The stencil is made out of freezer paper. We printed the designs, cut out the parts where we wanted the paint to go, then ironed them on the tshirts (iron set to cotton, NO steam).

Paint on the design. We used Tulip “slick” paints, just red and blue. The shirts are cheapies from Target. For the stars, instead of painting them blue, I used cut outs and painted around them. NOTE: make sure you iron the shiny side down. They stick to the iron if you don’t get that part right. Don’t ask me how I know.

J working on his, very intent as you can see from his face:

NM can’t wait to peel off the stencil:

After it’s dry to the touch we peeled off the stencils (except for me, I pulled them off while they were still wet!). And here’s the result of their creative design and painting skills:

Hope you enjoyed it! Happy birthday, USA!

Idea from Family Fun magazine. You just use cotton muslin (very inexpensive), white glue and acrylic paint. Draw the design on the muslin, trace with a bead of white glue (these areas stay white). Get the fabric wet, add paint. When dry, soak the fabric in water until you can peel off the white glue easily (go old school handwashing with this one). Dry and viola! Banner.

But really, we wanted to share about the day after the Alamo. I don’t know, but some bug had gotten a hold of me or something because I was really tired. Not sure if I was feeling the heat from the day before or what. But we all headed down to the park at Zilker anyway with Sprocket in tow. Or was she doing the towing? Hard to tell.

NM didn’t really want to be at the playground but decided he was going to enjoy himself. They played a really long game of tag. One tried to be patient while I snapped and one didn’t even know I got his big grin on camera.

Hubby had taken Sprocket for a walk because she was so beside herself she couldn’t get herself calmed down. We heard loud barking so we decided to follow the sound. Turns out she made it in the water!

She’d sat at the edge of the water barking at the other dogs who were in and were—wisely—ignoring her. Hubby finally stuck her in. You see here her attempt to see what it tastes like. Seriously, dunno what is up with her because that water stank that day. She ate lots of grass later that evening. But there was more fun to be had.

Brothers make the best playmates in places like this.

   
Puppeh at work watching the kids but making time to socialize in a balanced-dog way. Good job, Sprocket!

Of course, wading in water on a super-slippery surface has its share of dangers. Witness the result:

But they didn’t care too much. We took everyone home and got the boys cleaned up. They were in such a good mood. My normally camera-aware NM was ignoring my clicking and so I got a couple of fun photos:

What barbecue you mean this barbecue? Oh my it’s SO hot OOOOH! (or something like that)

Cheese! Take my picture, mom! Cheese! After this was taken, he saw photos of his brother being very animated and asked me to take photos of him in fighting poses! Hehe.

All in all it was a great day and lots of fun! Don’t miss out on more of the fun we had over here.

~ Yesterday was the last official day that J had to have a band-aid over his stitches all the time. It looks really raw but it’s obvious it’s getting better.

~ NM has been steadily working on cleaning his room all afternoon. But, fortunately, he’s also playing with some toys that have been neglected for a while (like his electronics kit). His soccer season ended with a couple of lost games. I said yes when he asked me if he could be with a different team next year.

~ I opened an Etsy shop. Maybe we can make this hobby pay for itself? Maybe? LOL. I’m writing up my first pattern for a hand knit and someone’s offered to test knit it for me.

~ The cold that grabbed hubby on Mother’s Day is still with him. He’s coughing now, though.

~ Praying for my sister. She is hoping to pick up a nice photo job. If it works out, it would be great for her portfolio (which, to be honest, is already good).

~ Hubby has updated my OS to Windows 7 release candidate. So far, my favorite thing is the rotating image for the desktop background. Clearly, I am someone concerned with functionality. *cough*

~ I have bible study to look forward to next Tuesday!!! This is great However, this time I will be facilitating the group solo instead of having a partner. May I admit I’m nervous? I am though I know I shouldn’t be. It’s not about me after all, amen?

IMG_0747

Originally uploaded by Phisch

I know there’s no way I can get you the real “idea” behind this until this is actually being used in situ.

These are light catchers. That’s the idea anyway. We’re hoping she hangs them from a tree near her big sliding glass door. Then, they can twinkle in the breeze as they catch the sunlight.

They’re just woven hemp cords and glass beads.

Coming soon to this post: how to put it on a tree branch.

EDIT: How to hang these on a tree branch, with photos!

Each of the light catchers is made with two strings tied around each bead. It’s meant to hand around a branch, so pretend that’s what my arm is in the photos.

One end has 2-4 big beads tied very closely. This part is the weight so it needs to be at the bottom. The opposite end goes around the branch. First, split the two strings at the end that will go around the branch:

Split the two cords apart and insert the bottom of the string with beads:

Pull the entire beaded cord through and you’ll have it wrapped around the branch:

2009-05-04 knit cuff

Originally uploaded by Phisch

I made this for a friend’s graduation with silver wire and freshwater pearls, randomly placed in the knit cuff.

Okay. This is dangerously fun to make.

There is instant gratification, there is the adventure of something knew and unexplored, there is pretty when it’s all said and done. I really don’t want something like this to hook me, but I’ve already looked up how to make viking knit cord and I think I might try to make it but if I start can I stop or will I be just as obsessed and what good will come of this if I do start since I don’t wear much jewelry anyway?

Oh dear. I think I will blame my neighbor. She just *had* to give me a spare pair of jewelry pliers, didn’t she?!

Paper boomerangs

A friend pointed me to this really neat resource: Canon’s Creative Park.

There are tons of models on their site ranging from monuments (Eiffel Tower, Castel d’ St. Angelo) to toys like chess sets and boomerangs. All the files are in PDF format. You just have to print all the pieces, cut them out and then put them together according to the instructions. The degree of difficulty depends on the model; they can get pretty complex but some are very simple like the boomerangs in the picture.

Some of the models have moving parts. A simple one would be the planisphere but they also have a  moving models comparing the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems that represent our little corner of the universe.

2009 Resurrection Day banner

Originally uploaded by Phisch

I find it interesting that the kids just naturally gravitate to the warm, bright colors that really show up against the green. Mom picks blues and greens with maybe the occasional bit of yellow.

We’re prepping for the weekend…you?

They’re cute, you know? When you look up close, they have little eyelashes. And their probosces are so cute when they uncurl them. They’re so delicate, how could they make it in the wild?

Well, it comes right down to a gracious and loving Creator, doesn’t it?

***

The knitting. Well, I just sent my sister a package with two baby sacs, the Baby Grrr! hat and the pea pod. I am hoping they get to her as swiftly as the other package with the blossom hat. What I’m hoping is that she can take really good photos of them. I’m thinking I might try to do a good job of writing out the patterns for Pea Pod and Baby Grrr! and see if Knitty.com will take one or the other. I’ve never, ever tried to do something like this since I’m more of a pattern-follower (I seldom change them up). But lately, our Thursday knitting group has gotten me inspired. These are intrepid ladies!

Okay. So I just realized that I have to re-knit both the pea pod and Baby Grrr! because I forgot to measure them and their stitch gauge. DUH. *face palm*

Righty-o. Here’s another concern, mild for now: I am still waiting for my linen yarn to arrive and it’s one day shy of two weeks since I placed the order and got confirmation. Normally, it’s not an issue but this yarn is going to hopefully end up being a table runner that will be raffled off at our women’s retreat early April. That’s really, really soon! While I do knit quickly, I really prefer having a buffer of time in which to take care of something like this. I’m a little nervous to be honest but we’ll see how it goes.

***

I need to get this done: upload the photos I took of the boys’ frontier farm buildings. I managed to find some notched popsicle sticks and the boys went to town building log cabins out of them. They even drew some plants on green paper to serve as the “farm” and made a stable for oxen or sheep and a coop.  That was fun!

We’re planning on visiting a real Pioneer Farm on Friday. I plan to take lots of pictures! That, and I’m also hoping that they’ll have a demonstration of sheep shearing, wool carding, spinning and dyeing.

***

Our efforts to plan a weekly menu are somewhat in place still. It is a bit difficult to plan things out when a lot of shopping is done at Costco. The budget is blown and smaller things like condiments and such still have to be bought to complete a recipe. I’ve not really planned anything out lately since we have a ton of leftoevers to eat our way through.

Most recently, I made chili rellenos casserole which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, in our youngest the reaction was aversion. He ate a bit but not long afterwards something caused his digestive system to work backwards. Fortunately, that happened when we were already done with our meal.  Honestly, it really is a good casserole in spite of the reaction it causes in five year olds who are opposed to the idea of corn kernels in their meals.

Peapod

Originally uploaded by Phisch

I’m convinced my sister can take a much, much better photo of this thing. Jojo wasn’t the best model for this.

“Don’t say that, you’ll hurt his feelings!” Karen said.
“It’s ok, he can’t read,” I replied.

It’s done, however! And it does happen to look like a pea pod. Whoa! This time, I took notes at least halfway through the project. Good thing it’s knit in the say way on both sides, yes?

I am contemplating adding a leaf and trying to insert a piece of chenille stem (fancy name for “pipe cleaner”) at each end so that I can curl the tips. I’m not sure about the chenille because of the wire—after all, this is for a baby—and they might be sharp. The only thing keeping me from making the leaf is lack of yarn! Out of what I had, I have only 2 1/2 feet left and it’s probably not enough.