Fly the Fortress

Ewan spent his Sunday on the Aluminum Overcast – a refurbished B-17 bomber from WWII.  He had a fantastic time, and we posted pictures on our photo site for you all to see.  Happy 30th Birthday Ewan!

Martha Stewart

Now that I’ve been sufficiently pestered, I’m posting links to my segment on The Martha Stewart Show and my interview with Madison NBC 15.  I promise to be good and update you all more fequently.  Pinky Swear.

You can watch a high quality version of my segment (me teaching Martha how to make Muskox and Polar Bear shadow puppets) on Martha’s website HERE.

*Note: If you close the video box you can see step by step instructions for the project.

And my interview with NBC 15:

Robin and I had a ton of fun in NY with Ewan as our tour guide.  Jeremy and Lissa were our gracious hosts, practice audience  and social coordinators – thank you so much!  Up next on Meredith’s blog: How to get blisters on every inch of your feet in only three days!

Frost

That frost on the kitchen window really threw me for a loop this morning.  Frost?  Really?  Already?  But Christmas season is in full swing, even if I haven’t caught up to the rest of the world.  I have so much to do, but somehow I know it will all get done.  I’m looking forward to the candy cutting party we’re having with friends (and Grandma!) this weekend.  Cutting candy always gets me in the mood for Christmas.

There have been big things happening in puppet land, which is why I haven’t had time to keep up with things like, ahem, updating my blog.  Take a look at the Orange Moon Toys blog or store if you’re curious.  There’s even a giveaway going on until next week!

The Alex Stoffregen Art Contest

Alex is running an art contest for the best picture of himeself (to be used on his facebook profile).  This is my entry.  If I win, I get to have coffee with Alex – wish me luck!

Summer Marathon

Wow! I can’t believe the summer’s gone already.  Here are a couple of things I could have been writing about.

There were several trips to the zoo – both the Henry Vilas and the Milwaukee County – during which I spent hours taking photos.  Always a good time.

In July I practiced my henna skills on both hands.  The lighter one has just had the paste peeled off, and the darker hand is a day old.

We spent a week up at Moon Beach Camp with my parents and grandma.  We got to share a cabin with Rachel’s family – it was a blast!  I’d forgotten how much I miss camp.

And the obligatory Dez shot.  He’s been perfect, of course.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!  I know it’s been a long time since I last posted, but I’ve been busy setting up Orange Moon Toys with my sister, Robin.  Right now we are only selling shadow puppets, but we plan to make mobiles and other things in the future, too.

Life has been a bit crazy at home lately, and we are very grateful that Dez is feeling better after some pretty scary vet hospital visits.  Thanks to everyone who called to check up on him.  He’s finally back to his old self again.

Most important of all is Robin & Kyle’s news:  they just got word yesterday that they will be able to go to Thailand to pick up their son in June!  Their hearing is scheduled for June 11th, and we are all super excited to meet him!

Junko

This is a Junko. This particular Junko hit our bedroom window on Saturday. After a little research, I found that the best course of action is to place a stunned bird in a box (with holes, of course) for several hours and then let it go. If it flies away, that’s good. If not, well… that’s bad. Our Junko flew away after four hours in a box in our garage. We hope he’s doing well.

Henna

After about a year of procrastination, I finally managed to try out the henna kit Ewan got for me. Part of the problem was that no one seems to want to give an exact recipe, and there’s a lot of winging it involved. That is not one of my strengths, but with a little help from this Mehndi book and a convoluted yet very informative web site, I decided to give it a go. Ewan was my willing (and trusting) guinnea pig for this little experiment, so I let him pick a design. He wanted something Maori-like, but since using moko on a non-Maori is extremely offensive, we went for some kirituhi (non-symbolic “skin art”) on his forearm. I looked through some Maori art books, designed a pattern, came up with a henna recipe of my own and went for it. As you can see, I got a little carried away and improvised a bunch of stuff that wasn’t on the original design. The first picture is what the henna looks like when it’s being applied to the skin. It’s kind of like frosting a cake, with ribbons of henna that sit on top of the skin and stain whatever’s underneath. I used a jacquard bottle with different sized metal tips to squeeze out the henna, but I think it would have been a lot easier on my thumb if I’d added more lemon juice to my henna paste before filling the bottles. Then I sealed his arm using a comercial henna spray, mostly because it came in the kit, it was getting very late, and I was too lazy to make the traditional lemon sugar sealer. We wrapped his arm in toilet paper and celophane for the night, and in the morning he scraped off the paste with the help of a little oil. I read that it’s better not to let the design come in contact with water for a while, so he didn’t wash his arm for the rest of that day. The second picture is what the design looked like after a couple of days. Henna stains deepen over a period of about 12 to 48 hrs after the paste is removed. Don’t ask me why, it seems a bit crazy but that’s definitely what happened with Ewan’s design. His design lasted about a week and a half. All in all, it came out fairly well. The stain was deeper near his wrist because the skin gets thicker there and takes up more color. Next time, I’d definitely wait longer before wrapping and sending him to bed, but… as I said earlier it was getting VERY late. We’ll start earlier next time. I would also try using heat packs on the design once I’ve wrapped it to deepen the stain. We did have the heat turned up in the house, but I don’t think it was quite enough, especially since it’s winter. I’d like to try a traditional Indian pattern on my feet, but I’ll have to wait until summer so that I can enjoy it. Who’s next?

A brand new bathroom!

After a valiant struggle between Ewan, his dad and the sink, good was triumphant and a new faucet was installed! We decided that we like the green paint we used in the dining room so much that we’d use that color in the bathroom too. A new mirror, towel bar, curtain rod, cabinet handle, towel hooks, lighting fixtures, switches, outlet and frosted glass paper (so we could tear out those awful mini blinds) finished it off. Check out our photo page for the amazing before and after pics! Two big huge thank yous go out to Ewan’s Dad for his persistence with the faucet and Ewan’s Aunt June for helping make this possible.

The Best Holiday Surprise Ever

My dear sister, who can NEVER keep a secret, managed to keep a really big one for two whole weeks until Christmas. She and her husband surprised us with pictures of their new son! He is about eight months old and is living with his foster family in northern Thailand. I can’t wait to spoil him.