Watercolor/colored pencil portraits

Caveman and Ladybug, 5"x 7", watercolor and colored pencil 2014

Felted Rabbit, 5"x 7", watercolor and colored pencil 2014

Watercolor Pet Portraits!

Auntie A was having a birthday! I love her, and she loves her many creatures, so I decided to give her small size watercolor portraits of her menagerie, glorifying each one in 5 x 7 inch detail! 

    Lil' Jim (LJ), 5" x 7" 2013

    Harriet, 5" x 7" 2013

    Felix, 5" x 7" 2013

The Vacuum: A Guest Post Letter!

The Caveman's grandparents gifted him a vacuum for Christmas! Finally, a real power tool expressly for him that the family not only allowed the spawn to use, but actually encouraged such usage! The troglodyte's enthusiasm sparked this letter written by my father to my hyper-cleaning grandmother, Mutti:

Dear Mutti,

There is absolutely no doubt that the "Mutti" gene skipped a generation or two; however, you will be overjoyed this Christmas season to know that this recessive gene has re-emerged in your great grandson, the Caveman. Santa showered him with many gifts on Christmas morning including an awesome drum set. Nevertheless, his favorite gift of all, is this deluxe cordless vacuum cleaner. Casey has had to charge it up three times already and the varnish is being sucked right off of her new wooden floors. Her favorite cat Olaf and her dog Daisy are nowhere to be found. They can't pry the darn thing out of Caveman's hand long enough to feed him. We invited him over to our house this afternoon for Auntie A's birthday party in the hope that he can clean up and vacuum after the celebration. He can't wait. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving!

Genetics can be a powerful and dangerous thing unless properly harnessed. I just thank God that I inherited the bald, weak mind, bad back, but good looking gene from you. What have you done Mutti? Love and Merry Christmas from your favorite son and husband's namesake!

Days of December!

Our December kicked off with the third birthday celebration of a little Caveman! He began his special day with reluctance and a repeated mantra, "I don't want a birthday! I don't want to be three, I want to be small like banana bread!", but he was quick to warm to the idea of a celebration once he realized that this type of annual event is accompanied by gift-giving! He was the proud recipient of several faux tools and a wheelbarrow, but the most special gift of all was a sweet needle-felted white rabbit created especially for him and felted independently with love and determination by the Dreamer! 

It seems that the Dreamer's classroom holiday party followed immediately on the heels of the Caveman's birthday, and for the event, we planned several sweet activities that included mixing hot cocoa jar gifts, caroling, painting salt dough ornaments, and cutting coffee filter snowflakes! 

Next came Christmas, the long anticipated holiday! The kids had whispered their wishes to our resident elf and posted a letter to Santa Claus himself in the North Pole. The house was abuzz with excitement when Santa corresponded with the Dreamer. I am so grateful to the post office for being so considerate to have surprised us with such a magical envelope! 

Christmas morning the spawn was surprised with drums and two female pet rats named Strawberry and Snowy! 

    Strawberry

    Snowy

Meow-velous Gift!

The Dreamer and Caveman were invited to a wonderfully whimsical fairy-themed birthday party of a sweet friend! The party was hands-down the best kids' party that we have been invited to attend. There was a fairy food buffet and fairy tinkering stations for the mixing of magic pixie dust and fairy house/garden decorating. The party was magically fanciful and quietly invigorating by enchanting little minds and imaginations. 

Upon receiving our invite, we knew that we had to create a perfect gift for a kind and delightful little girl...

Sew... 

We sewed a little cosmopolitan fairy cat. 

 

First, we needle felted a head and tail

Second, we sewed a little muslin body and stuffed it with loose batting.

Third, we attached the head and tail to the muslin body by hand stitching and covered our stitching with a layer of felted wool.

Fourth, we decorated the body with tabby stripes, little cat foot pads and claws, and tummy scruff using fabric pens. 

Fifth, we accessorized! We sewed a vest, socks, scarf, fairy skirt, and leather satchel. We crafted spectacles using gold craft wire and decorated a wand and straw cap with elastic and rosettes using a hot glue gun! 

Finally, our socialite feline was complete! 

Burlap Tapestries!

The Dreamer has been sewing little felt creatures and designs onto scraps of burlap for quite some time now. This past weekend, she was happily engaged in such an activity when the Caveman decided that, he, too, was filled with the desire to sew. The thought of a just-shy-of-three-years-old creature sewing seemed to be the perfect set up for an all to familiar scream-tastrophe. I was envisioning my frustrated heathen son deep in the throes of a tantrum with burlap, needles, and various sewing articles strewn about his writhing heap of despair, but we tried it anyway.

I tied one end of the approximately foot long strand of fine cotton yarn to the burlap, and the other end in a square knot around the eye of the tapestry needle. I did one stitch for him, showing him to "pull through, stick the needle in nearby, flip over..." 

I reluctantly released the project over to an eager caveman with a sense of dread building in my stomach, but to my complete surprise, he did it it! He could sew! 

He was so enthralled with the activity, that he silently sat stitching with the occasional drool drip that comes with thorough concentration falling onto his tapestry. 

He even added a yellow flower! 

The moral of the story: I underestimated the little Caveman and his motor skills, and could've easily, in a less patient mood, have completely denied him the chance to try. I am so glad that I did, because he loved sewing his tiny tapestry   just as much as searching for earthworms... 

Needle Felting Spawn!

Fluffy, The White Rabbit

In our home we love quiet busy activities that take up time and engage little fingers and minds, thus limiting the free time that often sparks boredom spats or some version of inevitable bickering sessions concerning someone "footing", spitting, or otherwise pestering the other. we decided on needle-felting as of late due to the rainy weather and overcast spirits, and while the Dreamer and Caveman have long enjoyed felting flat pictoral or colored wool pictures, today was the day for the Dreamer to exert her feelings of maturity and demand to try a three dimensional creature. She asked if I would assist her in creating a rabbit, to which I agreed.

Caveman Creation

Flat Design by Dreamer

Bluebird Flying Over a Rainbow

The Dreamer began by rolling up an oblong shape with white wool and felting it until it was to her desired texture and density.

She next rolled and needled a smaller ovalish shape for the head and a teensy weensy round cottontail, and attached these to the main body.

For the ears, she needled two flattened shapes and then attached them to the sides of her rabbit-in-the-making.

Eyes were next, and the Dreamer smushed some black wool between her fingers prior to felting it to the head.

 

She did the same to create a little pink nose finishing, then beaming with pride at "Fluffy".

 

Happiness can be found by felting flat or in the round, it's as simple as going searching for earthworms...