craft making

Howdy!

Well, winter has set in and regular routine has taken it's hold again.

There's been less screen time in this house to make some of these instead.

 It comes from the book The Cuter Book by Aranzi Aronzo

The kids love this book because 1. the felt friends are cute, 2. the instructions are amazingly illustrated.

I get them to trace the pattern and cut it out, then I cut it from felt. 

They don't want to mess up the felt cutting so they leave that to the pro. :} 

Their stitching has improved.

 I even made the bunnies. (sorry sucky cell phone picture)

 Here are a few other feltie books we've enjoyed looking through and pondering over which to do next.

 I was so happy when Mollie Makes had an American edition and so sad when they canceled it.

But, to their credit, Mollie Makes UK are honouring their North American subscriptions by substituting with the UK version. A great win. (I regret that I didn't sign up for a 2 year subscription).

The UK version usually comes with a gift. And yes, they sent it over here too.

Cool beans.

 Even though the Christmas Mitten rush is over, I still get calls for mittens. I really need to stock up for such calls, as sometimes, people are just passing through and are not able to wait for a few days while I make them. There are some though, that live just close enough to put in an order.

Thank you. I've been busy.

 And then, this happened!

 My lovely sailor boy turned 11!!!

But now, in this winter season, he's skating boy!

And that makes me so happy.

 This is not our pond, but the neighbour's field that floods. Perfect. It's a long one too.

Now our sailing and scooter boy can enjoy the outdoors in the winter. And that he does!

It's been a white winter wonderland in these parts.

Even the birds look good.

Have a good one,

Amanda

WIP ( works in Progress)

WOW! Did you get hit by the bug?

Everyone in town that i know has been touched by the bug. Everyone!!

I didn't even escape it, but the boys in our house did. Still waiting for it to hit them.

So yesterday, my day to be vertical, but not in full motion, I finally started this project which has been living in my brain since I saw it many months ago.

EEKK!!! Can you believe it? I've been following Mimi's Blog for many years now. And to actually get some of the secrets of construction.. like the hair and limbs. Priceless.

This is a project of process, not the end result. I'm enjoying sewing slowly instead of cranking it out.

I have many ideas for mittens to come, but with a request to sew toddler mittens, 

I had to fancy it up a bit. 

 i think with the multi layers of the puppet mitten, it will be too small. So I made a single layer cashmere one to see if the stretch will help the fit.

 On the table this week...

Bird Puzzle that is being completed mostly by daddy and Rafael.

 neve's highly anticipated Kiwi Crate finally arrived!

Can I tell you.. it did not disappoint! It is such high quality and great activities in there.

As a crafter, I have to say, the materials are excellent. She went to work straight away.

I bought her and her cousins a 3 month subscription for Christmas. I may have to extend it.

If you buy into it, offer my name when they ask how you heard of it, I think we both get a credit? 

Anyhow, also on the table are the walkie talkies. 

That means the kids have been riding bikes outside. 

YES! 

We had a very long few days with rain. It makes riding bike much easier to have clear roads. 

But alas, short lived, it's snowing now. 

We'll put the walkie talkies on the charger for another time.

How have you been filling the looming winter days lately?

Ciao,

Amanda

change of plans

For a some time now, I've been collecting bottle caps.

 The kind from milk jugs and juice cartons.

 And looking for rubber boots for the kids.

Finally, the weather warmed up, supper was early and we set about to make these boats to float on the little stream in our yard.

And then this started. Pouring rain.

 You can't tell from the pictures, but it is teeming.

 And warm. It's been awhile since it's been warm enough to play outside after supper without getting a chill.

And after a few rounds of "bounce the ball on the trampoline" this is what you look like. 

Stay tuned for the great down stream bottle cap boat race!

Man, we need to get outside! Bring on the sunshine.

Amanda

Goldilocks and the Three Bears playset

So I took these guys from yesterday 

Put them in a box.

 Goldilocks woke up to a new part of the forest with polka dotted trees and fluffy pink clouds.

The three bears met by the white picket fence.

A new playscape in a box. (all cutouts are from the old Sizzix die cuts)

Yes, it needs a house. But I think I'll make a tiny one in the back landscape by the trees.

 They're hoping that Goldilocks will make some new porridge.

Today was a snow day here. The peggies and paints were out, so some new families were born.

Rafael's family

 Neve's family. She gave me highlights in the back there.

Here's the whole crew. I think I need to order some new pieces. These are going fast.

Bear Woods! I'm calling soon.

Ciao,

Amanda

fun Halloween party activities

One of my favourite activities at the Halloween party was the donut line.

Each kid picked a donut, put hands behind their back and then tried to eat the donut. That was hanging from a string. Moving. Swaying. No hands.

Various stances.

 One tactic was to find the perfectly suited height for maximum munching.

 Another was the shoulder holder.

 Take a break and have a lick.

 Borrow a hand from a friend.

 When the donut you want is too tall, just put the dang thang down.

 There was the necklace making activity.

 Tired eyeballs.

Bobbing for apples

 Getting the apple

An old fashioned leaf piling and jumping. 

There was also a pin the face to the pumpkin activity (a.k.a. make a jack o lantern) using paper cutouts and a real pumpkin.

And the every popular woods and river. The kids crossed the river and started to pile old branches to make a pseudo bridge. I wish they would come over to my place and clean up my woods. :}

It was a lovely party, lovely day and lovely people.

Cheers,

Amanda

Last minute Halloween ideas

THe kids didn't have school on Friday, so some new friends of ours hosted an awesome Halloween party. As the parent, we were to bring an activity and some food. Fun stuff.

This idea came to me in a dream. When I awoke, I hoped that I could find some styrofoam balls in this town. I did! 2 sizes. Yeah. And some halloweeny string. I gathered various coloured sharpie markers from around the house and some perler or melty beads. You could use any kind of bead that  your string fits though.

 Draw and eyeball. Don't forget the veins. that's what gives it a Halloween vibe. Someone got real happy with the red marker on the green eye! Late night I guess.

 I pre-drilled holes in the balls, but we still had to use a skewer to  work on it a bit for the the strings to go through easily. I also put some tape on one end to stiffen the string.

Here's the necklace we made at home. Even the boys were into this activity.

 Now for some food. Here was my contribution. Wiener mummies. Just some pre-made crescent roll dough and wieners cut in half. I rolled the dough out, cut it with a pizza cutter into strips and rolled around the wiener.  I put the mustard and ketchup eyes on with a fondue fork! 2 eyes with one swoop.:}

 I love this collection... Crispy maggots ( those highly addictive corn puffs), Brittle bones (pretzels, marshmallows on the ends and white chocolate) and dried bat wings ( blue corn chips)

 Yummy short bread fingers. Not sure what the red stuff it, but very clever.

 The punch bowl has an infestation of spiders, or maybe it was the ice cubes??

 Almost too cute to eat... bat cupcakes.

 very flaky shortbread eyeballs. Delish.

 eewww! Pumpkin vomit.

 Bright red candied apples

 And the table presentation. There were some spider cookies in the back and the cookie sandwiches in the front. Oh, the pumpkin roll with cream cheese centre was also quite tasty. 

It was a great spread. And some great activities. I'll show you those tomorrow.

Cheers!

Amanda