Adventures in Art: May the Fourth

May the Fourth has come and gone, but this year’s will live on in a special way. Some friends, my husband, and I went to a Star Wars themed paint night and created our own Death Stars.

Looking at the sample when we arrived, I had a feeling that it would be challenging. And it was. I’m not so great with drawing straight lines with a pen or pencil. Creating them with a paintbrush? Let’s just say it’s a good thing that you can touch up.

Besides the straight lines, the other most difficult thing about this project was the size of the paintbrushes. I’m used to small brushes. My collection is almost entirely made up of them. Even when working on larger canvases at other paint nights before, all of the brushes have been on the smaller side. These were huge. Like three fingers wide huge. So adding the fine details was much more difficult than I expected. Needless to say, I’m tempted to do some touch ups now here at home.

One fun thing was the way that we added the stars. We were supposed to get the white paint heavily watered down and then flick it onto the canvas. My husband had that technique down. Unfortunately, mine wasn’t so great (which is why there are so few stars). I think I flicked more paint on my face and my husband’s painting than my own. :)

All in all, though, it was definitely fun and stretched my skills a bit. Next time, I think it’s back to the painting book to try out some new techniques.

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How did you celebrate May the Fourth?

May the Fourth Be With You!

Happy May the Fourth, everyone! It feels like it’s been forever since the last time I logged into WordPress. Almost a month, to be exact. I didn’t mean to fall off the blogosphere altogether in April.

Aprils are always hard with teaching, grading, keeping up with administrative work, etc. This time was the worst yet. I took on way too much this year, and it became very apparent this month. I didn’t realize how stressed I was until my dad stepped in with a mini-intervention. My husband had been telling me that I was overly stressed for the last couple weeks in March, but when my mental health therapist dad stepped in, I knew things were serious. So I stepped back from a lot of things and took a deep breath. Okay, a lot of deep breaths. But now that the fever pitch has died down, everything can go back to normal. (Which means I have a whole heap of great posts to catch up on!)

Just in time, too, since May the Fourth is one of my favorite holidays!

Every year, I wear my Star Wars best wherever I go. Today, it’s a shirt that one of my sweet middle schoolers bought me for Christmas and the traditional Leia buns. (The buns are impossible to resist.)

And what better way to add to the celebration than a Star Wars cat video?

So, expect the normal blogging schedule to return, and I’ll catch up on your posts soon!

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May the Fourth be with you. Always.

How to Introduce Your Nephew to Star Wars (or That Time I Made an R2D2 Lovey)

So, I have a nephew. He’s just turning a year, and even this early, my husband and I are determined to ensure he’s fully exposed to geek culture. (He needs to be fully prepared for our geeklings when they finally come.) So far, our gifts have all been Star Wars related, and with his first birthday on the way, I wanted to give him something special. What better thing to do than make him something?

My mom came across a pattern for a Star Wars lovey. I never knew what they were before, but they’re basically a doll/blanket hybrid, and it seemed like just the thing. And thus began the quest to make an R2D2 lovey.

While I enjoy crocheting, I’m not a master by any means. Most of my life, I’ve done rather simple patterns, and every pattern began with asking my mom (who is a master at a variety of crafty things) what all the shorthand actually means and how to do it. Seeing that this is not a normal blanket, I was a little apprehensive, but I decided to give it a try on my own.

Much to my surprise, magic rings (no, not ones from The Lord of the Rings) are more simple to make than anticipated, and a front post double crochet isn’t as scary as it sounds, thanks to YouTube.

Like everything I’ve ever handmade, it’s not perfect. I missed changing the yarn at one point, making the blue band at the bottom of R2’s head too wide and taking away the effect of the lines (done by front post double chains). But, like with other things I’ve made, those little mistakes aren’t what people noticed when they saw it. Instead, my sister-in-law was delighted with it, and I now have pictures of my little nephew snuggled up to his own little R2. That’s what it’s all about.

Want to try your hand at an R2 lovey? Here’s the link to the pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/r2-d2-lovey

If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turned out! Or if you have a great geek craft, let me know!