Moving Music Video

Alright... I think its time to get this blogging business going again, considering now I have all kinds of new married shenanigans to share!

Since my last post, I have gotten both




                                                                Engaged

                                                                                  &

   Married!

To the wonderful man, in previous posts, referred to as my "partner in fun."

My extended absence from my post as recorder of all things fun is horrifically unacceptable, and I apologize from the bottom of my heart.  Before we get to the real meat of this post though, let me just say, from my two weeks of experience, getting married is fun!  NOT CHEAP though, and there was a fair amount of alcohol, so I'm not going to spend any time writing out the steps for that.  Just know that marriage and weddings/receptions have a stamp of approval from The Art of Having Fun.

The following fun was had on the seven hour drive home from our honeymoon in Gatlinburg.

Heres your how to:

YOU WILL NEED:

            A GPS holder(?) the thing that holds it on the window

A cell phone with video capabilities

1/2 of a starburst (any color)

A music source

Lack of inhibition(as usual)

at least one other person(for safety)

HOW TO:

Note: This activity is intended to be done in the car.  For safety, steps 1 and 2 as well as all other button pushing should be done by the passenger, NOT the driver.

1.  Suction only the stand of a GPS to the windshield, as if you were going to use it for its intended purpose.

2.  Affix phone to the stand with the starburst and turn on video camera. See picture.

3.  Pick a song all parties know, songs with multiple parts make for the most entertainment.

4.  Practice the song without filming and assign parts.

5.  Practice again, because you realize you made up half of the words you just said.

6.  Listen to the song, without singing, to hear the actual words.

7.  Argue about the lyrics.Like so...

(I was so positive... but I was wrong)

8.  Final run through, with motions.

9.  Start video, start music and perform.

10.  Repeat until your camera, your music source, or your vocal cords die. (In our case, it was all three)

11.  View and laugh, then post on a public forum.

Here are our creations.  Notice that one of the "things you need" is NOT a good singing voice, formal training, or performance experience.  Luckily Garret and I are a triple threat and are anticipating a recording contract by putting these videos on the internet.


A Whole New World (This song started this project... if i t hadn't played on shuffle, who knows where we would be)

Hakuna Matata

   I Wanna Be Like You (Garret made me do this one... I obviously don't know the words)

I Won't Say I'm In Love

I Can Go The Distance

*My Personal Favorite* I'll Make A Man Out Of You

Sorry about the weird page layout, the multiple videos were giving me attitude.

I hope these are not one of those things that are only funny to us because we made them, if so, sorry, but you should still make your own.

How Perfect is Your Partner?

Inspiration for this came from a book we found in the library while looking for something else.  It was just so awesome we got distracted from the task at hand and checked out this book, along with a cook book, and two animated Lord of the Rings movies... you know, like you do.  I don't actually remember what we were looking for in the first place but apparently it wasn't life or death since I am still here to relay this activity back to you.

The book is a collection of quizzes for couples to take and compare their scores to see how compatible they are... it was complete BS of course which made it all the more fun.  According to the book Garret and I are perfect for each other.  I'm pretty sure we answered all the questions the same because we both recognized that the questions were completely ridiculous and mostly irrelevant to everything.

examples:
1. Exacerbate is to escalate as ascend is to
         a. fall
         b. mount
         c. depress
         d. accumulate
2. Have you had paranormal experiences?

I can't really see how this is going to show if we are compatible or not.

One test did turn into an activity though.  It was called "What Does Your Signature Reveal?" and it gave a list of all the different ways to form your letters and what they mean and if you capitalize things and how it slants and stuff like that.  We decided to write each other notes and analyze our handwriting that way.

You Will Need:

Paper

Pen

A Partner

Friends (make it more fun)

Eloquence

How To:

1.  Everyone take a pen and paper and write a note to your significant other.  Make it entertaining, serious, stupid, whatever.

2.  Give the note to your significant other

3.  Read aloud. (Much more fun)

4. Analyze the handwriting to see what it says about the person you are dating

5. Break up with the person when you find that their handwriting says something bad about them. 

Here are our notes:

On display on the fridge

Participants

Christine

Garret

Emily 

Justin

Jessica

Gary

My note to Garret:                                                                          Garret's note to me:

Dear BooBear,                                                                                Dear Christine,                           
You are so pretty,                                                                            I hate your stinking guts,
And I think you're witty.                                                                 you make me vomit.
For others I have pity,                                                                     You are scum between
Because their love is not giddy.                                                     my toes.
Like ours.                                                                                             Love,
Love,                                                                                                      Garret
Christine

Emily's note to Justin:                                                                   Justin's note to Emily:

Dear Justin,                                                                                    Dear Emily,
You are really silly.  Maybe                                                       I like turtles. Do you
even like a turkey tree.                                                               wanna go out
Thanks for watching a                                                                 sometime?
chick flick with me.                                                                      Love,
You DA BEST!                                                                                Your boy toy (eh...
Weeeeeeeee.                                                                                 that sounds gross)
Love,                                                                                                Clever Bear
Emily                                                                                                 Justin

Gary's note to Jessica:                                                                Jessica's note to Gary:

Dear Jessica,                                                                           Babesause,
Did you know Sally sold                                                       One day I will make you
seashells by the sea shore?                                                  mine... hehehe
Me neither!!!!                                                                          Will you please be my
Seriously,                                                                                 date for the senior prom?
Gary P. Schmidt Jr.                                                                 It will be really great for
                                                                                                     us to get to know
                                                                                                     each other before I take
                                                                                                     you up in my space ship.
                                                                                                       Meow Meow,
                                                                                                       Jessica


After reading this book and analyzing each persons hand writing, it is my professional opinion that we are perfect for our partners.  Mainly by the amount of fun had during the process of figuring it out.  I hope you discover the same thing!

Enjoy yourself!

Animal Lovers Unite!

I am obsessed with animals, and unashamed.

Ok now that that disclaimer is out there, here are some activities for animal lovers.

ACTIVITY #1

Go hang out at your local Humane Society.  I didn't say get a pet (although that would be encouraged) I realize this is not an option for a lot of people, myself included since I live in a rental house that doesn't allow pets (a rule I feel it necessary to bend) (actually just break).  Usually they encourage people to come in and interact with the animals even if you aren't planning on adopting because the animals are in cages all day and need some love and to stretch their legs.  They also need to learn how to act around people.  Also!  It is a scientific fact that being around animals, specifically dogs, is good for your health.  This activity will be benefitting everyone involved!

You Will Need:

A Loving Heart

(In my case) Someone stronger than you who will make you leave with out adopting.

How To:(Pretty easy)

1.  Go to the Humane Society

2.  Play with cute furry things

3.  Find one and get attached to it

4.  Almost cry when you have to leave it

5.  Talk about it for days

...ok this isn't the fun part. 

I always fall in love with the dogs who are a little older and look like they have had a hard life.  My theory is that they love you the hardest because they know what its like to not be loved and to not have a good home, whereas a puppy that you've had since it was tiny will love you but it doesn't know how good it has it.  I also always like the ones who fit into the category of "so ugly they're cute".  In summary, I love the ones other people don't.

Here are some pictures to entice you...

 Some of the pictures look like they were taken from a computer screen... they were.  I like to take pictures of the animals on the Humane Society website and text them to Garret to try and convince him we need to get one, or at least just go see them.  (This has happened multiple times and obviously never worked since we still don't have a dog. Hmmph! but we have gone to play with them several times)

Here is a particularly memorable example of this:

Christine:  Looks like a dog/fish mix. Lets get her!

Garret:  Why would a dog/fish mix be a desirable thing?

C:  She's so cute and she could rescue me if I'm drowning

G:  Or she would drown because of her weird nose.

C:  No, she's part fish, she can breath underwater

G:  Water would certainly get in her nose but that doesn't count as breathing.

C:  Just because you're beautiful and have a luscious beard doesn't mean you can judge others for their imperfections.

G:  I'm not judging, I'm trying to protect her from drowning when you want to toss her into the nearest puddle to see if she is an impossible hybrid.

C:  I'M not the bad guy here.  I want to rescue her from a life behind a chain link fence where no one will love her because she's not beautiful.  She's exactly the kind of dog I love!

G:  I think she would certainly love you for taking care of her and cleaning out her nostrils on a regular basis.

C:  I would do that for her.  And for you, I love you, goodnight.

ACTIVITY #2

Temporarily adopt/steal/borrow your neighbor's dog.  (I do not recommend that you do this activity preemptively)

You Will Need:

Neighbors who don't take care of their dog

Flea Shampoo

Basin

Warm water

Flea meds

Towel

                                                               A Loving Heart(the one you used for Activity #1 will work for this one as well)

How To:

1.  Look out your window and see a dog in your yard

2.  Convinced it's a stray, go outside and pet it realizing its covered in thousands of fleas, its missing patches of hair, and its feet are bleeding, further confirming its a stray.

3.  Conveniently, you already have flea shampoo from when your cat had fleas so, use a basin (or a big rubbermaid tub) as a bath tub and fill with warm water.

4.  Give your new friend a bath to get rid of the fleas, all the while getting more and more attached to her.

5.  Text your boyfriend and roommates "I may have done something bad."

6.  The dog had so many fleas that this bath did not kill all of them, so go to your local pet store and get some Capstar which kills all the fleas in 30 minutes.

7.  After 30 minutes give her another bath to get all the dead fleas off.

               SIDENOTE:  if "your" dog is as sweet as "mine" she will fall asleep in the tub during her second bath. 

8.  Wrap the precious angel in a towel and cuddle on the couch like so ----------------------->

                          (She slept like this for 2 hours, SNORING)

9.  Take her to meet your friends

<--------10.  Let her sleep in your lap again.

11.  Take her home thoroughly in love

12.  Take her out to go to the bathroom before bed where her real owner will drive up and say "There you are Matilda" and take away your child.

13.  Go back inside and plot how you can sneak over and steal her back because she has a bad owner who lets her get 10,000 fleas and bloody feet.

14.  Don't actually go through with that because you're pretty sure thats basically kidnapping.

15.  Go to bed satisfied that you've done a good deed.

Ok now that last part was not so fun but over all the day was really great.  I just got to pretend I had a dog all day.  I also realize how ridiculous this sounds and that most people would have ignored the dog in their yard, thus avoiding the whole heartbreak but I can't help it that I have a bleeding heart for helpless animals.  Can you blame me?  Look at this ---------->

                               
 Just spooning on the couch

Oh, Saturday

This is not an activity as much as a sequence of events that you can adapt, or pick and choose pieces.
I will still include the tutorials of course!

9:00 Made cinnamon roll dough (had to rise)---> Click here for the recipe! they were delicioso!

11:00 Made cinnamon rolls

12:00 Finally ate the cinnamon rolls (for lunch)



1:00 Decided we needed a WORKOUT so... (Here's where the tutorial starts)

You Will Need:

Sneakers

                                                                  Jungle Gym (we went to a school since it was  Saturday and no one was there)

Upper body strength

Balance

                         How to:

                   1.  The jungle gym is now your weight room.

                                    -monkey bars- harder than we remembered

                                    -balance beam

                                    -running up the slide

                                    -dips between parallel bars

                                    -pull ups
                                    -attempting to touch the rim of the basketball hoop (and failing miserably)

2:00 Still inspired to WORKOUT

You Will Need:

                                         Track(Local high school's worked nicely)

Stopwatch

Ambition

                          How to:

                   1.  Choose your distance (He [Garret] chose the 200m dash, I chose the 800m)

                   2.  Set an unreasonable goal (I chose 1:55 [which would have gotten me a gold medal in London this year])
                   3.  Take your mark
                   4. BANG! (Make sure the other person is timing)
                   5. Run your little legs off

                   6. Finish strong and be positive. (I ran it in 3:11)

                                  For example: Do Say- "I was only 1 minute and 16 seconds from winning in the olympics!" Don't Say- "My time is almost double what they run in the olympics." (no one has to know its only a 2 minute race)   

                   7.  Repeat all steps with each person involved (I am not at liberty to discuss my partner's time, but I will just say, you probably won't be seeing him in Rio in 2016)

                    8. Nurse the stitch in your side and nausea brought on by your lack of exercising

3:00 Somehow we were still feeling inspired to EXERCISE so...

You Will Need:

                             The most outdated dance workout video you can find ---> (Ours is called "Hip Hop Body Shop" from 1994 on VHS, found at a thrift store)

Floor Space

                       Themed Clothes (will be explained in depth below)

Swagger

                     1.  Start the dance workout

                     2.  Rewind every time a new move is introduced at least 4 times because it's complicated.

                     3.  Come to the realization that you are the whitest people on the planet.

                     4.  Realize thats actually just because of the clothes you are wearing.

                     5.  Find new clothes that fit the theme of the video (I was wearing high-waisted tights, a sports bra and a windbreaker, and Garret, his shorts and MY tank top.) unfortunately this was not documented.

                     6.  You should now have new found swagger.

                     7.  Finish video.
                     8.  Perform for your roommates.

5:00 Practiced all the swing dancing moves we know (click on each one for the tutorials we used)

         The Around the World

         The Double Dip             
         The Back Flip

   

6:00 Made dinner 

6:30 Ate dinner

7:00 Made Cardboard Beards 

You Will Need:

Beard Template

Scissors

Glue

Old Cardboard Boxes

Elastic

Stapler

Movies

Patience

Strong Fingers

                         
How to:
1.  Go the the link above titled "Beard Template"
2. Click on Project Templates to find the one titled "Webisode #4- Cardboard Beard" (He has a ton of other really fun projects you should try out too!)
3.  Open and Print the PDF

4. Watch this tutorial (I'm not going to give you the whole tutorial because a better one already exists); you can watch the video we did here:
                                   Beard Tutorial
5.  Put on your best flannel shirt and pose as lumberjacks. (This is a critical step. DO NOT skip.)

                                                      Here's the finished product:

I can't imagine that these won't come in handy all the time.

I don't want you to have a false sense of how long this will take so for a reference, we watched Shaun of the  Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Despicable Me while we were making our beards.

FUUUUN!!!!!

p.s. I need to get better at documenting these things so I have more pictures!  That will be my goal for future posts.

                         
                                 
                                             
                                 

Balloon Painting

Garret and I have been described as follows:
"There are lots of things that people talk about doing and think sound fun but never actually DO.  Garret and Christine ACTUALLY DO those things"

You're in good hands.

Alright, I'm going to call this one "an art project for the masses" because it takes no actual artistic ability but the results are awesome!!

You will need:

Canvas (or other flat blank material) (we also used wood)

Washable (or not) Paint

Water Balloons

Bucket/Bowl

A Water source

Clothes you don't care about or want to tie dye

Space (most likely outside)

Decent aim

How To:

1.  This is the least fun and most complicated part... sorry.  Put a hefty glob of paint in a balloon, the paint bottles we were using had a little lip on them so we just put the balloons on that, but if that is not the case you could use the tip that comes with the balloons as a funnel. After the paint is in, twist the balloon so it doesn't come gushing out.

2.  With the balloon still twisted, slip the end onto the water source, untwist and fill the balloon the rest of the way.

3.  Tie off and place in bucket.

4.  Repeat steps 1-3 until desired number of balloons is reached.

5.  One person hold the blank canvas about 10 yards from the other person.

6. Above "other person" pick up balloon, take aim, and throw the balloon at the canvas.

7. Repeat step 6 until balloons are gone or you deem your masterpiece complete

Variations:

Paint balloon baseball (Balloon=Ball, Canvas=Bat, Pitcher+Batter=Messy)

Individual balloon painting-  Toss a paint balloon up in the air, hold you canvas parallel to the ground, "catch" the balloon with the canvas.

                     

Advice:

Prepare to get messy!

Keep you mouth CLOSED... you may be tempted to smile because you are having so much fun but RESIST the urge! (especially if you're using, i don't know, lead paint or something not recommended.)

For different patterns put  tape on the canvas between steps 4 & 5.

Coat the out side of some of the balloons with a different color paint than what's inside them right before  you throw them.

Put a blank canvas on the ground under you, the incidental art is cool!

Don't throw paint balloons at people who are not participating... not cool.

Document with pictures.

Here is our finished product.

These were made with balloons filled with one color with another color on the outside. 

Incidental Art

 May the fun be with you...

Clothing Swap Pictures

Hello everyone!! Currently embarking on my first actual post containing a recipe for fun.... here we go.

You will need:

Camera

Tripod

Chalk

Little to no inhibition

Friends with little to no inhibition

Dignity your willing to part with

A public forum

How To:
1.  Everyone pair off with someone of the opposite gender.
2.  Find a distinctive location.
3.  Set up the tripod facing above location.
4.  You and your partner pose for a picture but DON'T MOVE!
5.  Have someone trace your feet with chalk.  Make sure you leave the camera on the tripod and the tripod in the same place.
6.  Go to the nearest bathroom/enclosed space and trade clothes with your partner.  Make sure you trade EVERYTHING that shows.
7.  Set up the same picture only trade spots... So the clothes stay in the spot they were in originally.
8.  Have someone look at the original picture and get your poses to be as close to the same as possible.
9.  Take the picture.
10. Stitch the photos together on photoshop or similar program... It could be as easy as putting them in a word document and taking a screen shot for the technologically challenged.
11.  Post on a public forum such as Facebook or twitter.
12.  Become instantly popular.

Here are the photos we ended up with. Enjoy! we definitely did!!

 Garret & Me

 Jessica & Gary

 Justin & Emily

 Adam & Katherine

 Nick & Ashley

 Sean & Andrea

 Rachel & Dave

Epic Roommate Picture: Emily, Me, Jessica & of course Wasabi

Good luck and have fun!!!

Crusty

Introductions

 Hello there! I'm Christine although I'm almost never called that- Crusty, Tink Tink, Bean, Beenup, and Stine give you a taste of my impressive collection of nick-names.  I am an artist, a baker, a mother(to a cat), I love Jesus, animals, BBQ, peaches, family and many more things but most relevant to this blog, I am a fun enthusiast.  The inspiration for this blog came from this past weekend, Labor Day weekend to be more specific.  The entire weekend was outrageously fun, unbelievably cheap, and absolutely unforgettable (in part because of the photo-documentation, but mainly the fun).  I pride myself in coming up with or finding activities that are not your typical movie night and definitely not bar hopping.  Maybe some people really do find that fun but I am not one of them.  No matter where you live, big city or small town, people complain about not having anything to do.  I can say that I have never come across this problem, and I want to share the ridiculousness that is my life.  Each post will be an activity (that I have tried and deemed worthy of sharing with you) with instructions, materials needed, and of course, charming personal anecdotes.




 I will start with some introductions, this is Garret, (the boyfriend) my partner in fun. We are both creative, and we are both up for just about anything.  I introduce him because he is involved in many of the adventures that will be relayed in this and future posts.




This is Wasabi, not necessarily always involved but I wanted to show him off.





That was just an introduction... Fun posts to come!