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Celebrate Spooky Season With a Cemetery Tour!

Posted on Wednesday, October 9, 2024 by Dana

I love a cemetery.

The older, the better. I am definitely the girl who yells, “Skeleton holes!” and pulls the car over to investigate a good cemetery.

I have planned vacations around what graveyards I can visit. I have a bucket list of cemeteries I still need to see.

And I realize that a lot of people think that’s weird.
I don’t care. Continue reading “Celebrate Spooky Season With a Cemetery Tour!”

Interested in D&D? Start Here!

Posted on Monday, May 22, 2023 by Stellan Harris

Dungeons and Dragons is having a bit of a moment right now, with many people becoming aware of and interested in it due to shows like Stranger Things, Critical Role, or the newly released Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves film. There’s never been a better time to dip your toes into the world of tabletop role-playing games, but that particular leap can feel like a daunting one. Not only do these games come with rulebooks that make most novels look like light reading in comparison, the density of text in the rulebooks can turn an otherwise approachable game into an impenetrable wall. Well worry not, prospective TTRPG players, as we’ve collected a few resources to highlight to make your first outing into TTRPGs into one of many! 

A group of seven role-playing game dice arranged on a play mat.

Continue reading “Interested in D&D? Start Here!”

Cooking by the Book: Key to Your Culinary Kingdom

Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2022 by Stellan Harris

It is an unavoidable truth that all of us, rich and poor, young and old, have one thing in common: we have to eat. Eating is all well and good, but the problem for most folks is the cooking required to get to that step. Between all the chopping, seasoning, mixing, and cooking to get to a delicious meal it’s hard to blame anyone for reaching for takeout instead. However, we here at DBRL have decided to save you money, help you learn some new skills, and maybe even help you eat a bit better! Well, maybe some of the time, we do make some delicious desserts when the mood strikes us. “Cooking by the Book” is a monthly program put on by DBRL in order to showcase some fantastic recipes we’ve found, give a live demonstration and some background information on what we’re cooking, and a chance for you to cook along with our presenters over Zoom! If you can’t make it to the program that month, don’t worry. Every session of “Cooking by the Book” is recorded and posted our DBRL YouTube playlist afterward, making it easy to catch up if you miss one or go through our backlog of programs if you’re just joining us. Continue reading “Cooking by the Book: Key to Your Culinary Kingdom”

Best Friend Guided Painting

Posted on Thursday, July 1, 2021 by Megan

Image: Two paintings connected by a rainbow. Painting on the left has a slothicorn on a cloud and painting on the right is a unicorn on a cloud. Text: ages 10+ Best Friend Guided Painting Sloth or Unicorn

My best friend and I love to paint so we decided to make a friendship painting together! We combined our favorite things–rainbows, slothicorns and unicorns and made a beautiful painting! Grab your best pal and paint along with us on our YouTube channel.

Here is what you’ll need to get started. This is the exact list of what we used, but you can deviate from the list and make it your own!

  • Canvas. We used a 4×4 canvas.
  • Acrylic paint. We used the following colors and mixed them to make other colors:
    • White
    • Blue
    • Black
    • Red
    • Yellow
    • Purple
    • Green
    • Orange
  • Brush. We used a small flat brush for the background and sometimes a Sharpie for the details.
  • Water cup and towel. You will want to rinse and squeeze your brush between each color.
  • Paper plate. We used a paper plate to mix my colors.

Optional supplies.

  • Hair dryer. You can use a hair dryer to make your dry time a little faster.
  • Apron or drop cloth. We used acrylic paint which is sometimes difficult to get out of fabric, so if you are a messy painter you may want to cover up anything you don’t intend to paint.
  • Snacks. Each painting will take you about 30 minutes to complete if you use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process. Creativity takes a lot of brainpower, so you’ll want to have some sparkling water handy to stay hydrated and maybe snack nearby. Make sure to wash your hands before you eat!

We would love to see your finished artwork. Snap a pic and send it to us at kids@dbrl.org.

Image of Megan and Kristy holding painting of slothicorn and unicorn.

DIY Haunted Terrarium

Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2020 by Tess

Is your inner ethereal garden witch itching to grow something green and spoopy this fall? Have no fear, for spooky terrariums are here! Today I’m going to walk you through building your own terrarium to bring the green inside (since everything outside is going to ground for the season). The first thing you are going to need is an interesting container for your terrarium. Many craft stores will have fish bowls or glass jars that will work well, but I highly recommend checking out garage sales for unique old glass pieces for super cheap prices.  Continue reading “DIY Haunted Terrarium”