Charmed

Last night we had dinner at Noodles and Company, because I really wanted to and it was time for Jet to try something new.

So he had buttered noodles and used their chopsticks and some Funchop chopstick helpers to help him eat his noodles with the chopsticks.

In the middle of his meal he leaned towards me and said, "Mom... did you know? When you smile at someone, they smile back!" He then pointed at a woman who was sweeping up stuff from under the tables, "I smiled at her and she smiled back at me! That's so cool." He grinned contentedly.

Charmed

Last night we had dinner at Noodles and Company, because I really wanted to and it was time for Jet to try something new.

So he had buttered noodles and used their chopsticks and some Funchop chopstick helpers to help him eat his noodles with the chopsticks.

In the middle of his meal he leaned towards me and said, "Mom... did you know? When you smile at someone, they smile back!" He then pointed at a woman who was sweeping up stuff from under the tables, "I smiled at her and she smiled back at me! That's so cool." He grinned contentedly.

Books

Thanks to bryant, I now know what to do with any books I want to get rid of. He also presented a link for the New Orleans Public Library for monetary donations, too.

Books

Thanks to bryant, I now know what to do with any books I want to get rid of. He also presented a link for the New Orleans Public Library for monetary donations, too.

Empty Bowls

Last night, John, Jet and I went to the local Crackpots pottery place and met up with a bunch of church folks, including an elementary school art teacher, her husband and two kids and their friends and their kids and our friends and their kids and we all painted bowls. In the midst of the happy chaos, Jet turned to me and said, "I *like* visiting while we do this."

He painted his own bowl. Black and yellow and orange and blue stripes and lots of dots and it was cool until he got bored and started playing with the water and the sponge. :-)

John put a big eyeball in the bottom of his bowl, because he and Jet had talked all Monday about doing an eyeball bowl and he wanted to do it eventhough Jet had other ideas. So he did. Then John decided that all eyeballs wasn't really what he wanted to do, so he thought a bit and peered into his bowl and added a nose and part of an ear where they would have been if the inside of the bowl was his face. *giggles* Then he put a big, red, speckled hand on the bottom of the bowl, where he'd been holding it. On Thursday he and I are going to do another pair of bowls, so he giggled a lot, last night, about doing the OTHER half of his face in the other bowl and wondering what the folks firing the bowls would think of THAT.

I once had a book on Chinese brush painting, and as one of the exercises, the artist talked about three or four-stroke sparrows. One for the head, upper body, and, perhaps tail. One for each wing. John and I hunted through the whole house for that book, but I couldn't find it. So I peered at the Internet and found this, which isn't a three-stroke bird no matter how you look at 'em, but they were very cool, and enough for me to at least get an idea of how to paint them. So I painted them onto the outside of the bowl, and then added a branch of the willow/bamboo? leaves on the side opposite the birds. Inside I squinted and then finally put in a stalk of green bamboo (light green loaded brush with a dark green loaded tip with just a bit of brown worked in with the dark green) with a little red-breasted bluejay perched on the side on the inside.

We'll get to see how they turn out in five days, and then, this year, I'll just say good-bye to the bowl as last year's experience taught me that it's unlikely I'll see it again. But John and I are painting another set of bowls tomorrow. I'm starting to think that it'd be fun to paint a snowflake into it, just painting the dark parts and leaving the white parts white. The Art teacher did this spectacular sunflower on the inside and outside of her bowl, with lots of circularly symmetrical elements that I thought were just gorgeous. I hope I get to get a picture of her fired bowl next week, too. But how she was methodically working around the bowl reminded me that I could probably do something as regular and overall complex, even when each stroke, in order and in place was simple when contemplated alone.

Nice thing is that Thursday is only in primary colors, so I'll be more limited in color choices, so I can do more with pattern and worry less about colors.

I also discovered that I can get a 20% discount, using my Entertainment card, so I may as well do that, sometime, as Jet really wanted to paint an egg or a critter for himself as well as the bowl for others.

Empty Bowls

Last night, John, Jet and I went to the local Crackpots pottery place and met up with a bunch of church folks, including an elementary school art teacher, her husband and two kids and their friends and their kids and our friends and their kids and we all painted bowls. In the midst of the happy chaos, Jet turned to me and said, "I *like* visiting while we do this."

He painted his own bowl. Black and yellow and orange and blue stripes and lots of dots and it was cool until he got bored and started playing with the water and the sponge. :-)

John put a big eyeball in the bottom of his bowl, because he and Jet had talked all Monday about doing an eyeball bowl and he wanted to do it eventhough Jet had other ideas. So he did. Then John decided that all eyeballs wasn't really what he wanted to do, so he thought a bit and peered into his bowl and added a nose and part of an ear where they would have been if the inside of the bowl was his face. *giggles* Then he put a big, red, speckled hand on the bottom of the bowl, where he'd been holding it. On Thursday he and I are going to do another pair of bowls, so he giggled a lot, last night, about doing the OTHER half of his face in the other bowl and wondering what the folks firing the bowls would think of THAT.

I once had a book on Chinese brush painting, and as one of the exercises, the artist talked about three or four-stroke sparrows. One for the head, upper body, and, perhaps tail. One for each wing. John and I hunted through the whole house for that book, but I couldn't find it. So I peered at the Internet and found this, which isn't a three-stroke bird no matter how you look at 'em, but they were very cool, and enough for me to at least get an idea of how to paint them. So I painted them onto the outside of the bowl, and then added a branch of the willow/bamboo? leaves on the side opposite the birds. Inside I squinted and then finally put in a stalk of green bamboo (light green loaded brush with a dark green loaded tip with just a bit of brown worked in with the dark green) with a little red-breasted bluejay perched on the side on the inside.

We'll get to see how they turn out in five days, and then, this year, I'll just say good-bye to the bowl as last year's experience taught me that it's unlikely I'll see it again. But John and I are painting another set of bowls tomorrow. I'm starting to think that it'd be fun to paint a snowflake into it, just painting the dark parts and leaving the white parts white. The Art teacher did this spectacular sunflower on the inside and outside of her bowl, with lots of circularly symmetrical elements that I thought were just gorgeous. I hope I get to get a picture of her fired bowl next week, too. But how she was methodically working around the bowl reminded me that I could probably do something as regular and overall complex, even when each stroke, in order and in place was simple when contemplated alone.

Nice thing is that Thursday is only in primary colors, so I'll be more limited in color choices, so I can do more with pattern and worry less about colors.

I also discovered that I can get a 20% discount, using my Entertainment card, so I may as well do that, sometime, as Jet really wanted to paint an egg or a critter for himself as well as the bowl for others.