Son No. 1 Brings Home a Baby

Oh Lord no....not a real baby! It's his weekend project for the HomeEc class all the 8th graders have to take. His name is Samuel and he's a cute little guy. He 'came to life' late this afternoon and was very hungry. DS1 says, "When is he going to stop eating? He's been eating for, like, twenty minutes." LOL! I replied, "Hmmm, babies are like that. You'll just have to see what happens." DS1 rolls his eyes. I'm lovin' it!

Baby Samuel. DS1's Weekend School Project

I think this is an excellent way for teens to find out what a TINY slice of baby care is all about. DS1 has to feed it, burp it, change its pants (that'll be a good one!) and make sure that Samuel's head is supported. Samuel has his own car seat and a makeshift ugly diaper bag.

Baby Samuel after his first feeding.

Ahhhh, I remember those days.

DS1, DS2 and I have a barbershop appointment in the morning. We will have to take Samuel along for the ride. I can just see the funky looks on the old codgers' faces at the barber shop. DS1 is going to be red-faced with embarrassment for sure. But...life is tough sometimes, you know? Me: Oh, I am looking forward to this weekend project with great anticipation. Really, I am. :-)

I'm sure that DS1 will be a great dad.

Almost Done!

Except for the Velcro® , these are ready for sale.

It's such a great feeling to FINISH things.  I start so many projects and then get side-railed.  I truly think I have ADD. 

Craft a Story or Craft a Craft?

My oldest son is a sixth grader and has been studying the 60's in America. His class has been reading lots of stories about racial segregation, marches, very important speeches and some very troubling times.

His latest assignment was to either write a bibliography about a person who lived through the 1960's or create a God's Eye. He's been writing LOTS of papers lately, so he chose the craft project. (The boy takes after his dad, doesn't he?).

Here's a link to help you create your own God's eye. We used two dowel rods and three skeins of yarn. (We have quite a bit of yarn left over for other projects - woo hoo!!)

Here are some photos of our project:

[God's Eye -- 50% Complete]

[God's Eye -- Finished!]

[God's Eye -- Proud Owner Displays his Finished Project]

And in other craft news, here's a project I managed to eek out while I was home with a sick kiddo last Wednesday. My little guy camped out on mom and dad's bed while I traced, cut and sewed up a couple bibs (they each need a snap, but otherwise they are d-o-n-e. I found the fabric at WalMart. One of the bibs is a birthday gift for a curly-haired cousin, the other is for sale in my Etsy shop. You choose: snap or Velcro™

[Front and back views of the bibs.]

The Greek Coin Project

Ah yes, the old Greek Coin Project. A good reason to be crafty.

My oldest son chose to make some larger-than-life-size replicas of Greek coins for his class project. A little bit of clay, some internet research (thank goodness for the internet), a few toothpicks, a warm oven, some craft paint and a good dose of Mom's help, and voila: coins.

The small coin-like object laying right next to the silver coin on the left is actually a little something I baked up. I rolled up a small amount of clay, flattened it into a disc and then used a rubber stamp and a toothpick to create a seashell ornament. I'm thinking of looping some ribbon through the hole and making a book mark. Or ... who knows what? I made several and should take a better picture so you can see the detail. They only took a few minutes and they turned out very nice.