The things that keep me busy

Since we started homeschooling this year with a few new programs, I have found myself making the most unusual grocery lists. The list below is for science, we're going to be testing acids and bases and making our own litmus paper with red cabbage and coffee filters (just writing that makes me exhausted!)

Our history program, The Story of the World, lists multiple activities for each lesson. Usually, I go through and pick out the easiest activity. I especially like when I get to tell Grant to go make something out of legos like a ziggurat or a siege tower. That keeps him busy for hours and I don't have to supervise at all. However, since we were already purchasing the red cabbage for science, I thought I'd try something a little more involved and do the "Dye something a royal purple" activity. (Again... totally exhausted! What am I thinking?) If and when this gets done, I promise to post pictures.

I was able to finally take "canned papaya" off of my shopping list. I'd been on the search for that one for a couple of weeks. It was part of our history lesson on Africa. One of the activities was to make an African feast. We didn't make the whole feast, just some fried plantains and this papaya fried rice. The kids weren't overly thrilled with it, but I liked it lots.

And finally... something that doesn't involve the kids or a history lesson! I found this sweater at the thrift store. Isn't it just so incredibly awful!!!! but it's a great color for some of those cute felted sweater projects that I have been wanting to do. Go check out Betz White's blog, I love her stuff. http://blog.betzwhite.com/

My latest project

This isn't the best picture, but here is my first completed project from the felted sweaters. I had a red Christmas sweater with a design already in it. The bottom of the sweater became the top of the stocking and all I had to do was cut it out and blanket stitch around the edges.

I'm thinking about replacing the buttons with something a little fancier.

I love to shrink sweaters!

I had so much fun today!

I've been thinking about making things out of old sweaters for over a year now, since someone gave me a sweater they shrunk thinking that it might fit Julia. Julia refused to wear it because it was itchy, but I kept thinking that it might make a nice pillow.
Recently, I've come across a couple of craft books about felting and re-using old sweaters. Sometimes, the ugliest sweaters make the cutest bags, dolls, mittens or purses.
So, today I went to the thrift store and had a blast. It was so much fun to just pick up sweaters, the uglier the better and not worry about size or style. I only had to check to make sure they were wool. I was worried that there might not be that many wool sweaters, but I was wrong! When all was said and done, I brought home 15 wool sweaters and only spent $50. Now I just have to do something with them.
When I was shopping, I didn't have any particular plans, so I just bought anything, but the more I handle them, the more they "speak" to me. The green one above wants to be a pillow with appliques. There's a knobbly brown one that is going to be a stuffed animal.
The best part of it is seeing them shrink. :o)
That pink sweater in the middle was the one that shrunk the most, but I still don't know what I am going to do with it. Any ideas?