A little paint, a little thread

I sat down today to dowload pictures from my camera and 21 of the 29 shots were not taken by me. I am seeing a trend in emma's photography subject-matter: Henry and her sisiter. But it is funny to see the things she's taking pictures of--the dirty laundry in the basket, the piano, a closeup into one of her dollhouse rooms, henry, henry, henry....

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I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled about moving here to Wisconsin three years ago.  I had all those wisconsin sterotypes floating around inside my head--starter jackets and flannel, beer and brats, cheeseheads and nasal accents. Wisconsin definitely has its share of those things, but the longer we've lived here the more I've been pleasantly surprised by our little community on the lake. The art museum is one of those surprises. Last week I took the girls to a new installation called the "ARTery". It is a giant sun-filled room dedicated to giving children an opportunity to create their own artwork. The theme this month is dreamscapes and all the projects fit within this theme--from wild sculptures and bubble machines, to sitting inside a miniature house recording your dreams onto tape.  Emma had a wonderful time painting and creating a giant vase covered in pompoms, buttons and silky ribbon,and filled with pink, purple and orange tissue paper flowers. (okay, I got involved too, of course!) And Mary enjoyed sitting in a sunny corner on brightly  colored sofas looking through all the books (and tearing out the front page of one. yikes!)

      

And finally, here are some pictures of my latest (unfinished)sewing project. I am trying to duplicate some dresses that the girls got for Christmas. Basically they are made by cutting off a tshirt and attaching it to fabric with a gathered empire waistline. They are adorable,but my first try did not quite work. I am a wing-it kind of sewer and I didn't cut enough fabric to get all the gathers that I wanted, and I don't like the staight lines of the skirt. I will have to improve for my next try. Luckily, I found the tshirts for two dollars and the fabric is from my stash. I added the ribbon in the back to cover up a little mistake. This is one of the projects my girlfriend and I were working on. Next time I think it would be wiser not to BEGIN my sewing project at 10:30 at night.    
(sorry for the poor lighting, I was taking these in my laundry room.)