printers tray

About a month ago I won a printers tray on trade me. It was delivered to us but stolen from our front door step a few minutes later. I was so upset as I'd had planned to spend an afternoon with Mae putting it together. I was determined to own another one ( Thomas has one already) so I bid again and won another  last week. It arrived today! It couldn't have come on a better day as it rained heavily all day long. Mae loved poking the bits of paper in the spaces and as soon as dad got home she called him into her room to show it off. I have put some of my nana's and great grandmother's ornaments in it so there better not be any more shakes!

dolls

I made these a few months ago and modeled them on the cloth dolls and softies that are all over the internet. Our kids started at a new pre school that has three rooms for different ages. As a 'hello' present we gave the owl to the nursery ( as it has no buttons on it ) and a doll each to the 2-3.5 and 3.5-5 year old rooms. They've named them Affie and Aroha and I'm not sure what the owl's called : )

Pinterest

Is a fun online sort of scrapbook/ ideas sorter outer- I love it as a way of 'saving' the great ideas I find when I'm browsing- here's my page
http://pinterest.com/beckywilson/

blogs

I follow lots of lovely crafty, inspirational blogs and site so every now and then I'll post one of my favourites- here's the first. http://www.lilmagoolie.com/

do do do-do

This post is a bit of silliness. We got married last year and I wanted to have a fun cake topper that was also personal and a bit quirky. I had seen some little wooden people on Esty I loved but they cost heeeeaps so I bought a packed of Das from a local craft store, sat down and started 'playing'. To get the scale correct I worked out ( roughly) how much taller my husband is than me and where the kids come up to on me and made each of us- and the dog. Das is great as it air dries and can be painted. I used toothpicks pushed down inside the 'bodies' to hold the heads on. After 3 days drying in the kitchen I painted them as closely as I could to what I thought we'd be wearing on the day and gave them all a varnish. My husband laughed when he saw them and thought we were all a bit chubby but I loved the result and they now sit above the fireplace ( yes they survive the quakes) reminding us of our special day.

our playhouse

When I was putting this together Mae asked me if it was going to be her new bedroom : ) We got the house for $95 on trade me. It was a little worse for wear but I think it had character and was a much nicer alternative to a plastic kit set one. I painted it inside with loads of white paint and outside with 5L of grey exterior paint I got from the paint exchange on Blenheim road ( here in Christchurch) for about $15. The roof is painted with testpots of Resene Ironsand ( which is the colour I'm keen on if our roof EVER gets painted!). I painted a blackboard with the last few drops of blackboard paint I found in the garage. I bought a fat quarter of the monkey face fabric online from thumpcat fabrics to make the bunting. The chairs were 50c each on trade me and I planned to paint them but decided they'd be fiddly and quite liked the 'beaten up' look of them. I put up hooks here and there and the kids helped me decide what toys to put in it. It looked neat and tidy for about 3 minutes! I've since bought them a little brush and pan to sweep the sand and grass out from time to time : ) They play in it every day and I love sitting on the lawn outside it listening to their funny conversations about baking and feeding baby and all the other things Mae generally bosses Thomas into doing.

waaaay back in Easter

The year has gone by so fast, here's some things I made for the kids for Easter. I thought I'd share because they were so easy peesy to make and came together really quickly- that's one of the fun tings about working with felt. I based the mushroom idea on similar ones I'd seen on the web and the rabbits were modeled on a character in one of Thomas's books. I enjoyed seeing their wee faces when they opened them Easter morning but next year I'll make a note to wrap homemade things separately from any chocolate- their attention was soon off the toys and on to how to get the wrappers off their chocolate eggs!

earthquake art

We've been having earthquakes here in Christchurch. After the September 'event' I got together some of our broken plates and cups and made this mosaic for the very boring wall outside my kitchen window. The process was really easy. I had the hubby cut me 3 squares of chipboard, glued the broken pieces on with liquid nails and when they were dry I filled the spaces with a black grout. I look at them when I do the dishes and they remind me of how thankful I am that my family and friends are safe.

the wake up light

I read a neat idea on the internet last week and headed straight to trade me to buy Mae a wall light. The idea is to set a timer to turn the light on at the time you'd like your child to get out of bed ( or out of their room ) in the morning. We tested the timer and went to bed last night hoping for no 4am visitors to our bed....sadly Mae ran into our room at 1.30am yelling "My light went on!My light went on!" Jamie was sure he'd set it correctly. We're off to Bunnings tomorrow to buy a new timer!

brrr chilly days

Lately we've had some colder days so I've lit the fire and thought about how to keep the kids happy as well as warm for the day. A few days ago I remembered we'd kept the box from our new tv so after a bit of hacking with a bread knife ( by me!) we got out the tape and started building bridges, tunnels, car parks, race tracks and garages. The kids spent about an hour playing with it and when they're finished it will just go into the recycling ( or be used for something else!).

simple bead counting toy

I saw these in a classroom I was in today so on the way home I flew into Spotlight and bought two packets of beads. I thought it would make a perfect 'after tea and bath but too early for bedtime' activity for Mae and Thomas. It's really easy, just untwist the wire at the hanger part and thread the beads on. When the beads are on, just re- twist the wire part back together. I used 4 different coloured beads so that the kids could see lots of 5 and 10 and later on use it count in 2s, 5s and 10s.