Stenciled T-shirts

I've seen freezer paper stenciling on other blogs like here and here and I decided to give it a try.  You basically take freezer paper, cut a design, iron it on, and paint away.  I used my new toy to cut the stencils.  It is a Silhouette SD cutter.  It's like a printer except that it cuts instead of printing.  The advantage to this over other similar cutters is that you can make your own designs and use any regular font.  You can also download and buy premade designs.  I made the mermaid and downloaded the dinosaur skull.  I found the bone font on Dafont.  It is just called Bone.

Before I started the stenciling I had to modify the t-shirt.  I was inspired by Dana and her t-shirt remakes.  The shirt is a size 6-8 and needed to end up a size 4T.  The neck was actually a good size.  I made a box pleat from front to back over the shoulder to get the shoulder seam in the right place and make it more of a dress.  I then took a seam under the arm to raise the arm's eye and made another box pleat on the sides.  The sleeves have yet another box pleat at the hem to pull them in a bit.  I didn't take any pictures of this process.  I was just winging it, trying it on Little Darlin' in between steps.  She loves her new t-dress.  Then it was time to paint.  I used my Silhouette to cut the stencils and ironed them on the shirts.

For weeks and months Buddy Boy has been saying he is a paleontologist.  He has moved on a bit to archeologist, but still returns to the dinosaurs sometimes.  The t-rex skull is sneaking up from the side to bite and then it says paleontologist down the front, not your typical t-shirt.

It was a lot of fun and pretty quick and easy.  I have plans for more.  We'll see when I get to them.

Monoprints

I volunteer at Buddy Boy's school each week.  During the time that I'm there the kids go to art.  I really like what the teacher does.  It's fun to see the projects around the room from the different classes.  Recently the whole school colaborated on a collage mural for the classroom wall.  There were trees, clouds, people, animals of all sorts above ground and below.  His class was in charge of making the below ground creatures.  There were bugs of all sorts, moles, rabbits, mice etc.  Buddy Boy informed the teacher that they needed minerals and gold because they were underground too.  So she gave a box colorful shiny bits that he glued to the dirt on the wall.  He said, "Yea, I'm creative."  I'm glad he feels that way.

Last week the teacher had them making monoprints.  They painted on a plastic tray then pressed the paper on to the tray and lifted it up.  Depending on how much paint was used you could get a couple of prints if you wanted.  It is great when they are all having such a good time and just taking care of it all themselves.  Buddy Boy's work has a definite underground mineral and gold vibe to it.  We'll probably be doing this again at home...outside.

Lemony goodness

The story goes that Grandma A. would make a lot of sponge cakes to use up the cracked eggs they collected from the chicken coop.  I would not complain.  There are different flavors including chocolate, orange, lemon, and mint.  Make the peppermint cake with red swirls for Valentines Day and top it with your crushed left over candy canes.  The lemon is the perfect sweet spring treat topped with strawberries.  We still have dozens of lemons hanging on the tree waiting to be used.  I am amazed at how long they hang on before falling off.  I also had an extra dozen eggs in the fridge.  So a little lemony goodness was just the thing.

Here is Grandma's recipe straight from the Hyrum second ward cookbook.  Really from a handwritten version my mom gave me, but the recipe is the same.

Lemon sponge cake
1 overflowing cup of egg whites, about 7
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt

7 egg yolks (all the yolks from above, 7 more or less)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot water
1 1/2 cup sifted flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 325.
Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until peaks form.
Beat yolks sugar, water, flour, lemon juice, and zest until smooth and the color of butter.  The idea is to get as much air in as possible.
Carefully fold yolk mixture in to beaten whites being careful not to over mix.  Maintain as much volume as possible.  Pour in to a tube pan (not greased or non-stick).  Do the cr-chunk cr-chunk knife thing.  Run a knife through the batter to remove large air bubbles.
Bake for approximately 60 minutes.  Surface should appear dry.
Cool upside down.

Lemon glaze
lemon juice - about 1/2 lemon
butter - about 1 tablespoon
powdered sugar - I can't really say

Wing it from there.  Drip over cake.

Mother's Day - part 2

Friday morning the kindergarten class had a Mother's Day breakfast.  The night before Buddy Boy informed me that I needed to wear a dress and that he needed to wear a shirt with buttons.  Apparently this was to be a fancy occasion.  I already had my corsage and necklace in my favorite colors no less.  How thoughtful.

When we arrived one mom had clearly been dressed by her daughter.  She was wearing a lavender full length formal gown.  Not your typical drop the kids at school outfit.  She looked a little like Cinderella with dark hair.  Way to go mom.  I loved that she would do that.

The kids were adorable and very serious as they took our orders for our mini-muffins and drinks.  Buddy Boy wanted to get it just right.  We then read a story together while he ate.  Each mom was presented a book made by their child.  This was my favorite thing.  I'll share the cover and a few pages.

cover - a police scene.

 

We're talking on the phone.

I absolutely love this one.  What he means is that I can read his mind and I know exactly what he needs.  In the picture he is sad because he is missing Teddy Panda.

I didn't think our dancing was particularly note worthy, but it has clearly made an impression.

Another appearance by a stuffed animal.  This time his snake, Fuz Fuz, a birthday gift from friends last year, one of his favorite things right now.

Last Sunday wasn't the best of days, but this was great.  I feel loved.

Mother's Day honestly

Last night just before midnight I remembered that I needed to teach a lesson in church this afternoon.  The topic was honesty.  I had at least read through the lesson in the manual a couple weeks ago and found a couple other things that I needed, but I was far from ready.  I went to bed.  I did a little bit of minimal prep in the morning while my kids watched cartoons and Dad slept in.  By 10:30 I suddenly felt terrible and collapsed in bed.  This cold has been a bad one and just won't let go, coughing, headaches, exhaustion.  I slept for nearly two hours.  We made it to church an hour late to find the need to change a poopy pull-up.  Of course I forgot to grab my usual bag with all the kid stuff so we zipped to Grammie and GrandDad's house near by for a quick change and finally got to church.  Thankfully there was a lot of class participation with good comments and a good spirit that helped the lesson go smoothly, as well as more than a little help from Above.  It is so good to have the help when it is so desperately needed.

A few thoughts from today's lesson:

Honesty is often defined by what it isn't.  It's not lying, cheating, or stealing.  It is more than that as well.  "Honesty...is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving."
     James E. Faust, Ensign Nov 1996

We believe in being honest and true. (13th Article of Faith)  We also believe that there is Truth, with a big T, absolute truths that don't change with circumstances.

While discussing complete honesty, a class member said that honestly stating the truth is different than honestly stating your opinion.  We should be bold in standing for Truth, but perhaps more careful in stating our opinions.

We even quoted a little Shakespeare.
From Othello

Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.

From Hamlet

This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

p.s.  I wore the beaded necklace Buddy Boy made for me at school.  I think he liked that.

The news

The days just fly by, so here are a few of the highlights in no particular order.

Buddy Boy turned 6.  We took cupcakes to school.  He was very specific that there needed to be enough for everyone to have two.  So we did.  That evening we had a little family party and that weekend we had a dinosaur birthday party at the park with friends.  Surprisingly I don't really have much in the way of photos.  Trust me a good time was had by all and much cake was consumed.

We've been working in the yard.  I told the gardeners that the landlord hired not to weed in the backyard since they can't tell the difference between a weed and a pea plant.  So I've done a whole lot of weeding and we also built a little raised bed for some veggies, probably tomatoes and cucumbers mostly.

By the way we are eating the peas I replanted.

I found a new bottle of rose syrup.  I am down to my last little bit and what would I ever do if I ran out?  (I use the rose syrup to sweeten hot or cold lemonade.)   I also found date syrup in the same store.  I'm not sure what to do with it, except give it to my parents and let them figure it out.

There was an egg drop competition at school.  Given the continuing fascination with all things Egyptian, Buddy Boy and I made a pyramid out of cardboard tubes.  The egg itself was in a baggie, wrapped in bubble wrap then put in the center of the pyramid.  I wasn't sure if it would make it, but it survived.  He was very pleased.

Books.  For Buddy Boy the Egyptian theme continues.  A friend introduced me to the You Wouldn't Want to be.. series.  There were four related to Egypt, Egyptian Mummy, Cleopatra, Pyramid Builder, and Tutankhamen.  There are a lot more.

I also rediscovered the books of Ed Emberley.  They are a fun introduction to drawing using basic shapes and simple lines.  I remembered them from my childhood when I saw them in the art room at school.  Buddy Boy was fascinated so we picked a couple up at the library.  I like the skateboarding thumbprints jumping over the skeleton pit.  And, yes, that is a George Washingthumb floating in the cloud above it all.

New products from Police Jones

Police Jones has come out with the first in a new line of vehicles.  Read more about it on the official Police Jones website.

Back to work

Today it is back to work after a great spring break.  I didn't really take pictures, but we had a lot of fun anyway.  It all started last weekend with a birthday party for Buddy boy.  He is 6 and very excited about that.  Monday was a lazy Lego day.  Tuesday we went with friends to see the farm animals at Hidden Villa.  Wednesday morning we all went to Lil' Darlin's dance class.  Buddy Boy's break dancing was impressive, but a little threatening to the dainty girls in the class.  That afternoon GrandDad took Buddy Boy to the Rosacrucian Egyptian Museum.  He has been studying Egypt at school and is a bit obsessed.  He loved it.  Lil' Darlin' played with Grammie while I went shopping.  Thursday the kids played with friends at the YMCA while the moms exercised.  We had a picnic together and then headed for the library for even more books about ancient Egypt.  Friday was beach day at Natural Bridges followed by pizza at Upper Crust.  It was nice to have fun places to go and not have to race out of the house to school each morning.  But today it is back to work cleaning up the detritus of a week off and getting treats ready for book club this afternoon.  Even Dad is back to work after taking two weeks off his day job to work at a friend's tax practice.  It was a great week.

Photo via flickr here.

Tumble bunnies

This afternoon while little darlin' took a rare, but much needed, nap, we made tumble bunnies.  Here is the link.  So much fun for so little effort.  I found a new blog, madebyjoel.blogspot.com, that I will be visiting frequently for fun kid ideas.  It is all about home made toys, but with a decided no muss, no fuss take on the whole idea.

image from www.madebyjoel.blogspot.com

You get the idea.  They are bunnies and they tumble.  Joel even has a video so you can see them in action for yourself.  They are basically little boxes made from cardstock with two marbles inside.  We played with the angle of the incline and experimented with the number of marbles to see what happened.  The recommended two marbles was just right.  You could do a physics lesson on the reasoning behind it, but I'm too tired to think about it right now.

Simple white scarf

This one is pretty simple.  The painting was very quick.  The floral design is like what I drew for a skirt I did awhile ago.  I used a white paint pen on the natural silk.  Then I decided it needed a little edge, literally.  In fact the crocheted edge adds a little more femininity.  This is a fairly simple one, but it still took awhile to get it done.  This scarf is a keeper.

P.S.  My grapes are starting to leaf out.  Glad to see that the severe trim we gave them last fall didn't do permanent damage.  Really, the grapes were growing in to the lemon tree, taking over the yard, and providing a home for beady eyed nocturnal creatures.  Now I just hope we get grapes to go with the leaves.