Greetings! Yowzers, it's been a busy couple of weeks...piano lessons, soccer practice, ballet, and the art program at school. All good. Things are really picking up with our school art. We have a volunteer coordinator planning our art show for the spring (Pie in the Plaza - fancy!) and I can't wait. So far we have over 200 children who will have art to display, and hopefully that number will continue to grow as the school year continues and more parents get involved. We've had such a great response from the kids and the teachers, particularly. Seriously, if you are even contemplating doing something like this at your school, do it!! I never thought it would take off as quickly as it has.

Here's a small round-up of our projects from the last couple of weeks:

Painting with Scissors, a la Matisse (lesson here)



Van Gogh Sunflowers (lesson here) (oops, don't have a picture of these on my camera - but they were beautiful)

Picasso Portraits (lesson here)



Other things on my schedule:

Start saving to go stay at Stephanie's finished La Maisonette. So, so lovely it hurts.

Just ordered fabric to make matching headboards for the girls' room, exactly like this one on Design Sponge. Am hoping that chic headboards will distract from the perpetual mess from the six-year old's - ahem - creativity.

room-switch & nesting

So now at 20 weeks (phew) I'm halfway through my pregnancy. Happily no longer feeling like I am going to throw up at every minute, I've begun nesting in earnest & thinking ahead to when our little one arrives at the beginning of February. The 2 year old has moved in with the 6 year old... I have high hopes for late-night laughter and secret-whispering over late-night fighting and getting out of bed... and her old room will be the nursery. I've been trying to think of how I can make some little changes to the room to make it the new baby's instead of just Aida's old place, with a different baby sleeping in the crib, you know? But nothing that requires spending much money because that just seems silly.

I wonder why we nest. (And, incidentally, as I just typed that thoughtful question, I witnessed the 2 year old eating a nugget of dog food. Thankfully she chose to spit it out. Just FYI). Because I guess a cute little nursery doesn't really matter so much in the long run. When our son was born 8 years ago, we lived in the tiniest little apartment in San Francisco on top of Mt. Sutro and he slept in his stroller next to our bed for the first 6 months of his life. And it was great. I guess mostly the fun of it is in thinking of the new life that's coming -- bathing newborn toes, unclenching their tight little fists to clip those sharp little nails, smelling them. There is so much about raising children and keeping them safe that is hard and stressful and ambiguous that at least planning a nursery is simple in it's purpose and pleasure, you know?

So, ideas, anyone? I'm planning on making the new baby a new blanket for the crib, and perhaps a new little muslin bedskirt, but I still am waiting to be struck with just the right idea for some artwork or a sweet little mobile. We've moved the little red toddler bed into the 6 year old's room so now the nursery contains: 1 empty crib, 1 empty dresser, 1 pair of plain white curtains, 1 empty tiny bookcase, and lots of old clothes strewn over the floor waiting to be sorted into the right hand-me-down bins.

Hmm...

she's old...very old

Did any of you happen to read about the research done by a cultural anthropologist at the University of Durham? Apparently the Little Red Riding Hood story might be thousands of years old. Maybe that's why we like it so much. Check out the article in the UK Telegraph.