Photos of the new toys

It looks like I have to start writing something before I can post photos to it.


Anyway, here is Matt on his new stilts. He has about an inch of clearance before his head hits the ceiling. This is about the time when he started feeling confident on the stilts. Before this, he was grabbing walls and the ceiling, his Mom or Dad. Of course, he had worn the stilts and climbed the stairs just before this, he assures me he was grabbing the walls all the way. This photo also gives you an idea of our housekeeping standards.

We need to get a photo of him with all the protective gear we want him to wear outside. I want him to have a large spotter when he goes outside, too, but Paul thinks the gear will protect him enough.






Here is Paul doing some of the hand sewing. The man does not use a thimble. He uses his fingernail to push the needle through industrial-strength Velcro. My fingernails never even get past the end of my finger before they start splitting.

Just in case you wondered, the package says the velcro is unsuitable for machine sewing. It has adhesive on the back, so we figure it might gum up the machine.

And here is the machine.

Matt is the "scenic director" of his theater group. That means he is in charge of picking costume and makeup designers for the plays put on at his school. He was chosen, we believe, on the strength of his makeup skills. He is really good at blood and gore. He did some of the sewing on the stilts, too, as his Dad was not interested in sewing buttonholes by hand.

This is a fairly mild example of Matt's makeup skills. He looked like this (without the fangs) in 1984. He played someone who had been starved and beaten. He also helped to "gash" the young man who played "Winston." The makeup was nominated for a "Cappie" award, it was so good. Some play called Zombie Prom won the award. Go figure.

Now, my next challenge is to bind off a hat in ribbing so that it stretches. A Google search led me to this page Stretchy Bind Offs The sad thing is, I have all the books by Elizabeth Zimmerman. One would think I would have found the first one already! I have also done some of the ones where you make extra stitches. Duh.

Take care.

Ruth