Vol. 5, No. 049, February 24, 2020

5049 - Bathroom Backtrack.

After just one day back at work, my Miller Manicure was chopped pretty badly. So I decided to take action. When I got home from work, I headed to the bathroom to find my nail polish and got to work sprucing up my nails. With blue tips, a coat of shimmer and some hearts, I am hoping this manicure will last a little longer. In case you were unsure, it is challenging to to paint the nails on your own dominant hand.

Vol. 5, No. 048, February 24, 2020

5048 - Night Blind.

My go to artwork is Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. Today I drew Starry Night as a Blind Contour Drawing and colored it with oil pastel. I substituted hearts for the stars and moo .

Vol. 5, No. 047, February 23, 2020

5047 - Go Bananas.

Today we celebrate National Banana Bread Day. Since I had a fridge full (almost literally) of over ripe bananas, I decided today would be a good day to make some banana bread. I broke a couple rules. First I raised the oven temperature. Second, to get a heart into my art, I cut the loaf of bread in half, used a cookie cutter to make the heart, and then put the loaf back together. I ate the portion of the bread that was covered in chocolate.

Vol. 5, No. 046, February 22, 2020

5046 - Work Wanted.

The first thing Oldest miller said to me when I walked through the door was, "what's today's project?" She had also gotten nail polish for Christmas. So today she "opened" her nail salon and painted my nails to match my shirt. It was neat that she had the exact right colors. I added the bear with a red hat to match. 

Vol. 5, No. 045, February 22, 2020

5045 - Bath Time.

Yesterday Oldest Miller asked what my project was for the day. She wanted to help, so I told her the prompt. She knew right away what the project was going to be, bath bombs. Who doesn't think of bath bombs when they take a bath? Oldest Miller had gotten a bath bomb kit for Christmas and has been begging me since then to do it with her. It was late last night, so I promised her that I would come back today to make bath bombs with her. That's exactly what we did. It was fun to have a little one on one time. We only made one bath bomb today, but that means we can make more later.

Vol. 5, No. 044, February 20, 2020

5044 - Decadent Delight.

I made dinner tonight, Margo made dessert. She made homemade chocolate pudding. I served it up, with layers of raspberries and whipped cream.

Vol. 5, No. 043, February 18, 2020

5043 - Found Fun.

As my Kinders explored texture, I wanted to make a new game for them. As I looked around my supply room, I found some sturdy cardboard tubes that I cut into 1 inch sections. I lined each section of tube with a different textured object. I used fabric, wall paper, a rubber ball, velcro, plastic wrap, sandpaper, ribbon, and much more. I can't wait to actually use these texture tubes in class.

Vol. 5, No. 042, February 17, 2020

5042 - Lost Inhibitions.

I lost my inhibition to make art yesterday, so I back tracked a bit. Today I was in charge of supper and I made fish tacos. As I set the pan of fish in the table Margo asked if the heart shape of the fish was intentional. It wasn't, but I rolled with it, making a beautiful taco.

Vol. 5, No. 041, February 16, 2020

5041 - Stew Face.

We had beef stew with dumplings for dinner today. I cut my dumplings into hearts and rearranged the meat and veggies to create a face.

Vol. 5, No. 040, February 15, 2020

5040 - Heart Hands.

Yesterday when I was collecting hearts, Becca sent a heart made from hers and Nates hands. When I saw today's prompt I decided to collect hand hearts. This collection didn't go as well. Contributors included Becca and Nate, CC and CAT and Margo and Myself.

Vol. 5, No. 039, February 14, 2020

5039 - Helping Hearts.

With Margo's help, I would bring back hearts as my souvenir. As she was making Valentine's Truffles, she suggested that I collect hearts from people so I reached out. Thanks to Becca, Nate, Eleanor, Mom, Aiden, Oldest Miller, Margo for your help.

Vol. 5, No. 038, February 13, 2020

5038 - Earworm.

As soon as I read the prompt I knew what song I was using. My Kinders are learning about texture right now. They seem to learn well when using songs, so I searched for one about texture. I found Sound Garden's The Texture Song. After the first week of listening to it two times a day, I went home and couldn't fall asleep, because the song was stuck on repeat in my head.

The project that goes with the song is a textured castle. Students draw a castle and then use texture plates when coloring their picture. This picture is my example, so I am slowly coloring it with each class.

You may ask, where's the heart? There are small hearts on the Queen's crown.

Vol. 5, No. 037, February 12, 2020

5037 - Food For Thought.

Today I collaborated with the Miller Littles. Each us used a different tin of Thinking Putty to recreate our favorite foods. Littlest Miller made a stack of pancakes with syrup amd peanut butter. I thought her stack looked slightly heart shaped. I made an ice cream cone. Oldest Miller made blue spaghetti. Middle Miller attempted to make an oce cream cone, but we all agreed it actually looked like a pepper.

Vol. 5, No. 036, February 10, 2020

5036 - Pouring Pink.

My two favorite colors are pink and green. As I was digging through my work bag, looking for something else, I came across a paper that I had smashed pink and orange oil pastels on. In honor of NATIONAL umbrella Day, I cut a mostly pink section into an umbrella shape. I laid the umbrella on a green blanket for the picture.

Vol. 5, No. 035, February 9, 2020

5035 - Heart Marks The Spot.

I was in charge of dinner tonight; I made a childhood favorite Baked Fish From Turning Island. To complete my project, I cut an onion slice into a heart. I buried the inner part of the heart in the sauce and then marked the spot with a paprika heart. I made the paprika heart using the outer onion heart as a stencil. I spread a little more paprika on the outer heart and laid in near by for decoration.

Vol. 5, No. 034, February 8, 2020

5034 - Kites.


To celebrate National Kite Flying Day, I attended the 2nd Annual Kite Festival in Buffalo, MN. When I got there, I stopped and spent some time just taking in the scene. I saw kites of all shapes and sizes. When I got home, I used the left over finger paint to draw a kite in the snow. The paint was a little chunky after sitting for so long, so it was challenging to paint with. I had the paint in ziplock bags and was piping it out; the chunks kept getting stuck. It turned out pretty cute anyways.

Vol. 5, No. 033, February 7, 2020

5033 - Astronomy.

I love all things stars/starry night. I made this mixed media heart mostly with crayons. The black background has two layers of marker with a sprinkle of chalk dust on top. I love how it turned out. My only regret is that I left it behind instead of keeping it.

Vol. 5, No. 032, February 6, 2020

5032 - Vacation.

I don't know if it is necessarily my dream vacation, but I am definitely excited. I was invited to attend the Miller Family vacation in Mexico! I will finally get to use my passport! My project was cobbled together using project demonstrations from my Kindergarten and First grade classes. The "white sandy beach and ocean" was made using texture rubbings for Kindergarten centers. The turtle was my first grade demo. I had been planning on a student being gone so I didn't prep any extra clay for myself. When everyone was there I turned to plan B, playdough. As I was getting everything ready to post, I realized there wasn't a heart, so I added one in post.

Vol. 5, No. 031, February 5, 2020

5031 - Admire.

Creative Sprint Prompt: Pay tribute to the person you admired most when you were young.

One person I admire is my mom. To pay tribute to her I decorated a turtle for her during my first grade clay demonstration. I included two hearts in the design.

Vol. 5, No. 030, February 4, 2020

5030 - Upside Down.

Today's Creative Sprint prompt: What do you discover when you look at the world upside down?

I didn't get very creative. Here is my upside down heart made using tickets I got tonight at CC's last gymnastics meet.

Vol. 5, No. 029, February 3, 2020

5029 - I Know It’s True.

Today’s Creative Sprint prompt is “Finish this statement: One thing I know to be true...”

One thing I know to be true is that today is National Carrot Cake Day. While I like carrot cake, I wouldn’t normally have gone out and made a cake just to celebrate a random national day. However, yesterday I was asked to make Daddy Miller. He was over heard telling the Miller Littles that he didn’t think he was going to get carrot cake for his birthday, which is tomorrow. Momma Miller asked if I could help her out. She said the cake didn’t need to be ready for his actual birthday, but baking today is what worked into my schedule for the week.

I make the cake heart-shaped to fulfill my 29 days of hearts challenge.

Vol. 5, No. 028, February 2, 2020

5028 - Fortune.

At nearly 40 degrees, the weather was beautiful today. Plus the groundhog predicted an early spring, so my fortune reads "feel it in your heart, spring is coming." I put the words on top of one of my paintings for yesterday. This painting was made using string. If you look closely, the top of each flower looks slightly heart shaped and the “veins” within each flower makes it look like a real heart.

Vol. 5, No. 027, February 1, 2020

5027 - Childish.

I didn't complete the entire January Challenge, but I felt okay with that. The stress-free creating was great! This month I will be following the February Creative Sprint. Today's prompt is "do something only children typically do." I decided to fingerpaint. Eleanor was over, so I made homemade edible fingerpaint. The paint was made from sugar, cornstarch and water. It was a sticky gelatinous mess. Eleanor, Becca and I worked together to paint some papers. Once they were dry, I cut paper heart chains. The hearts are in celebration of American Heat Month and Congenital Heart Defect Awareness.