Easter time sticky pictures...

Take a sheet of contact and blu-tac it to the wall, sticky side out.  Fill a small table top with easter egg cutouts, lady birds, grass, real leaves, cup cake papers and anything else you can find...

Add a couple of kids and a bit of cooperation...

And you get busy little little fingers having lots of fun!

Plus a bonus beautiful wall hanging for Ruby's bedroom !

moments at home with my little girl...

Sometimes I just have to stop and cherish those little moments I have at home with Marlise...

Helping me put the 'tatoes' into the pot.

OK, 2 days ago when I found her up on the bathroom sink eating toothpast, I was just a little bit angry...

Today, I just smiled, and took pictures.

Toothpaste art, little girls love it !

Marlise loves her daily 'block' (ice block), so we made some more.  She loves trying to squeeze the oranges...

and putting the lids on...

caught you!...and adding extra nutrients to the orange juice !

You'll never believe how long this kept her amused...a few safety pins, a tiny tea cup, a little plastic lid and a clock face...at least 15 mins of fun.  Awesome.

And then she drew me some flowers - that's what she said 'flower!'

And then she went to bed.

can you tell a story ?

A while ago, I took Ruby to a playgroup.  After some free play, the leader had all the kids sit down on the floor for story time.  That's when I got nervous.  Ruby didn't have the longest attention span, and I expected her to jump up and start wondering on to something else within a couple of minutes.  But then the story began...there was no book!  Just a few tiny stuffed animals and a hat, and the most amazing story teller that ever was...i was completely immersed in the story, and so were all the kids.  It was so fantastic!  This lady knew the story by heart, and told it with such animation using her little props - it was like the story was alive!

I wish I could remember that story...  

I went home and tried to tell Ruby about the animals who found a home in a hat, but with all the other amazing songs and ryhmes we heard that morning, I could only remember fragments of some of them which really didn't amount to much at all...so sad ! 

I'm not much of a story teller.  I think some people just have the gift, and then there's the rest of us!  But that doesn't stop me from telling stories to my kids.

Ruby loves a good book, and she's got a stack of good books,  but she loves it more when I just tell her a story.  The whole  'telling a story without a book' concept was a bit new to me at the time, so I was a slow to get started...but I'm getting better!

One of the first stories I started telling her was "The Hare and the Tortoise".  Why?  Well, because I had just seen THIS tutorial on making a felt turtle.  I love my turtle / tortoise because it was the fist felt toy I made, and I was pretty impressed with my efforts!!  So I found a story to use him in, which meant I needed a rabbit / hare.  So I made one of them too.  Then I had to re- learn the story, I was a bit rusty...and then it began.  Ruby loved it so much, we had to do that story every day, a thousand times a day, and she never tired of it...aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!  Time for a new story....

See the little Gingerbread man sitting on the foxes back !

Another story we do is the one about the "The Gingerbread Man" and the reason I started telling her that one was because I had made a felt gingerbread man ornament for the Christmas tree that year.  So there was my first prop!   And although the story calls for a pig, a cow, a horse and a fox, I figured it would be OK to change it, and use the props we already had...so by now I had made a pig anyway, and the fox was made especially for this story.  The hare and the tortoise also featured, coz there was no cow, or horse in our story stash.  but that's OK!  Kids don't mind who is acting out the story - they love the fact that you are telling them a story.

Her all time favourite stories are the ones that start with "Once upon a time there was a girl called Ruby..." Then I proceed to tell her about all the things that Ruby did that day - usually the stuff she really did do.  And it always ends with "...and the sun went down and the moon came up, and Ruby fell fast asleep."  No props, just a dose of reality in story form, and she LOVES it.


Here's a great story about Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle, a perfect 'simple' story.  Ruby and I have been practicing this one together for the last few days.  She wants to 'take' her story and do it infront of her class for show and tell sometime !

Ruby telling her version of Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle

Our story repetoire isn't that big - I'm not good at making up stories, and even telling them sometimes is a big effort, but we've gathered a few more props to help. Sometimes I'll ask Ruby to pick 3 characters and together we make up a story - the simplest ones are always a hit - kids are good at 'simple'...I need to practise that a bit more!

a child's felt treasure bag...

We had a wonderful afternoon just me and my girl...Marlise was alseep, so Ruby and I spent some quiet time together, doing 'stuff '.  It was so peaceful and relaxing...  She's spent every minute of everyday for the last week and a half playing with the neighbourhood kids.  And it's been great.  They've been riding bikes, scooters, a go-kart, and a tricycle, making bright chalk pictures all over the driveway, writing letters to the fairies and leaving them in a jar under the frangipani tree, drawing, eating popcorn, playing chasings, dancing and singing, climbing trees...just being kids and having lots of fun.  But today, was our day, none of the other kids were around and we both enjoyed some quiet time. 

Ruby started out drawing while I started sewing an elephant - at her request.  I got the pattern from a book called Sew Soft Toys, by Karin Neuschutz.  I love this book !  It has so many wonderful  patterns for all sorts of animals.

Ruby's elephant - being made out of an old wool blanket I got at the op-shop ages ago.

Anyway, after a little while, she got bored with drawing and wanted to sew "I want to do what you're doing mum !" - Isn't that so true - young children always want to imitate their parents.  That's why it's so important to be a good example to them, but that's another topic all together !  So we decided she could sew a little treasure bag out of felt. 

I was so proud of her, she sewed it up in no time at all, with no help from me, except to thread the needle.  And when she was finished she was so excited!  It made my day to see her with big smiles from something she had achieved.  She went rummaging through my craft box to find treasures to fill it with - a bell, some ribbon, piece of felt, beads and other things small enough to fit.

This is how she did it.....

First I cut a circle out of a piece of wool felt, about 10cm diametre. (OK, a circle-ish shape, my freehand cutting skills are obviously lacking !!)

Then I double threaded the needle and tied a knot at the end.  I have to do this for her otherwise she keeps pulling the needle of the thread.

Then it was up to her to sew....starting about 0.5-1cm in from the edge.

All the way around the circle.....

It doesn't matter too much that the stitches are uneven, it matters most that she did it all by herself !

Make sure that the last stitch finishes on the same side of the felt as the starting stitch.  Then cut the needle off and tie a knot.

Now pull your two strings gently to gather up the edges, forming your treasure bag.  oops!  note in the picture, that I did it wrong the first time - the string tails should be on the OUTSIDE of the bag !

And there you have it, one pretty little felt treasure bag...

And don't forget to let her raid your craft box for all those shiney little treasures she's had her eye on for ages, because now she has a safe place to keep them all !

I wrote this blog over 2 days, and she made another treasure bag today so I could take photos - forgot to yesterday, so now she has 2! 

"What can I sew now mum ?"    ummmmmmm....ok, will have to think about that ! 

Any ideas anyone ???