Yes we are still here...

and yes we are still making stuff!!



Aiden's Not-A-Box

A few weeks ago while we were visiting our library Aiden came across these wonderful books by Antoinette Portis called 'Not a Stick' and 'Not a Box'. Each story is about exciting and imaginative things you can do or make with ordinary objects. Aiden laughed and laughed when we first read them. Here's an animation of his favorite:

The books have also piqued his imagination. So much so that the other day he asked if he could have his own 'not-a-box.'
Well, of course you can, kiddo!!

So I took a box from work and he directed us on how to decorate it.

We painted it red

cut out some spacey sort of shapes

taped them on

and voila

A Rocket Ship Not-A-Box!

He and Polar Bear landed on Toy Planet where they found a huge bucket of cars.
Hope your summer adventures are just as exciting!

~Megan

Graduation

My brother Vinnie is graduating from art school today!! Hooray! I cannot believe I am that old. The kids and I are heading up to the city to attend his ceremony. We are staying until Sunday so probably no post until I get back.

Here is Vinnie and his girlfriend. Sorry Emily it was the recent pic I had.

This is a picture of all three of my little brothers. I love those guys. I am the oldest and the only girl, so I spent a lot of time babysitting. From the left Donnie, Sammy (miss him so much) and Vinnie.

And here we are at a Steve Martin concert. That's my Jason on the far right.

So you might wonder what do you give a super hip guy graduating from The Academy of Art, with a degree on Oil Painting. It's a little intimidating making him anything, because he is a brilliant artist and super creative.

We made...

a wallet out of the kiddos paintings.

I used contact paper to stiffen the paper. I think this would also be a cut Father's Day gift.

Happy Vacation!

Rhiannon

Easter

We spent this Easter weekend trying to make up for missing our family by doing a little crafting and playing. Now that Aiden is starting to pay more attention to holidays, birthdays and traditions in general, I thought it would be fun to introduce him to a few of the things I remember about Easter. Yesterday, we decorated eggs and had a mini hunt around the house.

I also spent the last week or so making some little gifts to put into a basket for him. I started with cereal box notebooks:


I followed this easy tutorial from The Long Thread.

Then, I found Joel's super cool post about fishing and immediately started on that project. Mine turned out pretty cool too, if I do say so myself:
Saturday night Aiden helped me with my first Freezer Paper stencil project.


A Peep T-shirt, inspired by all the awesomeness in Dana's flickr pool.

When Aiden found his basket this morning, though, do you think he wanted to wear his new shirt? Did he want to start fishing? Do you think he started drawing in his homemade notebooks? NOPE! He played with cars. All. Day. Long.


My friend's sweet, sweet son scrounged through his toys and decided to give all the cars and car paraphernalia he doesn't play with anymore to Aiden. I passed them off as gifts from the Easter Bunny, which may have been a big mistake. We'll see next year if he expects as much. :)

Hopefully next year we can spend the weekend with family, enjoying more traditions and each other. Happy Easter all.

~Megan

Simple art display

I can never find enough places to display my kids art work. I love using it in projects around my home. My son recently brought home a couple on new pieces from school. I was not ready to take down what I had already displayed around the house, so I had to find another solution.

We live in the country, so most of our windows do not have curtains. When I was cleaning my kitchen windows last Sunday, it hit me. I grabbed a couple of the thingies (technical term) that you use on the back of a picture frame to attach wire and some string from the craft room.

Tadaa!!! Now I get to look at great works of art every time I do the dishes. Oh yeah I don't do the dishes.

Happy Creating
Rhiannon