a festival, survived and enjoyed

so FolkWest happened and the weather was so fine, and the energy was great and the music was wonderful and danceable, and the kids area was well, awesome of course!
my amazing team of volunteers helped reaffirm my faith in humanity by showing up with enthusiasm and smailes, with thoughtfulness and talents, and provided me with a stress-free weekend. it's really true that volunteers MAKE a festival. we had had them facepainting, blowing giant bubbles (i made this bubble wand, and it didn't take much practice to get the hang of it, and the bubble recipe i used was 8c water, 1c dish soap, 1/4 c glycerine), getting messy with art, and constructing an awesome box fort. we had clowns, and we had sawn lake nature sanctuary (wow, a great naturalist is a beautiful thing).

Folked UP!

okay
on top of the usually craziness i have been helping to put together a brand new folk festival here in our fair city. i am on the board of directors and in charge of the children's area and also jurying vendors. this has meant A LOT of loving support and understaning by my family and pleanty of meetings (weekly! late! lots of treats and tea!). i'm so excited and happy to be apart of making this happen, and getting to know my fellow board members. and i must say i will be happy not not have weekly meeting after the festival, which is, ahem, in about 10 days...
so i am trying to be as low stress as possible. my mission is to have a fun and creative kids area with activities for all ages and all free! art and facepainting, a box fort, soccer, hoola hoops, bubbles, water play....and shady space for kids and nursing moms. nature area by swan lake nature snactuary. it hope it going to be great.
so as i don't yet have my volunteer crew, i have started getting stuff ready...like tracing 150 mini guitars (ukeleles) to be painted










and chop-sawing cardboard tubes into drum frames....













yippee!
so come check out the festival, FolkWest! it's going to be lots of fun, gosh darn it!

art in the next generation

Well this blog is not meant to be about proud mom posts, but i have been thinking about art and kids a lot lately and so couldn't resist this photo of my daughter showing off one of her paintings (ahem, rather "mixed media" pieces), which she hung in a local kids art show.

some days it seems so hard to find time or desire for any art, and some times it is the most important thing (don't you just love it when the first your toddler asks at 7 am is "can i do some painting" or "can i make some clay"?). How to strike the balance with all the other great things to fit into a day (like riding bikes, cooking, reading, swinging, swimming, playing, gymnastics, napping, running, jumping, singing, dancing, hide&seek, sorting buttons, giggling, climbing, telling stories, looking for animals, watching boats, kayaking, picking berries, gardening....sigh).

as parents who are artists, we try to consciously bring art into every day life. sometimes that simply means having art on the walls (which my sweetie regularly rotates around the house to keep things fresh, and to see how long it takes me top notice). sometimes that means painting, gluing, sewing, sculpting, cutting, experimenting, getting messy inside outside & all around the house. it makes one think about how to talk about art, what to do with it, why we make it, how it shapes us all from the very start. I'm not trying to mould N into an artist, but do hope she has an appreciation for it as she grows.

on pondering why i've taken to reading blogs, one great reason is how many fabulous craft & art ideas i get from other parents out there. so many people sharing their great artistic ventures & processes. i am thankful for that. and while there are many many great sites out there, one good compendium is the crafty crow.