Abiding in the True Vine

Before Edmund’s arrival on Thursday, we had regular Art Night on Wednesday. Using Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun by Carla Sonheim, we explored color. First, we watered down red, blue and yellow watercolor. Then we made swipes with the colors. And then we had to find an animal in the swipes and bring it out with our pens and charcoal.

Eleanor found a person instead of an animal in her first colors.

Lydia’s snail.

There is a hummingbird in there. And a snake.

Joey’s rabbit. (He was a much more cooperative “student” this week.)

I’m sensing a rabbit and snake theme here.

Yep. A whole litter of rabbits.

Is Harriet finding a rabbit, too?

Levi’s first colors revealed an elephant.

This guy from the ‘hood wandered in a drew a fish.

Amelia’s cat.

Clara’s second piece was a peacock, not a rabbit.

Margaret’s lion was her second work.

Her first was this dragon who is still undergoing his transformation.

I’m not sure what this is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a rabbit.

Fun times, as always.

There have been some festive moments this past week, starting off with Charlotte’s birthday. Right off the bat, she lost her first top tooth.

We immediately moved on to mom’s house for a Hello Kitty-packed birthday party (of which, Clara has a plethora of much better photos, so you’ll just have to trust me on the amazing amount of Hello Kitty items). The party also included a surprise. We made Charlotte close her eyes while we wheeled it in.

She was a little happy.

(And here is where I totally fall down in documenting the party. I have no photos of the actual fabulous surprise: a bike, complete with punture-proof tires from her brothers and handle-bar streamers from Eleanor. This is THE gift she was hoping for, so she was really, really tickled.)

Then, on Monday, Eleanor hosted a Valentine party and Charlotte got to wear her new outfit from her birthday (thanks to Amelia and Steve) and her Hello Kitty hat that Clara knitted and her Hello Kitty rain boots from Grammy (since it was snowing).

Eleanor bought a new outfit for the Big Event.

And she bought–and made–the festive food.

We actually made a recipe that I found on Pinterest: Valentine’s Day “Puppy Chow.”

Everyone was in a holiday spirit. (I don’t know why Margaret is MIA?)

What more could you add to this fun week? Getting your braces off!

Oh, and getting a new family member!

This week’s stitch for TAST was the Lazy Daisy stitch. I just keep adding to my 1 John 4:7 sampler.

Progress so far:

Okay, I tackled the Chevron Stitch this week for TAST. I added to my 1 John 4:7 “sampler” with LOVE in a Double Chevron.

And for the word, “God,” I added French Knots between the Chevron stitches.

And here’s my progress so far:

(For those of you who read my Ten on Ten post, a couple of these photos look familiar, eh?)

Charlotte, Anne and I made these Q-tip snowflakes from an idea in Family Fun magazine.

We placed Q-tips in this snowflake pattern, globbed some craft glue at the junctions, sprinkled glitter on the glue and let it dry overnight.

(And, hey, I noticed that Charlotte is wearing the shirt I decorated for her for Christmas. I embroidered hearts on shirts for her, Lydia, Anne, Harriet and Jemima in lieu of the Scripture calligraphy I did for the older kids. I embroidered them while watching “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain” which I thought was a rather cute movie.)

Fun!

As I’ve mentioned, we’ve been using Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun by Carla Sonheim on Wednesday’s Art Night. This week’s focus was on color. We each pre-selected four drawing utensils (markers, pastels, charcoal, etc.) and then set out to draw a monkey! Here are the results.

I’m getting Joey out of the way first since he drew his monkey with his right (non-dominant) hand (which was NOT part of the exercise), quickly (also not part of the exercise) and half-heartedly (yes, not part of the exercise). I daresay he would not appreciate these qualities in the college students in the classes he teaches.

Next, mine.

Amelia’s.

Clara’s.

Levi’s. (Yes, he did two.)

Jacob’s (with Jemima filling in for him since he raced off to participate in a stop-motion animation chat).

Tim’s.

Peter’s.

Margaret’s.

Eleanor’s.

Lydia’s. (Obviously, a monkey on Gilligan’s Island.)

Charlotte’s.

And now, I’ll leave you to dream of monkeys.

I decided to participate in Pin Tangle’s Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. And while I admire (very much) others’ samplers, I decided that I wanted to practice my stitches in a more structured format. So…this week’s herringbone stitch launched my version of 1 John 4:7.

Oh, so FUN!

Very obviously, I stitched on felt, hence the many visible fibers. But I love stitching on felt, so that’s just one of the characteristics I live with.

I’m looking forward to adding more stitches this week!