2 hour Delay

As a teacher, the words "2-hour" delay make a person very happy. Today was one of those happy days. We had a dense fog advisory for my area so therefore I got to spend some extra time with Little I. So much fun to play with play doh and listen to Sufjan Stevens Holiday music. Later this evening the husband, Little I and myself are off to see some lights at our zoo! Fun Mondays are the best:)

New Artwork: Cafe Love

Chalkboard Artsy Quotes

I painted one of my cabinets in my classroom with chalkboard paint this year and have been writing weekly (sometimes biweekly!) artsy motivation quotes for my students. Here are some of my favorites:

The Most Adorable Color Wheels Ever

Be prepared for some incredible cuteness.....



My Intro to Art students recently finished their creative color wheels.  This is a project I do every year with my Intro kids and every year I am impressed by how creative these students take this basic assignment of creating the color wheel with using only the primary colors (red, blue and yellow.)


So here are some of my favorites from this year:

Each bug has a different expression!

She hole-punched sprinkles!  LOVE

Just your classic robots and anchors....?  Love the randomness!

Here are some other examples from previous years that you might want to peruse.

This is seriously the easiest, yet incredibly fun lesson to do with students of ALL ages!  I teach high school and students were totally into mixing colors and creating a unique color wheel!

Fall in a Small Town

Hello!  How is everyone doing?  I am fine, just getting ready for Halloween!  Today the Art Club I advise helped out with a Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza where 250 pumpkins were carved by the adorable kids in my town.  It was a lovely fall day, chilly but not too cold.  It turned out to be a great success!


I love fall, it just makes me very happy!  I love taking Little I to our downtown and walking around with her, sometimes grabbing some hummus and chips from my little favorite restaurant and grabbing a latte from the adorable locally owned coffee shop.  Our downtown is soooo quaint and amazing with incredible historic architecture, big trees and great local businesses such as coffee shops, art and children stores.

What is your favorite thing to do in the fall?

My Vegan Life

Hello!  What is new with you?  Things have been pretty busy right now at school and with Little I.  I am still trying to get the hang of working full time and being a full time mom.  Little I will be 2 in December, you would have thought I would have figured it out by now right?!

Anyways, one new thing with me is that I have been a vegan for a month officially!  I  am so excited about being a vegan that I wanted to share it with you!  It has changed my life for the better and I feel so much healthier for eating "clean."  I know this is mainly an art blog but this blog is also a blog about my life.  Turning vegan is a huge part of my life now so I thought I would share with you my experience.  I am a newbie vegan (person who eats NO animal products including dairy and eggs) and I have even given up processed foods (huge deal for me!)  I literally went from being  a microwave dinner freak (think lean cuisines for every meal) to actually cooking from scratch all of my meals!

One of the main reasons I wanted to try the vegan lifestyle was that I read some articles about the China Study and also my best friend has been a vegan for many years and she always seems to have this amazing healthy glow to her!  I am a huge animal fan and have always loved veggies and fruits so I thought "Why not?"  Luckily there is a WEALTH of information out there for new vegans like myself that helped ease me into eating animal-product free!

So be prepared in future posts to see some fun vegan recipes as I attempt to create easy, quick vegan meals!

Vegetables rule my life now!

Great fall veggies from the farmer's market!

Tofu French fries...yep...these are actually awesome!

Quinoa, spinach, mushrooms and zucchini

Sweet potato and white bean patties with mushrooms and avocado.  That is actually salt on top of my sweet potatoes!

Flowers=happiness!

I don't know what I am going to do when our farmer's market comes to a close this month! I have relied on it for some amazing bouquets of flowers that are only $5! I have tried to go every week this summer and fall for these bouquets because I truly feel happier with fresh flowers in the house! What is your favorite thing to always keep on hand that brings you constant joy? It is the small things isn't it?!

Well today the husband and I are doing some shopping and cleaning. Sounds exciting huh? I am planning on working on some more art for more etsy store if there is time ! Have a lovely day!

Fall in Ohio

I am so obsessed with the fall colors right now! I truly love living in Ohio this time of year ( probably a different story if you ask me in March!) How is fall treating you right now?

A leaf painting I completed in watercolor.  This is actually not finished yet, it is unbelievable how many layers are in a leaf!

Acrylic Portraits

I have been playing around with skin tone in acrylics. It can be so frustrating sometimes!!!! I did this painting of my grandparents and little brother ( he is now 26 so this is an old pic) using a blue under painting which I found was helpful. I then mixed red oxide with titanium white, naples yellow and a dash of naphthol red. For shadows I used my favorite color, payne's grey. I still have a lot to do especially with my grandpa's face but I like it better than my previous portrait in terms of blending.  I found it was very helpful to use acrylic retarder with my paint which slows down the drying process of the acrylics.  I also LOVE using a dry brush to blend the wet paint around.  This was very helpful in making sure my blending was a little more gradual. Well I am off to paint some more!  Have a good day!

Farmers Market Flowers

I am totally obsessed with our local farmers market! Where else can you get amazing fruits, vegetables and flowers for unbelievable prices! Our farmers market is every Thursday and runs until the beginning of October so I still have a lot more to go to! Here are some flowers I bought recently at the farmers market. They remind me so much of "August.". I really want to do a painting of them.

Yellow Bird Painting

I have been obsessed with painting yellow birds lately. No idea why! Here are two of my recent paintings. The first is on a rock and the second is on a canvas panel.

Island Architecture

I am on the island for a couple of days with Little I. Yesterday we checked out the historic part of the island. Here are some of my favorite houses from the late 1800's. I am so in love with architecture!

Creative Art Ideas for Toddlers

Little I and I have been doing some art! 

Painting on a rock (nature's canvas!)

"Painting" with water on the deck (mess free!)

Playing with Play Doh!  So many colors!

Hello!  Hope your summer is going well!  Mine is flying by.  I can't believe how fast everything is going!  I will be back at work before you know it.

Little I and I have been enjoying our time together.  We have been playing outside, swimming, painting on rocks and paper, sculpting with play dough, playing with baby dolls (her favorite toys) and of course having dance parties!

Little I isn't really allowed to watch t.v. yet (we occasionally watch a Sesame Street episode in the morning) but she was totally captivated to watch this video by Beirut.  It has a sailboat and she calls every sailboat "Dada's boat" because the husband has a small little sailboat. 

Today we went to the zoo and saw her favorite animals which are the elephant and the monkeys.  The husband and I then took her out to dinner and we were happily surprised that she sat in her high chair the entire time and didn't throw food!  Simple pleasures in life!

Tomorrow Little I and I are going to gather some fun supplies for our trip back to the island.  I am planning on staying all of next week there so I want to make sure I am stocked up on art supplies!  I especially want to get more shaving cream and food coloring because the shaving cream paint works so well and the colors are so pretty!  I recently bought bath tub paint for Little I and was very disappointed in the results.  Shaving cream paint (simply shaving cream and food coloring!) works so well!  Another idea I want to try is freezing ice that is dyed with food coloring and then have Little I "paint" with it.  As it melts it creates a painting!  Usually the best toys are the most simple don't you think?

So that is my summer, nothing too exciting but relaxing!  What is your favorite thing to do in the summer?

Shaving Cream Paint

Little I and I are always looking for fun and creative things to do.  One thing I have discovered on Pinterest (my favorite thing in the world!) is how to create paint with shaving cream and food coloring. In the winter we did this in the bathtub but since it is summer out, we gave it a go outside.  It was fun and messy and most of it ended up all over Little I!  Overall a success!

I mixed the shaving cream and food coloring in a plastic muffin mold.

Shaving cream paint is so pretty!

Little I hard at work!

Finished artwork (with some painting and stamping by me at the bottom!)