Having an extended weekend can open up a bit of time for busy people, especially if you don’t have to drag yourself up to a cabin or host some special event. Saturday’s post asked what arts and crafts project Babooners could do over and over.
Clearly, sitting around posting comments on blogs is only one leisure time activity that occupies our little community. I offered to post photos of any projects people found time to work on during this long weekend, and several crafty souls stepped forward, first in the Saturday comments, and then by e-mail to connelly.dale@gmail.com.
Lo and behold – Babooners at work (and play)!
Joanne
You guys are all so talented and crafty. After reading the posts, I got motivated to try making a pop can tab bracelet, but I forgot how to do the weave. So I made a pan of homemade granola bars instead. I’ll find my instructions and give it another try though; maybe get a picture to send in of my recycled jewelry.
The one is made with just a black shoelace and the other uses a gold elastic cord used for wrapping packages. If you like that punk or goth look, they’re kind of cool looking. Using a nice velvet or satin ribbon, they could actually look somewhat nice I think. I’ve seen them on Etsy for $10 using colored tabs from energy drinks woven with a clear elastic cord.
Steve
An artsy project I can do forever, loving it all the time, is editing digital photos. It is restful and lovely and utterly satisfying to “fine tune” the look of a photo. Is the sky in that landscape too bright? Now it is not. Would that woman look a little more stunning if she had whiter teeth? Fixed that! Does that Labrador retriever need a little work on his face to make his eyes and mouth more expressive? Done! And that little girl on the carousel, is she really as bored as she looks? Well, I can go in and give her mouth the tiniest tweak to cause her to smile. And now everyone is happy.
UPDATE: Steve sent the original photo this morning and describes it in the comments, below. I’ll repeat (or is it PREpeat?) his description here for your edification:
I cropped, turned the light WAY up, intensified color, erased fences and powerlines and barnyard crap, smoothed out the texture and increased the sharpness. In other words, the original photo was pretty awful! Silk purse from a sow’s ear.
Barbara in Robbinsdale
My claim to fame is… (drum roll) … making placemats out of used greeting cards. This started last year when I saw a set of Christmas card placemats at my mom’s senior residence. Cut into 4″ circles, 12 of these are arranged around a large center card and some border, which becomes a contact paper sandwich – clear over the cards, backed with something pretty so it’s reversible. I branched out from Christmas cards, and now do “theme” placemats, like seasons, flowers, etc. It’s so tacky, and appeals to the recycler in me – I always hate to toss those beautiful cards. Save your prettiest ones for me, Babooners.
Sherrilee
This is easy… stamping, cards, scrapbooking. Give me rubber stamps, ink and cardstock and I’m set. (Of course, I’m more set if you add ribbon, die cuts, sparklies and paper punches.) In fact, last Sunday, when it rained all day, I made 38 cards! I bought my first stamps to placate my sister, who was having one of those home parties. They sat in a drawer for over a year until a friend also had a party. I went just to see what I could actually do w/ said stamps and got hooked that night. Except for reading, it’s my favorite sport – I find it incredibly relaxing to sit in my studio and stamp and cut and paste!
Linda in West St. Paul
My tendency is to be too scattered and unfocused to finish anything complicated, but I do like working on small craft projects. Sometimes jewelry-making, painting things, stenciling, woodworking on a small scale. I have done some quilting and embroidery, but not so much lately. I’d like to get back into that. I’d also like to try making mosaics. Maybe the photo challenge is what I need to get something done this weekend.
(Linda says about the above project: “A simple window bird feeder, made from stuff I had around the house. Scrap wood, leftover pieces of square dowel, an L-shaped piece of plexi that came from who knows where, four screws and two screw eyes. The sole purchase I had to make was the suction cup.”)
Jim in Clark’s Grove
Here is a picture my wife took of one of the gardens I have been working on this weekend. Actually, gardening is my main hobby which I guess is sort an arts and craft project. This flower bed is an example of the kind of somewhat out of control gardening that I do and that I would like to have more under control. The white flowers are Sweet Cicely which is way out of control and many of them will need to be thinned out. The ferns are also in need of thinning out and the purple flower is Jacobs Ladder which I hope has enough space due to some thinning I did this spring.
Anna
Oh, and thanks to you lot, I am freshly inspired to break out my fine new (pink) ukulele on a more regular basis when I get home. I have taught myself a few things – I like how quickly I can learn a new chord or two and get a tune working. I do find, though, that sometimes Rise Up Singing has a chord progression that don’t quite match up with the tune in my head.
Anna didn’t send a picture of herself with that pink ukulele, so I’ll offer this inspirational substitute. If nothing else, it gives new meaning to the term “playing covers”.
UPDATE: Some accomplishments from Jacque, sent Monday morning.
Last night I finished my garden day by baking 2 strawberry-rhubarb pies ( our garden rhubarb ) which I will photograph for the Dale’s Show and Tell tomorrow. The pies are for a going away party tonight. Yesterday was a luscious gardening day, starting with enough time to go to Farmer’s Market. We then returned home to plant some purchases or cook and eat other items. We did both! Then it rained just enough so I did not need to water the new plantings much.
The 4 year old boy next door came over to “help” me plant while he talked and asked questions. A lot of questions. You forget about that over time. He was so cute and enthusiastic. Then right in front of my husband Stevie said, “Jacque, you are amazing.”
I said, “Thanks, Stevie. Lou, (husband) did you hear that? I’m amazing if you ever doubt it.”
UPDATE: Krista sent along these crafty examples:
I also get carried away with crafts like embroidery and/or bead embroidery. I took a North House Folk School class from Jo Wood and learned about how she paints with beads. I’ve done a couple of pieces that way and am ready to move on to something a little bigger. The embroidery is on a surplus French army backpack. I did the same design on a surplus French army coat too. The bracelet and earrings are my own design.
And I, dear readers, have been working on transferring some family videos from VCR to DVD – an arts and crafts project that is more craft than art, with mixed technical results and a few moments of revelation. Who knew we all used to be so jumpy and grainy – looking? Of course that might be the fault of the rudimentary camera we used when the shots were first taken, the old VCR I’m using for playback, the analog-to-digital converter, or one of the connectors I’m using along the way. Once HD video becomes the norm, a new generation will marvel at the visual textures of the old days.
Trail Baboon 
I knew I didn’t deserve two photographs, so I only sent in the edited version of my barn photo. But in case it looks “just” like a photo, here is some of what I did: cropped, turned the light WAY up, intensified color, erased fences and powerlines and barnyard crap, smoothed out the texture and increased the sharpness. In other words, the original photo was pretty awful! Silk purse from a sow’s ear.
Have a lovely, thoughtful Memorial Day baboons. I’m working today.
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Morning all – my we are a talented bunch aren’t we? Fun that all of our divergent talents found a home here.
Steve – where is the pretty barn?
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It is right on Highway 13 in upper Bayfield County, and I’m thinking it is a few miles south of Washburn. It’s pretty famous.
There used to be a road sign nearby that said: “Bayfield disaway (arrow) Washburn dataway (arrow). It was stolen and not replaced.
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Ah, what a dreary morning in Baboonland. Nice to have these pictures to brighten things up!
Dale, this was so inspiring – because of your little “project” here, I got three new placemats started. It’s dangerous, relatives are starting to receive them as gifts…
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
I was late with my pictures. I did not get them downloaded and sent to Dale until this morning after a near craft disaster late yesterday afternoon. Last night we were invited to a good-bye party for some friends moving elsewhere for a new job, after Chris was laid off due to the recession. I had 3 hours to get a crafty task finished which had been waiting for me since Christmas. It went so wrong, making me late for the party and not giving me any time to download my pix and send them to Dale. I hope he can add them to the post, but if he cannot do so, oh well.
So here is the story…
I was happily gluing a 20 X 27″ jigsaw puzzle to a large piece of cardboard late yesterday afternoon. We assembled this puzzle at Christmas with the family. It is a large map of the human brain which I wanted to frame and put up in our new office expansion. We had dissembled it in 4 quadrants to store until the offices were ready for such fine art on the walls.
The first three quadrants re-assembled like a dream, floating onto the gluey board in one piece just in the right spots. The fourth quadrant fell apart all over the gluey board gluing the pieces to the wrong spots. It was fix it now or ruin this great map of the brain! So I finished the project an hour late and sped to the party to say good-bye. This did not give me time to send my pictures to Dale. It also rendered me sticky-fingered and frustrated. But now it is done. Today I coat it with Modge-Podge to prepare it for framing.
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Sorry I missed the boat on this one. Since the lovely wifey is in Madison for a science-fiction convention, I did a spur-of-the-moment trip up to Duluth. Didn’t check the blog. Ah well… I’ll just keep crafting the crafts.
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how was duluth?
what is your wifes tie in to the sci fi convention?
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Duluth was great! Slept a lot. Did a little antiquing. Saw a couple of old friends. And, of course, the folks love it when I/we spend the weekend.
She goes down to Wis-con to do networking. Her ultimate goal is to be a sci-fi writer.
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Wiscon is great fun – I have been a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend (admittedly, strolling State Street was part of the experience, not just time inside the convention hotel).
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i love duluth, yesterdays paper had an article on the pillsbury mansion up for sale and the renovation the folks who lived in it did, i had a great tour of the congdon mansion years ago by the lady who used to be the right hand lady for the family. she knew lots and told enough to make it a real informative tour. i’ll bet the antiquing can be good up there too before the tourist trade hits. keep us informed on your wives literary pursuits and endevors, we got a bunch of damn critics around here who would love to put their two cents in,.
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Congdon is a stunning place and a good guide can really bring it to life (no irony about the murder intended). I used to guide on the S/S Wm. A. Irvin up there. In fact, I was part of the startup (and still the best) tour crew in 1986. I saw billboards advertising the Irvin’s 25th anniversary as a tour ship. Should I feel old?…because I don’t any moreso than back then…
The wife and I have both been spinning our writing wheels lately. Possibly the falling apart of our writer’s group may have something to do with it. Possibly that we both needed a bit of a break.
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Good morning to all:
The picture of Joanne’s pop can tab bracelets reminds of the bacelets made by a friend frome buttons and wire. We could have used Steve’s talent with editing pictures to make my wife’s photo of one of my gardens a little brighter. Thanks for putting this together, Dale. Also, a thank you to each of the babooners who sent in their photos.
I had to have some help from my wife because I still haven’t learned to use the program for managing digital photos on my computer. I know that I can learn to do this, but I am resistant to learning that sort of thing.
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We have many pictures of sunnies and at least one mini-perch from fishing yesterday with Daughter and Aunt. Great fun when you can see the little fishies swimming up to nibble on the bait even before you feel the tug (especially when you’re seven).
And, while the women above are lovely, I have not yet attempted playing the uke in the nude. Might disturb the neighbors. However, should you be curious, here is what my uke looks like (without me in the picture – you decide if that’s good or bad): Pink Uke.
Don’t want to leave our little corner of Gull Lake just yet, but it’s raining. And Daughter does need to get back for school so she can be a flamingo in her class play on Friday…sigh.
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Anna, the pink uke and the flamingo seem like an ideal duo.
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Speaking as an eminently qualified art critic and full-time heterosexual, I can report with no misgivings that the image of the pink uke with the nude Anna beats the solo uke shot all to pieces.
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*blush*
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I missed the boat too. I have no excuses, only that I was an airhead and in an introverted state yesterday. I had the pics but failed to send them.
I’ve seen that barn, Steve! I recognized it right away, but I couldn’t remember where it was until you explained it. Now I remember seeing it when I went to Bayfield with my mom a couple of years ago.
Jim, my gardens look a lot like yours. I have a pretty steep hill and I’ve tried to do a combination of naturalizing and traditional gardening to minimize mowing. Unfortunately the Virginia waterleaf is very abundant and some of the hostas have fallen victim to its aggressiveness. I also have Solomon’s seal and starry false Solomon’s seal. These plants grow well under walnut trees.
It’s fun to see the things the Baboons are creating! Great idea, Dale!
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Krista, there are some Solomon’s Seal plants in the garden in the picture which you can’t see. The grape vines on the trellis and the side of the garage were partly damaged by winter kill, but I think they will recover. A morning dove is sitting on eggs in a hidden nest on the end of the garage in the grape vines.
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How lovely to have a dove nest so close!
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I just want to clarify that I copied the bead embroidered tree from a design by Jo Wood. I love her stuff. You can check out examples of her art at jowoodbeads.com. “Chicago Bay” is my favorite piece. If you ever go to Hovland, I believe it’s displayed in the post office. I also like “My Garden.”
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i had a busy weekend. the extra day makes it seem like you have one to blow. friday afternoon picked up the carpet shampooer to get the house cleaned up for the sons graduation party in two weeks. then on to the twins game. blew a 5 run lead. home at midnight. get ready for the sons teams ballgame before the twins game at 6 on saturday rain screwed that up. yard work sams costco and prep for painting sunday (the deck rails not the canvas) home early enough to laugh several times at saturday night live sunday morning had potato pancakes calling out to me and someone took the twins tickets off my hands so i did get the deck sanded and painted. relocating hostas to their correct location in the expanding gardens and off to our first graduation party of the season. wine and potato salad make me fee snakey this am. still have a day to finish up. off to eastern wisconsin for an early am meeting on tuesday. had pictures of the potato pancakes the guitrs in the kitchenthe deck and the hostas but they are still on the roll. projects r us huh babooners? love the bird feeder linda, the barn cleaned up real nice steve, jim the garden feels right, braclets and granola bars but how could you forget 3 ingredients? 1 ok two maybe but 3 cmon joanne! the placemats are a neat idea. i saw a craft clost at the new spot my mom is moving into where they have ongoing craft projects and a biggy is to take old cards and turn them into stuff. nice stamping i love the 3 dimensional stuff. very cool sherrilee and anna i love you small firm breasts with the guitar and mandolin to accentuate the form. good free day all. see you soon
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Yeah, Sherrilee, do you buy the boxes on the 3-D part or make them?
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I made the whole thing…. it’s just a piece of paper, folded nicely w/ a lot of embellishments. However, I will say that I’ve made two of this design now for recent grads (one in red and the one pictured) and all the other grads this year will be getting easier cards!
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Of the 3 ingredients I forgot, only one was related to the lasagna (if I may clarify). The other two were for other dishes I was making — and one was actually on my list that I forgot! How lame is that?!
Wow, Tim — you were certainly productive!
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What a talented troop! Great looking pies, Jacque. We are in cleaning mode today as it is very rainy and windy outside. My husband is wondering when his wooden shoes and baggy pants are going to arrive. He says he is in a Dutch frame of mind and wants to really spruce the place up.
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Wonderful new additions! Thanks, Dale, Jacque and Krista for more cool crafts! I guess those luscious looking pies are gone already, though — shucks! I was going to invite myself over to Jacque’s house. Love the jewelry, Krista — so much nicer than pop can tabs.
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nice needlework krista, jacque beaurtiful pies, steve i like the before shot to compare. it was quite an improvement
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Morning everyone!
Fun to see all the projects; I’ve never seen pop tab bracelets before. And I’m amazed at people who can create gardens or scrap books like those. My sister created a book for mom’s 80th birthday that was just amazing with little 3-D things that was really cool. It looks like fun but I know I could never do it. The baking and the uke, the stitching, the photos’, the cards… nice stuff!
I did refill our Oriole feeder yesterday so they’re right outside the window fighting over it as I type.
Anna, do you keep the uke next to your bed like me and my banjo? (It doesn’t help; I still haven’t played it but it’s there to inspire guilt about it too.)
I did finally finish planting soybeans yesterday. Some sweetcorn to plant yet but that’s on a rotational planting anyway.
Unfortunately my wife has spent the weekend at the hospital with her Mother. Ups and downs but currently on an upswing. Time will tell.
Need to get the grass cut soon; it’s been 10 days or more so it’s ugly and ratty. Put new mower blades on Saturday morning after a trip to the parts store for a hydraulic hose as well.
Preparing steaks for the grill for supper tonight.
tim, graduation party for our son later in June so we’ve got time for projects around here yet; painting, tree cutting, (mow the grass again)
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Wow! It’s really fun to see all the cool, creative stuff Baboons are making. This is really a talented group. It’s inspiring to see all the stuff everybody is making and it helps us to get to know a little bit more about each other.
Thanks for a fun weekend, Dale!
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I am freshly back from a too-short weekend away – saw loons, a couple of herons, an osprey, at least one large hawk (or possibly a falcon – it was sitting on a nest pole and we were driving past at 40 mph), and a wide variety of Minnesotus Touristus. I do not regret my lazy weekend, but you all do make me feel profoundly lazy…
Nice work all! I almost want to eat the pictures of those pies – Steve you do excellent work with photos, and the jewelry, handwork, gardens, etc. all look fabulous. (And no, Ben, the uke is not by my bed – it sits behind me in the dining room and makes me feel guilty whenever I pop open my laptop instead of its case.)
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Well, we spent 5 hours cleaning and organizing kitchen cupboards. Only one argument, as husband has no spatial skills and I think too quickly, and we sometimes clash over placement of objects. A good day, never the less. Oh, I wish we had a four day weekend!
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