Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Feeding Time at the RADZoo



RADZoo

We have a family membership to the RADZoo and get here once or twice a month. It's a good place to learn more about all kinds of reptiles & amphibians. They also have some birds, a tarantula, and a scorpion (which kinda eeeks me out!). They have over 100 animals there. It's also a nice big space in one big building, so the kids can go look at what they want and I can see them, and they can stretch their legs. Here are some pictures I took of some of the animals there today!




Monday, December 20, 2010

Iced Candles

My daughter and I had fun making these. We made three in total, two for her teachers and one for a crafty-gift swap. All you have to do is paint glue on the candle and sprinkle on epsom salt. Let it dry. Tie on a sweet ribbon. And tada! It looks like ice on a candle.

I also made three containers of lavendar-vanilla bath salts using epsom salt, sea salt, oils, & food coloring. I have already given those to friends as Christmas gifts (forgot to take a picture) and they loved how they smelled.

Homemade Ornaments

These are the homemade ornaments that they kids made this year to give as gifts. My daughter really enjoyed making her handprint santas. I was only able to get one handprint santa out of my son, but did get him to fingerpaint on some tree. I laminated the ornaments since these were on paper and we want people to be able to keep them and use them for future Christmases.

Stitching Projects

So, I joined a Stitch & Bitch group a couple months ago. And while the daytime meetings I usually can't make, I have been able to get to a couple evening get togethers.

Last winter I bought myself a knitting board and did about 6 inches on the above scarf in this wonderful alpaca yarn (so soft!) and never touched it again. But this was a good way to get this project finished and start some more.

The knitting board automatically double knits everything (well, I haven't learned other stitching methods with it yet, I need to watch the DVD, this was what was explained in the paper handout on how to make a scarf) and it took quite a long time and got boring. So, I kept putting it down.

But then I thought I would pick up some Knifty Knitter hoop looms and make some hats. The above hat I made for a friend for Christmas and am in the process of making an identical one for another friend. The hats featured below are all gifts too. The small infant purple hat was given to my neighbor's new baby. The other three hats are Christmas presents for my husband, daughter & son.
I have also bought a different little tool, which I made a scarf & mitten for my daughter's baby dolly for Christmas presents for her. I still need to take a picture of those (and wrapped).

I do want to buy the set of flat looms to make scarves & blankets, etc.

Redneck Party

One of my friends had a Redneck Christmas Party. It was an interesting theme, needless to say. She had some clever decorations & food creations.