Friday, July 28, 2017

The Butterfly Project

We successfully raised a monarch butterfly and we have the photos to prove it.  




I kept the milkweed that the caterpillar was eating in my kitchen windowsill.





When we first got it, it was teeny, tiny speck of a thing.  I'm surprised I even found it!  Sorry for the blur, but you can see it there in the innermost leaf of the milkweed in the photo above.





It grew so fast!  Every day it was visibly bigger.




A few times, the milkweed got wilty, so we picked a new sprig for it.




When it got to be almost as big as I thought it would get, I put the milkweed and caterpillar into this mesh laundry hamper.  I knew (from raising black swallowtails in previous years) that when it was ready to pupate, it would try to go away and find a place to hide. You rarely find a butterfly chrysalis in the wild because they are very good at hiding for that vulnerable phase of their existence.  The laundry hamper enclosed it enough to keep it where we could find it (although, when I bought the hamper, I thought it had a zipper top, and it turned out to have a partly open top.  I put a piece of cardboard over the opening to enclose it fully.)





It grew, and ate, and grew and ate...



Yes, we read Eric Carle's adorable book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."






Then one day it suddenly left the milkweed for the first time ever.




Since it could not escape, it settled for a spot up in the corner.




Unfortunately we were not home when it went into the chrysalis.  We came home to see that where it had been hanging in a "J" shape, it was suddenly a beautiful, green jewel, and there was a rumpled little bit of caterpillar skin on the bottom of the hamper.

(As a note, we currently have another in the hamper and just today it went up into the top corner.  I am trying to watch more closely to see we can watch it and see how it wraps itself up.)


It was so difficult to get good photos with the obstruction of the hamper.





Ten days after it went into the chrysalis, I looked at it before I went to bed and the chrysalis had suddenly become very transparent and I could see the colors and shapes of the wings folded up inside.  I wish I could have gotten a picture, but there was no good light for photographing that part.



When we got up that next morning, the butterfly was hanging there, drying it's wings and we could see the empty, clear "package" it came from.





After a while it started to move around and open it's wings.  I could not get a good photo with it's wings open.  But we did some research and determined by it's wing coloring that it was a male.




I put some flowers in a vase into the hamper in hopes it would go for a snack.




But he only wanted to get out of there to try out those new wings!





So we took it outside and let it go.  I tried to put it on some echinacea flowers in my garden, but it took off so fast and was gone almost faster than we could follow.  We last saw it resting up in the maple tree, and then it was gone.




What I later realized that I failed to do was for us to draw it in our nature journals.  (I'm trying to work on nature journaling, but it is hard... the kids need so much help and are fussy about not being able to make things look "right" and I do not yet know how to help them over that...)  Maybe we will still get to that, but one way or another, the kids and I all loved watching it grow and change and we are enjoying the one that we have now as well.   It was a good summer "science" project!

Thursday, July 27, 2017

In the Northwest

Like a Tourist

We arrived in not-visited-for-a-long-time places, and saw Mt. Hood. I took lots of pictures of said mountain, and of various waterfalls and scenic sites and sights.









A couple of photos became watercolor sketches.






Travels ahead.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Anniversary Crafts and Catch-up

My parents' wedding anniversary was at the end of the week wherein I wrote my last blog post -- before my trip.

A few of my younger sisters showed me their projects --




And I made a card, too:



So, my trip was fabulous overall. I feel like I got a lot done, despite making a conscious effort to take some REAL relaxation time. I was able to finish the superhero-mermaid drawing I'd begun in early May, and started and completed another one besides!



I also consumed three and a half books, which should help me catch up on my Goodreads challenge this year. I listened to the books in the car as we drove for hours and hours. If they had been paperback, I would have gotten car sick from looking down too long while we were moving, so I'm really glad that I remembered about the little-used Overdrive app I have on my phone, where I can borrow audiobooks in MP3 format from the library. :)

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Watercolor More

Another Little Person

This is still in progress, probably, awaiting daylight for adjustments.


Note, next week and following,  posts here might be very sporadic dependent on internet access as I travel.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Another Little Person - Watercolor

To Give

Around the doing of lots and lots of other stuff......

including this

Making jam

...... this little piece got squeezed in.

Background washes 

A little charmer



Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Fanciful Floral Fish

I found instructions for a fun project on The Artful Parent. 



First we had to go for a walk to pick a big bouquet of the wonderful wildflowers that are in full bloom right now.  And while we were walking, incidentally, Evan found another tiny Monarch caterpillar.  So we brought that home, too.






Then we picked them apart...






...and glued the pieces onto these fun fish printouts.

(Sorry the photos are all sideways... I'm really annoyed that when I rotate them, then it says it can't accept the file... gah, technology.  You'll have to turn your heads, I guess...)


















Tuesday, July 18, 2017

People for People, Watercolor

To Give

I am trying to do a couple more watercolours before I go. This is for a family member. Maybe a couple more to come - I hope. (Hmmm, I see a couple areas needing modification. Not good to rush.)


Monday, July 17, 2017

To Work Toward

New Class

I was looking at some works of the teacher in a new class I would like to be working on: Metal Embossing. So many ideas; so many things to try.

Maybe later.
For cut-out and embossed and coloured metal

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Friday, July 14, 2017

Doll Done

Tassels and Tiaras

That was the name of the class for this project. It had a theme of early movie stars. I made this first one in black glamour. Two more await finishing later.



And now on to other things as time flies.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Progress Bits

Ending

My on-line craft classes are officially ending tomorrow, and I need to do some serious preparations for other things, so I have been trying to get one finished piece done in whatever classes I could manage. It has been difficult this year.

This is for a tassel half-doll class. I am hoping to get one of three finished soon.


in progress


Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Freshen Up


I have not been doing any art lately... I think I am taking a break and will come back to it fresh when my inspiration and enthusiasm returns.  Right now I am mostly working in the garden, and taking the kids swimming nearly every day (I am pretty sure they think swimming is their full-time summer job).

I have been trying to help the kids get some projects made to take to the fair at the end of summer, and one thing we tried was some molding with Plaster of Paris.  I've never done it before and it didn't quite turn out very well, but I think we will come back to it and try again.





I did repaint my kitchen, however!




(The sign in the above picture was made for me as a gift by a dear friend, it is still waiting to be hung in it's designated spot.)  

Since we built the kitchen, it has been a bright sunshiny yellow, which I liked very much.  But it was getting very dirty and dingy-looking and I was ready for a change and a freshening-up.  





I had a terrible time picking a new color, however, and as it turned out I still was not happy with what I ended up with.  The photos don't exactly show it as it looks in real life... The color is called "Cool Sea Air" and I thought it would look gray with a little hint of blue-green.  In reality, it looks much more blue than I expected.  When you get a whole room-full of it and add changing light, it just doesn't look like the sample.





Granted, it is a very trendy color right now.  I see this color all over the decorators that I follow on Instagram.  So maybe it was some sort of subconscious color choice on my part.  And I am adjusting to it.  It does look really good with my counters and floor, and once I got some new decor up, I do like how it looks.





(That pot-rack is the one my Mom hauled back on an airplane from Switzerland for me!)





Taking everything out of the kitchen made me rethink how (and if) things go back in.  The decluttering effect has been nice and I have moved some things to make them more attractive and functional.  I would like to add in a few new things, such as a basket or something to hold coffee and tea accouterments and a little shelf for mugs to make the little "coffee corner" more useful.






So I am glad to have that summer project done.




In a future post I will show another fun project we've been doing... raising a monarch caterpillar!  The photo above has a little sneak peak-- in the windowsill is the milkweed that the little creature was eating.  It went into it's chrysalis the other day, and when it emerges, I will show all the photos.