Have you seen photographs floating around about the painted rocks? Kindness Rocks. Lovely people are painting images and inspiring, thoughtful words on rocks and leaving them for other souls to find. I think it's a fantastic way to connect with the world, to share a little bit of love with a stranger. Intentional love, reaching out to the world without worry or care about who will find it. Everyone is worthy of this expression of love. Everyone deserves kindness. Hopefully each rock finds its way to a person who needs a little message of love or hope, something beautiful in this often very ugly life.
I hadn't heard about the painted rock projects until I found one myself.
I was walking my dog on one of our usual routes. A flash of yellow caught my eye and I doubled back to take a look at this huge tree stump. I thought it was a pin or sticker but as I got closer I saw it was a rock. And it said...
It was so perfect. I walked away smiling, so thrilled I found such a fun little message. It really felt like it was meant for me. I didn't even think about taking it so I hope someone else found it and is enjoying it. I went by the tree trunk later and it was gone.
This weeks painting is inspired by the rock that totally made my day. Thank you fellow human, you inspired me and made me smile. You are kind. YOU are magic.
Magic is a perfect word for creative mothers (and all creative people). We make so many beautiful things out of scraps of nothing. On those who so frustrating days, when we are about to absolutely lose our shit, something makes us remember ourselves and we stop, take a deep breath, pick up the paintbrush or the pen or whatever method we use to create and we make some magic.
Magic.
Remember, you are magic. Now get out there and paint some rocks and leave them for someone to find. You might be the catalyst for something beautiful. I plan to be the same.
I wrote this poem a while ago. It's about my brother, inspired by this photograph.
I really would like to see this poem published, it would make my whole world.
Carousel
There is a photograph of us, taken
when we were children with sticky chins
and round eyes full of stories rich
like chocolate éclairs, fluffy
with the sweetest cream,
in our darling outfits, red and blue with stars,
orange soda can in my tiny hand,
candy fluff stuck to your little boy fingers,
at some festival before our turn
to ride the colorful horses
A curious girl full of questions,
I asked our mother if I could
rewind and fast forward
in my mind the way our then new
video recorder played back pictures.
She told me about memories
and how they are felt, how they live
in every smell and sound.
Now I see them as water
rolling in, around and
through my mind until
they freeze and fill in with time.
I picture you, still
little boy face on a man
in uniform, gun in hand
with grim look, dusty
and dirty in a land
I’ve never been to and
I can’t understand
muddy grit that fills
your old soul eyes and
shows hollows below.
That heavy look pulls
and twists me inside.
The feeling lulls
in the morning time
when the blender of ice
spins, shatters and slows.
This USA flag project can be quick for your kid but requires a bit of work on your end...depending on how you want to do it!
I made a stencil out of a piece of black craft paper and then cut out the shapes with an X-acto knife. I am not anywhere near a perfectionist so I eyeballed the lines and used a ruler to sort of make them straight. If you are looking for perfect you can get that with some more effort...I just wanted to finish drinking my coffee.
You don't even have to make a stencil! Use some painters tape or washi tape, something that easily peels off the paper when you have finished painting.
Once your less than perfect stencil is cut out tape it down to a white piece of paper with some tape that is easy to remove. Also, tape that piece of paper to some other paper or material you don't mind destroying. And then tape that material to your surface. You'll thank me later.
Now the fun part, painting everything in.
There are so many possibilities for the stars, a qtip dipped in white paint, stickers, stamps, drawn on with a white pencil or crayon, anything that vaguely resembles a star works. I glued a small wooden star to a clothespin and let my kid dab away to give the idea of stars. This was his favorite part, along with destroying the makeshift stamp which is why I have no photo of it.
If you are feeling festive and want to vacuum, add some glitter! I was not feeling festive.
The end result is really cute, kind of messy and imperfect, just like my life :-)
If you peel the stencil off carefully you can reuse it to make multiple flags. My four year old was done after one flag but I'll save it for later because four year olds forget nothing. Happy Fourth of July and happy crafting!
What else could it be?
No other word feels right.
Simple, yet perfect.
Love.
Absolute love.
I create because it is part of me, it was the first great love of my life.
I love my child with everything I have, even in the midst of chaos and frustration, I love.
If nothing else, really... IF NOTHING ELSE, remember to love.
Just...love.
Without judgement (I know, that one is so hard) without hesitation, without having to know everything about anything or anything about everything, just love. Love the big, wide world of people like you love your own little circle of people. We are all breathing the same air in and out and we are all here, wanting, needing, hoping for love on so many different levels.
Every day I wake up and sometimes life smacks me full force in the face. Sometimes it's a little tap that nudges me stumbling towards the coffee. Sometimes it is the rolling, booming of an early morning storm that lulls me from a restless night, or a sweet, sleepy little voice asking for a hug. At the base of it all is love. I seek to find that bit of love that makes the day worthwhile when it feels anything but.
What do you love? Who do you love? Who loves you? I hope you finish this month basking in the feeling of love. We are ALL worthy of it and we all deserve it. So much love to you. xoxo
My son has a theme at school each week to correspond with the letter they are learning about, and last week the theme was frogs.
I gathered some craft items I had around the house to make a cute little frog project.
This is what I used...
...but get creative with what you have. Lots of things would make a great frog body, painted egg cartons, cut up paper towel tubes or leftover plastic Easter eggs.
I made a sample for my preschool aged child to give him an idea of what to do but I encouraged him to do his own thing. If you use anything plastic you will likely need superglue to reinforce everything. I let my son use elmers glue to place the pom poms and pipe cleaners and then I added a dot of super glue myself to make it all stick. My favorite addition is the little fly I made by wrapping a piper cleaner around a pom pom.
I used a green paper plate for the lily pad. You could use anything or have your kid color something green. This was great practice for cutting skills. He also cut up the red strip for the tongue and cut the pipe cleaners in pieces for the legs.
Fold the piper cleaners into frog legs. Again, you will need to reinforce with super glue if you use a plastic eggs. I wouldn't give the super glue to your kid unless you are feeling brave or they are older than a preschooler.
These googly eyes had sticky backs making them easy to apply. My son's frog ended up with three eyes. There might have been more if he wasn't distracted by the pom poms.
When he was done we glued the whole deal to a piece of blue construction paper. My son really loves gluing things, especially pom poms, so I let him do his thing to make flowers on the water. I was impressed with his composition! He liked the fly so I made him one too.
We finished the project with some writing practice
It's amazing what children can do. I love where he placed his eyes, how he folded the legs and his addition of the pom pom flowers.
If you make this frog craft leave me a photo with your kids creation, I would love to see what they come up with!
Movement starts early on in life. Before you see your babies first scrunchy, yawning expression, you are likely to feel them wriggling around inside your body. It starts as a little flutter, lighter than air. You might feel like you are imagining it. And those flutters turn to jabs and kicks and rolling. Every body handles pregnancy differently, but movement is a big factor for many mamas.
My son rolled around, stretching his long body as far as he could, his little butt jutting my stomach out. It was beyond words, just the most incredible feeling. And weird too. Definitely weird.
Once he was born he was free to fully wiggle, and the movement has not stopped. He was popping his arms out of his swaddle. Now he can hardly sit still, sliding out of his chair, tapping and pressing his feet against mine when we are snuggling on the couch, flailing his legs and arms around every chance he gets.
He is very often in motion, just like an exciting work of art. When paint seems like it is moving, floating, drifting or rushing on a still canvas, it inspires me.
K was a difficult letter. A few words rolled around in my mind but I settled on kinetic. Movement. Motion.
It feels fitting for a creative mom. A mom is on the go, moving sometimes even in sleep, always reaching, wondering, awake and running.
K also stands for Kid Crafts. Check out my blog each month for a new craft. I'll confess, I prefer fine art to crafting but my taste has transformed a bit as I have grown into parenthood. There is a whole world of fun things to create out of various items. It's enjoyable to watch my son construct something and in turn learn about color, composition and art materials. Pom poms are fun. Glitter is magical. Pipe cleaners become animals, cupcake liners have endless possibilities and you know what, it's FUN. So craft away fellow artists, I will share my ideas each week.
My mind went to the negative first. Justify. Judgment. I have felt both of these things in regards to motherhood and my art.
Ultimately, I settled on joy.
Joy in what you create, joy in your child.
Light and happy, free and flowing.
It can be the total opposite of these but today I focus on joy.
I hope you check out my latest post on Project Mother, all about the transition to becoming a stay at home mom and how that impacted my life, plus some tips on how to take care of yourself if you are struggling.
xoxo
