Patio Visitors

As summer winds down, so do our PatioTime visits with Jodie and the grandkids. These sunny afternoons with the kids helped Dale's chemo weeks be a little brighter.

At the end of August, the five of us became six:

Scaling the gate

Latest profile picture

Abby gets a science lesson

The gymnast 

Praying Mantises are fastinating creatures!

Thanks to daughter Jodie for allowing me to share her photos.

For a Chuckle

Take Note!

I loved having pen pals when I was a kid. Receiving a letter in the mail was a highlight, so I started the tradition with the next generation. 

It's been a while since my older two grandkids and I exchanged letters. Yesterday I remedied that lapse. I made each of them a card with their favorite animals. 

Melody's

Annalee's

Inside I wrote them each a personalized limerick.

Melody's

Annalee's

It's a sweet nothing from Mimi to her favorite Idaho girls.

Play Like a Two Year Old

Our granddaughter received some Play Doh for her 2nd birthday. With her encouragement, I started playing.

I even bought myself my own set of dough and some implements. I never had a set like this as a kid. I figured it was about time.

On my own, I only played for a few minutes while backing up my computer. Predictably, I made a heart

with some details:

It's good for me to stretch this "creative play with no specific end in mind" muscle. I rarely engage in messy, unstructured play. Even before I started, I checked Pinterest for some ideas and a jumping off point. Confession: I literally had to mess up my tools before I took this photo because I tend to line things up in rows.

Somehow, little Abby doesn't need to do that.

Laid Up

What's a person to do when they sprain both ankles at the same time?

Why, pass the time coloring, of course. Oh ... and watching a Hallmark Christmas love story movie.

Weird fact: I don't even know how I managed to sprain my ankles!

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I filled the shapes with Crayola colored pencils. Then intensified the colors and brightened the image up a bit in my photo editing program.

This mandala is from the Flowers Mandala Coloring Book. 

Some Evenings are Like This

For Jodie

Me.
Tonight.

Couch Potato

2025 Pumpkin Wreath - Part 2

So! This is it! The result of my attempts at a yarn-covered pumpkin wreath.

I tried four different ways to wrap the wire wreath form with the chenille yarn. Every attempt was unimpressive. Eventually, I gave up and cut the yarn off the wire.

I was ... unhappy.

But determined.

I looked through Pinterest boards. I got some more ideas. I looked through my stash for different supplies. I slept on it. The next day I visited three Dollar Tree locations looking for new supplies. None of what I wanted was available. Then I found this:

It's a four foot plastic garland of creepy twigs/branches covered -- and I mean COVERED -- in glitter. The problem was, there was only one orange garland left. So I bought it, and one that was a deep red-orange, and this purple one.

That glitter shed everywhere. Oh, the sacrifices I make for my art!

I tried attaching the garland to the wire wreath form three different ways. What I eventually did was 

• snip the garland into pieces
• twist a dark orange piece around a light orange piece
• twist the joined pieces onto the wreath spine and hold them in place with a twist of black chenille stem.

I cut a piece of foamboard into the shape of the pumpkin. Then I covered the board with some black fuzzy fabric I had on hand.

I used straight pins to attach a string of orange fairy lights to the black fabric, taping the battery pack to the back side of the board.

Finally I used black zips ties to hold the black background to the wire wreath form.

Then I took the thing outside and sprayed it liberally with some hairspray to slow down the glitter fallout.

This is what the finished pumpkin wreath looks like in the light.

And here's what it looked like hanging up next to the spiders on the front porch ... basically a glowing orange blob. 

I like this version of a pumpkin wreath better than last year's ... but I doubt I'll hold onto it. It's time to release this idea from my head and go make something more satisfying.

On a positive note, though ... We had an excellent Halloween! We had at least 250 trick-or-treaters. It was like a block party out there with all the kids and the parents dressed up and having a great time. One of my favorite moments was this exchange:

        Kid: "Trick or treat!"

        Dale: "Well, now look at you! Happy Halloween!" as he dropped candy into the kid's bucket.

        Kid: "Wow! Thanks, Grandpa!"

It's the dream of our retirement to become the neighborhood grandparents!

Happy Haunting

Our neighborhood has hundreds of kids. Homeowners love to dress up their houses for Halloween. This year, Dale joined in a major way!

Lots of webs

Plenty of spiders

Two are big and hairy!

Lots of their little buddies

are scurrying all over the place. EEK!

Welcome, welcome, little trick-or-treaters!

Bwuuhh-ha-ha-ha-ha

Ready for Fall

Kit stopped by yesterday to play dress-up with me. Well, dress up the house that is. We put on our creativity hats, pulled out the Autumn and pumpkin decorations, and gussied up the living room and entry way.

These two vignettes are on the mantle. The owl is a new addition this year. I found it at a thrift store a few months ago. He's very expressive!

We raided Abby's toy chest for some colorful blocks to use as pumpkin risers.

We also decorated a few shelves on the bookcase.

Whimsy and humor are a must!

Dale decorated the front porch. It's a masterpiece. I'll try to share that tomorrow.

Today's Another Minor Holiday

Today was Jodie's first ever banana split! I'm fairly sure I haven't had one since the turn of the century. But you know how it goes, it's imperative for us to honor a national holiday together - especially if it involves sweet treats! 

We had a choice of four ice cream flavors.

Three kinds of fruit ... that darn near makes this a salad!

Gooey toppings are necessary.

Jodie's masterpiece:

This was Abby's first ever banana split, too. Very clever to use a circus animal cookie as a spoon.

And a good time was had by all.

Jodie took all these great photos.

Our Granddaughter's Missing!

Jodie sent a frantic text:

Abby's our cheeky little gal!

Points of Light

I adhered marbles

to the knotholes in our old fence.

As the sun sets each evening

the light shines through

gifting us

with colorful points of light.

And when the vines die back this winter? 

They'll be the stars of the show.

Melted Crayon Art

The teaser:

I wanted to attempt some melted crayon art because long ago I was inspired by this piece. I saw it on Pinterest where it was pinned from an Etsy shop. It seems that shop may not be in business anymore, so unfortunately I can't credit the original artist. My attempt was much smaller.

Inspiration Photo

I thought these glitter crayons might bring some extra pizzazz to my little artwork.

I used two of the three small 4" x 6" canvases in this pack from Dollar Tree. 

In most of the tutorials I watched, the crayons were placed closely side-by-side, then adhered to the top of the canvas with hot glue. I only had one pack of crayons, so I dry-fit them in place, ultimately  spacing them out a bit.

I didn't want to have the crayons stuck to the top of my finished piece, so I first taped the two canvases together, the finished canvas beneath the canvas holding the crayons. I peeled the paper off the crayons and cut them in half. Then I used hot glue to adhere them to the bottom edge of the upper canvas. 

To make sure they stayed in place, I also taped the top edge of the crayons to the canvas.

Using some clear Contac paper, I cut out two heart shapes and placed them on the lower canvas. 

I decided to try the crayon art on a day when the temperature reached over 100 degrees. I wanted to see if the sun could melt the crayons. I covered some cardboard in foil, then set the canvases on top. I placed the apparatus in direct sunlight, with a heavy rock to hold everything in place.

Then I waited.

When the heat of the day was over, not much had happened. A couple of the crayons had fallen off the canvas when the sun melted the hot glue. So I counted the melt-in-the-sun part of the experiment as a fail and brought the apparatus back into my Studio.

I got out my heat gun, tilted the canvas "just so," and started melting the crayons. The melting happened instantly.

Check out that concentration on my face!

Dale helped by taking these photos of the process. I was glad to have the cardboard/foil under the canvases. They made clean-up a breeze because all the extra melted crayon pooled on the foil.

Here's what the lower canvas looked like when the crayon wax cooled and dried.

Then I peeled the hearts off the canvas.

This is what was underneath. Obviously, the Contac paper didn't adhere to the bumpy canvas thoroughly, so the crayons seeped underneath a lot.

So I took a blue Sharpie and traced around the edges of the hearts to make them more pronounced. After that I used watercolors to fill in the white parts of the hearts, extending the rainbow pattern the crayons made. I used a light blue watercolor to fill in the white parts of the canvas background.

I found a slightly-dinged-up frame in my stash and slid the artwork into it.

Here's my final result:

This was a fun process. I can see trying it again, perhaps. I'll know to:

1. Have more crayons. Make sure they're a quality name brand (melts better) and plain, not glittered.
2. Try a smoother background like poster board instead of a canvas.
3. Make sure whatever I use for a sticker adheres really well, but can still be removed after the melting process. Perhaps I'd try some kind of resist like what's used in watercolor or batik.
4. Not bother setting it outside. Use a heat gun in the first place. Much faster and allows for more control.
5. I'd like to try this with my granddaughters.

Even though the glitter crayons didn't add much of anything to finished piece, the pool of overflow crayon left on the foil was pretty.

This is the last project I made on my Crafting Retreat. It was an excellent weekend. I gave myself permission to let some regular life stuff go, and allow my creative juices to run.