Nicole Alderman

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since Feb 24, 2014

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Biography

Five acres, two little ones, one awesome husband, 12 ducks (give or take), and a bunch of fruit trees and garden beds. In her spare time, Nicole likes to knit, paint, draw, teach kids, make fairies & dragons, philosophize, and read fantasy. She doesn't HAVE spare time, but does like to fantasize about it!

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Recent posts by Nicole Alderman

Hilarious, rib tickling memes

This is what permies is for:

Have you planted your fall garden yet? I haven't! I'm too busy planning/teaching a botany class to elementary-aged kids. I did get some free grape plants that I'll be putting in the ground soon, though!

2 days ago

meaningless drivel

Needle-Felting! Share your creations, and your tips!!!

I still end up poking myself on every project I make. When I made your dragon, I somehow managed to poke myself in just the right spot of my finger (the same place that people poke for tiny blood samples) and MAN, it bled so much!

I'm pretty sure no blood got on the dragon...but no guarantees!

I also noticed that he quickly ditched the leather finger guards. Those things take away all the sensation and make it really hard (at least for me) to feel what I'm felting. Bandaids, though, offer enough protection to keep you from getting poked again, and allow for sensation. Honestly, sometimes I think I should just preemptively bandage them, and then I won't poke myself!

3 days ago

animal fibers

Needle-Felting! Share your creations, and your tips!!!

I was so sure that I wouldn't have any critiques while watching his video, as I also took on needle felting by just poking at wool until it looked good. But, then he kept cutting the wool and something inside me screamed each time. It's like cutting off a chunk of roving to spin into yarn. You want those fibers long enough to tangle strongly into the rest of the wool. (I can see cutting it when making the hair, but the other times the wool will just felt in if you poke it well.)

3 days ago

animal fibers

1920's history crafts for elementary age kids (Bonus it if related to Disney Princess Tiana)

Oh, thank goodness, they were made by the tribes of the Eastern Woodlands. And, there's videos made by the tribes with the original methods.

3 days ago

art

1920's history crafts for elementary age kids (Bonus it if related to Disney Princess Tiana)

r ranson wrote:Next weekend, I'm helping make corn husk dolls for a big festival. It's easy to get corn husks these days as people in grocery stores, but at this festival they are selling steamed corn so lots and lots of husks.
I made them a few years ago but forgot how so I'll spend the first 10 min with a refresher course.

I should probably see about getting some of those corn husks and learning how to make the dolls. If I get corn husks now and keep them in a relatively dry place, will they still be fine in February when we're studying Pocahontas. (Also, did the Powhatan actually make corn husk dolls, or is that just a myth/stereotype? There's always so much research needed in history!)

3 days ago

art

Historical Disney Princess Coloring Pages

I know Megara isn't an "Official Disney Princess," but she was a great excuse to learn about Ancient Greece, and really easy to do because Greek styles stayed largely the same for hundreds of years, and there's even a mosaic of her from Greece (albeit during the Roman times.)

Niftily enough, the color of her gown is about as purple as mosaics get, and she was a princess, so I felt pretty good about keeping her in her movie-hued purple gown.

A lot of Hellenistic hair styles were up-dos, but, I found enough sculptures and figurines with hair down that I felt good about having hers down. I did tone down the height of her hair, and tuck it back in the style of the statues.

Of course, the actual myth of Hercules takes place around the time of the Trojan War, around 1300-1200 BC. Clothing was quite different back then, as it was the Mycenean period! But, the movie is obviously placed during the early part of the Roman dominion of Greece, so I went with that time frame. Also, clothing/architecture/etc looked rather different in the Mycenean period than the Ancient Greek period.

3 days ago

homeschooling

1920's history crafts for elementary age kids (Bonus it if related to Disney Princess Tiana)

Ooooooh! That's a marvelous idea! I spent a good hour going down a deep rabbit hole about Mardi Gras in the 1920s last night.

I'm almost tempted to have the kids make Mardi Gras crowns like the Queens of Mardi Gras wore (and Charlotte in the movie is the Mardi Gras Queen). But, crowns are probably trickier (and more expensive) to make than crowns.

BuuuUUuuut, my class is called "Historical Disney Princesses," and it's full of girls. And they might all really like the excuse to make crowns. But, I have no idea how to make one.

4 days ago

art

1920's history crafts for elementary age kids (Bonus it if related to Disney Princess Tiana)

I've been wracking my brain about this for months, and I'm still at a loss. You guys were all so helpful with helping me find Living history crafts for the Northern Wei Dynasty for Mulan, and I want to do something equally awesome for Tiana.

The movie, Princess and the Frog, features Tiana and is set in the 1920's down in New Orleans. There's lots of cooking in that movie, so I was thinking maybe the kids could make their own restaurant menu. But, that that might be hard for the kids to make look nice and feel proud of.

There's jazz music, Marti Gras, a fancy ball, and cooking in the movie. And frogs. Anyone have ideas for historical crafts for the 1920s?

4 days ago

art

The official permies.com Book Review Grid with more than 100 books listed

5 days ago

books

A pretty rock I want to know more about

Burra Maluca wrote:Common Causes of Purple Coloration

Iron (in quartz):
The most common purple mineral in rocks is amethyst, a variety of quartz that gets its color from iron impurities within the silicon-oxygen crystal structure.

Iron (in other minerals):
Ferric iron (Fe+3) is responsible for many red, yellow, and purple hues, often found in minerals like hematite and limonite.

Just last night I watched this SciShow video about how amethysts get their purple hue:

They mention that it was recently discovered that amethyst is quartz that is colored purple by water dripping through iron-rich volcanic rock (often at pretty low tempurature). It is also naturally radioactive, which ionizes the iron which charge atoms which reflect emit purple light.

1 week ago

meaningless drivel