Little Ninja's Adventure

By Mischief  Maker

A peg doll ninja can be very sneaky. Be cautious. 

 From in trees...

...or behind them, they can strike at any second...

YAAAAAHHHHH!!!

THE END ( OR IS IT?!? )

Visiting the Peabody

We were drawn to New Haven by food.  We started with afternoon snack of dim sum, which was curbed momentarily when our boy found some metal in his food.  Fortunately, he was not eating ravenously and happened to be chewing slowly.  Clunk!  I thought it was a bone fragment hitting the plate, but nothing from a shrimp makes that noise.  Peter said it was half of a washer, so some machine in the kitchen was missing a washer.  ...And the other half was somewhere else.  Thank goodness our child was fine, but we were concerned that someone else might find the other half in an unpleasant way.  We hope that the staff dug through the food for the other half, but in the meantime, we have not yet convinced Peter to return.  The rest of us have promised to chop our food into itty bitty pieces, and we might be crazy for risking our teeth and digestive systems.  Decent dim sum is hard to come by around these parts.

Our next food-related stop was a food exhibit as the Peabody Museum.

Can you believe that the average American consumes all this in one year?  We couldn't either.

That amount of food seems more suitable for one of these bears instead, right?  Look at those paws!

Small and cute, both of them.  She liked the squirrel's ears.

The Peabody's natural history collections are astounding and beautiful.  Our girl especially likes birds, and this display was stunning.

The Dodo.  Looks like it stepped right out of Alice in Wonderland, doesn't it?

Even Harry Potter's owl was here.

Massive sea turtle

Dinosaur Hall

ATC Swap = Fun Mail

A couple of months ago, the kids participated in the Kids' ATC Swap 2012 which was generously hosted by two sisters.  They organized the exchange groups by age, and the swap was open to children around the world.  Each child was asked to make an original artist trading card (ATC) for the others members of the group, the number varying.  (Tofu had nine in her group, while Mischief had five, I think.)

We started with sheets of heavy watercolor paper instead of painting nine small backgrounds.

The boy wisely did this splattering of paint and India ink outdoors.  He waved me over: "Mommy, look at the black on silver. So cool, like marbling."  He has sharper eyes, but eventually, I saw the it too.  He was watching the just-splashed India ink swirl on the silver acrylic paint.  I really liked the stripes. 

Tofu Girl has liked sparkles and glitter since babyhood.  We found a set of Martha Stewart's beautiful, fine glitter on Halloween clearance which made all of us very happy.  The girl started her cards with squiggles of glue, followed by generous sprinkles of super-awesome-not-your-regular-old glitter.  Then, she had an a-ha! moment and saw a red dot as a nose, which inspired her to make smiley faces on the remaining cards.  (Actually, she said, "I know!"--but in a happy, fun, no-attitude way, this time.)  

The older child was so taken by the ink that he made a quill-and-ink drawing on each card, but he had artist's block for a while.  He wondered/guessed/pondered aloud what each recipient would want, until I suggested that he just draw whatever he wanted.

However, we realized that his creepy cute art style might not be all right with everyone, so he tempered it with some of that fabulous glitter.  Glitter is good, making even demented pumpkins charming.

Next up: the cards we received.

Dirty Laundry

For more on the Elevated Envelope project, please start with the post below.

We sent out a malicious clothes dryer with some laundry.  See?  They're peeking through the door.  The heat setting dial is a photo of a chicken's eye.

We put our elevated envelope in another envelope to protect it since that acetate and silver paper might not have held up through international mail.  The "protective wrapper" was printed with images of a dryer's internal workings and an owner's manual.

Our surprises included three bookmarks featuring the occupants of the dryer.

Tofu made the Lint Monster who is quite pleased with itself.

Mischief made the Shrunken Sweater who seems quite distressed and embarrassed.

I made the very Lonely Sock who has lost its mate in the drying cycle...but seems to have moved on.

We had so much fun with this project.  The kids enjoyed making the first fuzzball and first shirt, but it took a bit of urging to complete four of the same thing, especially with the bustle of the school year.  It was all worthwhile to see our random scribbles become...laundry with personalities.  Plus, we received a message from an artist in Australia who said that the wicked dryer gave her family the giggles.

Elevated Envelope Surprises

In October we participated in the Elevated Envelope swap hosted by Ephemera.  Several times during the year, Tara at Ephemera hosts an international art envelope swap.  We thought about this for a long time since so many of the entries were astoundingly fabulous.  Some people painted original art; one person embroidered the skyline for each recipient's town; others made letterpress creations.  We were in awe and nervous since the guidelines said that participants should bring their A game.  The theme for the October swap was "Malicious Surprise."  We talked it over, Tofu, Mischief, and I, and talked it over some more.  I tend to obsess.  We decided that we could do this, and it would be a collaborative project.  You can sign up for around ten exchanges, but we signed for four, which meant that we found four spectacular surprises in the mail

Our first envelope came from an artist in Australia.  She generously sent each of us a treat: spider and cobwebs for the boy, a hairband for the girl, and chocolate and tea for me.  So thoughtful!

The second envelope came from a graphic artist and teacher in Canada.  We actually squealed out by the mailbox when we found this petite enveloped.  Hand-drawn robots and rockets...awesome!  Our treat was a  print of an original linocut.  Mischief Maker particularly liked the pumpkin.

Three monsters brought this itty bitty envelope to us.  Hand-painted paper and hand-drawn creepies.  Even the Australian stamp was fun!  This artist said that participating in the swap encouraged him to pick up his pens again, and we delighted that he did.

This envelope took so much planning and thought and work.  We admired everything from the paper textures to the various lettering styles.  What was inside?  Was it enough that three creepies greeted us on the outside?

Meet three more creepies!  Fabulous!  We loved it all.

Tara sent every participant an envelope too.  Look at those eyes!  Plus, the glossy, drippy-feeling ink was creepy too.

Aha!  The treat was a postcard from a cat named Henry.  We had great fun with all the creepy cuteness and spent a lot of time ooh and aahing over the artworks from our talented exchange partners.  What did we send out?  Alas, we were late by a couple of weeks.  Onto the next post.

Care Packages with Care Bears

One of our little friends is staying with grandparents for the week of Thanksgiving while her family is going on an important trip to a developing country.  This little one will enjoy Thanksgiving surrounded by lots of loving aunts and uncles and cousins, much more fun and safe.  Yet she undoubtedly will miss her parents.  To help add to her holiday festivities, we are sending her happy mail.  Everyday Tofu Girl writes a note, and then we tuck in fun things like stickers, scratch art, and beads into whatever packaging we have on hand, like a file folder.

Inspired by the Givers Log's Thirteen Ounces or Less mailing experiments, we sent off a small, lightweight toy in its original packaging.  Taped it well; stuck on a bunch stamps and an address label; and that was it.  For me, one of the challenges to sending out stuff is finding a box or envelope.  Since we are mailing stuff everyday for a week, with zero time to track down shipping supplies, we have really had to think outside the box (yup, seriously).  If all of this works, I might send out gifts and such on time instead of months later.  Surprise!

Pumpkinheads

Tofu Girl's design...with some of the lower mouth chewed off by a squirrel or some other creature that wanted to feast on fresh pumpkin.

Mischief Maker's design

Ready to greet trick-or-treaters