Making It Up

as we go along

Making things

Getting Christmas crafty – no 1 peg doll fairies.

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So, last night I had plans – how did it all pan out?

Well, we did some of it 🙂

I started the day with my physio mandated exercises. Then I did a bit of crying when my shoulder went into spasm 🙁 I’d been gentle, honest, but obviously not gentle enough.

Pulled myself together and somehow motivated the small people to get themselves ready to walk to home education soft play, (a walkable home education activity!) under 10 minutes by myself, and nearer 15 with a Tigerboy in tow. It was a grey miserable day out there, though if you check instagram (over there in the sidebar) you’ll see that we did spot some flowers on our way. Vibernum, if I recall correctly, and very strongly scented. Which was nice.

For a little while we were the only family at soft play, and then another little girl arrived. She’s someone that Smallest has really hit it off with, so they had a lovely session basically running and shouting with a very involved Pokemon based game. And why not.

Home for lunch, and then I gradually assembled craft equipment. Tim needed to pop out for salt for the water softener to the local hardware shop, and I asked him to check if they had dolly pegs (I am sure I have some, *somewhere*) and it turned out that they do, so peg doll fairies (or clothes pin fairies, depending 😉 ) were a go.

The starting out heap looked a bit like this.

craft materials needed to made peg doll fairies

Obviously I then had to pause to gather the bits I’d forgotten….

The printed instruction sheet, in case you’re wondering, comes from the 30 Christmas Ornaments (affiliate) by Maggy Woodley of Red Ted Art as mentioned yesterday. Each craft is set out with a materials list and easy to follow instructions with pictures, on a printable page as you can see. This one is from the School Age section (which I think *ought* to read primary school age, given there’s also an older kids to balance out the preschool section) and was perfect for Smallest, who is a very careful child when she’s working. Spot that concentration 😉

Of course, it would have helped if she’d listened a *little* more closely, as she wouldn’t have very carefully taken out the second piece of cardboard from the pom pom maker that I’d given her, and she wouldn’t then have had to do it all over again 😉

She didn’t seem to mind. We painted the faces, hair and bodices on first, then while that dried did the pom pom skirts, from some fab material I bought years ago for a dress up outfit. My tip here would be to keep to light material – we tried another out of ribbon and it was far too heavy and not nearly as effectively.

Pom poms from material are a lot quicker to make than pom poms from wool, although there is a moment of absolute terror as you’re cutting round and trying to tie the wool/ thread round the middle. I did it though – I think that bit was a bit too hard for Smallest, but she is only 7.

And our final results?

I really rather like them. What do you think? And which one is mine?

I made time to run down to poundland for some cheap tights as well – tomorrow’s target craft is Austrian Angels.

Finished up the day with Stick Man (Amazon affiliate) for tonight’s #picturebookadvent – one of Tigerboy’s all time favourite. Incidentally – he was invited to take part in the craft, but apparently gaming is far more interesting. Sigh. Might have to have a think about that.

So, what have you all been up to?

Opening a creative circle

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I have written stories for as long as I can remember.

I’ve never joined a writer’s group.

I’ve started drawing and painting and general art. But I’m not sure about the local art club.

And there’s knitting and sewing and crochet and spinning, costume to make and felt to, well, felt.

Creativity is something that gives me great pleasure, but I have a habit of losing focus.

At the back of my mind is this idea that if I could create a creative community around myself I could give and receive support and direction. Perhaps I could take a story from first idea to novel. Maybe I could illustrate a picture book.

(There was a self taught artist who has only been painting for two years shared on instagram’s own account today. There is no limit to where we can reach if we let our dreams lift us. )

So I have this idea that we could build a creative circle. Share our goals. Set challenges. (I have some ideas) Offer encouragement, gentle constructive criticism and support. Anyone fancy joining in? Please comment if so. And feel free to share. You don’t need to have a blog to join, just some way of sharing your work, be it photos or whatever really.

Hoping there are a few of you that think this sounds like a good idea!

  

Getting back to my yarny roots.

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I learnt to crochet when I was around 9 I think. My (first) step mum’s mum taught me. She had a soda stream as well – I loved visiting her, and was heartbroken when she disappeared from my life.

(I assume that was the marriage fell apart. I lost my step siblings too. Not a huge heap of fun. )

Anyway, crochet. I’ve always been able to. I’m way better at it than I am at knitting. I even designed my own doll dress pattern a while ago (I should probably test that pattern properly and re shoot the pic)

But a couple of years ago, I’m not sure when, I just sort of stopped. I’ve done a few little toys here and there, but nothing major. Then Smallest started agitating for slippers. And I went on Garnstudio. Before I knew it there was a pinterest board and a yarn order and so it began.

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It feels kind of good, getting back into it.

Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition Science Kit

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packshot prehistoric expedition science kit ravensburgerBuy at Amazon

When we were offered the Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition Science Kit for review, I glanced at the covering release, thought Small would enjoy it a bit, and expected something with a fossil kit in maybe an A4 sized box.

Then it arrived. And it’s huge. And it has loads of activities in it – we’ve had several days worth out so far, and we’re nowhere near done. And that’s without doing anything related to triops, which Small remembers doing once, years ago, and not liking, so apparently we’re not doing that again. (I’ll have to try to find someone to give that part of the kit too, because it is really rather splendid.)

fossil block, triops basic, sand

So instead, we’ve done making plaster of paris to do an archaeoptyrix cast, built a dinosaur skeleton, and we’re halfway through making a meganeura? (No, I’ve no idea either.)

We’ve examined the ammonite with the supplied magnifying glass, and there’s still plenty of plaster of paris to do the rest of the moulds, and Small and I have a *plan* for the fossil block. (Coming to a youtube channel near you, one day soon. Ish.) Tip with regard to the plaster of paris. Go steady on the water, make sure you really stir it thoroughly. We ended up with thick bits that weren’t quite stirred in, and it took much, much longer than the advised 24 hours to dry thoroughly. Granted this was while it was raining outside like it had forgotten how to do anything different, so everywhere just felt damp.

Honestly, I’ve seen a lot of science kits over the last ten years or so of home education. And quite a lot of dinosaur related stuff too. And I have to say that I think this one is really well put together, and excellent value for money. If you’ve a dinosaur mad offspring or two to entertain, and maybe a holiday coming up, I’d seriously consider this. Particulary if you do have a large space to keep a triops tank with a light rigged over it. (There are 5 I think triops related activities, so not doing them does detract a bit. But the tank/bowl is going on for A3 size, so you are going to need a big space to keep it, and here it would just have turned into a toddler paddling pool.)

dinosaur skeletonmaking plaster of parisarchaeoptyrix

Score out of 10? I’d give this kit a 9. And that’s high praise.

Growing green fingered children.

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This post is an entry for BritMums’ #KidsGrowWild Challenge (find the linky here) with Moneysupermarket

I love gardening. No, really, I do. Or at least, I love the idea of it. The reality, with two small children, tends to be rather different.

I imagine popping out into the garden, doing a spot of digging, sprinkling seeds about, chucking a bit of water on, and then wandering off for a few months while nature does its thing, and coming back at the end of summer to harvest the fruits of my labours. Sadly, that’s not how it works. Instead I take two small children outside, spend what feels like hours redirecting them from digging up the wrong bit of garden or beating each other around the head with the sharp pointy digging things. There’s also a bit of lifting the baby out of the freshly dug flower bed repeatedly, until I give up and decide he can be washed, and at least he’s not sitting on the seed bed any more, and some rather determined explanation of what to do with the seeds to the three year old.

Is it just me? Or does gardening work like that for other people too? Here’s the photo version anyway.

What I didn’t get pictures of was Tigerboy trying to eat the seeds. (Sunflower seeds are edible anyway, right?) Or the wind blowing the packets away before I’d got the seeds out. There’s no picture of him turning the water butt on *without* the watering can underneath it, or of Smallest trying to water him when he wouldn’t get out of the way.

Oddly, I didn’t get any pictures of them laughing in the sun. Which surprises me, as we did a lot of laughing. When I gave up lifting him out of the mud and just let him paddle, bare feet in the soil. When he trailed little footprints across the patio through the spilled water.

And she really enjoyed the planting. We counted seeds as we put them in holes. She took such care of each little embryonic plant and she’s thrilled to be watching them come up a little more each day. (I do kind of wish we’d managed to plant them so we knew what was where, but I guess that was asking too much of a 15 month old.

I really hope we get some flowers. But even if we don’t, it was worth it for the fun.