A Day of Art

Justin had a ridiculously busy summer.  I think he took 7 days off--five to build the swing set and 2 when we had company from out of town, as a professor on a 10 month contract, that's not much time off!  We had been meaning to visit the Parthenon in Nashville, but had never made it happen.  After a long evening at work one day recently, we stole him away for a short trip the next morning before he headed in to his office.

I was the only one who had been there before.  It was the early '90's when I was there with my family.  I did recognize some of the paintings that are permanently displayed in the gallery.  They were spackling the middle section, so I assume that they are in the processes of changing a borrowed collection out.

The kiddos looked somewhat patiently.  Kate was very good at pointing out impressionistic pieces, which was fun.  We talked about portraits, landscapes, and still lives.  Then we went upstairs to the main attraction of the museum.  Kate was probably the most impressed by Athena.  The last time I saw the statue, she was not yet gilded or painted.

Things 1, 2, and 3 looking at Athena, with Nike, and her shield with Medusa's head

Ellie and I were there too.  She did really well, didn't fuss once!  She's been such a portable little girl, which is a great blessing, having older siblings.

Then we saw the plaster statues made from the casts of the original sculptures of the pediments in Greece.  The older girls were quite put off that they were missing heads and arms.  We showed the the recreations that had been made with all the parts intact to show how they had once been formed.  Kate told me that it was much better that someone had made the parts and they had just been lost through the course of time.  Funny, I always thought it is sad that someone's work has been lost or damaged, but she sees it more as a sadness that they wouldn't have ever been finished.

We came home and worked on an art project based on an impressioninst, Claude Monet, who we've been studying.

Gabby and Katie are tearing tissue paper to make the water.

 Nate's completed project

Because Everyone Needs Minions

We had the chance to watch Despicable Me 2 (We haven't seen the first one.), and Justin told the children he needed some minions.

 I wasn't quite sure where to get the little guys, so we made some of our own.

I made templates for the girls to trace and cut,

cut pieces for Nate, 

 and made a sample--on a packaged yellow sponge cake.

It was a fun little art project, and Justin got his minions.  Even if they were eaten shortly thereafter.

Banner of Verses

The kids and I have been working on a memory verse almost every week this year in school.  I didn't want us to forget the ones we had previously learned, do I copied each one on to a paper and made a wall hanging so that we can look back over them.

First, I cut my paper (card stock) to squares (6" x 6") and wrote the verses.

Then I placed scotch tape on each card at the top to protect it from ripping.

Then I stitched the paper onto a ribbon in the back with a button on the front.

I hung it on a pillar next to our front door, near where we school, so we can look back over them.

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. -Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (ESV)

Pastels

I love arts and crafts, but I haven't done a lot of them with the kids because it requires quite a bit of mess and they often are competing for my attention during it--leaving everyone frustrated.  At this point though, the youngest is nearly three...the oldest 'baby' our family has ever had, making it easier to do these activities all the time now.

My parents offered to purchase a few of our home school wants this fall, so I bravely added pastels to my list.  If you've never worked with them, they are a lot of fun.  They write like crayons, but then you can do neat blending.  They can be quite the mess though!  I started by showing them how they work and then let them take off.

Nate got to help me on my picture, so he was staying out of the girls' work.

I had the gals stay in their nightgowns to work that morning, in case we got a little messy.

Kate, blending on her flower.

Gabby's picture was a bit more abstract.

Fix-It

Gabriella's baby stroller suffered from CCS (cheap construction syndrome). The seat part ripped after about a month of use and it just kept getting worse. She got to pick out some fabric at the store the other day and I was able to use some scraps of ribbon and quilt binding I had on hand to fix it up. We picked out a flannel that won't ravel like the light weight nylon/polyester type fabric that was on there before. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Ready for a stroll?

You Create: Snow Men

Since this kind of snow man is hard to come by in these parts (this one was made on our trip to Ohio), we've been saving baby food jars around here for awhile. I did make some baby food, but those little jars are nice to have sometimes!

The girls painted some jars white (Kate did stage three and Gabby did stage two). I painted the lids various colors and also painted a meat jar black--in the second set we did I painted the lid of the meat jar red, so he had a nice red ribbon on his hat.



The faces are simply Sharpies and paint pens and hot glued googly eyes. Then a quick gluing of the jars together.

A gift from our whole family--Justin's paycheck bought the food, Nate emptied the jars, and the girls and I painted!

You Create: picnic bundle

I made this for my in-laws to carry their utensils for a picnic.



I took a place mat and lined it with flannel. I cut the flannel to 1" larger than the mat, turned the edges under and stitched it together. I flipped up the bottom of the mat to make a pocket and stitched that to make pockets to store each of the items (napkins, forks, knives, spoons, and a spare spot for anything else they might need to carry).



Lastly, I stitched a ribbon on to tie the little bundle up.

Hot Chocolate Santa

I took a milk bottle from a fast food restaurant we visited recently in a rush from story time to the grocery store and washed it out. Then I painted it as Santa Claus. Kate and I made hot cocoa mix from scratch and filled it for her story time teacher.

Story time was snowed out this week (we got about a 1/2" of snow, but here that causes a lot of trouble, since there just isn't the call for the equipment to be kept for the little snow we get), so we'll have to try to get it to her another time.

More Home Made Christmas

I've been doing some more home made Christmas gifts.

Gabriella asked for baby doll clothes for her favorite doll, Sally, for Christmas. She said in specific that she wanted strawberry pajamas. Since strawberries are out of season, even in the fabric store, I was only able to buy strawberry buttons. I used some fabric scraps and put together this little set for baby Sally, who I had to go hunting for last night to check the fit on her pants. She was even willing to pose for this picture.

You Create: Cupcake Hat

It's a homemade Christmas this year. We did buy each of the kids a couple of things, but we're not spending a lot on Christmas. Thankfully the girls each asked for things that I can easily make anyway. I am raiding my scraps of fabric from other projects and using my sewing machine quite a bit.

Kate has been asking for a chef's hat, so this project I pulled off Saturday night. I did buy the fabric for this particular project instead of raiding my stash--I got it on sale and I would guess the total cost was less than $5--I did have hook and loop fasteners, interfacing and thread on hand.


It required 2/3rds of a yard of the fun cupcake fabric, cut into a circle (there was enough to make two in the 44" width, so I did). Then I used 1/3 of a matching fabric to make the bands (cut in half to make two 18 inch wide pieces of fabric).


I measured my kids heads under the premise that I have a friend making hats and I wanted to let her know standard kids head sizes... um yeah. She is making hats at least. I made the bands a few inches longer than their head circumference so I can fold the edges under and add some hook and loop fasteners to adjust the closing. Fold bands the of fabric in half (so they are now 9 1/2 inches wide) and line with interfacing inside the folded fabric.


This iron always makes me smile. I'm sentimental like that. Maybe I'll write about it this week. This iron is special. I hope it lasts me a long, long time.

I ironed the fabric and also folded in the raw edges that will be on the exposed edge (the short ends). Stitch it up and add the fasteners.

Pin the hat to the band, with lots of little folds. Then stitch that all together.



My little models haven't seen it obviously, so you'll have to have to check back after Christmas to see my little bakers in their hats.

Turkey Crafts

I made these cute hair bows, based on this post.



We also made cute little Thanksgiving cards. The girls got to help make the cards, which they thought was a lot of fun. I cut out all the pieces and they had fun with their glue sticks!

You Create: Gabby Makes a Bear

This year the girls each had a little birthday money to spend. I was thrilled that they both picked craft kits.


Gabby chose a set of two bears, similar to the Build-A-Bears, but a take home version of course. The bears have great princess-y dress-up clothes too: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Tinker Bell.


She was a little hesitant of the filling at first,


but then she decided the fluffy stuff was fun.

I helped fill in the arms and legs for her.

The only down side is that in making it a no sew project, the back is secured by hook and loop, so it can be opened and the filling removed--over and over. But we wouldn't know anything about that here. I haven't even considered pulling out my needle and thread. Ahem.


She loves her white bear and decided that Kate can use he brown one, a very sweet thing.