Cousin Camp Projects - Part 1

Like my blog's new look? I realize I change my blog's look as often as some little boys change their underwear (which is rather hit and miss, I've learned). I am one of those people who, if finances permited, would redecorate my house according to my mood. Redecorating my blog is at least some way I can release some of my pent up creative energy...and considering that finances are as tight as a my first perm, this is a happy substitute.

It has been some week so far. Later I have a story in the continuing Great Chicken Saga...Which I have renamed The Great Chicken Caper. But right now I am wrapped up in the plans for our First Annual Cousin Camp. Baby Sister's kiddos won't be able to make it (they live in OHH-klahoma), but hopefully we can plan better for next year.

I really love to plan events and parties. I used to have quite the stash of resources available to me. They are sadly in Exile (conveniently called the Storage Unit) along with my piano and personal library. My tiny apartment doesn't hold us very well...I couldn't very well find a place for my collections of vintage china. Anyhoo. I had first stumbled across the idea of Camp when I was reading a Homeschool Blog I like to visit now and then. We weren't able to send Josiah to any kind of camp this year (last year he got to go to golf camp). We are kind of in a "Make Your Own Free Fun" season in life and doing a camp at home appealed to me. But Josiah and I always do fun and interesting things...we needed company. Why not the cousins and why not at my parent's farm? My mom was thrilled with the idea (we didn't ask Papa).

I did a little research, made some notes and started planning. First of all I really went overboard. I planned a different theme for every day of the week with thematic menus, decorations, and on and on. Then I decided that I really needed to be functional for at least one of our camp days and decided on just one theme.  I will post more later about what I've planned and all that, but I wanted post the projects I've been working on.  I love any kind of paper crafts. It is something I can while sitting and can be done fairly quickly (I am the Queen of instant gratification). My goal here was to use things I already had. It would have been really tempting to run to Hobby Lobby...but I obstained...with some mixed results.


Hey. My mess! How can anyone work in such chaos, you ask?  Just pretend you can't see the stuff all over my dining room table. Because we are going to have Cooking School everyday at Cousin Camp we thought it would be fun to have some recipe holders they can fill every day with whatever we learned to cook. My favorite is Fudge Day. Which my Mom is teaching. I still can't make good fudge. What is up with that! The recipe holders came from a card holder that I used as a template.

 I made a cover (using my desktop publishing program and some scrapbook paper). I am still not done with these. I couldn't find my bucket of little scrapbooking notions. Which almost lead to an emergency run to the Hobby Lobby. I have a feeling I am going to have to raid my Mom's endless supply of materials. I promise I'll post the finished product. They certainly aren't done enough for me.

I next tackled the little scrapbooks we are going to make. Now the kids will design their own scrapbook cover and pages, but I like to have a sample of any craft. I started with some little $1 albums we have floating around. (Remember...do with what you have!) I loved the owl because it kind of resembles me in the 3rd grade. My glasses were thick!

These little woodland creatures were absolutely cute. I tucked them in my bag when I left Mom's this weekend...knowing, of course, I would be working on this project. Believe me...I should have tucked in a lot more. I still can't find my scrapbook notions...ding dong it! But isn't this Opossum cute? Trust me, though. There is nothing that cute about the Opossum in real life. We used to have one that would hang out on our back porch and eat the cat food when I was growing up. Charming. This one is obviously trying to improve it's image by wearing a flower on its cheek. Works for me!

Now skunks are cute. This one is especially cute with it's little bedazzled nose. A little ironic, huh? Nothing cute about a stinkin' skunk though. I have a friend who can't smell skunks. Can you imagine a road trip without the stench of skunk roadkill? Here's a fun little bit of trivia. They only cancelled school one day my senior year of high school (which is unheard of in the Ozarks...we always have snow days). A skunk had gotten trapped and died in the water system around a new housing development. Obviously they had to check for contamination. How long that skunk had been there we never heard. I probably don't want to know.

Anyone ever see The Never Ending Story? This guy reminds me of the speedy snail.

I don't encounter many porcupines in my neck of the woods. 

I almost put him on the cover of my scrapbook. But I remembered that Josiah has a special fascination with frogs and he might like to use him on his scrapbook. My parents have a particularly great bullfrog who lives on the pond. Frogs are pretty cool.

I did find some neat twilled (is that how you say it?) candy in my scrapbook paper box. Which isn't the same as my scrapbook notions box. I'm going to have to search Josiah room for my scrapbook notions. They might have been put to use in some sort of great adventure. I loved this candy, too, because it didn't make me crave a Snickers.

Just imagine this owl with a scrawny body and fuzzy hair and you have me at 9.

The finished product. I wanted to add some more ribbon, but this was all I could find. I might add some more when I next invade my mom's scrapbooking stuff. More is always better.

My mom writes lovely poetry. I can't write poetry. I am too rambling for poetry. She wrote this poem for one of her theraputic art sessions she teaches. Originally they made some sort of book. I just took the idea a little farther.  I had a time with this book! I found a mason jar sketch I liked online then copied to my desktop publishing program with the intention of making an accordian book. Only I wasn't paying attention and wound up mixing up the words all over the place. That's what I get for thinking I rock at multi-tasking! I had to do some cutting and pasting...literally. I also wasn't thrilled with the covers. If I had my druthers I would have bought some yellow vellum for the lemonade, made some orgami ice (instead of my flat, sparkly ice) and found a way to include a straw. But...the goal is to use what I have! I am not competely happy with them, but they will work.

So. The projects so far. I have another little book that goes with the recipes that Mom wrote. I also created it while working on something around the house and it wound up a complete mess. I decided to quit before I did something really dangerous. I also made sure my guys had plenty to eat today. There is something to be said for that!

Love, Rebekah