Harry Potter Wands

Remember the thrill of July?

The warmth of the summer sun.

The giant splash as you race into the water.

AND

The great, last battle against Volde--

I mean, He Who Must Not Be Named.

Ask the Big-uns what was their favorite part of summer and, without hesitation, they will tell you

The Deathly Hallows Part 2!!!

The excitement has not waned.  We have had multiple conversations about which parts were changed and what was left out or added to the movie.  Repeated favorite lines...

("that went well" and "i've always wanted to use that spell")

Re-enacted whole scenes. 

I can't tell you how many sticks have been gathered to use for wands and how many times I've heard "expeliarmus".   Even the toddler is saying it (actually he says it more like his father--"smellyourarmpits")

And, of course, we will be dressing up as characters from Harry Potter for Halloween. 

Not surprising, I know.

So, in preparing for this fantastic event, we needed certain wands.

You know that the wand chooses the wizard and each wizard has a specific wand.

Can you believe these wands were made with paper and a glue gun?!!  I got major mom points for coming across this tutorial on Pinterest.

Much safer than a second grader trying to whittle them with his dollar store pocket knife.

It's really fairly simple:

Roll the paper.

Glue it together and let dry.

Add details with the glue gun.

Paint.

Definitely check out the complete tutorial here.

We still have to make a mad eye for Professor Moody but at least the wands are ready!

By the way, anyone know who it was that said the quotes from above or just knew from looking which wizards' wands we made???  Just wondering how many other Harry Potter nerds are out there!

Indie Love Sneak Peek

I wanted to share with you a quick peek at a few of the other talented artists that I am honored to be listed with this month.



Now this is just a teaser.  You need to jump over to Poppytalk Handmade to see more goodies!

Poppytalk Handmade and Little Ol' Me

I am really excited to share my news with you today.  I just found out myself last week and almost freaked the freak out like Victoria Justice!
So, hold on to your seats...

By Becca G is now included in the awesome art market of

Boom! Pow! Pow! (fireworks.)

Now, maybe you aren't familiar with Poppytalk (the blog), let me just tell you...
I've been following it now for a couple years.  They are always finding interesting new artists and cool home-style ideas.  The Sunday reading list is ever inspiring.  Each month they bring together a collection of new, emerging artists in the world of handmade and vintage in their shop called Poppytalk Handmade.  And this month I'm IN THERE!!!

A couple of my new headband designs were finished just in time to get them into the market! 
Please go check out my gallery HERE. 
And find some other cool artists while you're at it! 

It would be great if you could help me get the word out.  Email, facebook, tweet, message, IM,  or chat it to all your friends and acquaintances, strangers even.  We emerging artists really appreciate it! 
Show some Indie Love!

Quote of the Day by Trek

Note before the quote:
We do not have cable, or dish, or whatever at our house.  We do have a TV and a DVD player.



Trek said,
"Frankie's TV changes and you don't even have to put a movie in the thing, just push the buttons on the remote! (he's totally incredulous at this point)  We should get one of those."

Of course, Abs and Joe totally agreed.  It might be the thing they are most looking forward to about Alabama--staying at a place that has a TV that changes when you push the buttons on the remote.

Zip Tie Spiders for the Kiddos

Here are the materials I started with..

old rusty bolt (don't worry my kids are up to date on their tetanus shots)

+

zip ties

+

googley eyes

You could use any small ring.  We were just using what we found around.

Put 8 zip ties onto the ring/bolt.

 It should look like this...

Scooch 4 over to one side and 4 on the other.

Bend in a couple places for legs and feet.

Add googley eyes and there you go--

spiders!

Who knew spiders loved to slide?

They do.

They really do.

I'm not sure at what age you grow out of zip tie spiders, but my 7 year old was not the least bit interested.

Instead, he made a "war tool".

Rusty metal and zip ties.

Yep--the enemy better watch out!

Halloween Wreath Tutorial

Here is what I started with:

plastic lids

+

zip ties

The zip ties I found at a Big Lots that was relocating--got them for half price which means the grand total for this project was a little over $1!!!  Oh yeah!

I cut the middle out of the plastic lids.



Start putting zip ties on the ring.  Pull them tight and slide them close together.

Cover the entire ring.

And, well, that's pretty much it.  Easy peasy.

This is my finished product...

I snagged a spider from the boys room and added a bit of orange berries left over from last year's wreath.

Boo-tiful, don't ya think? (ha. ha. ha.)

Parting Thoughts:

I had 200 ties to start with. 

It made 2 spiders (show you those tomorrow), covered the ring of 1 gallon ice cream container and about 3/4 of the smaller plastic ring.

My 3 year old was totally into putting the zip ties on.  I need to remember this for the dark days of winter.

one bag of zip ties = at least 30 minutes of preschooler entertainment



Canoe Garden

Usually you use water craft like this:

But what do you do when they get old and leaky and unpatchable?

You stick them in the barn and leave them for 10 years or so.

This summer we repurposed a few of those old canoes in our garden. 

This one grew lettuce and peas.

This one grew squash and pumpkin.

It grew.

And grew. 

And grew.

All the pumpkins that showed up in our garden were renegades.  I suppose from the seeds of pumpkins that we composted last year.  So, I have no idea what varieties we have.  But they look really cool.

Anybody know what they are?

I can't wait to decorate with these little guys!

Happy October!

By the way, look for a Halloween craft DIY later this week.

And as usual, there is a kids version and a me version!