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Apr. 30th, 2010 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarflameTomorrow is this little girl's birthday. THREE.
I have been in a bit of a doll making frenzy, for her main from-us gift, and am only somewhat ok with the results so far.
This is obviously just the head. Body and clothes sewing has been today/tonight. I am seriously considering ripping out the eyes and doing them over at about half that size. Opinions?
Is it only unendurably creepy because of the bodiless...ness? Or is it because I find dolls creepy in general? Or is it because it's creepy as shit? TELL ME, I CAN TAKE IT!
I feel like if worse comes to worse, SHE loves it...and the other kids seem impressed...and I never claimed to be much for sewing, damnitt. I've never embroidered ANYTHING before. Blah. I keep thinking it looks like That doll of Lilo's in Lilo and Stitch".
I will soon be making this for a tiny niece of mine. CROCHETING I can do >:O
And possibly an entire line of animal bibs. It will be fierce.
Alright...fierce-ish.
The other day I woke up to house-shaking thunder and window-lashing downpour.
Our banana tree was doing that thing that is the international, multi-lingual symbol for "HURRICANE!!" When we went out that afternoon, our gate was open because the wood that latches it had SNAPPED. WTF? I went on facebook and local neighbors were saying things like, "I can't find our patio umbrella! It's not even rainy season yet!" I called my sister to tell her all about it...and she told me the roof to Brian's (Playskool, standard plastic) playhouse was in a tree near their property, and her neighbor's plywood (which had been set out by the trash to be hauled off) had floated away in the flooding on her street. Again...WTF?!
The rest of this entry is in two parts.
Aaron has been on a quest to make fire the way Brian in Hatchet did. We have done so much online research, YouTube video watching and shopping around. Flint + flint will not = sparks, because the sparks actually come from iron in the steel. Iron is pyrophoric, meaning it autoignites when it encounters air - so the outer coating of anything with iron is an oxidized layer that flecks away when you hit it with something hard and jagged enough - i.e., flint, quartz, probably diamonds :p Once you scrape that layer off, you're hitting iron that flies off autoigniting as sparks. So then you need super fine kindling for your sparks to catch on, like shredded under-bark, in Hatchet, charcloth, for most primitive campers, or dryer lint, according to YouTubers. HOWEVER, Brian was swinging a hatchet full on at a WALL of jagged flint, so it was easy enough for him to GET a shower of sparks. Trying to safely get enough force between a steel camping hatchet and little chunks of flint purchased online is a whole other story. We never did. We think the force variable is huge here. Finally we went back to the store (Sports Authority) and got a chunk of magnesium (the pure metal, which is a lab-production using what we would find naturally, but which does not occur in nature itself - meaning, Brian would not have had it in the wildnerness :/). Making a pile of magnesium shavings and then scraping sparks off of the chunk and into the shavings did EVENTUALLY produce fire. This is about a minute of his many hours of efforts...
And a shot of some of his successful results.
Today, he managed to really get a big fire going in our firepit. Like to where wood caught and everything. The magnesium isn't something you could just find if you were stranded, but it IS something you could bring with you camping or backpacking that has significant advantages over matches and lighters - it lights an indefinite number of fires while only taking up a tiny bit of space, and it doesn't matter if it gets wet.
Ananda made a volcano. Salt dough -
Tupperware, backyard rocks, paint, and grass.
Final display.
Aaron's. Yes, I did let/make them do their own boards ;)
Ananda and Aaron, jointly, presented the monarch caterpillar to butterfly story from last month, along with a new habitat that contains fresh eggs on more recent milkweed.
And Isaac :D He hypothesized that water stays the same size (Of couse it does, what aw you tawking about?) when it freezes. So we froze a tupperware of water and came back 8 hours later to find THE LID POPPED OFF! It was bigger than before and stuck up over the edge. It was cwazy!
Doing their presentations :)
This was cracking me up. He would say something very autoritatively, like, "Then, after two weks, it built it's chrysalis" and Annie would matter of factly point at what he was saying, like hard enough to make a noise when her finger hit the board. They are just funny.
They all got certificates. There were about 15 kids there with projects, and then another 5 or so who just came to watch and look around. My favorite part was after the presentations when kids just stood by their boards to answer questions as the other kids and adults walked around to ask questions. They really ate up getting to explain things to people, ESPECIALLY Isaac.
Across the parking lot from the library where this was held, is Pinecrest Gardens, where we had never been before. But I heard admission is free and it's a great place to have lunch, so we went over to check it out.
It was SO MUCH COOLER THAN I EXPECTED!!
This sign made Aaron completely insane, placed by these trees as it was.
("Please Do Not Climb On Tree")
As fast food goes, I think there is merit to having salad and chili available for .99 apiece.
The super tall canopy was the last shot I got before my camera died.
And then I went INSANE that my camera had died! This place has a giant lake FULL of sunning turtles on rocks, with huge iguanas and giant swans on the bank - plus a dozen smaller ponds with koi, huge goldfish, more turtles, ducks, mallards and so on. It has a massive playground, a petting zoo full of pigs and goats, a great buttfly exhibit you walk into - ALL FREE. It has trails and paths galore to explore, a meadow, I must have seen 20 kinds of flowers I've never seen before! There are TWO different outdoor ampitheaters for shows. Clean bathrooms, water fountains, picnic areas for blankets and tables. The only part of it that was "eh" is they have a great big splash pad water play area...that costs $3 per kid. Most of the paths go by it so kids are going to ask to play, and in my case that would be $15 to run through water, which is mostly ok for now and then - but I didn't bring any cash with me. I will definitely be going back, hopefully with Grant, some money and more camera life.
I have been in a bit of a doll making frenzy, for her main from-us gift, and am only somewhat ok with the results so far.
This is obviously just the head. Body and clothes sewing has been today/tonight. I am seriously considering ripping out the eyes and doing them over at about half that size. Opinions?
Is it only unendurably creepy because of the bodiless...ness? Or is it because I find dolls creepy in general? Or is it because it's creepy as shit? TELL ME, I CAN TAKE IT!
I feel like if worse comes to worse, SHE loves it...and the other kids seem impressed...and I never claimed to be much for sewing, damnitt. I've never embroidered ANYTHING before. Blah. I keep thinking it looks like That doll of Lilo's in Lilo and Stitch".
I will soon be making this for a tiny niece of mine. CROCHETING I can do >:O
And possibly an entire line of animal bibs. It will be fierce.
Alright...fierce-ish.
The other day I woke up to house-shaking thunder and window-lashing downpour.
Our banana tree was doing that thing that is the international, multi-lingual symbol for "HURRICANE!!" When we went out that afternoon, our gate was open because the wood that latches it had SNAPPED. WTF? I went on facebook and local neighbors were saying things like, "I can't find our patio umbrella! It's not even rainy season yet!" I called my sister to tell her all about it...and she told me the roof to Brian's (Playskool, standard plastic) playhouse was in a tree near their property, and her neighbor's plywood (which had been set out by the trash to be hauled off) had floated away in the flooding on her street. Again...WTF?!
The rest of this entry is in two parts.
Aaron has been on a quest to make fire the way Brian in Hatchet did. We have done so much online research, YouTube video watching and shopping around. Flint + flint will not = sparks, because the sparks actually come from iron in the steel. Iron is pyrophoric, meaning it autoignites when it encounters air - so the outer coating of anything with iron is an oxidized layer that flecks away when you hit it with something hard and jagged enough - i.e., flint, quartz, probably diamonds :p Once you scrape that layer off, you're hitting iron that flies off autoigniting as sparks. So then you need super fine kindling for your sparks to catch on, like shredded under-bark, in Hatchet, charcloth, for most primitive campers, or dryer lint, according to YouTubers. HOWEVER, Brian was swinging a hatchet full on at a WALL of jagged flint, so it was easy enough for him to GET a shower of sparks. Trying to safely get enough force between a steel camping hatchet and little chunks of flint purchased online is a whole other story. We never did. We think the force variable is huge here. Finally we went back to the store (Sports Authority) and got a chunk of magnesium (the pure metal, which is a lab-production using what we would find naturally, but which does not occur in nature itself - meaning, Brian would not have had it in the wildnerness :/). Making a pile of magnesium shavings and then scraping sparks off of the chunk and into the shavings did EVENTUALLY produce fire. This is about a minute of his many hours of efforts...
And a shot of some of his successful results.
Today, he managed to really get a big fire going in our firepit. Like to where wood caught and everything. The magnesium isn't something you could just find if you were stranded, but it IS something you could bring with you camping or backpacking that has significant advantages over matches and lighters - it lights an indefinite number of fires while only taking up a tiny bit of space, and it doesn't matter if it gets wet.
Ananda made a volcano. Salt dough -
Tupperware, backyard rocks, paint, and grass.
Final display.
Aaron's. Yes, I did let/make them do their own boards ;)
Ananda and Aaron, jointly, presented the monarch caterpillar to butterfly story from last month, along with a new habitat that contains fresh eggs on more recent milkweed.
And Isaac :D He hypothesized that water stays the same size (Of couse it does, what aw you tawking about?) when it freezes. So we froze a tupperware of water and came back 8 hours later to find THE LID POPPED OFF! It was bigger than before and stuck up over the edge. It was cwazy!
Doing their presentations :)
This was cracking me up. He would say something very autoritatively, like, "Then, after two weks, it built it's chrysalis" and Annie would matter of factly point at what he was saying, like hard enough to make a noise when her finger hit the board. They are just funny.
They all got certificates. There were about 15 kids there with projects, and then another 5 or so who just came to watch and look around. My favorite part was after the presentations when kids just stood by their boards to answer questions as the other kids and adults walked around to ask questions. They really ate up getting to explain things to people, ESPECIALLY Isaac.
Across the parking lot from the library where this was held, is Pinecrest Gardens, where we had never been before. But I heard admission is free and it's a great place to have lunch, so we went over to check it out.
It was SO MUCH COOLER THAN I EXPECTED!!
This sign made Aaron completely insane, placed by these trees as it was.
("Please Do Not Climb On Tree")
As fast food goes, I think there is merit to having salad and chili available for .99 apiece.
The super tall canopy was the last shot I got before my camera died.
And then I went INSANE that my camera had died! This place has a giant lake FULL of sunning turtles on rocks, with huge iguanas and giant swans on the bank - plus a dozen smaller ponds with koi, huge goldfish, more turtles, ducks, mallards and so on. It has a massive playground, a petting zoo full of pigs and goats, a great buttfly exhibit you walk into - ALL FREE. It has trails and paths galore to explore, a meadow, I must have seen 20 kinds of flowers I've never seen before! There are TWO different outdoor ampitheaters for shows. Clean bathrooms, water fountains, picnic areas for blankets and tables. The only part of it that was "eh" is they have a great big splash pad water play area...that costs $3 per kid. Most of the paths go by it so kids are going to ask to play, and in my case that would be $15 to run through water, which is mostly ok for now and then - but I didn't bring any cash with me. I will definitely be going back, hopefully with Grant, some money and more camera life.
Tags:
- "hurricanes",
- aaron,
- ananda,
- birthday,
- crafts,
- elise,
- homeschool,
- isaac,
- pictures,
- video
