Gone Fishing

Martin wanted to go fishing so we decided to try it with our new felt fish first. We made three (so far). He helped me select the colors of the felt and the yarn (as well as the 1-3 buttons to go on it)... we added a little washer to the mouth of each fish... and voila... we got fish. Fun and easy.

ABCs

We have finally finished our never-ending alphabet project. So, here it is. Each letter is supposed to be one animal, starting with the same letter. We tried... but some letters were a bit tricky ;) We also tried different techniques for different letters. We got watercolors, tempera paint, finger painting, finger prints, bubble-wrap prints, collages, paper - cutting, tearing, crumbling... using sea shells, feathers, fabric, colorful sand, photo paper, foam, felt, etc.

Btw, the animals are supposed to be: Alligator, Bumblebee, Cat, Dog, Elephant, Flamingo, Giraffe, Hippo, Iguana, Jaguar, Kangaroo, Lion, Mouse, Newt, Octopus, Parrot, Quail, Rhino, Snake, Turkey, Unicorn, Vulture, Worm, X-ray (or any animal you want), Yak and Zebra.

Gnome Village

We spent our spring and summer working on the garden... and we thought that it isn't fair not to make something for the little gnomes that helped us so much... so we did. This is our new Gnome Village. It has 5 settlers so far - mom, dad, 2 kids and a friendly dragon (who lives in the cave by the magic shell tree). They have a house with a bed and restrooms (and a stash of pots and pans and tea kettles and cups), a swing on a pink daisy, a bathtub, pond with sparkling seashells, patio with sea-shell table and chairs, a fire pit where they like to cook their dinner... and much more. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy. Our gnomes certainly do.

color wheel

For the past three days Martin and I have been working on our first book: about colors. We started with red, and then added yellow and green. Each time, Martin painted the background with everything we could have found: yellow markers, yellow crayons and pencils, yellow chalk and paint... then we went through our boxes and found yellow scraps of papers, some feathers, stickers, drinking straws, pipe cleaners, fabrics, ribbons, foam, felt, nuudles, etc. Then we either tore them or cut them (first time with scissors... pretty interesting ;)) and then we glued them onto the paper (either Martin put the glue on or showed me where to put it, it was a real mission cooperation). And then some glitter to finish it off. We really had a good time and are looking to start working on the blue...

Martin's AutoMall

This was supposed to be Martin's 18-months-old gift but he found it even before I finished working on it, so... here it is. It's a car dealership, repair shop, car wash, and a gas pump. I think Martin's favorite part is swiping the card after getting the gas, lifting the cars up (or using the machine to lift up guys working in the repair shop), and polishing the cars after their car wash ;) My favorite part was getting rid of the broken cars we got to make this all happen. It's been quite fun working on it ;)

KoKo

Our dilemma over what to put on our living room wall was finally solved. We just needed to ask Martin. His answer was simple and immediate: koko. So, rooster it is. The next day Martin created couple of finger painting/brush painting (and whatever-else-he-could-get-his-hands-on-painting) papers and I cut it out Carle-style. Now, we need to start working on a cow.

Easy Easel

Every artist needs an easel... and after seeing the only one we liked (for $50), we finally made one (all we needed was a box, paint, paper, and duck tape). And it's not bad ;) It has chalkboard/cloth pins for paper on one side and magnetic/dry-erasable part on the other one. It's pretty big and after some adjustments it even fits on our art table. Well, gotta go... we need to try it out.