A Special Short And Sweet With Ryan Sias!

Good Morning, Everyone!

I'm sure you'll all be glad to know that despite my advanced age I'm still able to type :)

Thank you so much for all the lovely birthday wishes and cards and special pictures and banners... ooh, in case you didn't see the banner I'll put it here!

isn't this awesome? it even has Phyllis! with chocolate!
banner created by the amazing and talented Julie Rowan-Zoch

Oh!  And a coffee mug warmer from one very astute and thoughtful blog reader (thank you Caroline! :))  I am so lucky to have so many wonderful friends.  You are all so incredibly nice, and you made my birthday very special! :)

And now, I have something special for you!

Fun creativity projects for kids!  Click HERE

Ryan Sias

Rian Sias, who has worked in animation for 20 years and is the talented author/illustrator of Go Greenie! Are You Eating Something Red?, Balloon Toons: Zoe And Robot, Let's Pretend, and Go Greenie! Are You Eating Something Green? (36 Color-And-Learn Placemats) has started a new venture for kids which I think parents and teachers will enjoy knowing about!

Ryan says, "I wanted to let you know about a fun, art education email program I have created called Siasstudios.com.

I love drawing with kids and letting them finish my drawings.  They come up with wild and crazy ideas which make me laugh.  So I started this for all my nieces and nephews who live in other cities, and now have opened it up to the world!

Here's an example of one of Ryan's free art projects

My goal with Sias Studios is to foster creative development in children by giving them 100% free weekly art projects that engage their creativity.  The projects have imaginative coloring pages, zany story prompts, unique drawing lessons, and wacky characters.  All of my material is silly and fun, which I believe creates positive art experiences."

And here is how one child finished it!

You can subscribe to this free, weekly creativity prompt by going HERE.  Sign up and then sit back and let the fun projects roll in!  Sias Studios activities are recommended for ages 4-11, or anyone who wants to have fun :)  Here are a few more examples:

Here is another project...

And here is one child's interpretation :)

Here's a link to a whole page of waffle fun CLICK HERE!

And here is a fun drawing lesson:)

I hope you'll all take a moment to check out Ryan's offerings and pass the word along to friends, family, your children's teachers... anyone you think might be interested!  Ryan has a great sense of what appeals to young artists and his drawings and activities are always fun!

And now, for today's Short & Sweet, one of Ryan's prompts!

badge created by the lovely and talented Loni Edwards

Take a look at that fierce viking aboard his dragon boat and write the first sentence (or 3 :)) of a story in the comment section below!

Here's my example:) 

"Faster! Faster!" cried Shigvid, doing a small jig of rage on his ship's bow.  "Brunhilda cannot get away with this!"

I hope you'll all get a chance to hop over to Ryan's place, and I hope you'll enjoy the prompt!  I look forward to reading your story openings!  And thank you all again for all the lovely birthday presents and wishes - you are the best! :)

Short And Sweet Monday - Collections

Sufferin' sassafras!  Is it Monday already?

Then in that case it must be time for something Short & Sweet!

badge created by Loni Edwards

And when I say Short & Sweet, I mean it!  Seriously!  Somehow October snuck up on me, never mind Monday, and I've got SOO much to do!

Today is Princess Blue Kitty's first birthday.  (For those of you who didn't spend the summer here, Princess Blue Kitty is my car.)  And I will have you know that yesterday, on the way home from Stop & Shop her odometer rolled over 35,000 miles.  That is a lot of miles to collect in one year.

But it got me to thinking about collecting things.  If you have kids, spend any time around kids, or have ever been a kid, you know that kids love to collect things.  Pokemon cards and baseball cards.  Build-a-Bear outfits and accessories.  Vacation tee-shirts.  Rocks.  Matchbox cars.  Comic books.  Beanie Babies.  You name it, there's probably a kid somewhere who collects it :)

So for today's Short & Sweet think up something a kid collects.  Then think about why they collect it and what that tells you about who they are.

Then, in the comments (or if you can't comment because of my @$!%*%! blog you can email me and I'll post for you) write a sentence, or a couple sentences, or however much you want, that tells us something about your character, what they collect, and why.

Who:  can be as vague as "he" or "she", or as specific as "Molly, a little brown field mouse"
The Collection: can be absolutely anything you want! - the more interesting/unusual/downright bizarre the better :)  (And I mean anything!  Having trouble thinking something up?  Just look around and pick the first thing you see - dog bones, acorns, picture frames, super balls, macaroni, potholders, toenail clippings (sure! why not go for the gross?! :)), grass trimmings, song lyrics, cocoons, seeds.... the possibilities are endless!) ... (and in case you were wondering, which I know you were since I told you to look around and pick the first thing you see, I do not have acorns and toenail clippings etc. lying around my living room... only the dog bones :))
Why: hopefully the why of this collecting will give us a peek inside your character and will be the spark that ignites story ideas :)

Here are a couple examples:

Henry collected seashells on the beach where he had fished so often with Grandpa.  He searched for those that neither the ceaseless tumbling of the tide nor the careless steps of hard-soled feet had cracked or broken.  Only shells that were whole and perfect made his collection.  Whenever he found a new one, he brought it to Grandpa.  He never said it out loud, because that would ruin it, but in his heart he harbored the hope that somehow, if he laid something flawless and familiar in Grandpa's gnarled hands, his tangled thoughts would unsnarl, and his mind would become, once again, as whole and perfect as the shells.

Nobody listened to Anne, so she collected words.  Not just any words, not plain, ordinary words, but unusual, unpredictable words that rolled off her tongue in a pleasing way.  Someday she would use her saved up words - words like tangential, garrulous, idiosyncratic, vituperative, onomatopoetic, ecclesiastical and catastrophic - sprinkle  them into her speech like spices, and then, people would listen!  How could they not?

His shoelace collection started because of the orange ones he found with the baseballs on them.  Next he discovered the blue ones with green lizards, and after that, yellow ones with NASCAR flags.  He hung them from the handlebars of his bike, like streamers, and hoped that when he sped past she would look up from where she sat on the bottom step of her front porch stringing beads.

Or you can go as simple as:

Mabel collected milkweed pods because she liked to open them up, pull the soft silk from inside, tuck it into her hair and pretend she was an ancient enchantress in a forbidden forest.

Get the idea?

Even if your own character/collection doesn't spark a story for you, someone else's might.  And your offering might spark a story for somebody else!  So let's all share.  And please feel free to write as many as you'd like! :)

Shall we fire up our imaginations and see what kind of stories we can spark with our collections?

Have fun, everyone!  I can't wait to see what you come up with! :)  Hopefully we'll be so inspired that we won't be able to write fast enough! :)

P.S.  If anyone happened to take the new Short & Sweet badge 2 weeks ago when I first put it up, please swap it for this one - the first one was missing the kitty's whiskers! :)