So, I made a quick & cheap Jack O’ Lantern Halloween decoration. OK, I made 8 of them. The pumpkins are $1.97 at Walmart, although the teal one was from CVS and $4.49 because not wanting to kill kids with peanuts or chocolate is definitely something that should be cost prohibitive.
I grabbed some acrylic makers from the craft section, but had to get the green one online. I got orange, black, white, & yellow in a few different tip sizes. I kept it simple, and sort of like those paper Halloween decorations that were shiny on one site and matte on the other that were everywhere from the 50s to the 90s.
I’m probably gonna hit them with a clearcoat spray so they can survive a bit outside.
You should try ’em out and make your own!
Which one’s your favorite? Hit me with some of your creations in the comments!
Anyone remember punk rock compilation CD’s, & their ‘zine/catalogs? I remember lots of ‘zines out there, and still love all the great punk rock that I found through Fat Wreck, Epitaph, Lookout!, Asian Man, Honest Don’s, Drive-Thru, No Idea, Hell Cat & more.
It was fun to be included in stuff like this! (I got some art in the 90’s FIEND CLUB Bleeder’s Die-Gest too!)
The wood came from a recently town-down old swing set. I didn’t like the two pallets I had on hand for this. I had an old rattle can of black paint that I used to just barely darken it up & kind of make it look more aged.
I got the one skull & forearms/hands from Giant Eagle. I got the other skull, hands, chains, lights, & netting for the back at Dollar Tree. All-in, I think I have around $20 to $25 in this? I swapped the hands for the skulls because the sizes made more sense to me.
After letting the pallet dry, I stapled the lights into the bottom, then I stapled a weird grey ratty cloth under that. Then, I just picked a spot, positioned the skulls, arms/hands, & chains, then plugged it in. OH yeah, I put a weird motion-sensor screamy thing in the one corner too, because it was super-annoying everywhere else.
Do you like to put a DIY spin on Halloween or other holiday decorations? Show me what ya got!
Die, slugs! Die! Recently I had an issue with what appears to be slugs going to town on the bean & pepper plants in my vegetable garden. It has been rather wet lately. It certainly could be other nefarious garden pests, but I may have a prejudice for these creepy little mollusks thanks to my shellfish & mollusk food allergies.
In with the shellfish thing, I’m weird about diatomaceous earth. It; seems like breathing it in can be sus, and it can be harmful to bees. I have crushed up some egg shells and strewn them about, but I’m not certain how effective that is. I try to always rinse them well & add to my compost anyway.
I decided to make some slug traps out of stuff from the recycling bin & a PBR. It was weird to buy 1 can of beer. I rarely drink any more & didn’t need a case or a 6-pack. I did finish off what was left of the 24 oz. can after I baited the traps though.
🚫🐌
I used two empty sour cream tubs, an empty cottage cheese tub, an iced tea jug, & a coffee container. We are perpetually excepting rain, so that’s why I made the covers. I made the cuts very quicky & very sloppy with my pocketknife because I’m impatient at times and of course decided to do this as the sun was going down.
I probably should anchor the covers somehow… but they have not blown away yet.
This morning, I counted 3 slugs overcome by a compulsion to consume delicious fermented hops.
Pour one out for the dead slugs, and drink to their memory as you listen to my Beer 🍻 playlist. Or, if you wanna get crazy, I have a Pabst Blue Ribbon 🥇 playlist. Why are there so many songs that name drop PBR? All I can think of that mentions Yuengling is Nerf Herder’s “New Jersey Girl.” Do any songs mention Straub?
What has proven to work well for you to repel garden pests? I have a small garden this year. I do like to keep the pollinators happy, and the birds n’ squirrels too.
Well then, it’s finally here. I finished maze book number two! This one is better than the last one, I promise. The first was sort of a test run just to see how Amazon KDP works. I wholeheartedly appreciate everyone that bought that book, but this one just objectively looks better and much more time was put into its creation. It ought to be much more challenging and enjoyable, IMHO.
This book a collection of a bunch more larger mazes, and a few small ones that I have been drawing since late 2023. There’s no common theme other than most of the mazes have a silly vibe. A few have no vibe at all. There’s aliens, rodents, yard work, holiday stuff, rock n’ roll, a treasure map, food, retail aversion, gross stuff, & more.
You Can See Yourself Out: A Collection of Fun, Irreverent, Festive, & Wild Hand-Drawn Mazes (Front Cover)
I hope you consider picking up a copy for yourself, & maybe even one for a friend? If not, just sharing the link to someone who you think may enjoy it, or just sharing it in general would be awesome.
The link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9Y7SFXS and I’d love if you could share it, review it, favorite it or save it to a list… anything to help even if you’re not interested in a purchase. You could give me a good (or terrible) review or add it to your list on GoodReads too, if that’s your thing.
I had fun making a collage with punk ‘zine vibes for the cover. I busted out the mixed media, printed on weird paper, got two cutting, ripping, & coffee staining… and unearthed the leopard & cheetah print tape.
All of the mazes were hand-drawn, scanned in, edited (& “solved”) in paint.NET, & put together with Open Office. I haven’t stepped into the world of digital drawing yet, and I like my free programs. Someday, I’ll probably dive into GIMP a little more.
I love drawing the mazes, and it’s a great creative outlet like blogging or making music or playing out live. I’m sitting on a pile of old ones that I can convert into a book… but I need to make sure they’re all solvable and do the solutions.
Some are too big to fit on my scanner, and scanning with my phone has less than desirable results… so I’m gonna have to go somewhere like a FedEx Office store and hope they can help before they all disappear. I have a problem picking up any notebook that catches my eye and is the right price, regardless of size & paper type. I like the feel & the calming of pen on paper.
Because I have been excited about this, and I made a small collage with leftover bits, I popped up some new merch designs in my TeePublic & RedBubble stores with that new collage & the book cover images. I do have some older designs there with a few of the mazes that are featured in this book too. If you have an account & follow me on either of those sites, it may help my stuff get seen a bit more. I’d appreciate any form of liking/sharing/tagging if you’re so inclined!
In fact, check out all these designs from or inspired by the book, you can get them on all kinds of merch at each store! (I ordered a sticker, a magnet, a coffee cup, & a hoodie so I’m already in the hole.)
Think they’ll come back from this, or is it just best to replace?
Also, we planted some swiss chard from my daughter’s school science class, some snap beans, some yellow onions, and garlic. We also had 1 volunteer squash pop up in the yard, and 4 back by the compost pile. Not really sure what they are. I have had some WEIRD hybrid stuff in the past. When you grow multiple varieties they can cross-pollinate and the seeds can make some wacky stuff. They could be that wacky stuff or just pumpkins, butternut squash, acorn squash or zucchini.
This year, I had some big help in the garden! These two have been gardening since they could walk, and I think they’re enjoying it and really getting the hang of it.
The kids have their own YouTube channel now, with a little hep from some old guy that blogs occasionally. Check out their gardening how-to:
I also made a map, and decided to make a chart of the suggested harvest dates on the tags just to see how accurate they are. I have been gardening since I can remember, and don’t know if I ever paid attention to that. We just picked stuff whenever it appeared & ripened.
Garden Map & Harvest Dates 2021
We made sure to get all the tags & try to document it all. The kids are loving math & science, so why not incorporate it into the garden? We can see if the harvest dates noted on the tags are anywhere near when the plants are actually ready.
I’m excited to see how it turns out! And, yeah, we got some more jalapeño since they liked it last year… and this time we’re trying some poblano too!
Whoa, Instagram is a trip down memory lane with these kids and gardening!
This morning I felt like playing the guitar. I didn’t feel like jamming in the basement by my work bench where all my stuff is set up. I didn’t bring up the Laney 2×12 or the Orange Micro Terror. I brought out the Fender Blues Jr. & a Yamaha MSR100 powered speaker so I could run my new DigiTech Trio into two different outputs.
The Trio was a birthday present from my wife. It was on backorder from Sweetwater for a while & we have been really busy so this was my first chance to try it out. I set it up like this…
It started out as a pile of stuff in the corner. Then I remembered that I had an old RCA-Victor TV cabinet in the garage purchased from our house’s previous owner that I thought about turning into an amp someday. The Blues Jr. fit where the TV went, and the Yamaha PA fit underneath where the speaker grille is.
Then I had a cabinet and I pile of pedals. So, I cut up a milk crate and made a goofy pedal board with a Donner power supply & some zip ties. The “board” fits inside the cabinet with the blues Jr. too. It was a morning long project but it felt good to get it done & know I can jam a lot more easily. It may be tricky if I just want to use the Trio & some headphones.
I do have a Dirt & Ernie pedal & an A/B/Y that I use to run the Jr. & Micro Terror at the same time. Maybe a board extension will eventually be in order? How cool would it be if the doors came off & were the pedalboard?
Oh well. Enough monkeying. Time to jam.
I will eventually have to give a serious(?) evaluation of the Trio. I do already know I want a looper now. Ha ha. It was pretty intuitive & loads of right out of the box. My 4 year old told me to turn it down right away, so it had to be cool. Right?
Monkeying with the DigiTech Trio:
I apologize for the “living room while the wife and kids are home” volume, and the Crocs.
My little dude seemed to like the idea. He has all the moves down. Maybe some day he will want to play too!
Do you have a living room, bedroom, or other small setup rig? Share some in the comments! Any thoughts on any of this equipment? Any tips for the Trio? You can comment below here at the blog with WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, or a Gravatar login.
Have you seen the succulent turtles on pinterest? I thought they were neat, so I wanted to make one. There are plenty of sites with instructions, try these three:
…If you’re interested. Really though, I bet you could figure it out from the pictures.
🐢
I used what we had around. I just bought a bit of potting & garden soil which I already needed for the vegetable garden. I used an old hanging basket, door screen, two different types of wire mesh that I had in the back yard, and some zip-ties. I had planned on using chicken-wire, but the other stuff seemed better suited to the task.
I did have to buy the plants. Anyone have any hens and chicks to hand over?
🌱
Also, I didn’t have four little flower pots… only two. But, I had an old branch, nails, glue, and a chainsaw… so Timmy the Turtle got wooden legs.
If you make one, be sure to share your photo in the comments! Next time I’ll have to get sculpting with the chicken wire, and make a Bantha or a Tauntaun.
It was a fun family project. We told the kids that birthdays & Easter would be light as we were putting a lot into the swingset. I’m not sure they understood or cared. Our moms helped with the purchase, too. Bethany & I looked online at 6,487,932 swing sets, and narrowed it down to 15 or so in our price range. I made a spreadsheet to compare them, because OCD or something. Looking at the roadside swing sets at those places that also sell sheds and rocking chairs, we got a similar product for about ⅓ or ¼ of the price, albeit with no installation.
Installation is expensive, and now we know why. Ha ha. Everyone who knew we were getting one gave warning, so we weren’t surprised, but it was an interesting task.
It came in 3 boxes from Walmart.com, and we did in-store pickup because I measured & it all fit nicely in the family vehicle.
It took two weekend days with one week night in between to get it done, but the first weekend day was slowed by the kids “helping,” a move-the-tools-in-because-it-looks-like-rain delay, and maybe even a “let’s undo that part because I put it on backwards” moment. The week night was hindered by the fact that as soon as I attached the ladder & sliding board, the kids needed to test it out.
Bethany & I enjoyed the kids helping. We do the Home Depot Kids Workshops so both kids are comfortable with a hammer & a screwdriver, and we have done some other stuff at home like carpet removal and hanging curtain rods where they have actually helped.
My mom even got video of the little man showing off his ratchet skills;
We have been at the house for a few years now, but the project this year is another step to getting the back yard to where we want it, and next year we’ll work on the front. Having some trees removed recently & moving our garden really opened up some space in the back yard. I’d like to put in a fire ring, and a toy car race-track play area. I actually proposed removing the Bean House to make room for the latter, but I was vetoed by a 2yo boy saying “Unh-uh, Daddy. Hoooome. Hooome. Daddy, unh-uh.” I really hope the beans take off this year. I have some sprouts popping up already. I have some squash around it too. I don’t think the soil is all that great there though.
Back to the swing set, we even got a few extra add-ons from Amazon, like the steering wheel, telescope, telephone, and some handles. I think I want to replace the kitchen area tarp walls with some chalkboard-painted wood… and eventually when the canopy fades or dry-rots, I’d like to replace it with some type of solid roof.
At any rate, I encourage you to tackle a project as a family. I encourage you to get kids outdoors. I encourage you to not be afraid to give young kids some tools with a bit of guidance and a lot of supervision. I encourage you to get them into building, gardening, cooking, and the business of imagination. I encourage you to try projects yourself, and don’t be afraid to involve the whole family. It’s amazing how much you can learn through Google, YouTube, and a maybe a few tries.
