I love to make art. I love to do a lot of things. I have grandiose ideas of a prolific mixed media body of work based around the life and times of my family. News flash, It’s never going to happen. There are several more pressing things in my life, like raising said kids, for me to clear away hours of time each week to make art. My free time is scarce. Maybe I can be a writer? I’ll focus on that for the moment. But on a trip this past weekend to visit the paternal grandparents, who do not sport a television in their main living space, we all retreated to other nightly activities. I decided to paint. It was fun.

Michael’s is like the holy temple of arts & crafts. Their sticker selection is off the hook and they have virtually every frosting mechanism invented. Their “real” art section is on point too. You gotta love Michael’s. No duh. So what I really wanted to share with you today was these incredible little wood model kits I found there. A while back I bought the race car kit for Fritz and it gave us a solid forty-five minutes of enjoyment. Bingo! But here’s the clincher…they cost $1! When was the last time four quarters bought you nearly an hour of happiness? I bought two today, the bulldozer and the rocket ship. The kit includes everything you need, says so right on the box. These things kill!! Fun for everyone!

When I went to Berlin a a couple months ago I visited a kids shop that had an extensive assortment of the most amazing fabrics I had ever laid eyes on. Picking just a few to take back with me was agonizing. After an hour of browsing, I chose three. I think they were about eight euros for a half a yard. You can see my selections in this post.

I haven’t used the fabrics yet but I pulled them out yesterday and noticed a name on the selvage. I googled the name Michael Miller Fabrics and low and behold they’re from the US. There I was thinking I had stumbled upon a serious find. And that explains the price. I’m ecstatic that I’ll be able to buy these fabrics easily now and for a more reasonable price. The patterns are so inspiring it makes me want to sew again ( I went to fashion design school and haven’t touched my sewing machine in 8 years).

I picked out a few choice swatches but there are so many more it will blow your mind. They don’t sell off they’re site but you can check out all their designs there. Don’t let the home page fool you dig in and you’ll find all the fun crazy stuff. You can also buy Michael Miller fabrics at J&O and Fabrics.com.

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If you remember a while ago I was experimenting with making terrariums. I haven’t made one since BD let the one I made him for our anniversary rot on his desk at work. This was infuriating but he was probably getting me back for the many gifts he’s gotten me that I didn’t do kick flips over. What-to-the-ever. Annnnnyway, I found one of the terrarium dishes I bought way back when and I gave it to Fritz and suggested he make a terrarium. Right on.

We went to Sprout Home, the absolute best gardening shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Fritz picked out his own selection of little plants for his terrarium. We’ve actually been doing a lot of gardening and Fritz is developing a keen eye for flowers, plants and herbs. Every so often I’ll catch him in the garden taking a basil leaf in between two fingers, gently rub it and sniff the sweet aroma. I taught him that.

So here is a terrarium 100% designed by Fritz with a little help from mom:

Step 1) The supplies: Charcoal for a bottom layer to get some proper drainage, potting soil, plants, moss, rocks and little extras for decoration. *Also you’ll notice the brightly colored oil cloth. We break it out for all our messy projects. I learned this from a book called The Creative Family. I love this book and have picked up a few really great tips and inspiration.

Step 2) After you’ve layered your charcoal and soil look at your plants, decide where they’re going, loosen their roots and plant them.

Step 3) Add decorations. The possibilities are endless. Rocks, moss, crystals, miniature people figurines, tiny garden gnomes (still looking for those), dinosaurs. Fun Stuff!

Step 4) Water and voila! our finished product. Terrariums are shockingly quick and easy to make, low investment, high reward.

Remember a while back there was a discussion about diaper bags and just using your purse and throwing a pouch of baby stuff in it? And then there was this post I did about making something from Baby Stuff. Well I put two and two together and viola!

I don’t get a chance to make the graffiti very often. As a matter of fact, I think the last time I did a piece was on out last trip to Germany. I’m not a Graffiti writer per se. I had a very short stint playing around with a tag, but I have to say, it’s quite fun, so whenever I get a chance to do something like this I love it. BD is the OG graffiti writer of the fam. Annnnyway, after two days of rain the sun came out so we packed up some paint and headed to a wall. Instead of doing what I usually write (VIXEN!) I wanted to do something for the kids. I thought I could blow up a photo of it for their room. It didn’t come out perfect but good enough. Long story short, we took our time making the pieces, drank beer, smoked cigs and had some fun. As soon as we had all finished we took some photos. For just a moment I had my back to everyone taking a pic with my phone and as soon as I turn back around there were four German Police officers there. Getting in trouble in another language is kinda scary…especially German. They took our passport and ID #’s, had some talk and in the end only confiscated the paint. Maybe we’ll get a ticket or court date in the mail (Sure I’d love a reason to go back!). From what I understand because we weren’t actually painting, no one was claiming the paint and we were in a totally abandoned area they didn’t feel like processing us…Fewwww. Secretly though, it was actually kinda exciting. hehhehe.

Here’s what daddy did…

Here’s what the homies did…

Did you ever feel like staging a murder suicide for Max and Ruby? Does Dora’s squeaky voice make you want to ride the porcelain bus? Do you secretly wish that Elmo would just pack his shit and leave Sesame Street…forever? Well there’s a cure for your cartoon blues; the Boomerang channel. If you haven’t tuned in, Boomerang syndicates all the old favorites like The Smurfs, Tom & Jerry, The Pink Panther, Popeye, Yogi Bear, Banana Splits and many more. As of late, Fritz has shuned the modern cartoons for these old school classics.

On a typical day we usually flick on the TV around five-thirty when I begin dinner. Instead of hearing the high energy ‘COME ON VAMANOS! Everybody let’s go!…’ I get to hear the smooth stylings of Henry Mancini, ‘Da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dummmmmmm’. I love that Fritz is into these vintage cartoons and  I feel as if I get to re-live my youth just a little bit. I had all but forgotten about Gargamel and Captain Caveman. Boomerang is totally a win-win.

I am so super excited about this book that my mommy bff Allison gave me. She brought it to me as a gift to cheer me up when I was in my final weeks of pregnancy. How sweet is that! I’m finally getting around to making some of the things. The book is Baby Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo. This crafty collective also has a few other books I want to get my hands on; The Cute Book, Cute Stuff and Fun Dolls. I’ve been scanning Baby Stuff for days trying to figure out which projects I wanted to work on. I finally decided on the little spittle bib, lil’ friends dolls and the handy pouch. So yesterday I went to The Brooklyn General Store and picked out a few fabrics in the Aranzi Aronzo color palette and got my embroidery threads and sewing notions at Michael’s. I can’t wait to start the projects and share my results. Stay tuned!

This is our friend Nick’s book. He makes Robots. My husband and him went to high school together. I met Nick for the first time, like, a million years ago at McCaig Welles Gallery where he was having a robot show. The whole gallery was filled with hundreds of robots. All he paints is robots. Robots, robots, robots! His studio is a virtual robot factory. Nick gave us a copy of his book, R Robot Saves Lunch, and it’s currently in heavy rotation. Nick wrote an inscription to Fritz and we never miss that page. Fritz also has an original Nick Kuszyk hanging in his room  which was a gift from Nick at my baby shower. Fritz is very proud of that…already a collector! At this point I’ve probably read R Robot Saves Lunch at least seventy-five times…and surprisingly it’s still enjoyable. I owe that to it’s short length, cute plot and great artwork. Teach your kids about street art today and buy R Robot Saves Lunch!

I feel gross today. I’ve been kinda beached on the couch, crampy and icky feeling. Until I return to a more festive state here is some eye candy from my Image Spark.