29 January 2013

It's a Family Affair . . .

I carried a few branches home from work today. 

Yesterday morning as my co-workers and staff were shuffling into Stamford at 7:15am, I was outside in front of the school going through a pile of freshly cut branches. I have been trying to figure out what to do with my jewelry since moving to Singapore, and hanging everything on branches like a Christmas tree seemed particularly fitting to my taste. Especially since this past weekend, I actually kept my promise to myself of taking down my Christmas tree and I kind of miss it. How did the holidays come and go so quickly? #missingchristmas

Anyhow . . . As I was walking home from school with the branches, I started thinking about how I never really do crafty things. I mean I include crafty elements in my art pieces, but I consider that work. (A good kind of work, but work nonetheless.) I don't really make things just to be making things. Or at least I have stopped doing that in the past several years. I am always making something for something else: a show, a gift, a project for someone else, something

When I brought the branches home, I painted the tips orange. That was my big crafty moment, the extent of my creative energy: orange-tipped branches.



My sister--on the other hand--is a curious crafter, making something new almost every single day. I have always known this, but for some reason this past year she has really grown in her creative endeavors. Birthdays, holidays, gifts: she goes out of her way to create everything by hand, lovingly and with extreme care. I don't know how she does it with my two nephews running around . . . #supermom

Oh wait--they are crafting right alongside her . . . They have the absolute pleasure of not only growing up in a deliciously clever home, but they are also participating in creating their own environment and decorating their family's house. This not only encourages imagination, but helps them to realize their voice is considered and appreciated. What better environment in which to raise kids?


Perhaps that's why they feel so comfortable running around looking like this . . . 


Perhaps this type of environment has allowed Oliver to become the amazing artist that he's clearly blossoming into: full speed ahead, right before our eyes!!


Perhaps this is why Liam loves to begin making things to decorate the house for Christmas in early October--before he's even thought of his very own birthday (which falls on the 12th of that very month). Or why he's such an incredible dancer. He knows how to get down . . . 


Maybe it's why--when I handed the boys their dad's tablet--they began drawing on it instead of playing games. Not that playing games is bad, it's just a different instinct. (That's a portrait of me below. Spitting image, eh?)


Kerry lives in an apartment with her husband, the boys, two dogs, and a cross-eyed cat. While she has space for a makeshift studio, there isn't that much space. But that's just it: she makes things happen with what space (and materials) she does have because it's important to her and it creates a great lifely experience for the boys. #talentedsissypants #artrocks


She held Liam's birthday party in the apartment. She made a spooky haunted house decoration and a pin-the-eyes-on-the-monster game, above. She made the absolutely grossinating yellow/green glow-in-the-dark slime party favors, below. 


She also made not one but two wreathes for the season . . . 



And check out this quick bat outfit she made for Oliver's school assembly. This came together in a jiffy with help from our mom. (Our mother was the Queen Bee of craft in the 80's: we had a puffy paint sweatshirt for every occasion.)



Kerry and I have always loved Christmas, and it shows. When moving to Singapore with a limited amount of items to take, I chose my tree. My tree and my Patrick Swayze prayer candle. 

When Kerry and her family decorate for Christmas, they put up half a dozen trees of various sizes and textures. The largest one is green, the second largest one is white, and the others range in color--one being a bright pink tinsel, which is my absolute favorite.


She found the idea for this advent calendar on Pinterest, above. And she had at least 6 snowy jars filled with wintery scenes, below.



I thought the snowflakes, above, were super-cool! My nephews made them by dipping pipe cleaners in some crazy concoction that I never-quite-got-the-answer-to-what-it-was-when-I-asked. But the pipe cleaners crystalized: science + art. Win, win. 

The boys also helped make some quick cardboard feather wreathes with their next door neighbor, below.


They also turned plastic lids into ornaments. A fun way to recycle mismatched lids. 



Her house screams creativity . . . Just looking around, you could get lost in every bit of color and active space that surrounds you. There are images of the boys--at every stage of their lives--on every wall. And she is by far the greatest collector of my work that ever was . . . She has my very first clay works in her house, a partially finished skateboard that I made hanging in the entryway, and two giant wooden elephants I created for a fair in Austin hanging in the boys room. (If I actually listed everything, this post would be a mile long. She is absolutely my biggest fan, which I love!)  

I caught this little bit of hilarity below on our way out the door while I was visiting over the holidays. Nothing is without a rhinestone or ounce of crafty fun in her house! Honeywell 'stash.



Maybe we get our art/craft sensibilities from our mother (with Liam after his dance recital above left). Or maybe we get them from our toothy father (above right). 

My personal belief? We were blessed creatively by them both. As much as they like to play like they had nothing to do with the way we are, they had everything to do with it. We are very fortunate to have such humorous, candid parents (um, see image below). Our creativity stems from their reactions to everything they encountered during our lives growing up, as they raised us. #family

They are funny, funny people. And we are lucky, lucky girls. Craft on.

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