Our first book discussion!

Beth Bream led us in our first book discussion on May 31st. The book highlighted was

Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood

By Naomi Wolf. Our leader said that she felt that it went really well and that she felt encouraged to follow this discussion with future ones! (On a personal note, I'd just like to say that it was a joy to sit around and talk about natural childbirth, home birth, breastfeeding and the realities of post partum depression with women who are like minded.)

Do you have a book you'd like to discuss with Artsy Mamas? If so, leave a comment here on this blog entry or simply drop us a note at artsymamas@gmail.com. We are currently taking book suggestions for the summer!

Art and Story Time: Los Animales in Espanol

Lots of Artsy Mamas (and a couple of Artsy Papas) came together on Saturday, May 31st to enjoy the second Art and Story Time at Boro Book Warehouse in Murfreesboro. Thanks to Angelique St. Clair, the owner of Bravo Ninos, for leading the children in learning five animals in Spanish: perro, gato, pajaro, vaca, y oso. Mrs. St. Clair also brought along some fancy snacks from the Spanish culture that the kids really seemed to enjoy (and the Mamas like them too... those Takis were tooooo good!!). We had such a good time wearing ponchos and sombreros!

Robert Travis creates his five animals in Spanish libro.

Our new friends Ashley and Warren.

Pals Levi and Leah!

Learning espanol.

Rianne and Brian!

Yummy Mexican snacks!

Mark your calendars for this month's art and story time at Boro Book Warehouse!
June 28th, Saturday, 2-3pm
"Acting out": Kids will make masks and learn some theater games!

Artsy Mamas Get Down and Get Funky At Mamapalooza

More pics and info to come!!

Jazz Fest, 2008

Today the Artsy Mamas had a tent at JazzFest! We had a table set up for kids to make crafts and boy, did they make some crafts! I couldn't believe how quickly the paint sticks for this craft disappeared. Everyone really seemed to enjoy decorating their own clap sticks. Check out some of the art work that the kiddos did today!




Once we ran out of paint sticks, we simply had the children make Mother's Day cards. The kids seemed to like that even more!!

Art and Story Time at Boro Book Warehouse: I Love My Earth!

Today I led the first of many Art and Story Time's at Boro Book Warehouse.

I read Dawdle Duckling by Toni Buzzeo, complete with quacking duck puppet.
The kids sat and listened surprisingly well. Then we learned to sing two songs about recycling. We talked about recycling and being good stewards of the Earth. Then I was nice and let them get to what they really wanted... healthy bunny snacks and crafts.

Earth Day At Barnes and Noble!

KC, owner of Living Green 101, generously created for our events some amazing literature about... you guessed it, green living. If you missed our Earth Day activities, I'd be happy to email the literature to anyone who would like a copy! You can learn how to make all natural play doh, be a better steward of our earth, and you'll get a copy of my favorite green and healthy smoothie recipe! Send requests to shebrakes4rainbows@gmail.com!
We made Rain sticks and Toilet Paper Roll Friends. In our rainsticks, we used popcorn. And we put the ends on with rubber bands... which seemed to work fine as long as the little ones didn't pull them off!







You can learn how to make Rain sticks here and find templates (both black and white and color) to make your own toilet paper friends here.







No need to throw out those cardboard tubes anymore! Now they can be made into toys for the little ones!!

Get Your Write On, Mama.

On April 12th, Artsy Mamas hosted a writing artshop for mothers at the Edmundson Branch Library in Nashville. Meredith Grey was our instructor and she did an excellent job of helping everyone feel really comfortable and at home. She provided us with handouts that included a variety of writing prompts and exercises. Personally I could not believe how much work I got done in just a few short hours! We did a lot of free-writing mode types of exercises... which is what I'm used to. I share some of what I produced as a result of these exercises here. However, my favorite part of the artshop was our dabbling with "making stuff up". I've never been fond of writing fiction... mostly for fear that I couldn't do it. I managed to squeeze out four plays when I was in college and I was convinced that that was it... a certain TMBG song comes to mind, "There's only three plays in me and I just wrote the fourth. Don't know where I got the inspiration or how I wrote the words."
At any rate, one really cool exercise that Meredith introduced was the use of visual prompts. She laid three post cards out on the table as shown in the photo to the right. Then we were supposed to begin a story based upon one post card. I found it surprisingly easy to become lost in the Crystal Pistol, imagining the types of women who would walk inside inquiring about the Burlesque Dancer positions available. I plan to use that writing exercise again one day.

We also had to "interview our characters". I had a lot of fun making up a character and finding out more about her personality and life.

This was such a fabulous artshop! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I hope that we can have another one day soon. For more information on attending or hosting your own artshop, please contact Mandy at shebrakes4rainbows@gmail.com.