More Summer Fun

In the summertime, when the weather is hot, you can stretch right up and touch the sky.
— Mungo Jerry

In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible.
— Sarah Dessen

Summer, after all, is a time when wonderful things can happen to quiet people. For those few months, you’re not required to be who everyone thinks you are, and that cut-grass smell in the air and the chance to dive into the deep end of a pool give you a courage you don’t have the rest of the year. You can be grateful and easy, with no eyes on you, and no past. Summer just opens the door and lets you out.
— Deb Caletti

We got off to a bit of a slow start last week, but it started to pick up as it progressed. Monday was a kind of lazy, let’s binge Netflix kind of day. And for lunch it as a Gramie’s charcuterie board kind of day.

Tuesday I spent the better part of the day with my stitchery group at a pot luck garden party. But apparently the husband and the granddaughter have plenty of fun without me. They made themselves egg salad sandwiches for lunch, and went I got home they were having a whale of a time in the pool.

As promised, we did give the papier mâché a try. The shredded paper had been soaking for a couple of days, as the instructions I’d found online said to do. We drained the bowl and squeezed as much excess water out as we could, and mixed the pulp with some glue.

Actually, that was the really fun part. Squishing the sticky mess between our fingers. However, it was also kind of clumpy, and didn’t stick very well. In other words, it was a bust.

But never fear, Gramie had a contingency plan. I’d bought a couple of craft kits earlier in the week, one of which was something called Air Modeling Clay. To be honest, it was more like Modeling Foam, but it was still a lot of fun. So much fun she even persuaded Grappy to join in.

The granddaughter modeled a lot of food, but her favorite was her hamburger, complete with cheese on top of the patty and lettuce underneath. And I believe that’s an olive stuck to the top of it:

The foam like clay was actually a little difficult to work with. It was kind of stretchy, and really didn’t like to hold its shape. But it was workable if you were persistent. The hubby chose to make a monster:

I made a cat and a, um, worm-like creature, but my favorite was my dragon:

At one point the granddaughter got a little fed up with me spending more time taking pictures than crafting. The look says it all:

And when we were finished she had an art show:

Her section is the middle, and is comprised of a taco, her hamburger, I think that’s a tiny slice of pizza in front of the burger, on the plate is a donut (with sprinkles), behind which is a banana split. She also did a really cute representation of her cat, Muffy.

Sadly, this week she has day camp all week, so all I’m needed for is picking her up. But I’m already thinking ahead to the last week of summer and I’ve started lining things up to keep us amused.

I’ve bought a second tie dye kit, this one using liquid dye. And I’ve got a couple of things I bought online coming, specifically to use the dye on. And I’d like to pick up some proper clay. If we had fun with the foamy stuff, think what we could do with real clay! And we can always make more jewelry – she hasn’t seen half of the do-dads I have to make jewelry with.

I hope this week goes quickly. I’m kind of looking forward to my final week of crafting with the granddaughter.

Crafts ‘N Such

Work done by you with unconditional love and pure devotion goes straight in the category of divine and immortal craft.
— Seema Brain Openers

Crafting is like meditation, it allows you to focus your mind and release your stress.
— Unknown

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
— Maya Angelou

My son-in-law’s shift changed last week, so I had the pleasure of my granddaughter’s company. The weather turned cool and rainy, so we didn’t use the pool once. But who needs a pool to have a good time?

We started by making some jewelry. I have a large supply of jewelry supplies, and the granddaughter was more than happy to help me use some up. ;-) First up, we have her jewelry:

Two necklaces and a . . . um . . . decoration to hang on stuff. LOL The pink and blue necklace was the most difficult of all the pieces we made. Not because it was hard to do, on the contrary, the beads were strung on wire so it was pretty easy to do. Except I had the idea of using seed beads as spacers between the larger beads, but they were too small. Then I thought to use bugle beads, but the holes in the larger beads were so big that the smaller beads slipped right into them. Third time was the charm though and I found a larger glass bead that worked fine.

You might notice the granddaughter really liked the mermaid scale charms. She made a necklace with just the charm on it, and put one on either end of her decoration. And then she decided her mom needed mermaid scale earrings to go with the necklace we made her.

I thought that was a pretty good idea, so I made myself a mermaid scale necklace to go with my earrings.

I like the fact that all the mermaid scale charms are different, although we were able to find a matching pair for the earrings. I still have a few of them left – we’ll have to figure out something different to do with them.

Next we tried a craft that I promised her in the spring we’d do in the summer. The dreaded tie dye. Well, it wasn’t nearly as messy as I thought it would be, and we didn’t have to take everything outside to do it.

The kit I got used powdered dye and ice. You basically tie up whatever you’re dyeing, sprinkle the powder over it, and then cover it with ice. Weird, or what? I was kind of skeptical that it would work. But it did. sort of.

Of the two items we dyed, I think the back pack turned out best. We actually had four colours in the kit, but because I figured we should use all of the powder, the dark dye kind of took right over. Oh, well. Better luck next time.

I have to admit, it pays to have a vivid imagination. When we weren’t doing crafts or watching TV, the granddaughter was happy to invent her own games. Like “store,” where she set up a table and was selling cats and cat toys.

Only one of the cats pictured is a real cat. The beauty of her set-up was that it was our stuff we were buying, and we had to give it back when the store closed. And she got to keep the money. LOL

She also set up a restaurant in the living room, but that was strictly for the squishmallows to enjoy. And, apparently, Khaos, who helped herself.

There was also a brief real estate game, where she took pillows from the living room upstairs and re-decorated the bedrooms to become condos. There was one for each of us, and they included a free cat. Fortunately, we never got around to discussing prices.

We also enjoyed a girls road trip to the Michaels Craft store in Peterborough, and while we were there, we naturally had to stop at Spirit Halloween, which just opened in the mall.

The granddaughter was a little disappointed that they didn’t have much in the way of Stranger Things merchandise (her current obsession – she wants to be a demigorgon for Halloween), but they did have a lot of Beetlejuice stuff (a close second).

All in all, we had a fun-filled week. We’ll have to see if we can do as well this week.

Time to Retire

The joy of crochet is its simplicity: there is only ever one stitch in work & just a few variations of the basic stitches to master, but the possibilities of using & combining those stitches together are endless.
― Erika Knight

Crochet is such a wonderful craft! There are so many facets & variations to explore with a hook & some yarn. The creative possibilities are endless
― Margaret Hubert

Women today want to find ways to relax, but have limited time, and crocheting can be a mental health vitamin that provides that feel good place.
― Alyson Bell

Crochet is not a hobby. It's a post-apocalyptic survival skill.
— Unknown

When the hubby and I signed up for Amazon Prime, I started working on an afghan because I thought I’d be spending more time in front of the TV and a crochet project that isn’t too complicated is a great craft for that.

I found an easy pattern – a ripple crochet using the granny stitch – then I found some yarn at Walmart. It was a nice variegated one, and I figured I could alternate it with stripes of matching solid colours. There were only three problems with my plan.

First, I liked the variegated so much that I decided to do the whole afghan in it. Second, I ran out of yarn when I was about twenty inches along, and Walmart didn’t have any more. And third, I wasn’t glued to the TV nearly as much as I thought I’d be.

*sigh*

I was able to get more yarn online, and though it didn’t match 100%, it was good enough for me. And it took a while, but I did, eventually, finish the afghan, which will forever be known as my Amazon afghan.

A few weeks after that, my mother-in-law’s birthday was coming up. She was in a nursing home and I thought she might like a nice blanket for her bed, so I decided to crochet her one using the same pattern as my Amazon afghan. I checked my stash, and found two packages of yarn – 10 balls of 50 ounces each – one in a cream colour, and one in peach. This will be forever known as the Peaches and Cream afghan.

I’m not sure what happened to that afghan. It was given to her and from what I understand she liked it, but I have no idea if she ever used it. She passed away last year and I’m pretty sure it didn’t come back from the nursing home. It’s not that I want it back, I have plenty of afghans of my own. So it’s fine if it got left behind for someone else to enjoy, it just would have been nice to know where it went.

When I was recovering from my cancer surgery a few years ago, one of the nicest gifts I received was an afghan my sister in New Brunswick sent me. This was during the pandemic, so I wasn’t allowed visitors, but I could wrap myself up in this afghan and feel the love.

So when a friend was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy, I decided to pay this random act of kindness forward and do an afghan for her. I picked colours I knew she’d like and away I went. It really made me feel good to know it made her feel good.

Then my brother-in-law’s wife was diagnosed with a rather aggressive cancer. Not only did she have to undergo surgery, but radiation and chemotherapy. So once again I got busy with my hook. I chose colours that made me think of her, and actually worked on it a lot during my stitchery meetings.

And a nod must go to the ladies of the Northumberland Hills Stitchery Guild for not letting me end it with the pinky/purple colour I was going to use. Even though it meant I had to leave in the middle of the meeting to go get a different colour. LOL They were right, I was wrong, and I’m very happy with the way it turned out. So was the recipient.

But I have to confess, after four afghans in a row, I was getting a little tired of this pattern. When I finished that last one I figured I’d give crocheting a rest altogether, but it’s still a good project to work on at the stitchery meetings, and it’s easier to do in front of the TV than stitching something.

So I’m probably going to keep on crocheting, but I’m going to find a new pattern. Time for this one to retire.

More Nostalgia

Nostalgia: A device that removes the ruts and potholes from memory lane.
— Doug Larson.

Nostalgia is a powerful drug. Under its influence, ordinary songs take on dimensions and powers, like emotional superheroes.
— Kate Christensen

It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.
— Frank Zappa

We’ve got a nice routine with the grandbaby on Sundays. She comes over in the afternoon to do crafts with Gramie, and when she gets tired with that spends some time with Grappy in the recording studio where they’re working on a CD of original music.

Doing crafts with the grandbaby always makes me nostalgic. One of my fondest memories of when I was a kid was visiting an aunt who instilled the love of crafts in me. Every time I visited she had a new craft to show me.

I remembered one in particular I thought the grandbaby would enjoy – making a wreath out of a wire coat hanger and garbage bags. First, you bend the coat hanger into a round shape with the hook at the top. Then you cut up garbage bags into short strips and tie them to the hanger. You have to keep pushing them together to make them nice and tight on the hanger, but when you’re done you have a wreath, ready for decorating.

The first problem I ran into was trying to find green garbage bags. Most garbage bags are black now, and while a black wreath might be fine for Halloween, it’s not very Christmassy. However, I did find some white garbage bags and then bought blue decorations (blue is the grandbaby’s favorite color).

The second problem I ran into was the grandbaby having trouble tying the strips to the wire. It was something I’d never considered, but she had a hard time getting the hang of it and was getting a little frustrated. So I pulled out a package of self sticking foam shapes to make decorations out of instead, telling her I’d tie the plastic onto the wire, and she could decorate it the following week.

She loves to draw and paint, so I picked up some wooden, and clay ornaments for us to paint, but we didn’t get around to it this week. We started with decorating the wreath, then a couple more foam decorations, then some snow flakes cut out of coloured paper, and then she did some drawing, which is where she really shines. I ask you, does this look like the work of a six-year-old?

Next week I think we’ll focus on the decorations to be painted so she can embellish them with glitter glue. Glitter glue is a wonderful invention – all the sparkle of glitter with a fraction of the mess.

Trust me, Gramie would never steer you wrong. LOL

Mustelid Monday

mustelid ~ otters, badgers and weasels

I was hoping to have a picture of the grandbaby’s sweater for you today, but as the typing of this post it isn’t quite finished yet. But it’s close, very close. However, it’s a good thing I made it a size larger because it’s a heavy sweater and the long range forecast is for above freezing temperatures. It might be next year before she has a chance to wear it.

Instead the above picture is of the nifty craft case I went all the way to the Peterborough Costco for. The hubby and I saw it last week (?) when we were there and although he urged me to get it, I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to use it. I was thinking stitchery stuff at the time.

But that was before I attended the Stitchery Guild’s appliqué workshop. The pieces we were creating weren’t just appliqué, they were more like fabric art, which included lace and ribbon and assorted doodads. And wouldn’t that craft case come in hand for all that stuff? Of course it would. The only thing that kept me from going earlier in the week for it was the weather. LOL

So Saturday morning I hied me to Costco and bought the case. And since I was in Peterborough anyway, I also stopped at Michaels (you know, the giant craft palace). I honestly didn’t need to stop there because I had more than enough doodads at home to fill the case, but you know how it is. Craft Store.

One of things I scored there was a set of beading needles that had collapsible eyes. I used to do a lot of beadwork – one year for Christmas I beaded dragons on velvet bags for a select group of friends – but it was hard enough to thread those beading needles when I had perfect vision. Now that my vision is much dimmer it’s pretty much impossible, so it’s been a few years since I’ve done any beading. Now, however . . .

Anyway, after a lot of debate I decided to use the case for beadwork and fabric art. I could have used one side for stitchery stuff, but I already have a bag that works for that, and the beading/fabric art stuff seems to just fit together.

The case is nicely compact, but the picture doesn’t do justice to just how much it holds. Each side has two layers, and the dividers are removable so you can make the rows as short or long as you want. My only complaint is that although there are a couple of large compartments, they’re not large enough to hold works in progress.

So . . . in my case you’ll find glass seed beads, sequins, charms, larger glass beads, jewelry hardware, needles, wire, thread, and all my beading odds and ends. Believe it or not, I didn’t fit everything in there – I still have a plastic bin with wooden beads, regular seed beads, cords, beading looms, and bigger, bulkier supplies.

Now the push is on to finish that sweater so I can get at some stitchery. I was off to a slow start with my ideas for the appliqué piece, but now I know exactly how I want to lay it out and how I can enhance it with some beadwork – if those new beading needles work.

And once I’m finished that piece, I have ideas for two larger pieces.

Things are about to get very creative around here.

Miniaceous Monday

miniaceous ~ colour of reddish lead

I’m still waiting for the super cold, super snowy winter the weatherman promised in the fall. We’ve had a couple of really cold days (like Friday when we had extreme cold warnings in effect), but they usually warm right up again the next day. And while Newfoundland has been hit hard with the snow this year apparently they prefer to keep it all to themselves. We haven’t even had enough for a proper snow day.

*sigh*

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been going to Tai Chi twice a week and I’m finally starting to feel if not like I almost know what I’m doing, then at least less klutzy as I go about it. For the most part it’s a friendly group to be part of, and during one of the breaks I was talking to a couple of ladies about stitchery crafts and next thing I know they invited me to check out their group.

I don’t usually do all that great in new, social situations, but I sucked it up and went to their next meeting. I have to say, I’m glad I did. If I thought the Tai Chi group was friendly, they have nothing on the stitchery group. And talented! Boy howdy those ladies have mad stitching skills.

They were also pretty chatty, and through the course of the morning as they talked about the various other groups they were part of made me realize how insular I’ve become. I didn’t even know most of these other groups existed!

That’s not to say I’m going to run out and join them all, but I will be joining this one. They only meet twice a month and it’ll be a fun way to while away the time. For sure it’s revived my interest in my crafts. I’m not sure when or why I got away from them, but it’ll be nice to use up some of those supplies just gathering dust.

This week I’ve also got a poetry reading to prepare for. I spent Sunday morning struggling over a bio to send the MC. I wish her luck. Compared to most of the other poets who’ve done readings, I’m pretty boring – I’ve lived in the same place all my life and haven’t really done a whole lot. No awards or recognition, just piles of unpublished poems.

Meliphagous Monday

meliphagous ~ feeding upon honey

Okay, I’m over the whole time change thing now. It’s safe to talk to me again. At least until the fall. :-D

It was March Break last week, so not only was there no pre-school for the grandbaby, but there was no way I was going near any the playgroup at the local YMCA. It’s busy at the best of times and March Break is definitely not the best of times.

So instead it was up to me to entertain her during the extra time we would have spent at playgroup. Or rather, it was up to Grappy and I. She and Grappy had a great old time just playing, but I had to work at it a little more.

So I pulled out Grammy’s secret weapon - crafts. And the craft of the week was painting. I vaguely remembered doing bubble paint with the daughter and since the grandbaby loves to blow bubbles it seemed like the perfect choice. Now the idea of bubble paint is to mix paint and dish soap and water, and then use a straw to blow into it to create bubbles. And once you have the surface of the pan covered in bubbles, you take a clean sheet of paper and lay it over them to make a print.

I have no idea what I did wrong, but we were unable to get the soap mixture to bubble. We both blew into it and .... nothing. Pretty disappointing. But we discovered that paint mixed with soap is a great texture for finger painting, so all was not lost.

The grandbaby was a little heavy handed with the paint, so when I hung the finished pictures from a line I’d strung up, they kind of dripped a bit. But at least with all that soap mixed with the paint clean up was a snap. ;-)

I’ve done it before, so I know it works. I guess it’s just a matter of finding the right mix. We’ll give it another try sometime, maybe when the weather is warmer and we can try it outside.

In the meantime, I guess it’s back to markers and stickers.

Moilsome Monday

moilsome ~ laborious

Do you craft?

I’ve often said I’ve never met a craft I didn’t like, or at least give a try, hence the big storage closet that’s over-flowing with craft stuff even after cleaning it out a couple of times. And there’s nothing like a snowy day to fill you with the urge to pick up a crochet hook or a pair of knitting needles.

My latest endeavor is a vest I’m knitting while watching TV at night. I don’t remember learning to crochet, but I remember teaching myself to knit from a book. I learned to sew from my mother on an old Singer sewing machine that went forwards and backwards and that was it - but it opened up a whole new world of fashion for my Barbies. And I remember her teaching me to embroider long before that so I could achieve my sewing badge in the church group I belonged to.

I had an uncle who did needlepoint - I have a footstool covered with his work, and the daughter has one of the chairs he did. My sisters like to do counted cross stitch, but I find it hard on the eyes. I do like to embroider though, and I have a couple of unfinished quilts made up of embroidered squares. And I’ve had to stop myself from crocheting afghans - I’ve run out of people to give them to and I have more than I can possibly use. :-D

One of my favorite places to visit when I was a kid was Owen Sound. Not because it’s a beautiful city, which it is, but because that’s where Aunt Florence lived. And Aunt Florence was the Craft Queen. She took craft classes and clipped craft sections from magazines and never failed to have a new craft to share.

Oh, the memories...

We made flowers out of crepe paper - big red poppies with black centers, and yellow daisies, and white tulips. Using fabric and starch we made fabric flowers using the same patterns, and she made the Three Wise Men that sat on her mantle-piece every Christmas after that. Then there were the St. Patrick’s Day pigs, made out of styrofoam egg cartons. Easter egg shaped bird’s nests made out of balloons wrapped in string.

I think of Aunt Florence every time I’m in the craft aisle of a dollar store, as I was on the weekend. And despite having a closet full of craft supplies I couldn’t resist picking up a few more. The granddaughter (hitherto to be known as GD) is at just the right age for crafts.

She already loves painting, and likes putting things together. So I’ve laid in a supply of pom poms and pipe cleaners and googly eyes. I even found a couple of craft kits from Christmas stockings past, which we tried out last week but while the school glue I had on hand is good enough for paper, I needed a proper craft glue to deal with pipe cleaners and pom poms.

Naturally, I subscribe to the belief that the best gifts are the handmade ones. So I was thrilled to receive a dragon GD (with a little help from her dad) made me out of an egg carton. Of course hubby immediately started whining that he wanted a penguin made out of an egg carton for his birthday. Well, they didn’t use an egg carton, but they did make a pretty impressive penguin.

Aunt Florence would be proud!