Vol. 3, No. 180, June 29, 2018

3180 - Towers Of Tomorrow.

Today the Miller Littles joined Kids of the Kingdom for a fun field trip the The Science Museum of Minnesota. There were lots of fun new exhibits to see, one of them was Towers of Tomorrow With LEGO Bricks. In this exhibit, we got to see replicas of towers from all around the world built out of LEGO bricks. There were also stations to build your own tower. Oldest Miller and I built a house instead of a tower. We made sure to include windows, a door and a roof. When we were finished, we moved our house to the city display for others to enjoy. I included two pictures of the house from the front because I couldn’t decide which I liked better. The flash showed more of the true colors, but I thin the other one looks better. The third picture shows Oldest Miller with her sculpture from a more above angle.

Vol. 3, No. 179, June 28, 2018

3179 - Oh, The Thinks You Can Think.

Tonight, I began my artsy project for the summer musical. This summer, Litchfield Community Theatre if performing Seussical the Musical. I was asked to design Seuss-like instruments for the marching band. I was given two large bags of pool noodles and the searched the prop room for other funnel-like pieces. I also located a small assortment of duct tape. I began by twist a pool noodle and securing the loop with duct tape. After a lot of exploration, I added another twist of noodle and lots more tape. I added a funnel, which was conveniently already painted bright colors, and some tulle flowers.  Miller Friend was my very willing model.

I now have one instrument completed, which means I only have nine more to go! I can’t work fast enough, because the Who Band is anxious to get the instruments in their hands.

Vol. 3, No. 178, June 27, 2018

3178 - Miller Time Garage Sale.

The Millers are having a garage sale soon with some friends and the kids wanted to do a lemonade sale. Being an art teacher, I was nominated to make the sign, of course I wasn’t going to do it alone. The kids, young and old, prepped the paper and decorated the letters that I drew the letters. Then I drew the lemons and added a little bit of extra color to the letters before securing the tiles.

If you want some yummy lemonade and other treats, plus some really good deals, stop by the Miller Time Garage Sale.

Vol. 3, No. 177, June 26, 2018

3177 - Gray Ducks Matter.

A Miller Friend wanted to help me with my project today. Without any prompting, she decided to use National Days as inspiration. Today is National Beautician’s Day, so Miller Friend let me style her hair. We looked up some braid tutorials on YouTube and used those styles as inspiration. This was my first attempt at a Dutch braid. It was challenging to wrap my head around braiding backwards. The resulting hairstyle is not the most elegant, but hopefully it will hold till tomorrow.

Vol. 3, No. 176, June 25, 2018

3176 - Log Cabin.

I had a busy day of kid wrangling and cleaning, thus forgetting to do my project. When I was heading towards bed, I saw Legos strewn about the playroom floor. I decided to use them and headed to Pinterest for inspiration as to what to build. One of the first pins I saw was tesselation tiles, it looked cool, so I set about finding square flats and a variety of 1x2 bricks. I didn’t have a very large selection of Legos to work from, so I could not make the pattern exactly as I would have liked, but it still turned out alright. When I was finished building, I laid out the tiles in a rotating pattern. The finished piece slightly resembles a log cabin quilt square.

Vol. 3, No. 175, June 24, 2018

3175 - Wiggle Your Waggles Out.

On December 27th, I got to photograph a newborn, earlier this week, that baby turned 6 months old. I decided to volunteer my time to take some new pictures. Let me say, photographing a 6 month-old who wants to roll and eat feet poses lots of challenges. I did manage to get some cute pictures, although no sleeping pics like I was hoping for, maybe I'll try again later in the week. Here is one of my favorite feet pics.

Vol. 3, No. 174 , June 23 2018

3174 - Piggy Pink.

We are celebrating National Pink Day today, so I headed outside and picked some pretty pink flowers and arranged them in the shape of a pig. It looks better, more pig like from far away.

Vol. 3, No. 173, June 22, 2018

3173 - Sticks and Stones.

Today the Miller Littles and I picked up CAT and headed to see Mommy Miller at work for a pizza party. While there, we got to meet some of her co-workers. Then we went to play at a fun playground. Before we left the park, we collected sticks, stones and grass and worked together to make a tic-tac-toe board. We played a couple games before we went home. We left the game behind for someone else to find and enjoy.

Vol. 3, No. 172, June 21, 2018

3172 - Dirty Worms.

Today for snack, the Miller Littles and I made Jello worms. While they were cooling, Middle Miller and I made some Instant Vanilla Pudding. While the oldest two were playing in the pool, and Littlest Miller was napping, I put together dirt cups, or I guess it was more like sand cup because we used graham crackers. The dirt cups were topped off with Reid-Whip.  As it turns out the Miller Littles don’t like instant pudding or Redi-Whip. Oh well, now I know for next time.

Vol. 3, No. 171, June 20, 2018

3171 - Strawberry Rose.

This afternoon I headed to my parent's house to finish the last two batches of strawberry jam. When I was finished I grabbed a slice of bread, a rolling pin and the extra jam that didn't fit in the last jar. I flattened the bread, cut it into two strips, spread the jam and rolled the strips up to create a flower.

Vol. 3, No. 170, June 19, 2018

3170 - Icky Sticky.

I had planned on cleaning/moving more things from my house today, but about 1, I got a call from my mom, changing my plans. She had just gotten 15 pounds for fresh picked strawberries, and she wanted help to make strawberry jam. So when I was done with the Miller Littles, I headed to my Parent’s house and proceeded to help both of my parents prep all of the strawberries and process 3 batches of jam. With 25 jars of jam on the table, we mesasured out enough berries for 2 more batches, plus some for eating. When I was finished, I felt sticky from head-to-toe and couldn’t wait to get home and have a shower. Tomorrow I get to go back, with the Miller Littles, and finish the last 2 batches.

Vol. 3, No. 169, June 18, 2018

3169 - Tick Tock.

I was racing the clock again tonight. I got home about 10 pm, but it was almost 11 before I remembered I hadn’t done a project yet today. Middle Miller’s MagnaTiles were laying on the floor in the playroom, so I decided to build once again. I started playing around, and before long, I had a robot. I took some pictures and then was checking to make sure it was stable enough to survive the night, when the whole thing came tumbling down.

Vol. 3, No. 168, June 17, 2018

3168 - Dad’s Daisies.

I spent the day with my Dad celebrating Father’s Day. In between rounds of Hand and Foot Canasta, I went out to the flower garden and picked a pile of daisies. I used them to braid daisy chains. The first chain had long stems, naturally curling into a 9 shape. I left the stems long so that the chain could go into the vase. I also had some daisies with short stem. I used these to create another chain, which I wrapped into a crown. After the picture I took this chain apart, so that the flowers could go in the vase. I left all of the flowers on my Mom’s desk for my parents to enjoy.

Vol. 3, No. 167, June 16, 2018

3167 - Marching Madness.

This evening, I attended the Lake Waconia Band Festival. While waiting for the parade to start, I used a flier from the program to create a butterfly card. I didn’t have a scissors, so I just ripped the paper to make the butterfly. Then I decorated it with pen designs and finished it off by adding a head and antenna made from a strip of green plastic from the edge of a Ziploc Bag. I gifted the card to a friend who was at the parade with me.

Vol. 3, No. 166, June 15, 2018

3166 - I Wish It Were Winter.

On our way home from lunch today, with the temperature hovering around 90, Littlest Miller exclaimed “I wish it were winter!” I didn’t agree with her, but I wasn’t appreciating the heat either. I didn’t have any brilliant ideas for my project, so I decided to embrace the heat and head outdoors to celebrate Nature Photography Day. Nature is one of my favorite subjects to photograph, so I was kind of excited for this project. I took Oldest Miller with me as I walked around the house photographing all of the blooming flowers. I used all of the pictures to create a quick collage.

Vol. 3, No. 165, June 14, 2018

3165 - Flags Afloat.

Today I got to help Middle Miller paint his Trimaran Boat for the Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta.  After using a steak knife to saw off the edges of the balsa pontoons, Middle Miller began sanding he pontoons. While he worked, I collected the scraps for my own project. Then we both started painting. We used glossy acrylic enamel, which meant we had to work extra hard to keep the dining room table clean. There wasn’t much in the way of scraps, but I managed to collect enough for a small pinwheel style flower. I glued all of the pieces on the end of popsicle stick, so that it can be stuck in a planter.

I didn’t get to see the race, but as soon as I got home, Middle Miller was happily announced that he came in 4th.

Vol. 3, No. 164, June 13, 2018

3164 - Flying Sharks.

Today's origami project with Middle Miller was a fancy airplane called a  Shark. It does some fancy spins as it flies through the air.

Vol. 3, No. 163, June 12, 2018

3163 - Building Bridges.

Today I officially became a live-in nanny. I was spending 90% of my time with the Millers anyways, so this just made sense. To celebrate the move, I went to bed early...with a migraine. This is not how I planned to spend my evening, I had been planning on doing an origami project with Middle Miller; today was library day and he checked out a new origami book. After lots of drugs, ice packs, and a 3 hour nap, it was 11:30 pm, I was wide awake and I didn’t have a project made yet. I took to the toy room and found a bin of Magna-tiles. I used the tiles to build a house. It was pretty cool, so I didn’t love taking it down when I was finished to put it away. However, I had built it on my headboard, and I didn’t want it to fall down on my head in the middle of the night.

Vol. 3, No. 162, June 11, 2018

3162 - It’s Raining, It’s Pouring.

Today was a stormy, rainy day, which made. It a great day for inside activities like origami. This morning, Middle Miller and I completed the last project in his origami book, a tulip. Unfortunately, the weight of the flower is too heavy for the stem and it won’t stand up, but it’s still cute.

Vol. 3, No. 161, June 10, 2018

3161 - March of the Pen.

Today is National Ballpoint Pen Day. It was also the first parade of the season for the Litchfield Marching Dragons. Two of my not so little Littles are part of the band, so of course I went to watch the parade. I brought along a favorite ballpoint pen and paper. It was actually one of the cool 4-in-1 pens, so I had black, blue, red, and green ink to work with. I decided that I would use my drawing as the back cover for CC’s CD, so everything is based on her. I began with the marching band’s dragon logo. Then moved on to her instruments, the bari saxophone and piano; these didn’t turn out great. Next was the gymnast, followed by the diver; both are wearing the school’s color of green. I ended with a stack of books and a cross. Here I ran out of ideas and CC wasn’t responding to my Snapchat, so I filled in the rest with zentangle patterns.

Vol. 3, No. 160, June 9, 2018

3160 - Footprints.

Today I was invited for some Miller Time breakfast this morning. When we were done eating, I used Baby’s feet to make a footprint butterfly. One footprint was a lot wider than the other. So after it was dry I trimmed both feet to make them match. I add ed a few highlights and used Sharpie to draw in the body. Then I glued the butterfly on to a card and added a cute quote. I used the scraps from trimming to make a small butterfly for the envelope.

Vol. 3, No. 159, June 8, 2018

3159 - Slow and Steady.

I had a great plan for my project today, but I couldn’t do it, because it involved a specific person and plans changed. Instead, I took to Facebook at 10 pm, searching through my saved posts to find something to do. I came across a video showing different ways to fold napkins to look like animals. I didn’t have any napkins available, but I was able to locate some greenish wash clothes. I used three wash clothes to make a turtle. When I was finished I took it outside to photograph it on the lawn. The turtle isn’t quite right because of the thickness of the wash clothes compared to napkins, but it’s still kinda cute.

Vol. 3, No. 158, June 7, 2018

3158 - Summer Vacation.

To kick-off our summer, the Miller Littles and myself went to the public library to sign up for the summer reading program and check-out some books. One of the books that Middle Miller chose was an origami book. Of course whe had to make time to make something from it right waylay today. Middle Miller chose a mini scrapbook. So, while Littlest Miller took a nap I helped the other two to fold their own scrapbooks. The steps were a little confusing for a book titled easy origami, but I was eventually able to figure it out.

Vol. 3, No. 157, June 6, 2018

3157 - School’s Out.

Today I slept in, and then attended the End of the Year Awards Ceremony and Party for HLWW. It was nice to take some time and relax. From there, I went to play practice. When I finally got home a little after 9, the sun was starting to set and it was way to nice to head inside to clean, so I decided to take some time and do my art project. I collected the maple seeds that I had swept off the driveway the other day and arranged them around a rock to make a flower. I used a charred stick from my fire pit to draw details on the center of the flower and the leaves. As I was finishing I decided I should have built the flower on the front sidewalk so that more people (or at least the mailman) could have enjoyed it. Too late now, maybe someone will walk down the alley tomorrow.

Vol. 3, No. 156, June 5, 2018

3156 - Play It Again.

I enjoyed drawing with my students so much yesterday that I decided to to it again today. This time, I drew with Kindergarten. The first few suggestions were for hearts, then a student suggested the school. Being it was my last class on the last day at this school I decided to go with that suggestion. When I googled images of the school, I was reminded that the school doesn't really have a nice main entrance, so I drew the next best thing, the school logo which is on the sign in front.

The drawing was mixed media starting with oil pastel, and then adding the blue and yellow with watercolor and Do-A-Dot Art. As I was cleaning my room at the end of the day, removing the last of my things, I left my artwork on the board for someone else, probably just the custodian, to enjoy.

Vol. 3, No. 155, June 4, 2018

3155 - Mister Sun.

On this, my second to last day of school for the year, I decided to sit down at the free draw table with my last class of first graders. I asked the students at the table what I should draw; one girl suggested a flower. I chose a sunflower, which I colored with oil pastels. The students were particularly impressed with the leaves.

Vol. 3, No. 154, June 3, 2018

3154 - Summertime Blues.

Although I still have 2 full teaching days of school left, my brain is in summer mode. This means that I’ve been enjoying the weather and time with friends, thus forgetting to do my project. When I got home at 10:30 tonight, I scrambled to figure out what to make. I saw my polymer clay still sitting out on the table from when I made the paint pallet and decided to continue my art supply wine charm series. Today, I made a bottle of glue, based off of Elmer’s glue.

Vol. 3, No. 153, June 2, 2018

3153 - Stick Em Up.

I spent a large portion of my day with my project in the back of my mind, trying to find the perfect thing to do. Finally, it hit me, I was going to make handprint art. I was having some Miller Time, which mostly meant that I was hanging with the baby while everyone else cleaned. I couldn’t find any paint, so I went for paper instead. As I was tracing the baby’s hand, Littlest Miller and Middle Miller found me and wanted their hands traced as well. As I cut the hands out, Middle Miller colored in the grass for me, and then he glued on the handprints and drew the beaks. I started to draw the feather details, but had to take a break to feed the baby. During my break, Littlest Miller decided she should write my name on the artwork. She had the R on there, but didn’t know how to spell the rest, so she had to come and ask. Since I hadn’t taken the picture yet, I wasn’t too happy about the new addition. I was able to turn the R into a weird cloud. When I was completely finished, and had the picture taken, I gave the picture back to Littlest Miller to continue decorating however she chose.

Vol. 3, No. 152, June 1, 2018

3152 - Just A Sprinkle.

Today we celebrate National Donut Day. It was another free choice day in my art classes, so as the students were working I made a mixed media picture of my own. I started with a donut stencil and stamped it with Do-A-Dot Art. Then I colored the donut with chalk in shade of brown. Next I moved to oil pastels where I added white icing and rainbow sprinkles. I finished the artwork with a blue watercolor wash background. I inspired many other students to create donuts as well. Some of them were really cool, too bad I didn’t get pictures.

Vol. 3, No. 151, May 31, 2018

3151 - Good Measure.

REFLECTION What is one thing you learned from this experience?

One thing I learned through this sprint is that collaboration and feedback if fun. The more people involved and the more likes I get on my posts, the more I want to create. So today, to celebrate National Smile Day, I took to Facebook and challenged friends and family to share their best smile. I took all of the pictures that were shared to create a collage. It was a time consuming project, but I love how it turned out! Through this project, I also discovered how much I dislike mouths; they are rather disgusting! The photographs covered a wide range of ages all the way from infants to grandparents.