Fall Leaf Ristra

During our trip to New Mexico, we learned that the strings of chiles hanging pretty much everywhere in the state are called ristras. They make nice decorations and supposedly bring good health and good luck. But their primary use is to dry and store chiles for future cooking.

Trevor was very interested in bringing a ristra back from New Mexico to decorate our house. For a variety of reasons, we did not. I told him we could make a ristra craft instead. We were originally thinking we could use construction paper, but as we were walking home from school, we noticed that the fallen leaves on the sidewalk resembled chiles.

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Fall Leaf Ristra

Materials: 

• red liquidamber leaves
• cardstock
• craft glue
• raffia

How to Make it:

1. Start by gathering several dozen liquidamber leaves. 

2. Thinking of the leaf as a hand, trim off the 'thumb' and the 'pinkie' to leave just the three center parts. Trim the stem and any brown tips off as well.

3. Starting from the bottom, glue the leaves to the paper with the tips pointed down.

4. Layer the leaves, overlapping each and offsetting them slightly to mimic chiles in a ristra. Gather the raffia together and glue it to the top of the leaf ristra. 

5. Hang and enjoy!

Cub Scout Fleece Blanket Project

Trevor's Cub Scout den held a recent meeting in an unusual place... the fabric store!

Each boy picked out a solid and a patterned fleece to make tied blankets, which we will be donating to a shelter in town. Check out Trevor's patterned fabric. It's obvious he was very influenced by our New Mexico trip! 

Steve helped out by holding the red and the orange solids against the patterned fleece so Trevor could make a decision. He chose the red.

Off to the cutting counter! We need 1.5 yards of each fabric. That plaid to Trevor's right is the one I picked out. Can't leave me out of a crafting opportunity!

Holly commandeered the pattern table and taught the boys how to make the blankets. 

Trevor got started first thing in the morning before school. Trouble helped.

To make the blanket, put the fabrics together with the right sides out, then trim as needed so they are the same size. Cut a square from each corner (4" x 4" is a good size) and discard. 

Starting from one corner, cut a strip approximately 1" wide and 4" deep, making sure to cut through both layers of fabric. Tie the two pieces of fleece together in a double knot. Repeat this all the way around the blanket. This is easier to do without a rabbit on the blanket as you work. Fortunately, Trouble got distracted by the empty bag, snatched the store circular sitting next to it, and ran off to do some nibbling.

I used a different tying technique to do my blanket. I prefer no bulky knots, so I followed these instructions. (The next time I make a fleece blanket, I'm going to try this method.)

Here we are, showing off our completed blankets. 

Our Cub Scout den will be visiting the shelter soon to deliver the blankets to those in need. Good work, Scouts!

Santa Fe and Albuquerque

Our family got back from a whirlwind New Mexico trip last week. Steve had a business trip in Santa Fe; Trevor and I flew in on the 2nd to last day of Steve's conference, then stayed through the weekend. It was a fabulous trip.

While Steve was in meetings, Trevor and I took a walking tour of Santa Fe and then visited a stop along the Chocolate Trail to try a very New Mexican treat, Red Chile Pinon Biscochitos. The biscochito is New Mexico's State Cookie. (Note to self: Petition California's legislature to adopt an official State Cookie. I'm not sure what it should be, just that we should have one too.)  

We visited the New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of the Governors, both excellent. 

We started the next day at the State Capitol, nicknamed the Roundhouse because of its shape. 

It was notable for its unique architecture, the many stunning pieces of art on display, and the refreshing lack of a need for security. 

The Urban Adventure Quest started right next to the Capitol. Steve's conference had ended, so he was able to join us. Good thing, since we needed all the help we could get! Some of the the questions on this Quest were a little tricky! But the sites were beautiful. Along our way, we saw the oldest church in the United States...

... next door to the oldest house in the US (1646).

We saw a lot of beautiful and interesting public art. 

We finished with a time of 1 hr 48 minutes! You can see where we stand on the all-time leaderboard for Santa Fe. We're Team deRosier. 

We rented a car, said goodbye to Santa Fe, and drove the 1 hour to Albuquerque, where we spent the rest of the weekend. We visited the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, where we enjoyed a fascinating (if nauseating) show about fractals on the planetarium dome. We took a trolley tour and learned all about the neighborhoods of Albuquerque, its history, and the many TV shows and movies that have been filmed there. 

We also did the Albuquerque Urban Adventure Quest. It was so much fun! It covered the Old Town area and had us racing around inspecting murals, searching storefronts, studying maps, and solving puzzles. We worked very well together and managed to score at #1 on the Albuquerque all-time leaderboard! Hopefully we're still in 1st when you read this. 

Our next stop was the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Wow. It was spectacular. I took tons of photos of the art on display. Trevor and I couldn't stop talking about ideas we had for art projects of our own, inspired by the Pueblo art and New Mexico in general.

We ate dinner in the Pueblo fusion restaurant at the Cultural Center. Their Tewa Taco was fantastic and this buffalo stew was to die for.  

I should mention that both Santa Fe and Albuquerque are a foodie's paradise. We had amazing food everywhere we went. And pretty much everything had green and/or red chile served with it or on it. (If you get both, which we did, that's Christmas style!) Even McDonald's had New Mexican items on the menu. We didn't eat there since we do everything we can to avoid chain restaurants when traveling, but I had to get a photo of the sign. 

Speaking of signs, here's another unusual sign in Albuquerque. Can't say that I've ever seen an 18 MPH speed limit! Turns out it's part of Bicycle Boulevard. It runs for about 7 miles and has pavement markings, purple street signs, and the unusual speed limit, all designed to give cyclists priority on the road.

 We couldn't travel to Albuquerque without driving Route 66 at night! It was pretty cool.

We enjoyed yummy hot dogs and tater tots from the Dog House, which is apparently prominent in Breaking Bad. (We've never seen it.) We love the neon dog, wagging its tail and eating hot dogs.

On our final morning in New Mexico, we went hiking at Petroglyph National Monument. It was an outstanding way to wrap up a great trip. 

We'd highly recommend a visit to New Mexico if you've never been! And if you go, definitely try out the Urban Adventure Quests in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Use the coupon code CREATIVELIFE for 20% off, or check their Facebook page for other promotions.

Expect to see a lot of New Mexico inspired projects from Trevor and me in the near future!

Coloring Books + Plastic Wrap + Stickles = Awesome

Check out the Thanksgiving card I made. That leaf? It's glitter glue. Stickles, to be exact. (Affiliate link here and below.)

I started with a page of leaves from Leisure Art's Bountiful Wonders coloring book. I put a piece of plastic wrap over the page, smoothed it down, and pulled out my Stickles collection. (Everyone should have a Stickles collection.) 

I outlined a nice leaf in red...

.... then filled in the spaces with yellow, orange and brown. I used a skewer to swirl the colors and push them evenly into the spaces. 

Then I made a leaf with greens and browns. 

I let them dry overnight, then checked to see if there were any thin spots. (If so, just fill them in using the same technique and then let them dry.) Gently peel them up off the plastic wrap.... 

... and you have really neat translucent leaves!  

You can see from the ridges that I didn't smooth the plastic wrap down perfectly; now I know. Not a big deal though, because the ridges don't show at all when you glue the leaf to cardstock. 

Here's my card again. I experimented with photographing it with different background colors to see how they would pull out the different colors in the leaf. Brown...

... red... 

... and green at the top of the post. Exciting to have figured out how to use my coloring books in a totally different way! 

40-4-Steve: Musee Mecanique

We hadn't planned to make Musee Mecanique in San Francisco one of the items on the 40-4-Steve list, but we found ourselves across the parking lot from it after eating lunch at Boudin with out-of-town friends. Steve commented that he'd always wanted to go in but never had. Really? Perfect!  

It was pretty neat to see the ancient arcade games, but it was significantly less cool than the Pacific Pinball Museum. Still, I'm glad we went.