Making of a Cloud

I've been on a bit of a creative binge this past week.  Naptimes and once the Bean goes to bed at night have found me scurrying to my craft room or rummaging through the garage for various things.  There's been the wooden trucks, CTF peg people, a new blanket for Corbin-o to name a few (there are actually a few other crafty projects too but maybe they'll get their own blog post).

So when we got back from camping I was struck with how empty a corner of Corbin's room looked.  There's a comfy grey chair where we read before bed time but other than that, nothing.  Weird, I never noticed this obvious decorating void before.

Around the same time, I found this blog post and inspiration struck!  So after a quick trip to The Walmart for balloons, I was ready to make a cloud.  (Here's a good time to plug my Instagram thingy... follow me @christmastreeface to see what other crazy things I'm up to on a daily basis)  Corbin hit the hay and I mixed up paper mache and began constructing my cloud.

I had to let the top dry all day and then flip it over to cover the bottom once Mr. Incredible got home and was able to corral the kiddo (I tried to finish it with Corbin 'helping' and we ended up with paper mache goop from head to toe as well as all over the BBQ, porch, and much of the yard), but this is how it looked dry.

Its been HOT here so I figured this would dry super fast and I'd be on my way to adding fluffiness... but of course the one day I pick to paper mache is the day the temperature drops and we get drizzle!  Arghh.  So I had to wait for my cloud to dry again.... and then somehow it inched itself (Nora or Corbin might have had something to do with this) out towards the sprinklers and got wet again and needed another day to dry... so world's longest paper mache project!

I was a little worried about the structure holding up so I deviated from the tutorial slightly by stuffing the cavities left by the balloons with more paper... just so it wouldn't complete cave in with the weight of the glue or weather changes or whatever.

I also made a little wire harness for my cloud at this point so it would be easy to hang it.

From then on, I followed the tutorial using spray adhesive and fluff... and it was remarkably easy and quick.

I had a little help from a Starbuck's Refresher... delishhhhhous!

If you're making a cloud of your own, be sure to lift it off of your table every few minutes so it doesn't get glued down.  And always use spray adhesive outside or in a well ventilated place where you don't care about glue drifting to the air and sticking dust to things (like if you do this in your garage, move your car out first so you don't end up with dirt and saw dust glued to it later... not that I've ever done that before...) ( I may have played dumb about said incident later..."what? there's saw dust glued to the car?  I have no idea how that got there"...)

Back to the cloud... its awesome!

I hung it off of our porch to dry and it looks so cool!

Here's looking up from the ground:

While I was finishing this, the sky clouded over (with real clouds) and made the prettiest light... I almost wanted to wake Corbin up for a photo shoot right then... but he's been extra crabby today (tooth #6 making its debut) so I let him sleep and had to settle with photos of just the cloud.  Maybe later we'll get a shot of someone with the cloud to give you some scale.

But for now...

!!!Update!!!

Cloud installed!

Here's the rest of the nursery, pre-baby (i.e. clean).


-CtF

Happy 13 Months!

sometimes blurry photos are the best...

jumping on the bandwagon....

If you're on Pinterest (if you're not, congratulations on avoiding the most addicting thing on the web since Facebook!) you may have seen these little guys floating around...

I thought it'd be fun to add some people to Corbin's new truck collection.  And they're almost the right size...

Corbin likes to grab a couple people in one hand and chuck them around the house... so again, the paint job was mainly for my benefit, thus the untraditional peg persons:

And I didn't get in too much trouble for this one :)

Wuks

During our camping trip, Corbin-o developed a love of trucks... or as he says, 'wuks!'  He became fascinated with Grandpa's big white truck and spent much of the week looking for it (and practically anything with wheels) and declaring 'wuk!' pointing his little finger in the general direction of whatever rolled by.

This could have had something to do with it...

Note: Corbin 'drove' down the empty camp rode... i.e. the truck idled slowly while Corbin sat in Grandpa's lap for a few photos.  Everyone chill out about carseats, seat belts, and all that. Ok, deep breath.... whewww!

When we got home, I was restocking a few household items at The Walmart and came across these for 25 cents a piece!

Corbin-o gleefully pointed and shouted 'wuks!' so I had to get a couple for him.  And I figured I could snazz them up a bit too... you know, a good nap time project (if only he would actually nap!  The worst part of going on vacation is trying to get back on a schedule....arghhhh).

When I got home I rummaged through my spray paint stash (yes I have a spray paint stash... I have a -ahem- slight obsession with spray paint... like I buy a can every time I go to Home Depot.  Or at least I used to until Mr. Incredible held an intervention and restricted all my spray paint to a tiny corner of his work bench and told me I couldn't buy any more until I used what I had at home.  Totally unfair and cruel but I'm dealing with it.  With lots of deep breathing as I pass the paint section and maybe a few therapy sessions. Or not.)

And let the transformation begin!

When Corbin-o woke up from a nap this morning (halleluja!) here's what he found:

Cute- right?  He liked them... although he probably would have been just as happy with them bare as with paint at this point!

Gorgeous...Peaceful...until we showed up

This was one of the most beautiful, picturesque streams I have ever seen.  I could have spent every day of our vacation just exploring it.

Mr. Incredible and his dad (Mr. Incredible Sr?!) were hoping to hook the big trout that allegedly live here.  We showed up as clouds were filling the skies and a big storm was brewing over the pine trees.  But gosh, it was pretty.

As we hiked down to the bank all I could hear was the bubbling of the water, birds calling through the trees, and distant thunder claps.

And then this happened...

Our canine companions, Nora and Cody, took advantage of their brief moment of being off leash and ravashed through the woods like wild beasts.  I've never seen Nora run so fast.  Nor have I ever seen a dog smile quite like that... she was very happy.

The fishermen, however, were not so happy.  Especially since Nora (and Cody) decided to race through the stream and scare away all the fish.

And there may have been an incident of an over excited, slightly neurotic dog snagging a fishing line and hooking my father in law as he attempted to bait his line but I didn't get a photo of that.

So there were the beautiful, peaceful woods and stream...

And our crazy dogs showing up everywhere I attempted to get a shot off:

But we enjoyed the views anyway and the mutts enjoyed the freedom, short-lived as it was.

A few wildflowers... but nothing compared to our wild dogs!

Camping!

We just returned from camping in the White Mountains in Arizona for a week.  Now most people who read that sentence will be thinking, "Camping?! Arizona?! August?!"  Which is what I thought at first too.  But the White Mountains- part of the Apache Indian Reservation- are way up at 7000 feet elevation with pine trees, streams, lakes... not scorching Arizona desert.

We took our Scamp, Mr. Incredible's parents took their travel trailer, and with Corbin-o and two dogs, we were quite the party!

Each morning, we'd get up, grab some coffee, and then head down to the lake to fish.  And we actually caught fish too!

Mr. Incredible and his dad were the most successful fish killers although I was responsible for the deaths of two rainbow trout.

Corbin-o was introduced to the fine art of fishing...

...and more interestingly, he was introduced to fish!

What's in that bucket?

I don't think I'm going to like this...

uhhh...mom?

blechh!

Corbin learned to 'push the button' recently.  Mr. Incredible held out a fish and told Corbin to 'push the button.'  Corbin poked the fish in the eye and then burst into tears.  After that he wasn't too interested in the fish we caught...except when it came to eating them.  Apparently Corbin-o loved fresh caught rainbow trout!

We had other yummy meals...

Watched for elk...

And enjoyed the beautiful views...

And then there was the boy...

He was a pretty good camper...

I could never have anticipated how dirty Corbin-o would get... and incidentally, how dirty I would then get.  But that's camping I guess!

Stay tuned for raging beast sightings along the most picturesque stream you've ever seen!