How to Make a Bunny Hat

1. Have a daughter that has been driving you crazy for a least a few months to make her a bunny hat.
2. Do a google search and find this website: Luckybeans
3. Follow directions as carefully as possible despite being a very clumsy seamstress.

Notice use of old t-shirt and convenience of bottom hem and side seam.
4. Draw and redraw pattern until you're happy, then cut.
5. Sew sides and top with a sewing machine if you have one. I have one thanks to Goodwill, a 1/2 off sale, and my mom (thanks Mom, see I do use it sometimes!).

A close-up (thanks to Naomi) of my expert seamstressness.
Ta-daa!

How to Cross A Bridge on a Stubborn Pony

First, ride the pony around until it's really, really tired (it helps if the pony is out-of-shape to begin with!). Next, the rider must be very talented and experienced and even though the rider is only 7 y/o, it helps that she doesn't take no for an answer from a stubborn pony.


There you go, easy as 1-2-3!

They Might Be Geniuses.

As promised, more painting pictures from last Saturday at Cheekwood.

LOL!

Don't you hate it when some young upstart comes and thwarts your best laid plans?

Field Trip Fridays

The last couple Fridays we have just happened to get out and do some fun things. Last week the girls and I visited the State Capital and the Tennessee State Museum. The State Capital building was interesting, the girls were kind of crabby, and we ended up eating our lunch right outside the House of Representative chambers where the legislators eat (they weren't in session), and that made everyone feel a lot better. We went over to the Tennessee State Museum which is in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. It was fantastic. Somehow, I've never been there, which is weird because I took many field trips to Nashville when I was a kid. The place itself just looks like it would not be that impressive from the entrance, but once you get inside it keeps going on and on. . . Native American relics, Civil War stuff, lots of beautiful old painted portraits, antebellum stuff, a lot of Black History stuff, a real mummy, and more. I really loved it and I want to go back and spend more time there. There is so much to see. The girls liked it relatively well too, they seemed to enjoy themselves. It was a nice day and we took public transit (bus) to go downtown, there's a stop a block from here, so we had no worry about parking and got to see the city from that viewpoint. Nice. Unfortunately, I brought my camera, but forgot to take my memory card out of the computer and so I didn't get any pictures! &%@*! I was so mad, and there were some great photo-ops! Oh well, I guess we'll be back.

We had a chance to go back to the Frist Center today and see the "Monet to Dali" exhibit with some other homeschool families from the Farm School Satellite Campus Program, where the girls are students and and I am, ahem, a faculty member (weird Tennessee homeschool laws). Again, I was pleasantly surprised with the Frist, the paintings were just absolutely gorgeous. A lot of them we were familiar with from Naomi's Go Fish for Art card game! If anyone reading this lives around here, I encourage you to go see it, it's in Nashville till June 1st. Plus, we had fun hanging out with some other really cool families which was a nice bonus.

You've probably had your fill of pictures of the girls doing art, but just in case you haven't, I took some pictures at the Frist and at painting class today. Oh, and they're supposed to be going to Cheekwood in the morning to do some more painting with Lafayette (their painting teacher), so if I'm lucky, Bobby will take more pictures tomorrow, and I can post even more!

At the Frist Artquest gallery with Daddy. . .

At Lafayette's painting class after much inspiration from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Dali, and Renoir, just to name a few!. . .

Lunar eclipse 2/20/08 in Nashville!

We didn't get out there quite early enough, so this is the waning eclipse! Pretty cool.

Persepolis

Ok, I really should be writing a paper for school (I'm halfway done, yeah!), but I need to take a break, so I'm going to tell you about a movie Naomi and I went to last night. It was my first time at the movie theater in a long while (too expensive, rather spend my limited $$ on other things, etc). We saw Persepolis, a movie based on these books that Naomi, being a graphic novel lover, has read more than a few times. . .
They are based on a true story of Marjane Satrapi, a woman who grew up in Iran during the overthrowing of the Shah (yeah, they were so happy!), only to face the even worse Iraq-Iran War and the Islamic Revolution (boo! had to wear veils, strict religious laws, even worse than the Shah, etc.). It is the story of her growing up surrounded by war in an outspoken, liberal family. She is sent to Vienna, Austria as a teen, only to eventually become an outcast and homeless and returning to Iran as an older teen/young woman and living in the oppressive government complete with getting arrested for holding hands with her boyfriend and speaking up against the oppression to her teachers at art school (whew, how's that for a run-on sentence)! Naomi and I give it two thumbs up. Great animation, great storyline, admirable characters whom you will come to love. We will definitely be checking it out again when it comes out on video. Warning. . . it is in French with subtitles, but really, it does not detract from the movie. Just makes me want to learn French!

Being Creative

Naomi and I made this cool bracelet tonight. Naomi got the idea from a library book. I love it, I want to make one for myself.


Here's a picture of the painting class the girls are taking. The teacher is Lafayette M., an amazing artist and just a kind guy. I will hopefully have more pictures of them painting with him in the future. There are some great opportunities coming soon to paint with Lafayette and they are about to start painting on real canvas.

Yes We Can!