Jan 30, 2018
In the very early morning, I normally wake up with a soft, little face directly in my face saying something like, “MOMMY! Did you know that baby bats are the size of a grapes?” Or MOMMY! I need some paint.” Or I might just wake to the sound of Imagine Dragons blaring from their record player.
While a “Good morning” at the crack of dawn would be nice, I gotta admit it might be kind of boring too. There is never a dull moment when you hit the ground going full speed every. single. morning. Which I love. But I do have adult-y things that need to get done each morning as well. So I created this art project, set it out on our living room floor and told them the concept. It has given me ample time to feed our dogs and feed our fish and get breakfast started. Yet on other mornings, I decide to ditch my grown up duties and create with them… so everyone gets a banana for breakfast (well everyone except the dogs and fish!).
I told the kiddos that they could make color-FULL people. They could make themselves, they could make people or characters they know. They could make rainbow people. Or polka-dot people. All the people! Any kind of people their creative brains could imagine. They have had so much fun with this project. Clever details such as bow-ties, sunglasses and hats were quickly added. And the different hairstyles they came up with were: crew cuts, curly hair, bobs, bowl cuts and “lego hair”. I truly adore what they have made.
A few tips:
I pre-cut the heads and necks. It gave them a great starting point.
I put all of the supplies in trays and little buckets, which made it feel special.
I kept it simple. No paint, no pompoms, no glitter. (Simple is NOT bad! And I didn’t have to clean up unnecessary messes afterwards.)
I left this project out on our living room floor for multiple days, leaving them the option to meander over and make whenever they felt like it.
Supplies needed:
Construction paper
Scissors
Glue sticks
Markers
I am a huge fan of art projects where your kids do most of the work themselves, and you don’t spend 7 hours prepping and buying supplies. See Simple Summer Drawing and Big Paintings.
Photography by Rebecca Sanabria who loves art projects. And tacos.
Dec 29, 2017
Truth is that I intended to post this before the holidays, but I was having way too much fun with my family. So it’s a wee bit late, but the good news is that it is a great project for any celebration. And it just might be the easiest project in all of the land. We make it year after year, it never gets old, and we always have a good time making it.
Right before the holiday season, I order a bazillion felt balls, shove them in basic glass jars from IKEA and start singing Jingle Bells at the top of my lungs. Ah, if only this blog post were sponsored it could pay for my kids’ therapy they’ll need from having to hear me sing. Kidding. They could care less how poorly I sing. So we string garland together and sing Christmas carols off-key. We use our happy-infused garland all over our home, give it to our friends and wrap it around presents. This year, we used it on a tiny tree in our kids’ room.
Random happy garland fact:
You don’t have to tie any knots! The felt balls are dense, so they just sit on the twine wherever you string them. May not seem like a huge deal, but it is.
Supplies needed:
Baker’s twine
Needle
Rainbow felt balls
Step 1: Thread needle. Step 2: String. See—it’s that easy! We tend to always do multi-colored strands, but a monochromatic garland would also be beautiful.
Need some New Year’s cards to go with your garland? Browse through my 2017 holiday card collection. Or check out this holiday party for more festive celebration ideas.
Photography by Rebecca Sanabria, who I hope to see a whole lot of in 2018.
Oct 17, 2017
How can it be October? My mind is still dreaming of summer. There’s no way it’s time to start thinking about the holidays when I haven’t convinced myself yet that I’m not still hiking to a beach to play in the sand.
Buuuut I better get with it. It is October, and I have zero plans of being stressed and rushed, so it’s time to get a few things crossed off my list for the holidays. Like our family holiday card. This post will make it super easy for you to choose one of my designs. Browse through the options, click which one you like and you’ll be magically transported to the page where you can personalize it and buy it.
To make it easier on your bank account, I can offer 40-percent off of your order. I only have a handful of discount codes to share this year, but I’d love for you to have one. Send an email to hello@jillsmith.com lickety split, and I’ll email a code back to you until I run out of them.
More than anything, I hope your holidays are spent with those you love and stress-free. Lift each other up, soak in the season and go spread some joy.
Oct 13, 2017
“I really regret playing,” said no one ever. Here is where I will share a photo that could make me happy forever. If you’d like to see all of the photos in my PLAY, PLAY, PLAY series, click here.
{ Soft cheeks, gigantic tooth gaps, smushy kisses, and all the love foreverrrrrrrrrrr. }
Soft cheeks, gigantic tooth gaps, smushy kisses, and all the love foreverrrrrrrrrrr.
Feliz fin de semana everyone!
Photograph by Cindy Giovagnoli.
