Unplugged Challenge:Wrinkle (tie dye T-shirt)

This week's Unplugged Challenge theme at "Unplug Your Kids" was "Wrinkle", so I taught Blaze how to twist and wad-up a T-shirt to tie dye it.
I just learned this twisting technique a couple weeks ago, so this was my first time trying it as well. Before this, I had always just tied string or rubber bands wherever I didn't want the dye to touch the fabric, but the teenage boy I tutor in the afternoons, took me into his art class to show me how they were doing the spiral designs, after I admired the T-shirt he had made in class and asked him how it was done.




Start by pinching a spot of fabric in the middle of the front of the T-shirt and twist.




After the T-shirt has been twisted into a tight spiral, hold it in that shaped using 2 or 3 rubber bands. (That's pretty wrinkled)




We used blue and black acid dyes, because that was what we had on-hand. If I do this again I'm going to make the colors more contrasting and mix them stronger, so that the colors are darker.

There are 2 ways that the art class used to add their dyes to the shirts. They had some of their dyes in squirt bottles and some in bowls that they dipped the shirts into. We tried both, but I think Blaze liked the squirt bottle best.






We really drenched our shirt with dye, but it's not necessary to be so heavy-handed. Leaving some spots of white will add more detail to the design and brighten up the shirt.



Then we rinsed it in cool water until the water ran clear and dried it.

The dark colors made a fairly subtle spiral design.

Paynes Prairie State Park

One of the wonderful things about homeschooling, is that it doesn't have to be done at home. When we had a beautiful day on Friday, which is also the weekday when I don't go to work, I packed a picnic lunch, and Blaze and I headed out to the woods.











Paynes Prairie is the home of some wild Spanish horses (Florida having once been a Spanish colony). We encountered one of these in the woods, but he didn't seem all that wild. We got very close to him, but he just kept eating.





I had hoped to see some of the American Bison (Buffalo) that are supposed to roam the prairie, but the only one we saw was the mounted head on the Visitors Center wall.



We did see several other animals though, and made this short movie of an armadillo eating:





white tale deer:


I have no idea what kind of lizard this is. I have never seen one like it before.


Wild Turkeys


We spent awhile looking over this old farm house and talking about what it would have been like to live there when it was new, and what Blaze's chores would have been as a pioneer farm boy.









Between the prairie it's self and the surrounding forests and ponds, there was a lot of diversity in the kinds of plants we were able to look at.

Presidents Day Cup Cake Art

Tomorrow, is a National holiday, Presidents Day, and this past Thursday was Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. If you are not burned out on sweets from Valentine's Day, check out the cake art that was assembled at the Smithsonian this past week in honor of Presidents Day:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/02/tune-in-today-at-two.html

Valentine's Day

These were the lovely flowers I found on the counter when I walked into the kitchen this morning.

For the first time in a very long time, DH and I were able to go out to a child inappropriate movie. Nika VERY VERY reluctantly babysat, while DH and I went to the Indian Buffet for lunch and then went to see Slum Dog Millionaire.

Playing with Pancakes

 Yes, I've been playing with my food again. This time I put pancake batter in the squirt bottle to see what I could do with it.

I really liked this next one. I put cinnamon in the batter that was in the squirt bottle, so it was darker in color than the rest of the batter. I made the heart shape first with the cinnamon batter and then filled it in with the plain batter.

I tried a spiral design, too.

Valentine Breakfast, YUM!

Happy Hearts Cheese Cake

I made this cheese cake as a Valentine's Day gift for my family using the same cheese cake recipe as the tie-dye cheese cake found here:

http://overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2009/01/tie-dye-cheesecake.html

But with a different crust and decorations.

For this Cheese Cake, I made a mocha crust.


1 1/2 Cups crushed chocolate cookies

1/4 Cup finely ground coffee beans

1/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 stick of butter, melted


Mix all the ingredients together and press the crust mixture into the bottom of a spring-form cake pan. Pat the crust down firmly, making it go a little ways up the side of the pan. Set the pan in the refrigerator while the batter is being made.



The decorative touches on this Cheese Cake were made by slightly heating some seedless raspberry jelly in the microwave, in a glass measuring cup, and then whisking it to make it pourable. I then poured it into a squirt bottle ( in this case a ketchup dispenser), so I'd have more control while decorating.

Bruschetta

This is my favorite festive red food!



8 Roma tomatoes seeded and finely diced

3 garlic cloves finely chopped

5 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 Tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 baguette, cut into 1/4 inch slices



In a large bowl, add the tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, basil, salt and pepper. Stir the ingredients until well mixed and let them rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Toast the bread slices in the oven. When cool enough to handle, top each slice with a heaping teaspoon of the tomato mixture. Place the bruschetta on a tray and serve.