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.