In the Art Room: Winter Wonderland

A grouping of kindergarten landscapes.

For the last three years, when my kindergarteners painted these snowy scenes, the following day was a snow day. I kid you not. This year was no different. Despite the fact that snow wasn't even in the forecast, it fell steadily from midnight on to the following day. The kindergarteners are convinced they made this happen. I'm beginning to believe them and I'm plotting more snowy projects for the very near future.

I love that this tree has outgrown the frame.

I don't usually repeat projects from year to year cuz I get bored easily. But I often struggle with kindergarten project ideas. This is one of my ole standbys because it's got it all: a little painting, a little collaging and a whole lotta landscaping all in one.

After looking at several landscapes (with a big focus on Grandma Moses because she's awesome and so kid-friendly), we began our own paintings. During our first half an hour together, the students were given the following directions:

• Paint any kind of line that would be good for a hill. Paint that in blue from one side of your paper to another.
• Blend white paint into the blue line to create light blue or a tint of blue. 
• Repeat the first two steps with a hilly line below the first.
• Put that masterpiece on the drying rack, paint brush in the sink, clean that table and you're done for the day!

• The following day we chatted all about shades. We were creating an evening sky so we used black and blue this time. Some students chose to use the back of their paint brush to draw wind and stars into the sky (Vincent van Gogh much?) while other dabbed on snow or just left it black.

• On this day we looked at Grandma Moses' landscapes again and chatted about the three parts to a landscape: fore, middle and background. After eyeing her work, we noticed she showed space my painting her trees, houses, people, everything smaller in the background. 
• Each artist chose their own house from a stash of die cuts. Snow and icicles were added with white oil pastels. We learned how to cut out triangles and rectangles for our trees. 
• As you can see above, most of the wee ones understood that to create space in their landscape, their trees needed to decrease in size. Just don't ask them what "decrease" means. We're not there yet.

• Students were given metallic gold and silver oil pastels to add wind and stars to their evening skies. Looks like this artist opted to just stick with white snow and asteroids.

• Finally, we chatted snowflakes, added them in white oil pastel to our frames along with our signatures.

In all, I'd say these turned out pretty stinkin' cute. Even if some of us still refer to them as our "landscrapes." Call it what you wanna, if it brings us a Snow Day, I'll take it!

On a super happy side note, I came home from school today to find my art room in the back of SchoolArts magazine! I'm so excited. I hardly recognize that super clean room as it currently looks like someone turned it upside down, gave it a couple hard shakes, squirted same paint and threw some glitter inside before slamming it back down again. Small correction: my school is Johnson Elementary. Gotta give the best school to work at props!

Until we chitty-chat again, enjoy the rest of your week!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #51

Monday with the Moms: Okay, I'm just going to brag and say I have the best moms at my school. A couple of them have been working with the kids to create a ceramic piece for a fundraiser. If you don't have mom helpers, I strongly encourage you to send out an email and just ask. You won't believe the response you'll receive! sweater and skirt: someone PLEASE make me step away from the Anthropologie sale rack, it is so awesome right now!; tights: Target; belt: made by me for the Gnome Dress; shoes: Miss Albright, Anthro

 Hiya, dudes. Sorry for the slightly delayed "What I Wore this Week" as I know you were just dying to see what duds I donned. But I have a good excuse:  My mom was in town from Indiana! We didn't have the chance to see each other over the holidays and so there was much gift-giving, chitty-chattering and face-timing with lil Bro and his girlfriend to do. Not to mention the serious retail therapy and dining out we indulged in. When we weren't together, I did manage to finish a DIY that nearly was the end of me (pretty sure I say that about every DIY). Spoiler: it involves 17 yards of tulle. A tool working with tulle? Never a good idea.

Along with my weekly wears, check out these rad photos hubs managed to get with his Christmas present. I got him a deer camera and he mounted it in the woods near our house. He's not a hunter but a big time animal lover and thoroughly enjoys seeing these animals in their element. I think I like these furry neighbors of ours way better than the human ones. 

I do hope you enjoy. Stay tuned for this week's DIY and possibly a finished art project by the lil artists. Until then, have a wonderful week!

Hubs had his camera on the motion sensor to capture these shots. This weekend he switched it so that the camera will start recording 30 second snippets of video. I can't wait to see what it captures.

Too Warm for Snow Tuesday: You already heard me whining about my lack of a Snow Day here. With the 50 degree temps we experienced this weekend, I have this sneaky suspicion we aren't going to score a free day this year. Such sadness. dress: Max and Cleo, TJMaxx; fur collar: gift from a friend; tights: Target; leg warmers: Germany; boots: Anthro

You might notice in some of these photos that the bucks are missing an antler. This is the time of year that the deer begin to lose their antlers. They grow them again in the spring. Hubs has found at least three deer antler on his walks in our neighborhood woods. We've got a couple on our mantle and one on our deck for the squirrels. Apparently they are a fan of the marrow.

Giant Bun Wednesday: I actually had  a student inquire what was inside my hair that "makes it so big." I told him donuts. And I have a kindergartener convinced that it's what I eat that causes my legs to "change colors". When I wore my purple tights, I told her I had eaten too many grapes and the white tights made my legs white from too much milk. This time when she asked what I'd been eating, I asked her what she thought. "Cotton candy and ketchup." Like, ew. dress, sweater, sweater clip: vintage; shoes: thrifted; red fishnets and turquoise tights: Target: bow belt: Pinkyotto

Can you count how many deer are in this photo? The camera isn't supposed to make a sound but it must do something. In many of the photos the deer are looking right at the camera. I love the thick coat of fur on this guy.

Big Ole Skirt Thursday: The only prob with wearing a crinoline under your skirt is that you are constantly knocking things off tables! I must have sent a dozen works of art flying off tables and to the floor with just a stroll through the art room. sweater and tights: Target, old; shirt and necklace: gift; skirt: made by me, tutorial here; belt: Pin Up Girl; shoes: Softt

While the deer cam was snapping away photos of animals in the wild, I managed to get a photo of this 18 lbs. beast with my cat cam. We found out this week that not only does she resemble Garfield in her girth and tabbiness but also her affinity for lasagna. P.S. If you come to my house for leftover lasagna, don't mind the cat hair.

Floral Legs Friday: Sometimes I don't even know what I was thinking when I put together an outfit. Take this fine specimen for example. Flowers? Plaid? I should thrown in some polka dots and called it a day. What in the world...? blouse, brooch and skirt: vintage; sweater: thrifted; tights: Urban Outfitters; shoes: Anthro

Hands down my fave deer camera photo so far, this image of Grizzly Adams. Or is that Chuck Norris? Sasquatch, perhaps? The world may never know...

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DIY: Sparkling Personality

 I've had my vintage paper doll collection stuffed in envelopes for months because I just couldn't think of a way to display them. So when Christmas rolled around and I was in a decorating frenzy, it came to me to dress my tree in vintage. 

I am about to go off on a wee bit of a rant. Before I do, I would like to preface my upcoming comments with the following bit of info. Try as I might, I do not have a Sparkling Personality. If it's morning, I am slumpy (that's sleepy + grumpy), before lunch I am often hangry (that's hunger induced anger) and in the evenings, I'm occasionally exhausticated (exhausted with a desire to self-medicate). This leaves just a few hours of the day for me to sparkle. And I'm no Edward Cullen, 'kay?

 While shopping in some little boutiques this past weekend, I saw the cutest ever glittery clothespins. For $25. Wait, what? Um, no. So I went to http://www.michaels.com/ and picked up these mini clothespins along with some finely ground glitter. I coated the top in Modge Podge, dipped in glitter, added another coat of M.P. and viola! Glittery Clothespins for under $5.

That being said, I have made one of my resolutions to "fake it till I make it". Meaning, to work through whatever unpleasant mood I am in and turn it around to a positive one. Of course, I do think that it is fine, maybe even healthy, to be grouchy, angry and grumpy at times...as long as it is not directed with the intent to hurt others. So that's my plan.

One of the items I did pick up at a local boutique. Some sweet little DIY paper chains made by this company http://www.eastofindia.co.uk/


Wow, so that was a lot of prefacing. Now on to the rant. When my family was in town this past weekend, we did some shopping in one of the cutest areas near my home, downtown Franklin. If you're not familiar, it has the feel of an old fashioned town square brimming with boutiques and restaurants. It's also a place where  you can "shop local", if you're into that sort of thing.

Since I loved seeing my dolls on the tree, I didn't want to pack them back into the envelopes just yet. I knew they needed a place in my sewing room but space is pretty tight, as you can see. So I assembled my paper chains, attached the ladies with my glitter clothespins, and strung them above my framed collection of vintage notions. 

I was sad to see that several of the shop keepers/employees where just plain rude to us. When we entered several of the stores, we were not greeted or asked if we needed help. In fact, when we did approach some folk, it seemed that we were a real bother as they were texting or browsing on their computer. I have a habit of calling out "thank you!" when I leave a shop which was met on two occasions with a grunt.

Not wanting to put more nail holes in the wall (which already looks like a shooting range), I put stick pins in the wall and hung the chains over them.

As stated earlier, I'm not so great at masking my moods so I can relate to crankiness. But, really. With little local shops sinking faster than the Titanic, you'd think they'd work a little harder on their customer service. So I'm not sporting a name brand pair of heels or a headful of hundred dollar highlights. What I am carrying is a no-name brand purse with a knockoff wallet inside chuck full of Christmas cash I'm ready to spend. But not at your shop.

The funny thing is, I've never been treated like that when I walk into the franchise shops. Starbucks is one of the friendliest places around. It's no wonder to me that the little chocolate and coffee shop that was once next door where I was treated like dirt is no longer around. And good riddance.

It's not like I'm asking these people to go nuts when I enter the store, just fake it. Fake it till you make it. There, rant over.

Now, let me tell you about the shops in downtown Franklin that are local and experts at customer service. Here's a list of my favorite, always polite, strongly recommended shops: The Shoppes on Main http://www.theshoppesonmain.net/

Binks Outfitters http://www.binksoutfitters.com/

And, my favorite, The What's In Store http://www.whats-in-store.com/

Happy Shopping!

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Spinning Top

You know you are surrounded by die-hard fans when people start throwin' their underwear at the Star Wars characters...and the underwear happen to be mens briefs. 

I'm feeling a little dizzy. Been saying Yes! Let's do it! and Oh! Count me in! to one too many things lately. I feel like a spinning top, whirling around, trying to do more and more while going faster and faster.

Chewbacca attempting to autograph some kids hat which is difficult when you have furry man hands. At least that is what I'm told. I wouldn't know as I have the delicate hands of a lady. Except for that wicked middle finger which has a mind of it's own.

Don't get me wrong, it's all been great fun. Like Star Wars weekend with hubs, going to see Chihuly with some girlfriends, hosting an art party this time with kids and without grown-up drinks (which may or may not have helped us all) ... and all that in a week's time. Yeah, that's a lot. Now you see why I'm dizzy.

Can you tell I  like this project? The end result is just amazing. I think I'll kick off the school year with a similar project, now that I've got this lesson perfected.

 And while I love having fun things to do, it's when I try doing too much I hit spinning top mode: crashing into things and making huge messes while wobbling out of control. So, I'm going to slow down. Focus. Lock myself in my craft room and make stuff.

The Loft at Henpeck Market. I now have belts in this great shop. If you have never been you must go -- it is a country grocery store and restaurant on the first level (the look that Cracker Barrel attempts) and the most surprisingly big and fun shop on the second level. I am in the best part of the Loft: Jondie Boutique!

Because I've got plenty of work to do. Turns out that I've not only been saying count me in to friends, but other belt-related stuff too. Eek! Much to do!

All of which I plan to do...right after returning from this place: Sandestin, Florida. I've never been. Usually our Florida encounters involve theme parks but not beaches. I'm very excited. And a little nervous. I'm going with a group of pals from school...and I keep hearing this voice-over in my head:

This is the true story... of seven strangers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World.

Yeah, I think we'll pass on the "lives taped" portion of Sandestin: The Real World. No one needs to see this spinning top in a bikini!

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