The Artful Parent

Sewing at the beach

First, I had to share with you my favorite photo of all from the trip -- Maia and Aunt Jenny doing yoga / acrobatics on the beach. It has nothing to do with sewing, but isn't it great?!

In my last post I said that we did some sewing at the beach. I brought some embroidery thread and did some simple embroidery--mostly around stencils and appliques for the shop. We also packed Maia's sewing / lacing cards because sometimes she wants to sew when I do. She used them a lot on the drive down (they are a great quiet activity for the car) but not as much when we were there. Her Auntie Sarah laced them up though and hung them up around the beach house!

Some of my sewing and Maia's sewing. I also give Maia real fabric stretched in an embroidery hoop sometimes and a real needle (usually a bigger embroidery needle), an idea I got from SouleMama's book. It works out well and Maia hasn't pricked herself yet.

I've added a few new shirts to my shop that I worked on during our trip, including this little birdie in blue outlined with yellow embroidery. And I'll work on the special requests this weekend. By the way, click here if you want to see a pic of a cutie pie in one of my shirts. Happy Saturday!

I'm coming around...

We're back from the beach, and I have to say it was a great trip. I'm really starting to love the beach.

I'm from Oregon. Not coastal Oregon, but the other side (high plateau desert, cowboys and indians, dust and sagebrush). My memories of the beach are from occasional trips to the coast about four hours away. I remember it as rocky and majestic with huge waves, rocks the size of homes, steep cliffs, relentless wind, and frigid water. The Oregon coast is beautiful, but you don't go there to swim. At least we didn't. We jumped waves or we played on the rocks. I've been comparing beaches to the Oregon coast ever since--and not always favorably. I like the wild element, the steeped in nature feel, that it has. The Maine coast is the only one that has the same feel to me with its rocky coastline and water too cold to swim in most of the year.

And yet I have to say that I'm coming around to the mindset that most of the world seems to have. I'm really starting to enjoy the wide, flat sandy beaches and the calm, warm(ish) water along most of the Atlantic coast. Maybe I'm mellowing with age, or maybe I'm just changing my definition of what an enjoyable beach vacation should be like.

This was the perfect beach trip--to Folly Beach, just south of Charleston, South Carolina. We stayed in a run-down beach house with a wide screened-in front porch. The furniture sagged from years of use and was covered with old sheets and aged slipcovers. Harry talked about all the work it needed, but I thought it was perfect for a beach house. It had character.

The weather was beautiful and we had the beach to ourselves for the most part. We took long walks along the beach (Maia running ahead, splashing gleefully in the shallow water), went swimming (more Harry than me), built sandcastles and moats, read, sewed, cooked, soaked up the sea air and enjoyed the sea breezes.

We were there with Maia's Aunt Jenny and Uncle Teddy (Ted to everyone else) and Jenny's sister Sarah who was visiting from Australia. Maia was in seventh heaven between the time on the beach and the attention of three super fun aunts and uncles (and, I should probably add, the daily ice cream).

I've always said I'm more of a mountain person than a beach person, but I really do enjoy the beach. We're already talking about when we can go back. What is your favorite beach? I need to take notes for our next beach trip... :)

Some thoughts on blogging

Hello from the beach!

There's one spot on our screened in front porch where I get a wireless connection. It's probably coming from one of the neighbors, so shhh. But it's allowed me to catch up on emails a bit while Maia naps.

And now to post.

To tell you the truth, I was thinking of taking a complete break from blogging while on vacation. But I do have this wireless access after all... And I'm feeling very relaxed after being here for a few days. I think this is the first time I've missed a day since I started the blog in January. And not just one, but a few! I know I've used the word "obsessed" a lot lately, but I was (and am) just a bit obsessed about the blog.

I know a lot of you have blogs too. Until I started mine, I didn't even know what they were really and didn't read any. I started looking around as I was setting mine up--it was a whole new world to me! I even had to ask my tech savvy friend Molly to explain what a blog reader was.

I love blogging though. Taking a vacation and not posting for a few days has given me the distance to think about it a bit. When I'm not twirling Maia around on the beach or reading my favorite Banana Yoshimoto novel for the umpteenth time, that is.

Blogging allows someone to set up their own little corner of the web, put up a sign that says "mine", and to start writing/posting/sharing about whatever really makes them tick. And pretty soon some other people come along who say, "hey, yeah, I like that too." And you start connecting with others all over the world who are interested in similar things. I love it. And to think that until a few months ago I didn't even know about blogs except as an abstract concept--"another kind of website."

Blogs are great for people like me who are a bit shy and introspective. The kind of person who would probably fill a journal rather than pour their heart out to a group of people. And yet blogging gives me just enough distance to do that sometimes and to be okay with it. Not that I'm divulging huge personal secrets here, but still...

I'm a one-on-one kind of person. I often have a hard time speaking up in groups, but can have a great in-depth conversation with just one other person (from my perspective anyway). And when I post on my blog, I kind of feel that way--that I'm just talking/sharing with a friend. So thank you for being that friend. And thank you for all of your comments and emails over the past several months. I read them all and love them. I try to respond to them all, too, but know that I haven't always been great about that.

Anyway, thank you all for helping to make my blog an interesting place where I want to spend time. I've loved carving out my own little corner of the internet and sharing my love of art and beauty, my passion for giving kids access to art materials and complete freedom to create with them, my love of children's picture books, my curiousity about other artful people, and my own exploration of sewing and crafting.

This has been a way for me to find myself in a way and to focus on being more artful, but also a way for me to connect with all of you interesting people out there! A whole new world has opened up to me. I love sharing my world with you and finding out about your worlds. And learning that, hey, we're not so different after all! So thank you.

And before I get completely sappy, I'll sign off. I started this post intending to write about a puppet show that we took Maia too and about our time at the beach. but instead went off on an entirely different tangent. Maybe I'll write about the puppet show another time...

Thanks for listening, and take care, -Jean

Mixing Stencils and Applique

Okay, so I'm still obsessing about stencils and about my new etsy shop. We're leaving soon for a long-planned family beach trip, so I should really be packing and doing laundry and such stuff, but instead I'm stenciling and sewing. And getting excited about mixing stencils and appliques. I really like these new stencils on top of pretty quilt fabrics which I just added to my etsy shop. I may explore this idea for a while... For those of you who asked for boy shirts, I'll add more soon! Any other requests or ideas?

And now I really must get ready for the trip. I'm not sure yet if I'll have internet access while I'm gone--if so it might be sporadic.

Have a great weekend and week!

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Visit my etsy shop!

I'm diving right in with the etsy thing. I still have some kinks to work out and some bells and whistles to add (such as a banner), but come on over and visit me on etsy! My site is www.ArtfulParent.etsy.com.

I've listed a bunch of my freezer paper stenciled shirts, including some you haven't seen yet. And, as a special bonus for shopping, I'll add a free sculpey nature bead (my choice of design) to the first 10 orders!!

So come see!

My etsy name

Okay, so after all that, I decided to just stick with The Artful Parent for the name of my etsy shop. Andrea made a good argument and many of you backed her up or said I should at least keep "artful" in the name. So The Artful Parent it will be. I'm working on setting it up right now and hope to have a few things in there soon.

In the meantime, I'm sending Andrea the little yellow shirt with the nest--her choice.

More soon...

Watercolors and Saran Wrap with the Art Group

We did the watercolors and saran wrap project with the art group yesterday. This is Thalia's, above.

We had some success using bubble wrap in place of the saran wrap. This one is Nathan's. I think I prefer the randomness of the saran wrap designs although this is fun, too. Next time I might cut out small pieces of various sized bubble wrap (big bubbles, small bubbles) rather than one large sheet of bubble wrap.

And here's one Maia did with the back of the bubble wrap. I also brought out drinking straws and rubber bands to lay across the watercolors for different effects, but the kids were ready to move on after the saran wrap and bubble wrap. Maybe next time.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Henry and his family. They've been part of the art group since the very beginning, but are now heading off to other parts of the country for a few months while his Daddy does some training. We'll miss them! Henry's wearing my happy traveling gift--a truck t-shirt for a boy who loves trucks.

Update: We've also done leaf prints with this saran wrap technique.

Handmade Paper Shapes Tutorial

My friend Tracy Hildebrand is a former art teacher who volunteers at her daughter's preschool teaching art projects. She recently told me about a papermaking project she did with the children that sounded easy and fun. I asked Tracy to share how she did it. Here's her tutorial:

Materials:

• Paper to recycle


• Plastic containers to soak paper


• Cookie cutters (we used heart, butterfly and flower shapes)


• Frame with fine mesh screen stretched tightly across and affixed with staples or tacks


• Large container to catch water (this should be the proper size to hold frame and allow water to seep through)


• Old but working blender (there is the chance of burning out the motor if you are making a large quantity, so don't use your good blender. we used one from the thrift store.)


• 9x12 pieces of nylon felt


• Newspaper


• Glitter (optional)

1. Tear paper into nickel-sized pieces and put in plastic container filled halfway with water. Soak for at least 24 hours. If you are using colored paper, you may want to separate your colors into different containers, or put similar colors together. We used yellow/orange, blue/purple, and pink.

2. Add about a half-cup of torn paper to your blender with about a cup of water. Add glitter if desired. Process until paper breaks up into a pulp

3. Position your frame screen across the large water container and place the cookie cutter on top of the screen.

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4. Pour paper pulp into cookie cutter, making sure to get pulp into all areas of the shape. Wait a few minutes allowing water to drip through.

5. Using your fingers, carefully tamp down on pulp to squeeze more water through the screen.

6. Carefully lift the cookie cutter, allowing your paper to remain on the screen. Lay a piece of felt on top and gently press with the palm of your hand to soak up as much moisture as you can.

7. Gently lift your paper from the screen and lay on newspaper to dry.

You can use your finished paper shapes as ornaments or to decorate cards. If you want to write on them, permanent felt tip pens work best (ballpoint and rollerball pens dig into the surface too much).

Thanks for the tutorial Tracy!

I need a name

Here's what's on my mind today. A.) I've been going crazy with the freezer paper stenciling (see here and here if you haven't been reading), and B.) I need to make some money. So I'm thinking of joining the legions who sell stuff on etsy and see if I can at least pay for my crafting habit.

But first I need a name. One that suits me but is also unique and memorable. I'm not so good with names, so I'm asking for your help. Please.

Submit your ideas in the comment section by this Friday, May 23, midnight EST, and if I use your name, I'll give you your choice of one of the following shirts. Heck, I may even make one just for you (your choice of size, color, and favorite image).

By the way, although these are all bird shirts, I'm not planning to use only bird motifs. I might stick with nature themes for the most part, although I'm not completely sure yet. (I know this wishy-washiness isn't helping!) Also, I may include more than just stenciled shirts down the road. Maybe some sewn stuff (I have all that new fabric, after all), maybe some paper stuff...

So please post a comment (as many as you like) and help me brainstorm a name!

Fabric happiness

Okay, so I should tell you first that we're not spending any more money. On anything. Really. We're tightening our belts and making do with what we have and trying to do a better job of making ends meet. I'm growing as much of our own food as possible this summer. And I'm going to start trying to make money (not spend it).

But, um, there was a yard sale this weekend. A FABRIC yardsale. This woman used to own a fabric store and had a garage full of vintage and other beautiful fabrics. I went yesterday with very little cash in my pocket and was very good and only bought a yard of fabric. But then I went back today when she was selling everything for $1 a yard and bought 25 yards of fabric! Wowee! I clearly can't be trusted where fabric is concerned. I'm not even sure what I'll do with 25 yards of fabric. But I'm envisioning skirts and dresses, pillows and curtains, bags and gifts, wall hangings and belts. Also a whole lot of time sitting behind the sewing machine. Do I have this time available? We'll see...