Scenes from the day...

(Thanks for the new magnetic shopping list Nick. Ha!)

I hope yours was just as sweet!

Zip

There are certain things I feel compelled to make;


Coin purses being one of them;

I once seriously considered buying a listing for 100 zippers on Etsy. One hundred zippers!

Why does this print make me think of my husband?

Birthday planning

With my daughter's 2nd birthday less than a month away, I was very happy and super excited to see this in our letter box today;


This is the front of the envelope (with invitations inside), by the wonderfully inspiring and immensely talented Vanessa Valencia from A Fanciful Twist. I had wanted to make some invitations myself, but when I saw Vanessa's beautiful work, I knew it would be perfect for our theme.

These have nothing to do with Elly's birthday, but I found these goodies inside too;

Business Card, Thank You Postcard and a Magical Owl. Gorgeous!

I'll be kept very busy in the coming weeks, making all sorts of things for this birthday. As requested by the birthday girl herself, it will be a 'Cake Shop' party. Very exciting!

Hearts Part II

Sometimes it's hard to come up with a craft that both my girls can enjoy together. My nearly-two-yr-old is... [how can I say this nicely?]... enthusiastic about any sort of craft and also wants to swipe whatever her older sister is holding, pretty much all the time... so anything involving cutting with scizzors is out! Pasting, however, seems to be the all-time favourite, where they can work side-by-side with little squabbling (although lots of mess!).

Ah, good times;

Above and below are the cards they made for their Dad for Valentines' Day;

We've still got plenty of their painted doilies to use up and five more days to it!

[I think it's pretty cool what 2 and 3 year-olds can make, when given some quality materials. Thank you to Mimi and Poppy for re-stocking our craft cupboard for Christmas. These bibs and bobs will ensure many hours of fun!]

Fishy Handprint Puppets

I remember buying my daughter her first puppet when she was about 3 months old. It was a little girl puppet, on strings, with curly hair that bounced up and down every time she moved. My daughter loved it. Since then, we have acquired quite a few more puppets, ranging from the classic wooden Pinocchio, to a giant dog with floppy feet, Snow White, many glove-puppet animals and a beautiful French Harlequin. Puppet shows are common in our house.

Now that my daughter is 3 years old, we're able to make some very simple, amateur puppets ourselves;

These fish were easy to make. I simply traced her little hand, she decorated it, added glue and dumped an entire tube of glitter over it. Add a popsicle stick and voila!

Expect to see more kids crafts here soon. I start studying next week... to become a Preschool Teacher! I hope to share lots more ideas, whenever I get the chance...

Pretty Pegs

Livvie and I jazzed up some plain wooden pegs for a little project next week (Clue - it starts with V and ends with Day). I think she did a great job of coordinating the buttons;

I didn't even wait for the glue to dry before I took photos. But I must say, my button tin is a favourite toy for both my girls. I would recommend one for all households. The girls love sorting all the buttons into the different colours, shapes and types as well as lining them all up, swapping them, bartering with them and of course like all siblings, fighting over them!

Hearts

With Valentines Day just around the corner, I tried to come up with a simple craft my little girls (ages 3 and nearly 2) would enjoy.

Painting paper doilies seemed the perfect thing;

I have come to expect that whenever we get the paints out, my kids will inevitably spend more time painting their bodies than the paper...


...but that's ok! They made plenty of abstract hearts;

and many one-of-a-kind doilies;


They loved hanging them out to dry, garland-style...

[Excuse our mossy fence]

I have lots of ideas for how we will use these on Valentines Day...