Yesterday we had fun with Magic.  Our oldest son is going to turn 9 in a week and we celebrated his birthday with many children from his new class.

As guests arrived, they decorated fabric that I had precut and fringed for their Magic Carpet.  They sat on their transformed carpets for the Magic Show.  The magician was really great with this age group…8 year olds are full of  “I know how you did that..!” kind of statements.  But he still had some tricks up his sleeve to stump them.  Especially at the end of his show when he changed a balloon in to a real white rabbit, Max.  Some were so surprised they thought for sure the rabbit was only a robot (!).  My husband put together a cd for the kids to go along with the Magic theme -did you realize how many Magic songs were out there? “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” by the Cars, “Abracadabra” by the Steve Miller Band, “It’s a Kind of Magic” by Queen, “Magic” by The Cars (my favorite)…….

I’ve been learning some MAGIC myself this past week.  Visual Poetry, the online photo manipulation workshop has started.  In this workshop, Susan Tuttle presents 3 projects per week for four weeks.  She provides printable handouts, step by step screen shots, and most importantly video tutorials!!  The Visual Poetry site is engaging with an “Art Bar” where she’ll upload your favorite inspirational music, and a group Flickr site – you can stop by and see photos created by participants.  I’ve applied some of the techniques (toned-down and faded colors, rounded corners) to these photographs.

I love the retro character that I’m learning to apply to my pictures.  If you’re interested, sign up for the Visual Poetry newsletter – Susan will be offering another class!

Have a great week, friends.