Mike, Jill, & the Kid » art

Father Christmas Letter 2011

jill — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:58:30 +0000

Apologies on the delay of this post…I am catching up on the whirlwind that was December.

Back in October madame wrote a letter to Father Christmas. She drew her wishes in her letter, and asked me to add subtitles just to make it crystal clear.

She very carefully wrote the name on the envelope, but got a bit tired after writing so small and running out of space, so I helped a bit and added the north pole.

Here is the response she got…

Lovely drawing of Father Christmas and the reindeer…

Here is the postmark from Santa’s post office, and the stamp…

The letter was sealed with sealing wax…we have been thinking about getting our own sealing wax ever since we saw it.

She paid careful attention to his recommendation about an early bedtime on Xmas eve, she was in bed and asleep by 6:30 p.m.!

Did she get what she wanted? She did get a toy cat in her stocking, and was very pleased. Thank you Father Christmas!

A Drawing Explained

jill — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:00:05 +0000

The artist explaining one of her drawings on the chalkboard. We were taking pictures of each drawing before she erased it, and I took a quick video of her explaining all the details that pop up in her artwork. How quickly her style changes and evolves!

She mentions Wubie’s Ed Emberley book in this drawing (she has several of my old E.E. books)…the books have exponentially expanded her drawing abilities, and given her a lot of confidence to try drawing new things.

Father Christmas letters

jill — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:32:03 +0000

giggling in her sleep (heard from the other room)

‘Tis the season again for letters to Father Christmas. Last year our little girl got a letter in the mail in response to her letter:

This year’s letter to F. C. has been written, wonder if we will get a reply.

Crafting

jill — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:42:56 +0000

We’ve been huddled indoors on some cold and rainy days lately, so we’ve been doing a little crafting. Here are some of our creations.

she spelled “mom” and decorated it with eyes and feet…a clothespin dolly in a fancy dress

fun with pipecleaners….and lots of paper circle pictures

leaves ironed in waxed paper…and a clothespin princess

more clothespin ladies…somehow they ended up in tropical attire!

Shopping List

jill — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:49:08 +0000

“Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rice“
— Lucy’s version of Sing a Song of Sixpence

Lucy wrote a shopping list and brought it to my store. This is what it said:

Bouncy Mushroom (see fig. 1)

ABC for Wubie (2)

‘Pinano’ music for Wubie to practice (3)

Xylophone (4)

Stickers for me

Cat Toy for Wubie

Circus Cat

Merry-Go-Round

Lucy’s Story

mike — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:37:26 +0000

One of the things we like to do with Lucy is make up stories. Not a day goes by where Jill isn’t improvising a tale for Lucy, and just about all of the stories are based on Lucy’s ideas. “Tell me a story about…Wubie’s food bowl on the ceiling!” Lucy will say, and Jill will dutifully start telling the story.

Another thing we like to do is illustrate Lucy’s ideas. We’ll gather in front of Lucy’s easel and she’ll start shouting out ideas like “We’re at the beach!” or “Wubert is in trouble with bumblebees!” As she does this, we’ll scribble frantically with crayons, hopelessly trying to keep up with our little girl’s imagination. Almost all of Lucy’s stories star Wubert, who usually plays multiple roles in each story. He’s also usually in some type of trouble.

Here’s one of Lucy’s stories…

“Doo is having a picnic at the beach with Wubert. They have a bucket and a shovel. They have cake. Wubert goes in the water (there are fish!) and Doo has to save him. Wubert’s sleeping. I’m tickling Wubert. I am walking with Wubert on a hill. I’m first. It’s really sunny, and there’s cake.”

Birthday

jill — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:47:50 +0000

Auntie’s birthday was this week, and Lucy and I had a little party with her on the day (bigger party to come.)

We painted plates, had cake, and played in the garden. It was a lovely day.

Oh, and Lucy sang her the birthday song. Happy Birthday Auntie!

Painting

jill — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:00:10 +0000

Lucy is fond of drawing and coloring, often with crayons, especially with pens (when she can grab them), and naturally on non-approved surfaces (i.e. chairs, tables, walls…)
Now that she is out of the ‘put everything in your mouth’ stage, we figured she was ready to try other media. So this week we got her some non-toxic (and washable) paints and newspapered the room, and let her at it!

Here are some examples of Lucy’s first stab at painting. She LOVED it. She is asking even now (in her sleep!) to paint. I think we may move on to watercolors next, and after that, maybe making some egg-carton caterpillars with auntie…the sky’s the limit.

p.s. the artist is quoted as saying that most of these paintings are of ‘Kipper‘ or his nose or ears.