These are so cool...

I simply must make some of these

http://www.filthwizardry.com/2013/03/recycling-containers-with-crochet.html

when I have a moment to cram something else into our busy lives some spare time.

Dd is currently very much into crochet.

Trouble is the time when she is really really into crochet is usually around 5.30pm when I am trying to make dinner. This is a time when 'Can you just start me off on the bear's arm?' can only be responded to by a motherly grunt of resentment and similar huff puffing until poor child exits the kitchen.

We need more hours in the day. Or more days in the week. Or less of everything else.

It's 9.10 am in The Chicken Shed household...

...and I've had a physiotherapy appointment, the kids have done their morning chores, have made their own packed lunch in preparation for chess club, have completed a few pages of tick-box maths and writing, as well as some logic problems from their daily folders, (ds1 has read the rest of a chapter on metals for IGCSE chemistry) and now they are taking turns to race down our shared drive in their home-made go-kart.

I take a moment to wonder what the neighbours are thinking as they see my ragamuffin bunch hurtling down the driveway in a plastic crate fixed to a skateboard.

Ok.

Moment over.

Let's get on with enjoying the day :)

Update: 9.31 am and ds1 has just come in for a tape measure to help calculate how many kilometres per hour their go-kart is travelling.

'How many metres in a kilometer?' he asks (and I reply).

'Oh that's good.' he says, and off he goes.

Update: 10.26 am.  apparently 22mph, according to their calculations on  http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/speed. Meanwhile, ds2 is teaching himself to crochet. We discuss 'freeform' crochet, when he explains how he'd like to experiment. Their lift for chess club is due any time. Dd is about to go on minecraft (waiting patiently for me to get off the pc)

What have we been doing..?

With the change in seasons we've been a bit out of sorts. However, slowly we are getting back into a rhythm, and these are some of the things we've been doing...

Dd has been learning to crochet:


Ds2 has been reading up about design for computer games:

We've downloaded the free 3D computer graphics software Art of Illusion and ds2's been getting to grips with it. It might as well be Japanese to me - I just make approving noises with the occasional interested-parent comment, like: 'What does that bit do?'

We've also downloaded the trials for various Sony video/music editing packages here . today the kids have been testing out Sony's Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, which looks on face value a little like Windows Movie Maker, but with a million more whistles and bells.

Ds1 has been reading about survival techniques and has created his own survival kit (everything but the kitchen sink stuffed into a rucksack I think). He's also been reading about guns. And more guns. And weapons in general. And been watching the series 'Weaponology' that I recorded which shows techniques that snipers use,and real footage of war time shooting (nice). This child-led learning is fabulous, but there are times when I wonder if there is such a thing as encouraging the wrong hobby?

We've been to a fireworks party:

and the boys have attended their yearly Capoeira Batizado

"Batizado literally means "baptism"; besides being an initiation rite for new students it is also a graduation ceremony for advanced students and a great capoeira community celebration with masters from near and far are invited and the fraternity of capoeira is measurably strengthened by the camaraderie and interplay."

For more info see here

And today I took the bears off to the woods to let off some of that grizzly energy:

The low rope swing over a muddy ditch was particularly popular:

(This is what wellies and leggings were made for)

and there's always time to poke in the sand:

The Milkweed Project

We've decided to join the Milkweed Project:

'The Milkweed Project is a collaborative art project that will culminate in a giant art installation that will create, for visitors, the feeling of being inside a Milkweed Pod (as I imagine it to be). Knit and crochet works by different artists will be hung, draped, connected, etc. to create a gallery full of thousands of soft, white stitches for visitors to walk through.
The artwork will be made of knit, spun and crochet pieces created by fiber artists and crafters from all over the world.'

For more information see http://sticksandstitches.squarespace.com/the-milkweed-project-you-p/



The only problem is that they are looking for pieces of work at least 3 ft long!



I figured that together, me and the kids might be able to put something together. The randomness of 4 different sources of creative input (only one of which can sew/crochet/knit) will just add the the artistic effect!

If you fancy having a go too, join up at the above webpage. The plan is to cap the participant numbers at 500.

Oh, and apparently a milkweed is a thistle...or something similar.

I spent yesterday looking in charity shops for white/off-white jumpers to unravel as we are going to need quite a bit of white wool. No luck so far.