Foster bunny

We visited the wild rabbits of Jericho Park. When I see pictures of rabbits in children's books, I always imagine them to hop with a smart, sharp motion, but they actually move more like sleepy cotton balls even when they're going fast.

Many of the Jericho rabbits are abandoned pets, which is a little sad — rabbits live 10 years — though they seem pretty content in their blackberry thickets near the beach. Vancouver has a rabbit rescue centre where you can adopt a bunny or foster a bunny. Rabbits don't enjoy young children, but fostering a pet might be something we do in a few years. If you'd like to support the Vancouver Rabbit Rescue & Advocacy Society you can visit their shop or look at rabbits in need of care in their adoption centre.

I love

It's only recently that the Auggie has been able to hold a conversation. We had a good year of interesting fragments, like, "Do butterflies drink milk?" or "[The song, Poor in Love by Destroyer] is a Christmas tree, a book, a banana and a rocket ship," and "[The song Dreaming by Adam & the Amethysts] is the best music of all! This is about music music. This is about [Auggie]. This is the most perfect music and I like this!".

But recently we've been getting more in depth, like, "Amazing. What is amazing?" [I explain amazing] "Like a maze? We can build a maze." Then we worked out what our mazes would look like. His is made of cement, with a cement mixer theme and has between 20-30 bingy-boingies, 10 swings for little kids and big kids and a sandbox. A bingy-boingy is what he calls those playground toys that are attached to a big spring. I have no idea what they're called, so why not bingy-boingy? It also has a tree in the middle and dead ends, which we learned about in a book on mazes at the library.

Ok, so we have a game left over from the old days that we still like. It's "I love". You say "I love" and then something you love. It is a good game. So, here's one: I love opening the mailbox and finding a pretty postcard inside.

ringo atelier

Ringo atelier is a creative studio, and resource, for children and their blog is lovely, too. Lots of their drawing activities have a PDF to print out and do at home. They have loads of pages to colour and develop, like this invent the fruit that goes with this leaf, which we tried yesterday during a rainy day

and this construct a city (this one is meant to be for collage, but we painted and scribbled them)

There are also some really great projects that we haven't yet tried, like the à la manière de section, with projects inspired by the work of artists like David Hockney or Sonia Delaunay. I think the David Hockney one is perfect for July, and I will put in a little translation here (find the original project here). Observe water (in your bath, swimming pool, by the sea or edge of a lake...), in the style of painter David Hockney. Have fun trying to reproduce the waves, the reflections, the colour of the water. To do this, use watered-down paint, sponges, tissues and different papers. Look carefully at this painting of a swimming pool (below, left)

The 1 livre—1 book section has a nice library of books, too.

Friday

Friday is my day to catch up on everything. It's misty and grey out which is very relaxing and good for getting work done. This is my coffee break.

First thing, the postman came to deliver a Groke for the Aug's birthday ( I really like the policeman and Hattifatteners that they have there, were it my birthday ^_^). The party theme is Moomin and his favourite character is the Groke right now, replacing Little My.

Tidying up, found a scrap piece of paper stuck under some painting we were doing yesterday.

We've started dressing the table every night, finding little flowers and leaves before dinner for the centrepiece. Recently, we've made dinnertime more structured  and this little ritual has been helpful. It's been going pretty well, unless we have company, in which case it all falls apart.

Accidentally heard Michael Jackson's Human Nature today, one of my favourite songs when I was 9. It is a perfect soundtrack to a grey day with roses. By the way, if you are looking for some beach reading, On Michael Jackson, by Margo Jefferson, an "incisive, and bracing work of cultural analysis [by the] Pulitzer-prize-winning critic for the New York Times" is perfect and lovely. Not too complex to read in the sun, but meaningful enough to be worth the time. It's not a celebrity biography, but uses Michael Jackson's career over several decades to consider different aspects of pop culture and also child development. The book cover is plain silver type on a white background, which was  a smart choice by the designer.

Getting going

I have to get going on the auggie books, so I've picked it up again. You know what is hard to draw? A fire truck. I've been doing some warm-ups with easier things, like rockets.

Hopefully the new blog space will be done in a few weeks. There are lots of projects due in a few weeks, this often happens right before my summer holidays.

Lucky star necklace

Noodling around with lucky star necklaces and garlands with black and kraft paper strips ordered from the origami resource centre with knotted linen thread. These would be pretty at Christmas, too.

Every time I make these I sing the Madonna song in my head, it is impossible not to — I just think of you and I start to glow and I need your light and, baby, you know.

Glow-in-the-dark lucky star papers. Maybe we'll save them for halloween.

Fujiwo Ishimoto

Beautiful Pikuulempi fabric by Ishimoto found last night on ebay.

Marimekko notes

melooni, 1963

I think of Marimekko as being a very well-known studio, but my students are often unfamiliar with it. I found an old copy of petit glam in a sale bin with a beautiful marimekko feature with some pretty, classic prints and thought I would put in a few notes from it. Maybe I should do this with all magazines so I can happily throw them away!

ilo, 1981 (This was my childhood tablecloth. Or it was an Ikea knockoff — nostalgic)

bo boo, 1975

"[Bo boo designer] Katsuji Wakisaka's relationship to colour was emotional; first came the material, then the pattern, and finally the colour." —Phenomenon Marimekko

kivet, 1956

 

kaivo, 1964

unikko, 1965

"Fujiwo Ishimoto thinks young people will continue to be drawn to Maija's designs [such as melooni because] they are so light, so happy — there is no shadow. As you get older you cannot design this way anymore. At this point in my life, I am more interested in exploring the shadow in design."