family mural
July 29, 2020  by

Family Mural Project

Our family has toyed with the idea of painting a mural on our fence for years. We love the idea of adding playful art to the neighborhood but never took the time to actually make it happen.

Until, of course, a global pandemic hit and we were suddenly shut in at home wondering what to do with our kids during our makeshift homeschool hours. Before their schools started distance learning we made a calendar and the four of us decided to each teach a homeschool class. Karuna taught Ora singing, Ora taught me and Karuna gymnastics, Aaron held a writing workshop for the girls, and I decided to lead a family mural class.

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in Art Projects / Creative Projects / Garden / Homeschool / Outdoor Creative Spaces 0 comments
August 8, 2017  by

Episode 6: Julia Linsteadt on Creativity, Education, Motherhood, Entrepreneurship, and Intuition

Our first guest interview!

In episode 6 of Muse and the Catalyst, we interview Julia Linsteadt, mother of 2, art teacher, and co-founder of KidArtLit. We talk about creativity, flow, art, education, motherhood, self-care, collaboration, community, running a creative business, and how following our intuition never leads us astray. Julia also talks about a near-death experience in her early 20’s and how it lead her to go after her dreams.

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in Creative Business / Creative Learning / Guest Interviews / Podcast 0 comments
July 18, 2017  by

New Podcast!

I’m so excited to announce that I am launching a new podcast along with my husband, Aaron Schiller, called Muse and The Catalyst. It’s a podcast all about inspiration and taking action to create the life of your dreams. We’ll be covering topics such as lifestyle, business, family, parenting, design, minimalism, mindfulness, art, creativity, education, travel and so much more.

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in Creative Business / Guest Interviews / News / Podcast / Travel 10 comments
April 19, 2017  by

Family Art Events On The Road

When we began planning this 3-month Airstream tour around the US, I knew right away that I wanted to host pop-up family art events along the way. I wanted to connect with families across the country and share creative activities that might inspire them to bring more art and creativity and into their lives. But how was I going to pull that off?

The best thing about being a blogger is the friendships that I have made with other art teachers and creative mamas around the world. So once we had our trip route down, I of course went straight to my community of art teacher friends along the route and asked them to collaborate on a family art event in their town.

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in Art Projects / Creative Business / Creative Projects / Homeschool / News / Party Ideas / Travel 4 comments
April 5, 2017  by

On The Road: Family travel and taking a leap of faith

About 8 months ago I decided that it was time for our family to take a leap of faith and head out on a grand adventure. The girls were 4 and 7, Aaron and I were both self-employed, and we were considering homeschooling Karuna for 3rd grade.

I was determined to begin our journey sometime in early 2017 and wanted to travel for at least 3 months. I didn’t know where we would go, or how we would make it work financially. We had some debt, no savings, and were living paycheck to paycheck. Being self-employed was a bonus, but Aaron’s business was locally based so it was hard for him to imagine how he would continue to serve his clients on the road.

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in Creative Business / Homeschool / News / Travel 5 comments
October 13, 2016  by

Homeschool & Building A Life With Intention

Did you see my post about our upcoming road trip? If so, you know that our family is embarking on new adventures and that we are opening up to some radical changes in our lifestyle. We are putting a lot of focus on our hopes and dreams for our family and are taking some big steps to build a life with intention.

One of these family dreams is to offer our kids an education that is full of incredible life experiences and uninhibited exploration. We don’t know exactly what that looks like or how to achieve it, but we know we are ready to try something new to get there.

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in Creative Learning / Homeschool / News / Travel 32 comments
September 1, 2016  by

Easy Yarn Wall Hanging

Last weekend I was invited to host a creative activity at a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. If you don’t know who they are, this amazing organization helps to grant wishes to kids with terminal illnesses. Some kids wish to travel, perform on stage, meet their idols or even become their idol for a day! It was so special to meet some of the “wish kids” and help bring a smile to their faces with a fun, creative project.

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in Art Projects / Creative Projects / News / Party Ideas 4 comments
August 28, 2015  by

Make-A-Wish Collaborative Art

Last Saturday The Art Pantry team was invited to create a playful family experience for the Walk For Wishes event held at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, Ca. This was a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area foundation to raise money in order to fulfill the wishes of kids with life-threatening medical conditions. If you haven’t heard of them, check out the Batkid wish they granted almost two years ago. Incredible.

I’m happy to say that the event raised enough money to grant 13 wishes!

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in Art Projects / Creative Projects / News / Party Ideas 3 comments
July 24, 2015  by

Embroidery Multimedia Art

This summer, my hubby, Aaron, decided to run a small soccer camp for some of the 7-year-old girls that will be on his team in the fall. It’s been a while since I’ve taught art classes and we thought it would be fun to add an hour of art to each day of camp. Then, to top off this already incredibly cool camp, Aaron decided to add in dessert adventures at the end of each day (walking around town, in search of the yummiest treat!).

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in Art Projects / Creative Projects / Party Ideas 10 comments