Category: crafty

Some time ago Chris came up with this t-shirt that had a simple sentence on it, “Enjoy this beautiful day.” We printed it on a whim, and found that we all really liked it. We saw a place for t-shirts like these to communicate simple messages, kinda like a bumper sticker for your chest. We thought a great first foray for these shirts might be Pride, which is celebrated in the month of June. Chris said that, although there are many products being sold for Pride month, most of them are poorly designed and aesthetic eyesores. (After attending a Pride event, we can attest to this fact.)

So in between other projects, we hustled to get a batch of shirts done. Chris designed. Tom made the silkscreen machine do its magic, built these amazing fixtures and silkscreened signage on plywood. Garrett built up his arm strength silkscreening hundreds of shirts. I played the role of sounding board. All done in time for the Pride festival this weekend.

Not wanting to mix business and politics, we thought it might be best to sell these shirts under a different brand. It’s not that we are ashamed of who we are and what we think, but Wire & Twine appeals to a broad market, and the shirts to perhaps a more narrow segment. There’s the right place for the right product.

So Wearing Your Heart was born. We wanted some thing like “Heart on Your Sleeve” but too many squatters are sitting on all the good URLs, so wearingyourheart.com was the closest we could get. It’s all sitting under the overarching brand, Handmade in Ohio. Later, I will diagram the whole thing for you and then we will have a short quiz.

Today was a short day, with the initial Pride kick-off in the evening, but sales were steady and the booth looked fabulous. And we already have a big list of ideas for how we can improve everything from the displays to inventory control.

We think this could be the start of something good.

(Thanks to Chris for letting steal this image from his blog.)

We went to the Art Explorers event at the art museum. A joint effort between the museum and the library, they usually begin with reading a series of books and then follow with related art projects. Today’s theme: outer space. Neko and Shep each made alien spaceships, which have since vanished (much like real alien spaceships). I will document them if I can find them.

Shep roamed the room during the story time and then I strapped him in for the craft time. He’s nowhere near the three-year-old age that they ask the children to be to participate. But it was a sparsely attended day, so after a while, I busted him out of the stroller and let him have at it. He actually did remarkably well, and even the women running the activity remarked they thought he was much older.

We usually end up the events with a tour of the art museum. They had new exhibitions, including this one of strips of fabric with silkscreened quotes on them. This reminds me a great deal of a mobile I did in college with hundreds of dangling words. I might recreate it someday if I ever have time. Neko desperately wanted to touch it, and after asking permission of the docent, she had a great time with it. Preschoolers generally make art museums nervous, but I think most artists would be thrilled to see someone so thoroughly enjoying their work. Even if they’re just a little over three feet tall.

Sometimes I should really think through an activity before I embark on it.

Susie took Shep for the afternoon, so Neko and I had some one-on-one time. I decided we’d do the Valentine garland that Kate blogged about a week or so back. Since Shep was away, it was perfect time to bring out glitter and glue and sparkly jewels.

I guess I had in my mind that we’d delicately sprinkle glitter on the hearts and then pick one precious jewel for each heart. Well, Neko hasn’t perfected her scissors skills yet, so she couldn’t cut hearts. And then it just turned into a big contest of how much glitter, glue and jewels would fit on one heart. They took ages to dry.

So I made a heart garland, and Neko made several indestructible hearts that will still be decomposing in the year 4024.

I’m really trying to add some structure to the day. Until we make a decision about preschool or new activities, we’ve got three days a week that are wiiiide open with no plans. So I’m trying to plan activities. Kate introduced me to the Family Fun website, so I scoured the site for a good activity. Neko is totally into the holidays, so I decided snowmen would be a hit.

However, I can’t seem to do things exactly like they want me to…I just want to improve things here and there. So based on the Sock Snowfolk instructions (with a few modifications), we made our snowmen. They’re super-cute, and I’m still thinking of a few little improvements, but I give this activity a thumbs up for the three and over set. (Shep just wanted to eat the rice.)

Today was one of those days where I had nothing planned. In this household, that’s not a good thing. After a morning outing to Target, Shep fell asleep in the car on the way home. A deadly occurance, as it was way too early, and I would never get Neko’s nap synched up with his, therefore giving me not one minute to breathe without children ALL DAY.

So what is any good parent to resort to? Bribery. I told Neko if she went to quiet time now, we’d have a very special project when she got up. Filled with excitement, she trotted off to her bedroom.

What special project did I have lined up? I had no idea.

Of course, I spent what little quiet time I had wracking my brain for good ideas. Neko had recently become re-enamored of her Jo-Jo figures, and Kiddley had recently had project on mantle houses. That’s it! Jo-Jo needs a house!

I prepped ahead of time by cutting doors and windows in shoeboxes. When the kids got up, we painted and decorated. Even Shep got into the project, although he was more excited about painting inside the boxes than the outside.

An excellent project, but if I had it to do again, I would have sprayed the boxes with a quick primer as the paint is now chipping off due to the waxy surface. But then, I would probably have to come up with this idea more than 30 minutes in advance, eh?

I admit…I often forget to do crafty things with the kiddos. We usually leave the house in the morning for some outing, come home, have lunch and nap, and by 3 or 4 sometimes it’s just easier to turn on the television and let the kids play. Which is great some of the time. Kids don’t seem to have enough time to just “play” and neither of our kids are really tv junkies.

However, there really are a lot of great activities I should be exposing them to. Inspired by Kate, I’m really going to make a concerted effort to do a few more projects and activities.

Today Chris walked in with a big bowl of apples that he bought for a photo shoot. I found a good muffin mix I use as a base, and then add apples, raisins, carrots, etc. I did the chopping, and Neko did the mixing. By the time Shep got up, we were ready to put them in cups. Neko did the pouring and Shep ate lots of apples. You’ll notice, Neko is wearing her Cinderella costume, which she hasn’t taken off since we purchased it a week ago. Shouldn’t we all cook with such style?

Yummy fun, and the tv wasn’t on all afternoon. Yay, me!

(On another “yay, me” note, I’m trying to force myself to post photos even if I don’t love them. Trying to force myself out of my perfectionist box. Slowly. But. Surely.)