6th Grade Masks

Last Friday, I went into Jzo's class to do this month's art project - well to start it. This is a project our school has used with 6th graders for years. They actually love it, although there is often some resistance to getting all the gunk on your face (I don't blame them), but in the end, they love it! In two weeks, we will go back and they will paint and embellish these "personalized" masks - feathers, felt, sequins, etc, etc. - they end up really fun to see in a collection on the wall at school! I'll take Marina's in next time as a sample - she still loves the one she did over 2 years ago!

This is Jordan (under the plaster) and his friend Parker who did that to him. Once all the plaster casting strips are wet, overlapped and smoothed onto the face, you have to sit for another 10 minutes or so for it to be set up enough to pull it off their faces.
I guess they think they are gangsters (great!) with the slanted peace signs and the "tough" look. Hard to make a "tough face" under a plaster mask!

By the way, I did instruct the class that they HAD TO ensure that their friend had at least 1 breathing opening - nostrils or mouth. They also each had the option of going over, or around their eyes.

Ryker is 15!

got up early on Sunday (6:20) to take out Moka, and it was lightly snowing - after a day on Sat. of on again/off again weather conditions of all types, this wasn't too shocking even though it's APRIL 20TH! This photo was a couple hours later, when the flakes starting to really come down... have to say it's so pretty, and since we "really don't" live in a snow climate, it's fun, but come on!!! later that day, after Marina & I got home from driving up to Everett to see BOTH Madi & Delaney in the "Charlie Brown" play - we whipped up a "cookies & cream Oreo" cake for Ryker. This is Jordan happily lighting the candles at about 8pm while we waited for the guest of honor to come downstairs.... he'd started playing his new video game "Call of Duty 4"
Notice the small round cake next to the Oreo cake... two girls that have known Ryker since kindergarten and live near us, came to the door with this cake they'd made him, sang "happy birthday" and had him blow out the candle! The writing on the cake said, "This is how old you are and the # of reasons why we {heart} you!" The red around the border is a row of "swedish fish" candies... his favorite! Pretty nice of them! At least he didn't have to walk around school all day carrying a cake like he did last year when the same girls made him one.

Painting the Studio

So, for about 8 years, there's been this eggplant color on the walls of what was once the office, and has for a couple of years been in the process of transitioning into my art studio. Although I've loved the contrast of the dark wall color to the white trim, etc., it's time for a change. It's just way too dark for a studio, at night the walls almost appear black.
So, last week (yes it was actually a week ago) this is what the room looked like, after clearing most things out, and starting the painting process. However... I didn't love the color. It was not only too "chalky" it was too "cool" and made the "warm" undertones of my off white millwork seem dingy.
I used more than half of the paint, and then on David's suggestion, I took the can back in to have them tweak the color. In the above photo, you can see a patch of a slightly darker color - which is actually called "Harbor Haze" and is a muted gray-blue, whereas the first color was called "Green Tint" and although incredibly close - it's pale green tone is actually "cooler" than the pale blue tone, and the new color looks way better next to the off white trim. Now, it's been a week since the top photo, the 3rd photo showing the new color was last Friday, and the paint store (Benjamin Moore) said they needed till today to custom match a new gallon of it for me. Still no phone call, and I'm almost out of the original can. Ugh! I just need to get this project done!