Wee felt gnomes for the wee one

I'm not going up to the wire with christmassy-making this year, as tempting as it may be.  'Project Baby' is making itself felt, with the swelling of my belly (and some serious huffing and puffing yesterday when I attempted some usually-easily-accomplished canyon steps on one of our favourite trail walks),  some sharp jabs in the ribs, and some reminders ('when exactly are those nursery curtains going to be made?).  So, the eight-week deadline (God, is it only 8 weeks?!) has become more imposing than the next-week one.

However, before the elvish streak abandoned me, I put together these wee felt gnomes for Boo.  Gnomes have been her only request this year, no doubt inspired by the gnome fun she has at school.  I also picked her up some  of these wooden ones from Natural Pod for a bit of variety.

I used the instructions for felt gnomes available here which are very clear.  I really would recommend using 100% wool felt - the quality/feel is so much superior to other felts, and it doesn't get that nasty bobbling polyester felt does.

 
 
I made some even-more-wee gnomes too, to create some family dynamics.  I should probably make some little babies to go with them too!

This would probably make a great sewing project for kids too - its so simple.

Boo and I have had a couple of other elvish moments too of late, but I'm keeping them under wraps for the time being so as not to spoil any surprises... and by the way, exactly how do you get a 3 year old to keep secrets?!

Lazy Mama's Door Wreath

 

Our advent activities calendar tasked us with making a winter wreath today.  But Mama couldn't find any green garden twine to attach wreathy materials, and it was heavy sleet outside the door so I didn't feel like venturing out on a collecting mission. Cue some lazy wreath-making...

We have a wreath base (Walmart I think) into which its easy to poke materials, so a few off-cuts from the christmas tree found themselves wedged in.  Then we raided the 'autumn box' for some fir cones, and Boo's 'ribbon box' for some ribbons, and just tied those fellas on there.  Finally I pulled out the unspun wool, and we made some strands of wool to wrap around.

Lazy, but at least our door is now decked, and we are keeping pace with the advent calendar... only 10 more!

Picture Book Picks for Christmas 2010

Here's my top picks for childrens picture books of 2010 I think any young bibliophile would be thrilled to unwrap on christmas morning...

 
'Cave Baby', Julia Donaldson (author), Emily Gravett (illus), Macmillan 2010

When you bring together the inimitable talents of Donaldson (Gruffalo, Snail and the Whale etc) and the fluid pencil work of Gravett (Apple, Pear, Orange, Bear etc), you are most likely in for a cracker.  A stone age baby fond of cave wall daubing romps with a hairy mammoth and other creatures.

 
'It's a Book', Lane Smith, Roaring Book Press, 2010

This is a very 'knowing' and funny book, and for that reason in many ways I think its one of those children's books which might be more for the adults.  Certainly my little girl would not 'get it', knowing little about the technological world, which is the way I would prefer things for the time being.  Older children who are familiar with technological gadgets and gizmos but have a great love for the printed book would probably enjoy the humour. But maybe the grown ups even more.

 
'Owls see Clearly at Night', Julie Flett, Simply Read, 2010

Julie Flett is a Cree Metis Vancouver illustrator (Zoe and the Fawn) whose exquisite digital collage work we recently saw at 'Collage Collage'.  This book is a Michif alphabet with beautifully spare illustrations.  Boo liked the bear hiding behind the tree.

 
'The Quiet Book', Deborah Underwood (author), Renata Liwska (illus), Houghton Mifflin 2010

A book about many different kinds of quiet - from comfortable quiets to the quiet of having done something wrong.  A beautifully meditative book with some adorable animal characters, rendered in fine pencil with digital colouration.

 

'Shadow', Suzy Lee, Chronicle 2010

Suzy Lee hasn't put a foot wrong as far as I can see.  With her wordless books 'Mirror' , 'Wave' and those with a spare story ( 'The Zoo'), her lively marks in charcoal, ink wash or pencil convey the energy and imagination of a young girl's antics.  In 'shadow' the girl plays in a dark attic, where the shadows begin to have a life of their own.

 

'Up and Down', Oliver Jeffers, Harpercollins 2010

Oliver Jeffers can do no wrong.  'up and down' is the next installment in the adventures of the boy and his friend the penguin, who decides it is his mission to learn how to fly.  'The Great Paper Caper' remains my favourite, but who can resist another deadpan tale of adventure and absurdity?

 
'The Tree house', Marije Tolman and Ronald Tolamsn, Lemniscaat USA, 2010

Boo and I were mesmerised when we came across this at the library.  The cover was enough for the Boo, who is obsessed by polar bears, and to look inside to see that he is joined in the tree house by a brown bear who flies there on a boat, she was sold.  So was I by the quality of the art work, which is stunning.  A wordless book, the tree house remains throughout as it is visited by hoards of flamingoes, rhinos and other animals who join the bears to hang out and enjoy the tree.  Magical. 

Happy Reading!

 

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Our paper decorations are up...

 

 
Boo requested 'hand in hand animals for her room...

 
 
There's snow on the window trees (just waiting for the real snow outside now)...

 
The salt dough ornaments are on the trees...

 
 
The winter nature table is all set up (ok, I know it's not officially winter yet, but these things came out when the christmas box was opened, what can ya do?)...

 
... and yesterday we completed 'the gingerbread house'.  I say 'we' but in reality Boo spent most of the decorating time munching on the sweets.

 

 
We are enjoying our christmas preparation, hope you are too!

Salt Dough Christmas Tree Ornaments

Day 2 and we are off and running with our advent activities! 

Today's activity was to decorate some salt dough shapes.  It was a case of 'here's one I did earlier' (for those people who are familiar with Blue Peter!), as we'd already cut and baked the salt dough shapes on another day.

There is a recipe for salt dough here.  I've had a few issues with getting the cooking time right, it has to be long n low, but I've had things come out overly soft if they are thick - the cooking time listed here is about right for thin shapes, but you will need to increase time or temp for thicker pieces.  I managed to overcook my thin shapes this time, not heeding my own advice, so they bubbled up slightly, but ho hum there you go.

 
We used some small and medium sized christmas-shaped cutters for our ornaments, remembering to pierce a hole in the top for the hanging attachment (I used a bamboo skewer for this).

 
Baked it...

... then today, painted and decorated them.

 

 
Now we just need the tree!

Advent Adventures

With my recent unreliable levels of energy, I wasn't sure I was going to make a homemade advent calendar this year (see last year's here), but here it is after all...

 
I decided to once again do an 'advent activities' calendar, so each little stocking contains a small card with an activity written on it for that day.  I've tried  to not get carried away and to keep it realistic, just hope I've managed it.  I found this beautiful origami paper at the local art store, then just folded each sheet in half and cut a stocking shape, glueing it around the edges to make a pocket into which the activity card could be inserted.  Then hole punched each side of the top and threaded a ribbon through the lot before hanging it on the wall.

 
 
For the activities, I used our list from last year which I found it my notebook, fitted in activities we already had scheduled, and picked up a couple of ideas from The Artful Parent's Advent Calendar.

Here's our activity list:

1.  Get out the Christmas box


2. Decorate salt dough ornaments (we made these last week)


3. Write a letter to Santa


4. Make paper snowflakes


5. Choose a Christmas tree


6. go to the library and get some Christmas books


7. Paint snow on our 'window trees'


8. Make paper chains


9. Make gingerbread house pieces


10. Put gingerbread house together and decorate


11. Go on a light-filled train adventure (Bright Nights in Stanley Park)


12. Learn a Christmas son


13. Make presents for your teachers


14. Make a wreath for the door


15. Make something for Dadda


16. Tell the Christmas story


17. Paint a snowy scene


18. Find some reindeer on a mountain (Grouse Mountain)


19. Go out to see some Christmas lights


20. Make mince pies


21. Make something for the Winter nature table


22. Go on a winter nature walk


23. Make some bird treats


24. Choose treats for Santa and his reindeer

 

As I said, I wasn't sure I was going to get around to a homemade calendar this year, so to cover myself I had already bought the one pictured above, an eeboo calendar, featuring artwork by renowned childrens book illustrator Melissa Sweet, whose work we are familiar with from the 'Baby Bear' series and the 'Hugaroo' books. 

So now we have two... and at least some of it will be a surprise for me too!

 

 

 

 

 

Fungi play

I can't quite seem to get anything finished right now.  In fact, I've planned a few blog posts in the last couple of weeks, but just can't seem to see things through to the page.  Boo has been through a string of minor ailments, and has kindly shared the last one with me. Only a cold but, having no recourse to decongestants thanks to being preggers, it ain't much fun.  And pregnancy related nausea and fatigue has returned as I entered the third trimester.  Oh joy.

Enter Dadda Boo, who has been working around the clock in the face of extreme pressure at work in recent weeks.  Inspired by the 'mushroom stools' in the kids' exploratorium area of the Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre during a visit with the Boo yesterday, upon returning home he fashioned this for her:

 

One and a half hours and he's made something from start to finish.  For a while, he's been drying out and finishing tree stumps for use and decoration around our home so he chose one as a base.  A circular base for the top of the mushroom was then cut from a scrap of board we already had.  Mining my textiles stash, we found some brown fleece left from Boo's teddy bear costume I sewed her for Halloween, and some batting which was used to pad the seat.  The only items that had to be purchased were the brackets for fixing the seat to the base.  That's what I call resourceful.

We brought the stool into Boo's play space, and within minutes she was transforming it.  Not quite in the way we were expecting... it had a blue silk draped over it and became a sea.

 
I can see lots of scope for play with the mushroom - a home for some small creatures, a climbing structure for toy and child alike.... we'll have to see what she comes up with.

 
With all this productivity going on in the house, I couldn't be outdone and resolved to complete something....some slippers for Boo.

 

These slippers were a super-simple knit from A Second Book of Knitting for Children.  Super simple, but I was faffing around with the leather I used for the sole for too long, as I was trying to figure out how to punch the right size hole in it... in the end I just needed the right needle to sew it on.  Boo loves her embellishments, so I needlefelted some little flowers to go on top. 

Right, bring on all those unfinished projects.

Still here (and kicking).

Well, things have been whizzing along in HuggerBoo land, and I have found myself having a hiatus from blogging.  It's ironic that the time I have lots I would like to blog about, I can't seem to actually get around to blogging. 

There have been visitors (thanks for coming to see us Nicky, Anne and James!). 

There has been some 'nesting'.  I said goodbye to my cherished studio, now relocated downstairs to share Dadda Boo's office, to make way for baby's space.

There have been some extra 'zzzz's ' for pregnancy. 

There have been a couple of needles, some sickly glucose drink and a scan which revealed 'boy parts'.  All progressing well at week 27 with the little fella, though I do wish he would stop bouncing on my bladder.  And those night cramps - owww!

 

There has been a teddy bear outfit sewn, some pumpkins carved and some treats munched.

There has been enthusiasm for preschool and a promise of gnomes being made by Santa Bear's (there's fear of Santa around these parts) elves.  Better get sewing little elf.

There have been mushroom hunts (most fruitful in our wet corner of the world), trail tramping and sandbox-sitting.

There has been a Dadda Boo working around the clock at his busiest time of year.

 

 

And each week since the beginning of October, there has been for me, a class about children's book writing and illustration with the immensely experienced Kathryn Shoemaker (see a selection of her books here ).  And an attempt to squeeze in a few hours a week to work on developing my new book with the insight I am gaining from the course. 

 

 

So I went to the 'Fall Illustrator's Breakfast', organised the the Childrens Literature Roundtable of Vancouver in October, which was lovely, and was written about here by the fantastic author/illustrator Lisa Cinar, who was sitting on the table behind me.  The presentation was made by Pierre Pratt, whose quirky painterly illustrations are really inspiring.

 

And I have been learning much more about wizzardy illustrators and authors in the field, one of my top discoveries (how I missed him before I'm not really sure), being John Burningham, who was again written about by Lisa Cinar on her excellent picture book blog here. 

Little Bear Boo is calling for me again but I will try to come back to this space before too long this time... and do a proper 'in the present' post.

Scaled-down Autumn Nature 'Table'

We have grappling for a little while here with the issue of the 'nature table' in the Waldorf tradition.  We have been trying to maintain its tradition in our house, but it's placement has been problematic.

Our winter table and spring table were both in the basement... they looked nice, but we don't really go down there too often, so the purpose was rather defeated.  If I placed the nature table on a surface in our upstairs living/play area, it was simply dismantled and played with. 

Here's our Autumnal solution, a scaled-down nature display on our dining table.

Looks great with the autumn trees...

... and this morning, there were a few visitors for a morning pre-hibernation feast. 

In addition, Boo has a whole box of conkers, dried leaves and fir cones to make use of in her play, with which she seems most contented.
 
 
   

Jewels in the Rain

Turned persistently wet around here.  But we are out there, playing and walking, looking for mushrooms and slugs, until it just gets too heavy and we retreat.  Despite the insistent dampness, I love the Autumn/Fall - mycological treasure hunts, misty mountains and creeks, the glorious colours of the (somewhat soggy) leaves underfoot.  There is just so much to find and wonder at with a small one.

And Fall always means spiders; in the garden, in the house, webs strung between trees.  Noted these little jewels in our wet outside play yesterday.

If I only had a camera which could do these little jewels justice.... maybe soon :)

Happy treaure hunting!
  
 
 

A scrappy start... and a skirt.

 
I've reached 20 weeks, the half-way point to baby, and I can't believe how the time is just whizzing by, especially now I'm not lingering by the toilet bowl of a morning/afternoon/evening.  Time to get busy.  Thus far, this little collection of woolly warmers is all I have managed, though I am currently sewing up a bunny and a teddy.  The palette might have you thinking I'm knitting wee things for a boy, but that the colours are merely those scraps I had in my stash from previous little gifts etc.  It will be another two weeks before we know the gender of this little wriggler. 

In the meantime, I wanted to make sure Boo got a winter woolly out of me before the house may seem dominated by making/buying/preparing for the baby.  This little wrap skirt was from Catherine Tough's 'Easy Knits for Little Kids' book and was, as the title suggests, dead simple.  What was not simple was getting the little lady to stay still for half a second to pose for a picture. 

See what I mean?  Doesn't help that dark n drizzly days have set in round these parts.  The skirt was knitted with the yarn that is becoming my favourite it seems: Rowan Scottish Tweed.  The textures are great, the wool softens lots on washing and the colours are Scottishly soft. 

Happy Autumn!

Collagraph Capers

A collagraph is a relief print made using materials applied to a base surface.  The wonderful thing about collagraph printing is how endless the possibilities are, and also how its great for recycling/using up lots of bits you may have lying around.  Ok, so that's two things.  A pro printmaker may use thin wood as a base to avoid warping, but for working with kids, a thick piece of card works great, the back of an old sketchbook is ideal.

We gathered our materials:

We used some tissue paper, string, fabric scraps, kitchen foil, corrugated card and some dried corn husks.  The first step is to apply the materials to the surface.  Remember that you are thinking texture above everything - its the raised areas that will take the ink when its rolled over.  We used plain old pva glue, but if you are looking for something more durable, you will want to use wood glue, and seal with some shellac-based varnish. 

Lots of glueing ensued.

And here's mine.

 
The surface needs to be sealed prior to printing, so I applied a surface coat of pva, and left to dry overnight.

Next day:

I picked up some metallic water-based printing inks dirt cheap a while back in a sale, and was keen to try them out, so we rolled out some gold for Boo's printing tile, and used some coloured sugar paper.

You need a tray and roller for the ink, and the ink is applied to the printing surface thoroughly, making sure you get 'into' all the textures/raised surfaces.  The paper is laid over the top, and then pressure applied on top to make the print.  We used the back of a metal spoon as that can more deftly get into all the different textures, but this is tricky for a young'un, and Boo rather lost interest at this point.

So the results were...hmmm... well I thought I little too subtle.  So now I'm thinking of using the metallic inks as a second colour in a two-colour print, or perhaps trying coloured tissue paper as that may pick up more ink than the tissue paper.

So when it came to inking up my tile (Boo had scarpered by this point), I returned to the reliability of black water-based printing ink, and newsprint.

That's more what I was expecting, but I'm keen to explore using colours and different papers to print onto, so I'm sure there'll be some more experimentation further down the line. 

Rainy season is setting in here, so expect to see plenty more from the studio, especially as its days are numbered, it being required as a nursery early next year!