Playing Catch Up

Okay, well, I'm going to try to get this blog a little updated....with photos at least. Once again....traveling back in time...to President's Day Weekend.

We traveled to Waunakee, Wisconsin to spend President's Day weekend with some friends from Knox. Chris and Abbie were great hosts and it was fun to hang out with Bob and Amber and all the kids too!

The last time we were all together at one time with the kids, Kellan and Avery weren't around yet! It seems like each time we get together the group grows. Hmm.....well, it won't be us adding to the group next time. :-)

New Blog!

Okay, I know, I know....I never update this blog. And it's rare that I update the book blog. But, yes, I've started YET ANOTHER new blog. :-) I decided to keep track of our summer art projects on a separate blog. By separating it out I can link to different art education blogs and really highlight our projects!

I would love for all you faithful www.hollyandandrew.com followers who do check in even though I NEVER update this blog anymore, to follow the new blog too!

You can head over there to see last year's projects, the great blogs I link to (for more fun art ideas!), and in just a couple weeks I'll start posting our new projects!

Introducing the official new site of "Holly's Arts and Crafts Corner":
http://hollysartcorner.blogspot.com/

And though I won't promise anything, I am completely caught up on photography work for the first time since about February (hmm...since the last post on here....coincidence?). And I will be caught up for about a week and a half so maybe, just maybe I'll get a post or two up on here. We'll see. ;-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ella, Lily and Kellan say HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to everyone! :-)

We'll be dining on our traditional heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's tonight. Hope you all have a delightfully happy day!

Where in the World is Andrew?

Last week Andrew was at the Super Bowl in Dallas and a conference in Kentucky. This week, he's in San Diego (nice, sunny, warm southern California...I'm not jealous or anything...especially with our -15 degree weather this week). :-)

Here's a few photos he's sent me from the Padres shoot:

Above: Military shoot

Super Bowl 2011

Here we go again. ;-) Andrew is at his fifth Super Bowl right now. Here are some photos from day 1 and day 2 of his experience.

In other news, I'm not sure how it happened but Ella is a Packer fan. I know, I know, but I still love her anyway. And well, she is a Daddy's girl through and through. So, it makes sense. But I did teach her the "Go Pack Go" chant and told her to tell it to my friend Kelly (Kelly is a Packer fan) when she sees her in the morning at the bus stop. And Ella told it to her teacher at school too. I asked her what Mrs. Nieson thought and Ella said she just laughed. :-)

In the News--Again!

Andrew is currently at the Super Bowl. And I may get some photos posted on here in the next day or so. He's been giving me some from each day. I just haven't gotten them posted. But I did want to quick throw up this link to an article in the Racine Journal Times. They interviewed him regarding his work for the graphics and the Super Bowl.

Journal Times Article

I'm Stylish!

My friend Abbie who has an awesome blog called Greening Sam and Avery passed on "The Stylish Blogger Award" to me. Heh, I don't know how stylish I am, but it's kind of fun! Thanks Abbie for adding me to your list. Her blog has fabulous ideas for projects, crafts, and outings to do with your kids to teach them about the world around them. You should definitely go check it out!

Now onto following the rules of acceptance -

1) Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2) Share 7 things about yourself

3) Award 15 recently discovered great blogs/bloggers (The Versatile Blogger guideline was different the first time I received it so feel free to choose 10 or 15)

4) Contact the bloggers to tell them about the award

7 things you all don't know about me? Hmmmm

1. When I was in junior high, I wanted to be a writer. I LOVED writing stories and thought I might write a book one day.
   
2. I wrote my senior art history thesis about decapitation imagery in Baroque art.
   
3. When I was younger, I always wanted to own/work in a book store.
   
4. I think it might be kind of fun to be an art teacher in a non-school setting (like the Art Center, Community Center, etc.)
   
5. I wish I had the time and money to travel more often. There are so many people I've lost touch with because we don't live near each other.
6. I really want to travel to Italy with Andrew some day. We've always wanted to go there together. We've both been separately.
7. I will admit it...I still love Journey. Anyone who knew me in high school, knew I listened to them all the time. And yesterday, the Glee cast version of Don't Stop Believin' came on the radio and it made me smile.

So to pass the award along. Here are some pretty stylish ladies that I really admire. Both Abbie and another friend Amber (who gave the award to the book blog) listed several blogs that I would normally have chosen (including theirs). :-)

1. Allison at The Whole Ball of Yarn(s)
2. Renee at Our Happenings
3. Kathy at Art Projects for Kids
4. Emily at My Little World
5. DrewB at Momtog
6. Katie at Adventures of an Art Teacher
7. Marce at Tea Time for Marce
8. Girl Detective
9. Charlotte at Charlotte's Web of Books
10. Lenore at Presenting Lenore

Happy Birthday Kellan!

Kellan turned one last Saturday! I can't even believe it. This past year has gone by so fast and has been so much fun. Kellan has been such an amazing addition to our little family.

He had a great time at the little party we threw for him. He did great opening presents. I think it was convenient that Christmas wasn't so far away...he had some practice then. And he devoured this entire piece of cake!

Sledding Fun

Hey! Look at that! A new post from me!

It was finally warm enough to take Kellan outside to play so we all bundled up and headed out. He went down with Ella three times. His mitten wouldn't stay on (and yes, he has pink mittens on...his blue ones are already too small for him, Mr. Big Hands) and then he stuck his hand in the snow. It was all over after that! But he had fun for the ten minutes we were out there. His coat is way too big on him when he sits down too. So that could have been part of the problem. Hmm...wonder if it will fit him well next year! :-)

The Future of this Blog...

I feel badly that this blog has fallen to the wayside. I wish I had the time and energy to devote to it like I have in the past. I'm sure I'll get to that point again. But I don't anticipate having regular time to do that until this fall when both Ella and Lily are in school and I only have Kellan toddling around the house. And even then, I'm not sure with the photo business being so crazy at that time of year.

So while I really don't want to abandon this blog altogether, I'm afraid my posts will continue to be sporadic. I may try just posting a picture a week of something significant we did. While the blogging has gone on hiatus, I do still continue to photo-document our lives. I'm always grabbing my camera when I see a moment I want to capture and file away. I started making photo books through Shutterfly and Snapfish about two years ago and have stepped those up. I gave Andrew two books documenting 2010 for us. So at least, personally we have a record of our year.

And I do know that I plan to do Art Journal Wednesday again this summer with the girls, so I hope to document that as well.

Hope you will check in with us every now and then just to see if there is anything new. And we always love to hear from people through email or whatever. Rest assured, we are all doing great! Just running around busy and no time to blog!

Art Journal Wednesday: Project Eight

The last project we tackled this summer was mosaics! I saw this post over at No Time for Flashcards: a fantastic blog with great craft ideas, sensory activities and book suggestions. It featured this photo:
I knew I didn't just want to show the girls this picture. I wanted to tie it more to art history. So I did some googling. I first explained that a mosiac was a picture made up of smaller things put together (kind of like a puzzle) to make a bigger picture. I showed them this image first:
I knew they would recognize Starry, Starry Night from our earlier summer project. They thought this was very cool! Then I showed them a couple others:
I told them you could make something thing real like an animal or person (like above). Or you could make a design like below:
And the last thing I showed them was Hagia Sophia, a church and then mosque (now a museum) in Turkey. The inside of the church is covered in huge beautiful mosaics. When the sun shines in the church windows, the metallic quality of the mosaic tiles gives off a gorgeous golden light.


After all that, I finally showed the girls this fish mosaic:
And finally the button fish mosaic. I told them they could make anything they wanted on their paper. I had gone to Michael's and bought two medium sized bins of mixed craft buttons. I sorted them by color ahead of time. And I gave the girls stronger poster board and Glue-all. Make sure you use an adhesive that will really stick to the buttons (or whatever medium you choose to use).
They thought about what they wanted to do. Lily picked a ladybug! So I drew an outline for her and she did the rest:
Ella decided she wanted to do a design. So I helped her think through what she wanted to do. We made a big circle and divided it into quadrants. Then she went to work:
Ella loved this project sooo much she proceeded to spend the next hour and a half making more creations! She nearly used up all the buttons!

Here are her other masterpieces:




I helped her with the outline of the butterfly and ladybug (Lily used up the red so she had to do yellow). The rest she came up with all on her own! (a penguin, bee and snowman, respectively)