OLIVIA'S MIXED MEDIA PROJECT

Inspired by artwork done by some of her friends (with the help of Megan Winborg Gerrard), Olivia wanted to create her very own mixed media collage. She's been the SUPER STAR of the week in her class and each day she has come up with a theme for herself to help her showcase who "Olivia" is. She had a "technology" day, a "fairy" day, a "stuffed toy" day, "Olivia the Pig" day and finally a "purple" day. On this particular colored day, she is taking her purple Jasmine Halloween costume and this Jasmine art piece to show her class. It was her (and my) first attempt at making one of these type of collages. Liv is really happy with it and eager to show her classmates tomorrow. Liv is already planning her next piece. She has already sketched out Rapunzel (in pink for Maggie).

ES CINCO DE MAYO! EL CUMPLEANOS DE MI PAPACITO!

He's 58 years young

and so excited about it!

You're the BEST dad ever!

IT WAS A SUCCESS!

As most of you know, I'm heavily involved at my kid's school, in particular it's yearly fundraiser. Rather than going door-to-door soliciting for money to supplement "extras" the school needs, the school hold an annual art auction.


This year's auction was held on Friday, May 2nd at the Davis Conference Center. For the past 6 months, the auction committee and I have been very busy. Our theme is Vivan Los Libros or Celebrating Literacy Through Art. Though this is our yearly theme, we mix it up a bit by focusing on a particular author, series, subject matter or illustrator. Last year, Dr. Seuss was our inspiration for our marketing and promotional campaign. This year, we chose the author and illustrator, Eric Carle. The items auctioned off at the event include donated business products, class baskets, class art projects and teacher time.


This year I oversaw all the design and marketing as well as three class art projects. I was able to help in both Liv and Jake's classes. Liv and her 1st grade class made a decorative mosaic tile mirror. Their inspiration for the art piece was Patrica Pollaco's The Keeping Quilt. Each kid designed their own tile square with their own chose of color and pattern. I then took all the tiles and assembled them around a mirror. Jake's 3rd grade class decided to focus on the famous Austrian artist (and a fav of mine!), Gustav Klimt. I found a book called Klimt and His Cat, which helped me introduce this artist to the kids. I also spent about a month discussing Klimt's life, his art, his inspirations, and his country to the kids, so they could better understand this artist. We then did an artist reproduction. We chose Klimt's Stoclet Frieze and reinterpreted it onto canvas. Each kid painted a section of the canvas. I then did some touch-up work and added finer details. And the last project I did, was with a 2nd grade class. We took all three of David Shannon's No, David! books and made block prints inspired by images from the three books.









verall, it took me about 2 months to get all these projects done in the classrooms, but longer trying to finish them up at home. In the end, it was a very successful event. We raised a lot of money, which will go directly to the school for upgrades in technology and library resources.


The Klimt painting sold for $425.00; the tile mirror went for $250.00; and the No, David! went for around $400.00.


You gotta know, it's hard not to join in the bidding. Just ask my mom. It can get a bit ruthless at times. I was able to get this "industrial" print in the silent auction and the "Birdies and Blossoms" original mixed-media piece in the live auction. My friend, Megan and her sister create these whimsical images. You can buy a giclee print of their artwork at Pottery Barn Kids. Pretty excited about both purchases.

A SUNSET FOR SARAH

On April 29th, I was on my way to Walmart, just as the day was coming to an end and there was this AMAZING sunset. I have not seen the sun this gigantic in sky in a long time (yes, I know, that sentence sounds stupid. The sun is always gigantic, but for some reason, on this day, it was even more so than normal. Maybe it was it's placement in relation to everything else. I don't know.).

Fortunately, I had my camera in the car, bypassed the store, headed West, trying to find a spot I could pull over and take some shots. The sun was quickly descending past the horizon line. Here are a few that I captured. But, really, you had to be there to truly grasp the amazing scene I was seeing.

Only my sister, Sarah, will appreciate these shots. Do you think they are good enough to make it into a calendar, Peehead? Maybe I'll make you a 2009 special limited edition calendar. I think I have your Christmas present all picked out! Right on!

BOOKWORM

I would like to report that I have been keeping on track with my regulars reads. Above are the ones I've read or are currently reading since March. (And this plethora of titles has nothing to do with National No TV Week.)


Out of the ones shown above, I would highly recommend the ones by Eion Colfer (the guy who wrote the Artemis Fowl series). Very funny stuff. Right now, I'm in the middle of Half-Moon Investigations. I haven't had an author write something so funny, that I was holding my stomach because I was laughing so hard!!


And of course, my fellow desperate-housewives-who-relive-those-lusty-glory-days-of-our-youth, you can't go wrong with picking up Twilight every now and then. Actually, it was after seeing "The Last of the Mohicans" the other week, and weeping uncontrollably when Daniel Day Lewis' Indian brother, Uncas, fights Magua (because he is defending the young lass), dies, and his body is pushed off the cliff, I thought "What a beautiful Native American. He could make a good Jacob Black if he were younger." And I thought about my favorite character (and the MAN Bella should choose) from the series. And I kept thinking about it. And now I'm rereading all the books.

Which reminds me....I need to read a bit before heading off to La-La Land.

A TEENY, TINY CONFESSION

Okay, okay, I can't keep this a secret any longer....I am so in LOVE with David Cook (so sorry, B, but I have to admit it!).

After last night's performance, I was just speechless. I had tingles. I had a smile on my face. I had to immediately call my mother and scream. Oh, it was just wonderful!

Now granted, I didn't exactly get to see the performance live (oh, how I wish I had). If you don't have children in school, you probably aren't aware that it is National No TV Week this week. And the only way my kids would agree to take a break from the tube, was to promise them that I wouldn't watch either. And as most of you know, that ain't easy for me, especially at night. It's my night buddy. It's the only friend I have who is willing to stay up until 4.00am all the time. And he keeps things lively-TiVo, soap operas, Law and Order, infomercials-you know, the good, quality stuff on late-night TV.

BUT, thank heavens to Betsy, I found a loop-hole......the Internet. We all know it's not "really" TV. So after everyone went to bed, I found "rickey's" website and he had the goods!

Just superb! That's all I can say.

HERE'S TO YOU, ST. PATRICK!!!

On March 17th, the Garfields (minus the Hirschi clan and the Head of the Family) gathered at the family's historical estate for an evening steeped in Irish customs and traditions.

Of course, we all wore the appropriate amount of green.

We also had course after course of Irish beef stew (for those who were first in line) and Irish veggie stew (for those last in line), rainbow fruit salad, pot o' gold muffins (Suspiciously missing the cheese, aka the gold, and replaced with apples and cinnamon. Hum.....what's up with that?), and washed it all down with an assortment of sodie pop which happened to be contained in green liter bottles (meaning, Sprite, Squirt, and some weird Grapefruit number).

Then, the annual Running of the Cousins. Well, actually, it's a search for our very own house Leprechaun's pot of gold (I believe his name is Dobie). Every year, he hides it, but he leaves behind clues. This year, each Cousin received a puzzle piece. Once all the pieces were fitted together, the location of the gold was revealed! But the Cousins were distracted by the Matron of our clan, aka Gram Kimmy, who led them astray for as long as she could. While Jake, the oldest of the Cousins, was waiting patiently at the site. Quickly, he cries of discovery over-powered Gram Kimmy's pleas to follow her aimlessly about. The gold was retrieved and distributed---10 pieces of chocolate gold per Cousin. What lucky kids!

The evening ended as soon as it began. It came to a close as the Cousins sucked down chocolate coins and the adults indulged their taste buds with some Shamrock BTS dessert on Fruity Pebble crust. Yummy!

Yes, we are indeed a family who honors their Irish ancestry.

We hope we did ya proud!

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY LIV!

A few Fridays ago, our home was filled with the ear-peircing screams of little girls running giddily throughout our home. Maybe it was the grape floats? No... it was Olivia's 7th birthday party.

She chose a "purple butterfly" themed party and invited some classmates and her cousins. She and I wanted to do something different, so we hired a very talented lady we discovered last summer, Julie Christiansen, to come and paint faces. (Obviously from the pic above, she does a bit more that a tiny flower on the cheek with acrylic paint.)

While waiting for everyone to get their face done, each girl got to paint and decorate her own frame. And before the party ended, I took individual pics of the girls. Later in the week, I developed them and put them inside the frames and passed them out as Liv's "thank you" gift to her guests.

Happy Belated Birthday Wishes on the blog, little Bear-bee Boo!

NDPA SCIENCE FAIR

First place, three years in a row!


Jake and Liv's project was "Which Cereal Contains the Most Iron?" They each took a box of Total and Lucky Charms breakfast cereal, blended 10oz. of each cereal with 5 cups of water and then took a very powerful magnet and stirred it in the cereal liquid for 45 seconds. The black stuff that caked the ends of the magnets was the iron extracted from the cereal. And the cereal with the most iron.....Total!


Congratulations, kids!

READ-A-HOLIC???...

(....not quite yet! But there is still hope.)


I have found that I'm not a real goal-oriented person, meaning, I don't intentionally sit down and write out things I want to accomplish. Though I don't dismiss the value in setting goals, I feel that most people, myself included, are too disappointed too often because we fail to reach our intended goals.


Having said this, in January, I decided that I would challenge (that's the operative word here) myself to read more. I've always enjoyed reading, but I tend to go in spurts. And sometimes there are more periods of non-reading and lots of soap opera watching than there is of having a good read. So far, I have to say I've done quite well. I'm averaging a book every two weeks.


Currently, I'm reading Gregory Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. Some of you may know his more famous work, Wicked. Like many, I picked up that book, only to put it right back down. I know it has received many accolades, but I don't know of anyone who has acutally liked it. Anyway, this other book of his came highly recommended (well, so was Wicked) and I thought I would give this guy another chance. Last Sunday, I started reading and couldn't put it down. I'll admit, it's not a book for everyone, but it sure is an interesting version of Cinderella.


Below, I've copied a summary of the book:


Is this new land a place where magic really happen?


From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale.


In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats....


We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes. But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks?


Extreme beauty is an affliction. . .


Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister.


Clara was the prettiest child, but was her life the prettiest tale?


While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life.


God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work. How we try to pin the world between opposite extremes!


Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.