This post isn’t about the best camps to enroll your child into.  It might not work for all families, but I think it’s a great solution for mine.  If you have your child’s summer full of activities and camps, you don’t need this post.  If you don’t have a plan or you have a limited, part time plan then read on because I’ve been working on this plan for a few days and I’m pretty excited about it.

If you’ve known DIY Lounge for awhile you know that we used to organize a kids camp called No School Art School, which was tons of fun to run, but at some pointed I decided I needed to focus in on other things and I couldn’t do that while I had so many different plates in the air, so we stopped running these camps.  This post is not about the traditional camp plan it’s about the uncamp.  I made this concept up after attending the World Domination Summit, which was pretty much a life changing experience and is now influencing many things I do, including my plans this summer with my son.

Photo of an attendee’s notebook to the World Domination Summit

My son is 11 now and told me that he isn’t that in to going to camps anymore.  His exact words were that they are sorta baby-ish and he wasn’t into it.  He is signed up for one film camp, per his approval, where he’ll be making a mockumentary.  Other than that we’re on our own.  I know that my son is a video game junkie.  He will sneak off and I’ll find him on a game in some far corner of the house.  He’s smart; he knows that I’m busy and if he can be quiet and sneaky about it, it will take me awhile to find out what he’s up to.  One day I tried to loosely track how often he was sneaking off to play games and it was something like between 5-10 times a day and if I’m not paying attention that can mean many extra hours of game time.

I have many levels of concern with my son playing too many hours of games as most parents do, but most of all he’s an angry little pain in the butt when he plays for too long on computer games.  The other thing is that I don’t want him to grow up with some idea that 4-6 hours of computer game playing per day is normal.  OK, maybe I just confessed my horrible parenting, that sometimes my kid plays too many hours of games, but it’s the truth, sometimes he has played too many hours of computer games, but not this summer.

The Theory Behind the Summer Uncamp:

If you want to change a habit, you must put a new plan in it’s place.  You cannot just take something away, you must add a replacement behavior for real change.  I learned this over the weekend from Leo Babauta of Zen Habits who spoke at the World Domination Summit a.k.a. WDS.

For my son, I decided that I would set up a schedule for him for this summer.  He’s an only child and I think he gets bored at times and lacks a certain amount of structure so I’ve set up a system for him for this summer that rewards him for following the rules with extra computer time.  He can earn extra time by doing activities that I feel are good for him.  More on this in a minute.  Honestly, I need to change some habits for myself too.  I have been getting really distracted by many online sources: Facebook, Pinterest and many bright and shiny blogs with cool imagery and tutorials.  I need to break some habits too so I’m ‘enrolling’ myself in the uncamp as well.

The original uncamper

I believe that my son is an artist who hasn’t found his medium yet.  As most of you know, I am an artist too.  I am working on finding consistent ways of increasing my own productivity.  I also want set my son on the best path possible for his own creative future, so this plan will help both of us. I learned from Jonathan Fields at the WDS that a great way to increase your productivity is to routinize as much of your schedule as possible.  This allows you to have more time for creativity and if you are following a fairly consistent routine it doesn’t allow for some of the common distractions that you typically face.

OK, OK, so what did I do to create the uncamp for myself and my son?  Here it is.

The Formula for the Uncamp:

I set up a schedule for my son that rewards the behavior that I want (chores, new skills, reading, writing) with the treats that he wants (game time).  I give him 1 “free hour” of game time and the rest of his game time he can earn.  In theory, if my son does all of the things that are possible in the uncamp system he could be earning hours of extra game time.  Some parents won’t go for this because they feel that their child should only have 1 or 2 hours of game time per day.  My husband is a web developer who began learning the skills for his future career when he was a kid himself.  He was building math game programs when he was my son’s age, so I feel that if my son has a little extra computer time that’s fine with me as I feel his future career will probably be enhanced by his developed computer skills.

My Son’s Summer Uncamp Schedule:

8-9am Breakfast and reading
9-10am Computer games
10-10:30am Chores – clean room or unload dishwasher or vacuum living room and dining room
10:30-11am Snack time
11am-12pm Project time – Make movies, take photos, make lists of ideas, journal, build something, draw, other?
12-1pm Lunch time and free time
1-3pm Project time
3-4pm Exercise, stretching and relaxing
4-5pm Talk on phone,play outside, write, day dream, other?
5-6pm Books on tape (my son loves books on tape so I thought I’d build it into his schedule)
6-7pm Dinner and relaxing
7-8pm Free time
8-9pm Free time and reading time
9pm Bedtime

My Summer Uncamp Schedule:

7-8am Coffee, reading, computer time, email, lists and make breakfast
8-9am Eat breakfast and writing time
9-10am Video editing
10-10:30am Chores
10:30-11am brain storming and researching new projects, ideas, concepts (no more than 1 per day)
11am-12pm Project time – Ck in with son about his project for the day first and/or work beside him
12-1pm Lunch time and free time
1-3pm project time – videos, new projects, bargain hunting, knot ugly, diy lounge, etc
3-4pm Exercise, stretching and relaxing
4-5pm Errands, return phone calls, catch up on email
5-6pm Prep dinner or at least clean the kitchen so hubby can cook
6-7pm Dinner and relaxing
7-8pm Free time, reading time and wrapping up projects if necessary
8-9pm Computer catch up
9pm off duty!

*********************************************************************************************************

With my son’s schedule, I have built in some rewards.  I plan to do this with myself too although I haven’t gotten to my reward system yet.  Here’s how my son can earn extra game time (this will only work if the reward is highly desirable to the individual).

Extras that can earn extra game time:

1. Walk and feed the dog = 30 minutes extra game time
2. Sweep/vacuum all floor space, including under chairs, rugs corners for all common area rooms: the living room, dining room and kitchen = 1 hour of game time
3. Sweep back patio, wipe down outdoor table and water plants = 1 hour extra game time
4. Journaling – words and pictures = 30 minutes extra game time
5. Making and recording music – up to 1 hour per day = journal time is equal to game time ie. 1 hour extra of journaling = 1 hour extra of game time.
6. Making videos 1 hour of video = 30 minutes of game time (this is something he already enjoys so It’s weighted less than other activities, but I believe it is a valuable skill for him to build)
7. Extra exercise done independently = unlimited, exercise time is equal to game time ie. 1 hour extra of exercise = 1 hour extra of game time.

Between the two lists you can see that there is some overlap which was intentional so that I can monitor my son during the day.  I know he won’t exercise without me at his side encouraging him so I plan to work with him on this all summer long.  Jonathan Fields discussed at the WDS that most people can really only work in 45 minute up to 90 minute blocks at one time so I anticipate that we will need more breaks than is accounted for on this schedule and I have a plan for how to make this work.  Any time either of us feels burnt out by the activities we’re supposed to be doing we can walk on the treadmill or go outside and take a walk for 5-15 minutes and then get back to the schedule.

I know there will be days that we won’t stick to this schedule because life can be unpredictable, but as much as we possibly can we are going to stick to this schedule for the entire summer. If we find something isn’t working then we will change it so that we can be more successful.  Another thing I now know, thanks to Leo Babauta is that it takes 30 days to establish a new habit so I plan to stick as strictly to this routine as I possibly can and I also plan to shadow my son during the first 30 days to help keep him on track.  Additionally, I should say that I didn’t make this plan and tell my son how things were going to be.  I created a rough list and then sat down with him and explained that I had a cool plan for how he could earn extra game time and learn some new skills at the same time.  He totally bought in and is excited to test out this new plan.  He even had ideas of things he could do to earn extra game time.

For me, this gives me uninterrupted work time.  If my phone rings during my work hours, I won’t pick up the phone.  I have turned off the notification on my computer so I won’t hear any pings if I get an email.  To make sure that both of us aren’t cheating during our working/project hours, I am going to set up the Stay Focused Chrome Extension that allows me to block certain sites during certain times of the day so that if I try to get on facebook, say and it’s a time when I should be working it will ask me “Aren’t you supposed to be working?” and block me from the site.  I am doing this because I know that my willpower isn’t perfect and neither is my son’s so the computer he uses will also be blocked during certain hours.  You can read more about the reasons to use and how to use this application here.

The other way that I will monitor this schedule is I will set up an hourly chime on my phone to remind me when it’s time to change to the next activity.  I’ll have copies of the schedules upstairs and downstairs so that we can refer to them as needed.  I really feel that these additional safeguards will assure that we can stay on task with our new system.

Other useful ideas for the uncamped summer is to look into cool free activities going on in your town.  In Portland, where I live there are free concerts in the park, movies in the park, great local libraries and more.  Here are some great summer bucket lists that I found on Pinterest to peak your excitement for summer activities: Little Wonders’ Days, Positively Splendid and Embellishing Life.

I’m going to try and give updates about the uncamp and how it’s going.  I plan to be really honest too if things aren’t going well and what aspects are working.  Wish me luck and I wish you lots of luck, happiness and productivity this summer as well.

xo,
Jen

Saturday, the 7th of May was the Crafty Wonderland Spring Sale and it was great!  I was working the I Heart Art booth, because I am one of the members of the I Heart Art Leadership Counsel.  All of the members take turns volunteering for this program.

If you’re not familiar with I Heart Art let me tell you a little about it.  I Heart Art is a collaborative project between PNCA, the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Etsy and the PDX Etsy Team.  This program is all about offering professional development in the form of workshops and events for Portland’s artists and makers.  These workshops and events are very affordable, as in $10 or free, which makes them accessible for everyone.  I helped set up the booth at Crafty Wonderland and also worked the first hour of the sale from 11-12.  We offered a coloring contest at the I Heart Art booth as well as information about the program.   I was surprised by how many people didn’t know about this amazing program.  All were really excited about I Heart Art once I filled them in on the program.

If you’re a maker and you’re anywhere near Portland
you should really consider getting involved with I Heart Art.

OK, back to Crafty Wonderland . . . usually I sell at Crafty, but this time I didn’t have enough time to build my inventory so I decided I’d wait and do the next sale (that is, if I’m juried into it).    After I finished my shift at the I Heart Art booth I was able to walk around and talk to people – vendors, customers and friends, which was wonderful! I got to see  Susan Beal and check out her new book, World of Geekcraft, which are available online or you can find them locally at collage.  I chatted with my friend Kirsten Moore of Piper Ewan and Cynthia Lucas of Bella Sisters.

The community of makers in Portland are a special breed of awesome!

Here’s a picture of the I Heart Art booth.  One of Portland’s special breeds of awesome is my friend Shawn Collins, who makes Fuzzy Lamps.  He agreed to help me with my volunteer shift at the I Heart Art booth.

Cathy and Torie do a great job organizing Crafty Wonderland sales.  The Convention Center was packed with cool art and crafts and tons of shoppers!  When I think of community, cool and creativity I think of Crafty Wonderland.  Hooray for Cathy Pitters and Torie Nguyen and the hard work they do putting on such a great sale!

After Crafty Wonderland  I went to a Kentucky Derby Party.  Overall it was a wonderful day!

by: jen

Many of you know I am editing video tutorials for DIY Lounge these days and  I’ve decided that editing film is like complex math.  In math, you must learn all the basic math and be pretty good at it to be able to execute complex math problems.  Video editing is the same.  I took a Final Cut class at PCM last year.  The class covered all the basics in terms of the editing software itself, but we never imported film or cataloged the videos, so as I’ve been editing videos, I keep running into the brick wall of how to capture and manage the video in the first place.  Last week I got a lesson in how to do this.  It was so obvious once I was shown, but totally impossible prior to the lesson.  Math used to have this same affect on me.

When I was younger obstacles like not understanding how to import and manage video content would have been a deal breaker.  I would have given up and thrown in the towel, but as I’ve grown older I have become aware of my own impatience with myself and the act of learning something new.  I hate to be a beginner, yet as I am growing older I see that if you are going to continue to learn you must be a novice, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

“Man arrives as a novice at each age of his life.”  Chamfort

This quote is a good reminder to me that we’re all novices throughout our lives. I just recently turned 40, which I’m liking so far.  As you age you get less focused on what others think and live your life for yourself.  I was always my own person.  Meaning, I really always knew who I was on many levels.  I always wanted to be a mom, craft business person and a witch.  OK, I’m not a witch, but I do wear a lot of black with wild black hair and pale skin, which is sorta witchy.  It’s pretty awesome to be able to go after what you want and not care who is looking and judging, that is, if anyone is a all.  Confidence and self-assuredness comes with age . . . now back to video editing.

This cake was made for my husband and me for our 40th Birthdays by our friend Jocelyn of Bakery Bar.

by: jen

Sure, I could have done something easy for my last project, but I wanted to go out with bang.  I have to admit that an unfinished project really bugs me.  I usually either finish a project or hide it from my view where I can forget about it.

I started working on this chair over the summer and then I got busy with other things and never finished it.  As you can see it was pretty bad.  Someone had reupholstered it at some point but they didn’t really know what they were doing.  I decided this chair deserved to be beautified.

This project was so cool that I knew I didn’t want to abandon it, which is why it has been sitting around taunting me with it’s unfinished-ness for months.

One of things that makes this chair really cool is that the design is loosely based on a photographer Damon Winter’s work. A friend gave me a card last year with this design.  The minute I saw it I knew I was going to do my own interpretation of the piece and put my own spin on it.

Here is the chair partly completed.  I added some additional batting to the seat and back of the chair to make it more cushiony.

For the original photo the photographer captured light beams in a window display, but mine was done with ribbon.  I changed the silhouette somewhat by making the image feminine rather than a masculine one.  I also left out the woman in the foreground as I felt I wanted a simpler design. I also changed the color scheme.  In the picture below you can see the detailing that I did to the silhouette.  I created lines with my stitches that both reinforce the image and also add another decorative element.

Day 31: Finishing a Damon Winter Inspired Chair:

Wow, it’s day 31!  I made it . . . in many sense of the word!  I am so thrilled to finally be done, but I also feel like I have a renewed sense of my skills as a maker, artist and designer.   This project was the longest project of all the projects I’ve completed.  In all I think this project has taken me 6 hours to finish, but it looks great and I am very happy with it.  Every once in awhile it’s good to flex your crafty muscles and this one was a fun, rewarding challenge, for sure.

Thank you everyone for reading and sharing this process with me.  I am curious to know what project people would most like to know how to do themselves?  Please let me know which if any, of these projects would you most like to see turned into a tutorial.

In case you didn’t read my first blog post about this project . . . this post is part of a 31 day challenge I am doing to bring more creativity, stories and solutions to my life.  I have been using my creativity almost exclusively for work in the recent past and for the month of January I will creating things for my personal life, talking about them and taking pictures.I would love input from readers as to which project you enjoy the most and if I get enough comments on one particular project I’ll turn it into a tutorial after the 31 day challenge of crafting, stories and solutions is over.  So please let me know what you like!

by:jen

Recently I was going through my closet and found that I owned something like 10 pairs of yoga pants.  Many of them were ill-fitting in one way or another.  I decided I wanted to trick out a pair of my yoga pants and turn them into bloomers.

The first thing I did was to cut off the pants just below the knee.

Then I made 2 very long strips out of the cut off portion of the pants (lower portion of the pants).  I sort of estimated how long I wanted the strips to be.

Using my sewing machine I sewed a long (3.5) straight stitch with my sewing machine all the way on one end of the strips.  On the other side I serged all the way along the strip.  The reason for the straight stitch is so that it doesn’t stretch as I work with it.  The other end that was serged I wanted to stretch slightly to create a subtle ruffle effect.  Then I evenly spaced the strips and stitched them down to the bottom of the pants in a spiral fashion wrapping around the leg.

Day 30: Yoga Pants to Bloomers

Here are the finished bloomers, which I can wear by themselves or under skirts.  What do you think?  I like ‘em.

In case you didn’t read my first blog post about this project . . . this post is part of a 31 day challenge I am doing to bring more creativity, stories and solutions to my life.  I have been using my creativity almost exclusively for work in the recent past and for the month of January I will creating things for my personal life, talking about them and taking pictures.I would love input from readers as to which project you enjoy the most and if I get enough comments on one particular project I’ll turn it into a tutorial after the 31 day challenge of crafting, stories and solutions is over.  So please let me know what you like!

by:jen

Did you know that Sangria is one of the most delicious, affordable and simple drink options you can provide at a party?  It’s true and in this post I am going to cost it out and give you the raddest recipe ever.  It’s a hybrid of a couple of recipes and it’s pretty boozy too!

Here’s the shopping list (prices may vary where you are):

• Box wine – buy the Corbet Canyon Merlot because you can get it for $10.99 and it 4 bottles of wine.
• Brandy – smaller bottle $11.99 (you’ll use half to bottle so $5.99)
• Ginger Ale – 2 liter $1.19
• Orange juice concentrate – $1.67
• Lemonade concentrate – $1.67
• 2 oranges $1.73
• 2 Limes $1.18
• 2 Apples $1.75
• 2 Lemons $1.45

Grand total: $29.62

Day 29: Sangria for 20-ish people for $20-ish

Sangria Recipe:

Directions -

Start this recipe the day before your party.  I like to use a large pot for mixing the batch of sangria in.  Mix together the brandy, lemon juice, lemonade concentrate, orange juice concentrate, red wine. Float slices of lemon, orange and lime, and maraschino cherries in the mixture. Refrigerate overnight for best flavor.  Add ginger ale just before serving.  Then add water to taste.  The reason for the water is that this drink will be pretty thick if you don’t add water.  It’s a great way to make the drink to your liking.  If you like your drinks strong add a cup or two of water.  If you like it a little weaker or you have a larger group to imbibe you can add numerous cups of water.

Makes: 48 1/2 cup servings (everyone can have 2 drinks this way)

Costed out: $.62 per 1/2 cup serving.  If you add more water this recipe can be as low as $.50 per 1/2 cup serving.

In case you didn’t read my first blog post about this project . . . this post is part of a 31 day challenge I am doing to bring more creativity, stories and solutions to my life.  I have been using my creativity almost exclusively for work in the recent past and for the month of January I will creating things for my personal life, talking about them and taking pictures.I would love input from readers as to which project you enjoy the most and if I get enough comments on one particular project I’ll turn it into a tutorial after the 31 day challenge of crafting, stories and solutions is over.  So please let me know what you like!

by:jen

I have a friend named Jocelyn.  She owns a bakery called Bakery Bar.  She spends a lot of her time decorating cakes.  Jocelyn told me she wanted some pillows for her couch in her home.  I told her that we could make them together.  She basically did one of her cake designs, but in a pillow format instead.  She cut out the felt details and drew the design.  I was the sewer in this project because I am a more experienced sewer than she is.

I used batting to create the inner pillow.  One thick piece intended to be used for floor pillows and some thinner long pieces that one might use for a quilt or blanket, but for this project I used them to wrap the pillow.

I cut up the large piece of batting to the dimensions I needed.  Then I cut out some pieces of knit material to create an inner pillow for the slip cover.

It was fun to work on a new project with new designs that I didn’t even have to think about coming up with.

Day 28: Felt Pillows With Flair

Here is the completed pillow.  I hope Jocelyn likes it!

In case you didn’t read my first blog post about this project . . . this post is part of a 31 day challenge I am doing to bring more creativity, stories and solutions to my life.  I have been using my creativity almost exclusively for work in the recent past and for the month of January I will creating things for my personal life, talking about them and taking pictures.I would love input from readers as to which project you enjoy the most and if I get enough comments on one particular project I’ll turn it into a tutorial after the 31 day challenge of crafting, stories and solutions is over.  So please let me know what you like!

by:jen

I made a meatloaf yesterday and realized that I didn’t enough ketchup to top the meatloaf with.  I thought, “maybe I could make my own?”   I remembered that the last time I was at the Victory Bar I had ordered hush puppies that came with homemade ketchup and it was amazing.

I haven’t made ketchup before so I started searching for recipes.  I found this one from Epicurious. I didn’t have any cans of whole tomatoes so I substituted 2 smaller cans of tomato sauce.  I finished it and added it to my meatloaf.  It was unbelievably good.  Next time I think I’ll add a little less brown sugar.  I put the extra ketchup in a canning jar, so we can use it in the future.   Now I want to try my hand at making hush puppies too, maybe this weekend.  Here’s a recipe for hush puppies that sounds great.

Day 27: DIY Ketchup

Can be chilled for up to 3 weeks.

In case you didn’t read my first blog post about this project . . . this post is part of a 31 day challenge I am doing to bring more creativity, stories and solutions to my life.  I have been using my creativity almost exclusively for work in the recent past and for the month of January I will creating things for my personal life, talking about them and taking pictures.I would love input from readers as to which project you enjoy the most and if I get enough comments on one particular project I’ll turn it into a tutorial after the 31 day challenge of crafting, stories and solutions is over.  So please let me know what you like!

by:jen

I have this shirt that is waaaay too short. It’s one of those shirts that every time I wash it it’s a smidge shorter than the time before.  I decided I was going to redo this article of clothing for functional reasons, but also in the process add some detailing to make it custom and unique.

I used a bathing suit pull-over thingy.  What do you even call those things?  Bathing suit cover-ups?  I almost never wear bathing suits and when I do I cover up with my clothes so this cool green thing is getting no use in my life.  Perfect for a redo.

I decided that I going to use the top part of the cover-up at the bottom of my shirt.  To tie the piece together I decided I was going to make an octopus embellishment.  I cut out the octopus out of paper.  Then I laid it down on the shirt and tried it on to be sure that the octopus was placed above my breast and not on my breast. 

Next I cut out the octopus and pinned it onto the shirt.  Notice that I didn’t iron this shirt or the embellishment.  I also didn’t back the embellishment with a stabilizer either.  I wanted to keep this really simple.  If you aren’t much of a sewer a stabilizer is a good idea, but I like to challenge myself and do things in new ways when I can.

I sewed the octopus onto the shirt using a straight stitch of 3.5.  When I was done stitching I trimmed away the excess material.  After I was done sewing the octopus.  I pinned and then sewed the top of the cover-up (the smocking portion) to the bottom of the shirt.  I could have made this into a mini dress if I had wanted to by leaving the bottom portion (the skirt part) of the cover-up, but I wanted a shirt so I cut that part off and used it for the embellishment.

Day 26: Short Shirt?  No Problem.

Here is the completed shirt.  I took two items that I wasn’t wearing and created one super wearable piece that I LOVE.  I hope this inspires you to create something new in your wardrobe from something or somethings that weren’t working for you in your life.

In case you didn’t read my first blog post about this project . . . this post is part of a 31 day challenge I am doing to bring more creativity, stories and solutions to my life.  I have been using my creativity almost exclusively for work in the recent past and for the month of January I will creating things for my personal life, talking about them and taking pictures.I would love input from readers as to which project you enjoy the most and if I get enough comments on one particular project I’ll turn it into a tutorial after the 31 day challenge of crafting, stories and solutions is over.  So please let me know what you like!

by:jen

I have this table runner that I’ve had for years.  It’s at the point where many people would probably throw it away or give it away.  It has tons of little holes in it and a few stains, but I still think it’s so pretty and I don’t want to give up on it.  With some simple, fast sewing techniques I can salvage this old tired table runner.

I spent a few minutes trying to think of a simple design that would complement the already existing design.  Since the table runner is already red and white I decided I would stick with those colors.

Day 25: The Fix Is In – With Embellishment:

I cut out red circles of felt  and pinned them onto the runner over every hole and over every stain.  Then using my darning foot, which you can do free motion sewing with, I sewed rough, simple spirals.

I felt that this would look loosely like the roses that are already part of the runner’s motif.  I cut out a few sizes of felt, so that it would have a somewhat random pattern.

One of the benefits to sewing these circles on is that the stitches help prevent or slow future wear and tear on the holes that have already begun.

Another thing that is cool about this techniques is that as future holes develop you can continue to add more “roses” to the runner, which will make it look more and more handmade as you add the more embellishments to the piece.

In case you didn’t read my first blog post about this project . . . this post is part of a 31 day challenge I am doing to bring more creativity, stories and solutions to my life.  I have been using my creativity almost exclusively for work in the recent past and for the month of January I will creating things for my personal life, talking about them and taking pictures.I would love input from readers as to which project you enjoy the most and if I get enough comments on one particular project I’ll turn it into a tutorial after the 31 day challenge of crafting, stories and solutions is over.  So please let me know what you like!

by:jen