Fall Tree Art Fun

The weather has been absolutely miserable here for the last week so we've been bringing the outdoors in and we tried making some of the fall trees I saw over at the artist woman using watercolors, acrylic paint, straws and pointillism :)

Remember a couple of days ago I had mentioned I was going to let the kids blow paint through straws and cross my fingers that it didn't end up splattered all over the walls? Well it all turned out good and boy was it fun!! If you take some regular acrylic paint and thin it out with tap water to a runny ink like consistency you can actually drop it onto your paper in a blob and blow it all across your page to create tree trunk forms :)It's really cool to watch it streak along and branch off in different directions. The key we found to nice smooth branches was to make sure that we didn't drag our straw along through the paint as we blew. This made the shapes thicker and more blobby. And of course try not to drool through the straw as you blow LOL.

After we let our tree trunks dry we randomly dotted fall colors using q-tips to our branches creating fun fall colors :)

They're going to look great hanging on the wall when they're all dry :)

What fall art projects have you been doing?
Hugs,
Rosina

Painting & Knitting

Underneath the tablecloth on my kitchen table is a permanent patch of butcher's paper securely taped down. Why you might ask? So that when the painting bug strikes my children which is quite often this mama can just whip off the cloth and and let them go wild without worrying about how I'm going to fix water marks and paint stains *grin*.

I seriously love this stuff! And it's pretty much indestructible :) If you have never used it there is one side made of brown craft paper which makes great wrapping paper that you can stamp and draw on and on the other side it has a water proof waxy coating that you can spill on, paint on, get marker all over and wash it all up with soap and water when you're finished :)

Today they were painting the backgrounds for a fun fall tree picture that will have them blowing paint through a straw tomorrow to make free form tree trunks and then we'll add colorful leaves using our pencil eraser ends. I just hope we can keep the paint from blowing out of the straws and onto the walls! Maybe we should to some practice breathing through the straws before I actually hand over the paint LOL.

While they happily painted away I pulled out my yarn swift and a couple of skeins of a pretty mauve colored cotton/linen blend of yarn that I've had put away for a rainy day :)

I think I've found the perfect project for it but you'll have to wait until tomorrow's yarn along post to learn more about it *grin*. Gotta love ravelry and free patterns!

Hugs,
Rosina

White Washing

I think I speak for both my oldest son and myself when I say we are getting really excited that our chicken coop remodel is nearly finished *grin*. It was great when Hubby was home and he put in a brand new door so that we could get in and out of the house easily but since then it's just been me and the kids :)

The last couple of days we've been cutting, hammering, sweeping and scraping the walls using a wire brush to get any old paint and muck off of the walls in preparation for white washing the walls. With all of the dust and dirt that was flying around I thought it wouldn't hurt to wear some masks so that we didn't breathe to much of it in :)

There haven't been any chickens in this old house for quite a few years and we found numerous holes in the floor that needed to be covered to stop any mice or rats from coming in and then there were a few larger ones leading in from the old nesting area that required some larger boards to seal off the main room to keep any other animals out that might find their way in. We do have a really big problem with raccoons and mink so I want to make sure that our new little babies are going to be safe. Plus we don't have any need for nesting boxes until later this fall when the chicks mature enough to start laying some eggs :)

Thankfully I know my way around a skill saw *grin*. K and I scavenged through the old lumber pile by the wood shed looking for boards that didn't look to rotten and then dragged them up to the house where we could measure them and cut them to the right length for the wall we needed to cover. From there we took them back to the chicken house and started to close in the wall.

Oh boy did we have some good laughs!! K was having some trouble getting the nails started while holding the chicken wire tight behind the boards that we were nailing up so I held the wire all the while cringing as I hoped he wouldn't hammer my fingers LOL. He thought it was hilarious that I was so worried yet only minutes before he was eyeing me up skeptically as I balanced boards on the saw horses and he was worried that I wouldn't know how to use the saw :) Yup, we are quite the handyman duo *grin*.

So with all the wood work done it was time to give the insides a nice clean coat of paint with a lime white wash. It's good and cheap to make, brightens up dark and dingy barn rooms and as an added bonus it helps stop any bacteria from growing.

Just in case you're interested here's how I made it :) You will need a bag of Hydrated Lime. Make sure you get hydrated lime and NOT dolomite or garden lime. Dolomite is the greyer colored lime that you can find at grocery stores and garden centers and it is okay if you put your hands in it but Hydrated lime is a purer white and usually can be found at any building supply or farm and feed store and it has a big warning on the front of the bag that it is corrosive so when you handle it you want to make sure you wear gloves and preferably a mask when mixing because you don't want to breathe in the powder as it flies in the air.

Using a large plastic pail to hold the lime and a large coffee tin as my make do measuring cup I scooped out five full coffee tins of lime and put them into my plastic pail and then I added just under two gallons of water and stirred it well to combine the water and lime. Protective eye wear is a good idea at this point to keep it from accidentally splashing in your eyes. You want it to be a nice thick paste so don't add your water all at one time or you will have to add more lime :) Now you can tuck it away for the night. This makes what they call slaked lime and is actually the base of house plaster if I'm correct.

The next morning or whenever you get back to it, take your pail and pour off any excess water that is sitting on top of the lime paste. This is water that the lime couldn't absorb. The paste as it stands now is much to thick to paint with so you will want to thin it with some salt water. I used 2.5 pounds of pickling salt to one gallon of water mixed well together and then poured a little at a time into the lime paste. You want it to be like the consistency of pancake batter but make sure you don't add to much water! You can't add more lime anymore at this point. Once you have thinned your white wash to a spreadable consistency you are ready to paint :)

Wearing our rubber gloves and eye protection we got to work painting on the white wash. Oh my goodness this stuff is AMAZING!! It spreads on nice and thick so you get good coverage and even though it looks a little grey while it's wet it dries bright white! Our chicken coop has never ever looked so clean and good :)

Only a few more days and our babies arrives... just in time for Easter!!

Hugs,
Rosina

Stenciled T-Shirts for Father's Day

Father's Day is June 20th and a perfect day to celebrate the Super Hero in your family or in our case to celebrate our 'Super Daddy'! *grin*

I'm crazy about stenciling t-shirts and have done quite a few for the kids and a few school ones with our school name on them for when we go on homeschool outings so I thought what would be better than having each of the kids make a special shirt for daddy :)

If you have never made a t-shirt using freezer paper it is super simple and you can even check out a tutorial I did on it back in 2008 that shows you all the steps from start to finish! All you need is a t-shirt, some butcher's paper or freezer paper as it is also called, a craft knife, acrylic paints and a fabric medium to set the paint permanently on the shirt or you can buy fabric paint that is all ready to go.

I did all of the cutting for the youngest two as they aren't ready to wield a sharp blade yet but the painting was all theirs :)

I had ran across quite a few handprint shirts in the past and thought that it would be fun to have one of them stamp their hands on a shirt...

but I wasn't sure how to tie it into the father's day theme besides it just being a cute shirt with his kids' handprints on it *grin*. Then I came up with what I thought was a pretty smart tag line....

Handpicked by:
L

I love it!!! That has got to be the sweetest saying and I know Hubby is just going to love getting it from his little girl :)

My oldest son is totally into camping so he made his camping themed and I set it all up for him on my printshop program so we just had to print it out and he cut and painted :)

They're all outside hanging in the plum tree right now while Hubby is down working on his tugboat. I'm hoping that they completely dry by the time I have to bring them in so that we can heat set them tomorrow and wrap them for Sunday. I'll make sure and show you the finished shirts after we have them finished :)

What are you making for Father's Day gifts this year?

~ Rosina

A Perfect Afternoon

Well the sun finally broke out from behind the clouds and gave us half a day of scorching hot heat! Oh my goodness I think we have become to accustomed to all of the wet weather because we were definitely wilting this morning *grin*.

We all headed out right after breakfast to take advantage of the dry spell. K and I tackled some more planting by getting the rows ready for our carrots and beets to go in. As he dug little trenches I went behind him filling them with a mix of horse manure, lime and an organic crumble that I picked up at the nursery. We're hoping they are going to grow really big! LOL.

Our homemade seed tape cut the work in half to! All we had to do was lay it all down in the trenches and sprinkle with a covering of dirt and we were done. Gotta love that especially as we started to go limp under the baking sun :)

L & M have been literally dying waiting for the rain to stop so that they could go out and paint so while we toiled in the garden they collected the paint jars and the new canvasses that I had bought at the dollar store and got busy becoming Picasso & Kahlo *grin*. Can you believe that I actually got 12 x 16 inch canvas all stretched on a frame for $1.25?! I'm kicking myself now that I only picked up a couple. I sure hope they still have some the next time we go!

While everyone scrubbed up at the garden hose and had an impromptu water fight I headed in to get lunch together :) A nice big plate of Bruschetta. Oh how I can hardly wait until our tomatoes are ready!!

Armed with the giant plate of bruschetta and another full of vegetables and dip we enjoyed lunch under the shade of the giant hemlock trees in the backyard. While they finished up eating I read aloud from one of our new Sonlight read alouds 'The Golden Goblet'.

Ahh what a beautiful way to spend the afternoon :) I want to create a cozy outdoor spot this summer where we can curl up with books or crafts and enjoy the outdoors. I've got a couple of ideas for transforming our front patio. It has no shelter so I need to make some sort of sun shade but I'm hoping to find some fabric in the discount bin at Walmart and fashion some sails or something. Haven't quite figured out all the details yet but the thoughts are brewing *grin*.

~ Rosina

Water Color Nature ~ Outdoor Challenge Day 8

Today we thought it would be fun if we took our water color paints outside and painted some of the plum blossoms that are blooming so that we could add them to our nature journals :)

I just love watching the kids paint with water colors. The way that the paint seems to creep across the page as the fibers soak up the color and the wild ways that it creates masterpieces :)

I had drawn a robot and spaceship for M to paint over and L decided that she was going to paint chickens with very large hair *grin*.

We ended up with one completed painting of the blossoms and then spent the rest of the time playing in the sun, eating blueberry scones made with freshly milled grain that I ground and eventually tucking blankets over the youngest two as they crashed in the afternoon for an unexpected nap time :)

Do you have photos of your children enjoying the outdoors? Visit The Great Outdoors Challenge to join in the fun and you can also visit other participants and see what sort of nature fun they have been having by clicking on the names below :)

~ Rosina

Fellow Nature Players:lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy, elizabeth, sarah, eileen, lisa, stacy, jennifer, tulsileaf, lisa C, morticia, angela, rana, jamie, lisa c, luz, charley, heather, valerie, kirsten, rachel, annie, kendra, beth s, lindsey, michelle, megan, renee

Thomas the Train

My oldest son reminded me today that I had forgotten to put his painting in my handmade christmas entry. Oops!

His little 3 yr old brother is totally into Thomas and I swear the kid looks like he's going to have a heart attack when he sees it come on tv. LOL. He races around frantically yelling out that Thomas is on, sometimes he has to get a Thomas book to hold while watching and this is all going on while the show is playing so he ends up missing part of it during his excitement *grin*.

So K decided that his special present to his brother would be a painting of Thomas the Train :) It was a total hit and I'm hoping he paints something for me next!

~ Rosina

His Masterpiece is Complete!

My son started this painting of his dad's tug boat and some of the other company tugs a little over a month ago and since then there has been an empty hook in our family room awaiting its arrival. Well the day has finally come and his dad is so proud of it :)

It just happened that today hubby was going to be stopping in at the wharf to refuel his tug and get supplies so K got to show him the completed painting :)



Above is the original pencil drawing he made from a photo. In a couple of weeks our town is hosting its annual Garden Tour and quite often some of the homes will display quilts or artistic works done by locals and we are going to exhibit K's paintings in my mom's garden as she is part of the tour *grin*.

He has studied Frida Kahlo, Leonardo Da vinci, Henri Matisse, & Dr. Suess so far, copying some of their most famous paintings and learning about their lives. I think it will be fun for him since he's only 10 and to be able to share some of his new found knowledge about the arts will be great. Plus you know those older ladies will just love it! LOL.

~ Rosina

My Budding Artist

My son is crazy about drawing and painting and since last September he has been going once a week to the 4 Cats Art Academy where they get to experiment with all sorts of different medias while learning about different artists and drawing/painting techniques. He loves it!

For Christmas we got him a bunch of canvases so that he could paint whenever he felt the urge to do so and his most recent one is a copy of a photo we took of his dad's tug boat at the wharf flanked by other tug boats. I may be biased but I think his pencil drawn copy of it is amazing!!

This afternoon he started to paint it and as it happened this week in his art class he learned about blending colors to make it look like the different shades of water. It was perfect timing to help him with the reflecton portion of his painting. I can't wait to see his progress tomorrow :)

~ Rosina