Archive for the 'The Workshop' Category

Peabody’s Movie Theatre

Published by
Merriweather
at Jun 18, 2010 in The Classroom and The Workshop. 0 Comments

During the last week of school, Nettie and Peabody brought home a year’s worth of school projects. Here Peabody is holding his movie theatre featuring the diaster film “The Xsplozin.” The theatre is a shoe box with scenes drawn on a scroll. His summary of the scene here: “Some dudes are playing four-square and suddenly the ball is going so fast that it’s flaming. It shoots into the air and hits a plane. The plane crashes and then there is lightening, a tornado, rain and a tree on fire. Did I mention the tidal wave?”

Berkeley Adventure Playground

Published by
Merriweather
at Jun 4, 2010 in Berkeley and The Workshop. 0 Comments

Tucked away in the Berkeley Marina is a boy’s paradise. Adventure Playground is a small village of wooden huts, boats and castles built by visiting kids. The park provides scrap lumber, tools (earned by collecting trash and lost nails) and plenty of work space. The picture above is Peabody sitting on his three legged chair with Zev from the park’s staff. In addition to areas for building and climbing, the park has a popular zip line. We can’t wait to head back this summer!

Finishing up the bird feeder

Published by
Merriweather
at Jan 3, 2010 in The Workshop. 0 Comments

Peabody’s after-school carpentry class has been working on bird feeders. The students do all of the work themselves with real tools. Peabody enjoyed hammering, sawing and measuring. He even broke his first drill bit which has become part of the structure. After applying a final coat of varnish at home, we’re ready to start feeding our Towhees, Robins and Scrub Jays.

Pipe-Cleaner Valentines

Published by
Nettie
at Feb 14, 2009 in The Workshop. 0 Comments

The night before the last day of school before President’s Day Break I was hunting through the art drawer looking for something to make valentines out of. Of course, no one else in Middle School makes valentines, but I always will. So, in the art drawer I found three bags of pipe-cleaners, (glow in the dark, pastel, and fluffy) some shrinky dink paper, and heart-shaped doilies. I experimented with the doilies and pipe-cleaners, baked the shrinky dinks, and came up with this (See above). The writing on the shrinky dink got blurred, but besides that, everything turned out fine. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Inauguration!

Published by
Nettie
at Jan 20, 2009 in The Toy Box and The Workshop. 0 Comments

This was Peabody’s first Inauguration and the first one that I could remember, and we made pins to celebrate. Peabody had the idea to use the Obama logo as the background, and Mother let us use her glitter and gel pen to make outlines and write. Then, after seeing a lego Obama logo, we decided to build one ourselves. Finally, I made one little pin the perfect size for Mandy. Yes We Can!

Christmas Monkey

Published by
Nettie
at Dec 29, 2008 in The Toy Box and The Workshop. 1 Comment

This Christmas I made this blue crotched monkey for my baby cousin. I started out by using the bear pattern from “Kids Crochet” but I left the book at home when we went to St. Louis (Yes, it ended up being finished on Christmas Day) and besides I didn’t have enough yarn to do it their way. I finished the body and sewed on the ears and decided that it looked much more monkeyish than bearish. So I added on a braided tail and embroidered the snout monkey-like. My cousin loved it, making the sign for monkey, slamming it on the table, hugging it, and giving it drinks from his sippy. Happy Holidays!

Mario and Laura Ingalls

Published by
Merriweather
at Oct 31, 2008 in The Costume Trunk and The Workshop. 0 Comments

Continuing her tradition of choosing characters from literature, for Halloween 2008, Nettie was Laura Ingalls Wilder. She sewed the entire costume, including the bonnet, to match the description in the Little House books. She’s a whiz on her Hello Kitty sewing machine. Peabody’s Mario costume was just a little easier to put together. A felt “M” glued to an old St. Louis Cardinals baseball hat, fake mustache and overalls assembled with blue duct tape and old jeans (even Oshkosh doesn’t sell overalls for boys anymore). A cardboard Shooting Star Mariokart completed the ensemble. It was a gorgeous night for a walk and the kids brought home a record amount of candy (now counted and sorted). We’re already thinking about our next costumes for next year.

Daruma-san

Published by
Merriweather
at Oct 31, 2008 in The Workshop. 1 Comment

In honor of our family members spending their first Halloween in Tokyo, we carved a Daruma Jack-o-Lantern. Daruma is a Japanese good-luck charm. We like him because he’s also a symbol for trying hard and being brave. Nettie carved a cat, Peabody carved a silly face and our firend Melissa carved a groucy old man using the pumpkin stem as the nose.

Duct Tape Crafting

Published by
Nettie
at Aug 31, 2008 in The Workshop. 0 Comments

I’ve been checking out old issues of New Moon from our library, and in the “Weird, Wacky and Random” issue there was instructions for how to make a duct tape wallet. Halfway through I kinda went off track and finished it my own way, but it ended up OK and it was really fun. Then Father and Peabody got me some colored tape and I made a small red wallet with white polka dots, a case for my DS with pockets for games, and a woven mat that I don’t know what to do with but still looks pretty cool. I plan to make many more duct tape projects!

Building a Rabbit Proof Fence

Published by
Merriweather
at Dec 16, 2007 in The Workshop. 0 Comments

Building a fence

In addition to getting gear and period costumes ready for our overnight at Fort Ross, Nettie has been assembling materials for her upcoming presentation on the Australian rabbit population. It’s going to be a busy week.

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