a song with paper engineering

i found this while browsing  soulmama’s blog i suspect just aout the whole world knows about the soulmama blog but if you don’t know about it then go check it out because it is really amazing and it is one of the reasons i decided to start this blog.

anyhow i love this video i love the song and i love it because i am really facinated by paper engineering. i would love to learn more about how to create amazing things from paper but a lot of what i am interested in doing requires an exacto knife and dmitri tends to want to participate in whatever i am doing so i am planning on waiting a while before i get into paper cutting. so here is the video i hope you enjoy it as much as i did.

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good news and a little story

rob ordered various parts and has been tinkering with them and soon my computer will be in as good as new shape actually better than new because i am going to install linux which should prevent the current problems i have from happening again! not only that my old computer will work again and it will act as a media server type thing for us! the old computer has a rather fancy video card and i can use my drawing tablet with it, dmitri does not like me using the tablet so i have never had a chance to really play with it but since the old computer lives in the office and dmitri does not go in the office i will have opportunity to use the tablet now! rob needs to do some more tinkering and then i need to install a new os on this computer and then blogging will be easy again but rob has started by monday all will be well again i hope.

and now for a little story that sadly has no photos to go with it.

once upon a time there was a mama with terrible allergies. the mama decided that her eyes and nose and throat needed a break and so her and her little son would have a day that was spent entirely indoors. the son was not keen on being cooped up in the house all day. he wanted to be outside where the wind was blowing pollen this way and that way but alas he could not figure out how to unlock the door. he was a very unhappy child and so his mama thought up something fun to do. she got a big plastic tray and put shaving cream all over it and then she put finger paint on the tray with the shaving cream and then she put the whole tray in the shower and let the little boy go wild. when the little boy seemed all done she turned the shower on and he got to pour water from container to container and when he was finally done playing he got milkies and then he went on her back in a fabulous baby carrier (in this case it was a chunei but other times it is a woven wrap!) where he fell into a blissful sleep and later woke up feeling refreshed and happy.

the end

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another fun web page

i found another fun web page, it is like a music toy. i love how it makes the music so visual! if you have free time and like playing around with music go check out GROTRIAN Pianos.

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have you seen bomomo?

I was playing around on stumble upon and i found a neat site called bomomo. my younger brother had faved it. it is a cool place to make little funny drawings and play. check out the drawing i did when i was playing around with it.

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the quilt i want to make

this isn’t exactly the quilt i want to make but these are pictures of the fabric i want to use. or fabric like these to make a simple rainbow colored quilt. the images are squares so when i play around it is squares if i make it i will do random shapes probably lots of strips of fabric and i would probably do some block printing on some of the fabric. in short this is just me playing with the colors. i won’t be making a quilt like this for some time. rob and i are trying to spend less money and so i am not buying any new fabric right now. i can get old clothes from the freebox downtown so i am thinking i will do a practice quilt out of old dress shirts first!

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todays toddler art project

sadly i did not get any photos but i have a good reason for no photos. my hands where way to slippery and messy to hold a camera! i have been waiting for the sun to come out so that dmitri and i could go outside and play with shaving cream and we did and it was so fun. the only shaving cream at our tiny grocery store in town is not the foamy kind but if i put some of it in the blender with water it becomes foamy! i blended it with blue food coloring and we went outside with a giant bowl of it and some paper and a plastic tray. at first dmitri was very hesitant to even touch it. i had to get both my hands covered to show him it was ok but he was still hesitant so i playfully and gentlky got it all over his hands. he got sort of excited at that pint then he kept getting more into it and soon the paper was set aside and no longer of interest and we just had the shaving cream on the plastic tray and after a bit he was laying on the tray so his whole torso was in the shaving cream. i’m not sure that it was really an art thing it was more of  texture sensory thing but it was really really fun. i discovered that shaving cream makes everything really slippery and next time i do it i will have towels and things near by to dry my hands off quickly if i need to. rob was home today to help if dmitri went running off or if he had suddenly needed to be held. i really want to try the shaving cream mixed with finger paint!

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30

sunday was my 30th birthday. i got to see good friends and eat good cake. i got fun presents including a small cajon style bongo drum like this oneand wikki stix. have you ever played with wikki stix? my friends who gave them to me where a bit surrpised at how excited i got when i opened up the present and began bouncing about joyfully. honestly i was pretty surprised to i felt like a little kid that got exactly what i had wanted. wikki stix are colorful peices of wax covered yarn and you can use them to write stuff on walls or to build things and they come off walls leaving no marks and come apart from each other and can be used over and over.  i really think everyone should at some point play with wikki stix

besides celebrating on sunday rob has taken a whole week off from work and we  are using this time to try and organize the house better and clean up some but mostly we are relaxing and playing with dmitri and having fun. i have been wanting to sew the dress but our printer stopped working so i can’t print the pattern! it is to cold to wear a summer dress or thats what i keep telling myself. we arranged to get it printed at kinkos and mailed to us but i have to wait a few days. in the mean time i have been sewing kitty hats! so far robs mom, rob and i all have kitty hats and tomorrow i will probably make one for dmitri.

so far being 30 is pretty great. i predict this will be an amazing and wonderful decade for myself.

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singing

one of the creative artsy things i do is sing. i don’t know how to record myself with my laptop and besides i am kind of shy about singing around others. i do sing a lot though in fact there are days when i sing almost all day long. dmitri may grow up thinking that life is like a musical and it is totally normal for people to just burst into song just because the mood strikes. dmitri has been known to sing as well and he can sort of carry a tune. singing is the one creative act i do daily no matter what and without having to try. it just happens like breathing happens. i wonder how common it is for people to sing the way i do. am i an anomaly or is this something everyone does and people just don’t talk about it? i almost exclusively sing songs i have made up myself and while i won’t share a recording i will share some lyrics. this song has been inspired by the aphids that are taking over one of my fava bean plants.

aphid buffet

lady bird lady bird where are you
lady bird lady bird come out and play
come out today
if you come out you can eat at
the all you can eat aphid buffet

lady bird lady bird is it to cold
are you asleep or far away
lady bird lady bird come out and play
come out today
if you come out you can eat at
the all you can eat aphid buffet

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Does a genius live in your walls?

I often watch TED talks while Dmitri naps. I found this one especially inspiring.

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5 Things that delight and inspire me!

rainbows. i have a prism i got for 5 dollars that hangs in a south facing window in our living room and every afternoon (that it is not overcast)  the sun hits it just right to fill the space with rainbows!

little hands and feet covered with marker after a drawing session!

our flowering plum tree

the amazing scenery that surrounds me.

and my friend Sasha, i think chatting with Sasha about our creative endevours might be one of the most inspiring things in my life right now. it might sound sort of silly but Sasha got me back into knitting after years of  having a knitting block and i find when i talk with her i get really excited about creating stuff. she also has an awesome blog The Self Sufficient Apartment

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