In the Full Swing of Summer - The Meek Moose Makes a Monday

Aside from some required Professional development three days this week- I am actually doing NOTHING this summer.


I didn't sign up for any classes. Partly because I'm tired, and partly because I'm being rebellious, and partly because I decided to get a masters degree as a Math Specialist and it starts at the end of August and I figured that was enough.

I did not agree to take on any sort of job at all.  No tutoring, no summer school, no helping out at a friend's store.  Being a slug and a mediocre Mom is going to be amazingly consuming.  Plus, I figured I would be getting ready to teach fifth grade, and that would be sure preoccupy my thoughts that were not directed towards eating and watching the spawn of my loins.

I DID decide to go horse back riding once a week.  And I'm doing Maker Camp on-line with the kids.  And I have a pile of books that are nothing like The Hunger Games piled up near my pillow to read. I admit, a good portion of them are professional.  But I also decided to go to the library once a week to read a young adult chapter book to get ready for the move from Biscuit to big kid books. I, of course, haven't started that library pilgrimage yet.  Maybe Friday.  I'll pencil it inside my imaginary day planner right now.

I also decided I'd try to make more of a schedule for myself to blog.  I know, I know, I say this all the time. I should at least be able to stick to it for the summer.  That's a good four weeks longer than normal New Year's resolutions.  Should count for something.

Of course, to blog, I sorta have to do things and think about things other than where I can find lemon seeds to harvest on Sims4. That damn tree in Oasis Springs isn't mature!  I can't get a seed from it!  Curses!  Anyway - #geekmoment

So- I'm going to be doing some stuff I find on Pinterest for fun!

This last week I decided to try out this little ditty on my Outside Recess Board from Homegrown Friends:

I had even tweeted about the experience and heard back from Homegrown Friends on Twitter!  Super nice people!

If you click on the picture, it will take you to their blog page, as well as a video of kids doing this art so you can see the dynamics of it.

I decided I'd like to do this one because I needed some wall art for my bedroom. I got these cheap canvases from Walmart- different sizes and enough for each person in my family to make one. And I chose colors for the paint based on my bedspread and room decor.  My first thought was to do the process painting on wrapping paper, and then stamp it onto the canvas.

Ha!  So you can see the trouble we ran in to from the beginning.  The wrapping paper was too flimsy, and her legs too long to get a good swing.  We did eventually try the stamp method with this though.

But it wasn't the look I was wanting.  We relocated to the back yard to try Ye Olde Swing Set, and tried painting directly on the canvas this time.  Long legs and low swings continued to thwart us.

We decided to just sit in the swing the regular way and I'd hold the canvas like a human easel.  This worked better for us.

So I went about having each of the kids make one, and my parents, and even tried to get my dog to walk across the first little one we had tried down by the tree swing in the front yard.  And I made one of course for a total of six paintings.

We all ended up covered in paint, especially since the littlest decided that this was the perfect way to paint using karate moves.  That he has no training for, I might add.  Like I need him to be able to chop me with any precision.  Anyway- I hosed the kids off- which made them happy as clams- and all was well.  Except for the dog.  He is still most displeased.

You might be noticing that art work already up on the wall.  That's from the littlest, during his "I love Sharpies" period.  Picasso would be proud.

To get these hung up on the wall in a decent arrangement, I utilized Pinterest again- recalling an old pin from my old Pinterest account.  I found this one here today, I think the original one I was thinking of was from Martha Stewart- but this one from BHG is the same thing.

So, the basic idea is you make paper templates of the art, and then you can move them around using tape getting them just right without destroying your walls.  Mine was already destroyed of course, but moving the papers around did make things easier.  I had a bunch of very large sheets of construction paper that I used to make the templates.

 I took me three or four arrangements until I decided on this one.  And I found two other little pictures I had around the house to add to it to make it a bit more symmetrical.

Voila! Family art, bedroom wall covered, no more sharpie. Trifecta of success.

As far as getting rid of the wall paper border at the top?  That is another battle I will have to wage with  my mother.  But until I prevail- this makes for a much nicer atmosphere in my room.

Be sure to head over to Tara's page to see what everyone has made this week!

No Way! ~ The Meek Moose Might Have Actually Made Something!

CHICKEN BUTT!

Iiiiiiiiiiii kinda made something.  That wasn't a total fail, either! *shocked face*

 But, I know you love the carnage- so here- my first "Made It":

I have an ugly foot.  I'm admitting it freely, so you don't have to be all "OOooooooo- does she know she has a nasty foot?"  Yes.  Yes, I do.  I soaked it in the Listerine/Vinegar thing that is all over Pinterest and Facebook. Claims that the dead skin just "falls right off"

Ummmmm, no. No it did NOT.  What it *did* do, was dye my foot blue.  Listerine blue.  And I had to scrub it off with a Brillo pad. - THIS, my friends, is probably the part that makes the skin "fall right off".  Two days later, my foot is back to the right color, except for my toe nail.  That, is still blue. And my foot is still ugly.

There.  I satisfied all of you yearning to watch the train wreck.  Moving forward...

I attempted Mod Podge again with some glitter clips I am making for my teacher buddy and I.  We detest having to change bulletin boards constantly, so last year we covered one side of our hallway with sunny yellow craft paper, pretty scrapbook paper squares, and glittery clothespins, one for each student.  They could just go out and put their work up and we never had to mess with it.

While I was out for six weeks after the car wreck and near death experience, and she was out on maternity leave- some kind soul "helped" us out by taking down the whole thing and throwing every bit of it away!  EVEN the clothes pins.  Sounds bitter and angry if you ask me.  Somebody was clearly hatin' on our display.  But whatevs- kittens!  I braved the *podge* and made some more! - I'll show you our new display once I get it up this week.

OOOOoooo- didn't I mention?  I got to go into my classroom today and start setting it up before Teacher Week next Monday.  You should like, *totes* follow me on Facebook to get up-to-the-second snark, yo!  Click that moose track up there with the FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF for fabulous.  Or click right *here* and it'll take you right there.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program... check this out:

GENIUS!

I used a laundry basket to dry my pins.  It was perfect! Also a hot day with relatively low humidity worked in my favor as well.  I painted the clips first with craft paint.

Then I "painted" on liquid Elmer Glue (Elmer, you redeemed yourself!) to shake the glitter onto.  I am using the lid to a Sterilite plastic container as my work tray.  This lid is going to save my life during this glitter fest!

I found this plastic bin lying around, and used it turned upside down as a "glitter drying station".  Also a stroke of genius.  And if you don't want to be waiting around for my irregular posts- then you need to go find me on Instagram- and get the genius as it's happening.  Which- just to be upfront here- isn't all that often.  Mostly it's pictures of chickens.  But you know every once in a while you NEED a good chicken picture.  Back on track...

While the glitter was drying, I needed to RECLAIM what had gotten shaken out all over the tray.  Good glitter is expensive!  I am not wasting this stuff, especially when I hardly use it because it makes me upset when it gets all over my hands and my palms are sweaty and it just sticks there and never comes off and I touch things and it's like I'm effin King Midas of the glitter touch and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Seriously.  Glitter is out of my comfort zone.  Just wear gloves you wuss! Ummm, ew.  That's so much more sweaty than just my normal level of dork.  No thank you.

That Sterilite Lid was PERFECT.  I just had to tappy-tap the glitter to the sides and lead it down the channel back into my glitter tube. Majority of the glitter reclaimed.  Some casualties of course, but nothing major.

Then it was time to Mod Podge- and my genius luck had run out.  As soon as I opened the stupid jar I spilled a great big glob of it on my pants. #@%#HJGSGD$#$%#$%.  Anyway.
Dried glitter clips back on my work basket from painting, and I painted on the Mod Podge. Aside from my pants, there were no other mishaps. Keeping it in a small container and using a reallllllly long brush apparently helped me avoid other catastrophes.

And then I put them on the laundry basket to dry and went inside to further pursue the crafty arts with some scrapbook paper.

Now- I have NEVER done back to school treat bags.  At least, I'm pretty sure I never have.  But I don't know- I got possessed or something this year.  I'll first blame the Target Dollar Spot.  They had cute Crayola tissue packs. Crayola is one of my celebrity crushes.  If they come out with some sort of Brawny towel man frontman- or Mike Rowe, I am DONE for. Take note, Crayola! (I vote Mike Rowe all the way!) 

Target also had cute pencils and apple erasers and stickers.  It became a bit of a scene.  I ended up using snack size ziplocs to put the little treat in.  But you know what doesn't fit in a snack size ziploc?  Or any ziploc really except for a gallon size bag- the dang pencil! 

As it luck would have it- my "addictive" personality had latched onto scrapbook paper recently, and I had these neat little six-by-six squares.  Did you know that when you fold them in half they perfectly cover a snack size ziploc?  Who knew?  NOT me!  But now I do.  I ended up making myself some sticker labels as I imagined that I would use these to attach the pencil.

But- no.  I didn't like how it looked.  So OUT comes my new Fiskars paper punch!  Wowza!  I used my wrist- A LOT to make little tent toppers for my treat bags. 

 But- this meant that I could slide the pencil through after a couple of precision placed staples and....VOILA!  I'm actually pretty proud of them.  I *may* even try to make birthday treat bags. But  I'm not promising.

Alright- I'm wiped, kittens.  I moved furniture today and watched my bestie Karen hang wrapping paper for me with a flawless seam and glue gun like nobody's business!  The utmost compliment was bestowed on me when she said, as we wrapped up around 3:30 - "You know, when we got started I would not have believed you would have gotten the room to this state by the time we left."  And she meant it in a positive way- nonbelievers!

Make sure you follow the button below to hook up with Tara for Monday Made It!

I'm off to bed because I have a "Coding- Not Just for Nerds" class tomorrow.  And that title probably means it is for nerds, doesn't it? Whatever.  I own it.