The Artful Parent

Lovely books illustrated by Grace Lin

I stumbled across these two books at the library last week and am so glad I did. They're wonderful! Sweet and colorful and so much more than just color and shape books. Both are written by Roseanne Thong and illustrated by Grace Lin.

From Red is a Dragon:

Red are melons

cool and sweet

Red are lychees

a summer treat

From Round is a Mooncake:

Rectangles are

inking stones

Paintbrush racks

and mobile phones

Since I've fallen in love with Grace Lin's illustrations, I did a little search on her. Turns out she's illustrated (and written!) quite a lot. There's a great interview and bio here at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast that also describes a number of her other books. Very worth checking out. Look for the picture of Lissy's Friends -- that's the book I want to find next!

Hallway hopscotch and a new dress for Maia

I did another t-shirt to dress transformation for Maia, using one of her stained shirts. This is my third now, although really I should get better at stain removal! This one had a stain on the top part as well so I added a heart applique first to cover it. The skirt is double layered -- the bottom layer is gauze-y and somewhat see through so I added apron panels in both the front and back for modesty and for extra flippy, girly appeal.

Here's the back of the dress.

And what to do on a hot and humid, grumpy (me) day when I am too tired to take her to the playground but Maia has extra energy to burn? Make hallway hopscotch with construction paper, masking tape, and markers. It was definitely a hit. She's currently lobbying for a permanent version.

Vote for Peter Reynolds, author of The Dot

I've written before about The Dot, one of my all time fave children's books about creativity and confidence. Well guess what? The author Peter Reynolds and his company FableVision are up for Entrepreneur Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year award. How cool is that?! I just voted for him and thought I'd give you the link in case any of you want to head over and vote yourself.

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Overcoming my fear of quilting

I don't know why I should fear the quilting foot, but I do. Or did, I should say.

I put off quilting the layers of Maia's hand quilt for such a ridiculously long time that I'm embarrassed to even post about this project. This is a quilt I started when I was pregnant with Maia -- over four years ago! Ack! I probably should have made a nice baby-sized quilt as my first quilting project, but no, I had to tackle a large one (it's twin-sized or a bit larger). And since I didn't have the quilting skills or confidence for such a big project, I did just a little bit at a time. A spurt of energy and enthusiasm about once a year and here we are four years later, almost finished.

I finally got out the quilting foot, studied the diagram and figured out how to attach it to my sewing machine -- and of course it wasn't that hard. And using it wasn't any harder than using a regular foot. So all that fuss and stalling was for nothing. I did the quilting in a day. I decided to go easy on myself and keep it simple (no, I didn't stitch around each hand).

I still have to bind the edges but am determined to do that very soon. I need to finish my first baby's quilt before the next baby arrives! And since I did something special for Maia, I feel I should make a special quilt (although maybe smaller!) for this baby. Any ideas? I haven't come up with any good ideas myself and it's something I should probably start working on, especially if I want it finished before baby number two turns four.

Oh, and while I was on a quilting spree this weekend I made this simple quilt for the baby with recycled materials, flannel on one side and a cotton floral print on the other. I used a thrifted cotton mattress pad as the inside layer so it's pretty thick. I'll probably use it as a floor blanket, although Maia's already asked if she can share it with the baby, so it might double as a lap quilt this winter.

Tie dyeing t-shirts with colored tissue paper

Yesterday, for our art group project, we "tie dyed" t-shirts with colored tissue paper following this tutorial at Make and Takes.

We had the kids get their t-shirts wet in the sink first and wring them out before bringing them back to the studio. I had baskets of bleeding tissue paper pieces set out as well as a spray bottle of water (and later, bowls of water with brushes). I thought that cutting the tissue paper into squares ahead of time would be easier with a group, but in retrospect, I might have the kids tear them just because I think the finished product would look better.

They had fun arranging the tissue paper and spraying or brushing them with water. The bleeding tissue paper dyes the fabric underneath fairly quickly -- some colors quicker than others.

Here, the tissue paper has all been removed and we're using a sponge brush to add the distilled white vinegar. One problem I noticed is that since the shirts were wet the color continued to run even after the tissue paper was removed -- this wasn't much of an issue with the random designs the kids made but was with more specific patterns or designs (one of the moms tried some flowers and dots on onesies). I think the solution would be to dry them quickly after making a design you're satisfied with. OR, maybe to use regular tissue paper rather than bleeding tissue paper (I think the onesie in the original tutorial was made using regular tissue paper).

I set the color by putting them in the dryer (another option is using an iron). As often seems to happen, the colors dried lighter.

The colors even bled through to the backs of the shirts, although not as intensely.

Update: The dye doesn't surve the wash cycle, despite the vinegar. Darn! Not sure if we missed a step or if the project itself is faulty. Back to the drawing board...

Wood sculptures part II

This is the Las Vegas version of our scrap wood sculptures.

Justin and Nathan went home after art group last week and continued working on their sculptures over the next couple of days, adding paint, glitter glue, googly eyes, colored pasta, and various other collage items.

I think it's time for us to get out our paints and collage tray...

Baking Bread with Kids :: Grandma's Granary Bread Recipe

We love to bake together and often make our own bread. Our favorite go-to recipe is one that my Grandma passed down to me called granary bread (basically just whole wheat bread). We go through periods of making it once a week (and then periods when I'm lazy and buy our bread from the local bakery).

Cats and clowns, recent drawings in our house

Maia's chalkboard gets sporadic use. She'll draw on it intensely for a day or two, then completely ignore it for a couple of weeks, only to start drawing on it again. Recently she drew a series of cats on it.

As well as on the driveway.

And a clown on her easel. This is the first time I've seen her fill in entire areas with color -- I always like seeing new stages in her development!

What are your kids drawing?