What-What?! Week of July 7th

I don't know what we've been doing, but I guess we've been busy. xP

Last weekend, we headed out to an SCA arts and sciences event, set up to showcase artists' work and get feedback.  There was an absolute ton of stuff to look at, and a ton of people too, which unfortunately meant that I didn't get as many pictures as I would've liked.

I thought this weaving was very cool -- this lady had a few other pieces that, from even just a short distance, looked like paintings.

This is actually block-printed designs with embroidered edges -- but it looks like reverse applique until you get really close.

Ordinarily when you see this kind of weaving, it's in the thicker gauge that you see in the upper right-hand corner; the thread used for this piece is so much finer.  Very impressive!

I was looking at this person's display, looked down and saw this little strawberry -- I thought it was a delightfully playful detail.

Card weaving, featuring actual cards.

This is a girdle book -- basically a book with a convenient fabric handle.  I'd like to make one of these for my outfit, because I think they're cool.

Chart showing time periods with book making techniques/materials.

A lovely late 15th century (I think) German hat.  For a while, it was fashionable in Germany to have these square or circular flat hats, which (depending on the specific specimen) could be either elegant or comical.

This lady had some very nice geometric needlepoint designs -- I took this picture so I could look up German brickstitch, which I haven't done yet, but will... eventually.

What-What?! Week of November 13th

Not much going on this week -- mostly just working, though yesterday I did do some crafts with the children.  Saffron very nicely shared her big craft bin with her brothers, and they had a good time making stick puppets and wands:

Making her wand -- pink hearts and sequins.

Little birdy puppet -- the base is a GIANT pom-pom.

Corwin gave his bird the biggest tail.  This is also the only non-blurry picture I could get of him with his bird.

"I cast a spell on you!"

All three reading together. <3

What-What?! Week of October 23rd

The name of the game this week is Halloween crafts. :D

Our house is now decorated for Halloween:

The husband and I made gravestones to decorate our front yard, with lovely quotes like "Oops", and "What?", and "Are you still serving breakfast?".

We also bought the kids some Halloween door hangers, which they had a good time coloring.

I only have a picture of Saffron's finished one, though?

Michael's Weekly Kid's Craft

Every week, Michael's does a kids craft event with holiday themed crafts.  We've never gone before, so it was new to us.  This week was yarn ghosts, and the kids also colored pictures of their costumes while they waited for the hot glue gun to warm up:

I love Ozzy's potato people.  So cute!

"BOOOoooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooo"

Corwin's has big BIG teeth.

Osric decided to color blood on the mouth of his ghost, to make it extra-spooky!

What-What?! Week of October 16th

Not much going on around here right now.  Last weekend, we headed to the thrift store and started gathering supplies for the kids' Halloween costumes.  Saffron is going as a dryad, so she's sewing fake leaves to a shirt, and will have a little nest with birds in it.  Corwin's going to be a bat, which I haven't quite figured out yet, and Ozzy is going to be a blue ninja (like from Lego Ninjago).  They are all ridiculously excited, of course.

The husband did pick up a model P-40 Warhawk kit to do with Corwin, which was a lot of fun:

The kit involved no glue at all, instead assembled entirely with screws.

He very much liked it, and has asked for more... which is good, because we already have another one for him.

Bonus picture of the husband and Saffron. <3

What-What?! Week of September 11th

This last week was pretty quiet -- it was nice to only have to work four days, though.  We never made it to a park or out hiking, but we have cleaned out closets in the anticipation of upcoming birthdays.  So it's nice to have less stuff, anyway.

Yesterday, I taught the big kids how to make breaded lizards:

(From left to right): Mine, Saffron's, and Corwin's

Saffron had some trouble figuring out how the beading part worked, but Corwin got it surprisingly fast.  He was looking at mine and using it as a pattern without me having to tell him what to do.

They want to make more today.  I have a feeling we're going to need more pony beads...

What-What?! Week of April 24th

Long week.  Starts again tomorrow. :/

Origami Things

Corwin with his fox puppet and swan.

So last weekend, we hit up the thrift store, and one of the things we picked up was an origami book.  I've done a couple of animals with the children, and Corwin has been very interested in it.  He's actually better at the actual paper folding part than either of the other two kids.

Saffron was excited, not that you can tell from this picture.

Ozzy was very excited, but also very blurry.

Luckily, I found that I have a ton of origami paper, so we'll be rolling in paper animals for a good long while.

Last weekend, it was actually nice enough that we ate outside all weekend.  We had the kids help us with some yardwork; we told them that we'd give them a penny for each dandelion flower they picked.  All told, they picked a total of 324 dandelion flowers -- and there was still more (!!!).  Still, seems like a good $3.24 spent.

What-What?! Week of March 27th

Happy Easter everyone!

Anticipation!

We're having a good Easter so far.  The kids were up early this morning, then we spent half an hour (?) searching for eggs in the house.  It's a good thing there were no eggs outside, because it is raining cats and dogs out there.

Yesterday, we decorated eggs.  For this, set up a table outside because it was lovely, and just better.  The kids had a great time:

 

And because the weather was so lovely yesterday, I made the husband open one of his birthday presents early:

Yes, a football.  I thought it would be good fun with the kids, especially since we have the big backyard now.  So then we played with it:

The throw!

The catch!

Teaching the kids how to throw a football.

And they threw it!

Unfortunately, I didn't take into account how large a standard size football is, so it's absolutely huge in the kids' hands, and kinda big in mine as well.  Either way, I'm glad we got it out and were able to play with it.  Later today we're going to celebrate the husband's birthday and do general family stuff.

What-What?! Week of December 6th

I am totally not ready for it to be December already.  I've bought a lot of Christmas presents already, so at least there's that.  The husband picked up some Christmas lights, which we're going to put up on the house, since we have a house to put them up on now. :)

We're going to have Corey's birthday party next Sunday, which will have a Minecraft theme.  I've worked out the cake with Corey, but I still need to figure out the rest of the decorations.  I have a feeling that I'll be cutting a lot of paper squares out...

Rabbit Tooth Pillow

Last week, I made Saffron a tooth fairy pillow:

It needs a face still, and its ears are floppy, but otherwise, it came out quite well.  Saffron has one tooth that is extremely loose, but is still hanging on.  I told her that she could wiggle it to get it out sooner, and she told me that she would absolutely not do that.  So eventually it'll come out, and she has a tooth pillow when that happens.

This last week, I needed to do something pointless and fun, because I was disgusted with all my other projects.  I made Twilight Sparkle, reading a book.  There's no real programming involved in making it, but there are some more difficult style sheet magicks going on.

That's it for this week.

What-What?! Week of October 11th

Sorry this is so late in the day.  I slept a lot, and it was refreshing. :P

Earlier in the week, the kids did a craft where they made themselves a little town to play with:

Cereal boxes opened up, and the kids are coloring on the blank side.  We then taped them up.

The finished product.

It's a bit hard to read, but the stores we had in our town included a Toy Store, a restaurant for vampires called Vampire Drink (how creepy is that?!  Thanks, Corey), a Pet Shop, and a Mall.

They had a really great time playing with them, so great that they killed a dinosaur:

I was able to fix it.

Not too much else goin' on.  The husband worked almost 50 hours this week, so that's a goodly amount of overtime, though I hate him being gone so much.  I made (another) apple pie.  It's delicious.

Next week, I'm going to do a big post on Corey's Lego creations.  I seem to have collected a lot of pictures and videos of things he's made.