Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Tofu Box

The Man-Cub had to make 4 useful items for his Craftsman Activity Pin and one of the items he made was a tofu box - very useful indeed...

First he measured a standard block of tofu...

Then he measured and cut some blocks of wood...

Then he vacuumed up the sawdust - this step is only necessary if you're using your family room as your workshop...

Then he did a dry fit...

Double checking to make sure everything was going to fit together tightly...

Then he screwed everthing together tightly using the stainless steel screws he bought especially for this project...

Then he stapled screen over the bottom - genius...

Friday, January 30, 2009

Catapults

As we near the end of our second year of Webelos we are working on our Engineering Activity Pin and we made catapults. I had to call everyone I know and gather up milk cartons for this activity - I make my own soy milk or I'd have had a ton of Silk cartons...

They had a lot of fun making their catapults...

The rubber bands were tricky...

...but everyone was successful...

Sorry for the blurry shot but the boys had a blast with their catapults - even turning them on each other - imagine that...

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Make Do and Mend - Parte Deux

Another BIG Broken piece of plastic - that needed to be rescued from the landfill - You may remember the Man-Cub's little snowboard - it's the kind that you just slide your boats into - there are no bindings etc. Well it broke - the plastic strap broke off very near the board - he was so frustrated and disappointed as it pretty much ended a nice day of snowboarding...

...but the Man-Cub thinks that I can fix anything - I seriously (and I do mean seriously) considered how I might solve this problem with yarn - but I opted for staples instead...

I taped the pieces back together with masking tape and stapled them together with our staple gun (construction type - not office type) using 1/2 inch staples. I shot them straight into a piece of old carpet and then bent the ends together with pliers.

It was kind of difficult to get it back in it's slot - as the staples added a little width - but I finally managed it...

Ta-Daaa! Ready for another run...

Here's the proof...

It really did work - ooops - I caught the Man-Cub mid fall...

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Make Do and Mend

We had some rowdy boys over for a playdate (btw - when do you stop calling it a playdate - as the Man-Cub is 10 years old - I probably should have already) - Anywhoo - they managed to break my laundry basket - who would've thunk that they were too big to hide in a laundry basket...

It's supposed to have two of these little jobbers sticking out to hold the lid in place on top of the basket...

I knew that trying to reattach the broken piece would not be sturdy enough - so I drilled two holes in the white plastic and inserted two dowel rods about 1/8 inch apart - I tried this out for fit in the basket...

I flipped the lid over and glued down the ends on the inside of the lid and snipped off the excess...

Then I filled in the space in between the dowel rods with molten glue from the hot glue gun...

Then I painted the whole assembly white...

...and put it back in it's cubby in the bathroom - Now this huge chunk of plastic can stay out of the landfill for quite a while longer - that is if I can keep the big boys out of it...

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

One Little Birdie

I won this adorable little bird in the Birds Of Change Giveaway on Inauguration Day!

Just look at the adorable way Jill from Spinster Handmade packaged it - there's even a vintage hankie tucked in...
It is so sweet - I totally love it.

Thanks so much Jill!

Monday, January 26, 2009

The Birds of Change Winner is. . .

Of course we could have used a Random Number Generator...

...but where's the fun in that...

We made a list of all the commenters who wanted to be included in the drawing - cut them up...

...and put them in a bowl...

The Man-Cub drew a name as soon as he got home from school today...

And the Winner is...
...Kristin of kleas - so go on over and congratulate her - This was so much fun and I thank you all for your sweet comments and for playing along.

Proximidade

Elizabeth at Bits of Sunshine gave me this award...

...and I think it is so sweet!

Proximidade is described as:
'This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!' This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog.

So I'm passing it on to 8 more PROXIMITY bloggers:
A Handmade Life
A Memory Forever
Katie's Calamities
Springtree Road
Threaded Basil
Cornflower Blue Studio
Day By Day
Keeper of the Home
Linnea Paulina
The Prodigal Pilgrim
Creative Kismet
Finding Contentment
Spinster Handmade
At Home Mommy Knits

You knew I wouldn't be able to stop at eight didn't you...

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Jack's Booties

If you're looking for the Birds of Change Giveaway go to Birds of Change and leave a comment - The drawing will be Monday! Y'all know our sweet little 'Jack-Dog' - he of the tender pink paws - (snoozing here in a sunny spot) - well we can't hardly stand to torture him by making him 'go' outside when it's 40 below zero - alas - it's 'out' he must 'go'... I had made some booties for him before out of an old vinyl tablecloth - thinking that it would keep his trotters dry - but the stiff material made it easy for him to shirk his booties - he's very agile (almost catlike) - so I thought a nice set of clingy knitted trotter covers were in order - I knitted a rectangle in stockinette stitch 40 stitches by 100 rows on size 8 needles. Then I did a little seam - about 2 inches down from one end - this is the neck. I slipped it over his head at this point and measured where the front paws would be. I picked up 12 stitches along the side at this point and knit in Stockinette Stitch for 5 rows then increasing one stitch each end every other row for 2 times - work even over the 16 stitches for 45 rows - or until the length matches your dogs legs. Repeat for the other side. For the back legs - I picked up 20 stitches from the bottom side of the rectangle and knit in Stockinette Stitch across those for 5 rows - then decreasing 1 stitch at each end every other row for 2 times - work across the 16 remaining stitches for 45 rows - or until the length matches your dog's legs. Repeat for the other side. To finish - using a yarn needle run the yarn through each stitch of the toe and draw up - then seam up the leg several inches to the point where the decreases or increases end. The Man calls this Jack's 'Doggie Union Suit'... Here's Jack trying on his 'Union Suit'... After an initial adjustment phase he seemed resigned to wearing it... As you can see all of his 'privates' (as the Man-Cub calls them) are uncovered and the trial run went extremely well - none of the booties slipped off and he was able to 'go'...

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Fun and Games

If you're looking for the Birds of Change Giveaway go to Birds of Change and leave a comment - The drawing will be Monday!

The Man-Cub had some friends over before Tae Kwon Do and since it's way too cold to play outside (again) they played inside...

We were so surprised to find out that they had never played Parcheesi - what fun!

I made a snack cake called Aunt Sue’s Fudge Cake (scroll down) - our only substitution was that we didn't have any Marshmallow creme so I just subbed some buttercream frosting - the boys loved it and almost ate the whole cake...

Friday, January 23, 2009

Christmas Gifts

If you're looking for the Birds of Change Giveaway go to Birds of Change and leave a comment - The drawing will be Monday!

Here are a couple more Christmas gifts that I adore:

This is a super cool 'green' non-stick pan. It's 10 inches and the side is only about 1 or 1 and 1/2 inches so it's easy to get your spatula underneath the tofu. We banned teflon from our home years ago and had been using only cast iron pans and stainless steel pots for years. But unless you're really careful - tofu will stick to a cast iron pan. Last year, I first saw ceramica listed in the NEW section at Williams-Sonoma and put it on my Christmas Wish List. The Man and the Man-Cub came through of course...

Another little stocking stuffer gadget - teensy-tinsy-little measuring spoons - perfect for getting the just the right amount of Stevia in my tea and all sorts of other small jobs...

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Great Teachers

If you're looking for the Birds of Change Giveaway go to Birds of Change and leave a comment - The drawing will be Monday!

I think I've mentioned before how awesome the Man-Cub's 5th grade class is...

A lot of that has to do with his teacher - who knit a pair of slippers (the Man-Cub's happened to be camo - how perfect is that) for each child in her class for Christmas - of course I should have posted about it earlier - better late than never...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Snow-Trees

If you're looking for the Birds of Change Giveaway go to Birds of Change and leave a comment - The drawing will be Monday!

We had about a 50 degree weather change over the weekend...


So since it was above zero for the first time in a long time - the Man-Cub called one of his friends and we went sledding - sort of...

At the local hospital - they pile the snow from their parking lot up under their trees...

So you can climb up on the snow and you're 20-30 feet up in the trees - AMAZING...

So that's just what we did...