A sisters wine & painting party

I come from a long line of backwoods people.  I tell you this to explain why there won't be any pictures with low lighting, and an instructor, or a beautiful painting.  A wine and painting party with my sisters meant drinking decent wine for awhile, then heading down to the basement to paint the yellow walls white.

The Teacher is living in my Grandma's house, helping to fix it up so it can be sold.  And a few days ago, she took the ancient iron patio table and chairs to the basement, and sprayed them purple.  They look GREAT!  But the basement floor, well, as you can see, not only is it filthy, but now it's purple in a few spots.  And the Teacher is going to have to clean the entire floor, b/c if she just cleans that one area, Dad and Mom are going to figure out something happened, and she'll get in trouble.  She'll be scoring Pinterest looking for "Paint Removal" after we leave tonight. 

My mother's toaster oven hates me

I told my Mom my plans to makes things for Eliz's invites, and she gave me a large box of polymer clay & tools.  She also gave me a toaster oven, so the polymer clay wouldn't stink up my oven, or permeate it with toxic fumes.  So, here are my polymer clay figures, all Alice in Wonderland inspired, of course.

 AND, here they are after 45 seconds - not kidding, 45 seconds! - in my Mom's toaster oven.

I tried a second time at a lower temperature, and it happened again!  Something is wrong with the thermometer.  So, I'll be using my oven.  And I'll probably have to wait a few days until I'm not so angry before I can do it.  I'm an emotional artist.  I can't wait that long, we've only got 3 weeks until the party.  Luckily, I sent unofficial email invitations a week ago, and these are the official invites.

Little feet

Little feet waving

tiny toes

wriggling

Sweet fingers turning

pages

While inside her mind,

the ideas grow

A Steampunk Party

Almost a year ago I discovered something wonderful. Steampunk. GenCon was happening, so the kids and I were having lunch with Bryan and looking at the Cosplay people. There was a couple eating by us and they had the most amazing costumes. Top hats, bouffant skirt, goggles, I was hooked. Whatever “it”was, I wanted to be a part of it. So I approached them, complimented them profusely, and begged to be let in the club. The guy smiled and said,

“It's Steampunk.”

“SteamPunk?”

“Yeah, look it up. You'll love it.”

I wondered if maybe Steampunk was a band. But no, it's not. And it's not new, which really upsets me. Not b/c I want to be on the cutting edge, but because I have so fallen in love with this genre that I wish I had learned of it years ago. I could have done so many fun things with this!  Lex could have had a Steampunk nursery! I am galled at the thought of how many steampunk outfits I could have made for myself if I'd learned of this 2 or 3 years ago! Steampunk will be very mainstream in the next few years though. How do I know? Because craft stores and pattern companies are taking notice- Central Library's Summer Reading theme is Steampunk this year. And it's such a fun and very different trend, it's sure to be extremely popular.

Of course, I did what anyone does when they have a new obsession – I shared it with everyone. the Quilter and my Mom were immediately obsessed as well. Within a few months, my mother had decided she was having a Steampunk Party. Months passed, I worked on a Steampunk obsession; I read books, watched webisodes, listened to music, read about Cons & Steampunk people crashing Renaissance Fairs. Finally, May arrived, and with it, The Procrastinators Mad Dash of Sewing. I had almost finished my corset & top months before, but my skirt wasn't even started. The Quilter & I worked tirelessly on our outfits and my friend A's. The Teacher came into it late, but we got her fixed up.

This was one of the most enjoyable parties I've been to. Bry-D had not been very excited about it until a few days before, when he suddenly stated that if he was going to dress up, he wanted to look like Captain Mal Reynolds. This is a reference to FireFly & Serenity. Follow the links and join the Browncoats, but please, watch the tv series first, then the movie!  It may have been last minute, but his decision just reminded me why he's so perfect- no one else could love a geek like me the way he does.

My sisters were all at the party, as well as some good friends. Not everyone dressed up, but we love those people anyway. My parents set up a photo area in the basement, which translates to BIG FUN.

These aren't the "Offical" pictures, I can't seem to find those.

 See my well placed boot?

 Whatever the joke was that they were telling, it must have been a good one!

 Yep, just a normal sister photo shoot.

 Nothing interesting going on here, move it along!

My Thinking Cap

In April The Quilter threw a Princess & Knights Birthday Party for G-Man, Bonnie & Clyde.
The Quilter made these beautiful Crowns for all the girls.

Didn't she do a wonderful job?  They were so great, I grabbed one for myself.  And just to clarify, I'm not the type of girl to act like this:

And so that we're all clear, this is NOT a Tiara, nor is it a Crown, it's a THINKING CAP!

Start Your Engines!

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling overwhelmed and a bit like an underachiever as I tally up just how many PHD's I have.  Just what I have in the sewing room is awful! 

These bags used to be separated into categories - now it's just a mess of stuff that may need to be mended, sewn together, or even cut out!

 Happily, one of those bags hanging on the rocking chair is someone else's PHD.  But there are still four more bags of my stuff to do.

 How nice that all these PHD's hold up Eliz's Dollhouse.  Glad they are helping out!  P.S. these are all from Christmas, and not just this past Christmas!!!

I decided that I'm going to start with the oldest project I can find, which would be an outfit for Eliz when she was 2.  Then there's a coat from when Lex was a newborn, some shorts from the same time period, and some cut and partially sewn Christmas gifts.  Early, early announcement for July - to make myself feel better about the number of PHD's that involve Christmas, I'm going to do "Christmas in July"  and work solely on Christmas stuff the month of July. 

I'm forgetting the Steampunk costumes I started and actually need for a party the first week of June.  And, I've got my Tailoring work - 2 dresses and a shirt(these have to be done this week, though) Unfortunately, that doesn't even cover half -FROM ONE ROOM!!!  Oh dear, we're so going to have to do this again.  And again.  And again.  And no new projects til all this stuff is done!  Maybe I'll carry it over to June?  Or just do it again another month? 

Bleeckk!  I'll get the Facebook page up and running today, and the Pinterest board.  Check back here for the links!

Creative space

I've wanted a space for the kids art stuff for a l-oonnn-g time.  But creating a place that meshed with my desires and Bry-D's was not a simple task.  But finally, we have this.  A place where all the creative supplies are available at all times.

 Some things are hidden away to keep Lex out, also because extra space is something that we just don't have.  I know God's got a place for us to raise the kids that has lots of land, and the house has lots of space, but we're not there yet, and so we'll make do with what we have.

I love the colors!  $5 end table from Goodwill on half-off Saturday -Yay!  Divided tray from my Mom, little buckets from the $1 area at Target.  Though I feel obliged to say, most of the stuff in the "dollar" section was $2.50.

 Some more things that stay hidden from the 3 year olds little fingers.  There is a big box of ribbon,  modeling clay, stickers, cardboard, all sorts of stuff! 

 Craft and art books for the kids to pick something to do from, and paper storage. 

 Of course, we have a creative space set aside in the playroom.  I keep most of the kits and handwork type of stuff in here, along with the coloring books.

The kids have gotten used to these areas, so they aren't quite such the hot spots they were, but they're getting regular use.