top o’ the mornin’ to ya, lads & lasses! just a little luck & cheer from my weee bit (1/8th) irish lady one who drew this lovely little leprechaun to celebrate the season:
while she drew the rest of what you see below, she told me this: “that’s me behind her, catching the leprechaun! did you know that if you catch a leprechaun, she has to give you all of her gold?”
happy st. patty’s day to all!
you, dear readers, may recall the huge frame that N and i painted as a prop for her rainbow-themed fourth birthday party.
well, this lovely rainbow ikea frame was just calling to us for some original artwork to fill it. N was up for the task! we started by painting a lavender (N’s choice) watercolor wash onto a heavy weight piece of drawing paper. N wanted to background of her mixed media picture to be purple like her bedroom.
after the paint was dry, N wanted to draw a picture with pencil onto the page. she had an idea that she wanted to draw a porcupine wedding taking place under a decorated tree, with some animal guests.
after N drafted most of the picture in pencil, she got out our crayons and got to work coloring in this huuuge coloring page.
some of the areas were so large (like the tree trunk and some of the tree top.) that her hand got tired and she asked me to help out coloring “in the lines, mommy!” as it was progressing, the look on her excited face was priceless!
the details are fabulous, and i wanted to share a few…
dancing groom & bride
fox, mice, bunny wedding guests
mama bird, nest with eggs, and squirrel
N was pleased with the finished piece.
but even more psyched when it was framed in her bedroom!
love is in the air! and at our house, hearts are EVERYWHERE! so we wanted to share… N has been having fun cutting her own hearts out of all sorts of paper.
the other day she decorated several of them using creamy crayons
they’re on the fridge now, along with a cute one she cut out and glued to another piece of paper to make it into a “heart-person holding heart balloons.”
on one of our all-time favorite blogs, the artful parent, we saw the idea of cutting and watercoloring hearts out of coffee filters. just like we made coffee filter snowflakes earlier this winter, we did the same with hearts. coffee filters are awesome – not only are they easy for kids to cut, but watercolors bleed across them and blend beautifully when painted.
N spent an entire afternoon making TONS of watercolored hearts.
we hung some up on our backdoor so that the light could filter through the colors.
we mod podged some of these hearts to blank cards to make valentines for our family members.
some of our favorite heART activities from years past are:
happy upcoming heart day! what are your favorite heART projects?
last week, we did a little holiday baking around here. we made our usual recipe-off-the-marshmallow-fluff-jar fudge. then i had to dig up a new sugar cookie recipe because of the whole pesky gluten-intolerance thing. i ended up finding an awesome recipe that you honestly would not know is gluten-free! we got down to business, mixing the 6,502 types of flours together.
we had an awesome time cutting the cookies…
and decorating the cookies.
and admiring the cookies and eventually eating the cookies! (and gifting some)
the next day when N was playing alone in her room, she asked for scissors and paper. i knew she was coloring, and she was being sort of sneaky about it, but we granted her the items (regardless of my fear that she will someday soon attempt to cut her own hair.) after almost an hour of total quiet in there, she emerged with “cookies!”
she had been cutting and decorating lots of “cookies” on her own, and was quite proud of them. i just love child-originated art projects!
(angry gingerman shown for scale? or just because we were about to munch on him... which is probably why he was angry)
with thanksgiving upon us, our wee little greeting card factory has been in turkey mode. now, we usually don’t send cards for thanksgiving, but N made some cool turkeys this year that were certainly card-worthy. also, we don’t eat turkey for thanksgiving (all vegetarians over here) so we befriend the turkeys on thanksgiving… and apparently we keep them safe at our house..? oh, read on.
these handprint turkeys had be at “gobble gobble” when they came home with N from preschool.
i love the multi-colored tail feathers and the wattle detail.
this is such a simple, yet adorable, project for any age! just when we were good and ready to write some sweet notes to family members on the inside of the cards, N decided she wanted to keep them for our fridge at home. she couldn’t part with these turkeys! so she got to work at her art table, drawing new turkeys with crayons on small unlined index cards.
but then, she would only agree to send one of them to gwee (my mom)… she wanted to keep the rest for – you guessed it – the display on our fridge. (we’re having an art-hoarding issue over here.) the red turkey managed to make it into the mailbox with this sweet handwritten (by N) note inside.
it reads: "i am thankful for you! love, N"
at least this is a digital age where the rest of the family can get a really nicely homemade e-card of these turkeys on thanksgiving day! (sorry family and friends, we’re saving turkeys over here… literally!)
i am grateful for you, dear readers.
happy tofurkey day to all!
nevermind that it’s not yet thanksgiving… somehow our spirits are already in the christmas-mode around here, much like a prematurely decorated department store. we haven’t busted out the stockings or the tree yet, but N has been singing “rudolph the red-nosed reindeer” constantly since december 2008, pretty much on a daily basis no matter the season. she is always anticipating the holiday. the other day i found her at her art table, drawing and coloring, as she is often doing.
this time she was making a picture of santa claus. i just had to share it with you, as i was quite impressed! (yep, i’m a proud momma.) i just love that this entire project was completely child-invented and child-directed.
N said that she wanted to send the picture to santa claus in the north pole, along with her christmas list for the toys she wants his elves to make for her. (even though we downplay the actual existence of one man named santa around here, in favor of “he’s the spirit of christmas” explanations, the mass consciousness around his myth as permeated our household via friends, books, cartoons, etc.) so be it. she’s enjoying the legend for now, and also holds a broad perspective that includes earth-based spirituality and honors other spiritual paths. she knows that christmas isn’t about materialism, yet she is a three year old who wants new toys.
anyway, she got to work dreaming up the things she wants for christmas. she asked me to help her spell the items, as she got to work writing her christmas letter.
it reads: “dear santa. i wish for: teddy bear, bike, fox, ipod, train, train track. love, N”
N wanted me to help her mail this to the north pole. now i think this is the cutest letter ever, so just couldn’t bring myself to fold it and put it into any old envelope, so we spent the afternoon creating a large envelope that would hold it out of a large roll of drawing paper and clear packaging tape (to seal the sides of the pocket.) N addressed and stamped (with a 1 cent stamp) the envelope.
N decorated the envelope with all sorts of stickers for santa. (we don’t have any holiday or winter stickers yet, so she just used random ones we did have on hand.)
we put it out beside the mailbox. (to promptly be retrieved by me when she is absorbed in play again.)
sure, N draws people every single day. she also draws things she sees, but for some reason, she has yet to have a model sit for her and draw the person she sees, until now.
life drawing class in our kitchen
my mom (who N calls “gwee”) has been in town visiting. gwee offered to sit for her portrait to be drawn the other day while i was making dinner for the family.
N had a great time, and would not let the model see her picture until it was finished. (but mommy was allowed to see it and take pictures! yay!) she drew the face and added realistic parts that i’ve not seen her do before when she draws from her imagination… like eyelids.
she decided to add a body and dress from her imagination. she wanted to color it with a “rainbow theme.” N said the one green eye (realistic) and one magenta eye (not realistic) were to keep it with her rainbow theme.
my mom said she’d take the portrait home and frame it for her house.
N is so honored!
