Creative Costume Making 101

Cody bought a new Crusader computer game a week ago, and it's been "All Crusades, All the Time" ever since. He watched the History Channel dvd "Crusades: the Crescent and the Cross" - again. We checked out a stack of books and dvd's from the library on the crusades in general, Saladin, and Richard the Lionheart. And because my son is an actor at heart, this new obsession MUST come with outfits!

Now, this wouldn't be a problem except that I am not a seamstress. Oh, I did sewing in 4-H and home-ec, but all I can really do is darn and sew buttons back on. So when my kid comes to me and requests a costume, I usually head to the thrift store and improvise.

When he was into the Civil War, off I went to the thrift store. We had actually found the Kepi (that would be the hat) at a flea market, so we built from there. Had it been a Union Kepi, he'd be dressed in blue, but I go with what I find! The rest was supplied by my dad, including a (not in photo) reproduction Cavalry officer's ceremonial sword. All 8 y/o boys need one of those, right? *snort*

When he was into cowboys, again we headed to the thrift store. He even had a pair of chaps to go with the vest.

When he wanted to be a soldier, we hit my dad up for gear ;D

And for the Indiana Jones - my dad, the thrift store, and his own closet.

So this time around it's Knights Templar that he's wanting. They're not his "favorites" he informed me, he just thinks their outfit is really cool. I'm sure that's just what the Templar's were going for ;D Like this outfit? You, too, can have one the simple no-sew way! All it takes is a 2X white t-shirt, a red Sharpie, and a ruler. 10 minutes later and voila! A Knight Templar ;D

Now take a moment to head over to Stace's blog and read her 6th Thursday Thirteen to check out her superior costume making abilities. And nary a Sharpie in sight! :D http://stacesspace22.blogspot.com/

Pond update

IT HAS WATER!!!! Yay!! I'm glad it's done (or nearly done, anyway), and hopefully we won't have to hear our chiropractor complain anymore as to the state of our spines! The only thing left to do is to replace one pump, finish trimming the excess liner around the edges, and laying a few more flagstones around the sides, and we're set. I can't tell you how glad I am that the end is in sight!

I went into the house for a bit, and when I came back out this was how I found hubby. You've heard the expression "a watched pot never boils" - try telling a man "a watched pond never fills."

After dinner, this was how I found Cody.

Lazy bums ;D

I'm still here! Just sore..

I've spent the last few days busy moving rocks back into the pond. How many rocks, you ask? I actually had a dream last night that I was working on the danged thing! I have, at some point or another, smashed every finger on both hands, and I have some lovely bruises on my legs. We finally got both waterfalls finished, and are working on the getting the last 3 large piles of rocks into the bottom.

Waterfall #1

Waterfall #2

Here's the first of 3 yards of pea gravel that we get to shovel into the pond. I know, I lead a glamorous life! The weather had finally warmed up into the 80's, which wouldn't be too bad except that the liner makes it about 20 degrees hotter in the pond. Fortunately it's overcast and in the 60's today, so we're hoping to get a lot more done today. The plan is to start filling it with water tomorrow (can't wait to see next months water bill!) and get at least one waterfall going for hubby's big 4-0 birthday bash next Saturday. And if I know my man, one or both of us will end up going for a little swim after a margarita or two ;D

We Interrupt...

your regularly scheduled 80's Thursday Thirteen to bring you, well, nothing. Sorry guys - life happened this week (or rather, my mother happened). I promise I'll have something up for next weeks TT!

Trees, and flowers, and dead things - Oh my!

Today we decided to take advantage of the "balmy" 65 degree weather we're having and go for a nature walk. This is one of our favorite activities. It would probably be more "educational" if we knew what we were actually looking at, but we have fun anyway. There's a park near us that we've been wanting to check out, but we always seem to do the "gee-we-should-stop-there-next-time" thing. So today Cody loaded up his bag with food, water, and the camera (the trinity of essentials!), we grabbed the dog and off we went.

Once we got to the park we noticed a covered bridge, so we headed there first. Lo and behold, behind the bridge we found a sign directing us towards the trail to Salish Ponds Wetlands Park. So of course we had to take it!

Cody on the covered bridge.


Hitting the trail!



Cody and Zoe contemplating the mysteries of life while enjoying the creek.



We were the only ones on the trail and Cody was hoping we'd get to see some wildlife. I told him not to get his hopes up since the dog was with us. I was wrong. We did stumble across some wildlife, almost literally.


Yes, isn't that a lovely sight! And fresh, too! (See, Stace, buried dead things aren't so bad, are they!) Cody's first statement was "Do you think whatever killed it is still here??" After I assured him that we and the dog probably scared off whatever it was, I said "See, and you didn't think this trip would be educational!" To which he replied "Hey, we could skin it and tan it's hide!" Yeah right. A homeschool mom has to draw the line somewhere! We did get the chance to see two live ones a little later on. And I'm not too proud to admit that I squealed with glee just like a little girl when they darted front of us a little further up the path.

A few hundred feet down the way he noticed a little shrew darting in and out of the underbrush. Cody's Spidey Senses must have been working overtime - I have no idea how he saw it! The little bugger wasn't even as big as my thumb. I tried getting a photo of it, but it was too fast. Cody was lamenting how he wished I'd gotten a photo of the shrew, and maybe we'd get to see another, when we stumbled upon this:




A dead shrew. Oh well, at least the dead things were getting smaller.

Here's some of the flowers we saw on our walk. If you know what they are. let me know. Just don't ask *me* what they are. We're lucky I can identify them as "flowers" ;D










On the walk back, Cody spotted 5 ducklings swimming in the creek. We wondered if they belonged to "our" ducks, Mike and Carol.

We're planning on going back next week for a picnic. Hopefully all of the wildlife will be a little more alive.

You know your friends love you...

when they'll spend the day helping you lay out 425 lbs. of pond liner!

This is what the pond looked like on Friday:

On Saturday, our friends Jana and James came over to help us out. Partly because they love us, and partly because the needed help moving a large piece of furniture later that evening. Trust me, James got the short end of the stick on this deal! ;D

Mike's company was going to throw out a whole roll of new indoor/outdoor carpet, so he snagged it for the pond. They layed that in first, and then layed the underlayment (of which I purchased *way* too much of!)

We put the roll of pond liner on a steel bar and set it on a couple of jack stands with the theory of being able to unroll it like a roll of paper towels. Yeah, right. Paper towels don't weigh 425 lbs. So the 4 of us would unroll a little bit, then pull it out straight, unroll a little bit, then pull it out straight. And the roll only fell of the jack stands a couple of times. (read that last line with MUCH sarcasm!)

As hard as it was to unroll, it was even harder to move when it was unfolded. And oh, how I wish you could have smelled it! You know that strong stench of rubber when you walk into a tire store? Imagine that rubber warmed up (so even stronger smelling) and right outside your back door.

It's a good thing it was only in the mid 70's, because that liner got really hot, really fast. Not only did Mike spend a good deal of time cooking on top of the liner, he had to get underneath a couple of times to help lift large portions of the liner onto the deck base in the middle of the pond on on the bog filter.

Zoe didn't seem to mind the sun, though.

When we got all done at our house, we made our way to Jana and James' house. The guys went to go pick up the piece of furniture that Jana found on Craigslist, and then we settled in for pizza, drinks and laughter!

Jana with the *first* batch of Margaritas!

That time of year...

It's the time of year when I start reflecting on the last "school" year. What worked? What didn't work? Is there anything new we want to try?

Every homeschooler knows there's no one way to homeschool. There's school-at-home, classical, unschooling, Charlotte Mason method, unit studies - need I go on? And every few years a "new" method becomes all the rage. Currently it's A Thomas Jefferson Education, or TJEd for short.


I'm very analytical (very. Very, very.) I've read/own many books on the above methods, so I recently acquired the book "A Thomas Jefferson Education" by Oliver Van DeMille to see what all the fuss was about.

I'm only about 50 pages into it but apparently I have been giving my son a TJEd all along.

I won't get into the specific tenants of this method here, but basically it uses classic works (as opposed to textbooks) with the students discussing them with teachers/mentors. The thinking behind this is that the student will learn how to think as opposed to what to think. They will be able to apply these classics to situations in life and make the connection between the two.


I've always read to Cody. Even now. I'm willing to bet he was the only kindergartner at his public school who knew who Athos, Porthos, and Aramis were. We've read Greek mythology, Ivanhoe, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Count of Monte Cristo, Don Quixote (he didn't really care for that one), Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson (we both hated that one) - the list goes on and on.

At the beginning of 5th grade Cody watched Jaws for the first time (stay with me here. It's relevant, I promise!) When it was over he turned to me and said "You know, Quint is a lot like Captain Ahab and Jaws is his great white whale. He sacrificed everything for his obsession."



I just looked at him, dumbfounded. I've read the book before, I've seen the movie dozens of times. Did my brain make the connection? Nope.

Needless to say, we'll keep doing what we're doing. Call it whatever method you like, it works for us.

Decisions, decisions

Today we had a choice:

Stay at home and work on this...



Or go and play at the coast. Guess which one we chose?

We got up, packed the cooler full of snacks, bartered some priceless heirlooms in exchange for a tank of gas (now up to $4.08/gallon here) and were on our way. This was the first time we'd been to the coast since the huge storm last December that brought hurricane force winds and massive flooding. If any of you watch the show "Ax Men" on History Channel, they showed the storm on there. I actually found a Youtube video that showed an area we drove through today. It was bizarre to drive by huge stands of trees that appeared to have exploded about halfway down.


We headed towards Cannon Beach, where they were having the yearly sandcastle contest. The term "sand sculpting" would be more appropriate. We'd never been before, but it sounded like fun. We parked in the designated area and started walking. And kept walking. And still...walking.

Hubby even carried me through the water (his idea, not mine!) so my feet wouldn't get wet. Who says chivalry is dead??

We walked for over a mile - but that's OK, because we are Goonies at heart and were walking the same stretch of beach that they filmed the opening car chase scene on. This is Haystack Rock, which is the rock is used during the "dubloon" scene when it matches with the lighthouse and restaurant.

OK, back to today. Here's some of the entrants (before they were finished, but close)

I liked this one because it reminded me of a couple of Stargates

After we finished there, we headed back to Mo's and their World Famous clam chowder. BC (before Cody), Mike and I would make the drive just for lunch. To drive to the coast and not go to Mo's would be like driving to the coast and not going to the beach. It's just wrong.

The only thing that would make them happier would be if the portions were bigger!

Of course, we couldn't leave town without stopping by a candy store for some freshly made salt-water taffy. Yummmm.

I've been tagged!

OK, Kat over at http://www.sunshineandlemonade.blogspot.com/ tagged me for this meme because she was procrastinating about doing her "100 things about me" for her 100th post. See what happens when people procrastinate? More work for everybody else *snort* :D


What was I doing 10 years ago?
Let's see - we were living in a little apartment in Eugene, Oregon. I had stopped working when I was pregnant with Cody, and now that he was 2 1/2 and I decided to go back to work. I got a job in advertising and quickly found that I *loved* the job and *abhorred* the company. At that time the part-time workers were trying to unionize and were being subjected to horrific scare-tactics. Although I was full-time, tensions were very high for most of the workers. After 3 months I left, and it was the last time I held a full time job. Several months later we moved to Arizona.


Five snacks I enjoy:
Hummus and pita chips
raspberries
cheddar cheese Sun Chips
chips and salsa
vanilla or chocolate rice milk - I realize this is a "drink" as opposed to a "snack" but I love it, so here it is!

Five things on my to-do list today:
dishes (ugh, always!)
water the garden
yoga class
clean out my car ('cause we homeschool, we're always on the go, and it's full of stuff!)
plan our weekly dinner menu

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Give 10 million to various charities, including: Natural Resources Defense Council, America's Second Harvest, The Green Belt Movement, and Waterkeeper Alliance.

Travel the world, scoping out a place to buy a home (preferably on the Mediterranean) to live in 4 months out of the year.

Purchase a couple of acres on a body of water here in Oregon and build a small "green" home.

Buy a Prius or an electric car.

Set up a scholarship at the small, alternative high school I attended to pay for college, trade school, and apprenticeships for the students.

Five jobs I have had:
I had to really think to come up with 5 different jobs. Of course, I left "Domestic Goddess" off the list even though that's the title I've held for the longest time ;D

Hairdresser
Personal Assistant
Office Manager
Newspaper Advertising
Accounts Receivable

Five of my bad habits:
1. I bite my cuticles. I've never been a nail biter, but I can't seem to leave my cuticles alone.

2. I *love* books and we homeschool, which is a dangerous combination. My only saving grace is that I buy 99% of our books used, and I try to limit it to the shelf space we have. Otherwise, we'd be overrun.

3. I'm a "setter-downer." Actually, we're a family of "setter-downers." What is that, you ask? A setter-downer is someone who sets stuff down on every flat surface - and tends to leave it there. Hard to keep a house (or kitchen table!) clean when there's one in the house - disastrous when there's 3!

4. I watch my favorite movies (or Whedon shows) compulsively, and then say the lines aloud with (or slightly before) the actors. This completely annoys the crap out of my husband, especially since our son does it, too.

5. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I *hate* doing dishes! And I love to cook. Not a good combination.


Five places I have lived:
I can only list 5??? OK, not including our current location these are the last 5. Oh, and these have all been in the last 11 years ;)

Chandler, Arizona
Grapevine, Texas
Fresno, California
Menifee Valley, California
Eugene, Oregon

Five people I want to get to know better (yes, this means you are tagged!)
You know, I'm going to be a rebel and list 6, because I couldn't narrow it down to 5. So there! Just copy the questions down and away you go!

Emma http://memoirsofatvjunkie.blogspot.com/
Lori http://not-so-superwoman.blogspot.com/
Teresa http://homesteadnotes.blogspot.com/
Topsy Techie http://topsytechie.wordpress.com/
Kimberly http://kimbolees_korner.blogspot.com/
Stace http://stacesspace22.blogspot.com/


Five random things:
1. We usually have at least 30 items checked out from the library, and sometimes as many as 60. We get most of the books and DVD's that we use for homeschooling from the library, and I usually have at least 10 of my own books as well. We're also currently getting DVD's of past seasons of Stargate SG-1 and Dr. Who.

2. I hate Wal-Mart and never shop there. I know, it seems almost un-American, but there it is.

3. Because I love music, my husband bought me an MP-3 player for Christmas. I still haven't loaded any songs into it. Why, you ask? Because I can't stand the thought of paying $1 a song. Do you realize how much I'd have to spend in order to have enough songs on there not to get sick of hearing the same ones play over and over?? Probably why I never buy CD's, either. I get them from the library, listen to them until I'm sick of them, and then give them back!

4. I love reading cookbooks - especially those involving Mediterranean cooking. I also love trying new recipes. My husband jokingly makes guinea pig noises when I tell him we're having something new for dinner, but more often than not he likes it.

5. My husband and I don't celebrate our anniversary. Most of the time we don't even remember when it is. Oh, we know it's in the spring, but it usually doesn't cross our minds until we get a "Happy Anniversary" card. We both had miserable first marriages, and an anniversary was viewed more as a "Whew, we made it another year" milestone as opposed to a romantic celebration. This time around we know it's gonna stick and we celebrate our relationship all the time, rather than on one day. Must be working, we've had 14 happy years together :D