The Artful Parent

Maia's bday and the last art group

Little miss Maia is three now.

I made cupcakes with pink icing per the birthday girl's request. The cupcakes had apples, applesauce, and walnuts and were super moist and tasty (and quasi healthy). I got the recipe here. The icing is just cream cheese with a little milk and powdered sugar. I think we'll make these again this fall after going apple picking -- skipping the pink tint and sprinkles. Yum.

We combined a low key birthday celebration with our last art group meeting. The kids painted with shaving cream and paint and loved it of course. Our whole house smells like shaving cream now. One father (who shall remain unnamed) took it upon himself to show the kids how shaving cream is really used. Needless to say, we had to wash shaving cream and paint off of several faces and necks later. :)

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And yes, this was the last meeting. We've been meeting for two years now and I have loved this group. Loved the kids, the mamas, the art, everything (well, everything but the clean up). But this is a time of change for our family on many fronts. Maia is starting preschool this fall two mornings a week -- a completely last minute decision (a week ago!!) but a good one, I think, for all of us. Today is her first day and we are all excited and a little nervous at the same time. Wish us well!

A new roller for painting

Today is Maia's birthday and I meant to put together a post with a few photos from the last three years, but alas I didn't get my act together. Oh well. Here's something completely unrelated instead.

We all love new materials, right? And new tools. Well the painting section at Lowes or Home Depot (or your friendly local mom and pop place) has fun and cool new tools to try. Of course they're meant for painting your walls, but kids don't know that.

I picked up this roller for cheap and Maia has really enjoyed painting with it. It's for painting corners and edges around your walls and trim, but works well for making lines on paper as well.

Here's Maia's finished painting. She started off with a bit of watercolor painting, then some roller painting in tempera, and finally some finger painting in tempera. By the way, I've been getting poster board for her to paint on lately, mostly so she'll have a larger surface to work on. It's sturdy, holds up well to the paint, and is relatively inexpensive. I get ours at Target for 33 cents each. Yay for inexpensive supplies!

etsy sale

I'm having an end-of-summer sale in my etsy shop. All the t-shirts are now $10 (from $14.99), the tank tops are $8 (from $12.99), and the baby onesies are $7 (from $10.99). So if you're on the market for kiddo clothes and want to stock up for next spring/summer (or take advantage of the rest of the warm weather now), take a look.

Here's a sneak peak of some of what's left:

trees and slowing down

Remember when you were a kid lying on the ground, looking up at the trees? The world looked completely different. The light filtered through the leaves, making them translucent and delicate beautiful. You could get lost in those leaves. Time took on a different meaning.

I did some of that this past week. Looking up at the trees.

It made me remember what a beautiful world we live in. And that it's okay to slow down.

I'm going to slow down a bit over the next few months. Not sure yet what slowing down will mean in my life, but I know I need to do it. I might spend some more time looking up at the trees.

Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway

We drove north along the Parkway the other day, headed for Craggy Peak and the little hike up to gorgeous 365 degree views of the mountains. Unfortunately we forgot that the section we were headed for was temporarily closed to traffic.

So we parked at the barricade and "hiked" on the parkway itself. What started out as a disappointment ended up being a wonderful experience. We had the road to ourself except for the occasional biker.

We ran, we "balanced" along the lines on the road, we acted goofy.

And we saw hundreds of butterflies! Wildflowers line the sides of the road and they were literally swarming with butterflies. It was a magical experience.

By the way, we are headed out of town for another little trip. I don't think I'll have internet access this time, so may not check in for a few days. Happy end of summer!

A tree for Maia to sleep under

I told you that I was re-doing Maia's room a bit for her birthday, right? Well, I painted a tree on one side of the room.

I saw a tree mural in the West Elm furniture catalog -- used as a backdrop for tables -- and pretty much copied it straight off the page. I used pencil first, to sketch it on the wall, then wall paint and a small brush.

Now we just need to get her a bed!

We'll probably put it where the trike is in this picture so she can sleep under the tree canopy. We have glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling of our room and may need to put some in here as well for the finishing touch.

Why is that we parents get so excited about the silly things we do for our kids?

It's good to be home

We're back from our trip to the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham &Â Chapel Hill for those of you outside of North Carolina).

I'm so glad to be home! As much as I enjoyed our trip and catching up with friends and being away from housework and cooking, it's good to be back in our own cozy home.

The only pics we took while away were at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. This place is awesome for kids! We try to go there almost every time we're in the Triangle. If we lived there we'd have a membership. In fact, we should have a membership anyway considering it pays for itself after a couple of visits.

This time we bypassed the animal exhibits altogether (besides the butterfly house, which we always visit), and went straight to the "Catch the Wind" exhibit -- a new one for us. Being completely interactive, it was perfect for an active and curious little kid.

On the way out, we stopped at the "sound/space" exhibit and danced around the grid. The room is set up to convert movement into sound, and movement in each sector of the grid creates a different sound pattern. So as you and other people move around the room, you're creating your own dance music. Fun!

thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thank you everyone for your book recommendations! We're traveling this week, but I stopped by a bookstore and picked up Finding Your Own North Star this morning. So I'll start with that. But I want to read so many of the books that you suggested. Here's my short list so far: A Girl of the Limberlost, The Book Thief, When Things Fall Apart, Eat, Pray, Love, the Mitford series, The $64 Tomato, and the Eckhart Tolle books. But really, I want to read about all of them.

Books have always been my refuge, my friends, my key to new worlds and new knowledge. I was a bookworm as a child and read ALL. THE. TIME. The library was my second home and I'd bring home stacks and stacks of books. I still do, but now I don't feel I have enough time to read what I want to read (there are so many other things demanding my attention!). I miss it.

We're in a hotel at the moment though, which means no housework or other projects calling my name, so I think I'll curl up with my new book and read while Maia naps.

My (day)dream is to take a week long train ride by myself through beautiful countryside and just bring a suitcase full of books to read. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. So for now I'll snatch some time here and there.

book recommendations anyone?

I'm in a funk and could really use a great life changing book right now. And maybe also just a fun (not depressing!) read. But maybe the life changing book is more important.

I've been super emotional lately and feel like I'm at a crossroads in my life and just don't know what's next. So either a.) I need the life changing book mentioned above, or b.) a fun novel that will help me feel happier until I really am. Does that make sense? Usually I turn to my own bookshelf when I need something to read, but I've read my old favorites so many times I just need something new.

So, any ideas for me? Anything. Really. I love new book lists.

A pillow buddy for Maia

This is a sneak peak at a gift I just finished for Maia's birthday. A pillow buddy.

She'll be three at the end of the month and we're planning to get her a bed and re-do her room a bit. This is a bigger deal than you might think because right now she sleeps with us in our big happy family bed. We're all for slow, mostly kid-led transitions so we'll probably start with naptimes in her own bed/bedroom and go from there. But it seems time for her to have the option of her own bed.

So with the bed being the big new thing this birthday we're giving a few other gifts to go along with it, including this friendly pillow buddy. She's about pillow size, so could be used as a pillow or just hugged like a doll.

I used fabric crayons to draw the design onto a piece of paper -- pretty much straight from my childhood copy of Making Things -- then transferred it to fabric with an iron. After I drew the pillow buddy, I remembered that they don't work on 100% cotton. So I used a poly/cotton blend for the transfer, and then made the rest of the pillow out of cotton fabric.

I ended up making the pillow buddy as a pillow case with an envelope flap closure in the back, then made a special pillow to fit. Since I don't know how much use/wear she'll get, I thought I ought to be able to wash her.

So there you go. A pillow buddy.