Little Artist

I have always said that my children need to be involved in something outside of school.  I think that it helps keep them busy and out of trouble.  It also gives them a sense of belonging.  My oldest daughter has tried a lot of different things.  She's done dance, horseback riding, and cheer.  My youngest has also tried several things, but had never really found anything she liked until recently. 

She has always loved drawing and is pretty good at it.  A friend of mine told me about an art school called The Artist Within.  Her son was taking classes there and really enjoyed it, so we went to check it out. 


Right away I knew Addison would like it!  Everywhere you looked there were paints, paintbrushes, and pencils.  

I was ready to jump in and start painting just seeing all of this artistic goodness!


The owner/teacher, Tom, is great!  Addison, being my anxious kid, felt right at home.  She has been going now for two months and she has already finished 4 paintings.  I love to see the progression of her artwork.  

Here she is working on her coral snake.  She was inspired by my friend's corn snake, Maisy!

The class that she is in is two hours long and they even provide a snack for the kids! :)  

Spider Man watches from on top of the book shelf!  He's pretty cool!


Here are the paintings Addison has done so far....

This one is my favorite!  


The Artist Within is located in Cypress on Grant Road.  If your child loves to draw, I would definitely encourage you to check it out!  Tom even has a $20.00 one time try-it class!  He also has classes for adults.  I plan on giving that a try in the near future!

Postcard Penpals

When I was in elementary school, my father worked with a man from Australia.  He also had a daughter about my age named Kathy.  I was always an avid writer, whether in my diary or letters to friends, so my dad thought it would be great if I started corresponding with Kathy.  He was right!  It was so cool writing to a girl in Australia.  She would tell me about Sydney and when she said Mum instead of Mom, I thought that was so cool!  We even sent each other gifts.  She sent me a Koala Bear pin and Kangaroo keychain.  I sent her a large armadillo stuffed animal.

These days people don't really use snail mail that much and pen pals are almost extinct.  At least that is what I thought until I saw my friend's blog about Postcrossing.  It is the coolest thing ever!  You can check out the link at http://www.postcrossing.com/

I signed us up and Addison, my ten year old, was very excited.  We got our first few names and went to Walmart to get some Texas postcards.  So far we have sent 3.  1 to Poland, 1 to Russia, and 1 to China.  We have also received our first postcard from Toronto, Canada.

How cool is that!?  Addison was so excited about getting mail, especially from another country!  We put her first postcard on her bulletin board and are eagerly awaiting the next one.  I am excited to see her collection grow.  We also checked out the city on the internet to learn more about where the postcard came from.  This postcard traveled 2095 km and took 12 days to reach us!

Let me know if you start postcrossing!  I would love to here about it!

Make something pretty

With working all summer and trying to get in some fun family time, I have not had a chance to art journal in awhile.  I am the type of person that has to be doing something all of the time and it is during the Spring and Summer that I am constantly going.  When the dust settles and the kids get back into the routine of school I tend to get down.  I go from 60 to 0 and it leaves me feeling a little empty.  A wise friend once told me that Fall and Winter was God's way of telling his children to rest and I have to agree.  Rest to me doesn't necessarily mean not doing anything.  It just means don't do as much and do things that feed your soul.  So, I sat down at my craft table Saturday and decided to journal.  I grabbed my water soluble crayons and some magazines.  I turned my thinking brain off and just started putting down color.  I then took some of my magazines and cut out images that drew my attention.  I didn't think about where things should go or what I wanted the page to look like.  I just slapped stuff on that made me feel happy inside.  About an hour and a half later I had this:

I actually like it a lot.  I mean it's not the best thing I have ever done, but it makes me smile and that is why I love to art journal.  It doesn't matter if others like it or if it even makes sense.  It feeds that creative side of me.
So, if you are feeling worn down or just blah, grab some crayons, paper, and glue and go make something pretty.  I promise you will feel so much better!