All I can say is that last summers art group was a lot of fun and I miss it. But this past year was horrible so we didn't continue after school started.

However, I've decided to start up art group again. I'm tired of being tired, anxious and fearful. As, I've said, it's been a bad year. The gloss-over goes like this. Little Man keeps landing in hospital, BUT we now have a full diagnosis. Not only does he have Von Willebrand but he is one of the very rare few that also has Glanzmann Thrombosinia (bleeding disorders). I can almost handle this now. These medical bills do crazy things to my stress levels. But it isn't like me to live all worked up over things I cannot control. I guess you could say that I'm giving myself a Mulligan.

Garden Art Play is in the beginning stages and I'll be pooting as I plan our group. Elly and I are excited and Ian can't wait to play with paint with his friends. I see this as a good sign.

Ready. Set. Blow! Watercolor with Straws

We've had our 1st art group and it was so much fun!
Elly blowing her small droplets of paint

This was a small group with my 2 little ones and 4 other friends. I wanted to start out small so I could make sure I was headed in the right direction with set-up. Plus, I know how artistic the others are and wanted to see about these girls. Which ones would quite literally "go with the flow" and which would be confounded by using straws to paint with? I very quickly got my answer.

We painted watercolor with straws. You drop colors of paint onto paper and then blow the colors around with the straw. You can leave the designs as is, or once dry, you can expand on the shapes you have created; ie: flowers and birds are often made out of these shapes. But many things can be seen.

Little Gracie put every straw handed to her into her cup of lemonaid! She painted for a 5 minutes and then played on the swing set for more entertainment. 2 of the other girls really had a blast once they saw what the were creating and Sammi could have painted for hours! She did paint with a brush and the straw, but being 4, she used the straw as a tradional tool.

Ian being creative in getting his cake of paint wet

Sammi's bird-girl