Wear Red Day - Finished Projects - Tangles - And a Treat

I know it's Groundhog Day but it's also Wear Red Day for Heart Health Month and we're wearing red for this little Heart Warrior who will be 9 mos. old in a couple of weeks.  He's pretty much always in motion these days as you can see it was hard to get him to stay still for his photo.  He had his 6 mo. heart check-up and is holding his own on that front.  He is a little joy!

And it was a joy to receive as a gift from my friend Sabrina this needle felting kit to make these little blue tits last Christmas (2022).  I was half-way through with them last spring and then misplaced the box for a while.  Luckily I was able to put my hands on it earlier in January and got them done.  I've never done needle felting but it really was fun.  You really have to be careful with those needles though.  I might have to do a little more work on those masks and eyes.

Sabrina sent me this beautiful little wooden puzzle this year.  I love the birds - we share that love.  The pieces to this puzzle are very distinctively shaped making it a little more challenging than it may look, but I totally enjoyed the challenge.  It was fun to do during this gray month.

I gave myself two other challenges to participate in.  One lasting just for the month, and the second one is going to go on for 100 days (but it's not the 100 Day Project - that will be starting on 2/18 this year and I'm still trying to come up with a plan for that). 

Last year I had done the 7F5R Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge with similar substrate in pink.  I used the blue tags this time.  

It's good to have these handy when doing original tiles to get some ideas for patterns.

This 100 Days of Tangles is run by a FB group and involves a different tangle for each day.  What's the difference you might ask?  Fragments are the little pieces of tangles that when put together create a larger form.  So you may see, in the small tiles below, fragments that come together in a grid to make a larger tangle.  In any case, I'm doing these on a slightly larger square base of 2 3/4".  I have purchased these tags on the rings through Temu.  I know some people have had bad experiences with them, but so far, I have not, but I have mostly ordered craft-related items and little gadget type things.  I also only use my laptop for ordering things from online sources and only use Paypal for payments hoping that there won't be any issues.  

I have bought a couple of their Lego-like kits, both for GS1 and myself.  This is one that I put together during January - a little cockatiel with wings that move.  Let me tell you that they are a bit challenging with all those little pieces, but fun nonetheless.

And one last thing to share tonight - there's a place nearby called Paris Bistro that has baked goods as well as sandwiches and salads.  Each season they have some specialties and I had to try this one - the Cookie Butter Latte Creme Filled Donut.  It was delicious!

So tomorrow - February 3rd - is Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day and we'll be visiting the little ice cream shop we did last year but it will be for the last time as they're retiring soon.  I'm looking forward to the apple crisp again!

What Can You do With a Bell?

Found these little wooden bell shapes in $Tree and saw an idea posted somewhere to make them into little gnome ornaments, so of course you know I had to give it a whirl.

I painted the body of the bell red, the clapper a light fleshtone, and the hanger white.  Both sides.

Added some faux beard fur and a metallic cord hanger to finish them up. (The fur is what I looked for for 2 days before ordering again and then finding it an hour after I placed the order.  Thank goodness for returns.  I still have several sheets from the original package to use up!)

I'll have some to gift and some to hang on my lemon tree with the triangle gnomes I made last year.

My dining room table is currently overflowing with "ideas" as I'm simultaneously trying to get the house in order.  The trees are up and decorated.  Well, the lemon tree isn't yet, but I'll get to that today hopefully.  There always seems to be more to put away each year....... things that I don't mind having out like books and craft supplies that seem to multiply but need to be hidden away to make the place presentable.  And therein lies the problem of remembering where such things have been hidden.  Yes, I have a craft room, but that's upstairs and I keep a lot of stuff downstairs so I don't have to climb those stairs so it's my own fault.  

We finally were able to find the cinnamon candies I use to make my marshmallows so that will be put on the agenda for either tomorrow or early this week.  I have one cookie recipe that I want to try that uses a cake mix and a container of Cool Whip which I have waiting in the wings.  Whether I get to make any other cookies is left to be decided.  My kids don't particularly like to have a lot of sweets around for the little guys contrary to what they had growing up which was a smorgasbord of holiday cookies and candies, so we've really cut back on that aspect with just a couple of special things.  It makes it easier with less preparation but more difficult in the choice of what to make.  We all have different favorites.  

So I'll close with a question - what's your favorite Christmas/holiday treat?

Big and Little April Celebrations So Far

Whew!  Is it already the third full week of April?  Time to catch up with those daily celebrations.

I don't think that there were any April Fool's Day pranks played here this year.  I told our GS1 that I was thinking of sending him a potato on April 1st but didn't get around to it.  Maybe next year.

I had the best Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich on PBJ Day using a giant jar of Bonne Maman 4 fruit preserves that was nearing expiration date.  And since it's now open, PBJ has been on the lunch menu more often these last weeks.  

Find a Rainbow Day on April 4th was me using my markers to catch up with my 100DayProject.

There was some thought put into the next couple of days but plans didn't work out as we were busy finishing up our projects for GS1's Golden Birthday.  What is a Golden Birthday you might ask (as some of our family and friends around a certain age have)?  It's when you turn the age of the date of your birthday - so in this instance, GS1 turned 7 on the 7th.  I think I promised pictures of the "Dots" project which was part of our birthday gift.  He's REALLY into Legos and our DIL saw something on IG that she thought Papa might be able to make in his workshop - a Lego Sorter.  It consists of series of wooden boxes of incremental height size with holes in each base in incremental hole size nested on top of each other with casters at the bottom.  The premise is to add the mixed up Legos in the top layer and shake the box so they will fall through the holes according to size making it easier to sort them.

This is the picture from the website she saw.  You could buy a finished one (for $199) or print out the free pattern.  You already know what we did about that.   He had to adapt the project to work with the tools that he had because this is made with a CNC machine that works in decimals. This wasn't too bad with the basic box(es).  But the size and spacing of the holes proved to be a little challenging converting those decimals to fractions.  (Guess who got to do that part of it?  Not the person with the degree related to math.)  The pattern had the size of the hole but not how far between each was so I pretty much had to figure that out with a little trial and error.  Thank goodness for a good eraser.  Then he had to find the drill bit that would most closely apply.

The top and bottom pieces.  (Each box is slightly larger than 12" square.) We opted not to put a knob on the top so 1)they could stack something on top of it if need be, and 2)they could add a plate for a build if they wanted (like in the picture).  He put ball casters on the bottom of the box.

And six more levels with the holes.

Including this level with holes that are for the "dust" - 720 of them.

He does have a drill press that he was able to use on the holes with the exception of the center ones that were just out of reach of the press - so he had to use the hand drill for those. I had made a pattern for each of the layers using parchment paper and using the measurements from the plan laid out one quarter of the square.  Since the paper is see-through I then folded the paper in half to mark the other side, then in quarters, until all the holes were marked for him to transfer to the wood.  You see that there are triangles without holes at each inside corner - they are there because the bottom of each level has a triangle of wood that extends from the bottom of that box into the one below so they stay together when shaking.  

It works okay.  DIL took a video of him using it but it was too shaky to use.  It was a learning experience for HWNSNBP - as are most of his first-time woodworking projects.   He considers it a plus when he learns new techniques like most creatives. Here is the card that I made for GS1.

That 7 was done with gold glitter paper and the happy birthday had a gold paper shadow.  Those "Legos" were 4 circle punches layered on top of each other to make them stick out like the real Lego bricks.  

His birthday was on Good Friday and he was off from school and his parents off from work.  They planned an indoor scavenger hunt for him that sent him through the house reading clues that were printed on some Lego scrapbook paper that I had given DIL.  The last clue led him to his suitcase and in it were tickets for a surprise, once in a lifetime, golden birthday trip to the Official Legoland and Kennedy Space Center in Florida over Easter break.  We were invited over for a grandparents brunch the next day and he was so excited about going.  We were celebrating with his choice of pizza and ice cream cake and there was a near meltdown that was avoided by the cake not being melted down when he was allowed to bring the cake in the box from the freezer in the garage to the kitchen and missed the counter.   Had it been a cake cake it would have been a disaster but you've heard of the 10 second rule - it was applied here with some trimming off of the icing before it was sliced up.

This is where they stayed in Florida the first part of the week.  He had a blast.  Actually, they all had a great time.

Following along at a build workshop.

And his very own Golden Birthday Brick. (I think it's on a keychain.)

That Saturday was also "Draw a Bird Day" and I managed to scribble some in my sketchbook when we got home that evening.  Cardinals or bluejays? Cedar waxwings?  Without color we'll never know.

We traveled to Delaware for Easter and got to spend some time with GS2 before SIL's family arrived later in the afternoon.  It's amazing what fun you can have with dinosaur cars, empty plastic Easter eggs, and a lazy Susan.

He got to go to the aquarium with his mom and dad the next day and now he wants "tentacles".

Two more days to share before I end this very long post.  Wednesday, April 12th was Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day and I made us some delicious grilled cheese with bacon and tomato sandwiches.

And Thursday was Scrabble Day.  I remembered that I had just come across some scrapbook paper that was a Scrabble board and one of the tiles, so I made a birthday card for my stash.  (I think it comes to 104 points.)

Thanks for sticking with this so far.  I'll be back with more tomorrow.  

Week 7 of The 100 Day Project 2023 and Some Eggs

 

These eggs are made from dies that I recently got.  They are about 2" x 1 1/2" and I decided to cut them from the heavyweight kraft cardstock that I have and color them with my Prismacolor pencils.  I cut and layered four on top of each other to make them look like they were cut from wood and so I could add thread to them to hang.  I hadn't gotten finished with them before Easter so I'm going to be putting them away with the Easter decorations until next year.  

A good glue pen came in very handy for gluing these together.  They kind of remind me of the Dresden paper ornaments that used to be popular around the holidays.

Pigs Are Flying Today

Happy Flying Pig Day!  Yep, it's here again.  A day to remember that all things are possible.

I finally used one of my Pinterest pins to create these flying pigs.  I sandwiched some light cardboard (the kind that cracker boxes are made of) between some pink-hued scrapbook paper, traced the pattern onto that and cut out the pigs.  I took a small hole punch to make the hole for the fishing line so they could hang.  The wings were cut from heavy white scrapbook paper and added to the pigs with a combination of double-sided tape and glue.  Oh, and I added a little sparkle to the edges of the wings with some clear, brush on Wink of Stella (not visible in the photos).

Some of these pigs flew right out the door and to the post office.  They're off to parts near and far.

I received a couple of new flying pigs for Christmas this year and I was waiting til now to show them off.  This is a metal plaque that I can hang up with one of my favorite sayings.

This pig is one of three that are hanging in my kitchen.  They are made of wood and have spacer beads in between them.  They are quite at home near the actual original flying pig from my collection.  

This last one was a gift from my daughter.  The picture makes it look a little more lavender than it is IRL.  And there are beautiful gold accents on the wings too.  She will be added to the gypsy rod. 

Some other pigs set out for display.

I asked HWNSNBP to bring up the box of the larger ceramic pigs I thought he stored in the basement.  He thought they were there too but couldn't find them.  Then he seemed to remember that he saw them when he was putting the Christmas decorations away in the storage closet off the craft room.  I decided I didn't want him moving things around in there to get to the closet because I'm trying to sort through stuff and it would get all mixed up again if he were to move it.  So the large pigs will stay stored until next March.  Hopefully we'll remember to pull them out when we put the Christmas decos away.

 I made a bunch more of the pigs you saw on the tree after I mailed the ones I usually to do my "Pig Ladies" so if anyone out there wants one, I'd be glad to mail you one.  Just let me know.

Now, should I feel bad that I had ham on my grilled cheese for lunch today and planning to have bacon and eggs for dinner tonight to use up some eggs before their expiration date?