the 46 brazillionth post ever on how to display kiddie art

We haven't done organised crafting for ages ... have we outgrown it? Probably more to do with the fact that our art room has been a revolting, disorganised, uninviting shambles for months, a state I finally remedied these past holidays. 

And jeez did I unearth a lot of art.

Although not crafting as such, we always have paints available on a table in there and over the last while the girls have filled page after page with lovely colours and textures, all left on windowsills to dry and never thought of again.

I tell myself the process is more important than the end product but I still hate throwing these creations away. 

Add to them the mountains of stuff which came home from school at the end of last term and ja, a lot of art.

The pick of the crop I stuck up on one wall, a towering monument to my small people's creativity.

and yes, that's a crate of booze next to the wheel-less trike, because boozing and crafting
go very well together don't you know

And the enormous pile of abstract paintings I sorted and hole-punched with a 2" punch and artfully arranged in a frame I had hanging around (ha ha).

I'd love to do a massive one, in a white frame, but it's a start and I've no doubt those girls will produce much more material for me to use in the future!

hand -and foot- painted t-shirts

They painted these.

I can't help but love Friday's (happy) 'Self with Jewels and Rain'.

And no surprises from her sister either, who methodically and with a plan, did feet on the back, hands on the front, coordinating colours all precisely placed.
She's her Daddy's girl sometimes.

The paints were given to us by a dear friend, who's going through an awful time.

Whenever the girls wear their t-shirts I'm reminded of how blessed I am. It's a good time of year to be reminded of that.

24 books: advent 2013

Those advent matchboxes were cool, but I've used them twice so this year I thought I'd do something a little different.
We've collected a number of Christmas themed books over the years, including many from my childhood, and quite liking the idea of having special books out for special times of the year, I'd packed them all away with the decorations last January.
I recently pulled them out and discovered we had 14.

A visit to The Rural Child, a trawl through my Mum's kiddie book collection, some rolls of brown paper, my washi stash, a basket by the bed and ...

A very booky advent countdown has begun.

So far the girls are loving it. I numbered them mindfully, mixing up the old favourites with the new, making sure we open the longer reads on weekend evenings, the shorter ones for these first few days while school is still on and we're all exhausted at bedtime.
Friday finds the right number (they're all mixed up) and they take turns to open the packages.

There are some classics in there ...

And some delightful modern ones ...

And why are there TWO numbers on this one you ask?

Because obviously late at night as I frantically wrapped the last books I discovered I was one short ... and quickly made this one valid for two nights as it's packed with fabulous Richard Scarry goodness and totally worth savouring. Genius!

I love a slow, anticipatory build-up to Christmas!

celebrating life

That's all we really can do right? Make a donation to the Kenyan Red Cross, hold the affected families in our hearts, mourn for our continent, all the while acknowledging our Heritage (she still loves chickens) and continuing to celebrate the milestones of those we love.
Celebrate life, it's precious.

Beautiful, radiant, exuberant 6 year olds.

Rainbow cake for a dear friend, because I've been hankering to make another one, and she's special.

Brownie and shortbread stack for another dearest bestie.

It was a long weekend of cake, and love, and sorrow, and celebration. It was a big weekend.

hooked on washi

I've long been wary of washi tape. I just knew once I broke that seal and bought my first roll I'd be ... stuck.

Then my Mum told me one day she'd met a 'lovely lady' in the post office queue, 'She sells some kind of decorative tape online? The biggest SA supplier? She lives just down the road from you!'
Uh oh.

I drooled all over her website. But still I resisted. I vowed I wouldn't buy a single inch until I had a specific project in mind.
So when, on the weekend while painting our hallway, Husband handed me the ancient grotty light switch back plate (you know the one which obviously isn't a std size so not easily replaceable) and said, 'Here, don't you have a nice decal or something for that?', my heart started beating a little faster ...

A couple of rolls of tape (plus a couple more because, you know, I was ordering anyway right?), a tutorial found through Pinterest (of course) and 5 minutes on a rainy afternoon and ....

I'm on a roll ... 

Washi tape, I love you like I always knew I would. Oh crap.

cake of macabre magnificence

On the strength of the fabulous cake we made for Friday's birthday (no apologies for the brag), a good friend asked us to make her a birthday cake this weekend.
She has a taste for the macabre does our Janine, and requested something a little twisted. We were happy to oblige ...

This was our first time making a themed cake for someone outside of our immediate family and I have to admit it was a teeny bit stressful - I don't think I could ever do this for money, or to a strict brief. It's fun to have an idea and then just go with it, never sure quite how it'll work out.

But as with the birthday cakes we've made for our daughters, the best part was thinking fondly of the recipient as we made it, chortling at how much she'd love it. As weird as it may be to imbue a blood-splattered cake with warmth and love, this one was splattered with both.
Happy birthday Janine!

And some notes for those interested ... the 3 tiers were standard Victoria sponge (double mixture), sandwiched in this case with strawberry jam and iced (by my husband the master icer) with white buttercream. The edible blood was a bit of a coup - after researching many recipes online (most of which called for cup of corn syrup - eeeuwww), we made our own by modifying a chocolate glaze recipe which we've used often before, this time using just a little bit of cocoa powder and lots of red and green food colouring.
Artfully applied with a basting brush, the glaze harden beautifully, looked super gory and tasted delicious!

diy fizz ballz: don't do it!

In preparation for Friday's 6th birthday party in a couple of weeks we've been making fizz balls (bath bombs) to go in the party packs.
'Something I've Wanted To Do for Ages' meet 'Perfect Opportunity'. I'm sure you'll be very happy together.

Or ... not.

Frankly these were a mission, and after 4 batches (mostly unsuccessful) and still a few hearts short of the number we need to fill all the party packs, I'm SO OVER THEM.

Don't be put off by the vast quantity of ingredients - they're all easily obtainable (brandy optional, not actually for the fizz balls you understand) - and the instructions I followed here were very clear and helpful.

And the ones that worked are very cute and pink and rose-smelling. Friday has carefully labelled them all 'bath' due to concerns that her friends may eat them.

But each batch was tryingly hit and miss and I'm not really sure why. Obviously sometimes the mix was too dry, sometimes too wet - but we measured very carefully, honest. Possibly the recent weather was a factor too - rainy days are not very conducive to drying powder.
I'm tempted to say that all in all the project was a bit of a balls up but you know ... cheap joke.

Luckily similarly to baking experiments, there are always those in this household prepared to make the most of the failed attempts - the girls have had some very pink 'n fizzy baths recently.

But still we must make more! Just a few more ... and then NEVER AGAIN I tell you, never again.

flower wreath of sanity

Back in March when I was going a little mental with the full-time-mothering-a-wild-monster thing I reminded myself that the thing which consistently makes me happy (besides Converse), and the most productive (in the restoration of heart and soul sense) thing I could do with my scant free time – was to make something.

So over the last few months I made this.

Egg carton flower wreath found, of course, through Pinterest.

The process of making small, precise snips through the (surprisingly) tough carton was deeply satisfying, especially after particularly frustrating days. As a friend remarked: ‘So instead of throwing lawn furniture around you’re cutting flowers?’ Yip, I'm a cutter, not a chucker.

I kinda liked them unpainted too. Maybe that would've made a more sophisticated piece!

It was also great to have a project I could work on in small stages, finding a moment here and there to cut some petals. Later the painting also happened in fits and starts – sometimes while the girls were busy painting too, sometimes after they were in bed. They even painted a couple of blooms themselves, which I fixed up afterwards!

This was my project and I was surprised and pleased at how they respected that. We have always been firm on respecting other people's ‘work’ – something Friday first picked up at her Montessori playgroup, and I think it’s paid off.

Every step of the project was fun and while the end product is a little ‘crafty’ – only just stopping short of painted macaroni really – it’s made me very happy, relieved a lot of my tension through a difficult time and will brighten up a corner of our home over the coming winter months.

weekend of industry

It was a project-based weekend.

All of us had one. Most, more than one.

And predictably they are all still just like this, scattered about the house, thumbing their noses at the looming Monday morning.
Except for that delicious pulla of course, just enough remains to have with my coffee tomorrow. As I contemplate the happy mess.

dinosaur party

And so, despite it being touch and go there some days, she made it to 3 and specifically requested a Dinosaur Party.
I was happy to oblige.

Dinosaur party hats. Fruit & doughnut skewers. Carrot (cup)cakes. Nikki Werner's (super easy and delicious!) Cheesecake from here.

Cardboard Dinosuits for the win.

Rwoar.

Le Cake!

My first ever 'proper' party packs. I've arrived.

Contemplating new ways to torture her mother ...

It was a great morning, she was immaculately behaved, her friends were lovely, my friends were even lovelier. 

We're one step closer to 4.

And in years to come I'll look back at this last photo and nostalgically mourn the loss of my soft cheeked babachoo.

marble painting

I've noticed that, especially with my older girl, there can be some resistance if it's felt I'm being too 'instructive'.
I suppose it makes sense that if I'm the person always instructing them about eating properly, dressing properly (knickers are NOT optional wear!), wearing sunblock etc they don't want to feel too dictated to when it comes to fun things, like art projects.

So this past weekend, knowing they've both done this at school, I asked them to 'show me' how to do marble painting.
I feigned complete ignorance and took instruction as to what we'd need, how to go about it etc.

A plastic muffin tray was pulled from the recycling box, 3 paint colours were chosen and a hunt around the house produced 3 different size marbles and some old medicine spoons for transferring paint-covered spheres to awaiting virgin paper. Their respective teachers taught them well!

With lots of: 'See Mum? This is how you do it', the lesson began.

These 'kitty litter' trays from the plastic shop have proved their worth (R20!) time and time again!

And then we came to the part about home art which I've always struggled with, and I think they especially love precisely because it's so unlikely to happen in a classroom environment: getting down and dirty!

For why stick to marbles if your fingers are right there at the end of your inquisitive hands?

And so endth the lesson, and the last dregs of paint!

paper flowers

As much as I love doing crafts with the kids, sometimes I need to do some of my own. I think it's good for them to see me busy with my own projects too. Most of my creativity goes into writing, not something they're able to appreciate, or access, yet.

Seeing me in front of my computer is certainly more frustrating than inspiring for them!

Found on Pinterest naturally, designed by the utterly inspiring Made by Joel. Visit the link for the how-to - so easy! - and stick around to check out all the other remarkable things he makes.

Lots of printables and downloads available there too.

The spare loo in our new house has this silly (and very, very ugly) permanent tooth glass/brush holder thingie attached to the wall. It's been calling out for some prettification for months now.

Much better.

fun with bicarb of soda

We happen to have a 20kg sack of bicarbonate of soda in the house (doesn't everyone?). Known as baking soda by Americans, it seems to have a myriad uses.
We used some for our clay Xmas ornaments, husband uses it for soda-blasting, and today we found another fun thing to do with it.

A tray of baking soda, a couple of containers of vinegar with a few drops of food colouring (we only had two blue and green at hand this time) and a couple of medicine droppers.

The droppers were soon discarded in favour of small syringes, which made for much more satisfying application.

It's very cool how the bicarb fizzes and bubbles when the vinegar makes contact.

And an unexpected result was the fun to be had afterwards. With a silky, sticky, powdery texture the coloured bicarb proved to be almost more entertaining than the fizzing, and the game lasted for ages.

You'll want to do this one outside though, or in an easily cleanable space - and although it's not great for photography, I'm once more very grateful for our 'art room'.