Mount Alexander

This year's pumpkins...

Outside, having a test run before the actual night...

Alex's

mine

Olivia's

Sarah's

Merton in Bloom Winner!

Olivia enterred a contest last spring through school to draw a picture of a garden for Merton in Bloom, which is an initiative to encourage gardens and flowers in our borough of London (there's a London-wide one as well, London in Bloom, and presumably, other boroughs have their own awards).  Awards are made for actual gardens (e.g. best front garden (several size categories), best hanging basket, best balcony, best commercial property, best allotment plot and so on) and there are 3 age categories for best drawing of a garden (3-6, 7-10 and 11-14).  We were invited to the Awards Ceremony at the Civic Centre, as Olivia won in her age category.  One of the prizes she received was a hooded sweatshirt with a print of her drawing on it (the other two winners also got one each, with their own drawings on). 

A bit of a closeup of the hoodie

and here she is modelling it. 

She received her award from the Mayor of Merton

and in addition to the hoodie, had a nice certifcate and and a physical award whatsit (not sure what to call it - it's not a plaque, it's not a trophy). 

 She also had a free family ticket to the really big local fireworks (for Bonfire night), which is fun.

Well done, Olivia!

Have your cake...but not eat it

One of Olivia's art projects this year was to design a cake, then make it out of clay. She chose a Guns and Roses theme (she's not a huge GnR fan in terms of music, though she likes them ok, but I think she wanted something she could be clever with).  I think it turned out very well - the two cupcakes are individual and they sit on the plate, or not, as you like. 

Mother's Day Watercolour

Here's a scan of the painting Olivia did for me for Mother's Day. She is getting really good at these (she had a book on watercolour techniques for Christmas and is gradually working her way through it). I love this one for several reasons - I like the people in the centre, but also, the sky is particularly lovely. Now I will have to find a frame for it (and somewhere to hang it - the greater challenge!)

Watercolour: Tone Exercise

One of the things Olivia got for Christmas was a nice set of watercolour paints and brushes, and a step-by-step watercolour book, which will teach her some of the techniques unique to that medium.  Yesterday, she had a go at one of the exercises in tone in the book, and created this lovely piece, all done in tones of brown. You can really see where the light is coming from in this painting - lots of nice shadows. (She copied, more or less, one of the paintings in the book, with a few changes.)  Expect to see a lot more watercolouring this year!

Birthday Card

Happy birthday to Geoff - Olivia painted this card for him - isn't it great? 

Crafty weekend

The kids have been very crafty this weekend (well, two of them. One of them has been away all weekend.). First, Alex and Olivia made these cup warmers to go around their mugs (Alex stitched his, though I helped a lot with placement and pinning). 

Then Olivia used some of the fleece she got at a recent sale to make two cushions and a pillowcase (the other cushion is blue and she gave it to a friend for her birthday, so it's not here in the photo).

And she finished up this owl kit she bought somewhere - can't remember where - which she started ages ago. She put the feet on kind of sideways, but decided she actually liked it that way, so left them (and it's not just laziness - she can be a real perfectionist about these things, trust me!)

Arty kids

Two fairly recent creations from the girls - Olivia's art homework, above, was to take some photos of the area where you live, then choose one of them to draw. Her drawing is great, but I like her presentation as well.

And this is a watercolour Sarah did back at the end of the summer holidays - she actually started with the tree trunk and branches and filled the rest in around it...

Roman Villa

Finished at last.

Don't seem to have a photo of Alex, who did much of the work. Though we all pitched in at the end to finish off the figures and trees...

Dangles

Olivia has a required school bag next year - black messenger bag (they have a choice of messenger bag or backpack). They are, however, encouraged to personalise them with charms and whatnot, so yesterday and today we've been making some dangles...

There will probably be more...

Saturday evening

Olivia makes a salad, after having helped with the main part of dinner (in the oven when this photo taken)...

spinach and potato pastries.

Meanwhile, Alex is working on his Roman Villa...

Roman shield

Homework assignment (topic is Romans at the moment, you might have guessed). We've also been building a (paper model of a) Roman Villa - but we're waiting until it's done to show it - perhaps as a slide show, as a photo is being taken after every step, just about!

Another model maker in the family...

It's a TFI - tiny flying insect - a spy fly, in fact.

Alex's assignment was to design a spy gadget, then build a model of it. Can he choose something easy like a jetpack (cereal boxes & kitchen roll tubes, covered in foil)? No, he picks a robot fly with microphone, camera and laster gun mounted on it. Sigh.

With a little help, it's come out pretty well, though, don't you think?

Olivia's world

Another model for a school project - if a model can be made to go with a project, Olivia will make one. This started out as a balloon, and metamorphosed into a globe - honestly, no idea where she gets the patience to do this sort of thing from - I'm much more of an instant gratification kind of artist...

Aerial view of St Lucia

This doesn't really show all the models as well as it might, but the other photo has lots of sofa and cushions in the background and isn't ideal, either:



The basic concept was a model for each section of the project, with a little booklet about that aspect of St Lucian life.

The main problem with Olivia's projects is storing them later, as you might imagine!

Homemade Paper

Among our many bits and pieces of craft stuff, is a paper making kit - we've done it once before, a long time ago, but this time Sarah decided to have a go for herself - I think it will be quite nice paper when it's dry, if a little holey in places...

Here's what the kitchen looked like, mid-process!

Hama Nice Day...

Among the other things the kids have been doing to amuse themselves over the holiday was making some Hama bead creations - for those not in the know, these are tiny plastic beads that you set up on a plastic form and then iron to fuse. All three of them have created things - Alex did the panda, the rocket and the A, with a little help from Sarah - Olivia's done the N and the giraffe and the rest are Sarah's, though a few of them were made previously and just mended during the recent session.

Volcano, Bridge

The Island of St Lucia now has a volcano on it. I'm going to try to flog Olivia's model to the St Lucia tourist board when she's finished with it...



One of Sarah's. Done from a brief glimpse of a scene on telly, then drawn from memory.

Welcome to St Lucia...

...I wish. It would be nice to be somewhere warm. This was the state of the model of St Lucia when I got home - subsequently, it acquired a volcano. A second one is under consideration...