mosaic

Part of the reason I haven't been posting or writing here is that in early May, I had a miscarriage at twelve weeks. It was a very physical process and I was not up for doing much. But one weekend, while I was still bleeding and sad, I decided to finally do something about this stupid wall in my backyard.

That is my garage. Behind that wall is my husband's workshop. He is a woodworker for fun, and he creates amazing things in there. Actually, part of the reason I wanted to work on that wall was because he was building this.

From scratch. It has a tin roof, and is going to have some swings eventually. We moved our big comfty wicker chairs out there with the fire pit and it is so cozy, but that wall...egads.

So, I designed a mosaic. I have never made a mosaic on a wall before, mind you, but I wanted a project. I laid out some glass I had from our stepping stone projects ( I cannot remember if I posted about those last year. Perhaps on SLWC.) I bought some extra glass. This is what it looked like laid out:

 

I wanted to incorporate water, earth, sun, and air. 

Here is how it developed on the wall all day.

Found that picture. Glad I broke down and moved the bench out to the garden. My back was aching.

This is the temporary final. I ran out of green and blue and besides this is nine hours of work. I plan on expanding it to the entire wall, but for now, the four elements and healing through art. Whenever I bury myself in artwork, I feel better. 

sun catcher

I bought kite paper a while ago. And by a while ago, I mean three years ago. I still have the one book I bought. It lasts a hella long time for our family, and incredibly useful. Think tissue paper that isn't able to be poked through. Right? That's awesome.

So for summer vacation, we created some kite sun catchers for the windows.

There is no special trick for these. I think they are self-explanatory.

You take two pieces of card stock, or one piece folded in half, depending on the size of whatever you are making.

We made some kites before summer vacation. So, we drew a diamond, cut out the middle. Then we glued kite paper in differing cuts and shapes to the inside of the bottom sheet. (Think of it as opening a hotdog bun. Flip the top over next to the bottom sheet. We put glue stick on the bottom black paper. You can use any adhesive--scrapbook tape, modge podge, whatevs. Using glue on the kite paper where the sun will shine through will also make the glue shine through, just a little FYI.

Then you put glue on the top flipped over piece of card stock, flip it back over and place it on top of the bottom sheet. For these kites, I also cut some ribbon for the tail.

For summer solstice, we decided to create a sun and moon combination. This is it's temporary home.

I do think these suncatchers look cooler in person. *sigh*

picture pages

I've been totally MIA on this blog. I'm so sorry. I've been crafting, arting and doing all kinds of luxurious things, but just not blogging about it. One change is that I have set up an Etsy site again that is strictly my artwork. It is called angie y. studios. I will be expanding the work in there, but for now there are some mizuko jizo, some meditating mamas, some of my element and labyrinth prints and even a tarot reading. (I love giving readings! Tell me if it is too expensive.) I realize the common theme of my artwork is the sacred and grasping for the Divine. So, hopefully, that is coming through the artwork. If there is anything you want to see for sale, or think should be for sale, in there, let me know. I have many many greeting cards for sale in there, because I find them incredibly useful. But I think they might be too expensive? I don't know. It is hard to know what to charge. The blank cards cost me 1.50/card. I am also wondering if anyone is interested in an ATC swap. Not sure the theme, but sure would be cool.

ANYWAY, summer is here. Beezus' last day of pre-k was on the 15th. YAY, SCHOOL'S OUT!

I love having Beezus home. Lazy days of artwork and swimming. Popsicles and bathing suits all day long. My mother-in-law has been visiting, so everything has been slightly off schedule. Not in a bad way, just that we aren't in those long dog days of summer yet. We have been going out most days. We had a mini-heat wave last week, which kept us inside. We colored a lot. I love crayons and coloring. I have the tendency to shy away from coloring books, as a rule. I think a blank sheet of paper is a wonderful thing. But answering the questions, "What should I draw, Mama?" all coloring time is annoying too. So, I have a few coloring books. My favorite one, by far, is Taro Gomi's Doodle All Year. In fact, this year, I decided I was going to buy myself one and one for Beezus, so we each have a book to color. And we can color the same thing.

As I was thinking about this future buying spree, I thought about how much Bea loves for me to draw her pictures to color. So, I drew some and she colored them.

I draw pictures of her brother and Bea. Beezus swinging. Beezus baking. Anything they do, I draw. With crayon. On white paper. Then hand it off, and they color them. At Lakeshore, they sell little blank books. I bought a few for Beezus, because she is really into writing books right now. I think they are 1.59 a piece, or something like that. I grabbed one last week and made a coloring book.

None of these pictures are perfect. I made a ton of mistakes drawing, but Beezus LOVED it, because it is all about her. There are something like sixteen spreads. I drew scenes from our life, things they love to do, from summer to autumn to winter.

I basically drew these while the kids were coloring. It took me a week to make the book. Obviously, I wasn't dedicating time to it. Just doing it to color with the kids. Now they have their own coloring book. As you can see, Beezus started coloring it immediately, before I took pictures. The picture pages are great too, because you can do one-offs, copy them, and pull them out anytime you need a coloring page. Kids love to color the same picture over and over again. Or you can draw them as they are coloring and ask them to invent scenes with you. That is how the cupcake one came to be.

I like Beezus' choice to make her and her brother yellow, eating green cupcakes. Yuck.

Hope this gave you some ideas. Many of my drawings are terrible, but my children just love them. Remember that. And all of my drawings are simply fatter stick drawings. Remember that too.