Paper Pepperin' with little Peeps

Wow!

What a fun Friday morning at the Knoxville Arts and Fine Crafts Center. Our simple supply list: paper, paint, scissors, and glue... along with aprons and lots of paper towels! Peppering paper with only four paint colors = endless variations of textures and colors! This was a great project for 4-6 year olds, who loved mixing the colors and experimenting with different paint application, some little abstract expressionists in the making no doubt:)

While our peppered paper dried we read some books by the great painted-paper collage artist and writer Eric Carle. I was tempted to snatch some of their extra peppered paper for my own use but sent them home with it instead. I hope some flowers and sunshines or trains and monsters with beautiful colors and textures take shape soon!

The Last (dog) Day of Summer

Lulu and Bailey got to take a trip to the farm last weekend to visit cousins and family... and other animals of all sorts. Lulu's pretty lazy when it's hot out and loves the cool floor of the air-conditioned kitchen. But, when horses, cats, and other dogs are around, along with men wearing boots smelling of all kinds of great odors and blue jeans occasionally used as a napkin, wiped with mayo or meat or something sweet, she can't contain her excitement. Sniffing and tail-wagging non-stop, she literally cannot keep still. No time for napping or resting in this kind of doggy heaven. After running circles around the horses on a long ride, she decided that their water trough was the perfect place to cool off. Bailey thought so too, but isn't quite as acrobatic as Lulu.

Oh, Lulu. It's been a great summer, but we're ready for the cool crisp fall days ahead- tomorrow! And then it's back to seeking out any patch of sun, inside or out, to cozy up in for a nice nap.

September Favorites

Some favorite September colors:

Some favorite September ingredients...

nutmeg and cinnamon!

Some background music while I bake :)

Pumpkin bread hot out of the oven!

Thanks to Sarah Barry of literally, a spoonful for the yummy recipe! Thanks to the Porter kids for tasting and modeling. And, thanks to Laurence for bringing home to me an heirloom pumpkin the first month we were married. The chopping, carving, steaming, pureeing, blending, splattering, and cleaning I fondly look back on as my induction into domesticity. I know it's probably no better than the canned pumpkin that's already nicely pureed and contained for great convenience, but it's become something of a tradition now. Last year we even went through the pumpkin pureeing ceremony twice! I think we'll stick with one per season from now on because, as you can see, we still have some in the freezer to finish up before this years' celebratory fall squash makes its way home from the farmer's market!

Blue Thistle

"The world would be stagnate without her, and the world would be beautiful with her; for she is interesting to herself and she is interesting to others. She does not have to be a painter or sculptor to be an artist. She can work in any medium. She simply has to find the gain in the work itself, not outside it." - Robert Henri

... post about the inspiration for this piece ...