Sunday, September 27, 2009

First Day of School!

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Tomorrow L starts his first day of school! I can't believe it. He looks so big in this picture. Yes it seems late to just be starting school, but he's going to an amazing school called The Attic. We are so excited for him to go. Both K and I wish we could have gone to this school growing up.

Well as you can see L is sporting a new book bag that I made him with the help this blog. When he first saw it he cried. I asked him what he wanted on his bag and he had told me a cat and books (since it was a book bag). Well I cut out the books but they didn't look like much so I just left it with the cat. In his mind he was thinking that it would be a scary cat. But the mama didn't get this message. We talked about it and he decided that if there was a witch on it the cat would look scarier. So now we have this for my little Halloween lover:

Book Bag

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Hopefully when I show him the witch I added he'll cry with tears of joy this time!

Tonight was also my first time making a school lunch. Even that was emotional to me. I made some granola bars from the cookbook Best New Recipe by Cooks Illustrated. They're a little over done but the boys didn't seem to notice.

Granola Bars

This Friday will be my October Crafternoon. We'll be going out to a ceramics place to paint Halloween decorations! When I was growing up my grandmother used to go to a ceramics place once a week with some girlfriends. She was really quite talented at painting these little figures. Especially the eyes. Last Christmas my mom mailed me a couple of Christmas figures that my grandmother hand painted. The boys love them, and I love having something that my grandmother created!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

September Crafternoon "Bleached Shirts"

The scene was set with watermelon and pink cupcakes ready to go. At around 2:30 there was squealing on the front deck as Daisy (our dog) went to visit some of our youngest crafters.

We were a small group this week of 4 moms and 5 kids. But there was much delight as we shared our stories of summer adventures and the first week of school for some of our kindergartners.

Our craft was an easy and enjoyable one. Bleached stenciled shirts. Here's how it went.

Step 1: Round up some happy women and energetic kids.
Laughing

Step 2: Trace a bold picture onto freezer paper. (Shiny side down.)
Tracing

Step 3: Cut it out.
Cutting

Step 4: Iron the freezer paper onto the shirt with another piece of paper on the inside of the shirt so the shiny sides are together and they adhere to the shirt.
(Sorry I forgot to take a picture.)

Step 5: Pull shirt over a box top and spray with a 50/50 bleach/water solution.
Bleaching

Step 6: Rinse bleach out of shirt. You're done!
T-shirts

It was interesting to see what color the bleach would turn the shirt. The blue shirt in the middle would not take a bleach stain. It got slightly lighter which made a great effect. It was a Cherokee t-shirt if you're looking for a bleach resistant shirt.

Thanks to all my crafters! Next month we're moving out of my house to a plaster paint store!