greetingarts

we had a great day... it was a super way

... to spend some time together.  La la la la la laaaaa, are you singin' along yet?  What, you don't know the Fresh Beat Band?  Then you obviously don't live in my house.  Because Jessica *loves* the Fresh Beat Band.  When she watches the show (the photo above was from September, 2009), she lays out a scarf as her dance floor, puts on some boogie shoes and sometimes dresses up, and starts doing all the arm gestures, the poses, the spins, and sings along.  When she gets tired, she'll sit down, pull out all her markers and start drawing them.

And by chance, on Saturday night as I was searching the internet to find out if who was going to be at the Los Angeles Festival of Books (which I was totally planning on not attending on Sunday but decided to look it up - just in case), I discovered The Fresh Beat Band was performing live at 10 in the morning.  So my husband and I totally rearranged our plans (him much more so than me) and got the kids up at 6:45 am the next morning to make the hour drive.

Except for Mr. I'm-a-Completely-Selfish-A** who insisted on standing up to videotape the concert even though he already had an unobstructed view, and Ms. What-Can-I-Do-I-Can't-Ask-My-Child-to-Sit-Down who seemed so apologetic that her child was standing up on a seat directly in front of my baby but who was somehow unable to physically pick up her four year old and move her the eff over, or, gee, maybe have her sit down... aside from those two clueless individuals, we couldn't have asked for more.  It was a surprise, but the instant Jessie saw the instruments on an empty stage, she screamed "The Fresh Beat Band?!" and freaked out.

They sang all her favorite songs, Bananas, Loco Legs, Stomp the House.  Fabulous.  And ended with Great Day, of course.

And then we waited a little over thirty minutes to see them in person, and get their autographs.  They were so friendly, energetic and gracious, really made my girls feel special.  And my little one was star struck.  She couldn't speak at all, couldn't say a single word.  Rebecca kept telling them Jessie was their biggest fan, but Jessie barely blinked, didn't move except for my prodding her onwards.  They personalized little postcards of the band, and all four of them also signed these little backstage passes I printed off of the Nick Jr. website the night before, and laminated with packing tape.

So special, what a memory.

It was a great day,

it was a super way

To spend some time together.

We had a great day

The very best day

And nothing could be better.

plant me - a long-winded tutorial of sorts

Okay, so maybe I didn't take as many good photos as I'd originally thought... but anyway, for whatever it's worth, here goes a mini tutorial to let you know how I made the little plantable flower favors for Jessie's preschool class.  It's kind of a multi-step process, you can split it up if your kiddos are going to be helping and have a short attention span.  There are papermaking kits out there that you can buy that have much better directions than mine, and probably lots of great videos and online tutorials too - so please go check them out if I end up utterly confusing you.

 
First, you'll need to find some paper you were about to relegate to the recycle bin, mostly non-glossy (though you can put in a bit of that, too).  We used some construction paper from old preschool homework projects, and the corner of one of those drink holders they give you at the fast food places when you haven't got enough hands...  The size of the pieces isn't a horribly big deal, because next you'll be getting out the machinery.  Well, actually, I  take that back.  If you're using super thick stuff like the drink holder, I think you probably do want to rip it up so the pieces are no bigger than oh, say your thumbnail, or your blender might not like you too much.

So then, yes, pull out an old blender - preferably from the thrift store and not one you'll ever use for margaritas again.  If you don't want to mess up your blender, you could probably get away with ripping up your pieces really really reeeally small and letting it all soak in a bucket of water overnight.  But my kids (and I) are not that patient, and I made my own paper way back before I was married so I already owned a messed up blender.  Put a couple of handfuls of ripped up paper into the blender, then fill about three-quarters of the way with water.  Hit the button and mash it up until it looks like a smoothie.  Puree is the right setting on mine...

It doesn't look attractive, I know.  But you're going to pour it into a dishpan and probably make at least another batch.  I have my well-used tub filled about halfway.  As  you can see from the grey sides, if you use junk mail or stuff that already has printing on it, the ink will run and that's just something you need to be aware of.  Obviously, this isn't an exact science - at least not for me, anyway.

The rest of the supplies you'll need are a sponge, some muslin or other cheap cloth (keep in mind whatever texture your cloth is, that's the texture you'll have on your paper - mine is smooth), and some wooden frames.  The size of your frame will determine the size of your paper.

 
One of your frames is simply a wooden rectangle, or whatever shape you want, really.  The other frame has a very fine mesh stapled to it.  You're going to hold the two frames together, the mesh one on the bottom with the mesh side up (staples facing you) and then the other one stacked on top.  You'll dunk the frames into your washtub, letting the paper pulp settle onto the frames.  Move gently from side to side so that you get even coverage, and here's where you add the seeds, and need a couple of extra hands.  You could also pour the seeds into the tub after you add the pulp and mix it up inside the basin (with your hands, don't put the seeds in the blender of course), but I just wanted to make sure you could see them lying on top of the paper.  Then lift straight up, and let it drain, using the sponge from the underside to wick away as much water as possible.  Then, carefully remove the top frame and turn the mesh frame with the paper on it face down onto your cloth.  Use the sponge to press down on the back of the mesh frame, removing as much moisture as you can, and repeat until you can't wring out your sponge any more.  Start pulling the frame up from a corner, and the paper should come away from the mesh easily, sticking to the cloth on the bottom. 

 
Take the cloth with the newly-made, still-wet paper on it, set it by a window in the sunlight, allow to dry, and then the paper will peel right off the muslin.  If you don't put seeds in, you can even iron your paper and it will be dry almost instantly (again, that patience thing).  But, of course, if you have seeds you can't do that! 

When everything was dry, I cut out a cute shape, traced on the back of the paper (less seed interference that way) and cut.  You could certainly use a die cutter or paper punch.  That would be much smarter.

 
We used poppy, batchelor button, forget-me-not and daisy seeds.  They were small, and not too thick.  

I printed up some simple tags so the parents would know what to do with these, and cut them into strips.

I looped the strips and used a water soluble glue stick to attach them onto the backs of the flowers.  In retrospect, I think they would have been cuter with green paper, maybe even cut to look like leaves.  Anyway, they were pretty simple, even though my directions may not make it seem so.  Please email if you have questions, I didn't mean to confuse anyone.  I hadn't expected to explain the whole papermaking process, just the adding seeds part and how I made them into favors!

Happy Earth Day, everyone.

pencils for the STARs

Today was the first day of California Standardized Testing for Rebecca, this big huge deal for students grades 2 - 11.  We're in Silent School Mode, volunteers do not work in the classrooms for two weeks, and everything is very serious and a bit stressful.  Now, my gal can seriously work herself up about things, to the point of making herself sick, so I've not done anything to build this up.    We've gotten reminders sent home about the importance of having a good breakfast, being well rested, getting to school on time - things we practice every school day anyway, so I'm just trying to keep it fun and make it seem exciting instead of tense.

 
So, to keep it festive, a classroom gift of much-needed pencils was in order.  When I picked her up after school, Rebecca said the test was "not what she expected," though she wouldn't expand on that for me, and I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.  She did say that she thought it was long.  I think she probably did great, based on her practice tests from last week, and from her regular schoolwork.  Only eight more days to go.

oh joy

Today there's a repost of my crocheted flower tutorial on Vanilla Joy, and don't forget to scroll down or look in her sidebar for all the cool knitting and crochet giveaways she's got going on this week, too!

love the earth baby

Five years ago, something felt weird after we gave Rebecca a bath and got her ready for bed.  My due date was tax day, so it's not like wasn't expecting it, but still - I wasn't quite sure whether or not my water had broken (I know, dumb, right?)... my parents were already here to help out, so my husband and I decided to go to the hospital (20 miles away) just in case.  But first, I wanted things to be as normal as possible for Rebecca, so I decided to read to her as usual before leaving.  She chose a long one, her favorite at the time, The Lorax.  And then, less than six or seven hours later, Jessie was in my arms.

So it seems only fitting that for two years, Jessica has wanted to have a Love the Earth party for her birthday.  Well, actually, it started as a Save the Earth party, which was supposed to entail all her guests going to the beach to clean it up and collect trash.  Instead, I made Earth cupcakes for her preschool class (with heart liners), along with plantable flower tags as party favors.

I can never quite get my cupcakes to be just the right size, not too flat but not overflowing, but these were passable.  The ocean was white whipped frosting with almost half a bottle of blue food coloring (could probably have used even more), and some green blobs on top were the land masses.  It all turned out not too shabby, pretty much the way I envisioned.  My geography was never any good, so don't look too closely.  Just call it artistic license.

 
Last week the girls and I made some paper and sprinkled seeds in towards the end of the process to make these plantable tag party favors.  Super easy, fun for us to do, and a big hit with the preschoolers.  I'll explain more about these later, I took lots of pictures along the way.  Good summer vacation project, too, when playing with water is a big plus and getting wet isn't a big deal.

Oh, happy birthday, Jessie, baby.  Five is so big.  And still so little.  Blow out your candles and let me wish for you to always know and feel how much I love you.

Disneyland, here we come.

forgot february and feeling guilty

Why does it feel like February's KAL was so long ago?  I sent this off to my mom for her birthday, hope it didn't take her as long to figure out what the picture is as it did the rest of my family...  Looking at the sweet, Spring image makes me feel calm for a moment, which I've needed lately.

 
I've been feeling very anxious and guilty these days, with a nervous tension in the pit of my stomach.  So many things around me seem to be negative and sad.  Rebecca's (and Jessie's, come August) school may close due to budget cuts.  A child in her class had his last day of school Friday, because his lymphoma came out of remission and he'll be undergoing chemo for the next nine months.  Puts the fact that Rebecca has had an on-again, off-again fever during Spring Break into perspective.  But I still feel bad for her that we've done nothing, gone nowhere in this beautiful 80 degree weather, and that the most exciting thing that's happened all week is a two hour picnic/playdate with her sister's friends after preschool.  Jessie's 5th birthday is next week, and I don't think she's going to have a party.  With Rebecca's school activities, then Easter, I just had no time to plan anything and send out invites, or make any decisions.  But 5 is a biggie, right?  I feel horrible.  I'll do cupcakes and some treats for her preschool snack time, but that's it.  This will be the first birthday for both girls combined that goes by without a party.  I totally feel like I'm gypping my baby.

Oh, the guilt.  Why do I let it get to me?  Do any of you ever get like this, and if so, what do you do about it?  I really need to just concentrate on the fact that my girls are healthy (relatively, anyway) and show them I love them in the simple, every day things.

squeezing it all in

  
After pretty much only being able to concentrate on the Book Fair and Open House for my daughter's elementary school last week, I pulled Easter together in a day and a half.  Finished up the March KAL soon after the last clue was posted yesterday evening, after I got the girls' baskets assembled.

Ha, one guess where I got most of the items for their baskets!  Gotta multi-task somewhere, right?  I picked up the Honeybaked Ham after school on Friday and did all the grocery shopping yesterday (and this morning... thank goodness for chain stores that open 365 days a year!).

 
There was an indoor egg hunt.  Nice shot of most of my yarn stash and craft books...

And we dyed 18 eggs, but that wasn't enough, so then 18 more... they would have kept right on going if we hadn't run out.

Then there were the three dozen or more cookies we decorated.  The carrots are my favorite.  Many sprinkles were consumed, much icing was dripped, and lots of cookies didn't make it into the photo.  They were delicious!  And couldn't be any easier.  I just opened up the Krusteaz Sugar Cookies Mix, all I had to do was add a quarter cup of water and stir a bit to get to the fun part.

Oh, and we had a bit of a shakeup, but luckily we were all at the dining room table anyway, so the girls and I just sat underneath and my cousin and mother-in-law stood, waiting for the swaying to stop.  My husband and his brother didn't even feel it!  Must be a guy thing...

I think I can safely say that a fun time was had by all.  After I vacuum up the equivalent of at least half a jar of sprinkles and sanding sugar that fell on the floor, and the kids are asleep, I think I'm going to have a couple more cookies and relax for the first time in what feels like a very long while.  What a great day.

Happy Easter!