art for kids

exploring techniques: marble painting, collage, and process

exploring mosiacs

air dry clay animals 

Art has always been something that I enjoy doing for myself.
It serves many purposes for me, and without it, I would be a lost soul. To me, it is very important that I provide my children with a variety of opportunities  to create. That I share my passion and knowledge for it.
Sadly today, art education is being taught less and less public schools, and it is such a loss for children. As a child, I remember being so engaged in art lessons and really getting an understanding like no other through art education. Art is so much more than just painting pretty pictures or making seasonal crafts. It is a visual and tactile link to so many other subjects.
Art is: about problem solving, expression, language, understanding space, patterns, mathematics, culture, history,  freedom ... creativity.
So with this passion and drive, I decided early in the New Year, that we would start doing family art time on a more regular basis. My goals in this are simple: provide real art experiences for the kids, where we focus on exploring techniques, mediums, process and artists.
While crafts will always hold a special place in my heart, and we will continue to make them, I also want to make sure that the kids are getting a more structured understanding of art. We won't always be doing involved lessons and sometimes our art time will just be about exploring a medium, but I am excited to see where this takes us.
A few photos of lessons and projects we have worked on over the past few months. I'll be sure to share more as we continue on!

directed drawings of snowmen

handmade holidays 2014

A few pictures of this year's handmade gifts.

In past years, I would often make one type of gift and give it to many people, but this year, I was drawn back to my painting and did a few individual and unique paintings for just a small selection of family and friends. I painted a few mini canvases (of course, birds!) and made them into magnets.
I also felt drawn towards quotes and inspirational sayings/mantras. I painted a vintage looking sign that said, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound" for my sister Katie, but did not get a photo of it.
For my sister Sarah, I decided to paint a chalkboard looking "In our home" style painting. They are very outdoorsy and adventurous, so I tried to come up with some mantras that would fit their family lifestyle.The "You are my Sunshine" painting is gonna be kept for me. A gift from me to me.
For the kids, they got in on painting picture frames (that I picked up at a garage sale in the summer). We then put their school pictures in them and made them into magnets. These were sent  off to the Grandparents.
We also made many ornaments this year, some with Crayola airdry clay (Santa handprints) and some with fabric (drawings on fabric with fabric markers). I really like how the fabric ones turned out (I stuffed and sewed them up).
A few other treats were made up and given. We made cranberry orange loaves,, as well as spicy and sweet pecans- so easy and so tasty.
And that's it for my handmade edition of this year. I have to say, I am very inspired at this moment to keep on making and giving handmade gifts. One of my goals this year is to remain creative and to make creativity a weekly practice for me.

Merry Christmas friends.

xox

a joyful sound

photo credit: Noah Duyan (seriously my 4 year old is good taking photos. Also, he insisted that Kitty sit on my knee for the pic.)

A little known fact about me.... I love music. I mean, not just love music, but rather, I am a musical person.

My mother told me that as a baby, I used to sing. Like not cry, but sing ... as a baby? Its true.

As a little girl, I used to drive my older sister and her boyfriend CRAZY by singing Little Mermaid songs at the top of my lungs, at like 7 am in the morning. They loved me for it.

In grade 5, I joined a city wide choir, that I stayed in till I was 13. We went to Italy and performed in St.Peter's Basilica. It was a very defining moment for me. And as a teenager, I picked up my sister's old acoustic guitar and taught myself how to play. I wrote songs and held coffee houses in my house where my friends and I would perform.

Through the years, I have loved many different music genres. Rock, Hip Hop, Soul, Jazz, R&B, Reggae, Indie, Folk ... each genre speaks to me in a different way, and helps me understand the world a bit. And songs, particular songs can conjure up so many memories. For example, anytime I hear any song from the 1980s movie Stand By Me, I think of my childhood and of my best friend. I love how music can take you to a place and a time.

Over the Christmas holidays, while visiting my friend Natalie, she told me that she had received a ukulele as a gift, and that she had also formed a little singing group with her friends. As I stayed over at her house that weekend, I heard on a few occasions Natalie singing away in her kitchen, to herself and to the kids, and I was struck with how joyful it made us all feel. I knew that I wanted to bring back the music of life into our home. That I wanted my children to sing, play and hear it more often.

I've taken some steps recently, to bring more music into our lives. And while I may not be an amazing singer or a fantastic player, I want my children to hear real live music (not just recorded), so I feel that it is important that I try. I bought myself a ukulele as well, and have been playing children's songs and some of my favourites too. It's been fun to have sing alongs with the kids and to try to learn a new instrument. I'm also just doing my best to sing to and with the kids on a daily basis, knowing that it helps them during transition time or when they need a little positive boost, to hear a certain song.

Yesterday evening, my best friend and I went on a date to see the lovely Canadian group, Trent Severn. To see these three talented artists perform was such a treat for me, and something that fed my yearning for more music in my life. Their voices, their precision when it comes to playing, their stories told through song .... this is what music is about. This is joy.

And finally, last week I purchased our tickets for the Atlin Music Festival that will take place this summer. We will be looking forward to a weekend of camping, hanging with friends and of course, listening to live music performed by some amazing Canadian talent. I can't wait to see my little ones take it all in.

xox

If music be the food of love, play on
From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

me with Trent Severn ... I have girl crushes on them all

slowly but surely

We are getting through the week, slowly but surely. Slowly is the operative word though. How come the days are moving by at a snail's pace? Winslow will be home on Saturday and we are all looking forward to his return (and the fresh groceries that he will bring with him!).

Monday was a bit of a crazy day for us. Meltdown after meltdown, a sick babe (I got puked on!),  a babe who decided to give herself a haircut- what?!? and an upset little boy who was lashing out his confused feelings. I'm tired, but we're all alive and doing well... it's just a matter of getting through the long days.

My good friend Margaret asked me this week, did you ever think you'd be able to do this? The long drives into Whitehorse on your own with two little kids in tow? The long week, all alone in Beaver Creek with the kids? And to be honest, at first, those things really did panic me. Only someone with kids could understand what it's like to have to do these things on your own. If it were possible, my partner would help me out more, but due to his job, he has to stay in our little community for the majority of the time, leaving me to do the grocery shops, appointments, and everything else on my own. The truth is, now that I have had several of these experiences under my belt, I am actually a little proud to say, that I just get it done. We might be watching more TV than I care to admit, there might be more tears than usual from the kids, and yes, it may be hard, but we have also had some pretty awesome moments too...and that says a lot. To say that we've had awesome moments means that we are doing more than just surviving, we are doing things quite well actually.

A few happy things from over the past few days.

~Backyard visitors! I tell Noah every time that we see our moose friends that we are very lucky to be able to see them and that not many people get to say they have moose in their backyards!

~ Wax paper sun catchers. A fun little Valentine's craft to get us in the mood and to decorate our windows with.

~ Hot chocolate outside. I said we'd do it and we did!

~ Quiet moments tucked into the more difficult days.
~ The ability to make my own bread. We were out of breakfast food to eat, so I made two beautiful loaves of bread, which I had to try with all my might to avoid. I'm thankful for having learned that skill this past year. 

~ The invention of the slowcooker. Seriously, the slow cooker has been a godsend these past few days.

When you are on your own and just getting through the days, it becomes apparent to where and whom you can give your attention to. My priorities these last few days have been to take care of the kids, and do it joyfully and with as little stress as possible. I've had to say no to a few outside requests, and prioritize my time accordingly, but that is okay, because my job is to mother these two babes (yes, I still refer to them as my babes) and to put them first.

Hope you are having a lovely week.

xox

happy things

Happy simple things as of late:
~ a present that I bought for myself came in the mail. I bought some prints from the Taproot print shop when I found out that we will be moving this summer ( I needed a pick me up). I absolutely love Phoebe Wahl's work. To see a lovely tour of her studio, visit this blog post (I just added it now). I put the prints up in our kitchen (my favourite room in the house). I think they look like they belong there.
~making a St. Patrick's Day garland with Noah. He helped with the glue and glitter (of course!). I'm such a suck for holiday things.
~ smoothies and sunny squash soup for me.
~ some new reading material for me.
~ some new reading material for Katia. I couldn't resist it. I love beautifully illustrated books.
~ a quick, easy and mostly painless recovery from my wisdom teeth extraction. So relieved.
~ the sunlight that is returning.

That is all for now. Happy days dear friends.
xox