kirstencan

In which I use my college degree...

I was asked to teach an art class to the 8-11 year old girls at church for their day camp.

The Friday before, I broke out some pencils and made all the neighborhood kids freeze for a minute while I remembered how to do gesture drawings.

Kinda.

I broke out all my Art Ed posters (A few of you know ALL about these - I'm looking at you, Kari & Alisa!) to decorate the room.  It was fun to get these out - I think maybe I'll use them now for homeschool!

After setting up, I got to help my girl make a skirt.  Then, while she went to a folk-dancing class, I got to teach my first session (of two).

We looked briefly at portraits, talked about what what shapes we'd use to form a figure, and about proportion.  They made figures using paper shape cut-outs, and tried different kinds of pencils, pastels, and paper.

The girls took turns posing for each other.  They had about three minutes for each drawing.  I broke out some tunes (Phoenix).

I had so much fun!  I really love to teach, and it was awesome teaching what I was trained to!  I think the girls liked it, too, and they came out with some pretty good stuff at the end.

I have to give a shout-out to my lil sis, Kari for helping me plan this (at the last minute, of course, that's how I roll), and one to my girl (above), who rocked this!  I was so proud of her!  I hadn't taught her this before at all, but she did pretty awesome.

Must teach more art.

(At home.)

Presents for Eva

My awesome SIL, Eva is due in a few weeks with their first baby.  I was bummed to miss the family shower (out of town), but glad I got invited to the friend one, too!

The invites were adorable (the family ones were, too, actually).

I had put the book Scandinavian Needlecraft on hold at the library a while back, but it hadn't come in yet.  When I saw  Mary Beth post photos from it I knew I had to make the bird garland.  For Eva.  Now.  Luckily, since my book didn't come in in time, Marybeth's photos were enough to get me started (BTW, I now have the book and think it's one I'll have to buy!  Super cute projects).

I used a wool-blend felt.  LOVE the green color.

And here is another mediocre/bad shot of (part of) it - as I was wrapping it I realized I'd forgotten to take any photos!  So quickly...

I hope it looks sweet in Ingrid's new space.

At the VERY last minute (ha!) I decided to whip up some little shoes to go with.

I knew we'd made it to the right place when I saw the little yellow flags on the porch.

And all inside!

The place was very awesomely cute, with a cookie buffet and lots of yellow details.  It was fun to hang out with such a nice and talented (LOTS of handmade gifts!) group of ladies.  And also to meet a couple whose blogs I read but I had not met in person.

The girl was invited, too, and made her new cousin a flannel blanket. She chose the pink + ballet shoes fabric.  Above is the only shot I have of it (Eva?). 

While Eva opened up gifts, we all sat around decorating onesies.  It was fun to just sit and chat and stich.

Totally forgot to get a picture of some of them, they were way fun.

Adorable cookie favor box:

Eva blogged about the shower here.

Tweet!

(Darn that needs-to-be-clipped thread!)

Shuffling rooms again...

Oh, guys.  I've been having a hard time finding energy to blog lately. 

Sick again.  I've not been wanting to bore you about my stupid pneumonia, but it's REALLY had long-term consequences for me.  Sucks. 

Anyway, let's not talk about that anymore.

So, also in the works are Halloween costumes, and a major reshuffling of the upstairs.  Oh, I guess this is kind of about me being sick, because we're ripping out all the carpeting (it's gross and needed to be done anyway, but the whole asthma thing made it a necessity) and replacing it with laminate.  Like the playroom.

Step one:  Move the boys in together.

We didn't know if this would be something we'd ever do.  We really thought that Thomas needed his own space. However... they both LOVE being together!  They play together even more now.  Both boys loved seeing their bunks actually used as bunkbeds, and I think Thomas likes that the top bunk is actually really cozy (side railing + 'lowered' ceiling).  Monkey just likes having a roommate.  They say that all the time, actually: We're roommates!  It's pretty adorable.

The border is RIGHT above the top bunk now.  I must have planned that perfectly... when I painted it... five years ago?  Before we HAD bunk beds?  Ha.

Negatives:  Not sleeping as well.  Thomas CRASHES at night and wakes up fairly early.  Monkey stalls at night and sleeps in later.  Monkey is adjusting to Thomas' schedule, which is actually okay, for the most part.

Also, Monkey is way messier than Thomas.  He likes his STUFF to be right with him instead of in the playroom.  Thomas likes his room CLEAN and only keeps stuffed animals, books, and lego in his room.  That will be a compromise for both of them.

Positives:  Blanket forts and snuggling.

Step 2:  Aaron goes nuts.

Step 3:  Pretty!

The boys LOVED playing in the empty room.  Until my mom came and took care of...

Step 4:  Moving the boys into Monkey's room.  Thomas' is next!

Step 5:  Sleepover!  The girl couldn't resist the new floor either, apparently.

Now... if you've been paying attention, you'll realize that if the boys DO end up sharing a room, we'll have an empty room.

The girl wants to move back to a bigger room, so she'd be happy to do that.  Her room is teeny.  Adorable, but I haven't even shown you pictures of it, really, because it's hard to capture the adorable details in all the teeny-ness.

So, if she moves (back) to Monkey's room, we'll have a (teeny) room free...

I could move my craft stuff out of the closet! Woo! Into a ROOM!

Aaron REALLY wants my 'stuff' out of the bedroom.  I admit, I'm crazy messy when creating.  And our room suffers.  Seriously, cross your fingers for HIM that this happens.  I drive him crazy.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up...  Aaron, too.

But... I already bought the girl new curtains.

Just in case.

Poor Girl

It starts.  After shopping around for orthodontists (where I was required to learn a whole new set of vocabulary words, having never had braces myself) and having 'spacers' for a month, we went in yesterday for our first real 'appliance' for the girl.

I meant appliance AND headgear.  Oh, poor girl. 

She's having a hard time talking (between the rubber bands and the expander that I have to widen with a key every morning), eating and swallowing in general.

Not fun.  BUT.  I couldn't have asked for a better kid to need braces.  She was so excited about the whole process since one of her BFF's has braces.  She's been patient and not pouty.  While she's not happy about this entirely, she knows the more she wears it, the sooner she'll get it off.

My good girl (but still, when I see her I think 'Oh, poor girl!').

Garden 2010

Our garden has been kinda lame this year.  Between weird weather (the May 24 snow killed all our peaches), snails, and who knows what else, our usually plentiful garden is just not giving us much (Only a couple of zucchini?  Crazy).

Aaron is bummed.  He's the gardener.  And he's pretty good at it - starting things from seeds and all.  It just wasn't his year.

So, just to remind him that some things went well this year:

The bean teepees worked!  He's been trying this for years and every year the snails eat them before they can grow up the poles.

They're pretty cool!

The boys think so, too.

Not only cool, but grew beans that the boys loved to pick!  I am such a sucker for plants with curly tendrils - pumpkins are my favorite.

Not pictured: blackberries.  They still did really well - we got gallons.

Below on the left you can see some of our grape plant growing up the arbor (in the jungle that is our garden).

 

We got GRAPES this year!  We planted them three or four years ago and hadn't seen a single grape yet.  I don't think it's really uncommon, but still...

Cool!

After I took this shot a certain monkey ate all the grapes.  He loved them.

This summer was a difficult summer, next year will be better, Aaron!