I had to go out and purchase more magazines. I tried a couple local thrift shops and in one I found National Geographics from the early 80’s, which was perfect because these next couple collages were supposed to be things from Birth-Age 5 and Ages 6-10. Even more perfect: one had a whole section on Nebraska in celebration of writer Willa Cather. I literally cried seeing photos that my heart knew were Nebraska before my brain read the words on the next page that told me they were, in fact, Nebraska. It was wild.
There weren’t a lot of magazine pictures left for the second poster, sadly, so it mostly got old family photos, interspersed with a few magazine bits from England or California, which were big family trips during Ages 6-10.
Another Vein of Gold post. Sorry, it is eating my brain lately, so it’s what you get to see. Here we were supposed work as fast as we could, grabbing thirty or so images that struck us from magazines, and make a collage without overthinking it. Overthinking it. Hahahaha. Well, I hit a couple walls right away: 1) we don’t keep magazines in the house, really, and 2) I was totally out of scrapbooking tape.
So I gathered up all the Entertainment Weekly’s and Tyler Today’s that my dad had at his house (with permission) and here’s what I came up with. It took way longer than you might think. Enjoy!
I started this document ages ago and have shared it with many friends, family members, and FB forums already. It’s compiled from many, many different places: lists on facebook, travel websites, space websites, family websites, school websites. It’s broken down into categories for ease of use: The Arts, Books, Celebrities, Coding, Crafts, Disney, Exercise, Food, Movies/TV/ Mental Health, Museums, Music, School Related, Travel, and Non-Internet Things to Do.
School got out a couple weeks ago, but my family has been taking a little staycation. I spent some time working on my summer plan for the kids. With summer camps being out of the question, we went back to the drawing board and decided we were going to do another summer of themed days. We’ve done them off an on for years and I first wrote about them here and here.
A lot has changed since then– we’re down to two children at home now, both teens, the internet can be viewed on the big TV in the living room, and free videos abound about far more subjects than we’ll ever have time to watch.
Here’s a link to this year’s list of themes. I’m updating them weekly on Sunday mornings, usually. Feel free to download and change for your own needs. 🙂
One of my best friends and I made books this weekend. She took a four-day workshop on it and graciously offered to have me down for the weekend and teach me her new skills. I forgot to take a picture of the book press, which is large, red, and dusty from having sat in someone’s workshop area for years.
Things I learned:
1. Glue is the foundation of all books. That and more glue. With some glue here and glue there. Also some paper.
2. I cannot cut the cardstock. Not at all. My friend ended up cutting it all. BUT she has a Cricut and we’re going to cut down some of her huge cardstock sheets to run them through the machine later. I folded all the paper in half, though.
3. Stabbing little holes in paper is fun! So much fun!
4. Sometimes you forget how many holes to make, so you have to improvise. We accidentally put in 5, but you need an even number in this style of book binding, so we put in another one at the bottom. We used variegated thread for our inner binding, which made it super festive.
5. Beeswax smells just like when you smush your face really deep into your cat and then try to breathe, but without all the fur up your nose.
6. There is no 6. 7. Waxing thread is also addictive. I don’t know why.
8. Sometimes you have the wrong sized paper for your interior. So then you need to cut it, but it is hard to do without the guillotine. You may try many things, like sanding the paper, cutting it with box cutters, or even using the dremel wood cutters. They will not work. They will also make the house smell weirdly burnt. Then you will go out to Wal-Mart really late at night and buy a guillotine. They are CHEAP. Start with that last step.
10. Bookbinding has a lot of waiting time while the press does its work. We watched irreverent feminist comedy specials on Netflix while we waited. You can watch whatever you want. 🙂
11. When putting the endpapers in, use the tiniest line of glue. We thought we had. We were wrong. Also, don’t use thin paper for the endpaper. Mine was a little too translucent. Steph’s was fine (a nice sage green, not pictured.)
12. Make a feature of a little error. My error was cutting the paper too close to a little signature spot on the paper. I ended up putting it on the front, where it looks like a cute little frill. We also learned that if you don’t like one side of your book, flip it the other way and make the back the front (my blue was crooked on one side. This side is much better.)
We had such a fun time making these little darlings! 🙂 12/10 would do it again.
My eldest kid surprised me last night with a request for a homecoming mum for his girl. LAST NIGHT. After three weeks of me saying “Are you sure you’re not going to change your mind?” They did and they didn’t. They still aren’t going to the dance, but they are going to go out and he requires a mum for this process.
First I was flabbergasted. Then I flippantly said at this rate all that would be left was Halloween ribbons and I could make a Harry Potter mum. His date loved the idea.
This morning I spent an hour and a half and $119 and now we have supplies to make our own mum. For $60 I could have purchased a pre-made one, but this one is half-school spirit, half Harry Potter so it’ll be better. Also, it will be bonding for David and I and that’s priceless, right? As a bonus, I can hot glue him to something when he pisses me off.
There was an owl selection process.
After multiple texts, we chose the one on the front right because it had feet and did not have a stick up its butt to deal with.
Some of the rest of the supplies. Oh, and a Bible. Cause I’ll need it after dealing with a kid and a hot glue gun for hours later.
Wish us luck!
I’m feeling list-y at the moment. Some things I’ve done/am doing lately:
Finished the CD uploads to iTunes. Put the CD’s in boxes. Put the boxes in the garage. Nick is taking one to his mom and I’m taking the other to Goodwill. Then I put all the little games into the newly emptied drawers and I’m not tripping over them any more. Yay!
Finished reading the Albert Campion series and the extra short story books. Now am looking for new things to read. Nothing seems good enough.
Listening to The Dead Tossed Waves while I’m at the gym on the recumbent exercise bike. I figured this would keep me going to the gym, but I am finding the narrator so annoying that I skipped a couple of gym days last week. I’d borrow another audio book, but I’m awaiting email from the library telling me what’s gone wrong with my digital account that it tells me I’m no longer entitled to check-outs. Oh well. Back to the gym I go. Must get in shape so I don’t die walking everywhere in Ireland in July.
Trying to put together my PTA board for next year. Yes, I got talked into being President. You may laugh now. Only two people showed up to the meeting and one decided not to join us. Yay. I’m trying to be all Bright Side about it; we’ll have a kick-ass Parliamentarian. 🙂
Bought new pretty things for my backyard with money from sale of backyard things we no longer used: a new table umbrella, some pretty chimes, a cushion for my bench, pillows for the bench, vinyl tablecloths for the tables. Also pretty things for the front yard: 3 spinny-flower-things and a set of tiny chimes and a new bright red watering-can.
Greg bought seeds, potting soil, tiny plastic pots, and some tiny fences and started planting a garden. We need to transplant those little plants today. Must Not Forget!!
We also put a bunch of those seeds in the front garden, but I can’t tell the little flowers from weeds at this point and don’t know what to pull up and what to leave. We did a variety pack and I have no idea what those flowers look like as babies.
I worked at the kids old MDO last week. Super fun! Love being with the little kids. Getting money is just bonus!
I’ve been watching the last season of Doctor Who over again as I fold laundry the last week or so. Whee!
We did another Spring Recital at church. Nick MC’d, his mom and Ben and David all performed, and I made the programs and decided the playing order. It went really well. 🙂 Ben played two beautiful piano pieces. David played one march-type piano piece and another march-style trumpet piece. They both did really well.
We also did a clothing exchange at church. I gave away a couple of bags of our clothes and got more than a couple of bags of clothes back. I’m passing some on to my sister-in-law who is similarly sized, but has different tastes in clothes than I do (colored pants freak me out and she seems to love them). I also got a bunch of shoes! Little cute flat shoes! And one pair of platform sandals that are evenly platformed, if you know what I mean. No slope. I can wear them, look taller, and not fall. Must find more of these kind of shoes.
Now I’m washing all these new-to-me clothes and watching videos on how to tailor some of them to fit me better. I’ve never done that before. Should be interesting. If I’m not working tomorrow, it will be sewing day! I haven’t been crafty in more than a week now, so it’s definitely time!
Photos will appear in the sidebar at some point today or tomorrow. Apparently I haven’t updated them since February?! Aie!
I’m finally getting around to the “Create more” portion of “Pin-free February!”
The first thing I’m trying to “create more” of is less chaos. 🙂 I know that sounds weird, but that’s the first thing on my list. So I’ve been emptying bins around the house and making sure that they are filled with what they’re supposed to be filled with and then I’m labeling them. I’ve also got a few new/new-to-this use bins and have been putting them into use.
New baskets for hats in the hall closet
Newly labeled (but definitely not new) bins in the hallway closet.
Reorganized & labeled kitchen drawers. I’m trying to teach the kids to be a bit more independent when emptying the dishwasher.
Speaking of kids independence: kids bathroom drawer: now organized & with labels! (that black tray came from today’s kids meal – saving money FTW!)
I’m also trying to create more beauty in my house.
I bought a cheap garland at the dollar store and prettied it up with some extra fake flowers I had lying around. I looks a lot nicer in person, actually.
Prettying up my laundry room shelf – I think I’m finally going to repaint it once the rain goes away.
—
Later:
I spray painted the shelf pink, which is not a color you will really find a lot of in the house, and the picture frame I tried using a pinterest method that failed and I tried to decorate the other frame using a different pinterest method as well.
Combo: I spray painted my red key holder to match the shelf and run and I also labeled the hooks once again. That space is awaiting a spray painted basket. 🙂 I wanted to make it green but I didn’t have the right shade so I once I realized it looked bad I decided not to hang it up until I got the color right.
My new laundry room rug – see how it picks up the colors from the fairies & art on the shelf now? YAY! 🙂
Lisa Holcomb 