Some people do “things,” but last night I did “crafts.”  I did round 2 of tie-dying, and I worked on our Earth Scouts display for the Living It Green Expo this weekend.  See, I’m trying not to wait until the last minute.  It’s important for us to pace ourselves in the good works we’re doing.  If only it could be done more within normal waking hours.  : )

Lessons from second tie-dye experience:

• Being indoors made me more conscious of my mess.  I had to be indoors since it was rainy and dark outside.  Doing this was entirely possible only because all youth were asleep.  I would NEVER do this inside with all the kids around by myself!
• Washing Soda instead of Soda Ash.  We used all the soda ash at our last hoorah, so I took the information from the site I found and used Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (that I had on hand from making laundry detergent).  As the site says, it takes considerable more soda because of the hydration content.  I’ll take their word for it.  The thing is, I won’t know how it turns out until Friday!  So, the verdict’s out until then.  We’ll probably go back to the soda ash for next time, and next time I’ll make sure not to be trying to make dinner when the clothes need to come out of the wash.
• Gloves are highly recommended!  I just got rid of the last traces from the last experience, so I wasn’t about to go around with colored cuticles for another three weeks.  I don’t have latex allergies, so I just used some disposable rubber gloves — a pair for wringing out the soda wash and a pair for dying, simply because I’m lazy.  ; )
• Branching out to larger items.  We’re dying a sheet I tore in half and have used for slab clay work.  It will be the table cover for the expo.  I used two spirals, one on each end, twisting until they came together.  I had folded the section in half, so if it turns out, I should have four pinwheels (what we fondly call them).

I’m still loving my Cricut machine.  I used it to cut out letters for our tri-fold display and posters.  The tri-fold will just be informational about Earth Scouts, and the posters will offer “eco-friendly ways to celebrate spring” per the tree hugging family blog.  Give it a look; it’s a great site.

Now that I’ve got some crafts done, it’s time to move on to the “things” on my list, which, I kid you not, is over a page long!  No stress, though.  Everything that needs to be done gets done in its own time.

I’ll post pictures of everything set up at the expo after this weekend.

Have a happy day!