fun with still life

And we're back. Sort of. At a loss one morning as what to do with the chilluns, I remembered still lifes, and how easy they are to set up with anything. And I needed some eggplant anyway. 

                   our gallery of still lifes...

Some of them really got the concept of drawing what they saw, some of them had to be led to water, others... others had major melt downs. But then, that happens everyday. Carry on.

Make-it Monday

Another week of Summer Dreamers drew to a close earlier today - I'm quietly cheering, having stood on concrete block floor four hours straight. Attendance was down today, way down, and several of my more... delightful students were among the missing, making class run a whole lot smoother. We were finishing up our papier machet project, which was going to be a pinata for the chilluns to take home, fill with candy and club to death. Then self said "Be realistic - none of these parents are going to do that for their child." I don't think I'd be terribly excited as a mom if my kid showed up with a pinata from school. Of course, I would be the mom who'd make it with my kids, but that's another story.

So we're making hot air balloons instead! It took me 20 minutes to explain this concept - I'd say:
"We're making hot air balloons with a plastic bottle bottom for the basket, and the papier machet form as the balloon!"
"What's a hot air balloon?"
"It's a vehicle for transportation - a bag made of silk or nylon with a heat source to keep the air in the balloon warm - because hot air rises - with a basket attached for people to ride in."
"How's it work?"
"The heat source makes the air hot in the bag and it rises - no hot air, no rise-y. We're just going to make a model of a hot air balloon - these won't actually work."
"Miss Zara, Miss Zara!"
"Yes?"
"What are we making today?"
*headdesk*

I don't have any pictures from today due to the flour + water + salt = mess all over Miss Zara's hands and clothes and apron. The process is pretty simple though. Blow up a party balloon, start applying strips of newspaper dampened in papier machet solution in an organized manner, making sure the strips overlap each other slightly. More layers = stronger side walls. Allow to dry over night. Decorate in what ever manner you see fit. Since we had problems with children and paint, the coordinator and I decided to get tissue paper and let the kids glue it on the sides instead [yay, modge podge!]. I need to rustle up some pictures of hot air balloons, knowing none of them have likely seen one, especially any that are food related. This is Captain Cook's Clay Kitchen after all.

*These pictures were taken after the event in question

On display at the gallery crawl, we cut off the bottom of
plastic bottles and punched holes in them for the baskets

It's been one of those weeks. Yesterday I discovered my car was broken into, today I locked myself out of the house with out my phone... ugh. I'm trying to come up with something to do with 20 antsy first grade students and I'm at a total loss, despite hours of combing through the internet for ideas. Speaking of antsy, here's something we did last week:

It's the end of a nylon sock filled with sawdust and grass seed. My ninja cyclops monster. The googly eyes came in the kit - yes, kit - and the mask is Sharpie'd on. I'm not exactly at whit's end with these kids, it's more that the projects we were assigned to do don't take the full time period to complete, so you have to come up with something else that won't deplete the small amount of supplies on hand meant for other projects and to top it off, despite our requests to be put in class rooms WITHOUT carpeting... yeah. And the only paint we have is acrylic. Some got spilled on a carpet last week and the janitorial staff flipped out. So no more paint projects, unless we take the kids outside - almost hottest summer on record! - and we can't finish all the kiln fired glazing projects because we're already backlogged. Well, I have to fold laundry, yay! Stay cool out there, love from the Hobbit Hole.

red hots... or nots

If you're anything like me, you have difficulty finishing what you start. Or finding the things you need to finish a project. Locating things I'd say is 90% of my battle. I found a pile of precut purple squares left over from the cross-country purple charm quilt, and the February 2010 issue 102 of American Patchwork & Quilting happened to be sitting out on my bedside table. I don't have a subscription, I buy them as a reward or treat for accomplishing something... which usually happens to coincide with liking what I see on the front cover. Actually a subscription to a quilting magazine would be nice... I digress.

Here's the first on many blocks with the inspiration project. I'm not going to add the Flying Geese. Do I need to be making another top? Eh, no, but it will go by fast. The top bit, I mean, the quilting takes a little longer. Maybe I'll use it for a first time long arm quilting project. Who knows.