Feeling artsy

    As part of their Christmas gifts, each of my sons got a box of pre-planned "Mom Dates" for 2017. Over the past few years, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to take each boy out individually to just hang out. January's dates were both artistic.

Timmy and I went to a place called Wicked Art Bar. They are a local place that hold paint nights. Once or twice a month, they do family days. I wasn't sure if Timmy would like it but, based on his interest in his painting from Thanksgiving, I thought I'd give it a try. We painted "Snowy Bunnies." Here's how they came out:
Tim, hard at work.


 Tim and I:

 Finished product (check out Tim's snow bunny on the left.):


Ironically, my sister-in-law, Sarah, gave me a gift certificate for this same paint place. I had seen a painting that I thought my mom would like so I invited a friend and we went to paint it last Friday night. Here's the finished painting. Don't show my mom, I made it for her birthday. (I know, I sound like a 5 year old but I hope she likes it.)


    My date with David was on Monday. We went to Clay Dreaming, which is a pottery studio. You can either go to the wet studio and legitimately put together a piece of pottery, or paint pre-made pottery which will then be glazed and put in the kiln. David developed an interest in pottery in his elementary art class. I think he was slightly disappointed when we got there and he realized he wasn't making the pottery, but I thought we'd check it out before we really got invested.

David painted a mug. The inside is green and the outside will be a darker blue once it's fired.  He was having a nice time at this point.

Still good:

Then we had a bit of a meltdown. He was working really hard on the mug and everything was going well. He tried to draw a Minion and things came unraveled...fast. I saw a lot of myself in him right then. He had an idea of what he wanted, couldn't do it- but wanted to try. When he tried and it didn't go well, he got super upset. He didn't want me to do it for him, didn't want help, but he also was really stressed about how to finish without ruining his final piece. It was sad. We changed the Minion body into a face. We worked together to make the face, eyes, goggles and he did the smile. I hope he's happy with it when it is finished.

Here's my plain plate. (Which will be very dark blue with a coral-ish color around the edge) I would've done very well if I had just copied an idea someone gave me, but I'm not very creative with blank space. Also, my snowflake stamp rebelled. I wish I knew some cool techniques- next time. Oops- I didn't post because I had written my last name across the plate. Sorry! I'll let you know if I like it.