Good News, Bad News, and Pumpkins

The good news is that I only have 19 more hero myth papers to grade. Okay, that's actually the bad news, but I'll think about it tomorrow when the usual insanity of attempting to grade papers with the girls sets in.

The real good news is yay, autumn! Here's the fall spread at the local farmer's market this weekend:

The girls each picked out their own baby pumpkin for 50 cents:
We also always let the girls buy a honeystick at 25 cents each from the Hunter's Honey Farm stand:

We didn't buy any of these yet, but we did buy some butternut squash and ugly peppers:

And apples, which I thought I might use for applesauce but which have since been mostly consumed:

I hope somebody saved one for me to have at breakfast, at least.

For the Living Room Wall

Although it's not much fun trying to organize stuff, sorting through trash and finding an actual liveable place for everything and buying ever more of those freaking clear plastic bins, I do have to say that the girls and I are finding a lot of fun in rediscovering the stuff we've had for ages and just forgot about because it was shoved in the closet on top of something else that was behind some other thing. That's not why I got the stuff in the first place, just to forget about it and never use it, and it probably goes a long way to explain why we have such a ridiculous amount of stuff in the first place.

Because as soon as the girls saw the small stack of stretched canvasses that I bought on big sale a few months ago and then put in the closet meaning to give them to the girls to paint someday soon and then forgot about, they were both all, "I want to paint!"

And seeing, now, a segment of stuff that perhaps wouldn't have to go back into the closet after all, as well as an opportunity to collect all the little bottles of acrylic, oil, and tempera paints that happen to be stuffed here and there in the closet, I said, "You betcha!"
We collect our empty egg cartons primarily to keep paint colors separate when we're working, but I thought the girls would like some experience in blending, so this time I gave them a plate. I have to admit that it resulted in some finished works that are a little on the monochromatic side, primarily of the "mud" tone of colors--
--but who cares, it was fun. And priceless to enjoy the look of deep concentration on my little mud-making girls' faces:

I had sort of planned these canvasses to be hung on our own living room wall (and I had sort of planned that Matt and I would paint a couple ourselves, but the girls were on a roll), but the youthful declaration was that they would be Christmas presents. Chasing Cheerios does these cute handprint canvas paintings that I had been contemplating making as presents, but original artwork, signed by the artist, always makes the nicest gift, don't you think?

So there you go--organizing, entertaining, educating, AND we got a couple of Christmas presents done, to boot.

Working and Progressing: Comic Book Bookmarks

My days are still quite occupied with putting things into clear plastic bins here (and teaching my students about racism in King Kong, sorting through the kids' clothes to see what needs winterizing, reading Melissa Gilbert's GREAT memoir, and shuttling the kids to various playgrounds and playgroups all over the world, it seems), and it really has become quite the revelation: SIX plastic bins of Legos? The bin I bought for toy dinosaurs STILL isn't big enough? I am getting sort of fond of watching the nice rows of stacked bins appear on shelves where previously were, you know, some pretty baskets and vintage tins with a huge mound of random stuff piled on top--it's starting to look like the Mythbusters workroom, and you know how much we love the Mythbusters over here.

The study/studio is coming together a little more slowly--I'm thinking of organizing the clear plastic bins into a system something like Montessori, or like the homeschool workbox method, for both me and the kids. Like the blank cardboard puzzles that the kids like to decorate go into one box along with a couple of packages of the markers they use to decorate them, and my solder and flux and copper tape and glass bits all go (sorted) into the same box since I use them together. And then you can take one box out, do your project, and put that box back away again--what a wonder that would make of my life.

Anyway, I did take a brief break yesterday after taking the kids to the local hands-on science museum and school and home again and before heading off to my own class with the DVD of the 1933 edition of King Kong in hand to make something that has been dwelling on my mind since the Strange Folk Festival craft fair:

At one of the handmade books vendors at Strange Folk, they were giving away a free record album cover bookmark with every purchase--a piece of album cover cut into a bookmark shape, punched at the top with a ribbon through it. Super cool, and I immediately wanted to try it out with comic books. Above is my first attempt, out of an old Dungeons and Dragons comic--I like the size and shape of the bookmark, and the sturdiness of the laminate, and the look of the cording at the top, but my partner wants to see a version that's thicker, and I want to try some options that will let me tie a vintage bead or two onto the cording.

Tutorial will appear when I've got it down--stay tuned.

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

I Go Over to the Dark Side

Goodbye, quirky vintage containers and lovely baskets made of natural materials. I wanted to be one of those cool crafters whose entire space is crafty, all personalized and unique and yet organized. Not so much SouleMama's craft room, exactly, because she's way too mellow for me these days, but definitely YummyGoods' craft space.

Only, those vintage containers don't really hold all my stuff, which I then pile on top of other stuff. And I'm really short, so I can't see what's in the containers above my head, which is pretty much three-quarters of the space in my house. And those lovely baskets of natural materials get dragged around by the girls, which is fine, but then also spilled and toppled and tumbled, and, you know, just all messed up.

So I've given it a good long haul, and I'm still going to utilize the awesome quirky vintage mason jars and chipped Fiesta ware and all the other random stuff that I've been trying to put stuff in, but 90% of the girls' toys and our craft supplies?
Clear plastic storage bins, baby. I've gone over to the dark side, and it's made of non-degradable petroleum by-products.

But you can stack these petroleum by-products. And see what's in them. And because you have to buy them new, you can buy them to fit whatever you want to put in them (this alone is novel and good). And they have lids. Sturdy, snapped-closed lids, enabling a three-year-old to carry, not a handful of crayons that are going to be left both here and there and everywhere even after officially designated "clean-up time," but the entire stash of crayons, upside-down if need be:

And they look like candy in there, which more appropriately models the role that crayons play for us here in this house.

Stay tuned for more clear plastic storage bin godawfulness as it occurs.

Our Second Year at Strange Folk

Oh, how I heart St. Louis! It's so funny, because when I was a kid I HATED St. Louis. It was the place we'd get up before dawn to drive six hours to every now and then, straight to an old lady apartment (belonging to my Great-aunt Della), sit there for a reeeeeeaaaalllllllllyyyyyy long time (if I was lucky, she'd bring out her Norman Rockweller coffee table book for me to look at--barf), and then drive six hours back home again. That SAME day.

I couldn't believe it when I grew up and realized that there's stuff TO DO in St. Louis. Awesome stuff. Stuff like sliding down the free-fall slide at the City Museum:
And witnessing there the extent to which a little sister will go to not be bested by a big sister:
Stuff like discovering what my husband thinks is the very best way to deal with the fact that the eggs he's attempting to cook in the hotel kitchenette have just set off our room's smoke alarm: That's a PILLOW he's waving, friends. Not a blanket or a towel, but a pillow. Note that he has not even called down to the front desk yet to say, "Hey, I know the smoke alarm is blaring and maybe people are evacuating, but it's just me, I'm just cooking some eggs." And notice how, even though the smoke alarm is screaming in their faces, the girls are so focused on this thing they've just discovered called the Disney Channel that it doesn't even faze them.

Oh, right, and stuff like the Strange Folk Festival. Which, thank you for asking, was AWESOME! Last year at Strange Folk was good, but this year was awesome. The record bowls are nearly gone, the pinbacks I had to keep replenishing as fast as I could make them-- --and the bathroom breaks were as few and far between as I could make them, and accomplished at a dead run. It was THAT kind of craft fair. The good kind.

I also think that Strange Folk has the best atmosphere of any craft fair I've been to, big or small, conventional or indie. It's in a huge park, with plenty of green, empty space for children to play in, a huge playground, and some activities (sandbox, handmade hula hoops, milk jug igloo) imported in by Strange Folk just for the kids. That makes it a much more restful place for someone with kids to shop or sell--Will and Sydney played in the grass and under the trees, and walked together to the sandbox, and befriended random kids like they wouldn't be able to do at a fair on a city street or in a convention center.

And the music is good, and the trees are shady, and the people are just plain nice. One customer gave me the last two cookies that he'd bought from the gourmet cookie vendor across the way. Another customer said, "Your stuff rocks!" and then high-fived me! And you know how I feel about high-fives.

Willow made her entrepreneurial debut at Strange Folk. She wrapped hunks of grass in duct tape and sold them for 25 cents each (she actually sold four), and my shy girl was officially in charge of giving each customer, after the transaction, a business card, saying "Here's a business card for you." It was terrific for honing her awareness of social cues, because she had to figure out just the right time to hand over the card so as not to interrupt the sale but not to let the customer walk away, either, and she had to interact with each person, and she got tons of positive reinforcement, because you know that all adults do really like to be addressed nicely by a little child. Take that, socialization!

But for the customers with children, Willow prepared a special treat. She made Artist Trading Cards, wrote her name on the back, and let me write my web info, as well, and then gave one to each customer's child:
Animals was the theme, can't you tell?

Whew! Three days in St. Louis makes for three long days, but if it takes some long, long days of hard work and play to make sisters be this nice to each other on purpose--

Count me in.

Busy/Exhausted/Sore/Damp/HAPPY!!!

Too tired to type. Just know, Strange Folk Festival RULEZ!!!

Willow Blogs: Wild Cats

I love kittens because they are playful and they play and they fight all around the house. We got them at the Humane Society because we love them. We're keeping them until they're old enough to go back and get a new family.

This is Gracie. She is my favorite kitten because she's nice and grey and she's playful with her little ears.
Gracie is the oldest kitten because I think she ate a lot more canned cat food and we are going to make treats for our kittens.

This one is Jesse. She is black and white. She is a very runsie kitty because every time she runs away when I go toward her, even if I'm not going to get her.

This is Hillary. She is also a very runsie kitty and she is very nice and scratchy. She is very squirmy.

This is Whitsie because she has lots of whites on her even though she's black. Her skin is white; I don't know why.

This one's Blacksie. She's a nice kitty and she's very black. She likes to play all the time. She is a very nice kitty and always very mischievous, but all the kitties are mischievous. They climb on the table.

This is the day that they finally get to find a new family. They'll be good kitties for their new families and these are their names: Gracie, Blacksie, Whitsie, Jesse, and Hillary.

I love them.