Fun Times

I'm trying to be more crafty and creative-like and with the boys. Otherwise it seems like all I'm doing all day is telling them to stop doing whatever it is they are doing and cleaning up horrible messes. This way, I'm kinda focusing their energy and cleaning up horrible craft-related messes. It's mostly an improvement.

So, one thing we did a little bit ago was make playdough by following this recipe, except using boiling water instead of boiling it on the stove. We probably should have halved the recipe, since we ended up using every last bit of salt in the house.

I use the term "we" very loosely, because even though I have very lofty ideals about kids helping in the kitchen, more often I'm ordering everyone out before I start hurling spatulas at them. But Ben and Sam did help by throwing some flour in the air and saying it was snowing. Really, very helpful.


Ben attempts to make a mountain out of a kitchen tool and green playdough


Sam, ice cream spade and big, goofy grin

We've used them several times, once outside which turned out good and bad, since the mess was there, but the boys also added some dirt bits to the blue. Oh, well.

They especially like making imprints with their faces, hands, and today, their bottoms. Creativity can't be reigned in by social propriety.

Welcome, Welcome!

So, I managed to get this video to work, but still no pictures. Hopefully I will figure out this problem ASAP. Before Zach's family arrived, I decided to let the boys make a welcome banner for them. (Sorry, I didn't think of this for your visit Gma! I hope you still felt welcome :). So, here are the boys trying their hands (and later feet) at painting.

Curtains Up!

So, it was a quilt. The thing I've been working on. Since... April. Yes. A quilt. And it is finally, finally finished. (Well, hopefully at least).

This is the first quilt I have ever made. If I was smart (a big if on that one), I would have started out with something smaller so that I could develop some quilting abilities before undergoing a large and more difficult project like a quilt. But, I don't really want something small. I wanted a big quilt. So, I dove right in.

I used the book Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts, which has some fun ideas and projects, but is a little difficult to understand if you are a visual learning like me. I had to read the directions several times and then have Zach read them to make sure I understood them properly.

So anyway, here's the quilt:

The Quilt: the Front

The Quilt: the Back

Some detail on the back

I'm quite pleased with the whole thing. It's called a stacked coin or Chinese coin design, apparently. Of course there are uncountable mistakes, which I believe gives the quilt character. And, whoa Nelly, is this puppy loaded with character!?

I chose the colors based on some fabric I already had and some old shirts of Zach's that I cut up to put into the quilt. I'm not really sure why I picked brown as the base, I think it has something to do with the colors she used in the book, but I like the look overall.

I think I may actually like the back a tiny bit more than the front, but the jury's still out on that one.

So, here's the photo story of the journey of the quilt which I started in April and ended in June:

Sam "helping" me while I cut out the strips for the columns

All of the white stars on a red field after being cut up

Coins pre-stacking

After all the coins were sewn together. This was the easiest way to keep everything in the order I wanted.

Quilt Scraps

The amount of space I had left over when I ran out of binding. Absolutely the most annoying thing in the world.

Part of the reason that I wanted to make a quilt, rather than a small wall hanging or something like that, is because I want this to be really used, something that becomes a part of our family life, full of memories and love. (*Sniff!* Okay, enough sappiness for the moment) Anyway, as you can see, the boys are already getting to work on that.

Ben using the quilt as a yoga mat after they got into my yoga DVDs again. Pretty good downward dog there.

Also, some mighty impressive toddler warrior pose from Sam here.

Sam hiding under the quilt.

"Peekaboo!"

Of course, I may have to do some more work on it. Why? Because after I was completely finished I looked at the bag that the batting (the soft white stuff between the fabric) came in and it said that they recommended quilting every two to four inches. My lines are every 10 inches. Sometimes more. Zach thinks I should sew some more lines so that it doesn't start to break down in a few years and will last forever, per my dream.

But he's not doing the work.

So, if any quilters out there have some advice on what I should do, let me know. I am willing to sew more if I need to. I just don't want to if I don't have to.

In the mean time, I'm gonna go and snuggle up under that awesome, character filled quilt.

Up to Something...

I've been working on something that is taking up a significant portion of my kinda-free time.

a fabricy mess

Any guesses? (If you already know, then don't say. That's kinda cheating.) I'll put up the finished product next week. That's right. I'm giving myself a deadline. And you guys can hold me to it. But be nice.

Painting the Town Red, and Blue, and Green, and Orange...

We finally got the boys some paints of their own. And it also finally dawned on me that we didn't need to buy that easel for them (for the moment anyway, Zach). The other day I tied a string up against our fence in the backyard, stripped down the boys (or I would have, if they had been wearing clothes at the time), and set them to painting.

Sam and Ben painting (almost) au naturale

I've only let the boys use paints twice before, but now that I've discovered this system, I'll probably let them loose more.

Ben's work in progress. He was talking a lot about waterfalls, whales, and swords while he painted this.
(note how he ended up holding his pie tin like a painter's pallet)

Sam's piece. He was talking a lot about sharks and whales while he painted this.

Ben's is on the left, Sam's is on the right

As you can see, despite the fact that they are twins, their artistic style is completely different.

And lest you think that this was a completely mess free event, I did get distracted for a few minutes and the boys did take that opportunity to grab three paint containers (mostly blue) and dump them into their pallets and then spill them on the ground and then run through them, and then run into the house. There were blue footprints all across the kitchen floor. But it came up pretty easily with the mop, so now worries.

And now, for your enjoyment, a movie.

Sam is on the left, Ben on the right.

Craftiness

Craftiness - In the form of pillows

I mentioned to a friend of mine that one of my goals this year was to be craftier. And she said, "Do you mean crafts, or...like being crafty" So, yes. I mean the creating of crafts, not being cunning, artful, or wily. Though there has been a significant lack thereof on my part, lately. Especially wily.

Ben - jumping onto the pillows

Anyway, a couple of months ago, the boys' pillows erupted in a cloud of fluff. They had been washed too many times, and it was all too much for them to handle. They were just cheapies from IKEA, so I wasn't too upset about it. But, I didn't want to just throw out two pillows worth of stuffing, because that just seemed wasteful. And I just hate to throw things away when I think they can be useful for something. Which explains our upstairs closet.

Ben lounging, King-of-Persia style

So, all that fluff sat in a big plastic bag on our dryer for several months. Until Friday, when I broke out the sewing machine and got to work.

What we started with: a bedsheet and a bag full of stuffing

I used my old fitted bedsheet from my college days, when I had a single bed and which now serves no purpose in our house (we're planning on keeping the boys in their crib sized beds with one side taken off for as long as humanly possible).

I just cut four circles out of the fabric and then found the circumference (which was probably the hardest part and required a google search. In case you were wondering, Zach still remembered the formula. He's awesome and annoying like that. It's , in case, like me, high school math was wasted on you.)

My goal was to create pillows that they could use as little chairs for watching TV and reading books and the like. And because you can never have too many pillows.

Watching Pocoyo

As you can see, they have fulfilled that original purpose.

But, they have also used them as soccer balls, projectiles, layers of a cake and trampolines. And I don't know why I was surprised by that.


After all, we're dealing with wily little boys here. Next step: Make removable (and washable) covers.

Crafty Katie

What is one to do when one is in possession of a dingy, old frame but is short on moo-la?
One breaks out the glue.

I tore up some newspaper and just set to it with some Mod Podge. Glossy, of course.

I let it dry overnight.

Then set to it with some acrylics.
I was going to do it in black, but Zach convinced me to go with something bolder. And what, I ask you, is bolder than red? Hmm... maybe orange.

And now don't those Parisian women look happy? Of course they do! Not as happy as if they were in a custom Givenchy frame with french mat frame, maybe. But, if they had wanted that, they should have been bought at that yard sale by someone with more money.

Fous parisiens!

The Cool Bookshelf

We needed a place to put all the new books I got for school. Katie thinks I buy too many, but 23 books is not too many. Bringing about three times that number home from the library, yeah, that was a lot. (I still stand by the idea that there is no such thing as too many books. That's like having too much sugar--no such thing.) Anyway, after filling the little shelf space we had, I decided to build a new book shelf.


Ben watched, and then they decided to help Daddy. Let me tell you, they were more help than you could imagine. I mean, without them I never would have known that so many used nails could fit in one mouth.

As you see, I finished. I call it the cool bookshelf. If you want one, they are only $1000 each. But I could give you a family rate if you mention this blog. (In case it is illegal to sell things on the blog, I'm not. It was just a joke. I don't think anyone would pay that much anyway. (If you really want to pay that much, we'll call it a donation ;) ))