Baking Gluten Free Apple-Blueberry Pie

Happiness Project: Week 4 :: China::

I am so happy that John is back from China. It was fun Skyping across the world, but I prefer the real thing.

This Moment: Twins!

This is a special moment from the past week that I want to stop, savor and share. If you want to see other moments being shared this morning, go over to SouleMama.

Fairy House

We had so much fun spending the morning creating this Fairy house for all our little friends who live in our trees. 
I think they will like it. Don't you?

Nature and Fantasy: Arcimboldo inspired art project

On a rainy Friday last week we went by metro to the National Gallery of Art in DC. We had not planned to go, but after dropping my husband off at the airport to fly to China, we just decided to jump on the Metro and have an adventure. Because we had not planned the trip, we ended up walking for quite some time in the rain with no umbrella or rain coats. We were "singing in the rain" and dancing too. It was wonderful to just be in the moment and experiencing weather and time as it was happening.
When we got to the museum we looked around for a couple minutes to see if anything would catch our eye.

Immediately we saw this wonderful nature/tree/head statue. We were immediately drawn in to learn more. The exhibit was "Arcimboldo, 1526-1593: Nature and Fantasy" We devoured the exhibit and spent the ride home talking about our favorite paintings from the exhibit.

When we got home I had the idea to create our own Arcimboldo inspired art work. Boo (my Mother in law) was over and got so excited about it that she participated too. My homeschooling class is getting bigger by the minute. (Age is no factor here.) We took out my old food magazines and everyone cut out pictures of food that they wanted to use in their pictures. Then they placed them together as they saw fit to create a face.

Here are the final products. I was so impressed with them! Arcimboldo's got nothing on us.

This is my 3 year old son Pilot's face. He had some help cutting out the circle eyes, and squeezing the glue. All the rest was him.

This is my Mother in law's face. I think she did a very nice job. 

This is my 6 year old daughter Jetta's face. She did this all on her own. 

We had so much fun with this project and learned about an Artist, his life, his paintings, and a new way of seeing faces and art that will inspire our own lives. I think we will continue this format and see what will inspire us next time at the museum. I encourage you to get out to your local museum and see what will inspire you.

Fall Craft: Acorn dolls/ puppets

We took a walk through the woods and found hundreds of acorns on the ground so we collected as many as we could and brought them home to make little doll/finger puppets with them. All you need are acorns (or other nuts that you find in the woods), some thick felt for the body, and wool yarn for hair and accessories. You can also get creative with beads or other found things to decorate your little acorn dolls. We finger knitted and braided scarves and hair for them. This project is still going on in the house as you can always keep adding one more thing to the dolls as you get more ideas. And of course these are wonderful for playing with when they are done. It is so much fun to see all of their different expressions that came out as they were created.  This is definitely an open ended fall craft that all ages can enjoy.

Sculpture Day!

My kids are lucky to have a Grandma who is an artist. The kids have grown up seeing all her beautiful sculptures and paintings around her house which has really contributed to their love and  appreciation for all art.

I am so excited about our new Tuesday ritual of spending the morning sculpting together. This past week we met in my Mother in law's back yard for our first Sculpting Tuesday. The weather was beautiful and we all felt the excitement in the air.  I am so thrilled for the kids to get this opportunity to get their hands in real clay and I am finding it so therapeutic as I wake up that artist within me. This is truly an artistic community/ family building experience. By creating art side by side, we all learn from each other without being told the step by step method of doing it. By watching their Grandmother sculpt a face with her wise knowing hands, they learn to trust their own knowing in their own hands.

***Jetta's face on left and sun on right.

***Sculpting a face

***My sculpture......three women. I am not quite done, but I felt really good about this piece as it seemed to come out from my soul. This must be my first sculpture in more then 10 years.

Boo made the most amazing woman. So full of fun and quirky energy. Very different from her usual work. I guess this new experience is going to be good for all of us.

I am so excited about next week. I can hardly wait. I will keep you posted on what we create. It is so neat to have three generations of artist creating together.

This Moment: Little long legged friend

This is a special moment from the past week that I want to stop, savor and enjoy. If you want to see other moments being shared this morning, go over to SouleMama.

In My Kitchen: This week

My daughter preparing pumpkins for roasting. They made the best pumpkin pie.

John and Jetta making the gluten-free crust for the pie. What a great team.

My new food staple, quinoa granola! Yummy....

Learning how to separate eggs with her hands.

This Moment: 6am on the road

This is a special moment from the past week that I want to stop, savor and enjoy. If you want to see other moments being shared this morning, go over to SouleMama.