A gift I put together over the weekend for my son’s friends who are twin brothers. My husband says it looks like writing you might find on a 1920s advertisement. What do you think?
Tag Archives: kids
Sketchy
Back to the sketch book! Not daily but I’m working on getting back into a good routine of it. I was drinking tea at the kitchen table and my six year old wanted to sketch, so we perched an apple on the tea box. I was impressed with his attempt at adding dimension!
The Best Ever
I have been working toward this piece since I first discovered my passion for art. I deeply feel that I have reached the pinnacle of perfection, and can see no point in going any further. This is my best work *to date* and, dare I say, my best work ever. So, this is it folks. I’m hanging up my hat, and am off to become perfect at something else now. Enjoy!
The Final Piece- Pteranadon and T-Rex vs. Angry Robot Machine
detail, 1
detail, 2
APRIL FOOL! Full credit for this masterpiece goes to my wonderful, inspired, and clearly imaginative 5 year old son.
Happy Mess
Hi friends! I’m back from a pre-Spring Break vacation!
Okay, well I didn’t really go anywhere, but I took a long weekend away from most of my day-to-day responsibilities to indulge myself and recharge my batteries (oh, and it was my birthday yesterday, so I decided the entire weekend preceding was mine for the taking).
Spring Break starts next week, you see. Most people look forward to the reprieve, but if any of the past school holidays have been any indicator, it just means a whole week home with both of my boys who will be turning 4 and 6 at the end of Spring. They are great kids and I love hanging out with them, but our house seems to get proportionately smaller with each day we spend cooped up inside it all together. It has been a long Winter and with last week’s teasing with 60° weather followed by several days of rain/sleet/snow we are all plunged hopelessly into the vice-grip of Spring Fever.
Like you may have read in earlier posts, I have a lot going on pretty much all of the time. I’m not so great at prioritizing all the time, but I’m still pretty dang good at rationalizing and making excuses. I will admit, with a heavy dose of chagrin, that I have not been as dedicated to this project for what it started out to be. Although, in all fairness, I haven’t dropped the ball entirely, and have still been focusing way more time and energy on all aspects of this part of my life- the sketches, the finished pieces, the business end, the blog, the networking, etc. It just isn’t following the original goal I have set, but still certainly falls within some boundary etched in shades of grey, right? …Or am I rationalizing again?
Anyway, I digress. I had an amazing weekend, all 5 ½ days of it. I am ready to dive back into this craziness I call my life, pouring a little bit more of my soul onto some canvas, chasing the tornadoes that are my boys, catching the rest of the pieces of my life as they fling by, and just doing my best in the midst of my happy mess.
Music Speaks Louder Than Words
2 March, 2012
Music Speaks Louder Than Words
I took my boys to a trial class at a local dance studio this weekend, where, thanks to my oldest, they both got quickly recruited into an all-boys hip-hop class. There are times, I think, when you can tell the difference between when a child (or anyone) just likes something and when it is something they actually have a passion for. Perhaps “passion” is too strong a word for someone so young, but to see the enthusiasm and the starts of passion cultivated is really pretty awe-inspiring. Growing up, music always had a place in my family, and even though it has morphed to fit our quirky little family, it is still just as much a cornerstone. I love that my boys can express themselves through music and movement. There is something so raw about being able to connect with someone else’s art in a way that resonates through the body– inspiring it, moving it. Seeing my children experience that is nothing short of amazing.
Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions. ~Jacques Barzun
Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die. ~Paul Simon
All You Need is Love
Valentine’s day gets a bad rap. It’s the holiday that people love to hate. Yes, it’s overly commercialized, but that’s not even newsworthy when most people are still paying off Christmas. The road to finding love can undoubtedly be long and lonely, but that doesn’t mean that True Love™ is the only reason to celebrate. Love your family, love your friends, love your neighbors…. and love yourself. I feel that time is better spent doing that instead of searching for The One, or resenting those who simply have Someone. Plus, loving life is sexy.
These are the digital Valentine’s I made as my art project yesterday:
I didn’t get flowers. The only card I got was from another girl. I didn’t get all dressed up or make reservations at a fancy restaurant. I didn’t get a sitter for my kids. And I had one of the best Valentine’s Days ever. I spent my day with the three most important boys in the world, laughing at a kid’s movie, eating in a small quiet Chinese restaurant, and then jumping around a bounce house until we were all sweaty and half sick. We took time out of our crazy days of school days, work days, long nights, short tempers, and general busyness to focus on what really matters- our quirky, funny little family and everything that makes us that way. Even if it takes a commercial holiday to make it happen, I’ll take it. The world needs to hurry a little less and love a little more.
Until next Valentine’s Day….
Musical Musings
7 January, 2012
Music is such a huge part of my inspiration
There is not a day that goes by in the Cahill household without a soundtrack. Music is practically as much of a staple around here as food or clothing. With a few exceptions, there isn’t much we don’t listen to- jazz, indie hip-hop and rock, traditional Celtic or classical music, good ol’ pop punk, orchestral renditions from the Legend of Zelda, industrial instrumentals, folk (and bluegrass-punk–there’s a fun one!), some classic rock, a handful of top-40, and stuff that is so amazingly original it’s hard to categorize.
My preschool- and kindergarten-age boys could take on the hippest of hipsters with their knowledge of obscure indie bands. They are always walking around humming or singing something. Two nights ago, I turned on a song for them that they both had stuck in their heads, and while I didn’t think they paid it much attention beyond the catchy hook and fun beat, they completely caught me off guard. After the song had ended my oldest began asking me questions about the song that only could have come from really listening the lyrics, trying to understand the message of the song. Then, to my even greater surprise, his 3 year old brother, without looking up from his coloring book, answered before I could. They proceeded to have a (relatively) existential conversation about the meaning of the song.
-What does he want, Mom?
-He wants to go home.
-But is that REALLY what he wants?
-He’s lost and wants to find his way home.
-What if he doesn’t know which path to take?
It’s so easy to take for granted that the child-mind sees things simply, and to forget that this allows them to sometimes see more than those of us who skim over things as though we already understand and know the answers. These two beautiful children rarely concern themselves with anything in the future beyond the next meal-time; yet there they were, dissecting this song, dissecting the part of this artist’s life that he had shared, and asking questions that we are still asking ourselves as adults.
I am so mindful of what I let my kids eat or what they watch on TV, I surround them in the visual beauty of the world, but I honestly don’t think as much about the content of what I let them listen to (and I’m talking mostly radio-played music here) but I forget that their little ears are absorbing and processing that just as much as their bodies do to quinoa and organic veggies. Perhaps it’s time that I make sure that, if they are going to listen with intention, I make sure they are listening to music made with intention.
