Teaching art to kids....my passion...

On November 13th 2009 I am going to teach a work shop at the CAEA Conference in Los Angeles. This is a wonderful conference directed to Art Teachers, home schoolers and anyone wanting to teach ART to children. The vendor fair is amazing with Crayola, Dick Blick and any other Art supplier you might dream of.

Visit the CAEA website for more. My workshop is inspired by Wayne Thiebaud (one of my favorite artists) and we will be "baking" cupcakes with paint and paper.... Children love this lesson (I have taught it in different grade levels) and wanted to share it with other teachers. The CAEA Conference is the best place to do so.

Taking a year sabbatical from teaching in the classroom I have plenty of other ideas for the fall. This workshop is the start but I am also in the process of publishing an online magazine with Art Lessons for Kids. Very exciting and hopefully a nice tool for all of you out there teaching Art to kids and don't have a clue of what to teach.

I am hoping to reach all those wonderful people homeschooling their kids and perhaps do not have an art background. Also regular school teachers, with all the budget cuts we will all see that some Art teachers will be "cut" and the art lessons will be taught by the classroom teachers. More on this shortly.

If you are interested in Art Lessons for Kids let me know... the website and magazine should be available soon.

Have a nice week.

One foot in front of the other...

Have to be the only one waiting for Monday to come around :) We are having the kitchen contractor coming to measure on Wednesday and my husband is putting in some canned lights in the ceiling before then. With all this done I can finally call the general contractor to close up the walls and paint. After that they clean out all the contractor dust and.... I can move back home...This is wonderful news and I can be home in as little as just over a week. Putting in the new kitchen and appliances does not make contractor dust and I can live with no kitchen as long as I can go HOME...

Those are the best news I have had in months.

Happy Sunday

Moving on and staying strong...

For those of you that follow my blog you know that my life is upside down right now... I have had to move out of my house and beloved ART STUDIO after a massive water leak. Living with dry wall dust is a no go for me since I am 7 weeks into recovering from a bad case of pneumonia. Living with my in laws (only 6 blocks away) is OK but.... I want my ART, cat and old life back.

Today I am done complaining about it!!!! Moving on and looking ahead. We will get a brand new kitchen out of this nightmare and I will be able to move back home within 6 weeks time... Later today I am picking up some of my art supplies and setting up a desk in my room to get some ART going. I am spending the weekend with my husband and kids clearing out most of our downstairs in boxes and out of the house before the real dry wall work begins to minimize the amount of dry wall dust in our belongings.

So there.... that was not too bad :) I just need to NOT dwell on the thought that I might not be able to move back home for 6 weeks. I hope to go and peek at some tile floors later and Macy's has a huge sale :)

Perhaps I even have some ART to share in a few days...

Over and out...

The stress of remodeling....

I am going to whine and feel sorry for myself for a bit so if you feel like not listening plug your ears :)
Remodeling is nothing but stress.... especially when it comes unexpected and you have to pick colors, floors and kitchen cabinets in a few hours time. No hot water for close to 2 weeks will drive you insane since you have to boil water for dishes and cold showers "hurt".

Moving in with the in laws is another thing... as much as I love them dearly I want to live in my house with my art studio, cat and my own schedule and food. I am now running between the in laws, our house and back non stop since I can not live in a house full of contractor dust. The pneumonia thing... still...

I hope to get over to my house today to take inventory of what is next.... kitchen designer, contractor to close and paint walls, floors, and last paint walls... We might have hot water later tonight. My husband and son are both roughing it out staying at the house with the cat. Our furry friend is hating life right now and can't wait to have his food bowls back where they belongin the kitchen again soon.

It can be weeks before I can move back home :( but as soon as the last bit of dry wall is cleaned up I am going back and having a party. ART is but a memory and I am sorry to say I don't even feel the urge to create. Some sort of artist block I guess...

My next blog should be less negative don't you think.

over and out...

Found....wallpaper from 1973

This whole awful water leak mess has its good points...

Not only did we find wet and rotted floors behind the counters but....

This absolutely wonderful wallpaper from 1973 when our home was built.

I do love it and actually tore off a large piece to collage or just frame... My family all think I am crazy and they laughed out loud when we found this behind the cabinets....

Tomorrow am the water pipe man is coming to install new pipes, I moved a few blocks down the street to my in laws where they have hot water and no contractor dust. Still recovering from pneumonia I have to be careful with that stuff.

We are remodeling our entire kitchen since it is all torn apart ... I now have only a few days to pick floors, cabinets, appliances and colors.... have no idea what I want . I would keep the wallpaper to be honest with you.

Hope you weekend was lovely,

Later...

Broken water pipes....no time to blog

I have to take a few days off from doing what I love the most....My Art Gallery is not high priority while we are suffering from broken water pipes under our house inside the concrete. We have lived without hot water for 4 days and it will be another week before it is back. Between insurance claims and contractors to tear down walls and floors I will not have time for Art or blogging. I never knew how badly you rely on hot water.... I have to boil it to do dishes, laundry is out of the question and cold showers are never fun. There is a constant roar in the house from the dehumidifier and fans that the insurance company has put here to try and dry out the water damage. Sigh... I just want my old life back. Have to be so careful now that I do not inhale any contractor dust since that might have been what caused my pneumonia weeks ago.

Hopefully my next post will be a little more cheerful.

Ciao for now

20th ANNIVERSARY AND ROOT CANAL

Today I celebrate 20 years of married life to my wonderful husband. We had some wonderful plans but.... as of last night I started to have the worst tooth ache.... getting less than 3 hrs. of sleep, just praying for the dentist office to open. I was there bright and early to find out I had to go and see a root canal specialist later in the afternoon. I was a very happy patient at 2:30 when they could numb my tooth and pull out the nerves.... argh...

Now I am so numb I can barely speak (might be good since I talk non stop), I can't eat (good for the figure) but so very happy the pain is gone. The dinner plans are canceled but we plan on a candle lit dinner here at home when the Novocaine wears off.

Another summer day...

This whole summer vacation thing is pretty nice :) We are not doing much of anything, just "hanging" out as the kids would say.



Tomorrow we celebrate our 20Th anniversary and our son has his 19Th birthday on Thursday. Our plan is to pack a picnic and drive up to the foothills. Foothill park is wonderful!!! you can see all the way to San Francisco.... Stanford University is right "below" and you can just disappear and relax the day away. If you are not recovering from a stupid pneumonia and some sort of asthma you can go hiking. We usually just bring a blanket and pick nick. I will bring my Art Journal, camera and brand new video camera. A good book and my husband of 20 yrs of course.

Happy 4th of JULY

Happy 4th of JULY to all....

Summer is here....

Summer is really here....

I have been the worst blogger these last few days :( but summer is here and there is so much to do. Boating on the lake, projects around the house, day trips...

My ART STUDIO is on the bottom of the list for a few days. Still recovering (5 weeks yesterday) from pneumonia and now dealing with asthma as a side effect I still have to take it easy but am so glad to be out of the house every day. Some days I do not have to take the inhaler and those are my best days.

eBay is empty but not for long. In another week I have plenty of ART for SALE again.

HAPPY SUMMER TO ALL...