Doctor Who Party || Games & Activities

 

All right, back on track!

We knew that we couldn't just sit in front of the television for the entire party (the Wire might get us), so Becca and I planned some games to do throughout the time of the party.

Doctor Who Party || Food, Favors, and the Event

Thursday and Friday were busy with house cleaning and food prep for the big day on Saturday. Most things were easy to put together ahead of time, leaving only the finishing touches to complete Saturday morning.

Doctor Who Party || Costumes

"You got me, I've been making outfits!"

-Hiccup, How to train your Dragon

Doctor Who Party || Invitations

"Now, are you sitting comfortably? Good.Then we'll begin"

-The Wire, episode: Idiot's Lantern.

For quite some time, Becca and I have wanted to have a Doctor Who Party.

But we had a problem.

A Trio of Teacups

By Becca

I have three lovely teacups I want to show you;

the very beginning of my collection.  :) 

The first is the most precious and my favorite of the three.

It was given to me by my Grandma, whose beautiful teacup collection inspired me to begin my own.

She wrote a note that I'd like to share with you.

Dear Rebecca:

I understand that you have started a tea cup collection.  So for part of your graduation gift I wanted to give you one of my cups that I have been collecting over the years.

This particular cup belonged to my grandmother, your great great grandmother, Nellie Hartog Wiersma.  Neeltje ( her Dutch name) was born on February 21, 1883 in Goes, Zeeland, in the Netherlands. When she was nine years old her family immigrated to the United States. They first lived in Colorado but later moved to northwest Iowa.

She had seven children, three girls and four boys. During the Great Depression they lost their farm in Edgerton, Minnesota. Later they moved to Lynden, Washington.  She died in Lynden in 1947 at the age of 65. Her youngest son, Elmer, served on the USS Bullhead during WWII and was lost at sea in 1945.  Her last words to her husband were: "God's will be done. May we meet again in heaven."

May this cup and saucer remind you of some of your grandmothers in the Wiersma family.

Love,

Grandma Canaan

The second teacup was a graduation present from some dear friends of ours.

By the Art Deco style we are guessing it was made around the 1920's.

We think that M. Carner is the artist who painted the wild rose design.

Wouldn't that be a fantastic job?

The last, but not least, in my collection is the most recent addition.

Mom found it in an antique shop and knew that I'd love it :)

Dandelions, a cheerful and determined little flower that most people consider a weed... 

I love them!

Don't they look elegant on this teacup?

"Tea! That's all I needed. A good cup of tea. A superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing for heating the synapses. "

- Tenth Doctor, Christmas Invasion

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Invasion

Something has invaded our home...

This little fellow wandered into our house out of the cold. He was too cute to turn away, but we are starting to regret letting him in.

Just kidding.  :)

This Dalek has been my most recent crochet project,

 and it looks like I'll be making another one for Becca.

The pattern was free, and can be found here.

Rosie has also experienced a bit of an invasion.

Her favorite place to sit has been requisitioned by Robin Hood's band.

(Sorry for the red-eye)

"Mummy, there's no room for you!"

Much, Marian, Kate, Alice, Will, and Luke.

 All of the babies are getting very big, and at a little over four weeks old, they will be on their way to new homes soon.

   Rosie is quite tired of them pestering her and getting into trouble, and she will be glad to see them off. 

Sarah Jane on the other hand, has decided that her children are quite nice, especially for taking naps with.

Guy Gal &  Isabelle.  

Meg and Mama

The pet store had room for four of the babies today, so Rosie has a bit of a break with just Will and Marian left at home.

The Fourth Doctor's Scarf

by: Bethany

It's fun, it's long, it's iconic, and it's a wonder the Doctor never tripped over the silly thing. 

 

Long enough to share!

 I decided to make one for myself, but since I don't know how to knit, I crocheted it instead. I didn't make it exactly the same, because I wanted to incorporate the colors in my plaid coat.

Snowflakes in my eyes!

Sarah-Jane approves

 The pattern I based it on, is found here, but  I changed the colors, and made it a little shorter (just a bit. it's still 16 feet long).

I used "I Love This Yarn!" from Hobby Lobby:

Purple
Coffee=Brown
Antique Teal
Aubergine=Red
Greybeard
Pistache=Light Green

Any other colors could be used. The original ones are:

Purple
Camel
Brown
Rust
Mustard
Grey
Olive Green 

To start, crochet a 10 in. chain with first color, then in second stitch, single crochet rows as follows:

8 purple                        8 purple
32 grey                         38 brown
16 brown                     10 grey
10 teal                          30 red
22 red                          14 teal
8 purple                       20 green
20 green                      8 purple
8 teal                            32 grey
28 grey                        12 brown
14 red                           20 teal
8 brown                        8 red
10 purple                      12 purple
32 green                       6 grey
16 teal                          34 green
8 red                            16 red
34 grey                        12 teal
10 purple                     20 brown
12 green                      12 grey
8 teal                           10 red
18 red                          16 teal


For tassels, cut 16 1ft lengths of each color yarn (to make 8 tassels on each side), and knot them on the ends of the scarf, spacing them evenly.

Looks like I need to do a little trimming to even them out :)

This is my first time writing out a pattern, so if anything is confusing, let me know.


  Becca and I have been Doctor Who fans for only about a year and a half. Thanks to our friend Zach, who told us about the show, we decided to give it a try. It was only a couple days later that we found a Doctor Who marathon on TV, and started watching.
   The first episode we saw was "Flesh and Stone". The one with Eleven, River Song, Amy, and the weeping angels.  We were dropped right in the middle of the second episode of a two parter, and we were kind of lost, but it was really interesting! So, we kept watching, and watching, and watching…

  We went back to the beginning of the restart, fell in love with Nine, sadly watched him regenerate, and then skeptically watched Ten. It didn't take too long before he became a favorite, and then we came back around to Eleven. It was fun watching that, since we had only seen a little disjointed section of his tenure, and soon we were caught up to the new episodes that were playing.
  After that, we began our venture back into the original episodes. And I could go on and on, but I should probably stop before this turns into a commentary of the entire series.  :)





Note: While Becca and I have very much enjoyed watching this series, it does have some objectionable content.  At which we wince and groan and exclaim "That was completely unnecessary!"

Another thing that keeps us busy...

   Some day, Becca and I would like a little shop…

 "Ah, you've got a little shop. I like a little shop!"

 -The Doctor (episode: Smith and Jones)

 What would we sell in our little shop? Oh, lot's of things! Vintage furniture we fix up, fun pillows and wall hangings we make, stuff like that!

   When we first started thinking of the idea, there was even a storefront for sale on our very own main street in town. We told our dad about the little shop idea, and he (being very practical), told us before we started investing money in a building, we should start getting an inventory and building a costumer base. Well, I was a little disappointed that we couldn't have a shop right away, but I was very thankful for Dad's logical advice.

  So, we are working on inventory and exploring outlets to sell like craft shows, and maybe asking other local shops if they would take some of our pieces as consignment.

 But we are still getting ahead of ourselves. Finding cute, retro or antique furniture pieces at good prices is hard! But when we do find something, it is so fun to look at it, and figure out how to redesign it.  So far, we have five chairs (all in different stages of disrepair), a coffee table, an end table/record table (to hold all your groovy vinyl records) and a sturdy (but kind of sad looking) little rocking horse. Yup, that's it…

  We thought it would be fun to post about the different pieces as we get them finished, explain what we did and what different techniques we learned along the way.  So here we go!

   First completed furniture piece:  Chair

Done by: Beth

Cost: I bought the chair at a restore for $5

It looked kind of sad, didn't it? But it was sturdy, and the wood was in good shape. I love the carved back and the shape of the seat.

  The hand caned seat needed to replaced, and I had no idea how to do that.  Some simple research on the web led me to a site where you could buy a kit that had everything you need + instructions.  the only problem was that it cost around $35 dollars….

  I had to do some more research on the chair itself, and what it was worth, and if it was worth putting that much into it.

  Here's what I found. The design of the chair points to the victorian era, meaning that it's over one hundred years old!  Cool, right?  The seat also means that it was made before they stopped hand weaving the seats and a machine took over.  On eBay, chairs similar to mine were selling for between $70 to $100 dollars.  And I bought mine for $5 (I love thrift stores!).

  So I ordered the kit, and set to work.  Actually I began by sanding it down and painting it.  For some reason I forgot to take a picture of that step… Then I started on the seat.  The caning has to be soaked in order to keep it flexible, and constantly spritzed with water while you are working on it.

  It really wasn't to hard. Just back and forth, up and down, repeat, then diagonally from back left corner to the front right corner, and then back right corner to the front left corner, weaving over and under my previous rows. Of course it goes much slower then it takes to say it  :) I think I worked on it on and off for 4 or 5 days to finish it.

     And now for the reveal…………

I roughed up the edges with some sandpaper to give it a bit of distressed look, then put a couple coats of polyurethane on to seal it. 

On to the next piece!

Meet Sarah-Jane

by: Beth

  This is Sarah-Jane, our newest addition to the rabbitry.  I know she looks just like Stormy, but black rabbits do tend to have that resemblance :).  Sarah-Jane is actually Stormy's replacement since Stormy is officially retired.  Since she was four years old, and had three unsuccessful breedings this Spring, we thought it would be best to find her a new home.  It really worked out well, because we found Sarah-Jane, and rehomed Stormy all in the same week!

   

  But this is Sarah-Jane's welcome post, not Stormy's retirement party, so I'll try to stay on task  :)

Sarah-Jane is about two months old, very darling, and to all you Doctor Who fans out there, yes, she is named for Sarah-Jane Smith, one of our favorite companions of the Doctor.

  I let her out in the rabbit fence this afternoon to take some pictures of her, but she was having such a blast running around that she wouldn't hold still!  So I had to put her in a smaller pen, which made her very sad.  That's why she's staring wistfully out of her chicken wire prison in the picture above.  Then she ran franticly back and forth, bumping her little nose against the sides until she collapsed... 

After a minute she caught her breath and was back to hopping about, so I didn't get any good pictures of her sweet little face.

  Sarah-Jane also has a pedigree (a record of her parents, grandparents, and great grandparents).  Since we don't breed rabbits for show, it doesn't really matter, but it was fun to see her ancestor's names and that some of them had seven to twelve legs-

  

                                    What?!?

Yes, you read correctly, but these "legs" are actually awards from shows.  Sarah-Jane's great grandparents were prize winners, not centipedes.  I'm not sure why they're called legs… I'll have to do some research on that I guess.

Oh, and before I forget… 

                                     
                                Happy Independence Day!

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April Snow Showers

 If April showers bring May flowers, what do April snow showers bring? Last week was beautiful, the snow was almost gone from our yard, the temperatures were up in the 40's, and it was really starting to feel like spring! But then it struck… A snow storm! On and off since Tuesday it has been snowing big, fluffy flakes that just keep piling up. Will spring ever get here?

   The snow reminded me of a poem I had written when I was about 11 or 12, and sent to my pen-pal. It went something like this.

 (Belated) April Fool's
By Beth

                                         

  Snow?

   In April?

You must be crazy!

Is there something in your eyes that makes them hazy?

Is that snow that I see?

Or is there something wrong with me!

We have so much snow in our yard, and it's the kind that's perfect for building stuff with, nice and packy. Becca and I decided to make something today, but we didn't want to make an ordinary snowman, so we made a snow-Dalek!

"Ex-term-in-ate!"