claudiu and alina

Claudiu and his wife have made the journey to seattle to watch the sounders kill the galaxy.
PIKE PLACE ON A RARE SUNNY DAY

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Happy Halloween and BBTB2 Blog Hop Winner!

Happy Halloween! Such an exciting day! Would you believe I'm STILL decorating? Yes, I KNOW it's THE DAY but I'll just leave all my stuff up 'til Thanksgiving (you think I'm kidding, don't you? LOL) Anyway, I thought I would share a few pix of my newest Halloween acqusitions. My adorable kitty is from The Pixie's Thimble by Cindy Conrad. I've been trying to win her stuff on ebay for some time, but I finally gave up and commisioned as piece. Isn't he just the cutest? He needs a girlfriend though. Maybe next year.










And this is Gabriella Goode Grimm Witch from Olde Cape Primitives by Kaf Grimm, yet another artist I adore. I plan to eventually get a whole coven of these. LOL


I'd love to show you more but as I said, I'm not all DONE yet. However be sure to come back tomorrow for the Dia de los Muertos Blog Hop. Lots of good stuff going on. (and some candy too!) In all my haste yesterday I forgot to choose the winner of the BBTB2 Blog Hop so without further ado, the winner of the $30.00 gift certificate to CUSTOM CROPS is.......

#23 GLORIA WESTERMAN! WHO WROTE...

CONGRATULATIONS GLORIA!!!

Please contact me at dlmundinger (at) yahoo (dot) com to arrange for your prize.

Well, I better get going and get my stuff done. Goliath is obviously anxious for treats. To see more fun pix (of Goliath in costume) and some of the other BBTB2 sisters, kids, grandkids and furbabies hop on over to the BBTB2 Halloween Parade and upload your pic to win a prize!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

BOO TO ALL OF YOU!

From Millan.Net

From Millan.Net

 

 

 

CRACKLE CRACKLE 

 

HEE HEE HEE

LAST COMPETITION TODAY

LAST NIGHT WE DID WONDERFUL. The won FIRST place with a score of 87 and that is SUPER!

IT WAS SUCH A PLEASURE WATCHING THE WHOLE SHOW AND "MY MATADOR" (MY SON THE DRUM MAJOR/CONDUCTOR) WAS THE BEST DRUM MAJOR/MATADOR EVER.

Their show's theme was about Spain and their bull fighters or matadores.

 

I am getting ready to leave for this last competition.

see you later.

Love u ALL!

BOO!

Autumn Tree Silhouettes

The past month has been bizarrely warm, producing some amazing and inspiring sunsets. Every drive home, I've been amazed at the vivid colors and beautiful silhouettes that have occurred. Most of the photos below were taken on my mostly boring drive home(by the way, I don't recommend driving while taking pictures!)

I knew I had to do a lesson on silhouettes!

4th grade looked at artist Kara Walker, while we discussed what silhouettes are. We talked about how the nature of silhouettes are mysterious because of the lacking detail. I had the students analyze Walker's art and come up their own interpretations of her work.

To make our autumn tree silhouettes, we started by painting a 12x18 piece of paper in a variety of fall colors. I gave little direction at this step other than demonstrating a variety of painting techniques(color mixing, swirls, etc). I also told them to make sure that multiple colors are visible, to avoid them mixing every color together. Although a few students couldn't resist mixing colors to make a single-colored background, but they turned out amazing regardless! Art is all about breaking rules, right!?

The next week, students used oil pastels to add line details to their paintings. Then they used black paint to add their tree silhouettes. I only demonstrated how to paint the trees, but they came up with many great ideas on items to add, like people jumping in a pile of leaves, birds, tire swings, etc. I am always amazed and inspired at my student's innovative ideas!

Lastly, the students had the option to add sequins to their paintings to represent leaves. Students displayed sparse leaves dangling on a branch, swirling leaves in the wind, and a heaping pile of leaves waiting to be jumped in!

These paintings are hands down more beautiful than the glowing skies I've been witnessing on my drives home! My favorite thing about them is that no two paintings are alike even though we used the the exact same colors and subject-matter!

Check out a forrest of these beautiful trees on Artsonia!

A Leaf Man's got to go where the wind blows

Leaf Man flew into my classroom and into the boundless imaginations of my first graders. While reading the beautiful book, we picked out all of the leaf people and leaf animals that we could find. We talked about what details make it what it is? I ask, how can you tell it's a cow, or a turkey? I am always telling my kids that details are what make an artwork special and tell a story. We talked about if a leaf turkey didn't have a wattle(aka: red thing), would it look like a turkey? If a leaf cow didn't have an udder, would it look like a cow? If a leaf duck didn't have a beak and webbed feet, would it still look like a duck?

Even before the book was finished, lots of the kids were asking, "Will we make a Leaf Man!!!??"... Of course we will!

I wanted to keep my demonstration short and open-ended, because I feel this lesson is all about exploration and play.

I talked to the kids about...

-thinking of what details your leaf person or animal has.

-using the right amount of glue.

-beginning with a large leaf for the body and building off of it.

-cutting pieces of leaves in a contrasting color for details.

The results are amazingly beautiful! I love how each 'leaf person' or 'leaf animal' has it's own unique character!

When the kids finished their projects, I had them think of a story that their 'leaf person' or 'leaf animal' is part of. I prompted them to think about:

What could they be doing?

Where could they be?

What is your leaf person or animal like?

They shared there stories with the other kids at their tables.

I so love this book and accompanied lesson, it encourages the kids to see creative possibilities wherever they are and using the humblest of materials.

Check out the whole leaf gang on Artsonia!

The video is up!

BFF London 'JOYRIDE' exhibition, curated by Monique (and Brendt Barbour) who did an amazing job +

Purpl-30 BFF 2010 Joyride from purplbrand on Vimeo.

Sunday Mourning

'Hell Sinking' Tape by Sunday Mourning.

Available now!

''Sunday Mourning is Mark Wagner (**k) and drummer Sanna Charles. Together they create a sonic hell-hole of acoustic doom, experimental folk and dense psychedelic atmospheres. Referencing anything from Death metal, Avant Guarde, Country and Americana and taking it down to new claustrophobic depths, Sunday Mourning have just played a headline set at NYC's Coco66 to great success.'' via ++//>>

I've got 3 available for sale here at Champ Office, hit me up via email monifgldn@gmail.com

OR via direct 

http://www.myspace.com/sundaymourningband

They're a fiver.  (£5)