JustJessie

Kasey the Gentleman

I have this little boy in my home who surprises me all the time.  He has this wonderful imagination, and so many ways of expressing himself.  I love to watch him playing pretend because he becomes whomever he's pretending.  I love to listen to his stories because they always have twists that I didn't see coming.  I love to hear his songs because the melodies are beautiful and the lyrics touch my heart.  I love to see his artwork because the beauty of it always surprises me.

This little boy asked me yesterday if he could paint while his brother took a nap.  He used his favorite animal, Kasey the Koala, as his "row-model" and dressed him as a "gentleman."  He put on his top-hat, and in the absence of a black tuxedo, put his basketball uniform on inside-out over a white t-shirt.  This, my friends, is the resulting artwork, entitled "Kasey the Gentleman."

(Sorry about the flash reflection, the other pix were too dark)

And here is the artist and his "row-model" posing with it.

monkey business

Today I realized I've really been slacking in the crafty department with my munchkins, and I needed to fix that.  So we got out the air-dry clay to make something.  I was expecting the usual stuff.  You know, pinch pots, a face, a shapeless blob with toothpick holes stuck in it.  So I was a bit surprised when Grayson said he wanted to make a monkey. 

My first thought was this could be fun.  Followed closely by oh no! what if he can't make it perfect?!  For, you see, Grayson is a perfectionist from way back.  He gets completely frustrated if he can't make a thing turn out how he thinks it should.  We have given so many speeches about just doing your very best and things will be wonderful, but he doesn't buy it.  Imagine my relief when the monkey's head actually looked like a monkey head.

I helped him with the other body parts, but the head was totally his creation.  I was pretty impressed with my little guy.  I could tell a difference in his behavior after we finished our little art project, too.  I guess sometimes kids need a creative outlet as much as we adults do.  Also one on one time with mommy never hurts.

Charcoal number 2

Well, here’s charcoal number two.  They’re getting better, but still nothing to write home about.  Each kid seems to have something that I just can’t get right, and Grant’s is his eyes.  They are this incredible blue and so bright.  How do you convey that with charcoal?  I’m trying to figure it out.  The pictures look like him somewhat, but without the mischievous expression he always has in his eyes.

Grayson’s problem area is his nose and chin.  They are both SO HARD!  I was trying to draw him today and I practically erased through the paper.  THAT picture will not be making it to the blog for sure!  It’s not something I can pinpoint either.  I’ve examined the drawing line by line and shadow by shadow, and I can’t see what’s wrong, but something definitely is.  His looks more like a caricature than a portrait.  Oh well, practice makes perfect, so here I go to give it one more shot.  Maybe it will eventually make it into the blog after all.  Only time will tell!

Groovy Baby!

Grayson and I did the coolest craft today.  I get a lot of crafty e-newsletters, and as soon as I opened this email today I knew we had to do it.  They presented it as a learning experience about displacement of molecules (oh no, I’m not joking!) but since I don’t think I even studied that in college, I thought we would just do it for fun! 

Okay, so the craft is a tie-dyed t-shirt which is made primarily with Sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol.  Grayson got so excited watching the colors spread into each other.  Instead of “displacement of molecules” we learned about mixing colors to make new ones, and the reverse of that (why did the orange turn pink when it spread out really thin).  I was wishing I was smart enough to explain to him why the alcohol stopped at the rim of the cup we had under the shirt, but science and logic are not my things AT ALL!

The shirt turned out very nicely, and when a friend stopped in for a visit today, Grayson was very proud to show off what he had made.

dusting off the charcoals

I set some goals for myself at the beginning of the year.  Along with the usual weight related ones, I also decided to learn some new skills.  I never learned to sew, and I decided it was high time.  Right now I am working on needle work, specifically embroidery, so that when I am able to get a sewing machine I can start all the wonderful hand embroidered projects I have swimming around in my head right now.  I also decided I should learn to knit.  So far I have got the basic stitches down, but I can't seem to make myself sit down and truly knit something when I know we are about three days away from eighty degree weather.

I also decided that it was high time I made room in my life for art again.  Not just going to museums and crafting with my kids, but my own art.  This one was far easier said than done, because it's not just a matter of getting out the supplies, but finding inspiration and creativity left over at the end of the day.  Most of the things I've done in the past have been very moody, very imaginative things, not even close to realism.  I'm just not that person anymore.  I don't have dark, brooding days conducive to that type of painting anymore.  So instead, I thought I would draw my inspiration from the same place I do in other areas of my life... my boys.

So even though in Grayson's expert opinion it looks nothing like him, here is my first attempt at dusting off the ol' charcoals: