My 80's Era - Fashion

I had so much fun scrapping the story of the Easter Sunday that my sister and I dressed like pirates. I don't normally tell older stories, but now I'm eager to do that more often. When I got my hands on Simple Stories' Totally 80's collection, I knew it would be perfect to scrap about the 80's fashion I embraced as a teen. 

 

My 80's Era (affiliate link)

For this layout, I chose three random pictures I had on hand. I don't know the dates, but based on my hairstyles, the two on the left are from middle school (1984-1986) and the one on the right is high school (1986-1990). I included 12 different 80's fashion trends, but there are so many others that didn't make it onto this page. The next time I'm at my mom's house, I'm going to go through the albums and see what else I can find. I would love to make a companion page for this layout. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Coasters

Milk and cookies - yum!

Except it isn't. That's milk, but those aren't cookies. They're coasters and I highly recommend not eating them. I mean, you could. They won't kill you. But you're in for a big disappointment if you do. 

Why cookie coasters? First, because they are adorable. Second, because they are really fun to make. And third, chocolate chip cookies are the official state cookie of Massachusetts. (I have a profound interest in official state cookies and was thrilled by recent news out of North Carolina. We made them once. Delicious!) Read on to learn how to make these cute coasters. Affiliate links below. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Coasters

Materials: 

• Model Magic (1.5 oz per cookie)
• wax paper
• rolling pin
• aluminum foil
• acrylic paint
• brown ink
• Q-tips
• Mod Podge Matte

Steps: 

Place 1.5 oz. of Model Magic per cookie between two sheets of wax paper. (The color doesn't matter, as you'll be painting it. I mixed three random colors I had on hand and ended up with grey.) Roll the Model Magic into disks. Since you'll be using them as coasters, make sure you roll each one least as big as the glasses or mugs you plan to use with them. 

Remove the top layer of wax paper. Crumple up a piece of aluminum foil and dab it onto the disk to add the characteristic irregularities of a cookie. Use different parts of the foil for different shapes. Be careful not to compress it too much; it should still be flat so that it functions effectively as a coaster. 

Allow the coasters to air dry for at least a day, then turn them over to allow the underside to dry for at least one more day. Temperature and humidity will play a big part in how long it takes the clay to dry. If there's any doubt, allow extra time. 

Paint the coasters with a medium brown. I used Earthy Ochre. When the paint is dry, use a Q-tip to work brown ink into the crevices and cracks to give the cookie extra dimension. Ink the edges. 

Dip a fresh Q-tip into dark brown paint (I used Real Brown) and add chocolate chips to the cookies. When the paint is dry, spray the coasters with Mod Podge to seal them. 

This was such a fun project and I'm excited to use my new cookie coasters!

Kristiansand, Norway

We had such a fun visit to beautiful Kristiansand, Norway back in 2024. 

 

Kristiansand, Norway (affiliate link)

I loved scrapping these photos. Between the bright blue skies and lush flowers everywhere, there was plenty of inspiration for making the page. I'm pleased with myself that I managed to include photos of the Salt Skum candy and the Norwegian library books. We were only there for a single day, but I have lots of fun memories from our visit and I'm very glad to have this page in the scrapbook. 

Future Quilt Designs, Inspired by the Star Chain

I've been reading old quilting magazines recently. And when I say old, I mean it. This issue of Quick and Easy Quilting is from October 2002. Since I'm a beginner, all the information is new to me, so it doesn't matter one bit if the magazine is 24 years old. 

 

This Star Chain pattern caught my eye, but it is way too complicated for me. I think I could make it, but it would take me all year. I would rather make a handful of simpler quilts to donate than put that much time and energy into one quilt. Still, I think I'm just about ready to challenge myself a bit by moving beyond a grid of 48 squares and actually try incorporating a few triangles in my quilts. I took the star motif from the inspiration quilt and used it to design some very simple quilts. Each of them has 8 half-square triangles and 40 squares, resulting in a finished quilt that is 60" x 80", as required by Lutheran World Relief.  

This design takes the 4-color square from the inspiration quilt and simplifies it so there are two colors making up the square. I really like this design. With the right colors, it could be very eye-catching despite the simplicity. 

For this design, I took the two colors of the star and moved them across from each other instead of diagonal. 

Here's a design with the star all one color. Just like the previous designs, it has 8 half-square triangles and 40 squares. 

This design looks more complicated, but it isn't. 

For the final design, I replaced the center squares of the star to make it look more like a sun. I really like this option. 

Do you have a favorite among these designs? Which would you like to see me try? Any colors you are envisioning? Let me know in the comments!

Mathemagician Halloween Costume

Last year, I dressed as a chemist for Halloween and sat on the porch with a table full of candy and chemistry equipment. It was so fun being more interactive with the trick-or-treaters than just opening the door and giving out candy. This year, I decided to do something similar, but with a math theme. In addition to candy, I gave out 10-sided dice and taught the kids a math game. They could have extra candy for trying the game, beating me, and/or promising to teach the game to someone else. Affiliate links below. 

Mathemagician Halloween Costume

Materials: 

• magician's top hat
• printable dice pattern
• letter and number stickers
• painter's tape
• 10-sided dice

Steps: 

I started by printing two copies of the dice pattern. I assembled one to put on top of the hat and cut the other apart to use as table decorations. While the glue was drying on the dimensional die, I used letter and number stickers to make three equations on the hat. The multiplication symbol is an x, the division symbol is a lower case i and two dots, and the equal sign is two lower case i's. I attached the die to the top of the hat using a loop of painter's tape. It held firmly all night with no issues. You could use hot glue if you're concerned about it coming off. 

A proper magician's costume would have enhanced my outfit, but I ran out of time to pull it together before Halloween. I ended up wearing all black. Since I was sitting behind a table the whole time, nobody would have seen much of the costume anyway. 

I covered the table with black fabric and decorated it with the cut-out dice. There were two bowls: one had candy and the other had dice in a rainbow of pretty colors. I also put paper and pencils on the table. 

When kids came to the table, I told them to pick out a piece of candy and a die. Then I taught them how to play Lucky Numbers. I simplified the game significantly depending on the age of the kids. For kids younger than school age, I asked them to just identify the numbers when they rolled the die, or to show me the number that matched their age. Some of the kids got really into the game and all of them were happy to be able to keep their special dice. 

Incidentally, I had a big prize set aside in case anyone (child or adult) happened to say, "560, 8, 4." Why? Because those are the answers to the equations on my hat. I thought there was a possibility that someone would spontaneously solve them and I wanted to be ready. Alas, no one did.