Whoops! It's been a long time!

This crazy summer is winding down and I can honestly say I'm ready for school to start...I'm ready for a daily purpose and structured routine. By this point every summer, all the free time and hours at the pool turn my brain to mush. I end up spending hours doing silly things like finding out who the father is on whatever talk show or watching Bo*b R*oss youtube videos--hence the change in my blog name and design. I hope to keep this updated a bit better now that I'm settling back itno the real world. Here's a little sampling of the summer!

 Family vacation at the cabins!

 Fourth of July baseball game...I think they actually won!!

 Sudden trip to Vermont and a stay at this lovely B and B....

Fun and beautiful despite the real reason for going!

We'll miss you Grama.

 My niece now has the coolest, most colorful nursery!

 Painting on the wall...so much fun!

Yeaaah kayaking!

And I will now spend my last Friday afternoon of this summer at the pool!!

I bet the predicted thunderstorms roll in the minute I set up my chair. Ha!

New Paints, New Painting!

I have discovered water soluble oil paints. I'm in love. Thanks to a forgotten Michaels gift card I recently found in my car, I bought a whole set of colors and a little round palette with a thumb hole! All I need to do is put on my purple beret and I will look like a pro.

One of my new favorite Sunday activities is walking to the Delaware Art Museum. Although it is not too big and I've walked through it a few times now, the artwork is fantastic and they have a lovely sculpture garden where I can sit and sketch. By far my favorite part of the museum is the Chihuly window!!! For those of you who've never heard of Dale Chihuly, he does these amazing glass sculptures and created these large blown glass flowers that cover one floor to ceiling window in the art museum.

I took so many pictures of the window on my last visit and started a painting on "canva-paper" with my fun new paints. The colors and light in the photos are unreal and I'm hoping I can at least come close to capturing them in paint!!

Oil paints and a new palette = very exciting Saturday

Ok time to get painting!!!

Wouldn't you like to get this in the mail?!

When you have only two pennies left in the world,

buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with another.

~Chinese Proverb

I completed these four postcards awhile ago but have just now gotten around to taking pictures and posted them in my Etsy shop! They are real functional postcards made of coldpress watercolor paper. I hand painted each with acrylic paints and sealed them with matte medium. Painting on a small scale and on paper really takes the pressure off... And since the paint dries right away, the colors stay bold and bright!!!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70438343/fiery-flower-postcard

http://www.etsy.com/listing/63357905/tennessee-tulip-postcard

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70438955/red-tulips-postcard?ref=v1_other_2

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70438604/day-lily-postcard

I'm working on an actual greeting card right now but the paper has a different texture so we'll see how it turns out.... Pics coming soon!!

Something

Often times if my little minions get finished early, they have the option to "free draw." Most of them jump at the chance and I have to remind them not to rush through the actual project just to get to free draw. This little fella, however, had no idea what to do with "free draw." I guess I need to find a new meaning of free draw. Obviously telling him to draw "something" or "anything he wants" was not enough--or maybe too much--of an explanation....

On a more positive note, these are really good block letters and the spelling is correct...

Not too shabby for a first grader!!!

A Sampling of Ceramics!

My students are just blowing me away with the clay projects this year. I teach at a school that has never had an art teacher before. So aside from feeling like a rock star, my kiddies are generally happy to come to art. I'm finding out that a lot of them have done a lot of arts and crafts outside of school, which is wonderful. Even the ones with very little exposure, though, are so excited that they jump right in and do a great job (for the most part).

So far the first grade has made dragons for the Chinese New Year and my second graders worked on owls, inspired by the Greek goddess Athena and her wise ole owl.

These two are by far my favorite..although it may just be the picture! They look like old friends and have so much personality with a "hey-what-are-you-lookin-at" expression.

One of my students remarked how much fun it must be to be an art teacher. In what other profession could I spend hours gluing broken owls and dragons back together? According to some list of the "happiest" professions I read on msnbc, teaching is number 3! I think it should be #1!!

.......Oh, wait......

I just remembered watching one of my students picking paper up off the floor and putting it in her mouth...Just a little reminder of the little reasons it may have been bumped to 3. HA!

Happy Friday!!!

Pieces!

I've recently become a little obsessed with collages. Perhaps it's my need to make use of the magazine's stacking up around my little apartment! I love how random pieces from Food and Wine, Real Simple, Artist's Magazines,Art News, Vermont Life, and National Geographic fit together to create an entire new work. (Do I have too many magazines?!) It's a little like a puzzle. Without a set amount of pieces. And only a hazy idea of what the end result might be...

So bright!

Enjoy!

Too many snow days

All of these snow days make the students crazy and, in turn, us teachers crazier. Every day feels like a Monday...especially this past Wednesday when I heard myself say:

"You know.. the project wouldn't be that difficult if you stopped gluing the paper strips to your forehead....."


HA!

Happy Friday :)