Washboard

I finally put our washboard to good use. I found it at a garage sale last year and unfortunatlly it sat in the basement for quite awhile waiting to be cleaned up. Now that it is in good shape K has been using it to scrub our napkins. :)

Making Crystals

K and I had a great time making these Borax Crystals. Here is the site we used to help us: http://www.thecraftycrow.net/2010/12/ornament-advent-day-5-borax-crystals.html

First Knitted Socks

I finished my first pair of knitted socks. I used circular needles and it was actually much easier then I thought it would be. I ended up with a lot of extra yarn so I think I'm going to knit the baby a matching pair.

Owl Booties

Another friend in my long line of pregnant friends has given birth. Here is her Mother blessing candle lit with her untied bracelet. I'm excited to meet her new little boy and deliver his booties.

Bendy Man

This is my first attempt at a bendy Man. I found instructions for him from wee Folk (the book). He's not done. I still need to find him a smaller head, paint on a face, and give him a little hat. I'm thinking he might be the first of several bendy men for an upcoming swap.

Heart Garland

This is really just a simple garland. I wanted K to be able to help make it so we used felt and just some embrodiery thread. K had a great time sewing all the hearts together. I had a terrible time taking a good picture. Sorry.

Snow Man

We finally have snow sticky enough for a snowman. Here's K next to the snowman he and his daddy made.

Fruit feeders

Every year for Christmas we make fruit slice ornaments for our tree. For awhile after the tree comes down the fruit decorates our home. Eventually though, we turn our ornaments into bird feeders. Here our our feeders from last year: http://seasonalgnome.blogspot.com/2010/01/feed-birds.html

Here they are from this year:

Spreading the peanut butter and seeds on.

Our Big pile of feeders ready to go.

I didn't get any great shots of the feeders on the tree as it was 5 degrees outside and K was in a hurry to get back in the house. :)

Window Stars and stained glass

I pulled out the supplies to make a Valentine window star and K made this really pretty stained glass. He was so pleased with the results.

Snow Candles

We finally got around to making snow candles. I've been wanting to do this for so long. We've also gotten better at lighting a candle during dinner so we were in need of some new candles.

First we melted the wax. Then we dug little holes in the snow. I was so sure that when we poured the wax it it would melt the snow and make a huge hole, but nope, the wax began to harden as soon as we poured it in.

Here are the candles beginning to harden.

Our finished products. They are funny shapes, but they turned out great.

Here is one of our candles lit for dinner.

Valentines Day Crayons

Happy Valentines Day!

For K's friends this year, we made red lips and hearts crayons.

Valentines Day Cards

Valentine printmaking.

First we used a big piece of plastic. We used masking tape to make a frame. Then we painted inside the frame.

Next k used a Q-tip to draw a picture. then he would press a piece of paper on top of the painting.

Here is K painting the plastic

Here is one of K's millions of prints. He had so much fun we ran out of room to let them dry.
K had a great time making these cards. I'm planning on using the idea to make other cards in the future as K had such a good time. Here is the website I got the idea from:http://sactrippers.blogspot.com/2010/02/hand-made-valentines.html

Maple candy in the snow

Found this great recipe at: http://rosinahuber.blogspot.com/2011/01/maple-snow-candy-recipe.html.

K loved it!Ours didn't caramelize quite like it should. i think I didn't let it cool enough before pouring it in the snow. It didn't really matter though. The taste was great and it was fun.

Ice Catchers

We tried a new variation on the Ice Catcher idea. This time we used Ikea ice molds (I've been collecting them at garage sales all summer to make crayons) and food coloring.

First we filled the molds and used food coloring to dye them.

We left them outside to freeze.

Next we place them into pie tins and filled the tins with clear water (the dye leaked out of the ice cubes).

Here are the final results. Stars

Hearts

Puzzle pieces
Mixed shapes

The project took a few days for everything to freeze. My 1 mistake was taking the colored cubes inside to place them into the pie tins. They melted a bit and made for a less dramatic finish. Oh well. Next time. They still turned out pretty.

Suncatchers

A fun winter activity.

I found this fun project at this website: http://belladia.typepad.com/bella_dia/2007/12/advent-day-4-th.html

K made the star. The hole punch was hard for him to use so he needed a lot of help. I think this will be a good craft to repeat next year. Plus they look beautiful in our kitchen window.

Fun Food

This butterfly sandwich is a grill cheese with apples and carrots.

This Heart veggie dog is made with hard noodles and cheese.

I've been having fun making K's lunches lately. I guess this is what happens when you spend too much time in the house sick. :) I got the idea for both of these from Family Fun Magazine.

Mushroom Baby Booties

One of my good friend recently went into labor. Here is her mother blessing candle burning...

Here are the mushroom booties I made her little one.