DIY Life

Along with Spring comes the flurry of kids' birthday parties, concerts in the park, and festivals of every sort. Face painting is part of so many of these festivities. If you think you might get dragged into face painting this spring or summer, you'd better get prepared. Knowing what you're doing will make the difference between a kid who runs to the bathroom in embarrassment, scrubbing his poorly-painted face, and one who doesn't wash their face for a week.

The two most important elements (along with a steady hand and a comfy seat) are the paints and the designs. After the break, I'll tell you what you need to know about each.

The popularity of pirates right now cannot be overestimated. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has made being a pirate cooler than a slushie on a hot summer day. If your children are fortunate enough to have a wooden play system in the backyard, here is an easy DIY project to turn it into their own pirate ship or defensive fort.

Treasures to be "acquired" for the project:

1 piece of 1/2" PVC pipe; 1 piece 3/4" PVC pipe; 1 piece 1" PVC pipe; 1- 3/4" floor flange PVC; 1- 3/4" male adapter PVC; 2- 3/4" caps PVC; 1- 3/4" tee PVC; 1- 3/4"x1/2" coupling PVC; 1- 3/4"x1" coupling PVC; 1"x2" coupling PVC; primer for PVC glue; PVC glue; plastic spray paint (C'mon, who wants a white telescope?); 1- 1/4"x1" hex bolt galvanized or stainless steel; 3- 1/4" washers galvanized or stainless steel; 1- 1/4" nylon lock nut galvanized or stainless steel

Did you know that today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day? Every year, I take this opportunity to call my dog a "scurvy bilge rat" while she barks for her breakfast, to say ARRRRRRRR! a lot, and, of course, to watch Certain Films Starring Johnny Depp.

Last year, I was hit with the inspiration to do a massive post on my personal craft blog, full of every pirate-related craft I could possibly find on the Internet. The focus was knitting, but I also looked at kids' crafts, model ships, beading, embroidery... you name it, and if it was out there, I tried to find it.

What I came up with was Craft Like A Pirate: more pirate craft links than you can shake a parrot at.* Many of these crafts are admittedly those with skull motifs, but there are also treasure chests, booty, striped items, and so on. A few that are close to my heart are the We Call Them Pirates hat, The Pirate Queen's Booty Bag, Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks, and Yorick, a scarf with skull shapes on both ends.

Since then, I've turned up much more. Sail on through to the rest of the article to see what treasure awaits!

*Please don't shake parrots. It's a mean thing to do to the parrot, and besides, they will bite you.