Pinterest Project: We Need Alcohol for This!!

Yesterday, I posted about getting some creative time in with my friend, Erin. Though it was by far, our longest creative time together, it is not the only one on this trip.

On Friday, we were still trying to recover from our Christmas Day adventures (the wind picked up our canopy in the backyard and sent it flying though the kitchen windown when I was washing dishes.) After additional clean up and repairs, we rescheduled a gathering of #TheFourFamilies to Saturday and settled in for a quiet evening around our new gas firepit. Mike and Erin, who are staying down the street, walked over with their oldest to join us for some backporch relaxation.

Earlier on Friday, the hubby and I went to Lowe's with Lil Monkey to  pick up the gas grill and I got some plain white tiles so I could "trouble-shoot" the Sharpie Alcohol Art project I will be doing with my son's pre-K class next month. Sharpies and 4/5 year-olds is definitely something that can get scary fast so I wanted to have some idea of the project beforehand.

So when Erin came over, I enticed her to help me with the project. That's what good friends do, get you out of your comfort zone.

The premise seems pretty easy. Take multiple Sharpie markers and color white tiles with various designs then "drop" alcohol on it and watch them kind of melt together like a watercolor. Sounds simple ...

We had 4 color Sharpies ... black, red, blue and yellow. I thought the yellow wouldn't work, but we were surprised. After a couple of tries we discovered there were a few things that were not on the various instructions we'd found on Pinterest:

1. They don't really "melt" together without a little "dabbing" assistance. 

2. The red in particular was difficult because it tended to "float" and eventually just disappear.

3. Black was too strong and muddled everything into a black soupy mess.

The part we loved the most? You could rinse the times and remove the Sharpie and alcohol and start over, though we did have to wipe the ones with red with a little alcohol to get it all off. Not a big deal, and definitely a lifesaver since I'd only gotten 4 tiles. 

We each rinsed and redid our tiles 2 or 3 times, but eventually we got the hang of it. This is a photo of her tiles (top) and mine (bottom) when we left them to dry.

As you can see the red starts to fade away, but overall we were pretty happy. Unfortunately, it has rained to 48+ hours since then, so while they are dry, I have not been able to seal them with a Polyurethane sealer. From all I have read, it is best to use a spary versus a brush method so it doesn't distort the tiles. Hopefully, today the backyard will dry a little and I can spray them and post notes about the finishing step. I'll post another look at them as well, so you can see how they changed as they dried. 

Until our next cup of tea ...

A Friend's Request

Military life comes with a certain degree of separation and a large portion of goodbyes. As a military family you learn to treasure friends when you find them because in a short time you're introductions turn to farewells. If you're lucky you'll stay in touch via social media and if you hit the lottery you may be stationed at the same location again with a good timeframe of overlapping between another move.

Sometimes you have the rare treasure of having a military friend who has family in the same location as you and the friendship can grow into one that will last weel into your golden years. George and I are that lucky. 

He and his friend, Michael, grew up in the same neighborhood and after highschool Mike headed to the Navy and George headed to college where he joined the Army. Eventually wives and children joined the mix and "coming home to visit" gave us more "family" to visit. Now that we are living back in the old neighborhood we've become part of the family their coordinate into those busy trips home.

Erin and I have a friendship that was born because of our husbands' history and grew fast because of the shared understanding of military life. It's hard to explain to those who don't live the daily life of a military family, but there are small daily things that you don't get if you don't live it. Today for example we talked about how even when you are unpacking from a new move you are taking notes on what to do differently when packing the next time, and how even putting away holiday decorations is extreme because you don't know if you will recieve orders to move before you open them again, so you have to pack with that knowledge.

That's not to say that we can't find comfort and support from those family and friends who are not military, but it's sort of an unspoken understanding.

During this visit, we've had a bit of time to get together with what has come to be known as "The Four Families", a group that includes two other friends from George's childhood in this neighborhood. With Mike and Erin staying down the street, we've also had some one-on-one time to visit and relax. Today was one of those days.

The Lil Monkey spent the day with my parents and I called Erin to see if she wanted to come over to sew. When their oldest was younger he recieved a lot of handmade gifts from family members, such as blankets, quilts, afghans, etc. In the 10 years between their oldest and youngest, many of those family members have passed away and Erin was sad that their second child wouldn't have some of the same heirlooms later. I offered to make a quilt and other little things earlier this year and she was excited but also expressed how she'd love to learn to sew as well. 

We were finally able to have a good amount of child-free time for both of us today, so she came over to help layout the quilt (I wanted her to have as much participation as possible) and to learn the sewing basics. After getting her comfortable with my sewing machine and showing her to basics, I pulled out the easiest projects to learn to sew on ... Quiltsmart ZigZapps and Wine Shades. She felt comfortable starting with the Wine Shades because of the straight lines. 

I sorted through my recently consolidated fabric stash pulled out some pink polka dot fabric that matched the quilt we'd been working on for her daughter's soon-to-be big girl room. She was a little hesitant at first, but when I explained that the wine shades were very forgiving as far as staying on the sitching lines and such, she started to feel a little more confident. 

She slowly stitched along, talking herself through the steps and buttons, while I organized my box of ZigZapps looking for some more Wine Shades. I'd recently given my roll of panels to my Mom who was short for a class she was teaching and was now regretting not keeping some. I soon got lucky, finding a few pre-cut wine shades interfacing panels as her confidence grew and she began chatting about making set for each holiday. I dug around in my fabric a little more and found fabric for her to use to make wine shades for 4th of July/Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving/Fall, and Halloween.  

A few hours after starting she had a stack of completed wine shades, the remaining panels I could find and a list of fabric to get at the store this week. I'm not sure of I should be proud like a Mama Bird whose chick learned to fly, or if I should worry that I have created a tornado that cannot be contained! But I guess I'll worry about that later because now I have to show her the ZiggZapp flowers, leaves and petals, stars and more!!!

It was truly an amazing day to be able to take a break from the realities of military life and the looming seperation and just get creative. Quiltsmart made it easy to get have fun while learning, and who knows what crafty craziness we try next!!

Until our next cup of tea ...

A Creative Christmas

I am one of those people who get VERY excited about homemade or artistic Christmas gifts. I mean, yes, I did ask for a toaster this year and get one, but I really love artisitc gifts. This year I was surprised and actually turned into a kid in a candy store when our friend and neighbor Kevin brought over presents from him and his wife Jill. 

He came over at the point when my husband and a friend were fighting a reoccurring issue with our sewer line (it looks like a piece of the plastic pipe broke off and is causing a backup. He handed hubby our gifts and started talking to hubby and friend. I came out with the friend's wife at that time and Kevin asked if we liked crosses. Erin and I said "yes" and he came back with a shoe box sized box and dumped out a pile of beautiful crosses made from silverware. 

Erin and I were like kids in a candy store, but was still hestiant to take a whole bunch, but we each took 4 (well, I had already gotten one and got 3 more.)  He was like, "Is that all you want?" but we didn't want to be greedy. It sounds like they made a whole bunch, and they were certainly beautiful. I really loved these ...

He also gave us this beautiful license plate he made with our last name. I didn't even know he was creative - in this sense. He has done a lot of stuff around his house and rebuild my late father-in-law 1935 Harley Davidson. 

I get really excited when I find new creative friends, especially when they are longtime friends to begin with!!

Until our next cup of tea ...