Coming together

 The directors chairs are well and truly coming together. The kids have all finishing sanding and painting and this week they have used a stencil to put their names onto the fabric. It's hard to believe that people are so quick to discard something that with a little bit of ingenuity, is so easy to make functional again.

 

Directors Chairs

 

A bit of scrubbing, some sanding and add some paint...

These old directors chairs were salvaged from a local verge collection. I couldn't let them go to waste. They were screaming out for some love and attention and who better than to take them in hand than this gorgeous group of creative kids. The wood was good, the hinges still in working order and some of them even had usuable canvas.

I'm always amazed at how much patience kids have when they are doing something they enjoy. It may be a little messy, but since when do kids not like to get messy!

We have white ones, black ones and candy floss coloured ones. One more week of painting and we'll be onto our stencils and finalising the designs for the canvas.

There is simply nothing better than knowing you are giving something new life with a bit of care and attention and of course, my all time favourite...colour! Who says we need to hand money away to big shops in order to purchase new. I believe that used has so much more character and it always has a much more interesting story to tell.

2011 Kids Projects

To inspire your little ones, these are some photo's from last year's projects. Very talented kids!

Go away crows...

Our crazy scarecrows are relocating to their gardens to ward off any suspicious looking bird who may even be considering stealing our little seedlings. They are just starting to poke their heads through the soil so we don't want anything to disturb them.

They have been tied, stuffed and twisted, then glue gunned, fluffed up and swathed in scarves and gorgeous hair styles all ready for their new adventure.

I think they will manage to do the job perfectly. It is like their own little village out there complete with Mrs Wishy Washy and Scarecrow Jack Sparrow. We even have a Bob Marley lookalike!

Scarecrows

Scarecrows always remind me of the Wizard of Oz. We had so much fun putting these little creations together. My kids love theirs. There are still some final details to add including their faces and hair but they have turned out really well. Each one already seems to have a personality of their own.

Though I do have to wonder who is the scariest...the scarecrow or the kids!

Group Painting and Planting

Aren't these gorgeous? A child's imagination never ceases to amaze me. Left to their own devices, this planter box was painted by a 5 and 7 year old with no adult assistance. Guidance is always there however it's great to watch and discover where their imagination takes them.

Our vegie garden project is moving along at a rapid pace with loads of concentration, attention to detail and laughter.

Most of them love the camera, if you can get them to break away from what they are doing for long enough to smile.

Or squeal......

While others just smile while they work.

It doesn't get much better than this.

New Thursday Project

With the start of our Thursday project in addition to Wednesday's it was lots of painting and handprints from one end of the room to the other. The Thursday group went back to basics. Little things like learning to wash your brush in between adding colours and going over primary and secondary colours.

It's quite fun to watch their expressions as yellow changes to green or red changes to purple. And having an excuse to put your hands into the paint and mix just adds a whole other element.

There are always the kids that have been undertaking projects for years and just reel off the colours required for mixing and love the freedom in having their own palette to work from. It's amazing to see how competent they become.

Eventually once finished with the artistic masterpiece on the outside of the planters, they were able to plant. What fun that was!

Now I must remember to water...