Thankful

 

This is Nuc Nuc, our thankful turkey.  Monday night we wrote on his feathers things that we are thankful for.  For My Girl we had to explain the difference between things that we are thankful for and things we want for Christmas.  There were a few things that we expected such as family, home, nature, and Teddy Panda, and a few unexpected things as well such as cardboard, mud, and rubber.  I have many things to be thankful for.  Especially my family and friends.  Thanks to you.

New movie on Police Jones

 

There is a new movie on the Police Jones website, Revival of the Stranded.  It is the story of a group of adventurers stranded in the desert.  The adventurers explore a cave and use their robots to get crystals from a cave.  There is a pig living near the cave who falls in love with the girl and gives her the crystal.

 

P.S.  The video quality is much better than the original version thanks to the automatic YouTube anti-shaking fix.

Blue Jay feathers

A couple months ago we went camping.  We found some blue jay feathers in our campsite in the morning.  I really liked them for some reason.  I thought that they would look great in a very large scale painted on a scarf.  I've never painted feathers before so I started with pencil drawings.  These are close to life size, several inches long.

 

 

Then I got out the paints.  It took a few tries, but I got something that I like.  My first tries were too tight and didn't have enough variation in values.  I was trying to reproduce them too literally.  When I took a step back and loosened up a bit it was much better.  The painted feathers are much bigger, about 18 inches long.

The next step is to try it out on silk.  It's been fun.

Bendaroo stamps

Awhile ago we got a care package in the mail that included Bendaroos.  They look like slightly sticky waxy yarn or string that you can use to build things.  We've had fun with them, but I came up with a new use for them, DIY stamps.  You can shape the Bendaroos and stick them on to wooden building blocks, or anything flat, to make a stamp.  I got the idea after seeing stamps made from plasticine on Pinterest.  My Girl and I had a great little crafty time making stamps and stamping our pictures.

 

Birthdays have been on the brain lately.  Not just lately, more like ever since her last birthday, last December.  It's picked up a bit as her next birthday has gotten closer.  So she wanted to make a birthday cake, not just any cake, a multicolored picture with a cake, plate, candles and a flame.  She actually made four different stamps for the four colors and did a good job of carefully lining up the stamps just right.

My shapes were a little less complicated, but just as fun.

Cub Scout Coasties

Saturday we went with the Cub Scouts to visit the Coast Guard.  One of the Dads is a civilian Coast Guard employee otherwise I'm not sure how you get on base.  Our first stop was the air station near SFO where the search and rescue helicopters are stationed.  This air station has been here since 1941 and SFO, the huge airport grew up around it.  We had a great tour led by a lieutenant who co-pilots helicopters and the crew chief.

 

 

Buddy Boy was able to answer questions about how the helicopter worked.  I'm not sure where he learned that.  Mythbusters? Ruff Ruffman?  I don't remember ever talking about drag or vertical and horizontal stabilizers.

They certainly have a great view.

The kids had a lot of fun climbing in and around the helicopter and rescue basket.

 

Our next stop was the Coast Guard station on Yerba Buena Island.  You get there by taking an exit off the middle of the Bay Bridge between SF and Oakland.  The station has a great view of the Bay Bridge construction.  I'm glad we were there on a weekend.  It would be pretty noisy during construction.  I saw ear plug dispensers by the doors of one of the buildings.

 

We got to go aboard the Coast Guard cutter Pike.  It is an 87 foot cutter used to patrol the Bay.  The Captain and officer of the day were there to show us around.

Here's My Girl sitting watch. The kids were especially interested in seeing the "bedrooms" and the kitchen galley.  They loved the fact that there was a TV with video games in the mess area.

Luckily we were there in November instead of the summer so that we could get a warm sunny day.  The weather is just crazy that way. 

This island really has some great views of the city and the bridges of the bay.

SF and the Golden Gate bridge

 

SF and the Bay bridge

 

Overall, a really great day.

Indy and the Dolphin

 

The costumes...  Buddy Boy was pretty definite and unwavering when it came to what he wanted to be for Halloween, Indiana Jones.  We looked for leather jackets on e-bay, but didn't find anything for a reasonable price.  So I made one.  It isn't leather, but it is a pretty good polyester that I found in the upholstery section.  I found a pattern that worked, but it wasn't quite the right size so I had to completely rework the pattern.  I wasn't sure that it would work.  I was afraid that it would be too small, but it ended up a little big.  Oh well.  It's great for a costume.

 

Here is my indecisive little dolphin.  She wanted to be a dolphin or a mermaid so I started by making a reversible dolphin/mermaid tail.  I wanted to reduce the chance of last minute meltdowns.  The tail is basically a skirt with a big fin hanging off the front.  The flukes have some super stiff Pelon to hold their shape.  My original idea was that the fin would go in back, but she had other ideas.

 



The back fin is pinned to a shirt we already had.

 

Here's the fabric for the mermaid look.  I love the shiny green scales.

 

 

And the whole thing.  Wouldn't you know, she never wore it out of the house.  I would have taken a picture of my little mermaid, but I couldn't get her in to the costume again.

 

On Halloween there were multiple costume parades.  Indy looked great.  He loved having a whip and holster as well as the all important over the shoulder bag.  I made the whip by braiding some very long strips of the jacket fabric.  Thank you YouTube for the demo on braiding a four strand round braid.  He loved being Indy.  It was fun for me to see him get a lot of positive feedback on his costume.

 

At Buddy Boy's school the teachers all dressed as Waldo.  It was funny to see them all together.

 

 

 

At preschool the kids trick-or-treated through the office then met all of the parents and all of their cameras to sing a few songs.  They really outdo themselves with the Halloween carols.

 

My Girl's best friend ever that she has known for her whole life was dressed as Izzy the pirate.  That caused a few problems that night when My Girl wanted to be Jake the pirate to trick-or-treat.  After a few unsuccessful attempts to convince her that the pirate stuff we had would work, I told her that Jake was friends with mermaids and dolphins so she could choose one of those things.  That worked.  Once we turned her coat inside out so that the grey lining showed and pinned the fin to the coat, she happily roamed the neighborhood as a dolphin with her trick or treating buddy.  They were the tooth fairy princess and the tooth dolphin.