I have written some poetry. that i can do at times.

Y'all are soooooooooooo talented!!! Beautiful!!!

Thank you also, so much for the suggestions!

Ohhh!! I have a specific project coming up that I could soooooooo use ideas and help on. I'm so excited this is here!!!

I want to make my little man's room into an insect forest...walls, everything. He loves insects already and I so want to nurture that.

any ideas? should i start a new thread?

thank you!

KD

kimmydawn

many crafts stores have rubber models of insects that you could use to make mobiles to hang from the ceiling, make drawer pulls out of, make hooks to hang stuff from etc. They also have insect stencils so you could use them to paint a border, or a chair rail border, or stencil the walls, a plain rug, plain curtains or the curtain shade. You could buy him an ant farm or stock and aquarium with crickets from the pet store. Look in the childrens section of a craft store and you'll find other insect inspired items. Also dollar stores have bug inspired toys in the toy section...kits to catch and study bugs...kits with butterfly nets to hang on the wall. You could get mosquito netting at a sports store to make curtains or some sort of canopy over the bed. Make a beehive shaped box with a flip lid to hold stuff or better yet see if a local beekeeper would sell you a regulation bee box to convert into a bookcase or toy box. try a local used book shop to find used book on bugs to display and for him to read. Does this start the ball rolling?

OMG (((((((((( trekker ))))))))))))) you just single-handedly decorated his room!!! I can't believe it! How do you think of things like this off the top of your head? I tell you, that's a genius...a gift!

Do you mind if I print all this out when we're done? anyone?

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. mosquito netting canopy...OMG. i'm loving this stuff. i honestly could've never thought of one of those things...ok, i did think of the stencils for walls.

He already has a nice little butterfly/insect catching kit. The net is nice and would look great hanging on his wall.

OHOH, a hat with a netting over the front hanging beside the net?

KD

The hat is a great idea....here are some sites that might give you more ideas or ones that you can explore with your son together

http://www.naturepavilion.com/livekits.htm

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/yth...fal01.htm#meat

http://bugclub.ifas.ufl.edu/Bug_Bytes/Bugbites.htm

http://www.petbugs.com/

http://www.bloomingtonwebguide.com/insect.htm

NICE jewelry Bobbi


kd, an idea for making a cool butterfly is to stuff a black sock with that cotton wool stuffing, then use black hairbands to divide up the body segments. Stiff felt, painted and glittered, makes good wings and black crafters "pipecleaners" work for the proboscis, legs and antennae. Those little black fluffy craft eyes glued together make awesome compound eyes and one blob on the end of each antenna

can you tell we did one of those for a school project The teacher asked tokeep it as a classroom display so I dont have any pics, but it was real easy to make.

The stuffed sock thing is a good base for most insect creations too...eg caterpillars, bees, ladybugs etc

aaaaaah, i have the urge to make something and instead I gotta work at this 'puter all day

Bobbi

Ha-ha...In my belly...

I love the arts!
I love poetry!
and the people who are creative are very cool!
I appreciate this more than you know!
Bless your Artistic hearts!

poem by lavenderlou / aka tenalouise

The Walls of Discontent -

This fortress of walls that I have built
To suppress my rage, impatience and guilt
I need them there to keep me sane
To keep silent the knowledge of the pain

I have subconsciously put up these bars
To halt the tears and hide the scars
And forget the years the locust ate
To forgive myself and those I hate

I’ve put them there to save my heart
In case it heals from being broken apart
These are my walls of discontent
To hide my hell to a greater extent

Jingle, that is awesome! Talk of talent... wow!

Jo55, I peeked . Beautiful! I'll post some links to some of my photography at the end of my post. I think you might possibly recognize some of the scenery. I travel to Oregon approx. once a year or so.

Kimmy, what a great idea for decorating the lil' man's room . Trekker's ideas appeal to me, and, goodness knows, I'm not all that fond of insects .


I make jewelry and sew (soft gift-bags I designed for friends; 36"-round tableclothes I design and give to friends in exchange for them giving to a charitable organization what they deem as the tableclothes "worth"; snuggle/body pillows and binkies for my dog). I also like making holiday stuff.


Here's some of my photos... the first two are probably among my favorites...

http://goofy2u.addr.com/snowshore.html
http://goofy2u.addr.com/snowy.html


My search for "BigFoot"
http://goofy2u.addr.com/big-foot.html


http://goofy2u.addr.com/shasta2004.html
http://goofy2u.addr.com/shore.html

My search for the Logness Monster rumored to be in Oregon
http://goofy2u.addr.com/logness1.html
http://goofy2u.addr.com/logness2.html

I think if you want to do a room like that you need to get Milvicias input... over on the autism board.... its her thing.

I work in the arts with my patients as a therapist, getting them to be expressive and creative is my thang. The best way to get your little man to be creative is to steer clear of the kits, coloring books, fill in the lines etc.. Give him raw products, like pompoms, seashells, craft sticks, toothpicks, pinecones, paint etc. Not neccessarily all at once.. if he has developmental issues limit the variety, but let him pick what he wants to use.

Make a little work shop for him or a art tote out of an old laundry box. I made a cool one a few years ago.

Try not to spend money on it (or much) and try not to limit how messy he gets.