Stargazing cards

Constellations

Out of our 50 things we are doing this summer, stargazing has to be one of my favorites. It also helps that my parents have a beautiful house outside of town, away from light pollution, so you can really see the stars on clear summer nights. To get ready to find the constellations with the boys I made some stargazing cards to help us locate them.

These cards were super easy to make. I just painted a dark blue background on card stock and then added the stars for each constellation. Hand lettering the name of the constellation of the bottom of the card and you are done. For these cards I just picked only the Summer and Circumpolar constellations since this is the time of year you can see these in Iowa.

Summer constellations

My plan is to take the boys out with a little flash light and a blanket to try and find all of these star groups in the night sky.

Stargazing Cards

Dyed Clothesline Basket

My Clothesline Basket

It's been awhile since I have had time to do a craft just for me. I found this DIY for making a clothesline basket and since I had some extra clothes line left from another project I pinned it. Sometimes I think just white can be a bit boring so for this project I decided to use left over tie dye to add color.

Clothes line

First thing is to lay out the clothes line on a plastic surface. I used garbage bags, but you could use a bin or anything you don't care if it gets stained. Add your color and really let it soak in. Clothesline is synthic fibers so it doesn't take color well. I let my line sit wrapped up in the garbage bag for two days before I rinsed it out with cold water.

Dying the line

After the rinse I let the clothes line completely dry before I started sewing. As you can see the color is very pastel. That is what I expected and wanted. If you want brighter colors I would try a different type of dye.

Dyed and Dryed

All I did to finished the project was follow the tutorial on making a clothesline basket.

Sew ZigZag around

I really liked the way it turned out and how the colors came together. Now I just need to decide what I'm going to put in my new basket. I'm thinking a new plant might be the best.

Basket

Color

Bottom

Clothesline

Hickory Hill Hike

Riley

Max

The heat wave in the Midwest has broken! Today it was 85 but after more than 7 days of above 100 degree temperatures it felt amazing. The boys and I went for a hike and a picnic lunch in Hickory Hill Park.

#50things Hiking

Hickory Hill is the largest park in Iowa City and one of our favorites. The hike from the parking area to the picnic shelter is a little under a mile so it's a great hike for small legs.

The trees make a great tunnel to walk through and the shade kept us cool.

We had lunch and relaxed a bit before our walk back. It was great to finally be able to go outside and do something. The heat has been horrible this year, but I shouldn't complain because it will being snowing before you know it. It is Iowa after all....

Lunchtime

Photo Bomb

Happy Forth of July!

We are back home in Iowa City just in time to go to the fireworks. We got the best spot ever on top of a parking ramp near the IMU, so close to the action! The glow bracelets were also a big hit with the kids, the sparklers were not quite a good deal yet. Maybe next year. I hope everyone had a happy and safe forth of July.

Max

First shots

Loving it

Smiley

happy forth

Lego at Reiman Gardens

#50things

They are holding a Lego art exhibit at Reiman Gardens in Ames. Max and Riley loved all of the flowers and Lego creatures.

Humming Bird

First one we went to see was a giant humming bird in the front garden. The stands were also made of Legos.

Tropical Room

 In the tropical plant area there was a large ball machine that was running a ball around continually.

Art

Lego Rose

 In the rose garden there was a huge rose from Legos. It was probably about 12 feet tall.

Lilly and Koi

 The pond had Lego Lilly pads complete with a frog and a leaping Koi.

Resting with Grandma

 After all that walking we needed a rest and some cool water. It was 95 degrees after all! We decided to skip to the butterfly house since it was so hot. They have over 800 butterflies and 80 different species.

Being Still for butterflies

Black Butterfyl

 The butterfly house was actually cooler than outside, so it felt great to hang out with them.

White Butterfly

Riley Being Gentle

Riley and Max were both so still and gentle in the butterfly house. They loved all the colors and having them land on their hands and clothes. I would say it might have been the favorite part of the gardens.

Max and Monarch

Getting Close Up

Beautiful

Lego Butterfly

45th Wedding Anniversary

45 years

Today is my parents' 45th wedding anniversary. Yesterday was the open house and we had a great time visiting with everyone. We had friends and family come from all over to see my parents and congratulate them on their mile stone.

My Parents

Since the 45th wedding anniversary is the Sapphire Anniversary, I choose to make the blue mason jars with the pink flowers. Shades of pink was my parents wedding colors which is why I choose that for the theme.

Table Decorations

I made a large "45" for the wall decoration out of foam board and coffee filters. To stick the filters to the foam board I used 3M 77 spray adhesive. Works like magic!!! Warning : It's super sticky and smells horrible so use a drop cloth and spray outside. For the color I just used spray paint and faded the pink up. Pretty isn't it?

Wall Decorations

One of the biggest hits at the party was the twine and picture garland of my parents' wedding photos. This was probably the easiest project. I printed the pictures out on regular white paper and hung them on twine with plain clothes pins. Easy and quite a conversation starter!!

Photo Garland

Max

 The rest of the pictures are of our family and friends enjoying the party. It was great to see everyone and thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us.

At the party

The Room

Max and Brynna

Food Table

Papa John