Summer Stew

Ingredients:

• 4 cups ice
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 tsp dish soap

Steps:

1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly
2. Pour back and forth between several containers until nice and frothy
3. Garnish with fresh picked herbs, flowers and grasses
4. Make mom taste it

Servings: 8                  Cooking time: 1/2 to 1 hour

Leaf Printing Goes on the Road

Printing at Jen’s last pARTy was so much fun that I took the show on the road. Bringing supplies to my parent’s house for a little crafty party with my two sisters and my mom. I narrowed down the options to just leaf printing as I was going to be driving the supplies 500 miles with all my other luggage for the week. I think I can speak for them when I say we all had a fabulous time. I really enjoyed seeing how different three sister’s and their mother could be for the same project. I mean there really wasn’t too many variables so seeing the incredibly different results was really neat. I supplied each person with two organic cotton unbleached flour sack towels, paint borrowed from Jen, a stack of newspapers, sponges and some disposable plates and utensils for color mixing. We took a walk through my mother’s lovely garden plucking leaves here and there then set to work. Since I’ve loaned out my brayer and my mom’s has mysteriously disappeared we tried at first to use rolling pins to ensure even coverage but soon abandoned them and just rubbed with out fingers. You can kind of see the technique here in the top left of our messy table shot:

We layered newsprint, towel, leaves (painted vein side down), newspaper and then rubbed our hands over the top. Here are the results for each of us, in order of age of artist (he he).

My mom’s:

I love how she used multiple colors on each leaf.

And a shot from above of her second towel so you can see each of the corners. Very cool.

My big sis’s:

Not only did she use multiple colors she over painted straight on the towel with the sponges. She also experimented with the ways she placed the ink on the leaf. She came up with some fun effects.

Mine:

I concentrated more on the structure of the various leaves. I loved how varied they were.

My little sis’s:

She came up with some great color combinations and placements with fabulous results.

I can totally see doing this with Seth using tempera paints and paper instead of fabric. Maybe when he’s a bit older he could even do a t-shirt.

Putting on the little art party myself made me understand more why Jen doesn’t tend to do as much crafting at her pARTies and does more before or after the actual day. After getting everyone set up and going I got side tracked by the variety of leaves and completely forgot that I had wanted to make leaf people. Remembering only after the towels were all used and everyone was going to bed. So I made these temporary little guys just to satisfy the thought for a bit. If I get over to Target for some more towels in the next couple days I’ll be making some more permanent versions up on Friday.

Grosgrain

Can anyone please explain to me how this woman can make such adorable clothes and then give them away? And so often too? I am shameless posting a link to this incredible adorable fall munchkin outfit in hopes of winning it. My favorite colors and pompom trim to boot! Seriously, how does she do it? You must check out her site.

Ode to Jen

Jen is so creative

Without her I’d be vegetative

I am in her debt

Without regret

For she sets us up

And fills the wine cup

For a crafty night

Full of laughter and delight

Never failing to inspire

Nor showing a hint that she’ll perspire

Forever a rock star she’ll be

I think we all agree

Here are some projects I did at Jen’s last pARTy. I got to do three different types of printing in one night, if you can believe it.

First, I finished off a freezer paper stencil. This one I actually started at home as Seth chose the subject matter and color (if you didn’t guess), Hubby drew the image and then I cut and painted the stencil.

Next up I tried my hand at creating an acetate stencil. Open book images for a library book bag. They ended up a little more in a diagonal pattern than I had originally desired. I was wanting something a little more random, but I’m still happy with it.

Lastly, I did some leaf printing on a dish towel.

I’m not completely hooked on textile printing. Seriously.

I’m Back!!

We made it back safe and sound. It was an emotionally and physically exhausting week. There were a lot of tears going through old photos and listening to stories about my baby sister at the memorial service. But there were plenty of fun times too. Lots of laughter and play time with the kids. After the official memorial services we had a party in honor of Shannon at my parent’s. Drinks, food and a live blue grass band made for a good time, but the best was dancing to *NSYNC at the end of the night. I feel I must say that I don’t own a *NSYNC album, but it’s what Shannon would have wanted to listen to, so it was very appropriate that night. Eleanor especially enjoyed dancing with all the girls. Man, can that girl shake her little 15 month old hips!

One of the funnest parts of the week was meeting Digger. The photo above is him all dressed in his “work” outfit. My parents have only had him for a few weeks. He’s half retriever, half lab and all softness. Well, except for those razor sharp puppy teeth. I cannot wait until he grinds those down a bit. If all goes well, Digger will become a Canine Companion for someone with a disability of some nature. My parents decided to do this in memory of Shannon, who loved her canine companion, Ken. Ken passed away a little over a year ago now but he meant the world to Shannon. Giving her a higher confidence level and that complete love only a dog can give.

Ken was always a bit like Eeyore, sluggish and sweet. Digger is full of energy and mischief. Just as a puppy should be. After a couple weeks of cleaning up piddle puddles though, my parent’s are not sure if they like having him around. But I know the truth. I know they’re happy to have someone to care for again. They’ll have Digger for about 18 months, when he’ll go into intensive training and then hopefully on to a new owner. There’s about a 50% success rate with dogs trained for this purpose. Meaning half don’t make the cut. This is one of those double edge swords. While Digger not making the cut would mean the family could keep the cute little guy, the whole purpose is, of course, for him to succeed. Which means leaving us. Best not to think about it too much.

The organization encourages the puppy raisers to let other family members take the puppy for periods of time. I can’t wait until it’s our turn. On the other hand, I’m happy to wait until he’s potty trained.

Vacation

I’m off for vacation on Saturday for a week. We’re just going to my parents with a couple stops on the way down. It’ll be good to be away from my day job and my dirty house. It’ll be good to be with my sisters and parents. It’ll be good to stare out over the corn fields.

But the real purpose is my baby sisters memorial. It hangs out there, looming. My hopes are that we can do some healing this week. Time will tell. I think the new puppy my parents got last week may help us along that route. I can’t wait to touch his soft puppy fur. We’ll see if I stay away from the computer. It’s not a goal and I’m willing to bet I’ll at least have a puppy photo or two to share. I mean really, who can resist a puppy?

Needle Felting

Warning – needle felting is incredibly addictive. I made these cards by needle felting wool roving onto rectangles of craft felt and then gluing to cover weight paper to make a set for Carolyne of Hmmmm Now Let’s See. Needle felting is just a process of stabbing a background a zillion times with a special needle that has a bit of wool roving on it. I really felt like I was just getting going by the time I was done. I can see with a little practice these could be quite nice. Using real wool felt for the backing would be fab as well.

Just in case you feel like poking something, here are my tips:

• Don’t buy all the fancy gear. A $4 pack of needles and a thick synthetic sponge will do just fine.
• Poke up and down, not at an angle.
• Make sure to brush glue on, don’t put on in globs as it will soak through the fabric. I knew this before hand but I didn’t it anyway. Just call me lazy!
• Practice makes perfect. After a while I felt like I was drawing with wool.

Must. Make. More. Soon.

Playing Construction

I’m really loving Seth’s imaginative play lately. It often allows me to participate as much or as little as I desire. Best done when he has a friend over I just set the stage. Here’s a recent example:

Seth & a friend were playing dress up as construction workers. It could have ended there but I suggested they draw up building plans:

Then I gave them each a bucket to gather tools:

I love how creative they got here, gathering things from all over the house. In addition to toy tools, real tools like a tape measurer and paint brushes were added to the mix. Also included were ropes, tent stakes, chalk, old cell phones, an aquadoodle mat and a timer to name a few. The old cell phones and timer seemed to be the biggest hits as they could talk to each other in deep construction work voices and tell each other to hurry before the timer goes off or some huge disaster would befall them. Not sure where they’ve gain their concept of construction workers but it’s amusing. My favorite line? “You’ve got to finish painting that before the time goes off or the pizza man will be fired!” Huh?

We’ve done this a few times now and I must say the best part is all the time I get to catch up on house work while they’re occupied.

Play Silks

I was able to get one birthday gift made for Seth. I dyed a pile of various size silk scarves with kool-aid. This was a really fun inexpensive project and I plan on doing it again. I bought a pile of cheap scarves in various sizes, none over three bucks and found kool-aid on sale for ten cents a pack. Bargain! I got so carried away that I dyed the scarves I had intended for felting on to. But that’s ok, since I need to buy more scarves anyway. This is a fabulous project to do with or for a child. I’ve seen this so many times online that I can’t remember where I saw it first but I basically followed this how-to, while incorporating from what a couple others had done. And I’m happy to report I even found the elusive blue color! Here’s what worked best for me:

1. Soak 2 scarves in a bowl of hot water and a bit of vinegar, making sure the water completely covers the scarves. Note – I like the 30″ square scarves the best but think a variety can be fun. I dyed a couple sizes of squares and a couple sizes of rectangles.

2. Mix up 2 bowls of dye, one for each scarf. Add 3 packets of kool-aid to 2 cups of water and a 1/2 a cup of vinegar (the cheap stuff of course) in a microwaveable bowl. I recommend a taller, skinnier bowl rather than a wider bowl.

3. Add scarves. Stir to coat. Your goal here is to have as much of the scarves under the liquid as possible. Anything sticking out will be lighter than the rest. This is not necessarily bad as it gives the scarves a bit of a mottled look, which I like.

4. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave each for 3 minutes 3 times. Alternate the bowls so that each gets to rest for the 3 minutes the other is in the microwave. After each rest but before placing back in the microwave carefully peel back the plastic wrap, avoiding the steam that may escape, and give the scarves a stir. Make sure any parts of the scarf that were left on top the first go round are now on the bottom. I see no reason why this couldn’t be done on the stove top. For that matter, I imagine you may be able to get a more even coloring this way.

Now this is the cool part. By the time you’re done microwaving there will be no color left in the bowl! I’m serious. This was pretty wild and the part I think kids would get a kick out of. The water is left completely colorless or a cloudy white in the case of any labeled with lemonade in the flavor. The only exception to this is if you use a pretty small scarf. One I did was more like a hanky and didn’t soak up all the color. I could have added one or two more little scarves to that batch.

5. After the last 3 minute rest period carefully peel the plastic wrap off and discard. The scarves cool quickly but the water does not. So either walk away from the bowl for an hour or even over night to let the water cool or take outside a pluck the scarf out of the water, quickly throwing it into the grass. The water is really, really hot so just grab a little of the scarf that is sticking up out of the water. I don’t want to hear of any burns here. I didn’t wring them out, simply plopped them on the ground until they cooled for a minute and then laid out flat to dry. I also did not wear gloves because I like to live life dangerously. My thumbs did get a little purple but that went away after a day or two. No biggy.

6. Once dry, hand wash separately as colors may bleed a bit the first time round, though most do not. Dry on low in the dryer and then iron smooth. Enjoy.

Flavors from top to bottom: orange, pink lemonade, blue ice lemonade, lime, lemonade, grape, cherry, non-dyed white – can’t forget white.

So far Eleanor has taken to the silks much more than Seth but they’ve both played with them. What have they done with them?

• Sensory experience – touching and running with them flying behind
• Super hero cape
• Simply wearing something pretty. Eleanor loves to wrap them around her neck and shoulders.
• Peek-a-boo
• Dressing up as a ghost
• I’m pretty sure Eleanor thinks she’s invisible when she wears one over her head. She can still somewhat see through them since they’re so thin and she just giggles with delight as she walks by a person.
• Dance accessories

What else can I imagine they will be used for?

• Fort building
• Table cloth for a tea party
• Dressing up dolls and stuffed animals
• Magic tricks
• Gift wrap – Seth loves to make things for me and wrap them up himself
• Puppet show paraphernalia
• I could go on, but I think you get the picture

I now think play silks are a must for 1st and 2nd birthday presents, possibly 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th depending on the child. Next time I do this I’ll have Seth help me. I’ll also buy a smallish extra scarf to sew into a little drawstring bag for storing the play silks. I always think of those things after the fact.

Shannon

This oh, so glamorous picture is of me and my two younger sisters about 1980 or 81. I’m the one in the rainbow swimsuit – which I totally remember thinking was fabulous. The blond is my sister Ellie and Shannon is in the middle. Maybe it’s just because I want to see it or maybe it’s because this was taken about the same age but I swear Eleanor looks like Shannon here. Ever since Shannon past away in April I catch myself calling my daughter Shannon’s name. It’s usually when I’m tired or snuggling with her and it always brings a tear to my eye. She will never know her aunt.

December 13, 1979 – April 14, 2008

For those family and friends that are able to be in central Illinois this August 23rd there will be a memorial at 1pm at the Unitarian Church with a celebration of Shannon’s life to follow at my parents home at 3:30pm. For addresses or directions please contact me at threesneakybugs(at)yahoo(dot)com. Replace the at and dot as appropriate. Any photos or stories to share are also welcome. For those that would like to make a donation in Shannon’s memory I suggest one of the following organizations that played huge roles in Shannon’s life:

• Spina Bifida Association of Illinois – 8765 W Higgins Rd #403, Chicago, IL 60631
  This group gave Shannon and my parents support, friendships and tools to navigate life with this disability.
• Canine Companions for Independence – PO Box 446, Santa Rosa, CA 94502-0446
  Forever with her, this organization provided her with Ken, her magnificent helping dog.
• Gift of Hope Illinois Coalition on Donation – 660 N Industrial Dr, Elmhurst, IL 60126
  This group was able to fulfill Shannon’s final wish of organ donation.