Back to the old blog!

Hey G. S.  --

I guess since Paper Moon is the name of a chain of gentleman's clubs in the south? I am going back to my old blog name I heart ukulele.

Star Wars Day

When I came home from work today, V and Dave told me that today is Star Wars day because it is the day you can say "May the Fourth be with you."  V make some droid drawings after dinner.

Peep Town

V made some Peepalicious cupcakes for Easter!  They look great, but I had some of my MIL's cheescake!

Salt Dough Critters (aka 'Crackle my NaCl' according to Dave)

I recently bought a book at Goodwill called Creative Dough Crafts, by Brigitte Casagranda.  It has this recipe for salt dough.  I've wanted to try making stuff out of salt dough since the 80s when I saw Christmas ornaments a friend and her mom made.  I like how it is made out of three cheap ingredients:  Flour, salt and water. 

Salt dough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt (non-iodized is easier to work with, according to my book)
1 cup cold water (or less)

I put in 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt and mixed it together.

Make a hollow in the middle and added almost one cup of water.

Mixed it up and added a little more water.

Squeezed it.  It seemed like the right consistency to me.  If you make pie dough I think this will be really easy for you.

Here's when i took out the dough, squeezed it together and kneaded it.  The book says this:

Sift flour over a working surface and work the dough ball until it's a smooth ball with no lumps.  If the dough crumbles, add water.  If it's sticky, add flour. 

(I hadn't read that part yet, so that's why there's no flour on my table.)

Dough ball.  It's all ready to mold!

It's best to make stuff with it the same day.  If you're not gonna work with it right away, wrap it up and store it somewhere kinda cool, but not the fridge.

V made a huge Agent P head.

Dave made a Angry Birds pig. 

I made Perry the Platypus.  I took paperclips, cut them with a wire cutter, and stuck them in the top of the "sculpture" to make a little hanger.  V could hang them up on her wall after they're done.

Form the dough right on some foil so you can move it to the baking tray with ease.  I baked these in a 225 degree (Fahrenheit) oven for an hour with the door slightly open.  This is to let the humidity escape.  Then I closed the door and baked another hour at the same temp. 

To test if they're done, tap with your finger.  It should sound like hardened clay, rather than a dull thud. I thought the huge Perry head was baked all the way,  but unfortunately when we pulled off the foil the next day, I found out it wasn't all the way done.  I think we need to keep them to a smaller size.

We made these things last week, and we were able to paint them after dinner tonight.

 

We used watercolor paint on um.  I used a Sharpie for the eyes, nostrils and ears.

I took them outside and sprayed them real good with the only varnish I had.  I think they need a different varnish and I'm going to have to experiment with that.  Anyway, after that's all dry they're ready to hang up.

Thursday Night Art Class

We went to a drop-in art class through our city.  V drew up a design for our sculpture and then we made it out of wire and pipe cleaners!  Pardon, chenille stems. Can't forget the googly eyes!

Tears of Joy Puppet Theater

We had a super fun time going to downtown Portland with friends to see a puppet show by Tears of Joy Puppet Theater. 

So happy in a sculpture/chair at the theater!
 

These pics were from the question time after the puppet show.

Then we went and had a delicious lunch at Habibi.  I've got to get back there soon!

New Stuff for Me!

Today I'm psyched I have some new goodies on the way from my sister-in-law who has a new business.  She makes some way cute stuff out of yarn and pure talent! Here's a pic of her and her daughter.

Lazy as a Daisy

This is a link to her new blog.  I love the face you're making back there, niece!

Grrreat.

Cheeky! I would only request more specifics in the constructive criticism. I aim to improve!

Cat Masks

Mazatlan Dinner

Thanks for letting me use your markers, kid.  So they love this video game called Infinity Blade.

Sunday Dinner

Hold Me Closer Tiny Hamster

 

Yesterday we took V's drawing of Buster the hamster (with rather disturbing paws and claws) and embroidered it on a recycled tee shirt to make a pillow.  V stitched quite a bit of Buster's lovely green body and picked out the floss colors. 

We also had to change his name to BuSTAR because that's obviously better than Buster.

Valentine's Day Cake

 Dave and I are pretty lucky our kid made us a heart-shaped cake for Valentine's Day!

 

You pretty much haven't lived until you've tried a mouthful of mini marshmallow, maraschino cherry, almonds and coconut. 

Pokemon Theme Song - Easy Chords

One of my valentines loves Pokemon. So for this Valentine's day, if you also have someone in your life who can barely contain themselves at the mention of Squirtle or Pikachu, here's a song you can sing to them.

The Pokemon theme song is fun to play because it's so dramatic.  My favorite part is "Oooooh, you're my best friend in a WORLD WE MUST DEFEND!"  I imagine Jack Black.

I play a version that has only three easy chords:  G, D and C.  I think it sounds pass-able and great for me and my kid when we're just messing around and having fun.

If you are looking for a version that is true to the song I would recommend checking Ultimate Guitar for the chords.  (Of course they will show you the fingerings for guitar chords, so you'd have to Google the ukulele chord fingerings if you don't already know them.)

Enjoy!

 

Pokemon Theme
 
[G] I wanna be the [D] very best
[G] The best that ever [D] was
[C] To catch them all is [G] my real test
[C] To train them is my [D] cause
[G] I will travel [D] across the land
[G] Searching far and [D] wide
[C] Each Pokemon to [G] understand
[C] The power that's [D] inside

[C] Pokemon!
[G] It's you and me
[C] I know it's my [D] destiny
[C] Pokemon!
[G] Ooh, you're my best friend
[C] In a world we must [D] defend
[C] Pokemon!
[G] Our hearts so true
[C] Our courage will [D] pull us through
[C] You teach me and [G] I'll teach you
[C] Poke [D] mon
Gotta catch 'em [C] all
Gotta catch 'em [G] all

[G] Every challenge [D] along the way
[G] With courage I will [D] face
[C] I will battle [G] every day
[C] To claim my rightful [D] place
[G] Come with me, the [D] time is right
[G] There's no better [D] team
[C] Arm in arm we'll [G] win the fight
[C] It's always been our [D] dream

[C] Pokemon!
[G] It's you and me
[C] I know it's my [D] destiny
[C] Pokemon!
[G] Ooh, you're my best friend
[C] In a world we must [D] defend
[C] Pokemon!
[G] Our hearts so true
[C] Our courage will [D] pull us through
[C] You teach me and [G] I'll teach you
[C] Poke [D] mon
Gotta catch 'em [C] all
Gotta catch 'em [G] all

If you have a minute, please let me know if these did or didn't work out for you! =)

Room Painting

I had a really fun time with my niece painting her room. D's mom and grandma had already painted the walls, and D and I added some finishing touches. She was cracking me up the whole time because she is SO funny and SO smart.  Plus her two cats had to be in the room with us so they wouldn't disturb the other painting going on in the living room (or escape from the house) so she showed them to me too.  She really loves animals and that's why we made a plan together to paint her pets on her wall.

Whoa nice pineapple!

 

 

Thanks for inviting me over D! You are such a fun girl! Sometime you've gotta come help me paint at my place.

Buster

Buster the hamster, aka Dweezil the Pokemon or BuSTAR!

I didn't expect to sculpt a Baku today

V has a book called "Magical Creatures" and she is intrigued by a creature called a 'Baku'.

The book says in Japan, some children keep a little Baku statue next to their bed to scare off nightmares.  They have an elephant's head, a lion's mane, feet like a tiger's and tail like a cow's.

V doesn't take this very seriously, but tonight we thought it would be fun to make a Baku statue because we had some air-dry craft clay around.

,

Our "Baku"

I thought the Model Magic clay was really fun! I would buy it again. When I bought it I thought we'd make they little jewelry thingies out of it, but this was fun too. Avery made some awesome clay and toothpick sculptures and I feel pretty bad for not taking a picture of them before they came apart.  I'll remember next time. (Maybe.)

I couldn't let any clay go to waste! So I made this little bird.  The sprinkles? They were just around.