Axe Bass Guitar

Axe Bass Guitar

( from Marceline's instruments in Adventure TIME! )

By Mischief Maker

Marceline's Axe Bass Guitar is red, but I painted mine blue for a different look.

I added cords for fun, but they really work like a guitar's strings!

Adventure Time!

Adventure

TIME!

By Mischief Maker

Gunter is the evil Ice King's servant.

We found one in our yard.

We decided to attack before it brought the Ice King here.

It was a decoy!

The real one popped up in front of us.

AAAAACCCKKKKK!!!!

Darkness.

Roller Derby Love

We have been fascinated by women's roller derby for several years now but could only watch bouts on tv.  The stars finally aligned in roller derby world to bring Mother's Day and new nearby teams together in one fabulous weekend.  Flowers?  Candy?  Lovely, but no thank you.  For Mother's Day I asked for roller derby tickets.  My little Tofu Girl and I loved it from the moment we walked in, and she only became a little worried when the announcer began introducing the derby girls.  "Mommy, how many people are on the team?" she asked. "I saw someone with number 200 on her arm."  Fortunately, the announcer then explained that players could pick any number as long as it fit (on their arms, presumably).  Realizing that her parents knew nothing about the technical details, Tofu Girl read the program, matching the photos to the ladies we saw and learning about the referee signals.  If you have any questions, ask her.

Most of our photos look the first one: blurry.  It was super exciting and loud, which our son did not like.  Eventually perhaps we lost some hearing capability and became used to the speaker volume and frequent referee whistle shrieks.  By halftime, even our boy Mischief Maker gave up his aloof act and was cheering on our jammers.  The experience was so much fun, and we cannot wait to go the next home bout (with earplugs for the kids).  In the meantime, the kids want to learn how to roller skate.  And that is a fantastically good thing.

Green Queens

I made these postcards for Mail Me Some Art's green card swap.  This first photo below shows...smudges.  It started out as an image of a map that was reversed and then printed onto the acetate which, sadly, resulted in smudging.  Stamping images with permanent ink worked out better but is limited to the stamps you have on hand.  The final look is rather pretty, better in person than in photos, but I will need to think about better ways to use acetate.  The base of the card includes painted paper, strips from vintage books and library catalog cards, green stamps, and a little clover.

Clickety Clack

Years ago my son was completing a worksheet, and one prompt asked: "Which one of these does not make noise?"  Some of the options pictured were of a rotary dial phone, a television with knobs, a radio with knobs, and the like.  He knew those made noise; they were similar to things around the house (or we even have had them).  "Mommy, does that make noise?" he asked, pointing at the mystery object.  That was a typewriter.  I was astounded to realize that he had never heard the lovely clickety-clack of a typewriter.  It sort of resembles a keyboard...or not?

I then kept an eye out for a typewriter, and when a friend asked if I wanted one that was going to salvage, I hauled the big clunker home.  The kids were enchanted, typing and typing, until the novelty of it waned.  Then it sat in the basement for several months until we saw a Euromaxx tv segment on typewriter artist Dirk Krecker.  

Next thing we knew (heard, actually), the typewriter had been hauled upstairs by our son, and the loud clicks and clacks resulted in this:

He made these fun creatures and even inserted words like "brim of hat," Word World-style. 

A couple of weeks ago, the ribbon finally gave out, and we are looking for more ribbon or, preferably, a much smaller and lighter typewriter.  In the meantime, I am trying to persuade the kids to learn how to type (through BBC's online dance mat program), so we will be ready when our next typewriter finds its way to us.

StarBurst Monster!!!

The Return of 

THE STARBURST MONSTER!!!

By Mischief Maker

A special company makes comics with real candy.

But sometimes, it can be dangerous.

Like dangerous enough you shouldn't eat it.

"Ooof! That hurt!"

"Grrrrrrrr!"

And then he disappears.

"RAAAAAGHHHH!!!"

"Huff."

"RAAAAGGHLGGG!!"

And then it gets very, very dark.

The Blorbies

THE BLORBIES

By Mischief Maker

Papa Blorb was not happy.

A psychic had told him he had a nasty fate.

Then, his son came to ask him: "Papa, why are you acting strangely?"

He told him about the psychic.

( His sister was secretly crawling up behind Papa )

"BOO!" Sister Blorb had scared Papa at a horrible time. Brother Blorb was supposed to distract Papa, but he had also learned of the psychic.

But he already knew the fate of Papa. 

He would lose his hat!

"You planned this?!?!" Papa was very mad. "You are going to have a punishment!"

"Poor Brother Blorb." said Sister Blorb.