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<\/a><\/p>\nThe Other Half plans on painting the boys’ boxes camouflaged but Pretty wanted to paint some pretty pictures on her lunchbox.\u00a0 She wanted me to help her, so I taught her how to paint.\u00a0\u00a0 As far as I’m concerned, “painting” actually means “decoupage.”\u00a0 Because that’s the only way I can create pretty pictures with a paint brush.\u00a0 So I pulled out some old calendars that I had saved for their cool prints (you can get calendars at the Dollar Store that have art work that is almost frameable and definitely decoupageable.) and taught her how to use a craft knife and a cutting board to get out the pictures she wanted.<\/p>\n
She painted her lunchbox a cute teal, added her pictures with Modge Podge, coated it a few times, and then covered it with acrylic spray.\u00a0 All of which we had hiding in the craft cabinet from other projects.\u00a0 It’s not the first time I’ve “painted” anything.\u00a0 Voila!\u00a0 A Pretty-worthy lunch box.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, I helped Big with dyeing his paracord.\u00a0 Big has been specializing in making survival bracelets and he came back from Boy Scout camp with more paracord and some new tricks.\u00a0 But he wanted it dyed, found some half-used blue Rit dye on the shelf of the mudroom (Did you know your favorite jeans look brand new when washed in a bit of denim-colored Rit dye?\u00a0 And then you can avoid the dressing room drama for another year!) and wanted me to teach him the stove top method for dyeing.\u00a0 Which was easy enough.\u00a0 Since he was in charge of the 30 minutes of non-stop stirring.<\/p>\n He created a slew of designs including the traditional cobra weave and monkey’s fist.<\/p>\n But my favorite one is this new spiral he developed:<\/p>\n Meanwhile, I worked on some bleach stencil t-shirts for the boys.\u00a0 We plan on making some at Pretty’s birthday party next week but I saw a couple great shirts that I wanted to make for Middle and Little.\u00a0 I figured the boys would enjoy them and my bleach stencil skills would be perfected by the party. The first shirt has some Avenger symbols on front and a big A on the back.<\/p>\n You can probably see I was too lazy to cut the stencil out twice so I just used both parts of it (the part I cut out and the outline) to make 2 shirts.\u00a0 Yep, that’s the kind of crafter that I am.<\/p>\n The other shirt is all the Avengers standing together.\u00a0 That’s Iron Man zooming into the sky.<\/p>\n I know, impressive, right?!<\/p>\n Now since we are friends and I don’t want you to hate my marvelous and spectacular craftiness, I need to point out a few things:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 I didn’t make this up.\u00a0 I stole the idea from these websites:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.iammommahearmeroar.net<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/milesofsunshine.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 This is what my first attempt looked like:<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Even when I was happy with the t-shirts, my Thor kind of looked like Jesus:<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 I can spend hours doing things like bleaching t-shirts and making decoupage lunchboxes and dyeing paracord for survival bracelets because the people at Once A Month Mom<\/a> provide FREE monthly meal plans with freezable dinners that can be made in one day and put up for the rest of the month.\u00a0 So that you can craft to your heart’s content and then when people start whining about “What’s for dinner?” you just go to the freezer and pull something out, add some fresh veggies from the garden, and then go right back to crafting.\u00a0 I made 36 mini Mexican meatloaves the other day and had dinner that night plus a whole pile to stick in the freezer for later.\u00a0 Bonus!<\/p>\n During this time, Middle and Little waited patiently for their t-shirts.\u00a0 By “waiting” I mean Middle drove around Little’s new RC monster truck while Little tried to shoot it with the Nerf gun and Orion followed them around waiting for a chance to chew something up.<\/p>\n Also during this time, I remembered that I did not necessarily enjoy the whirring of RC engines, the sounds of Nerf bullets ricocheting off the walls, or the scrabbling of dog toenails on linoleum.\u00a0 So I reclaimed the kitchen space to start canning tomato sauce….<\/p>\n ….and finish the chevre I started yesterday, and….<\/p>\n ….sent all the boys outside to make a bonfire.\u00a0 I realize a bonfire is not a standard activity when temperatures are in the 90’s.\u00a0 But it got them out of the house and playing with fire is a sure way to get males bonding again.<\/p>\n Also, that meant we could have roasted marshmallows for dessert.\u00a0 Toasted coconut marshmallows.\u00a0 Toasted coconut marshmallows are worth starting a bonfire in July.<\/p>\n Of course, with the RC toys and Nerf guns gone, Luna decided to stake out her own spot in the kitchen to sit with her ball.\u00a0 I think she was just trying to help me readjust.\u00a0 The look on her face said, “Get used to it, lady.\u00a0 Everyone’s home and you can’t expect to walk in the kitchen without tripping over someone or something.\u00a0 So, suck it up.”\u00a0 Isn’t that what her look says to you?<\/p>\n Oh, we managed to get a few more things done.\u00a0 Big painted his lunch box black.<\/p>\n Pretty cut out some stencils for the t-shirts she wants to make at her party.<\/p>\n Middle and Little even managed to share the couch for some Captain Underpants reading.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n