June 14, 2019  by

Art Pantry Update

I can’t believe it’s already summer time! You may have noticed that my posts here have been delayed recently, along with the Winter and Spring sessions of Design Camp.

If you are on my email list, follow me on Instagram, or listen to my podcast, you probably know that I was in the hospital from January to April. It all started with the flu in mid January, which lead to pneumonia, sepsis, meningitis, a stroke, and lung surgery.

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in News 0 comments
August 20, 2018  by

Invitations To Create: New Videos & Prompts!

Are you familiar with Invitations To Create?

Invitations To Create are open-ended art prompts set up for kids to encourage creative exploration of materials. I first learned about these types of art prompts when I was a Reggio-Inspired preschool teacher and have since used them with my own kids for the past 9 years.

Invitations To Create have been the one tool I go back to again and again to keep my kids engaged with their art supplies and to learn new skills.

I’ve been working on a few new projects that involve Invitations To Create and I’m so excited to share them with you today!

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in Art Projects / Art Supplies / Creative Learning / Creative Projects / Homeschool / News 0 comments
November 2, 2017  by

Join The Family Canvas Challenge!

Two years ago, I was inspired by an Art Pantry reader, Emily, and her family advent tradition of working on one canvas for each day of the Advent calendar. I loved the idea of layering different materials each day on a collaborative canvas and turning it into a fun game that we could do together as a family.

We adapted this idea and worked on our canvas about twice a week for a month. Each time we worked on it, I would bring out a new material, hide it in a bag, and set it out on the canvas for my girls to discover. They loved the anticipation of not knowing what the next material would be!

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in Art Projects / Creative Projects / Family Canvas Challenge / Holiday / News 0 comments
July 18, 2017  by

New Podcast!

I’m so excited to announce that I am launching a new podcast along with my husband, Aaron Schiller, called Muse and The Catalyst. It’s a podcast all about inspiration and taking action to create the life of your dreams. We’ll be covering topics such as lifestyle, business, family, parenting, design, minimalism, mindfulness, art, creativity, education, travel and so much more.

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in Creative Business / Guest Interviews / News / Podcast / Travel 10 comments
April 19, 2017  by

Family Art Events On The Road

When we began planning this 3-month Airstream tour around the US, I knew right away that I wanted to host pop-up family art events along the way. I wanted to connect with families across the country and share creative activities that might inspire them to bring more art and creativity and into their lives. But how was I going to pull that off?

The best thing about being a blogger is the friendships that I have made with other art teachers and creative mamas around the world. So once we had our trip route down, I of course went straight to my community of art teacher friends along the route and asked them to collaborate on a family art event in their town.

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in Art Projects / Creative Business / Creative Projects / Homeschool / News / Party Ideas / Travel 4 comments
April 5, 2017  by

On The Road: Family travel and taking a leap of faith

About 8 months ago I decided that it was time for our family to take a leap of faith and head out on a grand adventure. The girls were 4 and 7, Aaron and I were both self-employed, and we were considering homeschooling Karuna for 3rd grade.

I was determined to begin our journey sometime in early 2017 and wanted to travel for at least 3 months. I didn’t know where we would go, or how we would make it work financially. We had some debt, no savings, and were living paycheck to paycheck. Being self-employed was a bonus, but Aaron’s business was locally based so it was hard for him to imagine how he would continue to serve his clients on the road.

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in Creative Business / Homeschool / News / Travel 5 comments
November 9, 2016  by

Art Workshop For Children: Self-Portraits

Let me introduce you to my favorite new book about process art and Reggio-inspired learning. Friends, meet Art Workshop For Children. Art Workshop For Children, please meet my friends. I’m sure you guys will get along really well.

Art Workshop for Children, by Barbara Rucci and Betsy McKenna, is a breathtaking book (the photos literally made me gasp when I first flipped through the pages) filled with unique process-based art activities for kids and tips on how to prepare your art space for creative exploration. I especially love the thoughtful reflections woven throughout the book by Reggio-inspired educator, Betsy McKenna, on how to raise creative thinkers and why this is important for all children.

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in Art Projects / Creative Learning / Creative Projects / Homeschool / News 110 comments
October 13, 2016  by

Homeschool & Building A Life With Intention

Did you see my post about our upcoming road trip? If so, you know that our family is embarking on new adventures and that we are opening up to some radical changes in our lifestyle. We are putting a lot of focus on our hopes and dreams for our family and are taking some big steps to build a life with intention.

One of these family dreams is to offer our kids an education that is full of incredible life experiences and uninhibited exploration. We don’t know exactly what that looks like or how to achieve it, but we know we are ready to try something new to get there.

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in Creative Learning / Homeschool / News / Travel 32 comments