Cottage & Family:
LIFE

I was inspired today by Rebecca at A Gathering of Thoughts to recover a lampshade ~

That has always been something that I have wanted to do but really never knew how to approach it ~

Her tutorial is super easy to follow ~

This is how mine turned out and it was so much fun ! Thank you Rebecca !

Today I was looking through some vintage ephemera that I have and found this wonderful fashion magazine ~

This is a scan of one of several pages from a magazine called Delineator that I have ~

It makes me smile because I would just love to wear the clothes that they wore ~ The magazine is from 1898 ~

These are pictures of bathing suits ~ It talks about how it is not made of wool because when wool is wet it "clings in a most unsightly way to the figure" ~ Can you even imagine wearing this swimming let alone in wool ~

There is another paragraph that says to wear a bonnet because that way "the summer suns cannot seek out the pretty, delicate skin and leave their imprint of tan or freckles upon it. The dweller in the country home - the city maid as well as her village sister - who would preserve her complexion in its pink - white purity " ~

Oh my goodness ! I just am having the most fun reading from these pages from the late 1800's in fashion ~

I will be posting some more pages for you to copy off soon ~

I don't know how to make them clickable so you can make them larger to copy so if anyone knows how please let me know ~

I was all inspired this afternoon and have a gazillion projects all over the house and none of them are complete ~ Right in the middle of my gazillion projects I decided to read blog updates and saw Diane Knott's mini file folder tutorial ~

I just had to make one right then ~ then I remembered reading on Lisa's blog about the cute little bubble thingies ( it is not a tutorial but as cute as can be ) so I had to do those while I was at it ~

Ummmm that is pretty much how my brain works ~ It is always going all over the place and at one time ~ Isn't that how right brained people are ??? I tell myself that at least ~

I bought this wayyyy cute paper at Anthologies and wanted to use it so bad so I did ~ I did my first mini file folder upside down ~ HMMMMM there goes one piece of paper down the tubes ~

Then I used the other piece to make my other file folder and the magnets ~ I cannot wait to make more because they were easy as can be ( well after I figured out how to make them not upside down ) and fun too !

I am off with my hubby taking some time to sink our toes in the sand ~

Pure Bliss!

My son in law, James took this picture ~ he rocks at photography!!!

We would love to have you come visit our blog page where we hang out everyday!

We are going to have a different special every day
this week!!

Check our website daily!!

This is the first one ~
They will change every
evening and last through
the next day ~

I am so excited to announce
my husband's new ebook,
"10 Tips for Improving
Your Photography Today"

If you sign up for his
newsletter it is free!

Click on the ebook to sign up today ~

My hubby is a landscape and
portrait photographer;
his passion is teaching
others how to improve their
photography. Take a second
and check out his website ~

Lots of love,
Kristin

We love the farmhouse look
of vintage enamelware ~
Since Christmas is right
around the corner, we
thought we would show you
an easy decorating idea
using enamelware for the holidays ~

All the fun things we found
at the flea market ~

First, we drilled holes in the
bottom of a bucket ~

Then added soil from our garden ~

And planted holiday plants such
as rosemary which we can use in
our Christmas cooking ~

The finished project is an easy,
colorful addition to your
vintage decorating ~

We have lots of enamelware
on sale here so you can create
your own farmhouse decor ~

We are so grateful to Artful Blogging
for featuring us in their Summer issue ~

Check out our article on what
inspires creativity on our blog ~

We greatly appreciate all of our
followers and our fellow bloggers
for their support and inspiration!

We are working on a series
of video tutorials, so keep a look out!

UGHHHH !!!

It came to my attention yesterday

that my blog came up with

a warning of malware ~

Apparently it was NOT dangerous

for my blog or yours if you

had my link but

was flagged by google as suspicious~

It was caused by a counter that

I had on my blog that has been removed ~

This is the current status from

Google who was tracking and flagging

the malware ~

"Status of the latest badware review for this site: A review for this site has finished. The site was found CLEAN. The badware warnings from web search are being removed. Please note that it can take some time for this change to propagate."

I apologize because I know

this can be scary because it was for me!

Hi! Lesson plans and pictures from todays workshop on creative collages will be posted up on this blog tomorrow when I get back home from the aenj conference!

I am away for a couple

days antiquing while my

girls and their hubbies are

hanging at our house trying to stay

cool~

NJ DOE workshop

Every year in NJ we have a big education convention sponsored by our teacher's union. We all receive two days off from school to travel to scenic Atlantic City! This year was my first year attending. I got to attend a few interesting workshops, got a massage at a fancy hotel, saw some Chihuly chandeliers, won $9.95 in the penny slot machines, ate an overpriced Italian meal (during which one of my coworkers accidentally pored olive oil into her hot tea thinking it was honey), and saw a beautiful display of student art work. Enjoy the pics!

My second grade students have been working quite fastidiously on these festive toucans, and finally they are complete! First the students learned a little about toucans and sketched one using a black crayon on a 12x 18 in piece of white tag board. We then worked carefully to paint the background a shade a blue. After the backgrounds were dry, the students painted the bodies of the toucans black and white. I then demonstrated how to use water soluble oil pastels to create colorful beaks. Finally students used the funky paper we created a few weeks ago to create flowers, leaves and any other details the students wished to add. Overall, I think these came out fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!

This year I attended and presented at the 2010 AENJ conference. I always have such a great time! The convention is a wonderful opportunity to "recharge" my teaching batteries and get some great new ideas from the fabulous art teachers in our crazy state.

Here are some pictures I snapped of the cool projects I saw.

Recycled Robot---Used scraps of cardboard boxes and other recycled items to make a robot collage

Hamburger Assemblage- I have seen this one on the Internet before-- students help themselves to a fixins' bar and stack up the layers!

Spooky pictures-- Silhouettes with googly eyes, a quick and easy project!

Gargoyles- This was my favorite project! Students created a gargoyle head out of model magic and painted it with watered down grey tempera. Then they drew the gargoyle body and created a wall for the gargoyle to sit on.

For the past week, every day has been what I dubbed "funky paper day"! I gave to kids a variety of paints and tools to created beautiful painted paper that can be used for the rest of the year in collages and various projects. Each student made two pieces of funky paper, so I am sure I will have lots and lots to last for awhile! 

Batik Pouches

Materials: White cotton fabric cut into approx 6 x 16 in strips, masking tape, white oil pastels, liquid water colors, drawing paper, 12x18 in construction paper, needles and thread or sewing machine, model magic.

Preparation: Tape the white fabric onto a piece of construction paper to make it easier for the students to draw their designs. The paper will also act as a blotter when they are painting.

Day 1: We begin this project by discussing different types of lines, and patterns. Students are asked to sketch 2 different patterns using lines only. The most interesting design is selected and transferred onto the white fabric using the oil pastels. Students should make their lines large--- small lines or complicated lines are difficult to draw with oil pastel.

Day 2: Students use liquid watercolors to paint their fabric strips. Encourage the students to create a pattern using color. Leave no white spots.

Day 3: Students can sew the bags by hand, or you can assist them with the sewing machine. If sewing by hand, they can use the attached paper to help the students with sewing stitches.

Day 4: Students will create small objects to put in their bags. Discuss symbols, and have students sketch small objects to symbolize them. Give each student a small ball of model magic to create their objects with. Paint the object with watercolor or liquid watercolor and place inside of special pouches.

This is my latest project--- now currently residing in my dining room, by hopefully making its way back to school! For the past year I have been planning to do a large scale Chihuly projects. Last year I collected hundreds and hundreds of soda and water bottles (so many that my art room began resembling a recycling center or landfill). Initially I was planning on using them to create swirls to fasten together to make a Chihuly inspired chandelier. But recently I saw a awesome project on Mr E's art blog for a funky Chihuly chandelier and I knew this was just what my hundreds of bottles were destined for! I followed his wonderful instructions, and threw in a few swirly cut up bottles in a well for a little extra funk. My chandelier (which was created by 1st and 2nd grade students), has a framework of a tomato cage wrapped in chicken wire. The tissue paper wrapped bottles are fastened onto the frame with strong wire.

One of my favorite pastimes is surfing the web for ideas to incorporate into my art teaching repetoire. It is great to see ideas from other artists and teachers. This year I have found two ideas that I will be using at the beginning of the year:

Really cool rainbow mural

and

Fun paper sculpture for Kindergarten

I will also be trying some Chihuly style sculptures that I saw on

Chihuly Art lesson repository

I hope you have some fun surfing the web for new art ideas too!!!

This project was one of my weirder projects--- sometimes I wonder where I come up with things!! I was inspired by some beautiful "slices" of quartz agate.

I purchased a ton of agate slices and handed them out to the kids. I asked the students to study and examine the color and tone of the rings in the agate. I gave them two large pieces of paper (18x24) and a piece of tin foil. First, students cut the large papers into a blob shape (cut both at the same time) and flipped one over. Students cut a blob shape out of the foil and pasted one to each of the amulet sides. Next they painted concentric rings around the tin foil blobs (some students painted vertical stripes, or started off with two tin foil blobs). We then stapled the two halves together and stuffed them with paper. Students added beads and strings to the bottom of their masterpiece.

My second grade students created these paintings last year for our annual art show. They were a huge hit with the parents! They took quite a while to complete, but were totally worth it. I found that breaking the project into small steps made they come out nicely.

First students chose an animal to create. I gave them tons of reference materials to choose from, and some students created imaginary animals. They sketched their animal onto a piece of tag board. We then spent a period painting the the fur/skin of the animal. I demonstrated how to paint an out line around the edge and then fill in the fur . Once their animals were dry, the students selected a blue, green, or purple tone of paint to the background. Some students had to do several coats of paint to the background. Lastly students used glittery paper to add vegetation. We worked on overlapping stems and leaves that wouldn't totally obscure the animal we worked so hard on.

I would definitely do this project again, as the came out so nicely!