Vol. 4, No. 006, January 6, 2019

4006 - Rubbish Rummage.

Last night I was going through my closet, switching my hangers from plastic to velvet. As I did this, I pulled out a couple things that I no longer wanted. One of these was a old stretched out night shirt, that was nearly see-through; I stuck the shirt in a bag to donate. When I woke up this morning and saw today’s prompt, I immediately knew what I was going to do. I cut the night shirt into strips, tying them together to form a ball of string, and then started knitting a scarf. Oldest Miller had asked for a purple scarf, so when I am finished, I will give it to her.

Vol. 4, No. 005, January 5, 2019

4005 - Sensory Stroll.

Today, my family celebrated Christmas, but since it was a beautiful day, it wasn’t difficult to get most of them to agree to go on a walk with me. We enjoyed the crunch of the slushy snow under our feet, and the trickle of water as the melting snow made little streams on the road. When we returned from our walk, Becca and I made this snowman art. Becca collected a sheet of ice from the sidewalk. Then we build a snowman using two balls of snow placed on top and bottom of a circular can we found in the yard. We placed the snowman in front of the bright sun and behind the ice sheet. This created a great shadow effect. The sculpture was under 12 inches in all directions.

Vol. 4, No. 004, January 4, 2019

4004 - ABC Story.

I decided to make my story art related. The background is a picture I snapped of the sunrise on my way to school this morning.

Vol. 4, No. 003, January 3, 2019

4003 - Color Dash.

I asked a friend for a color with out saying what I was doing other than it was for my project; I was given pink. I had been hoping to make this a photo scavenger hunt while at the gymnastics meet tonight. However, as I looked around I found very little pink; what I did find was too far away to moving too fast for me to get a picture of. So I had to resort to plan b yet again. Tonight that meant setting much time for 5 minutes, then going to the toy room at home and gathering pink items. This was pretty easy. I played the items out on a pink sleeping bag to spell out pink.

Vol. 4, No. 002, January 2, 2019

4002 - Thumbs Up.

If I had been thinking ahead, I would have carried around a piece of paper and made finger prints every time I got something new on my fingers. There was a lot on my hands today, yellow paint and charcoal to name a few. Well, I didn’t think of this plan until well after I was home from school. So plan b was to use markers to make my finger prints. It worked out I just took a small paper and filled it with finger prints and then used a pen to make the details.

Vol. 4, No. 001, January 1, 2019

4001 - Word Of The Year.

It's hard to believe that this is the start of my 4th year of my Creative Marathon. I am going to begin this year following the 64 Million Artists January Challenge. Here is the first prompt:

In September, my sister, Becca, shared some exciting news with the family, she is expecting. She gave us permission to share her news, but she didn't make it Social Media official until last night. Therefore, I also waited before doing any projects on the topic. It is with this news that I chose my word of the year 'Aunt'. I am beyond excited to become an aunt and can't wait for April when I can start fighting for baby snuggles.

Vol. 3, No. 365, December 31, 2018

3365 - Happy New Year.

I wasn't feeling very creative today so I took to culinary art. I joined friends at my sister's house for a party. I made Special K Bars, and then assisted my sister in making cheesy garlic bread. I also made a cocktail.

Vol. 3, No. 364, December 30, 2018

3364 - Draw With Me.

I was contemplating doing a year-end review and choosing some of my favorite projects from the year to highlight, but I couldn't decide which to use. Therefore, I was excited when Oldest Miller pulled out a coloring book and crayons. I asked her for a blank page and had her give me instructions to create a picture. We took turns, each of us giving the other instructions while also drawing our own picture. After we had each made 4 pictures, I told her we were finished. She had a blast comparing the two versions of each picture.

Vol. 3, No. 363, December 29, 2018

3363 - Champion.

In 2014, my family, consisting of some cousins, one uncle and some of my siblings, started playing fantasy football. We play for fun rather than money, which makes the trophy more important. I created a mini Lombardi Trophy using clay. The top and front is glazed while the back to panels are painted so that the winners can put their name on it. While I put in all of the work to make the trophy, I have yet to win. The trophy exchange usually occurs at our Christmas celebration. This year, after realizing I didn't have any pictures of the trophy, I took some. I wasn't necessarily going to post it as my project, but then I came down with the stomach flu today and didn't have the energy to do anything new.

Vol. 3, No. 362, December 28, 2018

3362 - Diorama.

When I got home this afternoon, Momma Miller was just gathering the Miller Littles for craft time. Thinking back to her school days when shoebox dioramas were a frequent project format, she decided to have the Littles make their own. I decided this would be a fun way to spend some Miller Time and get my project finished for the day. I decided to make a zoo. I painted the inside of the box blue. I used a toilet paper tube for the tree trunk, attaching green paper for the leaves. I used paper to make everything else. The clouds and sun are hung using fishing line. When I was finished I noticed a Lego man lying near by, so I decided he could be the zookeeper.

Vol. 3, No. 361, December 27, 2018

3361 - Giving In.

Recently, Oldest Miller has been begging me to do a craft project with her. As I was cleaning things up at school to get ready for break, I noticed the CD’s and Marbles set aside to make spinners. I decided this might be something fun for the Miller Littles to do during break. I let them use my large bin of Sharpies to decorate their CD, and then used glitter hot glue to attach the marble. They spin really well for something so simple. As soon as we were finished I left, I don’t know how much playing time they got, but it still gave them something fun to do on a Snowy, Rainy Day.

Vol. 3, No. 360, December 26, 2018

3360 - Family Tradition.

I made Potato Lefse with my grandparents for the first time when I was a teenager. I don’t remember making it frequently, but the whole family loved it when we did. The one time I really remember was when we were making Lefse the winter before Granny died. She wasn’t feeling well, so Papa and I did most of the work. We were using the electric griddle on the marble countertop. The high heat for an extended period of time caused the countertop to crack. After this I started making Lefse on my own, usually recruiting my mom to help.

We didn’t have a great recipe, so we kept trying different ones eventually combining several recipes to make what I called Hansen Lefse. Last year for Christmas, I received a Lefse turning stick and a pastry board, but never used them. After being prodded my uncle to make lefse, I took the leftover mashed potatoes from Christmas and put my new supplies to work. With only potatoes, butter, salt and lots of flour, Mom, Becca and I with a little help from Shawn, made 47 pieces of Lefse. This picture shows the lefse making process from rolling out the dough to placing the cooked lefse on a damp towel to cool.

Vol. 3, No. 359, December 25, 2018

3359 - Christmas Joy.

To show my appreciation of Miller Family, and the endless hours of Miller Time I have been able to enjoy since moving in, I bought the family some gifts. First, in the middle of the night I restocked the plastic baggies, paper towels, and napkins. Then I wrapped 3 gifts for under the tree, one for each Miller Little. The gifts were items for the whole family to enjoy with a note stating that I will do a fun activity alone with each of them. They haven't opened the gifts yet, but I am confident they will like them.

Vol. 3, No. 358, December 24, 2018

3358 - Challenge Accepted.

Tonight after attending Mass, my family gathered at Grandma's house with my Dad's siblings to celebrate Christmas Part 1. We enjoyed a dinner of hor'devores. After dinner we just enjoyed each others company. While visiting some of the cousins started throwing around a balled up napkin. When it missed it's target, I was challenged to turn the napkin into a candy cane or a wreath. I started with the candy cane, but struggled. The wreath was much easier. I rolled the napkin, twisting it into a rope. Then I made a ring and tied it closed with a bow. When I was finished, I hung the wreath on the tree. I left it there to be found when the tree is taken down
 Who knows, maybe it'll appear next year.

Vol. 3, No. 357, December 23, 2018

3357 - Rapping Wrapper.

Today in anticipation of Christmas, in 2 days, I decided to help my parents wrap presents. Okay, I wrapped one present, then decided my dad was better at and had him do all of the wrapping while I focused on the bows. Regardless of who did what, they look great under the blue and silver tree. Because one sister is gone on a trip right now, we aren't actually opening gifts until January 5th, so really the wrapped gifts are just for decoration.

Vol. 3, No. 356, December 22, 2018

3356 - Goodbye.

With only 2 days until Christmas, my elf duties have come to an end. Here are my last 4 Elf on a Shelf activities. We'll start with the bottom right. I pinned Elfie to the bulletin board in a Miller Little room. The challenging part was that the bulletin board was above Oldest Miller's bed and she was asleep in it. Moving clockwise, we have Elfie in a candy cane box. I hid the 12 candy canes around the house for with a note for the kids to find them. Elfie stayed in the box for 2 days as the Miller Littles only found 10 candy canes the first day. Next, I used 2 of the candy canes, some string and a toilet paper tube to make Elfie a swing. I hung it from the rafters in the playroom. Finally we have Snowball Fight, Elfie vs. Barbie. Mini marshmallows and Magnatiles made this one easy.

Vol. 3, No. 355, December 21, 2018

3355 - Field Trip.

In First grade, students learn about prehistoric art, using the cave drawings in Lascaux Cave as inspiration. To introduce the lesson, I turned my smartboard into a cave by wrapping it with brown paper and adding paint and charcoal to give it a rocky texture and some animal drawings. Then I projected a video tour of Lascaux Cave. The kids loved it. I have one more class to introduce the lesson to after Christmas break, so hopefully the tape holds until then. Really the only thing that would have made this cooler is fi I could have made the projection full screen.

Vol. 3, No. 354, December 20, 2018

3354 - I’m Melting.

Last night Elfie used shaving cream to create snowmen of our family. It was a little bit messy, but it turns out that shaving cream is hard to draw with on a vertical surface. Plus, the shaving cream started to fall victim to gravity, so I added the paper towels and tape to save the window sill. I wasn’t sure how well the shaving cream would hold up, so I checked it before I left for work this morning. It looked fine so I left it alone. When I returned home tonight, 26-ish hours after having made the artwork, it looked as if it had melted. As it turns out, shaving cream is not a long term art form. When I appeared on the scene, Elfie was already laying down like that, but everyone was in bed so I have no idea how that came to be. Did someone touch Elfie? I didn’t know, so I just cleaned up the shaving cream and left Elfie where he lay.

Vol. 3, No. 353, December 19, 2018

3353 - Count Down.

Last night Elfie made a paper chain counting down the number of Sleeps until Christmas. In case you weren't sure, it's 6. Oldest Miller was challenged to make a paper chain for school, so Elfie left the supplies for all of the Miller Littles. It turned out to be a good way to pass the time as they all ended up home from school, sick. Fingers crossed that I don't get it.

Vol. 3, No. 352, December 18, 2018

3352 - Thank You.

As we enter the final week of school before Christmas Break, I decided I should begin making thank you notes. To show my appreciation to students (parents) who give me gifts, I made homemade thank you cards. While some of the designs are similar, each is unique. They even have matching envelopes.