Yuck!

I think that's the only word for it. I was sick all last week. This week the boys are sick. We've also gone from winter to summer in a matter of days. Yuck!!

Summer is Coming

Before you know it, summer will be here. Dill Pickles does best with structure, structure, structure. Can I say it again? Structure. Lazy days of laying around doing nothing turns into meltdown after meltdown round these parts. So far we have 3 things planned for the summer; our usual weekly OT session, a new weekly group OT session and free bowling from Kids Bowl Free. Ok, that will take up about 9 hours of our week. What do do with the other 159 hours left in the week? I'm not so sure yet. We're looking into a 2.5 hour day camp program. It's so close to summer though I'm don't know if they have any spaces left. Of course we have the summer reading program at our local library that kicks off June 14th. This year's theme is Reading is Art-Rageous. I found this weekly meme and I thought it would be fun to try and participate. We'll see how it goes.

Yes you can!

Yes, you can re-dye a playsilk! A trip to the grocery store this afternoon produced 5 more lemon lime and grape Kool Aid packs. I can't find any blue Kool Aid to save my life, so I bought some Berry Jammer by Wylers. Just before dinner I mixed up 4 cups of hot water, 1 cup of white vinegar and 5 packs of green Kool Aid. I poured it into my big soup pot and brought it to a slow boil. I plopped the playsilk back in viola! The color went into the playsilk as fast as the last time. I quickly did the purple and had the same great results.

I have been going back and forth between typing this post and coloring the last 15"x60" playsilk with the Wyler's Berry Jammer. That playsilk sucked up the color just like the other ones. I am so excited to finish these and make some more. The weather was cold and rainy here today and the boys had so much fun playing with them.

You'd think I would have picked up more batteries for my camera was I was out, but no, I forgot.

Regular Moms vs Special Needs Moms

I follow the blog Hopeful Parents and I loved this post from today. I laughed so loud I was afraid I was going to wake the boys. I cried a little too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Playsilk Follow Up

Oh well. I was just talking with my mom about my playsilks. Her Bachelor's is in Textiles. I called her to ask if she thought I could redye the playsilks I made tonight. Maybe it would give them a more even color. She wasn't so sure it would work. Seems the vinegar might have already set the color in the fabric and not allow it to take in any more color. She said I could try it again and see what happened. I might. For future endeavors she suggested a bigger pot, more water and more Kool Aid packets. She said the generic Kool Aid most likely used a different/cheaper color agent which made it harder for the fabric to soak it up.

Something else I forgot to mention. When I used the generic Kool Aid, my hands were stained something horrible. When I used the Kool Aid brand tonight, not a drop of color on me. I was afraid of looking like a rainbow at pre-school pick up tomorrow!

Playsilks and Pretending

Dill Pickles has trouble with pretending. I am always looking for ways to help promote creativity and open ended play with him. I've been wanting playsilks for almost a year now, but I just could not justify spending $10-$15 on a square of colored silk. I stumbled upon a blog a while ago (I can't remember which one) where the mom made playsilks. I thought that was a great idea and I tucked it away in my brain for someday.

A few weeks ago playsilks popped back into my head and I knew there had to be a tutorial out there somewhere. I Googled and came up with this one from Confessions of a Stash Junkie. I ordered three 35"x35" and three 15"x60" Habotai 8mm silk scarves from Dharma Trading Company. They arrived quickly and I stashed them on the every growing pile on my dresser. Yesterday when I was at Food for Less I picked up a bunch of generic Kool Aid packets on sale. This morning while Daddy Pickles entertained the boys, I tried my hand at dying two scarves- one 35"x35" and one 15"x60".

I followed mama k's tutorial to a t. I even used 5 packets for good measure. After an hour, my water still wasn't clear or a milky color and it was getting close to lunch. I had to stop and rinse them out and let them dry. Here's some pics.

I love the bright colors! I did wash them in the washing machine and the colors faded a little but not too much. The boys had so much fun with them. Actually, they were fighting over who was going to get which one. I knew I had to do more after they went to bed, so I quickly ran to Jewel after dinner. I picked up some grape, lemon-lime and lemonade Kool Aid brand because they did not have any generic brands. The large orange scarf did have a few white spots in it from being wrinkled in the jar, so I thought I would try putting the mixture right into the pot and then put the scarf in the pot. I also thought maybe using 5 packets was too much, so I only used 3 this time.

I was in for a surprise, let me tell you! First, my camera battery died and I didn't have any replacements. Then, wow. Maybe it was because I used the Kool Aid brand and not the generics, but the scarves sucked the colors up the instant I put them into the pots. The parts of the scarves that went into the pot first are a deep color and the part that went in last is a lighter shade. It looks tie-dyed. Maybe if I used all 5 packets there would have been more dye left for the rest of the scarf. Who knows. The next time I try it (and I assure you I will be making many more of these for us and as gifts for others) I will use 5 packets and a smidge more water.

Where has the time gone??

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Pickles!! We love you!!