Let's go fishing!

Yesterday was hot. HOT. Dry, thirsty hot. Our county is experiencing a severe drought, even after a bit of rain, and the plants are feeling the burn. The grass in the yard crunches under your feet. So, what to do when the sun is out, the grass is crunchy, and the kids want to play?! Go fishing!

Matt took his trusty fishing rod from Uncle Gregg, Clare grabbed a net for catching butterflies, dragonflies, minnows and crayfish, everyone put on some shoes for water wading, and we were on our way!

There's a quiet place to explore near the base of a local dam, and the kids love it. The boys walked off together to fish, so Clare and I enjoyed some girl time and I let her lead the way! 

Clare would make an excellent tour guide. She thoughtfully warned that the water was cool before I took a step into it, but that it'd feel really nice on a hot day. She was right! She showed me that if she walked like Godzilla through the water (while demonstrating slow deliberate steps) that it created brown clouds in the water that looked like nuclear mushroom clouds. 

She showed me how to kick the muck off my feet, and giggled when it plopped into the water. "That was fun, right mom?" Asking "right mom?" occurs at least 20 times a day, and I love it. She's looking for me to say "right Clare", to let her know she's on to something, she's had a good idea, and it makes her proud. 

There was so much to explore! We discovered these tiny rocks arranged together and decided that it looked like an arrow. Where did it come from? Why was it there? It was a great opportunity to use our imaginations and clues to form a hypothesis and develop a story. Sometimes our stories get a little silly and may involve aliens, mermaids, or frog dance parties. You just never know, and that's part of the fun. This looked like the work of frogs pointing to their dance party, obviously.

The tall grass was full of excitement. Dragonflies ranging in size and shades of greens and blues dashed about and kept Clare busy in her attempts to catch them with her net. The girl has balance! She didn't slip once on those slippery rocks, and I was impressed. 

After tiring of dragonflies we decided to look for crayfish. They're fast! Any movement in the water caused a swirl of brown ick that cloaked the crayfish long enough for them to find shelter under a rock. It was like playing hide-n-seek! You knew they were under a rock, but which one.....

Boy were they fast! But Clare was faster and she caught one!

There were other neat-o things to notice in the water too. We found another heart rock for my friend Joan! Joan would have loved playing in the water with us...

We thought the shadows in the water from this leaf resembled the dots on the tail of a redfish! Uncle Gregg would be proud!

There were fossils. Some had the markings of tiny seashells. How did that happen? We don't live by the ocean. Great conversations can be started from the questions of children. 

Do you see shell imprints?

A few weeks ago we noticed someone had created rock balancing sculptures along the rocky hillside at the top of the dam. We decided to give it a try. How hard could it be? Just stack 'em up, right? It looked easy enough. Well, it's surprisingly a lot harder than it looks. It toppled over several times, but the splashes were refreshing in the heat and we had a lot of fun.

When we needed a rest we sat on a big rock with our feet in the water and looked around. There were seeds floating about that would land in the water and slowly glide along the top. We practiced our aim and tossed rocks at them, using words to described the sound of the splashes, like "kerplunk", "blup", "plop", "bloop", "splish", "swoosh", "splosh", and many many more. Bigger rocks made bigger and deeper sounds. 

Matthew returned to his fishing so Clare and I continued playing with rocks. We worked together to find rocks to form a mermaid in the water. It was like making our very own puzzle! Clare did a great job using tiny rocks to make the scales. We brainstormed ideas for how to make her hands and hair. There were all sorts of things we could have used, but decided to stick with rocks only. We experimented with making faces and decided she looked better without one. Wouldn't it be cool for someone else to find it while they're out exploring? What a cool surprise!

Rocks also make excellent desks and chairs. Clare pretended she was an artist working on signing her name with wet muck from the water. Resourceful! It took a couple of tries. The sun was so hot it dried up her letters before she could get to the "e" at the end of her name! Can you believe that we forgot to take water along with us to drink?! Crazy, right?! A truly terrible plan. So, we decided to stop for a Gatorade treat on the way home and chatted about our favorite parts of the day. There were A BUNCH of favorite parts! Had we remembered to take water, the day would have cost only a bit of gas to get there and a few hours of our time. A day well spent, an investment in our children worth making, and a fun day all around. 

what I'm working on #3: redfish stool

Here it is, as promised! Clare finally has her very own fish step stool!

Being patient at any age isn't easy and it's usually not fun. We like to think that it's something we get a little better at as we age, but we're tested from time to time. My husband has a real talent for choosing the absolute slowest checkout line in stores, all stores. It's tough to be patient. Super tough. There's usually a wait in a doctors office. I totally get it. They've got a lot of people needing their skills to live comfortably, they squeeze people in that truly need to be seen, but sometimes it's hard to wait. When you're finally chosen to leave the waiting room your excitement fades as you realize that you're really just sitting in a smaller private waiting room. It's really tough to be patient. I'm positive you can think of examples to add to the list, you get the idea...

After years of experiences that test patience you do get a little better at it. You take a deep breath and roll with it because freaking out doesn't normally improve the situation. But kids don't have the same experience to draw from. It's really really tough as a kid to wait for something you've been looking forward to, especially when your older brother has his and it's still a novelty. Clare was a trooper. She was encouraging, she offered up ideas, she told me how much she appreciated my progress. Despite my mom fail for not having this done years ago, as I should have, I am immensely proud of my daughter for being the good kid that she is. 

Her stool is pretty unique, which is perfect because so is she! I've mentioned before how fortunate we are to visit our family in beautiful Matlacha, Fl. My brother-in-law is the ultimate uncle. How many kids can say their uncle is the captain of a boat?! Captain Gregg McKee, the ultimate charter fisherman, taught my kids how to fish. One of our favorite to catch is the Florida redfish. Their colors change depending on the season and the lighting and they are stunning. Their rusts, bronzes, and golds are a painters dream. Their fins have gorgeous translucent greens and blues that really stand out against the warm colors of the rest of the fish. Another recognizable feature is the trademark black dot at the end of the fish near the base of the tail. Though I chose to paint only one of these dots for the stool they can appear in multiples. The shape is not a perfect circle, sometimes it is oblong, wobbly, or heart-shaped! Did I also mention that they're delicious? No? Well, they are. Very...

You're either a glitter person or you aren't. Most aren't because it sticks to everything and it literally gets everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I know this all too well! I never considered myself a glitter person until I started teaching. I don't wear clothing covered in it, I don't typically wear shoes that sparkle, and I don't often use it for art projects with kids, but it sure does add some extra glam, glitz and whimsy to a special project. Set pieces for concerts definitely need glitter. Set pieces for musicals should totally have glitter. Graduation decorations are so much cooler with glitter. Fish art needs glitter. Any anything inspired by Matlacha had better have some whimsy. I'm all about whimsy and have been known to use obscene amounts of glitter in the spirit of it. My husband was horrified by the amount of glitter trailing through our house because of these fish stools for our children. He rolled his eyes, but in the end he agreed it looked pretty cool. Pretty cool indeed...

In addition to fish, my girl loves puppies! She thought Matt's Star Wars stool bottom was pretty cool, but requested that I paint our puppies on the bottom of hers. I chatted with my husband about the task and how to tackle it, and drew inspiration from my youth. My grandparents always had old timey pictures of relatives that never smiled hanging all over the walls and they could tell you anything you wanted to know about them. Some were in old oval frames, the men were in nice suits, the ladies had cameo broaches and lacy collars, and nobody looked like they were having a good time. To use this concept, it needed a cheerful twist. So... I painted the bottom red, Clare's favorite color, and added portraits of our puppies! Boomer (left) is a rescue dog that recently celebrated 1 full year as part of our family. Doesn't he look dapper?! Scooby is 3-years-old and looking fabulous with her new collar and tags. Not pictured here is a border of puppy prints. Clare is delighted with the end result, and I'm happy that she is! 

what I'm working on #2: sea trout stool

My niece and nephew are ages 5 and 3. They live in Florida and we see them once a year. Since their father is a charter fisherman they have a fish theme running throughout their home. I've used it as the theme for several gifts. I've painted a chair for each of them. They have several Aunt Ashley painted step stools. Even my mother-in-law has one at her house for when the grandbabies visit. How is it that I've never made any for my own kids?! A mom fail that I have vowed to remedy this summer, and the kids are thrilled. They're old enough to have a voice in the process and we've had a lot of fun with that.

For years we've used the same old worn stools. The kids used them to brush their teeth when they were smaller, but nowadays they're used in the kitchen. It's a lot easier to see what you're putting into a mixer or reach to flip pancakes if you're up a little higher. Now they'll be steppin' up in style!

My kids LOVE Florida, and they love their Uncle Gregg. They caught their first fish with him and look forward to playing in the baitwell of his boat on extra hot fishing days. So, it was no surprise to me that they chose fish for the theme of their step stools. Since I started a stool for Matthew last summer I decided to finish that first. He wanted a spotted sea trout on the top so he could reminisce about the trout he landed in Florida with Gregg this summer. His picture was in the paper and on the cover of a local magazine, the Nautical Mile. It was a BIG deal. A very big deal. 

The folks at the Nautical Mile even had a poster of the cover printed so that we could hang it on our walls at home! How cool is that?!?!

A surprise little love note on the bottoms of the legs, and a fun cool splash of Star Wars. Matt is obsessed with Star Wars. We have every movie, we've seen them all a million times, and he'll tell you without hesitation that episodes I, II, and III are terrible and overdone... He knows more Star Wars trivia than I'll ever know in my lifetime. When he truly loves something, he's all in. I love that. 

Finished it is! May the force be with you...

what I'm working on #1: redfish table

How does the art teacher spend the summer? Why, working on projects, of course! I even do projects while we're on vacation!

Each summer my husband and I take our two children to visit family in beautiful Matlacha, Fl (a little island in the Gulf of Mexico). Randy's parents are there, his brother and his family are there, some aunts and cousins are there, and lots and lots of framily (friends that are so close they become family). It's the only time of year we get to see them, so this visit is a pretty big deal. We rent the house next to Randy's parents, and it's awesome. The owners, Mike and Barb Peplinski, are the nicest folks you'd ever want to meet! Each year we do a project or two for them as a thank you for their kindness to our family. This year I painted a coffee table to match the two end tables that I painted for them last summer. 

I painted a snook (left) and a tarpon (right) last summer. Both fish are gorgeous in their own special way, but I'll save that for another day and another post!...

My brother-in-law, Captain Gregg McKee of Wildfly Charters, is an amazing charter fisherman, fish expert, and art critic. As far as brother-in-laws go, mine is the best. Gregg is my go-to-for-everything-you-need-to-know-about-Florida-fish guide. He should be yours too! Not only is he amazing at teaching people how to fish, he also takes incredibly beautiful photographs of the them and it's been an invaluable resource. He shares his photographs with me so that I can paint them- it's like winning the fish reference lottery if fish are what you like to paint! 

I looked through several photographs of redfish, asked lots of questions...

Check out all of that glitter...

These fish are beautiful, and tasty...

Gregg and Randy are my best critiquers, offering advice on colors to use in the fins and body, the position and curve of the fish I'm painting, and little details that I wouldn't know to look for that a fisherman would notice right away. I'm fortunate to have so many great eyeballs looking at the things I'm making to help me paint my very best!

Florida redfish are one of my absolute favorite fish to paint. Depending on the season, their colors can be darker reddish oranges and rusts or brighter golds and bronzes. If the lighting is just right, you can see blue, green and purple iridescent hints in the fins. They are truly lovely...