Green Jello

Every Parade Needs More Politicians!

Parade, originally uploaded by Green Jello.

Strange parade photos and comments:

• What is with all the candy? I know the kids like it, but by the end of the parade there were hundreds of Tootsie Rolls and Jaw Breakers in the street (see above picture).
• If I was the Supreme Leader of the parade committee, politicians could only participate if they wore a bathing suit.
• Why do the politicians give out the cheapest candy? If you want to get elected, hand out $5 bills or at least good candy.
• A new local guy running for office marched in the parade wearing really tight shorts; he's bringing sexy back to politics.
• A teen tackled SpongeBob SquarePants and caused a scene. No politicians were injured.
• This lady marched in the most daring pair of shoes:

• It's difficult to take decent pictures at a parade.
• The little old lady across the street told my husband, "That parade sucks."

The weekend was good, we are all sick with this awful cold and my son's birthday party is this week, so I may not be around the next couple of days. Hope you had a nice holiday/weekend.

4th of July

We are celebrating Independence Day by attending our local parade and fireworks show. What are your plans?

 

This is our old cat we had to put down last year, he liked to be festive. I miss him.

And this is for my late Aunt, who on the morning of the 4th of July, would turn up her stereo and sing this song...we still hear you.

Happy 4th of July!

Eat Your Vegetables

We joined a CSA this year because all the cool kids are doing it, and we need to eat more vegetables. Actually, I need to eat more because I don't like them. I have to force myself to eat vegetables and I hope I don't burst into flames when I eat this week's share. The picture is a bad because they delivered our bushel in the cover of darkness; a sign they are evil? This will be a good experiment for us; learning how to cook and eat vegetables we normally wouldn't - like turnips. Oh, and we will learn first hand how to wash and make our produce look like they do in the store. You can find local farms on this site along with a list of farmer's markets. I found that they all charge different fees; some wanted $500 to start and a small fee each week. The one we signed up with charged $140 to begin and $19 a week, and they deliver. I wanted to find a farm close to our house, but had no luck, so the delivery option is the best for us.

My posts this week may be sporadic. I am trying to finish some things for my son's upcoming birthday party; sewing treat bags (because I have so much time on my hands).

I will have the June book post either today or by the end of the week.

Harvest Gold is the New Black

This weekend I drove 10 miles to an old woman's house that promised a 42 year clean out and plenty of vintage items in her yard sale ad. At $4.19 a gallon for gas, I usually don't drive that far for a yard sale, but the ad intrigued me. Her clean out consisted of some old roller skates, hats, an air cleaner, and a deflated basket ball for $5. When I refused to buy my son a $5 deflated basketball he threw a temper tantrum, kicked her table and we left, but then I noticed her neighbor was having a yard sale, and I found this vintage train case. I bought it for the kids to put toys in, but now I may keep it for myself. Should I cover it with fabric, or keep it as is?

It still has the mirror in good condition. We bought a few other miscellaneous items-Bat Girl:

This is Bat Girl and not Cat Woman, right? Doesn't she look like someone just kicked her in the behind?

Fabric tape; I don't know if it's vintage and I honestly don't know how you can tell what fabric/ribbon is vintage, unless it looks really old and smells like mold.

I felt like we were in a groove, so I decided to take my chances with the resale shop on the way home - the one that has lots of little china pieces sitting on the edges of tables. So I had to threaten my kids the entire time and then they BOTH had to go to the bathroom, and not #1...so I had to stand by this tiny bathroom in a room full of china while each child did the deed. Sorry. We did find some things, and the little old ladies who worked there were very kind, but I doubt I will go back with my kids.

The condition of this book is not that good, but I bought it for the images to use in a project. Now, I don't know if I can cut it.

I love this illustration; dogs and cats, mice and cheese...all living in perfect harmony. Maybe this could be the new logo for the upcoming election? I hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Felt Seal

You would think with my posts this week, this is a craft blog. I wish. I've been traveling with a plastic bag of embroidery and this little seal. I work on them when my kids have their one day a week run around the gym at the park district class; one hour of uninterrupted time-bliss! I found the pattern in the Summer issue of Living Crafts magazine. I don't see the pattern online, but they do have some listed; a vacuum cleaner hose cover! The seal was very easy to make and fast; perfect for me.

Make God's Eyes

Remember these? The June/July issue of ReadyMade magazine had instructions for making these, so we made some today with sticks found around the yard. In case you forgot how to make these, here are instructions:

What you will need:

• 2 sticks (chopsticks, dowel rods or twigs) I prefer using "old school" twigs, but the design will be less symmetrical.
• yarn in 2-4 colors
• bored children

Start wrapping:

1. Tie one end of the yarn to the middle section of one of the sticks. Cross the sticks to form an X and bind the sticks together using a figure 8 at the points of intersection; about 6 times or until steady.
2. Weave the yarn around each pole in the frame going over the top of one stick and wrap it around that pole and bring the yarn to the next pole-going over the top again. It took me a few tries to get the feel of doing this-keep thinking top, top. You can weave in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, but keep the yarn taut as you weave.
3. To change colors, tie the new color to the end of the old one, trim the edges and continue to weave.
4. When you are finished, wrap the yarn around the last pole two or three times and tie a simple knot. I left yarn at the end to hang it with, or you could tie a new string to hang.

The back will look like this.

I used what we had on hand; I didn't want to run out to the craft store or search for plant dyed yarn in perfect colors. Grab and go-perfect project for kids or meditation for mom.

Tiny Stitches

I have been embroidering little pieces of fabric lately and now I don't know what to do with them. My intention was to make coasters - a set only in black thread, but now I'm not sure. What do you think? Should I make a little set and hang them in embroidery hoops, coasters, or collect the scraps and stick them in a box that I will forget about? I found this image on Flikr; it's from a Japanese embroidery book, but only half the image was shown, so I had to make up the legs. I love Japanese stitching books, but my eyes are bad, and my fingers seem like tree stumps when I try to make those tiny stitches.

I made this one up as I went along (more coasters!), but then I saw the laundry girl and forgot about this one. I was thinking of making a set of four - one with a flower, bee and ??

I ordered this fabric from Kitty Craft, and this one:

This Japanese fabric is called Heidi - the images are so sweet. Yes, I had to buy it...for all the coasters I am making. Why can't I finish any craft? I start and then it sits, half finished. I have almost stitched up animals, fabric cut, knitting started, and embroidered scraps all over the house. Is this crafting ADD? Do you have projects that never get finished?

I'm going to miss George Carlin, such a funny, brilliant man. Thank you for the laughs.

and so it begins

We celebrated my husband's birthday, which is the beginning of a string of birthdays and our anniversary. He isn't two, but at a certain age you have to limit the number of candles so the cake doesn't burst into flames.

 

My son's birthday is in two weeks, so I made the birthday banner from Soule Mama's book, The Creative Family. I also used this tutorial on glitter goods, which is nice for those of us who need very detailed instructions. I'm just happy that I actually made something, and not the evening before. My son wants to have a Ben-10 themed party; which is a show about a boy who turns into an alien to fight other aliens. I know, the banner does not fit the "theme," but this is for our family celebration. Do you have any suggestions for birthday party games for 5 year old boys? What about things I can put in treat bags that will not be tossed out by the parents the next day?

I brought out my favorite Hula glasses for our mini party, you can buy them here. I hope you had a nice weekend.

Important bulletin...Bad Puppy has been in San Francisco enjoying the sites.

Summer Loving Photo Week :: Day 5

Summer is officially here, now let's enjoy it.

J is shutting down her blog after this week, which is a loss for all of us. I will miss her beautiful photographs, especially the ones by the sea. J, thank you for making this blog world nicer, I will miss your lovely words. Please stay in touch. Enjoy your summer and dream those dreams....

Thank you to those who participated this week and shared their photos and thoughts of summer.

Deirdre

Di

Lina

Tracy

J

Tracey

Hege

I wanted to end with a wonderful post, but the day got away from me, and now I'm in a funk, maybe I can make up for it later. Enjoy.

Summer Loving Photo Week :: Day 4

I know, not very original...but strawberries scream summer, so three pictures for you, and this recipe for strawberry muffins:

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs, beaten

4 Tbs. butter, melted

3/4 cup milk

1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced and drained

Sift together dry ingredients. Add melted butter to beaten eggs and stir in milk. Quickly stir dry ingredients into egg milk mixture with a few strokes. (Do not over mix batter) Fold strawberries into batter before dry ingredients are completely moist. Pour batter into greased muffin tins (each cup 2/3 full). Bake in 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

This is from a vintage strawberry cookbook I picked up. If you need more strawberry recipes, send me an email and I will share some more with you - strawberry soup?

The participants:

Deirdre

Di

Lina

Tracy

J

Tracey

Hege

 

Some of you were unfamiliar with the Mold-A-Rama; here is a Flikr group for research.