Art, art everywhere!

The day goes along well enough until "Mom, I made this for you". More art. A gorgeous (or not) picture, sculpture or thing which now is mine and needs a place. I have 3 storage bins under the bed crammed full of paintings, drawings and workbooks from the past 7 years of schooling. It overflows the kitchen counters, my desk, Dave's briefcase and every flat surface. My walls look like a gallery. I've stopped buying tape in self defense. I thought a bulletin board downstairs would help contain Julia's creations but she just filled it with her friends' phone numbers, written in large print and elaborately cut out. I've tried smuggling art out the door in between old newspapers and junk mail. They always find out. Can't you hear the horror in their voices? "Mom, why is my picture in the garbage?".

So without further ado, here's a smattering of our decor.

This Littlest Pet Shop picture was a 2 day Spring Break project with colored pencils and stickers left in eggs by the Easter Bunny.

This one's on my bedroom wall. "To Mom" and as an afterthought in red:"and Dad". Animals are usually Julia's favorite subject.

More Julia art:

Tate and Dave make Lego sculptures. Thankfully no one expects these these to stick around long.

Yesterday we had to get out left over clay from Maisie's birthday after Julia came home in a snit. Her last two clay sculptures had cracked at school. A relief map of the Willamette Valley and some type of, you guessed it, animal. Tate and Maisie were, of course, glad to sculpt with her. Unfortunately Julia got even further bent out of shape at her clay's reluctance for perfection and stomped downstairs to work on her spelling homework. No matter, Tate and Maisie had a lovely messy time and created more pieces:

This is a young artist at work on one titled "Dying Holes of Dinosaurs".

Maisie commandeered Julia's non-cooperative clay and made a giraffe. No idea why. Perhaps a wedding present for her cousin Alison?

Maisie is no stranger to sculpture. Her pieces are all over our house. Raiding the recycle bin is a favorite pastime for her. She tears and cuts, tapes, glues and rubber bands. This is what my dresser looks like:

A hippo from Alison. She might have been 13 or so when she bought it. It was right after my cat, Fuzzy - aka Big Fat Hippo, died. It's from the best junk store ever: The Beach Mart in Holden Beach, NC.

Maisie made the piggy bank for Mother's Day (thank you Dave, for labelling that - I'd not remember otherwise).

The tall thing is what became of a paper towel roll and old party supplies.

The flower pot coaster is an advent garden Tate supposedly made in Preschool last year. I find it hard to believe he did much. He spent most of his time last year finding things worth constructing into rockets and jumping off of things which aren't supposed to be stood on.

The rest of the table holds some little do dads from my Nana, two mice in yellow glass, a green frog and a praying child in porcelain.

Two jewelry boxes holding jewelry I don't remember to wear.

A box with more jewelry in it. Things I don't remember I own. They landed there when I unpacked, and there they stay.

My Mom made the ladybug rock. It was a Camp Fire Girls project I was suppoed to do. I remember not being very interested in anything other than gabbing with my friends.

Here's a close up of Maisie's interesting abstract of our house. There are beds for all of us including Maisie's little sister. Maisie insists that she has one out there in the ether waiting for me to let it come. She also made out cats.

I just noticed this next to my computer in my desk. The envelope is slightly to small to hold the letters and reads "TO*MOM*LOVE*MAISIE". No idea what the inspiration for this piece was. Maisie just does these. My friend, Penelope, says she sees Maisie in 20 years in her studio, sparks flying as she welds her next piece. Maybe. Maybe not. The only thing certain is that I will be always making more room for the flood of artwork.