New book Tuesday: Belle and Boo bubbles before bed...

We received this gorgeous book as a gift a year or two back and although we enjoyed reading it, we saved the crafts and drawing activities till Eden was a bit older and able to enjoy doing them herself (you should see what she drew living under the sea!) or with some help from me.  We've been reading it again lately with the promise we'll make things when she has an afternoon with no preschool, and Ben is asleep (it's just easier). The Boo flannel puppet was our first craft activity and great fun.

We made a few adjustments, as you can see.  Eden traced the pattern pieces herself, that's the four of them top left.  I thought we may have some sizing issues (bless her four year old tracing/cutting skills) so I amended slightly when cutting (careful not to draw attention/offend). We used facecloth fabric for the soap holding pocket and rather than stitching right sides together, we did a short zig zag (applique) on the edges to avoid turning it out, as the fabric was too bulky and it would lose it's shape. This also left enough room for a wee hand to go inside and play puppets.  We also stopped embroidering after the face as I realised it was not my forte and Ben was up and ready for afternoon tea, our craft session was over!

The book tells the story of a bedtime routine and is interspersed with beautiful illustrations to colour in and crafts to make, including a dress up doll.  This will be a book we'll be treasuring, as it not only reminds us of snuggly bedtime stories, but is now full of precioius four year old drawings.

You can buy this book through Belle and Boo online, they ship internationally.

Sarah

The wonderful world of washi...

I was asked today for some ideas on how to use washi tape. Sticking mainly to gift wrapping with mine, I felt this was not really an overly inspiring answer, so I turned to my good friend pinterest, and boy did they come to the party!  Here is a round up of my absolute favourites, which you can find (for image sources too) on my new board, wonderful washi.

Love these pegs! Perfect for hanging kids artwork.

Washi + twine = gorgeous bunting wrapping!

So many uses for parties

I'm pretty budget with plasters, no princess ones in our house, I go for the plain old bulk packs, so boring I know.  This is a great way to cutesy them up for kids and a pretty cool activity too.

A very "on trend" idea for wall art.

Here's another one, very effective in white.

Love the classic look of black and white, which looks great on brown paper wrapping

and equally classy around tea lights. 

Here's my image which prompted the "inspiration" hunt.  You can see my full range here.  Feel free to comment here or on facebook with any ideas you have for washi tape, I'd love to hear them, thanks.

Sarah x

A quick wee project...

My knife block revamp & flowers courtesy of my kids... aww bless x

This knife set was a wedding gift from a good friend who had lived with us for a while and had been subjected to cooking with my hideous old cheap knifes.  Her set transformed my life... no seriously, they did. I've never been a fan of knife blocks in general though, wood seemed too plain with all my vintage accessories and stainless too modern.  So, feeling inspired by my punnet of shimmering gold paint (Resenes metallic range) I recently gave it a quick revamp.  I love the result and I love the gold with mint, gorgeous!

I sanded it lightly, masked it up, applied a couple of coats of shimmering gold paint, removed tape and applied a couple of coats of water based varnish and there you have, a bit of bling for my knife block.  Eden did a bit of painting as well, ditching her water colours for the much more enticing shimmering gold and some stones from the garden.

Here's the plain before shot, complete with bad lighting.

Have a lovely evening x

Beautiful bunny tails...

Our bunny tails

I'm enjoying some quiet internet time while my wee man sleeps, my big man surfs and Eden gets crafty with rubber band bracelets (are they big in your household?).  Cyclone Lusi came and went without too much fuss here in the Coromandel, and cabin fever (literally, as we're staying in a cabin) was kept to a minimum, mostly due to the company of some great friends and their gorgeous kids.  I hope you weren't too battered where you were.  

Last time we visited the Coromandel, Eden and I picked bunny tails, an activity I loved as a kid.  The few that survived the trip home are now in an old bottle on my dressing table. I love them and the memory of collecting them.  A couple of weeks ago I came across the gorgeous image below (from here) and it inspired a lovely Sunday morning activity with the kids at our local beach, Ngamotu Beach.  They loved collecting them, and then picking the colours from the pantry and marvelling at them changing colour. Apparently they were to be distributed at preschool, though in our usual rush to get out the door they kept being forgotten. 

I also discovered this gorgeous blog while searching for images, check it out, very cute ideas for activities with kids and a video on dying bunny tails. 

Right, off to the beach...

Happy afternoon x

New book Tuesday... the best EVER boredom buster book for kids!

So last week went progressively downhill in our household.  It started with snotty noses and coughs, and ended in chest infections, sleep deprivation, no preschool, rain, rain, rain, no outdoor play... and severe cabin fever!  Thankfully I'd already raided the preschool activity section of my local library, as this book saved my sanity.  I've been wanting to do more craft activities at home with Poppet, and last week proved the perfect time to start, we had a lot of fun together stuck inside creating.  Here's her egg carton tea set, she coloured in the sides of the cups and bowls in stripes and dots...

As the title states, it has a whopping 200 crafts and activities in it, all conveniently arranged into easy to use sections. Each project is labelled with one or more symbols to indicate approximate age it is suitable for, and is broken down into; what you need, what your child does, what you do, what you do together and any ideas for variations.  

I'm sure there will be times you'll ask yourself 'why didn't I think of this?' and I can probably answer that for you 'because you're sleep deprived, the washing machine is still beeping, you  haven't gotten anything out the freezer for dinner, the missing library book really is missing... and you're out of milk for that much needed coffee'. Am I correct? I'm pretty sure it's not just me that has days like that, so probably best we rely on someone else to supply the ideas.

Now I had trouble tracking this book down (my edition was 1989), but it's worth checking your library for it.  I did discover while hunting, that a second edition for older children has been published, it's available here. 

I've bookmarked quite a few more activities which I'm sure the kids will love, and we have celery changing colour on our windowsill as I type.  I'd love to hear of any other books like this (you can never have too many ideas), or favourite activity you do with your kids?

Sarah x

Christmas decoration making...

We got busy making Christmas crafts this week.  Inspired by the fabulous decorations below (via pinterest), we made some salt dough ornaments.  I used the recipe below and baked mine at about 100C for a couple of hours.  I'd probably just leave to air dry next time though, as they did puff a bit, though I reduced this by pricking the backs with a skewer.  A friend of mine made some super classy stamped ones and they're drying as they hang on her tree, looking much more fabulous I might add. She also used hers to decorate Christmas gifts, as you can see in the top photo.  We poked holes with a straw(prior to baking) and plan to thread some festive red ribbon through for hanging on the tree.  They may not make it to the tree though, as my daughter is pretending they're biscuits and they've been licked, and lost.  I found a poor soggy snowman right down the end of our yard today.  

and here are some stockings I've been making and selling in my felt store and on trademe.

Happy decorating!

For more inspiration, pop over here.

Sarah