It's All About Artitude

Happy 4th of July. I am sitting here listening to the fireworks that all of my neighbors are shooting and thanking God that my children can sleep through just about anything. Of course the dog isn't sure what's going on and if I move he is following me. Hopefully by the time I go to bed, they will have run out of fireworks.

We went downtown this afternoon for the bike parade and then to the concert in the park. The boys both rode their decorated bikes in the parade. Holden took off once the parade started and met us at the finish line. When we got there he was standing by his bike with a smug look on his face. He declared that he came in second. I guess he didn't realize it wasn't a competitive event. Harrison made it to the end but he got a push most of the way from either mom or dad. Afterwards, we set up a blanket in the park and listened to the band Too Much Sylvia. They were pretty good and the price was right- FREE. The kids didn't care much about the music. They were more interested in the jump castles and other activities. They ended up playing in the huge sand pit in front of the stage during a good bit of the concert.

As promised here is the picture of the shirt I made for Holden. Holden is actually wearing the shirt but he wasn't being such a willing model so I had to chop off his head in the picture. That'll teach him to roll his eyes. The colors were actually much brighter before I washed it but I think it still turned out really cute and they were so simple to make. You could make just about any design from circles to flowers.

Here's what you will need to make your own t-shirt:

T-shirt

Plastic Cups

Rubberbands

Sharpie (or other permanent) markers

Stencils, bottlecaps or and other shape you want for your shirt

Rubbing Alcohol

Eyedropper

You will put the cups with the top up inside the t-shirt between the front and back layers. After you have placed the cup where you want the design to be, put a rubberband around the top securing the t-shirt taut over the cup. If you would like to have more than one design on your shirt, you can place the remainder of the cups in the t-shirt now or you can do one at a time and wait 5 minutes before moving the cup to different spot. Next, place your stencil (or you can use any other object with an open center) on the t-shirt over the cup. Make dots around the stencil. You can use more than one color. After making the dots, take the rubbing alcohol and slowly drop about 20 drops inside the drawing. As the shirt absorbs the alcohol, the marker will run outward giving it a tye dye affect. Make sure you drop the alcohol slowly in the center of the object. When the t-shirt is completely dry, put it in the dryer for 20 minutes. This will heat set the design. Then you can wash and dry as normal.