And Just Like That; It's Over.

What a loaded title,right?


Of course I could have been talking about how fast Summer seemed to fly by which it did:

We went camping, swimming, and to the park among other things. Most everything on our bucket list was crossed off and a few things were added in that were completely awesome; me being offered a job for instance. 

What's that you say? Yes I was offered a job at the beginning of the summer break right after the Peanut's birthday party. I am currently part of the teaching faculty at Burnaby's Artspace for Children. I teach toddlers and their parents, Preschoolers and school aged children art on Saturday mornings. It is so much fun and so nerve wracking too. Fortunately I have two tester kids to practice my classes on and tweak them accordingly. So far we've painted circles and op-art, drawn a still life and made an autumn leaf collage. You can see some pictures of me in action;  and some of the other amazing classes available at Artspace if you click on this link here
.


 
Also added in was a great night out for me and a friend where I got to go and hear one of my favourite authors read. While I would have liked to get a personalized autograph on my book I made due with a pre-signed copy I might have been waiting until 1AM had we stuck around. And then we were off on our camping trip and then back in time to scramble for the beginning of school. Which leads me to September. September just flew by.

It could have been that the first week is full of the unknown, new teacher, new class and nothing is settled until the second week. It could have been that I began teaching the second weekend and getting each lesson planned and organized takes up a lot of time. It could be that juggling our schedules has just swallowed up a lot of time and it could be that each week something new has started or finished or popped up and when that happens time seems to fly. In any case September is nearly over and I feel like I have whiplash.

How was your summer? What did you do? It's been so long, let's catch up.

Time Sure Flies

Looking over the posts from the last year I notice that I've been posting more and more on regular family things and not on being creative. This last year has been a challenge that way.

Most of our focus has been on the husband's pedal building, music playing and getting into school. Then there were bucket of other family matters. The last time I had a spurt of creativity was around the winter holidays. Until now that is. I'm getting myself busy getting ready for the holiday selling and craft show season. I have felt ready for sewing, birds sculpted and right now, between typing paragraphs (you know, to let the tips if my fingers recover in between) I'm working with wire to make bird feet to go in the sculpted birds.

There are a few things that I've been doing to stay creative this year. One is a daily photograph on Instagram (my instagram name is PeanutButterPie if you're interested in following my stream). I've been trying to incorporate a smallish diary type entry with each photograph and that is getting me to think labels and hashtags too. What I'd like, is to look at these together and see what patterns arise; what images really get me excited and happy and perhaps use them as a spring board for art projects or just to get my brain working.

I've also started to draw and paint again as you can see in the image below, there are a few of my quick watercolour sketches included on my instagram feed. And I'm gearing up for the Peanut's birthday party but this year it will be much more about baking than crafting as she's having a drama party at the ArtSpace for Children instead of a back yard party.

On top of that I've been working on a separate project that I have kept away from here. It's a guerrilla art project that you can read about on the blog; The Paper Heart Project which I've created just for it.

So I may not have been blogging here lately but I've been doing stuff. What have you been up to? anything you're doing that you are excited about? Share in the comments.

this and that again again again

We've been doing laundry dryer free since before December of last year. It sounds like such a long time ago when I put it like that and then I think about it and it is a long time. On sunny days like today it's actually kind of nice, sheets and towels outside on the line is a nice image, even every one's clothes on the line outside is nice. The rest of the time we've been using the multi-tiered drying rack that we got from IKEA but it's slow going. Toss in a few days where the family has been sick and then it feels like we have laundry piles from a year's worth of living.

The Husband is in school now and re-shifting his priorities as he figures out what it is he wants to do.

I'm in the midst of a project that is taking me outside of my comfort zone and also hopefully bringing a happy moment to strangers in my city. On top of that I've challenged myself to submit a piece of art to an art magazine which is giving me something to mull over while I'm playing with the Bean or picking up the Peanut from school.

Add to that trying to get organized for my niece's wedding in less than a month and it's busy around here.

What have you been up to?

Mourning

It's funny you see; not funny ha ha but funny in an odd way because I don't have any connections to the children, teachers and families who lost lives and loved ones on Friday, no physical connections and yet I find myself sobbing at random moments and wiping away stray tears before entering a room where my children are playing. The only thing that links me to last Friday's tragedy is the fact that any one of those beautiful bright eyed children could have been my Peanut. My peanut was a day before, a week after, a month before two months after, six months before, a year after... days, weeks, months a year. I could be in the same position as the mothers in Connecticut who are mourning their babies, their children.

When I posted after my niece' lost her baby after a long stay in hospital I said that I could imagine the pain and the loss and that I knew full well that what I imagined for myself didn't even scratch the surface. And still the pain I imagined was immense; and I had the Peanut who is six and well past infant-hood and the Bean who was and is and was healthy without any trace of genetic disorder or disease.

So I can well imagine what the mothers of those twenty children are feeling, I can put myself in their shoes because what they have lost is so, so very close to what I have safe and sound and boisterously running around my home. I can imagine their pain and it is unspeakable and I know it's not even scratching the surface. So I do what they can no longer do; I hug my girls close and tight, I let them know that they mean the world to me and I pray that no other mama has to feel the pain I am imagining.

Moving Right Along

Signage and Proto-Signage for my table

If you've read my last post you'll know I've been busy with trying to keep the Bean asleep past 4AM, making sure the Peanut is feeling loved and everyone has clean clothes... Oh yeah there's also that art show and sale thing....


All my procrastinating has finally paid off and planning a display and table layout is so far going surprisingly well. There are bugs to work out, like where and how to attach spot lighting, collecting glass jars, vases, bottles or  sourcing some nice ribbon to use for hanging the ornaments as well as fabric and more lights and getting a float together, and looking into possibly getting a card reader for debit and credit cards and so so many other things. The last few years when I was thinking each year, "Next year I'll get it together to do a art/craft sale" and looking at how other people do it and do it successfully was well worth it.

As well as the procrastination worked, finally breaking down and joining Pintrest helped too. Really it made sense after doing search upon search for just about anything and everything and having just about every search end on some one's Pintrest pin. So now I have my own boards and am collecting ideas and images that feed into my need to be creative and to dream and to plan and did you know that Neville Longbottom went and got all dreamy looking after puberty? but I digress. Also I find that my thinking that particular thought a little on the creepy side and still I digress. back to Pintrest. One of my most posted to boards is the one for display ideas.I've used one or two from the plethora of pins I've repinned and the rest were all brainstormed using those other pins as jumping off points.

There's really nothing like doing creative things to get more creative ideas. I've been sewing little felt trees together over the last week or so and some of my best brainstorming comes when I've got busy fingers. So Pintrest and making things together have gotten me into one really productive place. I'm excited for the sale and for getting the rest of the display and packaging together over the next week.

I'd say that I'll post pictures once I've got everything put together but I'm not going to promise anything. I still have so much to do as well as getting the Bean to sleep past 4, keeping the Peanut taken care of and managing piles and piles of laundry. I will post after the show for sure and will post before if I can swing it....

Deep Deep Breaths or There's nothing quite as exhilerating as jumping in with very little prep

Oh boy; so I went and gone and done it.

An assortment of snowflake ornaments

The Peanut's school's PAC sent home a request for items for a silent auction that they hold as a fundraiser every year. Last year the husband and I attended the event for a short hour and a half before heading downtown to see The Watchmen (one of our all time favourite Canadian rock bands) perform at a grey cup party. While we were there, we bought the Peanut's art pieces that she made for the sale and also a few other gifts for family and friends. This year we have no other obligations and are excited to be there all night long.

The Bean's Peacock ornament I made for her last year

I've been playing with the idea of approaching them next year to have a table at the sale. It's well attended and the people who attend are there to spend some money, it's a fund raiser after all and also an amazing place to get holiday shopping done and dealt with. So I thought to get my feet wet I'd dip a toe in and offer a set of three ornaments for their silent auction and perhaps inquire about setting up a table for the following year. They replied with an invitation to set up a table this year and now I'm awash in excitement and panic in equal measure.

This Year's ornaments for the girls; the first of as many
as I can put together over the next few weeks

We have about 60 finished ornaments sitting in boxes that can be sold right away and about 60 more that can be soldered if need be. Is that enough? should I include other things? The Peacocks I created last year? I have 5 of them in various states of finished; read all done to still needing a first coat of paint. The felt trees I've been making this year? I can make about 3 or four a day if I don't embellish them with stitchery and beads.

What do I have on hand to display with? What do I need still? What should I build my banner with? Should I have one? Should I price individually or use signage since all my ornaments are the same price across the board? A Float how much change should I have on hand? Packaging, business cards, mailing list, artist bio..... on top of keeping up with the laundry, feeding the family and making sure the Peanut is picked up from school and the Bean isn't drawing on the couch with permanent marker (true story) and also dealing with her recent habit of getting up at 4, 4:30 and 5AM. I have one pretty full plate.

One of my intentions for this coming year is to take any reasonable opportunity and keep up any momentum that builds so that I keep moving forward. I could have politely declined the offer of the table. I could have stepped back and made plans for next year instead. Instead I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and accepted. I've been reading up on doing shows, I've got a list of display items I'd love to be able to put to use, some that I can only dream of and others that I have on hand and or can put together simply and elegantly (I hope).

So the roller coaster is starting up that first big hill, the trick will be to keep those cars on track after that first hill. Any good advice out there?

Still In Candy Coma-land

We celebrated our seventh Trick Or Treating night this year and once again I managed to keep the costumes pretty close to the home made scale of things. I'm a little bendy in what I'll consider part of a home made costume though. For instance if it's been in the dress up box for more than a year and it was originally part of a bought costume that has been handed down to us I will call it a home made costume. I will also accept the addition of newly purchased components of a costume regardless of what it is. This year both of these were a big part of our costume building.

The Peanut had a dress up party to attend this year and since I didn't want her to give up the surprise of the costume she's picked for the big day we rummaged in the dress up box and came up with a layered witchy, gypsy clown costume. The main dress was part of an old witch costume. It was way too flimsy and kind of boring so I added a pink tulle tutu and also the ribbon tutu that's been in the dress up box since our first Halloween with the Peanut. WE put on her flowered leggings underneath, layered the Bean's baby legs leg warmers, some spotted socks and the orange and black witch hat headband we purchased this year. We finished with some purple glitter face make up and she was ready for the party. I think it worked out pretty well and I think the Peanut looks pretty darn cute.

For the big day the Peanut chose to be a cheetah. We purchased a pair of cheetah ears and a tail when we got the with hat pictured above but the main part of her costume was the face paint and the cheetah print top and cardigan that are a part of her every day wardrobe. We got up a little early to get her face painted and her hair done so that those ears would stay put. A little trick I came up with is to pull a portion of hair over top of the head band and secure it with a barrette directly behind the headband. It holds the ears in place and also hides the headband too.The makeup and headband held up from 6:30am until 8:30pm, or if you'd rather all throughout the school day and up until the end of trick or treating.

Last year for the Bean we used the Monarch Butterfly costume that's been with us since the Peanut was 4 months old. I couldn't get it together enough to put anything more together for her after building bat wings for the Peanut. This year I am pleased to say that the Bean's costume was home made from top to bottom. We put her in a black velveteen dress, purple striped leggings and a little purple shrug. Then to top it off I made a tiny felt witch hat and attached it to a barrette and my little witch was ready to go out and cast some spells on the neighborhood. Except the hat didn't stay put; toddlers eh?

This year was the first time we did Trick or Treating with a friend and it was a big success. The Bean made it to ten houses before she rode in her stroller, and the Peanut finished the night off with a big bag of goodies that we are still working our way through hence the candy coma.

How was your Halloween? Did you build a costume or go store bought and what were you?

Wow

The husband and I finally had a date night two weeks ago.

What did we do? We went to see Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra and it was one of the best live shows I have ever had the fortune of experiencing.

It's not over yet,

Home made popsicles. Fresh picked raspberries
in a popsicle mold covered in fruit juice and frozen
for a special treat on a super hot day.

We're headed into the last week of summer vacation, we have school supplies nearly checked off our list, just tissues, glue sticks and a box of watercolour paints left, well also shoes; but then we are ready and excited about heading into Grade 1.

The Peanut spent this summer participating in the Library's summer reading program, reading books to me as well as vice versa. We've over shot the 50 days of required reading, and in that time we've finished the Hobbit and started on the Harry Potter Series, (me reading to her, currently we are on book 2) as well as a stack of picture books, poetry books, information books and Easy Reader books (The Peanut reading to me, or alternating pages between us). We'll be handing in her reading club form at the end of this week and we'll be keeping on with the reading. It's a lovely way to have some Peanut and me time every day. So with the end of summer looming


I'm determined to squeeze every last second possible out of summer except for those two days of rain they're predicting...

Summer started off a little cool and damp. the Peanut's Birthday party was threatened with rain. Our plans to fill the backyard with boxes and let the kids play with and in them was thrown out the window when the rain continued to fall right up the moment that all our friends arrived. Instead of boxes our friends enjoyed the new back yard swings, the jump rope, hula hoop and sand box. They ate up all of our home made ice cream cake and fresh cut veggies.

Even without the boxes it was a lot of fun and we'll revisit the box idea next summer. Perhaps for the Bean's 1/2 birthday extravaganza. For goody bags I made each child a hand drawn paper doll that looked just like her or him and included a few sheets of clothes for them to decorate and colour. In the rush to get them all done I forgot to photograph the finished dolls but I have plans to make more.

After the birthday party rumpus we hit the Vancouver Jazz festival where the Bean enjoyed roaming free through the crowds, followed closely by either the husband or me. The Peanut enjoyed the music and blew bubbles and crawled over some of the public art in front of the court house.  It's been a few years since we last went to the Jazz Festival. The last time we attempted was the day the wheel axle broke on our car and the trip was aborted in favour of getting the car towed and  calming our nerves.

the addition of a swing set to our back yard has kept both girls busy this summer. The Peanut loves to swing and the Bean has figured out how to get her feet swung around to go down the slide, she requires a little aid to climb the ladder but that's coming (all Gods please help me) The first half of the summer in our back yard was full of sandbox play, Side walk chalk, slip and slide and sprinkler fun. Once the heat set in sprinkler fun was the best way to keep cool without going too far from home using too much energy getting back home after having fun. I loved watching my girls play together and mostly get along.

 

When we did head out; we hit the beach

Visited the wading pool at the playground:

waded in the water feature at the PNE grounds:


 

Hit the playground, where we spent the bulk of some visits trying to contain the Bean, who would try to play in traffic if given the chance:

We managed to check off almost all of our summer Must Do List,  including a back yard camp out complete with s'mores and flashlights. and in between we filled out days with lots of silliness and even a few timeless moments.

Our summer wasn't all fun and happiness. We lost a family member, and are still reeling from that. The Peanut is still trying to wrap her mind around saying good bye to her little cousin and we've had numerous conversations about death and I see more in our future. It's one thing to say good bye to a great Granny who has had a full life and yet another thing to have to say goodbye to a baby who is close in age to your baby sister. We're working on making the idea of death seem (to paraphrase Dumbledore from book one:) like another great adventure. Something that should not be frightening because everyone does it, hopefully after living a life full of love and adventures.

So anyway, I've not posted even a fraction of what we've done this summer. I may post more pictures later or I might not. Life flies by on you and my next post might just be full of first day of school things or perhaps a look into what I started on my birthday and am so excited about that I'm itching to get back to it every day...

How did you spend your summer vacation? Did you do anything extraordinary or was it a summer just like a summer should be?