Letter L

I am trying to help Emily recognise her name so our letter activities have been slowly spelling her name.  Today we were up to L so I decided that after dropping Alexander off at school we would begin our task.

She didn’t want to leave at first because they were playing with water at preschool but I promised painting at home so home we went after a small detour.  We found some leaves at our detour and at home and got to painting.  We were doing L is for leaf and I decided we would try leaf prints.  Emily loved painting the leaves, covering them completely with paint that sometimes not always the best print was gained, but oh well.  I enjoyed painting and pressing too.  She had found a very large leaf that we used to make the background as it was too big for the letter L.

We also discovered L is for love to and because she was very much into painting we painted the cardboard red (she said she loved pink but we were out of pink by then so red was close).  We then chose photos on the computer (thank you for the idea No Time for Flash Cards) and printed them out, I had fun cutting them into different shapes and Emily tried to apply as much glue as she could get on.

Then L is for Lunch!! Then L is for a lovely quiet time mummy is having while EmiLy sLeeps!

Shapes Walk

Yesterday we went to the library and I found a Paddington book. I read Paddington books as a child and it is nice to be able to share them with my children. I wasn’t a huge Paddington Bear fan but I have found new books at the library which are designed for younger children. One was about colours, another about numbers and the one I found yesterday was about shapes. I didn’t realise it was about shapes because the title was Paddington and the Disappearing Sandwich. If I had looked closer I would have seen, half covered by a sticker that it was about shapes.

Anyway later that day I pulled it out and read the story to my children. The story is about Paddington drawing up a list of his favourite shapes and going on a walk to discover them. We all enjoyed the story and finding the shapes in the story as Paddington did.

We try and have a walk every afternoon but Emily doesn’t enjoy them and whines a lot of the time wanting to be carried. TO distract her I found a scrap piece of paper, quickly drew 4 shapes on it and wrote their names next to each other and declared, like Paddington, we were going on a shape walk.

Well before we even left the garage we had found our first shape. Circles all around us – on the car, on our bikes! Then on the street we found our garage doors were squares

I couldn’t believe how much the children loved this. Emily was able to point to the shapes on the piece of paper and compare them as she wasn’t as confident as Alexander in naming them, especially rectangle and squares which she kept mixing up. I also found though I only did 4 shapes on the piece of paper Alexander wanted to extend himself, finding a diamond and also asking about other shapes that he wanted identified (a cylinder and one shape which I had to decide was a semi circle on top of a rectangle – it was a letterbox) As the walk progressed Emily would verbally identify some shapes but other times continued to use her sheet for comparison. She loved finding shapes on the ground and would jump up and down on them and want her photo taken, or get Jacqui (the dog) to join her in the pictures. Alexander enjoyed riding around the park which was a circle and both he and Emily counted the sides of a grass triangle (I ignored it was missing its 3rd point)

They also enjoyed finding shapes in the park, we found many more triangles than I thought we would. Emily loved it so much not once did she ask to be carried, or tell me she was tired, or her belly hurt but in some cases she ran ahead trying to find more shapes. Alexander loved it so much that he mentioned it in his prayers and told his daddy when he came home about it.

Alexander was pleased with this one, a square within a square for the front wheel and the back wheel is on a circle within a circle (A bit harder to see)

Anyway I think I will definitely try this walk again.

Bags

I can’t believe I forgot to take photos!  I gave one of my crafted bags to my friend before I took a photo of it.  Oh well.  I took a photo of the other one.  They are pretty similar (well except for different material and different ribbon for handle).

Anyway in my exploration of the web to find things to make for a friend’s baby shower I stumbled over Lazy Girl Blog and this easy make gift bag.  I pulled out the material I made a gave it a go – making Emily her own little doll carry bag with some off cuts.

 

The bag I made for a baby shower gift

 

Full of presents (I created the ultimate emergency baby bag – full of  nappies, wipes, hooded towel, baby wash, bath thermometer, pram toy and lots more)

And of course Alexander couldn’t not get in on the act and wanted a photo with the bag

So a great easy first craft for me.  Instead of making handles for the baby bag I used ribbons.

New Sewing Machine

For Christmas I requested a sewing machine which surprised my husband a bit but he joined forces with my inlaws and we went shopping and found a sewing machine in our budget.  It sat around in its box for about 2 weeks while the bedlam went around me and then it came out and I have been so happy and excited by it I have been sewing away.

Here was my first crafty item I made.  A crayon roll, I had made a couple in the past so had had some practice and I was pleased how well this one turned out.  Plain but useful.  Here are some blogs that show you how to make it Nested  and  The Pleated Poppy

Project 2 I cannot show yet as I have not gifted it yet.  I am pleased with how it turned out, very easy and I made less mistakes making it then I did making project 3.

Project 3 is still a work in progress but here is today’s part of the journey.

I have a pile of old sleeping bags the children have outgrown which are not in good enough shape to regift but I didn’t want to throw them out as they hold such good memories (part of me wants the ones that have gone out the door back now I have things to make out of them – anyway I digress) so I was thinking what could I make out of them that was simple.

SO what do I do?  I go to google.  I wanted to make a cat and found lots of great ideas but some required things I didn’t have (quilt foot) so I found this cute little thing –  Hedgehog softie and I tried my hand at tweaking it my way.

Attempt 1

I forgot to leave the opening in the right place (the middle) and instead left it down the bottom, I also put the ears on the inside not the outside and forgot to sew on the facial features and put the pocket in upside down so now there are 2 pockets.  I sewed it close without stuffing it.  Perhaps I can use it for my ipod?

Attempt 2

This one I forgot the pocket, one ear didn’t get sewn in properly and not sure what else went wrong – the face was ok but did it in white so it doesn’t really show up.  Oh yeah and I seem to keep pinning the templet upside down on ALL my attempts!  You think I would learn – I put the face on the patterned bit and the body on the plain so when I am sewing and halfway through I realise so I start improvising!

OK Attempt 3 which has a few too many mistakes but Emily loves it and straight away took it and started cuddling – even before I finished sewing it up.

She looks pretty happy with it, she took it to bed so there is no close up which is just as well.  So I finally sewed on the face in different colours, tried to do it on the machine but didn’t work so well so I ended up hand sewing the mouth.  I now realise why the pocket is double up material and should be put on upside down.  The tail didn’t get sewn on while I was sewing it together so I ended up sewing it on when I was sewing up the close after stuffing ( I also tried doing this on the machine as was too lazy to do it by hand – next time DO BY HAND!)

But it is soft, squashy, lovable. I wish I had a photo of Emily wearing the sleeping bag now to put next to it 😉