Make Rock Facts For The Garden

You don't have to decide whether garden markers are practical, or just pretty... couldn't they be both? And you don't have to go Over the garden wall for your own rock facts. These rock facts are practical, pretty, and homegrown.

Supplies:

Smooth stones, preferably with a flatter surface.
Acrylic craft paints + Acrylic gloss sealant (optional)
Small brushes

Maria and I first dabbled in rock painting for a Thanksgiving craft. We really enjoyed how easy and gratifying it was to make tiny painted tokens. We kept playing, and soon had a rock farm. Now, we have markers for the sprouts and veg popping up and spreading in the garden.

I don't think this necessarily requires a tutorial, but I can offer a few tips.

#1. You can use a pencil... it helps with spacing, and giving you a base to start from.

#2. Use slim, and small brushes, and start by making your letters, or veg small... so that when mistakes happen, you can layer paint, and correct lines... your painting will get bigger, and if you start big, you might feel like it becomes too big.

#3. Relax and have fun. This is rock art... not masterpieces! Or maybe it is a masterpiece. Just try not to overthink it.

#4. When Maria decided to join me, she went to the garden to look at chard colors, and she picked a basil leaf for inspiration. Visual references are helpful.


Our craft paints are flat, and the finished look was a bit dull, dry. It's not bad, in fact I sort of like the naturalness of it, but I decided to liven it up with the gloss sealant. Maybe it will help them last longer?

Maria didn't get where I was going with this. The end of the cucumber is sliced. Okay, like I said, "Try not to overthink it!"

This is for the Anaheim peppers we are growing, or as Geoff likes to call them, "The chile relleno garden."

Okay, did I overthink this one?

Simple, crafty, fun.

Lettuce agree to play in the garden, to grow something good.

I think it would be fun to be a multilingual gardener... zanahoria, carrote, ninjin, marchew, wortel, morot, karoti, cà rốt, carrot! {Spanish, French, Japanese, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, Swahili, Vietnamese, English}

The basil smells really good.


I'm thinking of recipes, and dinners to come!

Need some sage advice? Make something!

Make Bite Sized Valentines

This is the bite-sized Valentine Maria is sharing with her classmates this year. It's a teeny brownie with a festive flag pick. Festive and sweet~

Here's how they were made...

Supplies:
Mini condiment cups
Washi tape (also called paper tape)
Scissors
Cake or brownie batter

When Maria decided to make mini cupcakes for her class party, I suggested we could decorate them with little flags. Working together we made at least forty of them... fun, easy, and cute! We happened to have this washi tape in our craft stash, and toothpicks in our baking drawer. {I suggest using the toothpicks with a decorative finish on the top, so there's only one sharp end. We found ours at Mitsuwa... a terrific quantity, very reasonably priced.}

At first, aligning the tape took a few tries. The paper tape is very forgiving, and even though it holds well, it also can be pulled apart to adjust. Maria liked working with the polka dotted tapes, because they were easier to center by placing the toothpick between rows of dots.

After folding the tape over the toothpick, we trimmed the end. A pennant cut looks pretty, too. Just snip out a triangle shape from the end.

Ta-Da!

We found the condiment cups at Smart & Final. And the brownie mix is Trader Joe's Truffle Brownie mix. {Have you tried TJ's Truffle Brownies? These bite sized treats are scrumptious!} Each cup held about three teaspoons of batter... and the ones with more tended to overflow... a tasty mess!

Maria is very excited to be giving each school friend a small token of her esteem, and one for teacher, too.

{And yes, we did do a test run with cake batter. Obviously they bake quicker than a full size cake, so don't step away from the oven for too long. We love the mini-many decorating options for these wee treats.}

Making The Most of Our Lemons!

The sun came out, and we opened for business! Maria's Lemonade and Bake Sale, with a mini-demonstration of our Young Makers Club, Love and Rockets, was a delightful success. It was fun for Maria to get this chance to explore her entrepreneurial interests and for all of us to share what we love about Young Makers, and the Maker Faire.


Thank you, generous and curious friends, and family! We had a steady stream of visitors, and it was a lot of fun sharing Lavender, the parade robot, the egg-bot, wool felting, and our hula-hoops! The fun lasted long after dark, when we lit a fire, roasted dinner, and had a live concert from Eli and Paul.

Though I was supervising activities, making shave ice, and simply enjoying everyone's company, I did manage to take a few pictures...


Chango, the cat, with Lavender!
Everyone had a chance to take over the cool controllers that turn Lavender, and open her jaws. She moves with the aid of pistons, which sound soft and hissy when they compress.


Here is the core work force behind the success of the day + Geoff keeping the egg-bot busy and operating smoothly.


Oh, one more thing: besides demonstrating robots, and selling homemade cupcakes, we were also on tooth watch. Maria had been hanging on to this loose front tooth for a really long time, but today may be the day it finally pops!


It's Corina! It's Sophie! It's Caia! And Henry, too!
It was so much fun. Every time familiar faces arrived we had a new thrill!
And I admit: we were heavily marketed. I didn't let this lemonade-stand go on chance alone, which was a good idea, because all those invited friends gave a great party-feel to the day.


Lisa, Michael, Carol, and Leo are getting a good close look at the egg-bot.


And here are Teresa, and her ducky little friend, Christina Canard-Diable.
They're Devil Duckies. It's a FIRST thing.


It's not uncommon for FIRST robotics teams to party together. FIRST 2102 Team Paradox loves getting spirited with Team San Diego, and all of their FIRST friends!


Any Dr Who fans reading this post?
Maybe you recognize that this is a Tardis?


Tooth check... oh, whoa... it's all wibbly-wobbly!


More friends, and some new helpers. Some school friends came to play!


Filippo and Karen came, and brought their children, Luca and Cecilia, and Alex C.
And the beautiful fruit pie Cecilia baked... with preserves from their very own garden! Deliziosissima!


By now, we had our fire ring lit, and the lemonade stand closed, but friends were still dropping by, and we loved the interest in Maker Faire that was building! I think we may even have won over new members!


And. You guessed it! It Popped!
What a full day!


Bambi and Alex, fireside.

We roasted hot dogs, and veggie-dogs, enjoyed salad and crudites. Then Paul arrived and he brought a Mediterranean feast. Just fyi: hot dog wrapped in warm flat bread, with fresh, leafy tabouli, and hummus = a super satisfying dinner.


Eli brought his uke, and the guitar came out, for Paul. The sun went down, we feasted, reflected, laughed at Maria's new grin and lisp, and listened to music and singing...


Max, our CFO, assures us, it was a success. And if "F" stands for Fun, he could not be more correct. The Lemonade and Bake Sale, and Mini-Make Demonstration were a huge success!

Making Our Way to Maker Faire!

We were excited to (finally) support Maria's long time dream of hosting her own lemonade stand. We encouraged her to sell for a cause, and so, we decided to share our plans for taking the Young Makers Club, Love and Rockets, to Maker Faire. Through this club, and the high school club, Art of Engineering, we are supporting bringing at least four students, in addition to our own children, to the Faire. A little gas money for the long drive will help a lot! Thank you... everyone that came was generous, thirsty, hungry, and curious. We had a really, really, really fun time. Really!


Before we share the sale, the demonstrations, the fun, I'd like to share peeks of some of the preparations...


Obviously, we made lemonade. We made as much as we could from our own tree, and then we supplemented with the tasty frozen concentrate from Trader Joe's. Maria was insistent on making all the lemonade fresh squeezed, which is admirable, but our poor tree had a limited supply of fruit to offer.


I think combining ours and theirs was a tasty compromise, plus we had a delicious, and homemade berry syrup to liven up the flavor and add color to our lemonade.

Max offered to be CFO of the operation, and he took all my receipts, to calculate expenses, and help create pricing guidelines. It's a genuine pleasure to be so closely acquainted with someone willing and able to provide these services!

Alex was appointed technical support, and strongman. He helped set up Lavender, the big robotic arm. He moved tables, chairs, the fire ring. During the sale, he was on hand to wave in customers, and support his sister.

Bambi, the latest and greatest Young Maker, came supplied with mixes for hot apple cider, hot chocolate... emphasis on the hot, because the day of the sale turned out drizzly, damp, cold, cloudy, windy... and decidedly unfavorable for ice cold lemonade. Bambi also made an excellent greeter and sales associate. And! The sun came out! I think she chased the poor weather away by helping us prepare for a change of plans.


We made three versions of Maria's notice. Every time it drizzled, on the days leading up to the sale, the message would get washed away!


Hmmm... I think this is version II. We wanted the neighborhood anticipating all the goodness to come. Maria was even prepared for dogs!

We baked, too. And we, of course, sampled our wares. You cannot sell unsampled cookies. It's too risky.


Speaking of risky... we made lemon-mint syrup, and berry syrup for shave ice. When the weather started out cold, like it did, we thought shave ice will be a flop. But, like I said, the day changed, and shave ice was a big hit.


Ah... I'm getting ahead of myself. I have some editing to do, but very soon we are going to share a few of the fun moments we enjoyed at Maria's Lemonade Sale and Mini-Maker Demonstration. We hope you'll come by for more!