flannel bag

Phew! We just got home from a road trip. I was worried about how our 5 month old would handle hours of sitting in the car. He does fine on short car trips around town (I can't wait until I carry him around in a bike carrier!) but for hour long car rides he gets irritable. In hopes of avoiding 12 hours straight of crying in the car, I gathered all of the distractions I could think of including this homemade flannel bag with felt pieces. Why a bag instead of your standard felt board?  I thought it would be more portable, it can be hung from the head rest, and it can store all of the felt pieces!

road trip theme


make your own monster faces (copied from this site)


The felt board concept actually didn't interest him this time around but I think he will enjoy it soon enough. And to his credit, he did amazingly well sitting in the car for hours! PHEW!

pottery

I am a big fan of pottery.  I love the handmade imperfect beauty of it.  I also appreciate that it is a functional art form—you mean I can eat my granola out of that??  Pottery can be pricey though so most often I find mine at thrift stores.  Occasionally, when I come across an artist I really like (ahem Alex Watson), I will drop the money for a new piece.

Needless to say, I've been wanting to take a wheel throwing pottery class for years now. It just so happens that we moved down the street from an art studio that offers pottery classes, so I signed myself up!  These are my first pieces.  While they are not my favorite, it is super exciting to be learning and experimenting.  The process is intriguing too—it is meditative and humbling, you can suggest a form but you can't force it, and similar to watercolor you have to know when to stop and how to accept what is.