It's beginning to look a lot like...

My boys decided today ~ September 24 ~ that we must have a Halloween party ~
and we must begin preparing ~ NOW!

So, we spent hours in the studio today, painting grave stones, skeletons, pumpkins and...
well, I painted Frankie (in 7 minutes). I most love their skeletons, though!

skeleton painted by my 7 year old :)

skeleton and pumpkins painted by my 5 year old :)


Frankenstein ~ a 7 minute speed painting of the spooky green man himself. My boys said to please paint him "sorta realistic, but not too scary".

I think these new creations, Halloween party or not, will have to become staple decorations around our house every Fall.


Skeletons, spirits and haunts,
Skeletons, spirits and haunts.
It's a Halloween sale: A nickel a pail
For skeletons, spirits and haunts.
Skeletons, spirits and haunts,
More than most anyone wants.
Will you pay for a shock,
'Cause we're quite overstocked
On skeletons, spirits and haunts.
~Shel Silverstein~



Have a wonderful weekend,
let us not forget to take the time to soak in those happy little spirits ~
and the excitement that surrounds them.
Love & Sincerely, Katie

Free Cards Winner ~ A School of Fish... at school!

My stepfather is a devoted and creative teacher at Yacolt Primary School in Yacolt, Washington. I went to school there, in the tiny town where my friends and I rode bikes to buy ice cream ~ and played in the woods ceaselessly. Some of my favorite memories revolve around that tiny town...

From my stepfather's creative impulses, in 2007, sprung a student-made mural ~ a fail-proof way for children to incorporate their art into their school, without the chaos of 60 children huddled around a mural with brushes and cups of paint... scary.

The children at Yacolt Primary School watch salmon grow in an indoor aquarium ~ a science lesson ~ and an inspiration to create a true school of salmon ~ cascading over the walls of the communal area between the classrooms ~ the "pod".

Throughout my life, those close have redeemed the value of having artists in the family ~ my three siblings and I have all followed an artistic path ~ and we have been blessed with many opportunities to use our art to please and entertain while helping those we love.

(Yacolt Primary still utilizes a big wooden "Choices" wheel that I painted... urk! too many years ago to count!) Believe it or not it hangs in the main entrance of the school, and while it facilitates children in coming up with a good choice for how to deal with conflict, it brought back many memories for me ~ struggling with paint and skin tones, when I was just a young gun. Seriously, despite the threads of embarrassment, I'm honored to see it hanging there.

Earlier this year, my 5-year old and I painted one of the many wooden salmon that my stepfather jigged with his saw, as a donation for the school ~ a little piece of us that we could set free onto the walls of the pod ~ a bit of me that can live in my past forever. You can see our painted fish here.

Last week my brother (and great friend and painter ~ in from Sweden!) Kevin Conrad and I had the opportunity to oversee and facilitate with my stepfather as the 20 chosen 2011 Fourth Graders painted and completed their salmon.

Kevin painted a fish, too (above).

My little boys (my littlest shows his newest creation, above) came along and wowed with their ability to sit and quietly paint for 2 1/2 hours (I wasn't surprised, only proud) ~ my littlest one felt proud enough to walk his fish around a bit, showing the older children.


Watching these 9 & 10 year old kids paint and finding inspiration in their freedom and lack of baggage was wonderful. Encouraging them and finding tiny teachable moments within the moments of paint and markers on wood was heart-warming. Many of them have such potential and I relish the fact that so many of them realize their potential ~ with confidence and spark. I sent off silent hopes for them to remain in grasp of this confidence and creativity. And encouraged a few to keep going and keep drawing ~ to not let others "scare" it out of them.

In truth, that is one of my biggest and only fears for public schooling ~ at least at our top notch school ~ is that creativity, intuition and spark might be less than honored and nurtured.


The finished fish were great ~ and they soon joined (within a few days) their friends painted by students-past within the great school of fish ~ on the walls of the pod.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Free Cards Winner for last week is Rose! Thanks for playing!

Have a great week,

Love & Sincerely, Katie

Free Cards Friday ~ Native American Masks with Preschoolers

My friend Kerri taught me how to make the coolest paperboard masks ~ we created 24 of them a few months ago to create Native American masks with our sons' First Grade Class.

My little son's pre-school teacher recently wondered if I'd like to do some painting with her class. Upon asking my 5 year old (who has attended all of the art classes where I've worked with his big brother's classes for 2 school years) which project we should do with HIS friends at pre-school ~ he chose mask painting. This project took place on Tuesday of this week.

The paperboard mask ~ easily created from a cereal box. Such a blank canvas!

I buffed up on my knowledge the morning of the lesson ~ and the more I learned and saw, the more excited I got. This pre-school class contains the sweetest little group of children. I was positively jubilant by the time I sat down with the little ones.

We talked very simply about who the Native Americans were and how they worked with the materials they had in their lives ~ no place to buy paint! So they made it with berries, minerals, leaves, spit and such. :) Their paint brushes were created with animal hair and other natural materials.

We gave the children three paint brushes, one for each color, and discussed how the sample masks I showed didn't utilize paint blending and mixing ~ rather blocks of rich, pure color next to each other.

This is my little darling ;)

We talked very simply about the meaning of the animal figures chosen to create crafts and totems. The Bear referring to protection, strength and sky; the wolf meaning love, gentleness and teacher; Mountain Lion inferring smarts, strength, freedom, power and confidence. I created a mountain lion for each of them because I admire the confidence and freedom of 5 year olds :)

We talked very simply about how Native Americans told stories through dance and ceremony ~ using masks and costumes.

I think the kids were proud, in the end. They focused on adding color to their masks for almost a half hour.

We talked about the meaning of colors, such as green meaning summer and earth, rain and plants; Blue referring to sky, female, moon and sadness; Red inferring anger, war, blood and the sunset.

This was completely fun. While the teacher washed the brushes in the bathroom, I got to read to the kids in circle time. Such a joy. I even had moments on the drive home that I might want to go back to teaching in a pre-school... yah, never mind :)

It's Free Cards Friday ~ Add your note or insight to this blog post (here at the blog or on the Facebook page) throughout the weekend and be in the running to win some cards ~ I'll choose the winner on Monday.

Love & Sincerely ~ Katie

Free Cards Winner ~ Flower Jewelry

A week ago, at the park, my four year old had an idea that inspired and excited him ~ jewelry made from flowers!

So, we spent a wonderful morning creating... and I thought it might be fun to share the projects they were so proud of.

I wore my purple bracelet the rest of the day til it wilted right off my arm :)

The Free Cards Winner for last week is Serena, thanks for playing!

Thank you to everyone who came and supported me at the English Estate Winery Art & Wine Fair last weekend in Vancouver Washington - I was thrilled with the turnout of friends.

Before too long I will be posting some images from the show.

Have a wonderful day!

Love & Sincerely, Katie

Free Cards Friday ~ 17 Children with Paints (in my garage) - Oh My!

A group of myself and 6 additional mothers from our elementary school have decided to keep in touch and keep our children inspired this summer with some pre-planned activity days.

It took an hour for 7 mothers to agree on 4 dates when we were all free throughout the summer!

Our activity dates include Art, Nature (The Shape of Our Land), Building (The Shape of Our Cities) & Food Science.

The first event chosen by me (Art of course!) was yesterday afternoon - in my garage - and I had the honor of leading all 17 of our children (age 2- grade 3) through types of printing, using paint, paper and cardboard and a variety of different textured things.

We talked about Monoprints and Relief Prints and then jumped in and got messy. I'm honored to share with you some of the lovely artworks they created.

Thank you to our Kmoms group for coming and sharing time, paint and textured things... and for the results of some uniquely creative and inspiring artwork, happy messy kids and blue shoe prints all over my garage floor...

This activity held the attention of 95% of them for almost an hour, the clean-up took close to two :)

(my little beautifuls)

textured wallpaper makes a great printing plate!

Enjoy!

It's Free Cards Friday! Comment on THIS blog post (here at the blog or on the Facebook page) throughout the weekend and be in the running to win some cards ~ I'll choose the winner on Monday.

Have a great Friday,

Love & Sincerely ~ Katie

Holiday Centerpieces with Toddlers!

We went to The Uncommon Gift ~ such an inspirational shop in Camas, WA ~ where my little one's eyes lit on some pretty candy centerpieces that Carrie, the owner, had created.

On our way to the grocery store, it was all he could talk about. He bounced around in glee while we picked out our supplies.

We picked brother up at school and while I put groceries away he proceeded to open each and every type of candy and spread them all around in piles! They then created to their hearts' content and here is the result.

Voila! Lovely and sweet (literally) child-made centerpieces!

I've already threatened them about sneaking pieces throughout the holiday season - we are a pretty much candy-free home, so these were utterly delightful to make and sample!

Happy inspirational days to you! I MUST go vacuum now!

Love & Sincerely, Katie