Hamlin Beach on the brain

This weekend's Silhouette-shape-drawing obsession was retro camping. When I was a kid, we had a 1973 Go Tag-a-Long camper and a powder blue station wagon (I'm sure my dad has photos of both, if anyone's interested.)

That camper went as far from home as the Adirondacks, but usually we'd drive it to Hamlin Beach on Lake Ontario for the weekend, which was a lot closer to home.

One day I found a real shell in the water, and it was the greatest treasure ever. We had a picnic lunch and somehow during the aftermath, my shell was lost. I may have cried.

Somewhere in the boxes in our basement today, I bet I have beach glass from that place. I never did find another shell, but in those pre-recycling days, I filled buckets full of those little frosted bits of blue, green, white and brown.

If I just had an extra week or two...

I'd use up some of my fabric stash. I'd unpack my new birthday serger, read the instruction manual, and actually use it. I might even break out the oil paints and spend the day at the Arboretum. I'd definitely make more fun stuff for the kids, like these things:

The first project is a doorway puppet theatre. It's made from a stack of fat quarters of Patty Young for Michael Miller's Playdate fabric, which I bought with no particular purpose in mind. It was just perfect for this.

Letters are freeform-cut and sewn felt; the clock hands really turn; I borrowed some ideas for this from random puppet theatres I saw around the internet; the pattern was my own creation. Fortunately it was one of those fabulous but rare projects that magically just works out. It was fun to make.

Unfortunately, our littlest child loves to pull it down as soon as we put it up, so it's in the closet 'til he gets a bit older.

The other is a set of monster beanbags created from a stack of felt and dried peas, made for our oldest's 5th birthday party. We had a pin the eyes on the monster game, and a monster toss game, for which I made these beanbags -- she specially requested a monster/SpiderMan themed birthday party. What a cool kid.