Hunger Games: Deep Thoughts and...Craft Time!

    I am conflicted, gentle readers.

See how conflicted I look?

    On the one hand, I consider myself to be an intelligent enough person and a serious enough reader to understand that the Hunger Games' post-modern dystopian world of Panem is, one might argue, a theoretical foreshadowing of the progress of America, with our obsessive, thoughtless consumption and our willingness to be entertained by  human failure and pain (hello, reality TV).  I fully realize that the surface story by which  we are all captivated--Katniss's story, and Peeta's and Haymitch's and Cinna's and Gale's--is a mere veil over an allegory of the soullessness of greed, ambition, and selfish, ignorant living. But on the other hand...I am SO GEEKING-OUT EXCITED about going to see the Hunger Games movie TONIGHT and showing you my craftalicious handmade Mockingjay T-shirt tutorial that I AM ABOUT TO PEE MY PANTS. (See actual emotion below.)

     (Q:How Capitol is that?)(A: Not as Capitol as the fact that I really want this nail polish.)

   
     I am officially letting myself off the guilt-hook for today. HUNGER GAMES DAY! It is, after all, just about a book series that is brilliantly written and addictive and thought-provoking, right? (Right? She repeats timidly.)
      Okay. Hunger Games T-shirts! I have seen many, many Hunger Games T-shirt tutorials online in the past few days (why do these books appeal so much to crafty types?) but I'm throwing in my own two cents anyhow. And I think my shirt turned out satisfactorily different than the rest. Once again, I am a little last minute on the event/holiday crafty bandwagon, but I have, finally jumped on board. My fellow last-minute crafters/ lit nerds with DIY skills: This one's for you.

You will need:

A plain black (or whatever color you want) T-shirt

A towel that can get paint on it

Straight pins

Scissors

Mod Podge (optional)

Waxed freezer paper (optional)

An exacto knife

Metallic spray paint in the shade of your choice

A print-out of this image:

And about an hour (with dry time)

We'll start with the optional part. I wanted my stencil to be a little more durable, usable more than once, so I mod-podged my print out of the Mockingjay image to a piece of waxed freezer paper, applying the mod podge over the top to seal it as well. This is totally not necessary, but I knew I would be doing multiple t-shirts and I thought this might help the stencil hold up longer (and, as is often the case, I was right). ;-)

Then I cut all the white away from my stencil print out, using scissors for the large areas and an exacto knife for the  finer details.

I bet you can see where the rest of this is going (you smart cookies, you) but I will lay it out anyway.

Lay out the shirt someplace where you can paint (well-ventilated, people) and use the towel, folded, to create a flat pad in between the layers of the shirt. This is not only to prevent any paint from bleeding through (not likely, but just in case), but also to provide a cushion to push your pins into.

Use your straight pins to secure the more delicate parts of the Mockingjay stencil.

Spray! Lightly and from at least 10 inches away.

Give your shirt 15-20 minutes to dry before you remove the stencil, and another 40-45 minutes before you wear it. If you have time to wash it before wearing, then you won't go to the movies smelling like spray paint. Which is always nice. And, yes! These are totally washable. Just use the delicate cycle and dry on low heat or air dry. And then look fabulous! (See actual fabulousness below.)

I made this one with the dolman sleeves for me...

...and this classic long-sleeve scoop neck for my bestie (who is almost as much of a last-minute crafter geek as I am).

Now go to it!

Happy Hunger Games Day!

xo  

   

p.s. Thanks to my awesome SiL, Heidi for being my green-sleeved spray paint model, and to my super-duper photographer daughter who took the pics of me in the shirts. Yup. Seriously. And she's 7.

Vintage Fabric Project #1

   This beautiful, foggy weekend...

in between celebrating my sweet hubby's birthday, getting out and

hiking as a family...

buying my tickets for Hunger Games (geek out *squeal*!)...

and squeezing in a little fiction writing time (that hasn't happened in a while),

I managed to whip out a little living-room perk-up with some of that new old vintage fabric I'm loving.

It all started with this sad piano bench I wanted to use for the kids to sit on at our dining table.

(See how sad?) 

But I had that gorgeous blue and green and gold tapestry-type fabric in my fabulous new old pile...and then going through my fabric stash and combining new with old, I found a quirky combination of prints and colors I love.

So I reupholstered the seat of the bench, and then threw together a few fun, simple pillows to pull the colors into our living room (which, in our little space, is the same room as the dining room) :-)

I love how everything turned out...patchwork and mismatched ruffles and unexpected color combinations..old fabrics mixed with new.

And a happy bench at our little table.

Hope your weekend was wonderful as well.

xo 

St. Patrick's Day Shabby Shamrock Tutorial

   
     I know, I know. I'm always a little late posting these things, but that's because I always plan and create my own minor holiday crafts last minute. By 'minor holiday' I mean any holiday other than Christmas and Easter. And maybe Thanksgiving and Halloween. St.Patrick's day? Definitely minor. We're neither Catholic nor Irish here, so there's really no 'getting into the spirit' of St. Patrick's Day around our house. It's a fun day to wear green and speak with a fake Irish accent, and it happens to be Brian's birthday, but that's pretty much it.
    Wow, I'm really building up the excitement for this tutorial, huh?
     Anyhow...in the interest of having something cute, understated, non-beer related, lacking glitter, and...oh, yes, green to wear on the day that has been set aside for the Wearing O' The Green, I hereby give you, my fellow last-minute crafters, the Amber June Studios

Requirements:
Fingers
Fine Yarn or Crewel Wool
Pin Back or Safety Pin
Hot Glue
A Little Twig

 Step One:

Without cutting your wool from the skein, begin wrapping a strand around the three middle fingers of your left hand (or your right hand, if you are a genius south-paw).

Wrap until you have a nice thick pillow of yarn looped around those fingers; at least 2 yards. More 

if you like.

Step Two:

When you are happy with the thickness of your loops, cut the yarn from its skein and tuck the loose end in among the loops.

Using a darker shade of green (did I mention the yarn should be green?), wrap and tie off the middle of your

yarn poof as you slip it from your fingers.

Step Three:

(This one was difficult to photograph one-handed, so I drew you a lil' picture.)

Step Four:

Continue wrapping the dark green yarn around the three sections of loops until you are happy with the 

shamrock-ness of your shamrock. Then, holding your little twig in place on the back of your 

shamrock, wrap the yarn around it as well, to secure it in place. Cut the wrap yarn from the skein.

Step Five:

Use a little daub (yes, I said daub) of hot glue to secure the end of the dark yarn and attach your 

pin back or safety pin at the same time  (I know, right?)

Voila! Shabby Shamrock.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. May all the...snakes stay out of Ireland...or something.

(No disrespect intended).

xo

Today List : Y is for Yes, Please

      Today I am thinking:

:: about how joining the YMCA two weeks ago is one of the smartest things Brian and I have ever done for our family. And not just because the showers there always have enough hot water that I can wash my hair and shave my legs (I don't have to choose like I do at home!), but for a lot of other reasons as well. The independence available to our kids within a safe environment, the sense of community, the active family time, and the fun classes...I could go on. 

:: I can't believe my kids have developed, so quickly, into little rock climbers, scaling walls like Spiderman and ringing bells at the top of routes that I've seen adults struggle with (Mamma buttons busting here). They can't get enough and I love the trust relationship that has to exist between climber and belayer (usually me). There's a whole life metaphor there...

:: why didn't we do this sooner? We've always tried to be a healthy, active family, but we've also always let winter kind of get us down. It seems like such a 'duh' solution now, far more affordable than we'd expected, and worth twice what we pay. 

:: how nice it is, when I'm  feeling a little low, to say "Mamma needs endorphins, let's go play," and to have a place to go play, all together (family basketball, anyone?) or individually, each of getting a little space and a little attitude boost, so when we come back together again we're ready to be together, appreciating one another. 

Today I'm thinking: I <3 our local YMCA.

xo

 

What does your family do to stay active and have fun?

Share your ideas in the comments!

Vintage Fabric Stash

Hello lovelies. 

Remember that recent influx of gorgeous vintage fabric I mentioned the other day?

Want to see a little bit of it? 

Upholstery -weight fabrics and quilting cotton and poplins and seersuckers, wool and twill and suitings and flannels...

...funky-fun knits and even notions...

(I couldn't decide if this bird print was retro-ugly or retro-awesome, but I took it anyway and now I'm kind of in love with it. In a retro-awesome-ugly way.)

...and patterns! I almost didn't take any patterns because I already have a pretty plentiful stash of vintage patterns from my gorgeous Grandma, but flipping through them, I did find an inspirational couple dozen or so.

Ideas...

...so many ideas. 

My heartfelt thanks again to Stella and her kind, good, talented mother whose fabric stash this was. She was an inspirational woman. A woman of home and family and wisdom and faith and generosity. Clearly, that has not been lost on her daughter, nor on anyone who knew her.

Now to create!

xo 

   

Pennies From Heaven

   I think I am finally old enough--or maybe I have just finally listened long enough--to get the meaning of that song. Pennies From Heaven: Even though it's raining, the rain is a blessing; in an April-showers-bring-May-flowers kind of way, but also in a how-can-we-know-happiness-if-we-never-know-sadness kind of a way.

 
Be sure that your umbrella is upside-down...

   Recently, I feel like my little family has been stuffing our piggy bank with the currency of blessings from Heaven. Like we are participants in an economy of kindness and service, and hopefully we are giving as much as we are being blessed (so blessed!) to receive.

   A few days ago, for example, the electric range in our house (which had, for some time, been not so much 'standing on its last legs' as sort of propped up with sticks because it had no legs left to stand on) gave up the ghost. Rain. Yet, not two days earlier, I'd been talking with my visiting teaching companion, a sweet lady who lives just down the street from us, about her kitchen remodel and her new double-oven range she was so excited about and she just hoped she could find someone who could use her old one, because it still had some years left and she'd hate to see it go to waste. Pennies from Heaven.

   Around about the same time, I was secretly, silently lamenting that fact that my vintage fabric stash was getting woefully low (rain), when my amazing and generous friend Stella texted to say she was cleaning out her late mother's sewing room and would I like some fabric? (Pennies from Heaven).
   And then Laurelei and Riley and I were out and about and ran into the owner of the gym where the kids used to take gymnastics lessons... just chatting it up in the parking lot of Lowe's when she offers the kids a three-month gymnastics scholarship in repayment (she says) for some way-back long-ago photo job she feels they never finished paying Brian for (I thought we were all even-stevens.Rain I hadn't even noticed!). So, hooray for gymnastics and the plink-plink-plunk of more Pennies from Heaven in the piggy bank.
  There are so many more stories I could tell; so many blessings I could count. But do you know what the best thing is about receiving blessings from God at the hands of others? The way it compels us to want to give something in return. Our time, our talents, our resources...a smile, a kind word, or a helping hand...the way those blessings take us from feeling like we have nothing to give (or what can I do?), to feeling like we have so much to share and give.
   
   Don't ya know each cloud contains Pennies from Heaven? I know it. How could I not?    

   (I'm kind of in love with this Pennies From Heaven cover I found on YouTube--doesn't she have a cool voice?)

Count your blessings, blogland beauties. I count you among mine.

xo

  

Winter Picnic

   We woke up yesterday to sunshine. Bright, glorious sunshine. That may seem normal to most people, but in Missoula, where we have a scant 75 days of sunshine a year, that warm light triggered a forgotten primal reaction: the need to be outside. Our Sunday drive plans immediately changed. Less driving, more exploring. And a picnic.

A We-Can't-Wait-For-Spring picnic.

 
    We drove to Rock Creek (famous for fly-fishing, yes, but also perfect for snow picnicking), and set out down the Spring Creek trail, reveling in the almost-balmy 54 degree fresh air. Mamma hesitated and nearly called it quits when we spotted a whole trail of these:

 (Yes, those are mountain lion tracks. I should have set something else in the picture to show the size--those bad boys were huge.)

   ...but we decided, with the number of noisy people in our little party, the bright sunshine, and the abundance of fly-fisherman in the vicinity, to keep a wary eye in the trees, stick together, and forge ahead.
    I'm so glad we did.

    Not only did we not see any mountain lions, we also did not see any cabin-fever grumpiness, it's-too-cold-shivers, or let's-go-home long winter blues. We got hot. We (at least Brian and I) got a little bit sunburned. And we spent the day basking in the magical crossover of winter's beauty and the hope of spring.

I hope your spring comes soon.

xo

p.s. Thoughts on spring from my favorite poet, William Carlos Williams.

p.p.s. A couple of people have asked me about the boots I am wearing in these shots. They are the Joan of Arctic by Sorel and if you are a winter outdoors kind of girl, they are the Best. Boots. Ever. A little pricey, but I got them on a screamin' mid-winter sale at REI. Worth it.