Sunday Scenes, 4.27.14

Finally, some art on this blog! Not mine, but my students- which is even better! There are some talented kids in that school. It's really cool to see their work displayed, all together, in one room. So, here are my Sunday Scenes. Enjoy!

Kinetic art by my Introduction to Visual Design students.

Still life paintings and masks made using their own faces as molds.

A Starry Night forgery on the left. I should have gotten a close-up- it looks awesome!

More masks...

And another still life.

Fruit studies by my Painting and Drawing students.

Drawings by my Advanced Drawing students

Forgery paintings of originals by Wood, Dali and O'Keefe.  (Top right is an optical illusion drawing done by my co-workers student.)

Portraits created using the stippling technique (shading using small dots of ink). Again, I should have taken a close-up. They look amazing in person.

Scratchboard drawings and creative color wheels created by my Introduction to Visual Design students.

And more scratchboard drawings by my Drawing students.

And fun portraits based on Lichtenstein's work.

We had a steady stream of visitors from Noon until 4:00, so I'll call that a successful show :)

Have a great week!  Juli

Family Friday, 4.25.14

I'm kind of cheating here with this Family Friday post. Obviously, I didn't post a Sunday Scenes last weekend. Too, dang busy with moving and Easter! So, guess what this post will be about? Yep. You guessed it. Moving and Easter :)

We're moved in. Not completely, though. That will take a while. But I would say that we are settled in. These are a few of my favorite parts so far. Clockwise, from top left- 1.)It's been a while since I've had a mantle to decorate. I kinda like it. 2) My new favorite spot. 3) The view from my new favorite spot. My lone tree!haha And it has a nest with baby birds in it, so there is a lot of tweeting (the real kind) going on! 4) And it (the tweeting) drives Olive insane! 5) Kitchen/dining room/living room. Yep. It's all in one :) and 6) I've never had an entryway. And I love having one now.

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And Easter. A very nice break from all of the moving.  This is our attempt at a family pic with my parents. It took a few tries, as Peanut just wasn't interested in standing still. So you see in the photos- Peanut looking to the side, Peanut walking away, Peanut blocking Grandpa's head and Grandma looking at Peanut! But we finally got a good one :)

Easter dinner- huddled around the TV watching the game. (Don't ask me what game, though!)

Peanut's Easter dinner- his favorite- french fries.

And no Easter is complete without a little egg hunt. It was a perfect day to be outside.

Getting a little help from Uncle Eddie.

Little Man found his egg!

I love this kid!

And I'm eagerly awaiting Grandson #2, again lurking there behind Big Brother's head! Peanut has no idea what is about to happen. Oh, my.

Okay, well that was a little review of last weekend. This weekend- well tomorrow, actually- is our District Art Show, so today we're hanging/preparing everything.  I'm hoping the weather holds out tomorrow so we have a good turnout. There are supposed to be some seriously nasty storms moving in. We'll see how that goes. Kind of freaking me out a little.

Have a great weekend!  Juli

Family Friday, 4.18.14

Just a couple of instagram pics for today's Family Friday, a couple of rediscovered "relics" from my dad and my daughter.

Sister's wedding bouquet from May 3, 2008.

And my dad's drafting tools from high school-1958.

Sorry such a short post. We're moving this weekend! And it's kicking-my-butt overwhelming at this point.
If I'm able to move at all on Sunday, I'll post some Easter Sunday Scenes :) 

Have a great weekend!  Juli

Sunday Scenes, 4.13.14

A few scenes from my Sunday :

I started the day by watching this on Radiolab.org- a story about a baby born at 23 weeks and 6 days. I listened to the hour long radio version yesterday and they mentioned that they had made a short video as well. Such a great story.

Trying to enjoy our last few days in our little house on a big hill in the woods. Oh, man...that sounds so nice, doesn't it? Well, it is. But, I'm really ready to get out of here! I'm ready for not having to slide down the driveway to my car when it snows, less space to clean, no yard work, food delivery and visitors :)  But I will miss our trees.

We are now officially at the point of being between the old house and the new house. Boxes are everywhere at both places. Here, on the left, you see my makeshift coffee table- two stacked wine boxes and a wooden tray. haha! Classy, huh?! And the picture on the bottom right shows all of my art and sewing supplies and my Etsy inventory. I really have no idea where I'm going to put all of this, but I'm thinking that our kitchen pantry will have to serve as an art closet. Two people (sometimes three) don't really need that much food storage space, anyway, right?

 

 

 

 

And some more spiffing up at the cross. Sister is so good at making sure it looks nice for every season or holiday and updating the photos on a regular basis.  The blue butterflies are what she had me add today. I think it's looking pretty springy!

And, at this moment,  I'm typing (obviously!), having a cup of tea, waiting for the chicken to finish baking, and waiting for two of my favorite shows (which are on back to back tonight!) Call the Midwife and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

I'm glad to be taking a little break from the moving and packing- but now I have a box of grading staring me in the face. Oh, my. 

Have a great week!  Juli

Family Friday- A place for Peanut, 4.11.14

Today's Family Friday isn't so much about a particular person, but making a space for a particular person. In our new place, that is. Peanut has always had his own room in the house we're in now. Before he was born, I repainted the room a light gray-blue, hung a personalized banner, filled it with old and new toys, shelves of books, etc. He had his own bed, a tv and dvd player for his movies and his own little drawing area with a chalkboard and vintage school chair. It quickly became my favorite room in the house. I just liked to sit in there! And, most importantly, I think he liked it, too.

So, not having a space like that is really the only down side to moving to a smaller place. It has really been bugging me that he won't have that anymore when he comes to Bibi's house. But then, I came across this room on a blog that I follow called The Handmade Home. The blogger home schools her kids and needed a place just for "school", so she converted her dining room to a home school room. I love it! But, I won't have a dining room, either. Dang! But... we do have a loft that will be our family room and I think that room will be perfect for this type of setup. We'll put the sofa sleeper  in there, so it will be a sofa for our tv/movie nights and it will be a sleeper when Peanut stays overnight.  I'll keep the theme the same as his old room- vintage toys, but combine that with vintage "school". I'm excited about trying to incorporate some of the ideas shown in the pictures below :

Love the chalkboard, old style chairs and the globes.

And will definitely be trying this. Great way to organize markers, chalk, crayons, pencils, etc.

Yep, love this room! All of it. Even the rug that looks like notebook paper :)

This image is not from The Handmade Home, but I was unable to find the source. (If someone knows, please let me know!) Anywho, I LOVE the red chair! I think I'll try this with the chair shown below. I love the blue sofa in the picture above, but I'm too much of a chicken to purchase a brightly colored sofa, so a brightly colored side chair will be my compromise.  ( I also love the Vermeer painting/print on the wall!)

This is the most comfortable chair for rocking. I know it doesn't look one bit comfortable. And it doesn't look like a rocker. But it is! It rocks slightly (with a kind of spring system underneath) and since we took the wheels off, it sits closer to the floor and is perfect for rocking a baby :)

This is one of Asher's favorite spots at my house, so I'll be setting it up the same way at the new place. He loves to sit in his chair, look at his books and write on his chalkboard :)

Well, I better get back to packing. Have a great weekend!  Juli

Sunday Scenes, 4.6.14

Well, I have to admit that I'm cheating a little bit, here. These first few scenes are actually from last Sunday. A nasty stomach virus was spending some time at Sister's house this weekend, so I didn't get to see her or Peanut. But we had a great time last Sunday :)

Spiffing up the cross again. We added some metal flowers this time instead of the artificial ones. It still looks pretty drab in this picture, but in person it looks much better than before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peanut has no idea that he has a little brother lurking right behind his head!

Beautiful day for the park last weekend :)

This is the same park I used to take my kids when they were little.

And here they are, in that same park. Little Man was 'full time' back then. If two people were not holding his hands, he was off and running! Gotta love those little overalls :)

Okay, another cheat. This is actually a Saturday Scene! I had a great time at my niece's bridal shower yesterday.

Loved the little favors- take-out style containers filled with chocolate and a personalized lip balm. Cute!

And on the making front:

Trying to brush up on my watercolor skills. I'm not gonna lie- it's not going well. haha! Oh, well. More practice is good, right?

And I received a request for a custom onesie. This is what it looked like before stitching. I write or draw out what I want on paper, then flip the paper over, hold it up to a window, (I have to hold it up to the window to see through it since I don't have a light table...yet!) and trace over it with an iron-on transfer pen.

And this is the finished product. Pretty easy one- finished in less than an hour :)

And I completely forgot to list this pillow. I put it in the box with all of my other Etsy items, and forgot all about it. It's now listed :)

And I was pretty excited to use my new twill tape labels.

On the townhouse front, not much excitement happening, other than the fact that it is now officially ready to be inhabited. Yay!

Last step, before moving in- our new icebox. Exciting, huh?! I am pretty excited about it, actually,  as it seems twice as big as the one I have been stuck with for the past 8 1/2 years. Ready to fill it with food and cook our first meal there. That's when it officially feels like home :)

Till next time ~ Juli

An early bird Family Friday: My mom, 4.3.14

This week's Family Friday is dedicated to my mom. I really don't think my mom  is aware of the impact she has had on me and my desire to be a maker and, I think, even more importantly, to be a good homemaker. Just the other day, Little Man had a pair of golf pants that needed to be mended. So, I borrowed Sister's mini sewing kit, found thread that almost matched and within a few minutes, his pants were repaired. I handed them over to him and he said 'Wow! You're good!". My response, "I learned from the pro over there" and glanced over at my mom across the room. Her response, "Me??! I don't think I taught you how to sew!". Uhmm...yes, mom, you did! She says that she didn't really teach me, that I just always wanted to watch what she was doing when she had a needle and thread in her hands. (I had a lot of opportunities, since she made a lot of our clothes herself).

My mom- then.

My mom- now. And my dad, too! This was on their 50th wedding anniversary in 2008. (Yes, they were very young when they got married!)

But what she probably doesn't know is how much I noticed all of the other things that made her an awesome mom. The everyday things, like:

How she always had a great meal on the table for us every morning and every night.

How she spent her days making our home really nice (even though we had very little money) by rearranging the furniture so it often seemed new even though it was just the same old stuff.

Sometimes spending entire afternoons polishing the paneling (of all things!) so it wouldn't look dull.

How she taught me how to iron while we watched Days of Our Lives together.

How she would prepare some kind of desert every single night for us all to enjoy while we watched our shows together (my favorite- popcorn, Pepsi, apple slices and Hershey bars!).

And the little ways that she showed her love for my dad. For example, every day she would finish making supper, then go into her bedroom to carefully apply her lipstick before my dad got home. And in the summer, she would sit and visit with my dad while he did yard work- continually moving her chair around the yard every time he moved on to a new chore.

There are obviously many more things that she did for us. Things that made me want to be the kind of mom that she was. And I think the fact that she took so much pride in her home, her family and herself  is really what made me want to give that to my own family.

The trusty, old sewing machine. This is the machine that my mom used for many years. I learned how to sew on this machine (once, sewing right over my finger as part of that learning process!). It's part of my early inheritance :) I recently had it refurbished and will never get rid of it. Ever.

The flower-girl dress my mom made for me for a family member's wedding. Uhmmm...can you tell it was made in 1970?! haha

And this must have been what started it all. My mom said I would just sit and watch her as she hand smocked this dress for me to wear to my aunt's wedding. Now I want to go smock something!

So, back to the sewing and the making. As I mentioned before, my mom made a lot of my sister's and my clothing. (What I loved about that is that I was actually getting something new for myself, not a hand-me-down from my sister!) We still have a few of the things she made for us and since I'm closing in on the big "5-0", I'm going to go ahead and call them "vintage" heirlooms :)  Having these heirlooms is a big part of what makes me want to make things. Things- whether those things are paintings or onesies or blankets or pillows. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that the people who end up with the things that I make, consider those things to be thoughtful and carefully crafted. And that they will, hopefully,  end up in that baby box or hope chest for the next generation to discover, enjoy and maybe even reminisce about. (I'm a hopeless reminiscer!) 

Thank You, Mom!