Hopping along (15/52)

My daughter is in the last few weeks of being a Brownie, next term she will be a Girl Guide. We are busily finishing off a few clauses for the last couple of patches she wants to complete before moving up.

One of the clauses was to have a family member teach you a new skill to make a toy, it could be sewing, knitting, woodwork etc. We started with knitting and quickly realised that this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought despite finding an easy garter stitch dog pattern (remember knitting isn't really a strong skill of mine!). So sewing it was!

We had so much fun making these little bunnies, we raided my stash of eyes and were both surprised how different they looked with just changing the eyes. We sat together chatting and stitching, it seems we don't spend enough time doing that.

We stuffed them with left over wool scraps, talking about how much better that was than going out to buy a bag a fibre-fill. I'm hoping those little thrifty moments will have a life long impact on her thinking. Making something with what you have (we talked about how we could have embroidered the eyes if we didn't have any bought ones at hand), passing on skills and having fun together. All things that don't cost a great deal.

I think I need to make it more of a regular thing.

mosaic

I know some might not like it, but it's been my kind of Summer. A fair bit of rain, lots of overcast days and cooler temperatures. It's meant we've spent less time poolside and more time indoors. I've been putting my thinking cap on to come up with some different ideas to keep us busy. It's not always an easy task, it's got to be something we all can do together and keep them interested at the same time, not to mention keeping me interested too! 

I went hunting in the garage, the poor dumping ground for my craft supplies of years gone by. I discovered a box of Fimo (polymer clay). I was a bit dubious if we could make a go of using it, sitting in the hot garage for a decade! I had one keen helper who quickly deserted me once he discovered all the kneading involved to make it pliable, though to be fair for a five year old he put in a valiant effort!  Once all the hard yards were completed (me kneading it for an hour) I quickly found a new friend, she was suddenly super keen to try out this new crafting material. 

We worked together on a couple of projects, some beads for necklaces, some Lego inspired pendants using a mould that I also used here and today inspired by the view outside our window, some brooches. Did you know that Fimo can be baked twice? That's how we made our mosaic pieces! Rolled out sheets were scored and baked. Once baked the scored lines were cut through. Then the little pieces were applied in a design on a fresh piece of unbaked clay! Cool huh?

Now I'm off to my Pinterest boards to find some more kid crafting inspiration, here's hoping I've got the supplies stashed away in my garage!

ice battles

There has been a battle raging at our house these school holidays, the ice battle. I filled an ice cream container with water and froze it, I had envisaged the kids spending some time playing a "soccer" type game with it, kicking it to each other. That's why they are wearing gumboots. It seems though, that my visions were not aligned with what the kids had planned, the story of my life.

Let the ice battles begin. They worked out a game where they both chucked up their blocks of ice, letting it smash down on the ground. Then the race was on to gather up as much of the ice as they could, jamming it back into their containers. The battle raged on for a long time, while I prepared dinner. I heard giggles, and a few cross words too (it was a battle after all) eventually I was greeted with some small slivers of ice and instructions on how I was to keep them safe in the freezer, um yeah.

There has been talks of "ice battle #2", luckily the battle supplies are easy to gather. What have your children been up to these holidays? Any ice battles? No? Just my children then!