Praying Mantis Drama

September 22, 2010

Praying Mantis Drama

I almost crushed this preying mantis with my laundry basket this afternoon.
I had Chris watch her while I grabbed my camera.



Praying Mantis are intense creatures.
She watched me as I moved around her taking photos.
I turned my head she turned her head. Really.




Oliver and Freya were due home from school in an hour.
I really wanted them to see her so I rounded her into a big jar.

(Freya has never seen a living praying mantis). (Last week she saw her first green worm).




Manti, (that's her name), wigged out.
She was pissed and loud.
Manti hissed and tap danced her legs against the glass.
And she followed me with her eyes.
It's a fact.




Chris said I couldn't keep her in a jar until the kids got home.
Our conversation went a little like this

Me: I only have half of the lid on and I gave her grass and pretty red leaves. She can chill out for a bit.
Chris: She's extremely distressed and could die.
Me: Die of what? A heart attack. Insects don't have heart attacks.
Chris: You don't know that.
Me: How could anybody know if insects can die of a heart attack?



Chris was adamant about letting Manti go and when I looked down at her again she looked like this,




She was mother Mary lovin' ready to fight.
I told Chris he could take her back outside.

Me: Put her on the other side of the fence.

It was all very dramatic.

This evening I told Chris he would be a hero on my blog tonight.
Chris: I saved your ass from PETI by letting her go.
Me: What's PETI?
Chris: People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects.
Me: Does that really exist?
Chris: No Camille.

We had a nice family lesson about praying mantis without having Manti there hissing at us and threatening us with her blade of grass.
I though I was letting my imagination run a little too fast thinking that Manti was watching me
That was before we wiki-ed her.
We knew the basic stuff like they bite off there mates head during copulation and eat their bodies later.
I've noted a few interesting facts that I didn't know.

• Mantises are exclusively predatory.
• The mantis has remarkable speed.
• Prey items are caught and held securely with grasping, spiked forelegs.
• Mantises are highly visual organisms.
• Mantises engage in cannibalism.
• During matting the female starts feeding by biting off the males head (as they do with regular prey). The males movements become even more vigorous in its delivery of sperm.

All info came from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis

Now for some pretty things.

A gift wrapped in my favorite vintage wallpaper.



The moon rising over the mountains this evening.

It was a good day.

PS: My Etsy store is open. It is called Camille's Fancy Stuff.
If you click the Esty button at the top of my blog it will link you to my shop.
I have much more to post this week so keep checking back.
Please be patient with my shop while I begin.
It will be awesome when I get the hang of it.

Thanks friends!

Oliver's Book Club

September 20, 2010

Oliver's Book Club

Oliver has his first big assignment of his Jr. high school career.
He was assigned to read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli before school started , which he did, and he received the project instructions the first week of school.
I was surprised to learn last week that he hadn't started on it yet.
Usually Oliver has big projects finished several days before it is due. (Due September 30.)
The reason he hadn't started was because he didn't understand exactly what was required of him.
Oliver is very good at math, spelling and science. All subjects that have only one answer or explanation. He needs extra guidance when a project requires free thinking and creativity.
To begin he outlined what needs to be done and set a time line.
Second, for me to understand the project we read the book together this weekend.
I think working with him on this will help him to learn how to approach a project that is open to interpretation and requires free thinking.

There are many facets to this project and it counts as one third of his grade for the quarter.
Part of the assignment involves keeping a journal of common sight around you and stopping to study them. Then write about the sight you see and the feelings you have.
For example Oliver wrote about the dead peach tree in are yard.

"Day One
Today I notice the dead peach tree in our yard. It makes me sad that it is dead. I have know it my whole life. I like to help my mom trim off the branches. We are sculpting the tree to make it look really nice".

After having such a great time reading Stargirl together Oliver wanted to form a book club.
Oliver is the president.
I am the Prime Minister.
Freya is the queen.
Chris is the janitor.
(This was decided by Freya.)

It is my turn to chose a book.
Tomorrow we will start The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I am so excited to introduce Oliver and Freya to Steinbeck.
After The Pearl it is Chris' pick and he is going to chose The Hobbit. I have never read it.



Today Chris checked out three copies of The Pearl plus we own a copy.
I made us book markers. The stick man holds a pearl in his left hand.
It's dramatic, I know.



Stargirl. A brilliant book about being different and trying to be fit in and be popular at school.



Thank you to sweet Kristi in Ohio.
I received wonderful things in the mail this morning.
I have already laundered and ironed everything.



I think I will put a small ruffle border around these vintage x-mas squares and us them as napkins.

You can find Kristi's blog at kristidurfee.wordpress.com

Cheers to a brand new week!

Two 'Best Day Ever' Days In A Row

September 18, 2010

Two 'Best Day Ever' Days In A Row

I want to start my post with a small list of things I'm grateful for.
^ Sharp scissors
^ Surprise gifts in the mail
^ New craft books
^ The Wasatch Mountains
^ New music
^ The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. 10.30.10
^ Good yard sales



Freya, Oliver and I visited my mom and dad this morning.
We were extra lucky that my brother Nicholas and his daughters were visiting my mom and dad too.
I was extra, extra super lucky this morning because the neighbors across the street from my parents house were having a yard sale.



I fell in love with this bird box immediately.
The blue soap birds nesting in milk glass sent me over the moon!
(The soap is very, very smelly bad).




Costume jewelry: $11

Crocheted trimming.

Beautiful, old and browned trimming.

A velvet table cloth and velvet, floral upholstery fabric.

The floral velvet variegates in color.

I can't wait until Katie sees it.

She will want to make cuffs out of it immediately

Embroider linen.

Linen monogramming.

Table cloth.

Total price of linens = $6

Yesterday was an even better day.

Oliver brought me mail in bed.

Any time I receive 'old fashion mail' , I know it's going to be a spectacular day

I love the hot pad my friend Allison made for me.
Allison lives in Alabama and writes a witty, creative blog at fieldwonderful.blogspot.com.

My favorite part of the package is her lovely penmanship.

Allison has the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen.

I am very grateful for new craft book.

Oliver and I went to Borders last night.

I fell over with delight because of this zombie felties book.

I had an empty tin Nicholas gave me this summer.

I stocked it up with zombie sewing supplies.

Have I ever mentioned that I love interesting tins?

Oliver bought this funky, artsy Halloween book for Freya

Bella and Boris have a happy disposition.

The start of a zombie duck.

It needs some bullet wounds and blood coming out of its eyeball.

I can work on that tomorrow.

Cheers

Halloween Decorating

September 16, 2010

Halloween Decorating

Yesterday afternoon I decoupaged my candle pumpkin holders to save them from tearing and looking crappy.

I haven't used them for years because they are all curled and the tissue paper is fragile.

To save them and be able to use them I make a glue/water mix and applied it with a paint brush.

The pumpkin faces smoothed out nicely.

The glue mixture wrinkled the tissue paper and now when they are lit they have a marbleized look.

Most of my day today was spent obsessively cleaning and Halloween decorating my living room.

Now that my mantle is properly Halloweeny I can take photos of all the banners I am selling on Etsy.

Trick or Treaters

I found the vintage cat pail at an antique store in Astoria, Oregon where we vacationed last October.

They had several old, old paper mache pumpkin pails that I fell in love with but they were very expensive. ($175).

The plastic cat pail was cheap. ($8)

The mantle .... at night!

I stuffed a bunch of sticks into a cement urn and made a Halloween tree for the first time.

I used floral foam to arrange and hold the branches.

This Halloween postcard is post marked 16 October 1909.
It was a gift from a favorite girlfriend.

I tried several ways to string the lights on my mantel but it made it way too busy.

When I went to finish vacuuming I laid the lights across the fireplace screen to have them out of the way and found the perfect solution for using them.

Freya has been having a difficult time getting into a homework groove so she and I made a school corner where she can keep all her books and supplies.

She is really excited about it and spent most of the evening in her 'book nook'.

There was a bit of an argument explaining to her that she couldn't build a bed and sleep in her 'book nook' tonight. Maybe this weekend.

Cheers!