First of all, I want to share about a really special outing I had today with my oldest son. He is going into first grade this fall. Last fall I found out that he likes to eat curried food (I promise I am going somewhere with these seemingly random thoughts). We went to an ethnic festival in November, just he and I, and I got curried beef and rice for myself. He asked to try some and really liked it. Since then I found a great recipe and have made it at home several times. This summer, inspired by my friend, Melissa, I thought it would be fun to have little "dates" with him and take him out to lunch to try different types of food. So today, while his little brother had a playdate at Grandma and Grandpa's, we went out for authentic Indian food. We were able to sit at an outdoor table in an historic area of the city and enjoy our food to the sounds of birds singing and pedestrians conversing. It was a really, really great time. He especially liked drinking a mango lassi, which is a cold yogurt-based drink. He also loved the meat samosas we got for an appetizer. The best part was spending time one-on-one with him. Unfortunately, I did not bring the camera, so I don't have any photos to share. A funny side-story is that he was kind of mad that I didn't bring it. Since I scrapbook, he is used to having things documented through pictures. He had two little maraschino cherries in his drink and wanted to save the stems to bring home and put on a scrapbook page!! Isn't that cute?? And he made sure to tell me that next time I needed to bring the camera so we could have a photo of him drinking a mango lassi! I will be sure to do that! :0)
On another happy note, the flag t-shirts are finished. After yesterday's post, I did some ore online searching and decided to do two things to improve the paint coverage. First, I added two more layers of paint. And second, I used sponge brushes instead of bristle brushes to apply the paint. See the finished shirts below.
I am really pretty happy with these. Of course, I can also be pretty critical of them. I can see where the paint is uneven or splotchy or whatever. However, the boys were really excited when I brought these upstairs this morning and that, to me, is the important thing.
Today when my oldest guy and I were out, we stopped at Hobby Lobby. I looked at all the fabric paints again and decided to try the paints pictured below. I think they will have a softer finish. I also bought some of those round spongey stencil brushes. I think that will be better for getting thicker coverage. I also bought 4 more t-shirts, so expect to see more stencilled shirts over the next few days.
Has anyone else ever used these paints? Let me know if you liked them.
Shirts are really cute and I hope to try that idea myself. I just have to think of what stencil we need. keep the crafty ideas coming!
Posted by: Amber D. | July 02, 2008 at 09:44 PM
Laura, those are awesome! They turned out really well. I just love your story about going out with older DS to try new ethnic foods. That is wonderful. Does he like sushi? I wish I could get my boys to try some California rolls, at least! I keep trying...I love mango lassi. Yum! I will definitely use some sponge brushes when I get around to trying out the freezer paper stencils. (Hopefully soon.) Thanks for the tips! Have you ever dyed silk scarves (play silks) with kool-aid? That's on my list of fun "crafty" projects for this summer too.
Posted by: Tina | July 02, 2008 at 07:39 PM
Laura, those are awesome! They turned out really well. I just love your story about going out with older DS to try new ethnic foods. That is wonderful. Does he like sushi? I wish I could get my boys to try some California rolls, at least! I keep trying...I love mango lassi. Yum! I will definitely use some sponge brushes when I get around to trying out the freezer paper stencils. (Hopefully soon.) Thanks for the tips! Have you ever dyed silk scarves (play silks) with kool-aid? That's on my list of fun "crafty" projects for this summer too.
Posted by: Tina | July 02, 2008 at 07:39 PM
The shirts look awesome! You did a great job!
Posted by: Lindart | July 02, 2008 at 04:15 PM
The shirts look awesome! You did a great job!
Posted by: Lindart | July 02, 2008 at 04:15 PM