swallowfield :: jennifer judd-mcgee

be my honeypie

happy valentines day!

i made that little collage above just for fun.

i had to do some serious cajoling to get my son to squeak out his valentines this year. 5th grade valentines seem to be where creativity and personalization go to die, much to his crafty, valentine loving mom's chagrin. you know, because there should be NO HIDDEN MESSAGES associated with his valentines.

it's a proud moment here on this old arty/crafty blog. :) but he was happy with them, so i was too.

anyway. here's hoping you have a sweet day.

 

 

summer = awesomesauce

the big news around here: we loved the last harry potter movie. LOVED. you should bring kleenex. we're all sort of mourning that it's over now. but excited for pottermore this fall. and this was super fun. and these.

also, feathers. they're a pretty big deal these days. she bought them and had them put in on the bus to art camp. not exactly a salon, but that's how we roll here in downeast maine.  excited doesn't begin to cover how she feels about them.  also? the girl selling them is raking in the dough.

some more photos of one of the prettiest summers i can remember. (i have been working on lots of art too, but it's all stuff i can't show you for awhile. it will be really fun to share it with you when i can, though.)

we're also loving fresh raspberries, grilling, the full moon, and adele.

i have a big house post brewing in my mind. we're renovating/building a house, and i haven't talked about it too much here. but i am going to post a little bit about it soon! prepare to be bored by paint color talk. :)

 

litterly

i love my kids' notes so much.

gel glue batik patchwork pillows

last month i blogged about the project i was working on with my daughter's classroom for our annual school auction, using gel-glue batik - a project found via that artist woman. since then, the kids created their pieces - it took two sessions: one day to draw with glue, and another day to paint the pieces once the glue was dry. after the paint dried, i soaked the pieces overnight in hot water until the glue came off (some required some extra scrubbing,) then threw them all in the washer and dryer.

as you can see, the adults involved in the project chose a limited palette for the kids to work with, and we were so pleased with their patterns!

next we cut up all of their pieces and made them into patchwork pillows. we ended up making five pillows all together. the nice thing about a project in multiples is that several parents can go in on the project together and each come home with a part of it.

 

 

this last picture isn't the greatest - i took it with my phone today while we were setting up the auction, but it gives you an idea of what the pillows ended up looking like!

check out the long thread's gel glue auction project too - i love it!

trying something new

it is school auction season again. that means each of my kids' classrooms will be working on a group project that will get auctioned off to the highest bidder. this year i'm pinch-myself lucky to have our school's fabulous art teacher as my co-pilot in supervising this project for my daughter's 5th grade class.  yesterday she and i got together to play in advance of working with the kids this week. we decided to try gel glue batik, with the help of a tutorial found here. it's pretty addictive! i've learned a few things so far: thicker fabrics work best, don't water the paint down too much, and really take the time to let the glue dry, and then to let the paint dry before you rinse it out. these are my own experiments - i'll post more stuff once we work with the kids, because i know a lot of people come to this blog searching for school auction project ideas. we're thinking of sewing some patchwork pillows or a table runner and a set of napkins, but i'm not sure yet.

 

 

 

see other projects and auction stuff here.

ps: am i now thinking about making my own fabric and sewing it into a dress or skirt via this book or this one? uh, maybe. i do have my brother's wedding coming up.  shoot me now.

pps: see the kids' updated progress here.

boo.

trick or treating starts in, well, seven hours and i've still got one costume to make and some pumpkins to carve. zoinks. wish me luck! what time is it socially acceptable to start drinking beer and swearing at the sewing machine and trying to lower my kid's expectations? that's what i want to know.

in the meantime, here are some pretty pictures i took this week. i love the colors outside right now.

 

 

 

have fun tonight!

halloween snuck up on me this year

did you know that halloween is right around the corner? i sort of forgot about it, for a minute, even though the kids have been diligent about reminding me. this year's costume requests: a piece of cheese and a totoro costume. the hunk of cheese is achievable with cardboard, paint, and some suspenders (thanks to the elaborate 10 year old sketches provided to me on a regular basis) but i am a little bit anxious about the totoro situation. i can't sew worth a damn, and it makes me laugh on a regular basis that some of the most-searched posts on this blog are for things i bumbled through with my sewing machine or embroidery floss. this year will probably be a lot like last year's uglydoll costume, in that i will lie him down on the fabric, trace the general shape around him, and pray. there will probably be beer and swearing involved, too. possibly some tears. possibly many tears.

 there are actually a few tiny pumpkins around the house, finally.  i think the kids would happily tell you that one of my biggest shortcomings as their mother is my complete unwillingness to buy creepy, talking, moving, plastic halloween decorations. it isn't enough for them to enjoy these things when we trick or treat in the neighborhood, so the kids roll their eyes and hand me more sketches of what our house could look like 'if only it was awesome.'

ten is fun

would you like to know the two single best presents you could ever get for a 10 year old? i'll tell you.

this is not a book, by keri smith (i would very much like my own copy, too.) i've given many, many copies of wreck this journal as gifts to other kids, but this one is the brand new one. and it's fabulous!

assorted rolls of colored duct tape - enough said. it's a perfect present! she's a happy camper.

blue skies ahead

it has been a busy week, spent alternating between packing my babies kids for sleepaway camp and working on a huge freelance illustration job that's due next week. plus there's been the managing to keep the feelings of total hopelessness at bay while looking out the window at day after day of rain and heavy gray fog. i cried a little in the trial-sized aisle at target while i was buying the kids each their very own soap dish, because this is their first sleepaway camp experience and i am going to miss them terribly.  but later that day when they were determinedly trying to choke each other, i thought to myself that a week away really isn't that long for them to be gone.

i did see a wee patch of blue sky up above for a total of about five minutes today. it was something special to behold, let me tell you.

if you live in or are visiting maine this summer, i wanted to let you know i have some working hanging + for sale at two of my favorite places on mount desert island: the burning tree restaurant in otter creek*, and at lisa hall jewelry in northeast harbor.

*they don't have a website because they are too busy cooking the world's most delicious food in the history of ever to worry about such paltry concerns, but you can see a picture i took there here.

found in the recycling

am i the kind of person who pulls her son's top secret drawings out of the recycling, takes pictures of them and posts them on the internet for the WHOLE WORLD to see?  yes, yes i am.

i think this is just about the best thing ever. i've been crying inside a little ever since i found it. (+  i've received the sage advice to tuck this away and save it for his wedding.)

also, since it's been raining pretty much non-stop, we've been needing to come up with some indoor play plans.  i overheard this yesterday when they were playing little house on the prairie, ellie and chase style:

"ellie, play a really sad song on the piano, and i will just stand here with my pa ingalls hat on, looking into the distance for a long, long time."

ha.