dragonfly days

pre-history

Yesterday  we headed up to the local national park for pre-history craft day. Every year Zac and a few other pre-history enthusiasts set up a demonstration in the courtyard outside the vistor's center and teach people about the natives around the area.

The tables include all different kinds of replicas. They are all avid flintknappers.

These effigies (?) are awesome. I am planning on making some myself. I would like to make some and paint them also.  They look fun!

Jack jumped right in and started teaching people about the arrowheads. He was a natural. The ranger asked if he would like to come work there. It was also evident that he was very proud of his dad.  We all are. One of the other guys asked me what I thought of my husbands hobbies. I told him I was actually very impressed by them. The attention to detail and patience involved amazes me.

That is a fish basket on the table that someone made.

Sorry for the dark pictures. I was using my old camera since it is lighter and better for hiking. They were also making sandals out of yucca plants, cordage out of yucca, and Zac helped two of our little friends make arrows using his arrowheads.

After spending some time at the demo we headed up the canyon to take one of our favorite hikes.

The cool canyon water was a welcome relief at the top of the hike.

It was a really fun day.

 

 

 

beads

My latest project has been dying beads.  The pic above shows what I've done so far.

These multicolored beads were dyed using food coloring. I only left them in for about 5 minutes at most.  When I put them on a string the family said it looked like a candy necklace.

These are done with watercolor paint. Just me and my Crayola. If the first looked like candy, then these look like gumballs. 

 

These red ones were also done with watercolor. 

The only problem...I am running out of beads!

lamp redo

I bought this lamp a few years back for around $5 at the thrift store.

After I had finished painting the room, I noticed that the shade color was too close to the wall color and it just felt kind of off for me.  I had also just painted my bedside shelf an awesome turquoise color. It seemed like the next logical step was to pump up the shade. I turned around and saw the bag I sewed up  a few years back and thought it would be perfect.

 

So after some deconstructing and a lot of fabric glue, this is the end result.

I love it! And it's going to get more use than that bag did!

monster pants

I've finally been getting around to some projects this week.   For one of them, I tackled the holes in the knees of Jack's pants. Last spring I scored some pants for Jack at a garage sale for 25 cents each. The only problem was they had holes in the knees. Jack likes the holes and thinks they are cool, but they were starting to bug me. Now I know I saw these somewhere on the internet, this is not my original idea. The problem is I can't remember where I saw this idea first. So forgive me for not linking back. If anyone knows of the first post with this idea, lmk. :)

 

The good news is he likes them. They are still cool enough to wear.  

the new hobby

A while back I mentioned that Zac has a new hobby.

It is a hobby  I fully support because it gives me things to hang on the wall.  Pretty things.

It's also sparked a lot of learning. We have a poster hanging up  that shows different types of butterflies and Jack would read it, copy down the names and then google them to find more images. There have been books and movies about butterflies.  This past Sunday Zac and Jack went on a butterfly hunt.  They were gone most of the day and came back with three.  Zac let Jack pin one.

Someone is hooked now. They are plotting buying a real net for him for the next butterfly hunt.  In the meantime, I no longer have to buy artwork.

science notebooks

This is for you K!

First I took a 5 x 8 moleskine notebook and stamped the front.  We used a spiral bound 5 x 8 sketch book for Jack's notebook. I covered the front with plain card stock and he stamped it silly.  And no I don't have pictures of his. Another day.

Jack decided I needed more on my cover and took it upon himself to decorate it for me.  While he drew on mine I colored his. It's all good.

The first page shows our first experiment, disappearing chalk.  I wrote down what was needed for the experiment and what the instructions were. I wish I would have also wrote down my hypothesis, but this was so spur of the moment that I didn't think of it until after.  Across the top you can see our "busted" stamp. As we do projects we will add stamps for plausible and confirmed.  

Right now the majority of work is being done in my notebook. Jack is still hesitant about too much writing. That's okay. He has done a few drawings in his, but mostly he tells me what I should put in mine.  That's okay, we'll call it narration. I have no doubts that soon enough he'll be taking off in his own notebook.  In the meantime we have one more project under way and another that we want to redo, not having the exact right supplies the first time around.

 

random musings

It's becoming a Wednesday thing. :)

• I finished another layout in Project life. I am really enjoying getting our pictures printed out and part of our story down.  It feels good. :)
• Our guinea pig is about to give birth any minute.  
• Tomorrow we get to visit with the doctor about turf toe.
• Today we didn't have any appointments or classes that I had to go out for. It was wonderful. I baked muffins, made a great dinner, worked out about five hours earlier than I usually get to, we pulled out the art supplies and played. It was very nice. I need to be sure to schedule these type of days.
• My husband is starting a new hobby, more on that in a few. 
• The series of shark books we found at the library this week are very popular around here. Perfect for a shark-obsessed beginning reader.

 

making

I saw this and knew we had to make it!

Giant Geoboard.

Here is our version:

It ended up being about 2 ft square. 

I am going to buy some of the thin elastic headbands to use for bigger shapes.  I'm also trying to figure something out for really big shapes, maybe sewing elastic? 

What are you making?

bricks

I'm getting real creative with the titles of these posts. :)

The Colosseum is completed.  Jack has been enjoying geography a lot lately, especially when we have time to do projects.   This one was a leftover from before Christmas, something we just didn't get around too during the hustle and bustle of the season. It's good to have it done. He loves building and had been looking forward to it.  I need to make sure to incorporate projects for him. 

This week we are studying Germany,  we didn't get around to this before Christmas either.  Today we looked at pictures of castles and the Berlin Wall.  I think we will try and make pretzels for park day this week.  I am channeling my fifth grade teacher who drilled us with German songs and words. I never thought I would thank him, but I am now!  Although I'm not sure Jack feels the same way.

 

my new space

This project has been in the making for a few months now and it is finally done!  After years of having to do dinner time while accommodating my projects laying all around, I finally have my own space.

There is still some final tweaking to be done, but it is useable!  Talk about fitting a lot in a very small space. The two brown boxes on the floor to the left hold craft supplies- top one wood craft and the bottom holds felt in yards.  The basket in the center holds my bag that I take projects out and about in.  The right brown box holds felting supplies.

From the left: old floss drawer that I found thrifting- perfect for my stitching supplies, my vintage typewriter, the pile of papers needs to be dealt with, and Jack cut the hearts out of felt.

On the top shelf is a pencil sharpener which is hidden behind a jar of felt beads, a big jar of buttons, jars holding- rubber bands, wooden thumb tacks, and mini wooden clothespins(for the shutter memo board in the top picture),  our terrarium, a metal bucket holding pens, scissors, markers and paint brushes.

The middle shelf- binder holding all of my class printouts thus far, embroidery patterns, felt patterns, and one full of homeschool ideas. Side note- I just realized they were all thrown on there after I had finished them yesterday.

Bottom shelf: card catalog of lesson plan ideas for homeschool., extra moleskine notebooks, blank canvases, and a big sketchbook, three hole punch, beeswax polish and my post it note supply. :)

In the far corner lies the photography supplies. The green crate houses our homeschool stuff in use. The roll of white paper on top is for an upcoming school project. You can see my planning notebooks in front. And the stack of papers in the middle are my home cleaning/organization ideas and planner. 

Time to create!

crafty

Yay the computer is back!

Candle holder covered in mod podge and sprinkled with glitter.

first attempt at a pocket gnome. He still needs a hat.

a felt bunting garland for the tree.

repurposing the now to small desk for a lego table.

wood ornaments with beeswax polish.

homemade snow globes.

kindle cover. The ribbon comes aorund the front and ties, but I didn't want to cover the mushroom. :)

 

 

geography- United Kingdom

Last week we spent the week studying the United Kingdom. It was perfect since the highlight of our week was the Dicken's festival.

Here are some of the activities we did to go along with it:

• opened Christmas crackers and talked about English holiday traditions
• dipped candles
• rolled beeswax candles
• read Oliver Twist from  Usborne Illustrated Stories From Dickens
• Tried shortbread cookies from Scotland.
• Talked about A Christmas Carol-- This is one of our favorite holiday tales so he is very familiar with the story. We will watch our favorite version, Scrooge with Albert Finney, as soon as we can find the time.
• Colored the UK flag.

Now we are on to the Netherlands!

 

the big day

Today was Jack's choir performance at the festival. I couldn't believe how excited he was. Of course I took video of  the performance which filled my card and couldn't get a picture of just him. :( But it was awesome, they did so good.

Tonight we pulled out our gingerbread kit and started to decorate.

Aren't these the coolest? We found a it that made 4 dog houses complete with Snoopy and Woodstock. We love them.

Quick and easy and the we got our gingerbread fix.

 

a leaf walk

Yesterday we went on a leaf hunt at one of our favorite parks. 

We collected two bags full of leaves. Now to dip them and hang them up.

crafty goodness

Lately I have been grabbing little bits of time to work on some crafts.  I've been working on our nature table for the most part.

Animals, mushrooms, trees, and calendar blocks. Oh my!

And tonight, after spending the afternoon at the pool I worked on last weeks lesson for the felting class:

Wet felted beads.

felting

Today was the first day for the felting class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking.   I love felt and sew with it all the time, but felting is new.  Wet felting is really new.  I think I need a lot more practice. :)

 

lamp project

Last week the hubby and I were thrifting and found a pair of lamps for $15. 

It's hard to tel, but the bottom part is red, cracked glass with a black iron surround.  We knew the pair had good bones.

After finding a pair of shades and a little rewiring we were left with:

Much better.  :)  They now reside in the living room.  So now I am rearranging all the lamps in the house so that I can keep my favorite ones. Which also started the furniture moving project.  

 

Another project

The new cork board.  When we were redecorating after the painting spree, I didn't want to hang the old ugly cork board back up.  Zac suggested cutting it down and putting in this barn wood frame that I had picked up at a yard sale.  I ran over to the fabric store and picked up a piece out of the remnant pile that would match our current colors and ta-da!  Ignore the crooked pictures on the side, I just barely got those painted and inside. I still need our resident straightener to fix them all. :)

I like the cork board better at this size too. It's big enough but also small enough that we will have to keep on top of what is on it.

 

On a happy note, there wasn't a bit of whining today. I'm hoping that trend continues.

 

scenes from the weekend 10/16

 

This weekend: The corn maze, decorating t-shirts and sweatshirts galore, a new lego set, decorating for Halloween, making more gnomes.

On the list for this week:

• p.e. class
• choir
• yoga
• drivers ed-- driving this time!!
• finish getting the Halloween decorations up
• start cooking!!
• finish up Halloween costumes! :)
• clean the boys room. Doube ugh!
• Spray for bugs.
• finish up gnomes
• Learning- human body and  skeletal system
• high school dance for the two oldest.
• rugby practice
• Seeing family from out-of-town this weekend!!!
• Swimming?! I hope we can fit in an afternoon of swimming this week. 
• Park day!
• library

What's on your list?

What we've been up to...

This week was declared project week.  Nothing like having a ton of fun projects to fill the days.

Jack helping me make a burlap Halloween bunting.

Doing an experiment he saw on Bill Nye.

Other projects:

• making our own marbles out of FIMO clay.
• making tornadoes in a bottle.
• making cinnamon spice play dough.
• pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

More projects and pictures to come!