Showing posts with label Kai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kai. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Day 25: The Best Gifts


I received two gifts the other day from my 5-year-old twin nephew and niece (Kai and Poppy). They are by far the best gifts I've received as they were made by hand and heart...

A book by Kai










 The right hand page was a game with multiple pages to get to a surprise.










 And two family portraits (of my family of three) by Poppy. I found out that she asked for photos of Uncle Mark so she could draw his likeness. The tall one is my 22-year-old son, Aaron. Poppy was so thoughtful, she made two of them so Aaron could take one back to school with him.




Hope those of you who celebrate are having a wonderful Christmas.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Day 4: Happy Smiles and Swirls


Last night, I received an unexpected package.


After a long day at work, this was my happy surprise!



The beautiful polymer bead necklace my nieces and nephew made for me!

 Your Ant July thanks you very much for putting a big smile on her face!

This morning, I took a walk to get me inspired to start working on the Furoshiki cloth designs.





I seem attracted to swirls today.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Spontaneous Artistic Combustion

Kai's Story Bag front

This morning, while my brother and sister-in-law were packing up for the return trip to New York City, I  pulled out the last two canvas bags and a set of fabric markers. They were the perfect distraction for my 5 1/2 year old nephew and almost 11 year old niece.

While many of us older folk may have hemmed and hawed about what to draw on these bags, my niece and nephew went right to it.

Ivy began by drawing beautiful designs and patterns, carefully (and care-freely) building up the colors.

Ivy's artistic bag

Kai began drawing a dragon and a volcano... a fiery combustible scene. I said, I really like your story bag...and of course he looked at me funny, as if to say, What are you talking about Aunt Julie!?

Kai's Story Bag back

Seeing Kai's bag makes me think of my new workshop, coming up in December A Story in the Making: Creating Story Cloth in Print and Stitch. I have yet to figure out the particulars but am really excited about the concept. I wish to play with some different formats for the story cloths and seeing Kai's bag made me think..aha! another possible format in which to tell a story.

Imagine turning the cloth into a special storytelling bag and inside the bag would be stored some very special items... a continuation of the story.

I'm excited just thinking about it!