The Santa Truck on Christmas Eve

This is an annual tradition in my parts.  Wouldn't be Christmas without it.

 The kids were thoroughly enjoying their White Christmas with a snowball fight too. :)


Hope you and yours have a wonderful remainder of your holiday season.

Linus

What Christmas is all about.

monday

Putting my kids on the school bus this morning was more difficult than the first day of kindergarten.


 I can't even find a tangible thought to go with my feelings so I'll stop trying.


 I'll just pray.

goldfinch

A little pencil sketch just for fun.

A Variation on Salt Clay

I made a big batch of this clay recipe (found on pinterest of course) and I have to tell you, it was absolutely THE STRANGEST thing I've ever made (not including the 3 monkeys that live with me)

Recipe is as follows -
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup baking soda
3/4 cup water

Very simple, with cheap ingredients, seemed like a winner.  

This mixture needs to be cooked on the stove to form a clay but working with it before it was cooked was where the fun was.

            ------->If you placed your hand on the surface of the mixture, your hand sank down into it like melted ice cream.

            ------->If you punched the surface with your fist as hard as you could (and why would you NOT), your hand BOUNCED off the surface as if it was a solid piece of wood!

That was 30 minutes of entertainment for the monkeys and I.


Put it in a pot and on the stove over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it resembles thin mashed potatoes.

Dump it out onto a cookie sheet dusted with a little cornstarch until it cools enough to kneed with your hands until smooth.

I brought it into school with a bin of cookie cutters to make some little ornaments with one of my classes.

Let dry, then bake at 175 F for 15 minutes.

We may decide to paint these after the kids come back next week. 

Woo found one!

Coveted Yarn in Mass.

They only had one left in stock with the same lot # 205 but it was listed as lime green instead of Olive.

Keeping my fingers crossed that it's the same when it gets here.

oh boo

Wouldn't you know it.  One skein short.   In a discontinued yarn.    Figures.


Anyone have any Queensland Collection Rustic wool DK in Olive (205) in their stash they want to sell/trade?

Anyone?


Bueller?

Laundry room organization

This is a petrified shell I found in my yard.  The previous owners must have placed it there after a trip.

I don't have a very large laundry area but I am fortunate enough to have a space dedicated to the task.   A few years ago I used an old shutter and build a very simple shelf to stand up behind the washer and dryer for holding all the detergents and such needed to keep my laundry in tip-top shape.  Above this space was a wire rack shelf for things that needed mending, the occasional toy in time-out, and some swimsuits.    It was just not working.

For one, the shelf was so high I had to climb onto the dryer to get things down and it did nothing in the way of visual interest.   Second, the top of the storage cabinet couldn't hold anything too wide or it would interfere with the shutter door opening from the bottom out. 

A trip to the hardware store for:
 -a 1x10 pine board $7.00 (6' length but they cut it for me down to 56")
 -3 pine brackets from Lowes about $5.00 each.
-white paint (thank you Glidden free quart give away, still painting with it)
-3" drywall screws (from the spool shelf project)

With the odd storage assortment going on here I still wasn't very happy with the results.  I searched about the house, switched basket with plastic bin, with canvas until I found a few for this area.   I'm going to stop by the store to pick up one more for the end.   Yes, one is mint green, if I can find another in that color I'll be very happy.  If not, I'll replace it for white. 

Top off the area with a small painted birdhouse collection from my kids and I think this is a very cute, very functional area to work in now. 

Another petrified piece of wood this time.  Also found in my yard.  The previous owners had scads of matchbook cases from all over the place so I can only assume they traveled the country quite a bit and put all their found treasures into the flowers beds around the house. 

A box

This year's Halloween costume making was all in the hands of the boy. 

Bonus points if you can tell me who or what he made.

Halloween Mummy Krispies

Another Pinterest post.   These we just too cute not to make for my 1st graders Halloween party today.

 Just a regular batch of Rice krispies in a cake pan

 I cut these into 1 1/2 x 3" blocks for the party but any size would work.

 Melted some white choc chips

 If I was having a party at home I would have used wooden kebab sticks,  to send them to school I used straws, stabilized with a little melted choc.

One coating dip into the melted choc

 Chilled upside-down in the fridge

Cold choc chips were pressed in for eyes.  My boys said they had to have some with red eyes.

And one final drizzle of melted white choc to form the mummy wrappings. 

Cute!

Not a quilt this time

                                     



It occurs to me, I've been a bit quilt-obsessed of late, so here's something that's not a quilt.











<--- This is a little leftover leaf and some corn as a bonus project I hung in my kitchen.  There's a small frame behind it for support. 

To start, my middle boy is a major leaf collector.  I needed something to do with all the leaves he stashes here, there, and everywhere you can put a leaf.   Modge-podge to the rescue!

Paint both sides, let dry.   They stay colorful and flexible to be used in all sorts of projects. 

We've collected all sorts of leaves.  Here are maples, oak, fire bush, pin oak, and some we pulled off the blueberry bushes in the backyard.

Next up are the millions of iris seed pods in my yard.   I picked a large bundle when they were very dry and started bundling them into smaller groupings. 

 I used floral wire but I only had green. 

 It wouldn't form into a nice circle like I had pictured in my head so I settled on a spray. 

To put it all together I got out the hot glue gun and a gold mesh ribbon.    This will hang inside until Hurricane Sandy passes, then I may put it out on the front door. 

Grey and yellow modern quilt top

 I just love the combination of a color with grey right now.  It's modern and clean but not too harsh.  

 I put together a quick quilt top with some of my leftover square blocks for a sweet little modern baby quilt.

I'll back this is in a soft yellow polka dot and bind with that cute elephant pattern.

I've got a million ideas running through my head these days.  Pinterest is like a serious addiction to a crafter/artist like me.  So many pins, so many ideas!  So little time!!  

3 more weeks of my grad class and I'll be free to finish up some of these tops and get a roll on christmas ideas :)

Squares in three new color schemes

from triangle to square and back to triangle

 3 quilt tops of various sizes later but I"m still stuck on this color palette. 

 Here's the next version I've been playing around with a bit.

Tried to make some fishes for fun.   Here's the conversation with my 3 yr old.

Me - "Hey Olive, what is this?"
O - "A diamond"
Me - "Are you sure?  What is it?"  (move it like a fish swimming in the water up and down)
O - "A pillow!"
Me - "How about now?  I added an eyeball.  What is it?"
O - "A one eyeballed scary monster!"

Me - I give up.