Lady Liberty's Closet

The first grade classes at E's school do a monthly special share. It varies from writing a few sentences to making a how to video. This month we had to make something that involved the Statue of Liberty. E could choose to write a story, a poem, make a poster or build something.

Naturally he wanted to build something. I have to say my building talents are not the strongest and H was slated for a lot of traveling. E and I kicked around Lego creations, foam sculpture and paper mache and chicken wire.

L kept reminding us that we only had a week and that all of those ideas sounded great until you actually got started. She was lucky, in 1st grade her classroom got to do the Flag and we wrote a story and drew a picture.

Then while watching reruns of Bravo's Top Chef, it hit me. We could do a deconstructed Lady Liberty. It is all the rage in food, why not in national symbols?

While we are used to seeing Lady Liberty looking a bit like this:

E and I have transformed her and we proudly present Lady Liberty's Closet:

 

and inside her closet:

She really is very one note when it comes to color. I think she may need a fashion intervention.

E and I crafted all of her items using stuff we found around the house. The box we got from a neighbor's trash pile. It was exactly deep enough and in very good shape. E and I covered the "doors" in duck tape. JoAnn's has piles and piles of colorful duck tape. The door nobs are drawer pulls from a table I got from my mom but immediately changed the drawer pulls out.

For the closet bar, E and I measured and cut some old pvc pipe we found in the basement. I used a hack saw. H was in the kitchen and yelled down, "Are you cutting PVC pipe." I yelled back, "Like a pro."

For the sandals, we traced E's feet and then cut a top strip. The tablet was easy, just free hand a gravestone shape and cut.

For the torch we used a plastic cup and part of a paper towel roll and duck tape. (on the day of the presentation, we have gold tissue paper all prepared to act as the flames.)

While the building was fun, I think E enjoyed dying a length of old white sheet, using hot water and Rit Dye. He got to pour and stir.

The only part of Lady Liberty's outfit, which we bought was her crown. It was a 99 cents foam crown, which came in grey sparkly. The down side is it only has five points and the real one has seven points, but we are working with what we have and seriously, the crown is sparkly. (Even after we painted it.)

While many people thought me using a hack saw was the scariest part of this project; it wasn't. The scariest part of this project was allowing E to spray paint the props. We found, at JoAnn's, blue spray paint that is pretty close to the correct color.

So last Saturday and again on Sunday for touch ups, I placed the sandals, torch, crown, and tablet on newspaper and shook the can of paint and handed it to my six year old. Crazy I know. It was not lost on me, as he began spraying, that this was a spectacularly poor idea.

Although with some coaching, he actually did a pretty good job.

So for about $15, E and I have built something for his project and he is excited to share his creation and the fun facts he has learned about the Statue of Liberty. He has note cards all set, with each clothing item on it in big letters and 1-3 sentences about that item on the back.

I hate to be cliche, but sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

Phone Photo Sets Week 4 Yellow

As a general rule, I am not huge fan of yellow. For clothing I tend to avoid yellow for sure. I also thought this would be a superior challenge, finding yellow things in the winter. Not true. I am surrounded by yellow things and see yellow things everywhere. This week, the challenge was selecting my favorite four out of the over twenty photo I snapped during the week.

I hope you enjoy them.

Again, I have to say, I learned alot this challenge. I think I was trying to take pictures close up to really focus on the challenge color and if I had it to do over again, I think I would not try for close ups with my iPhone. I also found that shooting in the natural light makes for better photos overall with the iPhone.

I also learned how to zip a file on the MacBook. I know, it is a basic skill, but remember I am returning to the world of Apple from PC territory and let's just say so much has changed in the last few years.

In summation, I should stand back, get outside and zip, I mean snap.

I am going to keep on taking pictures. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter - you will see my quick shots that I do thru Instagram. I am still toying with a weekly photo montage, we will see. I am sure I will take on another challenge. It is great fun. I might still write some poems based on these shots, we will see where my Muse takes me.

And finally, thanks to Allie. She has sparked my creativity and faithfully posts our photos weekly. Thanks again for all the behind the scenes labor that goes into making this an amazing collaboration.

NOPHO: Week 1 Arranged

On and off this fall I have been taking pictures of my dahlias. Mostly outside. These are the last of them. These guys sort of survived the frost. Since the word or the week was arranged, I contemplated arranged marriage, given my mom's passing, I thought about arrangements, as in final arrangements. Then again - flowers are often arranged.

I spied these old medicine bottles arranged on the shelf in my living room, considered furniture arrangements and then decided - no flowers in bottles. Dying flowers in bottles.

I shot about 30 pictures - playing with light, experimenting with a black light (which really did not accomplish much), futzing with the camera and the flash settings. (Yes a smart girls would have written down what she did, but I never claimed smart. Clever and creative yes, smart and organized, not always.)

I then decided on this one (number 28) and I cropped and experimented with edits in iPhoto.

Other than the shadow, which I could not seem to get rid of, I think I accomplished what I set out to accomplish. I like the effect in the photo and I think the bottles are very beautiful...