Biker/Maker Weekend

Jake was off at D2R2 this weekend (as he has done in previous years), so Lucy and I had some serious making to do. In the realm of kitchen-making, I made hummus (some for a gathering of crafters, some in individual portions for work this week!) and a house-favorite pear cake.  But there was a much more important mission.  That mission: JET PACK!

Lucy proposed that what she really needs for back-to-school is a jet pack.  This seemed perfectly reasonable to me, so we got into it.

Here's the thing: we have a lot of crafting supplies.  A lot of rather random crafting supplies.  Plus, some pretty good imaginations, and a pretty good stock of recyclables like cardboard boxes and such.  So here is the jet pack that we put together:

Items included a "naturebox" delivery box (nice!), red solo cups (this is America), rick-rack trim that my mother salvaged years ago, straws, Q-tips, felt circles that I got online (from a company that makes felt and used to sell boxes of their random scraps), random foam from the recycling box, paint samples from the hardware store, glitter glue, tissue paper, and....well I think that's most of it.  The straps were from some canvas ribbon that was once on a present.

As we dug through the box of scraps and supplies, I found an old umbrella -- well, the fabric from an old umbrella -- and Lucy thought it would make a great parachute. So then the quest was to make a parachute to go with the jet pack, since our family is all about safety, and clearly if you're going to have a jetpack, you ought to have a parachute in case of an emergency.

This is what Lucy came up with:

As you can see, she felt that making a parachute dress was the best way to go.  I agree.  She put that all together herself by cutting and taping.  Later on, I cam back and did some sewing for her, but the design is all hers.  Below is the final version, with all sewing and glue-gunning done by me, but all design, direction, and vision provided by Lucy:

As you can see, she also created a remote control (popsicle stick, cardboard, stickers) and we made an emergency on/off button cuff (felt, elastic, glue gun).  Overall, a very successful maker day.

Also, we did some beading (fixed a necklace, made a couple bracelets) and some paper craft (a few cards out of an old biology textbook) with our crafter lady friends in the evening.

And Jake's bike ride was a success, too.  Hooray!

Also, Alice seems OK with her jet-packed sister.