If you follow my blog, instead of just coming here looking for some info on thalidomide or on Che Guevara’s death (the two most popular searches that lead to my site), you will have noticed that lately, I’ve been sort of obsessed with buying my children more and more craft kits. I have justified this to myself as my wanting to find things that I can do with the children that I would enjoy as well. But I’ve noticed that while I eagerly await the packages to come and I’m excited as I open them, I’m much less eager to start using them. I tell myself that I need to have the room, or the house, clean for me to feel OK doing something other than cleaning or working (or looking for more craft kits online!), but in reality, doing these crafts is not that much fun. Camila always wants to do everything by herself, and loses interest when she can’t – and Mika will go into grumpy mode if she’s not perfect at what she does. So why do I continue looking for more kits?
Well, Slate, the online magazine, has the answer. It appears (and I’d have to read the article again to get all the facts/science right) that when we are seeking something, whatever it is, the dopamine system on our brain is stimulated – we are flooded with dopamine. Apparently all that dopamine makes us feel very good, so good that people take drugs like cocaine and amphetamines to stimulate the system. The dopamine itself makes us feel eager and purposeful. So what’s not to love?
Well, apparently (and I’m a good example of that), this system has no mechanism to make us feel satiated, the more we do it, the more we want to do it – and moreover, the smaller and more umpredictable the “rewards” are, the more the system is stimulated, making us want more and seek more. With these mechanics, it’s no wonder that we are so addicted to google, facebook and twitter (Salon has a very good article on a twitter addiction) – which provide us with the feeling of the chase by entering a search term or pressing “reload” in our browser. In my case, of course, I’m addicted to searching for craft kits at Amazon
My addiction for craft kits is not, as you can expect, my only one. I’m also into posting and re-loading a food bulletin board and into looking for recipes for my epicurious or allrecipes for a recipe that uses some specific ingredient that’s on sale or I have at home. I spend an awfully large amount of time doing all three 🙁
At least, now, I understand it – what I need to do now is to find ways to stimulate my dopamine system which are useful to me or others.
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Chances are you are not going to buy a Lakeshore Color Mixing Science
Experiment set – it’s been discontinued. But as of a few months ago it
was still available at outlet stores, where we had the misfortune of
buying one. It was on sale, $12 from $20 original price, but it’s not
worth more than a couple of dollars at the most. It’s really the most
stupid kit I have ever found.
Basically it contains 3 little pitchers that you use to pour colored
water into a plastic container. The kit comes with bath color tablets
which you first have to dissolve in two cups of water. The tablets are
supposed to be primary colors: blue, yellow and red – but the red tablet
actually makes pink water. As the colored waters mix with each other,
you are supposed to get secondary colors: green, purple and orange – and
while you do get green and purple, apparently pink and yellow make red,
not orange. Let’s talk about confusing a 4 year old!
On the plus size my 4 year old had fun mixing in the colors, though I
don’t think she learned much from it. It’s no wonder they’ve
discontinued it – but this experience should make me (and you) think
twice before buying Lakeshore products.
We’ve had Indy, our new gatito, for a week now, and I have to say that we lucked out. No, he isn’t the cutest gatito in the world, and actually he looks more like a very small cat than a kitten (perhaps that’s why I call him gatito, but I called Syria and Jordan that when they were small as well). But he has the best personality.
First, he’s very affectionate. He loves to cuddle and be petted. As I write, he’s lying on my arm, watching my computer screen. He doesn’t mind lying in my arms with his belly up, which I very much enjoy. If what you want is a gatito to cuddle with, Indy is as good as they come.
Second, he’s very gentle and tolerant. The kids can be less than careful with him, often holding him when he doesn’t want to be held, in ways he doesn’t want to be held – but he just stays there or gently tries to get away. He hasn’t at any point shown any aggression towards us (or towards Syria or anyone else). Yeah, we’ve all gotten a couple of scratches here and there – and yesterday he bit my boob (I think he was trying to nurse!), but many less that we probably deserved. Even when you drop him or he jumps on top of someone else, he doesn’t put his claws out.
Third, he’s very playful and curious. Yes, that’s what you would expect with a kitten – but I’d forgotten just how playful and curious kittens are. He has figured out how to get everywhere, and I’ve found him in the drier, in the fireplace, inside the cabinet where I keep the pots, etc. etc. Of course, that’s annoying because I don’t want him in those places, but it’s cool that he wants to explore.
Fourth, he has finally won Syria over. It took almost a week, but he succeeded. At first, Syria would growl and hiss at him, sometimes for minutes at the time. But he kept pursing her, approaching her and making it clear that he wanted to play with her. Syria is beyond the age where she wants to play, but she figured out that the gatito wasn’t any threat, and now the two seem to get along. What’s funny is that the gatito seems dominant over the food. Of course, Syria wants to eat from the gatito’s dish because kitten food is probably tastier – but she won’t force him out.
Fifth, he doesn’t pee or poop outside the litter box 🙂
I’m sure that he has a lot of other good qualities, but his gentleness and affectionate nature are probably the most important ones 🙂
Update. Here are a couple of pictures I took today (8/17) of Indy:
I’m always looking for things to do with my daughters, specially things that are crafty but pathetically easy to do. I am not a crafty person myself. When I came across this kit for Alex Toys Silkscreen Factory
The kit is quite simple. It comes with a plastic screen, several pieces of “silk” (in reality some plastic mesh), six or so stencils (some with multiple images), an applicator and a few sheets of paper to practice on and to cover a specific image if you are using a multi-image stencil. The kit also comes with 4 1-oz tubes of color paint: green, yellow, blue and red and a bandana for you to decorate. As far as I can tell, each tube should be enough to cover four full-size stencils. As usual with Alex products, the kit seems expensive for the price (I paid $24 for it), BUT if you want to try silk screening for cheap, there don’tt seem to be too many other options out there.
In all, I think the kit works pretty well. You have to be careful to not move the cloth or the frame when you are silk screening it, otherwise the paint will smear. You also have to be sure to cover the whole screen with paint, perhaps with more than one layer, to make sure that it all makes it through the silk. And you have to be careful to apply the paint both firmly and gently, lest the silk bunch up. It’s held pretty tight, but this has happened a couple of times when my 7-yo was screening.
One thing I must say is that this is not a kit for perfectionists (such as my 7yo) – it’s easy to make one of the mistakes above and end up with a less-than-perfect silk screening (see below). But personally I think it’s a really cool way to decorate a shirt or a bag or whatever. My kids, so far, have enjoyed using it.
As I mentioned, the kit comes just with a bandana, but you can buy 50% cotton – 50% polyester t-shirts at Michaels or Joann for $2 on sale. These silk screen beautifully. The bandana also went well, though we were less lucky with an apron. All this said, this hobby can get expensive. I think that I’ll take advantage of future sales to stock up on cheap t-shirts, aprons and bags – and then take the silk screening kit out when we can make something for someone’s birthday.
By the way, Alex sells a refill
One thing to remember: wash the screen, the stencil, the silk (which is reusable) and the squeegee as soon as you are done – if the paint dries, it stays there forever.
Here is a very useful youtube video showing you exactly how you use this kit.
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