Animal Hospital

Andy chose this activity out of The Rainy Day Book by Jane Bull.


He painted a medium sized cardboard box yesterday so this morning we made the door out of the cut off flaps of the box opening.

The latch...

Putting his doggie toy in the pet hospital for some special TLC... I've had that dog since I was two :)

He took a bowl and put some scraps of wool yarn for Dog's special food...

:)

Felted Soap project made easy for kids...

Andy really enjoyed this activity.  We're making lots more for Christmas presents. It's so great that Andy can make his own useful presents for his cousins.

Take some pure wool roving (can be purchased at your local yarn store) and a piece of soap and cover the soap with thin layers of roving alternating the direction of laying the fibers until the soap is covered with a few layers (about 3 or 4).  It's fun to use different colours.

Slightly wet it with hot water so the fibers stick a little better to the soap then put it into a plastic bag making a knot near the soap to close the bag (I used a see-through small freezer bag - you could also use a zip lock bag).  Doing this makes it much easier for kids because the fibers shifts a lot in the beginning before it starts felting and the bag helps keep it in place on the soap.

You then let your child rub it vigorously as much as they want.  After doing this for a while I like to shock the fibers to help it felt easier so we took it out the bag and got a glass bowl of hot water.  We then put the soap under a a running tap of cold water and then briefly dipped it in the hot water before placing it back into the bag to rub again.  The sudden cold water wash shocks the fibers into locking tighter together as does the combination of rubbing (agitation), soap and warm water.  Do this procedure a few time (about 3 or 4) until the felt is dense and to your satisfaction.  Wash the 'foam' off with cold water and roll in a towel or some roller towel (kitchen paper towel) to get the excess water out and leave over night to dry.

Our dried soaps... (I like the way Andy arranged his soap to be purple on the top and bottom and green round the sides)

How to use: Wet it when bathing or showering and work up a bit of lather then rub on your skin as you would a cloth or sponge.

Rubber Stamp people

We recently got a great art book out the library. I like to give a book to Andy and ask him to choose which craft he wants to do so this time he chose rubber stamped people.  It was fun and of coarse I joined in to experience the fun with him.

You literally take a rubber (pencil eraser) and cut it into the following shapes...

Then you take strips of paper and a sponge with some black paint on and stamp the body parts in different directions for fun little men.  I just cut the top off of a kitchen sponge and used it for the paint.  The only black paint we had was fabric paint (which I bought for painting the face onto a rag doll for a family members sewing project) which worked perfectly.

He asked me to make stamps for a car so I cut those out too...

With this masterpiece he smudged a stamp to create a ... Spaceship!

We used bits of his art and some imagination to make a birthday card for one of his cousins' up coming 8th birthday...

And we made another card with scrap pieces of scrapbook paper, beads and felt for the sister of the cousin who's turning 8 so she won't feel left out...

My Personal Blog

I started a new blog (used to have one but not using that anymore) for all my crafty projects (mainly knitting) that I'm working on.  So now Andy, Jane and me each have a blog to record our interests and enjoy in years to come.  Pop on over to Ann's Work Basket if you're interested in seeing what's on my needles. :)

Some Randomness

Every night we tell Andy to choose some books to read before bedtime.  One night I got met by this!  Andy's bedtime reading selection... Wishful thinking!!!

We had a lovely family outing strawberry picking.  Andy LOVES strawberries.  It's impossible for him to stop eating it even if he's full so I have to do a spot of daily strawberry consumption monitoring.

And of coarse he spends loads of time with his little sister.  Kissing, hugging, cuddling, kissing, kissing, kissing and just in case I didn't mention it... kissing.  Often poor little Jane is caught between Andy attaching her one cheek and me the other with hundreds of kisses :)

Andy's 4th Birthday Party

We had Andy's party at a indoor play place near to where we live called Kidz PlayZone.  And oh boy was it worth every cent!  The kids had a wonderful time and I didn't have any washing up - win/win situation I would say :)

Andy said he wanted a Tigger theme cause he chose the Winnie the Pooh party room so here's some pics of his Tigger party...

Having fun on the trampoline...

Jumping Castle...

The party room...

Party packs on the table.  Tigger buckets with lids...

The cake!  I ordered the cake from them cause I could hardly manage making the adult platters let alone bake and ice a cake.  It was sooooo delicious!  Andy loved it!

Tucking in.  Each party pack for 2 year olds and up had a 'real' cell phone as the party favor.  It's the case of a real cell phone with all the proper buttons and heavy too but obviously without a working screen.  They had such fun making phone calls.  In fact I had to wait for Andy to finish his conversation on his new cell phone before we could cut the cake.

I made some sweet and savoury platters for the adults table...

All in all we had a wonderful time and I will not be surprised if Andy's 5th birthday party is done in exactly the same way.  Why try improove on something that worked so well, hey!? 

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MY SWEETHEART!

Farm take-along set

I try to have some 'creative' time for myself once a day so whether it's knitting 5 stitches or sewing a bib at least I keep my creative bug under control :)  Another thing I like to do is to read my favourite blogs once a week (usually on a weekend when I have a free hour or two when Luke takes Andy out and Jane is asleep).  I spotted this lovely project on Frugal Family Fun for a Farm take-along toy and I knew I just HAD TO make it for Andy's ever growing collection of farm animal toys.  I started the project about a month ago and completed it last week.  It was so much fun!  It could easily be done in a day if you have the opportunity of sewing without interruption.  It was so simple.  I just took her photo as a guide and made my own out of felt.  The playmat was hand stitched everything else I did on the sewing machine.

For a bit of a 3D effect to the play mat I stitched this lilly pad out of felt...

Andy took it with to his grandparents on the weekend and him and his cousin had such fun playing farm under the dining room table :)