Its a trap

Just try to get through there. I dare you!

It's not duck tape, or goose tape... but if it's going on the walls, green painters tape will have to do.

Pay no attention to the overflowing pile of laundry in the back of the hall.  I can't even get to it with this trap in place.  It'll have to wait another day!

letter quilt

I hate when this happens.  I saw an idea somewhere and didn't think much of it... then I keep thinking about it and make it up.  Then, I can't find the original source... This is one of those times.  I have since signed up for pinterest, so this shouldn't happen again.  EDITED TO ADD:  I found it... look at the end of the post.

 I saw this cute letter 'quilt' made with scrap fabric on an old sheet.  Well, I did end up making it and I love it, and I wish I could give credit where credit is due.

This is one of the ideas I shared at our back to school idea teacher meetings.  I came up with 5 different ways to play with this mat.  I'm sure you could come up with a dozen more. 

 1.  Someone calls out a letter and another player goes to stand on the letter.

2.  throw bean bags at the letter mat and then say the letter that the bag landed on... or the sound of the letter, or a word that starts with the letter. 

I just love a project like this because I get to remember all my special projects while raiding the scrap box.  The X and Y are fabric I had hung on my bulletin boards my first several year teaching.  Z is scrap from a dress my great grandma made for her town bicentennial celebration in 1955. M is fire fabric I made Lou some pj pants from. 

3.  Cover one letter (we used blankie).  Another player tries to figure out what letter is covered.

They can peek if they need to.

4.  Pass out a bucket of toys to the right letter.  P for polar bear.

5.  Match lowercase to the uppercase on the letter mat.  I only have one lowercase letter done.  Making more is on my always growing list.  

Can you think of other games to use with this mat?

 Found it!   This idea came from Teach Beside Me. 

interview with Lou

Lou:  Mom, do you think you could get me some of that goose tape?

Me:  Goose tape?

Lou:  Yeah, I could fix anything with it. 

a minute later.....

Me:  do you mean duck tape?

Lou:  Can you?  I have a lot of things to fix.

Oh my, I just love that silly guy.  I think I can find some duck tape.

okra retry

At the farmers market I happened upon this sweet little lady who was selling okra.  I discussed my okra issue with her and she assure me that given the right okra, my recipe should be great.  She showed me how to check for the right color, length and softness.  She felt like the okra I worked with last time had perhaps been on the plant for too long, like way too long.  She simply couldn't believe that I had to saw it with a serrated knife to cut it.  Her sweet little hubby got out his pocket knife and had me cut a piece right there to see how soft it was.

So I used the same method as before roughly using a Paula Dean recipe for my breading mix.  They were wonderful and delicious and I want to grow my own next year.

While I'm mentioning the garden, here are a few pictures from this week.  I feel like I've been writing a lot about the garden.  In another week I'll be writing bunches about preschool.  I'm seasonal like that. I should have picked a bunch of pumpkin blooms to fry up too.  They are mostly male blooms, not sure if that is common for pumpkins. Lots of boys, just a few girls.

This happy bloom has a plumb bee over for a visit.

Here's a little something funny.  It's on a few squash leaves.  I think it's some kind of leaf mildew. 

The maze of fabric strips supporting the cages is getting more elaborate.  Next year I'll have to investigate in some other type of support.  When I go out to pick tomatoes, I have to wear long pants and long sleeves and crawl on my hands and knees between the plants and under the supporting fabric strips.  It's like an adventure course in my backyard.  

bitty baby watermelons

The watermelons just don't seem to be growing.  They are stuck the size of a... I can't even think.... larger than a softball, smaller than a cantaloupe. 

I just decided that we should pick it and see what was on the inside.  What a surprise to find red fruit. 

Tasty red fruit!  Bee and her friend enjoyed a piece and Lou ate his, rind and all.  I tasted the rind since Lou did, and it wasn't bad at all.  

We ate it in about one minute though... There are two more on the vine.  I guess we'll pick those soon too.   (Yes, Lou is wearing a Buzz Lightyear costume.  He hasn't taken it off since friends passed it down to him yesterday)

hmmmm.

This glove was in the pile of craft goodies from my great aunt. Front of the glove:

turning:

And the back:

Perhaps she had a 6th finger?

Have you ever seen a glove like this?  What purpose would it serve?

class quilt- day 1

Bee's teacher was all in favor of the class quilt.  I have until September 30 to get it done, but the parent teacher group would like pictures as soon as possible to get it on the online auction website.  Geesh,  that part is new.  That means I better get on it! 

The class has a boat theme, so we stuck with ocean animal prints.  Here's what I'm sending into the other parent volunteer today who will be helping the kiddos stamp their hands.   Paint, white square, examples on paper and my sample.

Here are my fabrics for the quilt.  The teacher put JoAnn's gift cards on her 'wish list' and got $40 the first week for this project!  I've already spent most of it, but hope to find batting on sale in the next week or so or I'll go over budget.

screen door remake- wall art

This idea came from my friend Melissa who saw it over at Flamingo Toes.  Melissa was super excited about it and posted it on facebook.  Later in the week, I was in the basement and came across three screen door inserts just like what she needed.  Lucky day.

I commented back to Melissa that I had the door if she had the chicken wire.  Girl after my own heart, had 50 feet of haorded chicken wire in her garage.  

 We gathered old frames and glass jars and she came over for a mama's craft night.  We had heard that the chicken wire was hard to work with  and I considered keeping it with the screen.  Melissa is a hardworken crafter and thought we should attempt it on the third door and see if it would even be possible.  She pried off the trim on the back

And then we pulled back the screen sending staples and nails and wood splinters flying.

The chicken wire was a two person job but manageable. 

These frames had a nice edge on the underside for us to staple.

After the third door was done, we decided we liked it like that and had to do the other two that way.

Melissa helped me come up with a layout.  I had painted the frames earlier in the day different soft colors. We used jute to tie the bottles to the frames.  Then we tied the frames to the chicken wire. 

I hung it on the wall in the living room with empty bottles before Melissa left so we could check it out.  Melissa seemed concerned about the weight of this project on the screws that I used that were already in the wall.  She must think that shelves at my house have a habit of falling.

The next morning Bee and I went to the yard to see what we could pick.  There was plenty.  If you look closely, right in the middle, there is the funniest spider.  He's white and looks like a crab.

I added just enough water to let the little stems get a drink.  I didn't want to add too much weight.  Hubby has since added some anchors and made this a sturdy piece of art.

This is my favorite frame and bottle. 

This bloom came from a row of these silly bushes that I kept thinking if they didn't do anything this year, I was cutting them down in the fall.  Look, they did something.  It was a happy surprise like the dog wood tree.

This project is a little shabby chic for our living room, but I do like it.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep fresh flowers in it all the time so we'll have to see how some from the craft store look.

Melissa didn't have all her bottles and frames ready but took one of the doors home to work on as she finds the right pieces.  That still leaves one door.  I've got it hung up another place for another purpose.  I'll write about it later this week.

so much for that

I have the coolest coolest project to share.  Two good ones, really... but I'll try to work on those post today. 

Here's proof of the masked bandits visit to our garden.  They got the first 5 stalks earlier in the summer and now they came back for these five.  I know, 10 stalks of corn won't feed us more than a corn snack, but we ran out of garden room and just wanted to try it this year.  I had thought we'd do a little three sisters area, but the floods came down and the slime went up....  maybe next year.

Luckily, other gardenrs are doing better than me.  I was able to get corn at the farmers market from this guy down the road for a nice price.

I've canned 4 dozen ears so far, give or take what we ate for dinner.   I love canned corn or it wouldn't probably be worth it.  Hubby has pointed out that they do in fact sell corn at the grocery store.