“ooo, what are bravery cards?” i asked, wanting to be enlightened. apparently N came up with the idea of making little 1-2 inch sketches on “cards” that show “all of the ways i am brave!” these ways include things like…

“i’d go surfing on a tsunami!”

and, “if a yeti was chasing me, i’d stand and face him!”

and “i can stand outside in a terrible storm!”

and “i could ride a wild, bucking horse!”

…among other things that make a momma faint of heart. but gosh, oh so proud of the resourcefulness and confidence displayed by this little being who has been toying with the idea lately of facing/running from her fears. i love how art is such concrete evidence of what is happening internally, though in some (most) cases, it is not nearly this literal, but as the old art therapy adage posed by janie rhyne goes, “form leads to content.” i always trust the image.

first, i cut out a bunch of various flower shapes from our felt scraps. (do they make kid-friendly fabric scissors? N’s kid scissors just would not do the trick on felt, so i had to do this part for her even though she wanted to, unfortunately.)

N selected groupings of small, medium, and large flowers she liked together. (she commented that it’s just like choosing skirts for her flower fairies she loves to make!) she chose embroidery thread from our cutely-stored stash to adorn the background circles for each pin.

she began to whip up some added cuteness with the blanket stitch she learned at school. impressive! of course, she asked while doing it, “um, why am i sewing one piece of felt to itself, mommy? just to be fancy?” why yes, sweetie. fanciness is important on mothers’ day.

next up – choosing buttons for flower centers. buttons are always a hit over here.

N learned to sew on a button with this project, and she basked in the glow of accomplishing this.

we found some adhesive pins at michael’s to affix to the back of each flower.

here’s a happy recipient (N’s gwee!) sporting hers on mom’s day sent via pix messaging.

i hot glued the few extra flowers to barrettes that N has been happily sporting for a week… and she saved a few barrettes for gifts for her girlfriends.

even without her own pinterest account, this trend seemed to seep into the consciousness of my 5-year-old. go figure. first we potted the herbs into two large pots. N said that she would decorate the basil and rosemary pot, and the other (sage, cilantro, and parsley) was for me to adorn. i felt honored to get to do one, as i assumed she’d do both. yay!

she decided we needed our shrinky dink herb tags here, but the ones we made a couple years ago weren’t the same types of herbs, so we spent an afternoon making new shrinky dink tags. (easy steps: scribble with colored pencil on rough side, cut shape, write herb name with sharpie on smooth side, heat shrink, stick in soil.)

then it was time for the houses. i gave her a choice of using natural materials (like she does in the yard) or painting some wooden birdhouses we have ($1 bin at michael’s.) she chose the painted route, and we got to work on our fairy houses.

next we gathered up some items for landscaping… like colorful marbles, stones, shells, sea glass, and even a few of the lovely painted sticks we made a couple years ago. N excitedly designed her fairy herb pot.

she spent a lot of time getting everything just right for the fairies. what a hostess!

the herb pots are so darn sweet… and we’ve spent some time over the past month (has it been that long!!!??!) clipping sprigs of herbs for our dinners and sprucing up the fairy neighborhoods.

on a recent family picnic in the park sort of sunday, she worked hard to create a fairy house at the base of a redwood tree.

she also loves making them in our backyard…

and adding to this one in her school yard during outside playtime…

do your little ones like to create little homes in nature? i’d love to hear about what you’re making. for some really sweet inspiration, we love this book on fairy houses. it’s one of our go-to bedtime reads at the moment. stay tuned for our fairy herb garden, coming up on the blog in a coupla days…

before my trip, we got a book at the library called the kiss box. this was serendipity, as we did not pre-read it before checking it out, but it came in  handy in the days leading up to my weekend away. the story is about a momma bear who needs to go away from her little bear for a while, and the little bear suggests creating a box to put kisses in. the momma can take this with her and get a kiss whenever she needs one while away, and the little bear asks momma to make a box for him to have at home for the same purpose.

and wouldn’t you know it… the day before my trip, when i came home from work, N gifted me with a kiss box of my very own. she told me that she put 116 kisses inside for me to have while i was away.

she asked me to make one for her, too. and i did – immediately. she wanted to listen to me fill it with the kisses. i put 121 inside while she counted.

i carried my kiss box in my purse during my weekend trip, and kept it by my bedside when i slept. i did get kisses from it every morning and night, and a couple throughout the day.

when N and i spoke over the phone while i was away, we asked each other how many kisses we used that day. it was a fun way to stay connected despite the distance.

in addition to being fun, this art activity really shows how art can serve as a transitional object, and thus be therapeutic for children throughout their individuating from parents and when experiencing separation. according to mahler’s object-relations theory, transitional objects are external symbols for internal needs, though the child thinks of these objects as an extension of the body. object relations theory dovetails with attachment theory in that the primary care giver is the first transitional object, and often a child’s blanket or teddy bear can end up becoming a transitional object.

what’s so lovely about art therapy is that it can uniquely support this concept because the art made can also be viewed as an extension of the self, neither external nor internal. the art then becomes a holding environment for the child, which will increase his or her ability to tolerate object attachment and loss. in this case, the kiss box was a good reminder of my presence when i wasn’t able to be there with my daughter. and let me tell ya, the homecoming was spectacularly sweet!

airport welcome