Are your kids bored? Good!
Scientific studies have shown allowing children to become bored actually boosts their creativity*.
But sometimes you might need to give your kids a gentle creative nudge. Or–when it is the third day of being cooped up with incessant whining and squabbling because the flu struck during your spring-break-this-really-sucks-stay-cation–you might need to forget the gentle nudge and march them directly toward an activity. As in now. Right. Now. Read the rest of this entry
If you looked closely in my Graphic 45 audition, you might have noticed that fawn in the Spring Matchbox really knows how to celebrate the new season. He has donned a purple polka-dotted party hat, complete with glitter and streamer-like tassel.
I chuckled when today I visited the web site of one of my favorite artists, Lisa Kettle, because coincidentally pictured on her blog is a cute-as-can-be zebra wearing a glittery red party hat. Her post reminded me that more than likely she introduced me many years ago to animal party hats when I read her book Altered Art Circus. Read the rest of this entry
Open your windows and put out the patio chairs for a new season has arrived. It’s the season when Graphic 45 selects its new design team for 2014.
Just like the Graphic 45 Staples Collection Metal Butterfly, I am irresistibly drawn to this event. The projects below serve as my audition to this prestigious annual event.
I made this gigantic egg (you can see it at at the top of the post) to add a little playfulness into the audition. You poor judges can only look at so many scrapbook pages, before getting a little blurry eyed.
The egg stands 11 inches tall and features the Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments collection. The 45 is the numerical portion of the actual Graphic 45 logo, which I enlarged, traced and then hand cut from several pieces of foam core. I then stacked them together in order to give the 45 substantial depth. Read the rest of this entry
Both of my kids are circus performers. Don’t get me wrong–they aren’t out on the road, performing in big tops across the country. Rather, instead of participating in youth soccer or baseball, they take classes and perform at a circus performing arts school.
They both walk the wire, known to non-circus folks at the tightrope, The Daughter™ rides unicycles tall and small, The Son™ performs aerial straps. They do lots of other circus stuff too. While they aren’t the star performers at this very competitive school–far from it–the fact that they undertake these acts of courage when they both have serious anxiety disorders is pretty amazing. When The Son™ started at this school as a six-year-old, he found playground slides too frightening. Now he walks the highwire.
Anyway, since this isn’t a mommy blog (really, no, really it isn’t!), I shared this to point out that with my kids doing all these daredevil acts, you would think I would know a thing or two about balance myself. Apparently not. I demonstrated this when I neared the final stages of completing my Artist Trading Block (ATB) Circus Cannon. There I was–cheerfully working away with everything going smoothly. Then I attached the cannon barrel to the block and watched in dismay as the barrel lurched into the ground. If this was a real circus cannon, the circus girl would be shot straight into the elephant poop. Read the rest of this entry
My art studio is on the third floor of my house and therefore closest to the roof. Normally, it is an inspirational and peaceful place of creativity. Today–not so much.
Today, I sporadically jolt from my chair when I hear tremendously loud thumps above my head. I’m not talking little thuds made by a squirrel here, people. I’m talking thundering booms caused by something the size of a human body. It’s loud. And it’s terrifying.
I know that if I tell my husband, he will–just like any good Minnesotan–sagely nod his head and explain that it is the ice breaking away from the roof. He will patiently tell me that because today is a balmy 16 degrees, we are finally escaping the three month polar vortex of negative zero temperatures, and so the ice dams on the roof are able to melt and break away. Read the rest of this entry
