Thursday Art Club: New Chalk Pastels

My original plan for this Thursday was, admittedly, pretty lame. Let's not speak of it.

That's why I love it when little miracles come into the picture. Imagine my surprise on Monday when I discovered that someone had donated a gigantic bin full of chalk pastels!

Thursday Art Club: Free-for-all Watercolors

"Yay, Miss Emily is letting us paint whatever we want!" 

Translation: Miss Emily completely forgot to plan a project.

Streamzoo favorites

I'm far from a pro photographer, but I've always enjoyed taking photos and sharing them. For some reason I never got into Instagram, though, and I instead joined a photo site called Picplz, which shut down in July of 2012. Most of the photographers I followed, streaming from all over the world, moved on to Streamzoo.

Unfortunately this company is also closing its doors today due to financial difficulties. It really is a shame, because when I took the time to sort through all the selfies, food photos, and overboard filters, it was a surprisingly personal and eye-opening window into other countries and cultures. After giving it some thought, though, I decided that I'm not going to join any other photo sites. I feel like it will benefit my overall state of mind to have one less social media "obligation" on my plate.

Anyway, I had a chance to download all the old snapshots I uploaded over the years. (I'll spare you the selfies) Here are a few favorites.

Post-Christmas Design Fun

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, or at least a relaxing vacation!

What a great feeling it is to give kids Christmas gifts. Even better, to give them a gift that sharpens their design skills (that they'll actually use!)

Today my youngest stepdaughter and I are exploring our inner fashionistas with these kids' clothing design kits from Fashion Angels.

Apps of Interest: Picsay Pro

Working with kids gives me a great opportunity to do photo studies. There's only so much you can do with a typical wide-angle smartphone camera lens, but until I get myself a real camera again, I try to find ways to be creative with what I've got.

One thing that helps is the Picsay Pro software, a mobile photo editing app. One of the best I've seen!

I paid to switch from Picsay to the pro version because the free version of the software would allow only a few images to be saved. It was definitely worth the fee for all the extra features, and I highly recommend it if you dabble in mobile photography.

Holiday Craft Season Begins!

December is my favorite time of year, when all the holiday arts and crafts can be brought out. No one brings out the elusive Christmas spirit like watching kids get excited over a goofy little craft.

Today they enjoyed making a hanging paper plate Christmas tree. (Modeled by my lovely coworker)