As I enter that part of the 3rd trimester where I’m excited/anxious to meet this baby and see my ankles again… my lovely Mister Mister and daughter have started to talk about the joys of even more children. And pregnancies.

Oh my.

I remembered I had a set of unfinished wooden peg dolls of various shapes and sizes stored away and… under piles of yarn and wool… I found them. One by one we painted them up, and created one really big family.

My daughter helped in each detail of the design, and had me needle felt a big orange bonfire, surrounded by stones, for them to stand next to. In a circle, on her (now very very crowded) spring nature table.

I’m so pleased with how they turned out, and hope they fit the bill. At least for the forseeable future.

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This is a really sweet art activity we do around here, aptly dubbed “hand, color, hands”.

It’s a great way to document the (sweet) size of your childrens’ hands. It also helps with color theory and working with different art media at the same time. And it’s a rainbow at the end.

We use a large piece of watercolor paper.  My daughter chooses the colors and hand placement, and I act as a sous-chef, tracing around her hands on the paper. One by one.

Sometimes she decides to add crayon drawing to each hand, again matching up the colors.

When she’s ready, we get out the watercolor paints. Matching up crayons with watercolors, she paints over her crayon-drawn hands. It’s fabulous to watch how the paint will stubbornly not adhere to the lines drawn in the wax.

What are your favorite fall art activities?

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{this moment} inspired by Soulemama – A Friday ritual of a photo  capturing a moment from the week.  If you’re inspired to do the same, please leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

P.S. BIG GIVEAWAY TOMORROW!

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We have a new room at the back of our 100 year old house. Well, it’s actually a very old room – so old it used to be a framed place used as a summer kitchen so as not to heat the rest of the house. We finally renovated it this summer, and now we (finally) have a table to eat at. A place devoted to eating and spending time together around the table. The floor is camel colored Marmoelum (eco, non toxic and very durable stuff), and we painted the brick wall (that used to be the exposed, exterior wall of the house once upon a time) white. We are working on a big wall of art, and in the meantime, wanted something to give us a jolt of color.

Our little one has loved vegetable stamping for quite some time. So I cut up some rectangles of thin white muslin material, and we got to work.

We used cut up onions, potatoes and apples – though a red pepper would have been lovely (but we didn’t have any around).

The bright Tempera paints applied beautifully to the muslin.

It started to look very pop art.

And after we let the stamped muslin fabric pieces dry, we sewed them onto a pink ribbon, and finished the bunting.

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I know, I know – it’s unfair to put “fudge” in the title and then show you potato painting. But they are both foods, I guess, and we made them on the same day, and they both were incredibly (did I say incredibly?) fun.

So before I tackle the potatoes, I’ll show you the fudge.

It’s raw, devoid of any processed sugar and unbelievable. Oh, and simple. 4 ingredients, 1 bowl, and you keep in the fridge. Perhaps with a teaspoon tucked right on the plate for little nibbles. Or big ones.

Recipe for Amazing Raw Fudge

In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup of virgin coconut oil (ours was already at room temperature as it was a hot day, but you can always warm yours in the oven for a bit if you need to soften it), 1/2 cup of maple syrup (I suppose you might use brown rice syrup or honey if maple syrup is unavailable but I haven’t tried it with either of those) and 1/2 cup of cocoa powder (we use Green and Black’s). And 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Mix well and pour out onto a dish or plate, keeping it about 1″ thick.

If it lasts you more than a day, I’ll be impressed.

So for the potato stamping, I took 1 potato and cut it into slices, then used the end of my knife to carve some basic shapes.

And then I used my (old, old school) grapefruit spoon, the same one I used growing up, and it was even easier than a knife.

We used non toxic Tempra paints – lovely and thick, and some watercolor paper.

And when she wanted to change colors, I just sliced off a bit and we had a brand new, clean potato surface.

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We have a very tall, very skinny house. Huge windows where we have them, and dark places in between (there are not too many overhead lights in our 100 year old plaster-walled abode).

And we’ve been doing a huge amount of art these days, especially watercolors and collages.

My daughter loves to trace around her little hands with wax crayons in a rainbow of colors, then paint over and around them with coordinating watercolors. It’s a beautiful way to document her sweet hands in their current mini state, a learning game to match up the colors, and artistic fun with the layering of wax and paint.

Recently, I took a look at our (very) long & dark downstairs hallway, and realized that the perfect pieces to brighten it up were all around us.

I put two pushpins into the (delicate) plaster walls, hung some string, and our gallery was begun.

So I started thinking about other walls of art…

{yes, those are post it notes}

via weburbanist

Below, a photo from the child-created murals installed along 7 blocks on the National Mall in 2008-9. Marine life artist and conservationist and painter Robert Wyland’s project looks amazing. children from 205 countries helped him paint these huge canvases. In the midst of this ecological ocean disaster, committing to protecting and celebrating our oceans seems more important than ever.}

photo via Flickr

I dream of having a vertical, living wall of plants in my home some day. Here is a wall of succulents from Flora Grubb, in San Francisco.

photo via Flickr

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Inside our home.

Peeking out of the earth outside our home. Led to these finds!

crocheted organic beads (12) by ThreeBlueBee

wet felted fantasy crown in purple and red by vitalakim

twilight pendant earrings, vintage glass and sterling silver by PoleStar

sunset on snow, original abstract painting by Furiousdreams

handknit stuffed animal kitty cat, purple plushie by Woolies

quilt – King’s amethyst wreath by btaylorquilts

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