Here's an artsy cure for a cold winter day, when you've been cooped up indoors for far too long: Line your kitchen floor with the Sunday newspaper, grab some colorful paints, thick and thin paintbrushes, dress your kids in their messiness-allowed gear and let them paint their own masterpieces on canvas.

Joann Fabrics has a good selection of canvases - we chose the 10x12 size - and if you use the 40% of coupon (usually there is one per week in the ad found in the Sunday Trib) you can snag one for about $3. Joann also carries colorful water-based acrylic paints for $1 each. For a palette, I used an old mini-muffin pan.

Pupa, at age 15 months, adores "drawing" and "coloring" - she already drew quite a number on her highchair -  so I knew she'd love painting. I set her up on the kitchen floor with all her artsy gear and she squealed with delight when I squirted the different paint colors into the muffin tin palette. She even said a new word: azzurro (blue). She created her masterpiece entirely on her own and it's now hanging in our dining room - it's actually quite lovely! Every time she spots it, she points to it, smiles and babbles. Look at the way she holds the brush in the photo - my little Mary Cassat!

Fratellone loves art projects too, and he made a colorful painting as well. Last week he and I also enjoyed making some Winter Sun Catchers together - you'll find them hanging on the iron fence in front of our home. Fratellone liked this project so much so that he asked to make more winter sun catchers when his cousin came over, and they spent quite awhile experimenting with food coloring. Certainly there isn't much sun to catch in Chicago these days, but the sun catchers have added a bit of color to our home with no worries of them melting away any time too soon.