Trashion/Refashion Show 2022: Mothic

One of my favorite Syd retrospectives is her path through creating, constructing, and modeling her original designs in our town's Trashion/Refashion Show. She's gone from a four-year-old who used up most of a pink marker to draw what she wanted me to make her--

2011: Fairy Princess

2012: Rainbow Fairy

2013: Rose Dress

2014: Upside-Down Orange

2015: The Awesomes

--to a nine-year-old who took over some of the work of construction and embellishment--

2016: The Phoenix

2017: Supergirl of the Night

--to an eleven-year-old capable enough to be the sole artist at work, responsible for all the design, sewing, and styling of her garments:

2018: Medieval Maiden

2019: Gibbon Girl

2020 would have been the debut of her first work designing a garment for someone else, with three of her designs accepted into the show, and two friends excited to model with her.

Happily, the Trashion/Refashion Show came back in 2021, though in a new location and diminished capacity:

2021: That Girl from The Ring

So 2022 was when we got to enjoy our Trashion/Refashion Show back at capacity and back where it belonged in our town's 100-year-old theater. In 1922, people packed the seats to watch silent movies, but a few days ago, they were there to watch the designer of Mothic model her original creation on the runway.

Her garment originally started out quite different. Here are some of her application photos:

Syd later decided to change the undershirt to black, as well, but the bodice and skirt set stayed the same in the final garment. The biggest change, though, was the wings. Here are her original wings:

She could not figure out how to construct the look she was going for, so settled on highly embellishing wings that would remain closed and function like a cape:

Syd finally solved the construction issue by moving to the lightest fabric we could find--old cotton bedsheets--painting them with a combination of fabric dye and artist's acrylics, and creating a light structure from corrugated cardboard to give them the extension she wanted.

I think she achieved the look she was going for:

And here she is in motion:

It was a special day and a beautiful night, and I'm glad that we got to have it again.

Syd is still interested in extendable wing forms, particularly articulated ones that can be controlled by the wearer, so it looks like we've got our summer engineering project all figured out!

DIY: Super Easy Travel Journals

I strongly believe that journaling is one of the best things that you can do while traveling. Life happens especially quickly when you're on a trip, and you're likely to forget what you don't write down. And if it's a special trip--like once-in-a-lifetime special--there are details that you'll want to remember for the rest of your life. 

The frustrating thing about store-bought blank books for this type of purpose is that they're just too large. You likely don't want unnecessary bulk when you travel, and anyway, I think it's nicer to have a journal just the right size to record one single journey.

This DIY travel journal that I used to make with my kiddos when they were little, and which I most recently made with my Girl Scout troop before our Caribbean cruise, is just the right size for a 1-2-week trip. It's light as air, has some wiggle room as to number of pages it contains, supports a variety of paper types for whatever media you prefer, and can be modified to include all kinds of other fun and creative journal elements.

And it's easy as pie to make!

Here are the supplies you'll need:

• 6-8 8.5"x11" pages. Regular printer paper is perfect, but you can include tracing paper, watercolor paper (although that's thick enough that you might have to put in fewer pages), kraft paper (for bonus points, cut this out from brown paper bags!), cardstock, etc. 
• 2 pieces of cardboard or similar, at least 5.5"x8.5". The ideal size for this would be about 6"x9". My Girl Scout troop used some of my stash mat board, sized 7.5"x9.5", and it was maybe a little big but worked fine. You could also use cardboard cut from shipping boxes or food packaging, or even rip the covers off of those old books that hang around in your crafting stash.
• duct tape, at least 17" long. I used more stash duct tape for this, basically everything still left after Syd's duct tape dress form, and the kids had fun choosing their colors.
• stapler.
• large eraser.
• metal ruler.

1. Tape the cover. Set a piece of duct tape at least 9" long sticky side up on your work surface. With pretty sides down, put your two pieces of cardboard on the tape, leaving a gap of a scant 1/4" between the two. Fold the extra tape at the top and bottom over, then overlap with another strip of duct tape:

Use a fingernail or bone folder to press the tape into the gap and smooth it against itself and the cardboard covers:

2. Staple the pages to the covers. Stack 6-8 pages together, then fold them in half and crease them. Center the fold on the gap you created between the two book covers:

Hold everything carefully and flip it upside down, so that the pages are facing down and the duct tape spine and covers are facing up. 

Put the eraser directly underneath the first spot you'll staple.

Staple straight through the duct tape spine, center fold of the pages, and into the eraser.

Turn the book over and pull the eraser off the prongs of the staple. Use the edge of a metal ruler to bend the prongs down:

Repeat 2-3 more times down the spine of your travel journal:

Your travel journal is ready to go!

Here are some creative components that you can easily add to this type of travel journal:

• fill-in-the-blanks template. This makes a good prompt for littler kids--to reduce bulk, you can hand-draw a template directly onto the pages of a travel journal rather than printing and pasting one. Older writers might still find a list of prompts helpful.
• embroidery. You can use this for pure embellishment, or to add travel routes to a hand-drawn map. 
• paperclip bookmark. This is an easy way to hold your page between entries. 
• envelopes. You could literally just tape an envelope to the inside cover of your travel journal, but I really like these stitched covers made from book pages. I often score old travel guides from my local public library's used book sale, and envelopes made from these are extra awesome for travel journals.
• travel journal holder. I made these out of felt for every kid in my Girl Scout troop, and they came in super handy! The kids could put their travel journals in them, but also their favorite pens/pencils, stickers, ephemera, etc. 

And here are some sneaky fun things that you can buy to bribe teenagers to fill out their nice travel journals!

• gel pens
• stickers
• photo printer
• travel watercolors

I am under no delusion that I'm not the only person who completely filled out their travel journal, dutifully recording every single day spent with my girls and my Girl Scouts. But I hope the memory of this practice, how easy and fun it was, how important I tried to make it feel, the room for creativity and personality I tried to leave, will inspire the kids to give it a try again on a future trip. 

Everything in our House is Broken, Except for the Things We Recently Fixed

You. Guys. Is this the year that our house is simply just going to fall apart around us? The other day, I walked through my bedroom and was all, "Huh... that's strange. I feel like that window wasn't always LITERALLY BROKEN!!!"

Like, did a bird fly into it? Did the machinery used to remodel the bathroom vibrate it too hard? Did the constant 40-degree temperature daily temperature changes of our bonkers spring weather break it? Dunno, but we threw fistfuls of money at some window people to fix it for us.

Then, THEN! I called 811 to mark our underground pipes because Matt and I are dumb as stumps and really think we can put in a front yard fence for Luna all by ourselves, and the guy marking the water lines knocked on our door and was all, "Hey, y'all's water meter is running pretty fast." Come to think of it, last month's water bill had been unusually high, so we shut off the main line and omg the meter keeps running. So the water company sent out another guy who said that the leak is definitely on our side, because of COURSE it is, so we paid two more guys to come out.

They dug a huge trench in the yard then came and told us that 1) they couldn't figure it out so we'd have to call ANOTHER guy who owns a bore and pay him to look at it (when hiring these guys, they somehow glossed over the fact that they did not own every single water leak-diagnosing tool, ahem), and 2) we nevertheless owed these guys for digging a trench in our yard and then filling it back in. They'd take $500 if we paid by check, and $400 if we paid cash.

It is only by absolute random circumstance that Matt and I had even half that amount of cash in the house, and so that's how we found ourselves literally passing the hat amongst our children to pay the water bill.

Anyway, don't bother trying to break into our house and rob us, because now NOBODY in here has any cash.

Also, apparently diagnosing and repairing a water line leak is something else that nobody in the world actually does, as Matt has called every single person recommended in our town's subreddit and listed in Dr. Google, and has found exactly one human who will consent to come out sometime next week. He flat-out told us that his minimum charge is $345, which, sigh, and then described a process that sounded something like he'd inject a bubble of air into our water line and listen via sonogram for... something?

I don't know, you guys. I'm pretty sure we're getting screwed, but I literally have no way to figure that out or fix it. If only I'd majored in something practical in college!

But Boy, knowing a ton about Medieval religious practices sure makes one a hit at parties!

In other news, our big bathroom is glorious.

I mean, for a very specific definition of "glorious." The floor is finished, including a sub-floor heating system that is EVERYTHING to me. It's got its own little thermostat so we can program it to turn on only during the times when it would be comfiest to have it, and we can turn it off altogether in the summer.

Ignore, for now, the lack of wall paint and towel bars. Syd has agreed to paint a triptych mural for me in that nook where the toilet lives--we'd been considering an Alice in Wonderland scene, but our Greek mythology study has gotten us amped up about the life of Theseus, and now we're thinking of the journey from Troezen to Athens on the left, the labyrinth in the center, and the journey home on the right.

Stay tuned!

The shower, at least, is completely finished, and is glorious in all definitions of the word:

My favorite part is the overhead light/fan that also includes a Bluetooth speaker! I never could get used to keeping my little waterproof Bluetooth speaker charged, so Matt surprised me with this. Now even during showers I'm safe from having to have an independent thought in my head!

Syd was completely right about the family room. I LOVE the burgundy wall:

You'll be interested to know, I'm sure, that I took advantage of having to temporarily rehome all my books by changing my non-fiction cataloging from Dewey Decimal to Library of Congress. We have a lot of history books and craft books, and LOC catalogs them better than Dewey Decimal. No more "women's work" in a separate section!

Since we were already throwing absolute fistfuls of money in all directions, Matt and I decided that we might as well replace our 20+ year-old college dorm couch, and we're now the delighted owners of the world's largest--and SUPER comfy--sectional. But now I can't reach the outlet behind the couch, and the couch is WAY too heavy to just shove it out of the way to reach the outlet, so this DIY console table is on my to-do list:

Also on my to-do list are curtains for behind the couch to replace the much-loathed vertical blinds and some macrame plant hangers, because Matt also made me a ledge over the window to hold a bunch more of my crap and he put a curtain rod under it so I can hang lots of plants that get in his way.

Oh, and I have some more art and family photos and fossils to hang back up, ideally not crooked this time.

And then we can start thinking about the kids' broke-ass bathroom floor and broke-ass sink and million-year-old toilet that keeps acting like it's about a second from joining the broke-ass revolution, and the ripped-up carpet in their bedroom and playroom, and and and...

AP Studio Art: Taking Reference Photos in the Cemetery

Syd needs several hundred reference photos to use in her AP studio art classes, so we've been taking lots of little field trips out and about lately, in search of interesting places with lots of interesting things to photograph there. 

While Syd roamed around a local cemetery the other day, taking photos of things she might want to reference in her art someday, I roamed around, too, stayed out of her way, and took my own photos:

One of my Girl Scouts told me recently about the multi-faceted artistic tool that is "portrait mode" on one's cell phone camera, so that's what I'm experimenting with. I think she's quite correct!

Found a Freemason:

Found a fellow photographer!

Limestone used to be a major local industry, so the older cemeteries have lots of examples of masterful and detailed carving:

Once upon a time, a sapling was planted in between the graves of two departed lovers...

I would rather my corpse be tossed into a ditch than interred in a cemetery, but I wouldn't say no to a limestone memorial to my love of reading!

Our town thinks it has an urban deer problem, so much so that every now and then the city council will pay some of our hard-earned tax money to hire either hunters to shoot them down or other hunters to shoot them with birth control. I think it's absurd, but to be fair, it was a little disconcerting to see a couple of deer wandering around the cemetery in broad daylight, as brazen as squirrels:

It's too bad that the camera on Syd's ipod touch isn't great, because I can see that a cell phone camera is obviously the ideal tool for taking reference photos. It's probably better for her overall artistic growth, though, to increase her familiarity with my DSLR.

I'll be very curious to see if Syd finds these reference photos useful during her AP studio art work. She doesn't think she will, but collecting them is a strong recommendation for the courses, so that's what she's doing. I guess we'll both just be happily surprised if they happen to come in handy!

My Girl Scout Troop Went on a Caribbean Cruise... and on the Last Day, We Made ALL the Memories!!!

 We woke up to another perfect day in paradise!

Today was the day for making sure we finished up all the things on the kids' (and my!) must-do list. For instance, our first at-sea day had been super windy and a little rainy, and the next two days we'd been busy with our port adventures, but on this day the Gulf was smooth and the sun was shining--it was perfect weather for the ship's water park!

A couple of other people had the same idea...

One of the things I had been worried about, before the cruise, was finding space for everyone to meet up on the ship. My Girl Scouts like projects, and they'd decided in their planning meetings that they wanted time on sea days to hang out altogether.

Fortunately, finding meet-up spots wasn't a problem. In fact, during our designated meet-up time to work on our travel journals in the Lido Buffet, there happened to be a Chocolate Buffet!

The kids *may* have done more eating chocolate than travel journaling, but hey, they were happily hanging out altogether as they'd wanted, and everyone ended up more or less putting marks on paper.

A break for more swim and sun, a visit back to my stateroom--

Thank you, Dika!

--to pick up something special, then up a billion decks and across the ship to a brand-new meet-up spot. In one of our trip planning meetings, I'd brought several different copies of our ship's Fun Times, the on-board activity schedule, so the kids could peruse it to see what kinds of things there were to do on the ship. A couple of the kids had immediately zoned in on the BINGO offerings, alerted the others, and then the whole troop was beside themselves with excitement about playing BINGO! On a cruise ship!

It was with a heavy heart that I had to inform them that 1) BINGO costs money and 2) it's for 18+ only.

Was it pure coincidence, then, or was it fate that just a week later I found a NIB BINGO game at Goodwill for only five bucks?

I don't even care which it was. We enjoyed the snot out of our BINGO set!

We played BINGO right up until most of the kids had an appointment for an all-ship digital scavenger hunt, then Syd helped me pack up and we went to the Lido Buffet so she could get ice cream and I could get lemonade.

As we were walking away from the buffet, Syd with her absolutely massive ice cream cone, a group of four fully-grown adults ran up to us. One guy thrust his cell phone in Syd's face and said, "Take a bite of your ice cream!"

We both froze, and I, at least, just blinked a few times at them, not a coherent thought in my head.

The guy insisted, his phone still in Syd's face, "Take a bite of your ice cream, please!"

I blinked a couple more blinks.

Someone from the crowd of onlookers behind the guy piped up helpfully, "It's for a photo scavenger hunt!"

I hissed, "Just do it!" to Syd, she took a bite of her ice cream, the guy snapped her photo, and the mob moved on.

As we started to walk away, Syd said, as if apropos of nothing, "The weird thing is that's the second time that's happened to me today."

Later, some of the other Girl Scouts confirmed that a picture of someone taking a bite of an ice cream cone was, indeed, on the digital scavenger hunt list. But they'd gotten their OWN ice cream for their picture, because honestly, who would pass up getting themselves an ice cream cone?

Syd took herself and her ice cream back to her stateroom, while I got my last 4:00 hamburger:

For the past few days, I'd been keeping an eye out for great photo spots on the ship, so I was all ready when, a little later, I met my entire Girl Scout troop outside their staterooms, each dressed in their Girl Scout uniform. I believe in managing expectations, so the kids already knew that I'd insist on walking them all over the ship for an hour, taking their photos in every single picturesque spot on the ship. The kids were all excellent sports, and now we've got photographic evidence of the magical memories that we made on our troop trip!

I knew Matt would probably insist on driving the 10.5 hours home tomorrow all by himself (I don't break the speed limit as shamefully as he'd prefer...), so I volunteered to be the late-night chaperone. 

This kid kept me company for a while:

I noticed, while we were sitting here, that we were sitting at one of the tables Matt and I had walked past on our first night on the ship, when I'd been so overstimulated and overwhelmed by the cacophony and pretty sure I'd made a HUGE mistake, sensory-wise.

But on this evening, Will and I were sitting at a table for two, happily engrossed in our novels. Behind me and to each side were other people laughing and talking at their own tables. In front of me was the casino, blaringly noisy and blinking with lights, and every now and then I'd call Will's attention to someone's pursuit of prizes at the claw machine. From somewhere to my right was a bar with a live performance going on, and down the hall to my left was another concert space with another live performance, and I could hear both of them simultaneously. I caught a video when the band on the left started playing "Sweet Caroline," so I could memorialize everyone at the tables and in the casino coming together to sing the chorus. In the video, Will doesn't even look up from her book during the all-ship sing-along. 

All that chaos didn't seem overstimulating anymore, so I guess that's a new thing.

And I can snorkel!

After midnight, I swear there was nobody left awake on the ship except for roving groups of frolicking teenagers... and me, the Girl Scout chaperone. I had a few kids who didn't want to say goodbye to all their new friends yet, so they gamely hauled me around like luggage from place to place, from the teen room to the Lido Buffet to the karaoke bar to mini golf to the pool deck and back to the buffet. A kid would call out "Ms. Julie!" and I'd look up from my book, follow them at a discrete distance to the next location, plop down by the door, and dive back into my book until they called for me again. I pretended that I was a Secret Service agent guarding over the president's children while ensuring that they had as normal of a social life as possible.

Still--YAWN!!!

But no harm in enjoying one last night of balmy sea air and moon just past full. By this time on the next day, we'd all be back home where it was 40 degrees, and there were groceries to buy and our own meals to prepare and our own beds to make up and nobody making us towel animals and nobody batting nary an eye no matter how many different desserts we wanted...

I miss you, melting chocolate cake!

Here's our complete trip:

1. To Montgomery
2. Out to Sea!
3. Sailing across the Gulf
4. Progreso
5. Cozumel
6. And Today, our Last Day at Sea