So Sew

BEFORE my rampant toddler reached into the box containing my sewing machine (which I foolishly left on the floor) and SNAPPED off the plastic reel holder rendering it unusable, I did actually manage to do some sewing.  Here is Boo modelling her 'Doves and Cherries' dress, now with new addition of matching outfit for Kitty Doll.  If you like this stuff, check out clothkits which is where I bought it.

Well, its his own fault (ok its actually me own for being quite so stoopit as to think he wouldn't get his hands into EVERYTHING)that he won't be getting his Kit boy doll which I also purchased from Clothkits.  At least not until I track down a Singer repairer.

Harrummmph.

I promised you some some art in my last post.  It's on its way... soon...

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Boo has been sporting a 'wobbler' for a wee while now.  I have to say it took me by surprise, she only turned 5 in March and none of her preschool chums have lost teeth yet, but wobbling it most definitely was.  And out it most definitely has now come.  She is so proud, especially as it came out at preschool so was quite the 'event' and Boo quite the focus of attention for a few minutes.

Every lost tooth needs a pillow, so here is ours, fashioned from an offcut of a lovely echino fabric I picked up, complete with pockets for the tiny tooth and for the shiny coin.  What is the going rate I wonder?  I have a shiny new loony ($1 Canadian coin) so I'm thinking that will be just right.  No doubt inflation has hit since we used to find a 10p coin under our pillows.

Of course the pillow has to hang on the outside of the door.  The tooth fairy may be welcome, but like Santa she is not allowed to actually enter the bedroom.

Papier Mache hearts

I know, I know, Valentine's Day is history, but I'm still a-catchin-up, having been through a bout of flu. I had four of these little beauties in the production line for 'V'day, but I'm afraid only one actually reached being finished in time. For the one most likely to complain if something was not produced for her on the day! In fact, this was originally intended to be a 'Mama n Boo' project, but like so many of my little brainwaves, it turned out (no doubt due to the laboriousness of the papier mache technique), ended up being a Solo Mama project. We started out with heart shapes cut out of card, which were then given some form with scrunched up newspaper and masking tape.

 

Then the papiermache began, using the laminating technique i.e. layering pieces of newspaper coated on both sides with paper paste. Don't forget to factor in drying time as it can take several days to dry, and you need at least 5 layers to make it strong enough.

After the drying, I got stuck into decorating, painting with acrylics and decorating with cut fabric pieces and beads, before putting a hook in the top and attaching a ribbon to hang it from.

Another mama heart for my Boo. Now for the other ones...

Bunny's Burrow

Boo goes to a Waldorf preschool, doesn't watch tv, and has very limited access to other media, one result of this being that she doesn't fall prey to kiddy consumerism. This fact, along with the vivid imaginative life she lives with her 'guys' (soft toys), leads to her requesting gifts that are interesting... and usually challenging for me in that I have to make them. One year she asked for a new outfit for bear, simple enough. This year, she requested a 'bunny burrow' for her beloved bunny. Okay, no problem. Errrm, what exactly does a bunny burrow look like and how would one go about making one? Well, here is what I came up with...

Bunny's burrow is fashioned from a large piece of felted sweater, rolled into a tube and sewn into a cylinder open at one end. As this was rather floppy, I used some pipe cleaner circles to reinforce the cylinder at 3 points, and sewed pretty ribbon over them to keep them in place. Finally, I knitted bunny some cosy wool bedding. Doesn't he look cosy? Upon opening her gift, Boo looked initally unsure, then asked 'is this a bunny burrow?'. When I assured her that, yes, this was indeed a bunny burrow she seemed to accept it completely (I don't think she had really visualised beforehand what a bunny burrow may indeed look like) and bunny was swifly installed in his burrow. Phew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Past

This year, we have mostly been reprising favourite Christmas crafty/bakey goodies from previous years.  Broken nights with the wee boy are zapping me of the energy to devise anew, but I'm reassured that seasonal rituals are just what small ones find most reassuring.  So here,in the spirit of ritual, are some of our christmas activities from years past.

Activity-based advent stockings

 

Salt Dough Christmas Tree Ornaments

 

Potato printed christmas wrapping paper

 

Plaster cast christmas decorations

 

Gingerbread House

 

Origami Advent Calendar

 

King Winter/Winter Waldorf Nature Table

Hope you are enjoying some Christmas making rituals!

 

 

 

Autumn Window Trees; the reprise

Just a year ago (was that all it was?!), we created our window trees - see their first Autumnal incarnation here.  My goodness, I look back at this and it seems me and the Boo had all the time in the world, now we snatch babe's naptimes as our together time, and to be truthful, mostly we are are outside hunting for spiders and worms rather than creating anything much.  But the trees have been taken to heart as tradition so on they must go!

My current motto for living 'keep it simple' was applied to the trees this season and we simply did some wax leaf rubbings, cut them out and stuck them onto the window.  I say 'we' but Boo only did a couple, leaving me to ensure the trees didnt look completely bereft.  Boo enjoyed applying some of them floating down and on the ground. 

We are loving Autumn right now, with it's bright days (for now at least!), plentiful spidery wonders to be found, funghi sprouting everywhere, leaves fluttering and bulbs to be planted. 

Kitted-out Kitty

 
Hi there!  We've had family visiting for the past few weeks, and I've been spending evenings chatting and sewing... this lovely little creation from Clothkits for Boo.  By hand.  Every little tiny piece.  Somehow I just had to do it, and now I do think it's out of my system.  Phew. 

So I introduce to you Kitty, with her complete kit:

... dungarees

 
...in a pretty floral dress

 
 
... in her 'car outfit'

 
...and her sunflower kimono

this kitty knows how to wear her hat at just the right jaunty angle...

 
Kitty has been taken to Boo's heart and is now accompanying her of many of her daily adventures.

Boo's Felt Board

 
A felt board for Boo, put together in a (short) naptime with a snip, staple, snip.  I had an old wooden stretcher from a past screen printing project hanging around, but you can buy wooden stretcher pieces from good art shops and choose the dimensions to suit you.  A large piece of felt was stretched over and stapled on the back.  Then we raided the felt stash and I just quickly cut out a few shapes as they occurred to me... we ended up with a duck pond scene!  I did cut out some more shapes using felted sweaters but the big ones of those turned out to be too heavy.  The ducks and pink flowers however just about worked so I think small items are ok using this material.

We will cut out some more shapes so Boo can have more variety to create scenes/stories; perhaps some more urban pieces.  I may also make some more abstract forms and see how Boo takes to working with them.  I'll be finding a corner to install this on the wall for some felt fun and play.

 

The Boo Paper Doll

A little while ago I made Boo a paper doll based upon herself...

 
I drew out some clothes based upon her own wardrobe, some of which I coloured and some of which she coloured.

 
 
 
Can you spot which one she did?!

Today we decided to update her wardrobe as Boo has grown out of all the items we based these pieces on.  Everything went a bit pink...

 
 
The poor girl needed some shoes...

 
... and here are the originals they are based upon...

 
The colouring became a bit cursory as time went on, (Boo not showing any signs of inheriting my love of colouring as yet!), but paper Boo was soon bedecked in Boo's favourite 'Kjitebjorn (polar bear)' t shirt.

 
When I was little I love love loved paper dolls, so I'm thrilled to share this with my daughter (you could indeed ask, who are these for?).  I remember having a very precious box of them and I seem to remember I had some hand-drawn and coloured ones which had belonged to my mum (I will have to check my fact with her here, it's possible this is a fantasy).  There are some great vintage ones available on the internet to print out.

What's next I wonder, a whole family of dolls and wardrobes?

Summer Windows

We are a little behind the traditional calendar beginning of Summer here, but then the weather in Vancouver hasn't exactly been convincing us of the shift in seasons recently.  Finally we have converted our window paintings from spring blossoms and bulbs to bird and butterfly infested green goddesses.  

 
 
Not entirely sure what birds we have here, though one may be vaguely based on the local blue beauty 'Stellars Jay'.  Boo called one of the others a 'crow', but its magenta, so I'm not entirely sure myself. 

 
 
 Boo had the splendid idea of making some green grass at the bottom using some green ribbons/wool from her beloved 'ribbon box' (this girl was a jackdaw in a previous life). 

 
 
The butterflies became a little oversized but who wouldnt love them to be really that big?!

We have done a full cycle now: Autumn; Winter; Spring; Summer and I have to say the appeal has been enduring for Boo, who was shown great enthusiasm for each change.  Will we keep them for another year?  Undecided yet. But for now we will enjoy the fluttering and twittering by our dining table!

Easy Peasy Weavy Paper

It's fair to say that Boo's enthusiasm for my art projects is not always erm, well, overwhelming - usually she's deep in her imaginative play and doesn't want to stop when this happens.  Actually I'm taking her slightly less clinging demeanour of late as a good sign that we are perhaps moving through the 'difficult' post-baby-birth period and I'm hoping it means she feels more secure in her attachment to me.  Anyhow, she said no to this activity, so I just went ahead and started it myself.  Sometimes I wonder if I devise these things for myself anyway.. (actually I know I do, at least in part!). 

I had been thinking about activities using scissors as Boo struggles with them and I'd like to encourage her to get comfortable using them.  I know she can manage to cut a straight line if I put her fingers in the scissors in the right way, so I thought we could do a bit of paper weaving, the first stage of which would be cutting out the strips of paper.

So, the strips of paper turned out rather neater than those I was expecting to be produced at the hands of my preschooler!  I simply used a ruler to mark out widths and cut equal strips from different brightly coloured paper (IKEA).  Then, to make it a bit more interesting, I used Boo's Stockmar block crayons to create some colour/texture variation on the surface. 

Then the weaving began, and who should I find taking an interest.. Boo of course.  Create, and they will come.  In the end it was the weaving aspect that hooked in the little artist, and she sat on my knee and helped me weave the paper under and over, under and over.

 
 
Looking forward to some more weavy activities with the small one, building up to a small weaving loom at some point.

Clothkits n Cut Outs

It's been a while.  I've had a lovely little Clothkits parcel stashed away for a while now. First the season was wrong, then my belly swelled.  Finally it's time had come, and the scrunchy tissue was removed, the sewing machine unhusked and zim zum, voila, a skirt.  I was especially looking forward to this one as the design is by the tremendous Rob Ryan, whose quirky and poetic paper cuts are just what you would wish for on a skirt.   It wasn't yet open when I was living in East London, but when I finally get to go back (can't face it with a babe and preschooler in tow right now!) I'll definitely be making a visit to his shop Ryantown in Spitalfields.

Enough preamble, here's the item in question...

 
With Dadda Boo in the UK on a business trip, it was a one-woman (at least for now...) photo shoot in the mirror.  Hmmm, see the issue there?  The text.  Yes, the text... ho hum. The cut out lettering on the bell says 'This bell will ring when you take me in your arms and hold me'.  What more can one ask for than a romantic skirt?!

 
Ah yes, as you can see, I wasn't alone for very long. 

 
On the back the text reads 'Every bird is my brother and sister'.  Boo loves this.

And soon I was relegated to the background.

 
I have great respect for someone who can wield a scalpel with such impressive results, precision never having been my forte. 

Staying with cut-outs, today we picked up this book from the library:

 
Nicky McClure is a self taught cut-out artist who uses black paper to create images, usually with a family/home life theme. Her book Mama, is it summer yet? was just right for us today, when we are hanging on for the pacific northwest summer to finally emerge.  The young boy asks if it is summer way too early and his mother plants seeds with him and draws his attention to things changing in the natural world around them, until the strawberries are in fruit and summer is finally here.

 
 
 
Finally, if paper cutting rings your bell, you must check out the work of Peter Callesen, who can do things with a scalpel and a piece of A4 white paper than I can only marvel at.

Now where did I put those cack-handed scissors?

Fuzzy wuzzy pot

I knitted this pot following the pattern in Catherine Tough's 'Easy Knits for Little Kids' - you knit and then felt in the washing machine (if you've never tried this, its such fun - shrinking without the 'oh my gawd, what have I done?! factor).  I used Rowan Scottish Tweedy chunky in oatmeal.

 
 
 
But what should go in such a fuzzy wuzzy pot?  Why, bears of course, so Boo determined.  What else could it possibly be for?!