Oh *insert expletive that rhymes with hit*

This past weekend, was full of crafts and fun!  One planned, one spur of the moment, one super tasty and one "Oh Shit project".  If you are a mother or father, nothing motivates you more than hearing on Sunday morning, "Mom, my project is due this week!!!"  Shit.  Shit shit shit shit.  After realizing that repeating "shit" does nothing for the project, except make your little one giggle, you rush to figure out what has to be done.  My daughter Gretchen, has a pop bottle person to make.  She didn't want this person, it was chosen for her, which makes things so much more fun for me as a mom.  Motivating a strong willed 8 year old is super fun Sunday morning without coffee in me.  Bigger deadline, she wants to do it with me, it's 0800 hours and she's due to go back to her father's at noon.  SHIT!!!    

Gretchen's class chose people from the past to do biography reports.  Part of the project is to recreate the person using a pop bottle.  (Please don't look down on me, I call it soda, but it's literally the bame of the project.)  Please let me introduce you to the person we were about to replicate.

 Ms. Clara Barton!!!! 

Miss Clara Barton was the founder of the American Red Cross.  *Interesting fact*  Did you know that she was forced to resign from the American Red Cross by a bunch of Scientific Men because they did not agree upon her ideals?  What the hell.  That is super sad.  So she resigned at the age of 83 and founded the National First Aid Society.  She was labeled the Angel of Mercy.  Pretty cool chick.


Anywho.....History lesson done.  The instructions stated we needed a bottle, something to weigh down the bottle, and some sort of head.  We also needed to dress the bottle in period clothing.  Suggestions were foam ball for the head and felt for the clothing.  The town we were in had no such thing.  Next best thing, was old fabric, and my not so great sewing skills. 

We started with a bottle, flour and rice, a sock and tennis ball for the head and a whole bunch of fabric.  I drew a design on the fabric and sewed...and sewed...and bled a little bit, but definitely sewed some more.  This is what I came up with.

Clara was starting to look pretty good.  Gretchen pointed out that Clara, in the picture, had lace around the neck and buttons.  So we added those.  At this point we were stumped for the head.  Balloon with a picture?  No printer.  No Styrofoam ball.  I had just done laundry and had seen socks with out partners.  Unfortunately, none were white.  So we killed a pair of socks, shoved the tennis ball in and stretched the rest over the bottle. 

Our next dilemma was hair.  I knew exactly what to do.  I had scrap yarn.  Gretch rolled up a ball and I decided to weave and sew it into the head.  It came out quite nice.  Plus Gretch styled it into an odd bun.  Very late 1800's.  Gretch told me that she needed bushy eyebrows, brown eyes, red lips and rosy cheeks.  Gretch used permanent markers for the eyes, brows, lips and nose.  We couldn't find the right colour Sharpie for the cheeks, so I let her break into the make-up and use real makeup for those rosy cheeks.  I found a larger button in a drawer and drew on the Red Cross cross. 

Pretty dang good for 4 hours of work.  Gretch wanted her to look like the picture so Ms. Clara Barton had a photo shoot.  This is her best shot.

     

  Not too shabby!  Just as we finished the girls' dad came to pick them up.  Time for a deep breath.  And coffee...and band-aids.

And more coffee.

 

 

Love Lizzo