We went to a Valentine’s Day party today with some other homeschoolers and I was so impressed with all the craftiness!!

I  mustache you to be my Valentine!!!

Hearts!

Oragami hearts

Fortune cookie Valentines—cut out a felt circle, glue a pipe cleaner down the center, insert fortune and fold up and sqeeze into fourtune cookie shape! Genius!!

Look how cute these pins are!!!!

Molly made these. Hershey kisses, cellophane, flower petals, floral wire and tape. So cute!!

I LOVE these!!!! We used a die cut machine to cut the word love out of cardboard and then wrapped it in yarn. I first saw these here. We also used pipe cleaners to make the word LOVE and then wrapped those in yarn also.

Aren’t these so cute???? You still have a few days to get your Valentine craft on! Hope something here inspires you!

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Post tags: craft, Crafts, floral wire, flower petals, fortune, fortune cookie, fourtune, hershey, hershey kisses, homeschool, homeschoolers, mustache, Oragami, pipe cleaners, project, Valentine, valentine craft, valentine hearts, valentine s day, valentines, Valentines---cut, yarn

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I have been ooohing and aaahhing over Artsyvilles  drunken tiles for a while now. We finally bought some alcohol based inks (adirondack inks) and some 10 cent tiles from Lowe’s and went to town!

We started with  the alocohol blending solution squirted onto the tiles and spread it  around with a toothbrush.

Then we gently dripped small amounts of the colored dyes on to the tiles. As long as the alcohol is wet the dye spreads and runs.

We used straws to blow around some of the colors and q-tips to draw into the colors. If  you add alcohol on top of the dyes it takes the color away.

This was so fun. No two tiles turned out alike. We also learned that you can’t really control the outcome. You think you have it just the way you want it to look and then the dyes just keep spreading and combining into something else. But they all looked really great!

This is the same tile from the first photo–look how it changed.

These dyes are permanent and will stain so prepare accordingly!

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Post tags: adirondack, adirondack inks, alcohol, alocohol, art, class, color, colored dyes, colors, dye, Dyed, tile, Tiles

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There was a back porch removed

There was lots of digging and hauling of dirt!!! Jake told me he felt like Mike Mulligan!

They dug for days!

Then there was pouring of gravel and concrete and building the foundation with stone blocks. And then came the framing and sheeting.

And then the trusses (this was truly beautiful!) I have a new love of architecture and hardware stores.

From there it was more framing and sheeting

Here is Ginger standing on our new pantry. This will eventually have railings and be a loft above the kitchen.

We have windows now too! And heat as of today–thank goodness!

Daytime view and night time view:

Sorry for the blurry photos–my auto focus is broken and according to my eyes with out glasses this WAS in focus! This is a shot of Ginger’s old bedroom (the green walls and carpet) now open to the new part. That was a small bedroom but now it looks even smaller!

New steps-horray!! Anyone who ever came to my door and tried to enter while carrying anything or happened to be greeted by the dogs or kids (which is everyone, always!) knows how awkward our old steps were and how awesome these will be!

Here we are at the bottom of the stairs, standing in the new super wide hall way looking at my old back door. To the left is my bedroom and to the right is another bedroom.

This is our new bedroom and below is a lucky kids new bedroom (luck is in the eye of the beholder because there is a war going on for my current bedroom)

We have hard wood floors and tile picked out and new appliances purchased. All I have to say is thank god for Pinterest and google!! I love you both beyond words! And more empty promises to update more often! Sorry!

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Post tags: addition, architect, architecture, Building, demo, google, house, Kitchen, loft, lucky kids, mike mulligan, Mulligan, pantry, PepperPaints, Pinterest, trusses, window, Windows

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Now as much as I would like to say this was my great idea..I found it on Pinterest. I have said it before, I LOVE PINTEREST!! And I will say it again, I LOVE PINTEREST!!  As a visual person, this site takes the cake!

These were easy to make and called for only a few ingredients. You just need a little time and space.  And having a little helper around really helps!!

First arrange pretzel sticks into a star pattern on a lined cookie sheet or large tray

Next melt some chocolate (white or dark)

Now pour that melted chocolate into a plastic baggie and cut a tiny bit of the tip off. This makes it so much easier to make webs around the pretzels. Be sure to drizzle the points in the middle together really well and make sure to hit each stick on your way around the web!

Next we tried putting 2 raisins into the center of melted chocolate for spider bodies. Then we covered the raisins with more melted chocolate and made some legs.

And after about 4 or 5 of these my helper quit on me! So I was on my own. I decided to simplify– but I must say I like my version better!! I skipped the spider in the center and just shook some Halloween sprinkles into the melted chocolate. Ta da…

Just the right combination of salty and sweet. These were a big hit with both kids and adults alike!

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Post tags: Cake, choc, chocolate, Cook, COOKIE, halloween, halloween parties, halloween season, Kids, melted chocolate, PepperPaints, Pinterest, potluck, Pretzel, pretzel sticks, Pretzels, Pumpkin, pumpkin cake, Snack, snacks, Spider, spider web, star pattern, Web

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350 degrees

12 x 18 would work  I used a Bundt pan–greased and floured

Beat:

1 1/4 cups oil

2 cups brown sugar

Add:

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups canned pumpkin (or one 15 oz can)

4 eggs–beat in 1 at a time

Gradually beat in:

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Bake 30 minutes or longer for Bundt pan

When cool can be frosted or left as is. I whipped up a cream cheese frosting that I could eat all by itself by the bowl full!! I tinted it orange for a festive touch!

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Post tags: Bake, baking, Bundt, bundt pan, Cake, canned pumpkin, cinnamon, cream cheese frosting, halloween, Pumpkin, pumpkin cake, Thanksgiving

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Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday to celebrate the dead.

While I was away on vacation another Mom lead our art class at Co op. I left her with printed pictures of sugar skulls and masks created for the holiday to share with the kids. They used acrylic paints to paint the blank masks I bought at Michaels. Then used a hot glue gun to attach fake flowers and ribbons. They came out really great!!

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Post tags: art, art class, day of the dead, day of the dead masks, Dead, dia de los muertos, holiday, mexican holiday, Michaels, sugar, sugar skulls

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I started off this activity with a practice version so kids could see the importance of drawing and placement of the art. I made a simple picture of a pumpkin. It was like a puzzle.

This may be one of my favorite group projects so far! For the real activity– I took a poster of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and cut it up into 12 pieces. Each student received a piece of the art work along with a blank piece of paper cut to the same size. I numbered the back of the poster and the corresponding papers along with an arrow pointing to the top.

We used oil pastels to fill our papers. Trying to copy what was on our piece of art work.

After everyone was finished we put both the original art work as well as the students art work back together.

I love it! I am planning on pasting the pieces on to a black matte board to hang up at The Rec Center.

I got the idea from TEACH KIDS ART —thanks!!

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Post tags: activity, art, art work, class, drawing, group, group projects, matte board, oil pastels, original art, picture, project, rec center, students art, sunflower, sunflowers, van gough

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Puffy Paint is super expensive to purchase–especially for a whole class. This DIY version is not meant for fabric but more for a paint that dries bumpy. It adds a little depth and texture to the work.

It’s cheap and easy to make. Equal parts salt, flour and hot water. Stir until dissolved. Add liquid or powder tempra. This potion is very forgiving. Add more water if too thick and add more salt and flour if it’s too thin –especially after adding the liquid tempra.

Pour or spoon mixture into squeeze bottles–I bought empty ketchup and mustard bottles. You want the consistency to be runny enough to squeeze out of the bottles with out splatting. Understand? You will once you start mixing. Think frosting–creamy frosting! You can even add a little glitter for some fabulous sparkle!

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Post tags: art, class, creamy frosting, dale chihuly, DIY, glitter, Homemade, mixture, Paint, Paints, puffy, puffy paint, recipe, squeeze bottles, tempra, texture

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Unschooling Co Op is back in session so that means I will have something to post other than updates on our remodel! We talked about the paintings of Dale Chihuly for our first class.

Chihuly is well know for his glass works but his paintings and his painting style is also impressive. Here is a link to a few google images of his paintings

http://www.google.com/search?q=chihuly+paintings&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Xlq&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=QuZxTuPUCKffsQKKvOXICQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBMQ_AUoAQ&biw=1035&bih=465

To mimic Chihuly’s style of painting we layered paint on to canvas through several steps. We used sheets from a canvas pad. Be sure to paint on the correct side so the edges don’t roll. We used acrylic paint.

The first layer of paint when on with a brayer

The second layer went on with a broom-allowing the first layer to show through

Next layer was splatter painting

And then we used “puffy paint” for the final layer  DIY puffy paint recipe here

Each one ended up so different and the kids really enjoyed applying each different layer. I did choose specific colors for each layer so that the darker colors went on first and and then in small amounts last, hoping to keep the layers visually separate.

This collage is made up of all the kids paintings

I can see why Chihuly is also well known for his splatter painted shoes after this class!! I loved both the process as well as the product of this project!

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Post tags: acrylic paint, art, art class, brayer, broom, canvas, class, collage, dale chihuly, DIY, google images, Kids, layer, Paint, painted shoes, Painting, paintings, process, project, puffy, puffy paint, splatter, unschool, unschooling

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One of the things I have been excited about is the possibility of finding treasures when we dug up the yard for the foundation. I have been told our house once held the original farm house for this area. Most of the existing house was built in the 4o’s so there could be old stuff as well as newer “trash.” I have found some broken dishes and marbles out back.

Over the weekend my husband found our first treasure! An Oneida lmtd Silversmiths  Triple cocktail or olive fork.

I think it is railway or cruise ship flatware. I can’t wait to see what we dig up next!!

Here is the video of our garage demo–in case the photos weren’t enough for you! You can view it in live action. I’m pretty sure Siskel and Ebert would give it 2 thumbs up!

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Post tags: brick patio, broken dishes, builder, concrete, concrete patio, demo, demolition, demolition project, Ebert, flatware, flickr, foundation, garage, Home, home demolition, home improvement project, house, husband, marbles, old stuff, oneida, photo, photos, project, railway, SilversmithsÂ, Siskel, trash, treasure, triple cocktail, video, yard

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