Chickens

My daughter and her husband own many beautiful chickens.  We got to meet them on a recent visit.  This is Juanita.  I collected some of her feathers.

Beautiful chickens--This is half of the chickens they own.  I learned all their names when I was visiting, but I'm having trouble coming up with them now.

Washing off dried plum juice from eating the dropped plums from their tree.

This is either Thing 1, or Thing 2--they have two of this kind of chicken.

This is Rewind.  They are all so very sweet and tame!  I just love their feathers!

Rose Petal Beads

Cook the petals in water until they're soft and translucent--blend--then cook again in a skillet until it looks like clay--spread out on foil and dry until you can form--make beads and leave them on a nail because they shrink, but keep turning them so they don't get stuck on the nails.  I rubbed them with a little rose oil when they were completely dry.

They dry very hard and they do shrink a lot!  They remind me a little too much of mouse or bat turds!

Onion Flower

and kale

Bobble Head

I've been wanting to make a bobble head ever since I picked up a few from my trip to Mexico.  I would love to see how they're made, but I did some experimenting and came up with this one--very simple with a eucalyptus seed pod body, a little crooked branch for the neck and some beads--a glass one inside for the weight, and humming bird and chicken feathers.  It's a little like making a mobile , in that you have to balance the neck, (I used a thread) before you string it up inside the pod.  This is my prototype, I'm bound to make more.

Breakfast Entertainment! (so long as nobirdy gets hurt)

Breakfast for the birds...

While Pippin tries to act like a birdbath!        

Pippin!

What If??

I've been watching this one strawberry ripen, I knew today was harvest day.  Living in an area where it's a struggle to grow fruits and vegetables has made me appreciate this one large red ripe strawberry!

It's a good size!  Our neighbor's chicken is thinking I have food for her---wrong!

Breakfast,  "What if we could only eat what we grew?  We'd be pretty skinny!" says my granddaughter--I'm thinking maybe worst than that!

It was harvest day for my one broccoli plant too, since I noticed a little yellow flower starting to bloom on its top!  So one strawberry, one broccoli plant and three potatoes!--we be eat'n good tonight!

A Single Broccoli Plant

It's a struggle to grow one broccoli plant where I live.  I replanted this volunteer in a large container and put it in my netted off garden enclosure.  The net keeps the birds out, but those bunnies can burrow in and stretch to reach first the surrounding leaves, then later, after I knocked out the bottom of a cracked bucket to encircle the plant, the bunnies must have climbed up and started to eat the broccoli top!!

The plant is still growing!  Now, not only is it in an above ground container--within my netted garden--with a broken pail collar, but now has an old crab cage over it, (I had to wire the openings around the cage)!!!!!

Here's my little plot--the bunnies so far haven't gotten into this container and the net over the whole thing was a good idea--we now have plenty of lettuce and kale--and a few strawberries every now and then--notice the tomato plants around the edges, I've had to cage these in--the bunnies ate these down once--this is their second life.  I have to water about every other day, since we are in our dry season.

Kale and a Water Fairy

Let your troubles bead up and roll away like water on the backside of a kale leaf!

A closer look reveals a water fairy!

Gifts for the Teachers

For these table runners, the student's took turns painting with thinned down acrylic paints--the next week they used their stamps with black acrylic paint.  This one is for the teacher...

This one's for the student teacher--we (the class) were able to pull this off without the two teacher's knowing!

Momma Deer

She sat in the open--right by the edge of our back yard--I took this picture through a window--it was odd behavior for a deer.  Even though they often come grazing through our yard, to have one resting in the sun at a close range, is a bit rare.  I think she was about to give birth, because today I believe I saw her and her new little one.

Swallowtail Butterfly

I photo shopped a few pictures that I took, of this huge swallowtail butterfly.

Final Art Class of the School Year

We had out last day of art--my granddaughter came up with a great idea of having a scavenger art hunt--a list of things to draw, glue or print using their stamps, and these letter stamps  (I made 7 sets, one for each table)!  Off to the side, we had the students, a few at a time, work on a gift for their teacher and their student teacher.  The scavenger hunt kept them fairly well occupied.  We had prizes, (art supplies)  for the student's who worked quietly.  I made more bread clay to pass out as a farewell gift to all the students.

I made the primary colors and used the same bag over and over, starting with yellow.  I'm really liking this home made air dry clay!!  I used 4 slices of white bread without the crusts, 2 teaspoons of white glue, 1 1/2 teasp. of water, 1 1/2 teasp. of acrylic paint, 2 teasp. of any lotion that has glycerin in it.  Crumble the bread and put everything in a sandwich size zip-lock bag.  Roll the bag to push out the air and zip-lock.  Knead the bag until the mixture holds together.

Turn it out on a floured table (white flour).  Knead, add a dab more lotion and finish kneading using baby powder.

Wrap tightly with plastic wrap--should stay good in the refrigerator for a few weeks, maybe more!

I divvied the clay up into 27 little bags--enough to play with, mix colors, and perhaps make beads or little creatures.  There was a lot of prep for this last class.  I meant to take pictures of the class in action, but I never had the time.  I'll post about the teacher's gifts next--I don't want to give the surprise away by posting too soon.   (hint: They did use their stamps in the making of the gifts)

Making Stamps

The student's made stamps and will use them in their next art lesson (for my granddaughter's third grade class).  I'll be posting about that soon.  We used thin foam sheets from the $ store, cut up and glued on foam core--I hot glued the cork handles.

Tissue Wall Hangings

For this three day art class the fourth through sixth graders made a face with modeling clay--they put on four or five layers of white tissue, (painted on with wheat paste).  The final layer was using color tissue.

For the second lesson, they took out the modeling clay and added to their features using  bread clay.  They also bent a length of reed into a circle to fit around their face.

Today, the final day, the students put their hangings together using thin telephone wire and found materials.

Some interesting hangings!