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Tag: Pittsburgh Children’s Museum

  • Record a Custom CD Card for Mom with the Saturday Light Brigade

    Record a Custom CD Card for Mom with the Saturday Light Brigade

    Mother’s Day… Yes, Folks that important holiday is right around the corner.  (Dear Wigle Whiskey – please be planning a mothers day tasting event!).   Mother’s day gifts can be tricky – but the Children’s Museum has stepped into save the day!

    This is such a cool idea from the folks at Saturday Light Brigade.  If you aren’t familiar with SLB – it is a a public radio show that has been on the air since 1978 with acoustic music and family friendly fun.  A few years ago the SLB started broadcasting from the Children’s Museum.

    For mothers day they will help you record a cd with an audio message for mom from their recording studio.

    DATES: April 28–May 13 (for Mother’s Day) and June 2–June 17 (for Father’s Day)
    TIME: 1–4 p.m.
    LOCATION: SLB Radio Productions, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
    COST: $12 for a card/CD kit from the museum shop

    Let your own voice be the unique message and special one-of-a-kind gift you give this year for Mother’s Day and/or Father’s Day!

    During the hands-on program, children and youth ages 5 and up will record a personal message, poem, song, or story for their mother, father, grandparent, or special caregiver. SLB staff will conduct welcoming interviews about the person receiving the card, and will record greetings and messages live onto an audio CD in its award-winning broadcast studios.

    After the recording session, the professional-quality cards will be edited on site. The audio CD will be affixed to a special card, which children and youth will decorate and personalize using a variety of art materials. Ready for delivery in just a short time, audio cards will be brought home that very day as a Mother’s Day/Father’s Day gift that will be cherished for a lifetime.

    Creation of personalized audio cards is available for recording in May and June each year at SLB. No appointment is necessary. Purchase of a CD Creation Card Kit is required in the Children’s Museum gift shop prior to recording. The cost is $12, which includes a CD, card kit, decorating supplies, studio time, and editing. All proceeds benefit programs for children and youth at SLB Radio.

    You can follow the Saturday Light Brigade on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/slbradio and Twitter @SLBradio.

  • Check out a Cheese Printer at the Mini Maker Faire

    Check out a Cheese Printer at the Mini Maker Faire


    San Francisco Maker Faire 2011
    Image by maltman23 via Flickr

    I have been waiting for MakerFaire to come to Pittsburgh for years!!!  I have been a follower of Make and Craft – both are magazines/blogs published by O’Reilly Media.  The Make magazine folks organized the first Maker Faire in CA back in 2006.  It was a live festival of all things creative, handmade, DIY and hacked.  Since 2006 – Maker Faires have been held all over the world.

    Maker Faires have included demonstrations of all kinds of neat things.  I had the opportunity to see Bre Pettis, who is a maker/hacker extrodinairre, give a talk on the 3d printer back in 2009 at ROLFcon.  You can check out a video of his presentation about rapid prototyping and the 3d printer at ROLFcon here.  I left ROLFcon thinking Pittsburgh needs to have a hacker space of our own.

    Fortunately – others were thinking the same thing. In May 2009, HackPGH opened a hacker space in the uptown neighborhood to provide a workshop space where makers could come together and well, make stuff.  HackPGH has hosted and continues to offer many classes on things like lock picking, LED Flowers and crafts.

    Maker Faires are meccas of making things.  I know many a Pittsburgh who has traveled to Detroit or beyond to attend a Maker Faire.

    This weekend the fun comes to Pittsburgh! The first Pittsburgh’s Mini Maker Faire is this Sunday, October 23, Noon-6pm at The Children’s Museum.  The event might be called mini but they have a mighty line up of makers who will be showing off their projects and offering workshops.  You can check out the entire list of makers here.

    Here are just a few of the things that will be demonstrated on Sunday:

    Cheese Printer – Matt Stultz, one of the co-founders of HackPGH will be there demonstrating the cheese printer.

    photo via Maker Faire Daily

    Pittsburgh Lock Picking Club

    Yes, Pittsburgh has a lock picking group! This city has something for everyone.  Not sure about lock picking – I wouldn’t have thought much of it before either but then I read this fascinating article from a 2009 issue of Wired about the Ultimate Lock Picker.

    The Traveling Pittsburgh Craft-o-tron Machine

    This is an awesome collaborative project of artists and hackers. But what you really need to know is that this is a vending machine where you can get a crocheted pierogi.

    Sauerkraut Powered Robots

    Jesse Hemminger has created these little guys that run on sauerkraut.  Seems like a perfect Pittsburgh technology to me.

    photo Ed Luna

    Pittsburgh’s Mini Maker Faire
    Sunday, October 23, 2011
    Noon-6pm
    @ The Children’s Museum
    Admission is $12

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  • WYBMND

    What? A celebration of one of Pittsburgh’s Greatest Neighbors – Mr. Rogers.

    WYBMND = Would You Be My Neighbor Days

    When: March 15 – 20, 2008
    Where: All over Pittsburgh

    March 20 – Mr. Roger’s 80th Birthday

    Click Here for a Complete List of Events

    Some Important Events:

    • March 20 – Wear your Favorite Sweater Day
    • March 20 – Free Admission
      • Children’s Museum
      • National Aviary
      • Mattress Factory
      • Westmoreland Museum of Art

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVeyLr2fGNA[/youtube]