Travel

Painting from Nature // Observation

I’m so glad we packed our travel art bag on our trip to the D.R. because the vegetation was incredible! I collected leaves and flowers obsessively. I was the strange American lady who kept jumping into the bushes to pick up fallen leaves and snap off flowers. (Even my kids started taking a different route back to the room.) These were some of our lessons.

I set up the watercolors by the pool on a rare cloudy afternoon. Teaching them to observe and paint from a still life was interesting. I always love watching their eyes and their hands trying to coordinate. My daughter got frustrated because she couldn’t create the fine lines in the leaves. But I love the gesture and life that she put into her painting. My son’s leaves are more delicate as he is a very prolific artist. He spends no more than 12 seconds on any particular piece of art.

Back at the room, I put some of the cut flowers in a glass. My oldest daughter and I both painted the same flower. I don’t really like painting the same thing as my kids because they tend to look over and say that mine is better. But actually, this time my daughter became so focused she never even looked up. And it was fun for me to paint, too.

My last little lesson was with my son. I really wanted to paint the palm trees because they were everywhere! And there were so many different varieties. I told him to just look right in front of him and pick a tree or a leaf and just really try to observe. He looked at the light and shadow, the different greens, the bark and the roots, and the direction of the leaves. I loved watching his head look up and down as he was drawing. I’m not sure he understood me at first when I said “observe”, but now he is very confident with that word.

These paintings mean a lot to me. I am really proud of how much they cared about their work. Maybe they were just amusing their weird mom, but I even appreciate that! Wait until I take out all of the leaves that I’m pressing in between books in the living room right now. I hope they are ready for round two.

1 Mar 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Create, Featured, Summer, Travel Tags: en plein air, nature, nature painting, observation, travel, travel art bag

Travel Art Bag

We’re back from our February vacation! It was beautiful in the Dominican Republic and we feel so fortunate that we were invited to share a very memorable family vacation with grandparents. Despite several trips to the infirmary for various problems (which I will not elaborate on because I am pretending none of that happened), we were able to relax, read, eat, play and best of all…create some pretty art! I threw together this little travel bag for the trip and it was perfect. I’ll include sources, but you can really just grab anything that you have on hand (or make a run to CVS) and even just put it in a ziplock! My goal was to get the kids to draw and paint from the beautiful nature that surrounded us. (I will share their art later this week.)

Here’s what I put in our travel art bag:

watercolors // colored pencils // washi tape // 1 pencil, 1 eraser, 1 sharpener, 1 sharpie // sketchbook // brushes // tempera paints // merimekko tote

I hope you had a nice little break as well (or will have one soon!). Don’t forget to pack a few art supplies when you travel!

{Travel tip: Remember, when traveling to a foreign country with small kids, curtail the habit of picking off of your kids’ plates or having your kids share any food. Also, don’t share utensils or have the whole family drink from the same water bottle at the airport. And wash hands frequently! Sickness could be spreading and you won’t even know it until it’s too late. And that’s all I have to say about that.}

27 Feb 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Crafts, Create, DIY, Easy, Explore, Featured, For Moms, Travel Tags: art bag, art supplies, travel, travel art bag

Amsterdam Bike Trip with Kids

Today I am revisiting one of my favorite European excursions ever. Three summers ago, we stayed in Amsterdam for a week. We spent most of the time visiting relatives and sightseeing. Day after day, we discussed whether or not we should take a bike trip into the countryside. My little guy was sick, my middle was ‘not in the mood’ and all my mom could see was danger (no helmets, fast cars…).

My dad and stepmom, thankfully, insisted that no Holland vacation was complete without a bike trip. To this day, we still talk about how it was the best day of our entire European vacation!

Here are some photos from our time in Amsterdam:

We stayed at Mae’s B & B on Herenstraat in the Jordaan district – a lovely place in a great location owned by two cool guys, Ken & Vlad. Here are the sisters on the hotel stoop.

On the way to rent our bikes, and taking the ferry across the canal to our starting point.

Broek in Waterland, the picturesque village where we stopped to have pancakes just north of Amsterdam.

Pannenkoekenhuis (Pancake House) with Bompa, and other vignettes from our stroll through the village.

Our scenic ride back to Amsterdam (the ride back is twice as long…but worth it!)

It took us about 5 hours from door to door. The girls, who were 7 and 10 at the time, were able to make it the whole way. And the little guy was a trooper, fever and all. The bucket in the front of our bike is called a baakfiets, and they are brilliant. I would totally get one for home, but we have hills in Connecticut. There is a reason people bike so much in flat Holland!

If you ever have the chance to visit Amsterdam and go on this bike trip, do it! You will remember it forever.

18 Jan 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Explore, Featured, Outdoor, Play, Summer, Travel Tags: Amsterdam, bike trip, Europe

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

Every year, we are lucky enough to see the Macy’s parade from my dad’s apartment. It is a complete and utter luxury that we try not to take for granted. A slice of Americana that is so festive and unique. Our favorite part by far is watching the marching bands. Top bands from all over the country are invited to represent their state. This year they came from High Schools and Colleges from Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Texas. The NYPD marching band is always there, and this year the US Air Force band marched. Listening and watching these bands always gives us goose bumps.

A little back history on how the parade got started: In 1924, Macy’s was already a leading department store in Manhattan. As a way for its immigrant workers to celebrate their new American culture, Macy’s organized their first parade. That first year there were no oversized balloons marching down the sidewalks. Instead, live animals were borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. For various reasons, including the safety issues of parading live animals, the parade began to feature balloons in 1927. Goodyear Rubber and Tire made the balloons, the first of which was Felix the Cat. Balloons are inflated the night before the parade outside of the Museum of Natural History, and the public is invited to watch (another fun parade event).

If you aren’t one of the lucky few who has a friend or relative living along the parade route, Time Out New York has some great tips on the best spots to view the parade.

Oh, and another of our favorite parts…the cheers that errupt for the pooper-scooper men who follow behind the horses!

Let the holidays begin.

25 Nov 2012By: Barbara Rucci Category: Explore, Featured, Outdoor, Play, Travel Tags: Macy's Parade, New York City, Thanksgiving

Museums with Kids

We live about an hour from New York City, which is very lucky. One train ride and we are in the Big Apple! We try to take advantage of this perk whenever possible, although I’ve found that it was actually easier when they were little and didn’t have homework and activities. One of my favorite trips is to the MoMA. I just love this place! If you’ve never had the chance to visit the Museum of Modern Art, I would suggest planning a trip to NYC, pronto.

My kids didn’t used to jump up and down for joy when I mentioned going to a museum, but now they do because I have a museum trick! Well, it’s not really my trick, it’s one that was told to me by a wise friend. You probably already know this trick, but it’s so good that I just had to share.

Here is what you do:

When you get to the museum, go directly to the gift shop. Let your kids chose a handful of postcards that excite them. You can use this time to talk about when the piece was made, the artist’s style and color choice, and anything else that stands out. Then it’s time to go on a search! My kids love this part…finding the real art that matches the postcard. I love it, too!

These pictures are from a few years ago but I remember this day like it was yesterday. After we did our museum search, we went out for lunch at Rockefeller Plaza. They had their backpacks full of little surprises, and we had the day to ourselves…just the girls. When we got home, hot and tired, they taped their postcards to their doors. A little trick they like to do to let everyone who enters know what they have been up to. We still have the postcards, I used them this summer to decorate my studio. Have I mentioned how much I love postcards?

Right now at the MoMA (through 11/5/12) there is a wonderful exhibit called Century of the Child, a survey of 20th century design for children. With over 500 items to look at, this curated show examines the intersection of Modernist design and modern thinking about children. I can’t wait to take all three of them!

Here are some more exciting ways to use museum postcards.

Have fun!

27 Sep 2012By: Barbara Rucci Category: Explore, Featured, For Moms, Play, Teach, Travel Tags: explore, museums, postcards

Making Journals

Ok, I will admit that this doesn’t look quick and easy. But it is!

As you may remember, I’ve confessed to being inept at time management. It was the day (eve) before our Disney trip, and I forgot to buy the kids journals. This wouldn’t be a big deal if we were at home, but since we are in a rental for the summer, I brought very little with us and I didn’t have one notebook or pad or anything. What I did have was some nice, thick vellum. (An artist always has a stash of nice paper!)

I decided to quickly bind together some pages. I had my daughter cut the paper into quarters, (10 sheets per journal would suffice). I spent a few minutes on the internet looking up book binding. There are umpteen ways to make journals, so I chose something that looked the least complicated. Janis from Pinecone Camp (via Poppytalk) created a wonderful post (and a far prettier journal than mine) on a simple way to bind pages together.

I did not have an awl, so I used a hammer and nail. I happened to have a large needle and I used some twine. I just weaved in and out of the holes until it seemed sturdy and looked even.

Each of my three kids used a different medium to decorate their cover (minimizing the inevitable “She’s copying me!”). I grabbed them each a black fine tip sharpie, some markers, and a few of our favorite le pens. We put them in ziploc baggies with a roll of wash tape, and that was it!

Each night, they took out their journals and wrote about their day. They rated the rides (Splash Mountain got an A++) and taped in stuff collected along the way. Their grandparents loved reading them!