Art and Creativity

Making our own Dollhouse

Projects with Kids

The whole point was to do a project together. Something that excited both of us.

So summer of 2023 we started our dollhouse and months later, this still holds true.

We enjoy this bonding activity that allows us to be busy with our hands and push the imagination a little bit every time. I deliberately use recycled materials to encourage our daughter to stretch her idea about everyday things and how we can re-imagine anything. The sustainability or envrionmental lesson is a nice bonus.

There are easier projects out there for sure, and on some days I need to remind myself why we DIY anything. Here are ways to reframe when projects like this start to lean towards “chore”:

  • “It’s time-consuming.” –> It’s wonderful hours of non-agenda, non-gadget play.
  • “It’s not perfect-looking.” –> It’s handmade and spirit-filled work. The delight is in the making.
  • “We can just buy a dollhouse.” –> We strategize and design all the little details. It’s very intentional.

This is an open-ended work that will just keep getting upgrades when inspiration hits. It’s become the default art project in our home, and admittedly I do a little dance of joy every time I hear my daughter say, “Don’t throw that! I can use it for my dollhouse.”


How to DIY a Dollhouse

Project start: July 2023 – ongoing

Materials We Use:

  • For the base:
    • Egg Trays, toy boxes, pizza boxes, cake boxes, milk cartons, medicine boxes
    • Barbeque Sticks for support
    • Scratch paper / used bond paper to cover small boxes as furniture
    • Tissue for papier-mache
  • For decorating:
    • Colored Felt
    • Colorful pages from Activity books and coloring books
    • Stickers and Paint
  • White Glue

Updates:

  • 💛 What are your Works-In-Progress?💛

    💛 What are your Works-In-Progress?💛 Here’s an update on our DIY dollhouse (yes it’s still alive!). ✅️ Pool – our milk carton got a fresh coat of purple paint and tada! Outdoor pool is ready [Not in pic]: ✅️ Sofa – only a pink one will do for this little pinkie, made from juice carton…

  • 🤍What’s your big picture?🤍

    Our 5yo wanted a dollhouse, and in the spirit of doing projects to get her off gadgets, I told her we would make it.💪 Here we are halfway into it, doing some testing. I thought all along the house was for her Lego dolls about two inches high. Turns out she wanted her Barbies to…

💛 What are your Works-In-Progress?💛

Projects with Kids
Montalut Daily Rhythm

Here’s an update on our DIY dollhouse (yes it’s still alive!).

✅️ Pool – our milk carton got a fresh coat of purple paint and tada! Outdoor pool is ready

[Not in pic]:
✅️ Sofa – only a pink one will do for this little pinkie, made from juice carton

✅️ Sofa pillows – She drew squares on Red felt, asked for help to cut and glue them, and insisted on looking for cotton to stuff them with ➡️ this one was a fail, they fell apart, so will probably need to sew them together

✅️ Bunting banner – She made it all by herself: drew triangles on paper, colored and cut them, and asked mommy to help string them together

✅️ Curtains – pipecleaners for the rod and unknown for the curtains–paper towels didn’t pass our 5yo’s quality check

There are so many wins on this project:

👉 It’s ongoing, so it helps build sustained interest and a longer attention span. We’ve been working on her dollhouse for almost a month, and she’s still coming up with ideas for it.🌈

👉 Hours (not minutes) of focused, creative play.

👉 Planning: she’s the architect, mommy is just her assistant

👉 Problem-solving, especially when things don’t work

👉 Resourcefulness: she now sets aside random things because “maybe I can use it to make something for my dollhouse.”

💛 On Yellow Day, check the WIPs in your life: the open projects that excite and challenge you, hold your attention (and time), and keep you imagining what’s possible and what’s next.🙃

Happy Wednesday!

A Creative Philippines: Spirit meets Practical

Art and Creativity Vision and Manifesto

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Art-making is such an intimate distillation of spirit — going through the motions of creating a work demands concentration, dedication and courage in big and small strokes:  Do you have the clarity to know what is true, the courage to choose it and stand by and behind your choices?

Imagine having this discipline so instilled in you that it translates onto all other aspects of your life — business, health, social.  Right in the center is a spiritual knowing, a pulsating, moving energy of truth that infects you wholly, and those around you.

Wow.

That’s the abstract part. The grounding is in art.  This is the school I want to build.  A school of everyday art-making.  I call it a school because it’s a place of learning and healing, but it can very well be a business, a salon for dialogue and exchanging ideas, an innovation/invention center.  Art is so encompassing, that I use it interchangeably with creativity, science, spiritual. Because it is, first and foremost, problem-solving.

Who will show up?

Spiritual seekers.

Such a tricky word but I still use it because it brings with it two essentials: the asking and the spiritual.

We ask because we don’t know, and we acknowledge that we don’t know.  We are moving, we are not attached to one dogma or philosophy, because we know that questions only lead to more questions.  We flow.

And this asking is driven by the spirit.  It is the spirit that moves and calls us.  What is this spirit?

I tried answering this recently:

To be spiritual is [to be] alive, [it is] an activity, an impulse to pursue truth in all things — relationships, business, health. When faced with a fork in the road, the spiritual person takes out the truth radar. He decides not based on emotion or desire, but on truth:  what is my truth? What is the truth of the situation? What does it ask of me, of the other, of the world?  It is not an easy process to come to a truth.  One has to be driven both by results and process… to be patient. To move forward but also to recognize the lull moments. The negative space. And to be there, actively waiting, preparing. Because there is a rhythm to all things. One takes as long as one takes.

To be spiritual is to acknowledge the world and be present to it 100% — in mind, body, heart.  One observes and listens, but also makes sure he is equipped to do this task– so he clears the space inside and makes room for the new. All the time.  He recognizes the big picture and how we exist in its context.  It’s always about context.  There is a greater scheme of things, a thread that ties everyone and everything together.  I remember a scientific law that puts forward the same idea:  Energy is neither created nor destroyed.  It is transformed.  You can never get rid of what you put out there — be it physical trash or a brilliant idea.  It always goes somewhere, moves into a new space, a new vessel. The spiritual works under the same law:  There is no real death, no delete button.  Everything moves into the other.  Everything is connected.

This is what it means to be spiritual:  to recognize this connecting movement.  Change.  Transformation.  The spiritual person is open; he feels for the pulse of our time over and over again, so he can respond to it over and over again.

Swap the word “spiritual” above with “creative” or “scientific” and everything still holds true.

– from Spirit and Practical

Creative Space: CAMP, Chiangmai

Art and Creativity, ,

CAMP Chiangmai

I’m in Chiangmai to feel out the co-working spaces here and CAMP in the Nimman district (hipster side of town) just blew me away.

I'm in Chiangmai to feel out the co-working spaces here and CAMP in the Nimman district (hipster side of town) just blew me away. Open 24-7, serving all sorts of drinks and snacks, and set up to invite you to vegetate and spend hours and hours here. Sockets are everywhere, there is indoor table/floor seating (with pillows!) and outdoor options too. With a purchase of 50 baht you get a WiFi username and password for 2 hours. Wow. Talk about a space living up to its name: Creative and Meeting Place!

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Open 24-7, serving all sorts of drinks and snacks, and set up to invite you to vegetate and spend hours and hours here.

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Sockets are everywhere, there is indoor table/floor seating (with pillows!) and outdoor options too.

20160718_181353

With a purchase of 50 baht you get a WiFi username and password for 2 hours.

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Wow. Talk about a space living up to its name: Creative and Meeting Place!

Hello from Chiang Mai!

Art and Creativity,

Finally settling in here in Chiang Mai. Love the area inside the old city with cobblestone streets and quaint shops and restos. Great for wandering around, even with the occasional drizzle. Happy there’s so much green everywhere! Seems the Thai aesthetic uses a lot of gardens to bring in the outdoors.

This morning I woke up to marching band music and saw a school parade happening along the moat on the perimeter of the old city. It lasted a good 15 minutes! The music reminded me of the funeral parade in Kurosawa's Dreams. Great start to the weekend. ????

This morning I woke up to marching band music and saw a school parade happening along the moat on the perimeter of the old city. It lasted a good 15 minutes! The music reminded me of the funeral parade in Kurosawa’s Dreams. Great start to the weekend.

Hello from Chiang Mai! People here hire motorbikes for transport but I've been going around in the local red trucks equivalent to the PH jeepney, which lets one scale the city perimeter (2 sqkm on each side) while enjoying a good breeze.

People here hire motorbikes for transport but I’ve been going around in the local red trucks equivalent to the PH jeepney, which lets one scale the city perimeter (2 sqkm on each side) while enjoying a good breeze.

It's easy to get templed out in Thailand but this hilltop Wat on Doi Suthep had something that made me linger and find a dose of quiet amidst the crowd. I went up a little after noon and took a moment exploring the temple grounds before entering the main site, where a golden structure was built to house ancient relics. The king, in meditation, asked for guidance on where to build the temple. He then rode an elephant which circled this spot three times. Maybe those people walking around the structure do so to commemorate this in prayer. #doisuthep #temple #chiangmai #thailand

It’s easy to get templed out in Thailand but this hilltop Wat on Doi Suthep had something that made me linger and find a dose of quiet amidst the crowd. I went up a little after noon and took a moment exploring the temple grounds before entering the main site, where a golden structure was built to house ancient relics. The king, in meditation, asked for guidance on where to build the temple. He then rode an elephant which circled this spot three times. Maybe those people walking around the structure do so to commemorate this in prayer. #doisuthep #temple #chiangmai #thailand

The prettiest Buddha I have seen. It had a throng of people offering candles and flowers before it.#buddha #doisuthep #temple #chiangmai #thailand

The prettiest Buddha I have seen. It had a throng of people offering candles and flowers before it.

#buddha #doisuthep #temple #chiangmai #thailand

Got up close and personal with this gentle baby elephant yesterday. Definitely a trip highlight. Signs of a happy elephant: flapping ears, side-to-side swaying, and swinging tail. A baby elephant eats 1000kg of fruits, leaves, and basically anything in the jungle everyday!#chiangmai #elephant

Got up close and personal with this gentle baby elephant yesterday. Definitely a trip highlight. Signs of a happy elephant: flapping ears, side-to-side swaying, and swinging tail. A baby elephant eats 1000kg of fruits, leaves, and basically anything in the jungle everyday!#chiangmai #elephant

Creative Space: Mama’s Table, Baguio City

Art and Creativity

Another sensory treat from last night--a buffet of pinks, blues and florals at Mama's Table private dining at the ancestral hilltop home of Chef Vicky Tinio. The living and dining areas consisted of a big hall surrounded by picture windows and wooden elements that served as a warming curtain from the biting cold outside.#creativespace #baguio #mamastable #french #privatedining

Another sensory treat from last night–a buffet of pinks, blues and florals at Mama’s Table private dining at the ancestral hilltop home of Chef Vicky Tinio. The living and dining areas consisted of a big hall surrounded by picture windows and wooden elements that served as a warming curtain from the biting cold outside.

#creativespace #baguio #mamastable #french #privatedining

Creative Space: Ili-likha, Baguio

Art and Creativity

We walked into a wonderland this afternoon! Whimsical nooks and crannies in a multi-storey living space  by artist Kidlat Tahimik. Felt like I was in post-apocalyptic Waterworld, kulang na lang si Kevin Costner. #artistvillage #baguio #creativespace #Ili-likha

We walked into a wonderland this afternoon! Whimsical nooks and crannies in a multi-storey living space by artist Kidlat Tahimik. Felt like I was in post-apocalyptic Waterworld, kulang na lang si Kevin Costner. #artistvillage #baguio #creativespace #Ili-likha

Mosaic art inside Ili-likha Artist Village. #creativespace #baguio

Mosaic art inside Ili-likha Artist Village. #creativespace #baguio

My favorite space in this crazy cozy place. No slippers please!#creativespace #baguio #kidlattahimik

My favorite space in this crazy cozy place. No slippers please!

#creativespace #baguio #kidlattahimik