Creative Goings-on

Some homeschool friends of ours had been studying the Middle Ages and invited us to a medieval party they hosted.  It was a costume party, and probably the first time my kids have ever been to anything requiring costumes.  We spent a day in a frenzy of costume construction and as a result we had two honorable knights, Merlin (ah, a very young Merlin), a beautiful princess, and the court jester.  The party was great fun with food specific to the time (no forks!), archery, knife throwing, jousting, and general merriment.  

Right after that, I jumped into this project that had been awaiting my input--

My Mom and I planned this joint project as a 70th birthday gift for a special aunt in our family.  Mom did all the lovely painting, Dad made the rustic wood frame, and then they mailed it to me to add the lettering.  I had spacing problems, as usual (sigh), but it turned out pretty well.

I can't seem to find the photo of just the painting without the lettering, but here is a close-up of the lamp.

For "Card Making Day" on Saturday, my children made birthday cards for a friend.  (And I can't get the photos to be un-rotated no matter what I do!)  In the photo above, Andrew's is top, Evan's bottom.  I was struck by how carefully symmetrical Andrew made his.

 And I was amused when Evan drew a forklift on this inside of his.

Here is another case of photos annoying upside down and I cannot right them!  I wish Blogger would add an edit option for photos...  Anyway, these are two little mixed media pieces the boys did for the fair.  The background is a piece of canvas panel with tape resist paint, and then they glued corrugated cardboard and torn bits of crepe for trees.  

I, myself, have done very little art lately, but I do have a few little sketchbook things I can show in later post, as this one is getting long enough for today.  More later!