BraveGirlsArt: Our Garden of Hope

My good friend Cathi came to help out today since our Courtney had a volleyball tournament. I was really happy to have her there so she could get a chance to meet my girls. Thanks, Cathi! Come back anytime...

Our first order of business was to paint our garden of hope. Ingrid sent me the flowers for our Girl Power 2 Cure garden, which will be displayed in Salon Gossip during the month of March. The girls painted a large poster board to look like a beautiful garden where people will "plant" flowers to raise awareness and research funds for Rett Syndrome.

We have paper icons that are signed for a $1 donation. Together our leaves and vines and these flowers create a "Garden of Hope." They did a gorgeous job, I love all the different greens and textures. Of course, we even added green glitter. I told them I wished I could live in our garden, it is so pretty!

After we finished our garden I got them in our usual circle. I told them that we have spent a lot of time talking about other people and finding ways to compliment them and build each other up. We’ve made secret messages for our pen pals and told them all the ways we think they are special. We’ve had a secret mission to watch another BraveGirl and eventually we'll tell her all the things we admire about her. This morning we are going to turn that love inward a little bit. I brought a round box I had decorated this week. I explained that inside the box they would see someone and they were supposed to give that person a compliment. I went first. I opened the box and said the person inside is fun, likes to laugh, is independent and creative. I loved it when all the girls started to raise their hands and tell me I must have been talking about them. Then I passed the box to Cristina. She opened it up and started to giggle. Then she said, “I see a mirror inside.” I said, yes. Now give that girl a compliment.

I heard the words

pretty,

smart,

likes school,

brave,

good at art,

cute,

funny,

kind to others,

and special.

All very very true. Then we talked about how embarrassed they felt when they realized the box held a mirror and they would have to compliment themselves. They were giggling and blushing and looking down at the floor, feeling strange and funny about turning the kindness inward. Courtney said, “It feels narcissistic.” I wanted them to know that giving yourself a good compliment is just as important as making others feel good about themselves. It’s incredibly important to love yourself, and I promised we’d keep the box here at the studio and make a point to look in the mirror once in a while and remind ourselves why we’re special!

Next we talked about the self portraits we will begin next week. I said we would be drawing and painting ourselves and I asked them to start thinking about how they wanted to portray themselves. I asked them to sit down and write “I AM” poems. They had prompts written which they had to fill in. Some of them went like this:

I am brave and kind.

I am good at gymnastics.

I touch flowers.

I hear the sound of my friends laughing with me.

I believe unicorns exist.

I feel summer coming.

I cry when my mom yells at me.

I am smart and pretty.

I dream about flying.

At the end of the morning I planned to finish up making some fun jewelry. I cut up a bunch of costume jewelry I got from my mother after my grandmother passed away and the beads were perfect for this project , or so I thought. I brought these cool shoelaces that I was planning on using to string the beads, but they were too big to fit through the holes, so we grabbed some hemp string and got to work. Another lesson learned on mistakes and making it work anyway!