Egg time

Last year I got the best book in the bargain bin at a local used book shop, The Egg Tree. E+E love the story and I love the illustrations. This year we got a bunch of Easter-themed books out the of the library and have fallen for The Birds Gift: A Ukrainian Easter Story.  I picked up a Ukrainian egg kit a while back and brought it out today remembering we won't be here next week and this may be our last chance to decorate eggs. Before reading the directions I had Eli blow out an egg only to realize we'd decorate raw eggs but it was worth seeing a mini-Dizzy in action, don't you agree? He wanted nothing to do with the long involved process but Eva stuck right with it for almost three hours. I still need to get an image of the final egg but the process is almost as interesting.

Shu Shu's late birthday gift

I was inspired by this gift idea on inchmark and thought it perfect for the grandma who's entire house is covered with photos of her grandchildren. I thought about it months ago but of course by the time I got around to ordering the photos and sleeve, I'm was over a week late for the actual day, alas. Two days ago, I filled the sleeves with photos of the children from over the last year and had e+e make the numbers. The last minute, Eva wanted to fill in the five little squares. In 15 minutes she designed the quickest and most meticulous Easter images I've ever seen. The idea of this gift is to provide a count-down for Shu Shu's visit to us on April 11th, the thought being on March 29th Shu Shu will remove two numbers per day until she depart to see us in person. I'm going to two-day mail it tomorrow before we head on our road trip to Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Tucson and Palm Springs. Nothing like pressure to make me perform.

A wee space of ones own.

I declared it and got it (see posting for my space, under categories.) Eli wanted one too. Last week he pulled down all his toys from the corner of the dining room, after the little table which he promptly set it up next to the original art table, declaring his own space. Now we all have our own space.

What I learned observing their spaces today:

Eli is learning to whittle, he uses the pencil case, still loves birds, adding beetles and bugs to the list of interest, has a rubber band collection and has quite an eye for finding them all around the city where papers are delivered to homes, he loves his picture drawn for him by the after-school teacher Katherine.

Eva's space is more, of everything. She loves making those little paper hand contraptions that you choose a number or color and lift the flap for a secret, is engaged in her new Charlie Harper coloring book, storing my postcards of the Blue Ridge Mountains, also loves her bug from Pat, decorates her table with a table cloth, of course.

carefree clothes for Eva

As soon as I'd read about Carefree Clothes for Girls, I put it on my Amazon Wishlist. When I made the big Christmas gift order, I left it on the order as a gift to myself. I love this book translated from Japanese pattern designer, Junko Okawa. Even though the patterns do not go up to Eva's size, I figured, in my naivety that  I could just add a few inches here and there. My hubris served me well for the first attempt, making the adorable apron that is shown on the cover. I used a Japanese fabric I purchased at the Senior Center yard sale. Good thing I got to much of it as I made several mistakes cutting out the pieces but soon enough Eva was sporting the apron that matches the kerchief I made her months ago, from this book also, just in time for lice to hit first grade. Eva is never without her kerchief. 

the elves are in high gear now....

ode to jillian - advent + soft trees

it's so nice to have a crafty mama to talk with at school and that's my friend Jillian. thanks to her my holiday has some new additions, some better executed than others. the first one is our advent calendar. she showed me an image on her iphone from http://littlebirds.typepad.com. I already had the Ikea frame, went with Shu Shu to Flax and picked up some paper, cute little envelopes and some snowflakes stickers. the concept was the children would open an envelope each day and we'd hang the snowflakes in the door frames. someone suggested I use these glue dots as an adhesive, well they did not work, by the first morning half the envelopes were on the floor and each morning I have to reattache a few, tape helps. I think this concept works better for older children, my little munchkins need to open something and still have it there in front of them. Jillian, if you're reading this, Cole and Seb would love this!

the stuffed tree project came from little birds as well. I used them for Eva's birthday craft, using a nice canvas top and some holiday print Eva picked out with green, yellow, white buttons. I love the fuzzy trees on the website and would love to try some next year.

Here's to you Jillian - crafter-mama

ps - plus use wool stuffing, the polly does not shape and they are a little topsey turvy.

Dagmar's tee pee

over halloween weekend the kindergarten teachers at the children's school transform their classrooms in to Indian villiages, it's a sight to behold. eli is always proud to celebrate his birthday during this time. it's a tradition to give an Ostheimer figure to the kindergarten teachers, this year Dagmar requested a Native American figure from the cataloge, only to find out they are no longer carrying them. I was able to get the last "mother" in the city. I decided to sew a mini-tee pee like Eli's to give to her as well. this little gift put a smile from ear-to-ear on her face. we'll miss being immersed in this experience next year!

crafing for girls

Eva and I hosted our good friend Chloe for a long-over due visit. After the girls played at home, they wanted to go to my space. We barged in on Ro who was just finishing-up a rehearsal with Carol for their Landescape production. I put the girls to work painting quietly in the hall while I readied to finish my quota of counting bags for the first grade. The girls then came back in to work on embroidery. Eva and Eli are working on tags for a letter envelope, I got from Amanda Blake Soule's A Handmade Home , where they can store their letters, cards and sundries. They'll be able to tote their collection to a quiet corner and SOMEDAY read them at their leasure, of course this is after they learn to read in second grade! Until then they'll just be their trophy.

wet felting

The children found the felting wool in the craft cabinet and started designing a piece on Saturday. Today after school, they asked to be set up to finish the piece. I boiled the water , added soap and they waited until the water cooled and then started felting.

mobile

Susan and Stella came over for fun in the backyard. Unlike most SF afternoons here in baja Noe, as we like to all our hood, the wind/fog stayed away. Even now at 7:30 at night, I have the south-facing windows open and the curtains are not moving. The children had fun finding treasures (little iridescent vase stones) and re-hiding them for each other for a long time. Meanwhile under the arbor we were creating a mobile from the goodies we'd collected with S/S in February (see post Sea Ranch Heaven, February 20, 2009.) One of the rafters in the Sea Ranch house has an amazing mobile balancing upon it. Eva, Susan and I worked on it. I'm more a simple-is-better kinda girl but the powers that be (Susan and Eva) found the yard to be inspiring and kept adding more pieces of the yard.

We'll hang the finished piece above the stairwell soon.

Pillow complete

See entry: Art's birthday sewing, April, 25, 2009 to see the process. I adapted a pattern from Amy Butler's INSTICHES. Using a 16 inch pillow form, I made the pillow cover from this great stiff linen by Charles Craft on clearance. This was my first time using the machine for applique - I'm hooked. Eva was proud though she did not want the sun on the cloud!

Busy little fingers

At our last teachers conference, one of the topics Eva's teacher discussed was how dexterous Eva was. According to her, Eva can make such intricate works and is ALWAYS using her hands, tying thread, braiding grass on hiking day, her hands are never idle.

Last week, Eva went out in to the light-well area at the bottom of our downstairs neighbor's door. I was busy doing my "work" in the flat. She kept coming in and out. Once in a while Eli would throw something the two stories down to her. When it was time for dinner I asked if they'd cleaned up, they assured me they had. When I looked out the window I saw little tiny pieces of skulpy from their birthday. I fussed and gave them the dust broom and pan.

It was not for a few days later that I saw she'd taken the two vases that I stored the unbelievable amounts of the clay they had, she'd turned the faxes on their sides and made two lovely scenes - the detail is amazing: the water lilies on the pond, cattails lining the other pond, dancers/fairies doing splits alongside the water, and a bird in the tree. I fussed at her for putting it on the glass so I can not get it off. Now I sit and look at it on their art table all the time.

Art's birthday sewing

I finished Naomi's garland the night before her birthday, April 25th. I left it in the mailbox and David hung it in their kitchen while she was asleep. I now have Art's to finish. The children love to sew with felt but I've never had them work with fabric. Eli found cutting with the pinking shears fun. Eva picked up scissors and started creating with left-over fabric. She cut out shapes and sewed them together to make a house. She wanted to give them to Art for his birthday. I suggested we could sew it on to a pillow, knowing good and well I'd never have a chance to make a pillow before his birthday. We decided to pin it to another pillow we owned until I could get around to her project. She was pleased with it. I ended up helping her trace a sun she wanted and cutting the cloud for her applique project.