Pepper Paints

Clay Day

We dragged out the really heavy tub of real clay. Not play dough, not modeling clay, not sculpey or plasticine, but real clay. It is so different than the others. It is real! We bought ours a long time ago-if properly wrapped  the clay will not dry out and will last a long time. Check your local phonebook for a place near by that sells clay.

It is a little hard at first but unlike modeling clay, it will become a bit more pliable, but then it dries out. Having a bit of water nearby to wet your fingertips is a good idea.  Yet, you don’t want to soak the clay either.

You can add some tools if you want or not. We used a mallet, roller, butter knives, among a few others.

Molly is our resident expert in all things clay. She has been taking hand building and pottery wheel classes for about 5 years now. She worked with a chunk for a while, then pounded it flat, then rolled it then cut shapes out with a knife. She used wet fingers as glue and to make the clay more pliable.

I suggested we make some pinch pots but they had other plans. That was fine, maybe next time. It has been awhile since we have had the clay out so they just wanted to mess round. She made a table, chairs and a highchair-and some people too.

Ginger mad a few things too, and put hers in the sun to dry. This clay is a lot about process and not product-unless you have an experienced participant and they have played with the clay many times before or if your younger child sees your older child making a particular something. Really this clay is an experience-to squeeze, pound, poke and smash.

We will air dry our clay pieces because our kiln is not working. Air dried pieces are not as strong and will not hold water. This is a great outside activity. It can get messy but it all washes off. Also, you do not want to let any clay go down your drain -hand washing is OK but no chunks or sludge! They worked with the clay for almost 2 hours this afternoon. It was very relaxing for all of us!

Arrival of the Animals

Today the circus arrived in town. We headed down the street after our circus class today to catch the Barnum & Bailey animals walk from the train cars that they arrived in, to the arena where they will be performing later this week. We waited about an hour. The kids passed the time by rolling on the front lawn of a business I later realized had a nice little green flag alerting the public of the recent application of lawn chemicals. Damn!! As the time past our excitement was building. Clowns, music, bright colors and festive atmosphere! Boy were we mistaken!

First there was the truck. Then there were the elephants.

Then there were horses.

Then there was the street sweepers and it was over. Damn again!

Thinking this may be an all day event, we were pretty sure we were going to miss Art class today. But after the quick animal parade we headed to another side of town for a group project of watercolors on plaster, broken into pieces to make a sort of puzzle. The results were really nice. On the way home we stopped at an old railway museum so Ginger and I could take some photos!

What were Molly and Jake doing you ask?!

Selling, Donating, Swapping and Shopping (a sad but true statement about my life!)

Well the garage sale is now just a memory! Saturday it rained until early afternoon. As soon as the skies cleared I ran outside to set up, when RockToWindAStringAround showed up to shop but ended up shuffling my goods from the living room floor to the front door step so I could feed the hungry shoppers! Sadly most of the goodies she eyed drove away with a starved shopper who left the buffet overstuffed and with a dogie bag!!! Thank goodness that guy bought as much as he did because about 1 hour later the skies opened up once more. So we tried again today and ended up selling a good bit of stuff. My pockets are full and my house clutter a bit lighter. We took all the leftovers to the thrift store drop box immediately after the sale so all’s well that ends well!!  Here is the sun setting through the wet palstic tarps that were covering our treasures.

But because I am such a pack rat I got up at O too early hundred hour to shop at a Swap. We scored a Video Now player complete with a Sponge Bob movie! A bit of yarn, a couple of vases, some art books and a nice set of wooden bowls for our nature table. I love stuff!! Especially free stuff!!

After the sale was all cleaned up we were able to grant Ginger’s earlier this week wish for a bike ride. She is now big enough for the tandem and is loving it! While out in the park we saw a group of people dressing up and playing instruments. They were definitely a photo op!! After retrieving our cameras Molly and I combed the park looking for them but didn’t catch up with them until they were packed up and headed to their cars. But a few of them were nice enough to pose for a sorry old lady for a couple of shots.

Molly and I continued to trek around and take lots of photos.

And roll down hills!!

This is Birthday week at our house. Both Jake and Ginger have special days that are fast approaching. Must shop soon!!!  Ugg, it’s a vicious cycle!

Pretty Papers

As I worked furiously today I sent the girls outside to Marbleize some paper. I have not tried to to this with paint,  but this chalk method works well, and is really easy.

Materials you will need:  Colored chalks, the brighter the better, craft stick or 2, white paper that does not have a shiny surface-we used construction paper, wash tub or tubbie big enough to comfortably fit the paper (or cut paper in half).

Fill tub 2 to 3 inches with water.  Scrape chalk with craft stick so that the chalk dust falls onto the surface of the water.

Try not to shake tubbie, the dust may sink.  After scraping several colors, gently lay paper onto water surface and gently swirl the paper so that it stays on the surface.

Gently peel paper out of the water.  You may want to weight edges as the wet paper tends to curl as it dries.

Molly actually made a book out of all her pretty papers!   If you drop the chalk into the water wait until you swirl your paper before you dive in after it.   And you may want to spray your pages with hairspray to keep the chalk from rubbing off.  I didn’t have any so we skipped this part.   Warning–this is sort of an addicting activity.  The combinations are endless!

Now as far as the cleaning and the pending garage sale…….

It better not rain all day as this pile doubled in size after this photo was taken!!!

Clean dinning room and fresh picked flowers!!  Can’t show pictures of the rest of the house yet!

This is going to be our new nature table.  I will be taking some ideas from A CHILD’S SEASONAL TREASUREY  and THE NATURE CORNER.

And a few photos from our trip to the skate park

Rock On

Sorry again for the lack of updating.  I feel like I am running in place lately.  So much to do, so little time.  I am planing to do a huge Spring cleaning this week with a garage sale planned for  Saturday as motivation to clear this place  out.   So this weeks posts may be unexciting as well, but you never know.  I am sure my creative kids will come up with a few ideas on their own.  Which I am really looking to as the weather warms.

Throwing them in the back yard with odds and ends of junk and paint is really a favorite activity.  Wet sand and body art, making forts and loads of pretend play.  Once my house is clean I can focus on other things!!

I sort of work like that.  I do best when I can put all my energy to one place-this week it will be cleaning and decluttering.  Next will be gardening and then on to summer activities!!  I can only be good at one thing at at time.  Be it cooking, cleaning, researching something.  My son is just like me.  I try to remember that when I think he is having as educational dry spell.  He will always find his way to a focus.  Although the older he gets the lull in between is longer and longer.  Nerve racking!!  But that is another long post.

Thanks for all the encouragement and kind words on showing my photos but it didn’t happen.  I arrived at the barren space with 20 minutes to hang my stuff.  Looking around at the empty walls I assumed the show was canceled.  After checking with several tenants the sad truth was confirmed-No SPARK this month.  Well I am ready for next month or June.  I also talked to Renee at the gallery where Molly has her class and I am going to put some stuff there.  I am glad to have some finished pieces.  I am usually running at the last minute as I was Sturday but now I am ahead!

Ginger spent some time rockin’ out yesterday. I would like to say she was singing something classic but I am sure it was Hannah Montanna .

I had plans  to do the watercolor tutorial from Camp Creek last week.  I bought some watercolors in the tube as well as a multi-color tray from Marc’s last week-($2.48!!).  The girls found them and tried them out yesterday.

And Yes the photo from the last post was a train and Railroad crossing.  I really wanted to get out of the car to shoot it but my girls were freaking out so I slid out of the passenger window.

This weekends Macro Challange Photo entries

Nature Prints

Well they were wrong-it didn’t rain.

It was another beautiful day.

So I didn’t get much done in the house again.

But this evening we did follow the artful parents nature prints idea. I bought some sculpey clay and rolled each block into four balls. Then with various bits and pieces of nature; leaves, sea shells, flowers, pine needles, nuts that we collected in the yard we made prints. We laid the bit or piece of nature down and placed the ball of sculpey on top of it and pushed down really hard. We then carefully peeled the object away.

These looked great before we baked them I followed the 250 degree oven for 45 mins recommendation but thought they looked a bit overdone.

I just so happened to have the perfectly cool, little, thrifted, watch boxes from India, to hold these.

These only cost a quarter by the way!!! This was a great easy no mess activity, that we will surely do again. Next time I think I may make holes in them before baking them and make a mobile with some sticks and twine.

No matter what the weather is tomorrow, it’s our busy day so the poor house will be neglected again. Maybe Friday.

Spring Lovin’

We have a great park in our neighborhood. This morning Ginger and I went for a walk and were amazed at the deafening sound of the spring peepers. We looked around and saw a few frogs and decided we must bring Molly back to see them.

So after dentist appointments we all got our boots and cameras and headed back down to the prairie.

It was amazing how many frogs were calling and answering and well….lovin’! There is sure to be no shortage of tadpoles and frogs in our park this year!!

Thanks to Dawn I have spellcheck! Now no one will know what a horrible speller I really am!!

They say it is supposed to rain tomorrow-maybe I will get a little bit of picking up and cleaning done inside.  But then again if it is warm we can still go outside in the rain!  Maybe I will clean on Friday.