Can Game Tute

Yesterday I blogged about Fair Day 2011, and promised a quick tutorial on the can game I made. It's so easy it seems kind of silly to post a "how-to", but it's a fun way to reuse, so here it goes:

Materials:
-10 aluminum cans(mine were a mix of Pepsi Max, Mountain Dew, and PBR)
-heavy duty tape (somewhat water-resistant, like duct tape)
-Water, enough to fill each can 1/4-1/2 of the way full
-Wrapping paper (or scrapbooking paper, or brown paper bags, or printer paper you drew on...whatevs.)
-scotch tape
-bean bag or tennis ball

Grab your ten tin cans (I know they're aluminum, but does that sound as fun? No.) Rinse them out, and pull off the tabs so that the top is smooth. You can recycle those, take them to Ronald McDonald House, or save up a stash and make them into accessories.

Fill each can a quarter to half full with water. This gives the cans more weight so the wind doesn't knock them over, and the game is a little more challenging.

Then you cover the hole in the can with your heavy duty tape. I couldn't find the duct tape, so I used this roll of red stuff we had in the garage. I have no clue what it's really for, but it felt kind of like duct tape, so I used it. The garage contains many mysteries for the uninitiated (like me).

Mysterious red tape...

Then you dig through all your scraps of paper. I had a sheet of wrapping paper that was getting all wrinkly in the closet. 

Cut 10 rectangles out. Each piece should be 4" by 10". This won't cover the little beveled edges at the top & bottom of the can, but it will cover the rest. I just wanted to make the cans look more festive (and hide the fact that I drink PBR. High class all the way, baby.). If you wanted to take the time to cover those little edges, more power to you. I am too lazy pants for that.

Wrap the paper around the can (make sure the can is wiped dry first!) and tape it on with your scotch tape.

Perfection, thy name ain't Aytch Rae. 

Then you stack the cans up in rows of 4, 3, 2, 1, from bottom to top. And your game is set up!

See how I put the same color can edges in each row, so it looks like I planned it? Crafty!

All you need is to decide how close your contestants can stand, give them a bean bag or a ball, and let them have at it. I gave each kid 2 throws per turn, and gave them a small piece of candy (Jolly Ranchers, taffies, etc.) for every 2 cans they knocked down. They kept playing until the cans were too beat up to stand anymore, and the water was starting to leak out.

(No carnies heckled, and no children were swindled during the course of this game.)

That's not Fair

Today is the last day of the Western Idaho Fair. When I was younger, I LOVED the fair. I loved the churros, the snow cones, the spin art, the Zipper...all of it. I haven't been to the fair without a pack of kids in probably 15 years, so it could be that if I went as myself instead of going as "Mom", I'd enjoy it.

But going to the fair with kids is pretty awful for me. I am constantly freaked out about losing one of them. I'm always saying, "Where's Girl 1? Do we have everyone?" and doing head counts. I'm terrified of someone getting lost or stolen.

It's hot. It stinks. It's hot.

I have to watch the kids' intake of foods and weigh that against the spinning, hurling, flipping motion of the rides we're piling them into. Puke lurks around every spin of the Gravitron.

The heckling of the carnies...so lame.

And the cost...I think we figured it would be $200-$250 bucks for all 7 of us to get in, ride the rides, and eat the food. We could do Disney for close to that.

AND think of all the electricity...

Anyway. If I could turn off my responsible brain, the fair would be a ton of fun. But I can't.

This year my friend Mia had a great idea to have a Fair Day at their homestead. Mia writes Family, Food, and God a really great blog about living simply, spiritually, and sustainably. Mia and her family hosted and fed us all (10 kids, 4 adults) and our family provided the games and prizes. I worked to make all of the games out of household items, or repurposed waste.

 I made a can toss out of pop cans and wrapping paper. I'll post a tute on that tomorrow. It was really fun.

Mmmm...Lemon Heads....

We used a set of stacking cups and they had to land a golf ball in each. Everyone got a piece of candy for trying. The winner got 4 more pieces.

We did some chillaxin'. Boy 1 has GIANT feet.

Wouldn't be the fair without face painting. This is what you get if you allow your wife to decide what gets painted on your face.

Zombie!

We even had rides. Sort of.

We got to pet Beefy and Jerky.

 And we all tried milking Christina. She was very patient with us.

We filled a box with packing peanuts from The Man's work and then hid prizes and candy in it. The kids had 20 seconds to grab out as much as they could.

The glasses they dug out were a hit.

Glow sticks!











The kids got to help grind the corn for the corn dog batter, they picked cucumbers and tomatoes for snacks. We had Zucca bread, organic all-beef corn dogs, homemade donuts, and TONS of candy. All the kids agree that it was so much better than the "real" fair. We're thinking about making it an annual tradition.

That's a Spicy Taco.

Apparently anything with needles is addicting. While I've never been an IV drug user, I've heard it's kinda catchy, once you start.
I've read that acupuncture is addicting.
Tattoos...addicting.
And now this. Sewing.

It's all I can do not stitch-rip apart all of the cloth goods in the house and sew them into something else. I promise this is not going to turn into another craft blog...as tempting as that sounds...But, I've started making the lunch bags, which is so fun, and then I tried my hand at making a t-shirt apron. The tutorial can be found at Ruffles And Stuff

Ages ago a friend of mine brought me a t-shirt back from Vegas. It cracks me up, and I really like it, but due to "mature content" I have no place to wear it. It's not really the kind of thing one wears to the PTA. So after another friend sent me the above tutorial, I decided to turn it into an apron. It has a food theme, and there's something slightly ironic about the juxtaposition of domesticity and a gentleman's club...who'm I kidding? It's just funny.

The text: The Hot Taco Stand and Gentleman's Club. The Hottest Little Tacos West of the Pecos. Only in Sin City, Las Vegas. Two for One Special for only $1.00 more. 

Anyway, I can't wear the thing in the house even, because it embarrasses Boy 1, and I can't imagine Boy 3's reaction, should he see it. Anything even hinting at nudity sends him into hysterics. Rolling on the floor, literally. So I need to find a good use for it, but it was fun to make.

 But one thing I'm noticing is that once you start re-purposing, everything starts to look different. I see things around the house, and out in public, not only as they are, but I also see what they're made of, and how well, and how wastefully. I start to see things as what they could be, what I could make them into. It's added a dimension to my perception that I wasn't expecting. 

Two things. (2)

So, thing two...

I'm assuming you know about the oceanic garbage patches. (I cannot type "oceanic" without thinking "815"...) If not, it's an easy google, but beware, it's depressing. The BBC has a really amazing interactive graphic that shows you how big the Great Pacific Garbage patch is in relationship to where you live. It's horrible, really. Plastic bags are insidious, hegemonic demons.

Photo swiped from Raubi Marie

I'm kind of being hyperbolic. Kind of.

The thing is, even if you eliminate the plastic bags at the grocery store for hauling your food, there are still the bags you put the produce in, the little baggies in lunches, the plastic liners in processed foods like cereal, etc. They are everywhere.

I've been reusing the produce bags from the grocery store & fruit stands for kids' sandwiches and lunch items. I've also been reusing bread bags for this. But they get dirty & nasty, and there's still no choice but to pitch them eventually. So I'm trying to eliminate them one by one.

My first step is to eliminate the need for sandwich/snack bags. I know you can buy plastic (it's eve.ry.where.) containers for sandwiches and such, but we often don't use the standard square bread, and I don't want to spend a ton of money. Plus, I have this dream of eliminating petroleum-based products entirely...not sure we'll ever get there (especially when I think about toys) but it's something to aim for.

I decided to dust off the old sewing machine and make my own reusable sandwich bags. My mom gave me a yard of fabric to play with, and I had to fiddle with sizes and linings.

The first attempt:

The sewing is kind of a mess, the bag a was a bit too small, and the liner (a repurposed tablecloth from Girl 1's birthday) is tooflimsy, but still, I was excited. The shape and function seemed workable.

So I made a bigger bag, lined with a thick plastic shopping bag: 

Terrible picture, but basically while the liner works great, the bag is much too big. You could fit two sandwiches on Dave's Killer Bread in the thing. Which is fine, but kind of unwieldy. 

So I reduced the size a little, and decided to try repurposing a Dorito's bag for the liner: 

Success! This bag looks good, has a satisfying and sturdy feel, makes a neat-o crinkly noise, and is made by reusing materials that can't be recycled. I was able to make two identical bags. The kids all had hot lunch at school today, but they will be testing these next time they bring their own lunch.

I am so exited by the idea that I can make these, I'm inspired to make a bunch more. I went to the thrift shop to look at clothes and bedding that could be transformed into replacements for plastic bags. I spent very little money and came home with some really cool fabrics. I forgot how much I love the thrift store. 

I'm pretty dang excited. 

Baggin'

I've been looking for fun ways to reuse plastic bags. We use them to haul things around, and as small trash can liners, but that doesn't use very many. I knew there were some crafts to be made from them, so I researched what was out there.
These are the sites I found: Artists Helping Children and Green Living Tips

I tried making a jump rope for the kids out of bags. Since the bigger boys are in football, I thought it would be fun for their conditioning, plus ropes are great for imagination play. But the problem I encountered is that most of the crafts require you to cut off the handles, making little plastic waste all over the place. It seems like more of a hazard than the whole bag. I know it stressed me out as the little thingers flew around the kitchen with Girl 2 underfoot.

It was also stupidly time consuming, and half-way through I bailed on it. I've decided there is just no redeeming plastic bags. They're a menace, pure & simple. Since I've switched to reusable bags, I shouldn't be acquiring any more plastic bags, but I already have a significant stash. I'm the room parent for Boy 2's fourth grade class this year, so I think I will try to use some of the bags up to make crafts at their parties (there's a cute ghost craft that would be great for Halloween). Any other bags are going to be taken back to the store to be reused there.

Sad 'n' Saggy

Lame.

I found a retractable clothesline at Fred Meyer this week, which cost about $20. I'm a little worried about how I'll like line drying, and if I'll be able to stick to it. Some people are more likely to stay the course with something if they have laid out money for it. I'm not that way. Once the money is gone, it's gone, so I'm not inspired to stick to things just because they were expensive.  Twenty bucks isn't a ton of money, but I was pretty sure I could do it cheaper.

I bought a skein of clothesline, two eye bolts, a couple of openable links, and some clothespins for under $10.

Our yard really isn't the right dimensions for a clothes line, no trees and it's 35 feet or so across. Putting in the line was a tad annoying, looking for the right size drill bit (it turned out to be in the hammer drill, I couldn't get it out, so I ended up just sticking with the hammer drill. That thing is LOUD.), trying to work around the ivy on the porch which the previous owner stapled to the supports to help it climb, finding out that while one link opened wide enough to accommodate the eye bolt, the other didn't. Just little diy nuisances.

I finally got the thing installed. We have high efficiency front-loaders, so a lot of the water spins out. I'm hoping things will dry quickly on a line. I started with a lighter blanket that I washed last night; I wanted to see if I need a center support for the line. Answer:

Pay no attention to the dying grass...

Uh, yeah. I need a support

I was hoping to find something to repurpose as a support, but there isn't much around here that would work. I tried turning the ladder ball PVC piping into a T...yeah broke that. So I have to shop around. I would have had this same issue with the retractable line, the yard is just a little wide. Hopefully I find a way to support it, I don't want to put the money into an umbrella dryer or the kind that bolts onto the house.

Here's a great resource to see all the options out there: Tip the Planet

On a roll

Today has been a fun one for reducing and repurposing.

I finally got to the store yesterday,  to buy from the bulk section. I bought a gallon of vinegar and a pound of baking soda. The whole lot cost $3.18. While I was there, I perused the bulk goodies to see how I could cut down on packaging. Dog food, pasta, pancake mix...why have I not been buying everything in bulk? It's cheaper, less waste, I can get exactly the quantities I want...I'm all over this.  (I even used a Gerber baby snack canister to store the baking soda once I got it home.)

Today, it was Boy 3's turn to clean the toilets (they're on rotating chore detail) so we made toilet cleaner using the recipe I found the other day. The boys were tickled by the frothy craziness (a volcano of toilet cleanliness) that ensued. It's the first time they haven't complained about toilet cleaning.

Boy 3 and toilet cleaner fixin's

We also made an all-purpose cleaner out of 1/2c vinegar, 1/4c baking soda, and 2 liters of water. The little spray bottle I had wasn't big enough for that much cleaner, but awesomely enough, the nozzle fit the top of the pop bottle.

Pop bottle of all-purpose cleaner

The toilets turned out clean, there were no nasty chemicals, we saved on packaging and cost, AND we repurposed one of the oodles of pop bottles we have around here.

Speaking of pop bottles...

We've had several get-togethers at the house lately and we've ended up with a lot of extra 2-liter bottles. While they're recyclable, we decided to look for ways to reuse first, to cut down on our waste. The kids have been making money this summer, mowing lawns, taking out the trash, and caddying for Grandpa on the golf course, but not a one of them has a piggy bank or a wallet. They've never really had money before this summer. So today we made banks out of bottles.

Painting pop bottles on the back patio

We painted the bottles with paint samples we inherited from my sister-in-law that have been sitting in our craft room collecting dust. We cut a slot in the top to put money in, and when they want it out, there's a little trap door cut in the bottom back. They had a blast making them and it didn't cost a thing.

I didn't need a piggy bank, so I made a "submarine" for the girls. They played with it in the bath this afternoon, floating Army guys & Littlest Pet Shop animals around the tub.

Submarine on the open sea

I'm feeling like I can do this.

Reducing

After Wednesday's garbage horror-show, I decided to look through the kitchen and see what the most egregious wastes of packaging are, and begin thinking about how to eliminate some of that waste. The most obvious are things that are double packaged- cans in a box, boxes in a bag, things with cardboard sleeves...

Our biggest contributors to trash and recycling:

• Beer
• Baby food
• Snacks (Rice Krispie Treats, Jello, granola bars, etc.)
• Pop
• Macaroni & Cheese (I get this from Costco. It is pasta and cheese powder packets packaged in the 15 individual boxes then wrapped in plastic.)
• Anything frozen from Costco (egg rolls, burritos, etc.)
• diapers (these create waste in themselves, but come wrapped in 4 plastic bags in a box)
• cleaning products

I think the easiest way to tackle this without becoming completely overwhelmed is to find low-waste replacements to these things as they run out. What is going to end up happening is we'll make a lot of things from scratch at home. I feel a bit nervous about that, because I don't have a lot of time now, but hopefully we can make this work.

One thing I can try right away is toilet cleaner. We just ran out and we have four bathrooms, so we go through quite a bit of it.  

Mix 1/4 cup of baking soda

1 cup of vinegar. 

Soak, scrub, flush.

I can buy the baking soda in bulk without the packaging, and the vinegar in a large bottle. I am going out shopping today and I'll try it. Results to follow.