w a t e r c o l o r s

 Little art.

Complex, yet simple.

Anything goes.

Vibrant colors, dull strokes.

An over-legged tadpole in a rainbow water tank.

Purple sun and polka-dots in the air.

Couldn't keep it real.

A mix of this-and-that.

A self-portrait of a smiley girl.

With rosy cheeks I'm guessing.

Abstract.

Stripes and dots.

And lots of blue too.

Little art I want to never forget.

nature in the home / / a u t u m n

It's no secret that my little girl over here is most happy with art supplies in hand. It's also no secret that this girl is just as happy when carrying around her nature collections: sticks, leaves, rocks, you name it. So when I found these white mini-pumpkins, sold in threes, I knew they would be perfect. And they are.

Linking up with Lou (and many others) here.

nature in the home

We finally found something to do with our recent autumn nature finds that have been sitting either still in the buckets we collected them in or on the shelf. Today was a cold and gray day, even colder as the day went on. Logan has a bit of a cold with a runny, stuffy nose, and a unmanageable mood, so this low key indoor (with a touch out outdoor) activity was perfect for today. We spent a great deal of time  making up different scenes, shapes, and sorted groups.

We spelled out our names too. Since we have been working on letters in our preschool homeschool, Logan was more than ready to attempt to create the letters of our names. 

We made acorn squares, circles, triangles, and swirls.

 

We made a beautiful flower out of the prettiest leaves we could find right outside. Lo loved switching the center of the flower out with acorns, shells, and rocks.

Here's is Lo at the source of our sweet colorful fall leaves.

 Linking up here.

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 "A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."






Logan: Simple math-- Nature + Art = Happiness. You're a simple girl. I love you for that.

Linking up here.

Favorites: this beauty, this sweet little fish in purple, and these cute three.

magazine make-over

 I love having 'staple' crafts on hand that can entertain my girl. Not the involved kind with lots of supplies that require a great deal of assistance, but the simple kind that can easily become on-the-go for doctor appointments, long rides, and visits at Grandma's. This craft proved to be exactly that. Logan, and her cousins Jordan and Angelo kept busy for well over an hour with an Oprah magazine and a ziploc full of sharpies. The older boys had a ball making over faces like Ellen, Curtis Stone, and Jennifer Aniston. I kept the full page frontal facing faces for Lo because they were bigger and this was something new for her. We've been doing this to magazines foreverrrr, but this time around we were inspired here. I think it's safe to say, Lo is a natural.  

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 "A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Logan: my little artist keeping very busy with a paint brush in hand, as we work on some of our preschool homeschool lessons. 

You can see more activities from our preschool homeschool week 1 here.

Linking up here.

butterfly art

Can there be such as thing as too hot to swim? Well, today we declared it. And although the kids managed to get a little pool time in, much of the day was spent indoors. 

I recently came across a fellow mama blogger, Kim, and her awesome blog with craft ideas, inspiration, and tons of printables --> win!

Last week Lo and I were butterfly watching in the backyard-- so when I saw this printable, I knew it would make a perfect summer craft that would allow for me to expand off of one experience to further our knowledge and re-examine what we had already learned. 

Logan and her cousins each got a printable and paints to share. I love how different-but-same they all look. The older boys really took their time and put a lot of effort/thought into their butterfly. I loved that they were just as excited about it as Logan was. 

I am so happy to have found Kim's blog, and highly recommend it to other mama's looking for some ideas to keep their kids creative sparks going. I already have a few things printed out for future crafting and others bookmarked [for later printing] for Lo's homeschool preschool program.

legit flower card: nature in the home

Today, we made a flower card-- with actual hand picked flowers, and boy did it turn out even better than I had envisioned.

Materials: Paper, envelope, tape for decorating, and fresh flowers. 

Our "decorating" didn't consist of much, in attempts to keep the flowers as the main focus. Such great colors, mission accomplished. 

Logan's Grammy was the lucky recipient of this here beaut. Here is the inside of the card, drawn by Lo herself. I'm especially proud of the hair, though I think it was purely coincidental that it turned out to actually look like Grammy's hair.

Happy to be joining in with Lou over at LITTLE GREEN SHED for her Nature in the Home series. 

goggly eyes, paint, and glue

Today our sweet sunshine that we were so very used to left us, chilled with dark skies and a wet world. We had gotten so used to the nice weather that we were a bit unsure with what to do with ourselves this morning. It didn't take us too long to decided to go to what we know best, crafts. Lo's favorite thing too-- that lately has taken second string to playdates, park trips, sandbox fun, and countless hours spent outside. I think we needed a day like today: a day to practice cutting, gluing, painting, and making masterpieces.Is it just me or are kid crafts not the cutest thing?!

 Especially when we can recycle something else. Hello, toilet paper roll.

nature in the home

 

Since before Lo could walk, she has always been our little nature girl. Yes, she was conditioned by her mama and daddy, but nonetheless, she didn't mind it one bit. Except for that short period where she was completely freaked out by grass, and it touching her skin [which provided for excellent entertainment for cousins and uncles...my poor girl!] But aside from that, Lo has always loved all things nature: flowers, dirt, twigs/branches/sticks, rocks, leaves, and grass [eventually.] Some of my favorite photos of her involve her being one with nature. I will have to find them and post, because they are just too cute to not share/document. With all that being said, we really try to implement simple and natural play things for her-- so you can imagine my excitement when I came across these actual legit branch colored pencils in our local Home Goods. They arrived courtesy of the Easter Bunny, and have been a hit ever since. Everyone that sees them just has to try them out. The best and worst part about them is their actual realness. Dirt crumbs are inevitable with use, but we don't mind that real feel.

Linking up [ for the first time] with Lou from little green shed and her nature in the home series.

a little, big thanks

   

We finally got our thank you cards out from Lo's birthday party. We had many to make, and Lo wasn't exactly feeling the whole making faces for days idea, so we did a little at a time. They came out fantastic. She drew the faces and I drew the bodies and party hats/bows. Of course I didn't measure them properly to fit in an envelope so we ended up handing them out postcard style and in person. A few little obstacles, but they are out and [most of] our friends and family are thanked. Still a few more to hand out.I love the little artist Lo is becoming. She impresses me everyday.