Keeping Busy

With a week of being sick, I just had to make the most of the time and have some fun amusing Lucy, and myself! I've been following Megan's wonderful blog, mousehouse She has so many neat ideas for things to do with her kids, her blog is just full of inspiration and great ideas. A couple of weeks ago she made some sensory playdough with her children. I had made our playcentre playdough a few times so thought this would be something different. Lucy had so much fun adding in the ingredients and helping with the mixing. She especially loved adding the colour and then investigating the different smells for each one. The dough has kept really well. Megan's recipe for the playdough: For the playdough you will need... 1 and a half cups of salt 3 cups flour 6 tbsp Cream of Tartar 3 cups boiling water 3 tbsp oil Mix all ingredients together... Then divide the mixture into however many different colours/scents you are going to make. Carefully add your colour and essential oils and kneed in. (You might need to add a little more flour if your dough is a little sticky). We've also had a few really wintery days here and looking out our lounge windows we can watch the birds in the trees. Wendyl Nissen's weekly newsletter had a recipe for bird feed and a link to some cotton string bags which would be perfect for this (even though they are for when you buy fresh produce at the supermarket rather than plastic bags). Lucy and I went out and found the Wild Bird Seed and lard. Then we just melted half the lard, added the bird seed, some broken up old Weetbix and a few cornflakes, then left it to harden. Together we went out and looked for a spot where the birds would find it, but where the neighbourhood cats wouldn't and where we could watch from our lounge. I also climbed up and nailed on a flat board that the birds could sit on and where I could put out our old bread. It's all been there for a few days but we haven't seen a single bird so anywhere near it - plenty in the trees though ... THEN, I SAW THIS! I couldn't believe my eyes, our neighbours cat!! Sorry, the photo was taken through the glass doors on a cold morning. I'm out there tomorrow moving that table!

Surprises

It's been a week full of surprises, thankfully all good! With little Lucy being sick with bronchiolitis (inflamation of the tubes in your lungs which, according to our doctor, has become much more prevalent in small children now that we are keeping them out of the sun more as it appears to be related to not having enough vitamin D!), and then an ear infection so another trip to the doctor - good surprises were just what I needed! Firstly, this lovely parcel arrived in the mail from Kim at Cupcake Cutie. I entered her competition at Craft 2.0 at the Dowse and I was the lucky name to be drawn. Her Little Red Riding Hood now sits in pride of place on my sewing table. Thank you Kim! She's lovely. I've also been pondering away at trying to think up some technology challenge for a group of 12 and 13 year old boys in my technology class. I came across this website where there are lots of really neat things to make that are science and technology based. My husband and I (OK, mainly him but I'll be teaching it to the boys tomorrow!) made a very successful steam powered engine for a Putt Putt boat using an old coke can, glue and straws. Instead of a boat, we just used an old foam tray to test out our engine in the bath - and it worked first go! If you're not sure what a Putt Putt boat is, have a look at the first minute of this clip.

Beginnings

I couldn't resist this lovely bunch of lisianthus, now they are cheering up our dining room - not that our dining room needs cheering up, just nice to have some fresh flowers in the house.

I've been mulling over making Lucy a little doll.

This is the second time I've got 'Softies, 22 Friends for you to sew, knit and crochet out of the local library. On the cover is the dolly, Polly (2nd from the left) so I've found a few fabrics and am about to start making Lucy a little Polly.

Now that I've blogged about it, I will have to get on with it and actually do it! Thought this might help me to get on and start!

My two and a half year old loves wearing clips - for about five minutes. Then they just disappear into a huge hairclip black hole somewhere in our house that I never knew existed. Hopefully one day this black hole will spit them all out and we will be up to our knees in hairclips. In the meantime, I figured if I just make lots and lots of them they will just be everywhere around the house, thereby making it a little easier to find one when I need one.

Suddenly friends have started enquiring about me making a few more .. so I'm experimenting with attaching the button to the clip so that they don't come apart easily. Stay tuned, I've just about found the best solution and am feeling pretty pleased with myself, who knows, I might even try opening my own little shop on felt. I've found a couple of other things to attach to the clips so once I'm sorted I'll blog about those too - with photos of completed ones!

Thanks also to Jen from Jacolily Design, she kindly sent me a Baker's Delight voucher which Lucy and I immediately enjoyed - one of their cheese twists went down a treat! Think we had overdosed on the hot cross buns so went for something savoury ... delish. Thanks very much Jen.