Category: Life

Snow much Fun

by Amanda, posted in Life, Sensory exploration, Zoë

Things have yet again become a bit crazy in the Milke household since my last post primarily due to two factors: 1) DST (daylight savings time) and 2) Teething.
So most of my time has been spent adjusting schedules & soothing gums until yesterday.
See one of the basic stereotypes about living in Canada is our Snow and plethora of it.

(Which is fine by me because I love the stuff, though my husbands thinks that’s primarily because he does most of the shoveling)
But in good Canadian fashion we got a good ole blizzard style dump of 25cm yesterday so I thought why not take munchkin out and experience God’s snowy white canvas.
So I bundled her & I up and we tredged in the yard to play. For Munchkin that meant becoming an abominable snow baby, so to give her more mobility I plunked on her sled and pulled her around.
But of course I had to shake it up a bit cause it’s me, so I grabbed a spray bottle added a bit of vinegar so the nossel wouldn’t freeze, filled it with water and food colouring and we set off to paint the snow.

It was fun.
She seemed to enjoy watching the snow burst into colour and shapes.

I would have done more colours other than blue but I only had the one spray bottle on hand at the time.
I’ll have to pop into the dollar store and stock up for next time.
But just one more easy way to do colour and sensory play.

Cheers til next time, whenever that may be.
Amanda

Rainbow Rice

by Amanda, posted in Art, Life, Sensory exploration, Zoë

I’ve been hunting for hands on ways to introduce munchkin to colour/paint without the worry of her eating it

and stumbled onto an idea for older kids on Pinterest that I filed in my head for future use.

Then I thought, why not mini-me size it.

So I did and it was a blast!

The Pins that I saw suggested using dyed rice instead of sand in a sandbox. Neat eh.

What I did instead was dyed up some white rice,

(super easy, drop a few drops of food coloring onto some dry rice, stir, voila)

and put it in a square plastic container.

Then I plunked monkey down in her high chair,

rolled up her sleeves, put on a waterproof bib and let her have at it.

I figured worst case scenario, she grabs a fistful and chows down,

I wasn’t concerned since it’s non-toxic & edible.

Of course she tried lol who wouldn’t want to taste the rainbow heh

but one “No honey, yucky” from me and she took me at my word and didn’t try again.

She loved grabbing fistfuls and mixing the colours and dropping it on the dog like confetti ha

I poured it over her hands like rain, buried little toys in it for her to dig out, and just generally had fun with it.

When I saw she was getting tired of it we changed it up, thus the waterproof bib.

I put the container aside and grabbed a water bottle

and poured it out like a fountain on her tray and over all the spilled rice.

The colours began to swirl and mix together and my daughter promptly began splashing wildly.

Wet floor, wet dog, wet baby & mommy, but totally worth it.

Dry mop & sweep later, all tidied up and the leftover rice, in a bag for next time.

I highly recommend it!

She got to have fun while playing with colours, exploring sight, sound and touch and worked on fine motors skills by trying to pick up grains of rice.

Just remember, don’t be a schmuck and supervise all play 🙂

A world of wonder & colour

by Amanda, posted in Art, Life, Zoë

One (of the many) of the things that excites me the most about having a daughter/child in general is that

I get to introduce her to the world of color & texture.

This is an amazing opportunity to have, especially for someone in love with both of those things.

I just love breaking out something colorful and flashing it around to watch her reaction, it’s wonderful!

When she was really little (few months old) she LOVED Black & White patterns, she would get so excited and squeal in delight.

Now she’s begun to branch out into color.

Lucky for her, she has me for a mom.

If you take a quick glance at my work you’ll quickly figure out that I’m in love with color and my house is no exception.

My rooms are:

Master bedroom: Orange & Red

Nursery: Purple & Pink

Bathroom: Yellow & Red

Living room: Bright Blue

Kitchen: Lime Green

Spare room: Teal

And throughout the house I have the majority of my Acrylic Paintings hung.

So needless to say, my darling daughter is surrounded in a world of color.

Plus, she loves it when we walk around the house and stop, look at and touch all the paintings.

I can’t wait to crack open the paint, crayons, markers, chalk, etc and say “Go to it sweets”, but that will have to wait until things stop going straight to the mouth heh.

In the meantime, we’ve played with ribbon (colorful & gumable), I’ve made her tag blankets, sensory bags, shakers, bought teething jewelry, played with mashed food, did hand & foot dough prints and even filled her highchair tray table with water and food coloring to splash & mix colors with.

So we are well on the road to broadening her senses.

Oh, looks like nap time is over, of on another adventure we go.

Cheers.

Making Press

by Amanda, posted in Abstract, acrylic, Art, art discussions, Artist, canada, events, exhibit, female artist, Life, Paintings, Social Commentary, Uncategorized

Just had to share with everyone that I made it into today’s copy of “The Record“, Fort Saskatchewan’s local paper.

Here’s the article:

Abstract artist takes over DCC art gallery this month

Posted By Jordie Dwyer / Record Staff

February 19, 2010

Opening minds to new and different aspects of artistic expression is what art galleries are supposed to be about. And this month, the Alberta Lottery Fund Art Gallery at the Dow Centennial Centre is expanding its boundaries and, for the first time, featuring work that pushes the line on abstract art. Amanda Milke, originally from Moncton, N.B., but now living in Fort Saskatchewan, approached the gallery about how to get an exhibit and was excited when she learned they would show her work this month. “I’m not really big on realism,” Milke said, who came to the city with husband Jonathan — who grew up in the Fort — about two years ago. “Some of the work I’ve done is simply my life experiences put on canvas. Other work is religiously inspired and some is just a means of venting.” Milke began painting around 15 years ago and quickly found doing still life rather boring. “That’s when I moved into abstract work,” she stated. “Some of my work are a definite departure, while others are done on the spur of the moment.” The exhibit, which runs each Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. until Feb. 26 as well as prior to all Shell Theatre shows, is Milke’s way of getting out into the community.”This show is fairly groundbreaking, as it is the first time the gallery has shown abstract work,” Milke said.”My hope is that it breaks the perception of what is considered art and that helps people be more open.”As for reactions to her work, Milke explained she’s had a very mixed review so far.”Everything from people saying they really don’t like it — sometimes in a little more colourful language — to one little elderly lady saying, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s wonderful,'” she said. While the exhibit ends next week, Milke’s work can still be viewed on her website.

Neat! 🙂

I’m hoping to grab a hard copy of the paper sometime today.

Cheers,

Amanda