Autumn Crafting

The girls and I have slowley found a rythym to our days whilst A is away at school. It has taken us a while because almost two hours a day are taken up with school drop off and pick up and we also need to accomodate baby L's sleeps.

Last week H and I did a craft using some of the beautiful autumn leaves that we are lucky enough to be surrounded by at the moment. These leaf transparencies are so simple yet so effective.

We simply folded a long piece of waxed luncheon paper (with the wax sides together) then I rounded the corners. We opened up the paper and arranged the leaves to our liking.

When we were happy with our arrangement we closed the paper and then I used a warm iron which melts the wax and keeps the leaves in place.

When placed in a window they are beautiful (but hard to photograph well!)

Recent Treasures

First up here are the little fairy's and a wee fairy tee pee that I made for H's Birthday. I think that they are so sweet and I love playing around with different embroidery stitches.

A little over a week after H turned 3, a little friend turned 3 and I made another fairy in a little pouch as a gift.

Fairy and pouch to gift to a friend

Some recent op shop treasures include a pair of double bed sheets with matching pillow cases. I really love this style of vintage florals but this set is causing me a dilemma - not sure if I will cut these ones up or save to use as actual sheets on the girls beds.There is also a more  modern floral pillow case which I think will one day become a summer dress or tunic.

A stack of cloth napkins. We started to use cloth napkins for each meal when the children transitioned away from wearing bibs. Because we use so many I was pretty happy to pick up a bunch of new ones. These have sweet hand stitched accents

I also found these place mat and napkin sets at the same shop as the napkins. They are little works of art. Not sure yet what I will do with them but I just had to bring them home with me.

Well I have finally finished my studies so I am planning to spend a lot more time in craft projects and to share them all here.

My Babies birthdays - part 2

First I have to say that I cannot believe that my little boy is 6, my goodness {but I think I say it every year – lol}

wow - six years ago . . .

We started the day of course with snuggles and presents. A’s gifts were set of Tashi books – we read the first book or two last year from the library and he is thrilled to have more Tashi stories.

this boy loves books

A started attending a circus skills program each week last term and we decided to get him a spinning plate and Jester stix – two of the manipulatives that he has been using in the program.

spinning plates is harder than it looks

H has watched the trick stix each week at circus and was glad to finally give them a try

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The birthday boy wanted a dragon cake!! and Spaghetti Bolognaise for his birthday dinner. The spaghetti was easy though Hubby and I made fresh pasta to make it a bit more special but a dragon cake! Thanks to Google images I was able to find a diagram that illustrated how to piece together a dragon and then the next day discovered the same dragon cake in one of my cookbooks. 

A was very pleased with his cake

I feel very grateful that Hubby had the week off work so that we could spend these special days with the children. He took the older two out in the morning for a trip to the big hardware store (a favourite destination for our children) made even better because of the school holidays and the craft activity that was running. I spent the better part of the morning on the cake. It turnd out really well. 

We had planned to have a quiet afternoon tea and while it was very nice there was a LOT of cake and I think next time we may invite a little friend or two over even if we are not having a party as such.

My babies birthdays – part 1

The start of day two at the zoo

April is always such a busy month for our little family. As well as Easter we also celebrate two very special birthdays. A and H have their birthdays five days apart so I am always very busy making presents then planning a their special day and of course baking.

H showing me how tall a giraffe is

This year the hubby and I decided that instead of little parties for the children we would take them to the Taronga Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo. According to Google maps it should be about a five hour trip but of course with planned stops along the way, unplanned stops to feed the baby and towing our little van (and therefore travelling under the speed limit) it actually took us closer to eight hours. It was a great little holiday and the children really enjoyed seeing all those animals up close. We invited my parents to join us which was really nice for the children to spend time with Nanny and Nunu as well as having two extra pairs of hands. The three children are all pretty good little travellers and each time we go away things get a bit easier.

As soon as we got home we were straight into celebrating H’s 3rd birthday. She is of an age now where she really understands what birthdays are and we had a lovely day all together. I caught myself a few time that day in disbelief that my little girl is now three. 

Keenly watched by big brother

When I asked her what cake she would like H was very decisive and said a butterfly cake and she was pretty pleased with the result (she supervised the whole process). We have a little family tradition of having the birthday person choose the evening meal and H wanted pizza so we invited our close friends who are pretty special to the children and had a sweet, intimate celebration for a special little girl. 

Sharing a book with Baby L

Official taste tester when Mama made the cake

Baby L was asleep when we had the cake - I was hoping to get a family pic with all of us in

She loved her butterfly cake

Neither child really needed much in the way of presents, and would we rather give a few meaningful gifts. For H there was a balance bike (that we gave to her before we went away) and although she is not all that confident or coordinated yet I am sure it won’t take her long once she realises that she is better able to keep up with her big brother! We also gave her a set of Charlie and Lola books – both children LOVE books -  and Charlie and Lola have been H’s favourites for almost 12 months, she always looks for them at the library. There was also a sweet wooden dolls highchair that I was lucky enough to find in an op shop (thrift store) when H was quite young and a little set of three wood and felt peg doll fairies that I made(I always try and include a mama made gift)

{hmmmm I cant find any photos of the fairies or high chair - will have to get some}

And now I have decided to make this a two part post so I will be back soon to share A birthday.

Our Fairy Garden

Each year our children have a little Easter hunt. We do not like them to have too much chocolate so in the past there have been flower bulbs wrapped in colorful cellophane. Its a really lovely tradition because we then plant the bulbs (after reading The Story of the Root Children) and wait for their appearance in the spring. This year however we didn't really need any more daffodils so I thought of an alternative.

 A has recently shown an increasing interest in creating fairy gardens and homes as well as 'bug worlds' and other small worlds. We actually started to make fairy houses together when he was four from bits and pieces that we found in nature but his interest waned until spending time recently with a little friend who showed him the finer points of making a fairy garden.Since then he has been excavating a hole under the roots of the wisteria and making that a fairy home with H joining in finding treasures to add to the fairy home, so I thought I would capatalise on this interest and hide a few fairy garden accessories as part of the Easter hunt.

I made two wooden fairy doors, kind of following a tutorial found at Happy Whimsical Hearts and painted some small stones with Easter motifs.I carved a gourd that I grew two summers ago for the fairy house, some brightly colored aquarium gravel, a few plants and we were good to go.

One of the wooden fairy doors - so much fun to make!

It was a bit of serendipity but two weeks before Easter we borrowed a book called Lily and the Fairy House from the library. The children loved it (and so did I) so much so that it is now on my book wish list. Once we started our garden they wanted to make a swing from a hair ribbon just like in the story.

We made the garden nice and high so that it would be a comfortable height for the children and also dog and baby proof once baby L is mobile.

I love that over time we can add to the garden. who knows where it may take us

Fairy door at the base of the Wisteria

Easter 2012

Life is happy/crazy/busy right now. There is just so much happening each week which is nice but it also means little computer time (and I am also trying to listen to my body and go to bed earlier - frequently 7.30!!). I wanted to share a glimpse of our Easter, in more pictures than words

Teacher gifts - the felt carrot was well received

H's Easter basket

A's Easter basket

early morning chocolate

No chocolate for baby L - she got a puppy instead

New cosies i.e dressing gowns

egg hunt

finding treasures

opening treasures

painted fairy stepping stone

Easter this year was lovely. A is now old enough to remember our little family traditions that have been in place for a few years which makes things extra special.

Hopefully I will get back here in the next week to share what else we have been up to.