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Learning in Freedom

Welcome to Learning in Freedom, a blog all about the learning adventures (and mishaps) of the Allen family. My four children are unschooled, following their interests and passions every day and living the lives of their choosing. The purpose of this blog is to share our every day lives (and my not-so-humble opinons) with anyone interested in stopping by. We hope this will give a glimpse of how natural learning unfolds from day to day......

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Altered tins and such

We're an artsy, fartsy bunch we are.

On Wednesday, we gathered at Jess's house where she warmed a batch of beeswax with some other lovelyish oils, recipes for hand salve and lip balm.



Jess and Laura work on the concoctions.



There was a plethora of yummy scents for customizing your balms. Dontcha love that word? Plethora...let it slliiiiide off your tongue.



The Jayden/Jalen (now officially Scott) crew is more interested in the chips and salsa than any old beeswax concoction.



We start to work on the containers for the goo. Altered tins are the plan.


Laura and I often talk about how art materials and colors look so yummy it makes our mouth water. I think she took it a bit far this time! Step away from the purple tissue paper Laura.




Painting, mosaicing, collaging and lotsa chit-chat ensue.





Even chit-chat ON the tins.:)


Heather works on a beautiful altered book she's in process with.




Some of the final results.
Keep in mind, these are filled with the most silky, wonderful lip balm and hand salve that smells amazing. Luxurious.





Fast forward to yesterday. We met at Willow Springs park to hang out and I brought along some ATC supplies. I found the lovely wood box (in the foreground) at a thrift store a couple weeks ago for a mere $8. It holds enough ATC's, watercolors, paintbrushes, pencils, glue etc... for plenty of arting. I LOVE it!


So we make art again. Seems to be "our" thing lately.




Iris brought a bag of clothing that she was passing along. The girls glommed onto it and had themselves a dress-up party next to the bathroom. Their ages ranged from 5 to 11 and they all shared the booty and had a ball together. Each of them left with a few new items too. Thanks Iris!




The wee man finds many uses for my boomwhackers. The most recent being a water tube for the fountain. He also decided that Kass's camera needed a bath!




A conglomeration of ATC's from several of us.






Art in the park...oh yeah!

There was some dancing in the park too...




....and private conversations in secret places.



We then moved on to my house, where there was jumping...


...and this very strange game. They took one of my rain barrels (no, they aren't in use just yet) and all of the kids would stand in front of it, while one person released it. They'd race pell-mell down the hill while the barrel came for them! It was crazy. Even with some injuries, they kept on playing it. Down the hill, up the hill, laughing hysterically or groaning in pain because the barrel knocked someone flat on their tush.




Run Forest, RUN!




Then push it back up the hill and start all over again.
I had gone to look for our escapee rabbit, but I was told this story when I got back. The kids were wildly playing the "running with the barrel" game when Scott/Jalen suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. "I'm looking for a four leaf clover" says he. Then he stoops down and exclaims "I found one!!" instantly.

So here's the magical four leaf clover that appeared right when he wanted it.



Now those are some happy eyeballs! What a four leaf clover it was. Though he decided it brought no good luck whatsoever because he got so many bruises that day.;)
Apparently even clovers can't prevent barrel and trampoline bumps.

7 Comments:

Blogger kelli said...

You guys are having some wonderful times! Awesome! And that box rocks, what a find!

11:50 AM  
Blogger laura said...

artsy fartsy artsy fartsy artsy fartsy...i love those words!!!

what a delicious post. 'cept that picture of me with the paper on my lip made me cringe just thinking how bad it actually hurt to pull that off!!! it took 2 days for my lip to heal!!! luckily i had some yummy lip balm just for such occasions!!!!!

i had so much fun using your art stuff yesterday (did you read my comment on colored pencils at IT yet??) i have decided that i deserve some yummy prismas too!! i do i do!! i tried using mine last night and got frustrated and put them away. i am still in 'i wanna paint' mode so i'm gonna maybe do a little today again...but no pencils!!!!!!

i love how the pictures of our ATCs turned out!! loverly!! i think i'm going to start traipsing around with my art tool box. nowhere near as cool as your sewing box find...but hey it carries stuff. so we'll have even more supplies next time =)!!!!!

loved the run forest run picture!!!! made me actually LOL!!

too many exclamation marks for today, i have used my quota all up...NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12:42 PM  
Blogger Ren Allen said...

I already want MORE Prisma's.:) Art supplies create an insatiable desire for more, more,more. lol

It's all just so dang yummy. I'm excited that you're bringing some art supplies too. We'll get everyone bringing supplies wherever we go. Art everywhere, all the time. Cool.

And yeah, I love my lovely wooden box. It's an old sewing box but it's much happier as an art carrier. I know cuz it told me so.

11:45 PM  
Blogger Heidi Snavley said...

WAaaaaaaaaaaa!! Sometimes it is so hard to read your blog because all I want is to be in the middle of it all, sniff, sniff. I love the tins!! I have a ton of them that I've been covering with clay but those looks so much more fun! I'm going to have to project this week, I believe:) I REALLY want the ATC card with the purple and greenish tree, who does it belong to and do they want to trade with me?

1:18 PM  
Blogger Kass said...

This was an amazing day. Thanks for blogging about it. I still can't believe your little guy found that four leaf clover like that!

7:30 PM  
Blogger Silvia said...

The tins look great! Where do you get the tins from? Just an arts and crafts store?

11:34 AM  
Blogger Ren Allen said...

Oh heck, I never actually BUY a tin (other than for the product it has in it, like Altoids). We just save any and all tins we come across. I like to sand them a bit, just enough to rough them up, then spray paint them before I start with other materials.

With good adhesive, you can collage right onto any tin. Our tins this time were old Altoid and tea tins.:) Cigar boxes and other sturdy containers are lovely for altering too.

If I were to buy any containers, I'd check at sciplus.com first. GREAT prices!

6:12 PM  

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