This is Halloween.

This young lady was the Infamous Generic Tinkerbell a.k.a. Stinkerbell. Unlike the real Tinkerbell, she is dressed modestly and warmly for the weather. The hat didn't quite make it through the evening and her wings were a bit lopsided, but she was perfectly delighted with her costume anyway. (Thanks for the help Grandma) She is already planning to be Snow White next year. I'm planning to ban Disney from my home.



This next kid didn't get a homemade costume, she is the poor neglected third child. She is acctually Eyore, but looks morel like the Easter Bunny with her basket. It took her all of about 1 house to figure out that if you can stand on the door step and and yell someone will give you candy. I think most people thought it was absurd that we were having such a small kid collecting candy, but I thought it absurd that some people would give her 3 or 4 pieces.



This next guy wanted to be b.o.b. from the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens. So he was. We had quite a fight over the way this costume would be made. He wanted to be completely covered so that he would "really look like b.o.b.", I knew this would pose a problem due to the fact that he requires oxygen to stay alive, and he can't see through fleece. I finally convinced him to allow me to leave a spot uncovered for his eyes and nose. By the end of the evening he had his whole head on the outside, but I think he "really looked like b.o.b." anyway. He made the eyeball all by himself.



See, they love halloween..

First of all... This baby of mine is the cutest thing since sliced bread. She is mean, but cute. By the looks of her you would have no idea how many times she pulls her sisters hair a day, or how many times she hits me on the head with a block, or how razor sharp her teeth and talons are.



Second of all, thanks for voting for me on Spoonflower unfortunately you forgot to tell your Uncle to vote for me too, and I didn't get into the final round, therefore, I for sure won't be winning 5 yards of custom fabric...sigh... If you are interested in seeing the final round contestants and voting for one of them go right ahead... See if I care...sigh

Third, I just got a new nephew and I made him this blanket. Highly functional and blue, just a good old blanket, nothing fancy.



And lastly, but not leastly, I present to you my sisters Birthday present. This is exactly what she needs-mold and mildew for her hair (they are barrettes.) Happy Birthday! (Yes, I know, it's just what you were hoping for.)

This is what I entered into the competition:



It's been bothering me, the horizontal flower stuck in there, they aren't right. Too dominearing, and they repeat in such an unpleasant way.


So I canned them, and came up with this instead:



I wish I had stuck with the vertical to begin with, too late now. But at least I will sleep better now, knowing that for my own happiness I fixed it. Except that I won't sleep too well, because the colors look acceptable on one of my monitors and like neon signs on the other. I have no idea how they look on yours. Plus I cut and pasted the little spoons from the other spoons and they are rather choppy, luckily you can't tell in low resolution, except that I just told you so you know anyway. Sigh...

If you haven't already, go vote for me...HERE. #48. Thanks.

Making Frescoes With Children



I taught a little class to a bunch of my nieces and nephews about Michelangelo and we made frescoes. Can you tell which one I did?

Needed: plaster of paris, a mold for the plaster (we used styrofoam plates), water based paint, brushes

Do this: Mix up the plaster and pour into your mold, wait for it to set up to the point that your brush won't sink in, but not too dry, then start painting.

With the older kids we also used a detail from the Sistine Chapel and poked holes along all the prominent features. Then we pounced it with charcoal dust over our plaster, so that it went through the holes and left guidelines that we could then paint. (Sorry, I don't have pictures of the older kids paintings, maybe I'll get them later...maybe)

It's time to stuff the ballot in my favor again!

There is this excellent little company called Spoonflower, they print fabric that you design yourself. They are still in beta mode, but seem to be making a name for themselves in the vast crafty empire. I am jealous that they thought up the idea before I could, but I am definitely not envious of the amount of work that goes into starting up a company like this. To give themselves even more stress and anguish they hold a design contest. I'm sure it's also their evil little plan to get some publicity too, as the contestants unwittingly tell their friends and kinfolk to go and vote on their website. Well I have fallen into their cunning little trap and now I am telling all three of my faithful blog readers to vote for my fabric design.

Click this to go to the blog post about the contest. Click this to go right to the voting.

I am number 48. Vote for number 48. You don't even have to take the time to look at all of them, I've made your decision for you. 48. Please don't start looking at them for the ones that are better than mine and voting for them instead of me. That would be so unfaithful of you. Except for that 19 and 45, I do happen to like those. Oh... But you don't, you only like mine. You are going to vote for me and tell all your friends about voting for me too. And while your at it, don't forget to tell me that I really captured the essence of the spoonflower and you think I am a great person.

Edit: I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not asking you to stuff the ballot in such as way that it would be cheating. Just vote once, please.

This was a birthday present for my horn tootin' nephew.

Dear me, I forgot to divulge the answer from my last "What is this?" post. It's the latest grossness that grows on a frame. You can see the little glob of glue that failed to hold this little fungi in place. Hot glue is crummy, crummy, crummy, but I knew that, and shouldn't have used it.



These little fungi are loosely based upon these... clickifyhere. So loosely in fact that I only knew about them after my sister Kim told me what they were, that's why she wasn't allowed to guess, I wasn't simply being mean. I'm sure I've seen them somewhere before, or some fungi like them somewhere in my life.

p.s. just found this... cup fungi... it matches much better.