Artworks: Rain Painting

It appears that we've somehow moved to Seattle without actually moving. It's like spring around here this year, just way more humid. So we've had lots of chances to come up with new ways to entertain ourselves in the rain, including to get out in it. Enter rain painting. Nothing too complicated, just a good way to get out and do some art in the rain. 

To start, we ground up some old tempera paint cakes -- we tried to roll them in a plastic baggie at first, but ended up placing them between two layers of wax paper and chopping them up with a cheese cutter (also therapeutic for moms who have been stuck inside with two kids during this "Summer of Rain"). If you have powdered tempera paint, that would work even better. Then we sprinkled the newly-powdered paints onto heavy watercolor paper and set them out in the rain. It was fun to experiment with placement and we grew more patient as we watched the rain work its magic. 

Turns out that the designs kind of look like fireworks, so it might be a good rainy July 4th project to do as well. We are taking a few days blog break to hang, but we'll be back next week to report on our bucket list progress. Happy 4th! 

Keep It Local: Hidden Oaks Nature Center

A while back, on a rainy day similar to the forecast for this entire upcoming week, we ventured out in search of a new nature center and found a great indoor and outdoor spot at Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Annandale. We spent a good amount of time inside trying on naturey costumes (including a snake!), examining insect specimens (at that point we were still excited about the prospect of cicadas), reading books, and playing on the small indoor play structure.

About the time we started to tear around in circles inside, the rain let up and we went out to explore the rain garden and outdoor play area that has several open-ended play structures (logs to climb/balance, a sand box, rocks to haul, etc.). We even made a new friend (despite all the fighting over sticks. I mean, it's not like we were in a forest full of sticks or anything). All in all, a great place to enjoy the great outdoors (in and out) on a rainy day. We're gonna guess others are going to be in need of the very same thing this week. Stay dry and sane!