A new look at Art and the Outdoors, Designing with nature

I am also a Girl Scout leader and my fellow leaders and I have seen on our Facebook feeds a video of a high fashion designer that cuts out his design sketches and then shoots a photo to recreate it later. ( https://www.google.com/…/architectural-pattern-dress-design… ) 

We wanted to do that with our girls as a part of their Outdoor art badge experience but didn’t want to use adult fashion images because we wanted to to girls just like them little K-2nd graders. I belong to the Little Lizard King pattern group on Facebook and knew that they had some coloring pages for little sewists. https://littlelizardking.com/color-me  also if you are just learning to sew or an advanced sewist, please also visit their pattern shop at https://littlelizardking.com . I've been using their patterns for my girls as well as for teaching sewing for 9 years. They are a amazing MOM led company, full of other moms sharing their design skills. 

I printed the image on card stock and then sat with a new exacto knife and cut out the fabric areas trying to leave details like waist seams and things in place.😉 

I spent the evening the night before we left for camp cutting out enough so that each girl could have one image to work with so that we could easily identify each girl's designs. A sunrise walk was the perfect time to explore our world in a new way, so with the help of a couple of moms and our leadership team we shot many photos of the designs the girls made. 

We used the sunrise and ocean first and then continued our walk exploring other plants, trees, signs, and buildings along the way.

  

The girls had a lot of fun and we discovered that inspiration can come from anywhere.

 Even the same rainbow can make 2 totally different looks.

We learned a lot about our girls by doing this. We could see what really inspired them and what their style is. Is it fairy? Hip Hop? Princess? Dirt and grunge? or is it just follow our friends?

Like I said we used it as a part of our outdoor art badge experience. You can only paint so many murals before you find it boring, and "AGAIN" complete with eye roll. SO we found something new and they were each inspired in a different way.

I hope that this inspires you as you go on your badge earning, homeschooling, STEAM, or just plain artist life adventure.

Shark Paper Bag Puppet

Sooo what preschool family doesn't know the baby shark song! I needed a simple craft for back stage at our dance recital so I figured out how to turn baby shark into a paper bag puppet. Below you will find the link to my drawings. Enjoy.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e9kU607peTK7bCSBrVuG0eaS9hj5gz_4/view?usp=sharing

The ongoing mystery of the 11 year old

Waaaaay back when my oldest was 7 I posted this very frustrated post:
https://allergic2motherhood.blogspot.com/2014/
Then a year later I posted this:
https://allergic2motherhood.blogspot.com/2015/06/blood-sugar-mystery-follow-up.html
Here we are 5 years later still dealing with the same mystery! After 5 years of monitoring and keeping track of things here are her current facts.

Blood sugar monitor is still used, only now we monitor it based on emotional state not time of day of diet. Diabetes and Hypoglycemia have been ruled out due to normal A1C numbers and no other symptoms.

Symptom 1: Feeling like walking super speed through deep mud.
Symptom 2: Amplified sound
Symptom 3: Food tasting like soap
Symptom 4: Moments of lost time and when she's alert again a random blurting of dream like memories will sometimes follow.
Symptom 5: Blood Sugar spikes of over 250 at peak of episode
Symptom 6: Dramatic mood swings and shifts
Symptom 7: Anxiety

Just this Christmas break her mensis began for the first time, which effectively proves the precocious puberty that was suggested back when she was 7 out of the water. We have been monitoring now to see if the cycle changes the length of time between episodes. So far with only 2 cycles we haven't noticed any correlation.

Back story: Miss D had a traumatic birth, she lost 75-80 percent of her blood volume before birth and the drs and nurses at birth did not diagnose this until her body had been low blood volume for nearly 30 minutes. She had full liver and kidney failure and clotting issues over the next 14 days. At birth the specialists told us we may or may not ever see any effects from the blood loss on her brain. She has proven very smart and with no apparent learning disabilities. She has shown some testing anxiety and worry, but that is more related to her emotional state than anything brain related.

This past November we had a short EEG study done. Sleep deprived and triggered her scan showed nothing of value. Only to have an episode that afternoon. grrr.

So now we've been keeping track of all of these symptoms and issues for several years. Her pediatrician has been TRYING to get us a neurology appointment. Trouble is we live in Hawaii, and of the 4 on island they are all over booked and one just left to return to the mainland, bringing us down to 3 meaning that no one has time to dig through a mystery situation. The Endocrinologists don't believe it's hormonal anymore so they feel it is outside of their perview. It's very frustrating. At this point our best diagnosis guess is Silent Seizures with Adrenaline spikes which mask as blood sugar as her body's way of fighting for the control back. Naturally that Adrenaline spike causes anger and frustration at any and all around her.

Today I put these thoughts onto the internet hoping that someone can help us find a solution or suggestion.