Fun at Sunset Park!

Last Saturday we took Sienna to Sunset Park. She hadn’t been there since last September! How she’s grown since then! The playground area is really spacious with shade so we will definitely come back to this one! I was surprised by how many people were there as we were there pretty early, mabye by 9:30? (And yes, we did go for bahn mi afterwards!) It was also nice to go in the park area with such beautiful views of the city!

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Yves dressed Sienna that morning and I copied her! Yves had on khaki shorts too but he didn’t have a lime green shirt.

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Sometime Sienna needs convincing or help to slide down the slide!
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The sound of her laughing really makes my heart soar!
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Lioni Lunch with Joy

I don’t want to forgot about writing about the lunch me and Sienna had with Joy a few Fridays ago (the 22nd actually). After me and Sienna were at the playground, we met Joy at Lioni’s Italian Heroes. She has heard that their sandwiches were awesome and had told me about the place at the beginning of summer.lionilunchblog.jpg

Their menu of sandwiches is four pages long!! They are all named after Italians and Italian Americans. I finally decided on #65 the Danny Aiello (grilled chicken, broccoli rabe, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, salt & pepper) and Joy got #122 the Frank Capra (prosciutto di Parma, fresh ricotta, fresh mozzarella and sauteed peppers.) The heroes were huge and I only ate half of it. The condiment whore in me would have liked more olive oil or some mayonnaise (I put some mayo on when I ate the other half of the sandwich the next day-YUM!) It was pretty good! The broccoli rabe was nice and garlicy and the mozz was amazing! Sienna’s favorite part was the bread (of course) but she also liked the cheese.

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Danny Aiello
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Frank Capra

I also don’t want to forget about writing about the old man we encountered that day. When I told Joy and Pete this story at Five Guys, there was constant teasing and joking about it for the rest of the evening (and I’m sure in the future as well!)

Me and Sienna were walking Joy to the nail salon that I had told her about. On the way over, there was this old Italian man waving to us from his balcony on the 2nd floor.  How cute. The neighborhood old Italian guy. At the time, Joy was holding Sienna and was showing her how to throw kisses to the old man. Actually, she was making her throw kisses to the old man. Harmless fun. After leaving Joy at the nail salon, me and Sienna walked down the same block. This time the old man was on the street and stopped and said hello. He had a really thick Italian accent, he was very tan and was wearing a wife-beater. At first I couldn’t understand what he was asking but figured out that he was asking if my husband works and if I work. I told him, yes, he does and that I stay home and watch the baby. He asked if I lived around there. I said no, Sheepshead Bay. Bay Ridge? he says. Yeah, yeah I say. I didn’t feel like correcting him. Then he asked if he could have my phone number!!! HA! I didn’t expect that! Of course I said No and he was like Ok and put his hands on my face as he went in to give me a kiss on the cheek. I didn’t mind that, a harmless old man, I’d let him kiss me on the cheek. But then as he was sliding his hand away, it started going across my chest and seemed to be getting a little too low. So I lifted my hand to guide his hand up and away from my chest area! Unbelievable!! I can’t believe I got hit on by an old man AND he tried to cop a feel! Joy couldn’t believe that I didn’t call her right away to tell her this story. I told her it was all her fault as the guy probably got us confused since she was holding Sienna and making her blow kisses to him! HA!

Bob is my homeboy

I finally got motivated to try the EZ Screen Print this weekend that I bought in January 2007 – yes! I bought the kit back in January of 2007! I think I was saving it for something really special plus I just got plain lazy. I finally thought of something special and I got off my ass! HA! Sienna loves Bob the Builder! At first I thought she kept saying Bob simply because it was so easy to say. She points to the TV and says Bob! She points to her books during bedtime stories and says Bob! But I guess she does like Bob because when we do put it on, she gives that little excited giggle of hers. So cute! The idea is not very original but I thought was still cute all the same. Remember those popular ‘Jesus is my homeboy’ and WWJD t-shirts a few years back? Well, now I gave it a little kiddie twist! Here is the transparency print I made:

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The names on the bottom are for the test strip to make sure the sheets in the kit are still ok. Apparently you should keep the sheets in the refrigerator so they last longer! HA! And since this kit is over a year and a half old, I had to prepare myself for unusable sheets, with no one to blame but myself!  Exposure time is only 50 seconds with transparencies, then you soak it in tap water for at least 15 minutes. I did this Monday morning and went out for a couple of hours and left it in the water all that time. After rinsing and letting it dry, it looked great!

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I still had my bag full of mixed inks from the silkscreening class I took at Pratt in 2004. I wasn’t sure how the inks would be but the blue ink was still usable while the orange one was all dried up. I donned my too clean craft apron and was prepared to get messy!

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Since this was just a test strip, I didn’t care that her name was so close to the edges. And I just used regular masking tape to secure it. I once again used some old sheets. This old sheet was my tester for making the shopping cart cover.

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So of course since there wasn’t too much border for the tape, the screen came out while I was pulling the squeegee over it. And the combination of too much ink and the image too close to the edge, ink went in under the stencil. That was ok too. I was just happy it came out so it proved that the sheets were still usable!  I decided to go ahead with the Bob stencils!

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Well, it didn’t come out quite as I had hoped. The WWBD side barely shows up and the homeboy side needed some working with a stiff brush. I’m not quite sure why the right side didn’t come out so well. Looking at the transparency, I did see that the right side image isn’t as black as the left side image. I got these Bob images off the web and was thinking of working them over to make sure they were truly black but was afraid that if I worked too long on them, I would never get this project going. Live and learn! But I’m still baffled about why the WWBD didn’t come out as I know that was really black. Maybe because it’s just an outline and not a lot of solid? This is how the print looks:

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I re-inked it again which is why the bottom line printed twice and out of registration. I really want to try this again as I really want to make these shirts for her before she loses interest in Bob! The sheets I got are the hi-res ones and I’m not sure why I got the hi-res ones since the site says the regular ones are fine for doing t-shirts. I might buy a pack of the regular ones and give them a try and re-work the image too.

It’s Autumn! Gocco Postcard Swap

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See the list of participants here!

I was totally bummed that I missed Cloth.Paper.String’s Art of the Note Gocco swap. I was going to patiently wait for her to organize another one. Well, I don’t have much patience! So with Sarah’s blessing, I am hosting an It’s Autumn! Gocco Postcard Swap because Autumn is my favorite season! I hope some of you are up for another swap or if you are like me and missed the previous swap, get your Gocco machines ready!

This swap is slightly different in that instead of having individual swap partners, you send your cards to me and I sort and collate them and send everybody back a package. I participated in a swap like this years ago and am totally snagging the idea as it was so much fun! It will be easier for you because you only send 1 package to 1 person. It will be more work for me but I feel it will definitely be worth it!

Here are the details:

  • Swap is open to 25 29 participants with a blog and/or flickr account. Sign ups close September 10 or when I get 24 28 participants (plus me) – whichever comes first!
  • Print 50 postcards of 1 design (please keep postcards 4 in. x 6 in. for uniformity)
  • Send all postcards to me by October 10 and include enough postage inside the package so I can mail your swap back to you! Usually the same amount that it cost to send it to me. Stamps or if you are willing, cash is fine.
  • Include your name/flickr name /e-mail address inside the package so I can mark you off the list and contact you with confirmation of receipt and with any questions.
  • Please e-mail me at SWAP {at} the bunnylog {dot} com and include Gocco Postcard Swap in the subject line. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE A COMMENT TO SIGN UP! Include your name and address in the e-mail so I can get a mailing label ready (trying to be organized!). You will get an e-mail back from me with my address to send your package. This e-mail is confirmation that you are on the list. If you don’t receive a reply from me within 2 days, e-mail me again!
  • I will do my best to mail out everyone’s packages by October 24 as long as they are received in time. Please try not to be late but I know life happens so just keep me informed if you are running late!
  • In your package, you will receive 2 sets of 25 designs. So in other words, every participant in the swap is your swap partner! You can keep 1 set to admire and send the other set out as postcards!

The theme is open and it is not necessary to print on both sides of the postcard. It must be postcards as that will be easier for me to sort and don’t have to deal with envelopes. I think I covered everything but if you have any other questions, please post them here!

Feel free to use this swap button to spread the word around!
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