Willow of the Corn

I love it when kids are old enough to create totally creepy, apocalyptic-style artwork:Here is my completely imaginary interpretation of Will's masterpiece:

"That's Sydney and Damian and me and we're standing in the middle of all the fire in the world. The wings of The Bad Man beckon, and Damian made all the grown-ups fall down, even you, Mommy. You all fell down, because you all have ouchies, and now the ground is sticky."

And Matt's been commenting lately that every evening when he leaves work, there are maybe a thousand crows just sitting in the trees around his building. A THOUSAND crows, friends.

Cooincidence?

You Can't Have Your Banana Bread, Eat It, and Photograph It, Too

Since when I asked my dear Matt to photograph me enjoying the banana-blueberry bread I'd just finished baking he did this----and when I said, "Oh, fine, I'll just take a photo of you eating the bread, then," he did this----I finally just had to take a photo myself-- --of myself. My favorite part of myself, too--the coffee part.

I used this recipe, with a scant 1/4 cup of brown sugar and the fancy-schmancy Bob's Red Mill white wheat flour. It's so delicious that I'm going to have to make another loaf if I want to have another slice with my coffee tomorrow.

P.S. Check out my post about Christmas craftivism in Crafting a Green World today, and there's some new stuff in my etsy shop to replace some other stuff that sold--yay, Christmas!

Family is for Failing with

The mighty Horned Frogs fell----but we still got to spend two hours exhuberantly and fruitlessly rooting them on together (in a stadium filled to the max with fans of the opposing HOME team, even):The marble maze fell, but we had lots of wild and wooly times constructing it all together:Hell, even the gingerbread house fell-- --pitiful redneck shanty, but we had an awesome sugar-high time with a dear friend throwing candy all over it, anyway:
Ah, family...even when you suck, you get to suck together.

Etsy for the Holidays

I'm super-behind on updating my etsy shop for Christmas (grading final papers--what a drag!), but since I made a sale today I figure it can't quite be too late, so I made one very last holiday update tonight:

A set of three Disneyland record bowls

A set of five gift tags featuring freakin' adorable vintage babies
A felted wool ball with a matching ornament
A stripey felted wool stocking
A set of four record bowls from albums of Christmas carols

It seriously is pretty late in the game for a Christmas update, but it was on my to-do list, and now it's checked off.

Yay.

Now if we could finish Will's charity project before the weekend of bloated grading and course grade assignments, I'd be pretty stoked. I came into a small bounty of pencils, so I was thinking about making some blank books for the little children, as well--fun, or perhaps too preachy-educational?

Busy Little Elves

It's been a season of bounty the last couple of days, with everything coming in stacks and piles of multiples.

A stack of papers graded and alphabetized, ready to hand out in my last class tonight:Four dozen chocolate chip cookies, to be awarded to my students in exchange for their final papers:

A long line of tiny little record boxes in the making, to be filled with beads and string for a charity project in Will's preschool classroom:

An orderly arrangement of dinosaur cut-outs, salt dough shapes, and popsicle sticks, drying after an exhuberant acrylic painting session:

Tomorrow will bring more of the same, with stacks of tiny little envelopes to cut out and glue and sheets of homemade temporary tattoos to print and cut out, also for Will's charity project, and a heap of candy to stick with mounds of frosting onto a gingerbread house, while visiting with a good friend.

Tonight, though...tonight, after my final class lets out, we have tickets to the IU basketball game. Who are they playing? Why, my alma mater.

Riff ram!

P.S. Check out my twin tutes--a tutorial for kitschy Christmas record album cover ornaments on Crafting a Green World, and a tutorial for kitschy Christmas record album cover sewing cards on Eco Child's Play.

Dinosaur the Halls with Boughs of Holly

A few months ago Matt dumpster-dived us an AWESOME six-foot artificial tree, but there it stands, barebarebare (aside from a plethora of twinkle lights--in opposition to my Green Crafting Manifesto, I buy these by the crate when they're 75% off after Christmas, and I'm convinced that they're the perfect decorating tool for any room). The girls and I started making some ornaments this morning out of record album covers and scrapbook paper (tutorial forthcoming), but instead of finishing them this afternoon we went hiking:But never fear! I rolled in from class late tonight to find that in the absence of traditional ornaments, the girls had decorated the tree with... Dinosaurs! Hiding in every nook and cranny, perched on every branch and bough, and quite historically correct, since you know that evergreens were a primary food source during the Cretaceous period.

Festive, right?

Well, in our house...yeah, it kinda is.

P.S. There's a new set of Christmas-themed record bowls up in my etsy shop.

Earn Money, Buy Stuff

The Fair and Green Gift Festival was quite the occasion:
Not only did I earn a tidy sum AND get all my papers graded (something I had to do this weekend anyway, so it's like I got double-paid!), but I was just a couple of tables down from a green burial company, so during the slow periods I got to eavesdrop on LOTS of gossip about, well...burial hijinks?

For those of you who were looking for something in particular--I sold out of felted wool dolls and crocheted grocery bag messenger bags, but I'll have two felted wool balls up in my shop tomorrow. I'll also be listing a few sets of Christmas-themed record bowls and two felted wool stockings.

But of course, we can't forget that yesterday was GOODWILL 50%-OFF STOREWIDE SALE DAY!!!

Everybody managed to get something nice and new to them, and the thrifting gods were indeed smiling upon me, because I scored two items that I have been on the lookout for. To help me finally make the soap from the soap-making kit I bought from the Kitchen Girls, I found an immersion blender--something that I was widely warned is rarely found in thrift stores. And, to replace the lousy one that broke TWO YEARS AGO, I found a super-super-nice digital five-compartment electric steamer.

Happy sigh.