Graffiti T-shirts

Supplies:  x-acto carved stencils, tulip spray fabric paint ($5.95 @ Michael's.)

Sprayed on solid t-shirts.

On a baseball t-shirt.

On a printed t-shirt.

With some lace used as an additional stencil.  (Suzu, do you want this one? or black/white baseball one?)

Summer is Over; Back to School/Work

Roxie is doing well in school.  She is taller than most of the students in her school...

Here is Sam at scout camp from this summer, pictures displayed on Church bulletin board.

I am a big fan of big computer screens, love the multiple screen set-up.  I find great pleasure in changing the wallpaper of offices set on the default.  This is one of my favorites.  I left a note for the regular branch office assistant (I was on-call, filling in for her vacation) on how to switch it back.  So it is not a real prank if you can fix it.  Just a decorating suggestion!

THIS is an example of the dedicated cars I have seen.  Is it just an East Coast thing?  I edited out his name and birth months.

My plan for making the stenciled t-shirts with Max's face and "DEFIANCE" are my version of public mourning, I guess.  A couple of weeks ago John and I drove down to the tracks, the closest we could get to where the police report indicate where Max died.  We are still waiting on the toxicology report.  Still waiting to get the final word.  But we did hear back from the train engineers, who told us he had been sitting on the central tracks and stood up and walked onto the track with the on-coming 30 mph freight train.  I think it was good to find out, knowing he wasn't passed out or lying down or trying to run away or....

Sometimes details are hard.  Sometimes knowing helps.  But as we drove away, John carefully pointed out good phone poles or the back of signs that would make good graffiti spots. 

Decorating Back Yard: trampoline pool noodles & moss graffiti

Saw this idea on pintrist: take pool noodle foam and cut to wrap around trampoline springs!  I used a bread knife, eyeballed the length, and sliced a vertical line to open noodle and wrap around spring without removing spring.  11 noodles almost fit all the way around, really need one more for this big trampoline.  If they are purely decorative or really help keep kids safe, I don't know.  But it looks so good and brightens up this corner of yard!  I wanted yellow ones (super big ones at Walmart), but they were 4 times as expensive.  Thank you, dollar store won with a shade of turquoise and lighter blue.

The "Jump 4 Joy" made with graffit moss:

Directions vary (some recipes suggest using cheap beer or yougurt), but most agree to wash dirt from moss, put in blender with buttermilk, little sugar, grind up to release moss spores, and "paint" on brick and keep moist with spray bottle to help it take root and grow.   My mixture was so runny it was hard to keep it from dripping or to make smaller letters...I am curious to see how well these take off growing.  All are on the north-shady side of our home.  I will take photos in a few weeks to show the progress or the pintrist-fail...

Having WAY TOO Much Fun!

(Can you see this as guerrilla art--stencilled all-over town with spray paint? Maybe I'll do it on our garbage-recycling container! I'm not really advocating graffiti--not the vandalism part of it. Legal art, or on your own property...I do love it.)

All the kids are asleep. It is Christmas Eve morning, and a busy, full day planned. Lunch with John's parents. Christmas carolling to deliver G-ma Sandy cinnamon rolls to their neighbors (Grandpa came with us to deliver fudge along our street, singing, "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plain"). Then Max has a Maryland State Boychoir Christmas mass tonight in Baltimore that we are all going to. We have to drop him off 2 hours before it starts, for rehearsal, so we will go look at lights and then come back for the service.

When are we going to squeeze in our scripture pageant? Costumes and acting out the Nativity has been a long-standing tradition while the kids have grown up.