Eclectic Chica

Duct Tape Wallets

2011-07-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to make some duct tape wallets. So I decided it was time to break into some duct tape crafting with the maniacs. There are a TON of duct tape wallet tutorials out there. But I mostly followed this one by CraftyNest. The first wallet I made was the pink zebra, which R quickly snapped up. Then Peelu and I co-designed her tie-dye version.

Here was S's wallet. He picked the colors and helped me cut some of the strips, while I mostly put his wallet together for him. He did hand cut his cover designs though.

And yes, that is a picture of Jack that he cut out to adorn the front of his wallet. Sigh...

Then our good freind Big E came over and we KNEW he would dig this craft!

Definitely more wallet making in our future.

Camping on the Metolius

2011-07-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

I love when semi-spur-of-the-moment camping trips with friends happens!

Fly-fishing lessons on this most revered fly fishing river:

Beautiful scenery, butterflies and baby birds, too:

Scully was still missing Jack (as we all were) so she came with us much to everybody's happiness:

S'Mores (OF COURSE!):

Lots and lots of playing in the cold, cold river and the warm, warm sunshine...

Perfection!

Greencards Concert

2011-07-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

We are really bad about not utilizing all the great concert venues that we have in Central Oregon. We just kinda get lazy about it. But every week when I read the paper and see all the cool concerts coming up, oftentimes free, I get bummed that we don't go.

So for once we just went, even with rain threatening skies. And I am so glad we did. Not only did we go with our best buds, but we had a wonderful concert experience.

I had read about the upcoming concert by the Greencards in the paper and I was looking forward to seeing them and hearing them play live. It was an outdoor concert at the Les Schwab amphitheater and it was cloudy and they had some sound difficulties....but it was awesome!

The music was great, the bad was very casual and fun and Peelu danced and danced and danced....

During the break between sets you could actually go down to the stage and talk to the band members and purchase CDs and t-shirts. I am usually shy about this kind of stuff because I hate to seem like such a big geek and I always think they are way too busy to want to talk to me.....

so I dragged the little dancer down and we got to talk with Carol Young, the only female and the main lead singer. She was cool. No other way to put it. Sincerely and genuinely nice and Peelu just fell in love with her as Carol talked to her little four year old self. I am bummed that I didn't ask for a photo then, because Peelu would have been over the moon with one. But we said our thank yous and then walked over to the big kids who were dancing on the concrete stage area and Peelu told them all about meeting Carol. So R asked me if she could go meet her too and tell her how much she was enjoying the music. The other kids tagged along and Carol was nice enough to pose with them.

Needless to say, we bought a CD and if I had had anymore money I would have bought one of everything! They are a cool band, they play cool music, Carol is a way cool girl and we are now diehard Greencards fans!

We miss Jack....

2011-07-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

A beloved member of our family recently died.

Jack, our 12 year old chocolate Labrador Retriever.

He was our second baby. Scully we got a few weeks before Jack. They were our first set of "twins".

Scully really, really misses Jack.

We ALL really, really miss Jack.

It's not the same without him.

The tears still come and probably will for a while.

The morning after the kids found out was very hard, but they dealt with it through their artwork.

And more tears.

But such is life when you have love to give.

MTH Study - Knight at Dawn - chess playing

2011-07-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

Of course we couldn't have a Magic Tree House study on knights without playing some chess.

A very popular game around our house these days anywhere because of No Stress Chess.Check it out if you're interested in getting your kids to play chess. Or if you need a review yourself. The kids can actually kick my hiney at it now!

MTH Study - Knight at Dawn - Stained Glass

2011-07-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Our next craft project during our Knight at Dawn study session was making stained glass, like medieval churches. Okay, we weren't really making stained glass, but I have been itching to try some of these mosaic tutorials at Glittering Shards. Concetta has some fabulous tutorials on making mosaics with kids.

This tutorial was really easy and actually very inexpensive. Yep, we just used white glue, some old cheap picture frames and some glass gems (you could actually get all of this at the Dollar Store or it's quite likely you already have it on hand.)

Our friend Big A was visiting and he joined in too. The kids had a great time creating their designs.

Somehow Peelu scored the biggest frame and she got to work.

We let them dry flat for a few days and then....voila..

... now they are super lovely sun catchers that we get loads of compliments on...

Oh, and while we were making the mosaics, we decided to make some medieval goblets too. I had picked up some glass wine goblets at the Dollar Store and we glued some glass beads on the outside using E6000 glue.

We didn't plan so well for this project and our glass beads slid around a lot. But the kids thought they were pretty cool when we finally got them to dry and they use their "goblets" all the time.

MTH Study - Knight at Dawn - Coat of Arms

2011-07-07T11:56:00.000-07:00

More Magic Tree House study time. This time we've moved onto #2 The Knight at Dawn, a good medieval mystery and a cool research guide too. Of course we went to the Magic Tree House Resource Center and printed out some crossword puzzles and word searches. We also picked up a few things at Enchanted Learning, including a word matching game on knights that the big kids helped Peelu with....lots more good activities there as well.

This web site - Owl & Mouse - had some great links on heraldry too. We read up on how to make our own coat of arms and what all the symbols, shaped and colors meant.

First we followed a generate-your-own-coat-of-arms application and came up with some samples that we created ourselves.

Then we came up with our own, using symbols that were important to us. You can see S's at the very top and R's just above. Fun and interesting stuff!

Perfection

2011-07-06T11:10:00.000-07:00

The best of Summer.
Sitting on the back porch watching our bees fly, the garden grow and the chickens peck the ground.
All while hanging out with Papa.

Anniversary Hike

2011-07-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

It's pretty much become a tradition now.

Hiking on our wedding anniversary, which also happens to be July 4th.

We decided to finally try and tackle the Iron Mountain Hike with the kiddos because we were wanting to see the supposedly spectacular wildflower display this hike is known for...

we had a great trip up with the kids, who were proving fairly tireless as we hiked around and around but.....

..the wildflower display was minimal. We had already waited a few weeks because of the cold start to Spring and Summer, but even still we were ahead of the fabulous display.

Thankfully that did not stop us from having a good time.

Although we were stopped from completely reaching the top overlook by a snow pack! July in Central Oregon! Sheesh!

Good thing the family time was still time perfectly spent.

MTH Study - Dinosaurs Before Dark - Dinosaur Egg Paleontology

2011-07-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, the next craft for our Magic Tree House study of Dinosaurs at Dawn was making and excavating a dinosaur egg fossil. We used the Treasure Stone recipe at Family Fun to make our "eggs".

We followed the recipe, putting in one of our dinosaur figurines into the middle of the egg. They took several days to dry outside.

Then we started our excavation, using only authentic paleontologist tools.

Okay, maybe we were not so authentic. But we did discuss the paleontology information in our Magic Tree House Research Guide!

Our painstaking efforts were soon rewarded...

Another very fun and educational dinosaur craft! The girls also chose to make their baby dinos into necklaces.

Okay, not a totally original idea since we already made dino necklaces for R's valentines, but still, pretty cute, eh?

Our Own American Idol

2011-06-30T15:51:00.000-07:00

One very rare afternoon.

I had nothing absolutely, terribly pressing to do...

so I grabbed a blanket and a book to read...

and I went to lay on the backyard grass in the gorgeous Summer sun...

soon I was being serenaded by the cutest American Idol around...

I got a whole concert worth of songs....made up on the spot....

I'm a lucky Mama.

MTH Study - Dinosaurs Before Dark - Dinosaur Gardens

2011-06-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, I LOVED all of the dinosaur crafts/activities that we have been doing for our Magic Tree House Study - Dinosaurs at Dawn. However, I think the Dinosaur Gardens might just be my favorite.

As I researching the web for dino crafts and activities, I ran across this dinosaur terrarium on TLC. (Be sure to check the link out because they had some other fun dino activities too.) Well, we pretty much already had everything on hand, so we created our very own Dinosaur Gardens.

Here's what you need:

A container for your garden (we used some big pot lids and a terra cotta saucer that we had on hand)
Soil (we used a sandier than normal mix because we n=knew most of our plants would be of the succulent variety)
Gravel (for drainage)
Plants ( we tried to pick out some plants that looked "prehistoric")
Dinosaur figurines
Glass gems

I gathered the stuff for the gardens and told the kids the idea and they jumped right to it!

I was amazed at their designs and how well they worked together. S first came up with a very vivid story about his Dino Garden.

It involved volcanoes and ancient sea creatures and everything. The girls both joined in with stories for their individual gardens and I ended up filming the whole sagas. I loved their creative use of the glass gems as both lava and lakes and also mountains and rivers. And I enjoyed hearing in their stories, facts from the MTH Research Guides about how dinosaurs lived and died. It was pretty cool.

Plus, the mini gardens looked awesome, especially with the portulaca blooming and the spiky succulents making the whole design look exotic!

MTH Study - Dinosaurs Before Dark - Dinosaur Wax Resist Fossil Painting

2011-06-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

Another great dinosaur art idea from That Artist Woman- Glue Resist Dinosaur Art!

R was the only one who attempted this activity for our Magic Tree House study - Dinosaurs at Dawn.

But it turned out pretty good.

R was very happy with her fossil print and it was another cool activity to celebrate our dinosaur studies with...but stay tuned for even more paleontological fun.

MTH Study - Dinosaurs Before Dark - Dinosaur Fossils

2011-06-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

So S read the first book in the Magic Tree House series, Dinosaurs at Dawn. He also read the research guide and then we talked about both books together as a family.

I am using the Teachers Resource Center Guides at the Magic Tree House Website for each book to help plan the study portion. Also, I am using Enchanted Learning for all kinds of fun worksheets, ideas, etc. for each book subject. The kids are keeping all of their research stuff, worksheets and notes in just a regular folder for now. Also, when we finish a book, the kids then go onto the Magic Tree House web site to play the games and also get their Magic Tree House passport stamp for that particular book and/or research guide. Check out the website for more details on the passport program. I will let you know more about other resources we find as we go along.

So after we did the worksheets and had our discussion, we figured it was time to start crafting. This is where things get drawn out do to my craft ADHD!! First up was making dinosaur "fossils".

This was a very easy craft - and yielded very fun results. Both Busy Bee Crafts and That Artist Woman had good tutorials that we referenced.

Here's what you need:
Salt Dough (recipes all over the web)
Cheap Dinosaur Figurines
Plastic foliage
Acrylic Paint
Paint Brushes
Mod Podge or other craft sealer

After we made the salt dough, we pressed the dinosaur figurines into the dough hard enough to make a good impression. We also pressed some plastic foliage into the dough as well for some leafy looking prints.

S used some shark figurines we had as well, because of course (as he pointed out), prehistoric sharks were ancient too! We baked our fossils according to our salt dough directions. And we made sure they were extra hard and baked through.

Then we got to painting.

The kids picked out some colors they thought would be authentic fossil colors. And away they went.

Some of them looked darn cool!

After the paint dried we put a good coat of matte Mod Podge over them.

They turned out very cool looking. I would say that our first MTH craft project was a success. In fact, it was a little too addicting, so now we have about 10 dinosaur fossil paper weights around the house.

Guess what you're getting for Christmas.

Magic Tree House Family Study Kick-Off

2011-06-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, as if we actually need more things to study and do...during Summer no less. Well, my kids got screwed in the Mom category because I have devised a new scheme to combine summer reading and research projects and CRAFTS!! YES!! Are you excited? I'm excited. My kids....hmmm....we'll see. They are excited about the craft parts however.

Well, somehow we have collected almost all of the Magic Tree House series books along with the Magic Tree House Research guides. This series is fabulous. You probably already know that. But its awesome. History has always been my first love, hence my wacky History degree in college. AND I LOVE to research (again, that wacky History degree). SO I thought we would read each book and corresponding research guide (although not all of the books have a research guide of their own). Then we would do some further research on-line and at the library, maybe some experiments, maybe some field trips if we can find some that fit and OF COURSE, some arts and crafts that fit with each book.

S & R are going into third grade and are fairly good readers, so the books are perhaps a touch below their reading levels now (although I think the Research guides are a bit higher reading level). But they are such great books and such very quick reads that I figured the kids would not mind this project and reading practice is reading practice, right?

Of course I don't plan on finishing this during this Summer. But I think it would be a fun on-going project for as long as it lasts (hopefully through all the first books). The tough part will be me. My research obsession causes me to spend more time gathering ideas than actually implementing and doing said ideas. So we'll see if I can keep the kids' interest as I will no doubt go off on crazy tangents and over-do the "extra" stuff for each book. But here goes. Hope you can follow along with us.

I love peacocks

2011-06-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

My absolute FAVORITE part of our trips to Peterson Rock Gardens is seeing the peacocks. (But the rocks are really COOL, too!)

I have always been fascinated by their beautiful plumage and even their creepy crying calls are interesting to me.

So it goes without saying that the majority of my photos taken during the preschool visit were of....the peacocks.

I am thinking one of these may become a Fair entry photo this year. If not, wall hanging material at least.

I love peacocks.

Father's Day Fishing

2011-06-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

It's become a family tradition. Each year Ross gets a smidge more fishing time. But for now it's still pretty much constant moving between the kids as one gets stuck, one gets a knot, one gets a fish, etc.

I do try to help. Honest.

But my fishing skills are rather pathetic and I am not so good with knots.

Still, they caught three fish at a new fishing spot (new for the kids anyway). We spent some relaxing time together as a family.

We were heading to G & G's for a BBQ dinner and we decided to surprise them with the fish. (Grandma W always thinks Ross is "telling fishing stories" when he usually fails to bring back fish from his trips - you know "catch and release" - that's what he says anyway). So the kids felt they should bring back proof this time. They were very happy and proud to show off their hard work.

And they didn't taste too bad either. Happy Father's Day, Love.

The Second Swarm

2011-06-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! Two swarms in one week. Ross was beside himself. It all started when a friend from church came over and told us there was a swarm of bees in some bushes by the church parking lot entrance.

The beekeepers busted into action.

Gear collected.

Swarm spotted.

Bush trimmed.

Swarm dumped into new hive box.

Disaster at church averted.

And more bees for us!!

Teacher's Gifts for Last Day of School

2011-06-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

We made some more tin cans full of colorful and fun looking succulents. Then we threw in some biscotti (of course), and a card from the maniacs and off went our end of the year presents to some very hard working teachers. We will miss you all!

Father's Day Card Photos

2011-06-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

We didn't have time for any manic Dad gift crafting this year. And we were all okay with that (probably Ross most of all because he's running out of space!). But we did decide to make a cool card and some even cooler cupcakes for our favorite Daddy-O!

Here's the cool card:

Did you notice how the letters are made? Yep, I spent a crazed half hour making the maniacs form letters with their little bodies so that we could make this card. But since I was making them twist up into wacky shapes over and over again, I just decided to do the whole darn alphabet. So we could make all kinds of cards and banners and spell anything we wanted to with their poor, twisted limbs!

I have to say it turned out pretty good. And the kids thought it was pretty fun to try and make the shapes.

Our other cool Papa thing was a fun treat. We saw this idea in Family Fun and had to try it. BBQ Cupcakes!!

Super cool or what! They were easier to make than I thought.

All in all, Ross was pretty darn happy with his alphabet kids and "grilled' cupcakes. Phew!

Bee Box Building

2011-06-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well, since the swarm set off a flurry of bee box building here are some new photos. He has some pre-fab boxes (supers mostly) that he is putting together himself.

Ross has some nucs coming any day now too and he realized he needed to get a move on creating some new boxes. Plus, another swarm would really deplete his box supply. SO he got creative.

We took down a really old fence on the side of our yard earlier this year. And Ross decide to try making some "recycled wood" bee hive boxes. Whaddya think? We think they turned out kinda cool. Now he's off designing new and fancier roofs for the boxes. Ay yi yi. Beekeeping is more time consuming than I thought.

Well, maybe my husband is just more time consuming than I thought. :-)

Bee Science

2011-06-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Beekeeping is COOL! Ross had a discarded piece of honeycomb that he had accidentally squished when he was checking the hives. He brought the piece into the house and put it on the counter. The next morning as the kids were getting ready for school, S (with the sharp eyes) noticed movement on the honeycomb. Sure enough, a bee was hatching. Then he noticed that two more were trying to hatch as well.

Ross was still home and he found an old peanut butter jar to put the piece in so that S could take it to school and maybe they could all watch the bees hatch. Well, this turned out to be the big hit of the day as two more bees hatched while they were in class. Their teacher, especially thought it was pretty cool to watch. When the kids came home we opened the jar and left it on the backyard table, hoping the bees would still go back to their hive. S spent hours checking on them and discussing how they would find their hive. Hopefully they made it. And hopefully we'll get another chance to watch this glimpse into the bee life cycle again.

Beekeeping is COOL!

The First Swarm

2011-06-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

"Kel,something epic just happened."

That's what Ross just told me as my girlfriend handed over her phone to me. I was hanging out at her house with another girlfriend and Peelu. You know, relaxing before the last days of school were over. But then Ross called. R had stayed home sick that day, so I was concerned that maybe she was feeling worse. But oh no....here's the rest of the conversation.

"My bees just swarmed."

"Uh, that sounds bad."

"No, no, it was epic. I heard extra loud buzzing and I looked up and the backyard was filled with bees."

"That doesn't sound good."

"No, no, it was awesome."

"Are you sure."

"Yes. It was like a cloud of bees."

"Ummmm...where did they go?"

"Well, luckily they stayed in our yard and landed on the pine tree."

"Lucky in deed. I am sure our neighbors are very happy about that."

Anyway, he went on to tell me in a voice, overcome with beekeeper emotion, how he and R proceeded to catch the swarm and how his Beekeeper master (friend Brian) told him everything to do.

I was a little confused, because I thought R was sick and laying on the couch. Apparently the bee swarm miraculously cured her and she became the official swarm photographer. These are all her photos.

Anyway, the swarm was BIG news for quite a while and set off a flurry of bee box building and bee swarm studying. Obviously more bee posts to come. Phew!

Our tin can planters

2011-06-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

We had a load of thank you gifts to make at the end of the year - teachers, helpers and volunteers of all kinds - school, church, Sunday school, friends....So we thought we'd try something new and continue in our recycling theme as of late.

We saved, washed and cleaned a bunch of tin cans, got out some twine we had around the house and our handy dandy glue gun.

A simple wrapping technique made the cans look cool and rustic.

Then we added the succulents (into cactus soil that was sitting on top of a handful of good draining gravel). We used some hens and chicks that we already had in our yard. But I also splurged and ordered some cuttings from Succulents Galore. They were beautiful and just plain gorgeous. I also planted some in my own containers in the hopes that I could make my own cuttings for more cool gifts.

Simple and cute and kind of addicting to put together.

But they made our thank yous extra special (we hope)!

The last of the Laptop Lunches for the School Year

2011-06-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have been very remiss in posting these lunches as we went along the year. And I wish I could say I had some really inventive ideas but I was a bit fizzled out on lunchbox ideas this year. Which isn't to say that I didn't make them every school day. But they just were not super creative. But that is okay. They were still super healthy and full of love and for the most part, well received by the second graders.

Pita filled with broccoli salad, bacon and dried cranberries, snack cup with yogurt covered raisins, raspberries, some of our small garden tomatoes

Turkey sandwich on whole wheat, strawberries & raspberries, green beans with mini dill pickles, rice cakes, pretzels and yogurt covered raisins

eef taquitos cut in half with salsa & sour cream, fruit salsa, cornchips, rice cakes and a breakfast cookie, carrots & red peppers

Homemade French toast rectangles (from Papa's bread), maple syrup, garden tomatoes, raspberries, cheese & crackers, ham cubes and two breakfast cookies.

Black bean & cheese burrito cut in half, plum, hard boiled egg & cucumbers, ginger cookies, dried apricots, pretzels & yogurt raisins

Leftover mandarin chicken salad, spring rolls with sauce, hard boiled egg, apple sauce with raisins

Black bean & cheese burrito, kiwi and cantaloupe, garden tomatoes and cucumbers, fig bars and goldfish crackers

Beef empanadas with salsa, corn chips, fog bars, guacamole with garden yellow pear tomatoes, leftover pecan apple pie with whipped cream. This is the leftovers from Ross' birthday dinner. The kids were VERY excited about the Pie!!

whole wheat crackers with cheese squares, salami & turkey pepperoni, blueberries, carrots with ranch dip, caramel corn with raisins and pretzels

Leftover pasta salad, orange smiles, ham roll-ups, cheese slices, crackers & mini chocolate graham crackers, baby carrots form our garden and red peppers

Leftover Red Beans & Rice, apple wedges, peanut butter/honey/yogurt apple dip, cucumbers, carrots& hard boiled egg

Turkey & Peach Preserve wraps, pretzels and homemade biscotti, mandarin oranges and strawberries, green beans and pickled asparagus

Cut out raisin toasts with cream cheese, chopped apple spread, 4 bean salad, strawberries, pomegranate rice cakes

Dang, now I am hungry.

Yes, ALL the teachers got recycled wind chimes!

2011-06-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

We probably seem a bit redundant here, making and giving teacher's gifts on Teacher Appreciation Week, which is in May and then again at the end of school, in June. But really, can you appreciate your kids' teachers too much? We don't think so. And if you have ever worked or helped in the classrooms at the very end of school - you will REALLY appreciate your kids' teachers...I mean seriously...those kids are crazed by then!

And since our second grade teachers got wind chimes already....we thought it only fair that our preschool teachers also got some musical, recycled art from us as well. Thankfully our preschool teachers are two very wonderful ladies who sincerely appreciate handmade gifts and have taught all of our children AND now how obsessively crafty our family is...

Of course they got homemade biscotti too - wrapped quite beautifully by Peelu. But wait, the wind chime making was NOT done....we got the Lundgren kids involved too one day...making a sweet sounding chime for their mom.

Our wind chimes are going to conquer the world!

The Preschool Birthday Treats

2011-06-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, really this was an annual preschool trip/ But Peelu preferred to think that it was all for her birthday. She was with all her preschool buddies It was our turn to bring the snack anyway. So we incorporated some Spring fun and Peelu, of course, had to help me make EVERYTHING.

First we painted some glitter glue on wooden clothespins to make a cute butterfly treat.

After they dried we glued on googly eyes and cut pipe cleaners into 2 inch lengths.

Then we put together a fabulous trail mix of all Peelu's favorites....and we stuffed little snack bags about 2/3 full. Then we gathered the bags in the middle and clipped on the clothespin and the "bent" pipe cleaner antennae.

Aren't they ridiculously cute? I am pretty sure I found the idea in magazine. Oh, and also for snack I made little mini "dirt pudding cups". Basically pudding on the bottom of the dixie cup, crushed chocolate cookies on top with candy rocks and gummy frogs or gummy worms sticking out.

Peelu also wanted to give a party favor, so we got bottles of bubbles for her to hand out too.

I love sweet and inexpensive ways to make birthdays special for the little ones.

Watch out - she's FOUR now!

2011-06-08T17:10:00.000-07:00

And we can hardly believe it!

Simple birthday this year...swimming, birthday dinner....birthday cupcakes.....wonderful gifts from family and friends.

And a very happy four year old (although up until the day of her birthday she WAS insisting she would stay three forever). I could kinda dig that. Ross and I were both having trouble with our baby getting older. Sniff, sniff..

A very simple, just family, party....but as you can see....Peelu was tickled pink! Oh yeah, and yellow and black too...because she got some new bee boots, don't 'ya know?

Crocheted Baby Gifts

2011-06-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

I was a bit behind on the these baby gifts for S & R's teacher. But I finally finished them...in time for school to get out!

Hopefully they were worth the wait.

Their teacher is an alum of U of O (the Ducks), so do you get the "duckie" bib? When I saw this pattern on Lion Brand I just had to make it. Isn't the 3D duck bill cute

Birthday Ice Cream

2011-05-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

Peelu got invited to an ice cream themed birthday party. And we couldn't pass up making some really sweet birthday presents for her very sweet little girlfriend.

First we freezer paper stenciled an ice cream design on a canvas bag. Peelu gave me the details and I hand drew the design. Then we personalized the back in a girly font.

Then Peelu went upstairs into the craft room void to help me fill the inside with crafty goodness. Yep, one of our famous craft kits was created...

Boy, Peelu and I are not safe to be left together in the craft room. Our craft kit bag was bulging by the end of our gathering session. And we were not done....oh no.

Our little friend and her sweet Mama had always admired Peelu's Big Pink Flower Hat. It was such a quick pattern to make up that I quickly crocheted one the night before the party. The flower actually consumes the most time in this pattern.

But it's worth it, as the flower truly makes this hat adorable on little girls.

Here's Peelu modeling it so you get the idea.

And we were very happy to report that our handmade birthday presents were very joyously received. THAT is always what makes handmade gifts worth the time and effort.

A Mini Girl Camo Cap

2011-05-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Baby Sister Peelu had to have a cool cap too, doncha know?

However the attitude is all Peelu!

I went down a hook size and it made the whole cap much tighter and stiffer - a better fit for the brim and this type of hat.

I went with Red Heart Super Saver again because of the sturdiness, wash-ability and cool camouflage pattern.

We get TONS of compliments on it. I have to say, it does look pretty darn cute on her.

Thanks again to Vallie's Kids for the easy pattern!

The ice cream scoop recycled wind chime

2011-05-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

This one was the family present for Grandma on Mother's Day.

We found the old aluminum ice cream scoop and knew it was just perfect for G & G. There house is known as the ice cream sundae house. They always have ice cream and a vast array of yummy toppings and goodies to put on top. SO we thought the ice cream scoop was particularly appropriate for this recycled art wind chime.

It sounds awesome too!

A Cute Girl Camo Cap

2011-05-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

I have been dying to make this hat for R for some time. I finally sat down to do it and it worked up might fast.

And turned out pretty dang cute.

The pattern is from Vallie's Kids: http://vallieskids.blogspot.com/2009/06/meagan-wants-you.html She has a bunch of super cute, very easy patterns. I used some Red Heart Super Saver in Pink Camo for it's sturdiness and wash-ability.

And my girl loves it, and in the end, that's always what counts.

This Spring isn't for the bees either!

2011-05-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

They are not happy with our crummy weather.

They don't really come out of the hive if the weather is too cool. And our wacky Spring has caused some of the trees to bloom and then to freeze and the bees have not been able to get to them.

That means the trees AND the bees are not happy. And the delay in the other flowers means are bees are having to get fed with sugar water. It also means that our new bees (5 new nucs - which are like mini-hives) are delayed in getting here too.

So Ross decided to check on our hive this particular afternoon and see how they were doing. Some crazy comb building. But overall, they are looking pretty good, especially considering the weather circumstances.

We didn't get our hive last year until Summer, so this is our first Spring with them and it's constantly a learning process. And a lot of "go-with-the-flow".

And a lot of amazement at these tiny creatures.

Peelu's Pet Bee

2011-05-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

It was a drone (with no stinger) and for some reason it was very attached to her.

Ross had just been out checking the hive so it probably got caught in his clothes.

Peelu was very excited to have her own "pet" bee.

However we did convince her to let him go outside. Fly away little bee, fly away!

Spring? Gardening

2011-05-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Our Spring bulbs are s l o w l y coming up. I guess it's Spring. It doesn't really feel like it as our freezing weather and cloudy skies have not dissipated. And the rain keeps coming. For a High Desert climate this is unexpected weather. AND IT'S DRIVING US ALL A BIT NUTS!

Maybe planting some flowers will make the weather cooperate. But we're not stupid, we're only chancing our cold hardy blooms for now. And the veggie starts are still bundled up.

Thank goodness for pansies, or our yard would still be devoid of color.

This pretty, little mini rose is begging to find a home. But I am afraid for it's little life if I plant it right now.

And this super cool sedum mix is itching to be set among our rock borders. It will probably be okay...but still...

I guess for now, we'll stick with the pansies and keep digging up and transplanting our volunteers. I mean eventually our weather will warm up, right?

Of course that will probably happen just in time for our first frost.

We really, really appreciate our preschool teachers!

2011-05-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

In fact, we love them most dearly. So Peelu wanted to make them both a special gift.....

Yep, you guessed it - more birds nest necklaces. (Thank you again, Carrie.) Hey, go with what works, I say. Peelu's a total pro at making them now.

She chose the colors and wrapped the nests herself. Along with the necklaces we gave bags of homemade biscotti. And since then, both teachers (and Grandma W as well, have told us that they get so many compliments on these necklaces).

Can you see our geeky, craft-lovin' smiles?

Pickling Asparagus

2011-05-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

I am not a huge asparagus fan. But Ross LOVES the stuff. SO when an opportunity came up to buy a few pounds of straight-from-the-farm, picked-that-day asparagus, I jumped a the chance. Best of all, it was fundraiser for the Senior class end-of-the-year party of our local high school. When I picked up the asparagus they also gave me a pickling recipe.

And boy, do we love ANYTHING pickled. Okay, maybe not pigs feet or boiled eggs or ...okay let me re=phrase that - we love any vegetables pickled. And Ross loves his asparagus so much that he left not an inch of them unpickled - stem ends and all!

But the waiting period is killing us.

Some mini wind chimes for the teachers

2011-05-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

Since our second grade teachers (both our regular teacher and our long term/maternity leave substitute teacher) were so ecstatic with our class art auction wind chime.....we thought they would each love to have their own mini version for Teacher Appreciation Week at school.

Ms. H talked to S & R about enjoying her garden so we also gave her an Oriental Poppy for her garden (one of my FAVORITE garden plants) and of course our requisite bag of homemade biscotti.

Didn't I tell you that those little dessert molds would come in handy as bases for our wind chimes?

Then by the end of the week, S & R's teacher had come back off of maternity leave. We didn't want to forget her so she got her own wind chime too!

The kids do such a good job with the beads and picking out the right utensils for each wind chime. And of course, I cannot rave enough about Ross' knot tying abilities. Hmmmm...I'm not sure what I did this time around....

Darn, these mini wind chimes are even more addicting. I now have people scouring the garage sales for all kinds of unique utensil and silverware and cutlery for us. It's quite possible that we are getting to be known as the junk family.

A Dragonfly Pin

2011-05-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

Remember the cool dragonfly that Ross made for our art auction flower stock pot? Well the very easy directions actually made a smaller, jewelry sized pin. We had upsized it for the flower pot. But S found the directions and asked to make one for his Grandma for Mother's Day.

He found the beads and strung them on the "body".

The wings were probably the hardest part and he fiddled with those for a bit.

And the antennae were fun to twist, he said. He put a safety pin on the back and voila - he was finished.

It turned out pretty dang cute and it was much oohed and ahhed over by his grandmother.

Bird's Nest Necklace Joy

2011-05-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

Do you ever find a craft project that you make and it turns out so wonderful that you CAN'T stop making more and more and more?

Well that is what has happened with these super, duper, totally sweet birds nest necklaces that we found at Rhubarb Sky. I can't thank Carrie enough for blogging about these necklaces. We have made a bunch. They have become our go-to present for mother, grandmothers, and teachers and we just plain love wearing them ourselves.

Okay, one evening, Peelu and I were home alone and we decided to get a jump on Mother's Day presents. So we put a movie on and I dragged out the beads and wire. Carrie's directions were very easy to follow and she's completely right when she says you just have to go with the flow while wrapping. I kept fighting myself on my nest, but Peelu just kept going with hers.

I was so surprised at how well she could do this. I mean, she's not even 4 yet. Myabe I have a jewelry designer prodigy? Okay, maybe it just really is that easy.

She did poke me a bit with the wire and initially I helped her on the weaving the ends back through part - but then she told me to "Please stop. I want to weave it myself." Geesh!

I did do the bail parts myself, but pretty much she could make the whole thing herself. Amazing. Totally cool.

WE LOVE THESE NECKLACES!! As can be attested by my brown one, R's purple and green one (that she too made herself), Peelu's pink one for herself, a turquoise one for Grandma W and a red and purple one for Memere.

I can guarantee there will be more of these in our future. Go make yourself happy and make one right now. Seriously it will take you 10 minutes - tops. Do it. You know you want one of these necklaces!

Yep, we are obsessed with making recycled wind chimes

2011-05-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

Goodwill and other thrift stores have become my second home this week.

But seriously, look at all this cool stuff!

Can you not envision how these cute little molds will make excellent mini wind chime bases? Don't these glorious utensils call out to you to be made into a musical and visual artistic creation?

Or perhaps I am just weird. That is probably it.

Shark Birthday Gifts Galore

2011-05-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

Some very special presents for a very special boy. Big F turned four and he had a shark inspired birthday party.

So we stenciled...

and painted....

and ironed and cut and sanded......

and hooked!

And we think we turned out some pretty cool shark inspired gifts (although the chalkboard was meant to be just a regular fish). I loved everything we gave Big F, but I confess that I think the Shark Hat is my favorite. It was one of those whimsical crochet patterns that I always want to make but never think will turn out like I want it to.....well this fun pattern by Andrea turned out AWESOME! Even better than I expected. I had S model it so you could get the full effect:

All in all it was an ocean full of cool presents for one of our favorite little men. Happy Birthday Big F!

It's finished - The Recycled Art Auction Project

2011-04-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, drum roll. Here is the finished recycled art project from Mrs. E and Ms H's 2nd grade class, all ready for the school art auction....

It's awesome, right?

We may all be partial but we think it turned out even better than we envisioned. But of course,we couldn't stop there. I really wanted to be able to use every recycled item that we received. So I decided to donate some flowers and make the stock pot we received, into a planter that would be a lovely complement to the wind chimes in a garden. We decided to make some garden critters with the last bits of our supplies too.

Ross made this cool dragonfly (directions found here). And I came up with a simple butterfly pattern that made the leftover glass beads really sparkle.

Our garden insect party turned out very pretty.

We also came up with a story of what the wind chime represented. I printed it on card stock and drew some flowers around it. Then I tucked it between the tines of a fork and stuck it into the planter for everybody to see at the auction. Here's what it said:

The wind chime represents our wonderfully diverse 2nd grade class.

The two main parts represent our great teachers – Ms. H & Mrs. E (not every class was lucky enough to have not one – but TWO – fabulous teachers during the year!)

The kids in class each beaded a utensil that was later attached to the wind chime. As you can see, each utensil is a work of art by itself, that clearly represents each individual personality.

Each utensil was also donated by the class, and there are 26 different utensils to represent the kids in class – all wacky, wild and wonderful 26 of them!

We also received a donation of this cool, old stockpot. It was begging for some fresh Spring flowers to revive it’s usefulness. With leftover, recycled beads we made some Spring visitors and thought it was a beautiful addition to our art project. As you can see, the sweet, little watering can of our wind chime is pouring down love and happiness and patience and perseverance and kindness ………and the flowers (just like the kids from Ms. H & Mrs. E’s class are BLOOMING!!

Was that too cheesy? Awwww....I don't care. It totally fit the kids and the uniqueness of this cool class. The day of the auction, Ross and I brought it into the classroom to show the kids before we hung it up on the auction stage. We clanged and clanked down the hallways at school and people stopped us to ask about it the whole way. The kids totally cheered and clapped when they saw it all put together. That was the best part for sure.

It was a very popular item up on the art display stage and people couldn't resist walking by and tweaking a utensil to get a little sound out of it. The really fun part was watching the kids drag their parents up to see it. We actually had a bidding war going on at the last minute of the auction, but one of the students from class persuaded her mom to buy it. She was so excited to get it in the auction and she tells us about it every time we see her. I'd say it was a success.

Now....I am trying to come up with some ideas for next years art auction ..... hmmmm...this will be a hard one to top!

The Final Birthday Hat

2011-04-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

Our friend Greg was pretty patient about waiting for his handmade birthday hat.

He had an awesome birthday party hiking at Smith Rock and the wind kicked up by the end of it...so I think his Green & Yellow (DUCK COLORS) Brain Waves hat came in handy!

I love giving handmade gifts to such appreciative people (big or little). That makes me happy.

Mother's Day Wreath Craft

2011-04-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

You are probably waiting with bated breath to see what we made with our egg carton flowers....Well, we decided to make some very lovely Mother's Day wreaths first.

These turned out to be one of those crafts that looks even lovelier than you anticipated. And the kids were troopers. I was amazed that a 3 year old and a 4 year old could do all of this. But I told you it was easy, right?

1. First cut a wreath out of some cardboard. I used a recycled mail box and a small plate to outline my circle. Then I cut the wreath shape out.

2. Next the kids picked their yarn colors. I went with some old Lion Brand Homespun yarn that I had laying around. It was perfect - it's floofiness added some neat texture to the wreath and the kids didn't have to be so exact with wrapping because of the uneven texture of the yarn - meaning a few wraps of yarn could overlap and you wouldn't see a big lump like if it had been smooth or thin yarn. I also unwound some yarn into a small ball that would be easier for them to maneuver with around their wreath.

3. So the kids wrapped and wrapped and wrapped and really did an awesome job. I didn't think they'd have the patience. Luke especially persevered with his task and finished it up in no time. When they started and finished the yarn I just tucked in the loose ends good and tight.

4. Next, the kids picked out the flowers they wanted to use and I whipped out the glue gun. I put dabs of glue where they told me and then they immediately pressed their flowers down and held them for a count of 10. Peelu wanted to add the hearts that she painted to her wreath.

Piece o' cake! That's it. Seriously! Aren't they fantastic? And those kids are pretty darn cute too!

Such an easy and fun craft with quick results. The kids LOVED these wreaths and were SO proud of themselves. Luke, especially, could not wait to give his to his mom. Obviously I couldn't be Peelu's intended recipient since I helped make them - so Grandma W got the wreath for her door on Mother's Day.

Oh, I almost forgot - the other egg carton craft. Equally easy - a simple flower brooch.

Just take one of your egg carton flowers and glue inside some beads (or button or chenille wire stem or anything else you can think of or even just paint a cool design). Then glue a pin back on the back side of the flower.

I used some E600 glue to make everything stick really well. Luke made this cute version also for his mom. Peelu and I will have to try some more of these since Luke's turned out so well.

Egg Carton Crafting

2011-04-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

I was so in love with this beautiful egg carton flower wreath that I found via The Crafty Crow. And I decided then and there I had to make one with the kids. Well, I have not finished enough flowers yet for a whole wreath. But Peelu & Luke helped me paint a bunch of them one day. And then I was so inspired by their pretty flowers that we made up two other crafts...a yarn wreath with flowers and a flower brooch....all in time for Mother's Day. Stay tuned for those two crafts.

For now, here's the really simple explanation on how to make egg carton flowers:

1. Recycle some of your egg cartons (not styrofoam) by cutting the egg sections apart. You can also use various other parts of the carton to make other flower accents, leaves, stems or hearts as Peelu did.

2. To make the flowers I took an egg carton cup and just went around with my scissors making different cuts. Sometimes I just made cuts all around and spread the "petals" after. Other times I actually cut petal shapes. You can really do anything. Check out the blog post above again for more flower ideas.

3. Then paint the flowers, leaves, etc. You can really make the flowers really stand out with different paint shades and details and by stacking different shapes inside each other.

4. Now you've got your flowers. You can attach them to a cardboard wreath or you can make some other artsy/craftsy items with them..

....stick around and see what we made.

The School Art Auction Project: 2nd Grade 2011

2011-04-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

This year, our school decided to add an Art Project Auction to it's annual Hoe Down fundraiser. Each class was supposed to make an item (although some classes made more than one thing) and donate it for the auction. Of course, I thought this was a FABULOUS idea. The only bummer (I thought) was that art has been rather eradicated from our school (at least in the form of art teachers and in-depth directed art projects - the teachers themselves simply do not have any time with all the stuff they must cram into the kids for State/Federal testing purposes - that is a whole other rant I could go on and on about). So I asked our second grade teacher if she would like help with the project. Then she went out on maternity leave and her equally wonderful interim teacher said she would love if I could handle the art project for the class. Yipppeee!! :-)

I'm such a craft/art geek!

I am not quite sure when the idea for a recycled art project came to me, but I thought the idea would appeal to the kids and give them a chance to donate some items themselves and become more a part of the project.

So I went into the classroom to explain the project a bit and we sent home a flyer for the parents. The flyer had some photos of other silverware wind chimes that we have done in the past (to give them idea of what we were looking for), it had an explanation of the entire project and some donation suggestions (ie. silverware, metal colanders, old glass beads, old metal kitchen utensils, etc.)

We got some good items. A huge cache of old seafood forks was one of my favorites.

The cute, little watering can was another favorite by all the kids.

We didn't get as much silverware as I thought, luckily we were able to supplement with our vast supply of Goodwill silverware purchases. Ross and I also donated the glass beads, fishing line and swivel hooks. OH yeah, and he donated his strong forearms, because he personally hammered all of the utensils flat himself and then drilled a BUNCH of holes through the items.

One afternoon, I went back into the classroom to enlist the kids help on beading each utensil. Ross had put his amazing fly tying ability came into use as he attached a long fishing line to a small swivel. He made enough strings for each child in the class.

I took the utensils and pre-tied strings into class, along with some of the bigger items. I explained how the wind chime was going to look and about how their recycled items would help beautify somebody's yard or garden. The kids were more excited than I thought they would be. I did have worries though about piles of beads going all over the classroom floor. So I grabbed handfuls of glass beads and put them in baggies and gave each table a few baggies. Each child was given a string with the ore-attached swivel. Then we let them pick out which utensil they wanted to personally bead. I instructed them to string between 15-20 beads on their string and then we tied on their utensil on the bottom.

The project went perfectly. It was quick, easy and the kids were proud of their contributions, both in the recycling and artistic sense.

I took all the items back home and Ross and I commenced putting the wind chime together with the other recycled items that we had received. First he untied every utensil and put swivel hooks on the end of the string and then re-attached the hook to each utensil. He thought they would hold up better and swivel on the wind chime more nicely. He had also pre-drilled holes along the edges of the colander that was our base and through some of the other items that would be clangers for our wind chime. After much tying and sorting and moving things around so the weight was evenly distributed...some audio testing...(all done by Ross) and artistic tweaking (done by both of us), we decided that the 2nd grade recycled wind chime art project was done!

Stay tuned for the finished project!

Palm Sunday Peeking

2011-04-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

The kids from Sunday School had a sweet little song to sing as they led a procession at the start of church on Palm Sunday.

Gathering the kids in line and quietly waiting for the service to start, while palm branches are waving around, is always a challenge.

But dang, they looked cute.

Crocheted Sisterly Love

2011-04-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

A little crocheted love for my big sis.

We have been lucky enough to have her up to visit a few times this past year. She asked me to teach her how to crochet. So I knew that when she came up this Spring (right after her birthday), that I would have to make her a crocheted little gift.

She has always appreciated things that I have made for her....but this time I knew she'd really love that crochet has linked us together even more. Happy Birthday Kristen!! xoxoxo

P.S. the pattern is from Crochet Today and designed by the amazing Margaret Oomen. You really MUST check out her blog and flickr postings of her wonderful crocheted stones and really...just moon over EVERYTHING she does - that's what I do!

Octo- Buddies

2011-04-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

A fun little Spring Break craft....made us long for the ocean....and summer....but summer does not appear to be arriving in Central Oregon anytime soon. DRAT!

This photo cracks me up because Ross came home from work so tired and he still got roped into helping with the craft - he held the octo head while R braided the legs. We got some good braid practice going with this craft!

We got the idea from a Family Fun magazine and thought it would be pretty easy to make. It was - yarn, a tennis ball and some googly eyes. And the kids got to practice their braiding techniques. That's a craft success in our book.

Little Recycled Books

2011-04-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have been saving cardboard boxes for ages.

Every time we finish something from the pantry I have been flattening the box and saving it. For what you may ask? I don't really know. I just know that I have a disease. Cant-throw-anything-away-itis.....at least if it is a craft-able item. And really - isn't EVERYTHING a craft-able item?

And cardboard is definitely craft-able material! I have seen some fun recycled postcards and books and bookmarks on-line and I think that is where my mind has been heading with this huge pile of cardboard. So for Spring break we made some little books.

All different sizes. Different papers inserted in between the cardboard. Fun and easy to take with you and stash in a purse or pocket. Cheap and easy to make...my kind of craft!

And it's inspired the kids to do more spontaneous writing and drawing when out and about.

Plus, they're just darn cute little books! This time we stapled them with our long armed, heavy duty stapler (an item that I don't know how I lived without before). Next time we might venture into some alternate binding methods like sewing and gluing and other fun ways to attach the papers.

But beware - they are addicting and believe me - YOU WILL find yourself saving all kinds of cardboard boxes...just in case.

My Little Bag Lady

2011-04-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is what she dressed herself in to go to preschool the other morning. She obviously favors the layered look. Her teacher thought she looked to cute for words and asked me to take a photo of her when we got home (she knows what a photo hound I am). The cute little purse is a leather one that my mom made for me when I was Peelu's age. And I made the hat and scarf for my little bag lady. I guess the crafty apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Perhaps that is why both of my daughters have always dressed so....creatively...

Grandpa's Birthday Card

2011-03-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

My girl has been up to it again.

Making ridiculously awesome cards,booklets and/or zines.

Whatever you want to call them - they are very, very cool.

And full of fun stuff, all designed, written and illustrated by my sweet, sweet girl. If you can't tell, these were for her Grandpa's birthday. And they were oohed and ahhheddd over quite appropriately by her grandparents. Just had to share them.

My Urban Jungle Cool Chick Hat

2011-03-26T07:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, let's round out this trio of crochet posts with a really cool hat. See, I HAVE been crocheting - just not posting as much about them as I should be!

It's the Urban Jungle Slouch Hat from Vickie Howell. I've been eye-ing the pattern for a while. It just seemed like it would take a long time and then I wasn't sure if I could pull of the cool slouchy factor.

It turns out that the pattern was easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part actually was not constantly catching my hook on the puff stitches, especially because I used the recommended yarn (Caron's Simply Soft) which is a very soft, pretty and inexpensive yarn but it is prone to splitting for me.

The other reason I waited to start this pattern was (look above) how they described the way to finish off the hat. See, you ended and it looked like this big tube. This was my first time starting a hat from the band up. It scared me until I saw that somebody had linked to a video of Vickie seaming the hat closed here. Phew! That helped immensely!

You can find the pattern as a free Ravelry download or on Caron's site here. She even has a cool new slouch hat the Urban Revival, that I will be checking out as well. I mean, now that I know I can slouch with the best of them, I am ALL OVER IT!

CRAFT GEEK ALERT!

A Bulky Cowl

2011-03-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

My first cowl. They are all the rage in the crochet/knitting world, doncha know? This pattern (as well as a slimmed down, thinner yarn version that is on my list to make) is from Jen Johnson. If you're on Ravelry it's a free download.

It is an easy pattern and did turn out VERY bulky with the Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn that I used. But it was fast to work up and is great for this cold days that you just want to scrunch your neck and head down into something soft and substantial.

The Artist's Beret

2011-03-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

Remmeber this cute beret from S's art party?

Well, I had to share some more photos, this time with his sister wearing it. It's a cute pattern from Linda Permann in Crochet Today magazine.

It was really simple to make and besides making a cute party prop, it is a cute little cap for a cute twin sister to wear.

Leprechaun Visit Aftermath

2011-03-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

Darn that leprechaun! The traps failed again. And he seemed a bit nasty this year. He even mis-treated the "girls". Obviously he is not a gentleman leprechaun. This is what we found:

Then we found green pee in all the toilets (sorry about the toilet picture) and he wrote naughty messages on the toilet paper.

He even abused one of our new chickies (see the green on one of them)!

And of course he had to go in and leave his mark on the would-be trappers.

Their response (after much indignant hooting and hollering) was to make leprechaun beards and wear them on the walk into school. They got a lot of strange looks from cars, but we're used to that by now.

Peelu wouldn't declare defeat however, and decided to whip up a batch of our rainbow cupcakes to help ease the burden of leprechaun catching failure.

Back to the drawing board for next year. That wily leprechaun!

Leprechaun Trap Set-Up

2011-03-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. That sneaky Spring visit from the naughtiest leprechaun around. However, the kids have been through this for a few years now and are getting savvier in their thinking and trap designing abilities. Aided by a few friends they worked up this slick idea...

Using recycled items (because they had to be "green" - get it?) they designed a "club house" for the leprechaun (and his buddies) to come hang out in. The thought was that they would be so relaxed that they would be lured into one of the traps and stay caught until morning.

There was a little room to "crash" in that revealed a pile of deadly Viking weapons to apparently lop off some leprechaun parts?

There was also a movie theater...not sure where the trap part was there...

A cave for the curious leprechaun to crawl into to investigate but not be able to get out...

A little house with a mail box that was supposed to keep the leprechaun reading his letters until they kids got up and found him.

The zine idea came up yet again and R made a detailed mini (Very mini) zine for the leprechaun to read and get caught up in so much so that he would then fall asleep.

But the kicker part were the girls.....

I am not sure where they got this idea. But I had to laugh that they used some of their clothespin dolls as "bait" to draw in the leprechaun. Kind of like undercover policewomen, I guess. Very ingenious but made me wonder if they were watching old episodes of Cagney & Lacey or Policewoman.

It was hard work setting all of these elaborate plans up....we shall see if they yielded any captive leprechauns...

Ashes with my girl

2011-03-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

This was my first time to make it to church on Ash Wednesday. I had to tote Peelu with me to make the noon service. There were only a few people there. And I think we knew all of them. My mom was one of the ushers. So Peelu felt pretty comfortable when Pastor asked her if she wanted the ashes on her forehead. She nodded yes with a solemn smile.

Pastor had also put a long mirror against the steps for people to take a look at themselves, if they wanted to, in order to think about what you personally wanted to work on during Lent. Peelu got her ashes and pranced over to the mirror and smiled at herself and did a little dance. I started to cringe a bit and then heard the laughter behind us. Everyone, including Pastor was smiling.

I think we'll try to make sure that we always get to an Ash Wednesday service from now on...

Clothespin Doll Kit Birthday Gift

2011-03-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

If you read the last post you know we were invited to our friend's George Washington birthday party and we made some handmade presents for gifts. Well, we were putting away our supplies from the 4-H Idea Fair craft classes and decided to add a clothespin doll kit to our friend's gifts.

We already had the supplies cut out and on hand and it came together really quickly....

to make a pretty fun looking craft kit.....

that will hopefully bring some more creative fun....

to an already creative household...

As you might have guesses - this kit idea makes use of those piles....

and piles and piles and piles and piles (okay maybe you don't have as many crafty bits piles as I do) of little scraps and fabric bits that you might be collecting.

We also included two already made sample dolls and I culled a few photos with links from these crafty sites to give her a place to look for more ideas. All in all, it made for another great crafty kit idea that will be added to my repertoire of handmade crafty gifts for young friends.

George Washington Zine & Necklace

2011-03-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

Recently we were invited to the party of a very special friend. Her birthday theme was - George Washington. Seriously. Isn't that the coolest? That an 8 year old girl would like to have a George Washington theme birthday party is awesome.

Naturally the party branched out to include the American Revolution, with many fun art ideas, activities, games and food, all inspired by George Washington and the birth of our country. So needless to say, a cool party like that deserved some cool handmade gifts as well.

We were still in "zine" mode, so we thought our friend would appreciate a cool, interactive zine on George Washington.

S made the cover with a grinning portrait of ole George.

We found a bunch of quotes attributed to George on-line.

We also found some cool education web sites that had the graphics that we used as coloring pages.

We found the awesome flag graphics and info on Mr. Nussbaum's.

We also added some interactive ideas like design your own coins...

make a portrait of Martha....

design your own paper currency....

and of course some cherry inspired recipes...

And R copied some lines from the Declaration of Independence for the back cover. We had a lot of fun with this zine and it came together pretty fast. You can see we also included some one-of-a kind George Washington necklaces (in the top photo). Because really, how many second grade girls have genuine George Washington jewelry to sport at recess?

R's Dehydrator Zine

2011-03-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are still on our zine making kick. But this is a PRICELESS example of what a fantastic hobby it can be...

A few days ago, Ross was looking up on-line some plans to make his own food dehydrator.

I am not sure where S & Peelu were, but R somehow got roped into investigating homemade dehydrators with her father.

I was upstairs on the computer working on our regrettably behind accounting books, but listening to their conversation on gardening and how to preserve all of our food this year.

A while later I heard R head over to the kitchen table and the loud "thunk" of the crayon box as she placed it on the table.

Then R started calling up to me..."Mama, how do you spell dehydrator"?

Wha??? "How do you spell vegetable" I answered her and my interest was piqued, but I had work to do....

Then she was quiet for about an hour or so. Then she came up to show me her "Dehydrator Book". (Which will actually be more of a zine as she plans on making copies for her cousins).

I was stunned. And amazed. It's pretty dang cool.

I love zines.

And I love creative kids.

She gave me permission to share it with you all, provided (she says) that everybody starts a garden this year and dehydrates some of their food.

So.....get digging, folks.

The Cobra

2011-03-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

Uuughhh. Sorry, the colors are not so good on this post. But it's an awesome project from S that I must share!

It started out with some random weekend crocheting. S picked up the hook and tried to remember how to single and double crochet. He kept at it for a while and came up with this amazing cobra snake.

Don't ask me how he did it. I don't even know if he could duplicate it exactly.

But it looks like a cobra, doesn't it?

He's amazing, that boy of ours. He is so like his father - somehow they both have this amazing ability to create and re-create things just by looking

Of course, a striking cobra is not top on my list of crochet patterns to work up....but...

...he's amazing...nevertheless!

My Girls in their pom-pom hats

2011-03-03T12:02:00.000-08:00

Remember Peelu's super cute pom-pom hat I made for her?

Well Grandma W. (my amazing crafty mom) thought it was very sweet. She looked it over one afternoon....

...noted the simple but ingenious construction of the Linda Permann pattern from Crochet Today and she went home.

The next day she gave R this hat she had made for her, so that she too could "flop" on her way to school along with her little sister. As you can see, these hats are big hits in our family...

...so much so, that the girls didn't take them off all weekend - even when watching a Scooby Doo marathon!

Clothespin Dolls Galore! - Idea Fair Craft 2011

2011-02-28T23:01:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun with all the craft classes that our 4-H club taught at Idea Fair this year. But the class that really got ALL the kids laughing and having fun (including the Junior Leader "helpers" from our club) was the clothespin doll class.

When I was looking for some easy to-do craft projects (remember, each class is only 50 minutes long), clothespin dolls were the first thing to pop into my mind. AND the bonus, was that it would use up some more of my crafty leftover bits that I can never part with....

Here's what we brought to make the dolls:

A pile of clothespins (we had small ones and flat ones and round ones, my kids and I "dyed" some of them with watered down acrylic to make an ethnic variety)

Piles of fabric scraps (we had cottons, plaids, fleece, sparkly costume fabric, pleather, faux suede, felt, netting, burlap, etc)

Then we had the accessories & hair stuff (all different types of yarns, fake flowers, sequins, buttons, ribbon, twine, etc.)

We also had fabric scissors, glue guns (used only by the Jr. Leaders when helping the other kids), tacky glue, fine tip Sharpie markers and pre-cut pipe cleaners (of all different skin colors). Ahead of time, Ross drilled holes in all the clothespins for the pipe-cleaner arms to be inserted. I also pre-cut the pipe cleaners so the kids could just insert them when making their dolls.

Most of the fabric and yarn was already cut into small scraps or wound into small balls. We did pre-cut some fabric circle and cut slits for heads so that some of the fabric could easily be slipped over the dolls for quick dresses, skirts of shirts.

Our Junior Leaders and parent helpers probably didn't know what they were in for to start...but very quickly one table was made the "hair & make-up stylist table" (it included the yarn and Sharpie markers, one table was the "accessories table" (with flowers, sequins, buttons etc.) and the main table was humming with scissors and glue guns and repeated clothing fittings.

But pretty much the kids just went crazy with their own styles and made some amazing, funny, cute, beautiful, eye-rolling, eye-catching clothespin dolls.

And we had more than enough clothespins and stuff left over, so every kid went back to make another doll or even full families.

Can you believe they made all of these in such a short time? I'd say it was crafting magic.

And a LOT of fun.

Paper Clip Doll Necklace -Idea Fair Craft 2011

2011-02-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

This craft was actually just an extra, just-in-case craft I threw in with the clothespin dolls. But it became a big hit in it's own self. We made these cute "angel necklaces" at Christmastime and since I still had a bunch of paper clips and beads for the heads and ribbon, I just brought those along to the craft class. We set them up by the clothespin dolls and......

...as you can see, the kids added to the simple bead head and paper clip body design to make some really cute necklaces. They used the "accessory" supplies from the clothespin dolls to make hair, headbands, capes, etc.

Super cute, right?

Weaved Bookmark - Idea Fair Craft 2011

2011-02-25T14:01:00.000-08:00

Along with the Found Object Necklaces, these burlap bookmarks were a craft we did during the same class time at this years 4-H Idea Fair. I found the idea from one of my favorite craft blogs, Art Projects for Kids. It was indeed very quick and fun, and fit just perfectly with the found object necklace to round out the 50 minute class time allotted for our first craft class at Idea Fair. The supplies were also very minimal and all something that I already had on hand:

Yarn Scraps (that we pre-cut to a more manageable size)
Yarn Needles
Burlap (cut into bookmark shape)

I had various colors of burlap already on hand and I also used a recycled coffee bean bag from our friends' coffee shop.

My co-leader Danielle and a club mom showed the kids how to fray the edges of their bookmarks by pulling some of the threads. They also helped with sewing if needed, but for the most part the kids ran with the idea.

Even with so few supplies, the kids made very unique and creative bookmarks.

Again, our Junior Leader assistants joined in on the fun and made some very creative items:

Although it looks like my maniac might be working on her weaving/hand sewing skills this summer!

This one is one of my favorites...because it's a rainbow, of course!

Wait a minute, on second thought...these are my favorites....

...a grandfather brought his grandson to the Idea Fair and since we had more than enough supplies we encouraged parents, younger siblings and grandparents to jump in if they wanted. Well, this grandfather and his grandson were so excited, happily making bookmarks and found object necklaces and having a great ole time. I love watching intergenerational crafting!! The grandfather told me that his daughter's horse had just died, so he sewed the horse's name "Rascel" onto the bookmark to give to his daughter.

Spreading craft love....that's what it's about people!!!

Found Object Necklace - Idea Fair Craft 2011

2011-02-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

The 4-H Idea Fair rolled around again this year and as crazy as we are, we decided to teach two craft classes for the youngest 4-Hers (along with 3 other dog/leader classes). You would think that we were actually leading a craft club rather than a dog 4-H club, huh? What can we say. We are eclectic individuals. And luckily we have super awesome Junior Leader members who are willing to help us with anything! We really used them THIS year.

The first craft class we taught had two different crafts: a found object necklace and a burlap bookmark. Here are the details on the Found Object Necklace, which was inspired by this post at Preschool Daze.

Basically the "found objects" were found on the floor of my craft room! :-) In fact, I think there are still piles of "found objects" on the floor of my craft room!

As you can see, we had a little bit of everything...buttons, dice, sequins, ribbon bits, burlap bits, feathers, paper clips, coins, mini domino tiles (my favorite!), beads.....

Ross had pre-drilled some wooden disks that we had on hand and we pre-strung them with necklace length, leftover yarn bits. We also used some birch wood coins that Ross had cut for us after our valentine wood coin necklace obsession.

Basically we spread around the found object bits and let the kids grab a necklace base and start creating. The older 4-H members had glue guns and helped the younger kids keep safe as they glued on their objects. We also had some quick-dry glue on hand (but it didn't dry so quick). I forgot my E6000 glue, which would have been the best choice all around.

The kids had a lot of fun putting together various items. And our Junior Leaders could not resist making their own as well. What kid (elementary school, middle school or high school) doesn't like being let loose with a pile of craft supplies and glue?

These necklaces were a simple and easy project to make in the 50 minute time slot allotted for our class. In fact, the kids easily had enough time to make these necklaces AND make a burlap bookmark as well. Be sure to check those out! But for now, admire these totally unique, fun necklaces created by some craft kids....

My Craft Guinea Pigs

2011-02-21T09:33:00.000-08:00

Lukey & Peelu have become my craft guinea pigs on several projects now. I know if they can manage that kids a bit older should not have any problems with the craft activity.

Here we are making some Found Object Necklaces in anticipation of a class we will be teaching next week at the 4-H Idea Fair. Here was my example for the kids:

Basically, the kids will be attaching crafty objects I have rolling (literally) around my craft room.

Luke approached his art project very slowly and very thoughtfully this day.

But he was pleased with his finished result.

Peelu just grabbed the glue and went for it.

No fear as she was creating! She has a thing with the eyes, doesn't she? I am sure that means something deep and profound in her psyche, or possibly twisted and weird...

She couldn't stop herself and asked for more stuff to collage on....so I found some wood shapes they could glue onto and make into magnets. Peelu's was a hand....with lots of eyes.....?????

And Luke's was a sweet heart he made for his sister...

I hope the older kids have as much fun with this project!

My Frida Bag

2011-02-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

R has been bugging me to paint the back of her Frida bag. She wanted it to say Frida's motto (Viva La Vida). So since I had to get the fabric paints out again, I decided to paint my Frida bag too.

These larger and sturdier canvas bags are some that a dear friends got for me a few years ago. I've been wanting to paint on them to make a set of cool grocery totes. So I thought I'd try a Frida on them first. I enlarged the image I used for the party bags and got to stenciling. However, the material is very nice on these bags but it has a slight ridge and that made my paint blur on the edges of the stencil. So I will have to re-think some of the designs I wanted to paint on the other bags....or try some other tricks. I still think she turned out okay, but a bit blurry.

And here's the pretty colors that R picked.

We are so going to be the coolest chicks carting our books around the library!

Vintage Valentines for Some Vintage Folks

2011-02-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

I am a 4-H leader for a Dog Project club. This is our 12th year with our club and for most of those 12 years, we have made an annual trip to a local assisted-living facility around Valentine's Day. Our club makes handmade valentines at a prior meeting and then we meet at the facility with (or without) our 4-H project dogs. The members (and oftentimes, whole families) love to pass out the valentines, talk with the residents and show their dogs off.

This community service ALWAYS has a big impact on the members and families and of course, the residents and staff of the facility ALWAYS make a big deal for our visit and so obviously appreciate our time and efforts. For the past 3 years, I have also taken my own maniacs along for the visit. It is a joy to watch all of our kids (our members and my own kids) visit and share their vitality with our "vintage" hosts. Every visit brings tears to my eyes (and I am not the only one).

This past club meeting we ran a bit out of time and we couldn't get quite as many valentines made ahead of time by the club. I had the valentine makings spread across our table at home and I was lamenting about needing to find some time to make some more so we had enough to pass out.

That's all I had to say....my lovely, sweet 8 year old maniac took it upon herself to make a whole bunch more valentines for the residents. That made my heart smile.

These vintage valentines that we had printed from One Pretty Thing and The Crafty Crow were so much fun to use. R particularly loved the designs and sweet sentiments. She cracked herself up over the corny jokes on some of them and then kept repeating the jokes to us over and over and over again.... But her talents were very much appreciated by myself, the other 4-Hers and the residents who oohed and ahhhed over her cards. I think the one below is my favorite because......who wouldn't want to smell like pie?

Please, please take the opportunity to visit a local assisted-living facility with your family, your girl scout club, your boy scout troop, your 4H club, the neighborhood kids....whomever. It is SO worth it for EVERYBODY.

A Frida necklace for a friend

2011-02-18T11:54:00.000-08:00

Since we made the Frida necklaces we've been obsessed with making more and more. Since this necklace was a birthday gift for one of the friends who came to her party, we thought she'd like a Frida pendant. And her family has their very own VW van and are very devoted to peace and love. So I think we came up with a perfect necklace assortment for J-Bug! Happy Birthday!

Valentine Boxes for the Second Grade Set

2011-02-15T08:07:00.000-08:00

The teachers asked the kids to make their own valentine containers for school again. The valentine projects themselves were kinda kicking my hiney, so I left the kids to their own craftiness on the containers. As you can see, R found a shoebox, mod podged tissue papers and cute old valentines we had found via One Pretty Thing and The Crafty Crow. Didn't it turn out cute? Super easy too (thank goodness!)

S, of course, had to get more involved...but thankfully he enlisted his father's help.

Those boys still have bees on the brain. They took an old milk jug, spray painted it and then constructed wings and a head from another milk jug and pipe cleaners. Turned out pretty dang cool, I think.

S's Yarny Heart Valentines

2011-02-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Now it was S's turn to decide on his home made valentine design. I thought for sure he was going to go for the Dino-Mite necklaces. But he's been a yarny boy lately so we shouldn't have been surprised that he picked this cool wrapped heart valentine.

As you can see, he made a red version for the dudes and a pink version for the girls. I found this idea on a very cool new web site, Family Chic, via The Crafty Crow.

We started out with the textured floral wire, that we bent into a heart shape. Then I cut off pre-measured lengths of the sparkly yarn for S to use on each heart. Then as he neared the end of the yarn, we tied it off and made a loop. We called them "LOVE Dream Catchers". We added little scroll banners that S cut out and wrote his Valentine greeting on and then tucked in between the yarn. His dad, of course, had to impress all of us by making some into a "real" dream catcher like design. Those fancy shmancy ones went to the teachers.

They turned out very pretty and the kids in class thought they were pretty cool.

A perfect crazy wrapped valentine for my crazy wrapped boy!

R's Dino-Mite Valentines

2011-02-11T11:45:00.000-08:00

These Valentine's have started a crafty obsession at our house.

We are now making necklaces out of every plastic toy we can find! Here's how it started...

I saw a photo on flickr a few years ago that gave me the idea. But darned if I can't find it now! Basically, you screw a small screw eye into the top of a small plastic toy. String it on a necklace, or just a use a ball chain necklace like we did....and there you have it.

I thought this would make a super cute necklace for Valentine's Day, along with a little tag that says, "You're Din-Mite!".

I thought for sure that S would jump at this valentine idea...but he didn't. And R thought it was super cool...so it became her school valentine to give out.

They were such a big hit in the classroom that almost every kid had put their necklace on by the time the valentine party was over. They were so easy to make too. We are now grabbing all of our little plastic toys and making necklaces faster than you can say "Give me more eye screws!"

We are nothing if not fashion trendsetters here! Hahahahahhaaaaaa

Peelu's First School Valentines

2011-02-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

I first saw this cute idea on Mustard Seeds via The Crafty Crow. I saved it away for future use because....I mean...really....what a perfect valentine for a kid who has a woodoworker as a father and a craft freak as her mother? Peelu obviously agreed and chose this as her valentine this year and we decided to make them into necklaces.

She's helped make valentines before and her artwork has graced many a heart...but these are OFFICIAL...the REAL DEAL...she's a school girl now and has to step up her Valentine Crafty Game!

We started out with some leftover tree branches from our backyard pruning. Ross cut them into wooden coin shapes, about 3/4 inch thick or so. Then he drilled a hole through the top.

Then I tied some sparkly red yarn on...

Peelu picked out her paint colors and I sketched a heart on each wood coin for her.

Then she started painting away...

Some of the hearts were a bit blobby and I helped her put on a second coat....

...but dang....they turned out CUTE! The kids and parents raved about them at preschool. And one super precious little boy has worn his every day (according to his mom). I love giving a valentine that can stick around.

They look pretty cute on the valentine giver herself too...

We all just LOVE this craft and have in mind to make more necklaces with other painted designs...or maybe Sharpie marker sketches...or maybe collaged items.....the possibilities are endless. And I have a feeling we will be keeping Ross and his saw busy.

Frida & Her Parrot

2011-02-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

Have you had enough of Frida, yet?

Well sorry, she's become a new obsession with R and I. I had almost forgot about her other little birthday present that I made for her. Her very own pet parrot, just like Frida had.

Have you seen Frida's self-portrait with her parrots? Well that inspired me to make this cute, super fast little parrot amigurumi for my own Fridita.

The pattern is free from Lion Brand. And sure, it's a little chubby and funny looking...but R was very happy to have her own "pet parrot".

I had not realized that with the parrot completed that I have made a bird type amigurumi for each of my maniacs. They noticed that right away and made me take a photo of them with all their birds - or 1 parrot and 3 owls, to be precise.

I love that my maniacs still appreciate handmade gifts. I hope they always will.

Valentine's Day is coming!

2011-02-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

Better start getting the homemade valentines together.....

only now we have THREE different valentines to make...

what with three maniacs in school now.

Eek! We better get a move on!!!

Frida says "Thank You" and the Mad Artist, too!

2011-02-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

I must say, the thank you notes for both artist birthday parties got out pretty quickly this year. For S's thank yous, I visited one of my favorite sites - Activity Village - to print off some cool stationary for his notes. They have some of the best printables for kids around. And for once he didn't complain about writing the notes.

For R's thank yous, I decided to use these fabulous notebooking pages and cursive copywork pages from Jimmie's Collage (you'll find the links for them at the bottom of the post. If you have been reading about the Frida party, you'll remember that I had used mucho information from Jimmie's Collage's Frida Kahlo artist study lesson to help talk to the girls about Frida and her art.

I am so grateful for finding such wonderful artist resources on the internet and at the library. I could not have made these two parties such fun without those generous and inspiring people out in cyberspace and those who author such great artist books for kids.

...Erika of MikoDesign for the original Frida party idea
...Lisa, of Mon Petite Enfant, who was also inspired by Erika's party and in turn inspired our party
...Jimmie, of Jimmie's Collage, who had great Frida art study links, Frida notebooking and copy work pages and a wonderful way of talking to young girls about Frida's art
...Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself (Smart about art series) by Margaret Frith R's favorite book about Frida, told in the form of a book report by a young girl)
...The Art Explorers series of books by Joyce Raimondo, HANDS-DOWN our favorite group of books on both artist study as well as artist activities. Between R's party & S's party we probably used an activity or were inspired by an activity from each book in this series.
...Picasso: Breaking all the Rules by True Kelley (Smart about Art series) used to show pictures and tell about Picasso's history at The Mad Artist Party
...Andy Warhol by Mike Venezia(Getting to Know the World's Great Artist - another good series)
...Jackson Pollack by Mike Venzia
...Deep Space Sparkle (one of my FAVORITE art teacher blogs) for a great lesson on Picasso's portraits
...Art Projects for Kids (one of my other FAVORITE art teacher blogs) for another Picasso face lesson

So, I guess this is my thank you note, too!

Some Frida Post-party things

2011-01-31T11:06:00.000-08:00

Our party day was so hectic that after it was over with, I dragged my poor tired Fridita out to take even more pics. I am a pathetic Mama!

Posing for her Frida retablo-like portrait:

And here is the birthday girl modeling one of her presents from us, some super cool Frida necklaces I made just for her:

I know I am so behind on domino tile and scrabble tile necklaces, but we just started making them and we are addicted!! I am sure you will be seeing many more gracing these blog pages. Frida collage sheets from here and necklace supplies from here.

R made Grandma W.'s flowers into another crown, so of course we had to take more pics!

Boy, she looks tired, doesn't she? The week long fiesta has finally caught up with her. Buenos Noches, mi hija!

The Frida Kahlo Party Part 5 - The Food

2011-01-25T23:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, on to the food. Of course we were having a fiesta - so a Taco Bar was needed. Unfortunately I don;t have a good photo of the food set-up before the senoritas went through. Trust me, it was yummy! We had taco shells and flour tortillas, beans, ground meat, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, corn, cilantro, onions, olives, chiles, cheese...pretty much all the taco fixins you could think of.... And we had fruit salsa, corn chips, a veggie tray, chile roll-ups and our favorite punch (lime sherbet and 7-Up. Amazingly enough, the girls demolished this pretty fast and I didn't get a good photo before hand.

Oh, and a quick mention on the decorations. Unfortunately we didn't have too much, but we tried to spread the Mexican spirit around.

We made papel picado flags, Ross had strung up some crepe paper and bought some VERY bright flowers to decorate the table.

But my favorite decorations were the pretty tissue paper flowers that Grandma W made by hand. I have always loved her paper flowers that she makes. I can never make mine look so good. Each of the girls got to pick one and many of them stuck them in their hair or behind their ears. They also decorated the tables and furniture and the cup cake stand..

Ahhh yes, the cupcakes...another lovely delicacy created by Grandma W.

She thought Frida would have approved of the bright colored roses that she put on top of each cupcake. R sure enjoyed them. And let me tell you, there was not a crumb of cake left or a frosting rose dumped on any plates. Grandma knows how to make some goooooood cupcakes!

The girls did have some moments of craziness after the punch and cupcakes. They ran around like the were running from the bulls in Pamplona. And for a bit there, we thought we might have to disagree that perhaps 10 girls was NOT easier than 5 boys...but they settled down and were very proud to show off their artwork and party favor bags when their parents showed up.

I think it's save to say, that our little Frida had a great 8th birthday party.

Adios Frida! I have a feeling we'll still be seeing you around here for a while!

The Frida Kahlo Party Part 4b - The Art Activities

2011-01-25T23:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, a continuation of the Frida Kahlo Party art activities....are you still with me?

We had some magazine pages ripped out and some other catalogs spread around for the girls to use for a self-expression collage when they were done painting. I told them they could be like Frida and use other imags to make a collage about themselves or things they love. Scissors and glue sticks started working away.

One of the pre-party crafts I made were some oven bake clay pendants. I knew I wanted the girls to make a bright and bold necklace a la Frida. But I couldn't find a pendant or an inexpensive charm that I liked. So I made my own for the girls.

Very easy to do. Flatten a ball of clay and push something with a nice textured image into the clay - voila - a simple pendant design. I used stamps and buttons that I already had on hand. And I tried, for my first time, to make a few rolled clay roses as well.

Anyway, after I got all the girls finished painting and collaging we brought out the colored ball chain necklaces, bright, chunky beads and pendants that I had made.

They were appreciatively oohhhhed and ahhhhed at by the girls. And then it was free for all as they dived in and started stringing their chunky Mexican, Frida-inspired necklaces.

My only downfall was that I made very small wire hooks that I pushed in before I baked the pendant and most of them ended up pulling out of the clay when the girls put the necklaces on....so I had some quick gluing to do to fix them while we ate. But overall the necklaces looked beautifully colorful, just like the girls themselves.

And I got my own awesome necklace made by the birthday girl herself, but modeled by her brother:

The Frida Kahlo Party Part 4a - The Art Activities

2011-01-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

The structure of the party went similar to S's Mad Artist Party. I had three art/craft activities picked out for the girls to do. But first, after everyone arrived, we discussed Frida. I wanted to give them a mini art lesson on Frida but most of the girls didn't even know who she was. So we combined a history/art/self-awareness discussion into a very nice talk about Frida.

First off, I had to figure out how to approach Frida's more scary/dark artwork. Thankfully I ran across this wonderful post by Jimmie's Collage. She addressed the issue of Frida's scary/dark artwork and how to explain that to kids very nicely, I thought. So, I explained to the girls who Frida was and how her life unfolded, with her accident, her tumultuous marriage and the pain she constantly lived with....but I made sure to use language that was appropriate and understandable to the girls. I explained that what I most admired about Frida was her ability to keep to her motto - VIVA LA VIDA - (Live Life) while she lived in such physical and emotional pain.

As we looked through some of her more sedate paintings, I explained that I could really appreciate her style of using her paintings and her personal journals as a healthy outlet for her emotions and thoughts, be they good or bad, happy or sad. I thought that was a great skill for us as women and girls to be able to practice. I also told the girls that we can learn to appreciate art and not have to LOVE everything that an artist does. Because frankly, I can appreciate what Frida's dark paintings are saying and what it must have taken for her to let that out of herself, but I don't really like those paintings myself. We also talked about what it must have been like for a woman artist at that time in the world and how brave she must have been to share her very private work even when she was constantly criticized and misunderstood. R picked her favorite Frida paintings and we copied them onto paper to show the girls (obviously we didn't pick anything that was disturbing). We talked a bit about what she included in her portraits and how she painted them and what symbols she used and what role tradition played in her work. Not only did I use R's Frida book for information but I also used some art ideas from my FAVORITE art series by Joyce Raimondo. Oh yeah, and we also had the Art Museum Mad-Lib leftover from S's party. I asked the girls if they wanted to do it and the answer was a resounding "yes". Then they asked to hear what the boys wrote from the first Mad-Lib round. The girls were much grosser than the boys with their nouns and adjectives, if you can believe that!

So our first art project was the main one - a self-portrait of course. We discussed various ways to paint a self-portrait and we placed a few mirrors around. Two girls asked if they had to paint themselves and I said I would love for them to try it, and that they could put whatever spin on it they wanted, but that they could paint something else if they really had to.....both girls ended up painting fabulously unique self-portraits.

Thankfully, two of my close girlfriends stuck around to help and we spread acrylic paints and paint palettes around, paint brushes here and there and the girls got busy. We mixed various skin colors on request.....some girls found the toothbrushes leftover from S's Pollack painting activity and used them very creatively on their paintings....

some of the girls whizzed through their portrait....

some of the girls spent quite a while working on their portraits.....

But they all turned out so fabulous...way beyond even my expectations for 10 7-9 year old girls. Their beautiful portraits make me smile...

Phew! This post is getting long. I better continue with the other art activities on the next post.

The Frida Kahlo Party Part 3 - The Zines

2011-01-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

I actually had the concept for the Frida zine before the one I had for the Mad Artist zine.

I borrowed part of the idea from Erika's wonderful coloring book she made for her daughters party. And then I went a little further into zine territory since I am so loving zines lately. And R love, absolutely loves to make her own zines and little books. In fact, she spent quite a few hours working on parts of the Frida zine. So this project was very fun for both of us.

We had so much fun however, that the zine kept growing and growing and I was still "publishing" the morning of the birthday party!

R made several nice pictures of Frida and I tried some little drawings as well as well.

We also added the fruit salsa recipe that we served at the party so that the girls could make some at home.

R loved this book by Margaret Frith that I had bought her for her party. After reading it, she made her own synopsis of Frida's life for the zine. And my favorite is this poem that she wrote about Frida. I just LOVE it.

We also added some DIY fun & games.

This zine was another labor of love. And I wish I had given myself more time and not had to rush so much. But I love the content and am very happy with it. I thought it was a pretty cool party favor. But then I am a craft geek. So my definition of "cool" is a bit off! :-)

The Frida Kahlo Party Part 2 - The Party Favor Bags

2011-01-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

Since we started the party favor bag idea with S's Mad Artist party bags, I figured we would do the same with Frida. I found a popular street graffiti stencil on-line that had a nice image of Frida. I cleaned it up a bit and got busy with the stenciling. Remember this weekend?

What on earth was I thinking? I stenciled 10 bags - actually 11 if you count the birthday girl's bag. I don't know how to screen print (yet!) or really have any other printmaking abilities (except stamp carving). So I hand traced and hand cut all the stencils. Once or twice I was able to very carefully remove a used stencil and re-iron it on another bag. Needless to say, the exacto knife and I were quite cozy for a week.

I know, it was insane. But it was a once I started sort of thing - I couldn't stop. It was addicting.

And I have to admit that the rainbow colored Fridas were very pretty to look at...once my hand stopped aching!

And here are some of the items that went into the bag (besides their artwork) a wooden maraca they could paint at home, the Frida Zine, an enamel rose ring and a crocheted rose hair clip.

Oh and the birthday girl got a slightly bigger bag and she picked out the color and told me that she wanted Frida to have red lips...so voila. Her own personalized Frida Kahlo chica bag. At a later date she wants to add VIVA LA VIDA to the back.

I am not even sure if all the girls will use the bags much, but just the thought of 10 young girls running around Central Oregon with cool Frida Kahlo bags was enough to make me giggle and persevere through the crazy amount of tracing, cutting, ironing and painting.

The Frida Kahlo Birthday Party Part 1 - The Invitation

2011-01-24T05:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, first a disclaimer - I have wanted to do an artist party for the Maniacs for a few years now, but the Frida Kahlo birthday party idea was wholly inspired by Erika,at Mikodesign and the FABULOUS, I mean BEAUTIFULLY, designed and executed Frida party she gave her daughter. And then, I saw that Lisa was also inspired by Erika's party and gave HER daughter a Frida party and so I had her lovely party ideas to inspire me as well. Phew! Good thing there are such lovely people on the internet to give me great ideas!

Hot Rod dressed up like a Mad Artist for his invitation photo, so it was only fair that Lil' Mermaid dress like Frida. She wore a pretty Mexican embroidered dress, I did her hair a la Frida, we used her sister's fairy crown for a Frida-like flowered head band, et voila! We created our own mini Frida.

Doesn't she look lovely?

Even when she's yelling at her brother (who is obviously not in the photo but WAS doing naughty things out of camera range). Hey, Frida was passionate and fiery, was she not?

We printed out the photos on white cardstock, with party details on the back. Lil' Mermaid colored a border design similar to mimic Frida's retablo portrait style. Off the invitations went, and happily all of her friends were able to come to the party.

So there, my idea is not so original but hopefully it was equally as special to Lil' Mermaid. I say, "more Frida parties for little girls!!"

The Mad Artist Party Part 5 - The Food

2011-01-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

Ross had made some pizza dough and cut up an array of topping ingredients. The boys each made their own Picasso face pizza that cooked in the oven while we finished our printmaking and started the present opening. The gifts were very generous and it was sweet to hear how the boys picked things out with S in mind.

The pizzas were yummy and quickly consumed and we brought out the Modern Art cupcakes that Grandma W made. If you can see the designs, some of them have Pollack splatters and some have Mondrian type colors and designs and Kandinsky shapes. I think you can tell by his face that S had a great time.

When it was time for the boys to go home we loaded up their party favor bag with their personal Mad Artist Zine, crocheted crazy mustache, coke-bottle glasses and their artwork to take home (except for the splatter painting which continued to dry OUTSIDE! - we delivered those a few days later).

But before they left, we got a few more memorable photos of these laughing "Mad Artists".

It was a great party. And our Mad Artist was happy!

The Mad Artist Party Part 4 - The Activities

2011-01-22T23:38:00.000-08:00

In the vein of The Mad Artists, I had three art activities planned (the third one was only a just-in-case because I didn't think we would get to it). When the boys arrived, we sat down or a few minutes while I told them a bit about some of our mad artists. I explained to them about how revolutionary some of these artists were and how they changed the way much of the world saw art and how we can all value our own work no matter what it looks like, as long as we put our heart and soul into it like these "Mad Artists" did. We also talked about some of the techniques Van Gogh and Pollack used, and how Picasso was able to paint into his 90s (right up until the day before he died), and how Warhol could even take other artwork and then make it his own with a different artistic method. I showed them original artwork from these wonderful books and from some on-line clip art and used some ideas from my favorite art teacher blogs.

And then, before they got too antsy in their seats. I had them create a mad lib with a story I made up about a school field trip to the art museum. You can imagine,I'm sure, that the mad lib was laced with "farts" and other wonderful boy words like "itchy", "booger" and "stinky". But they laughed at the artist references and were almost rolling on the floor by the end of my reading.

Okay, off to the art activities. First off, I let them pick a Mad Artist Mustache and gave them a pair of silly Mad Artist Glasses and made them pose for a Mad Artist photo for me.

(Sorry, they're a bit blurry because I was laughing too hard!)

The glasses and mustache went into their bags when they finished posing. Then we went outside and asked them to "channel their inner Pollack" and splatter away. Ross had cut some screen for them and we had brushes of all shapes and sizes and toothbrushes and of course, the drip straight from the bottle method was also employed.

They started out easy....and the colors were lovely...

and then they let their inner boy-ness come out and they jumped in with their fingers and hands.....oh my.

S took the splatter effect to the extreme...

Honestly, I did not limit S's guest list to only four (making it five boys total with S), he made the guest list himself. But boy, during this activity, five was JUST RIGHT.

We used an old table cloth and performed this activity on the back patio. We tried to get the boys to temper their zealous color mixing (which mostly created black) but their Pollack personas were having none of our interference and we soon realized that the Mad Artists could not, and should not, be tamed.

Needless to say. It took several days for these babies to dry.

The next activity was taken from this book. I had some scratch foam that I had cut into 4x6 inch pieces and instructed the boys on using blunt pencils to press an image. Then we used some acrylic paint and brayers (next time I will spring for the more viscous printing ink instead) and had them make a repeated print of their image in different colors. Kinda Andy Warhol-ish.....

After this, the other two (WONDERFUL) moms who were helping and myself, were pretty much DONE with paint and young boys. So we moved on to food and presents and cake. (The other activity I had on hand involved cutting and pasting a Picasso face, with magazine images. We're saving that for a later date, as we really didn't need it this afternoon). Stay tuned for the food!