Friday, July 22, 2016

puppets and crayons


mike phirman: how do we knowwhen we're starting? ken denmead: we've started. [laughter] kristen rutherford: i'll juststare really awkwardly into the camera like this. ken denmead: huh? somebody there? is this thing on? kristen rutherford:hi, everybody.

welcome to #parent. hey, mike, come back. mike phirman: hey. how are you? nice to see you. kristen rutherford:nice to see you. mike phirman: yeah. i was just over there checkingout the band. kristen rutherford: oh, yeah.

mike phirman: we havea live band. unfortunately, i can't move thescreen, so they're just kind of hanging over there. but, uh, yeah. kristen rutherford:but they're there. mike phirman: we chippedin for a band. kristen rutherford:they are there. mike phirman: hey,how's it going? kristen rutherford: ok.

we're going to talk aboutcrafts on this show. we've got two fabulous craftingcelebrities on today. mike phirman: that's right. we have-- can i say their names? kristen rutherford: goahead, say them. mike phirman: all right. we have ken denmead. ken denmead: hi there.

i may not be a craftingcelebrity. i could be a crafty celebrity,i suppose. kristen rutherford: aw. bonnie burton: aw. mike phirman: and in frontof jabba the hutt there is bonnie burton. bonnie burton: it's a trap! bonnie burton: ihad to do that. kristen rutherford: isthat a paper bag?

bonnie burton: it is. it's admiral sackbar. kristen rutherford:admiral sackbar. mike phirman: wow. bonnie burton: yeah. mike phirman: i've gotto say, i kind of expected it to be a flytrap. bonnie burton: uh, no. mike phirman: belike, flypaper.

bonnie burton: i haven'tgenetically altered plants in a book yet to look likestar wars characters. soon. bonnie burton: one day. ken denmead: hand puppetsare cool. bonnie burton: [inaudible]. kristen rutherford: nice. ken denmead: no. no, no.

that's a proper doctorwho amigurumi. bonnie burton: oh, ok. he has one like that. every time i see a fezhat i think, wil. i actually have a fez hat andi'd still think wil, so. ah, wheaton. mike phirman: so if you, theviewer-- welcome to the show you, you guys who are watchingus live and those who are watching us pre-recorded.

and honestly, what'sthe difference? kristen rutherford:there is none. ken denmead: what'sthe difference? mike phirman: zip. kristen rutherford: and again,we get a lot of people who say, hey, i don't think i'mgoing to be able to watch the show, i'm really sorry. and i just want to say again, ifyou're a parent and you're watching this show live, i wishi could give you a medal,

or i wish i had all your nameson a chart up here, i could put a star down. and even if you say to me, oh,i'm going to have to watch it later on, i'm still going togive you a star for watching it at all or watching any ofit, getting the time to watch any of it. so thank you so much. the only thing that-- it's agood idea that you would be here, because maybe you'll learnsomething that will give

you more time or make yourparenting or your-- i saw somebody on twitter thatsaid, hey, i don't have kids but i'm going to watch because iwant some crafting ideas for when i babysit. kristen rutherford: hey. mike phirman: i thought itwas a good idea, yeah. kristen rutherford: that'sa really good idea. kristen rutherford:that's a really committed babysitter, too.

and if you are that babysitter,please tweet me. bonnie burton: i did that. when i babysat, i'd makecrafts with the kids. kristen rutherford: really? mike phirman: yeah? i'm the aunt that's alwaysin charge of the kids. so i always would docrafts and drawing. i wrote two drawing books, too,but my drawing skills aren't as good as half mynephews' and nieces'.

so, yeah. but if you give them a blankpiece of paper and crayons and say, ok, draw your two favoriteall time characters and make them battle to thedeath and here's an extra red crayon for blood, or green ifthey have green blood because aliens do, they will spendhours on that. hopefully. kristen rutherford: i used to,when i was a babysitter, i used to bake with kids.

i have all kinds of really-- ken denmead: how'd they taste? bonnie burton: i know. i was like, what are theirnames, hansel and gretel? kristen rutherford:not anymore. i did a lot of very simple-- i have a lot of reallygood simple-- i can make jam tarts and allkinds of crazy things. so i can do art projects,and i do

crafting stuff with vivian. but my thing is i reallylike baking. i really get crazy with it. and her birthday was thisweekend and i made her a pixie hollow cake. and every year-- i'm a hot mess mom. i'm always like, oh god, weforgot your lunch box. oh my god, we forgotyour sippy cup.

oh my god, i forgot this. but my superpower is i canmake a very, very good birthday cake. so every year that's my thing. if i was in professor xavier'sacademy, it would be like we need a birthday cakefor rogue. like that would be my thing. i would be the worstx-man ever. bonnie burton: ah.

kristen rutherford: so wehave pictures of it. this is my pixie hollowbirthday cake that i made this weekend. free form, like i justfelt it as i went. it's all buttercream. it's all edible exceptfor the figures. and-- bonnie burton: wow. kristen rutherford: i am reallyproud of this cake.

and i am still suffering. my arm still hurts fromcreating this. bonnie burton: youhave cake arm? kristen rutherford:i have cake arm! i do. mike phirman: that lookslike plasticine. wow! what's the-- wow!

kristen rutherford:it's buttercream. there's royal icing flowersthat i made. that's tinkerbellin her house. the house is actuallyfondant because-- i don't like working in fondant,because it's yucky. mike phirman: yeah, i wasjust going to say-- kristen rutherford: itneeded to be smooth, because it's a teapot. ken denmead: yeah,although fondant

gives you a great effect. we actually now have a cakemaking tradition in the house. my elder son, who is a huge fanace of cakes, for folks who live in california you'llknow that when you're in fourth grade in california youhave to do a mission project. you have to build a californiamission. kristen rutherford: oh, wow. bonnie burton: really? mike phirman: that's soundsreally familiar.

ken denmead: yeah. and there are kits. you go to hobby stores and yousee all these little wood kits and foam kits or whatever. my son decided he wanted tobuild it out of cake. kristen rutherford: oh,that's really cool. ken denmead: so he builthis california mission out of cake. we used both actualcake, and rice

krispie treats, and fondant. and we have a baker nearby wholet him come down to the bakery and use his food-gradeairbrush to color all of the individual tiles-- kristen rutherford: wow. ken denmead: --to goon the roof of it. it was a fantastic[inaudible]. kristen rutherford:that's crazy. mike phirman: lifesize, right?

ken denmead: yeah, absolutely. mike phirman: 40,000 eggs,over 190 tons of flour. ken denmead: and wehad rice krispies brought in by the truckload. it was amazing. mike phirman: the deafeningsnapping, crackling, and popping of rice krispies. ken denmead: right. mike phirman: by the way, ican't help but mention--

ken denmead: hey! bonnie burton: whoa! mike phirman: --ken's book, geekdad, which i owned when i first had my first kid. somebody was like, you'vegot to have this. this has a little section on-- ken denmead: you're goingto hold up the cake. mike phirman: --buildingwith cake! ken denmead: that's thestory right there.

mike phirman: it's right here. and it has pictures, andit's is pretty amazing. was and this is-- hey! what are the odds? bonnie burton: what? mike phirman: [inaudible]. ken denmead: there you go. the pictures that thoseare based on you can

find on geek dad. and since then, he'sdone a hobbit hole. he did bilbo baggins'hobbit out of cake. and he's done a-- kristen rutherford: i totallywanted to make a sex joke there but this is-- bonnie burton: i know! did you see me? ken denmead: family, parent,family podcast.

family podcast. kristen rutherford: i saw you,very good, very [inaudible]. mike phirman: even though itleads to children you can't discuss it. kristen rutherford: yeah. bad, bad, bad. bonnie burton: it's so differentfrom my other show. bonnie burton: if we were ona different show on this network, we couldsay that joke.

kristen rutherford:right, exactly. ken denmead: and thena japanese temple. so he's crazy. ken denmead: but it's reallypretty awesome. kristen rutherford: that'sreally cool. bonnie burton: i learned fromburn notice that fondant can also double as c4. bonnie burton: so if you'redoing some sort of-- if you want to pull a prankon a drug lord who wanted

explosives from you, youcould sell him fondant. ken denmead: you could probablyalso mold it into a fake version of brucecampbell's chin. bonnie burton: yes. i would rather have that thantry to [inaudible]. mike phirman: when you said itwill double as c4 i thought you meant it will explode. mike phirman: it can beused as an explosive. bonnie burton: that, too.

kristen rutherford: i mean,baking is chemistry. we all know, bakingis chemistry. so really-- mike phirman: right. kristen rutherford: --alittle less vanilla. i little word more bakingsoda, boom. bonnie burton: if i tried tobake a cake it would end an episode of burn notice. it would not end well.

mike phirman: how about this? how about we try this wholething with the exploding frosting and we call theshow baking bad? hey, who's with me? ken denmead: oh, oh! bonnie burton: hey. hey, hey. ken denmead: i know i've beenexperimenting with soda bread in a pressure cooker.

and i'm ready to take a step upand try to beer bread in a pressure cooker. bonnie burton: i've done that. beer bread's really good. it's easy to make andit's really good. it's good for leftover beer. like if you throw a party andyou have beer you don't want to drink becauseit's bad beer. kristen rutherford:leftover beer?

ken denmead: have you doneit in a pressure cooker? bonnie burton: oh. i've done nothing ina pressure cooker. ken denmead: that's mynext [inaudible]. bonnie burton: i can'thandle the pressure. sorry, that wasn'treally that good. bonnie burton: i'm trying. mike phirman: sympathy laugh. bonnie burton: i don't know ifyou could tell, but i'm on a

lot of cold medicineright now. this isn't an emotionalhangout for me. i'm just sick. kristen rutherford:(fake crying) i love crafting so much. bonnie burton: i even have mychewbacca tissue box cozy. i don't know if youcan see that. mike phirman: nice. kristen rutherford: i love it.

bonnie burton: thatis awesome. bonnie burton: so everything imake has some purpose usually. kristen rutherford:uh, bonnie? mike phirman: i was thinkingbefore we-- oh, go ahead, kristen. kristen rutherford: i was justgoing to say, just bonnie-- kristen rutherford: honestly,now we've all been talking and, like i said, i don't knowif we introduced you. i don't really think you reallyneed an introduction.

yes, bonnie burton, author ofthe star wars craftbook. and host of geek diy onstan lee's world of heroes youtube channel. excelsior! and can we say the nameof the show i-- kristen rutherford:vaginal fantasy. vagina is a legitimate word. ken denmead: it's ascientific term. it can be used.

bonnie burton: that, and allbabies know it, because that's where they started. kristen rutherford: yup. bonnie burton: so, yay. that was your original home. that was your firstnew apartment. kristen rutherford: bonnie, ibrought this to my desk just to show you. ken denmead: a roomwith a view.

kristen rutherford: this ismy jar of googly eyes. bonnie burton: oh,that's awesome. i brought my giant googly eye. bonnie burton: like,it's kind of meta. you can see yourself inthe eye a little bit. ken denmead: oh,that was weird. i saw myself throughthe googly eye. bonnie burton: i know, it'slike a kubrick film. and then i have these, whichare the tin of googly eyes.

kristen rutherford: can youplease talk about vandaleyes? bonnie burton: yeah,of course. kristen rutherford: because itis one of my favorite things. it's like the bestthing on the web. bonnie burton: so i've alwaysput googly eyes on stuff. i would put it on everythinginside my fridge when i was a kid so i could open up thefridge and be like, hey there's my friends. that sounds sad.

but you know what i mean. so and then i met anne wheaton,wil wheaton's fabulous wife. we instantly became friends. and i stayed the nightat their house once. and i put googly eye on alltheir outlets, electrical outlets, and things in theirfridge, and mugs and stuff. and she's like, what'sgoing on? and i was like, oh, igoogly eye stuff.

i'm part of the googlyeye army. and she's like, that'sawesome. and then she started doing it. and then she came up withthe hashtag vandaleyes. kristen rutherford:that's great. bonnie burton: likevandaleyes. like vandal-eyes. yeah? cause she's like thequeen of puns.

she's like my pun yoda. kristen rutherford: yoda. bonnie burton: so we after westarted doing this #vandaleyes on twitter. and then it just blew up. like everyone's doing it now. i saw it on reddit. and everyone kept sendingme this one ad. it was a covergirl ad ormaybelline or something.

and there were googlyeyes on it. and they were like,did you do that? and i'm like, no. the world is doing it now. so it's easy. but i always tell people it'sa gateway to crafting. bonnie burton: because all youneed are self-adhesive googly eyes, which you canget anywhere now. i mean, archie mcpheeand thinkgeek.

we even have it. we have our own blog calledvandaleyes.net. so anne wheaton and i, we'll beselling googly eyes, too. kristen rutherford: howawesome it that? i mean, this jar is full becausei'm compelled to buy googly eyes. you want to do them indifferent colors. and have eyelash ones. kristen rutherford: yes.

i've got eyelashes in here,different colors. and you can get themat craft store. i bought mine in bulk onebay before i could get self-adhesive ones. and i would do it old school.with like, a glue stick. ken denmead: do you walk aroundwith a glue stick in a holster just [inaudible]? bonnie burton: yeah,like chewbacca. i had a bandoleerof glue sticks.

that'd be awesome. ken denmead: i see a youtubevideo right there. a little ennio morriconemusic behind you. bonnie burton: well,it's kind of a cool way of doing graffiti. because it's not permanent,right? so people can takethat stuff down. it's hilarious. and it's fun to see whatyou can vandaleyes.

so with these giant ones,right, which are also self-adhesive, i put them onthe city train here in san francisco, the n judah. because i take a traineveryday to work. and i got bored waiting to boredbecause there were too many people in my way. and i'm like, ah, screw it, i'llput a googly eye in the front of the train. and no one noticed.

it was there forthe whole day. because i'd get people tweetingat me going, did you put that giant googlyeye on the n judah? and i'm like, yes. mike phirman: you knowwhat would be great? is if somebody came up afteryou and put googly eyes on your googly eye so that thebig black part is a mouth. that would be a good idea. ken denmead: that's very meta.

bonnie burton: yeah,that's meta. bonnie burton: i will tell you,though, never try to put the giant googly eye onthe side of a plane. i would imagine. ken denmead: that might geta little angry about that. bonnie burton: i thought, wheni was going to comicon this year, i thought wouldn'tthis be a fun story to tell at w00tstock? because for w00tstock, whichis wil wheaton and paul and

storm's big geek cabaret. which i think most of ussomewhat either been on it or been watching it. ken denmead: [inaudible] one. first thought [inaudible]. i was awesome. bonnie burton: yeah, so idragged anne wheaton up there. to do a presentationon vandaleyes. well, i didn't reallydrag her.

she was like the starof w00tstock. but i thought, hey, wouldn'tthat be a funny story if i put giant googly eye on theside of the plane before i got here. and as i was trying to put iton i can hear the gasps of people behind me going, no. [gasp] because they thoughti was a terrorist. i'm like, really?

mike phirman: this is goingto turn into like extreme vandaleyesing, where you'regoing to try to-- you know, pictures of-- bonnie burton: right. kristen rutherford:[inaudible] mike phirman: i got oneon a cop's gun, or something like that. we'd be like, no! kristen rutherford: [inaudible]it'll turn into a

tsa thing where we all have tobe checked for googly eyes. ken denmead: right, right. kristen rutherford:you know, the tsa. bonnie burton: well,i'm very-- i don't want anyoneto think of-- i mean, it's 9/11 and you don'twant people thinking that stuff anyway. but honestly i think peopleneed to loosen up about graffiti, and this is theeasy way to do it,

because it's not permanent. so even if it's-- mike phirman: unlessit's [inaudible]. bonnie burton: --on theside of a building you can take it off. so-- ken denmead: you know,i blame, you, bonnie. because now i do, i literallywalk around all day long looking for hey, you know, thatwould be really funny

with googly eyes. bonnie burton: i know, right? i funny, because i see faces andsigns, i see faces in the weirdest thing, likeactual graffiti. but i'm very careful notto put graffiti like vandaleyesing tags because idon't want to get in some kind of gang war. ken denmead: it's thevandalize tag. bonnie burton: couldyou imagine?

ken denmead: are youwith the vandals? bonnie burton: i get in thecrossfires of a real gang war because i put googly eyes onsomebody's [inaudible]. kristen rutherford:a real gang war. mike phirman: and it's got likered eyes or blue eyes, [inaudible] colors. if law and order was stillaround, that could be a ripped from the headlineskind of story. ken denmead: when you're avandal you're a [inaudible].

bonnie burton: but i will sayfor parents, vandaleyes is a good way to start doing somefun crafts with your kids, because you could put it onfruit and vegetables and makes them excited to eat it. though, i wouldn't suggesteating the googly eyes. though there are edible eyes youcan put on things that are like frosting. kristen rutherford: we'veput them on plants. we're big into--

she's into fairies. so we build them into buildingfairy gardens. so we put googly eyes onthe plants sometimes. bonnie burton: yeah, yeah. i put them on my cleaningsupplies so i could pretend we're having a cleaning party. kristen rutherford: do youremember that christopher walken sketch? yes.

kristen rutherford: there'sa christopher walken sketch about it. bonnie burton: the googlyeyed gardener. kristen rutherford: yes, thegoogly eyed gardener. bonnie burton: it'son youtube. you could look it up. i just like watching it becausei like watching christopher walken say googlyeyes over and over and over. it was [inaudible].

mike phirman: what is this? [interposing voices] bonnie burton: saturday nightlive! skit when christopher walken when was hostingone of many times. and he plays a gardener that'safraid of his plants. mike phirman: ok. bonnie burton: so he puts googlyeyes on all of his plants so he can be lessafraid of them. bonnie burton: but it'ssuch an absurd skit.

bonnie burton: when he saysgoogly eyes and like-- i'm not going to do achristopher walken impression but it's awesome. you have to look itup on youtube. kristen rutherford: i justsent you the link. bonnie burton: nbc has it. kristen rutherford: yeah,also do the nbc link. bonnie burton: there you go. kristen rutherford: and as longas anybody's watching

that you should also go andwatch the one with christopher walken and the census taker. it has nothing to dowith googly eyes. bonnie burton: oh, yeah. i wonder if he ad-libbedthat whole thing, because that was bizarre. kristen rutherford: it was themost bizarre, wonderful sketch that was ever sketched. bonnie burton: i hope one dayif my craft show on the stan

lee channel does well ican invite him to do a class with me. kristen rutherford: you shouldinvite him to cook with you. remember there was the cookingwith christopher walken show? the-- bonnie burton: ah, so good. kristen rutherford: --cookingwith christopher walken show? bonnie burton: why don't we justget christopher walken on geek & sundry, givehim his own show.

kristen rutherford: oh, yes. ken denmead: he'dtotally do it. he'd totally do it. mike phirman: justbring him in. bonnie burton: i could justbe wokking with walken. he could do likea wokking show. like you could take a-- kristen rutherford:i'd watch that. mike phirman: like, w-o-k?

ken denmead: no, it's bethe more cowbell show. i'm down with that. maybe he could play a doctor. and make me feel better. because i hate being sick. i cannot believehow sick i am. i have a feeling i accidentallyinhaled glitter. ken denmead: oh, that's it. now--

you know how people havedust mite problems? mike phirman: howdid that happen? bonnie burton: i haveglitter problems. ken denmead: just hope it wasn'tradioactive glitter and now you're going tohave a mutant superpower that involves-- bonnie burton: oh, i hope so. i have so much craft suppliesjust in my apartment. mike it's like hoarders meets amichael's craft [inaudible].

mike phirman: i want to see yousneeze and have it look like wonder woman changinginto her suit. like just an explosion of-- bonnie burton: i'm afraid if isneeze glitter will come out. i'm like a unicorn. anyway. kristen rutherford: there'sglitter all over the house. there's googly eyes-- bonnie burton: in craftingcircles, it is called the

herpes of the craft world. kristen rutherford: the herpesof the craft world. bonnie burton: because youcan't get rid of it. it's like dog hair. dog hair never goes away. it's always on you. kristen rutherford: andburning man i know-- i've never been toburning man-- but you can't bring glitter.

because it's not something youcan pick up and take away. bonnie burton: oh, really? really? i forget what they call it. kristen rutherford:it's called moop. i forget what it stands for. i just like saying moop. i'm just going to keepsaying moop. mike phirman: it sounds likeit's some kind of portmanteau

of something and poop? is that right? kristen rutherford:it's like man-- ken denmead: magic poop, moop. moop, great. kristen rutherford: i just knowthat the rule of burning man is you can't leave anythingon the playa. everything needs to be-- bonnie burton: i don't know.

i feel like glitter's ok. kristen rutherford: it's fine. ken denmead: well, no. we need to make organic,biodegradable glitter. bonnie burton: could you imagineif there's the one guy at burning man that playsby the rules. and he's like, i'm going topick up all this glitter. and he's like stillthere trying to pick up all the glitter.

ken denmead: tweezers. kristen rutherford: one time,back when i was living in new york when lush was very new toamerica, i took a lush glitter bomb and i took a bath witha lush glitter bomb before i went out. and i was thinking, shouldi wash my hair? i just sort of leaned myhead back in the water. bonnie burton: oh, no. kristen rutherford: andit got glittery.

so i go. i just sort of putit in a bun. i go roller skating with myfriends back at back when there was a-- i can't remember the name of theclub, i'm blanking on it. but they had rollerskating night. so i go and i come off the floorand i took my hair out, because i was by myself inthe little anteroom. i took my hair out and i shookit and glitter just went

everywhere. and there's was one really,really high guy who just stood there and went, whoa. kristen rutherford: i mean,it was a lot of glitter. ken denmead: and it's hauntedhim to this day. bonnie burton: literally,you were that guy's double rainbow. kristen rutherford:yes, i was. mike phirman: i normally wouldnot do this, but i have to

point out, i have a joke in mystand-up that i say based on that kind of thing, where i-- sometimes when i'm bored i liketo take a big bucket of water and i dump it on my dog. and then i take a big bag ofglitter and i just pour it all over my dog. and then when he shakes himselfdry i pretend he's beaming up. kristen rutherford: oh my god.

bonnie burton: ok so here's whyyou can't do that anymore. kristen rutherford: well,i guess you could. ken denmead: and then whenanimal control comes by-- bonnie burton: uh, so when youtake you dog for a walk and you have to pick up after it,does it look like lady gaga exploded on the sidewalk? bonnie burton: because i've hadthat problem with googly eyes where it's lookingback up at you. kristen rutherford: oh, man.

mike phirman: ugh, yikes. bonnie burton: sometimes i justleave it if it's perfect. mike phirman: uh. bonnie burton: becauseit's funny. i don't care if it's illegal. kristen rutherford: yeah,[inaudible] dog poop with googly eyes on it. if i was walking downthe street and i saw that i would laugh.

i'd be like-- bonnie burton: i actuallyvandaleyesed one once. because i was like, it looksjust like a face. so i put googly eyeson it and left it. i thought it was funny. kristen rutherford: there'ssomeone walking around the bay area saying, it's sentient! it's sentient! bonnie burton: i took a pictureof it and included it

in our blog. and so many people were like, ican't believe you put googly eyes on dog poo. that's just-- mike phirman: i hope you put alittle tiny flag that said, don't tread on me. bonnie burton: i should have. i should have made a littlefez hat for it. ken denmead: (singing)doctor poo, hey!

ken denmead: doctor poo, hey! bonnie burton: exactly. see this is what happens wheni'm on cold medicine and we're talking about [inaudible]. mike phirman: oh, man. i'm going to out now and-- kristen rutherford: we're goingto get ready for our sitcom, three tired parentsand a googley eyed vandal. bonnie burton: oh my god.

an all-time low. i'm thinking of diapercraps now. we need to stop. kristen rutherford:diaper craps. that's true. there must be somethingyou can do. like vivian's potty trained,i have a stack of pull-ups. and i'm like, what doi do with this? i mean, i guess i could buildsomething with it.

bonnie burton: i remember i hada babysitter that made a bull's eye for the toilet outof plastic to help us with potty training. kristen rutherford: toput it in the toilet? mike phirman: i heard ofjust putting cheerios. kristen rutherford: cheerios? ken denmead: as long asthat's not what they also eat as a snack. i feel like cheerios aresomething you just go, hey--

bonnie burton: wait, tellme the cheerios thing. what was that? bonnie burton: what'sthe cheerios trick? what are you talking about? ken denmead: the targetfor boys. mike phirman: yeah, you dropin like one or two cheerios and you go, aim for that one. and then they aim for it. you go, yay.

and then you flush it. but that sounds like you haveto pull it back out and wash it and keep it. bonnie burton: wow, i wishi had known that trick. there's so many boyfriends icould have trained about how to use the toilet. kristen rutherford: cheeriosin the toilet. ken denmead: oh, yeah. wait a minute, wait a minute.

bonnie burton: why do guys? i don't know what it is, butwhen you go to a bar-- [motorcycle engine] bonnie burton: --wait,fonzie just drove by. when you go to a bar, and it'sa unisex bathroom, it always looks like a gorilla wentin there before you. the door is slightly unhinged,and there's pee not anywhere near the toilet. and i'm like, how drunk do youhave to be to do that?

so perhaps i should leave somecheerios in the toilet at the next bar i go to. ken denmead: i'm going to sayyou need to put googly eyes on the toilet seat so that-- ken denmead: all right, right. so any guy who's going to go peewithout putting the seat up, he won't be able to do itbecause he can't perform with someone staring at him. bonnie burton: the pressure.

stop lookin' at me, man. i can't do it. sorry i have to-- kristen rutherford:well, [inaudible]. bonnie burton: i haveto breathe in like, vick's vaporub. kristen rutherford:vick's vaporub? bonnie burton: i put thegoogly eyes on there. ken denmead: yeah, sure.

that's what's in there. that's what you're sniffing. bonnie burton: no, i got coldand so i'm trying not to look like i'm really emotionalduring this. i am kind of emotionalduring this hangout. sorry. kristen rutherford:i love your doggy. he's so cute back there. bonnie burton: sophie'spassed out.

she's like my blog co-host onevery show i do that involves a google hangout. so if you watch vaginalfantasy, you'll probably see her. and then she loves this jabbathe hutt body pillow. she normally sleeps on it. so she's confused why it'son the couch right now. kristen rutherford: i could havereally used that jabba the hutt body pillow wheni was pregnant.

bonnie burton: it'scomfortable. and it's super easy to make. i mean, i got inspired to makeit because i take forever to do laundry, and i had a pile oflaundry that was perfectly shaped like jabba the hutt. bonnie burton: and i had thatgreen blanket on top of it. and i'm like, oh, i should-- hey, i could do that. so instead of using laundry, ijust used old pillows i didn't

want anymore. yeah, it's just a greenfleece blanket. and then the beige is anold beige sweatshirt. and then the baseis just felt. kristen rutherford: i reallyam telling you, you could market that to pregnantladies. bonnie burton: it's really-- i sleep with it, too. it's super comfortable.

so i'm just saying it'ssuper easy to make. most of the crafting i do iswhen i'm either on cold medicine or guinness. and there's a reason for this. so most little kids' craftingskills are about equal to four guinnesses. bonnie burton: not forthem, for you. like, you don't want to giveyour kids guinness. but, i mean, if you're drinkingabout three to four

guinness for an adult is aboutthe same as a little kid's crafting skills. so when you're trying to docrafts for kids, you don't want to make themtoo complicated. so if you could replicate itwhile guinnessed, then you can do the craft. kristen rutherford: that'sa good analogy. bonnie burton: it mayalso be a reason for bad parents to drink.

and they're like, well, bonniesaid i had to drink in order to figure out thiscraft, so thanks. mike phirman: is jabbain your book? is that one of the things in? he's in the book. i was going to show you somecrafts that i have in the book, because i have the milkcarton chewbacca birdhouse. kristen rutherford: oh, nice. bonnie burton: you have tobe kind of a suicidal

bird to go in here. but it's just a milk cartoncovered in popsicle sticks that are painted brown. because i guess thelid now it this-- you know, the screw cap on juiceand milk is right there. so you just paint itblack for the nose. and then that's googly eyes. and you just paintthe inside black. and then i just did the teethpainted on there.

kristen rutherford: it'snice that you have-- bonnie burton: and thenyou hang it in a tree. and then you watch birds goin and out confusedly. kristen rutherford: andyou put food in there? you could also, i guess-- you could glue birdseed tothe side of it, too. bonnie burton: i put peanutbutter and birdseed. like peanut butter andsunflower seeds usually does the trick.

until the squirrels come. but squirrels don't hangout in my backyard, because i have a dog. so they generally stay away. and then i have thewashcloth wampa. bonnie burton: you can eithermake it from old towels or old washcloths. and i have step bysteps on that. so if you want me toshow you, i can.

mike phirman: do you sew by handor do you have to know how to [sewing machine sound]. bonnie burton: i don'ttrust machines. i learned that from star wars. so i'm all about hand sewing. that sounded bad. i do like r2-d2. mike phirman: why? bonnie burton: but sewingmachines and i don't mix.

every time i watch projectrunway i'm like, half the reason they don't getstuff done is the sewing machines fail. kristen rutherford: the sewingmachine's busted. mike phirman: then it adds dramawhen you're trying to finish your job. bonnie burton: i actually knowone of the contestant's for project runway, and he told methat he thought they purposely busted those sewing machinesto add drama.

kristen rutherford:you know what? i wouldn't be surprised. i [inaudible] wouldn'tbe surprised. kristen rutherford: wehave a question. we have a question from a viewerwho says do either of you have craft suggestionsfor single dads on a strict budget? and the one who asked hasa 12-year-old girl and a eight-year-old boy.

bonnie burton: so i likeupcycling, which just means use stuff that you havearound the house. and so like, for example, thatwookie milk carton nest. if you have milk or juice, imean, clearly you're going to use that curtain again. popsicle sticks you have to buyunless you want to have the kids eat like about 20popsicles in one sitting, which you could. you'd be the best dad ever.

but then they probably wouldbe sick later and that'd be bad craft. there's this fun craftthat i do. i don't know if you can reallysee it, but it's a wrist cuff. it has obi-wan kenobi on it. and then the inside is felt. this is a toilet paper roll. kristen rutherford: cool. ken denmead: nice,

bonnie burton: so basically,it fits around your wrist like a cuff. and all i have is a littlebutton and hair fastener on the inside. and that's basicallyfelt inside. so you just get a toiletpaper roll. and you cut it offto the side. this is kind of what you cansee, what it looks like when it's flat

mike phirman: i bet if you don'thave one around, you will if you've eaten20 popsicles. bonnie burton: ha, you will. and then you cover it withwhatever imagery you like. so old comics, or you coulddraw stuff, or whatever. and then you tape it onto thetoilet paper roll, and then cover it in packing tape. so that's poor man'slamination. so you just cover itin packing tape.

and then you have the insideof it with felt. and then you can either sew itor glue it with fabric glue so the inside of it feels nice. and then you just have a little button and a hair fastener. so it goes on yourwrist like this. i don't know if youcan see this. so that's kind of cool. it's like a littlewrist craft.

kristen rutherford:it's really cool. it's really easy. bonnie burton: it'ssuper easy. and you can make themas gifts and stuff. that's my episode that idid for geek diy, this family show that i do. i did that with team unicorn,and they made a bunch of them. so that's as easy craft. i also like, let's see, likei said the wampa is an old

washcloth and towel. and if you have flower towelsthat's even better. because then you have like aflower wampa, which is pretty hilarious when youthink about it. i like to do food crafts. so this was-- i don't know it you can see it,but it's a dried apple. and it's a head. it was emperor appletine.

mike phirman: whoa. bonnie burton: so you can't seethe cowl because i have his little hood i usuallyhave on it. and the top for his hair wasjust a little cotton. and it's all pipe cleanersand felt. felt is pretty cheap. but you can just also usefabric or t-shirts. kristen rutherford: yeah,old t-shirts are good. bonnie burton: in my book i alsohave a craft on how to do

t-shirt quilts. so if you have a lot of oldt-shirts that don't fit anymore, but you want to keepthem because you like the design, you can make aquilt out of them. and it's super easy. but for kids that age, i thinkthe best thing to do is anything where you can cut uppictures from comics and magazines, and tape it tosomething, and then cover it in clear packing tape so

you can laminate it. you can make bookcovers that way. you could do journals, frames. i mean, there's lots ofdifferent things. and mod podge is a decoupagemedium that's kind of like glue. so if you don't want to usetape, you could always put that down kind of likea thin layer. and then you put your cutoutsor images or whatever.

and then you cover itwith another layer and it dries clear. so you could cover [inaudible]with that. kristen rutherford: or,[inaudible] the mod podge has glitter. bonnie burton: yeah, you canmake christmas ornaments. i mean, you can do lotsof things with that. so i kind of feel like-- i like to keep an old box orjust a regular box full of

images that i like that i foundin magazines or coloring books or whatever. and then that way when i'mready to craft i can make stuff from it. ken denmead: nice. awesome. kristen rutherford: i have abox, actually, that i call mixed media, which isa box full of-- you know, the thing that drivesme crazy is every time

you buy a new book for a kidit's got that dust jacket on it, which drives me crazy. a three-year-old, that's thefirst thing they take off. so what i do is i save them andi have a whole stack of them. and then i have a box thati call mixed media, just old plastic bags. if you go to disneyland it's gotmickey mouse all over it and cut them up andyou can take that. and when they paint, you canput paper in the paint.

so you can stick it onthe paint and just kind of layer it up. but these old dust jackets,it's something else that i find that they just kind of getruined anyway so you might as well take them off and makesomething out of them. kristen rutherford: whatabout you, ken? mike phirman: ken? any-- i was gonna--

i know there's one in your bookthat i want to mention. but first off- ken denmead: let's see if iget the one the you pick. mike phirman: yeah, right? ken denmead: i'vegot a couple. first, and in terms of ease ofthe materials, there you go, the classic duct tape wallet. bonnie burton: awesome. ken denmead: this onehappens to be a

professionally made one. but i had fun with theone that's in my-- i think it's in my first book. because i took the extra step. i went to the electronicstore, i got a few miscellaneous parts. i was sort of browsing throughthe electronics components section at fry's and i foundthey had mercury switches. and so i had this genius idea.

mercury switch, triple abattery, and a little led. put them all together, tapethem up real nicely. and actually, when i built myduct tape wallet i added a little slot pouch in it sothat this would slide in. and basically, it meant thatyou'd hold your wallet in your pocket sideways and then whenyou opened your wallet up right side up the light wouldpop on and you had an interior lit wallet. mike phirman: rad.

that's so cool. ken denmead: thatwas fantastic. kristen rutherford:that is cool. mike phirman: awesome. bonnie burton: thatis so cool. ken denmead: i was actuallylooking at it. it's up here somewhere. i should have dug itup before the show. the other one-- and this is anidea that's a couple of places

on the internet so i won't takefull credit for this. but i love it. here is, because everybody hasa box somewhere in your house filled with leftovercables, ok-- mike phirman: that's cool. ken denmead: --so you make itinto a christmas wreath for your front door. ken denmead: so basically, icut out a nice big piece of cardboard, just ano of cardboard.

and i've got, let's see, there'sregular usb, there's micro usb, there's microheadphone jack. let's see, there'sa dvi adapter connected to an rca cable. and then at probably-- i forget which craft store, ornot which craft store, but let me see if i can pluckthis guy on. because you can get batterypowered christmas lights now, too, if i can find the goshdarn switch and see if the

batteries are still goodin this thing, i'll light this puppy up. kristen rutherford:oh, it lights up. ken denmead: it does light up,if i can remember where the heck the actual switch is. mike phirman: ken's signal'sgoing to short out. ken denmead: ah! oh, yeah. but anyway, so there you go.

a little bit of ribbon. we've all got a little bit ofchristmas ribbon lying around. and that is a total geek craftto hang on your front door and announce to the neighborhoodwhat you really represent. mike phirman: that's awesome. bonnie burton: i was going tosay that i have a wreath craft, too. ken denmead: therewe go, light up. bonnie burton: so my wreathcraft is how to use all your

extra action figures. ken denmead: oh. bonnie burton: so basically, idon't know if you can really see that, but it's all yourbroken action figures. bonnie burton: and you justlike of pain them green. and then you make thewreath out of that. and then for duct tape idid an at-at planter. mike phirman: ha. bonnie burton: so the base ofthat is like a planter you

would get just ata regular store. the head is two strawberrycrates. the gun turrets are straws. and then the legs arepringles cans. and then the kneecap padsare starbucks lids. and then the feetare soup bowls. kristen rutherford: oh,that's amazing. so i will say that that cameto me because i ate some pringles and then put my planteron top of it just

because i was movingsome stuff around. and i'm like, hey, that kindof looks like an at-at. and then i didn't getany work done. mike phirman: they also-- kristen rutherford:[inaudible] magic. bonnie burton: well, see,this is the cool thing. when you're a crafter, you startseeing toys and crafts in everything. and i came from a pretty poorbackground so i didn't have a

ton of toys. and my parents-- my dad was like a cowboy. but he was good withhis hands. and my grandfather was goodat doing woodworking. and my mom was a children'slibrarian and a teacher. so they were constantly teachingus kids how to make stuff from nothing. so you go to the recycling andyou sort of see, oh, well,

that can or that jar can beturned into a pencil holder. or, oh, the tissue boxes couldbe turned into godzilla feet that you could walk around in. so it's just you startseeing this stuff. and i think as a parent-- i'm not a parent-- but i'm oneof those aunts that constantly has to take care of my nephewsand nieces at family events. and i'm like, well, let's gothrough the recycling and see what we can make stuff out of.

they really thinkit's awesome. they love that. kristen rutherford: mike andi have three-year-olds. bonnie burton: yeah, it's alwayslike-- whenever you give a kid a present, isn't ittrue that they always care about the box morethan the present? kristen rutherford:they want the box. bonnie burton: we always wouldmake forts, and we didn't really care what wewere getting.

half the time we were gettingshows anyway. but you can try to make dioramasout of the shoe boxes, and they caremore about that. kristen rutherford: one of thethings that i've been doing with viv is i get those littlemini muffin tins. i mean, i'm a baker, ihave a ton of them. and i bought some buttonson amazon really cheap. and we literally just putbuttons in the muffin tin. and that's what we do.

and it's like an hour rightthere of just-- bonnie burton: that's awesome. kristen rutherford: --hey, let'sput all the buttons in. ok, now let's do differentcolors. ok, now let's do one, two,three, four, i mean, that sort of crafting when you have atwo and a three-year-old. mike phirman: that mightbe five or six guinnesses for me-- mike phirman: --that might takefor me to get my full

attention for an hour. ken denmead: and then you'llneed the cheerios in the toilet to hit the target. mike phirman: and then i'mcheerios everywhere. then it's no good. bonnie burton: so i saw it inthe chat, kim said that someone was wondering if there'sany lord of the rings craft ideas. ken denmead: so here'san idea.

and this will tie into one ofthe projects in my book. but i will show this off. because this is something iactually did many years ago for a d&d campaign. and you're not going to be ableto see it really well. i actually did a full sizedmap in the style of jrr tolkien for an adventurei was doing. ken denmead: but youtie this together. once again, in either the firstor second book i always

forget, a great crafting ideafor kids that i believe russ neumeier gave me for the book,is making pirate maps using brown paper bags. because when you've treatedbrown paper bags-- iron them, crumple them, iron them, crumplethem, soften them up a little bit, it looks justlike parchment. and so you could very easilyuse something like that. because the maps in lord of therings are some of the most amazing art in thewhole books.

and i could totally see you usethe grocery bags as your canvas and doing your ownfantasy maps, lord of the rings fantasy maps using this. you can go so far as when you'redone drawing your map, you do things like take acandle, drip some candle wax onto the map, and thentake the wax off. so you get the oily stain. it looks like it's being aged. ken denmead: and then you canburn the edges a little bit to

get a little burningand irregularity on the edges and stuff. and you can come up with thisreally awesome looking stylistic map. bonnie burton: youcan also give it aging with coffee stains-- bonnie burton: --as i would findout by accident on many homework assignments. but, yeah that works, too.

i always like makingtreasure maps. i was a more of a goonies fanthan a lord of the rings fan. so i did goonies mapsall the time. and if your kids haven't seengoonies yet, get on that. kristen rutherford: they will. bonnie burton: ok. kristen rutherford:that's soon. mike phirman: it's almosttheir time. kristen rutherford: so now thati've done the big pixie

hollow cake i'm reallynervous. what's going to happen when shereads lord of the rings? i'm going to have to do helm'sdeep in buttercream. ken denmead: that's morechocolate fondant, but that's all right. bonnie burton: so i'm helpingput together-- i have a chapter in the weighthacking book that craig from syfy is doing. and i don't normally eathealthy so i'm--

mike phirman: and you'renot feeling well? bonnie burton: basically, whati'm saying is i need to lose weight before this book comesout, because it's a book on losing weight. and i'm [inaudible]. but i have a section on playingwith your food. and so i'm currently building ortrying to build as close a replica to the throne in game ofthrones using carrots yeah. so that's what i'm working on.

i wish i was makinga cake, though. that sounds like it wouldtaste better. mike phirman: you're notgoing to try to make them gray, i'm guessing? or are you? i don't know. bonnie burton: no, i thoughti'd do an orange throne. there's not a lot of vegetablesthat are gray that taste good.

mike phirman: hey,how about this? ken denmead: the saladis coming. mike phirman: how about youcould make a little cake pops and set them up likelittle heads. and then you could have littleheads on sticks. kristen rutherford: ah. bonnie burton: actually,you know what? i probably will do that withapples, because that's how this was made waswith an apple.

that's an apple head. mike phirman: that looks likethe thing on doctor who where you can't see them but it turnsout they were behind you the whole time. kristen rutherford:the silence. that dehydration voodoohead thing was-- you guys are probably too young,because i'm pretty old. but there was this thing calledthe vincent price voodoo kit.

do you remember this? kristen rutherford:oh my god, yeah. the vincent pricevoodoo kit, yes. bonnie burton: where youbasically carve apples to look like heads and thenyou dehydrate it. and then it came with all theseaccoutrements that you put with it, littlestakes and stuff. it's the creepiest toyever to give a kid. but it taught me that when youdehydrate apples, you can make

them look like shrunken heads. kristen rutherford:[inaudible]. it's true they do looklike the silence. mike phirman: hey, hey. here is a fun food one. this is not even really a craft,this is just a weird kind of miracle ofbiochemistry. but if you take an egg and ifyou put egg inside a little cup of vinegar, put that egg,let it sit inside vinegar for

like a day or two, allthe calcium from the shell will leave. and you'll be left with justa gooey weird little egg. it can kind of bounce. you wouldn't throw it down. it won't bounce likea hard ball. but it was the weirdest. i remember doing that so manytimes when i was a kid. and it'll just bounce around.

it will break if you chuck it. but that's kind of fun. kristen rutherford: science! mike phirman: it cost $1. you know? bonnie burton: that'sso weird. kristen rutherford: [inaudible]science show. mike phirman: by the way, i dowant to mention, this is one from ken's book that iparticularly dig, which is the

flying a kite at night-- mike phirman: --usingjust any kite. and there are a coupleof these, i think, that use these lights. right, ken? the little peel and stickmagnetic leds? ken denmead: yeah, yeah. those are great. you get those like by thehundred from thinkgeek, and

they'll last quite a while. and you can use those. just like the lights ihave on this wreath. you can get little batterypowered set of led lights, too, that will work well. you just have to have abig enough kite and balance your load. it works great. it's beautiful.

yeah, i think that's cool. mike phirman: did youhave the one-- i can't remember. i apologize if this isnot in here or not. but just the little firefliesthat you just-- ken denmead: yup. throwies. ken denmead: throwies. mike phirman: andwhat are those?

ken denmead: they'recalled throwies. the things that you get fromthinkgeek are sort of a manufactured version of thembecause they have a nice strong magnet on them andthey have the led. but you can make them yourselfpretty easy. if you get little neodymiummagnets and what is it-- the cr232 or the littlewatch batteries-- and an led, you're going tospend like $0.75 on this. tape it together, and youcan throw them on stuff.

or if you're being artistic,you can just put a bunch of them in a mason jar and hangthem on your backyard on a summer night. kristen rutherford:aw, that's nice. we have another questionwhich is-- the question is for everyone. what's the most expensive thingyou've ever crafted? kristen rutherford: that'shard, right? ken denmead: see craftingis anti-expensive.

kristen rutherford: yeah,that's a hard question. ken denmead: a lot of peopletry to do that. mike phirman: i guess the linegets blurred when you get into repurposing. because then all right, well,i repurposed something. that is, if you had tobuy it, like $100 or so as a craft, that'snot great. bonnie burton: yeah,i'm a cheapskate. so i don't have anythingthat--

i mean i'm not like thearchie builder's club where they spend-- and that's a great club to joinif you want to build a working astromech,a working r2-d2. but those guys will tell youright off the bat if you want to make a working r2-d2 thatyou see at conventions-- mike phirman: no, right. bonnie burton: --they costlike $8,000 to $10,000. it's like having a muscle carthat you're working on.

kristen rutherford: yeah,they're amazing. bonnie burton: yeah,but you know what? i think that would be a coolidea for parents, especially like dad's maybe that aren'tinto cars but are into robotics if they want to buildone with their kids as like an ongoing weekend project. i kind of feel like buildingan r2-d2, there's wall-e groups and there'sdalek groups. and there's robby therobot groups.

there are so many differentcrafting groups out there that do robotics of differenticonic robots. i think it would be funfor a whole family. and the moms and thegrandparents and whatever as a weekend thing. kristen rutherford: one of thegeek moms, kathy ceceri, wrote a book about robotics that's areally good book to check out. oh my god, we lost ken. bonnie burton: uh-oh.

kristen rutherford: let'stalk about him. bonnie burton: what itsomething i said? mike phirman: ken has repurposedhis evening. bonnie burton: was it becausei was talking about robots? people can be afraidof robots, i guess. oh, there he is. ken denmead: i [inaudible]. mike phirman: yay. kristen rutherford:robots, oh!

i have to go. ken denmead: i didsomething stupid. that was all right. bonnie burton: that's ok. i thought i offended youtalking about robots. kristen rutherford: i willhave none of this r2-d2 [inaudible]. ken denmead: he could havehis robot silliness. mike phirman: he got soexcited about r2-d2--

ken denmead: i wentout and built one. there it is. mike phirman: --he ran outand joined the club. bonnie burton: well,i married r2-d2. i don't know if youguys knew that. but at one of the star warsconventions they had a chapel. and i said hey, why not? and i married an r2-d2 unit. kristen rutherford: didhe need a green card?

you can tell us. did he need a green card? but i will tell yousomething funny. when i posted on my facebookthat i was married and had the picture of me and r2-d2 getting married by darth maul-- bonnie burton: --iwas expecting my parents to freak out. and my step-mom was like, youcouldn't wear a dress?

bonnie burton: and i like thatthat was like the only thing that bothered her. kristen rutherford: well,it was a wedding. people are very, very seriousabout their weddings. oh, someone asked if there'sany doctor who crafts. kristen rutherford:someone wants to see doctor who crafts. bonnie burton: i love doctorwho, so i've got a lot. i just don't havethem behind me.

i didn't think tobring them out. bonnie burton: now,think of this. the tardis is just kindof a long box. so you can make atardis anything. so you can make a littletardis jewelry case. you can make a tardiswet bar if you're a mad men kind of parent. you can make a toy chest. i mean, you can makea tardis--

you know what i like to do ischange your bedroom door. if parents want to do this withgift wrapping paper or construction paper, you canchange a bedroom door to look like the entranceof the tardis. kristen rutherford: that'sa good idea. kristen rutherford: and that's afun way to say, hey, look my bedroom's like the tardis,because the whole joke is that the tardis is bigger on theinside than on the outside. and so if your frontto your bedroom--

if your bedroom door looks likea tardis door, that's kind of a cool way to do aquick doctor who craft. ready? this requires a table that hasa little section cut out in the middle of it. but what if you made forsomebody's birthday a cake, and the cake looks like it's anormal cake, but as you cut into it, it goes downabout like a foot deep into the table.

ken denmead: trick cake. mike phirman: it's like a 12layer cake, but from the outside you can't tell. bonnie burton: i love that. mike phirman: if you hadlike a tablecloth. ken denmead: so also, i showedearlier, and there's a gigantic crafting subculturebehind amigurumi now. ken denmead: and especiallythere's your amigurumi doctor who figures.

ken denmead: these wereall done by jen blum. she's the wife of our managingeditor on the blog. there's your amigurumi dalek. bonnie burton: if you show adalek, you have to do a dalek impression. that's the rule. kristen rutherford:go ahead, ken. do it. ken denmead (dalek voice):ex-crochet-inate!

ex-crochet-inate! kristen rutherford: if peopleare interested in star wars cosplay or crafty starwars outfits jen landa is another one. you may have seen her. she had the millennium falcondress on at comicon this year. bonnie burton: yeah, last yearshe did a death star dress. kristen rutherford: yeah,she's amazing. bonnie burton: yeah, last yearshe did the death star dress.

she's a friend of mine and it'sfunny, we met because she asked me if it was coolif she could review my craft book on her blog. and i was like, yeah, duh. i mean, of course, youcould do anything. and so we just becameinstant friends. and she has a lot of funcraft tutorials. the league of extraordinaryladies is another group that likes to craft, amygeekon twitter.

she makes r2-d2 shoes. there's so many differentcrafting people out there. bonnie burton: it's funnybecause twitter is a great place to meet other crafters. kristen rutherford: it's true. bonnie burton: and especiallygeek crafters. there's so many geek crafters. i mean, i just wanted to showthis since we're showing crochet stuff.

this is the r2-d2 beanie-- bonnie burton: --which isalso in my craft book. i see this on babiesall the time, too. bonnie burton: like ifyou want to make a little baby beanie. our last show, i had one ofthose sitting right here. i like wearing mine. i need make a dalekone, i think. mike phirman: oh, youtotally could.

bonnie burton: becausethe dalek one kind of lends itself to that. but i mean, there's lots ofstuff to do for cosplay when it comes to-- because cosplayers aresuch great crafters. i mean, seriously. they would give those projectkids a run for their money. kristen rutherford: and you cango to spoonflower and a lot of really good fabric,if you go to spoonflower.

if you just go to spoonflowerand search doctor who or tardis, you can findtardis toile. you can find allkinds of cool-- i just tweeted that last night,either last night or this morning. oh, no it was last nightat 3:00 in the morning. and all these people were like,oh, this is awesome. and i'm like, it's funny whenyou think everyone already knows about these sites.

and they don't. kristen rutherford:yes, that's right. bonnie burton: i feel it's ourobligation to tweet and post this stuff so we can spread theword so other people can enjoy crafting. mike phirman: andi also have-- this, i think, is a reallycool book or magazine that you can get. it's called make.

and there have been a coupleof really cool-- i found a couple neatlittle things. i haven't actually built themyet, because it's a little more advanced than just-- for instance, let me show you. bonnie burton: yeah, theyput on the maker faire. mike phirman: what's that? bonnie burton: they put on themaker faire every year. where i met bonnie, finally.

mike phirman: oh, cool. bonnie burton: yeah, mark andthe people behind boing boing. like everyone knowseach other. but mark, i know mark sincecollege in boulder when he had boing boing print zine beforeboing boing was a website. and i was doing grrl.comas a zine before i made it a website. and so we've know each otherfor a long time. and then--

ken denmead: oh, wow. bonnie burton: --hedid boing boing. and then i don't know if hestill had this somewhere, but mark decided to just go off thegrid and move to like a caribbean island with thisfamily for a year. and that's when he startedmaking things on his own. and then he came back and, ithink that's where make kind of came about. and then he's done books as wellthat are very geek dad

friendly as well. so i feel like it's interestingto me in this whole digital space and thiswhole digital world how much fun and creative people can getwhen they turn off their computers, turn off theirtelevisions, turn of their gaming units, and just sit downat the kitchen table and build things together. kristen rutherford:that's true. ken denmead: or findthe stuff online.

kristen rutherford: yeah, whati was going to say-- pinterest, i mean, pinterestalone i've gotten so many-- when you just scan pinterestand say, oh my god, i never thought to do this. or that's such a good idea. i think in a way there's a nicebalance between you look at pinterest, you get ideas, andyou get off the computer and you go and do your craft. ken denmead: i willthrow in the plug.

world maker faire is in new yorkat the end of september, the end of this month. if you are within 300 miles ofnew york city and you are interested in crafts, andespecially geeky crafts, get yourself out to worldmaker faire. it is a phenomenal experience. and it's the perfect mix. it is the people building robotsand building giant fire breathing dragon artinstallations.

and people-- bonnie burton: andtesla coils. ken denmead: and tesla coils,amazing tesla coils. and doing amazing thingswith felting. and doing amazing thingswith crochet. and all sorts of geeky crafts. it's the best place to be. bonnie burton: and it'sinteresting to see. there's a lot of kids thatare starting to do blogs.

i think, sylvia-- i can't remember her name. i'll tweet it out later. but sylvia is this greatgirl that does a great blog of crafting. and she's a kid. and she does some great stuff. and it's all like ledrobotics type stuff. robotgrrl is another one ireally like, that she makes

these great bird robots thatlook like they should be like pee-wee herman's playhousetype robots. and they're all musical. and you can feed themthrough the ipad. and they're like puppetsand they like do all these great things. i had discovered both of themthrough maker faire, from the bay area maker faire. and i know that maker faire,they're having them in all

different cities. and they're also doing a lotof google+ hangouts. so if you just look them up, ithink it's just make.com, you can find all that stuff. so there's a lot of resourcesout there from pinterest, to twitter, to google+,to youtube. i mean, there's so muchstuff out there. it makes me want tocraft full time. i wish i could.

we'll be sure to get a lot ofthis-- we'll try to make sure that people who come to geek &sundry, that you can find out all the stuff that we'vetalked about tonight, absolutely. it is 9 o'clock, so-- no. wait. i have another craft iwanted to show you. bonnie burton: it is giant.

it's my giant craft. besides jabba the hutt i madethis paper-mache monster. mike phirman: oh my god. bonnie burton: you can'teven see how big it is. this took me forever,by the way. bonnie burton: but it's anacklay from the prequels from the arena scene. you know, when they'refighting. mike phirman:[imitates monster chittering]

that thing? bonnie burton: it's huge. look how big this-- i don't know if you could seehow big this thing is. it has to sit in the passengerseat of my car when i take it places. and man, the looks i get. mike phirman: [inaudible]? ken denmead: and if you everget pulled over-- yeah.

bonnie burton: i've nevergotten pulled over for crafting, yet. that's probably why i takepublic transit now. mike phirman: you'llget your own seat. that's nice. ken denmead: your ownrow, basically. bonnie burton: yeah,pretty much. ken denmead: here, i'll giveyou one more craft. this is done by jonathan liu,our senior editor at geekdad.

this is actually a variation on,i believe it's a japanese crafting art form calledtemari balls-- ken denmead: --which is sort oflike embroidery but always on these specially packedand built balls. and he created a deathstar temari ball. ken denmead: and theinstructions for this are in either book one or two. i'd have to go back and look. but there it is.

and it's beautiful. i love it. that's great. kristen rutherford: thiswas an awesome show. thank you. you're both amazing. kristen rutherford:thank so much for coming on here tonight. and thank you for letting mecome on the show and talk

about crafts and vandaleyes and spread my germs, virtually. kristen rutherford: see,we don't care. you're not patientzero at #parent. bonnie burton: ok, good. mike phirman: and if peoplewant to see more they can follow you on twitter,@bonniegrrl. bonnie burton: yeah,bonniegrrl. it's bonnie g-r-r-l. i also havea craft show on the stan

lee world of heroes youtubecalled geek diy. and i have a new episodeevery thursday. bonnie burton: and then i tweeta lot about crafts. so any time i see a cool crafti try to tweet it out or post it on my google+ or facebook. so i'm really easy to find. and then my website grrl.com,which has been around since like the pulsatingn on netscape. and it looks it, too.

let me tell you something. i haven't redesigned that sitein so long that animated gifts are cool again. so now it looks like i knewwhat i was doing. bonnie burton: so i'mredesigning that. but i should have some craftstuff up there soon. so just keep an eye out. ken denmead: you have the bellbottoms of websites. bonnie burton: i do.

i have the flared jeansof websites. kristen rutherford: if you waitlong enough, it comes back around. ken denmead: and ken, where areyou online and in person? ken denmead: everywhere. everywhere. i am @fitzwillie, f-i-t-z-w-i-l-l-i-e, on twitter. but, of course, it's geekdad.comand our companion

site, geekmom.com, that ofcourse, kristen knows a little bit about. and i don't have any major--we do a podcast every week. every other week is thegeekdad's podcast, which we do live, which you can find onthe front page at geekdad every other tuesday night,starting tonight and then alternating weeks. we do a music podcast, ageeky music podcast, which is a lot of fun.

ken denmead: so mikewill have to talk. i've got a guitar. what, am i not geeky enough? kristen rutherford: butis it mod podged? bonnie burton: actually, ihave googly eyes on it. ken denmead: perfect, perfect. kristen rutherford: that's it. mike phirman: well,thanks, you guys. thanks for being on the showand hanging out with us.

kristen rutherford: and thanksto everybody who's here right now live, and to people whoare watching not live. again, we thank you guys, too. bonnie burton: yeah, and iwanted to add that if people have questions that theydidn't get answered or covered, feel freeto tweet at me. i tend to answer a lot ofcrafting questions. i never sleep, whichis probably why i'm sick right now.

but i'm more thanhappy to answer questions that i can answer. and then if i can't answer,i will point you towards a crafter who can. mike phirman: and that'sall we ask. kristen rutherford: that'sa good resource. and both of you, thankyou so much. because you are both reallyfantastic resources for parents, especially peoplewho want to be

involved with your kids. and you want to makestuff with them. you want a gateway fromthe computer. kristen rutherford:it's a trap! ken denmead: it's a trap! bonnie burton: by the way, thisis just done with a paper bag and some felt. so it's pretty easy. kristen rutherford: i don'tknow about that.

it's a trap! mike phirman: is that thebottom flap of a bag? kristen rutherford: whatdid you call me? mike phirman: it's a flap! bonnie burton: it's a flap. kristen rutherford: ok,it's time to go. kristen rutherford: i'm pullingthe plug on this. i'm pulling the plug on this. you're making it'sa flap jokes.

bonnie burton: bye. ken denmead: ladies andgentlemen, put the internet down and go to bed. kristen rutherford:bye, everybody. thanks again. we'll see you in october, secondtuesday of october. ken denmead: aloha. kristen rutherford: bye. mike phirman: bye, guys.

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