Easy Spider Decoration

I wanted something for the front. I did all that work back in June to repaint the front steps. Halloween is the perfect holiday to accentuate that paint job. I came up with the idea to put spiders on pumpkins. Here's the step by step to making them.

It goes without saying that you need a pumpkins. Last year, I went to Goberts, which is northwest of me, about a 45 minute drive. I had a good time, got some great stuff, but I didn't want to drive as far this year. South of me, Johannsen's has a smaller pumpkin farm with not as much selection but just what I needed. I wanted two pumpkins, one for each side of the front, not too big that lugging them around would be difficult. I would have liked a white pumpkin, but they just had orange. There were, however, various shades of orange. The pumpkins also had to have decent stems. These two were 13 and 14 pounds.

Next step was to get the pieces to make the spiders. That meant a trip to JoAnn fabrics. Thanks to being on their "preferred customer" list, I had a coupon for 20% off my order. There are two sizes of styrofoam balls, black "chenille" sticks (I call 'em pipe cleaners.), white fuzzy yarn to make the web, googly eyes and a small can of black spray paint. I could have sworn I had a package of googly eyes but I couldn't find it. Not shown: toothpicks and glue. A complete supply list is at the end.

First thing to do is cover the work surface with newspaper. Next, you'll need a small and a large styrofoam ball. The large size is the body and the small size is the head. I chose a more polished ball for the head.

Now, you'll need to spray paint both balls black. Normally, I do this outside, but there was a breeze today which would have made spray painting very inexact and you want the balls to be as black as you can make them. I formed a small "cave", if you will, by folding over the newspaper and proceeded to spray in small bursts.

The force of the spray paint would move the ball around so I could get most of the sides just spraying in bursts. I took a toothpick and used that to manipulate the balls so I could assure a somewhat even coverage. I like how, in the photo above, the smaller ball looks like a quarter moon complete with meteor craters.

Once you get an even coverage, or as even as pleases you, you need to let these dry. I let them dry for 90 minutes. If you are using the smooth surface ball, you'll know when it's dry because it will go from a shiny sheen to a flat sheen. That doesn't take 90 minutes. The reason you wait that long is because the other ball, with its nooks and crannies, has small puddles of black paint in those nooks. You want the total surface to be as dry as possible because you're going to be holding the ball and you don't want paint on your hands. While you're waiting, take a toothpick and stick it into the middle of one "side" of a small ball.

When the balls are dry, you're ready to build a spider. Take a small ball and, if you haven't stuck the toothpick into the middle, do so now. It shouldn't go all the way through, just in about 3/4ths of an inch. Spread some good old white glue onto the section of toothpick that sticks out and shove that into the middle of one of the larger balls. There you have the spider's body. The glue, when it dries, won't be visible and this helps ensure the spider won't come apart. Here are the finished bodies all ready for legs.

Now, take one body and 8 pipe cleaners. Remember, spiders have 8 legs. Many cartoons and even some decorations show them with 6. Insects have 6 legs. Spiders have 8. Spiders are not insects.

Take one pipe cleaner, cover one end about 1/2 inch worth with glue and stick it into the large body. Remember, you're putting 4 on each side so you'll need to eyeball where on the body you want the legs to go. Here's where I had to make an adjustment.

The out-of-the package size of pipe cleaner was too long, even for a pseudo daddy longlegs. I wound up cutting about 4 inches off the end of the leg. You'll have to decide if the length of the chenille sticks are too long or just right. If I'd used larger styrofoam balls, I probably wouldn't have had to trim, as they would have been more relevant to body size.

Once I determined the length of my legs, I trimmed enough for both spiders. I didn't realize these sticks came in a variety of colors, either. I was expecting to have to spray paint them too, which would have added more time to the project. At JoAnn Fabrics, they are located next to the styrofoam balls, which made them very easy to find. I think there were 6 different colors.

Put glue on the end of each stick and shove it into the styrofoam body. The sticks probably don't need the glue, but this will help keep them anchored in the body. When you're done with that, it does look like a spider.

Last step is to give it a wee bit of personality. Take a couple of googly eyes and glue them onto the smooth ball. In actuality, where my spiders are positioned, you can't see the eyes, but you might put yours somewhere else and the eyes add a nice touch.

Here's where using the smooth ball is good. With the usual styrofoam ball, it's got all those nooks and crannies. That, when spray painted, looks a bit like hair and most spiders have some hair on their bodies. Trying to put enough glue on one of those balls to make the eyes stick would have been frustrating. A drop on each of the eyes and they stuck nicely to the smooth surface ball. For additional personality, depending upon where your spider is going, you could add a grin or fangs. Just draw them on white paper, cut them out, and glue to complete the face.

Now we're going to take our finished spiders outside. First step there was to decide where to put the pumpkins. Here's the north side of the front steps.

And here's the south side of the steps. Take your yarn or string, if that's what you'd like to use, and start webbing your pumpkin. I wound up cutting hunks of yarn instead of trying to stuff the skein through the slats of the railings. You'll want to drape the yarn around the pumpkin. I selected a yarn that had a fuzzy design to it. I thought it looked more 'spider-ish' than a straight yarn. I had, originally, wanted a very heavy weight yarn, but the JoAnn where I went didn't have anything like that.

I tied the yarn to the slats of the railing and just did some freestyle weaving down, around, over and back up to the railing. The yarn wouldn't stay on the pumpkin very well so I wound up taking a push pin, sticking it through several strands of yarn and then pushing it into the stem of the pumpkin. Once anchored, the yarn sort of stayed put. Here's the south side completely done.

When I had what I felt was enough "webbing", I took a spider and put her where I thought she looked the best. The sticks (legs) are bent and anchored to the webbing. If you have several web strands tied to your porch, those are the best place to anchor 3-4 of her legs. She moves with the webbing so when the wind blew, she stayed on the web and didn't blow off. I repeated the process for the north side of the front.

Spiders are much better than I'll ever be at spinning uniform webs, but it came out okay. You can see that my googly eyes don't show unless you're looking at the spider from the perspective of the pumpkin.

I have no idea how this will hold up in a rain or a stiff wind so we'll see.  I'll just need to watch this the rest of the month and see how it handles the weather.

If I have to make more spiders, I think I'll change the location of the smaller ball in relation to the larger ball. If it's placed at an angle, then the googly eyes would show. If you wanted, you could stick the free end of the legs into the pumpkin and have your spider on the pumpkin. Here's the effect on the front.

It's just enough decoration for me. After Halloween, I have plans for those pumpkins. These are not the pie kind. We'll see how soggy they are on November 1st. 

I hope you found this interesting and if someone tries this, I'd love to see your photos of the finished product. Happy decorating.

Supply list:  pumpkins

1 package large styrofoam balls - rough finish

1 package small styrofoam balls - smooth finish

1 package black chenille sticks

1 package googly eyes

1 small can black spray paint

1 skein white fuzzy yarn

2 push pins

toothpicks

Elmer's All-purpose glue

Newspaper to cover the work surface

Beverage: Dr Pepper

Deb

A Big Success

So, last week, I came home to this on the deck railing.

This is what was left of the sunflowers.

I think these were a success. They were perfect for a pot on the deck.

 

The flower heads didn't get very big, 3 inches at maximum, and they weathered the drought okay. I had to water everything and they were no different. I didn't think there was that much in the way of sunflower seeds in the heads but obviously some squirrel thought differently. 

I think next year, I will plant these in the pot by the steps where they will get full sun for most of the day. That pot is bigger which should give me room to plant more. These were called Teddy Bear sunflowers and are bred to be deck container size. 

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

It Only Took 5 Years

Back in 2008, a had a friend come for a week-long visit. He brought his lap top so I set up the card table in the office so he'd have a place to connect to the Internet. At the time, a wireless router was not on my radar of possibilities.

After he left, that card table became a dumping ground for all manner of paper goods. Pilchard used to "nest" on it and sleep while I played WOW.

Or she would try to fit into a box clearly 2 sizes too small for her that happened to be on the table top.

Over the years, the piles on the table would get bigger, then smaller, then bigger as I would simply toss things I didn't want to deal with onto the table for the proverbial time I'd "get around to it". Gradually, the pile grew to where Pilchard didn't want to sleep on the top because she would continually knock things off.

While watching the box score of the Iowa-Central Michigan football game, I decided this was the day to seriously clean and deal with the stuff on the table. I had managed to whittle it down to this.

Let's see. There is a container of CD cases, most of which have CD's containing photos and videos from my World of Warcraft guild. There are a bunch of photos stuck in packages. There is a stack of newspaper clippings and whole newspapers dealing with the great flood of 2008 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There were football articles and old newsletters saved by my grandfather. There were books and sewing supplies. My Bullwinkle Moose, Marvin Martian and Spot from 7UP dolls and the wooden shelf on which they sat, which had tumbled off the wall several years ago. And there were other things, letters, magazines, genealogy items, stuff that just needed to be sorted and either pitched or filed.

It took roughly 2 hours to empty off the contents of the table, decide if I really wanted to save it, and then, if so, do something with it, not just stack it in another pile "to be dealt with later". Nope, this was going to be a deal with it now event. Finally, there was nothing on the table.

Well, not quite nothing. Cat fur. There was a lot of black fur on the table cloth. This is one of my grandmother's bridge club table cloths. It has been on this table since 2008. It is time to wash it. Then, I took down the table and stowed it in a closet.

Immediately, the room felt more open and spacious. When you have a small house, as I do, the stuff of life can slowly turn a room into a cave. Removing this opened up the area in front of the bookshelves to the right of the table.

There's the chair Pilchard sleeps in when I play WOW. There is a rolling stool my friend bought when he was here. I always meant to get rid of it, but, I can see its value in helping me do some cleaning and organizing in the kitchen, since getting down on the ground is currently difficult for me. There is an antique magazine rack which held catalogs from, I kid you not, 2007. It has 2 empty slots in it now, thanks to the pitching of a lot of paper items. Plus, I can get to the cedar chest where I store the music CD's not in a tower, and my sewing materials. The machine sits in front of the shelves. I think I still have maybe too much stuff and could whittle further, but this is a huge, huge first step.

Mija and Pilchard like to sit on the padded top of the stool so it's a win that it's freed now for them to use. I put a bunch of items I won't ever use again into a bag to be given away at the next opportunity. My recycling can had to be emptied once, too. I could use a scanner and then I could get rid of more paper items that I really don't need to keep except they have meaning to me.

Best of all, I no longer have a place to dump things "to get to them later". This clean up forces me to deal with items when I use them or receive them. I can be the best procrastinator in the world but this forces me not to be and that's a plus for me.

Beverage:  water

Deb

I Won't Call it "George"

Perhaps you saw the press release from The Weather Channel about naming winter storms. Here is a link to the full press release. I'm just going to highlight a few paragraphs.

"During the upcoming 2012-13 winter season The Weather Channel will name noteworthy winter storms. Our goal is to better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events. The fact is, a storm with a name is easier to follow, which will mean fewer surprises and more preparation.  

Naming Winter Storms

Hurricanes and tropical storms have been given names since the 1940s. In the late 1800s, tropical systems near Australia were named as well. Weather systems, including winter storms, have been named in Europe since the 1950s.  Important dividends have resulted from attaching names to these storms:

• Naming a storm raises awareness.
• Attaching a name makes it much easier to follow a weather system’s progress.
• A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness.
• In today’s social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication.
• A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future."

When I heard this, my initial thought was laughter. "Yeah, right, naming our winter storms. That's just silly." The Weather Channel says they will not use names which have been used by the National Hurricane Center to lessen confusion. But still, who names a winter storm? These things are huge. Unlike a hurricane, which has a clearly defined beginning, a winter storm can take days to develop into something. What crosses Chicago with a half inch of powder can meet up with some other weather system over eastern Tennessee and pound the east coast. How are they really going to know what is a storm to be named?

The Weather Channel answered those questions.

Often a weather system that is expected to strike a metropolitan area three days from now has not even completely formed in the atmosphere. Therefore, naming of winter storms will be limited to no more than three days before impact to ensure there is moderate to strong confidence the system will produce significant effects on a populated area.  In addition, the impacts from winter systems are not as simple to quantify as tropical systems where a system is named once the winds exceed a certain threshold. 

The process for naming a winter storm will reflect a more complete assessment of several variables that combine to produce disruptive impacts including snowfall, ice, wind and temperature.  In addition, the time of day (rush hour vs. overnight) and the day of the week (weekday school and work travel vs. weekends) will be taken into consideration in the process the meteorological team will use to name storms.

I'm really on the fence about this. Maybe it will help in keeping thing straight and in communicating the need for people to prepare. One of the problems is that weather prediction with storms is still an inexact science. How many times have I battened down my hatches in anticipation of 6-8 inches of snow only have to a cloudy day pass by? What constitutes a "bad storm" by standards in Atlanta is NOT what I consider a bad storm up here. I lived in Southern Indiana for 21 months, 4 weeks and 3 days, not that I kept track. They closed the schools for 1 inch of snow, 1 inch. I howled with laughter. What you need to remember is that they are as ill-equipped to handle 1 inch as we are to handle 3 feet. If the storm goes south and hits the southern US, is it as bad as if it hits the northern US? And what if it organizes over South Carolina and goes right up the coast? What of areas such as Buffalo, New York, which measure their snow in feet and can have 5+ storms a season? Are each one of those going to have names?

I guess we see how this pans out. Commentators on the press release have not been the kindest, seeing this as The Weather Channel's attempt at making themselves newsworthy again. Dr. Jeff Masters points out that, in Europe, people have the ability to pay for naming rights to some storms through the Free University. The money goes into a fund to keep their meteorological department open. I shudder to think what could happen if such a scheme came here, although it's possible that's a next step. I think I would rebel if the great 2011 February blizzard was named "Kim Kardashian".

I did get a huge chuckle out of some of the storm names selected.

Gandolf -- A character in a 1896 fantasy novel in a pseudo-medieval countryside
. No, that's the name of the wizard in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, expertly brought to life by Sir Ian McKellan in the movies. 

Kahn -- Mongolian conqueror and emperor of the Mongol Empire
. No, that's the name of James T. Kirk's nemesis in the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Kahn. Ricardo Montalban played Kahn and the movie gave rise to one of the best onliners ever, Kirk yelling into his communicator, "KAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNN!" 

Nemo -- A Greek boy’s name meaning “from the valley”, means “nobody” in Latin . No. That the name of the clownfish in Pixar's Finding Nemo.  

Q -- The Broadway Express subway line in New York City. Um...no. Maybe to a New Yorker, this makes sense, but you might as well name a storm, the Red Line. Chicagoans would recognize it. "Q" is the name of Jean Luc Picard's nemesis in the TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. John de Lancie probably can't find work as anything other than Q. He reprised the role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. It's also the name of the man who created all of James Bond's toys. Desmond Llewellyn is probably the most famous movie "Q". 

Rocky -- A single mountain in the Rockies
. Right. This is a reference to that one guy in that one movie, you know the one, where he runs up the steps of the Philadelphia art museum. No one refers to just one of the mountains. If they do, that peak has a name. 

Yogi -- People who do yoga
. This one is my favorite. When I heard it, I instantly thought of Yogi Berra, baseball Hall of Fame catcher. It would have to be a very bad winter for them to get this far, but, I kind of hope they do. The quotes coming from Mr. Berra about winter storms would be worth their weight in snow drifts. 

Winter starts on the 21st of December this year. While a winter like last year would be nice for my arthritis, it was not good for water tables. I'd like a bit more snow this year, although if it would come in no more than 4 inches at a time, that would be extremely helpful. Those of us in northern climates, used to snow, would like our Christmas to be white. Farmers depend upon a good snow cover for spring planting so a foot or two over the whole of winter would be good for them. "The Great Snow of 1967" is still a good name, if you ask me. 

What do you think?

Beverage:  Dunkin Donuts hot tea

Deb