Mystery Pictures #5 – Christmas Edition

December 14, 2015December 17, 2015 | Allison

I thought I’d do a mystery pictures post about Christmas-y things, since it is only 11 days until Christmas! (*Gasp!!* Eleven days! It hardly seems like December at all.) See my other mystery picture posts here, here, here, and here.

OK, here’s the deal: I will show you 5 mystery pictures. Four are related to Christmas, and one is not. If you think you can solve the mysteries, comment below with your guesses. In the near future I will reveal all of the mysteries, and show you the points tally for each person who guesses. I won’t approve the comments for this post until after I have revealed the mysteries, just to keep everything fair and square, so don’t worry if your comment isn’t showing up. Alrighty, are you ready?! Let’s do this!

#1.

#2.

#3.

#4.

#5.

I’m afraid they’re rather easier than normal, but have fun anyway! I can’t wait to see your guesses. 😀

***Allison***

My Word Collection, a Poem, and a Pun

November 11, 2015 | Allison

Hold on, people, this is going to be a very random post! Ok, so I have this little notebook where I write down ideas that I have, and once upon a time, I “collected” words that ended in “et” but sound like a long “a” at the end – for example, “bouquet.” Really strange. I know. But it was also pretty interesting, and I collected a lot more words than I thought. In fact, I collected 15!

bouquet

croquet

beret

buffet

Monet

ballet

valet

sorbet

chalet

Cheverlet

filet

gourmet

crochet

cabernet

sachet

Do you know of any words I missed?

I challenge you to make up a poem with these words! Here’s the uh…. interesting poem I came up with:

*******************************************************************************************************************************

Monet

went to

Gourmet

Buffet.

He wore a blue

crochet

beret.

He ate

filet

and then

sorbet,

then trotted off to do

ballet.

********************************************************************************************

Hee hee! That was fun! And now, to finish off the random word-ness, here is a pun I made up for part of our poetry program in school:

I hope you enjoyed this very random word post!

***Allison***

Make the Perfect Buggle House

July 19, 2015February 12, 2017 | Allison

What is a buggle? Good question. It is a very reclusive species of Glass marblus insectus, more commonly known as a buggle. Never heard of it? Well, don’t worry, you can make your own! You just need flat-bottomed glass marbles, paper, and googly-eyes. (I actually made their eyes out of hole punches. I glued two small black hole punches to two bigger, white ones. For the baby buggle (which I made out of a smaller glass marble) I made two black dots on two of the smallest hole punches.) Click here to see the buggle tutorial.

Great, you’ve made the buggles? Now let us construct the perfect home.

1. Find a small box, like a soap box.

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2. Tape any open ends closed.

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3. Wrap it up nicely in cute wrapping paper.

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4. Use an Exacto knife to cut around three sides of the box to make a flap. (See picture.)

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5. Use pretty tape to cover rough edges.

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6. Draw a charming little entrance on the front of the box.

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7. The really fun part! Give your buggles some nice furniture, some food and water bowls, and maybe a garland. You can make stuff out of almost anything, but if you don’t have craft supplies, you can draw furniture too. Now put your buggles in their new home.

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I also made a way to keep the box closed (not shown) by putting a sticky dimensional foam square on the front, and gluing a ribbon to the top. The ribbon sticks to the foam square and holds it closed.

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Now you can play with your buggles! You can keep them neatly in their box, or take them out. With their convenient home, you can take them along in the car.

I made these with some kids I babysit, and they loved making the furniture. They got very creative! (I prepared the boxes first though, because they are a little tricky for younger kids, and then they filled it with furniture and made the buggles.)

Happy buggle-making!

***Allison***

Nature Mandalas

July 8, 2015July 8, 2015 | Allison

Let me introduce you to some little mandalas I made. They are very similar to the mandalas Michele made right here, but without the game part. It’s a fun challenge to make a mandala with only one material. You can just sit down somewhere and make one using whatever you have around you – grass, bark, leaves, stones, whatever!

The one below is made only with pieces of wood and mulch.

-Allison(fourth of July) 040

And for this one I just sat down on the sidewalk and used whatever I could reach. You could also collect things from a nature walk and make these.

So how about giving it a go? If you make any, I’d love to see pictures of them!

Fun with… FLUBBER!

July 5, 2015July 5, 2015 | Allison

If you haven’t yet made flubber, you absolutely MUST! It is an ooey-gooey-but-not-sticky goop that is tons of fun for kids and adults. If you babysit, this is the thing to bring! (Note: Flubber isn’t sticky, but it can get stuck on soft things like cloth or hair if it sets on them. If it gets on clothing, try rubbing the spot with a paper towel dampened with vinegar.) Now that I’ve scared you with all the warnings, let’s make some flubber! Flubber is made of glue, water, borax (a inexpensive cleaning agent), and food coloring (optional). Click here for the recipe. Now for some proof of the fun!

As you can see from the last three pictures, you can also blow bubbles with flubber. Just make a pocket for a straw, make sure it’s airtight, and blow!

Pastel yellow is a really fun color for flubber because it looks like so many different things: pancake batter, pizza dough, noodles, cake/cookie/cupcake batter, bread… It’s also fun to have a couple of things from the kitchen to use, like spatulas, forks, and cookie cutters.

I’d love to hear about it if you give it a go!

***Allison

Draw a Transforming Face

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015 | Allison

One day recently when I was bored I drew this face on my finger. If you bend your finger down, the face looks young and happy, but if you straighten it out, it looks wrinkled and, well, strange.

The key to making the face transform is to draw it in the wrinkly part of your knuckle. (Wow, that sounds really weird.) You have to figure out which wrinkles will be the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth. You pretty much draw slightly curved or straight lines for everything while you bend your finger,and then straighten it out and voila! it transforms. You can make a little nose too if you want. For some reason, it is really fun to bend your finger back and forth and watch the face change, which makes it a really fun boredom buster.

Thank you for reading this random and slightly odd post! ☺☺☺☺☺ Have fun transforming faces, and let me know if it worked!

***Allison***

Who Am I? A Spring Poem

March 14, 2015March 14, 2015 | Allison

This is a mystery poem I made up yesterday. After each stanza, take a guess at what the poem is about, and see how your first guesses compare to your last guess.

——————————————————————————–

A roundish package, lily-white

Lies buried in the darkest night.

Above, a glowing warmth sends rays

Of light that dance and skip and play.

*************************************

A grayness gathers in the blue.

It bursts and pierces the air through

With drops of glass and noisy wind.

And then the gray is blue again.

*************************************

The silent package starts to shift,

It cracks it splits, it moves a bit.

From one end grows one tiny thread,

Then many race to stretch ahead.

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A new, green dagger thrusts itself

Above the dark, and looks about.

It sees, around it, other spears

That it must conquer, far or near.

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The dagger wages war for food

For light, for water, and land too.

It wins the battle, takes the floor

And earns what it was fighting for.

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And now, more daggers, soft and green

Poke up their heads around their queen.

The daggers grow as straight as boards

And lengthen out to narrow swords.

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A slender, green and stately pole

Emerges from a darkened hole.

The pole starts swelling at its tip,

And yellows as it grows a bit.

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The swelling end begins to split

And sunshine shows from deep within.

The sunshine spreads and spreads until

Sweet golden trumpets fill the hills.

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They trumpet loud their welcome song:

“Spring’s here at last! Cold Winter’s gone!

Warmth and light, new life is stirring,

Come one and all, come sing of Spring!”

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Did you figure out what the poem is about? I’ll give you a hint: it’s a certain kind of flower. Wait for it…. Yep! A daffodil! I hope to see some daffodils soon! Do you have any daffodils or other flowers blooming at your house?

***Allison***

Orange Buddies

March 11, 2015June 5, 2015 | Allison

These little guys are carved from oranges. The only thing besides oranges that I used was a lentil for the smiling guy’s eye. I got the idea from a neat book called Food Play that has lots of pictures of food carving.

Which orange is your favorite?

***Allison***

Chopped!

February 17, 2015February 17, 2015 | Allison

I made up a contest based on a TV show we saw maybe 2 times called “Chopped”. “Chopped” is a cooking contest where the four contestants get mystery ingredients that they have to make into a dish in 30 minutes. Our version of “Chopped” isn’t quite the same, but us kids and our cousins had lots of fun playing it! Here are the rules:

1. Anyone who doesn’t want to cook, or who isn’t able to can be a judge. It works best if there are 3 or 4 other people who cook.

2. Depending on how many people are playing, there are a certain number of rounds. There must be one less round than the number of cooks (like musical chairs). Here are some ideas for the different rounds: Drink, Dessert, Side, Snack. (You can’t really have a main dish because one of the rules is that you can’t use meat or eggs or anything that might be harmful if it’s undercooked.)

3. The judge chooses two ingredients that the cooks must use. Make the ingredients relevant to the round (Don’t use tomatoes and corn for the dessert round ☺).

4. The cooks have 7 minutes to make a dish containing the ingredients the judge chose, plus up to four more ingredients of their choice. You may make the time shorter or longer as you wish. The minimum of ingredients is 4 and the maximum is 6.

5. When the time is up, the cooks have stop what they’re doing and bring their dish to the judge. They have to have used at least 4 ingredients, not more than 6 ingredients, and the ingredients the judge chose; if they haven’t, they’re out.

6. The cooks explain their food to the judges, then leave the room.

7. The judge(s) decides which dish they think is the worst, and put the dish under a big bowl so that it’s hidden. The judge calls in the cooks.

8. The judge takes off the bowl hiding the dish, and announces who is “Chopped” (out of the game). The player that got chopped gets to help judge the next round(s), and the other cooks get to keep cooking!

9. When it’s the last round and there are only two cooks left, whoever wins the round wins the game!

I hope you have as much fun playing this as we did!

***Allison***