Summer Fun: Doodle Dos and Don'ts

This morning before ice skating, I worked on the flags I've wanted to doodle.  I ironed them first, as they'd gotten wrinkly since the Zentangle retreat in February, stuffed in my doodle bag waiting their turn.  They're muslin flags strung together with hem tape (homemade by the class instructor) and had gotten pretty wrinkly.

I had decided to put my peace-hope-love doodles on the tripartite flag and so set to work with my permanent Identi-pen for fabric this morning at the kitchen table.

I dropped the boxes and changed the heart a bit.  I think they came out nicely.

And then I realized that there were marks--dots and streaks and such--all over the table.  I hadn't thought about my pen bleeding through the thin fabric.  

I called the kids in as a teachable moment.  Because, of course, sometimes I go on a tirade when they make a mess, honest but forseeable messes not intentionally made, but I get upset that they don't think ahead or be extra careful. And here I'd done the exact same thing myself.  So I told them that the next time I started getting upset about their making a similar mistake that all they needed to mention were the tabletop dots and I would not yell.  

The dots only sort of came up with a scrubbing from the steel wool (which then also sort of took the finish off the table.  I guess we'll know which is my spot.)

Still, the flags are lovely.

And I'm extra-prepared for when the whole family works on the blue, yellow, red, green, and white flags I bought for us to decorate and hang around!  (I think a piece of cardboard underneath would do the trick nicely.)