Activities With Children

Steamroller printmaking

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:53:39 +0000

Now here’s something you don’t see every day, printmaking using a steamroller as the press. This took place at the Martha Street Studio Steamroller Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

A few more pictures on their website.

Martha Street Studio

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Making Up in Pictures

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:53:37 +0000

I’ve been absent. A little under the weather. But, I guess a lot of people just step away from the computer during the warmer months for whatever reason. I’ve also been pretty lazy. Yup. In the last 3 years I haven’t been working hard enough in my shop. I have been focusing so much on parenthood and our steps to home ownership- that I just haven’t had the time. But I’ve been trying to take some pictures to show you just what has been keeping me from Hobocamp and other craftiness.

drinking milk in a vintage Sesame Street mug while wearing an armful of mama’s bracelets

our version of those fun little stars people have on their house. I painted them a citrina. we got the color from The Center For Green Building

the ferris wheel at the Danbury mall!

the lillies blooming in our yard

dressing herself

trying to figure out a way to spiff up the kitchen with out a lot of money or renovating- 1st try is taking off the cabinet doors- next painting.

making my day a million times a day

Pesto I made- so we had a green & white pesto pizza! Delish!

We’ve got a big order and a new sewing machine, Confidence by Singer- Ms. Martha Stewart herself approves. So hopefully I’ll have some snapshots to share real soon. Oh and we finished painting our bedroom- finally!

Damn You Reality!

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:53:35 +0000

A pile of once-folded fabric, originally uploaded by hobocampcrafts.

So in my other homes, we didn’t live by a lake where we see a million new bugs a day, we didn’t worry too much about spiders and we didn’t have silverfish. We were pretty lucky, although we didn’t own those properties. Having lived here for 2 + weeks we are settling and becoming accustom to most of the wildlife habitat- seeing real dragonflies on a daily basis is kind of uplifting- almost stepping on a silverfish during a 3 am bathroom visit is not.

After reading on natural ways to rid your home of these gross, pesky monsters.. I’ve come to the realization that having my fabric color-coded and neatly folded on my shelves ( in my magical dreamland where faeries do you biding and your folding) (this picture got out of hand and is neither of those things) is a dream of the past- for now.

Since these buggers get their kicks on eating linen,fabric,wool! ( they also eat paste in books- but we are trying to pretend this isn’t true- where could we possibly put 4 bookshelves + an expedit full of books?!) I need to put my fabric back into sealed bins and then somehow find room for them. Yes, it is a sad day when reality seeps in. I need a few moments of silence for what was and what magical piles could become. Oh well!

Anyone have any other advice on these buggies?

around the house

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:53:34 +0000

While my sewing machine is on the fritz (I’ll be dropping it off Wednesday) I’ll share some in progress corners of my home.
Hazel climbing into her big girl chair.

A lovely embroidered alphabet. At $4.99 this was indeed a steal at the Sal’s. I have a spot on Hazel’s wall.

Among the boxes and randomness. Seeing how much we have makes me grateful but also makes me want to get rid of some things. Clothes, fabric and so many toys Hazel just isn’t into.

Still tackling our bedroom. Hung a lantern in the living room. Starting to paint a shelf for H’s room. I had grand plans for a garden, but we moved in a bit late and our yard needs so much work it sort of fell to the side. I have a bunch of containers with basil, Swiss chard and the like- that just are growing at a mediocre level.

I am starting to get through some boxes in our bedroom and carve a little corner for sewing. We’ll see how it turns out. More soon!

Hazel’s Bedroom Part 1

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:53:33 +0000

When we moved in, it was a shade of beigey-grey. In fact our bedroom and the outside of the house look like they are the same exact shade of beigey-grey! Something had to be done ASAP! So we found our semi-local Mythic paint dealer and ordered a few gallons for our rooms.

Hazel’s is called You Are My Sunshine. Which I found to be perfect, since we sing that song a million times a day everyday. It was also the song my grandfather sang to my mother. Here are a few pictures of her freshly painted room with some of her belongings inside. I am still debating on the actual set up of furniture. I painted her dresser (which we got from my parents’ neighbor’s garbage — hey it’s real wood with new-looking hardware!) and used Mythic’s Sprite Mist(something like that name) to spiff it up. Some other pieces are brighter greens and various bright colors.

We started painting our bedroom tonight. Then I used henna on my hair. Since our well/plumbing is kinda crazy- we don’t have hot water and now my head is tingling from spending 10 minutes under the faucet getting the grit out from my scalp! I went with black and I am pretty happy with how it came out! All about changing colors..hmm must be longing for autumn!
xo

Code entry to your garage using a doorbell and an attiny13

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:00:57 +0000

Code entry to your garage using a doorbell and an attiny13 via HaD. Mike writes -

I wanted to use an ATtiny13 microcontroller because I had ordered a half dozen a few years ago and still had most of them sitting around. This meant I would need to fit the code into less than 1024 bytes of programming space. I downloaded Alan’s code thinking it might be in C but it turned out to be BASIC so I decided to write my own from the ground up. I did start with my favorite Danni Debounce code (written by Peter Dannegger) to handle the button presses and coded a prototype using an ATmega168. Here’s how it works…

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MAKE digital edition hacked!

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Ouch! Clever forum member pulletsforever wanted to be able to read MAKE on his iPad, and in the process of poking around, found a security vulnerability that lets anyone download complete PDF copies of the MAKE digital edition, for free! CoverLeaf (the company that hosts MAKE digital) techs tell us they’re working on a fix as we speak.

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Need extra space on your Arduino? Try ferrite cores!

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Spotted in the MAKE Forums:

If you’ve been needing some extra space for your microcontroller program, then you might want to take a look at Wayne Holders’ latest project, Magnetic Core Memory for Arduino. All you need are some H-Bridge drivers, a separate power supply, and a piece of hard ferrite, and you’ll be well on your way to adding an extra bit of storage!

OK, core memory might have gone obsolete a long while ago, so if you really need the space I suggest using some external i2c EEPROM chips. However, if you are interested in learning about how magnetic memory works, then I definitely recommend checking out his project. Bonus points to anyone who figures out how to patch avr-ld to make use of the extra space!

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Grandparent’s Day Coloring Pages

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:30:37 +0000

We’ve added 4 fun coloring pages for Grandparent’s Day. Perhaps the children could color them in and send them to Grandma and Grandpa, to let them know they are special! Grandparent’s Day will be celebrated on 13th September 2009 in the US and on 4th October 2009 in the UK.

Grandparent’s Day coloring pages

Grandparent’s Day

Back To School Coloring Pages

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:30:36 +0000

We’ve added 6 gorgeous new “Back To School” coloring pages today, including a school bus, children eating school lunch, a lollipop lady, a playground scene, an old-fashioned schoolhouse, and children walking to school. We think children will love them, and hope they’ll enjoy them year round, not just at the start of a new school year!

Back To School Coloring Pages