Better Late than Never...Right?

Sooo...we really didn't intend for it to be this long. We have been doing projects and documenting them and...not posting them. Oops. Mike was supposed to blog while Mary was in Peru, but he didn't. Although he did refinish 3 pieces of furniture, make 2 mirrors and complete countless other unexpected chores. So we will forgive him.

Anyway, we will be playing a little catch-up now. Here's something fun we did in July:

We tie-dyed!

Mary pretended that it was because we had a lot of stained white clothing that we didn't want to go to waste. So it was a practical project. But, really, it just sounded like fun. Like summer camp or something.

First, we chose our colors and got our materials together. We considered the natural way, with fruits and vegetables...but we weren't in the mood to learn something new.

Each dye bath required 2 gallons of boiled water for each package of color.

And, for the all-important "ties", we cut some strips from one of Mike's old college bedsheets.

After dissolving the powdered dyes according to the package instructions, we added them to the tubs...

(Whew! Look at that beautiful Arizona lawn!)

...and prepared our linen victims (the post-it's you see are our predecided color schemes for each garment. We're big nerds.).

We tied our designs...Mike being very careful and specific about his, Mary--not so much.

And let them soak for about 10 minutes in each color.

Then we rinsed them...

...and soaked up the extra color with an old towel...

...And hung those suckers up to dry!

We also tried a technique involving salt to make designs that Mary had learned in a costume design class...that apparently only works on delicate fabrics. Failure.


And look how nice the ties turned out! Ha!

Hooray for projects that make you feel 10 years old again! As should they all!