Remembering

One-Two-Three-Star!

Sydney gets very, VERY frustrated when she wants to draw or write something particular and can't quite manage it. Watching her throw a tantrum each time she tried to draw a star, for instance, would have been hilarious if it wasn't so pitiful. So I made her a dot-to-dot--

--and now she can draw a star.

More Wallpaper on the Wall

Buntings are on my mind for some reason. Here's my newest vintage wallpaper bunting in my pumpkinbear etsy shop, made with my much-treasured vintage wallpaper and my much-, much-treasured vintage beads:

While I'm on the subject, I also have in mind buntings made from comic books, buntings made from dictionary pages, buntings made from Shakespeare, and child-decorated buntings.

I like where this is going.

Gumdrops. On a Stick!

There's always room for another building toy, especially if that toy is sharp and/or full of high fructose corn syrup.

So you take some gumdrops, and you take some bamboo skewers, and you stick the bamboo skewers in the gumdrops--

--and you make stuff!

The gumdrops are sticky on the inside, so they hold the skewers really well, but they're also gummy, so they're very forgiving if you want to change the angle of a certain skewer or fit it somewhere just a little different from where you'd originally intended.

We all had a lot of fun with this, and several massive creations resulted:

Another interesting point is that these structures sort of tell you how to build them as you go. For instance, Will made a vertical triangle, then stuck a skewer straight across from the top of the triangle, but it wouldn't stay. So she tried sticking a skewer straight down from the end of that triangle, but it was too long. So she build another vertical triangle to hold that opposite end of the skewer, which held it up, but the whole structure kept tilting, so she connected the two vertical triangles with skewers at both ends of their bases--

...and so on and so on, the engineering skills building apace.

As for Syd's obsession, have any of you ever read the Tripod trilogy of young adult novels?

Shudder.

Tough Choices

Would you rather paint?

Or snuggle the foster kittens?

You're free to do both, of course:

In other news, we're having an excellent weekend.

Prima Ballerina

Someone likes her brand-new ballet class uniform:

We had to purchase the uniform (and holy cow, that stuff is expensive!), but the "sparkly big pink tutu" that Sydney has requested? I can make that baby myself.

And maybe a matching one for me?

Pumpkin+Bear Paper+Dolls

Fortunately today was bright and sunny and happy and pleasant, so after a looong morning running errands--Learning Treasures for blank slides, slide covers, elastic cording, and the tiny plastic animals that the girls generally spend their allowance on; Hobby Lobby for adhesive cardstock and science magnets; Kroger for a passel of groceries, including nutritional yeast, soy creamer, and celery with the leaves on (another experiment in the making); and Costume Delights for one x-small youth ballet outfit--Willow found herself crashed out on the couch, reading a Black Stallion book and listening to the Oklahoma! soundrack, and Sydney and I found ourselves out in the front yard, conducting a photo shoot for the felt paper doll set in my pumpkinbear etsy shop:

I'm not in love with the white felt background, but...eh. You do your best and you call it good.

I've got some pretty cool vintage wallpaper buntings to also list this weekend, and possibly more cut-out pinbacks, but I've also got tomatoes to buy and then can, and pesto and cookies to make, and a celery experiment to conduct, and some jingle bells to string on elastic cording, and some more antibiotics to beg out of the Humane Society for the foster kittens, so we'll see what I get done.

Whatever it is, though, I'll call it good.