A Crocheted Mini Doll House

I had a lot of fun creating a crocheted mouse house or doll house last week. It was so easy to make and I used scrap yarn. The shape is similar to an igloo created by inserting a rigid piece of plastic canvas into a crocheted sleeve and bending it into a doom shape with……

Crocheted Playbook: Under The Sea

This playbook is not for a preschooler but a young child who is learning how to play games. One page is similar to a board game which I called Finding Nemo,   another Sea Turtle Tic Tac Toe, and a Clam Matching Game. There are other interactive pages featuring a three-dimensional whale, starfish, and mermaid .……

Crochet DollHouse Furniture

After I saw patterns which used pieces of cardboard or plastic  sheets with grids to make doll appliances, I thought of covering lego blocks with crochet to create an entire set of dollhouse furniture. It was simple to do and frankly, a lot of fun. The results were better than I even imagined. The base……

A Crocheted Playbook: My Little House

This crocheted playbook was fun to create; I think it will provide hours of playtime. It is for a granddaughter’s Christmas gift if I can wait that long to give it to her. I wanted to make sure it was still fun to play with even if the extras which can be snapped on, were……

Make Something Out of Nothing for Your Kids, Crochet Toys

It is important in our consumer-driven society to show kids they can create toys with things around the house.

Making Something Out of Nothing

When parents are creative, using what is on hand to make do instead of constantly running to the store for ingredients or supplies, we teach our kids to be resourceful.  It is a talent which they can apply to their studies, the workplace, for entertainment as well as in their day-to-day lives at home. All……

Unplug Kids From Technology with Crocheted Toys

Crocheting is a cheap, eco-friendly way to bless kids and to encourage simple, back to basics play.

Children of the World Through Artist’s Eyes

This is a tiny sample of the some of the beautiful paintings and photos from my Pinterest board called “painting children”. I had to force myself to choose these few images, leaving behind even more moving, funny, or sensitive portrayals of the children of the world. To discover more go to https://www.pinterest.com/motherofnine9/painting-children/ by Greg not Greg

Mothers Depicted in Art

To celebrate Mother’s day, I present artist’s renditions of mothers, a plethora of images as seen throughout history and the world.

The Joy and Pain of Self-Publishing

 Echoes of the Divine is  my first e-book and it is free.  You can help me if you download this mini e-book and gave it a rating because if it is successful,  a publisher might consider my upcoming book. How about checking it out and giving me some honest feedback so I can learn. The……

Leonardo Di Vinci Speaks

  Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen. There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. In time and with water, everything changes. The noblest pleasure is the joy of……

Capturing Vulnerabilty on Canvas

I just discovered a living, young artist, Mary Sauer, who manages to captures the essence of young children. There is a sense of whimsy in some, in others a sense of how delicate and vulnerable little people really are.  Some eyes are open with wonder, others study the world with serious intent. Dr. Seuss, author……

New Life for Unpaired Socks

I always have said that the only thing that will kill a mother of a large family is attempting to pair all the socks. Thank heavens I had a wicked sense of humour and an army of free labour. Sometimes we would line up literally hundreds of socks of every possible size and colour as we……

Hope For the Grinch at Heart

We all have parts of our hearts which are exactly like the Grinch in the famous children’s book How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  Yet there is hope for us if we allow Dr. Seuss to teach us. Dr. Seuss has a wonderful gift of delivering profound words of wisdom in humourous children’s stories and How The……

Impressions of Children

Nicolai Fechin was a Russian American Impressionist Painter who could capture a sense of children’s vulnerability. Fechin’s technique and approach made his paintings stand out.  He used a palette knife, wonderful colour and whatever he had to, including saliva and his thumb, to achieve just the right effects. Fechin would start with an abstract and bring it back……

IMPRESSIONS OF JOY: Paintings of Fanny Brate

Fanny Brate (Swedish, 1861 – 1940) was a Swedish Impressionist who in 1880, at the age of eighteen was accepted at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. She was forced to give up painting after her marriage but became a patron of the arts instead. She captured the joyful playfulness of childhood which transcends every time period,    ……

Artist Jie-Wei Zhou’s Children: Wistful, Charming, Captivating

Jie-Wei Zhou’s art is amazing not only in its realism but in the deep  yet delicate emotions imbued in every painting.  Zhou is truly a living master artist who was born in China in 1962 and pursued his art education there as well. Having studied Russian and French Impressionism, Jie-Wei developed a high level of skill and……

Children Help You…

Children help you forget what’s not important.  

Wordless Wednesday: Delighting in the First Day of Autumn

The Best Art Comes From a Playful Imagination

The best art cannot be forced or controlled because the imagination thrives and creates in a relaxed attitude of openness, a sense of play not duty. Albert Einstein, one of the most brilliant scientists of the last century, valued imagination over knowledge.For a brainy, intellectual, Einstein had a lot to say about imagination: ” Imagination is……