Tornados Caused Snowball At My Place

You know how when you do one teeny, tiny, little thing and it leads to having to do another thing and then it snowballs beyond all epic proportions?  Yeah, it happened to me in my pantry this week.

If you haven't been hiding under a rock the past week, you'll know that the South has been getting hammered by huge, nasty storms.  Well, we have no basement in this house and there were tornadoes all around us and headed our way.  The two sheltered places that we do have are in our hall coat closet and in our pantry.

So, the first snowball happened in the coat closet.  Besides coats, we have stored blankets and kid vhs tapes in there.  If there was anyway that I and the Youngest were going to shelter in there, it had to be emptied out.  I put all the tapes in two boxes and started a small snowball rolling there.  We had to rearrange a ton of stuff on shelves to make room for them.  Then all the blankets were moved to the laundry room for spring cleaning.  I'm still dealing with those today.  Finally, I found the bottom of the coat closet.

Next I headed for the pantry.  This is a small pantry.  It looks like an okay size in the pics, but it's not.  You have to turn sideways to walk into it and then hunch over because it was shoved up under the stairs and the ceiling is slanted and low.

Now, remember that there were tornadoes heading our way and we were panicking at this point.  I drug everything out from the floor of the pantry and slung it along the wall in my kitchen here:

Then, I started worrying.  The top shelf was filled with jars and cans.  What if a tornado came and started dropping those on top of the husband and The Eldest's heads while they were in there?  I mentioned it aloud and the husband went into the garage and came back with bike helmets, a crow bar, flash lights and a portable camping fan.  "We'll be fine", he said.  Uh huh.  I put some pillows and blankets in there anyway figuring they could put it over their heads.

I started thinking about getting trapped in that tiny coat closet with the Youngest.  He's hypoglycemic and gets evil when he doesn't have food.  I grabbed a huge box of raisins, bottled water and some rice crispy treats.  If you really want to know, I wasn't going to share the rice crispy treats with him.  :)  I considered putting some booze in there for Mommy medicinal purposes, but changed my mind at the last minute. 

This gets even funnier when you consider the devastation that these storms left in their wake.  Like our puny efforts would have done any good.  Have you seen the mere splinters that are left of some of those houses?

Anyway, all of this was done in about 10 minutes flat.  We were scrambling and not thinking very clearly, obviously.   Oh, and did I tell you that the power went out in the middle of all this? 

Luckily, the tornadoes went around us on both sides and left us safe.  But the mess I had to deal with the next day?  Not so much fun.

I hate to show you these pics, they're painful, but here goes.  This is what the pantry looked like sans camping gear the next day:

Now, notice the wire racks.  I hate these wire racks with an ever-loving passion.  Jars and cans won't sit straight on them and I've hated it for the past 8 years.  Since I already had stuff halfway out of the pantry anyway, I decided to do something about it.

Remember the Snowball that I mentioned?  This lead me to empty the shelves and it looked like my pantry had exploded everywhere:

Why so much stuff?  Obviously, I like a well stocked pantry.

Once this was done, I took off to Home Depot in search of plexi glass to cover the wire racks with.  I got a huge sticker shock though.  It was going to cost me upwards of 80 bucks to do this! For 3.25 freaking shelves.   No way, nuh-uh.  Quick change of plans and I purchased a 8 foot sheet of Eucalyptus Hardboard for $7.96 and had them cut to fit.  Got some contact paper and 3 rolling bins from Target and I was good to go.

This is what the finished product looks like.  Before the storm, there was no space to walk in.  Everything kept getting thrown on the floor and we just stepped over it.  I put all that crap into the three rolling bins and slid them up under the racks. So much better.  I wish I had a true before pic for you, but I was kinda in a hurry when I was cleaning it out.

The added benefit of the storm causing all this chaos?  I found stuff that I had forgotten we had!  And did I tell ya about the cans that had a 2007 expiration on them?  scary.

Justin Bieber April Fools

I usually avoid April Fools' pranks.  In my mind, they're usually mean spirited and not much fun.  But this year, I just had to do it.

When the Eldest got off the bus this afternoon, I had the video camera ready and all the doors locked.  He got to the front door and was told to say "I love Justin Bieber" in order to be allowed in the house.  As expected, he refused and ran to the garage door.  It was locked as well.  So he ran to the back  of the house.  Locked.  He then had the brilliant idea to try and pick the lock with the handle of a lollipop. Um.  Yeah.  Didn't work.  :)

He finally caved and said it.  :)  I have it all recorded now for blackmail. 

Have a great weekend!  I'll be spending mine knitting.

Kefir?

A month ago, I had no idea what Kefir was.  I have just recently started researching and making my own kefir and thought I would share with you what I've been doing.  There are tons and tons of sites that talk about kefir and it's health benefits.  You can see one here and a really good one here.  Google has many more fantastic sites that can give you in-depth information on kefir.

Basically, kefir is a probiotic and a complete food.  Where most of the yogurt that you purchase in the store has 4 of the "good" bacteria, kefir (home made) has around 30.   Kefir is not a new "flash in the pan" product, it's been around for thousands of years.  It's a fermented milk product that in my opinion, is far superior to yogurt and is way easier to make at home.  It's reported healing properties are nothing short of miraculous as well.  It's especially good for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other stomach ailments, but beyond that it can help with allergies, skin and hair problems and has even been shown to help with problems related to cancer.  It can also help avoid the major stomach ailments that travelers get when they go to foreign countries.  Oh, and don't forget the weight loss!  It speeds up your metabolism and you can use it as a meal replacement since it's a complete food.  Don't take my word about all this, read up on it and you'll see.

So, since my little family deals with IBS on a daily basis, I thought (in true diy fashion) that I would try making my own.  As I said, this is so much easier to make than yogurt and so much better for you.

To start off you need to get some kefir grains.  You can get starter cultures from health food stores, but these won't last.  You'll just have to replace them over time.  I purchased my kefir grains from www.culturesforhealth.com.  I am not affiliated with this company, it's just where I decided to make my purchase.  You can find many more places online that sell the grains.  This is a one time purchase as kefir can last forever.  Literally.  As you use the grains to make kefir, over time they will grow larger and produce more. 

Kefir grains do not, in fact, look like grains at all.  They more closely resemble cauliflower.    Here's an example:

 

Looks gross doesn't it?  

Here's how simple it is to make.  Take a clean glass jar and put your kefir grains into it.  

At this point you must ignore the fact that it looks like baby spit-up and bravely forge on.  :)

Next add your milk.  You can use any type of milk, even soy milk products to make your kefir.  I have used both skim and 2% and  this summer plan on using heavy cream and using it to make ice cream with.  When I add my milk, I don't measure, I just fill up the whole jar.  I also add about 1 tsp of sugar to it, but it's probably not needed.  Then cover it with a coffee filter or a towel and let it sit overnight.

 

After the 24 hours (or less in my case) is up, your milk will have thickened considerably.  The picture below shows it in it's finished state, but the pic doesn't really capture the thickness.

 

 Once the milk has "kefir-ed" you need to strain out the grains and separate them from the kefir product.  Most people say not to use a metal strainer, but since that's all I have, that's what I use.  You know what?  It hasn't affected the grains or the final product one little bit.  So use what you have folks. 

Now the next big question is what the heck do you do with it once it's made?

In it's plain state, it looks like a cross between yogurt and buttermilk and tastes like it too.  BThe longer it sits on the counter, the more strong the sour taste.  Mine is a little sweeter because of the 1 tsp of sugar that I add at the beginning of the fermentation process.  It really tastes pretty good and can be consumed as is.  I prefer to turn it into smoothies myself though. 

You can use it in place of buttermilk or yogurt in recipes.  Smoothies, pancakes, ice cream, cheese, the possibilities are endless.  Heat will kill off the good bacteria that you need, so be aware of that. 

So is it working?  So far so good.  It's only been about two weeks and I think it will take more time to get into our systems to truly see a difference.  I'll have to let you know.  I figure that any step that I can take to make my family more healthy will be absolutely worth it!

Thrift Store Fun

I went thrift shopping this weekend and was a woman on a mission.  See I have this seating problem at my place.  If I'm not in the living room and want a chair to relax in, the only options up til now have been a kitchen chair or my office chair.  Now, I love my office chair.  It's super comfy and I spend most of my day there.  However, sometimes a gal needs a chair of her own and I wanted mine in the bedroom.

I did have a rocking chair in there.  An old wooden one that was great for rocking babies, but it was not so kind on the rear end.   It mostly held clothing that the husband just threw on it.  Most people use a treadmill for draping clothes, he used the rocking chair.  I have no clue what we're going to do with the chair now.  We don't have room for it and it won't fit in the attic. 

Anyway, we (my Mom and I) went shopping.  The first place we hit (Goodwill), we struck gold.  I found a small chair that had great high quality upholstery fabric and was super comfy.   Best of all, it was only $25 bucks.  Can't beat that with a stick, can ya?  It needs cleaning and a little bit of tlc, but other than that, it's perfect.

Welcome to my bedroom (I just realized that I've never shown you it before):

 

The color is perfect too.  There's gold in my comforter (you can see a piece of it in the bottom right of the pic) and the brown dots on the chair are the same color as my drapes and the same brown is in my comforter also.  It's parked next to my grandmother's chifferobe.  What you can't see in the pic is a book shelf off to the right.  One shelf is just the perfect height for holding a cup of tea while relaxing in the chair.

The tlc needed is at the bottom of the chair.  The little flaps that cover the legs look like they're going to take flight.  I'm planning on steam cleaning the upholstery and then sewing the flaps down properly so that the chair doesn't try and fly away.

Mama's happy now.  One comfy chair in the bedroom that didn't break the bank.  Very cool.

Paint Weekend

I spent my weekend painting doors and cabinets.   I was feeling good enough to tackle a paint brush, so I got to painting.   It was nice to finally get the doors to my kitchen completely finished (and with new hardware even.)

I know how exciting it is looking at a door, so I won't show you the other, it would be just too much excitement for this blog.  So how about a primered cabinet?

Oh yeah.  Now that's excitement.  I'm going to paint this cabinet the color of the walls in my laundry room instead of the contrasting color so that they blend in rather than stick out.  I don't want these cabinets as noticeable.  I will get some fun knobs for them though. :)

 All this painting was just too much for these guys:

 

How many animals can you fit under your desk?  Would someone please tell me why these animals congregate where my feet are supposed to go?  And while your at it, would someone please go under there and pick up the speaker that fell off the back of my desk this morning?  Thanks.

Where did my life go?

I feel like I'm floating in someone else's life lately.  Is there crafting being done?  not really.  Knitting?  a bit  DIY? not really.  Where did my life go?

I'm still not well and have been spending much of my days resting which totally sucks since that's not what I want to be doing.  I went from being the Energizer Bunny to being a Couch Potato.  It has been good for having time to spend at online gaming though, but how does that make my house look beautiful?  It doesn't and my hips are starting to show the effects too. 

You know how when you're sick and lose your appetite and you lose all that awesome weight?  (I'm talking the 5 - 10 lb kind of weight, not serious unhealthy weight)  Well, my appetite showed back up and I gained it all back and that's just depressing.  During the holidays, that weight loss was my only rainbow coming out of the black cloud following me.  Oh well.  I'm doing really well at gaming though.  :)

So if things have been sparse and sporadic with the blog, please bear with me.  I'm trying to get the docs to work with me and listen to what is actually going on and it's not happening so far and that's totally taking up all of my time that's not being spent on my family.  I keep thinking up all these neat projects that I want to do and share and just don't have the time and energy to spare for them yet. 

They'll be coming soon though.  There's a Batman/Joker party in the works and Mama's got to come up with some good stuff for it pronto!

Who's Coming to Town?

You know Christmas still has a pull on a kid when you hear from another room:

"You watch out; You better not cry
 Better not pout; I'm telling you why

Spiderman is coming to town..."

Snow!

We got hit with another snow storm last night and got between 5" and 6" of snow.  Way more than we are used to here in these parts.  The kids are loving it!

This was the first thing they did this morning:

 

Just look at the expression on this kids' face:

You don't get much happier than that!

Yet Another Trip To The ER

So there we were last night, looking forward to a quiet night with nothing going on.  I've still been really sick and under the weather and just generally trying to take it easy until someone on the good green earth can figure out what's been wrong with me.  I haven't been crafting, knitting, blogging, or singing, nothing.  Basically avoiding anything that I enjoy doing along with avoiding driving and household chores, the latter of which I haven't minding ignoring one little teensy bit.

As I said, there we were, enjoying the peace and quiet when I heard screaming.  Uh huh, the cat finally taught the little booger a lesson.  I knew what had happened as soon as I heard the crying, I just wasn't ready for what she had done to The Youngest.   He's forever picking at the animals (out of love, not meanness) and was all in her face and she scratched him.  On the eye.

Was there blood?  Oh there was blood all right, gushing and squirting from the eye in massive amounts.  You couldn't even see his eye.  Oh My God!  was all I could think, he's lost his eye! The Eldest was running around screaming for me (even though his Dad was sitting right there) and screaming "She got his eye, His eye is bleeding!"  His Dad was screaming and then I started crying while running for a towel to try and staunch the bleeding.  Total pandemonium and freak out.

Now I'm normally the very calm one in situations like this.  When the Eldest went to the ER for a broken elbow and then again for 10 stitches for a cut over his eye, I was the picture of calm.  I couldn't be shaken.  My usual philosophy of life when major crap hits the fan is, Okay, it's happened, now let's just fix it.  But that is not how I reacted last night.  I don't know if it was from all the health issues and problems that I've been having lately or the fact that my baby was all covered in godawful amounts of blood, but I lost it.  I was crying as I called 911.    By the time we got the paramedics and fire department there, the bleeding had slowed down drastically and we could see the actual eyeball.  Thank God, he still had one was all I could think.


We've had a lot of excitement on our street this week.  First, there was one firetruck and one ambulance to help me.  Then on Tuesday night, our neighbors one the big prize.  There were fifteen firetrucks on our street called to help put out a chimney fire.  Then, last night, Thursday night, we again had one firetruck and one ambulance.  Our house has become quite the talk of the neighborhood.  There's no telling what rumors are being passed around.

As a matter of fact, I became quite embarrassed when one of the firemen said, "Weren't we called here last week?"  Um, yeah. 

The EMTs checked the Youngest out and put on a great big eye-patch and determined that his eye looked okay, but we needed to get him to an ER to make sure.  At this point the little guy had gone into shock and was shivering uncontrollably in the living room chair.  He was a bit ticked off that we didn't let him ride in the ambulance to the ER and instead chose to drive him ourselves.

This is what he looked like at the ER a few hours later:

So then before we could leave to go to the hospital, one more straw was added to the camel's back.  Do you smell something burning?  We smelled something burning, something that smelled like burning plastic.   The Elf was burning!  He had appeared that morning in a very little used chandelier, the one that had been turned on in all the excitement and had been leaning up against a bulb.

I asked the paramedics if they dealt with Elf injuries, but they politely said no.  Poor Elfie.  We need an Elf burn center STAT.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch ER, they squirted a dye into the Youngest's eye and put it under a black light to determine that the cornea had not been scratched.  Nope.  Boy was this kid lucky.  But I guarantee you that his stubborn little self still hasn't learned his lesson and will be messing with the cat again asap. 

 

Hope you guys have a great weekend and I hope that we have a calm quiet one!

A Funeral And Some Strays

The Youngest and I went to a funeral over the weekend in another state.  The day began pretty early.  I loaded the car,  watched the Eldest get on the school bus and then we were on our way as well.  Now the first part of the trip was nothing remarkable really.  It took two hours and ended up at my folks' house in Alabama.  We were there a scarce half hour and then loaded up and rode another three hours to the actual funeral.


Now keep in mind here that I was traveling with an extremely active four year old.  He's not the type to sit in a chair for hours on end and be happy about it.  He surprised be me though.  There was not one whimper to be heard on the entire car trip there. 

Once we got there though, he pretty much exploded out of the car.  This was unfortunate since we walked right to the graveside for the ceremony.  He was hyper, very hyper.  He tried to rush to the coffin and take up all the cool chairs in the front.  I grabbed the little suit and pulled him to the back, far away from the grieving family.

I considered sitting on him, primarily for warmth though, not containment.  It was so freaking cold and windy that day!  I did threaten the kid with just about everything in the book to keep him quiet.  Keeping him still was out of the question entirely.  He finally became preoccupied with kicking and moving around dirt with his dress shoes and I pretended not to notice and most of the solemnity of the occasion was observed.

Observed of course, until two stray puppies decided to come see what all the people were doing out there and Hey!  There's a kid!  They came barreling straight for him, the only one in the crowd their size.  These puppies were about two and a half feet tall once they stood on their back legs and stretched out as far as they could go.

So there I was, trying to keep two incredibly cute pups off of him while keeping him off of them and trying to do everything in silence in respect for the mourners.  Other people hanging out in the back were all enjoying the show and trying not to laugh out loud at the chaos that two muddy puppies and a boy kept cooped up in a car too long can create.  Some help they were.

But it ended as well as could be expected and we shoved the poor boy back in the car and ended up in a tiny little hole in the wall food joint called "It Don't Matter."  Pretty clever little name for a restaurant.  We spent maybe another hour there and shoved him back in the car for another three hour little jaunt back to my parents house.

Would you believe that he never complained, cried, pitched a fit or anything?  Amazing.  He pretty much looked like this the entire day:

 

Smiles and all.

Newsflash: Dolphin cruelty siting!

Newsflash:  Dolphin cruelty siting!  Unnamed sources have reported the alleged mutilation of stuffed dolphin purchased from thrift store.

The sources have also confirmed that some of the dolphin parts will be casually thrown away and wasted.  The rest will be horribly mutated into a so-called hand made "pillow pet".  But not just any pillow pet, oh no.  There are big plans for this one!

More to follow tomorrow!

Paper Mache Space Shuttle

I keep repeating to myself, "On Friday it will all be over, On Friday it will all be over, On Friday..."  I've been so bogged down in projects for the Eldest for the past two weeks that I've had zero time to work on anything for myself.  Not really for myself, but projects that I am wanting to complete.  I've got a couple of super secret Christmas Gift knitting projects that have been stalled and I'd really like to get back to work on them.

One of the projects that the Eldest is working on is way beyond anything that I ever did in 4th grade.  He had to read five books, take a test on them, do a thinking map for each book, complete a bibliography for each, create a project that shows off his topic (which was space) and make a presentation on it which for him also will be including a powerpoint slide show.   I never had to do anything like this until I was in high school.

I have never seen a 10 year old yet that had any sort of time management skills.  I've had to stand over him for the past two months with a whip in order for him to get this thing finished.  It didn't help that he chose to make such a huge (1/40th scale) and involved creative project either.  But, it's finally finished!  We just have to get it safely to the classroom tomorrow morning.

Here's the final product:

In retrospect, we should have gone without an opening cargo bay, but this is what he wanted.  It does open and they do have tiny little one inch hinges holding them on.  He applied a thick coat of Modge Podge to it last night to seal it and harden it a little bit more.  I'm very proud of him with this project.    Not many 10 year olds could tackle a paper mache project of this size and have it turn out this well.  I think it turned out great, but I'm just a wee bit biased!

The Eldest's Projects

This is how my garage looks today. 


There's the head of the giant Lego Man Halloween costume for the Eldest that has the joint compound drying:

And the hands:

As well as an upside down Space Shuttle where he has applied the black paint:

All of my projects are geared towards the Eldest child this week.  I'm so looking forward to this week being over!  I really need to concentrate on Christmas crafting.

Super Great Day

My day started off with a real bang.  I took a load of Chimera Patterns, Knitting Gift Tags and Stitch Markers to a local yarn shop, Lovin' Knits for them to sell.  Not only did she want to sell them, she bought the whole load and requested more.

I'm so excited about this!  It's a wonderful opportunity to get my name and product out there.  It's also a great way for the knitters to have one of a kind, fun stitch markers.  No two sets were alike and all are super cute.  If you are in the area and get a chance to go by there, look next to the register for the packages that have a similar design to the pic below.

I forgot to take a pic for you to show you the new packaging that I came up with, but this is a sample of the card that they are mounted on and some examples of the hand drawn sheep that I used for some of the gift tags and stitch markers:

When I get some new packages put together I'll make sure and get some proper pics for you.


We also tackled the Space Shuttle Project today.  We have finished the newspaper and glue part and are now gluing cheap paper towels on top to get a smoother finish.  Cheap paper towels are a lot better way to go, by the way.  The super thick soft paper towels just cause a huge mess.  Besides a smoother finish, the paper towels also add more strength to the project as a whole thanks to all those absorbent cotton fibers.

Something doesn't look right does it?  Something missing?  Yep.  The cargo bay doors are on the floor and not shown.  They will be hinged in so that they can be opened once everything is painted and sealed.

Tomorrow, if everything is completely dry, The Eldest will begin spray painting it white and then we'll add the detail.  To finish it off, he'll be applying another "Mmodge Podge" type coating to make it shiny and to seal the paint.

It's coming along nicely and should be finished just in time for him to turn it in.  I'm looking forward to this project being completed.  It's been a huge time consuming project and has caused the boy tears a couple of times, but I think he's done a fabulous job, don't you?

Yarn and Pirates

Two quick mentions today:

1.  Fabric.com is having a huge Rowan Yarn sale over the next couple of days.  I ordered two sweaters worth of yarn from them for very, very little.  We're talking less than $3 a ball cheap.  How often do you find Rowan yarns going on sale this cheaply?


2.  We're huge Johnny Depp fans in this household, particularly of his Captain Jack Sparrow persona.  Click this link to find out why I now love him even more and make sure to watch the video clip there.  How cool that he took time out to go to a school and spend time with these kids. Here's another link from the Daily Mail that show's her letter.

Note to Captain Jack:  If you happen to read this, rest assured that if you decide to stop by sometime, I'll gladly mutiny on the ol' hubby and sail off into the sunset with you!  Would it happen any faster if I wrote it on notebook paper and drew a skull and cross bones on the page?   Love you.  Call me!

PS.  This little guy would mutiny as well:

PSS. Please ignore the Batman sticking out from under the white shirt.  The kid's a little confused as to whether to be a good guy or pirate, but he leans toward piracy more days than not.

The Goody Box Incentive

Years ago I created a thing of beauty.  It's more beautiful in concept than reality.  In reality it's just a plain cardboard box.  Nothing special to look at.  It sits in the shelf in our garage and it looks just like every other box on a shelf in the garage.

The objects inside are not beautiful either.  It's the motivation that those objects provide that is a thing of beauty.  I call it, The Goody Box.

The Goody Box is filled with little toys, Pez candy dispensers, items found at consignment or yard sales, puzzles, etc.  Nothing fancy or expensive. 

It began as potty training motivation.  The Eldest was into Thomas trains back then, so I created a train track on a chart.  Every time he went he got a sticker.  Every fifth track had a star on it.  When he got to a star, he got a prize out of The Goody Box.  Worked like a charm, for him at least.  His brother is not motivated like that, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.

After a few years it morphed,  no longer used as potty training motivation, but for incentive to do chores.  This has been a truly wonderful invention and one that I'm quite proud of.  We use it for any chores that are not on their normal chores list.  The normal chores are done in order to attain a small weekly allowance.  These chores are not negotiable and are the same from week to week.  The Goody Box chores are outside of the normal realm of chores. 

Today after school both boys suddenly came to me begging for extra chores to do.   The operational word in that sentence is begging.  The Youngest dusted for me (at least every where that he could reach.) The Eldest asked to clean the toilets.  "Heck yeah!", I said, "Get to it".  What Mom in her right mind wouldn't say that? 

The Youngest chose a Toy Story Slinky Dog Pez for his collection.  The Eldest picked a Bionicle that I had bought at a children's consignment sale.  Both items cost me a dollar each. 

The Goody Box, truly an item of beauty in my home.

Space Shuttle Progress

The Eldest and I worked on his space shuttle project again last night.  It's really starting to look like a shuttle, albeit a rough recycled one.  He was such a trooper about it.  He felt horrible yesterday, but was perfectly willing to get down on the floor with tape, newspaper and cardboard and get to working.  He was pretty funny about measuring the project to make sure it kept it's 1/40th scale.  He's very technically oriented and needs a creative nudge now and then, but he's doing very well on this project.

There are a couple of things that we're worried about.  The cargo bay is long and narrow and has the tendency to warp out of shape.  We used tons of cardboard and tape to reinforce it out of worry that the wet newspaper that will be applied would make it go all wonky on us.  We also had a little difficulty making the back wing stabilize, but finally came up with a solution that worked.

His father and I are really glad this thing is going to be paper mache-d and painted.   I don't think it would look to great for the kid to bring in a project made from beer boxes, do you?

Paper Mache

Every year at The Eldest's school, the entire school is required to do a media center reading project.  This year The Eldest chose Space as his theme.  They read books about it and then they have to do something creative.  He chose to do a paper-mache model of the space shuttle.   He plans on having a cargo bay with working doors on it.

This isn't going to be a tiny model either.  It's being built to 1/40th the size of the shuttle, so it will be approximately 3 feet long and 2 feet wide.  It's going to take a lot of glue and newspaper I think.

We started brainstorming and sketching and then broke out the newspaper and masking tape to start making the form:

You can see how large this is going to be when we back up some and look again:

 

This is as far as he got with it.  He still has to finish the back of the cargo bay and add the back and wings, so it has a way to go before we can start layering the newspaper and glue.  Then we're going to install (somehow) a robotic arm (fake of course, we're not ready to tackle robotics yet) that can hold a model of a piece of the International Space Station.

I'm trying to back off this project as much as possible so that he can do the bulk of the work.  I'm mainly serving as artistic director,extra hands and photographer.  I'll give you an update next week after we tackle the next part of the shuttle. 

Save Some, Earn Some

 Not much going on so far this week.  The Youngest has been sick and has managed to taint me with his little germs and now I feel like dog dirt.  Crafty stuff will resume shortly, I promise.  Until then, Check these out:

 Save Some Dough:

1.  Here's an awesome deal over at Amazon that will be perfect for gearing up for Christmas: Amazon Mom

What you get:  3 Months of Amazon Prime Free!  You get free two day shipping which is totally awesome.  And, for every $25 you spend in the Amazon Baby Store, you get another month of free shipping.  There is also also a great discount: 30% off select diapers and wipes. 

You don't have to be a Mom necessarily to qualify, just a caregiver or someone out to help a new parent.  Sweet.

Earn Free Stuff:

 2.  Swagbucks:  You've heard me mention this one before.  I absolutely adore this site for earning Amazon Gift Cards.  So far I've earned around $200.00 to use over at Amazon.  Christmas will be very good this year for my boys!  I'll be combining my gift cards and using them with the free Amazon Prime shipping mentioned above.  I know a few of you have joined through me and I'm curious, how well has Swagbucks worked for you?

3.  Irazoo:  This is similar to Swagbucks, but you only search and win, there are no special offers to do.  It's much simpler, so if you don't want to do all the extra stuff on Swagbucks to earn the free Amazon gift cards, this is the place for you.  They do give out codes like Swagbucks does (they're called Treasure codes on Irazoo) and you need to be on their Facebook page to get them. 

Give A Lamp A New Life

Everyone makes bad decisions on decorating once in a while.  One of my worst was made almost 14 years ago.  I purchased some basic brass lamps for our bedroom and over the years have come to loathe them.  My first instinct was to throw them in the trash and go out and buy new ones.  Then I came to my senses.  The lamps are in perfect working order, so what could I do to make them look better?  The answer?  PAINT!

Start with one ugly lamp that has potential and tape off the bits that you don't want painted (please ignore the kiddie basketball goal in the background):

Next, Get out some spray primer and turn it gray:

Once it dries, get out the paint that you want and paint it!  I used Rustoleum's Universal Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze.  

So how does it look now?

Look at the before and after:

And because the above photos don't do the paint color justice, look at it in the sunlight:

Isn't it amazing the difference that a little bit of paint can make?  I still have to get some lampshades to compliment the "new" lamps.  The old ones are hideous and have been very abused.  Once I get the new shades the lamps are going to be gorgeous!