Isn't my kid so cute and amazing?!

I just thought I'd go ahead and give the post that title--because let's be honest, that's what mommy brag posts should be titled, right? (The alternate title could be "Please don't be TOO annoyed as I post photos that I find incredibly cute because I'm incredibly biased.)

But, hey, I do think Chickie is cute and amazing, and my biased heart loves this little book she made, on her own, at home the other day.

Title Page

I like, by Chickie

Page 1

I like eating

Page 2

I like looking

Page 3

I like playing

The phonetic spelling, the sappy-sweet smiley faces, the tails on her D'Nealian letters.... Only one thing I can say about that...

I like Chickie!

Pendant and pottery

When we were in Albuquerque visiting my grandma last month, we went into Old Town. Albuquerque's Native American influence is evident all over the city, with adobe and faux-adobe buildings everywhere you turn. Old Town is a particularly great place to experience the city's rich cultural history.

We stopped in a great shop full of Native American pottery and jewelry. The owner was wonderful. "It's okay for your kids to come in!" he assured us, when he saw that we were trying to leave them outside with my relatives. "Would they like some chocolate milk? Don't worry, I have kids of my own, it's okay if they touch things. If they break anything, don't worry about it."

Well, I most certainly would have worried if they'd broken something, but his attitude definitely made us feel at home, and gave us the time we wanted to really look at the lovely wares! It also helped that they let Chickie play with packing materials....



They were having a big sale, so we ended up deciding to bring home a couple of pieces of Native American artwork. The first was this lovely piece of pottery. (It was a very cloudy day when I took the photos yesterday, so you get two pictures--one taken in drab natural light, and one with a camera flash reflection on it.)





I love this handmade, handpainted pot (about 8 inches tall), and I hope it'll be a special item in our family for a long time!

I also got a little piece of wearable artwork, this beautiful silver pendant with different colors of stones all around its cylindrical surface:



It matches most of the shirts in my closet, and I love it, so my biggest problem is going to be convincing myself not to wear it every day! I don't have much expensive jewelry--to me, handmade, unique pieces like this are more interesting than most mass-produced, pricey pieces...and this didn't cost an arm and a leg.

New Mexico's Native American heritage is rich and beautiful. We couldn't bring home an adobe house, but I think the items we chose were good substitutes!

My artist

"Mommy," Chickie called to me yesterday, "how do you spell 'elephant'?" I spelled it for her slowly, and she followed it up with another question. "And how do you spell 'heart'?"

Later, I found this:



(If this isn't the work of a four-year-old genius...don't tell me, okay? It's my job to believe that her talent is incredible!)

(Oh, and I don't know what significance "LFU" holds. The Engineer has a theory that she was trying on her own to spell "elephant." Further evidence of brilliance. Or at least evidence of parental bias!)

Art, by Zoodle and Mommy

Zoodle wanted me to draw with him today. So I drew some quick little line drawings, and he colored them. We had a blast--it was a lot more fun than a coloring book for both of us!

Monday Micro: Portraits, then and now

Ah, how she's changed...

Chickie, August 2008: Click here. (From this post.)

Chickie, October 2009: Click here.

Gee, she hardly even looks like the same person!

On a related note, I won't be attempting to become a professional Etch-a-Sketch artist any time soon....

More than fine art

Chickie is turning into quite an artist. Now, I know I'm biased, so to be fair I'll admit that it's not exactly fine art. But she loves making it, and I love looking at it.

I've started asking her to explain some of her pictures to me, since lately more and more of them are representational, instead of just pretty scribbles. As she described one of her pictures to me the other day, I took notes on it.


First you'll notice the face in the middle--prominently situated and larger than the other faces. She informed me this one is Grammy. It makes sense, considering that Grammy is perennially Chickie's favorite person in the world. (The lines on the mouth are teeth.)


To the left, and smaller, are Mommy and Daddy. Mommy's mouth looks a little funny, though. Chickie informed me that's because Mommy has a spider on her mouth. Mommy's saying, "Aaah! Aaah! Aaah!" (That's a high-pitched scream, and I appreciate Chickie not demonstrating it nearly as loudly as I would if I really had a spider on my mouth.)

There's one other face, but Chickie tells me it's "Abstract." That's a term she learned from Caillou, and while she often uses it correctly, in this case I think "Abstract" may actually be the name of the person she drew.


I was confused about the shapes on the top left of the picture, until Chickie explained to me, "It's somebody who is fishing, but his fishing pole is not working." I told Grammy about this, and she said, "Oh, it must be Sampa!" Poor Sampa--he doesn't have the best luck fishing.


Lastly, I asked her about the creatures on the right side of the picture, and she told me they are her "pet sheeps." The one on the right is standing on grass. I'm happy to see that her sheep have four legs each; past versions have had about six.


No, it's not fine art. The artist's proud momy thinks it's way too good to be just "fine!"

Self-portrait

"Look, Mommy!  I draw my face!  I draw a happy face!  It's my happy face!"

Ah.  Chickie's happy face.

Not to be confused with her How old was that leftover salmon we ate? face.

Amateur cake decoration: It takes forever.

Chickie's birthday party is over! It went really well, and we all had a great time, but, boy, am I tired. I'm glad birthdays only come around once a year, and I'm glad I only have two kids.

The cake took on a life of its own. Chickie has been talking about getting a WALL-E cake for months. I love to take on creative tasks I'm totally unqualified for, so I decided to make it. (And if Cake Wrecks has taught me anything, it's that however bad my amateur efforts are, I could definitely find a professional whose results would be worse.)

I found a few things online:

• Yellow cake recipe (good, but turned out denser than it should have)
• Chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe (MMMM!)
• Buttercream icing recipe (MMMM again!)
• A simple WALL-E graphic I could base the cake on

I made the cake a couple of days in advance and froze it. My mom gave me this hint: You can ice a frozen cake (as long as you leave plenty of time for it to thaw before serving, of course!) The hard, frozen cake is so much easier to work with than a room-temperature cake.

Friday I layered the cake, made chocolate cream cheese frosting, and iced it. I used a scraper to make it nice and smooth. It took forever.

I then realized WALL-E, who has lots of gray, wouldn't show up well on the brown frosting. So I made my buttercream icing and put a smooth rectangle on the cake. Again...it took forever.



I used a toothpick to draw the design.



I left with The Engineer, dropped the kids off with some friends, and my man and I ate greasy Mexican food for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Then we went to Starbucks. When we got home and got the kids to bed, I got back to work.

Did I say that smoothing the icing took forever? I should have saved that superlative to describe the amount of time it took me to do the WALL-E design.



All in all, icing and decorating the cake took about five hours. But I loved how it turned out. And Chickie was enthusiastic.



It might be forever before I do another cake. And by "forever" I mean a couple of months.... Zoodle's birthday is at the end of March.

Photo Extra: One more art pen pal project!

Earlier today I posted photos of most of the art pen pal projects--be sure to check them out if you haven't yet.  I received one more photo and wanted to share it.

Jen (a.k.a. Isabella) to Lisa:

Handmade card & snowman

The card read, 

Dear Lisa,

I hope you don't mind, but this "snow-woman" decided to take her new years vacation out by you (kinda hokey, but the thought of making a snowperson in a swimsuit cracked me up).  Have I mentioned that I'm a stay-at-home mom to an 8-month old?  :)

Anyway, I hope you have a great holiday.

Your art pen pal,

Jen

Adorable, Jen!  I think the "snowperson in a swimsuit" is awesome.

I'm waiting on a couple more project photos....  You know who you are!  Please contact me soon.  Thanks.

Art pen pals...the projects!

We are wrapping up our second successful art pen pal project!  We had fifteen participants this time.  I don't have photos of all of the projects--if you participated and haven't taken a picture of your project, please send it to me, and I'll post it later.

Here are the photos I do have, plus some comments that artists and recipients e-mailed to me.  If you participated, feel free to write further comments about the projects you made and/or received, in the Comments section below.  (Of course, the Comments section is open to all other readers too!)

Momza to Tia:

Greeting card
Front:


Inside:


Beautiful, Momza! What a great quote, and your calligraphy and drawing are both lovely.

Tia to C. Beth:
Felt ornaments


Tia, these were so cute! They looked great on our Christmas tree. I loved the hand-stitched look.

C. Beth to Faith:
Construction paper cutout collages


The second picture says, "If you think my hands are full...you should see my heart." Faith said on her blog, "I have known Beth for awhile, but I don't know if she remembers me saying this, or if she just thought it was fitting." I didn't know it was a favorite quote of hers--but what a nice coincidence!

Faith to Caitlin:
Marble magnets


These little magnets are adorable--and Faith has a tutorial on her blog on how to make them--they look so easy, and I just may have to try making some!

Michelle to Angie:
Original painting/collage


Angie said, "The one I got was just gorgeous!" And you all know I'm a fan of Michelle too--Have you entered our giveaway yet?

Angie to Erin:
Picture frame


Erin said, "[Angie] told me that spring has already come to them down south, something I greatly look forward to up here in the frigid north woods! She instructed me to put a picture of the first sign of spring in it...that will unfortunately be a long way off! But it will remain on my inspiration wall on my studio until I can! (I have a whole wall of sheet metal that I am crazy about posting things with magnets!)" Such a cute frame, Angie!

Erin to Becki:
Handmade pendant

Front:


Back:


Modeled by the ever-gorgeous Becki (my identical twin!):


Erin explains, "They are called W.O.W. Pendants...which stands for Words of Wisdom. On the back is a random inspirational quote...sort of like a fortune cookie...but you never know what you are going to get!"

"W.O.W." seems to be appropriate! Becki gushed, "Oh, WOW!!!! She is way too nice! I want her to be my art pen pal all the time!!!! I absolutely love the necklace, and I'm quite sure I got the BEST art pen pal gift of anyone. Wow!"

Good thing Becki and I both have "B" names.... Think she'll let me borrow that gorgeous necklace?

Becki to The Archduchess:
Becki made a custom blog header for The Archduchess, and it's beautiful! Check it out at The Archduchess' blog.

The Archduchess to Bri:
Drawing


This is such a cute video game-themed drawing, Archduchess!

Bri to Jen:
Drawing


What a fun, personalized drawing, Bri! I think all of us moms need to be called "Super Mom" occasionally (if not DAILY!)

Scriptor Senex to EliandMe:
Drawing


Scriptor Senex explains, "I am totally butterfly mad. See this blog post." EliandMe "loved" this drawing. Beautiful job, Scriptor Senex!

EliandMe to Scriptor Senex:
Writing:


Scriptor Senex calls this a "wonderful piece." I agree! EliandMe, your use of language is beautiful and really fits for Scriptor Senex, who definitely has a writing addiction!

Thank you so much to all the participants! This was a blast, and I think we should do it again soon.

Giveaway time!

This giveaway is now closed--be sure to keep reading; there will probably be another giveaway before too long!

I mentioned an exciting giveaway recently, and it's time to announce it!

In September I was blog surfing by using that nifty "Next Blog" button at the top of the screen.  I came across Michelle Brunner's blog. Michelle is an art teacher, and her blog showcases her own artwork (which she sells affordably on Etsy.)  I started following her blog and even mentioned my discovery of it in one of my blog posts.

Since then, Michelle and I have "gotten to know" each other through our blogs, and she's agreed to do an art giveaway for readers of her blog and mine! Now, I know my past giveaways have been fun, but I think you'll agree that beautiful, original artwork is easily far more exciting than, say, free lip gloss.

Ready for the virtual unveiling? Here is the beautiful piece of art that Michelle made for this giveaway.



It is made with hand-painted papers collaged onto canvas paper. It will come matted, ready to be framed in a 5x7 frame.  The title is Little Pink Bird.

Beautiful, isn't it?  You want it, don't you?  Well, here are the contest rules:

1. Leave a comment, any comment, on this post. Perhaps you'd like to say what the little bird in the art is thinking? (Entertaining the blog authors doesn't get you extra entries, but you can count it as your good deed of the day.) Or just say, "Yo, enter me." It's up to you.
2. For an extra entry, go to Michelle's blog by clicking here, and leave a comment on her contest post, too.  (If she hasn't posted yet about this contest, just keep checking!)
3. For even more entries, tell everyone you know about this and encourage them to enter, and to mention your name in their entry. You'll get an extra entry every time someone enters and uses your name as a referral.
4. The contest will close at 8 p.m., Central Standard Time, Monday, January 12, 2009.  An entry will be randomly chosen, and the winner will be announced on both blogs Tuesday, January 13.  Be sure to come back here to see if you've won.  If you don't contact Michelle or C. Beth by 8 p.m. CST, Thursday, January 14, another winner will be randomly chosen.

5.  Contest is open to anyone with a United States address.  You may also enter if you live in a country other than the U.S. as long as reasonably affordable international postage is available.

I've made a button you can use to promote this on your blog.

To add this button to your blog post, make sure you are in "Edit Html" mode, and paste the following code into your post:

<a href="http://cbethblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/giveaway-time.html"><img src="http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr226/cbethblog/artgiveawaybutton.jpg" /></a>

When one of your readers clicks on the button it will take them back to this post, where they can enter (giving you an extra entry too!)

Good luck, and have fun!

Scary Santa and Shirtless Gingerbread Man

Santa was at our local library today. Chickie is in that "Santa is scary" phase that so many kids go through, so she didn't sit on his lap (though she did get to the point she could walk by him and even whispered "Goodbye" on the way out, so we had some small victories.)

Zoodle had no problems with Santa. He did wonder at first who the bearded guy was. (Forgive the picture quality--I took these with my phone.)



Then he realized Mama was still right there, and he decided he was happy in the Big Man's lap.



Chickie had fun with lots of other activities--eating cookies and popcorn, getting her face painted, and making a Christmas tree ornament, a foam gingerbread man.

Outside, the wind blew away her handmade ornament, so we made another at home. She did a nice job.



As she was drawing on it, I noticed two little circles. They aren't very obvious in the finished product, with more drawing and M & M's surrounding, but here's a zoomed-in shot with circles surrounding the ones she drew.



"What are those?" I asked Chickie when I saw the placement of her circles.

"Those are nipples," she replied.

Hmm. Nipples. I guess I should be glad that was the extent of her gingerbread man's anatomical correctness, shouldn't I?

Let's do another Art Pen Pal project!

Be sure to read the post from earlier today with photos from our recent art pen pal project.

I think we should do it again! E-mail me at cbethblog(at)gmail(dot)com if you're interested in participating. You can make any sort of art project at all, and any talent/skill level is acceptable! When you e-mail me be sure to give me your address so I can pass it along to the person who will be sending you their project. And so I can post it all over the web, of course. I'm all about sharing your personal information with strangers.

Art pen pals--the artwork!

Some time ago I organized an Art Pen Pal project. (Thanks to Michelle Brunner for the great idea!) Participants were randomly assigned a fellow artist to send a handmade project to. It was fun, with all participants following through, making and sending artwork using materials as varied as Popsicle sticks and Photoshop. Ready for pictures?

1. Made by Angie, sent to IsDihara:

An adorable family portrait using pen, Popsicle sticks, pom pom balls (or whatever they're called!), construction paper, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes, all on white paper.

2. Made by IsDihara, sent to Anna:

A beautiful card using various papers and rubber stamps.

3. Anna to C. Beth:

A fun Photoshopped picture (with Anna's adorable son as the model.)

4. C. Beth to Momza:

A construction paper collage. (Momza is a doula--she provides labor and childbirth support to mamas.)

5. Momza to Bri:


A beautiful holiday drawing with lovely calligraphy.

6. Bri to Tia:


An artistic, creative Photoshop project.

7. Tia to Isabella:

An adorable fall-themed marker picture made with the help of Tia's daughter Ellie's hands.

8. Isabella to Angie:

A soft fabric bird--and a cute card that I've heard came with a little story? Perhaps Angie or Isabella would like to share!

Thank you to everyone who participated! Hopefully we'll do this again soon. Keep your eyes open!