved their meal. You can check out the menu on their website here http://www.thesausagestand.com/. I will definitely be going back when I can take Eric :-)

What a fun way to be a tourist in your own city, I love that Atlanta is such a big supporter of public art and that we can host such an exciting even as Living Walls every year.