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.