Garden Fever

Back in January, I received this lovely package of Garden Bon Bons from my brother and sister in-law.  At the time, I was excited by the prospect of planting them, but I was patient for spring; enjoying our snowy winter.  Fast forward to the eve of April and I am no longer patient for spring and all of it's gardening adventures.  I am anxious to free the yard of the decaying leaves, fallen twigs and branches to expose all the new growth underneath.  I may have started seeds in my kitchen a tad too early, also.  The sunflowers I planted have to make it at least another month before I can even consider planting them outside. 

Seeing how leggy my sunflowers are getting, I made sure to wait a little longer before I placed these little bon bons in their peat pots.  Although they look good enough to eat, they are "candy for planting - not eating!" The bon bons pictured here are seeds rolled in rich compost and clay; then dusted in natural pesticides, like coffee, cinnamon and pepper.  The eight pictured here are part of the culinary basil collection.  Thanks to the thoughtfulness of family, the four types of basil I will be adding to my garden this year are: Italian Leaf, Cinnamon, Thai and Mrs. Burns' Lemon Basil.  As I write this, I am imagining the plates of fresh basil, tomato and mozzarella layered joyously with balsamic vinaigrette or the pesto made possible because of four varieties of basil!  I can smell the the aroma now....

So, is it any wonder that I have garden fever?

Sure, I could go to the grocery store and buy some basil, but I think it tastes better because my hand will have nurtured these plants from start to...well, dinner.  

Unwrapping a gummy bear

Today, he wants to be a paleantologist. Perhaps he will be an engineer, a writer or a candy-maker. Everyday, though, he loves to draw. I really should post more of what my boys create. I really could, too, because I think I've saved everything. Well, maybe not everything. I do not save all work that has been colored from a coloring book. Original stuff only. And, there really is a lot. But, that is probably a discussion for another day.

On one particular weeknight, not so long ago, my son set forth to draw a machine that makes gummy bears. The easel, which also houses a dry-erase board, is located in our dining room and is the place for many an after-dinner drawing, list, or sight word quiz. On this particular evening, and no, David Macaulay was not our dinner guest, gummy bears were "Unwrapped".


In the case of this machine, everybody had a little bit of say in dertermining how this mechanism produced gummy bears. I for one, am a fan of my son's inclusion of the fire (bottom, center) that is creating the energy by which to run this well-oiled machine. There is also a place for leftover gummy product which exits the machinery on the left by way of the orange tubing. And, don't forget that all gummy bears are given a final waxy coating to give them their polish; their shine, which you can see being zapped on in the center above the fire. Finally, every machine needs someone to oversee the successful production of its' product. In this case that person is another gummy bear, as seen seated near the control panel to the left of the fire. It would seem, then, that this is no mere candy-making operation, but in fact a diabolical plan for one candy to clone itself with the hopes of conquering the world market as we know it!

O.K., so I have gotten a bit carried away.

But I swear, when I look at this drawing, I can hear the "glop" as gummy goodness is pressed onto the conveyor, and I can smell that sweet, fruity aroma of warm gummy bears wafting through my house.

Sending Christmas Cards

Here it is just a few days past Halloween, and I'm thinking about Christmas. I'm thinking about my Christmas card and how I never sent one out last year. It was well thought out, nice design and all, but there was that thing called resolution. The card looked great on the computer screen. However, when I printed it out, it was blurry and pixelated. Now, I've been instructed on how to correct this issue more than once. Unfortunately, my brain has decided that it doesn't want to maintain these instructions, and all is forgotten once the project is done. Because of this, when it came time to print my 2009 Christmas cards (4 days before Christmas) and I realized that my technical difficulties were more than what I wanted to stress out over (4 days before Christmas), I decided not to send a card at all. Instead, I think I sent it via email to a small group of friends and family. Since making that decision to forego sending Christmas cards, the wheels have been turning (slowly) as a I have considered (sporatically) how to redeem myself in the wake of last years failed mailing.

At this point I am wondering...should I try going digital once again or opt for one-of-kind handmade?

Either way, I'd better start them now.

The color of your days

We dusted off the tempura paint bottles the other night, a weeknight no less, to appease the muses of two little boys. I relented easily because it has been too long since the boys have painted. I have actually been feeling guilty these past months knowing that we haven't taken out the tempura paint. I've decided not to beat myself up about it, though, considering that my boys have ample opportunities to use a myriad of art materials on any given day. In fact, I sort of view books and art supplies right up there with groceries. So on that particular weeknight, we fed our bodies and then tasted the rainbow with not a Skittle in sight.



I don't really know how the hue of our paints matches up to a rainbow, or a bag of Skittles for that matter, but I think it is safe to say that they come pretty close. Now, with this piece you will see my youngest's interpretation of a cow. There are purple clouds in the blue sky along with one stray orange cloud on the left. There is red hay underlined by green grass. Looking at this piece really makes me think of Dr. Seuss's My Many Colored Days. It is an excellent primer for children regarding expressionism in art without coming off as a tutorial. Seuss equates colors to emotions and matches up these emotions with equally symbolic animals. For example, On bright red days how good it feels to be a horse and kick my heels. As Seuss states, You'd be surprised how many ways I change on Different Colored Days.

My oldest, created three pieces during this painting session. All of his pieces personified objects with the classic smiley face that you see in this rainbow. There are several aspects of this painting that speak to me. First, I appreciate the slight tilt to the overall arc of the rainbow. I probably sound like I am overanalyzing, but the diagonal created helps move the viewer's eye around the picture a little more than if it wasn't there. Another thing I find enjoyable is the arrangement of colors. Red is normally placed first or on top of the rainbow. He reversed that and I like it. Finally, between the brightness of the colors, the way they blend and the big smiley face, the picture evokes complete happiness and innocense. I can see it brightening any day of mine.

And yes, I also probably really like it because my son made it.

But, a key element in talking to children about art is knowing and being able to tell them why you like it, or in my case, why I love it!