Camp Crafts

Every year at family camp, I try to have some crafty project for the kids to work on if they want to. This year I brought T-shirt crafts. We made t-shirt bags. (Above and 4th picture.) There are lots of tutorials on line.

We also made headbands from t-shirt yarn. I pre-made yarn from old t-shirts in colors that I thought would be popular. I put my own twist on the tutorials I read. I bought a batch of hair "twisties" at the dollar store then knotted and tied the three braiding yarns (about 24" is a good length to try) to one. Loop the twisty over something (your own big toe works great!) and braid until the right length. Tie the knotted end to the other end of the twisty, and you're done! You can braid a single or a double or as many as you like onto each twisty. You could also just leave off the twisty because the t-shirt yarn is stretchy, but there is more give with the twisty. Trim your ends better than we did, or leave them really long and dangly down your back.

After they had made the first ones for themselves, the teens decided they wanted headbands too, so the girls made a bunch more in custom colors for the bigger kids.

 (Karl), M. Thomas, Nicole

 James, Ann, Canaan, Annie, Katie

Bret, Laura, James, Ann

 Group teen picture-with and without headbands

Family Camp!

Every year for the past 4-5 years, the most highly anticipated group event of the year is Family Camp with our homeschool group. I just realized that I had put some family camp pictures on Facebook, but neglected to put any here for a more permanent record of the wonderfulness that is St. Margaret's Fellowship Family Camp. Camp is usually Friday afternoon through Monday morning over Labor Day at a small camp about 11/2 hours from our home.

The camp has a great heated and fenced pool, so even if it is windy or a little chilly, swimming is possible. Many happy hours are spent in the pool and the hot tub over the weekend. This year one family brought a classic inner tube, which was used constantly. Good addition to the family camp repertoire!

Cousin Piper and Brother Marshall came and spent an afternoon with us. (Piper , W, and Tess)

The young teens hung out. (Cecelia, Susanna, M, Ann, Maria, Danielle)

The littles hung out in our cabin and ran around. (Abbie, Hannah, W. and Elea)

We co-op meals with our G. friends. They did all the breakfasts this year, which made me very happy. Above: Girls eating breakfast Sun. morning before church. Below: Sampling of our yummy meals.

Every year we have a lovely worship service and Mass on Sunday morning, followed by a group picture. Everyone grumbles about the picture, but it is really great to have one each year.

There is a very loose schedule, but mostly it is about playing, talking, eating, swimming and relaxing.

Fathers S. and K. consult. 

The girls made t-shirt crafts this year. The braided headbands were a hit, and they had a little factory going on the last day to produce enough for all the bigger kids.

After the teens started sporting the headbands, the middle boys wanted some too.

L. and Friend Bret

Eighteen!

L is 18 today. Jack London books, beef jerky, coffee, hat, scarf, homemade goodies. Nice gifts for our fourth gift of a kid.

 Sister love.

Sister W. made this personalized picture holder out of clay. It was her own idea and plan. She put a picture of L. and Friend Bret in it.

I made a couple of necklaces for her. Aqua is her favorite color. This is the first time I have stamped any lettering on metal. She likes old keys so I made this orange necklace with a vintage key, vintage bead and a flat bead  bought at a fair trade store when I was in IA last week.

Leaf

From our church service today:

...I bow my knee to Christ, who has revealed the ways of God in our midst, and like our forbearers, I pledge my allegiance once more to the church that keeps alive the ministry of word and sacrament for the salvation of all people and the redemption of the poor and needy.
May God help me do my best each day that I live, to love those around me, to walk responsibly in God's way, and to pray for the consummation of God's will among the nations of the world.

Tea Crafts, Etc.

How about some crafts? I am going back and checking into my pictures for things that still need posting. Here are a few crafts I worked on recently.

I made this bird's nest tea cup (and the tea picture below) for a girlfriend's recent birthday. The tea cup was vintage, and the bird and floral stuff I had around the house. When I got the bird nest the way I wanted it, I thought there was not enough color on the inside of the cup. I took a couple permanent markers and drew some freehand lines around the inside rim. Since this will likely never be washed, they should last just fine.

The tea picture was just a silhouette of a tea cup that I traced on scrap material. I beaded in the shape with tiny beads, then made a tiny tea tag from an edge of my real tea bag tags. I attached the tag with a piece of thread and a dab of glue. After framing it, it still needed "something" so I added the Scrabble-type wood letters. I had them in my stash of craft "stuff" that people have handed down to me. I think they were from scrap booking supplies and are smaller than the real scrabble letters. The whole picture was small, about 2 1/2 x 3 1/2. I buy the little frames at random when I am thrifting. I think this one was bright (ugly) yellow before painting.

I made this light-up marquee sign for our friends to use at their cabin at family camp. There are lots of tutorials on-line, so look them up for details. I would suggest, though, that I spaced my lights too close to each other. Kind of an over-do, and too much work for the payoff. I did use a string of 100 mini-lights for these 6 letters, which almost filled them. The letters are just papier mache' store bought ones that were spray painted with the backs cut out. I must say, that makes this project sound easier and quicker that it was!

Fall

 Beans are turning and the wood nymphs are out. Must be fall.

Peppers

A beautiful Postcard from God for our dining pleasure. In a fun, matching, thrifted pan.

School Starts

School has started, although we are still coming up to speed. We will cover the usual stuff at home-math, spelling, English, science grammar, handwriting, composition- and have some interesting outside classes-psychology, history, entomology, art, logic, Lord of the Rings lit, Shakespeare,  classical lit,  home ec, and our usual piano and ballet. Please note, not all girls have all classes. We are not superwomen.

W. took advantage of the nice weather and read aloud her music history paper to her animal class members.

I have this cute little class for art and entomology this year. The first week we made glow in the dark bug jars and torn paper bugs to go with our study. The aqua bug with the big eye is W's.

L. and M. have art with Friend Ana.

Three of us came in matching tops the first day. Another matched also, but we never got a chance to take a second picture after classes started.