Volcano-making

Remember those volcanoes we sculpted, using our salt dough recipe?

A week later, they were dry and ready to paint!

We used acrylics to paint the inside red, the outside brown, and add grass around the base.

 I gave them creative license with their eruptions. Some of them had an all-out explosion on their hands, and others had rather inactive volcanoes.

Love how their personalities come out in their art.

 Progress, on some of their work:

We'll add more dimension to our dioramas next time, with pebbles and twigs, etc.

Girls' Art Class

For the last two weeks, we've been working on Folk Art drawings,

with lots of bold patterns and bright colors....

 {{amazing results!}}

 ...and bead-making, with this salt dough recipe.

 We also make necklace pendants and itty bitty houses.

I can't tell you how delighted I was to see my little pupils painting their homes with stripes and polka dots! That's what I love about kids!!-- their imagination is the limit!

Round house? Why not! Polka dots and swirly doors? Sure!

 It was sooooo gorgeous last week, so we did our lessons and snack break outside on the porch,

along with a little stretching (goofing off, whatev')

The sky is the limit!

Make some dough, mold your scuptures, and let air-dry.

(We left ours under the couch for a week, and painted them during the following lesson.)

Use tempera or acylics to paint them.

These are great, cheap, easy, personal Mother's and Father's Day gifts!

Jello Playdough in Art

The best thing about jello playdough? It smells aaaamazing!

Your whole house will smell marvelously yummy while you cook this.

I hadn't intended to make more playdough so soon, but our art lesson with professional artist John Lasater required play dough in primary colors. And, wouldn't you know it, Wal-Mart had only blue and yellow. Being in this little town, with no Target or other means to search for red playdough, we decided to make our own! 

Below, my amazing Jello Playdough Chef.

He poured, he mixed, and he was the first to try out the goods. 

~Jello Playdough~

 •1 cup of flour

•2 Tbs salt

•2 Tbs cream of tarter

•1 cup water

•2 Tbs oil - (I used canola oil, but I'm sure any edible oil would work!)

•1 3oz. pack of Jello in the color of your choice (the off-brand will work fine)

I doubled this recipe, for our group.

First, mix all your ingredients in a pan or pot.

Mix in your jello and watch it turn a bright color! This is the strawberry flavor.

After it's mixed, turn the heat to medium-high and stir constantly. Works those arm muscles!

It will start smelling great. It will also start slowly thickening and clumping together, after about 2 minutes. It's done in about 6-7 minutes. Just make sure there aren't wet areas, and it's in a ball.

Let cool. If it seems a bit sticky, add a touch more flour. It should be smooth and pliable.

Store in an airtight container or plastic bag, and it should last quite a long time.

It was a hit with the little artists!

A huge thanks to our guest speaker, John, for the lesson he shared about values, hues, and color mixing!

Our homeschool group has so many wonderful opportunities and so much support!!!

I love watching kids take such joy in art!

When I grow up (ha) I'm going to be an elementary art teacher!! --

....wait, I already get to do that!

I live such a great life! :D

Homemade Dye-free Playdough Recipes

Just mix 1/2 cup white glue and 1 cup corn starch!

 This is the consistency of modeling clay, not play dough.

It is thicker, a bit tougher, and a bit stickier.

My kids love it!

Next, we decided to make some play dough, for a softer consistency.

 This is the BEST recipe I've found!

It is soft and pliable, not at all sticky, perfect for shaping just about anything.

Love it! For both recipes, store the dough in an airtight container, when not in use.

Enjoy!

Recently...

My Mom ("Noni") came to visit. These boys love her to pieces.

I bought a juicer and started juicing!

The breakfast I had yesterday, below, consists of 1 peeled orange, 1 red bell pepper, 3 carrots, ½ peeled lemon. YUM!  

And I finished painting my living room and kitchen--

WHITE!

A big blank beautiful canvas for my crazy colored dishes and decor!

Fast sugar cookies!

I recently came across this recipe from AllRecipes, and decided to make it right then and there.

Original recipe makes 5 dozen and, really, who doesn't want 5 DOZEN cookies, right?

Just have a party, or pass them out in the neighborhood! 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.

2.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter (this time I just used a glass.) Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3.Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

4. Ice those babies (I use powdered sugar, vanilla, and a teeny bit of milk), sprinkle generously, and EAT!

Costume Cooking Club Par-taaaaay

My lovely little sister, Medusa
and me, Victorian Steampunk

Left to right: me, Tracy, Kari, Traci, Rochelle, Julie ( below, Medusa), Michele (sitting, pirate), Megan, and Kailee

I'll tell ya, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I looooove dressing up, love hanging out with friends, love making funky gross-looking food, and loooooove parties!

For Cooking Club, we had a great group of former and current members.

Oh my goodness, these women are FUN!

Mmmmm...BACON!

Forgive the food pictures. I neglected to take any with my camera, but my sister did manage to snag some with her phone.
I made a vomiting pumpkin (guacamole...mmmmm)

Used Q-tips (mini marshmallows with white icing and crushed cookies on the end)

Bloody band-aids (graham crackers with white icing and strawberry pie filling- YUM)

The bleeding brain
(gelatin, pureed peaches and syrup, whipped cream vodka, filled with blackberry and strawberry pie filling)

Fun times, y'all, fun times!!

We went to another fab-u-lous party last night. Pictures to come.

And today we are headed to yet another.

Seriously, this is a fun fun time of year!

Fall Days of fire and bacon, gaming and crafting, pumpkins and cats!

Follow @wendylivingcreatively

We started a fire the other day, when it was crisp and cool...and the wood was barely dry enough to burn. Since that initial fall success, we've had a fire at least once every day.

I.Love.It.

We've been doing hot dog roasts, foil pack dinner, s'more dessert time, you name it.

What else is new? A bunch of random happy moments.

My Man's Dad came over last Saturday, for some wii-sports time with the kids. He's a pro wii-golfer. I hear most firemen are?

(Their attire cracks me up. My Girl and Oldest Boy, snuggled in appropriate cold-weather-clothes...and then you have the barefoot kindergartner & 2nd grader, who didn't want to slide with golfing and bowling...and then there's Middle Boy who also took off his shirt because "that's what you do when you're playing sports.")

We've also been paper-crafting over in these parts.

These projects were 100% the kids-- the idea, follow-through, creation.

They amaze me.
Here, My Oldest Boy's Captain America paper costume.

Below, My Middle Boy's paper home, complete with basement.

Yeah, I have awesome kids!

We also went to the University's Insect Festival last week. It was crazy-crowded, but very interesting.

I'm glad we went, but we'll choose a different time slot next year!

And to the Pumpkin shed after that...

Boys!

Following my Random Update theme for this post--

I also tried my hand at bacon weaving! Yes, I found the idea on Pinterest.

I'm here~~ ~~

Just weave the bacon raw, put it in a glass pan, bake at 400 degrees until it's as done as you want it. I flipped mine over a couple of times, and baked until good and crispy. I think it took about half an hour. YUM! We have burger BLTs without any bacon falling off.

I'm still having fun with snail mail art. Love experimenting with lettering and whatnot.

Yeah, I blurred out Suzanne's address...I don't know if she wants snail mail from everyone! ;)

Last but not least-- my precious fat cat, Calvin. This is the coziest, cuddliest, sweetest kitty I've ever owned. I know I've talked before about not being a "pet person." I'm not. I don't like yappy dogs, or anything that jumps on me. I don't like cleaning up poo, or being tripped by leashes. It's just not my favorite thing.

Yeah, all baby animals are cute, but then they get big and tear up siding.

Sooo, I wasn't thrilled when My Man wanted to get a cat.

But this guy-- he stole my heart. :)