Arts & Crafts

This is not Milo. It is a dragon. He breathes fire, but reminds everyone that they don’t need to be afraid of him. He is not scary.

We’re showing the house Wednesday. The couple that is coming is taking a second look and bringing their father/contractor. We’re getting really excited since they seem very interested. Although, at the same time we’re trying not to get our hopes up.

We took the little burst of excitement this weekend and did some hauling out and cleaning up. In my kitchen I used to have wine bottles lining the tops of the cabinets. We are label shoppers. We only buy wine with cool or interesting labels. Honestly, we have drank some of the most disgusting, bitter, wine all in the name of label art.

I still have the first bottle of wine ever drank in this house. My friend Brooke and I found it at the local Hannaford for under 4 bucks. It was cheap, red, and it had a pizza on the bottle. Pizza Vino! It was a winner right off the bat!

That night we baked dinner and enjoyed some Pizza Vino! At some point during the evening I read the back of the bottle. Only confirming that we had made the right choice for our first bottle of wine in the new house.

“While other wineries brag that their reds pair well with lamb, roasted meats and stews, Pizza Vino was created for everyday drinking by everyday people. Proper serving vessels include fine stemware, juice glasses, tumblers, and plastic cups. This wine goes equally well with pasta, hamburgers and chicken. Enjoy.”

I’ve gotten rid of all my wine bottles, but I’ll be saving this one to bring along to our new home.

I brought my face paints to the Northeast Unschooling Conference. Honestly, I was a bit nervous! I’ve never done an “event” before! Luckily I was with the most non-judgmental group of people EVER. The only thing I really had trouble with was a tiger someone wanted on their cheek. I really had trouble picturing that one. Otherwise, they are came out great! Faith painted a few faces as well and I was AMAZED by her artistic ability! She did a FABULOUS tiger!

Giraffe

My favorite Tropical Scene

If you have some face painting pictures from the conference, I’d LOVE to have them to post here. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos myself. Me email is HeatherBean at gmail dot com. I don’t want to link it because of bots and spammers.

This is my friend Shane and her gorgeous daughter, Lily. Shane lives in Missouri with her husband Jeff. Shane and I met years ago while I was working as the coat wench at a seedy club downtown. Somehow I ended up landing a job at the local Boys and Girl’s Club where Shane was the art director. I always wanted HER job! Shane and Jeff are both so wonderfully creative and talented. They have dedicated their lives to art and creativity.

Shane has an etsy shop that enables her to stay home with Lily. She features mostly vintage type items like clothing, books, fabrics, and crafty things like buttons. She has such and eye and has the best finds! Here’s a few of the cool things you can find in her shop.

If you have some free time, check out her shop. It’s amazing! You can also find links to her husband’s Jeff’s stores as well. Next… maybe I can talk her into unschooling!

You know you are getting old when you get excited about dish cloths but, I did it! I crocheted my first project! Tawashi is a Japanese word for a bundle. From what I gather, a it’s just something used to scrub off dirt or yuckies. Wikipedia has various kinds and and definitions. An Eco-Tawashi is usually made from acrylic yarn, but I made mine from organic cotton yarn. So I’m dubbing it a Super Eco Tawashi! It took me two tries. I didn’t realize I needed to NOT cut the yarn every time I made a color change so there is a lot of knots in the other one. Plus in the first one, I kept losing stitches.

I’ve already been dreaming of all the cool stuff I can crochet now! I think I’ll make a few more Tawashi’s before I move on to the next project.

Although there seems to be endless ways to crochet a Tawashi, I used these fabulous directions from Craftstylish.

Sponges just don’t hold up. They stink, they fall apart, and they end up in the trash. The best part is that it’s washable and reusable. I’ve already used the first one to wash some dishes. I LOVE it. I’m brainstorming ideas to make it abrasive on one side. Hmm…..

I had every intention of making sidewalk chalk today. I STILL hope to do it, but my trip to the craft store was so frustrating that I bagged the whole project and ended up buy some Crayola Giant Sidewalk Chalk with 3D glasses. Pretty cool stuff. Really, it’s just regular old chalk, a little brighter than the usual stuff, and the glasses just seem to be some sort of prism glasses. They make the colors jump from the sidewalk!

Anyway, I went into Michael’s and asked for plaster of paris. I rarely ask because I love poking around the store, but Phoenix was antsy so it was best just to get what I needed. First of all, the girl, maybe 15, had no idea what I was talking about. Second, she led me to the aisle where one would think it was, said “it’s here somewhere” and walked away. No… it wasn’t there. Thanks for your help. After searching around for it for awhile, I decided against the project all together. I am a bit moody today and the kids weren’t even excited about it in the first place. It’s me who likes to make things from scratch.

Milo picked out some puff balls so he and Skylar could make monsters and I ended up going looking for a craft book. Michael’s used to have a shelf of books toward the front, many of them being random craft books. I asked another employee, “Where are the books?”

She replied. “The WHAT?” Um… the books? Hello. Books. Am I speaking English? “What sort of books?”

Oh… maybe a little history, something on existentialism, maybe a little Henry David Thoreau. Jesus christ, craft books!!!

This employee proceeded to tell me that I needed to pick a craft first, then look for the book in that department. Sigh. Since I wasn’t about to search the whole store for a book of craft ideas I picked out some sidewalk chalk and paid and left. I felt discouraged. I’m a little off center today. Is it showing?

After spending some time outside with the kids decorating the sidewalk I was able to recenter quite quickly. Amazing what a little time with my boys can do for me.

I’m REALLY enjoying this when I get to blend pretty colors. I love the colors on this one! Even though the purple flames didn’t turn out exactly how I had envisioned (kind of sloppy work, really), I’m pretty happy with it overall.

I’ve aways had an old footstool kicking around, and for good reason. I’m only 5’2″. When my grandmother died I ended up with a bunch of her stuff and inherited a second footstool.

They really are quite boring though aren’t they? I’ve been looking for a project to do with the boys. We haven’t been terribly crafty lately and we all could use a kickstart to our creativity.

This project is really simple and the boys really enjoyed customizing their foot stools.

Materials

-wooden foot stool

-paints (we used latex that we had around the house)

-paint brushes (we used staining brushes we had laying around)

-magazines for decoupage

-elmer’s school glue

-water

It’s probably a good idea to sand the stools first, although, my anxious painters wanted no part in it.

While the paints drying is a good time cut out some favorite pictures from a magazine. Skylar didn’t want to decoupage, but Milo wanted to make his a Star Wars stool. Star Wars Insider magazines have been great for cut outs.

I suppose “real” decoupage glue would be better, and can be found at any craft store, but since we didn’t run any errands because the baby was sleeping, we mixed a little water into the Elmer’s glue and used that instead.

Paint the back of the picture with the glue mixture, stick it where you want it and then paint completely over the top of the cut-out.

It’s holding out just fine, and Milo is REALLY pleased with his new step stool. Skylar’s still isn’t finished. He has painted his blue and put the name of the super hero he created on it. Atumoo Man.