When I Paint My Masterpiece

Santa brought Mimi an easel, canvases and assorted supplies. The easel stood and stood in the corner unused.
Mimi is always creating something, drawing,gluing and sculpting. I finally asked her if she was ever going to use her newly acquired supplies?

She simply replied, "I don't want to get any of my beautiful art supplies dirty."
So Terry went down into his art corner of the basement and brought up well used brushes,slightly yellowed canvases and already cracked open tubes of paint.

My little Picasso went straight to work and she is painting almost every day.

Terry's Zelda portrait

Neatly tucked away are her beautiful unused paints, gorgeous brushes rolled in a canvas bag, and spanky white canvases of all sizes stored away in the closet.

Fashion

Speaking of unused gifts, Mimi received a Hello Kitty sewing machine for her birthday one year ago.

The sewing machine was gathering dust on a shelf in the basement. Not because she didn't want to get it dirty. Mainly , the reason was that I have no clue of how to use a sewing machine.
My grand idea was to send her to lessons. These best intentions fell to the wayside.

One day our dear Aunt Julie offered her help in teaching Mimi to use her machine. Now they have regular sewing dates and they have made a pair of leggings and assembled a shadow puppet theater that was also gathering dust because I don't sew.

I am in awe of the ability to take fabric and make something and Aunt Julie has reported that Mimi has a natural affinity for using the machine.
Mimi gathers her measuring tape and sewing supplies, and heads next door for hours of uninterrupted creative time with Aunt Julie(she is a treasure).

Mimi wearing her first creation, her favorite t shirt and JieJie's scarf that she has adopted.

Next on the drawing board, an evening gown.

Love Cats

JieJie went to Chicago to visit friends over the weekend. Mimi was given the supreme responsibility of taking care of the kitties while Jiej was away.

We went to her apartment, did a bit of cleaning, played with and fed the kitties . Mimi in her true fashion did all of these things with high heeled shoes and a faux diamond necklace on.

Master Of The House

I bet I am one of the last ones to get on the "Downton Abbey" train, but no less enthusiastic.

I rarely watch real grown up television in the traditional sense(on a television). I had wanted to watch Downton for ages and could never seem to be in front of the tv at 9:00 pm every Sunday.

When I found out season one was on Netflix, I sat in our home office on a fainting couch and watched big blocks over two evenings. I must admit I was totally obsessed with finding out the fates of these characters.

Then I discovered that season 2 was on PBS. Org, days and hours later I was completely caught up with the saga and I had taken several other people along with me.


Mimi had watched a bit with me. She memorized the different servants uniforms and would immediately take issue if someone was not where they were supposed to be, or not dressed appropriately for that specific occasion.Apparently, she would run Downton like the Dowager Countess, with an iron hand.

JieJie has decided to jump aboard. Last night she texted me that she wants to have a dressing gong.
As I was watching, I felt a constant need to wear a top hat with a veil.Apparently Ralph Lauren felt the same way.

"Welcome to Downton".

For the love of God , I need a top hat

Paper dolls to recreate your favorite bits of the show

Baby Love

These are some little cuties.

Parade of Littles - Babiekins Spring 2012 from Babiekins Magazine on Vimeo.

Blonde on Blonde

Is this in the right order?

Shining Star

Singin In The Rain

Mimi is home again with a cough and cold. We can pretty much count on this sort of thing at this time of year and we sadly trudge through it.

She has been home from school for five days and I am doing as much as I can to make sure that she is comfortable and occupied.
We have been doing homework, flashcards and cutting paper dolls. We have played endless hands of Skipbo and Uno. We also have been doing projects from a site called Scout Creative Calendar of the month club. This site offers free 3/d paper sculpture templates for each month.
 Mimi uses the directions and puts them together with minimal effort(she carefully reads instructions) .I bumble my way through(I skim instructions),but they do pass the time.
I also seized my teeny captive audience to brainwash with my Old Hollywood film collection.

We watched" The Sound of Music", Shirley Temple , Little Rascal shorts and "That Darn Cat".
One evening, much to her dismay, we watched "Singin In The Rain". I was preaching to her about the comedic timing of Donald O'Connor, how Debbie Reynolds learned to dance for the movie and of course the brilliance of Gene Kelly.

As we watched the iconic scene of Gene splashing through the puddles, I thought about how much JieJie loved the movie when she was Mimi's age. I was embracing every second thinking of how this would ring forever in Mimi's memory, and have influence on her approach to film.
Mimi simply watched with logical disbelief.
She was dumbfounded,"Mom, it's pouring rain,why is he doing that?" I responded, "Mimi he is in love, the world is a beautiful place, even though it is raining."

Mimi then stated "I think that the water is going to ruin his dress shoes", "Oh mama why is he giving his umbrella to that police man?"" He is going to really get soaked." "Doesn't he know that the water pipe he is standing under is filled with gross stuff?" ,"Can't he just get a taxi?"
And I thought JieJie lacked whimsy.

snuggling with Baby Zelda

Scout Creative January calendar

Scout Creative February calendar

Mimi, self portrait, entertaining herself with instagram