St. Patty Window Star

You'd think I was Irish. I'm not but, its a fun little holiday none the less. I have added a bright green window star to our nature table. It turned out way bigger then I thought!
Its been snowing all week here and for some reason my mind has moved to spring. Not that I'm not enjoying winter. I'm actually loving the snow. It's K that isn't fond of it. He can't stand snow touching his shoes. This poses quite a problem for outdoor play.
I'm off to watch the snow and think of spring gnomes.

Leprechaun Gnome

We had a leprechaun move into our nature table. He arrived last night. He is a little annoyed that there is nothing else green on the table so I guess I'm going to have to work on that so he doesn't move out.

Kid Art

We've been doing lots of art around here as a family. K loves to have us all gather around the table and paint together. The sun and light water color are the end result of our masking tape painting. The others are the result of potato and lettuce stamping.


In other news I had some wonderful finds at Salvation Army today! I bought K a little wooden iron, a glass pitcher, a glass bean container, tons of wonderful cotton sweaters to unravel into yarn, two large wooden peg puzzles, a big basket for toys, and a little glass for K.
We also stopped at a natural toys store in the area and found some great clearance items! Some water colors, all natural glue, toy metal bowls, wooden milk jugs, and beaswax tea candles.

Ok I'm off to work on my leprechaun gnome. He is coming along great! Perhaps we'll be ready for his debut tomorrow.

Nature table updated

We finally took down the last of valentines day and Christmas and I finally put up my window stars. I'm hoping to get a few St. Patrick's day things out in the next couple of weeks. Perhaps there is a leprechaun gnome in the works. :)

Kids apron

I have finally finished everything for the Bitofgoodness swap. Now just to mail it. Here is a picture of one of the aprons I made. In the pocket are a couple of recipe cards on how to make some michigan pies. :)

Michigan Cherries

Here are a few pictures of my finished Cherries. I had so much fun learning to Crochet and I can't wait try some other foods. I think I might make K an apple and a pear next (I already have the red and green yarn). I have 7 sets of cherries, 5 for the swap, 1 for the swap host, and 1 for K for his birthday. For K's birthday Casey is going to make him a play kitchen. We're not sure exactly how yet, we are still in brainstorming mode. I'm going to make him food, apron, and other kitchen items.
My aprons are almost done and then I think I'm going to go back to making some gnomes. I have a few ideas I'm excited to try.

Silk Play

We are all sick here. First K gets Roseolla, then casey gets his appendix out. Then three nights ago K was sick all night with a stomach virus, last night casey and I were up all night with the same virus. Now my poor mother who has been nursing us is sick. What a mess we all are.
Well despite this I have finished the cherries and our little masking tape art project. I'll be back to post on that. Here are some photos though of K playing in our hand dyed silks. I tied them all together across the room and we ran in and out of them playing hide and seek.

Half Done Projects

Here is some of what I've been up to. Nothing is totally done yet, but coming along. I have 11 of 12 cherries bottoms done (although I might make two more so K can keep a set himself). I have the aprons cut out. I love the print, however, I realized as I was taking this picture that I accidentally cut half of the aprons out upside down. Opps! Luckily I have plenty of material to remake them. Finally K and I water colored in masking tape. I got the idea from Frugal Family Fun Blog. they do some pretty fun art projects. Anyway its not done yet because we have to wait for it to dry to peal the tape back off.
Hopefully I'll be back soon with some pictures of finished projects.

appendix

I've been slacking a little here due to a few things. 1. Casey had to get his appendix out on Saturday. He was at work and had to go into emergency to have it removed that night. He's doing fine and I am enjoying him having the week off. 2. K had Roseola. Nothing serious, mostly it just made him crabby and tired. 3. I joined "bit of goodness" craft swap and have been crafting like crazy to get my stuff together to send. I joined a play kitchen swap and am making little aprons and Crocheted Cherries. My friend was in town for the weekend and taught me how to crochet. This is my 3rd attempt to learn and I think it finally sunk in this time. I have a ton more work to do before the deadline, but as soon as something is done I'll post it.
Now I'm off to enjoy some family time and make some Cherries.

Valentine's Day Unicorn

Haven't you ever heard of the Valentine's day Unicorn? Ok fine, perhaps I invented him. I wanted to make a felt animal for K and figured I'd give it to him on Valentines day. He is really into horses right now and I figured it was Valentines day so why not a unicorn. Now I know you are saying, "what do unicorns have to do with Valentines day?" I have no idea. For some reason, in my head, they just go together. Anyway K caught me taking pictures of the little guy and I quickly hid him behind my back. K pointed and said, "mine." Pretty funny considering he has never said mine before.

Monkey

I found this little monkey that had made a few years ago. For some strange reason, before I had K ,I had a brief period where I was making these little stuffed creatures. Most of them I gave away and have no pictures of, but this one turned up at the bottom of K's closet.

Knitted Turtle Finally Done

Finally after several months the turtle is done. I have put way more time into this little guy then I thought I would need to. Having to stitch together, rip out, and stitch back together is shell over and over didn't help much.
So I fully expected K to totally ignore the turtle. He really has no interested in stuffed animals. However, when C handed him the turtle when he woke up in the morning K actually played with it. He was pointing out the eyes and legs and was tipping him upside down and going, "uh ho!" How he knows turtles should not be upside down is beyond me.

Craftbook jackpot.

I went to a local library used book sale and hit the jackpot in crafting books. I found some great crafts from around the world, knitting, kits, fabric games, sewing animals, nature, and more. I really love the knitting pattern for the tools and K is obsessed with hammers and screws right now. Although he calls a hammer a {say the world gan gan with your mouth closed}. Anyway I'm super excited to pick some things to make from these books.

More suncatchers

h

Soon after I posted my pictures yesterday, I looked out the window and they had icicles hanging off of them. I think they look even prettier with the icicles.
On another note I finished my knitted turtle. Finally! I'll have pictures posted later.

suncatchers

I found this idea in a wonderful book, "Nature's Playground" by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield. I've also recently seen it pop up on a couple of blogs. We had some great weather lately where it was nice and cold but no snow so K and I collected tupperware containers, scraps from our compost, and a little food coloring. K loved arranging the oranges and leaves into the contains and really loved pouring the water. It took a couple of days to freeze, but they turned out beautiful! We also put the yarn to hang them into the containers as they were freezing.

The hearts were made from an ice cube tray I bought at Ikea several years ago and some food coloring.

So today we hung them around our cherry tree in the front yard and took pictures. I'm hoping the sun doesn't melt them all today and we get a few days to see our suncatchers.

Candlemas

Up until two weeks ago or so I had never heard of Candlemas. Then I started reading about it on different blogs and such and was intrigued. It seems that the holiday was originally a Pagan holiday to celebrate the half way point from winter to spring. It is supposed to represent new beginnings. Many people celebrate by eating foods that represent the sun coming back, making candles, and making resolutions about new beginnings. It was also adapted by the Christian faith as the final day of Christmas. The day to finally take down decorations (see that's why your decorations are still up. :).
So I thought the holiday sounded fun and decided we should celebrate this year. We ate Acorn Squash, chick peas, and mangos (sun colored/shaped). After dinner we made paper lanterns by water coloring card stock, cutting out shapes, and glueing tissue paper over the holes. K had a great time not only water coloring, but he also really like picking out tissue paper colors to cover his holes. So the first lantern is mine, then K's, then C's, and then K's grandmother's (Grammy) who joined us for dinner.
Finally the holiday ended with us holding a moment of silence and sending light and warmth to a friend and her new baby who need the hope of new beginnings.

Making progress with the turtle

really

I've been working on this knitted turtle forever. I have finally finished the knitting part only to find out that putting it together is so much harder. Here are all the pieces. the top is the shell and the bottom is the tummy, tail, feet, and head. I've gotten some of it together but what a pain this is to figure out. Anyway hopefully I'll have a complete photo tomorrow and then I can get started on trying to knit some farm animals.
OH and I'm really excited that my friend who is a crochet expert is coming to visit this month. Hopefully she'll be able to get me started. :)