Vol. 5, No. 163-170, December 28, 2020

You probably noticed, this year, I have been really bad at posting work. The truth is, I wasn't enjoying writing the blogs, so I would put off posting. Therefore I decided that next year, I am only going to post to Instagram and let it do the automatic post to Facebook. That way, I only have to post once. If you want to know about my project, you will have to ask.

Before I "give up", I am going to post all of the projects that I have missed.

5163 - Squash Soup.

I was helping to make squash soup and got to run the immersion blender. When it is held at just the right height, it creates a fun woven star design.

5164 -  Quilted.

In mid-November, my mom, sister and I finally finished the baby quilt that we had started nearly 2 years ago. It was a gift for my niece. It turned out pretty well considering it was out first actual quilt.

5165 - Mixed Media Self-Portrait 12/12/09.

In college, I took a drawing class; one of the assignments was to create a self-portrait. It is labeled as mixed media, although I am not sure what I used; I am guessing chalk, colored pencil, and paint.  After the class, I filed away the project in a tube. As I was going through art supplies recently, I came across the drawing. I unrolled it thinking I would look at it quick and then put it back in storage. Unfortunately, I noticed mold spots on the paper. I decided the best course of action was to photograph it and then dispose of the artwork. 

5166 - Giving Thanks.

Thanksgiving looked a little different this year. Rather than gathering with my dad's family like we normally would, it was only my immediate family in attendance. We still had a full dinner including homemade bread and pies. We arranged this picture showing our "bounty", to share with my dad's siblings as they were all sharing pictures of their own feasts.

5167 - COVID Cardinal.

At school, we are trying to keep our curriculum the same as much as possible, while still following COVID guidelines set out by the state. Sometimes this means changing how we do certain projects and we have found that some of these changes are good and we intend to keep them. One such happy change was the addition of a cardinal to Kindergarten Paper Mache Ornaments. In the past students have been able to choose between a reindeer, a snowman, or a penguin. All three ornaments were cute, but the penguin required two colors of paint and either two brushes or water to wash the brush. I didn't want to deal with the extra setup, so I changed the project. Our school's mascot is a cardinal, so I knew that would be a great winter bird option. I love how they turned out and will be keeping cardinals next year.

5168 - Snow Globe.

The ornament project that I did with my Transitional Kindergarten class last year required a lot of prep work and it wasn't really COVID guideline friendly. Therefore, I wrote a new lesson plan, deciding on paper snow globes. Using Epsom salt "frozen" paint, we iced the background. Next we added finger print characters and decorated with markers. The plan didn't go quite how I had intended, but most of them stilled turned out cute.

5169 - Cake Construction.

It's hard to believe, but ten days ago, one of my favorite littles turned 3! I did lots of research to find the perfect cake. He is in to trucks of all kinds, so I decided to make a construction themed cake. I made a Double Chocolate Banana Cake (he loves bananas) topped with chocolate ganache and crushed Oreos. A bit of powdered peanut butter helped to create the three in the middle. The cake was finished off with some Milk Dud rocks and little toy trucks.

5170 - Quarantine.

Due to close contact, I got to spend some time in quarantine. While it may sound like a paid vacation, it's really not that fun; especially for a teacher. I still had lesson plans to prepare. I decided to use a lesson I had initially done during distance learning last spring; Guided Drawing Cardinals. As the school mascot, I figured a cardinal was something that students could benefit from knowing how to draw. I made two examples showing different backgrounds that could be added.

Vol. 5, No. 152, October 17, 2020

5152 - Creative Sprint Day 17.

At first I thought I would make a Picasso style portrait. Then Becca sent me a picture of a sculpture my niece had created while playing in the kitchen. As soon as I saw it I knew there had to be a way to make it into a collaborative self-portrait. I rotated the image,cut out the background and added some dinnerware emojis to create this portrait. The final portrait is inspired by the work of Giuseppe Archimboldo.

Vol. 5, No. 151, October 16, 2020

5151 - Creative Sprint Day 16.

This stacked rock monument was a collaboration between me and my friend H. H carried the rocks to me while I stacked them. He wasn't really a fan of this game and as soon as I got some stacked he wanted to knock them down. I tried multiple times, 4 rocks was as high as I could get today.

I dedicate this monument to everyone who works behind the scenes in theater. Theater crews come in all shapes and sizes and rely on each other to create stability for both the cast and crew. Theatre crew is often a thankless job and we put in way more hours than anyone knows. Just like the rocks when a show is over, we collapse.

Vol. 5, No. 147, October 12, 2020

5147 - Creative Sprint Day 12.

We the people of Annandale Elementary School collaborated to create a Drip Mural inspired by the work of Contemporary artist Jen Stark.

My part of this mural was small. I taught about the artist to my 4 classes of first graders and hung 5 classes worth of drips. A shout out to my co-worker who prepared the lesson and hung the rest of the drips. It is so fun listening to the kids walking down the hall talking about their drip and the artist.

Vol. 5, No. 141, October 6, 2020

5141 - Creative Sprint Day 6.

This project was a large collaborative effort. The okra (green pickle looking pieces) were made by a friend for a show a few years ago. The three main courses were made by Margo and a student added the garnish. I located the materials, gave directions for completion and added some of the coloring.

These pieces were made using sheets of foam and Sharpie. The garnish is fake greenery.

Vol. 5, No. 139, October 4, 2020

5139 - Creative Sprint Day 4.

I took a walk this morning with my family, but they didn't want to stop to make art, so I made my project later at home. With Lil E's help, I created this pinecone collage. We built it in the middle of the sidewalk, so it didn't last long. However the pinecones were tons of fun to play with later.

Vol. 5, No. 138, October 3, 2020

5018 - Creative Sprint Day 3.

I chose high schoolers and paint; you might ask why those don't go together. Well, sure some high schoolers and paint would be a normal occurrence, it gets less normal when you have 10-15 high schoolers with varying abilities painting set pieces. However that is what I was working with today. This is a picture of a bathtub. I can't take credit for the construction or the painting, however, I was the person behind the work, choosing colors and ensuring it was properly finished. Well properly is a loosely used term. It was finished, but when the paint was not dry to the touch after nearly 2 hours, I went to investigate. I found globs of paint pooled in random areas and drips running down. In this picture, which was taken at least 5 hours after the paint application, you can clearly see the unevenness of the paint application. It just goes to show that high schoolers and paint don't always go well together. 

Vol. 5, No. 133, August 28, 2020

5133 - Vacation Collaboration.

I was lucky enough to get an invite for a weekend away with CC and CAT. On the way up to Grandma's, CC let CAT and me use her iPad to draw. I suggested an elephant. CAT sketched it out and did the initial coloring. Then I went in and did the final shading.

Vol. 5, No. 132, August 24, 2020

5132 - S'more Birthdays.

Today we celebrated Oldest Miller's birthday. It was a fun day; we went to the splash pad, had a picnic lunch, pizza dinner, a sunset date at the lake and of course cake. 

The cake was made by Oldest Miller and me. She chose a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. She wanted it to be like the "garbage" cake that I made last year, so we stuffed the layers with M&Ms and sprinkles. The cake box suggested a S'mores cake. Oldest Miller really liked that idea and I happened to have supplies on hand. We stuck Graham crackers on the side, poured melted frosting over the top amd then decorated with Hershey's Kisses, mini marshmallows, Graham cracker crumbs and of course sprinkles. We all joked that it was too pretty to eat, but we ate it anyways.

Vol. 5, No. 131, August 23, 2020

5131 - Rocky Travels.

While visiting Arizona to move Philip, Lil E and I went on a walk, exploring Philip's apartment complex. While we walked she picked up rocks. I kept one rock with the intention of painting it as a keepsake for Lil E. Today I finally made time to paint it. The other rocks in the top picture were painted by Becca and E.

Vol. 5, No. 130, August 22, 2020

5130 - Chalked Together.

One of Lil' E's favorite things right now is playing with chalk. When we were outside today, we drew together. She would draw a line and I copied it; creating this symmetrical design. 

Vol. 5, No. 129, August 10, 2020

5129 - Hiatus.

I needed a posting/arting break. Today I decided to get back into it. This week I get to hang out with H. Part of my job is to help with school work. I was so excited when I saw that part of his assignment was to create a ripped paper collage an ice cream cone. He caught on really quickly, so as he worked, I did too. Here are our completed cones side by side.

Vol. 5, No. 128, July 23, 2020

5128 - One More.

Today I celebrate the fourth birthday of the week as L is turning 1! With the assistance of CC and Littlest Miller, I made a Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake with a pink Lemon Glaze. It smelt heavenly; I can't wait to try it!

Vol. 5, No. 127, July 19, 2020

5127 - Another Year Older.

I spent my 32nd birthday relaxing with my family. We started off with Dad cooking eggs and bacon for breakfast.  Then we played some games, including virtual Kodenames with the sibs who couldn't join us in person. Everyone worked together to make dinner of salmon and quinoa. Margo and I collaborated to make Mint Julep Cupcakes for dessert. We rounded out the evening with a sunset walk amd stargazing to find the NEOWISE comet.

Vol. 5, No. 126, July 16, 2020

5126 - If At First.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. This was my mantra while making friendship bracelets with the Miller Littles and CC this afternoon. CC taught us how to make a patterned bracelet and I really struggled to get started. I finally got it figured only to have a string snap about halfway through.  That was the values of pink. Then I finished two more the pink and orange bracelet was started by Oldest Miller and the one with blue was started by CC. When stating the favorite part of our day during dinner, we all 3 mentioned making bracelets.

Vol. 5, No. 125, July 15, 2020

5125 - Stuck In The Mud.

I took a little hiatus from posting, but while doing so, I kept thinking I should be doing something creative. I just didn't know what, so I didn't do anything. Tomorrow is H's birthday. He likes to play in the dirt, so I thought worms in the dirt cupcakes would be very fitting. CC came over to help me bake. I love how they turned out! Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting dipped in crushed oreos, sprinkled with maggots aka white sprinkles, and garnished with a gummy worm. You may be wondering why I am posting them prior to the birthday. My reasoning is that today is National Gummy Worm Day.

Vol. 5, No. 122, July 2, 2020

5122 - Garage Needed.

While waiting for an appointment with P, he decided we should build a garage for the Duplo car. It may not be grand, but P was proud of it. My favorite part is the tree.

Vol. 5, No. 121, July 1, 2020

5121 - Playing Possum.

Today I was hanging out with P. I decided that we were going to do some Nature Art. He wasn't super into it, but he did help me gather supplies, including clumps of grass clippings and sticks. At first I thought we'd make a turtle, but when it was finished I thought it's head made it look more like a possum or muskrat or some similar rodent. I dislike rodents enough that I wasn't going to Google it to figure out what type of rodent I was actually thinking of, but I knew that it should have a long skinny tail. One eye was made from a hole in the wood; the other is two rocks stacked together.

Vol. 5, No. 117, June 27, 2020

5117 - Fish Food.

Margo pulled out fish for dinner, but didn't have any plans on how to prepare it. So I pulled out the recipes. I found one that was suppose to be made with shrimp and  just made substitutions and additions. The final plate was roasted scallion and garlic scape rice topped with slightly warmed lemon and basil marinated zucchini, carrots, and garlic scapes, fried tilapia, and drizzled with lemon butter. The only complaint anyone had was that it had too much lemon; I disagree.

Vol. 5, No. 109, June 19, 2020

5109 - Fresh Baked.

In planning for vacation next week, I made some quick breads for breakfast. With H's help, I baked banana bread, chocolate chip zucchini bread, and rhubarb cinnamon strudel bread.