Wings for Illustration Friday

I am a person who is continually fascinated by birds, but I chose to paint a person for this week's theme: "Wings". And as far as being creative every day the last week, I can say I practiced Russian, created a new recipe, made a terrarium garden with my daughter, went "boating" in the pool with the kids, built a model earth out of clay, sketched and painted for this illustration. This is good to look back on when I think life has become dreary. Which moments are bigger and better? The ones where I pull out the same pot for pasta, or the nights where Popcorn Rock crystals and little paper birds fill the kitchen table at dinnertime?

Rock candy and a solar oven

It's fun to have a place to gather the projects the kids and I have been working on. We've tried making rock candy before and it didn't work so well. This time, we made two colors, one on a stick and the other on string. Success! For the solar oven, we happened to find a warm, sunny day at the end of an unusual freezing spell and were able to melt chocolate on graham crackers. Next time cookies! We're just dreaming of what we can do in the summer...

Ocean for Illustration Friday

For Creative Every Day I've been tossing around the theme of "Dark", which has always been very difficult for me. Love the challenge. Here's one idea: the entrance to a mine, only it doesn't seem very dark.

Bubblology and flamenco dancing

My challenge to be creative every day in 2013 has not been difficult, but I'm trying to make sure it's varied. This past week involved sketching, prayer doodling, creating a plate of nachos with leftovers, decorating cookies to look like my daughter's new necklace, paleontology, bubblology, and flamenco dancing with a macaw. I wish I had a video of that last one, but maybe that's a project for another day. The sketch was for Illustration Friday's theme "Edge" but never advanced past notebook paper. Today's fun was building a hover craft with my kids using an old CD. It got the cat's attention!

Snow!

This weekend was full of playing with my kids, making snow angels, taking pictures, collecting icicles, and hunting animal tracks in the snow. The two hour drive home also gave me some time to think about a picture I want to work on this week. And I suppose if I were to stretch it, I had to be creative in straining the loose tea we bought into plastic cups in a hotel room.

CED2013

The last two days I've worked on a collage and took some pictures. Probably most fun is a project I've been meaning to do with/for my kids for a long time. Mini scene viewer. Our own sort of view master with miniatures inside. Got started on it at least and they were very impressed, calling it a Fairy's fairy house. The idea is to make a little scene and hold it up to your eyes as binoculars and look inside. Windows on the top let light through.

Painted cookies

Received these cookie cutters for Christmas and today was the day to play!

Happy New Year!

A little fire and water to welcome the new year. Boy child saw "fire dancers" in the flickering light. Girl child watched the reflections on the water. Mama studied the smoke swirling with jacuzzi steam. Papa enjoyed not seeing.