Scrapbook Saturday

 

This is my dad when he was about 6-8 months old.  Today is his 70th birthday.

Bragging on my fab crochet creativity

That'd be sarcasm, BTW

I finished the amigurumi octopus for Havoc. He chose the rainbow colored yard for it

I've been experimenting with how to create different shape effects with amigurumi and I created a bunch of mushrooms while doing it.

Then I decided to focus on making something for a friend to keep the bad energy away and I made this traffic cone

  

Then I got my hands on some googly eyes and the mushrooms gained some personality.

The traffic cone became an angry traffic cone

I think he is just the cutest thing ever.

The traffic cone came about as a result of 2 things. First I was going to make a witches hat for a little crochet person I had made recently (There is no photo of said person because it seems to have vanished & I am pretty annoyed about that because I never wrote the pattern down & now have to start over) The problem is I really didn't want to do all those close stitches in black (3sc in a circle, then 4sc, then 5 sc, etc - pain in the butt in black yarn & I am over black yarn from the penguin). The other thing was a friend of mine was joking that she calls traffic cones buried safety witches. (witchy humor). Last night those 2 thoughts met in my mind and decided to make a traffic cone & try & square off the rounded hat brim corners. Then I glued on the googly eyes. Cute but it needed something. This traffic cone is a gift for a friend who is dealing with some negative stuff in her life & I figured what better to keep unwanted things away than an angry traffic cone.  So I was sitting here thinking I was pretty clever typing this up when it occurred to me I had seen crochet traffic cones before. I googled it and sure enough -  Alicia did it first. Hers don't appear to be angry & have different eyes, but it is the same idea.  Hers are stuffed & mine isn't but I think the next one I make will use her idea of sewing it to a crocheted square. I wish I had remembered this before I started experimenting with creating a cone on my own. Would have saved me a bunch of time. But I was googling crochet witches hat and not traffic cone.

I'm thinking of selling the mushrooms & the traffic cones on Etsy, along with the little bags that I make.

I'm saving up to buy a D40 camera & every little bit helps, plus I have a huge stock of yarn already so the set up costs were covered long ago.  I just need a name. I like The Magical Mushroom or something to that effect but I haven't had time to go out & see what is already & use. Any suggestions would be appreciated

Caught Unprepared

Mayhem comes home with a package from school. In it is a blank construction paper banner and some instructions. How cute! Preschool homework! The note says "Your child should draw or cut from magazines pictures of their favorite things. Please let them use the scissors themselves." "This should be a lot of fun" I say to Mayhem and set about finding scissors and glue. Then I look around and I realize something - there is nothing for Mayhem to cut out. We get 2 magazines in our house. The first is Cook's Illustrated, which is illustrated only with black & white photos of food and cooking implements. Mayhem is the anti-foodie, so CI won't work. The other is NRA Magazine. 

Yeah.

I look around hoping to find an old issue of Real Simple or Rachel Ray Magazine. I pick them up randomly at the store. But no, apparently I have been decluttering effectively lately. The only thing I find is a year old copy of a sci fi mag with Dr Who on the cover and the kid's not getting near that with his scissors.

We had a few days for this project so I looked around the magazine section when I went to the store the next day. Vogue. Mademoiselle, other magazines with articles about how to improve your sex life & look better in bed. Not really appropriate. Guns & Ammo. Hunting & Fishing. Got that covered already, thanks. 28 magazines aimed at teen girls, all featuring the Jonas Brothers on the cover. Also not really appropriate. 9 different football magazines. Not really useful as Mayhem doesn't care about sports yet. Numerous quilting, crocheting, knitting and scrapbooking magazines. Well, they interest *me* but I'm not seeing anything that would interest Mayhem. Racing magazines! Car magazines! Monster truck magazines! Hey, these might work! Oh...wait...there is a scantily clad woman draped over every single vehicle in every one of these magazines. Maybe when he is 14.

Where are the toy catalogs when you need them?!?! It's September. Shouldn't I be receiving Christmas toy catalogs by now?!?!  Oh wait, maybe I have and tossed them in the trash. Damn me and my decluttering anyway.

I ended up showing him the photos I have taken so far for my 365 Project,, letting him choose what he wants, printing them out in small size and letting him cut them out.

I'm not much into these sorts of crafts. I'm not that sort of craft person and I really suck with scissors. 

Seriously, I can't cut a straight line. Even a short one.

I haven't let Mayhem touch scissors since the curtain incident 8 months ago, except PlayDoh ones, so he really has no clue how to use them. He was two handed snipping at the paper, creating lots of fringe but not cutting out any thing. It was driving me nuts to see this. But the teacher stressed letting them do all of it and just guiding them, so I sat on my hands and watched. I eventually justified taking the scissors off of him and repositioning them in his hand. This helped him cut better, but of course he's cutting at weird angles, chopping of photo parts and getting upset about it. I'm upset about it too.  I wanted to shout STOP GOOFING OFF AND PAY ATTENTION!!! But I had to stifle that and tell him it was ok, it was a collage & he'd be gluing lots of things on top of others and then sit back and watch him DO IT AGAIN!

When it came time to color it I gave him crayons because I knew my nerves weren't up to seeing him MIX THE PAINT COLORS together.

I basically spend the entire time sitting there watching him thinking

MUST. NOT. INTERVENE

I have no idea where this impulse comes from. I am not an interventionist parent in any other realm, but paint & scissors bring it out intently & it's always been a struggle for me to sit back and let them make all the paint brown.

This was Mayhem's first school project.He glued pictures on top of the coloring he did, "So they are a surprise."

Could you be a vampire?

You Could Be a Vampire... If You Had To

Like most people, the thought of being a vampire has crossed your mind. But you're not sure if you'd do it, even if you could. Living forever doesn't sound half bad, if you could live forever with the people you love the most. But do vampires even love? And would the vampire version of you even be you? It's all too much to contemplate. Luckily, the chances of you ever becoming a vampire are astronomically low. What you would like best about being a vampire: Living forever What you would like least about being a vampire: Blood stained teeth

Could You Be a Vampire?

Scrapbook Saturday

My layouts this week

 

created with Tell Me a Story by Traci Reed & Heather Roselli at Sweet Shoppe Designs

one of my Learn Something New layouts, created with Scary Moon Cat by Lauren Grier at SSD

another Learn Something New layout,created with Winter Chic by Shabby Princess at ShabbyPrincess.com

Scrapbook Saturday

Some layouts I did this week

This was done with Heart of Fall by Traci Reed & Kay Miller at Sweet Shoppe Designs

This was made with Mischief & Mayhem by Heather Roselli, also at SSD. This was for the Learn Something New class I am taking

This was done with Bestest of Friends- Boys by Eva Kipler at SSD

how real am I?

You Are 70% Real

You know who you are, and you're pretty darn comfortable with yourself. Like everyone, you struggle with the parts of yourself that aren't so great... But you're good at accepting who you are and not dwelling on your faults. As a result, you're confident, optimistic, and very real.

How Real Are You?

Crayon quiz

You can find it here
http://www.crayola.com/promos/64boxBirthday/colorQuizzer.cfm

I missed 12 colors

Spelling quiz

Your Common Spelling Mistake Score: 60% Correct

Your spelling is decent, but you do make quite a few mistakes. Let's just say you won't be winning a spelling bee anytime soon!

Do You Make Common Spelling Mistakes?