My City: Artists Matter

Check out my new button!   The kids got this button from their loot bag courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario.  Yesterday we painted up a storm but today was a day for looking (no touching!!!)

Artists and Art DO matter and I hope that the kids can learn to appreciate art when they are older.  Right now, they are young, but not too young to look and observe.

We took a more relaxed approach to viewing the art.  Today was contemporary art day with the exception of our viewing of the Massacre of the Innocents by Rubens on the way to the potty.  We also saw this Bernini and this Bernini before heading up to floor 4 and 5.  We ended up playing "I spy" with the art and the kids had fun sitting in one of the interactive displays.  They liked Iain Baxter&'s exhibit (particularly the one with the animals) so if I have a moment, I might enter the Ampersand Challenge...

We also stumbled upon the new Weston Family Learning Centre.  How cool is this?

or this?

Love glue...

Unfortunately, we found this place too late and had only 20 minutes of play time.

Kids left with a loot bag of goodies including some art cards, pipe cleaners, a puzzle and a pencil crayon.  Now that they have added a kid's play section, I'm sure my munchkins will be asking us to go more often.

Note:  One of my favourite exhibits from the AGO is Bruce Mau's Massive Change from 2005.  Click here to learn more about Massive Change. 

DIY Art on a Rainy Day

Today was a rainy day and with rainy day comes indoor art projects.  I usually don't let baby bunny use paints because it would end up in his mouth (yup), on his hair (yup), and on the walls (not this time!).  However, the kids have been sick for so long now that I was running out of things to do.

This was the end result:

What do you need to make your own art?

• White paper
• Paint brushes
• Acrylic paint
• 1 Foam poster board
• Imagination!

Gather up some supplies

Stick the pictures on the board and admire their handiwork

Clean up the mess and throw both kids into the bathtub.



Brag to the neighbours

 Let's take a closer look

I used painter's tape to stick the pictures onto the foam board.   We are going to keep the foam board up in the kitchen so that we can change the art a little more often.  We now have this picture framed in our hallway and maybe one of these will make the "cut" and end up in a picture frame.   Who knows?  Maybe it'll be worth something one day :o)

We are going to the Art Gallery of Ontario tomorrow.   Joshie is now super excited about looking at the art.  I'm guessing we will be painting more when we return home.

Happy painting!

Laptop Sleeve

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in doing stuff that I end up very behind on other things.  Here's a great example... my sister graduated from teacher's college last May.  I "gave" her a laptop sleeve that I didn't yet make.  Yet here we are, one year later and I finally made it for her.  (Sorry!!)

When I participated in Made by Rae's Spring Sewalong, it made me stop and think about sewing something for fun, and not just for my ETSY shop.  It also reminded me to take time for me instead of parking myself in front of a sewing machine/tv/computer.

I was so happy I made this during the kids' two hour nap.  Usually I do housework or veg out in front of the computer.  It was so easy to make and you only need 4 things.  This was my first time using fusible fleece and I am now a convert!

It's got a rounded zip... next time I think I'll make a gusset instead - to me it'll look better


And I worked out on the elliptical for 20 min (so yay for me!)

I hope she is able to use this... I put my laptop in and it was too big for the case.

In the worst case scenario, she can turn it into a magazine holder ;)

Happy Sewing!