magic and mayhem

Well, last week we finally got together with some good friends to try out this new, to us,

art project! It is called freezer paper stenciling. I first read about the idea in one of the blogs I re ad  the Artful Parent  . I got so excited I emailed my friend Sayo right away and got her excited too!
So here are our first attempts:


steps:
1. we had the kids do a simple drawing with one color sharpie on white paper


2. tear off freezer paper, enough to cover the image by about four or five inches around its border
3. with and exacto knife carefully cut around the image (harder then I thought)


4. you will have a positive and negative cut out of the image


5. tear a bigger sheet of freezer paper  (turn your iron on)


6. get your fabric piece... put the non cut out piece under the fabric (if t-shirt, between the two layers so the paint is only on the front or back)


7. Lay down your image carefully 


8. iron... use the setting according to the fabric needs. Make sure it is ironed down well


9. paint... we used acrylics which worked fine but then just ordered some fabric paint from
https://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1818-AA.shtml?lnav=paints_kits.html.
I can't wait to try this again.


The one below, Max painted too hard and the little edges came up... 


Maybe next week we will have more images up!

our first freezer paper attempt... we did not iron it hot enough but still cool

the positive image of the one above! Max's design of a turtle

Rohan's design and so amazing. I wish I had made 100.

Jay and the Boys created this cool replica of a lego game out now. They even played it! Jay has awesome computer resources! What fun.

Daddy and the boys replicated a lego game they saw for sale... ingenious. 

While I was making coffee Thursday Morning.... this is what was brewing in the boys room.

Rohan became some sort of sorcerer/wizard/scientist.... creativity at its best. These are moments I cherish as a mommy.

Now... onto me and my thoughts. 

I went running yesterday.

I drove to Warren Wilson College to try out their trails. 

(We lived near there for 9 years so I know the trails well!)

I normally run at a park near by or from the house.

I circle around and around at the park like a hamster in a wheel.

Or I pound and pound the pavement becoming one with the cars and the fumes.

The trails:

 I had forgotten how magical it could be to run on a trail. I hike a lot with the kids so I am no foreigner to the trail... but I have not run on them in a long while.

Here is what kept reoccurring over and over. 

I felt like a completely transformed person.

Being in nature, on a dirt trail makes you feel like an integral part of your surroundings.

It makes you become aware of your breath, the birds, the water, the air.

I no longer felt like a machine with other machines struggling to make it to the next destination.

I became part of my surroundings but these were the kind of surroundings that inspire, engage and allow you to loose yourself in the moment.

I am not saying it was not challenging to run 6 miles... it is just that is was an enjoyable challenge and that I felt like I was in 12th grade again at cross country giggling and crunching leaves and pretending I was a character from the movie Meatballs (woody the rabbit, running through the woods like a jack rabbit).

Maybe this magic will not last. I am going to run on trails again, for sure. Hopefully once a week. I will hold on to that memory of completeness and beauty.

What ever your belief is about the creation of this stupendous sphere.....it truly is a miracle.