Thursday, May 27, 2010

Graduation gifts!

K's friend V is graduating this year and heading to high school. I wanted to make her something unique and crafty, cause she is unique and crafty too. I've already made her an adipose plushie, so, I though origami.

I love making my own gift boxes. They're an easy fold, and very cute. Top it off with a stork or a dragon or a squirrel or a flower, and it's just too cute.

You can print the pattern with the bunnies on the canon chiyogami page. I love this pattern, did you know bunnies live on the moon? Neither did I. The top of the box is a regular 1/4 fold box made from an 8.5" square of printed card stock. The bottom is a piece of 12" x 12"construction paper folded in the 1/3 fold box. (Actually 2 pieces cleverly glued together at the bottom center seam. A sheet of 12" x 12" scrapbook card stock would work perfectly, but I just didn't have any.) The crane is regular origami paper. Just glue it on with white glue or hot glue.



After a bit of a search I found a diagram for an origami mortar board made from a dollar bill.


Believe it or not, the mortarboard is the simplest fold. I added a diploma, just cause it was fun. K said V really liked it and wants to come over and learn some fancy folding this summer.

And poking a hole in the bill to tie on the tassel is not technically a federal offense. I looked it up.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

ArcherK

This is for you archerpren. :D




K scored 574 out of 900 and came in 3rd in her first tournament! She shot 144 arrows between 10 am and 5 pm and she absolutely loved it, despite the blisters and sunburn.

This past week she shot her first JOAD scoring and at 15m she scored a 280 out of 360, so she is moving up to 20m.

Thanks for the encouragement Pren. K is having a blast!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Make a girl a bracelet, and she'll wear it forever. Teach a girl to make a bracelet and you'll get one for Mother's Day!




I had a lovely Mother's Day. Mr. Man and K made me breakfast, not in bed, and they spent the day helping clean the house. I loved it. I got goodies too. Mr. Man found another Baby Blues book, love those and some deep dark chocolate. K painted me a beautiful watercolor picture.


and she made me a lovely spiral bracelet for Mother's Day, all on her own, no help from anyone.


I just love it and I love that she knows that handmade is best. Not that I don't love chocolate and comics. Did I mention I don't have to share my chocolate. *evil grin*

Friday, May 7, 2010

"You're not the ugly step sisters, you're the pretty step sisters."

It's spring concert time at K's school, and my sewing machine is smokin'! This year K will be one of the ugly stepsisters in "the Granny Awards." She and her friend S, fight to the death over a tiny plastic shoe, all whilst singing and keeping a straight face. The director told me K needs to fight a bit harder because the other step sister, her daughter, is a red head with two sisters at home. K is loving every minute, and is so proud of her bruises.

Her costume had to be ugly and K immediately thought of a long, yellow, flowered dress, made and worn by her great Grandmother in the 70's. She dug it out of Narnia, you know the deep, dark, back of her closet, and even after years of dress up, it was still in pretty good shape. It was way too long and way too big, but after a week of pinning and tucking and fussing, it turned out quite ugly.




Turns out, bows are the epitome of ugly. So we added a sash and two big orange bows, one on the back and one in her hair. The one on her back is stiffened with netting inside and held in place with thread and snaps. When her stepsister pulls on the right side, the snaps should let go and it should hang like it was torn in battle. I desperately want to crimp K's hair to make it just wild, but she won't let me. Please comment and tell her she should let me. :D

K's one requirement was sleeves. She has to fall down, roll around, and play tug of war, so they had to be puffy, cause puffy is ugly too, but really loose. So K designed them and I cut and sewed and ripped out, and then repeated a couple of times, before I got it right. I wanted to make one of the sleeves tear away, but I realized, stepsister has two sisters , it'll just happen.

The skirt was a little too narrow, and our first thought was to cut the center front and put in an orange pleated panel. We kept pinning and folding and just couldn't get it too look right, so we opened the back seam and hid another yard of fullness in a cream colored satin that wouldn't show too much. Looks much better, ugly, but not too ugly.

K's last requirement was a higher neck line, which I added in the orange material first and then ripped out and redid in the cream, the orange was a bit too much. It's higher, but open in the back, so she won't strangle, I hope.

And she'll be barefoot, so the footman can "try on the shoe" without actually touching her. Cause this is middle school, and that just ain't happenin' people. Touch a girls,...foot! Yuck! If we can only keep them thinking that way till college.

One that note, when the parts were announced, the boy next to her, who is already shaving, whispered, "You're not the ugly step sisters, you're the pretty step sisters." K was so giddy when she told me, and is not allowed to talk to that boy again,... cause he is shaving!

I'll post pics from the performance, if I can hold the camera steady. I've seen them rehearsing and it's a hoot!