Paper mache + Plumbing = The Good, The Bad and The Really Cute!

So, K had a school project: Coke bottle biography. She had to read a biography, and then take a 2 liter coke bottle and a Styrofoam ball and create make the person "as realistic as possible." (We live in the south, so coke bottle refers to any 2 liter soda bottle. :) She also had to write a report and present it to the class. She loves jazz, so she picked Louis Armstrong.

So K, being K, and me, being me, we were excited!

Now, when it comes to school projects, and actually a lot of things, I help, but I do not do. Just ask K. Her science teacher took her aside on the first day of class and told her she was not allowed to ask her Dad or Mom for help, we being science types. Her reply "Oh don't worry. My Mom never helps me with school stuff. It is so annoying." That is not completely true. I help, I just don't give answers or do work for her. And more than once, a teacher has told me K earned a better grade on a project because it was obvious she did the work and not her parents.

So without further ado, The King of Jazz, Sachmo himself,... Mister Louis Armstrong!

Cute as a coke bottle can be!

Just a note, never, never, never, never EVER, dispose of paper mache paste by pouring it down the sink. Never. Really. Trust me.

And the plumbing is fixed, thank you for asking. Well of course I own my own pipe snake. Doesn't everyone?

I'm thinkin' yeah, it's a bad thing.

Is it a bad thing if you flush the toilet and the kitchen sink fills with water?





Oh yeah. It's a bad thing.

SNOW!!!!!!

K and V were on TV!

K and her friend V attended the Deathly Hallows book release back in July 2007. They went as Padme and Hermione, respectively and they were so very cute.

One of the local TV stations was covering the event and arrived while we were standing in line outside, waiting to be sorted. I saw the reporter scanning the line and when he saw K and V he smiled, said something to his cameraman, and and headed right for them. He interviewed them for about 5 minutes and they ended up on the news as the lead story.

When asked if Harry would survive V very calmly said, "Of course, he's the boy who lived, not the boy who died."

Needless to say, they had a wonderful time.

Happy Valentine's Day Photo Card

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I thought I'd share a Valentine's Day photo card I made for my moms this year. It's based on the pillow I made my Mother in Law for her "A Pillows for Every Holiday" Collection. I just love the combination of the pink, red and brown. It's the brown, I really just love brown.

To make your own:

1) Download the front and back of the card, and the inside of the card.

2) Use your favorite photo manipulation program to insert a photo into the empty space on the front of the card.

3) Print the front and back on one side of a piece of card stock and the inside on the other side of the card stock.

4) Crease, fold and you're done.

If you don't have a photo manipulation program, no problem:

1) Print the front and back on one side of a piece of card stock and the inside on the other side of the card stock.

2) Crease and fold.

3) Crop and attach your photo to the front of the card. An easy way is to cut the photo to fit the space and then use an X-Acto knife and a ruler to cut little lines where the corners of the photo can slip right in. You can see the little lines in this image.

I really prefer to attach a photo, I like the layered effect, and the print quality s better than my ancient, but still wonderful printer. *pats printer affectionately* And the photo can then be easily removed and placed in an album later.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Prep: Grammie's Pillow

Grammie loved the pillow I made her for Christmas, so I got the idea to make her a pillow for each holiday. I hope I can do it in one year, we'll see.

I just love this material, it's pink and red and brown with just a bit of white. And I found it a Walmart of all places.

I've got a bunch left. Hum, who else needs one?

Valentine's Day prep: Rock Candy!

We're getting a jump on Valentine's day by starting the treats K will hand out early. She loved the Rock Candy idea from February's Family Fun Magazine.

We decided to go with Kisses instead of peanut butter cups, cause we just thought they were cuter. And we used white yarn, instead of string, cause we had yarn.

We cut one piece of yarn about 14" and the other about 9", tied them together so the ends were even and used low temp hot glue to glue the Kisses to the ends. We didn't bother covering the kisses with foil, the Kisses looked fine without it. We taped the other end of the yarn to the top of one small side of the candy box. We had pink paper so we cut two strips, 4" by 8.5" from each sheet, and taped the paper to the candy box.

The print out Family Fun provided is great, but if you want to do more than one, or 30 as is our case, it's a bit wasteful. So I made a couple of sheets, one with 24 of the keypads and the other with 28 of the screens. We just print them on white paper, cut them out, and glued them in place. K is going to write her name on the back of the box and they'll be all done. The end result is really cute.

Have fun and Happy Valentine's Day!

My Lil' Mummy!

Took me a while to find this picture. Yes, mummies do come in multicolored wrappings.

K went to school today!

K's feeling much better and went to school today. YES!!!!!! Still sneezing and blowing and hacking occasionally, but for her, for January, she's doin' good.

And I think Adi's legs are too long... going to have to fix that.

Mummies do come in mulitcolored wrappings!

It was 8 degrees and our friend Mary wore her scarf!

"Only a couple of people recognized it, but several people commented that it was really cool and one said he didn't realize mummies came in multicolored wrappings."

*giggle*

Earaches are no fun at all.

K is still home with a fever. We saw the doctor yesterday, she has a sinus infection and that's what is making her ears hurt. Though as we have learned through experience, and our doctor readily admits, ears can look just fine at 2pm in the doctors office one day, and rupture the next.





Needless to say, she is not a happy camper. Her ear was hurting this morning, so I made her a small rice heating pad, just the right size to lay on her ear.








The fleece cover is removable and washable. You microwave the inner rice hot pad separately and then slip it into the fleece cover. Never microwave fleece. Just in case, I'm going to scream that last bit. NEVER MICROWAVE FLEECE!!!!! Sorry about that, just wanted to make sure everyone noticed the whole never microwave fleece part. Moving on.


Lil' Earache Relief Rice Heating Pad

Easy directions:

For a 6" by 6" final pad, you will need:

100% cotton muslin, 7" by 13"

fleece, 7" by 13"

about 2 cups of plain white rice
Sewing machine and/or needle and thread

1) Take the piece of muslin, 7" by 13", fold it in half and sew around the three open edges, leaving a 2 inch opening in one side.

2) Turn the bag inside out and fill it with rice. Sometimes we use Jasmine rice, it smells so good when it's heated, but this time we used plain old white rice. Fill it till it's full, but still soft, not packed.

3) Sew the opening shut, by hand and then machine, just easier that way. You now have a 6" by 6" rice hot pad.

4) For the cover take the piece of fleece, 7" by 13" and fold it so that the seam is at the center back and overlapped about one (1) inch. You can see in this picture what I mean.

5) Pin the sides and sew 1/2 inch seam on both sides.

6) Microwave the rice pack about 30 seconds, till it's just slightly warm and slip it into the fleece cover. Lay it gently on the little ones ear. Relief in minutes.

K's very own soft, squishy Tardis! Perfect for a low grade fever :(

K is home sick today. (Must be January.) But this year, she has her own soft, squishy Tardis to cuddle. She designed and made the first one for her friend V. I made this one for her. It took me twice as long and her lines are straight. She said she doesn't care. Love her!

Adi for M

A new Adi for our friend M.

I changed the face, my embroidery skills are not the best, so the eyes are circles of black fleece sewn into position. I'm also rubbish at sewing carefully around little curves. It might be my machine, but I am the one driving, so I must take the blame. So I just sewed the hands and feet as big bumps and then formed the fingers and toes with loops of thread. I actually prefer the look. Oh, and I made the feet, more... like feet.

That makes four Adi, three white, one pink. One more at least in the works. Love those Adipose toes!

Handmade Christmas 2008! Scarf for Uncle R.

K made her Uncle R a fleece scarf to match the fleece hat we made him last year.

No picture of the hat unfortunately, but the scarf turned out very nice.

Handmade Christmas 2008! Grammie's Necklace and earrings.

K and I made her Grammie a necklace and earrings for Christmas this year.

I loved this set and Grammie did too. We've made her a few pieces of jewelry, as well as hats and scarves and such, over the years and she always makes a point of wearing our gifts and telling us how others like them. This set was a big hit.

Handmade Christmas 2008!

We made most of our Christmas gifts this year. It was a lot of fun and the receipients seemd to really like their gifts.

Grammie's favorite gift was a Christmas pillow.



Quite simple to make, just two 15" squares of material with a bit of gold ruffle around the edge and stuffed with polyfill. She told me she put away all the Christmas decor, except the pillow, which she is going to keep out for a while. Made me smile.

Hum, Valentine's Day is coming... :)

My first,... and most likely last, Doctor Who Scarf!

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Well, it's finished! And it only took, let's see, I started it in January after I broke my foot and finished it last October so,... FOREVER. We packed and shipped it just before Halloween to our very special Potter friend Mary along with a first movie Gryffindor scarf. (She sent us three of her handmade ceramic Daleks last year for Christmas. We kept the plumpy one on the left in the front and gave two to friends.)

I understand she wears the Gryffindor scarf all the time, but hasn't quite figured out how to wear a 20+ foot scarf to work yet. Understandable really.

A friend of ours thought this was the best way.

Bit constricting, but warm, definitely warm.

I made a 6" wide, 1/8 scale version for K last October, which was a nightmare of weaving in ends, not fun at all. She wore it to school and a her friends thought it was very cool. Mr. Man wants one he can wear to work. I'm thinking Bond Fashion Knitter! Much less time, double thick and no weaving in ends. Oh yeah, I'm so using the technology on this one.

Obligatory Pre-Christmas Freak Out!

I am sooooooo behind on everything I wanted to make/do for Christmas!!!!

*Calming breath*

I really shouldn't fuss. Last year this time, I'd just had my accident and I believe Christmas happened, though I don't actually remember much of it. Something about a wheel chair...?

So really, big picture, life is good, even if I don't finish everything I'd planned before Christmas.

It's like a wedding, right, you have an entire year to send a gift, Right?

Just nod your heads people!!!!!

*breathing into paper bag and feeling much better*

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

Lookie what K made!

K wanted to make a gift for a friend of hers who loves also loves Doctor Who.

A 26" tall, squashy, plush Tardis!




Is that cute or what! K designed the whole thing and did 100% of the cutting and 95% of the sewing, (I sewed the stuffing hole shut with the truculent Kenmore.) The plumpy Tardis is made of no pill fleece and embroidery floss and is stuffed like a weiner dog!





"Adi Love Tardi"

It is pre-cuddled gift, the best kind.




Oh, yes. We are definitely making more!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Is it really almost Christmas? Really? Oh good heavens.

K's Candy Canian hat was a big hit at school. Pattern coming soon!