honored

My oldest daughter's 4th grade class took me by surprise the other day. Last week was the end of school (yes, I'm a little late with this post), and like most of you, it's a scramble with teacher gifts, class parties, and deciding what to do with the massive amounts of projects that come home in that last week! Well, in the midst of the chaos, Pumpkin's class put together something pretty special for their volunteer Art Docent (aka: me).


They made watercolor pictures that incorporated their initials and tied it together to make a book. They also gave me pretty flowers and a few chocolate bars that are long gone. :)


I was totally blown away. Their such a thoughtful group of kids and they got so much pleasure out of watching someone receive something they had made. It truly was an honored moment for me.



The kids and I had fun working on gifts for their teachers, too! We decided to make reading caddies for their teachers. The girls made theirs completely on their own and I made the one for Worker's preschool teacher (unfortunately I forgot to take a photo!)




I also had fun making a tangy tomatillo salsa. Hubby was pretty excited that it hadn't all been given away!



Lastly, there were group gifts from the class to their teacher. I wasn't sure whether I would be able to pull all this together and was quite doubtful up to the last minute. Being the art docent for my daughters' classrooms, I have an opportunity to have the kids create something as a group that would be near impossible outside of school. Given that, I decided to make my final lessons of the year into something we could give to their teachers in appreciation.

For Sunshine's class, the kids made watercolor apples which I mounted on mat board and framed.





For Pumpkin's class, the kids watercolored small squares of paper with their names already on them and then, when dry, wrote something encouraging to their teacher. I decoupaged a small box and labeled it the Encouragement Box.





It was very fun doing all these projects, however, I discovered that all my normal downtime (you know, 5-10 min. sitting time, max!) was being taken up by these other activities. They were very fulfilling activities, but I definitely needed a break! And as my husband noted, what's going to happen next year? (I think I'm beginning to get a reputation at school - good or bad??)

pondering questions

I've been a little introspective lately, asking myself lots of questions I cannot always answer. Like, 'Why do I keep a blog?' Is it for connection with others? Is it for the comments? Am I focusing too much on the amount of traffic I receive, or don't receive? Why should that even matter? Then I remind myself that the whole reason I started this blog was merely to document my creative process. I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of posting my various projects - no matter how small. I think I've gotten a bit intimidated, though, when I look at other blogs and see how much they have going on - giveaways, contests, parties, etc. I also remind myself how much work it takes to maintain a blog like that and I'm just not there right now. I'm not sure if I ever will be there. I'm a pretty reserved person and it was even a stretch to start this blog in the first place. I considered deleting it a dozen times! So I now am choosing to stop worrying about being 'popular' (that just adds too much unwanted pressure anyway), hold my chin higher than I have been, just relax and enjoy all the creativity God has given me - which includes a lot that I haven't discovered yet (I hope)!

So, onward, friends!


I've decided to put the shelf giveaway on hold (Sarah understands, that's what friends do) and give it a try another time when I feel the time is right.

In the meantime....here's a neat watercolor that reminds me of Worker!


No, I didn't paint it. The illustrator is Jon J. Muth who is absolutely amazing. This is from the book A Family of Poems, compiled by Caroline Kennedy. I get simultaneously inspired and challenged at the same time. It's been so busy lately with the end of school next Thursday, I haven't been in my studio AT ALL and I can hardly wait to get some protected time in there!

And let me clarify that just because I don't want the amount of traffic or comments to govern my blog, I WOULD enjoy connecting with others and hearing comments, ideas, etc. - just like our dog Tenna (Golden Retriever) really enjoyed her new buddy Zeus!

gifts for the kids

I almost forgot to mention the planned crafty activity during my trip to Lake Tahoe last weekend. We made bracelets, so I made two for the girls. I don't usually get into beadery, but it was a lot of fun!

Then I realized that my boy would not be that interested in a bracelet (well, maybe he would for about two minutes), so I had better think of something to bring back for him! Shopping was not something I wanted to do that day, so as I took a walk, I started collecting some rocks! I found all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes. He was very excited about my finds.