JustHeartIt: Straight As An Arrow

He loves thieves. More for the planning aspect than anything. He is intrigued with "the best laid plans of men." As he told me one day when he was in second grade and talking about the Greek god Hermes: "He was the god of trade, travel, and theft. He's my favorite. Well, not that thieves are my favorite, but I'm a big fan of having to plan things out. And thieves have to do that. Like, they have to figure out who's going to hold the walkie-talkie so they can say, 'OK, open the door,' when they get somewhere, and things like that."

So it came as no surprise that when third grade rolled around, and he had to dress the part of a Middle Ages character, he chose another thief - albeit one with a good purpose - Robin Hood (though now he claims he's "just an archer").

What did come as a surprise was the fact that I was able to make half of his costume. The tunic, the hat, the bow and arrows (which he decorated). While I will never in a million years be able to explain the happy sewing mistakes of actually pulling together an acceptable tunic and hat, the arrows are fairly straightforward. Here's how you can make your own - for your kids to use, or for your own interesting decor.

Materials Needed:
Scissors
Colored electrical tape (found mine at Walmart)
pencil erasers (found mine at Walmart)
dowels that fit into said erasers (found mine at Home Depot)
feathers (found mine at JoAnne Fabrics)

Step One: cut short lengths of tape and wrap them around the dowels at intervals. How many colors you use on each dowels is up to you.

Step Two: Cut a small niche in the top of each eraser and put one on the end of each dowel.

Step Three: decide on your feather combination. Cut one half of each feather off so they sit against the dowel, gather them together, and tape them to each dowel.